Month: December 2005

In the turmoil of setting up a new PVR/HTPC thingo (a computer in the lounge to run digital television), I ran into a small problem. One of my copies of Windows XP is licensed for use on a Dell PC only. D’oh! Um, anyone want to buy a used dell?

XP being somewhat pricey (>$100) I tried out linux. What’s linux? An operating system——as is windows——but a free one. Any good? Well it comes in various flavours and I tried Kubuntu. Installed it on the PC. All went nicely and booted up fine. Looks swish. It’s free. Feels nice. And it’s free. And it might not support your hardware instantly, “out of the box” (so to speak).

Double d’oh!! Ah I remember my good ol’ days of C programming in oh, 1995! Crikey that’s 10 years ago. I’m amazed I do remember that. Those were the uni days. One of the first programs we had to write was a simple one, demonstrating the use of functions, to print the lyrics to the Twelve Days of Christmas. Or should I say printf the lyrics. Haha!!

Why am I talking about this? Oh yeah. After installing the Kubuntu packages (which I’m lead to believe, is the Debian way) for gcc, kubuntu source code and um, dvb something… sifting through a bunch of “make” errors to do with missing files (stdio.h is missing? oh you know that can’t be right!) I eventually managed to get my TV tuner card recognised. Perhaps this was more difficult because it is a USB model, it does sound like PCI has better support. Anyway, I got that recognised but not at startup (gotta re-er, recognise it, each time the computer starts) and then had a look at my wireless lan adapter. Another USB device. Another set of make errors.

Triple d’oh? Yes, on the third day of Christmas many doh’s were heard. So there’s something to be said for windows, despite the cost. Hardware support. Worth the price this time I think. Still, linux does look good. And it is free. It wasn’t a total loss. I did discover a free alternative to dreamweaver in Nvu. And I learned how to check my websites in Konqueror. And I can in fact run linux anytime without installing it. Now where did I put that live cd…

Btw, did this post make any sense to anyone? Not really? It doesn’t make much sense to me and that is the problem. Still, linux has come a long way from when I last time I used it (through ssh). And it can only get better 🙂

Hey, I have a blog! Looks like I may have forgotten, or shall we say neglected, it for some time now. What have I been busy doing? Downloading iTunes music? Not exactly, though have found a few songs I like.

Hard to remember really. Been watching Emma grow up at light speed. Played thieving secret santa (which is an absolute blast!) and did the hokey pokey with so many computer bits that I couldn’t activate Windows XP online and had to telephone. I think my wife has banned me from buying PC parts now so I suppose blogging will have to suffice… 😀