Category: Uncategorized

Those familiar with The Road to Linux will know that we’ve dabbled with Linux for many years, and tend to use it a lot in the server room, and if “Mac OS NeXT” hadn’t come around to rescue Apple from the pre-X era, I’d probably be using Linux on the desktop right now. (Anything but Windows!)

That’s changed a bit, and I am now using Linux on the desktop, as time allows. I’ve finally gotten hardware capable of running as a desktop machine with a real live GUI and everything. It’s no speed demon, but it seems to handle Fedora Core 1 ok. As of yet, I have not really stressed the system, I’ve mainly just been installing and configuring old favorites like Firefox, Thunderbird and jEdit (which required Java as well.)

The Road to Linux continues! (And I might even update it one of these days…)

Antiword is a utility to read Microsoft Word files and convert them to plain text, PostScript®, or DocBook files… The DocBook stuff is still experimental, but the plain text seems to work quite well for me, and I’ve successfully turned Word files into PostScript® files, and then turned those into PDF filess using ps2pdf. You could go one step further than the PS to PDF Converter site and build an online converter to turn Word Files into PDF files, or, well… whatever else you can dream up.

(See also: antiexcel)

I’ve been using SQLite this week, which prompted me to look up when I last mentioned it. It appears that in December 2002 I said this about SQLite:

Could you take Movable Type (or your CMS of choice) and make it use SQLite instead of MySQL?

Hmmm, I know they added SQLite support to Movable Type at some point, let’s see, it was February 2003, about two months after I mentioned it.

You’re welcome.

(Ok, to be fair, Perl’s DBI probably made it very easy to do…)

I had gotten a letter from my cable company, who is also my ISP. It stated that back in September 2003 they offered me a trial period of increased connectivity. Faster! Faster! or something like that… I declined saying my current connection speed was fine.

So the letter states that the trial period is over, and I can choose a Faster! speed, or if I do nothing, I can keep my current speed for just $9.99 extra per month. First of all, I didn’t want this trial thingy, second of all, I don’t want to pay more… So I call the phone number they supply.

I must say the woman on the phone was quite nice, and answered my questions. I explained that I never asked for an increase in connection speed, and was told that “technology changes” and all users got upgraded to the new speed. the old speed/price is no longer available.

Me: “So basically I’m being held hostage and have to pay more now?”

Yes

Me: “Will this happen every year? Will the price increase by $9.99 next year as well?”

I don’t think it will.

After determining I don’t have many choices, she tells me the new billing will take effect April 1st.

Me: “Wow, that’s appropriate. April 1st, that’s April Fool’s Day. I guess the joke is on me.”

(No comment…)

She never got upset in anyway (what a pro!) and then asked me if she could help with anything else, and I told her to add my name to the list of customers complaining about this. She then said she would fill out a complaint form with my name on it.

Thanks for the excellent service Charter!

Perhaps Mr. Catalano does get it. I ended up having an brief email discussion with him and I came away with the belief he understands weblogs. His main point was that if someone thinks they will start a weblog and instantly become popular and read by millions, they are mistaken.

I can see that point of view, but mine is this: What makes weblogs so damn amazing is the potential for someone to start a weblog and be read by millions. This is something that the average citizen has not had access to before. The old saying goes something like “Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one” and more and more we all own the press known as the Internet…