I’ve read time and again that the Lord of the Rings Trilogy (which is actually not a trilogy, but one massive book published in 3 parts) has all kinds of allegorical content and contains a lot of stuff Peter Jackson had to leave out of the movies.  Well, they’re certainly right about Mr Jackson leaving material out of the movie.  I’m on page 160 (reading during my lunch breaks) and I’d have to say that roughly 90% of what I’ve read does not appear in any form in the movie.  I’m about a little less than halfway through the first book (in the size they’ve printed) and the main characters JUST got to The Prancing Pony.  I think this happens in the first 10 or so minutes in the movie.  And what a great idea to cut all that chaff was!

I’m not 100% sure, but I think this is the longest I’ve purposely waited to upgrade to another Fedora release. I’ve been reading the Fedora user and developer mailling lists and what’s I’ve seen there has pretty much convinced me not to upgrade. First of all, there are a lot of answers to people complaining about Fedora 9 being unstable which include variations on “no one told you to stop using Fedora 8.” Some answers put it more politely and some more bluntly. And that’s ok. Just like the people who bought the iPhone last year got their pants pulled down over the price, so do those who upgrade to distros right away pay the price in instability. This happens with all distros from Fedora to Ubuntu. Sure, there’s an alpha testing period and a beta testing period, but not everyone can take part in that. I, for example, use my Fedora computer as my main computer for everything but gaming and photography. I can’t be unable to do my banking or type stuff up or work on my animations just because I’m trying the latest bleeding edge Fedora. And there are others like me, so the distro doesn’t truly get tested until it comes out. This is the argument used by the KDE team with respect to the POS that KDE 4 is, according to others - I haven’t tried it out.

I found this online and I think it’s cute. Scientifically, however, I have a bit of a problem with the ending.

I heard this on The Linux Outlaws Episode 42 and I thought it was a pretty awesome idea.  Up until now Valve has been pretty hostile towards people asking them to release onto Linux, even threatening to ban anyone who brought it up in the forums.  Apparently someone has convinced them of the merits because here’s the story that led Linux Outlaws to report the headline.

My brother, who is really into video games, has informed me that pretty much every computer game developer plans to release via Steam in the near future.  This means that most people, who are always mentioning their only reason for keeping Windows around is to play games, can finally get rid of Windows for good!

Dang that’s a mouth-full! Let’s break it down a bit for anyone who may not be familiar with the lingo surrounding this very blue Linux. Mandriva Linux is the name of this distro. One is the name of the sub-distro. The choices are Free, One, and PowerPack. Free only contains free software. One is free as in beer, but may contrain some non-free software - perhaps, for example, MP3 playback capabilities. PowerPack costs money and contains commercial software such as Cedega, which would cost money if you got it anyway, and other software like Adobe Reader. The French and Brazilian folks at Mandriva release twice a year (Like Ubuntu and Fedora). This is the Spring release for 2008 and later we’ll have the Fall release.

A diagram of how the Neuros OSD connects to your VCR, DVD player, or camcorder, and allows you to record video and play back onto your TV or portable devices A diagram of how the Neuros OSD connects to your VCR, DVD player, or camcorder, and allows you to record video and play back onto your TV or portable devices

Amongst the professors in college and amonst us graduates of scientific fields, here’s how people tend to feel. (courtesy of xkcd):

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thanks to Randall Monroe’s use of the Creative Commons, enjoy this great twist on the comic by Mark Pilgrim.

It’s time once again for me to empty my AIM profile and provide you with some quotes!  Enjoy!

?"…never enter an arse-kicking contest with a porcupine." - Conina in Terry Prachet’s “Sorcerer”

“I have a unicorn for you” - Chris to Lauren

Mat to 6 yr old son: “Should we make mom breakfast in bed?” Son: “No daddy, we should make it in the kitchen”

“I’m the only one who can make sexual harassment charming” - D @ Work

Obama will not be the first African-American President of the United States. Barack Obama will be the first mulatto President of the United States of America. This is the myth of race in the USA. Apparently because Barack is half-black, he’s the first African-American President. But if he’s half-black then he’s also half-white. So why isn’t he just the 40-somethingith white President of the US? I don’t understand, if one half is valid, why isn’t the other?

Enjoy this xkcd: