Daniel Voyles

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Kubuntu, to be specific – Nepomuk and Strigi caused me a lot of headache. I have been using Kubuntu 8.10 since about 8/11. Generally I find it is safer to wait a month before jumping into updates, even with Linux.

I have loved the new KDE 4 interface after some adjusting, figuring out where things moved, and of course the obligatory customizing to my tastes. Unfortunately, things seemed to be moving very slowly compared to when I was using KDE 3.5. I attributed this to too many desktop effects since I only have an old Inspiron 8600 with an aged nVidia card.

With the effects cranked down the system was completely usable and great for my common net-centric activities like surfing, IM, etc. One night I was in class and goofing off. I had to crank up the effects and show them to my Mac and Win friends.

So, there I am tinkering and checking boxes to turn on flashy stuff, and my system slows to beyond unusable. At this point I am completely honked-off that I won’t be able to show-up my classmates because of some mystery problem that popped up between 3.5 and 4.

After a few minutes of cursing KDE in my mind, I decided to check what was sucking up so much CPU that it could drag my system to its knees. I opened Konsole and typed ‘top’. I could not believe my eyes. Right there at the top of my processes were Strigi and Nepomuk.

As soon as I went into System Settings and turned both of them off, my CPU usage dropped down to the normal 3-20% range. I haven’t bothered to do any research as to why, but with these enabled my system seems to peak out the processor.

With that rant out of the way, I highly suggest you take Kubuntu out for a spin if you haven’t. With this exception it has been an extremely sturdy and flashy system with only 1.5GB of RAM, a 16MB video card, and a 1.6Ghz mobile processor. I know the RAM is a bit high, but it ran fine with only 512MB – I just wanted to have breathing room.

I’m working on my tweet journals not posting. Twitter Tools is giving me fits, and I only have a little time each day to work with it and try to get things working properly.

Please stick with me for those of you who actually read, and I’ll get things up to snuff as quickly as I can.

Until then, you can always follow me at http://twitter.com/dirtvoyles .

See you in the funny pages.

Apparently the Home Shopping Network has altered their programming from their usual miscellany according to the Charter channel guide. I knew that imitation jewelry and overpriced junk could only last so long…

I guess times are tough all over in this economy.

Can you believe that in a little over a week the Jaycees will open for their 30 or 40-odd-th year of scaring locals? I can’t.

I can say that we have had great fun building the HoH this year like we always do. Sure, there are issues and an occasional disagreement, but overall it’s a great project that everyone has time participating in every year. We may put in more work these 3 months (yes, we start pretty early) than others do in a year. Hearing those screams and watching big men hit the floor make it all worth it.

This year the Jaycees went with the theme of ‘Blackthorn Asylum’. The idea is that these are the last tours before the asylum is torn down. A bubbly nurse welcomes everyone, then visitors tour through cells at their own risk.

It’s amazing and frightful to see what inmates can and will do when left to their own devices. With C.S. Blackthorn disappearing and the building falling to disarray the city has decided it would be better demolished – and all of the horrible memories with it.

Come out and take a tour yourself starting October 10th at 7:30. We will have WDML doing a live remote, and any other surprises we can dig up.

The House of Horror will be open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday starting the 10th, and the 29 – 31. All evenings will open at 7:30.

Just in case there are actually any people who listen to the podcasts I occasionally put up here (I know from the stats there are a few) – there won’t be any more posted.

The podcasting idea was something I had looked into deeply, toyed with, and helped Kevin a little bit with in his setup. To that end, I will leave the audio market to him alone.

I enjoy making podcasts and spouting-off audibly, but I’m more of a writing guy. Kevin does a great job speaking and anchoring a show. I cannot pull it off myself at this point, so I think it best to drop it from my agenda.

So, all that out of the way, I do plan on participating in Big Kev’s View as a regular. While I’m not anchor material, I like to think that I add a bit of substance to the show.

Just for archiving purposes, I will keep the podcast posts active for maybe a week from now on here. After that, they will not work as I will de-activate the PodPress plugin.

So please go subscribe to the feed over at Kev’s View, and/or subscribe via iTunes. The feeds for both are right on the front page of his site. Thank you all for your support.

“…here we go again.”

That was the text from one of my friends from the First Cellular of Southern Illinois/Alltel buyout that remains with Alltel. I don’t blame her. Going through one purchase was bad enough when the coordination was just within a local company. I cannot imagine how horrible this buyout will be on such a massive scale.

I also cannot imagine how Verizon will divide up all of the double licenses it will own when this deal goes through. By FCC rules (and monopoly prevention), no single carrier can own two licenses in one area. Verizon already owns the B-side in this area, and will own the A-side as well with this buyout. Someone stands to make a mint picking up these double-licensed areas since they will have to be sold off.

A local Arkansas paper is the only one I can find with coverage right now, but I’m sure it will get mentioned on the 5 o’clock news tonight.

I don’t see how we can be down to 3 cellular carriers in the US and the government let this purchase go through. I mean, there is virtually no competition. At least Alltel was making some innovative plan options available (My Circle). Now we will be stuck with whatever the Big 3 say we can have. Pretty soon it will be a monopoly like the landlines are now with AT&T.