Oi! Whats wrong with me?
Posted by Tyler Brown
So first I end up missing Monday's Post, and then I'm about an hour late on getting Wednesday's post up? What in the world is wrong with me? Sorry about that. I've been a bit forgetful this week for some odd reason.
I'm gonna be honest, because I've been kinda put in a spot, I don't have anything to really blog about today. I'm actually writing this right before I head off to bed because I really need to fix my sleep schedule so I'm not sleeping the entire day away.
However, I am pretty excited for tomorrow. Tomorrow will be the release of OpenSUSE 11.3 which I have been waiting to try for a little while now. I've been really trying to find a Linux distribution that has a really good implementation of KDE while still providing a few other great features as well. I'll be sure to talk about my experiences w/ OpenSUSE on Friday.
Anyway, thanks for putting up w/ the lack of posts this week or late posts this week, check back Friday for another post, and please subscribe.
Also, just before I forget:
Is there any reason you give other Linux distributions a try, is it because you like to distro-hop or are you trying to look for something Unique or Specific? Answer in the comment.
- Tyler J. Brown (Condoulo).
The post is brought to you by lekhonee v0.7
New Random Blog Post, Updates, etc.
Posted by Tyler Brown
Ok, I apologize for not keeping up with my promise last month. Summer started to drag on, I had a cold for the first week and a half of June, etc. etc. So anyway, its July 1st, new month, and I figured, time for a new blog post.
So in the past month I've probably used Ubuntu 10.04 95% of the time, and Windows Vista about 5% of the time. So, I'm definitely using Linux hell of a lot more than I have in the past, which is definitely a good thing! Yes, I have gotten used to the buttons being on the left side of the titlebar, and even Ubuntu's new Ambiance Theme (although I changed it to something else eventually anyway).
So, around a week and a half ago I decided to order a new 500GB HDD. I wasn't running dangerously low on space, but I figured I might as well order one just to have the extra space, have one nice really large drive, and for performance too (the 32MB of cache is pretty nice). The drive I ordered was a 500GB Western Digital Caviar Black. Absolutely amazing drive. Boots up into Ubuntu 10.04 much quicker than the 40GB I previous had Ubuntu on. And just to bring it, my previous drive configuration was 1x120GB for Vista, 1x80GB for Storage, and 1x40GB for Ubuntu 10.04. Now its 1x500GB for Ubuntu, 1x120GB for Vista, and 1x80GB for Storage. I'll include the unboxing video of the HDD below. I gave the 40GB SATA to my younger brother to use as an extra drive, which brings up the next topic.
My younger brother having had suffered 2 months on a A8N-SLI board (after trading motherboards with my other younger brother) which wouldn't work with his video card or Processor correctly (it detected his Socket 939 Athlon x2 as a Single Core), he finally got a new motherboard/CPU with 3GB of DDR2 RAM included. He's now finally able to use his 512MB 8600GT again, and his new CPU is an Athlon II x3 CPU at 2.7GHhz. Of course, because that boards only IDE channel would have been taken up by his Optical Drive, we had to order ANOTHER 500GB Western Digital Caviar Black drive. The pure fact that it was on sale AGAIN when we realized he needed another drive was some pretty good luck, otherwise we would have had to go with a 320GB or 250GB drive instead. But basically we set up a dual-boot on his system w/ XP and 7, plus a partition to store games. My youngest brother also got an upgrade out of this, including an upgrade to 2.5GB of RAM, Socket 939 Athlon x2 2.4GHz, and an extra 80GB IDE HDD.
Another thing I would like to mention is I have an extra Pentium D + a Board laying around I am actually considering doing something with. I just need to get a case, HDD, an optical drive for it (and maybe just a little bit more RAM). What I was thinking is I could possibly set that up to do videos on AND I will also probably use that as a machine to setup and do distribution testing and reviews on.
Anyway, I did mention I was getting used to Ubuntu's Ambiance Theme, well, thats when I decided to install the Elementary Theme Package, including The Elementary Modification of GNOME's File Manager Nautilus. I absolutely love this theme, and its actually going to be the Default theme of a Ubuntu-based distribution coming out called "Elementary OS". I think I might do a review on that in the future. That, along w/ Installing the AWN Dock, and using GNOME-DO, I can definitely say this UI is heck of a lot better than Window's UI.
So to continue on with my aimless rambling (is it really aimless?), while I kind of didn't go through with my blog every day in June, I definitely plan on doing more blog posts this month. I have been messing around with some pretty interesting software packages lately, mostly ones I found via Ubuntu's Software manager, that I would probably like to talk about, including an application I'm using to type this blog post in right now. So thats what I might focus my blog posts on in the next week, and I might even include videos. So, I would recommend keeping your eyes glued to this blog.
Anyway, thanks for reading this rambling blog post just updating a few things. Please subscribe to my Blog so you can keep on reading the next series of posts reviewing certain pieces of software, and I would definitely love some Constructive Feedback/Criticism in the comments section.
~ Tyler J. Brown
Blog Post for every day in June? And other things.
Posted by Tyler Brown
Ok, it is the last day in May, and its been about a week since I've done a blog post. Well, I think I'm going to challenge myself, I am going to (attempt) to do a new blog post for every day in the month of June, starting tomorrow. I think it will be interesting, and the topics will go over a range of subjects. So, keep your eyes open.
So far I've made it two weeks without booting into Vista. Pretty good accomplishment, of course. 
hehe. Of course, I haven't watched Hulu in a couple weeks, since Flash for Linux is still crappy, and would probably perform like crap when full-screen. So when I get a PC to use as a Media-center, I'll probably use Windows on it for that purpose. Otherwise, I have no other reason to boot into Windows. I'm not much of a gamer, I found a Ventrilo client for Linux that actually works called Mangler (Which I'll blog about in a later post), I'm having no performance issues, etc.
I have yet to setup Zen Walk on the Pentium 4 HT, just been kind of busy/crazy lately. Hopefully I'll be able to do that later this week and blog about it.
So in terms of whats going on in my life? Tomorrow, June 1st, I will have Graduation practice. I can't believe I've made it to this point, and I can't wait for graduation which will be this Wednesday on June 2nd. Last Tuesday I took the Second A+ Exam and passed it, meaning I am now A+ Certified (Although it took CompTIA Nearly a week to process it and send me a confirmation e-mail). I'm still waiting for the Strata certificate for the Strata Exam I took and passed over a month ago, which they're sending via Snail-mail. hehe.
Starting after graduation I'll definitely start looking for a job. I mean, I need a way to pay for all the computer upgrades I want to do. That, and I need to find a way to pay for school this fall, as well as many other things. I already have a couple places in mind that I will be applying to.
Anyway, be sure to look for a new blog post tomorrow. Don't forget to subscribe to this blog, and make constructive comments on this and my other posts! 
And don't be afraid to provide constructive criticism too. Anyway, thanks for reading!
- Tyler J. Brown (Condoulo)
Just a random blog post.
Posted by Tyler Brown
Well, just a random blog post I guess. No real reasoning behind the post, or any real topic, just something random. I guess just to catch up or something. I haven't posted in a while, so, I figured I would.
So yeah, I've been looking into doing a few screencasts again. Its been a couple years since I've done a few on a regular basis. The biggest problem is the fact that I can't find a good screen recorder on Linux that works all that great.
I also went dual monitors as of late! 
I guess I'll post a picture later. Its not all that great of a second monitor, its a 19" Standard at 1280x1024, and towards the top the color is messed up, but it doesn't bother me at all. I tworks great for its purpose, and thats to be used as a second monitor for putting IRC, Digsby, and Skype stuff on. as well as check stuff online while I'm watching a movie or something fullscreen on my main monitor.
Well, I guess thats all I'm going to talk about in this blog post. My next few blog posts will probably a bit more "Formal" with a topic and everything.
- Tyler
Karma
Posted by Tyler Brown
Ok, this isn't one of my usual posts about technology, but about Karma. I am a bit believer in what comes around goes around, and what you do to others, will eventually come back to benefit you or bite you in the ass. It seems like last week as you understand I've had bad luck happen to me left and right, of course, all while trying to do something good. Then this week, I continue to do good things, and my luck just turns around big time.
Thats just one of many examples of Karma though, which is very recent. I myself have seen my parents do a good deed via Craigslist or Freecycle, and later on either something good happens or we avoid something bad.
Anyway, I think I'm gonna close it off. A short blog post, yes, but something I've had on my mind. It all goes back to the golden rule, really, treat others as you would like to be treated, especially if you were in their predicament, because life can take unexpected turns, and irony can be pretty damn cruel.
Anyway, thanks for reading,
~ Tyler J. Brown (Condoulo)