Yesterday was the official release of both Fedora 20 and the Android 4.3 update for the Galaxy Note II.

The Android 4.3 update finally came after taking forever to go through AT&T. The changes aren't major but it's definitely updated and flattened a bit visually, especially the Samsung TouchWiz stuff. The gallery finally is way better in terms of arranging and selecting photos, like the new geotag view option and the different preview sizes. For some reason they removed the shortcut buttons on the lockscreen, so you have to unlock to get to the camera shortcut. The best part is the application manager now lets you turn off any app, even the built-in AT&T garbage that you can't uninstall.
The screen seems to be brighter and higher contrast too, although it's been sucking down battery way faster than before. Samsung claims they improved memory usage and GPU hardware rendering, I haven't done anything to that shows a huge difference. I hope we get KitKat relatively soon, where a virtual secure element will let anyone use Google Wallet's NFC.





I also upgraded my laptop from Fedora 19 to Fedora 20. (e:Paul) got me trying Linux about 3 months ago and since then I've barely touched my Windows 8 partition. Just the terminal alone makes doing things on the computer so much easier than a mish mosh of GUI and command line things in Windows. Even powershell can't come close to touching it. The only thing I miss in Linux is a Adobe Lightroom replacement. There is an open source alternative, Darktable (link) but it doesn't compare for post processing or library management.

Anyway, Fedora 20 added some pretty awesome stuff even if they seem to be trying to apple-fy themselves. The upgrade didn't actually work out at first for Paul, since the official upgrade method, FedUp, was broken. They added Gnome Maps, which seems alright, but not as good as Google Maps (it uses mapquest data, wtf?). The Wifi geolocation also places us in Kansas for some reason.

Gnome Maps - Thinks we're still in Kansas

The system preferences and chrome updates make it more Mac like by merging the title bar and menu bar, combining all off the notifications and controls into one menu in the corner.






There were also tons of backend changes too. The biggest is probably that ARM is now an official platform for Fedora, which makes sense since there are so many more devices now. SSD caching for hard disks is now in the kernel which should speed things up. There are also a ton of virtualization improvements like external notifications for the VM manager and LVM thin provisioning in the updates kernel. Thun provisioning isnkind of awesone becauee you can pook storage space between different devices. Ex if you have multiple users who have changing sotrage demands and a limited amount of storage, they can all share the existing storage and it can be allocated on demand. I can see that getting messy if tons of devices start requesting space at the same time but its still neat.
I never would use a lot of the features because I have no need to virtualize anything but I can imagine it makes administering a bunch of VMs on a server a lot easier.

I love using Linux now on everything, it really makes going back to XP at work painful.

I had to make a dessert for the office holiday luncheon tomorrow. I was not feeling it at all since it was for work, but I made some shortening free peanut butter blossoms using this recipie. It took about an hour and a half to make instead of the recipies 20 minutes. They turned out well especially right out of the oven. Pretty sure (e:xandra) cleared a quarter tray.

Today I busted out the new snow tires and rode to work. I bought the Scwhalbe Marathon Winter Studded tires for $140. it was so expensive but I definitely think they're worth it.

It snowed overnight so the roads were super sloppy and slippery on the way to work this morning. I barely felt any slip on the road while cars were having trouble keeping traction. The rolling resistance was a lot higher but these are also puncture resistant, compared to my super thin Bontragers. Unfortunately a lot of paths weren't plowed especially along the lake and from Route 5 to work. With any kind of loose snow I lost most of the grip although the bike never slid out. I either had to take the lane or carry my bike over snow drifts.

The whole ride took about an hour each way, when my typical route is a mile and a half shorter and takes about 35 minutes. I think I can probably shave 10 or 15 minutes off when the roads are less snowy and more icy, but we'll have to see.


Beastly new tungsten carbide studs

My Bontragers are looking pretty worn :(

Ready to leave from work

Union Ship Canal

Unplowed bridge over the canal - I had to carry my bike over the snow here

(e:paul) and I got around to moving Basra up from the basement. He's been so miserable, freezing/hibernating and all neglected down there that we moved him up to the brown room. We started to clean up his carpet and the basement before discovering that the tarp underneath started to mold from the floor's dampness. So gross. Then we set out to search for a new tarp - but Home Depot was closed. We had to drive all the way to Sheridan Drive for Walmart. While we were there we stopped at the Super Bazaar (see (e:Paul,58458)).

After we got back, we set up the new tortoise sanctuary in the brown room. It was so much warmer that he came alive right away. He should, because according to the Killawatt it takes almost $65 a month of electricity to heat him. Other downside, there may be an impending scooter infestation.

Last night was the Squeaky Wheel holiday party at the Foundry. (e:paul), (e:terry), (e:xandra), erica, (e:Heidi) and (e:Dianne) and I all headed over while Terry had to work the party since he was a board member (the other board members were raving about him which was awesome). It was crazy fun, but probably not half as crazy as Paul was. I accidently made Erica and Paul walk over in the freezing cold.

The event itself was amazing. (e:holly) and Brian had the best/possibly offensive nativity scene, with a goat. there were amazing cookies and tons of beer. (e:paul) won a ridiculous and strange assortment of gifts, and I won a basket to Cowork Buffalo and Sweetness 7. We ran into Mickey, Pierce and a bunch of other people and started an impromptu rooftop party. So glad Alex did not fall through.

Paul was so out of control that we ended up walking home.

















These knit creatures were so cute




Bathroom selfies


Top of the world



What just happened?


Broing out



The loot


Baby Jesus Paul

This cat is so sassy. He meows right back to you when you talk to him. He has to be so freezing living outside, I feel worse for him than Basra.

Overheard later, a classy fight about money. I didn't mean to eavesdrop but I had to record part. I was probably a house away and outside, they were ridiculously loud.

I hope this is the last time I'm ever here.

::DOWNLOAD SOUND::

Friday night, after wanting to break the Arduino Uno in half, I met up with Emily, Catherine and cahterines roommate at Founding Fathers. I think I ate three things of nachos including one to go. So gross but so good.

The furnace is fixed, we won't freeze to death!
last night (e:paul) called 72 Degrees Air Conditioning and Heating who claimed to do 24x7 repair. Not only did they want to charge $90 just to come out, they promised a visit in three hours and never called or showed up.

Since (e:Paul) knew it was the induction blower from the last repair and what he researched, we were able to call around for the part. First I called Seneca Heating and Plumbing, who didn't service York anymore, but were nice enough to direct us to Johnstown Supply out in Depew. Amazingly enough they had one blower left in stock, not so amazingly it was $260.

Paul and I drove out through some crazy snow and picked it up just before they closed. we got back, ate (e:Terry)'s delicious egg cheese thing, and replaced the blower. It was pretty easy to replace, literally involving 10 screws and some tubing connections.

While we were down there Paul and Terry capped the dead end duct full of asbestos. You definitely can notice how much more air flow there is through the other vents now its closed.

We also did some crazy cleaning and rearranging of the dining room. The buffet is now against the window giving way more room to nerd out and program in front of the fire. Now we won't piss off Terry by laying in front of the door.

Yesterday at work I had to open up Internet Explorer to get to the company time sheet. I noticed a big ad on the MSN page saying "Don't Get Scroogled". When I visited the site, it was this bizarre blog from Microsoft saying Google Chromebook sucks because its not a "real PC" that you could get for $250. I don't really think they were marketed as a desktop replacement. Plus are people even buying chromebooks? I feel like android tablets and iPads are probably bigger competitors to Windows than chromebooks.

The best part is the page couldn't even render correctly in IE 8.

Also related is yesterday (e:paul) and I found out you can download Chromium OS for a live USB installation. I still don't really see the point having an Android phone.

I'm pretty sure I broke my personal record for grocery bills at Trader Joes and Target last night. $86.58 plus another $10 or so at Target. admittedly a lot of it was unnecessary - I ended up getting these fancy German waffle cookies, eggnog, and then these chocolate covered juice drops. They're so crazy good and blueberry flavored. Although looking at the ingredients, there are so many other juices they can't be more than a few percent acai maximum.







Also food related I opened up this tangerine today and it had this weird black spot. Is it some sort of blight? I couldn't identify it through Google and have never seen anything like it before.It smelled so gross.