Jeff’s Amazing blog

I’m not a distro hopper. I don’t run out and try every new version of Linux that comes out. Just not my style these days. I run Debian. Debian works. End of story.

I just rebuilt my main desktop though, and with tons of processor and RAM and a new mostly empty hard drive I’ve been getting the itch to try something else out. Fedora 11 released a couple days ago and I’ve always liked Fedora (I ran Core 1 up through Fedora 6 before switching to Debain) so I grabbed the x86_64 install DVD off of bittorrent yesterday.

Tonight I started the install and everything seemed familiar. Nice blue graphical installer and Fedora graphics. Just enough options to get things done right but not enough to confuse you. I picked mostly default options, but did a custom partition layout (just one big ext3 primary partition for /) and edited the grub configuration (so I could still boot Debian) but that’s about it. I was surprised that although ext4 is the default, you can’t use it as a bootable partition. So I picked ext3.

There’s a page where you configure installation repositories and in addition to the “Installation Repo” (which is the install DVD) I added x86_64 and x86_64 Updates. It set up networking and downloaded repo information and everything seemed fine. Finally I clicked OK and it started installing packages. The install really seemed to fly.

A short while later I saw a window pop up that told me there was an uncaught exception. Looking at the details I saw a python stack trace and what seemed to be some problem with setting the root password. I thought maybe I didn’t enter the password right (which should have been checked a few steps earlier when I set the password) so I just exited the installer and tried again.

This time I paid closer attention and did things pretty much as before. This time things went along smoothly but when it went to resolve dependencies to install packages a different error window popped up. This time there were package conflicts. Some files in the Gconf2-2.26 package were conflicting with files from Gconf2_dbus-2.16. Seems pretty strange that there would be unresolved dependencies from the install media.

So I rebooted and tried again. Third times a charm, right? Well apparently not this time. I ran into the same dependency problem so I backed up and unchecked the extra repositories, choosing to install only from the DVD. Surely the install DVD didn’t have packages that conflicted. I was wrong. I got the same error.

Finally I went back and unchecked the DVD as a repo and chose only the online repos to install from. It took a lot longer to prepare and I thought I was in business. No luck. Same error.

Between the second and third attempts I let the installer check the install DVD to make sure it was OK and it was fine.

Since then I checked the Fedora website as they usually have a list of known problems and mine wasn’t listed.

So… busted installer? Bad release? Problems because the repositories are overloaded this soon after the release? It’s hard to tell. I can’t say I’ll rush back to try it again in a few weeks, but if I hear through the grapvine that the problems have been fixed, I might try again. Until then, Debian testing still works just fine.

For the curious my system is an Asus M4A78 Plus motherboard with a fresh BIOS upgrade, AMD Phenom 8650 triple core, 4 gigs RAM and a Seagate Barracuda 250G SATA drive. The graphics card is an Asus EN8400GS with 512 megs and an nVidia 8400GS chipset.

I get paralyzed in the procrastination of perfectionism when I look at this blog. So much has happened that I can’t say anything without explaining months of history. To counteract this craziness here’s a quick update.

I’ve been divorced for nearly 2 months now. I don’t feel like discussing it here (although it would be fun) but it affects so much of my life that it must be said.

So for more than 9 months I’ve been rebuilding my life from scratch (again). Not only have I moved but I’ve had to replace a lot of my stuff. When you decide to become one with someone you no longer need 2 of everything, so a lot of my stuff got vetoed when I got married.

I’ve started working from home which is a huge change. It’s not my first choice, but it’s the way my department is going so I felt I could no longer buck the trend.

I realize more and more that being with other people is critical to my happiness, so I’ve had to do lots of work to deal with this solitary life-style. It’s been overwhelming at times but there are advantages to being able to recreate yourself. I feel like I went through this just a few years ago when I got married so I’ve been able to revive the parts of my former single life-style that were good, and scrap the rest.

I’ve started running again which not only makes me feel good about myself, it helps me get out and be with people. I’ve got a guy I run with once a week and I’m running my second 5K for the year this coming weekend.

I’ve started hiking with a group of guys once or twice a month which is really great. I got hooked on hockey and followed the Cincinnati Cyclones through the playoffs. I now have more time to get things done on the computer, but the more time I spend the more projects I come up with. I’m currently running Debian testing (64 bit) on a newly rebuilt AMD Phenom system, which should be more than enough for a few years.

I’ve also changed churches basically because my new church is a lot more involved in many of the things I’m interested in.

I’m grateful to be completely out of debt and have a stable job through all this. I’m also glad to have a lot of friends who have given me tremendous support. I guess we’ll see where it goes from here.

A: Two days ago I got out of bed and it was 4 degrees F and everything was frozen. Today it’s 48 and raining.

You combine many different characteristics and you always want it all: absolute power and control. You neutralise anyone who gets in your way, using your many and varied contacts.

Thanks to 5chw4r7z

I was walking around my neighborhood the other day and found a 30 gig iPod laying in the street. Here is what they look like from the inside.

Looks like the hard drive might still be funcional. Anyone know how to access it so I can get all the nice Apple DRMed Britney songs off it?

After an hour of standing in line I cast my vote today. I didn’t comment before the elections, but most people have made up their minds by now, so here goes.

Last presidential election I voted based on one or two specific issues and I got George Bush. It seemed right at the time. It certainly takes a lot of the work off of me. I don’t like the results, though. I don’t feel George Bush upheld the moral beliefs I have.

I have a friend who is passionate about abortion and that’s why he’s voting for John McCain. He’s a Christian and it’s his sacred belief that abortion is always wrong. He goes on and on about it. For the record, the Bible doesn’t have anything to say about abortion or the “sanctity of human life.” Just read it and it won’t take too long before God orders Israel to kill entire nations and destroy all their stuff. That’s a topic for another post, though.

My religious beliefs are central to who I am, but I don’t think God wants me to care about just a few pet Christian issues. That kind of black and white thinking is one of the things Jesus challenged people over. Look at when he broke the law by working on the sabbath to show people things aren’t always cut and dried.

So this time I decided to consider everything each candidate had to say and compare their platforms. I planned on reading the policies on the issues from both McCain and Obama’s web sites, but I didn’t have the time to read every word. I did read a lot of the top issues for me and compare point by point and build up a tally.

What I found is that I agree with Barack Obama more than I agree with John McCain. Obama’s policies are complete and well thought out. He is intelligent and more willing to speak the hard truth (neither candidate is willing to be completely honest about how screwed this nation is).

I find McCain’s policies to be behind the times and out of touch. He’s still calling for a Summer gas tax holiday as part of his economic plan. Has no one told him the summer is over? He also plans on increasing the value of the dollar so we can buy more. Is there some switch you can flip in Washington that regulates how much the dollar is worth?

I’ve read economists who believe Obama’s economic policy will have more effect per dollar spent than McCain’s. That’s important to me. I really like Obama’s stance on education. His energy policy is much better (hint: if oil and nuclear power were the answer, we wouldn’t have a problem).

I could go on, but the point is I voted for a man and his ideas, not his stance on one issue. You may disagree, but spend your vote however you want.

I’m going to light a cigar, pour me a beer and wait for the results to come in.

I don’t know where I come up with this stuff. Apparently canned fish is becoming currency in some prisons. Sounds like a joke, but I think the article is legit.

 Read the article here.