Dang’s Weblog

Update on my shiny new laptop. I booted up the 2005.1-pre3 amd64 ISO last night, and it booted up fine. It detected the ethernet (although obviously not the wireless), and I did the install with no real issues. Overnight, I built Gnome, again no issues. This morning, I tried to install the ati-drivers to configure X, but they were a no-go. They claimed the XPRESS 200M card was not supported. The vesa driver worked, but only got me 1024×768, not the 1280×768 that the LCD supports.

A bit of googling later, I discovered that the newest version of the ati-drivers (8.14.13) doesn’t support that card. However, there is a version (8.13.4) that *does* support them. Time to downgrade. This time, I made progress. The kernel module loaded (and found the hardware). However, X wouldn’t start, giving no usable error. Back at google, I discovered that people had trouble with hardware acceleration, so I disabled dri and drm, and it worked! I now have X running at the native resolution.

Later on, I’ll set up a page for getting the hardware of this laptop to work. Hopefully, it’ll save others some trouble.

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Well, I have a new laptop today. Why a new laptop, you ask? What was wrong with my old one? Well, nothing was wrong with it, per se. However, since I became and amd64 dev for Gentoo, I’ve been hampered in my work by not using amd64 as my primary workstation. Instead, I had a Centrino laptop. So, I started saving up my money, and looking for deals.

What I have is a Compaq V2311US. It’s a 1.6 GHz Turion, with 60GB HD, DVD/CD-RW, 512 MB of RAM (soon to be 1 GB when I swap the RAM from my current laptop), and a 14-inch widescreen. It has that hateful broadcom wireless that all AMD laptops seem to have, so I’ll have to do something else for wireless. I have several supported PC Cards, and I have a spare ipw2100 miniPCI card (and an ipw2200 in my centrino), so I’ll manage something. Hopefully, the broadcom reverse-engineering project will work. It’s only 5.5 lbs, making it a good 2 lbs lighter than my current laptop, for which my shoulder will love me. Hopefully, the smaller screen realestate (1280×800 rather than 1680×1050) won’t be too big an issue to my workflow. Can anyone say small fonts?

At any rate, after booting it up into Windows to make sure it all worked, I’ve nuked Windows and am installing Gentoo. Currently, I’m building gcc. Hopefully, I’ll be able to distcc it with my desktop, and get all of my normal environment built by tomorrow morning. Cross your fingers.

So far, at full load, it runs slightly cooler and slightly quieter than my P-M at full load. People have asked about battery life, but I don’t have any figures yet, as I haven’t unplugged it yet. More info later, as I get to play more.

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So, we went to the zoo today. Janette’s company picnic was at the Toledo Zoo, so we got in free. It was definitely interesting. Among other things, Morgan *loves* animals, so it was quite an experience for her. She really liked the tigers (cats are her favorite), the polar bear (because it was big and moving) and the komodo dragon (because it was close to the glass). She also liked the petting zoo.

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“Un-<beep>ing censored.”

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From here:

italicize the ones you saw, bold the ones you actually liked.

Titanic (1997) – $600,779,824
Star Wars (1977) – $460,935,665
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) – $434,949,459
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) – $431,065,444
Spider-Man (2002) – $403,706,375
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) – $377,019,252
Passion of the Christ, The (2004) – $370,025,697
Jurassic Park (1993) – $356,784,000
Shrek 2 (2004) – $356,211,000
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002) – $340,478,898
Finding Nemo (2003) – $339,714,367
Forrest Gump (1994) – $329,691,196
Lion King, The (1994) – $328,423,001
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) – $317,557,891
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) – $313,837,577
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) – $310,675,583
Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983) – $309,125,409
Independence Day (1996) – $306,124,059
Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) – $305,411,224
Sixth Sense, The (1999) – $293,501,675
Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980) – $290,158,751
Home Alone (1990) – $285,761,243
Matrix Reloaded, The (2003) – $281,492,479
Shrek (2001) – $267,652,016
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) – $261,970,615
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) – $260,031,035
Jaws (1975) – $260,000,000
Monsters, Inc. (2001) – $255,870,172
Batman (1989) – $251,188,924
Men in Black (1997) – $250,147,615
Toy Story 2 (1999) – $245,823,397
Bruce Almighty (2003) – $242,589,580
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) – $242,374,454
Twister (1996) – $241,700,000
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) – $241,437,427
Ghost Busters (1984) – $238,600,000
Beverly Hills Cop (1984) – $234,760,500
Cast Away (2000) – $233,630,478
Lost World: Jurassic Park, The (1997) – $229,074,524
Signs (2002) – $227,965,690
Rush Hour 2 (2001) – $226,138,454
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) – $219,200,000
Ghost (1990) – $217,631,306
Aladdin (1992) – $217,350,219
Saving Private Ryan (1998) – $216,119,491
Mission: Impossible II (2000) – $215,397,30
X2 (2003) – $214,948,780
Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) – $213,079,163
Back to the Future (1985) – $210,609,762
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) – $205,399,422
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) – $204,843,350
Exorcist, The (1973) – $204,565,000
Mummy Returns, The (2001) – $202,007,640
Armageddon (1998) – $201,573,391
Gone with the Wind (1939) – $198,655,278
Pearl Harbor (2001) – $198,539,855
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – $197,171,806
Toy Story (1995) – $191,800,000
Men in Black II (2002) – $190,418,803
Gladiator (2000) – $187,670,866
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) – $184,925,485
Dances with Wolves (1990) – $184,208,848
Batman Forever (1995) – $184,031,112
Fugitive, The (1993) – $183,875,760
Ocean’s Eleven (2001) – $183,405,771
What Women Want (2000) – $182,805,123
Perfect Storm, The (2000) – $182,618,434
Liar Liar (1997) – $181,395,380
Grease (1978) – $181,360,000
Jurassic Park III (2001) – $181,166,115
Mission: Impossible (1996) – $180,965,237
Planet of the Apes (2001) – $180,011,740
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) – $179,870,271
Pretty Woman (1990) – $178,406,268
Tootsie (1982) – $177,200,000
Top Gun (1986) – $176,781,728
There’s Something About Mary (1998) – $176,483,808
Ice Age (2002) – $176,387,405
Crocodile Dundee (1986) – $174,635,000
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) – $173,585,516
Elf (2003) – $173,381,405
Air Force One (1997) – $172,888,056
Rain Man (1988) – $172,825,435
Apollo 13 (1995) – $172,071,312
Matrix, The (1999) – $171,383,253
Beauty and the Beast (1991) – $171,301,428
Tarzan (1999) – $171,085,177
Beautiful Mind, A (2001) – $170,708,996
Chicago (2002) – $170,684,505
Three Men and a Baby (1987) – $167,780,960
Meet the Parents (2000) – $166,225,040
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) – $165,500,000
Hannibal (2001) – $165,091,464
Catch Me If You Can (2002) – $164,435,221
Big Daddy (1999) – $163,479,795
Sound of Music, The (1965) – $163,214,286
Batman Returns (1992) – $162,831,698
Bug’s Life, A (1998) – $162,792,677
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) – $161,963,000
Waterboy, The (1998) – $161,487,252

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The light dawns. That’s the clearest explaination I’ve seen yet of why we can’t get any clear information from our media. It would appear that only comedians are free to question the “Moral Majority” and get paid for it.

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What’s the deal with transparency in GUIs? There was this story on Slashdot:

PC World has previewed Longhorn, not the first one out I guess. Among the few noted features is that Windows now offers translucent UI, finally catching up with Apple.

My question is, why does transparency matter in a GUI? I realize people want eyecandy, but I’ve never seen any use of transparency in a GUI that wasn’t distracting, and I’ve never seen a use of transparency that was useful. What’s the deal? Can anyone enlighten me? Is it just dickwaving about eyecandy? Is there actually some legitimate use for transparency that I haven’t seen yet? Please help.

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