Running with a Penguin
I’ve officially made the switch away from Windows today. The R52 Thinkpad I use as my primary computer is now running Ubuntu. I haven’t the heart to compile Gentoo on it yet… but I hear it’s a smidge faster and lot lighter.
So far so good – I’ve got wired and wireless networking up and running. 181 updates completed using Synaptic package manager, and now I’m going to tackle video drivers.
I will be forced to run a virtual machine with Windows XP for work. There are a few applications I have to run locally to do my job… but I’m going to force myself to stay in the linux environment as much as I can so I get used to it. I’m already looking forward to it.
Cash Parking
I’ve been sitting on a few domains with some ideas rolling around in my head… but no time to actually bring them to fruition. After staring at a blank html page for too long – I decided to park them with GoDaddy’s Cash Parking service. Initially I opted for two of my domains, and only paying for the service month to month.
GoDaddy charges $4/month to provide the service and takes 40% of the ad revenue. It sounds like a rip – but it’s the lesser of many other services, and I don’t have to hand over my domain. For another $3, I can keep 80% of the profit. A few quick calculations, and I’m better off starting small.
So with some luck, my domains will generate enough cash to pay for themselves… I don’t want to let them expire and some squatter jump on them. I think they have potential – but I just haven’t time to develop them.
So over the next few weeks and months I’ll share what I end up making with this deal, stay tuned.
Macrovision DRM speach – translated.
At Macrovision we are willing to lead this industry effort.
Translation: If we could get everything under our control we could make a lot of money.
See the rest, here.
There is no Mafiaa
Some sites speak for themselves… I think I may make “Mafiaa” a category, they sure like to churn up the water.
Think’ing
It’s rare I’m not at home without being somewhere close to an internet connection. Typically I’m working on the couch with my trusty IBM R52 on my lap.
A friend of mine came over and wanted to check his mail and needed a network connection. His Dell was easily configured for my wireless and he was online. But after a few moments he took out a mouse and plugged it into his laptop and started mousing on the arm of the chair.
Is the track pad broke? Nah – I just hate dragging my fingers around…
So I showed him the UltraNav setup I have on my ThinkPad (graciously provided by my employer) and he was hooked. It’s really hard to describe, but even harder to use a laptop without one.
I don’t think there have been many hardware breakthroughs in the last decade that I would consider on par with the effect the UltraNav has brought. Sure chips have gotten faster, batteries more powerful, and pixels smaller and more populace – but to reinvent the human interface of a portable computer so successfully, well… it’s up on the top of my list.
