OS

Really liked this article. Linux Audio Players, Tested and Graded. I’m working my way through the Linux equivalents of Windows apps. I’ve used iTunes under Windows because it would talk easily to my iPod. I tried Rhythmbox but it was out immediately. I want to keep my songs on a network-attached storage drive. Basically, the SimpleShare is a hard drive with an ethernet port. I don’t expect it to be as vulnerable to attacks as Windows XP. I don’t have to punch holes in its firewall that might allow people to get control of my Linux box or my wife’s Mac. Rhythmbox wants import all my music to one local location. No. ...

One thing that was kind of exasperating about Ubuntu was the (weird( version numbers. The successor to 6.06 was 6.10? The next version was 7.04? Huh? Fortunately, somebody finally blogged about this: What’s With the Ubuntu Version Number Scheme? – Johnny’s Thoughts No big secret: the first number is the year and the second is the month. So 7.04 translates as 2007 and April or month 04. Now I can sleep at night.

What’s crapware or craplets? Ars Technica says: Just what are craplets? It’s a cute nickname for all of the software an OEM installs on your new Windows PC before it arrives on your doorstep. In $60 to keep crapware off of a Windows PC? Ken Fisher talks about how much it OEMs - Original Equipment Manufacturers, like Dell or Hewlett-Packard - might want to sell you a machine that’s not loaded with limited and trial versions of software. Because people aren’t likely willing to pay anything extra, Microsoft can fume but not do anything about it. ...

This is an easy way to convert images (photos or pictures) in Windows XP using the paint.exe program from Microsoft itself. It takes 3 steps per picture, so it’s not the fastest way to do this. But they’re really easy steps. But it also means that you don’t have to download any additional tools. That’s good if you’re concerned about viruses. Or maybe you’re using somebody else’s computer and you don’t want to download something onto their machine. ...

Ran across a reference to libraries using Open Source programs like Linux and Open Office. Neat. Useful, the program that the library uses, sounds neat but it has the lame “we won’t tell you the price” approach typical of many companies. At least Fonality sort of tells you a price. I really like the idea of locked-down Linux running sessions with keyboard and monitor rather than individual machines. One machine to maintain per location, hopefully. Have another couple of machines at the central library for relatively immediate replacement if a machine melts down. ...

I’ve been looking at re-arranging the partitions on my Sony VAIO desktop. They gave me a 15GB C: and a 100GB D: and even with installing everything I could to D:, it was still getting tighter and tighter. Looked at some fairly scary Linux-based partition shrinking software. Problem is that all of my partitions are NTFS, not the older FAT file system. Nothing (easy( and free that I could find would downsize D: and then increase C: ...

I downloaded something written in Word for my wife, who’s a Mac user, and printed it for her. Now, every time I open Microsoft Word, I get an unintelligble message about “The function you are attempting to run contains macros or content that requires macro language support. When this software was installed you (or your administrator) chose not to install support for macros or controls.” OK. What function that I am trying to run? Where is it? Microsoft.com is totally unhelpful. In searching Google, I ran across a pretty good screech about Microsoft’s Scripting Addiction ...