All posts by keith

system76 computer

The new laptop

So I’ve had the new laptop for 2 weeks now, and I ‘m loving it.
Here’s some pics of the unveiling:
Packaging
The box it came in–it was packaged nice and safe.
All the stuff that came with the laptop
All the stuff that came in the box. Powercord, etc. It included a CD for the drivers for the laptop–handy if you want to put Windows on it, but useless otherwise.
side view
Side view showing the dvd-rw/cd-rw.
The lid
The lid–note the lack of system 76 logo. I was kinda disappointed by that, because I wante people to know where I got this monster of a laptop. I emailed S76 support, and they are printing up lables of their logo, and will send me one when that’s done.
keyboard
Here’s the keyboard. Very nice, and responsive. The extra buttons work, unless you screw them up, like I did. On the top, one launches browser, one launches email, one launches totem, one launches rhythmbox, and one mutes the sound. Since I can’t stand totem, or rhythmbox, and took both them off my computer, those ones don’t work anymore, and, I’d like to see something that launches the default players instead. (I’ve found out that you can actually do this yourself, using gconf, and may be that S76’s way is fine for most users.) On the left side there’s two buttons, one of which supposedly charges your battery faster, and the other lets you charge usb connected things (like personal music players) while the lpatop is powered down–now that’s a cool feature.

This is a widescreen laptop, and I’ still getting used to that, it’s actually pretty sweet. The problem with that is that the ubuntu live CD needs some extra config to get it to display a gui, since the screen dimensions aren’t picked up in xorg.conf (because the live CD doesn’t have the drivers for the chip on the Pangolin). It’s a pain, but not a real big one.

Other than the aforementioned bugs my other complaints are that they use an LVM file system with one partition (I like to partition my drive so that the /home partition is separate from the root partition, so that it’s easier/safer to reinstall/upgrade), the reason for that is to make suspend/hibernate work, but it does make repartitioning a bitch.
Also the card reader doesn’t work, but I have it from good authority that it will real soon.

Health

Lobes of Steel

Exercise helps regenerate neurons in the brain
You wanna be “better, stronger, faster”, smarter? Forget bionics–exercise for an hour a day and all that will happen for you, according to new studies.
According to the article neurogenesis is also aided by moderate alcohol consumption, marijuana, socializing, a lot fat-low suger diet; and chocolate (as well as blueberries, grapes, and black tea) helps aid in improving spacial memory.
Stress (as well as high fat, and sugar diet) is a big factor in deterioration of the ability to produce new neurons.

books, SF

Locus Online Features: Yesterday’s Tomorrows: Robert A. Heinlein

Locus Online Features: Yesterday’s Tomorrows: Robert A. Heinlein
An interesting review of several of Heinlein’s books, and his influence on the SF genre.

Heinlein’s stories are arguments about what shape the new Americas might take and about the kinds of virtues that the men creating those new Americas should have: independence, determination, scientific knowledge, distrust of dogma. And just as American exceptionalism argues that the USA has a special place in the community of nations because of its people’s relationship to history, so you can see Heinlein arguing in this quotation for a kind of human exceptionalism. Unlike some of the alien species encountered in “Methuselah’s Children”, we humans shall not cease from exploration. We’ll want, like Stevenson, to be buried under alien skies.

It’s fair to say that the stories in The Past Through Tomorrow showcase Heinlein’s strengths and weaknesses in ways that were not to change much throughout his career. He was always a dialogue-driven writer, for instance, and one can see that influencing a contemporary writer like Connie Willis. He was not much given to depicting reflection divorced from action or action not resulting in progress. So he doesn’t show much of characters’ inner lives. (He would have said, I guess, that nothing matters about a character except what they say and do.) You feel that his stories are always on the side of the future, that whoever lives or dies in them, the future he wants to talk about will win. So he can feel like a bully if you don’t accept the terms of the debate he knows he’s going to win. And — the flip side of bullying — he can also be sentimental, as for instance he is in “Requiem”. He tells you that you’re supposed to feel sad on being told about certain events; and if you don’t, you’ve failed to read the story properly. But that trait and others are far less pronounced here than they would be later. I don’t think there’s any book more central to the creation of genre SF than The Past Through Tomorrow, and I’m simply astonished that it now seems to be out of print in the UK and the US.

I disagree with the author about The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (he thinks that it’s bogged down by aphorisms, and an unrealistic view of how people act, and it’s politics) I think the politics are central to the plot, and that while, yes, the aphorisms get a little much, they help move the story at a faster pace. As for the views on human nature, I feel they are quite appropriate, and seeing that Heinlein based the structure of the story on penal colonies (like Australia) that they are plausible. (But, then, maybe I have a less cynical worldview than the author of the article–which is hard to believe 😀 )
I also disagree that the later books, lke The Cat Who Walked Through Walls, and, the Number of the Beast, where “savage solipsisms”. Solipsistic, yes. Savage, no. I believe the Heinlein was having fun and tying up the loose ends of his future history.This period was, arguably, not his best (although I’d put Friday, and Number of the Beast up against any of his earlier books, and any other SF author’s books), and that he was past his prime as a writer, but I say he did pretty well considering age, and brain surgery, wouldn’t you?

Art

Jasper Johns: Gray

A new show of Johns’ work opens up next month in Chicago. It focuses on the importance of gray in his work, and includes 141 works from 1955 to the present.
There’s a nice article about it here.
From the article:

“I think viewers of this exhibition will be able to experience the great potential and meaning that gray has for Jasper Johns,” said James Rondeau, Frances and Thomas Dittmer Chair of Contemporary Art at the Art Institute of Chicago and co-curator of the exhibition. “Gray is much more than a colour to him. It is an analytical tool, a measure of distance and separation, and a means of getting to the heart of his practice as an artist. Through such a close exploration of a subtle and restricted range, Johns is able to make abundant and commodious discoveries….”

Art

My Show…

…starts tomorrow. I’ll be in Ellsworth hanging it a good part of the day, I’m sure. i’ve been working all week getting paintings and collages ready to hang, and I’m about ready. It’s at the Hancock County Higher Education Center; come visit if you get a chance. The show runs from August 13-Sep 21, 2007.

system76 computer

Update on the new laptop

Well…
Hey, it shipped today.
It was supposed to ship out 5 days after being sent to manufacturing, but due to a surge in orders, it got delayed, and System 76 was nice enough to upgrade shipping to 2nd day express. Turns out that the big reason for the delay was that the CPU I ordered was out of stock from Intel, (this via email yesterday), so they upgraded my CPU, so that they could ship it out today. Wow,! I’d call that great service.
System specs:

Display: 15.4″ Widescreen WXGA (1280X800)
Graphics: Intel GMA X3100
Audio Output: Realtek ALC 268
Networking: 10/100/1000 (LAN), WiFi
Wireless: 802.11 abg
Expansion: Express Card
Ports: VGA, 4x USB 2.0, MIC-In, Headphone Out, FireWire 1394, S-Video
Battery: 6 Cell Lithium Ion
Battery Life: 3.5 hours
Dimensions: 14.20″ x 10.43″ x 1.74″ (WxDxH)
Weight: 5.9 lbs.
Operating System Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Linux
Processor: Core 2 Duo T7100 1.8 GHz 800 MHz FSB 2 MB L2
Memory: 1 GB – 2 x 512 MB DDR2 667 MHZ
Hard Drive: 80 GB 5400 RPM SATA
Optical Drive: CD-RW / DVD-RW

This baby ought to scream right along compared to my old laptop.

books

More book

voices for the cure
Sent out for this book today from Lulu.com. It’s a benefit for Diabetes research, and looks like a good read, with 10 excellent authors contributing stories. (Including Cory Doctorow, Mike Resnick, Murr Lafferty, and Robert J Sawyer.)

Some of the greatest voices in speculative fiction join forces in this one-of-a-kind anthology to benefit the American Diabetes Association. Join Robert J. Sawyer, Mike Resnick, Cory Doctorow, and others as a cop-for-hire solves a murder aboard a space station…a Chicano science fiction writer takes mind-blowing (literally!) ride through the Singularity…a third-rate superhero with useless powers finds a place to belong…an antique collector learns that one alien’s junk is mankind’s treasure…a geologist discovers that pretending to be a god isn’t all it’s cracked up to be…a journalist learns how to fend off zombies using Linux and a dead badger… All this and more await you in… Voices for the Cure: A Speculative Fiction Anthology to Benefit the American Diabetes Association

At $9.00 for 100 pages of good fiction, it’s well worth the price.
The preview lets you read about half of Robert J Sawyer’s story, which is a neat detective story set on a space habitat, and you can read Cory Doctorow’s story here
I’ve been wanting to check out the quality of Lulu’s books, and this is the perfect opportunity.