When I launched this redesign as part of the CSS Reboot back in may, I was was really excited about the comic I was going to be running on my site but unfortunately some people are not as driven as myself and I have been somewhat let down by the guy that did the comic. It’s bit of a shame really as he is really talented and I was looking forward to having a graf twist to the site.
No biggie though, I will just do a site re-align that I have been wanting to do anyway. It is about time that I had a tinker with the site so that I can add some extra functionality that I hope you will enjoy, I know I will benefit from having a few extra tools at my disposal.
If any of you out there are talented artists that would like to get some exposure for your work then feel free to contact me and I’m sure we can work something out. I am very much into symbiotic relationships so don’t mind clearing some floor space to help someone out whilst adding value for my users, that might be wishful thinking but hey I gotta try and fill the void don’t I…
So here it goes, my first delve into a post in a while and it is all about the trials and tribulations of switching operating systems, a challenge I am sure many of you would love to try but have skipped it because of the inconvenience it might cause. Every OS has a blood spattered lining, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise but what I will say is I don’t regret stepping into the world of the unknown, I love my new operating system but please believe me when I say there have been some blood, sweat and tears on the way.
I plan to write a series of articles that I hope may help you and encourage you to take a leap of faith into a new operating system. I also plan to tell you where I went wrong and try to help you avoid the pitfalls that have affected me and hopefully make life a little easier for you if you decide to go ahead with the change.
It’s not every day you decide to throw caution to the wind and unlearn everything you have learned, stick it in a blender then try and re-assemble it with a blindfold on and your hand severed at the wrist. Well, maybe it isn’t that bad but it has been a really interesting, frustrating, satisfying, frustrating (yes I said that twice) and fulfilling experience that I want to share with those of you out there that have dabbled with the concept but gone no further.
So… In case you haven’t been following my travels, I decided to try insalling Ubuntu Linux a while ago just because I had been told it was Linux for humans which sounded quite good. My initial experiences were awesome, the install was smooth, everything was far more responsive than Windows and I was able to get around without much trouble but after a while I found myself with niggles.
These niggles are 100% self inflicted, I have been tinkering and tweaking since I got Ubuntu up and running, I don’t know if you are like me but I have a tendancy to go balistic when I get a new toy and see what it can do, I did the same with Ubuntu and managed to break it… err… twice… I also managed to wipe out a partition on one of my hard drives but that is another story… it does get better, I promise
So what did I do once I had gone through the orientation process? The first thing I did was play about with the theming capabilities, one of the reasons I moved away from Windows was so that I could have a more customised (that is a dangerous word when it comes to operating systems I have found) computing experience.
By default, Ubuntu uses the GNOME Desktop Environment which is what I have actually settled on after playing about, one of the quickest ways to change the look and feel of GNOME is to head over to http://www.gnome-look.org/ and grab a selection of icons / themes and just drag them into your theme manager to install them. Ever since starting with Ubuntu I have favoured The Darker Theme which I happen to think rocks quite frankly. Once you have your theme in place you can then have a rumage through the icons and find a set that you like, I wont go into them all but there are several that I switch between at the moment.
When I first went to install Ubuntu I had head a lot about the KDE Desktop Environment which was supposed to be quite user friendly for people making the move from Windows to Linux, there is a version of Ubuntu which is pre configured to use KDE which is called Kubuntu. Ubuntu uses a really nice tool called Synaptic which allows you to browse applications and install them completely free of charge, on searching for Kubuntu it came up, I selected it for installation and it selected all the necessary bits and then installed them without any hassle. Once Kubuntu was installed I could then select it when I went to login as it allows you to choose which session you want to use.
All in all, I have tried Kubuntu, Standard Ubuntu, Xubuntu (which uses another desktop called XFCE) and I have also tried out the XGL environment which is really cool but I think at the root of a lot of my troubles.
So, software… well there is plenty of it and most of it I have been happy with but as a Windows user for many years I have had some issues with finding equivelants. To be honest, this is where I have had my major gripe as I miss Photoshop so much I could cry I am going to write about the different packages I have settled on in another article though, this is just meant to be a little precursor to what is to come.
My biggest issue with switching operating system so far is my lack of understanding of what I am doing, I am getting to grips with how things go together a little bit more but I still feel at a loss sometimes. My one recommendation to anyone making the switch would be to make sure you have a separate data partition or even better have all your data backed up full stop. I am learning the hard way, I got a new 200gb SATA drive and installed Ubuntu onto it after beating up a windows install, to cut a long story shot, I installed Ubuntu onto the whole partition along with all my data… Bad move! If you are going to install Ubuntu then make a second partition for your data (I have always done this in Windows anyway and don’t know why I didn’t do it for Ubuntu) so that if you manage to break something then you can always just re-install the operating system and all should be well.
Anyway, that about sums up my initial chat about my move to Ubuntu, I am not dissapointed in the slightest, I have found it fun, fairly straight forward and anything that has broken has been my own fault for trying to do too much. I am about to repartition my drive and re-install so once I have done that I will continue this series.
I am interested if you have any questions you want to ask or if you care to share your experiences even better, there are also a couple of other folk in 9rules going to chime in with their experiences on their own sites so hopefully we can all work together and change that blood spattered lining for a silver one… all it takes is a little patience & perserverance!
I have written so much waffle recently about getting stuff done I figured I would lighten it up with a little poem seeing as I had a few words rattling about in my head that needed to get out. I’ll tell you something for nothing though, productivity is a hard word to finish on lol… Here goes …
***
Cut the crap
just get it done
that’s what they call productivity
Closing a deal
or a baby in womb
that’s what they call productivity
For I have no time
to blether and rhyme
but also this is productivity
’cause if you produce
instead of reduce
you can put it all down to productivity
Over the last two months I’ve had the pleasure of stepping into the world of freelance contracting and in turn have moved to starting up my own company (more on this later) which I am over the moon about. At first I was a little scared of what the future might hold but I am very passionate about what I do so had confidence in the fact that I could make things happen and my hard work has paid off so far.
This is all fine and well but what happens to your blogging when life happens? I am not making excuses here, I am a busy man these days and writing my thoughts etc has had to take a back seat for a couple of months and I guess to a certain extent life happened…
I love this site and all of the people that have taken the time out of their lives to actually say hi and contribute whether it be with a joke or joining in with comments on one of my posts. I love my family and the benefits of having been about for the entire summer holidays so have had time to play with the kids doing things like water skiing and trampolining. I love the fact that I am getting the chance to actually forge my own future and take control of what happens when and where…
Life is happening! For a while I felt that I was maybe stuck in a life rut, I had a good job, a beautiful family but all I seemed to do was be working towards something. I spent a lot of time bashing away on my keyboard, carving a little bit of my own name on the web and having fun whilst doing it but after moving away from friends to go to my new job I think I was left with a bit of a hollow spot.
Since taking the bull by the horns and deciding that I was now in charge and that I was going to do things for myself I think I have possibly grown up a bit, I don’t know if it is that or the fact that I have had the chance to bond a bit more with the ones around me who perhaps I had neglected a little whilst keyboard bashing. I know that I have a happy, bordering on satisfied feeling about me at the moment. I have plans!
Life moves at an incredible pace and sometimes you need to catch up, too many people can get caught up doing one thing, I know I have lagged from time to time. Now that I have had some time out, I think I have had a chance to analyse where I want to be going, I went from 4.5 years in one job to finishing on the Friday, moving 150 miles away over a weekend and starting a new job on the Monday. Whoa… CATCH UP!
Since I started this blog, I have met a lot of wonderful people and I want to continue to do so, when I got into 9rules I was over the moon about getting to mingle with some very talented people. I wanted to give something back to a community that I have enjoyed over the years, I wanted to get up to mischief, I wanted to continue carving my name on that web tree and still do I haven’t been 100% on the ball with that but truth be known I am still living the rules even if I ain’t talking on there lol… Work hard, Play Hard… Right now it is work hard!
If I don’t work hard then who benefits? Nobody. If I don’t work hard I can’t afford a house, if I don’t have a house I can’t plug in my PC, if I can’t plugin my PC then I can’t have internet, if I can’t have internet I can’t blog, nor can I do my work… vicious circle or what??
So where does that leave me? Well I am working hard and thankfully still have a roof, PC, internet, my blog and most importantly I have my family around me and a business that looks to be getting off the ground, I would say that is a good thing. I am writing just now because I want to, I have something to say and am going to say it, I hope you continue to keep coming past and enjoying the site because it ain’t going anywhere and I have lots of ideas I want to implement as soon as I get some more business stuff out the way.
Anyway, life is happening, I am loving it and I hope you lot don’t feel neglected… take it easy, and watch this space!
For many years space has been the subject of many a joke and I figured that we could take a stab at it here and add to this already expanding universe of space related jokes. Please don’t just regurgitate jokes you have heard before as there is no fun in that, make ‘em up is always soooo much more fun. Just remember that if you are making a play on works make sure they are spocken properly otherwise U‘ll be Fount Out…
Man this could get really bad on my part, I kinda went nuts last week because I hadn’t had a chance to blog much due to work commitments, I managed to finish my business plan(et) though and get it out there and I am going to klingon to the fact that I am allowed to tell such terrible jokes because this website does actually fall outwith intergalatic juristiction.
Oh well, on that note I will leave you to it but before I go I usually start you off with one of my own, well this time I will just take a jibe at one unfortunate spacemans hairdo!
Well that was a mouthful if I ever saw one! Just a quick link before I hit the sack, I am still busy juggling family, life, my new business and getting my business plan written… Anyway I was watching Sumo TV yesterday and saw this video and took a spare moment this evening to track it down online, I hope you like it as much as I did…
As some of you may well be aware of, I am now working for myself and freelancing, the downside of this is the fact that my time has been eaten up somewhat and that is my reason for the theme this time (hehe… I said time already).
I am not unhappy at the fact that my time is being used to build up a future for myself and my family and things are working out not too bad at the moment… I promise to write over the weekend but until then I’ll leave you with this weeks installment of Bad Joke Friday, and just so you know… I am not ticking the piss!
I guess I should get you all started so here goes:
A man walks into an antiques store and the owner turns around and says sorry, I haven’t got TIME to serve you just now. The guy says to the shop owner, does that mean I am getting a SECOND chance cause I could really do with a HAND to fix my clock…
OMG that was bad! I hope yours are just as bad or even worse…
I am chuffed to bits because I have been getting a little frustrated at the lack of gaming and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound in my life, but now it has returned with a bang. Now to the downside of my little surprise, Ghost Recon is way tough! I never ever played the first one and picked this copy up out of ASDA because it was rediculously cheap and I fancies a good shooter, I guess it is going to take a while to get my head round. Either that or there are too many cobwebs on my thumbs and fingers and I just haven’t got the skills anymore lol…
Another bonus surrounding this is that I actually get a 2mth XBOX live trial with the game, time to dust off my fighting talk and get myself online to whip some folks, I bet it is me that gets the cuffing though! Gimme a shout if you have a copy of Ghost Recon 2 and play on live and I will come in past for a game one I activate my trial.
Seeing as my XBOX decided it was going to play ball, I chucked in the other game I bought for cheap which was the Fantastic 4 game. The game is mediocre at best and it kinda reminds me a little of something like Streets of Rage which was a scrolling beatem up from years ago that I loved to bits, the general idea being that you stroll about beating the crap out of baddies. I guess that stands to reason seeing as you are playing some of the most famous super heroes of all time.
I enjoy romping about doing combo moves and beating up hordes of bad guys, there is something quite enjoyable about it, the thing that got my goat about the game was the dodgy camera angle. It is shakey in first player but when me and my daughter Charlotte were playing it, it got well out of hand at times and put me off getting too into it. Charlotte liked it though so I will probably go back and play some more…
Okay, so thats a little bit of good news from me, I hope that you are all having such good luck too… I’m off to get thrashed at Ghost Recon 2 again before I go to bed…
Back once again with the most rediculous Friday activity you can get your hands on, it’s Bad Joke Friday and this time I am going for an animal theme. Feel free to do your worst with making jokes up and brightening up my day with some puns and wordplays that are enough to make anyone groan…
Yup, all in the name of good fun so in true Bad Joke Friday style I will start you off…
Newsman on telly: …and for our next story, raging cattle are on the rampage across four states in America, 18 people have been killed and 9 have been injured but I guess you have probably herd all of this…
For those of you out there that have been using Photoshop for years you may well understand my dilema, I have just switched to to the Ubuntu operating system and can no longer use Photoshop. Now if I really wanted to I could do so by doing one of the following…
Run Windows under a virtual machine and then install Photoshop on there.
Try and get hold of an older copy of Photoshop and run it under although I have no idea how to get an older copy of Photoshop
Install Windows on another partition of my hard drive and then install Photoshop
Heck I reckon I could even connect to another windows box in my house and use remote desktop…
None of these seem really appealing although options 1 & 2 seem to be the most logical, there is however another option that although frustrating seem to me to be the most sensible…
Ditch Photoshop and go with The GIMP Image Editor which is free, very powerful and a total conundrum to figure out after using Photoshop for years.
Guess which one I am doing?
Yep… It’s conundrum time… I have decided that seeing as I am living the open source life at the moment it would make sense to bite the bullet and reverse engineer my brain so I could start using what looks to be a very powerful tool if only I can get my head around it!
The first thing I encountered when I started delving into The GIMP was a little thing called GIMPShop which changes the way that menu options are named and also modifies keyboard shortcuts to mimic as closely as possible the shortcuts from Photoshop. Nice idea but I couldn’t get it running niether from source, nor from the debian package I downloaded. Maybe I will go back and try it again some time but I have things to get on with and don’t have any more time to mess about.
So where am I at with it? Well after much head scratching I think I am beginning to get somewhere and have made a little progress. Here are the first couple of things I have done to try and make my life easier, I thought I would share just in case any of you are in a similar boat.
Turn of layer boundries as they are just confusing
Maximize the image window I am working on
Dock my tools, layers & swatches panel with the main file panel (I am still trying to figure out the swatches)
Set reset a couple of main keyboard shortcuts: v = Move tool, Ctrl + d = Deselect, m = Rectangular Marquee
I know this is a short list but I will no doubt add to this and share my discoveries as I learn, this was at least enough to have me moving about and at least able to perform the most basic but essential tasks.
The downside to switching away from your comfort zone when it comes to operating systems and software is that you are stepping into a rather steep learning curve. I don’t mind getting into this as I made my decision probably 3 years ago I’d love to go open source but it still frustrates me when I come to hurdles like compiling software from source or having to learn new ways of doing things.
Anyway, I hope these little tips might have been of some use to you and if you have any for me then feel free to share…
This is a test
Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur,
I am going to write about the different packages I have settled on in another article though, this is just meant to be a little precursor to what is to come. 
