DIVID Technology Riffraff & Whatnot

Using the display control panel, the resolution options usually don’t include 256 colors. Here’s how to get it. Click Settings tab > Advanced > Adapter tab > List all modes. You’ll see a list of all options, from which you can pick your favorite 256 color resolution. Enjoy!!

ps. If your mouse cursor’s get finicky, just enable (short) mouse trails and that forces the cursor to refresh.

Check out this quick 10 Reasons to Learn Ruby article on h3rald.com. Might be good for those who aren’t sold on the whole idea of why everyone seems to love this language.

In your .vmx file, consider some configuration that may not have been added by default. This has helped me in Fusion 2.0, but also works inside Workstation and possibly Player as well. YMMV

memsize = “2000″

MemAllowAutoScaleDown = “FALSE”

MemTrimRate = “0″

mainMem.useNamedFile = “FALSE”

After hearing about the extensive time required to configure a gentoo stage3 installation, I was pleased to find that there are LiveCDs available. Although these are not nearly as in-depth for building a custom distro for yourself, it might bring a few more would-be naysayers on board with this extremely flexible version of linux. If you haven’t had a chance to experience gentoo, I recommend it if even for educational purposes. Linux is liberating!

If you like the webkit in google chrome, you might like midori on linux, it’s webkit, 100% acid3 (web standards compliant), and very slim. I fount it installed in Intrepid Ibex alongside Firefox.

I got into this site yesterday: http://bmw-web.tv/en/channel/design

The GINA concept has a fabric skin. Be sure to watch to the commentary about their thoughts on design.

Software with restrictive licensing is released to protect the Intellectual property of the organization who nurtured it out into the wild, and wouldn’t be competitive without that protection. I for one am a pragmatist, so this doesn’t give me a false sense of entitlement. I don’t want to rebel against commercial software, because some of it is great stuff. I do have a soft spot for purity as open architecture, and am a proponent of progressing open source.

Although there are countless advantages to using restricted software, let’s support our developer community first. Drive change in trend to further FSF community causes whenever practical. Advocate the use of open source projects in your own family of colleagues when the alternative shows no significant advantages.

This can be done in small amounts by leaning to the community for daily software choices in business and personal endeavors. When you rebuild a PC, mention Linux even if you don’t install it. When you build a new website, try an open framework. If you buy hardware, support the vendors that support us as open source developers. And make a concerted effort to contribute something back instead of only using open technology! Then it goes full circle.

Although not related to technology, this impacts everyone. This award winning documentary is an eye-opener. The severity of our earth’s environmental trends is explained clearly. It is shocking to say the least. “We can solve the climate crisis.”

I debated making illegal copies of this to distribute to my friends. It’s that important. (Which brings a question, Al Gore - why isn’t this Creative Commons licensed?) I asked his three environmental org arms the same question, I’ll post the response if it’s positive.

WATCH THE TRAILER! http://www.climatecrisis.net/trailer/

I was disappointed to find several hardware issues with the Santa Rosa Intel chipset in my laptop when I ran Ubuntu natively. Although Ubuntu always made great strides with other desktops, laptops, and servers, apparently Ubuntu 8.0.4 isn’t ready for my chipset without numerous patches, hacks and workarounds of which are sketchy at best. If you’ve got this hardware, be ready for long nights at the console.

Also, my experience with Virtualbox on Linux was less than desirable performance when compared to VMware. I very much like to participate and support open source software, but not at the expense of practicality. I’ll continue to support open source from the comfort of OS X.

Since AT&T requires a data plan on the iPhone I found the TCO to be cost prohibitive. Using tools from iPhone dev team at http://blog.iPhone-dev.org you can get around that. This works only of you own the first gen iPhone, the 3g is tied to strict activation, and has yet to be “jailbroken” . We all know its only a matter of time. Either way enjoy wifi only and keep your cheap voice plan