Posts from September 2010

Massive thanks to @paul for helping me finally make the switch to Fedora on my laptop! So far, it's been running without a hitch. I have found some linux alternatives for my most heavily used programs. However, I am still missing some. I am hoping that all these missing alternatives don't break the switch... Any suggestions that you might have are more than welcome.

Web browsing
Chrome ---> Chrome

Media
VLC --> VLC --> Amarok (? I am not sure if it supports all the various formats FLAC, APE, Ogg, WMV etc like foobar2000 though. Any alternatives?)

Documents
LaTeX ---> LaTeX
PDFXChange Viewer with Wine --> ??????? I am completely stumped here.
MS Word --> MS Word using VMbox? (haven't installed this yet). Openoffice completely messes up formats between its odt format and the doc format so I'd rather not use it and spent time fixing ridiculous formatting conflicts.
Virtual PDF printer driver with a very small footprint that I use to print things to PDF. Again, not sure about alternatives.
Distraction-free black full-screen writing environment. Do you know of any fedora alternatives?

Analysis
R --> R
TinnR --> ???? I use this extensively for writing R code and push the code from TinnR to R for running. It highlights syntax and helps me keep track of coding rules. Any linux alternatives that will integrate with R and has colour coding?

Art
myPaint --> myPaint
Irfanview --> ????
Fotographix --> ????

I would love some suggestions for PDF annotation, highlighting and commenting. I used PDF XChange viewer for this with Wine but I can't find an equivalent piece of native software for Linux. PDFs form the backbone of what I read and use day in and day out and this could just be the deciding factor for me for staying on with the Fedora system or switching back to Ubuntu. Any input you can give me would be awesome! I really don't want to go back to Ubuntu - now that I have seen all the charms of Fedora.

What a waste of a good 1 hour. I realized 10 minutes into the film that I would be fast-forwarding my way through it. What I didn't realize was that even with the fast-forwarding the "slowness" of the film remains with you and drags you slowly and painfully by the tip of your smashed nose.

Yuckety yuck. Life is too short to be wasting an hour on garbage that tries to pass off as an "Indie". I wish I had never found Gnod Ink was such an AWFUL recommendation. I am never going back to Gnod. EVER

I have *really* thick hair that outgrows a cut in less than 2 weeks but I am not ready for that salon pilgrimage just yet.

Do you have any recommendations for the type of thinning shears I should get? There seem to many types around but I just want one that would take all the bulk away. Thoughts?

I am in love with this particular chorus from Nabucco. It combines two of my favourites - a waltz rhythm and a multi-voice operatic chorus.

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PS: A bit too much make-up for the occasion but the singing is spectacular.

... in reincarnations. Bublé is really like Sinatra singing Baroque style (as someone else once said).


Somehow, listening to Bublé makes me wish Ella Fitzgerald were still alive to sing a duet with Bublé. And while that might not be such an outlandish wish, I also wonder about how Bublé's interpretations of Whitney Houston's most famous hits might be. I wish he would try them someday.

I will be visiting the NIH/NCI campus in Bethesda in some days. But the trouble is I will be getting into the Washington, IAD airport around 10:00. I hate taxis. They freak me out. So I plan to take the metro to the campus from the airport. I am guessing it will be close to midnight when I make it to the Bethesda campus.

Do any of you have any ideas about how safe this area might be - say compared with Buffalo downtown at night? I really don't want to get into trouble. The conference is quite important and I want to get there and back without broken noses, blown head etc. Any information would be awesome! Thanks!

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PS: According to Neighbourhood Scout
- Bethesda is safer than 62% of the cities in the US.
- Annual Crimes
Violent 42
Property 800    
842 annual crimes per 1,000 residents

Chances of becoming a victim
in Bethesda 1 in 1305
in Maryland 1 in 134

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PPS: Oh well. I went ahead and looked up Buffalo as well.
Buffalo is safer than 6% of the cities in the US.
- Annual Crimes
Violent 3,804    
Property 16,555    
20,359 annual crimes per 1,000 residents

Chances of becoming a victim
in Buffalo 1 in 77
in New York 1 in 221

Man. It isn't THAT unsafe here, is it?! Do you believe this??

According to a recent study:

91 percent of Americans say that mobile phones "make them feel safer." Some 88 percent of respondents said that they have a mobile phone, so they can "connect to friends and family to arrange plans."

I use it as an excellent and versatile alarm clock. It scarcely leaves home even though the SIM card is now housed in a smartphone. I have never felt safer with a cellphone and hate talking over phones in general. And that is how some surveys are way off mark and unrepresentative [of me! me! me!].

I just spotted your more-than-perfect replacement.

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NB: Besides, RPJ really has had MI6 as well as MI5 experience. Minor details such as getting blown to bits the last time he was filmed shouldn't come in the way.

Salsa, tango, hip-hop, whatever, you all just lost out. I find this absolutely fascinating.


I am fairly confident that no one in Buffalo wants to vault over this low wall quite as much as I do.


Maybe I should start local like this bloke at Target.

Don't think I will be ever able to jump over any cart though.

I hated low ceilings - they made me feel trapped. I still do.



But I liked this song and the video was a favourite.

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PS: There. I took your suggestion. @paul.
PPS: I guess that is why I like hanging out on the floor so much. It adds an extra 3 ft between me and the ceiling.
PPPS: Someday my home will have glass ceilings. Away from people who throw stones of course.