I’m just getting to know my new fedora core 5. Some of the stuff is cool like laptop suspend works, and some of it is not so cool. Unfortunately, there’s more uncool than cool.

Backstory: I’ve never been a real fan of redhat. back when jlg sent me to get my RHCE, i wasn’t all that into it. You go in, you learn 30% linux and 70% redhat specific tools. It seems the trend is not reversing.

So, the first stumbling block was my clock dockapp. I’ve been using asclock since, well, since i’ve been using linux. asclock is nice. it’s simple. it no longer can be compiled in fedora core 5. why? because of this:

21.4.2. Imake

The imake utility is no longer used to build the X Window System, and is now officially deprecated. X11R7 includes imake, xmkmf, and other build utilities previously supplied by the X Window System. X.Org highly recommends, however, that people migrate from imake to use GNU autotools and pkg-config. Support for imake may be removed in a future X Window System release, so developers are strongly encouraged to transition away from it, and not use it for any new software projects.

and so, the just removed it. now, usually, you can go get a -compat rpm to get all that once was and is no longer. well, that’s no longer. it’s gone. gone for good. farewell, my time telling friend.

The next hurdle i stumbled upon was no more xscreensaver. now, honestly, i don’t really mind. I mean i was pissed when they ditched xlock. You went from typing ‘xlock’ to lock your screen to having to type ‘xscreensaver &’ to start the daemon and then you had to type ‘xscreensaver-command –lock’ to lock you screen. I mean, wtf? that sucks. so, no tear for xscreensaver. however, what did they move to, you ask?

The latest versions of GNOME Power Manager (http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnome-power-manager/) and GNOME Screensaver(http://live.gnome.org/GnomeScreensaver/) provide new and integrated power management capabilities.

excuse me? some people don’t want to run gnome, you insensitive clod!

This, of course, hits a soft spot with me. anything gnome hits a soft spot. why would anyone in their right mind want to be handicapped by this inferrior product that’s been designed by fools who have turned themselves over to ms windows ui programmer wannabes? everything they do is a rip of windows. heck, they even went retro windows 3.1 style with spacial nautilis. but, hey, let’s not go there.

Next up is something that was promising and now . . . sigh:

7.4. NetworkManager

Fedora systems use Network Manager to automatically detect, select, and configure wired and wireless network connections. Wireless network devices may require third-party software or manual configuration to activate after the installation process completes. For this reason, Fedora Core 5 provides Network Manager as an optional component.

Refer to http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Tools/NetworkManager for more information on how to install and enable Network Manager.

So it sounds great, right? except, the only interface into this thing is an icon in the gnome task bar. great. You insensitive clod! also, on a style note, every daemon since the beginning of time has used an all lower case nameing convention. WHY MUST YOU BREAK IT! . . . YOU INSENSITIVE CLOD! I mean, is it so hard to follow a naming convention?!?

I wish things stopped there. I really did . . . but read on my young companions, for we are soon to hit the creme de la creme:

7.7. No automatic fstab editing for removable media

The fstab-sync facility has been removed. In Fedora Core , the fstab-sync program is removed in favor of desktop specific solutions for mounting removable media. Entries for hotplug devices or inserted media are no longer automatically added to the /etc/fstab file. Command-line users may migrate to gnome-mount, which provides similar functionality.

are you f-ing kidding me? wait, let me read that again . . . are you f-ing kidding me?!? why? . . . wha . . . why?!? since when is mounting devices an excerise left to the window manager? The window manager?!? I mean integrating a browser rendering engine into your OS to display a graphical view of your filesystem make more sense than letting your window manager mount your filesystems. not only that, but i will be damned if i ever type the words ‘gnome’ and ‘mount’ on the same line.

So, that being said, any recommendations? I hear Ubuntu is all the rage these days. Don’t anyone say Gentoo. i don’t have time for that shit. on this box, i’d be compiling for days.

Once again my morning session with KCBS managed to garner my ire. This time is was a story about CBS’ online streaming of the NCAA tournament free of charge. y’know, kinda like watching television is free of charge?

anyway, the story goes on and they bring in another analyst who’s just singing the praises of CBS. Granted there is a bit of conflict of interest considering KCBS is owned by CBS, but whatever. what really got me was when this analyst said, “This is a brilliant move by cbs.”

Brilliant? . . . Really? . . . Brilliant?!? No, this is not brilliance, this is mother fucking common sense! I mean any fool you ask would tell you that they’d want to see what they want, whenever they want to (tivo, anyone?). Giving the people what they want is brilliant? No. Relativity, that’s brilliant. String theory, that’s brilliant.  Ron Artest-for-Peja and the latest Burger Kings commercials are brilliant. There’s nothing brilliant about CBS streaming. In fact, I bet you the engineers at CBS have been trying to make this happen for years. I also bet you the people who stopped those engineers are the same spineless folk who are going to take the credit for making this “Brilliant” move.

Which brings me to another question: why am i getting so ticked off by AM radio these days?

is the non-repeating shuffle. like, when you click the “shuffle” button on your music player, i want it to shuffle and not repeat songs. if i wanted shuffle to repeat songs, i’d hit the shuffle AND repeat buttons on my darn music player. I fail to understand why no one can do this.

actually, I’m going to be greedy. you know what else I want? I want to be able to create song blocks that i can use in shuffle mode. i want to be able to tell my music player that, when in shuffle mode, if you play song X, play song Y after. I guess I want meta-songs.

By the way, shuffle on YME seems to suck more than usual. while writing this post, i’ve heard two songs repeated twice. can a brother get some variance? where’s the plugin api for this thing? i need to go fix this.

After much ado and 111+ minutes on the phone with cingular, i’m finally a proud sim card carrying member!

so far, this thing has been pretty fun. it’s also an mp3 player . . . and you can set an mp3 as your ringtone. i might be the first person ever to have The Heat as my ringtone.

now, just have to flash and unlock this puppy, and i’m set.

oh, and, yes, that is a beard papa’s phone dangly thing there. that place is the shit.

UPDATE: I might also be the first person ever to have HTMC as my ringtone!

I’m livid right now. apparently, none of those cvs assclowns thought to make cvs add recursive. what. the. fuck.

additionally, none of those assclowns thought to make cvs add smart either. It can’t tell the difference between new files and old files. so if you create 50 new files in a directory that already has one old file, you have to issue 50 cvs adds! what. the. fuck.

it’s amazing how little respect i have for those cvs people. is there not a competitve bone in their bodies? i’m looking at there NEWS file and there’s no feature development whatsoever. no wonder everyone’s trying to find something else.

getting from ogre to onion is not easy. especially when low on sleep and/or doing push-ups every fifteen minutes. unfortunately, time is not on my side either.

i think part of the problem is that when making the conversion, you lose some of the essence that is ogre, and you end up with ogrion and not an ogre-onion.

who wants an ogrion?

Yahoo! Mail Beta just launched to a select few. you can find screenshots and reviews here, and you can sign up to be next here.

I didn’t have anything to do with it. but i’ve been using it for the past month or so, and it’s the bee’s knees.

from witch hunt to ms hunt. Not all of them are winners, but those kids in MA come up with good ideas every once in a while.