Computers and Lynn

Well, I'm back up and running on the desktop. And almost back to the full functionality I had before I started trying to get the newest gaim running.

What I've noticed so far is that the release of KDE I'm using is a tiny bit buggy. Nothing that crashes anything, but the display isn't being cleaned up correctly.

I've managed to get my track ball working again, too. sigh. There are three different utilities for dealing with the pointer device. Yast which only allows one to pick from a short list of devices, KDE control panel that allows many aspects of device behavior to be changed and SaX2 where one can actually affect things like turning the wheel on and off. Why, for user's sake isn't there ONE place to do all that?

The version of galeon that came with 9.1 seems buggy as hell. It crashed umpteen times before I managed to get a different one installed. Also, the new gaim I tried to install failed to work. And it is supposedly an rpm designed for Suse 9.1. Sigh. All that just to try and get the yahoo messenger to work so I could have ONE extra person on my buddy list. And I don't have much to say to her (except can I have my shirt back, please. :).

I've been having a great, great time in the last few days. Except for the computer, and that hasn't been a real killer either -- just annoying.

Love.

Icing on a mudpie

Over the years I've held many opinions about the fixing of our social system. I've talked about laws that should be repealed and others that should be enacted. I've discussed the various ways in which people abandon personal responsibility. I've also talked about the way those same people sometimes take on uninvited responsibility for others.

I've talked about a woman's right to choose and a man's right to sire or not sire. I've talked about the death penalty. I have talked about the meaning of life (none) and the sanctity of life (none).

These, though, are just my opinions. They have to truth about them. They are what I believe. I have, for a very long time now, said there is no truth.

There is, however, workability. It seems obvious to me that for any machine to work efficiently and reliably over time, the parts much fit together well. That is true of the social machine, too.

Most of our tools for maintaining the social machine aren't well suited to the job. We bring in jackhammers when we should be working with scalpels. What is workable?

It requires a major shift in how human beings look at themselves and others. It requires a much greater sense of what is real and what is simply shared illusion. If we want workability, we mustn't let our petty social paranoia rule.

And that takes training. Early on. And it is just exactly what our public and private elementary, junior high and high schools don't do. Rather than train our young to be more powerful than their fears, we make damn sure that we are completely run by them.

Dominator Model maintenance starts early. :(

Grabbing it

Okay, It's more like slowly sucking it through a soft, 10K mile garden hose. But I'm getting it nonetheless. Release V3.4 of KNOPPIX.

This is a complete Linux distribution based, I think, on the Debian releases. Why do I want this? Well, it will boot up on almost any PC computer and never touch the hard drive. That means one can run all sorts of tests on a PC even if the hard drive is dead.

And, it is possible to use a USB memory plugin to carry their home directory around with them and use any computer as if it were their own. This is cool.

Anyway, I am getting the newest iso image. Yay for this cool bit of Linux. Other distributions are creating similar CD images. It's a good trend, I think!

In other news, the European Union is getting to decide the fate of software patents in Europe. If the Union allows these things, computer users are in big trouble. For more information, click here.

Love.