A Random Pattern

I’m a little traumatized right now. Selah just fell down the stairs again (all the way from the top this time, head first!). This is the third time in probably as many weeks – the first time I actually fell down stairs while carrying her.

She seems to be fine, which is a relief. The last two times she had trouble walking for awhile after the fall, and the first time Sara actually took her to the ER. She’s probably fine, but it really scares me.

I guess this is one benefit of living in a split-level – the staircases have half the stairs. That, or you could say that there are twice as many staircases…

I haven’t posted much this week, but a lot’s happened in the background. Here’s a quick summary, and you can expect me to return to a more normal posting schedule.

The Ubuntu box is back up – I ran a memory test, then rebooted a few times and it started up fine. During the memory test I discovered my RAM is bad, so that’s probably the reason for all the startup issues with that computer.

I also had a little trouble getting Remote Desktop working again, until I remembered to check my configuration for Firestarter (the firewall). Sure enough, I had momentarily lost power, so my laptop had a new IP address. I learned how to allow access to a whole range of IP’s through firestarter’s help site (though it was a little hard to understand). Here’s the short version: IP address/netmask. So if you want everything on 192.168.0.x to have access, add 192.168.0.1/255.255.255.0 to Firestarter’s “allow” list.

The frequent (brief) losses of power here probably don’t help any of my computers, so time to look into a UPS. Any recommendations for home use?

Today I finally got my own domain: ransomedhome.com. It’s a little raw right now, but I’ll be cleaning it up over the next few weeks, and moving everything there. In fact, I’m already importing my posts from here, and this may be my last post here (so update your bookmarks / feeds!) I will post a few more times to remind everyone of the move…

If you’re curious about string theory, or what in the world 10 dimensions mean, here’s a really nice graphical demonstration to confuse you explain everything.

That’s it, folks. More to follow soon.

Testing complete, and Applets

Not only was it successful, but I’ve discovered Applets! Now I’m blogging, through Remote Desktop, from a button on my taskbar (bar across bottom of desktop), without any difficulty. Very nice – I really like this tool, it’s exactly what I’ve been looking for.

I’ve also got a funny screenshot for you. I just grabbed this off my desktop and dragged it into my post, so we’ll see how well it uploads to Blogger.

Take a look at the last line of the description. Although monkey-bubble is a decent game, in the vein (though not nearly as good as) Snood, the description by the open-source authors displays one of the weaknesses of most linux geeks.

testing, testing, 1 2 3

test from Ubuntu using a “blog entry poster” application for Gnome. This is kind of cool, though I’m not sure how useful it will be. Depends on how well it works, I guess.

uh oh.  I came back from a trip to D.C. and Pittsburgh to discover my old PC, the one with Ubuntu installed, wasn’t on.  When I tried to turn it on, it gives me a boot manager with a choice of 2 kernels, plus recovery mode for each, as well as my Win XP installation.  The first time,  I wasn’t even paying attention, until I saw a blue Kubuntu boot up screen.  It’s supposed to boot into regular Ubuntu, though I had switched sessions temporarily to a KDE session.  Anyways, trying any of the 4 kernel options results in weird display followed by restarting.  I guess I really am going to have to fix what’s wrong with this pc.  ;)  Only I have no idea what that is, at the moment.

Mark Shuttleworth, benevolent sponsor and launcher of Ubuntu, posted an email discussing what went wrong with communication / setting of expectations for what the latest Ubuntu release would deliver. He also points out the very good “problem” of Ubuntu being compared to Windows.

Among other linux-y items, Jorge has this response:

I think that it’s difficult to gauge exactly what users expect. Pre-warty’s users (like me) were usually experienced Linux users who enjoyed being lazy and having things Just Work(tm). By the time Dapper rolled around, if it wasn’t doing your laundry, then it’s game over. I’m sure those of us that advocate Ubuntu regularly run into this all the time …

I think people on the web just get their expectations set too high regardless – some high profile blogger makes a small, unsubstantiated statement with no real concrete communication, and next thing you know the whole blogosphere undergoes a severe case of speaker feedback, until one of the speakers blows.  The next round of feedback starts, since the blogosphere is recursive in nature, and …

Anyways, back to my topic.   Oh, yeah, Ubuntu and Dapper Drake.  Well, I think Mark’s right about “polished” not being a good word to use.  For example I, as a new user to Ubuntu (and Linux), just assumed that of course there was a graphical installer.  It didn’t cross my mind that there wouldn’t be, and I certainly didn’t know it was the first time one had been included!

I’m a fairly technical person, so it’s not an issue for me.  But I’m really interested in seeing (at least one) mainstream challenger to Windows, with significant market share (preferably two or more).   So when I hear that Dapper Drake is “LTS” (Long Term Support) and “polished”, I’m thinking Windows and Mac (and hoping as good or better in all areas).  Some might laugh to see Windows and polished in the same sentence, as I am.  But you have to remember that the world sees computers as Windows.  Linux is better in myriad ways, as is Mac OS X.  And each is good for specific purposes.  But unless Ubuntu has immediate, short-term benefits over Windows, you are going to be hard-pressed to get Windows users to switch.  (I’ve got a screenshot I’ll put up later illustrating how an old-school linux user’s worldview differs from your average citizen, and why it has been hard for linux to take over the desktop market.)

This, by the way, is the reason that the first thing I did on Ubuntu was check out the games, looking for Spider in particular.  That’s because that’s what my mother-in-law does on the computer – plays Spider.  If she can do that as well or better on Ubuntu, fine.  If not, go away.

One last comment, since I brought up Apple and inflated expectations earlier.  I was quite pleased with WWDC, and I suspect anyone who was displeased wasn’t really grounded in this universe before the keynote.  The indications were all over the place from most respectable bloggers on what to expect (linked post is from after the keynote, but reflects my thoughts).  I’m happy, because it sounds like Apple will again deliver things I actually need (eeeaasy backup) and want (spaces).  They seem to be pretty good at doing that.

This is a simple example, but it’s really cool once you figure out what’s going on. I hope to see more of these!

I’m away from home currently, so haven’t been able to play with Remote Desktop into Ubuntu. i’m going to list out things I’ve done so far, and what I still want to setup, for reference later.

1. Changed the IP address from Dynamic (DHCP) to static (typed in a specific address, i.e. 192.168.1.200). This actually was extremely easy, and I didn’t have to restart anything. I have a linksys router, and when I changed the ip address it went live.

1. I set up VNC by installing VNC4Server using Synaptics. This was probably unnecessary, though I haven’t fully verified that.

2. I used this (with TightVNC viewer on the Win XP laptop) to view an Ubuntu X-session across my home network, but it wasn’t what I was looking for. It gave me a grey window with a terminal section. I was able to launch a few games, but of course performance was terrible.

3. I found “Remote Desktop” already available under Ubuntu’s [System | Preference] menu. There’s only a few options, and they’re not hard to get right. Make sure to require a password, but you probably don’t want to require acceptance at the computer you are setting up for remote use – unless this is to help a friend or family member without having to go over to their computer :).

4. Run TightVNC again, but this time remember that you need to give the ip address AND display (i.e. 192.168.1.200:0 is default).

Things left to do:

1. Get Remote Desktop (Sharing?) working on KDE – or verify that it won’t work?

2. Figure out sessions, how to change session numbers (why does my alternate KDE session start at 20? How can I make it easier to choose whether to log in to Gnome or KDE?).

3. Try to get Remote Desktop working not just on intranet, but when I’m not at home. Probably a pre-cursor to this is getting a domain name (or two).

4. enough Remote Desktop, move on to “Backing up”. :)  Oh, and I need to write a post on partitions.
Any advice, links, et cetera is quite welcome.  I will be sure to post what I learn.

First, how this guide will work. I’ve hidden all except the most gentle of hints, so anything you can read right now is safe and won’t spoil your “success” feeling. Then, I provide a few hints for every puzzle, finally practically giving you the answer. Give it a day if you’re stuck, then come back to it. This isn’t the best made puzzle ever, so there will be some guessing necessary, but nothing’s very far out there. The answer is always (somewhat) obvious, so no arcane puzzling knowledge or torturous logic paths are necessary.

Start with 1: Move your mouse over the 1.

On 2? Stuck? You can actually manually type in a web address, did you know that? Or you can change the current one just a bit, and see if there’s a page with that name?
More for 2: Go back to page 1, and look at the address. Now go forward to page 2. Look at the address. What would the address for 3 look like?

3: what did you do to get here? Do the same thing, only look at the information on the page first.

more for 3: How does the symbol in the middle of the page correspond to 3? What would be 4 then?

Still need more? Look up “Roman number”.

4: Really, just repeat the last sets of instructions. What comes after four?

5: Ok, this is where the puzzle starts to vary a little bit from the formula of the last several. Give it a try.

5 again: Count the o’s. Now how do you get to 6?

6: This is your first stretch. How does that number equal 6? Being a computer would help you understand this….

6 not-so-subtle hint: We’re not in the decimal system anymore, Toto.

6, one more hint: Try wikipedia. try google. Put in the number you know and the number you don’t. Find out how they are related.

7: Tricky one – if you’re from U.S., it’s not what you first think. Do a google search.

7 more detailed hint: Ok, search for both the clue and the number (7 and sept).

7 TMI: try learning a different language. At least until you can count to eight…

8: Hopefully you’re getting the hang of it. Here’s another new one, but nothing too difficult.

8 actual hint: How does the clue equal eight?

8: ok, get a mirror. Or pretend you’re from a country that reads right-to-left. Unless you are, in which case you probably didn’t need this hint.

9: Oh, fun! Where’d your clue go? If you are reading this, you already know how to solve 9.

9: C’mon, you can find it! Did you look for it? Use your mouse..

10: 2 ways to tackle this one. Try selecting your missing clue, or look at source code. Source code’s really the better way, because you’ll need it later on anyways. Go to “View” “Source Code” in the menu.

More to follow…..

Clues for 11-20 will be posted later this week, followed by clues all the way through 30. Hang in there!

Here’s a short slideshow video of our kitchen remodel. It’s meant only to whet your appetite, and give a quick overview. A more extensive video is in the works. Oh, and if you don’t have much bandwidth (if you’re using dial-up), you may not want to follow the link. Wait until I get a smaller version or collection of pictures up.

Edit: 10/31/06 1444, fixed links.