ShipIt dot Ubuntu dot com

The postman delivered another package for me, the other day.

As I wrote earlier, you can request a set of Ubuntu cds, to be posted to you, completely free of charge. Just register, fill in your address, the amount of cds you want to receive, and you’re done!
So I did that a few weeks ago, and now I’ve got 5 boxes, each containing one install cd and one live cd of Ubuntu 5.10 “Breezy Badger”!

Kubuntu

Last week I installed Kubuntu on my home pc. Last month, (K)Ubuntu version 5.10 “The Breezy Badger” was released.

The installation was without much trouble. The only problem I have is with my Abit Hotrod IDE controller. Because my harddisks are connected to that instead of the onboard controller, they are /dev/hde and /dev/hdg. I have had these problems before with other distributions, and back then I had to download a bootfloppy-image with the correct support for this controller, before I could even start the installation.

None of that now, luckily. I booted from the cd, it detected my disks, installed everything, no problem.

EULA

Found on Slashdot: End User License Gems.

There’s an article about statements in End User License Agreements – you know, the things you should actually read before you click “I agree”. Some companies really want you to agree to the most insane statements. I seriously think that some of these are, in fact, against the law.

User manual translation

This afternoon, we got a nice little package in the mail.
Because we ordered ADSL a few weeks ago, we received a free MP3 player. Nothing special, some unknown brand, but still a very nice, 256 MB MP3 player.
That’s not what this entry is about, however. It’s about the user manual…

It seems to me that the manual has been translated from Chinese, via Japanese, Italian, Portuguese, to French, then Russian, back to Chinese, Korean and finally to English. Let me quote (yes, literally) from the manual:

Not need to drive the USB dish function
need not to manage the procedure, can pass the “my computer “directly “can move dish” proceed the document operate, having no need in WIN2000 above system gearing the procedure

Encrypt the dish mode
make use of with the supplementary tool in machine, can be direct to divide the dish as two dishes, combine to encrypt an among those, conceal the space, keep to encrypt the part not been seen from, but conceal the secret

recording/reply to read
can pass the microphone recording and keep to WAV and ACT speech text file of the format, the eligibility chooses the part replies to read or contrast to reply to read

Boycott Internet Explorer

My advice is simple: Boycott IE. It’s a cancer on the Web that must be stopped. IE isn’t secure and isn’t standards-compliant, which makes it unworkable both for end users and Web content creators.
(…)
You can turn the tide by demanding more from Microsoft and by using a better alternative Web browser. I recommend and use Mozilla Firefox, but Apple Safari (Macintosh only) and Opera 8 are both worth considering as well.

I totally agree with Paul Thurrott, I couldn’t say it any better myself.

(From Slashdot.)

Why I use Jabber

This is the reason I don’t use MSN Messenger!

Read through the comments of this blog entry (in Dutch)… Are these people for real?!?

Microsoft security

Sheesh!

It is of course a well-known fact that Microsoft cares a great deal about security. I mean, there are so very few bugs in Internet Explorer, Windows is renowned for its stability, Microsoft always realeses security updates and patches (for the few bugs that might perhaps sometimes occur) very quickly. It’s just… perfect!

But just as the “solution” to an earlier problem, I wrote about, they have again come up with a great idea: they will give the standard user in Longhorn more rights, in the hope that people will less often log in as Administrator.

Oookay… so you give the users more rights, so that they will have less rights… But at least, even normal users will now have enough rights to f*ck up the system!

Oh well, as if Microsoft ever really got an idea about user rights and permissions.

I mean, “registry” — need I say more? OK, how about “Windows\System” directory?

source: WebWereld (in Dutch)

gmail turns one

Darn!

Just yesterday, I was pleased to see that I had finally reached 50% usage of my Gmail storage space.

But today, Gmail turns one, and to celebrate that, they’re increasing the storage space for every user!

To celebrate our one-year birthday, we’re giving everyone one more gigabyte. (…) Our plan is to continue growing your storage beyond 2GBs by giving you more space as we are able.

So, unfortunately, I am already down to 45% by now… No, 44%… and dropping.

Wireless

Oh, how wonderful!

After a couple of weeks of fumbling around with a 15 meter long cable all through my house, after my old access point died, I can now finally work wireless again. Right now, I am sitting on the sofa in my living room – without any wires!

I just installed the wireless router I bought this afternoon, the Asus WL-500g. I still have to install my printer on the USB port, and perhaps once a USB harddisk for an FTP- or webserver.

For more info about installing a webserver on the WL-500g, check out this link or this one. (Via Binnenweg Blog.)

Digital television

Last week I was called by someone from KPN, telling me that I could try out digital television for free, for eight days.

With digital television, of course, the image quality should be better than with normal, old-fashioned, analog tv. It also includes digital radio, providing superior sound quality. And all that for less than what I pay to my (analog) cable company!

So I said yes. Why not try it for free?