Author: Tim...

DBA, Developer, Author, Trainer.

SUSE doesn’t rock my world…

I installed SUSE Linux for the first time at the weekend and I was suprised at how unimpressed I was. That’s not to say there is anything wrong with it, I just expected a lot more after the good press it’s had over the years.

Back in the days when I first started playing with Linux (Red Hat 5.2), you couldn’t download the SUSE installation CDs for free, so I started to use Red Hat Linux and have pretty much stuck with it (RHEL, Fedora & CentOS) ever since. I’ve played briefly with other distributions (like Debian, Mandrake, Slackware and Ubuntu etc.) but never seen anything worth making me switch.

During a fit of idle curiosity I downloaded SUSE Linux 10.1 and installed it. Two things people often mention about SUSE are the great hardware detection and the ease of installation. I’ve never had a problem with the hardware detection using Red Hat, so I’m not in a position to comment on that, but the installation process doesn’t seem that wonderful to me. Once again, that’s not to say there is anything wrong with it, I just expected something neater and simpler than Anaconda, but what I got looked a little messier and certainly not simpler to use.

Once it was installed it was just like every other distribution, but with a different theme. Nothing to deal a knockout blow to any other distribution I’ve used.

In conclusion, I thought I would experience something better than a Red Hat offering, but I was left feeling rather apathetic about SUSE. If it was the market leader I would use it without any major complaints, but since it’s not I guess I will stick to a Red Hat clone until a new market leader is born.

Cheers

Tim…

Poseidon…

I went to see Poseidon last night. My thoughts include:

  • Visually cool, like Titanic.
  • A bit boring, like Titanic.
  • I didn’t feel any connection or empathy for the characters, like Titanic.
  • I wasn’t really bothered who lived or died, like Titanic.
  • The ship sunk, like Titanic.
  • Hopefully I’ll never see this film again, like Titanic.
  • Effects over substance, like Titanic.
  • People have the ability to function at their peak capacity, even in very cold water, like Titanic.

The characters were a little different to those in the Gene Hackman version, so some things I expected didn’t happen, which was probably a good thing for the older audience.

On reflection, I should have gone to see Xmen-3 for the third time 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Spider Update…

I recently discussed how I felt moderately less scared about spiders since my encounter with a tarantual. Just a little update on the situation…

The other day a very large house spider was sitting on my bathroom window sill. I was feeling rather brave so I attempted to pick it up, but as my hand got close, the spider made a run for it. As soon as the legs started to move at lightning speed, I yanked back my hand, screamed and generally went into convulsions for a few seconds. Out came the glass and the piece of paper. Both the spider and I lived through the ordeal, but the spider definitely came out on top.

Last night I was teaching Yoga to some friends and a small spider ran across the floor towards one of the girls. I placed my hand on the floor and the spider ran on to it. The whole operation wasn’t quite the success I hoped for, as the spider ran off my hand before I could get it out of the door. Even so, we both survived and I’m marking this down as a success.

I’m kinda scared of sharks too. If anyone would like to help me confront this fear by donating a “swimming with sharks” holiday, I would gladly accept 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

I need inspiration…

I usually have a list of things I’m mulling over, most of which end up as articles on my website, but at the moment that list is blank. I’m struggling to find inspiration. Usually, something at work or a forum question triggers a course of investigation, but at the moment I’m totally brain dead…

It would be nice if this was because I know everything, but in reality it’s a bit of summer apathy. I guess I better hit the manuals again and remind myself how little I really know about Oracle 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Reduce your carbon footprint…

I’m guessing you’ve heard of global warming 🙂

One of the UK breakfast TV channels has been running a “Going Green” spot in an attempt to get people to reduce their household carbon footprint. Tips include:

  • Shower rather than taking a bath.
  • Turn off electrical equipment at the wall, rather than using standby. Apparantly, if everyone in the UK turned off their TVs at the wall, rather than using standby, we could close down a couple of power stations.
  • Use energy saving light bulbs.
  • Turn down your central heating by a couple of degrees. A reduction of 1 degree can typically save 10% of your heating costs.
  • Recycle as much as possible.

I feel kind of inspired by this so this morning I turned off my TV and PC at the wall. Plans for the weekend include:

  • Turn off my fridge at the wall. I’ve had nothing in the fridge or the freezer for weeks, so keeping it turned on is crazy. Of course, some would say I should actually buy some food, but that sounds like a mugs game to me 🙂
  • Buy some energy saving bulbs. I have this habit of doing most things in the dark because I’m just too lazy to change bulbs when they blow. Once you get used to not having lighting, you tend not to bother, even when you do have working bulbs. Even so, on the occasion I need a light, it would be sensible to use an energy efficient one.
  • My heating is already set quite low, but as I’m hardly ever in the house I figure I can go down another couple of degrees without much bother. I have thermostats on my radiators which are set real low in the rooms I don’t use. I guess they should go down to zero.
  • I already recycle all paper and cardboard and my area has a green rubbish collection for garden waste, but I’m a bit slack with everything else. I rarely have glass, like bottles, in the house, so I don’t naturally think of recycling it. From today, I will recycle all glass, cans and plastics.
  • Most importantly, I’m going to try to be more aware about what I buy. It’s far to easy to buy products with loads of packaging. You don’t need to recycle if you don’t buy the rubbish in the first place.

I guess it’s only right that we all try to minimize the impact we have on the planet. I know industry and transport are the really big polluters, but every little helps!

Cheers

Tim…

It’s happening again…

Once again, some idiot who doesn’t know his arse from his elbow, reads a couple of my articles, and announces to the world I’ve got it wrong. Strangely enough, on reading the “mistakes” it turns out it is the idiot that is incorrect, because he doesn’t know what a “#” comment is, he can’t use the correct terminology and he obviously hasn’t read the manual on the subject he is waxing lyrical about!

I would like to make a suggestion. If you think you’ve found a mistake in someone else’s work, whoever they are, you should do the following:

  1. Read the article again to make sure you’ve understood it.
  2. Contact the author to confirm a mistake is present.
  3. If it turns out you are mistaken, have the decency to admit it, rather than trying to prolong the debate, thus wasting everyone’s time.

There are lots of people providing good content on the internet for free and it is inevitable that some mistakes will slip through. What we don’t need is a bunch of people waiting to jump on the slightest mistake and make a big deal out of it, or even worse, try to find fault where the is no fault.

Personally, I don’t mind people contacting me to ask about the contents of my articles. That’s why I have a comments section on the end of each article, a forum and a “Contact” page. What does get on my nerves is when I read posts on other forums where people criticize my articles without bothering to contact me, especially when the criticism is unfounded.

It seems these days we want everything for free, but when we get it we really don’t appreciate it.

Rant over 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

XMen 3 – The Last Stand, and Spiders…

I went to see “XMen 3 – The Last Stand” last night. It was totally brilliant! I loved the previous films, but this one was like the previous films on steroids. Loads more mutants and loads more destruction. Cool…

During the day I went to a 6th birthday party for one of my friends kids. In addition to all the usually party stuff, they got two guys to bring in an assortment of animals from a rescue center. All the kids, and most of the parents loved it. The guys brought a mixed bunch of animals including:

  • Two pythons
  • An African albino hedgehog
  • A skunk
  • A meerkat
  • Lots of cockroaches
  • Several types of tarantulas
  • Two types of scorpions
  • A paraquete

The kids were desperate to hold/touch/feed everything and apart from the scorpians, they got their hands on everything. Having seen a six year old holding two tarantulas, I bit the bullet and held one. I think it’s safe to say that I’m scared shitless of spiders, but it wasn’t half bad. Tarantuals are quite laid back and move very deliberately, not like those nasty house spiders, whose sticky little legs move at ten-to-the-dozen…

As a result of this, I feel moderately less scared of spiders. I guess the next time I find one lurking in the bath I’ll try and pick it up with my hands, rather than a glass and a piece of paper 🙂

Cheers

Tim…