Dear Firefox, You Suck to the Max

I am experiencing a really annoying bug that has existed in Firefox for many versions, and as of yet has no solution. Boo!

So I guess the point is, if I send you an email that sounds really stilted because I am using no contractions whatsoever, it is probably because of this.

UrbanHike Scavenger Hunt, October 21st!

The Steelers have a night game, so what else are you going to do all afternoon?

We always wrap up our hike season with a scavenger hunt, and this year, it's in Shadyside (and bits of other neighborhoods like East Liberty). If you haven't experienced one of these before, here's what you need to do: 1)Gather up a team of 3-5 people. 2)Make sure someone on your team has a digital camera, and clear it of photos (especially the embarrassing ones). Bring the camera and its connection cord to the hunt (so we can download your photos onto our computers and show them to the world).

When: October 21, 2007. Clues distributed at 1:30 pm; hunt ends at 4 pm. Post-game show featuring prizes and your finest photos from 4 till about 5, or longer if we're still enjoying each other's company.

We'll start outside East Liberty Presbyterian Church, 116 S. Highland Ave. Street parking is pretty easy to come by (you don't have to feed the meters on Sundays).

Ending location: Double-secret. But we can tell you there will be refreshments available (pay your own way).

Directions:

From the Parkway North (I-279 southbound):

Take the Veterans Bridge (I-579) to the 6th Ave exit. Follow signs for Mellon Arena.

Take a left and follow signs for Bigelow Blvd. Continue onto N. Craig St, then turn left on Baum Blvd.

Turn left at S. Highland Mall.

From the Parkway West (I-279 northbound):

Take exit 6C (Convention Center/Strip), follow around to 11th Street.

Turn left on Liberty Ave, left on 40th, right on Penn, right at S. Highland Mall.

From the Parkway East (I-376 westbound):

Take exit 8B toward Wilkinsburg. Continue onto Penn Ave. Turn left at S. Highland Mall.

From the Liberty Bridge:

Take the ramp to I-579 north and exit onto Bigelow Blvd. Turn left on Baum Blvd. Turn left at S. Highland Mall.

Questions? E-mail info@urbanhike.org.

MSR

I just found out I was not nominated by CMU for the MSR fellowship. Bummer. I would have like a new laptop... oh and the prestige!

Google Street View Pittsburgh

(Friendslocked, so that the entire world doesn't know where I live.)

Check out the google street view!

Why I Left Linux Land

I thought I'd talk a little bit more about why I finally decided to switch from Linux back to Windows. I will admit right off the bat that some of these issues are due to my inexperience as a Linux maintainer. However, my inexperience does not make me embarrassed at all. From what I have seen in the past two years, the investment required to become a Linux guru is not worth it in the end, at least not for me. My priority above all else is to be a productive graduate student.

So here are the reasons why I left, culminating with the straw the broke the camel's back:

1. I had a facilitized machine - This is more of a meta-reason, but I was using a CMU facilitized Linux box. This provides a few benefits, like support for when things break (which I needed on numerous occasions), backups and easy access to the printers. However, it makes it impossible to find help on the Internet that actually applies to my system, since my configuration was non-standard in so many ways. I briefly considered installing Debian or Ubuntu and separating from the CMU/Facilities industrial complex, but decided that I don't have time for that sort of thing.
2. XMMS Doesn't work - For whatever reason, the XMMS media player crashed on my system whenever I tried to play a song. It was a gnarly error that had to do with its inability to create a new thread. The internet had no helpful advice and 'yum update' did not bring me any respite. I wanted XMMS because it's what I used to use last year before my harddrive failed and CMU upgraded me to Fedora Core 5.
   
3. RhythmBox - So I wanted Last.fm support in the music player that I did use. Turns out, the version of RhythmBox that comes in the Fedora Core distribution is an earlier version that does not yet have support for Last.fm. The package that did have the latest vesion only worked on FC6 and above. I wanted Last.fm support so badly, that I downloaded from source and built the newest version. The only want I could get the build to work was by removing some random lines from the Makefile. Every time I launched RhythmBox, it gave me an error about visualizations not working, and still Last.fm support was spotty. It would only record that I had played a song when it damn well pleased. This all brings me to my next point...
4. The Fedora package system is crazy - I like how the linux world has attempted to make software installation easier with the use of package managers like Yum. This is good. What is not good is how a given Fedora package will only work for your exact version of Fedora. If I want RhythmBox version 3.3, for instance, and the FC5 package only has up to version 3.1, tough luck. I am essentially running an incompatible operating system for all intents and purposes. In the Windows world, I can easily and run a program from the Windows95 days, and it will work almost every time.
5. Flash - Again, I have been told that this was a problem with having a facilitized machine, but Flash never worked, in my two years of trying. Flash! I tell you, it really sucks having everyone and Katy Couric talking about some YouTube video that is sweeping the nation and not being able to watch it.
6. Eclipse - And finally, the end for Linux. Eclispe 3.3 had been working for a month. All of a sudden, it started crashing on launch, and no matter how many times I reinstalled it, nothing was solved. I even had a bonafied Linux/Eclipse guru come in, and he basically told me I was screwed. I need Eclipse for a project I have just started. What else can I do? Added to this fact that Eclipse was always much slower on Linux that Windows, and I am way happier now.

Most of these problems aren't Linux's fault per say. Savvy Linux friends gave me reasonable explanations for each of the problems I experienced, and I was sympathetic. But at some point, I just need to get work done, and I need my computer to work. As

lambdacalculus

 pointed out, there are definitely benefits to using a mainstream platform. In the Windows world, you rarely have a problem that no one else in the world has ever experienced. In this Linux world, this seemed to happen on a regular basis. Windows sucks in many ways, but at least the programs I need to use generally work. Okay... that is all...

Dear Linux, It's Not Me, It's You

After two plus years of using Linux on my work computer, I am switching to Windows permanently starting right now. It's a bit of a story, and I've got a few rants stored up, but I'm excited about the switch and excited about returning to productivity land.

Posting to your blog is for suckers, that's why I haven't

Whoa! Turns out I spent the latter half of this week applying for a fellowship that is due right about now. (Don't worry, I submitted already!) I didn't actually find out about it until Tuesday and didn't know I was going to be applying until Wednesday morning, and while it was kind of tricky getting things together, I think in the end it was a positive experience. For example, they basically want to see a thesis proposal, or something in the same vein. I had nothing of the sort, and therefore had to start the soul-searching process of figuring out what exactly it is I am going to be doing for the next few years. Good, because for the first time I had to write down some ideas I had been having. Hard, because this is a brand-new project, and I still don't understand everything!

The only bad part is that me and all my CMU friends are competing to get one of the three (?) departmental nominations. It's too bad because, you know, in general I like my friends at CMU...

Anyway, I shall be getting back to my regular research with renewed vigor.