03.15.2006

(off-site links open in new windows)

Don says:

Hooweee!   Wow, sonamagun, I am some impressed with Kubuntu Linux!   If you haven't been keeping up with this particular adventure, Here's what happened:   Lisa and I acquired a used 1.7 GHz computer for a price we could afford (free) so we downloaded the ISO file of Kubuntu Linux (also free) to my Win2K computer, burned a CD and used the CD to install Kubuntu on the new-to-us computer.

We didn't have room on our desk for another monitor, keyboard, and mouse so we bought a fancy gadget called a "KVM switch" that lets us use the same monitor, mouse, and keyboard for both my Win2K machine and the Linux.

Less than an hour later we had Linux running and had started ascending the learning curve which brings me back to where I started...

Wow!

Let me tell you, Linux is awesome.

Yes, it's another computer Operating System and I'm a long way from being able to look "under the hood" of this hot-rod but I was checking email and surfing the web within three days and right now, three weeks later, I'm writing this web page on our Linux box.   I may have to figure out how to save it to a floppy disk to transfer it to my Windows computer so I can upload it to the website but I'll sort that out later.   For now, I'm thrilled to be able to do anything at all on this Linux box and very surprised that it hasn't been the nightmare I imagined. *grin*

Yes, some things have been very challenging but each time I had a problem I was quickly able to find an answer and that is both very cool and, in my experience, very unlike Windows.


I got an enormous email the other day, chock full of allegedly humorous photos, several of which have made the rounds in past enormous emails *sigh*; oh well, there was one image I really liked.   The image needed some editing to make it useful but I think it represents the male of our species well enough that any woman can readily see the humor in this image. Have a look:

The little guy is thinking "'Yes I can" and on the way home from the hospital, a few days from now, he'll tell his parents "I thought I could".   Yeah, that's my boy.   His mom will be very angry but his dad will be remembering "when", trying to keep a straight face, and pretending to be angry.   It's a guy thing.

Lisa says:

It's possible this personal news page may turn into a bit of a rant.  In response to Microsoft advertising that was sent via my Hotmail email account, even though I had specifically opted not to recieve ads, I sent Hotmail this feedback after canceling my Hotmail account.

I have had a Hotmail account since I began to use computers and was relatively satisfied with it, however its current policies of advertising for huge corporations like Microsoft is inconsistent with my principles.  It obviously has become a part of the "good old boys" network of monopolistic giants that have attempted to gain control of the Internet for commercial purposes.  Fortunately this giant has had its feet cut out from under it by the Open Source movement and mind-set.  While it bleeds out from the ankles, the rest of us are moving on.
Good luck.

Don and I are very excited by Linux operating systems and the Open Source movement in general.  Linux is quite different from Windows but there are a few versions that are close enough to ease the transition.  I'm trying to tackle two learning curves at once, beginner Linux and Inkscape, a free, powerful graphics program that uses Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG).  Hopefully we'll learn how to insert SVG files into web pages but for now just reading the documentation and playing with it will have to suffice.  My brain is very tired but happy.

Our self-appointed job as caretakers for Don's mom may be moving into a new phase where she needs more care than she has in the past, so we may not be able to work together on every job we take. There's a phrase Don uses a lot, usually it turns out to be true.

Life is change.

Change is good.

Here is a picture I took this past New Year's of Don, his daughter, his mother and grandson. I love it.

Four generations

In an email exchange with a web friend, Don happened to mention I have an ugly dog. CeeCee is part Chow, Lab and Rottweiler and I think she is very cute. I encourage all our readers to render their opinions via our feedback form.  Here is the soon-to-be-world famous CeeCee Marie Miller.

Our dog CeeCee

Have you ever wondered what RSS feeds are?  Well, I have and they just sounded intimidating, not something I was up for just yet.   Well, curiousity won out.  We've both installed Firefox and a little Firefox extension called Sage which allows us to read RSS feeds in the Firefox browser.  I had a little trouble trying to figure it out at first but once I found this page I was reading RSS feeds in a few minutes.  It's already loaded with a few feeds including BBC News/World Edition.  It's like having a world newspaper, free, sitting right in front of you.  Very cool, and very non-intimidating.  There are other RSS readers but we liked this one because it was easy and right in our price range *grin*.