Quite busy today, on the computer

As you can see, I've changed the blog around a bit. While I was poking around the new features, I found this:


I'd hate to see the commercialization of personal blogs. If people start thinking they can make money with their blogs...where will it end? There are enough shock-jocks, amateur videographers, and second-rate newsmen out there already. It'll probably end up with 90% porno-blogs and 10% bum-fights.

This may shock you at first so steel yourself for the idea. Ready? We are going to start paying bloggers. Soon you will be blogging for dollars. That's right people, chocolate is to peanut butter like AdSense is to blogs. Or is it the other way around? Either way, we've got something big here folks.

You may have noticed that we recently removed our ads from Blogger powered blogs. We were making money from those ads but you weren't getting any of it. Now, we're inviting you to set up your own Bloggerized AdSense account so that you make the money. What's the catch? We're going to take some of the action. Based on what we have learned from AdSense so far, this will work out very nicely for both of us. Please note that this program is optional and that it is not required for you to have a Blogger powered blog-all bloggers are invited.

-- From Blogger's help site.


I spent most of the morning trying to figure out how to make the date and time show up on my console (text) screen, in Linux. I knew there was a way to have it displayed in the prompt, but rooting out the answer wasn't easy.

The standard prompt is the username@hostname followed by the current directory (~ represents the users home directory):
[scarter@hawkeye ~]$
My username is scarter.
My computer's name is hawkeye (as in E-2 Hawkeye, not the guy from M.A.S.H, or the scout from The Last of the Mohicans.

But how to insert the date and time?
It turns out to be pretty easy, once I knew what to do. If I edit the file /etc/bashrc, I can change the PS1 variable to display what I want. bashrc is a text file that contains rUN cONTROL information for the bash command interpreter. Hence, bashrc.

The part of the file that I needed to change is:
PS1="[\u@\h \W]\\$ "

\u the username of the current user
\h the hostname up to the first ‘.’
\W the basename of the current working directory, with $HOME
abbreviated with a tilde
\$ if the effective UID is 0, a #, otherwise a $
(that means for user "root", you get a pound sign, for any other user, you get a dollar sign)

and at the same spot I found those definitions, I found these:

\d the date in "Weekday Month Date" format (e.g., "Tue May 26")

\t the current time in 24-hour HH:MM:SS format

So, all I had to do was add those two commands:
PS1="[\d \t \u@\h \W]\\$ "

and I got the prompt that I wanted
[Sat Mar 28 13:27:43 scarter@hawkeye ~]$

Now I've got music

Today I installed Rhythmbox and Gstreamer for mp3 support. This is a bit different from the standard Fedora installation because part of it is proprietary. That means the owners of the various types of audio compression formats (.mp3/ .wav/ . avi, etc.) own property rights associated with their work, probably a patent. It's not illegal to use the software, but I don't understand the esoteric legal ramifications. (I try to use the word "esoteric" as often as possible.)

There is a free audio codec which loses no quality during compression. It's called FLAC. I can use that when I rip the CD's that I own. There is also the ogg-vorbis compression codec out there, but I need to read up on these a bit more before I choose a personal favorite. Though I like to say "ogg-vorbis" It sounds very intimidating: "Commander, bring me the ogg-vorbis! It shall assist me in prying the secrets from this rebel spy."


The first song I played?

Video Killed the Radio Star by Buggles from Age Of Plastic

Of course.

Pidgin

Pidgin is the Internet Messaging software that I'm using on my linux box. It works under Windows, and supports all of the IM protocols, so you need only run one program to talk to various people under different systems, such as AIM, and Yahoo.

I used to run Gaim, but that was way back during the Fedora Core 4 years. Pidgin is the upgrade.

W² showed some interest in Linux, so I'll post about interesting features that I find. For instance, here is an article that points out just how evil Microsoft's EULA is.

As an unknown feature, since I joined google chat, when people I know who have gmail accounts log in, they show up on my IM screen. That seems a bit presumptuous to me because I may not like them! Furthermore, They may not like me either!

DOOM up and running!

Today I fixed the sound problem. It took a LOT of hunting around to find that one little soft-switch that needed to be turned off, but in the meantime, I got a nice refresher on the system. Of course the only reason I was worried about the sound was so that I could play DOOM again! Hey Jim, remember this?

I actually got to bring out my old Ultimate Doom CD because while the game software (Vavoom) is free, being a port (Computer Science. To modify (software) for use on a different machine or platform) of the original program, the wadfiles are still protected by copyright.

One new feature I've found to be very helpful is the Tomboy Notes program. As I went through each possibility that came to mind, eliminating them one by one, I'd keep a note about it. This kept me from repeating mistakes, and helped me keep focused on the next possible problem.

Network problem not-so-solved!

My network problem being "solved" was more luck than skill. In fact, it isn't really, properly solved. I'm still not sure, but it seems that while I was fiddling about with the inner networkings, I caused a kernel fault that subsequently allowed me to connect to the Internet. I've been able to duplicate this fault enough times to upgrade the system, and download the Install CD's via BitTorrent. I'm still trying to figure out the actual problem, and it's solution.

In the meantime, I'm having lots of fun poking around the new OS. It really rocks! I've got a weather report that updates every 15 minutes right on my top Panel. There's an applet that will chart stocks. Right now, I'm downloading the Open Source files to play DOOM! DOOM, man! Fucking DOOM!!!! That's just so cool, that if you don't know what I'm talking about, you don't know what you missed about 16 years ago.

Upgrading to Fedora 10 is a combination of Retro and Neo that's awe-inspiring. New stuff: It's got a built-in firewall and SeLinux for security. I can encrypt my HD. Firefox has a plethora of new features, and I've only been playing with this for a couple of hours. Yet, I can still read the comforting words of Wanda the Fish telling me that "Today is Prickle-Prickle, the 6th day of Discord in the YOLD 3175." It brings back memories of all-nighters trying to get the damn 386 motherboard to run Slackware 1.9, and the first time Jim and I wired our two computers together via the serial port and looked at each other on our respective screens, a second before he shot me dead.