June 2004 Archive

Welcome to the Archive for June 2004! What you will find here may be old. It may scare you. It may even scare me! More importantly, you might find links that no longer work, and *gasp* information that is no longer, or possibly never was, accurate in any way. Don't rely on this information to save your life!

June 2004 Archive

Friday, June 11, 2004

[Comments: 5] 10:39 PM - really-I'm-not

I sent this email to someone that contacted me today, thinking I wasn't answering him because I was avoiding him. I don't turn away people asking for help, which this person was, but you have to actually ask. ;)

Apparently he hadn't read my previous rant, but here's a slightly "friendlier" take on my IM answering habits:

I'm not avoiding you. I don't usually answer people until they tell me what they want. It's my way of "screening my calls" so I don't have to get involved in things I don't want to or are too busy to deal with. You hadn't said what you wanted, and I needed to reboot to install a new video card, so I figured you could wait until I got back to tell me what you wanted.

If you say "hi" or "Kevin!!" or "you there?" repeatedly, the chance I'll answer you is very low. It will require that I am doing absolutely nothing else. If you start with an adequate description of what you want to talk to me about, the first thing I'll do is read that and if I have time to respond, I will respond immediately.

I have to keep rules like this to weed out conversations that distract my attention from whatever it is I'm doing, because I don't usually want to "just chat" or deal with major catastrophes right away, especially when I'm occupied with other matters. Leaving me a detailed message means I'll either answer immediately, or respond later. However, if all you said was "hi" or my name there's no chance I will bother to ask you later what you wanted.

I see this as all very logical, and it reduces the amount of stress for me. Also, by eliminating the idea that I am going to respond all the time, I hope to force people to leave me a more detailed idea of what they want. Furthermore, an email is exactly the sort of thing you should send if you need to reach me and I'm not available on IM. I'll usually get back to you as soon as I have a chance to read it.

Wednesday, June 2, 2004

[Comments: 2] 11:12 PM - never-away-from-the-computer

My laptop arrived yesterday. I spent much of the day trying to get Gentoo Linux on the machine, and doing little else.

I succeeded, but I have issues with the ALPS TouchPad, Wireless, and PCMCIA. I understand these are known issues and hopefully workarounds and kernel fixes will make them more functional as time rolls on. The machine is completely usable, though.

I ended up keeping Windows XP on the box in a small corner of the hard drive, allowing for wireless and PCMCIA, should I need to use either of them. I will still prefer to boot Linux whenever possible.

I was surprised to find that in place of one PCMCIA slot, I have a SmartMedia (and something else) card reader, which is pretty cool. I think it reads the cards my digital camera uses as the "something else," but I just have the internal memory for that camera currently, so I'm not sure. It does read the SM cards for my parents' camera properly, though.

I'm still playing with the machine. I need to find a wireless connection to test the wireless support, and maybe dig up a bluetooth and IEEE1394 device or two to test those features as well.

It's a very nice looking machine, huge screen, and a higher resolution than my 19" CRT for my desktop. Crazy!

I'll post periodically if anything noteworthy happens.

By the way, the laptop was named Scooter. I decided I liked that better than Beaker or Rowlf. :)

Tuesday, June 1, 2004

[Comments: 0] 3:33 AM - round-the-world-in-5-to-7-days

My laptop is almost here! It shipped May 28th... from Shanghai, China. After a stop in customs in Achorage, AK, then a weekend sleep in Memphis, TN, it worked its way up north to Newark, NJ, then Jamaica, NY. Tomorrow or Wednesday it should get to my door! Woot!

In related news, I've been thinking that since I will now have three computers, it's time to come up with a scheme for naming them. I chose Muppets! Here's what I have:

Windows box: Kermit (the Frog)
Linux box: (The Great) Gonzo
Laptop: either Rowlf (the Dog) or Beaker
Old 90 MHz Laptop: Rizzo (the Rat)

As I add devices that need names to my inventory, I will draw from the large supply of Muppets to name them all.

Now please tell me which of Rowlf or Beaker I should name my laptop. :)