new laptop

Finally got around to getting a new laptop, its a Dell Inspiron 640m. 1gb memory, 120Gb hard drive, decent 14" screen, and lighter than my old laptop. The OS is Win XP Home. The benefit of waiting a little too long to get a new laptop is that it seems so very much better than the old one when you do.

My timing was influenced somewhat by the upcoming general Vista release. I wanted to get a new laptop before Vista is packaged with new systems. I want to take my time before tackling Vista, and I didn't want my desire for more powerful hardware to drag me into Vista before I was ready.

I'm experimenting here at the beginning by using as much open source or free software as I can. These include:
Firefox
Thunderbird
Open Office
Textpad
Irfanview
Inkscape

I've also installed ITunes (but haven't transported my library over yet).

I've installed Python for whatever little programming projects I come up with. I may install Haskell in order to learn what its about.

another week in paradise

some photos from our stay late in November in BVI:

lull in use

open office

I've been trying out Open Office, and have been pleasantly surprised by its utility. I've focused on Microsoft Word compatibility with Open Office.org Writer, and I can do most everything I need to. There is even a facility for change tracking that seems acceptably interoperable.

There is a very good chance that with my next laptop purchase I'll be able to avoid installing Microsoft Office, although I do hear good things about Office 2007.

And its tough to beat the price differential, since Open Office is a free download.

heirloom cattle in concord

these guys were close to the fence the other day, so i stopped and snapped a couple of photos.

a lull

be wary of the lull charge!

IPod shuffle and podcasts

I learned something about my IPod Shuffle. I have been downloading podcasts, mostly music, from Idolator and enjoying them in ITunes. I've been copying them to my IPod Shuffle so I could add the podcasts to the mix while I run.

But, the shuffle never selected them for playing. I suspected something about the random play selection algorithm, but was only half-right. Turns out that podcasts on the shuffle are only played when the mode is "play in order". Won't play them when mode is "random". Since these podcasts are mostly short songs, that wasn't the behavior I wanted.

Solution: In the ITunes Library, I edited each podcast's metadata - changing the genre from podcast to something else appropriate for the song. After a little testing, it looks like random shuffle behavior picks them up.

Interestingly, I did not find this workaround via a google search.