ernunnos

It's not all tiny laptops around here. Have you guys heard Santogold? Her other songs have a strong resemblance to M.I.A., but in this one she sounds more like Siouxsie Sioux's daughter. Either is a good thing in my opinion.

ernunnos

I will say, the Eee PC community rocks.

That's one of the nice things about going with Asus instead of one of their newer competitors. There's already a couple million of these things out there, with a very loyal fan base, so tech support is free for the Googling.

Getting the VPN client to work was no trouble at all. Got in on the first try.

That won't stop me from complaining about what I get for free though. One of the prettified startup scripts for vpnc has the following bit of common shell scripting silliness...

vpn_running=$(ps xa | grep -v grep | grep vpnc-connect | awk '{print $1}')
if test $vpn_running > 0
then
...

( Spot the problem? )

ernunnos

So I want to put Firefox 3 on my new Eee PC.

To put it on my Macbook, I went to getfirefox.com, clicked the download link for Mac OS X. It dumped a big Firefox icon on my desktop, I opened it, and dragged the Firefox application into my applications directory. And from there, onto my task bar. Done. About 2 minutes, including download time.

I wasn't even sure the proper way to install new applications with a graphical Linux. So I start Googling, and find out that Firefox 3 won't even work on Xandros, the version of Linux the Eee PC comes with. It needs GTK+ 2.10 and Xandros only has GTK+ 2.8. (WTF is GTK+, you might well ask?) Some people were actually compiling it from scratch, but it looks like someone else (Not Asus or Firefox) has thoughtfully created a couple of Debian packages (WTF is a Debian, you might well ask?) to update GTK "automatically".

If by "automatically" you mean download ten different files, opening a command line window (and I actually had to Google to find out how to do that in the graphical interface), navigating to your download directory, and typing a cryptic looking command. Which, BTW, doesn't work on the first try. But despite the scary spew of errors, there's nothing really wrong: You just have to do it twice. And if you really only need 8 of those files. One of the 10 is actually a non-essential sudoku program, and another is Firefox itself. If you download it and open it with the handy Xandros installer wizard instead of from the command line, it will even install a new icon in the dashboard for you.

Very slick. And it fires up Firefox just fine when you click it. Except... it's still version 2.0.

So I run Firefox 3 from the command line, and it still launches Firefox 2. And that's where I am right now, digging around through Mozilla startup scripts line by line, trying to figure out why it's finding the old binaries instead of the new ones that are sitting right there.

Buy a Mac.

Update: Duh. I had Firefox 2 open. When I started it, it opened a new window instead of a new copy of Firefox 3. Shut down the old Firefox, the new one starts right up. I'm not used to things I start from the command line being quite that... helpful.

ernunnos

I use Linux every day, but not on the desktop. It's all command-line stuff on servers. I wanted to expand my horizons, explore the world of desktop Linux, so I got the Linux version of the Eee PC instead of Windows.

After only a few minutes, I can tell you that it's not ready for prime time.

Take wireless.

To get d_to_tha_b's 901 on my home network, I clicked around the tray icons until I found one that looked like a signal strength meter. It came up with a list of detected networks and signal strengths, I selected mine, typed in my password, and it connected.

To get my 901 on my home network, I clicked over to the settings tab, clicked the big convenient icon marked "Wireless". It came up with a list of detected networks and signal strengths, I selected mine, typed in my password, and... nothing.

Ok, there's a "details" button. I clicked, and it showed me a cryptic series of network startup log messages that clearly indicated that the graphical utility I was using was just a wrapper for command-line tool. Ugly. I noticed it wasn't able to log in with my password, and that it was trying to use WEP authentication instead of WPA. I had forgotten to select WPA from the drop-down box on the password screen. Doh. Of course, Windows didn't even bother to offer, automatically selecting the right one for me. At no point did the Linux wireless application alert me to the fact that my password had failed, or offer me a chance to re-enter it.

In fact, I couldn't find a place to re-enter it. When I selected the network again, and hit connect, it just tried again. There was no properties button. Right-clicking did nothing. Then I noticed there was a separate "Networks" icon under settings. Ah-ha! And opening it revealed a big settings page with all sorts of info and a "Wireless" tab! With a password field! Change to WPA, hit "connect"... nothing. Hit "details", some message about the device already being in use. Oh, probably the other network application. Switch over, shut it down, come back, and finally, connect works.

This took less time for me to do than it does to describe, and it's exactly the kind of every day issue I wanted to survey on desktop Linux, so it wasn't a waste of time for me. I'm learning something here, and I'm passing it on.

But Steve Jobs would choke a bitch.

expatsjapan [getoutofmyband]

[	Tags	|	allergies, anti-depressants, anxiety, doctor, food allergies, health, nuts	]
[	Current Location	|	Quebec, Canada	]
[	Current Mood	|	curious	]

My friend is leaving on a trip to Japan in 2 weeks. She has FATAL NUTS ALLERGIES and she was informed that the medication she usually has on her is ILLEGAL in Japan?! Like Epipen and Benadryl. Is that true? Does she really have to get prescription papers from her doctor to get into Japan with these???

Also... she heard that most japanese were unaware of nuts allergies because it's not common over there. So is there chances that they will LIE and say something doesn't have nuts to try and "accomodate" you when you try to order something without nuts at a restaurant? Even if you tell them you're allergic? o__O; I know you could say "kore wa nat'tsu ga arimasu ka?" (does this contain nuts?) "nat'tsu arerugi ga arun desu yo." (I'm allergic to nuts) "nat'tsu nuki de onegaishimasu" (without nuts please) but will they really check the food? would they really make something without nuts for one person?

( Found this scary info on the net )

What food/places should my friend avoid? (I know curry sauce is usually made with peanuts and stuff like karaage *friend chicken* and tempura are often deep fried in nuts oil. what else?)

Second thing, she needs to take anxiety medicine too (such as Effexor). She heard that this stuff might be illegal too??? o__O; WTF... anxiety & depression is common in Japan so why wouldn't Japan allow anti-anxiety/anti-depressant medicine??? D:

She REALLY needs these pills. Especially her Epipen and she doesn't want to smuggle her meds into Japan.

Can someone please help us get info about that? She's leaving in 2 weeks. So it's pretty URGENT.

Thanks ALOT!

~Maki~

EDIT: I called the Japan embassy in Montreal, Canada but they couldn't tell me much. They just confirmed that nuts allergies were not common in Japan and thus people wouldn't understand/care as much as people here in Canada. :S They also couldn't tell me what meds were legal/illegal to bring. :/

x-posted to my journal

ernunnos

Drummers beat footballers in fitness levels

Boffins connected musicians, including Blondie's drummer Clem Burke, to equipment measuring their heart rate, oxygen up-take, and the levels of lactic acid in their blood as they played a set.

The stress caused to their body as they played was then compared to top athletes such as Premiership footballers.

It was found that the drummers' heart rates were raised to as high as 190 beats per minute and they could burn off 600 calories in a performance.

The eight-year study on Burke revealed that drumming for an hour-and-a-half raised his heart rate to the same level as footballer Cristiano Ronaldo in a typical league game.

Dr Marcus Smith from Chichester University in Britain, who helped to carry out the research, said: "They [footballers] find playing a Champions League game once every two weeks a drain, but musicians are doing it every day when they are on tour. Their fitness levels need to be outstanding." </p>

Scientists discovered that Burke's heart rate raced at between 140 and 150 beats per minute -- but could peak at 190. And he burned on average 400 to 600 calories per hour when beating the skins.

Despite the image of rock stars as unhealthy and unfit, Dr Smith said they needed "extraordinary stamina".

It is hoped the research, which is backed by the British government, will help develop programmes for overweight children who are not interested in sport.

Dr Smith, who is a Blondie fan, invited Clem Burke to take part in the research. Burke provided the beat for hits such as 'Heart of Glass', 'Atomic' and 'Call Me'.

I can see that, actually. I've said before that I need more sleep after I've been playing Rock Band, and just thinking about a straight 90 minutes of expert level drumming makes me tired.