The Next Window

Everybody's heard the title of Star Wars Episode 3 — The Revenge of the Sith. And seen the ads. And the toys. And the commercials including Star Wars (I love the Yoda / Diet Pepsi commercial).<br />
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Just got back from an awesome showing at my favorite theater in Baton Rouge, the <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=260&amp;entry_id=53" title="http://www.ravemotionpictures.com" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.ravemotionpictures.com';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">Rave</a>. They've got stadium style rows, comfortable chairs and actually have leg space — you can get past a seated person easily.<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/index.php?/archives/53-The-Revenge-of-the-Sith.html#extended">Continue reading "The Revenge of the Sith"</a>

Well, I didn't make it on Thursday after all. I was working on a project all day and finally stopped about 10pm. But, I hadn't finished the prequel novel, either, so I didn't really want to go yet.<br />
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Yesterday I finished the novel, but today is the first Saturday. I'll wait another day or two.<br />
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At least I didn't go to one of the midnight shows on Wednesday. My closest theater had projector malfunctions and ended up cancelling the show, which was showing simultaneously on all eight of its screens. Ouch, for those folks who had grand plans to be one of the first to see it!

Well, it's finally here. Star Wars Day — you'd think it was a National Holiday or something, with everyone mentioning it in their advertisements. It was even on this morning's CBS Morning News, with an interview of Mark Hamill.<br />
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I'll be there, sometime. Maybe today, maybe not.<br />
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Well, it's not what you think — I am a big fan of Star Wars. It's just that I'm reading the "prequel" novel <u>Star Wars – Labyrinth of Evil</u>, by James Luceno. I'd really like to finish that first.<br />
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On the other hand, I've seen all but the first one on Star Wars Opening Day, so that's my dilemma. Here it is, the last Star Wars movie, I've just gotta see it on opening day. Or, do I?<br />
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May the Force be with you.

There's an old joke: "What is a boat? It is a hole in the water into which you throw money."<br />
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So, what is a <i>swimming pool</i>? It's a hole in the ground into which you throw water <i>and</i> money.<br />
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Swimming pools are fun a few times a year; the rest of the time they are work. If you've got kids from 8 to 18, they're fun almost every day when the water is warm enough. [Aside: "warm enough" for New England is 75 degrees, while it's 85 degrees for we Southerners.]<br />
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The rest of the time, you've got two choices with swimming pools — keep them clean and clear or let them go cloudy and green. Said differently, do you want to clean leaves and twigs out of the pool every couple days and keep feeding it chlorine and algae killer all the time, so you can have a clean pool, or do you want to ignore it and let it go? If you let it go, then your cleanup cost is more like $125 for big doses of shock and algae killer, plus a bunch of your time and frustration.<br />
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Maybe the pundits have it right — buy a house with a pool. Then, when you kids grow out of it, move!

I solved a nagging problem with my Mother-in-law's computer. She had purchased a Compaq Presario (AMD Sempron 3000+, 512MB, 120GB hard drive). She liked the computer. But, she could not reliably get a dialtone for her modem.<br />
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When I last visited, she bought the computer and I set it up. All was well that first night. Then, intermittently she could connect — if it got a dial tone, it connected. But, first, there were all sorts of strange clicks and clacks from the speakers. And, she only got a dialtone one time out of maybe 6. <br />
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<br /><a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/index.php?/archives/49-The-Mother-in-Laws-computer.html#extended">Continue reading "The Mother-in-Law's computer"</a>

<a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=308&amp;entry_id=41" title="http://www.mepis.org" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.mepis.org';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">SimplyMEPIS 3.3</a> looks like the best alternative so far — reasonable for desktop use and for server use. Updating packages the Debian way (Mepis is a derivative of Debian Linux) is easy. Adding packages (I had to add MySQL and phpMyAdmin) is easy. <br />
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I'm still working on fine points of my system. <br />
<br /><a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/index.php?/archives/41-Picking-a-Linux-distro-for-a-webserver,-part-2.html#extended">Continue reading "Picking a Linux &quot;distro&quot; for a webserver, part 2"</a>

I've been checking out the various Linux distributions for a web server project. I already had SuSE 9.0 Professional installed on my in-house Linux box, which I use for development purposes.<br />
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I added a new hard drive to check out several of the alternatives, and set it up to be able to boot between them. SuSE 9.0 Professional is the second distro that I installed. Actually, it is the first one that has <i>stayed</i> on my system.<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/index.php?/archives/35-Picking-a-Linux-distro-for-a-webserver.html#extended">Continue reading "Picking a Linux &quot;distro&quot; for a webserver"</a>

I found a very <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=423&amp;entry_id=44" title="http://www.normankoren.com" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.normankoren.com';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">interesting nature photography site</a> the other day. Norman Koren is a photographer living near Boulder, Colorado. Most of his photos are beautiful nature studies from the the western U.S., although he has some excellent photos from overseas trips, too.<br />
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He has put many of his photographs on the website in a quality suitable for excellent viewing on your computer. Several pictures make dandy Windows background images. He also offers prints in multiple sizes, printed with a high-quality, pigment-based Epson printer (the usual home color printer is dye-based, rather than pigment based). <br />
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He also has a number of detailed photography tutorials on his site. Not only does he address the process of taking a good picture, ht also has tutorials on editing and other processing after taking the picture.<br />
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I found his site using the <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=424&amp;entry_id=44" title="http://www.stumbleupon.com" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.stumbleupon.com';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">StumbleUpon toolbar</a>, which is available for Windows, Linux and Mac computers running the Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Firefox and/or Netscape web browser.

If you've talked to me or been to my website, you know that I built myself a <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=250&amp;entry_id=48" title="http://www.terrystockdale.com/htpc/htpc_1.shtml" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.terrystockdale.com/htpc/htpc_1.shtml';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">Home Theater PC</a>. I"m able to record three shows simultaneously while watching a fourth live or pre-recorded. Starting to record a show is a cinch, just find it by "search" or pick it from the guide, and then click on "record" — no looking for a blank tape. Plus, on playback, I can jump anywhere in the show instantly with my wireless mouse.<br />
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However, this week I learned one of the downsides of hard-drive-based systems — not just an HTPC like mine, but this would also apply to any hard-drive based unit such as a TIVO, a DVR from the cable company or a Windows Media Center PC.<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/index.php?/archives/48-The-Joy-of-a-Large-Hard-Drive.html#extended">Continue reading "The Joy of a Large Hard Drive"</a>

I've been slowly reading the May issue of Computer Power User magazine, also known as CPU Magazine. Imagine my surprise to find multiple articles about Linux in this issue, including a 5-page lead-off article about Linux for WinXP users and a 6-page article about the Xandros distribution. Xandros wants to give the Windows user a comfortable, workable alternative, while many other Linux distributions are aimed at advanced technical users and server administrators.<br />
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They also had two pages on embedded Linux, two on creating your own Linux boot CD, four pages titled "Open Source Isn't Just for Linux Users," and a couple more one-page articles. Pretty cool.<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/index.php?/archives/47-Linux,-Xandros-and-Computer-Power-User.html#extended">Continue reading "Linux, Xandros and Computer Power User"</a>