I finally decided to try out linux on the laptop again, a project that was once a daunting task due to the wireless networking chip HP decided to use in this box. I was pleasantly surprised when i booted the Sabayon linux live disc in and on boot it found my network card and video card and had everything setup waiting for a key to access the network. Pretty smooth, and I did like the beryl features too, so I went ahead and installed it to the laptop, nuking the windows install I had labored so long to make almost perfect.

Installing sabayon was easy and I was actually able to install it on the laptop while I was driving home… as once you enter some key information, it does its thing until you’re ready to reboot. By the time I had picked the girls up from day care and gotten them all inside the house, the system was ready to reboot.

The machine boots about as fast as it does in windows, which is ok, I don’t need speed on boot (as I very rarely turn the system off) and the default WM is KDE with beryl. Which is ok too, I guess. I’ve always been somewhat of a Gnome fan, however, the recent switch of slackware going KDE only and the more recent stuff with Linus and the Gnome team left me with questions. I’ve found, in the week that I’ve been using it, its very similar to Windows in the way it does things and handles menus, and the new kicker is cool too.

Sabayon is not a distribution for those who like to go minimal. It is a Gentoo Stage 3 install on Steroids, and it comes with several versions of software that do the same thing (something like 6 videos players?!?!?!) however, if you have a beefy system and want something that looks classy, then its a good fit. I have had some problems with some of the software not playing nicely, firefox for one, which was stable as anything on the windows install has crashed on me several times when it comes up against embedded media that it can’t handle (I admit, this might not be a fault of Sabayon so much as firefox) and the lack of a really decent MS Exchange friendly mail client (yea, there’s evolution, but come on…..) has led me to throw together a windows xp box to use on my desktop for email (the company uses exchange…) and browsing trouble sites…

Over all, the distro is good, and probably stable enough for the average user, the polish is there, I would say that sabayon just needs to work on the stuff under the hood for the next major release. 3.3 is due out some time with in the next month or so. Below is a video of my desktop in action…. it didn’t come out as good as I wanted, but I think its not bad for a first time….

Linuxtracker.org is pleased to announce the availability of x86 64-lazydragon-linux-v2 on the linuxtracker bittorrent network. For faster downloads, more accurate statistics and to see all of the available torrents, please visit http://linuxtracker.org. This is the first release of the new LazyDragon-V2 base system for AMD64 CPU’s .

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Linuxtracker.org is pleased to announce the availability of freevo 1.7.0 on the linuxtracker bittorrent network. For faster downloads, more accurate statistics and to see all of the available torrents, please visit http://linuxtracker.org. Freevo is a Linux application that turns a PC with a TV capture card and/or TV-out into a standalone MMBox.

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Linuxtracker.org is pleased to announce the availability of GParted Live CD 0.3.3-7 on the linuxtracker bittorrent network. For faster downloads, more accurate statistics and to see all of the available torrents, please visit http://linuxtracker.org. Based on Gentoo Catalyst, it is now running Fluxbox.

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So, those few who visit the site might have realized that it was down for most of last week (well, since the 18th anyway…) this was due in part to my registrar (RegisterFly) having an issue with their CEO embezzling and taking money from the company then when he was fired for it, he locked the entire support staff out of their own servers. Cool huh? Well, long story short, ICANN has interviened, Enom has been kind enough to give me back control over the domains that I own that they still have in their power (about half…) and I am seriously considering moving all my domains unless registerfly straightens up and flies right.

On another note, I have managed to install Sabayon Linux 3.26 on the lappy and I must say, I’m impressed, screenshots as well as a vidcap of the beryl WM inaction will be posted shortly.

Yo. Its good to be back.

Linuxtracker.org is pleased to announce the availability of Vector Linux 5.8 SOHO Beta1 on the linuxtracker bittorrent network. For faster downloads, more accurate statistics and to see all of the available torrents, please visit http://linuxtracker.org. Built on the rock solid base of VL 5.8 standard, the latest SOHO includes a custom 2.6.20kernel

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Sometimes the truth hurts.

This commercial is the best open source propaganda ever. EVER.

Linuxtracker.org is pleased to announce the availability of SimplyMEPIS32 6.5 Beta 5.1 LiveCD on the linuxtracker bittorrent network. For faster downloads, more accurate statistics and to see all of the available torrents, please visit http://linuxtracker.org. Xorg 7.1 and New Drivers Make SimplyMEPIS Beta 5 3D Ready

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So in the wake of obtaining a Nokia e62 and an iPaq mobile PC, I decided it was finally time to learn how to rip dvd’s in to something I could take with me… and low and behold, LifeHacker came to the rescue again. However, I’ve made a couple of changes from their article (which was an awesome starting point).

As in the LH article, I too decided to use: DVD Decrypter to “decrypt” or rip the actual video and sound files from the dvd. However, unlike LH, I use pocketdivxencoder to encode the vob files in to avi’s that can be played on my laptop, phone or the pocket pc.

Thats right, now you can be that awesome (yet geeky) guy who can get out of any situation. Well, at least you can have tissues where ever you go…

LifeHacker one of my favorite sites online, has a post today about making your own tissue dispenser out of a togo cup. Its a pretty cool article and a pretty good tip. You can leave it in your car’s cup holders and always have a tissue.

What are some things you’ve made on your own out of stuff you have laying around?

So I’ve been a member of more than a few forums and I’ve run several not so successful forums as well… and I have to say.. this top ten list of how to run a successful forum is one of the best guides around there… for instance…

9. Controversy is good.

There’s nothing like a good argument to inspire interest among members and to attract attention (and even links) from people with similar interests.

8. Controversy is bad.

As much as people enjoy a good fight, they hate a bad one even more. If you want to drive people away, let an argument fester.

I’ll let you read for yourself what Number 1 is.

A lack of physical memory can severely hamper Linux performance. In this article, learn how to accurately measure the amount of memory your Linux system uses. You also get practical advice on reducing your memory requirements using an Ubuntu system as an example.

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Ok, so as I alluded to the other day, I have a new phone. The nokia 62 and so far I love it. The only down side is that unlike its European brother the e61, it does not have built in wifi (I have however, come up with a fix for that…). The e62 does everything I need it to. It syncs with my exchange server for flawless email, contact and calendar syncing, it has some awesome programs and its developer base is fairly good. I’ve found a free version of tetris to play on it and soon I’ll have zingles, a sudoku game to keep me occupied as well. I have oggplayer so I can play my mp3’s and my ogg’s and some other stuff. But the thing I like the most is the fact that someone ported putty over to it so I have ssh access to my linux boxes. HOW COOL IS THAT??

Plus the fact that nokia includes some cool software on it… I did have to “hack” it to remove the default cingular firmware, but once that was done everything else has been a snap!

Net neutrality is something that will affect every single american. There’s a movement out there to regulate the internet and to give that power to a few larger players in the telcom industry. Now, all of us can help the fight by going to <a href=”http://savetheinternet.org” target=_new>Save the internet</a> and signing the petition as well as writing our congressmen and senators in this battle. If you want more information, check out the site, or listen to Jon Stewart and John Hodgman explain:

[youtube DeKRxQxVCT0 Net Neutrality]

Happy Birthday to Us!! Two years ago today we uploaded our first torrent (slax) to the site and we haven’t stopped since. In case you were wondering, we’re off to a good start this year, in January alone we had over 109,000 unique visitors to the site. That is absolutely AMAZING!! We want to thank everyone who contributes to the site…

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