BLAG Linux and GNU 90001 in virtualbox

a short screenshot tour, made by me, of blag linux 90001 in virtualbox. it runs great as a virtual machine except for the screen resolution. i was only able to get 800x600 because xorg refused to load the guest additions module. it may work better if installed directly rather than in a virtual machine.
with most distros installing the guest additions replaces the graphics driver however blag 90001 is using a release candidate version (Xorg 1.5 RCx) of xorg server which virtualbox doesn't support at this time.



blag linux
distrowatch announcement

flickr screenshots uploaded by me
flickr slideshow

free online magazines

ghacks posted an article about free online magazines today. there's plenty of categories for your reading interests. i enjoy these digital reading applications. this one works online in your browser. i do wonder how they can legally offer these so ya better read them fast.

ghacks article is here
the website is here.

more changes. this time igoogle

aaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggg.
read that as one long and loud groan of frustration and one long expletive deleted. that's my first reaction to changes. ok, ok, i'm ok now, but i had to walk away from my puter for a few minutes and drink more coffee.
these changes are really driving me to distraction. this time it's my browser home page, igoogle, making changes. google calls these "experimental igoogle features" and i've been selected to be one of the first users to preview them according to their help page. i don't believe that line that i've been specially selected for a minute. this is the internet. everything must first be viewed with suspicion till it's proven itself benign. there's always a hidden agenda.
the reason for my frustration is because i view most changes as self serving rather than actually making things better for me. they say things like they're better, faster, easier to use, more robust, and more feature rich, but all they really do is rearrange the deck chairs to keep you from abandoning ship while they figure out how to squeeze more money from you, and show you more ads, and keep you locked in, IMHO. i wish web sites would stop trying to make things "better" for me. i've seen too many so called upgrades that i've selected to go back to the classic version of most things. ok, i'll relent a little. some things do need changing but i can't stop feeling a little overwhelmed.
so what are the changes? well, i don't know yet. i need to calm down and work through them and figure out what they're trying feed me. see the link for the help page and stayed tuned for my updated analysis, criticism, rant, or kudos, whatever.
General Info: experimental iGoogle features

first cicada of the season

i heard the first cicada of the season today and thought it was a bit early to hear one of these loud bugs. i've never paid attention to when these come out but i've always associated them with the "dog days of summer" which i thought was later in august. this is probably normal and i just never noticed before. i do wonder if any scientific organization has monitored these bugs with reference to the global warming thing going on. they monitor birds, and bees, and frogs, why not cicadas? i'm sure they can be affected by climate changes as well.
i'm somewhat curious because these bugs used to fascinate me as a kid. i would see their shedded skins a couple of feet up on a tree and wonder what the heck it was. i was stunned to learn that they had lived in the earth for 17 years. wow, imagine that! i used to see a lot of them fully grown also but never knew that's where they came from. i also thought they must have a pretty good bite so i never touched them but i marvelled at how ugly and scary looking they were. can you believe some people eat these things? fascinating!
i'm sure there'll be plenty more cicadas soon enough and the dog days will be filled with their song.
http://www.cicadas-pictures.com/index.html
http://www.cicadamania.com/cicadas/2006/08/26/apache-cicada/
http://www.gpnc.org/cicadas.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_days
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming

cool T-shirt

i have got to get one of these

my yahoo out of beta

ok, what am i playing with today? how about yahoo? they're fun to play with. i have a love hate relationship with yahoo. i want to like yahoo but they do some things i don't like so i punish them by not visiting their pages. but i can't resist visiting occasionally. what do i love and hate? well, let me tell you about it.
what i love. yahoo has great name recognition and some great properties such as flickr, delicious, and maps. i use these a lot and i think yahoo has done a nice job of not screwing them up when they bought them. i especially like their web mail. i recently went through all of my email accounts to see what was there and clean them out a little. wow, i was surprised and shocked to find 5 year old sent emails that yahoo had saved. i didn't know they do that but was very pleased to see some of that old stuff. they scored lots of brownie points in my book when i saw that. seems like a great way to save a backup of anything. i don't know about any privacy issues but i'm not too concerned.
what i hate. the biggest issue i have with yahoo is their lowdown, dirty, rotten, pathetic, sneaky method of getting their stinking toolbar onto your computer. i worked on a friend's computer once and noticed the toolbar. my friend said, "i don't know how that got there. i only signed up for instant messenger." i know how it got there. it's bundled with the instant messenger software and they hide the option not to install it. that's really pathetic. sure, it's easy to uninstall but it shouldn't have been installed in the first place. i don't use their im client, i have another client that logs onto their network, so i don't know if they still do that or not. they probably do. i don't use their toolbar either. the only other issue i can think of is their web page layout. it's full of crap. i guess some folks like to see all the stuff but i just stay away. they have a nice personal page that you can customize and avoid all the crappy extras, so i just do that.
on the whole, despite some great features, they seem desperate to keep a visitor locked in and desperate to get you to click ads. this really takes away from their overall friendliness. they seem to be getting more friendly though, and have released their custom home page today, which is why i'm playing with them today. it seems more friendly.
here's a cool tip. click the exclamation point on yahoo! to hear the famous yodel. yaaaahoooooooo!

an old desktop shot

this is mandriva 2007 full size 3200x1200 is here

changes, arrrrg

too many websites and applications are changing things around to my dismay. change is inevitable and usually for the better, but when features that i like to use are removed then i get frustrated. the latest site to change things around is digg.
i like to read the linux/unix upcoming news thread. i don't care for any of the other categories on digg nor the front page. i'm not even sure i know what the "front page" is, i only read the upcoming news page.
digg seems to have made this page difficult to find. the changes are in process and called beta but till they get it right i have found a way to get to the upcoming page.
1. go to digg.
2. search for keyword "linux".
3. the so called front page of the linux category comes up with another search box and 3 drop down menus to refine the search.
4. select the search conditions such as, upcoming and newest first then hit the search button again.
5. voila, the upcoming page comes up and now you can read through the posted news links before the digg hoards kill the website.
6. bookmark the results page.

digg blog
webware article
an opposing view