...making Linux just a little more fun!

The Answer Gang

Contents:

¶: Greetings From Heather Stern

mandrake linux v9.1 fresh install crashing on first bootup,

rm : command not found

Linux "read" issue

Kernel 2.6.0-test2 and qm_modules error

Greetings from Heather Stern

Greetings, everyone, and welcome once more to the world of The Answer Gang.

I suppose you would think it obvious what the Peeve Of The Month is. I'm actaully deeply saddened that this move became necessary, and in fact I resisted the need at every turn. I resisted the CMS idea too - I think it's a solution to a problem we don't actually have, and "yet another slashdot" is not a unique magazine on the scene. But I had hopes that a talented webmaster could bring a template engine out of its doldrums and make something amazing and new in a basically already filled niche of the web. In fact, they still might. But if it can't retain a regular release schedule, it wouldn't be a Gazette:

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:

Gazette \Ga*zette"\, n. [F. gazette, It. gazzetta, perh. from gazetta a Venetian coin (see {Gazet}), said to have been the price of the first newspaper published at Venice; or perh. dim. of gazza magpie, a name perh. applied to the first newspaper; cf. OHG. agalstra magpie, G. elster.] A newspaper; a printed sheet published periodically; esp., the official journal published by the British government, and containing legal and state notices.

With a basis in official matters (okay, who's perfect) but most especially in a periodic nature, the only way for the Gazette to retain its true nature is to remain... a periodical.

But enough of that. 'Tis the time of All Hallow's Eve, and everyone is dressing up. Me, I'm dressing up my computer. There are some people doing some really crazy and fun things with new computers. The silliest that I've seen so far I have to say is the glowing sphere. That guy's great. His set top box makes it look like that thing is now a TARDIS or that the aliens who control "The Outer Limits" really have left their control module visible in your living room. There a bunch of toasters out there - really! I'm not kidding! Go visit Mini-ITX.com if you don't believe me. Cubes even. But the glowing sphere is a winner.

At a basically 7" square motherboard (170 mm, but who's counting) and about an inch, inch and a half clearance above it, you have anything from a 500 Mhz to 1 Ghz Cyrix or Eden chipset and most of the useful peripherals already on board. If you're willing to call it 2.5" clearance, get a riser card to let you put a PC card in sideways.

I don't know how it is out there with the rest of you but I can run down to my local computer store here in the Silicon Valley and have my pick of cases that have clear sections, glowing parts, mounting brackets for ultraviolet lighting, and ... well I wasn't ready for this at the time, so make sure you're sitting ... water cooled motherboards. With somewhat yellow water that glows under blacklight.

Spoooooky. But not half as spooky as the idea that killing a part of the cooling system isn't just a dead fan and maybe one of the hard disks will run a risk of much early MTBF - mean time between failures, the silicon lifeform's equivalent to risk of stroke and heart attack. Water splattered all over the inside of a 2.3 or 3 Ghz gaming monster sounds even spookier.

Okay. So maybe I just should stick with a normal case with sort of bubbly effects on the front. One popular model of this is called the "alien glow". Sounds like a GIMP filter. If I feel really inventive maybe I can paint a mural on the side of one of the cases whose sides pop off easily so techies can get at the parts.

And then, there's making my desktop a little more fun! In this I have an unfair advantgae. The window manager I happen to favor is Enlightenment (16 of course. Will 17 never release? Probably.) and there is an uncountable community of goth kids out there who really enjoy the spooky backgrounds, razor thin lines, and dark colors that movie magic reminds us is supposed to be spooky. Combine that with a decent pile of wallpapers from the K desktop - named things like "Whirling Spirit" - and all I need is a pumpkin. TuxEyes can be customized, I think. So someone ought to give it a pumpkin and flickering littel triangle eyes! Or I can set the root window to pick up photos of storms and change them every once in a while. Of course I have a great big hard disk, so loading it up with apropos music for the spooky little visitors seems perfect too.

Sound, light, Thunder, am I missing anything? Of course. I'll have to consider getting a remote mouse, or setting my computer up for LIRC - infrared remote control - so I can toggle the spooky effects without touching them. Maybe I should set my /etc/hosts file to recognize 127.0.0.1 as localghost. while I'm in here.

Well kids, it's time to wait at the door with the chocolates. For any of you who haven't run off to the parties, I suggest that a dessicated pumpkin will not make a good case. Try a big Millenium Falcon or Enterprise model instead. And... pleasant dreeeeeaams ... mwa hahahahah ha ha!