LarsonsWorld -- just another persons /dev/null

Well, I've come full circle and am back to Ubuntu.

When Ubuntu dropped Gnome and went to Unity, I couldn't take the change and switched to Linux Mint Debian with Xfce. I used LMDE till I had issues with Wifi and switched to Linux Mint 13. I did play around with Cinnamon and Mate, but settled on Xfce as with LMDE.

When I started playing around with XBMC on the Dell 6000, I switched that machine to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. With that change, I used Ubuntu a bit and found I liked it. Thus, I have changed over the Acer Aspire One to 12.04.

Up front, let me say, I had no problem with LM13 Xfce. I guess I was ready for a change and/or bored and wanted something new to play with.

Other that a new look, for me, there really isn't much of a change in my day to day use. I use alt+f2 to start a program, so that is no different. I really only use my Acer for email -- Gmail, internet surfing and my website -- Firefox and listening to music -- Rhythbox. Other than those 3 things, I do occasionally use LibreOffice, Bluefish and Gedit, but, really, overall, I can live in Firefox with no issues.
round and round -- back to ubuntu
I think this is why I like my little netbook so much. With what I do with a computer, I really don't need much power. Granted, it can be a bit slow interent surfing because of the lack of CPU speed and memory, it really doesn't bother my to much. I like the portability of it. And, as opposed to a tablet, I do like a keyboard and like the functionallity of a keyboard since I use shortcuts all the time.

But I digress, back to Ubuntu. My current thoughts and comments.

• It did take me a couple days to get use the the workspaces being in a square as opposed to inline. If I remember correctly, this is actually better than the old Gnome inline. With Gnome, once you where at the end you had to back track. I was use Xfce, with it's flow back to the first workspace. The square gives you a round flow that I am finding I am liking.
• Since I am using a netbook, I full screen all programs. It threw me with the tool bar being intergated into the top bar, but I got use to it.
• I can't quite figure out the HUD deal. If I hit alt, it asks for a command. Nothing happens when I type in anything. If I type in Firefox, nothing happens. If I hit alt+F2, it asks to run a command. When I type in Firefox and Firefox starts.
• I like the little scrolling box with up and down arrows and how you just have to click up or down to scroll each way.
• I am not sure, but it does seem like battery life is not as good as under LM13. This may or may not be true, I really haven't done a test of any kind.
• I don't use the Launcher bar and like how I can auto-hide it.
• I need to figure out the touchpad sensitivity. I have noticed it doesn't always pick up to touchs when selecting links and such.

Have to say, I am happy with the current install of Ubuntu. For one thing, I know whether it is Linux Mint or Ubuntu, I will be staying with the long term releases. I can remember back in the day, when I first changed to Linux and was using Ubuntu, I changed with every release. This is not the case for me anymore. If I do any change, it will be to check out Linux Mint 13 with Cinnamon.

Have to say I am a big fan of Patton Oswalt. Loved his work on Justified and have I've seen him recently on a few other shows -- Burn Notice comes to mind, but this cut 8 minute impromptu speech on Parks and Recreation has got to be one of the best things of his I have every seen. And, boy, is it getting coverage in the internets.

Changed things up a little on the Dell XBMC machine. I switched from Linux Mint 13 Xfce to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS with XBMC as the front end.

This change started with my fucking up my LM13Xfce install. Somehow I messed up apt causing it to be unable to update anymore. I found the only option was to re-install the OS. This brought up the option of just going with XBMCbuntu. I tried going with this, but I had issues with the installs attempts to connect with the internet -- I think this stemmed from my use of a USB wireless toggle. Since I couldn't get it to install, I decided to go with Ubuntu over Linux Mint so I could add the XBMC ppa for updates. Had a couple of issues at first, but this was resolved with deleting the .xmbc folder from the previous install and restarting XBMC.

Here are the notes and observations from this change:

• Sound started of much better and I found I didn't have to install XBMC Audio Mixer to tweak it.
• Remote no longer makes the little beeps when pushing the buttons. This really threw me at first as I thought there was no sound. Tried playing with the settings but no luck.
• I'm am liking he updated interface.
  • Weather is much more in depth with 10 day forecasts.
  • Like the recently added videos showing above the navigation bar.
  • Just like the whole nicer look overall.
• I have noticed some issues playing .wmv files, although I haven't really dived into this issue yet.

And that is all for now. I'm going to enjoy a beer and watch the Masters for a bit.

Previous XBMC posts: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4

Arctic Circle by Alex Hallatt -- 20 December 2012

There is nothing better than having a bullet proof tire when you're out riding in the city let alone, the arctic!

A view of the past from my original site to the final look prior to the switch to Drupal.

It's amazing to think I have had an on-line presence since 2000. Oginally it was pcsworldof.com and then in September of 2002 I registered larsonsworld.com. That original domain name, I really didn't have ownership of. I had used a cheap hosting service who registered the name in their name. This was a good thing, because it really is a terrible domain name that didn't make sense to anyone but me.

Anyway, check out the design change through time and if you are really bored, chech out LarsonWorld on the Wayback Machine. There are a slew of captures from 2003 through 2012.

As said by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alexseyevich Gagarin on this day in 1961 when he became the first human in space.

Yuri's Night news on Space.com.

Bang here for full size image.

From The National Archives Today's Document Tumblr feed.

Life is grand with XBMC these days. I've spent time RTFM and learned quite a few things.

• I have figured out file management so I no longer have to use log out and into Xfce for this.
• I've played around with a few other skins to see what is out there, although I am staying with the default.
• Sound seems to have come around nicely. It is still a bit low but not as bad as it originally was.
• Even though I haven't figured out how to program buttons on my remote yet, I have learned quite a few shortcuts via the keyboard.
• Since my Dell 6000 is pre SATA drive, I set up an external 2.5" USB drive for extra room. Since it is powered by the USB cord, it only is on when the laptop is running.

I have to say, I am very happy with how this experiment with XBMC has worked out. I am at the point of just using the XBMC GUI and no longer switching back and forth with Xfce. If you are looking for a Media Center program, I have no problem suggesting XBMC.

Previous XBMC posts: #1 | #2 | #3

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Looks like the tracking site sitemeter has bit the dust. The tracking image is gone from the bottom of my pages and the web site has just a static base page that is fed from sitesense.com. Strange that there was no word of this change. I even received an email report two days ago from them.

The bummer part is I had used it for tracking this web site since 2006 and their records showed 608,000 + hits. Now those records are gone.

This is from that report on the 1st of April:
LarsonsWorld - just another persons waste of time
(s24larsonsworld)

-- Site Summary ---
Visits

Total ...................... 608,476
Average per Day ................. 97
Average Visit Length .......... 2:35
This Week ...................... 678

Page Views

Total .................... 1,221,369
Average per Day ................ 168
Average per Visit .............. 1.7
This Week .................... 1,174

~~ Update: 16:00 ~~

Well, I guess not. The image is back and so is the site. After years of no issues, this is the second time in 11 months the site has had issues. I've been thinking of going to the pay premium account, but this makes me nervous of doing that.

~~ Update: 06 April 08:57 ~~
Hmmm. Sitemeter is back to it's odd behaviour again. Strange. I really don't know what to think.