Operating System Upgrade Updates

This past weekend was devoted to upgrading computers. My Dell Mini 9 netbook received an upgrade from Ubuntu 9.04 ("Jaunty Jackalope") to the release candidate of 9.10 ("Karmic Koala"), which has to be the best Linux version ever produced. All went well, as expected. The official roll-out of "Karmic Koala" will be this Thursday. I have been playing with Linux in various flavors (Suse, Puppy, Freespire, Ubuntu) for several years now, and this is the first distribution that I think is ready for a mass audience. Canonical has done a very good job of making a nice, useful operating system.

The big surprise, however, was Windows 7. I have a Compaq laptop that shipped with Vista, and I absolutely hated it. Sam's Club had a Win7 upgrade package of three Home Premium licenses for about $123, which I purchased Saturday morning. Some of the Compaq proprietary hardware was problematic with Linux, especially wireless networking, so I needed to keep it in the Windows world, and it only made sense to purchase the 3-pack for $123 when the individual licenses were $109.

I performed the upgrade of the Vista laptop, and all went smoothly. The machine is much faster, the OS uses far less RAM, and this laptop is finally a pleasure to use. Windows 7 has a fresh, clean feel to it, and all of my software works without any problems.

As a result, I also decided to try out Win7 on my wife's Acer Aspire One XP netbook, and it works great. I was not able to upgrade directly from XP, but needed to perform a fresh install. That was no problem since I back up files nightly on a networked external 1 TB drive and also have all of the installation software for her configuration loaded on a USB jump drive. In fact, doing a fresh install, re-loading her software, and restoring her files was quicker than the upgrade from Vista on the Compaq.

I am sure glad that Microsoft got it right this time. I still have the one extra Windows 7 license, but the other machines don't really meet the requirements, and are happy running either Ubuntu or XP, depending upon their roles. We don't seem to ever get rid of computers, I just find a way to deploy them in other capacities, such as one old XP laptop which is used exclusively for our Magic jack VOIP and another somewhat newer XP machine that serves as an amateur radio RMS gateway into the Winlink2000 network.

I am so glad when things work well!

Looks like somebody forgot Rule # 4

There are Four Rules of safe firearms handling. They are:

1) Always treat all firearms as if they are loaded.
2) Never point a firearm at anything that you don't want to destroy.
3) Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on your target.
4) Always be sure of your target, and what lies beyond it.

This story shows why all of these rules are important. Yikes!

Looks like your average Christian bookstore

HT: The Sacred Sandwich

Henry McCarty...

...AKA Billy the Kid.

There have been few other characters in New Mexico history who have evoked as much mystery and intrigue. Two years ago my wife and I were fortunate to attend a special exhibition of historic artifacts, artwork, and pop culture memorabilia related to "the Kid" at the Albuquerque Museum of Art & History.

Now the New Mexico Tourism Department unveils a new website containing lots of neat information, including information about the photograph that led many to believe that Bilyl was left handed for many years. They did a very good job, make sure to check it out.

Two Things That I Learned This Past Week

1) Since 1929, pedestrians have had the right-of-way in Connecticut. (Courtesy of an editorial in the Danbury News-Record.)

2) You cannot buy postcards in Connecticut. (Courtesy of personal experience.)

*****

We spent the past week in Connecticut, visiting the graves of my ancestors (nine generations in three cemeteries), took a side trip to the Boston area to visit my wife's mother's cousin, and also visited with my Dad's cousin. Whenever we visit somewhere on vacation my wife makes it a point to buy a fistful of postcards and then mail them out to family and friends. Most of our travels are in the south or the west, and you can always find postcards at drug stores, grocery stores, tourist traps, etc. However, it appears that this is not the case in Connecticut. Asking clerks in stores resulted in puzzled looks, and one young lady in the Rite-Aide drug store in Danbury told us: "I don't think that I have ever seen a Connecticut post card. We don't get many tourists here."

We also discovered a bit of my wife's family history:

Win BibleWorks 8

Cal.vini.st has a first anniversary contest going on to win one of two copies of BibleWorks 8.

By letting you know about htis contest I earn another chance at winning myself, and there aren't enough of you (my faithful readers) to decrease my chances appreciably.

Update: It appears that there are problems with the domain name of the Cal.vini.st blog. My link is correct, but you cannot access the site right now. Maybe things will be fixed soon.

Additional update: The Cal.vini.st blog is once again available.

Social Networking Explained

In one easy to understand graphic:

Win Books!

Tony Kummer at Devotional Christian is giving away books. Free is good, and a free gift certificate to WTS Books is great.

In addition to the free books, Tony gathers a wealth of excellent devotional material for your perusal.

Is This Why You Have Been Losing Sleep Lately?

Youth Ministry Satire

This might be closer to reality than we would want to admit.


Ignatius from travis hawkins on Vimeo.

"God wants to raise up a generation of flamers...."

Amazing

I am more and more amazed at how this turned out every time that I see it.

A Trillion Dollars

A million here, a billion there.
Ever wonder what a Trillion Dollars looks like?

The Inauguration Highlight

Update: 1/23

Now we find out that this performance was the instrumental equivalent of a "Milli Vanilli lip sync". Wasn't there a ruckus made last year when the Chicoms did the same thing during the opening ceremony for the Olympics?

And to think that I thought that it was the best thing to happen during the coronation inauguration. Silly me, the whole thing was phony.

22 Word Children's Story Challenge

Abraham Piper has posted a challenge to bloggers to create a 22 word children's story. Mine follows below:

The Christmas basket that Timmy's family received was a sign of the love that the church had for Timmy and his Mommy.

Update:

I think that I misunderstood the challenge. Instead of being a story for children, it might be a story about children. As a result:

Toby hit his twin brother Trevor, claiming: "I am just doing what Jesus said, 'do unto others before they do unto you'".

Additional Update:

Abraham has clarified that it can go either way. As a result, I now have both bases covered. However, with 44 words worth of stories I will probably be disqualified.

How to defeat Calvinism

Don't you just love the background music? "I see NOTHING, I know NOTHING."

HT: Truth Matters

Twenty-Three Words

Seeing that I am not as focused as Abraham Piper, it takes me twenty-three words to get my message into the blogosphere.

(Almost) Like Crack Cocaine

We have been on the road the past week, visiting family in Missouri. On Sunday night we found ourselves in the vicinity of Lambert's Cafe in Ozark. Since we had eaten at the Sikeston Lamberts during a church building trip in 1988 we decided to see if this other location was as memorable as the first.

Recognize that in 1988 the line for the restaurant wrapped twice around the building, and we stood in line with people from five or six states for a little over an hour. This time there wasn't a line, but a sign-up booth. We were told that the wait would be 30-40 minutes, and then found a seat on the porch. In about 25 minutes our name was called, and we were ushered to our table. I had barely warmed my seat when a steaming hot dinner roll was tossed in my direction. I am glad that I was expecting it, due to our prior dining experience, and my heightened reaction time allowed me to make a clean catch. Also, even before our order was taken a nice young person with a bucket full of fried okra came by and deposited some on the paper towels that we ripped off of the roll on our table.

We ordered dinner and coffee, and were very quickly served. The coffee was the hottest that I have ever been served, and came in a 32 oz. insulated mug. The dinner portions were huge, and accompanied by additional servings of okra, macaroni and tomatoes, fried potatoes, and black eyed peas that were circulating through the restaurant. Additionally, the roll thrower was busy tossing them across the aisles.



Towards the end of our meal I had one more roll, and when my wife looked at me askance I told both the young man tossing them and our server that they were like crack cocaine! Of course, my wife then wanted to know how I could make that comparison, and I could only plead that this observation was not grounded in experience, but that they appeared to be as addictive.






If you want to know more, check out the Lambert's website.

I have never been tempted to try crack cocaine, but I know that I would never pass up a Lambert's throwed roll!

Please note that Lambert's Cafe does not take credit cards, but will take a check from anywhere in the country, with proper ID.

Free Book

I was fortunate to be chosen at the end of May as the recipient of several books from Reformation Heritage Bookstore as a result of my participation in the 2008 Puritan Reading Challenge. One of these is Meet the Puritans by Beeke and Pederson. I already own a copy of this magnificent book, and have decided that I am going to give away this pristine extra copy (I haven't even drooled on it!). I will even pay the shipping stateside, and will consider paying shipping overseas if it won't break the bank.

Here is what you need to do to be eligible. Post a comment to this thread between now and the end of July stating that you want to be considered. I will pick one entry at random, using some type of sophisticated methodology (possibly involving a mayonaisse jar on Funk & Wagnall's porch) at the beginning of August.

Just post a comment, you don't even need to write anything profound. Make sure that you provide your email address so that I will be able to contact you to obtain your shipping information.

Don't thank me, thank Timmy Brister and the good folks at Reformation Heritage. Better yet, give thanks to God.

Maybe this will generate less controversy...

I'm a Ford Mustang!

You're an American classic -- fast, strong, and bold. You're not snobby or pretentious, but you have what it takes to give anyone a run for their money.

"Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

(I am a Ford man, but more of the F-150/Escape variety.)