y₀?

As part of a flurry of needed changes to my laptop, I had to back up all my data and reinstall everything from scratch about two weeks ago. I’m certain I do this far more often than the average power user does (once every several months) and certainly far more than a normal user would. It’s a good way to enforce good storage habits (keep files compartmentalized so that my files are separate from my program files are separate from my application install packages), and it forces me to make a backup every so often because the hard drive’s getting completely wiped.

I rarely have problems doing this. Thanks to my handy custom install CD filled with all my favorite downloaded programs and my use of only a small amount of software, getting back up to speed usually takes only a few hours. The end result is a faster system and a satisfied me.

This time, tho, I’m having two big problems. The first problem is with printing using KLP, which is used to print to MIT printers (which doesn’t directly cost me money). For whatever reason, when I print using KLP I get pages of Postscript code instead of what I want, and I don’t know why.

The second problem is far more serious: Windows is randomly shutting down on me. Before the system reinstall, it worked perfectly. It also worked perfectly for a time after most of the reinstall had taken place. I suspect some program in the MIT software I installed is causing the problem, but I don’t know which. It seems to be triggerable by either jarring the computer or simply using it normally for a length of time which varies from minutes to hours. (I had hoped the problem was just a virus, as I usually don’t have a virus scanner installed because I don’t download many files and stay up-to-date on Windows security patches, but a virus scan showed it wasn’t.)

Combined, these problems make Windows completely unusable for me. If I boot, the computer shuts down very shortly afterward. If I am actually able to use it for a while, I can’t print anything I need printed. In fact, the only real reason I even try to boot Windows is to flush the email inbox read count back to a low number (I use IMAP, but because I’m afraid I might run out of my 250MB of space sometime — yes, it’s that bad — I have most of it stored locally). (This won’t be a problem after Thunderbird supports cross-platform profiles, if and when that happens.)

If Windows were the only operating system on my laptop, it would be completely unusable. Thankfully, however, it’s not — I have Fedora Core 3 Linux installed, too. Fedora works perfectly (showing that the shutdowns are a Windows-specific problem and not a hardware problem), so I’ve been booted in Fedora almost constantly for about a week. With the preponderance of good software out there (a web browser, an office suite, Windows emulation for use with some essential Windows-only software, and Linux-oriented freeware galore), I’ve had no problems during this time, either.

When and how will I get Windows working again? With Thanksgiving coming, I have the perfect time to do so, so until then I’ll likely only use Linux. (If Thanksgiving weren’t coming, I don’t know when I’d do it - maybe a weekend if I could make the time.) The how isn’t such a big problem either — I’ll just reinstall (again). While this solution certainly isn’t optimal, it’s also the most guaranteed to work, which is what matters most when reinstallation requires a few hours’ time.

Windows usually works for most things (and don’t get me wrong, it’s worked pretty much perfectly for me since I started using XP), but when it doesn’t, I know where I’d be without Linux — in the same sorry spot as most of the other people on the planet without knowledge of the available options.

My cvs.mozilla.org account is finally working. After a little less than three weeks since the initial bug filing, I finally got all the files, variables, and SSH keys set up correctly. I just made my first checkin to the aviary branch — a simple fix to add Ctrl+0 to the Firefox Help viewer. I’m now checking out the trunk code (my only repository was for aviary because that’s Firefox right now), and after I do that I’ll check in the fix to trunk. (This is very likely possible without requiring two trees, but right now I don’t know the method.)

-->RESOLVED FIXED

I’ve been in Alaska all July. The trip was a pseudo-high-school-graduation present from my family in lieu of allowing me to go on a trip over spring break. (I wouldn’t have actually gone anywhere because I don’t care about that sort of thing whatsoever, but I’m not complaining over a free trip.)

While I was gone I managed to keep up a very, very, very slight amount with what I normally follow in life. Just as a random, spur-of-the-moment post, I’m going to list some of the stuff that’s happened and stuff I’ve missed. Some will be news from websites, and some will be real news. Some will be interesting, and some will be esoteric (probably more of the latter than the former, but I’m the one writing). This could be long, so in the immortal words of a character from Jurassic Park, “Hold onto your butts.” (That line’s so goofy I can’t resist using it.)

2100+ email messages

How so? Interestingly enough, virtually 0% is spam because my email address is new and I’m guarding it ferociously. My main contributors are messages on various bugs in some free software I enjoy using and messages from a competitive Scrabble mailing list. The number is so massive my email client’s freezing on me, and while I’ve successfully downloaded the message headers, I can’t seem to download the messages themselves, which is rather problematic. I’m still working on it…

Lance Armstrong wins a record 6th Tour de France

I did keep up on this throughout the trip via the Anchorage Daily News, tho I was disappointed the coverage was so minimal. He’d get a blip on the front page of Sports and nothing more, not even after the end of the race. That’s America, tho - the mixed-up sports priorities in the US can be extremely annoying.

Interesting discussions on controversial issues

A comment on prayer and a rant on abortion generate loads of dialogue (which I haven’t read so much as skimmed simply because of the sheer volume of it). I generally agree with Gerv and his viewpoints as I’m a Christian too, although I believe I disagree over abortions always being wrong. If in a hypothetical situation an abortion could save the life of the mother, then an abortion might be viable. In this hypothetical situation, either one or the other will die, so I’m uncertain how either choice can be absolutely wrong. In this situation I believe there is no murder, because both action and inaction will result in a death. It’s roughly analogous to the situation with cojoined twins: does one separate and risk a death or leave together and leave partially disabled? The problem is, however, that these hypothetical situations tend to be expanded way too far if abortions are legal (and indeed, I’m not sure if such a situation can even exist because it’s been expanded so much in America). If the choice of whether to have a baby or not must be made, it should have been made before conception (rape being the unfortunate exception as the child is the rapist’s choice). If the choice to save the mother or save the child must be made, I can’t rationalize one choice over the other. However, I’m open to arguments. However, if there is no choice over whether to save the mother or save the child, then abortion is always murder, even in cases of rape. (Now, if this was anywhere near as coherent as I’d like, consider yourself lucky. I’m still suffering jet lag.)

Cookies are no longer delicious delicacies

If you’ve used the web browser Firefox before, you’ll know what I mean. It’s sad, really. I really liked that text.

Favicons work right in Firefox

Per this post by Asa Dotzler. Awesome. I’ve missed way too much development in this month off.

Firefox 0.9.2

Completely unexpected.

Firefox Help changes

I don’t know what, but I’ve seen a few suspicious checkins. I’ve got a ton of work to do today and tomorrow on this, because I’ve got one last mini-vacation for the next week and I’d like to finish the biggies before PR1.0 (or whatever it’s called now that RC1 is out).

I have a couple other posts gestating right now, so maybe I’ll have something else reasonably soon. The current topics include my experiences with Linux distros (Fedora Core 2 in particular, my current poison of choice) and an informed review of Winstripe as a followup from my original less-informed post. (I will get to that one because of a comment reply I received to the original post. I’m still not sure whether I’ll keep the old commentary I’d written because it’s so out-of-date, but I’m looking forward to posting that one in particular.)

I’ve switched to a new email address over the past few days. It’s a real pain, but the new one will have oodles more space and will be easier to use. Netzero was reasonable (I’ve used it since I first started using Netzero for Internet instead of our family’s AOL access), but the 2MB limit on storage and the inability to send email (receiving was okay) without being logged on to Netzero (we’ve got Comcast cable now) were real issues. Also a problem was spam, which has been pretty heavy ever since I foolishly posted my email address online.

I’ve yet to notify everyone about the new address, but I plan to do so within the day. For any readers here (I doubt there are any, and I don’t really care), my new email address is jwalden [at] mit [dot] edu.