In blogdom, it doesn’t make the heart grow fonder. All I have to do is look at my blog stats page to see that.
But there are some of you who are hanging in there and keep checking for new posts. I admit I don’t have a clue why, but the possibility exists that you actually like the crap I post here. That, or you have lives that are even more meaningless than mine. Either way, I thank you for stopping by.
I’ve been sidetracked lately with several geek issues. I did manage to get my web server running, and I found that PHP isn’t as difficult as it appears when one actually reads the fine manual.
(Note: non-geeks can spare themselves the eyeball-glazing boredom of reading the next few paragraphs by skipping directly to the last section. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.)
Issue One:
My computer is an AMD 64-bit box running an outdated version of Mandriva Linux. As a default, Mandriva installs PostgreSQL instead of MySQL, giving me a LAPP server instead of a LAMP server. While LAMP tutorials and guides abound, LAPP tutorials are non-existent, forcing me to either read the 1422-page PostgreSQL pdf manual or install MySQL. Because I’m running a version of Mandriva that’s several releases out of date, I can’t even install a new (or old) package, so to correct the problem I decided to install a newer release. Only instead of Mandriva, I decided to install Gentoo, the geekiest Linux distribution out there.
Each one of my four Gentoo installations has failed after they’ve been completed and I run: emerge — update –world –deep, and then the other cleanup utilities. This is a non-trivial and time-consuming process. And I still haven’t figured out what about the update trashes my boot loader so badly that I can’t even boot with a GRUB boot floppy. I will, eventually; my obsessive-compulsive nature guarantees it. In the meantime, I don’t have a lot left of my meager store of attention span for other projects like eating, sleeping, or posting on the blog.
Issue One point Five:
Also in the meantime, I’ve installed Ubuntu Linux on a computer for someone else. I chose Ubuntu for this person because she’s a non-geek, and Ubuntu is at the other end of the Geek Spectrum from Gentoo. The installation took less than a half-hour. Installing all the software necessary for her to have the equivalent of a pimped-out, non-crashing Windoze box took several more hours. And all that’s left is to move her music and pictures from the backup I made. Slick. Easy. Plus it has an automated update system.
So why am I beating my head against a wall to install Gentoo on my system? Those of you who know me answer in unison: it’s a control issue! Gentoo offers me more options and control than any other distro. That’s the reason I abandoned Windoze in the first place: I got sick of accepting second-rate crap that someone else decided was all I should have. I like to look under the hood and tweak stuff so it works the way I want it to work. So I’ll keep battling the Alzheimer’s until I get Gentoo to work. In the meantime, posting here suffers.
Issue Two:
Something you can’t notice in the low-res pix I post, but drives me crazy. I thought that once I got a digital SLR, my photography would be all unicorns and rainbows. Unreasonable expectations? Of course! I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t have ’em.
With my film cameras, when I changed a lens and got dust inside the body, the dust sat on the film and ruined a shot. Now, with my digital camera, when I change a lens and get dust inside the body, the dust sits on the CCD and ruins that shot and all subsequent shots. I spend a lot of time cleaning the CCD and still end up with dust specks on the images. And I don’t have the cash flow right now to pay to have it cleaned professionally. So I end up not taking pictures. And if I don’t take pictures I can’t post ’em.
Anyhoo, that’s my long, rambling, whiny excuse for the lack of posts lately. You wouldn’t have had to read this, except the dog ate the note from my mom.
Now I gotta go practice my saxophone for a couple of hours, something else that’s suffered lately.