Haven’t done a desktop snapshot in quite a while.

The icon sorting mechanism is called Fences from Stardock which is absolutely awesome if you are like me an have about 40 too many icons on your desktop at any given time. (And it’s free!)

Sidebar is standard Vista flare.

I have never used the sticky notes gadget, but I just like the look of it for some reason.

The application bar above the Windows taskbar is Kubuntu running in a Sun VirtualBox in seamless mode, which makes it behave much like an app running in Vista, but it’s actually kind of just overlayed.  Pretty cool actually if you want the whole “eat your cake and have it too” scenario.

The picture, honestly I just Google imaged the search term “widescreen desktop wallpaper” and this was one of the results, and I thought the robot was cool.  I think he is looking at the heart, not quite sure what to make of it because it is so foriegn to him.  He may squish it at any moment, because he needs to know what will happen when he does.  It’s how he’s wired.

There are some things I have liked and some things that have been a challenge…but on a whole, I’m still quite happy as a windows free user…

Things I like:

• Firefox…A hint of familiarity for all my web browsing needs… Widows or Linux
• VLC media player…My person favourite for video… Windows or Linux
• Sound Juicer. A nice, no nonsense CD ripper.
• Exaile…A nice little media player, which is rumoured to support the Creative ZEN 4G, with a bit of work. Something I will need to investigate in order to get Laura’s working….
• TorrentFlux…A nice awesome way to download and manage torrents. Requires a web server running PHP, but lets you search, download and manage your torrents from a web interface. Nice to be able to log in from anywhere, or even my blackberry and start downloading completely free legal media. …
• Xampp web server in a box…. Includes Apache Web Server, MySQL, PHP, and FTP in a single easy to install package. Great for running on your home pc for a web sandbox for your projects before dumping them live on the net.
• Wine Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it too? Run windows apps in Linux…for those times that you just can’t get it done in linux…
• K3b Liking this CD/DVD burner as well.  Seems to get the job done, nice enough interface.

Challenges:

• as previously noted, the Creative ZEN 4G has not been easy to get going. I’ve heard it’s possible, but haven’t had time to sit and dig into it.
• A replacement for windows movie maker. WMM is actually a pretty capable little video editor for the novice who just wants to throw together a quick video of his kid without a lot of experience needed. Looking for a good alternative to that. Hasn’t been terribly easy at this point. Cinerella Cinelerra is a bit intense looking. May have to try Kdenlive next to see how that works.
• Dual monitor + Fancy Effects + ATI card. I can run dual monitor mode, or single mode without any fancy effects, which the nerd in me likes….you know…ooooh…shiney…. more investigation needed.

Those are my only hang ups so far. Loving the rediscovering of my PC, it’s like when I was learning DOS when I was 10 years old. New, fresh and fun. Heck…even Laura hasn’t minded the switch so far.

Say no to windows…

P.S. I certainly appreciate any suggestions for alternatives to the apps I have listed, I’m just exploring and have no particular allegiance to anything.  It’s still fairly new to me.  And if anyone has ideas for anything else, for purposes not listed above…please feel free…

TORONTO (Reuters) – A mocking announcement about Canada’s prime minister, “Stephen Harper Eats Babies”, was flashed on electronic advertising signs on Toronto area commuter trains for several days, and technicians were still scrambling on Tuesday to get the signs fixed.

“Stephen Harper Eats Babies. Stephen Harper Eats Babies. Stephen Harper Eats Babies,” started to appear every three seconds across some LED screens late last week. The signs usually carry transit updates and advertising spots.

It’s hard to express how funny this is to me.
(Pehaps because I just woke up…

10/19/2004 – *Updated slightly based on Mike C’s suggestions, nothing major, just cleaned up a bit*

<?php

$dbserver="localhost"; // Quite likely localhost
$dbname="dbname"; // name of your moveable type mysql database
$dbusername="username"; // Database username
$dbpass="password"; // Database password

// You should not need to edit anything below this line

 

if (!mysql_connect($dbserver, $dbusername, $dbpass)) {
die(‘Could not connect: ‘ . mysql_error());
}

if (!mysql_select_db($dbname)) {
die (‘Can\’t use $dbname : ‘ . mysql_error());
}

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM mt_ext_bl_item";
$num_rows = mysql_num_rows($result);

echo "<b>$num_rows</b> items in Blacklist <br />";

$result = mysql_query(‘SELECT * ‘
. ‘ FROM `mt_ext_bl_group` LIMIT 0, 30′;
if (!$result) {
die(‘Could not query:’ . mysql_error());
}

$getdata = mysql_fetch_array($result);
echo ‘<b>’.$getdata["ext_bl_group_blocked_count"].’</b> Comment Spams Blocked
‘.’<br />’
.’<b>’.$getdata["ext_bl_group_moderated_count"].’</b> Comment Spams Moderated
‘.’<br />’
.’With <a href="http://www.jayallen.org/comment_spam/">MT-Blacklist v2.01b</a>’;

mysql_free_result($result);
mysql_close($link);
?>
 

On Saturday, according to The Seattle Times, Microsoft and Mike Rowe came to an agreement. In exchange for transferring control of his domain name, Microsoft has promised to help Rowe set up a new Web site, pay for a Microsoft certification course and subscription to the Microsoft Developer Network Web site and pay for his family to visit Microsoft Research Tech Fest at Redmond in March. To top it all off, he will get an Xbox with some games.

Honestly, I can’t blame him for settling. It would certainly be a difficult and costly battle for a 17yr old to undertake. And hey, free XBOX.
At least it’s better than the $10 that they originally offered, that was just insulting.

My new toy…How video games were meant to be played.
Goes Nicely with these.