Author: Gary

I hope you like the way the site looks. Movable Type uses style sheets which are a real bitch to modify. I used one of their many premade style sheets and plugged it in. It’s nothing unique, but is an upgrade.

Items:

• I’ve started extemp practice already. Got a website up and running for the team. I think we are going to rock this year.
• I’m currently reading Nanocosm: Nanotechnology and the Big Changes Coming from the Inconceivably Small and just finished Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann & the Greatest Unsolved Problem. I wrote a big post on my thoughts on higher mathematics and math education, but lost it. I don’t feel like rewriting it all now.
• Hopefully, in the next few months we’ll have some big news at PVP. I’m being vague on purpose, but stay tuned.
• Something you probably haven’t heard about, but the FCC is considering adopting BPL (Broadband over power lines) in such a way that it would totally screw most HF radio bands. An excellent summary of what’s happening is here. BPL is a fine idea, but the way they want to implement will cause tons of headaches. (Disclosure: I have an amature radio license; KC0PED)
• Updated the DVD list. Added Adaptation, Amadeus: Directors Cut, and Old School.

That is all. Continue as you were.

Here are photos from when I went to Game 5 of the 2000 World Series at Shea Stadium where the Yankees won the series. I’m still playing with the photo capabilities of this, so I will be monkeying around with it a bit. I have a ton of photos to upload. Once I figure this out, I’ll upload a ton more.

Ok. Since I have a ton of computers that I’m trying to sell, I think a good segway into the world of Linux might be to take one of those machines and turn it into a linux box. So that’s what I’m going to do. I’ll put it upstairs with my main computer and get pelted by radiation from three sides.

Now, what distribution to run? Malhavoc suggests Xandros. I have a machine running Red Hat in my basement, but the machine itself is pretty flakey, so I don’t really count it.

Thanks to the helpful comments below, I’m now using decent, free calendaring software for Mozilla. With the installation of the Mozilla Google bar, I’m pretty much free of any Microsoft software, other than the OS itself. This wasn’t something I really set out to do. I have no personal or philosophical beef with MS. It’s just that they have made it very difficult and expensive to manage their office software. Its just not worth it. I don’t want to dick around with activation, CD keys, and installing previous versions just to install the version I want. Abiword, Open Office, and Mozilla are easy to install and, more importantly, I can just download it whenever I need it. MS probably doesn’t have to worry about Linux taking over the home just yet, but they should start getting worried about Office. Changing an OS is a big deal. Changing an application is easy.

Office is the big cash cow for MS and there is no way they will be able to sustain the margins they have been getting on it. There is nothing that a new version of Office has to offer. We’ve come about as far as we are going to with Word Processing. 99% of the people only use a few features in any of the Office applications.

Any future business I start will NOT use any MS Office applications. There is no need for it. Its expensive and the upgrade cycle is just insane. (I’m writing this update on Mozilla btw)

Having come this far with open source software, I suppose the next question is, why not go all the way and use Linux?

1. I don’t find the file structure of Linux very intuitive. Perhaps I should say, it ‘s different enough from Windows that I didn’t get it in the very few times I’ve tried to install software on Linux.
2. World Watch doesn’t run on Linux. (There might be a decent equivalent out there, but I’m unaware of it)
3. No MSN Messenger, no AIM, no Yahoo Messenger. I currently use Trillian to organize all my IM clients.
4. Games, however, this isn’t as big of a deal as it used to be.
5. Weatherbug. I like having the current weather on my toolbar. Again, there might be a Linux equivalent of this, but I’m unaware of it.
6. Networking. I get running a LAN on Windows, but I haven’t the foggiest on how to do it with Linux. One thing I could do is move my MP3 server to Linux. That might be the first actual working thing I try Linux with.

While I’m not ready to make the Linux leap yet, I’m to the point where I can make a finite list of things I’d need to switch. All the problems with Office also apply to XP, but to a lesser extent.

Since I last posted, I have written three times, none of which ever made it to the website. All three of them suffered from either an accidental closure of the browser window or a machine reboot. The topics of posts were: The Riemann Hypothesis and higher level mathematics, extemporaneous speech, and the middle aged housewives at my gym.

Just a quick update…

First, congrats to Pete and Meg on thier nuptials.

Second, was I right or was I right about Barry Bonds and the MVP.