It's News to Me

This morning Justin left a comment on the previous post in which he requested that I post the results of issuing the lspci command on my current computer on the theory that perhaps something about the IDE controller might be causing my system not to see the Windows XP installation.  So now that I know to add the all_generic_ide switch to the boot command on the Live CD (thanks to Tomcat--TC) and I can get into Gutsy without my previous problems, I booted up under that this afternoon and took a screen shot of the results of issuing that command.  Though I don't know if this will give Justin what he thought it would, I'm going to post that screen shot below for his and anyone else's scrutiny.

Keep reading →

On October 21st I posted here about the fact that I couldn't boot from the recently released Live CD version 7.10 of Ubuntu, the so-called Gutsy Gibbon.  That post attracted more comment than any other ever has on this blog as others reported that they too had encountered the same problem.  One of those who responded was Tomcat--TC since he too was having the problem.  Earlier today, Tomcat--TC reported back that he had found a solution that worked for him, and as the screen shot at the right demonstrates, I have just proven to myself that it works for me too.  For the first time, I was able to boot from the Gutsy Gibbon Live CD on this, my Sony machine.

Keep reading →

On October 18, 2007, the newest distribution of Ubuntu (Version 7.10, code named «Gutsy Gibbon») was released, and I downloaded the ubuntu-7.10-desktop-i386.iso image and, after checking the MD5 checksum, burned it to CD.  I was able to use this Live CD to boot into the new version and install it on the Dell 4100 system I have here at home.  Because the checksum of the downloaded image verified and the Live CD works on my Dell system, I know there is nothing wrong with the CD itself.  I took the screen shot at the right showing the desktop with the included program, Tomboy, on the screen.  (If you click on the image above, a larger version will open and you can read the two open windows to learn what a neat little utility Tomboy is.) 

Keep reading →

I've said many times, I would have loved to have had a laptop computer available to me when I attended college back in the dark ages (1959-1963). Back then my tools were a spiral-bound notebook and a Bic pen for class notes, a manual typewriter, erasable bond paper and White Out for term papers, and doing research in the card catalog and the stacks of musty-smelling books in the school's library. Don't get me wrong. A fellow can learn a lot, and even demonstrate it, using those tools, so my lament that I didn't have the laptop, access to the Internet and search engines to aid me really isn't a complaint about how hard I had it as it is my way of marveling at the changes that have taken place in the last 50 years.

Keep reading →

Some might say I'm easily pleased, and I'd find myself hard pressed to disagree. Take a look at this video first ...

Keep reading →

Thanks to my friend, Shannon, I now have another computer (I still have the old one too), and the new one is running Ubuntu 6.06.  So my absence from posting for a while is at least in part because I have been on  «educational leave.»  If the truth be known, I've been quite busy on the Internet lately learning a lot of different things, but I just haven't been posting here.  So I am due for some serious «catch up» posts in the next few days, because I've been exploring some things that were very interesting, at least to me.

Keep reading →