Context

[ehowton]

I've been able to limit my ire to two items these past couple of weeks, and both of them stem from linux. I'm not kidding when I say I want to move off of XP. I'm not a gamer - I don't need windows. But no matter how you slice it, there are Window-centric things. For example, a web-interface to ITMS would be nice, as there is no linux client, and no other way to access it. Non-free java sometimes works. Sometimes. I can't have that. As much as I despise java, I require it. But the two big ones for me - the reason I still run XP, is:

1. Notes & Photoshop.


2. Spanned desktop across two monitors.

I have to have Notes. Its my livelihood. Inevitably, some idjit will suggest I use the Notes Web Client (which doesn't work well enough to actually be useful) and I refuse to give up Photoshop. Again, some OSS fanboy will invariably suggest the GIMP, but as dentin once put it, there's a reason why Adobe Photoshop has a bigger market share than the Gimp: because the Gimp is fucking stupid.

IBM did release a linux version of Notes, which eventually worked. Until the operating system updated. And Slashdot has carried IBM press releases about which specific version of Notes will work with which specific version of Ubuntu at some point in an unclear future. Color me bored. I've even found some fantastic HOWTO's on the Ubutnu forums. And I shouldn't have to subjugate myself to virtualization or dual-booting on my laptop! So with a heavy heart, and knowing that this next and final course is equally as perverted as the ones laid before it, I turn to wine.

For the uninitiated, wine is a recursive acronym for Wine Is Not (an) Emulator (though yes, this frustration is driving me to drink) and all the same rules apply. Specific versions of wine, specific versions of Notes, specific kernels, etc. Its going to be a nightmare. But if it works... (and if I get Photoshop working as well) "By Grapthar's Hammer" I will live to tell the tale.

Context is an underrated, and often ignored art. I enjoy context. I start my stories way back, on a seemingly unconnected note, and work my way up. I take my time. Those who have known me years adore it. Those who just meet me get frustrated by it. I tell a story to entertain myself just as much as my audience. To do otherwise does us both a disservice. Of course the joy of context is also its immediate association. If one were in a hurry, they can announce context immediately and go from there. Context is absolutely invaluable in multi-threaded conversations!

I have two friends. Both think context is retarded for different reasons. One thinks that if we're discussing several ideas in a dizzying array of conversations, I should be smart enough to pick out which he's referring to even if his statement could apply to multiple active scenarios. The other friend simply fails to comprehend context's importance even when outlined to him and thus refuses to participate in anything he does not understand.

So be it.

These past two weeks have been weighing heavily on my mind, and I can't focus on one, or the other, because even if I could get everything to work under wine, unless I can utilize my 19" LCD monitor by extending my desktop onto it - ITS NOT WORTH IT FOR ME TO USE! Apparently, linux hasn't migrated this far yet. I have an IBM T60 with a non-nvidia (i810 compliant) framebuffer. Grrrrr! When I get tired of working on that, I go back to wine and the cycle continues. So I'm wandering aimlessly around Fry's Electronics book section today, and what to my delight to I see? Wine for Dummies! Could this be my saving grace? Could I glean something, anything from this bound paper book? It was between Virtualization for Dummies and XP for Dummies.

Its worth a try. I pick it up and open it. There's a metaphor about a corkscrew I don't understand. The corkscrew we don't want to use. Yes - I'm familiar with the 'Dummies' series of books and their similes and stories and tips and asides. Which tool is the corkscrew supposed to represent? I want to ensure I'm not using it! The next page shows another corkscrew. This is the one we should use! Fantastic! This one doesn't leave bits of cork in the bottle. WHAT REPRESENTS THE BITS OF CORK? WHICH TOOL SHOULD I USE TO PROPERLY UTILIZE WINE? The next picture is of...another corkscrew? WTF?

...I close the book to read the cover:



Wine for Dummies.

No shit.

Context is everything.

Comments

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

suggesting switching to OS X for Photoshop and using wine if there wasn't an OS X version of Notes. This gives you a simple interface on top of a strong Unix enviornment.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Running on what, exactly? WHO ARE YOU?

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

If you'd ever get yourself a Mac that worked...

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Alas, they won't let me take my mini to work, and even if they did, I've just lost my portability. Way to go. You are the reason corporate standards are XP running Internet Explorer. I hate you.

[hiro-antagonist.livejournal.com]

Or you could just get a nice Macbook Pro and run XP through the VMWare equivalent for it!

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

I like you already. I'm adding you to my Friends List.

[hiro-antagonist.livejournal.com]

Lol, ok heh. I don't tend to write about such things in my journal though, and usually drone on about dreary things like existentialism.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

No wories. When things get too boring, I'll thrown in the occasional non sequitur. Ask Howton, he knows!

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

I haven't paid a cell phone bill in seven years, nor have I ever had to purchase my own equipment. While I hold out that someday...someday our short-sighted bosses will realize that his unix administrators could work so much more effectively with OSX, Dilbert reins true. Work will not buy me a MacBook, nor will I be purchasing one myself. And if I did, I wouldn't be allowed to take it into work, and would be in the same pickle I'm in now. I used to run ubuntu on it exclusively - and will get back to that point. Without dual-booting, and without virtualization.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

Good luck with that.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

What are you talking about? Look at yourself. You're nothing. You're nobody. You're wanted in connection with a violent crime. You're cleaning the floor of a diner. She is an intelligent, passionate, beautiful, rich woman. The issue of whether or not she's your type is not one that you're likely to have to resolve in this world... or, indeed, the next, since she will be going to some heaven for glamorous pussy, and you will be cleaning the floor of a diner in hell.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

How did we go from you posessing a working Mac to taking your min into work? And why would you need to take your mini in? Why couldn't they provide the tools that you need?

And how the hell does suggesting the use of another platform equal my being the reason that Windoze and IE are corporate standards?

The only reason that Windoze is the corporate standard is that the bean counters can account for it; they can't account for untold workstations that run free OSes.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

How did we go from you posessing a working Mac to taking your min into work?
I have a T60 ThinkPad work laptop. This is what I'm trying to work with. You suggested OSX. I explained I had a T60 ThinkPad work laptop, and asked what you expected me to to load OSX on. You said, "If you'd ever get yourself a Mac that worked..."

Why couldn't they provide the tools that you need?
They do. The provide XP, IE, and Notes. We're talking about tools I want. There's a difference.

And how the hell does suggesting the use of another platform equal my being the reason that Windoze and IE are corporate standards?
Because you're an idiot. You suggested that instead of using my T60 ThinkPad work laptop, I take my personal mini into work and use it instead.

they can't account for untold workstations that run free OSes.
I run ubuntu 90% of the time.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

The[y] provide XP, IE, and Notes.
Both a teaspoon and a 5 gallon will bail a ship. One does so more efficently then the other.