Nothing to say

I finally placed an order for a DSLR a couple days ago.  I’m getting the Nikon D40 kit from B&H with the 18-55mm lens and 1GB of Lexar (the description said “twin pack”, or something, so I assume it’s two 512MB cards.)  I also ordered the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 autofocus lens (made in the USA!)  Fianlly, I got a 52mm glass filter to protect the glass on the lenses.  I should have ordered two (one for each lens), but had already spent enough.  It should be arriving at Mom’s house today.  We fly out tonight, and will be arriving there late, late tonight.  Well, actually, like 3 or 4 am.

According to Digital Photography School, Digital Photo Magazine rated the 50mm f/1.8 as the best 50mm lens for portraits.  My current camera will go to f/2.8, but there’s no way to force it to that wide aperture.  So I’m really excited to play with such a fast lens.  Without going into too much detail, the f/ signifies the aperture, or how wide the hole is that light comes through.  Smaller number = wider hole.  Wider hole = more light.  That means that this lens will be better in low-light conditions, like at my sister’s rehearsal dinner and reception this weekend.

Still, the camera is way more complicated than I’m used to, so I’m going to keep my little Panasonic handy…

Ubuntu has a strict policy of including only free software in their distributions. Having downloaded and installed Ubuntu, nothing that wasn’t free was loaded. Things are easy to correct oneself, even to a complete novice, but the decision must be made by the user.

When I first installed the distro, as I mentioned, there was no wireless. A little bubble alert popped up to tell me that some hardware wasn’t fully supported. It told me that the driver is proprietary, and thus cannot be supported. Do you want to use it? Yes. Wireless networks found. Neat.

Firefox is the web browser they choose in Ubuntu. It’s free, so it’s installed. Flash player is proprietary, so it’s not. The first time you go to a page (homestarrunner, youtube, whatever) that has a flash animation on it, there’s an alert. Do you want to install it? Yes. It’s installed. The animation plays. Neat.

The coolest thing about Firefox is that it’s for Linux and Windows and Mac and everything.

Firefox also has something called Extensions. They’re great. Firefox extensions work in Firefox, regardless of what operating system you’re using. If you have Firefox installed, you can load extensions on it. Two of the most popular are called AdBlock and NoScript. AdBlock literally blocks ads. It tells your computer to not go to certain sites (you can create the list yourself, or subscribe to an existing list). If you choose to block the sites that host ads, you don’t see those ads. It’s super simple. NoScript blocks sites from running Javascript and other scripts. A LOT of sites won’t work with javascript blocked. You’d be surprised how many. But they also can’t install malicious software on your computer if they’re blocked. Where AdBlock allows everything by default (then you choose to block what you want), NoScript takes the opposite approach. It blocks EVERYTHING, and then you tell it what to allow (this creates what is called a ‘whitelist’) and it allows it.

Apparently, there are reports of Firefox in Ubuntu crashing like a teenager in a bumper car. That is to say frequently. Before visiting ANY sites, I installed the two aforementioned extensions in Firefox, and I haven’t had a SINGLE crash. Not one.

Conclusion: Install NoScript and AdBlock, subscribe to the adblock list for your region, and have fun.

Yesterday, I installed Ubuntu 7.04 on my laptop, and nearly everything was working perfectly. That night, I was searching for a solution to the one little problem that didn’t work itself out. I found that solution in this thread: HOWTO: TI SD Card Reader

I ran the fix, rebooted the system, and tested both a 128MB and a 2GB card. Everything works perfectly.

I will be keeping up with this forum and learning how to transition from many years of Windows usage to a happy life of Linux. That process will be sporadically documented here under the Linux tag. If you find this uninteresting, feel free to skip any entries with that tag. :)

Next up, I would like to learn some more keyboard shortcuts, get acclimated to managing my images and music, and of course backing up my DVDs. For now though, it’s back to work.

I installed Ubuntu on the laptop today. Wireless drivers installed automatically. The trackpad works perfectly, including gestures (scroll on the right margin, 3finger tap = right-click). It is gorgeous and awesome. It has already updated a few things. I have installed all my Firefox extensions. The whole thing went flawlessly. I am thrilled.

I am eager to figure out a few things, and gain more productivity, but for web-based activities, I’m already back to normal speed. The trackpad is more sensitive by default. I could adjust it, but it gets me across the screen faster without being TOO sensitive (now that I’m acclimated). I may figure out something fun to alias the windows key to (maybe open Firefox of the terminal). I have a lot to learn about terminal commands, and other things I can do. I will learn more keyboard shortcuts and the like. Oh, and I need to figure out how to backup my DVDs here. Should I run Wine (a windows emulator) and then run my 2 old backup programs, or should I find something new? I’ve some more reading to do, and will probably test a few things out before I’m happy. I also need to get used to the office software, since I won’t be using Microsoft Office on this. Will I be happy with OpenOffice, or Google Docs and Spreadsheets? We’ll see. Maybe I’ll type my school papers wherever, and then format them for printing in Word on a PC.

I’m just happy to finally be rid of Windows on this machine. Huzzah!