hummer0328

Just found another reason to read through all the books. I'm tired of coming across random spoilers while browsing the interwebs...

I've recently read: A Game of Thrones A Clash of Kings and am currently in the middle of: A Storm of Swords I read A Game of Thrones a while ago, well before the HBO series. I've also been watching the TV series. Sure fills in on a lot of pieces missing from the show. And the changes as well. The true reason I'm reading the books is that I couldn't wait till next year to find out what happens in the forth season.

I'll be turning 27 here in a couple months. Joined ST when I was 17. I'd be lying if I said time sure does fly. 17 sounds like a long time ago. But then again, I've changed a lot since then. Graduated high school, joined the army, then college, now a career, all while living in 6 different states in that time period. So yeah, I've kept myself busy!

The beta1 for Elementary OS Luna was released last month, so today I finally decided to try it out. All I can say is WOW! Cause it has left me speechless. Most beautiful linux distro ever! It's a VERY heavily customized Ubuntu 12.04, but even in beta feels much more stable than Ubuntu (especially 12.10). It has a nice lightweight feel, and is blazing fast (unlike 12.10). The devs have done a lot of work, especially with the custom apps. For example take Files (based of Marlin) which blows Nautilus right out of the water as it is both beautiful, functional and super fast. Noise, the music player, is again both fast and beautiful. All the custom apps are. I've noticed better battery life on my laptop too. I can go from login to 10 open apps in just a few seconds on a 3 year old laptop. The only thing I had a hard time with was getting my wireless printer to work. Otherwise everything else just seems to work. And since it's based off ubuntu you still get access to the software center for installing anything else you need. If this is what they call beta, I can't wait for the final product. The folks over at Canonical should takie notice, cause this is how an OS should look and feel.

I can't complain as I get what I pay for: 8 Mb/s down and 0.4 Mb/s up. It doesn't matter the time of day, even at peak hours I get my advertised speed.

Microsoft has agreements with the major OEMs that prevent them from selling computers without Windows loaded on them. That is an agreement in restraint of trade. What's wrong with your FTC? Are they not paying attention? The FTC isn't doing anything because Microsoft hasn't done anything illegal. Microsoft isn't stopping the major manufacturers from developing separate product lines that don't feature Windows. Microsoft is preventing from stripping the existing product lines of Windows. Once you commit to using Windows for a product line, you commit to using Windows. My understanding of the issue was that most major retailers will discount you the price of Windows off of a preinstalled computer provided that you don't except the EULA when you 1st turn it on, but they won't advertise this and you may have trouble finding sales associates who even know about this. At least a friend of mine was able to do it a few years ago (I believe at a best buy). I guess it took some time to find somebody who worked their who knew what the heck he was talking about. I think he got around $100 off the cost. I know I've done some research of my own in the last few years and found out the same thing. From what I remember, retailers could potentially face legal action if they didn't allow it. Now that doesn't mean that they're required to advertise this and I'm sure Microsoft would prefer it if they didn't. And as far as Win 8 is concerned, I think I'll stick with Linux!

After spending the last year using Arch, I've finally found Unity mature enough to use and have switched back to it with Ubuntu 12.04. Must say, Unity has come along ways and I actually kinda like it. To my surprise, I've actually found Ubuntu w/ Unity to be faster than my highly customized Arch with Gnome, especially after I made a few necessary customizations that I've learned while using and maintaining my Arch install. I must say that Ubuntu 12.04 is a very polished and easy to use OS!

Since I got a Kindle Touch for my b-day a few weeks ago I've read quite a few books. My favorite new book so far has been Ender's Game. Amazing! And apparently a movie is coming in Nov 2013. So long to wait though!

If you end up liking The Windup Girl, try Ship Breaker. It's by the same author (Paolo Bacigalupi) with a sequel coming out later this year. http://www.goodreads...14-ship-breaker Been reading quite a bit lately. Currently on book #21 for the year. I've been almost exclusively reading young adult books as I'm currently in the process of writing my own novel in the same genre. As I've come to find out, writing isn't the hardest part about writing a novel. Coming up with a detailed plot where all the little pieces fit together nicely is time consuming and a good path to a migraine. But I love it! Anyways, here is a list of novels I've read this year so far: Congo by Michael Crichton Enclave by Ann Aguirre Prized by Caragh M. O'Brien The Pearl Wars by Nick James Delirium by Lauren Oliver A Million Suns by Beth Revis Ashfall by Mike Mullin Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare Tomorrow, When The War Began by John Marsen The Dead Of Night by John Marsen Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick Blood Red Road by Moira Young Divergent by Veronica Roth (reread from book I read last year in anticipation of the sequel Insurgent) Leviathan by Scott Westerfield Behemoth by Scott Westerfield Goliath by Scott Westerfield Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke (currently reading)

Load up Win7, find the model# of your wi-fi card, do a google search for "model # linux" or "model # ubuntu" (only cause ubuntu's user base is so large). That's the beauty of linux, if you're having problems you're probably not alone. I would be willing to bet there's a simple fix with step by step instructions somewhere on ubuntu's forums. And as far as how to install flash player, I don't use mint so can't help you with that, sorry.

Yeah sure WEP can be broken in seconds and WPA in minutes IF you know what you are doing. I do it all the time when going over to a particular friends house who doesn't have internet (although I'm nice about it and never abuse the connection with torrents and such). As an IT security guy I should tell you to always use WPA2, but to be honest it might not be necessary. Even WEP encryption will keep 99.9 percent of people out of your network. It's that pesky 0.1% (like me) that you need to worry about.

From my understanding, a qubit still uses binary. A classical bit must be either a 0 or 1. Qubits do this as well, but can also be both, at the same time. I'm not going to try to go into the details of how logic circuits work in a processor (for those who don't already know), but qubits still use traditional circuits. However, the fact that the qubit can be both a 0 and 1 has some pretty cool consequences for how efficiently those circuits work. Then there is quantum entanglement, were two different qubits share the same state. It could allow for transfer of bits from one place to another without the bottlenecks of traveling down a traditional bus, or the time it takes to do so. That's about all I know. Trying to figure out the finer details just gives me a headache.

I read and finish the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare: City of BonesCity of AshesCity of GlassCity of Fallen Angels The 1st 3 were good, but the 4th book was pushing the story line too much. I also read Unwind by Neal Shusterman. At first I wasn't very impressed. But the ending was pretty disturbing. Borderline 1984 type stuff. Currently reading: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It's about a young girl growing up in Nazi Germany, narrated by death.

I've never been one to put much stock in the current standard model. There are way too many holes and assumptions that are made. Today's scientists stand on the shoulders of those who came before them, for the most part, assuming they were right. Every time some gaping hole appears in the standard model, somebody comes up with an even stranger idea to patch it up. I have very little doubt that the standard model as it is now is incorrect. There are probably pieces that are, in their own ways correct, but the underlining cause is misunderstood. What the world truly needs is an innovative scientist of the likes of Einstein or Heisenberg to make the leap. My prediction is that it will happen soon. Probably within the next decade. It will turn the standard model upside-down and scientists will have to rethink many of their present assumptions. I have my sources, reliable sources. These sources have told me that CERN found something significant with the LHC and have been trying to stall for quite a while now. Partly, they have been trying to confirm what they found, (partly by disproving the Higgs Boson), and understand the implications before they come forward with anything. I think we are generally on the right track, but we're missing something. Something big. Can't wait to find out what that something is.

Wow, jut when IE was starting to look half way decent, MS puts a stop to that. I can't imagine what they are thinking...

In the last month I've read the following: The Lost World, Michael CrichtonSphere, Michael Crichton The Maze Runner, James DashnerThe Scorch Trials, James Dashner 1984, George Orwell (wow, was that chilling... Probably the scariest book I've ever read!) Divergent, Veronica Roth Across the Universe, Beth Revis I Am Number Four, Pittacus LoreThe Power of Six, Pittacus Lore The Knife of Never Letting Go, Pattrick NessThe Ask and the Answer, Pattrick NessMonsters of Men, Pattrick Ness Reread the entire Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne CollinsWhich was easily the best series I've read in a long while. It was one of those series where I was either reading it, thinking about it, or dreaming about it. I can't wait for the 1st movie to come out next year. The cast looks awesome (some very good actors) and I really hope it delivers. If you haven't heard of this series yet, you will. I just hate how it keeps getting called the next Twilight. They have very little in common. Twilight is a stupid and unrealistic teenage love story with vampires and werewolves. Hunger games is a fast paced, action oriented series about how a 17 year old girl becomes a leader and a symbol of a revolution against a powerful and oppressive dystopic post-apocalyptic government. This series alone is the main reason for the present surge in popularity of dystopic/post-apocalyptic young adult books. Currently Reading: City of Bones, Cassandra Clare Yeah, I've had way too much free time on my hands...

I doubt it. Too many issues related to software piracy. Most likely, it means Windows users can finally see/edit inside of ISO images. Big deal. It's something windows should have been able to do for a long time. On Linux, I can see/edit inside of all sorts of files windows users can't without 3rd party support. Like: .exe .bin .iso .epub .jar .tar .gz .bz2 .7z .Z .ar .cbz .lzma .lzo .xz .rar, all using a single app. And I see in that video that windows 8 will still use zip as the default compression archiver. Really! C'mon MS, move over to a more modern alternative. How about .lzo, better compression ratios than .zip, and insanely fast on both compression/decompression, or .lzma, about as fast as .zip (maybe a bit faster), but far, far better compression ratios.

I'm going to the lake with friends to watch fireworks this year. Bringing with me some ribeye steaks, shrooms to top the steak, lots of potato chips, and some Bacardi of course . No personal fireworks for me though. Wouldn't want to start a wildfire. Although, people usually sneak them in anyways, so I wouldn't be surprised if one of my friends doesn't bring some. I'm personally not very worried about the fire risk, considering all the rain we've had lately.

Yeah, don't use WEP, with an active wireless connection present, that can be broken in seconds, literally. If available on your router use WPA2 (Personal, not Enterprise or anything like that, if it gives you the option) with AES encryption. With a strong enough password, it will be impossible to break. If you still have 802.11 b devices on the network you will have to use AES+TKIP, but only use if you have older devices that cant run on G, as TKIP has known vulnerabilities. To do this, find the manufacturer of your router, go to google and search: [manufacturer] router ip address you should get something like: 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 I know for a fact linksys routers are 192.168.1.1 by default. Whatever the address is, just type that into your browsers address bar and it will take you to a config GUI for your router. You should be able to configure the security from there. If it still doesn't work, use a direct ethernet connection to the router, cause sometimes some routers wont let you configure over wireless by default. That is there for your protection, to prevent your annoying neighbor from messing with the routers config settings and locking you out.

Huh, that sounds odd. Never had a problem like that before, well one that wasn't my fault. Although, 2.6.39 seems a bit unstable at the moment, as I've gotten a couple of random kernel panics during boot that disappeared with a subsequent reboot. I've noticed it sometimes hangs for about a min during shutdown as well. My guess would be bugs in an attempt to repair the notorious power consumption kernel regression. But never a problem like that. Say what you will about intel's integrated GPUs and their <sarcasm>amazing OSS drivers</sarcasm>, but at least they work out of the box on linux with little to no configuration. I just spent a day trying to help a friend with his new laptop and ATI GPU. WOW! What a headache that was. Kernel Mode Settings were causing glitches, so we had to turn that off and configure everything manually. What, and stop hijacking other peoples threads? Yeah, might not be a bad idea!

Hopefully that should be fixed by 11.10 with Systemd replacing the current init process. By itself systemd cut my boot time (grub --> gdm) from 19 sec down to 13. Yeah, I always had hibernation issues with Ubuntu as well. I just started using Tuxonice (kernel patch) that adds tons of features to hibernation and uses LZO compression. Wish Ubuntu would add something similar to their kernel. Edit: try adding the resume hook to your grub. best way is: resume=/dev/sdaX (or whatever your swap partition happens to be). If using grub2: [code]# nano /etc/default/grub #or vim[/code] find the line: [code]GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"[/code] and add the resume argument: [code]GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash resume=/dev/sda2" #sda2 in this case[/code] save, and of course, if using ubuntu, don't forget to: [code]# update-grub[/code] it should be in the kernel by default, but sometimes you have to force it like this. If that doesn't work, then it's most likely a hardware incompatibility. It's not as bad as you might think, since it doesn't have to load a desktop environment. But I rarely reboot it anyways. Sure do. Not that they got very far. Made me glad I had good security measures in place though. ext2,ext4,reiserfs,xfs all running on the same system , just check out my fstab [code]devpts /dev/pts devpts defaults,noatime 0 0 shm /dev/shm tmpfs noatime,nodev,nosuid 0 0 tmpfs /tmp/.chromium tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodev,nosuid,mode=1755 0 0 tmpfs /tmp/.pdnsd tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodev,nosuid,mode=1755 0 0 tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodev,nosuid,mode=1777,size=2G 0 0 /dev/sda4 / ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1 /dev/sda5 /boot ext2 defaults,noatime 0 1 /dev/sda6 /var reiserfs defaults,noatime,data=writeback,notail 0 1 /dev/sda2 swap swap defaults,noatime 0 0 /dev/sda3 /media/Files xfs noatime,logbufs=8 0 2[/code] From what I've read, similar to Win 7. And I guess the new touch interface in completely optional and targeted towards the touch device market, with the normal desktop interface resembling the Aero interface. So they aren't starting from the ground up, for the most part. Maybe MS learned from the mistake that was Vista after all. My guess is MS never stopped development of WinFS, but decided it was too much of an alpha version to be released with Win7 beta (aka vista). Protogon seems to be faster than NTFS in real world throughput (not that thats hard), possible live defrag, very content aware, and the FS takes up less space. My guess is that Protogon is the main reason beta testers are reporting that Win8 feels faster than Win 7. But I guess only time will tell

Wyoming recently passed a law allowing CCW without a permit. It was pretty controversial, even in the most republican state in the country. Personally, I'm not too worried about it, considering our relatively low population, low crime, etc. I have no problems with CCW, but there should be training involved. IMHO I would still take a class, even if I didn't have to. The info is invaluable to anyone wanting to carry. They teach you more than just how to shoot. Most of it is teaching you how to diffuse potential situations, and lots of legal stuff so you don't get yourself into trouble. As far as overall gun laws go, I don't see anything wrong with legal gun ownership or CCW (w/ training). It's rarely the law abiding gun owner you have to worry about anyways. However, there are reasons I don't go hunting in highly populated states. I just don't trust some of those suburban hunters with too little experience who will shoot at anything that moves. Nearly every hunter I meet around here in Wyoming has been hunting since they were old enough to pick up a .22. I do think gun ownership can help keep crime down. I live in a city of about 60000, but we do have our share of crime. It's not the same thing as a big city, but legal gun ownership definitely acts as a determent against crime. You would have to be nuts to go breaking into somebody's house around here. But most gun owners I know aren't really to worried about personal defense. They own guns to hunt, have some fun at the shooting range, or just like to collect. I think the average gun owner has become very stereotyped by the media into something they are not.

Now MS is touting 20 sec cold boot times. It would sound impressive, if it wasn't just a form of hibernation that closes all non-essential programs and then writes a limited system image to a swap file/partition. Honestly, that isn't anything to be bragging about. My system resumes from true hibernation faster than that, and that's usually with a browser, terminal, music player, etc, open. Actually, my system almost does a true cold boot just as fast (22 sec). That's from hitting the on button, sitting thru approx 7sec of my BIOS post --> very responsive desktop. And that's with loading all 400MB of my browsers catch/profile, 27MB of DNS cache, + 500MB of very aggressive system/app cache all into RAM. It makes for an insanely responsive system. Most people swear I'm using a solid state drive. No, just a standard 5400rpm HDD. Of course, the time I will save will never be greater than or equal to the time I spent customizing my system. Custom and highly minimalized kernels don't compile themselves. But anyways, reports say Win8 beta runs faster Win7 does, on the very same computer. So that sounds promising!

The latest leaked build also seems to use a new filesystem, something codenamed: Protogon. Perhaps, it's an updated form of WinFS, the fs that was originally slated for Vista. Apparently, it is content aware, a bit like XFS, and HDD placement is sorted and based on file type, keeping similar files close together. MS hasn't released any info, so all this is pretty much speculation at this point. As far as the Windows Registry goes, it's now very similar to the way Linux configuration files work. The system registry is equivalent to the /etc folder (owned by root:root, everybody can read, only root can write). The user registry is similar to the hidden /home/user/.* folders in Linux (owned by user:user). There are far more differences than similarities though. MS just needs to learn the value of KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). That would help them quite a bit.

I just finished with the Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay. Addicting series! Just started Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton and Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose.