The winner is: LMDE!

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Neb

Way too much time passed since my last post. It is not that I had nothing to write about. It was more because I was in this “winter blues” mode and what ever I get exited to write about, next moment I loose interest…

However, this I couldn’t pass by. In April Linux Mint released a Linux Mint Debian Version – LMDE! Here is straight from Linux Mint Blog:

“The team is proud to announce the release of LMDE 201204.

This release features three of the best Linux desktops available at the moment: The traditional and functional MATE 1.2 desktop, the innovative and beautiful Cinnamon 1.4 and the lightweight and rock-solid Xfce 4.8.

Both the MATE/Cinnamon and Xfce editions use the MDM display manager. MDM will look familiar to many people, as it brings back GDM 2.20 and all its features: Remote login, configuration tools, fast-user switching, theme-ability, language selection…etc.”

LMDE - Mate

LMDE - Mate

 

I am not knowledgeable enough nor am I that kind of geek to write a review for LMDE but I can express my opinion and feeling about it.

The installation was smooth and fast. I was actually surprised that it took less time than when I was installing Main Versions before. To my surprise, everything was almost 100% as it was with say, Mint 10. The panel was functioning as I am used to and the way I like it. Mate is the default environment and it is so familiar – just like Gnome 2… What can I say – I was very happy and yet I was still waiting for that glitch – you know the one that, when it happens you wanna run back to the familiar (older) version… However, this did not happen. The more I used it the more I was feeling like I found myself a Mint to stick to. I was slowly adding my favorite applications and one of the first thing was: I installed DraftSight as it really helps me with my drafting tasks.

I was, yet again, pleasantly surprised. It was a fast install and it was working like a charm. It didn’t feel like a beta version at all.

I then got my Bricscad and I made a Gimp Paint Studio out of Gimp. Installing Windows Fonts was a breeze and I was getting happier by the minute. I can honestly say that I have a feeling that I found my OS that I will stick to.

I hope that this short emotional review will help someone in at least trying out LMDE. I am convinced that you will be happy with it. There are things that I still have to learn and adjust but I am looking forward to it. Cheers!

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Do we need their “help”?

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Neb

So, BREAKING NEWS is:

American to head B.C. oversight agency to investigate police incidents

VANCOUVER – The American appointed to head British Columbia’s first civilian-led police oversight agency has developed a reputation as being tough but fair.

The appointment of Richard Rosenthal, who has set up similar agencies in two U.S. cities, was announced Wednesday by the premier. More HERE

I have no idea who Richard Rosenthal is but I am around for over 50 years and one thing really makes no sense. I don’t see that US have cleaned or taken care of any crimes, domestic or otherwise, so well that we would need a US Independent Investigation Office to oversee and investigate our own Police Force. I don’t believe that in any way, we are not capable of doing our own investigation. Furthermore, if anyone cares about our People, Country and Justice it is for sure our Police – not a US Independent anything…

Richard Rosenthal will be paid $210.000 per year for this job (wonder how long it will last) in the middle of the iffy economy where many are looking for work. But who am I to question Government’s decision to hire an outsider to clean our act.

This is Richard Rosenthal

 

For the past 50+ years all I know is that US helps only when there is something in it for them. No disrespect but I don’t think that we are not capable of doing the job ourselves and probably better too. I also think that we, the people of this great Country and Province should be asked first if we want some help from wherever that help might be needed. After all it is about us, the people, is it not?

 

 

 

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Them or Us…

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Neb

On an almost daily bases I get a newsletter of sort that tells me how to clean up my act and what to do when looking for work. From Resume/ CV to Job Search techniques to Phone or Face to Face Interview skills etc.

It almost sounds like They are more important then Us. It’s like They should be satisfied in any possible way and Us, we should learn and follow all the suggestions, rules and tactics to please Them. After all, They are in a position to give Us the Job. And not long ago, I was all for it, till I hit a brick wall a few times and realized that I have something to offer but that something doesn’t necessarily have to be controlled by Them. I have something to offer, by myself, to whom ever I choose to. What can I possibly loose?

Let’s take a look at this scenario:

I am out of work for whatever reason but most likely because of ill economy. I then put all of my effort to finding work but what happens is, everyone else is looking for work. Thousands of Us are looking for work and we can only work for Them. Or, wait a minute… Maybe we can work for ourselves? Sure we can. Instead of following a never ending line of job searchers; reading from some happy looking chubby person about how we should please Them in order to get an Interview, maybe; going to famous Job Search Clubs where a person of the day is coming up with surreal ways to offer our bodies and souls to Them for a peace of bread… Instead of doing all that, why not trying to cut the middle man and offer ourselves as a solution? We all have some knowledge, some experience that They use to pay us hourly to exploit. Why can’t we use that something that we have, know, are skilled in and go straight to the ones that could use what we can offer? That way we keep what we charge and we keep our sanity.

I started slowly and it’s looking good. I have to yet iron out some parts but overall, it is a good idea and it can be beneficial to my family too. I get to see the World from a different perspective. I get to not waste time and gas to get somewhere and at the same time I chip in for a better future of our Planet. I can save on clothing, food, coffee… I can take my own breaks when ever I feel like and I have no one but myself to control me. Just stop for a moment and look around you. Think of what can you possibly do to make it out there without selling yourself short. I am sure that there are so many things you could do way better and with more joy then you could ever if you were to be “the lucky one” who works for Them. 

Everywhere there are articles and places that “teach” Us how to look for work, how to write a Resume (like all this time we were unable to produce a really valid resume and that is why we actually can’t find or lost a job), how to talk (birth to 1.5 year) and how to cope with interview questions. When I read these it makes me feel like a third class moron who is not capable of walking and talking at the same time. With these articles and tutorials we are reduced to slightly more developed apes. 

Those birocrats who write those  articles obviously have their jobs and could care less for Us. They are also a part of the plan. Lately there are even some individuals with entrepreneurial skills trying to make cash by using the situation and “helping” Us to be good, little job searchers.

It is time for all of Us to realize that those days of “job security” and “team play” and “what the group decides – goes”, are over. They had a chance for a very long time now to prove to Us that their way is the right way. They failed. Now it is up to Us to show what we can do and that we can do it better. Us, we can even get together and chat and try to help each other but only because we want to. We can even get together and resolve a problem together – without any bosses and with a great feeling of freedom. For all this time that we lost trying to get a chance to please Them, we could have worked towards the goal to become independent or to be well on our way to Independence.

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It’s Magic! – Mageia

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Neb

As you all know by now, I was searching for a good Linux native CAD software and since I found Bricscad and DraftSight my life became happier and better. I installed my favorite CAD Applications on Mint 10 and started to experiment> I was so glad that I don’t have to depend on that ‘other’ OS.

It was all great till Linux community or developers, I am not sure,  decided that it is a great idea to switch to Gnome 3 and Unity in large number of Distros. For us, old timers, it was a very big change over night. I was trying hard to find positive reasons about this change but unfortunately, I could not. Even Linus Torvalds was ticked-off and was saying that he will switch to Xfce Desktop Environment. And I agree. What was wrong with Gnome 2 – I am not smart enough to understand.

In any case, along came Mint 11 and again, I was so happy that Mint didn’t follow Ubuntu to the letter and that we (the Mint Community) didn’t have to put up with the weirdness of Unity. That happiness was short lived because Linux Mint is planning on adopting Gnome 3 in the future. They will, however, try to make it so that the transition is easier by giving us different options but I have a feeling that we all will soon loose our options and will have to learn to live with the likes of Gnome 3.

Enough crying about it. Nut much I can do anyhow. All I could do is – search and find a Distro that will give me more of the things that I like and that I am used to. There’s got to be a Distro out there that I can love and feel comfortable with.

So I started with Distro Watch. At first I was using VirtualBox but that, somehow, didn’t give me that real feeling that I needed to be able to deside if and how much I like the OS. So I organized a test PC with relatively decent configuration and began downloading Distros left and right. Without listing the names I went through 11 Distros in the last 5 days. I had to change a Hard Drive because the first one started to behave strange…

Finally I came across Mageia! Former Mandriva with a new, funny name, but nothing funny about the greatness of a really well organized operating system. I take my hat off and bow to the great Mageia Community that made a distribution of such quality. It is early in the game for me to start talking about all the fantastic solutions and great ideas that were implemented in this Mandriva release  but I will make sure to write about it again once I learn more. For now I can just say that, everything I tried to do (that I also tried in other 11 Distros) was just so perfectly easy and fast to do, that I couldn’t believe. Why haven’t I tried it sooner? Well, better late then never. I feel that this is going to be a start of a long and beautiful relationship. Here is the default Mageia KDE Desktop:

Mageia KDE Desktop

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Real CAD on Linux – finally

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Neb

I remember, or should I say: I always had 2 main problems when using AutoCAD and Windows. Actually, most of the frustration was related to constant battle with mallware and other pest-like attacks on Windows. I don’t care what kind of Windows, what Service Pack or Version it is – they are all very vulnerable when it comes to viruses, mallware, adware etc. In such an environment one can not really blame the applications. They are trying hard but they are not wizards. Plus, if the application has a few bugs here and there (AutoCAD) then the battle becomes very tiresome. Popular way to fix those are: restart Windows or/and restart AutoCAD… That is not such a great solution when you are in the middle of the large project and every second counts. Also, both of those are very costly…

I found Linux some time ago and yes, there were a few CAD applications there but they were not like AutoCAD. The interface was totally different and they would not play well with dwg extension… It was just not good or familiar or complex enough for my taste. With Linux the first part – platform – would be solved. There are no viruses and mallware to bother you and the system just works and works.
The only problem was finding a good solution for my CAD needs.
And after a few years I found it! It was just what I wanted. CAD application that works on Linux (and Windows) and can do 2D and 3D and uses dwg and dxf extension and the interface is very similar to AutoCAD. Former AutoCAD user’s dream come true! BRICSCAD!

Bricscad in Action

I paid a very affordable amount for my licence and I am now using Bricscad as my main CAD software. It runs and it doesn’t break and there are no bugs that will leave you in the middle of the project. The support is phenomenal and friendly.
I run my Bricscad on Linux Mint 10 but it works as great on other distros (SUSE, Ubuntu etc)
It is a joy to do things on such a stable platform.
If you are interested to know more about it, just drop me a line – click on the Bricscad logo.

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Food Market Politics

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Neb

I remember when I was a kid, my mom use to take me with her to the market. I did like it but I was also a little scared. There was so many people there and allot of them were strange looking faces – probably people working the land and picking the vegetables and fruits for the market. They had to get there very early in the morning so that they would be able to get the space at the market. Lack of sleep and hard life made those faces so scary to a kid my age. Aside from them, there were hundreds of homeless, gypsies and people with questionable background, all trying to gain something. Than, there were the sales people, mostly women, as tough and rough as the men were. Some of those women were very old but still strong and tough, yelling about their product and the special (good) price. Hundreds of moms were looking for a bargain and they had to be just as tough and loud as the sales ladies. It was a chaos in the eye of a little kid. Somehow, however, everyone got what they bargain for. The moms made tasty lunches for their families and the hard land working men and women sold most of their product and filled up the buses to go back to the surrounding villages. They will do the same again tomorrow and the day after…

Well, although I didn’t really enjoy every moment of it and some times I would be scared or even discussed with some scenes, yelling and shouting and that specific filth that was all over the market, I was always admiring my mom for going through it over and over again just to make us, me, my sister and my dad, a nice lunch or supper. Today when I remember about those days, they somewhat resemble our political situation with some difference. We don’t get to enjoy that nice lunch or supper any more but instead, we worry about the future and are not sure of the present ether. The chaos is very similar. I can’t hope to get a candy or a cookie from the deal any more but I can almost certainly expect to hear some yelling and shouting and to see some weird and scary faces and their even scarier decisions that are mostly calling for another war. I can feel that their yelling and shouting is going to get someone really hurt or dead. I can’t hide behind my mom’s grocery bag any more. I feel like I should start yelling and shouting too but then I realize that that is not going to change anything. It is not about who is the loudest – it is about waking up and finding love and compassion in our hearts and getting up every day with that thought on our mind – day in and day out and trying to show, tell, sing, write or paint our love for others to see and to hope that they will realize the same thing and join us.

It is time to stop all the nonsense and greed and to open our hearts to love and peace!

Love and Peace

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We should all help!

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Neb

I am not sure how many of you will agree with me but I believe that we should help those guys in New York and US with their peaceful protest against corporate tyranny, any way we can. To start with, take a look at:

Main Stream Media Exposes Police Brutality in Occupy Wall Street Protests

Police arrest 13 Year Old Girl

And the main private coverage:

Occupy Wall Street Protesters Take Brooklyn Bridge – 700+ Arrested HD

It will be great for all this madness in the World to STOP. The big part of it comes from the corporations that are taking over our lives and dictating what will happen next, leaving us without our vote and rights to change things. JPMorgan Chase recently donated an unprecedented $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation. The gift was the largest in the history of the foundation and will enable the New York City Police Department to strengthen security in the Big Apple. The money will pay for 1,000 new patrol car laptops, as well as security monitoring software in the NYPD’s main data center.

With the Police like this, who needs a criminal.

Brooklyn Bridge Protesters

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I can’t understand…

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Neb

I am happy to be writing again, if just a little bit… I was unable to do so for some time. There were always more important things that I had to commit to first and then I was tired… In any case, the reason I am writing now is the same old story. I can not understand why would anyone in their right mind use Windows and pretend like they are perfectly fine with it? Why would anyone constantly, day in and day out, live with that unidentified fear without knowing if their PC will start, or if it will start with a blue screen or more common, start very, very slow and continue in the same manner afterwards?

I just got a letter from an online friend. I consider him a friend because he was actually helpful a few times although I did buy into his PHP script… Anyhow, I guess that things are really slow even in the “online” World because I got this letter from my friend Gary and he is advertising one known Windows Utility  –  System Mechanic. He goes about it like it’s a good thing and with 25% off – a great deal because, he says: “When working on my PC constantly each day results in its performance regularly dropping. There are periods when the PC is just dog slow, with things taking several seconds to happen instead of occurring instantly.” So that is why he believes that I (and all the rest of us) should get this System Mechanic because it will bring their (our) PC’s into a great functioning state. He goes to say: “To combat all of these issues, I’ve been using a tool called System Mechanic for the last year to keep all of these in check. When My PC gets sickly – which is usually at least once a day – I wheel out System Mechanic to whip it back into shape, whether that’s freeing up large tranches of memory, fixing registry errors or on the odd occasion, cleaning up the hard drive.”

Well, if it was your car and it did like his PC – you would probably change that car. Or if it was the food you were eating that was making you sicker and sicker every day. Would you buy a medication to help you out and then, after you get better, continue eating the same food? Or would you change your diet?

To me the answer is really easy and simple. Why would I invest more money into a crappy system just to make it work like it is actually supposed to work always, instead of finding a better system? On top of it all – If I knew of a system that is way better and that doesn’t have to be constantly taken care of to work and is FREE – would I take an advantage of such a system? Let me think… YES! Sure I would. Everyone would… Well, not everyone because, as you see, Gary is actually selling a way for you to give away some more of your hard earned money to make your Operating System work like it should and Gary never even thought of Linux. Yes, Linux. It’s there, it’s great, it’s fast, no viruses or malware will harm it, it’s extensively customizable, has thousands of FREE applications and it’s FREE.

I would love to hear from anyone and learn the answer to this question:

Why are some people, many people, paying for this Sometime Operating System instead of getting Linux?


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Spinning World…

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Neb

I might go to the eternal hunting ground soon…
I was in the ER yesterday because I woke up and couldn’t walk
straight. I was hitting the walls and had to hold on to walls, chairs
or anything in my path to be able to get to the washroom. Soon
enough I had to throw-up and my wife called an ambulance. They told
me that it was “most likely” something wrong with my inner ear.
Funny, they don’t even try to be more specific. I can get a straighter
answer from a Bingo parlour. In any case, they have no cure for it,
mind you this is 21st Century and they have no cure for anything to
do with inner ear, except that they can give me (and they did) a Lorazepam.
It’s a drug that produces a calming effect on the brain and nerves. So it’s
a f***ing Heroin or Opium…And that doesn’t cure – it just tricks you to believe that you are better until the effect is over – then you pop another pill. But
it’s also addictive, so that means I can become an addict just to be able to walk
straight. F*** this life man. F*** the guy who invented it.
They say, the doctors, that it will pass by itself in a few weeks although they
don’t really know what is causing it in the first place. And you should see
them. They are okay with that. They are doctors and they are okay with not actually
knowing shit about it.
So, if I don’t write some time, I am probably stuck between my bad and my
computer desk desperately trying to stop the World from spinning.

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The Windows Agony!

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Neb

Do people really go through this every time? Is it possible that some people just choose to believe that this is the way computers and operating system should work?

I had a displeasure to install or maybe call it: re-install Windows 7 on my friends laptop. The machine is emachines E627 and it was built for Windows 7. How did I know? Well, it says so on the laptop itself and I learnt it the hard way. I was actually trying to alleviate the usage and my instillation. I have some knowledge of the “operating system” and also of the usage of the same, so I wanted to make it easier on my friend and on myself too.

As it usually goes in life, it didn’t work out as planned. The little machine just wouldn’t take it. It demonstrated this with an ugly blue screen with a warning that it was actually trying to prevent me from harming the poor machine. Well, I had to use Windows 7 I guess…

This is when a real agony started. At first glance it does look like it is going to be a smooth ride. After a few “normal” questions the process of installation was going just fine all the way up to the first restart. Then there was a second and a third and a fourth restart. It seems that this OS works best when restated a few times. Then it was finally up and running… No, wait. That’s not it. There are some updates now. Do I want to update and what should I want to update? I choose – critical updates thinking that there must be less of those than if I was to update all… Except that there were 67 critical update. Then again another 42 updates. Then there was some updates that were happening while the computer was restarting… It just seemed that there was some kind of an update waiting in the system tray, you know – left bottom corner, every so often. I could hardly wait to see the time when one actually gets to start using the computer and not just nurse the “operating system” – it was more like “operating on your nerves system”.

I am not going to get into an actual usage of this Operating System because it will take too much time, effort and will take  a toll on my nerves system, but I can just say that once it’s up and running, it is not over yet… Now the time is to think about getting some kind of protection from numerous viruses, spyware, adware and other man made garbage. Then you need to find and install things (programs) to be able to see pdf’s or other docs etc. Some of those are free and some are quite expensive. It is actually all expensive. After all – that is the Windows way. Pay and you shell be paying again and again…

At the end I can just ad. I am so happy and grateful for Linux. I can not even begin to understand why would anyone go through this painful process of torture called “Installation of Windows Operating System”. I am not sure what is so appealing in paying for every little thing down the road, just to be able to use your OS? How did we get to a point when someone or something made us believe that this is the right way? And I see it often people are saying: Oh, that little software is great and it is so cheap – only $49.95… I wish you would all wake up and start using logic and common sense and look around you. There are better ways and healthier ways and ways that are made for you to enjoy not pay for every step through the agony called: Windows.

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