Jargon

So, this is me trying to keep to a regular updating scheme. I'm thinking that I'll try and keep to updating this thing every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but I'm sure that there'll be times when I forget to post or whatnot, and this thing will fall into the pits of Oblivion, never to be seen again. Except the Internet doesn't quite work like that. Things don't leave the Internet; it's like a tomb of the digital age, slowly drawing us in with it's warming glow of unlimited information, social networking and naked women, and once we're entombed, there's no way out. I have a love-hate relationship with technology. I love it, I find it fascinating and whatnot (I have to though, I want to pursue a career in it), but I hate the way our entire society relies on it. It's like an addiction, it really is. Once we run out of non-renewable energy sources and electricity becomes more and more precious, our entire world will collapse under the digital empire that we've spent ages building, and it's quite worrying since so much is digitalised and electronic now.

However, for now, there are bigger problems at hand. I've nearly completed Spyro 2. I mean, it's been possibly the best use of my time ever, and I don't regret it for even a second. It's my absolute favourite game in the world, and one of the best presents I've ever received. Anyone can go out and buy presents, but this one meant like everything to me. But enough of the gushy stuff. It's a beautiful game from back in the day when games were limited by the number of polygons they could load, and were thus “blocky” and with those graphics that were part of my childhood. What do I do once I've completed it? I mean, my general process is to complete a game three times fully without cheats or anything (Yeah. I'm hardcore.) but this is different. I don't want to complete this game. Once it's over, it's like severing a link to the past. It's finishing that unfinished business, and I'm going to rather miss it. Still, while they'll never ever reach anywhere near where Spyro is on my list, I still have games like Crash Bandicoot that need completing. That'll take up a fair amount of my time.

I'm also currently writing this blog up on the computer that I spent a while fixing up and installing Linux on for the purpose of burning Spyro 2 to a disc. I've begun a little hobby of software testing, so you may see little mini-reviews on here, amongst the usual anecdotes and rants.

The Linux flavour I'm currently running is Kubuntu 6.10 or, as it is affectionately known, Edgy Eft. The general process through which Linux is used is through booting from a live-CD (I think I clarified this in an earlier post, but in case I didn't, it's a CD from which a computer can be booted) which often has the options to install the Linux operating system to the hard disk drive, but using the operating system directly from the live-CD is used almost as frequently. But I'm going off on a tangent (“off on”? Note to self: That's an interesting literary device. I may discuss this in a future post).

Kubuntu 6.10 is a fantastic operating system. I know this is some shameless plugging, but it really is. The install process from the live-CD took just under an hour on a computer over six years old (256MB RAM, 1.8GHz processor). Kubuntu is a Linux flavour (“flavour” = version, distribution, edition, etc. (Further note: I should probably start a glossary of words I use. I make some of them up.)) that uses the KDE desktop environment opposed to the standard GNOME (incidentally pronounced GUH-nome) environment. The operating system as a whole is beautifully laid out, very powerful and makes use of every last kilobyte of your system resources without appearing resource-hungry and slowing down. It comes with a free Office package bundled (Word-processor, Spreadsheet, Database management and Presentation), amongst the Konqueror internet browser and other useful media tools and the like. A particular software utility that comes bundled is K3b; an incredibly powerful CD/DVD burner that allows customisation of most options than I've yet seen in a piece of software. That said, Linux doesn't, generally speaking, hide the user away from core customisation like Windows and Mac operating systems do. Users are presented with all the options and are encouraged to use the Linux terminal program (Aptly named Konsole, in this version).

Linux also has a fantastic user base. Since it is open-source (the source-code is openly available to be downloaded, modified or redistributed, for free), there is a large online society available and happy to help with any problems that arise, provided that at least a little effort has been made to solve it using documentation and manuals that are also freely available.

But I'm doing a little too much plugging of this operating system. Long story short, it's one of the best I've yet tried and it makes fantastic use of all system resources available. I'll try and keep the next mini-review short and sweet. If I do one. I need something to occupy my time, and procrastination doesn't really work unless you have something to procrastinate with.

Another little side note, I wonder how many operating systems that I could install side-by-side – that is, on the same hard drive, using a boot manager to control the boot procedure. Theoretically, as many as the hard-drive has capacity for, but I'm not sure if the MBR (Master Boot Record) has a limit on it. I'll check this out when I have the time or energy to do so, or something.

Anyways, I'm somewhat tired and have one or two things that rather need doing before I go to bed, so I'd like to apologise if this post doesn't quite have the usual spark, but I've got a weird vibe going tonight, and just going to leave it with this little saying I saw yesterday:

“You cannot stop a bad thought entering your head, but if it does, bid it not sit down.”

Edit: I did type this all up on Friday, and it was ready to post, but my USB was being ridiculous and refused to allow saving to it, since it's all buggy at the moment. Hardware problem, not software-related, so it wasn't Linux's fault. Good Linux.