Category: Uncategorized

still working on my laptop. Getting used to it. I accidentally hosed my Ubuntu graphical system through my own carelessness. Luckily, I was able to rebuild it. My task now is to get my PCLinuxOS install working correctly, which means fixing the 1280×800 resolution problem. Now that Ubuntu is working correctly again, I should in theory be able to fix that fairly easily.

Not much else going on. Still haven’t even begun to tackle the studio computer. I still have to finish editing George’s book, George’s other book, The Commoner, and stuff for radicalpolytics.org. Yes, in a manner of speaking I’m falling behind. Lots to do, but it’s all good work.

I’m looking forward to Yule. I’ll have more thoughts on that in due course.

I’ve written a brief howto on installing Linux on a Toshiba Satellite M35X-S149. It went well; I just wanted to put the link up here for posterity.

I’m writing this from my new Ubuntu Linux installation on my new Toshiba laptop. I’m thrilled with how well this machine gets along with this Linux distribution. Everything seems to just work, with a few exceptions like the obligatory libdvdcss foolishness to get Linux to play DVDs. I still have more tweakage to do, but so far everything works, even suspend works.

Furthermore, I’m getting used to GNOME again, after having been a KDE user for a long time. I do have to admit that GNOME 2.8 under Ubuntu runs really smoothly. So far, so good.

I first tried to install PCLinuxOS on this machine as well, but it couldn’t get the screen resolution right. I may try to futz with it some more; in theory I should be able to tweak it.

I’ve wanted a laptop for many years. I’m so glad that this one fell into my lap. It was an unbelievable deal, and it plays well with (at least some versions of) Linux.

Well, a new laptop has caught my eye. It’s a Toshiba Satellite M35X-S149, which is widely available for $899. Good news is that it has a firewire port, as well as USB 2.0. Decent hard drive size at 60GB, though I’d need to bump up the RAM to 512, especially because it shares video memory with RAM. Plus it comes with a DVD/CDRW drive, as well as built-in networking and wireless. It actually looks to be a better match for me than the Dell, all things being equal and assuming it runs Linux OK.

The thing I need to do is see how well it runs Linux. The best way will be for me to go try it with a Linux live cd and test it. There are some question marks. This machine uses a Celeron M processor, which I’m not sure about. And I don’t know which chipset it’s using. It uses the Intel 855GME graphics system along with the Realtek ALC250 sound system. It’s a 15.4″ screen capable of 1280×800 resolution.

So, yeah. This should be a really nice laptop for me, assuming that it runs Linux OK. I’ll have to go to Best Buy or Circuit City and test it. this page has very useful info on running a Toshiba M30, which presumably is the older version of the M35. They seem to have very similar specs. Additionally, this page shows that Mandrake runs on the M30 pretty much out of the box; he had video issues but his M30 uses an nVidia graphics board, something this M35 doesn’t have. Also, this page gives a very detailed outline of a Gentoo installation, which is arguably an order of magnitude more complex than a PCLinuxOS installation.

Wow. I just called a local store, they have them in stock, and there is a $300 rebate on it! Wow! I think I’m going to go pick it up this week….

Where to begin. I’ve been an utter Bear to deal with lately; the owl part of my personality has been dominant in dealing with logic, hardware interactions, and inflexible corporate pricing policies. Put another way, let’s just say that this week has been a challenging one for me in terms of computers. This is true mainly on two fronts.

First, as I’ve mentioned I’m in the market for a laptop. I’ve been a bit intimidated by the process of finding a laptop, because a) I’ve never purchased a laptop; and b) I want to make sure the one I get will do everything I want it to do (ie, run Linux, record audio, etc). So after quite a bit of research, I found a Dell machine that seems to fit the bill, as others have run Linux on it and it should have plenty of power to record audio. Anyway, I poked around Dell’s website, got the configuration I wanted, got a price I could live with, and hung out until all my fundage fell into my lap in a couple days, feeling good about my decision and my ability to find what I wanted at a good price. This was Wednesday.

Well, yesterday (Friday), I called Dell to make sure that the price I saw was indeed the best price, to see if I could talk them down a bit, and then to place the order. Silly Freaking Me. Apparently in the 36 hours since I saw the price online, the price for the laptop had gone up by $100. I went round and round with the operator, but she told me all about Dell’s “24 hour pricing” policy, and that they were willing to lose a sale over this matter.

So much for Dell. Bastards. Fuck ’em. At least now I have cash in hand and if I see a good deal on a laptop, I can jump on it. But now the laptop research wheel begins turning anew. Sigh. I hate wasted labor.

But the story just begins here, because the more serious and more disconcerting area of my computer dissonance has to do with the studio computer. All this time I’ve been running the studio computer with just one hard drive, which of course goes against any sane backup strategy (never keep your data in only one place!). So I decided to add a new hard drive. My computer is compatible with a new type of hard drive (SATA) that is faster and more capable than a normal (IDE) hard drive. So I added it, and got everything to work after some small hassle.

The problem is, now every time I record audio, I get pops and clicks on the resulting audio tracks. I’ve tried several solutions (I may post a detailed account in a bit…posterity, you know) to no avail. The problem seems to be in regulating how data moves through the motherboard. Recording high definition multitrack audio requires some serious data transfer, lots of info moving in and out of the machine. The machine accomplishes this through what are called IRQ channels. One thing to do is ensure that the audio card has its own IRQ channel with nothing else on it to interfere; so far I’ve not been able to accomplish this. Until now it hasn’t been a problem, but the new hard drive means more data is flowing; hence the pops and clicks. It’s never been an issue in the past.

To make this matter even more frustrating, Matt and I this week had arranged for 2 full days in the studio so we could focus (sans interruption, sans kids,etc) on “making tracks” for this album. Both days were lost, as I spent the entire time wrestling with the computer.

So my owl is exhausted, and my bear is rampaging.

I think I need to smash something with silicon in it…take that metaphor any way you want.

Blogging on this channel has been somewhat lighter than normal over the past couple of weeks. I’ve been very very busy. So some updates are in order.

First, I’ve created a new politically-oriented website, radicalpolYtics.org. The goal of the site runs something like this:

We are dedicated to those who question the current state of politics in America and in the world. We are not dedicated to any one particular viewpoint, however we do recognize that alternatives to the party lines in the mass media are necessary. These two party lines are so overexposed, many people don’t realize that there many alternatives out there. The purpose of this site is to provide reading and listening material that involve these political alternatives.

We are radical in the mathematical sense; we look to get to the root issues that define politics today. And we are poly in the sense that we look at the many paths through the forest.

Our plan is to host a dynamic archive of articles and audio recordings in the furtherance of alternative political dialogue in America and in the world.

Related to this new site is some typesetting work I’ve been doing, helping to format various texts for publication in various media. One huge benefit of all this is that it looks like I’ll finally be able to purchase a laptop computer, so researching this has also taken up some time. I’m very much a computer geek; I’ve built several desktop computers and have no trouble installing operating systems, etc., but I’ve never really worked with a laptop before. There are some issues running Linux on laptops, most notably getting the winmodems to work, getting the power management features (ACPI or APM) to work, and then the normal sound/video issues that still lurk in the background of any Linux installation.

So among my tasks has been seeing what’s involved in running Linux on laptops, though my preferred Linux distro is a LiveCD so I can just insert the CD into the laptop, boot directly from the CD, and get a working Linux desktop within minutes. This will be a great test for the new system, as any config problems will reveal themselves quickly.

Ideally, then, I’d find a local dealer and try everything from the laptop before purchase. However, prices are typically much cheaper online. I’ve also been considering getting a used laptop to save some money. But, with some various discounts that are available to me, it may be just as cheap to get a new one.

More research is necessary, but my laptop budget won’t land in my lap for another week or two. By the time I have the cash, I will hopefully know just what I want to get.

In other news, this will be a big week for the Freakwitch album. Matt and I have booked out 2 solid days this week, where the kids are with other people, so he and I can just focus on getting some solid guitar and vocal tracks recorded. I’m very much looking forward to it. With any luck, I’ll have some oggs up for your listening pleasure in about 10 days.

Maybe this guy will make millions. Look what he’s planning in The Wire: the next world. Basically, ultimate gaming salons with geeked-out gear and spherical screens. Pretty cool.

I’m still reading Caliban and the Witch. It’s a bit slow going because a) I’m really busy right now; and b) it’s a very detailed analysis of the objectification of bodies and their subsequent exploitation at the dawn of capitalism. Kind of a dry topic for many of us. But it’s important in several ways.

First, for as many witches (freaky or otherwise) out there, and especially for as many politically aware and active witches that are out there, this book is essential. We must know our history.

Secondly, this book reinforces the idea that capitalism did not come out of nowhere. There are centuries of bloodshed, torture, war, oppression, repression, persecution, injustice, colonialism, imperialism, racism, sexism, and all the rest that go bundled with the rise and sustenance of capitalism. This is important to remember. Despite any good that has come from capitalism, these details of capitalism’s legacy of violence must not be forgotten.

If you are interested in learning more about why things are the way they are, if the election of 2004 disillusioned you in any way, if you are asking “Anybody But Bush didn’t work; now what?” then I would urge you to check this out. It might take you to a place where you can begin to build answers to these most fundamental questions.

It looks like the next phase of legal code for advancing the Virtual Enclosures is in the works. This article by Eric Hellweg explains the new “Intellectual Property Act[IPPA]” that is in the legal pipeline. Apparently under this new act, fast-forwarding through recorded commercials would be illegal, and p2p networks would become illegal.

Now, speaking as an artist, I find this utterly objectionable. Because some corporations who represent artists don’t want p2p around, then I as an independent artist would be deprived of my main avenue for finding my audience. This is just wrong.

Look at the language used by an RIAA spokesperson:

“We certainly support it,” says Jonathan Lamy, spokesperson for the RIAA. “It includes a number of things to strengthen the hand of law enforcement to combat piracy. Intellectual property theft is a national security crime. It’s appropriate that the fed dedicate resources to deter and prosecute IP theft.”

The “War On Nouns” mindset is leaking: we need to “combat” “piracy” for national security. Amazing.

For more information on the IPPA, look on the Public Knowledge site.

This article has been going around; a necessary read.