I have been trying to get a Linux distrobution to run from a USB thumb drive. I tried ArchLinux and it worked but not terribly well. I would most like to run the enlightenment desktop E17.

I ran into MacPup which is a spin off of puppy linux which runs from a CD. MacPup also runs E17.

I downloaded the iso and burned it onto a CD. I booted the CD into my HP laptop. It took sometime  to boot up. I had to answer some questions regarding my keyboard type, time zone, etc. Once into E17 it was very responsive.

The menus were fast. I didn't quite like the transparency of the menus but that is in the details. There was gparted and office and opera. I was able to use the wifi router and connect to the internet.

I will try another time to install to my USB thumb drive.

I am not a big fan of sports. I like to occassionally watch an NBA game or something. I grew up in Utah so I do have a soft spot for the Jazz. I do like Coach Jerry Sloan. He does not put up with players who have a "holier than thou" attitude. He works hard and pushed the players to play with finesse, control and rigor. He does not seem like the kind of coach to give a "win one for the gipper" speech.

So I watched an interview with Coach Sloan. During the interview, the commentator asks the coach what he will do now that one of his players is out for the season. This is the playoffs and for NBA fans this is dire, life on the line type stuff. His reply was incredible! He said, "It's not tough. It its not life or death, it's basketball. It brings it into reality that's what your dealing with." He is a no-nonsense guy. He seems to say, "Just do your best with whatever life gives you."

Just watch the video and let me know your opinion

So my oldest two children got to shoot some muzzle loaded rifles tonight. There was a lot of cold wind which meant cold fingers. The two smaller rifles had not been cleaned well and the springs jammed preventing the firing of the cap, thus not discharging. That being straightened out, my son shot first. He kept wanting to put his finger on the trigger as the cap was being placed.

Next came my daughter. She did alright but caught a face of smoke as the wind changed direction. She didn't like that and would not shoot again. So my son shot again.

Good fun in the cold

The cold fingers and the muzzle loading reminded me of the Revolutionary War. In particular, of General Washington's troops crossing the Delaware on a cold, cold winter morning. The powder might have gotten wet and not fired. How did they hold the gun still with cold damp hand on cold steel. I think I understand a tiny portion of what they went through. I hope I am grateful to them, some of them my very ancestors, for their courage, bravery and honor.

I just found out that google updated their google sync software. I had given up trying to sync info from my phone with my email because I do nothave a data plan. I am unwilling to pay the extra bit so I can have instant access to internet whereever. However, I do have wifi and in my house it would be nice to sync my phone info (contacts, calendar and tasks) to my email account. There have been hacks and other such software that I dared not try. Google just updated there sync.

I tried it and it works great! Thank you, Google.

... now I just have to get it to sync with non-google email.

Ocassionally, I have need to fix a computer from various maladies (aka bugs). In my toolbox of tricks is the Knoppix CD. This is a Linux distrobution that boots and runs entirely from CD. It has a nice resource of tools such as a root terminal, gparted, being able to read and write to NTFS partitions, and many others.

I have used Knoppix 5.1.1 for sometime now and thought it would be time to grab the latest version. I have waited to do this because I know that Knoppix has grown over the years and was available as a DVD. I want to be able to run off of a CD for older computers that either don't have a DVDROM or it is slow enough as to make running an OS from it unrealistic.

The other reason for using Knoppix as a demonstration tool to those unfamiliar with Linux. I could popo it inot a CDROM and boot up. Everything worked, wifi, sound, LAN, browser, OpenOffice, etc. It worked great and typically had no trouble with hardware.

I decided to give it another shot. I found the 6.2 CD, downloaded and burned the ISO to disk. I am rather disapointed. The distro has become so bloated that now the CD didn't even boot into a window manager. It gave some text menu, only once of which was a vague reference to booting into a more substantial GUI. This would not have been obivous for a non-nerd.

Once into the windows manager, I was disappointed yet again. As far as I could tell it did not support wifi. The menus had all changed and programs were not organized very friendly. It was also very slow on my speedy computer.

I will have to find another toolbox type distro to keep in my toolbox.

For about the last 15 years our church here has put on a pageant of sorts. It is a series of scenes walking you through the Easter story. The different scenes are in sequential rooms so that sets do not have to be changed. There is a scene with the apostles Andrew and Thadeus in the upper room after the last supper. The next scene is with James (the brother of Peter) and another apostle in Gesthemane after the mob took Jesus away. Scene three is a combination of a moment with Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus after the Sanhedrin buffeted Jesus and a moment with Pilate and his wife discussing what happened. Scene four is a moment on Golgatha with John the beloved and Mary then a cenutrian concludes the scene. The fifth scene is Easter morning when the angels appear asking why the women are looking for the living among the dead, Peter also makes an appearance. The next scene is with Thomas and a few other apostles. Thomas has a heart felt moment explaining his doubts and unbelief. The final scene is a monologue by the disciple Luke who wrote both the book of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. Luke describes several events after the resurrection and then the ascension. 

This is a traveling pagaent. This year it was performed in Santa Fe (in English and Spanish), Las Vegas (not a show on the strip but Las Vegas, NM) and then here. Last year I was asked to play the part of Luke and again this year. It is a wonderful part and I was glad to participate.

Another distro I like to use is ArchLinux. It is a rolling release distro that used to have very good package checking. That dropped off for a while and so I did not keep up with it. I wanted to try it again so downloaded the most recent snap shot ISO to try to install it onto a USB stick.

The installation with Arch is text (ncurses based) menus that move you through the process. It is a funtional menu system and easy to follow. I selected to install it onto my USB stick, formatted with vfat. I edited the mkinitcpio.conf and recompiled it. I changed the menu.lst file to boot using the UUID of my USB stick. Selected to install just the base packages. It all worked fine. It booted and now I have a funtional linux distro on my little thumb drive. I can take it anywhere and boot into it.

I have yet to install X and a windows manager. I have not gone that far yet but will probably later than sooner. I am leaning towards putting LXDE on it. Time will tell.