Archive: May, 2007

Dell (heart) Ubuntu = A giant leap for linux

May 1st, 2007 · · Technology No comments

Dell announced today that they will be pre-installing Ubuntu on a small variety of their laptops. I see this as both good and bad.

It could be bad because Linux does not have access to drivers or information to create drivers like M$ does. I know there have been multiple interfaces created for the iPod, cameras, etc. Unfortunately, most Win users are adjusted to having a third party CD to install drivers/software, or having Win automatically identify the device. Also, codecs are not included in a typical Ubuntu install that are included in Win. I am curious how/if this will be worked around. Perhaps Dell will pay a licensing fee to some codec owners for Ubuntu to include them by default legally?

Now, the good thing is that M$ will have some competition (albeit small) in the desktop market with one of (the?) largest desktop distributors in the US. Undoubtedly, Ubuntu will gain some leverage with hardware makers to get insight into developing drivers, or possibly getting them released by the manufacturers. That progress would benefit the whole Linux community.

I do not know how this step will end for Dell or Linux, but I am hopeful. I’ve been running my Dell D800 on Feisty since it was Herd 2 with no problems. Maybe this won’t be that long of a road.

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

May 1st, 2007 · · Technology 3 comments

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

That is all. No, you probably won’t understand it.

We’re here, we’re poor, but we need a new school

May 1st, 2007 · · Mount Vernon No comments - Tags: ,

Just a little post to rant about the backward-ass way this county thinks…

Jefferson County has the highest crime rate south of Interstate 70.


That was a statement from Jefferson County Sheriff Roger Mulch in today’s paper about possible budget cuts as the county is broke.

Less than 30 days ago, a small group of citizens were trying to convince us that we could afford a new high school. How can we afford to pay for a new school when we can’t even afford to keep them safe?

I know that more police does not necessarily equal more safety, cutting officers from a small force is definitely not the answer either.


One of the “FAQ”s on the mvthsonthemove.com site was that the county instituted a small tax to pay for whatever, and the new tax by Mount Vernon City would not be noticed once that tax was gone. Also, they were quick to point out that there was no property tax to pay for the jail.

First, the county can choose to keep their tax in place and renew it. Then the tax just keeps on going. Huh, guess they would just say “It’s not our fault, it’s the county’s fault” when it was renewed AND we had the extra tax to pay for the city’s “donation” and the new property tax.

Second, they state there is no property tax to pay for the jail, but that is to distract you from the current tax that IS paying for the jail that is losing money.

Just a little note about how a select few were trying to push a new high school on the citizens with disinformation and well-spun propaganda.

Another stellar blog month (for me)

May 1st, 2007 · · Mount Vernon No comments - Tags:

1759. That’s how many unique hits I had on my site, not including search engines, in April.

Yeah, if you’ve been around the web long, that’s not really impressive. To me though, I’m kinda proud. Since my blog is not well-known, and probably never will be, that’s a great number. I have noticed some interesting things in the stats for last month:

1. Most of the followed links that come in are from the Register-News forums.
2. The hits that I get are over 1/2 from our local area (using IP lookups).
3. The people that come and look usually come back (judging by IPs again).
4. About 1/2 of my hits are from direct links (bookmarks or typing the address in).
5. Of the Google searches, I am still getting lots of hits from “mvths on the move”.
6. Of the Google searches, most of my hits are for the local blog articles, not the geek ones.
7. Most of my readers (63.3%) use Windows, followed by Linux (28%), and Mac (0.7%).
8. Most of my visitors (38.3%) use Firefox, followed closely by Internet Explorer (27.6%), and Mozilla (9.2%) is third.

Just some worthless facts that I thought I would share with you. Mostly, I’m excited that I appear to have a little readership developed around here. Unfortunately, not too many people are using the comments, but that comes with time I suppose.

Please subscribe via the RSS links in the right hand column, and use the comments section. Say what you want, but try to keep it PG-13. There may be kids aboot.
🙂