handyfloss

See http://www5.autistici.org/debian-xgl/x86-xgl-pkg/README

d/l .debs from http://www5.autistici.org/debian-xgl/debian/binary-i386/

see http://www5.autistici.org/debian-xgl/

add “/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc/” to the Xgl command in http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_XGL#Running_Xgl, otherwise it gives “could not open default font ‘fixed'”

OK, yesterday I bought a laptop (my first ever), and I am so excited about it! It’s specs:

Fujitsu-Siemes Amilo PI1536
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 2×2.0GHz
RAM: 2x1Gb
HD: 120Gb SATA
Display: 15.4 WXGA
Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 (128Mb dedicated/512Mb shared)

I chose it for its high quality CPU, and half-decent graphics card. It turns out most sellers have a large Core Duo stock, but a pitifully short list of Core 2 Duo models. Hence, they want to sell their already outdated Core models, and offer little choice in Core 2s (and a bit higher prices, although Intel sells them both at similar prices). The little choice in Core 2 Duos made it difficult to me to find what I was looking for, but I finally did.

However, this post is not only dedicated to spread my happiness. I also wanted to praise the Free Software program GParted, which I just used.

As any laptop+Linux user has experienced, usually Windows is pre-installed and shipped with the computer. In my case, I wanted to have it, so no problem with that. The bad part is that, of course, the whole hard disk is usually a single partition, with Windows being in it. Since I wanted to install Linux also, I had to make partitions. Although the laptop came with CDs for all the software that comes pre-installed (Windows included), I wanted to try to resize the Windows partition, and make room for the other partitions, without destroying the Windows installation.

I downloaded an Ubuntu ISO, burned it, then restarted the laptop with it. Good thing of Ubuntu is that its CD is a Live CD, which means that can be run without installing anything in the hard disk. Ubuntu started flawlessly, and I was presented with a GNOME desktop. There, I started GParted, and a simple, yet visually pleasing, GUI opened, and I point-and-clicked all the settings, which took me from:

1x 111Gb partition under NTFS

to:

1x 15Gb (NTFS)
1x 512Mb (swap) probably wasted disk, but oh well…
3x 10Gb (ReiserFS)
1x 50Gb (ReiserFS)
1x 18Gb (NTFS)

This way, the second NTFS partition can be used to store files Windows can access (I have to try if Linux can access that. If not, I’ll reformat with FAT32), and I still have room for three Linux distro installs (10 Gb Reiserfs), and a big home/ that all Linux-es can share.

Now, the delicate part… rebooting into Windows. I held my breath while the computer rebooted, but it did so fine. Windows started without problem, it just performed a disk integrity check at startup (which finished OK), and then said it had found new hardware, which turned out to be the second NTFS partition (the E: drive now). As we are used to with the stupid Windows, I was told to reboot to have the system recognize the recently-discovered hardware. So I did, and it worked!

Now Windows is installed in the 15Gb NTFS partition (and recall I didn’t reinstall anything. What was there, is still there), and sees a second 18Gb partition. As for Linux, I am looking forward to installing Debian, Ubuntu or something…

Today the power supply has failed again, suposedly due to an storm.

Here goes the updated list of blackouts I have been able to compile, with comments if any:

1. 2005-Dec-13
2. 2005-Dec-21
3. 2006-May-26 (The card-based automated access to the Faculty broke down)
4. 2006-Jun-04
5. 2006-Jun-08
6. 2006-Jun-13
7. 2006-Jun-16
8. 2006-Jul-04 (Orpheus didn’t fall)
9. 2006-Sep-14 (Orpheus fell, the DNSs fell, the DHCP servers fell)

Summary: 9 blackouts in 274 days, or 30.4 dpb (days per blackout). 72 days since last blackout. Average dpb went up by 4.9. However, these data might be lacking, for I haven’t recorded the blackouts in August (I was on holiday for three weeks).

First post in the series: here

My weekly movie yesterday consisted in Edison Force (Ciudad sin ley[es]).

Despite the horrible critics it has had, I have to say that I liked it. Well, yes, it offers little more than clichès, and the plot is a little unbelievable at moments… but it is entertaining.

Not the world’s best movie, but worth watching (if there’s nothing better in the theater).

Ayer fui a ver Alatriste (IMDb, FilmAffinity).

No sé si calificar esta peli de genial, o de fracaso total. Como película, globalmente me ha gustado, aunque hay que admitir que cuenta muchas cosas, muy por encima, y muy poco unidas entre sí, lo cual deja una mala impresión.

Lo que más me ha extrañado ha sido la elección de los actores. Diego Alatriste está encarnado por Viggo Mortensen, actorazo estadounidense, gran profesional y mejor persona. Peeero, la idea de poner a un yankee rubio y jovial en el papel de un español moreno y huraño, no sé, es un poco chirriante. Además, Viggo habla castellano, y en la película actúa sin doblaje. El problema es que el acento natural de Viggo es (creo) argentino, con lo cual sus diálogos (aunque impecables) son poco creibles como soldado leonés del XVII.

Siguiendo con selecciones improbables, tenemos a Javier Cámara haciendo de Conde-Duque de Olivares. Cámara es otro actor que me encanta, y se ha de admitir que está muy bien en su papel, pero una vez identificamos a Paco, de “7 vidas” (por no decir al amigo de Torrente) bajo ese bigote, es virtualmente imposible tomar en serio al Conde-Duque, uno de los personajes más poderosos (y serios) de la historia de España.

En tercer lugar tenemos a Quevedo interpretado por Juan Echanove. Con este son tres de tres los grandes actores mal asignados en esta película. Con todo lo que me gusta Echanove, este Quevedo regordete y bonachón no me acaba de convencer como alguien que malvive de su agudo ingenio, que pasa hambre, y que se describe como de genio vivo y proclive a duelos de espadas (al menos en el libro).

Podría haber sido mucho mejor. Lástima, porque el proyecto lo merecía, y los actores lo hacen muy bien.

Yesterday I watched Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, as it was a must-see for me, after the first part, which I liked very much.

I have to say I liked it much (my critic[es] at FilmAffinity), but it lacks originality (this was to be expected). The special effects are superb, and the setting, the script, the costumes and acting all join together to make the story believable (meaning that just the fights and chases are incredible, not the development of the events) and easygoing. Ten points for that.

However, the movie is little more than a clone on steroids of its predecessor Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl: it repeats the “success recipe” of the first part shamelessly. Bad boy, Gore Verbinski!

All in all, very funny and a good pastime, but not as good as the first one.

I’m back to work (and blogging) from a three-week holiday period in Valencia.

I have a couple of things to blog about. I’ll blog them, then try to hack the entries to pretend they were blogged the day I would have blogged them, were I not AFK :^)

UPDATE: silly me, posts can be given any date. It’s not even a “trick”. It’s just an everyday feature.

Today I walked by a photograph development shop, and was struck by an ad they had showing:

Watch out for viruses! Put your digital photos to on paper, lest you lose them to computer failures.

Now, with the advance in popularity of digital photography, it is evident that development shops need to find (or invent) new incentives for attracting fleeing customers, who make do with watching their pics on the computer screen.

However, I think they miss the shot here (see the pun?), and for two reasons:

Paper is a bad format

Hard disks can fail, and digital contents (e.g. pictures), can be lost. However, putting them on paper is hardly a solution. The convenience, comfort and flexibility given by a digital format can not be matched by a paper copy. What if I want to manipulate a picture (say, with the GIMP)? What if I want to send a copy to a friend by e-mail? What if I want to make an arbitrary number of copies for free and with no quality loss?

One could argue that paper is indeed good in some cases, e.g. if we want to be able to watch the pics without turning the computer on. But then, those reasons should be called upon to suport the development shops, not the backup excuse!

Viruses don’t ruin digital content

OK, this is not completely true. With MS Windows, viruses can damage the contents of your hard disk. However, that poor excuse of an OS is hardly the only OS out there, and most others (all others?) are impervious to viruses. Taking care of potential (eventual?) errors in that lame plataform is like putting an airbag in your car because it doesn’t have brakes. Well, yes, the airbag is great (and would be a great improvement, even in a car with brakes), but who in her right mind would drive a car without brakes in first place, for god’s sake!?

Anyway, as mentioned above, hard disks do fail, regardless of the OS they run under, so some backup is highly desirable, that’s true. It just turns out that paper is not suitable for such a task.

The way to go is, obviously, backing up your photos (or whatever) into other digital media, such as another hard disk, a CD, a DVD, etc. No virus or critical error of my stupid OS can delete the photos in a CD sitting on a shelf. The CD can wear out and fail, but it would be too big a coincidence to have it happen the same day your hard disk is also damaged by your (if you use Windows) or your computer’s (if the HD wears out) error.

And if you are paranoid, just make TWO CD backups.

I had resisted the social pressure to start making Sudokus until this August. I just didn’t want to make them “because they are fashionable”.

However, I have finally succumbed, and tried them. I have to say that (unlike my parents, who are hooked), I found them mildly amusing. Yes, they are entertaining, and yes, they can be quite difficult sometimes. I can not say that they bore me because they are too easy, or desperate me because they are too difficult. I enjoy them, just I don’t go crazy over them.

An anecdote about the matter is that one day my father and I went to a newsagent’s looking for a booklet of Sudokus, but found none in the pastimes section. We were puzzled, because Sudokus are such a hit, and a newsagent’s not selling them made no sense. We asked the seller, and she pointed to another section: the Sudoku section. They had devoted a whole section to them! Now, that made sense :^)

Yesterday I watched Tu vida en 65′, a Catalan movie about three young men who mistankenly attend the funeral of a guy they thought was their friend, but isn’t, and some existential questions follow.

I have posted a comment of this movie (in Spanish) at FilmAffinity.com.

The movie is not bad, but it is no masterpiece. Often times “strange” movies are mistaken for “high quality” movies, and I think that this one slips towards the former, rather than the latter.

This is an unconventional movie, with some skillful use of techniques, shots and photography, but some other ingredients are lacking. The story is OK, but the script is irregular, and some things (e.g. the ending) are difficult to understand. There are very humorous moments, and also sad ones, but they just don’t cut it.

The acting is not academy award-winning, but is correct in general. However, I didn’t like the main actor (Javier Pereira), at all. I don’t know if it was the actor’s or the character’s fault, but he had a frightening wako face all through the film. He had the eyes too wide open, and the face of someone expecting something, like one is during the seconds between asking a girl for a date, and her answer… just Pereira has this face the whole 93 minutes.

I expected more from that movie.