More Ubuntu Fun!
iDRMRSR
There's like only two people on the whole planet writing drivers for webcams
and they haven't got round to my model just yet.
So then I decided maybe I could do something neatsy keen with MUSIC. So I
downloaded this package called Hydrogen which alleges to produce nice drum
and bass loops. I know a lot less about music than I do about Linux, let's
face it, but when I played the DEMO that came with it, it sounded kind of
like when you pull your straw through your Big Gulp lid. Not like drums at
all. Squeaky.
Then I tried to play some MIDI file I had laying around, since Hydrogen is
MIDI based. Ho HO! No player associated with type MIDI. So it did some
kind of scan and told me I should install a package called AMAROK, which is
kind of an iTunes for Linux.
I installed it. It's so freaking complicated it had to install a database
server, too, which I let it do. Then I pointed it at my Windows partition
which had all the music. 58% of the way cataloguing the music, it burped
and I never heard from it again.
I cranked it up and tried to feed it a MIDI file. It thought for a while
and then said "Unsupported Format". This is strange because, after all, the
system RECOMMENDED this package to me! Then I noticed when I tried to quit
the stinking program, it argued with me because it wanted KDE and I have
GNOME installed. Failed recommendation on TWO counts.
Another quick search on the net finds that there is precisely ONE program
which can play a MIDI, TIMIDITY. I installed that sucker, and LO AND BEHOLD
it plays MIDI files just great...but the only thing is...it's a CONSOLE MODE
program.
Yep, no pussy "click on an icon and pretty music". No, you have to type the
whole invocation of the program and then the path to the frigging file every
time you want to hear a MIDI file. My fingers would get worn out.
Not only that but I had to download a whole symphony of synth tables, again
from some asshole in France, and it pinned the CPU at 100% the whole time it
was playing. However, I must admit the SOUND was actually much RICHER than
when played under Windows!
TIMIDITY and HYDROGEN do not speak to each other, sadly, so I get the "wet
thumb on the rubber balloon sound" instead of snare drums still.
Now I have to figure out just how to UNINSTALL Hydrogen and AMAROK and its
SQLITE database server. Cuz, it's not like Linux is going to have a good
ADD/REMOVE SOFTWARE thing. Heh, to be FAIR, it has TWO of them...neither of
which talk to each other.
Oh, and FIREFOX 2.0 took a crap WHILE IT WAS MINIMIZED WITH A BLANK PAGE! I
thought the mantra was Linux NEVER has the same kind of problems as Windows.
I could see it crapping out if it was DOING something but it was minimized.
My my.
The icing on the cake was the bubble that came up to inform me that I needed
to apply 13 CRITICAL PATCHES. Yup, this shit has "automatic update" built
right into the pie.
One thing I sort of did solve was the way the FONTS look in Linux. STRANGE.
Every program has a different idea what Arial should look like, and Firefox
sometimes substitutes a Serif font for the non serif ones! The only thing
WORSE looking that I've seen is a Mac.
It turns out you have to download and install TRUE TYPE fonts if you want
Linux to look anything like Windows (eg, what I've been staring at for 8
hours or more a day for the last 12 years). Turns out UBUNTU can't include
them automatically because they are LICENSED by MS.
Can you believe that, the company LICENSES the fonts!
I wonder if they LICENSE the English language, too. From what I've seen of
some of the Linux phraseology, it's obvious the coders don't speak that
language.
I hate to deal with a dialogue like "ARE YOU SURE TO QUIT?" and "Please wait
while we gather the informations".
I also had to chuckle because the default installation of Firefox had the
RSS feed for the BBC installed on the toolbar! As if I give a rat's ass
about England. What's wrong with CNN?
Oh, but then I should have waited for someone to put together a UBUNT-USA
distribution. I actually bet there is a team of French programmers right
now that are gathering all the "informations" for that distribution as we
speak!
[*]
-----
Zapanaz
--
Zapanaz
International Satanic Conspiracy
Customer Support Specialist
http://joecosby.com/
A girl and a boy bump into each other -- surely an accident.
A girl and a boy bump and her handkerchief drops -- surely another accident.
But when a girl gives a boy a dead squid -- *that had to mean something*.
Zapanaz
<idr...@sssssubgenius.com> wrote:
> It's so freaking complicated it had to install a database
>server, too, which I let it do.
nigga please.
You know, I have some shareware I wrote which, honestly, I could
probably get rich off of. But it would (horror, shudder) necessitate
the user installing a database server.
And some niggas get AWAY with that? In the Linux dimension?
--
Zapanaz
International Satanic Conspiracy
Customer Support Specialist
http://joecosby.com/
"I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don't need."
-Francois-Auguste Rodin
Giles
And this is better than a Mac because...?
Artemia Salina
One month and I'll find you posting patches to the Linux kernel mailing
list, ranting against Windows in comp.os.linux.advocacy, and pacing back
and forth in front of Logitech corporate headquarters with a sandwich
board over your shoulders that reads "INFORMATION WANTS TO BE FREE" on
the front, and "RELEASE SPECS NOW!" on the back.
And you'll be wearing a penguin mask, too.
--
Popess Evokovitch: Who the hell is Rontus Mekora?
nenslo: Some dumbass.
Rontus Mekora: Not just any dumbass, I am a high frequency dumbass.
Saint Bucky
Slackware. KDE.
Seriously, hurry up. Before you start to think that Linux sucks.
The problem, as usual is that there's another, slackful, way of doing
things. And you've completely overlooked it. Start at
www.slackware.com and go from there.
Hurry now!
ouroboros rex
"iDRMRSR" <idr...@sssssubgenius.com> wrote in message
news:N6WdnQ2u2e62uvDY...@giganews.com...
Well, you're a linux user, fix it! -Linux customer support
p.s. Peripherals? You don't need no steenking peripherals. -Linux
customer support
Rich Clark, aka Left Rev Egg Plant, ULC, CotSG
> I give you ONE MONTH.
>
> One month and I'll find you posting patches to the Linux kernel mailing
> list, ranting against Windows in comp.os.linux.advocacy, and pacing back
> and forth in front of Logitech corporate headquarters with a sandwich
> board over your shoulders that reads "INFORMATION WANTS TO BE FREE" on
> the front, and "RELEASE SPECS NOW!" on the back.
>
> And you'll be wearing a penguin mask, too.
We could only hope.
One fact that I can gather from reading our fwend Dr.Mr.Sr.'s posts is
that Windows users are inherently lazy and unwilling to work for their
computer experience.
Sacre Bleu
Don't encourage 'them'.
BTW - been playing around with a seed of Leopard the last week. Has a
few cool features. Can't use it online though as installing Little
Snitch BLASTS the OS. Must have some sort of reverse firewall resource
built-in that Little Snitch is fighting over.
jibberish
"Saint Bucky" <saint...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1164802872.2...@h54g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>
> Slackware. KDE.
>
> Seriously, hurry up. Before you start to think that Linux sucks.
>
> The problem, as usual is that there's another, slackful, way of doing
> things. And you've completely overlooked it. Start at
> www.slackware.com and go from there.
>
> Hurry now!
Bollox to you
www.freebsd.org
Leonard the Committed
stuff. If all a person wants is a different screen to look at as they
point-and-crunt thier way around the internet, then Linux is probably
not the best way to go. On the other hand, if you are into learning new
things, even if it's just for the hell of it, then Linux has alot to offer.
I'm into it for the fun of being challenged.
p.s. Ubantu: An Afrrican word for "Not bright enough to use Slackware"