Turning On The Penguin

It's offical. As of midnight today (about an hour and a half ago) I will not use Windows in my house for the next month. All Linux, all the time.

I figured if I could make the switch from Windows to Mac, why not Windows to Linux? Most everything I want is available naitvely on Linux and everything else I could just emulate under Wine (which, in that popular GNU naming way, stands for Wine Is Not an Emulator. Get it?), Evolution to replace Outlook. I already ditched IE for Mozilla months ago.

I just have to pick up a couple good Linux books first. I've already got the Red Hat Bible but it's for Red Hat 7. I've got version 8 installed.

I just recently got so fed up with Microsoft and all there security patches. I mean when you have an operating system and you release three to five 'security patches' every month, what does that tell me?

Bad programing + Bad code = angry users.

RSS Feeds Are Cool!

Well, I've finally got around to messing around with RSS feeds. It's pretty fuckin' rad. It enables the user to agrogate a bunch of news and other weblog feeds into one single program.

RSS stands for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication, depending on who you ask. Either way it's a way an XML standard for syndicating content over the web. So anyone can use a use program other than a web browser to get news and information.

There are couple of program that you can use to read RSS feeds NetNewsWire Lite on OS X and NewsDesk on Windows.

I decided to provide two different RSS feeds for people with and with out broadband. Even though the full articles aren't huge, there are people who have hundreds of feeds to download.

They are:

• The last 7 full posts: http://manshorts.net/index.xml
  
• Headlines and Excerpts: http://manshorts.net/excerpts.xml

Just enter in the URL into your favorite and your good to go. The excerpts are much smallers in size, therefore it's quicker to download.

RSS Feeds Are Cool!

Well, I've finally got around to messing around with RSS feeds. It's pretty fuckin' rad. It enables the user to agrogate a bunch of news and other weblog feeds into one single program.

RSS stands for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication, depending on who you ask. Either way it's a way an XML standard for syndicating content over the web. So anyone can use a use program other than a web browser to get news and information.

There are couple of program that you can use to read RSS feeds NetNewsWire Lite on OS X and NewsDesk on Windows.

I decided to provide two different RSS feeds for people with and with out broadband. Even though the full articles aren't huge, there are people who have hundreds of feeds to download.

They are:

• The last 7 full posts: http://manshorts.net/index.xml

• Headlines and Excerpts: http://manshorts.net/excerpts.xml

Just enter in the URL into your favorite and your good to go. The excerpts are much smallers in size, therefore it's quicker to download.

Faux-Vinyl

Well, I'm sitting on my mom's couch, watching a South Park re-run. Surfing the web and listening to a SomaFM radio stream at 24kbps!

Yeah, that's right. I'm listening to a muddy, distorted feed. I could be listening to a decent almost cd-like 112kbps stream, but I choose not. I love the way it sounds. It sorta reminds me of a worn out vinyl, something thats been played over and over. You can tell where it's been played the most, the part of the album that made that connection with the listener that made their brain and ears go "It's all worth it for this".

I only listen to internet radio these days. I've given up completely on the non digital radio. It just makes me angry listening to it, the same god-awful songs over and over again. How many times can one radio station play the same damn song, over and over and over again. Who was it that said 'kill your radio'?

Which brings me to a quick note about MTV. The other night I mistakingly left it on, and I swear to god, they played the same four fuckin' video... ALL NIGHT!

Anyone tuning in to this great station would have a wide selection of, the new Linkin Park, 50 cent, the new Jay-Z song and that video where all those people are dancing in the basement and the old guy gets mad and kicks 'em out. That's all they played for SIX HOURS. SIX! Not two. Not three. SIX! From 1am to 7am that's all I heard (I was on the phone so I wasn't really into the television at the time).

The Woes of Beta Testing.

So I'm trying out the new beta version of Apple's new web browser, Safari. And so far, I'm undecided.

It's much quicker then my current browser, Chimera/Camino. And it has the 'brushed metal' look turned on by default, which some may or may not like.

I'm using the new v67 beta and it has tabbed browsing which is why I used Camino over Safari in the first place. Everything was fine until I got the urged to check my site, and BOOM! Everything was rendered horribly. It was like a a four-year old child tried to put together a jigsaw puzzle by just forcing pieces in with a hammer.

But, I'm sticking with Safari for now. Gotta show my support for Apple.

Faux-Vinyl

Well, I'm sitting on my mom's couch, watching a South Park re-run. Surfing the web and listening to a SomaFM radio stream at 24kbps!

Yeah, that's right. I'm listening to a muddy, distorted feed. I could be listening to a decent almost cd-like 112kbps stream, but I choose not. I love the way it sounds. It sorta reminds me of a worn out vinyl, something thats been played over and over. You can tell where it's been played the most, the part of the album that made that connection with the listener that made their brain and ears go "It's all worth it for this".

I only listen to internet radio these days. I've given up completely on the non digital radio. It just makes me angry listening to it, the same god-awful songs over and over again. How many times can one radio station play the same damn song, over and over and over again. Who was it that said 'kill your radio'?

Which brings me to a quick note about MTV. The other night I mistakingly left it on, and I swear to god, they played the same four fuckin' video... ALL NIGHT!

Anyone tuning in to this great station would have a wide selection of, the new Linkin Park, 50 cent, the new Jay-Z song and that video where all those people are dancing in the basement and the old guy gets mad and kicks 'em out. That's all they played for SIX HOURS. SIX! Not two. Not three. SIX! From 1am to 7am that's all I heard (I was on the phone so I wasn't really into the television at the time).

The Woes of Beta Testing.

So I'm trying out the new beta version of Apple's new web browser, Safari. And so far, I'm undecided.

It's much quicker then my current browser, Chimera/Camino. And it has the 'brushed metal' look turned on by default, which some may or may not like.

I'm using the new v67 beta and it has tabbed browsing which is why I used Camino over Safari in the first place. Everything was fine until I got the urged to check my site, and BOOM! Everything was rendered horribly. It was like a a four-year old child tried to put together a jigsaw puzzle by just forcing pieces in with a hammer.

But, I'm sticking with Safari for now. Gotta show my support for Apple.