Ubuntucat

I used to do a lot of stupid things when I was younger. Fortunately, I don’t do stupid things quite as often as an adult, but I still do them.

My mother tells me when I was a toddler I used to climb on unfinished wood in playgrounds and then cry when she pulled the splinters out of my hands… and then I’d go back and climb on the same unfinished wood.

One time in middle school, I went to a camp, and a bunch of friends of mine and I decided it would be a great idea to prank call 911. It wasn’t a great idea. It was a dumb idea.

Then there was that time in college I was pulling weeds barehanded, and it turned out the weeds I was pulling were poison ivy. That was dumb.

Well, last night, I was cutting up an avocado. Usually I dig the knife into the pit, twist, and then remove the pit in one or two strokes. The pit wouldn’t move, though. It just broke in half. So instead of doing what a smart person would do (give up and realize the avocado was not ripe yet), I decided to dig into the pit with the point of a very sharp knife. I slipped and cut my finger. It was painful, and there was a lot of blood.

I’m an idiot.

You live and learn. Well, hopefully you learn…

I used to watch a lot of The Dog Whisperer. Recently, I’ve been watching It’s Me or the Dog, which I like better. Cesar Millan and Victoria Stilwell have very similar approaches to fixing bad dog owners, but I think Stilwell is better at explaining steps. Millan can model things, but he can’t teach the owners exactly what to do. He relies too much on abstract phrases like “pack leader” and “calm, assertive energy.”

In either case, though, it’s quite obvious many dog owners who think they have problem dogs are really just problem owners, usually because they spoil their dogs and treat their dogs like babies instead of like dogs. Dogs don’t handle baby treatment well, so they act out or become neurotic. And many breeds of dogs require a lot of exercise and don’t like being cooped up in a house for ten or twelve hours at a time.

Get it through your thick heads, people! Dogs aren’t babies. They’re dogs. And you can still love your dog without spoiling it. In fact, if you really did love your dog, you wouldn’t baby it. And both you and the dog would be much happier.

You need a license to drive. Why don’t you need a license to adopt a dog? I think all potential dog owners should be forced to watch (A Clockwatch Orange style) 16 hours of It’s Me or the Dog before being able to adopt a dog. Or many of these supposed dog lovers would really be better off with a cat. Seriously. Cats don’t mind being spoiled. Cats don’t mind being stuck in a house all day (as long as you play with them a little bit when you get home). Cats are already toilet trained. Cats groom themselves.

If you want a baby, have a baby… or adopt one. If you want a dog, treat it like a dog and love it like a dog. If you think you want a dog but don’t want to put the energy into training it properly and exercising it well, get a cat.

My wife always wants dim sum, and I rarely do, for several reasons:

• I believe dim sum is best enjoyed in large groups, as you can sample more food, and you are less likely to have a mouth full of food when you need to order off the cart of food you want, since there are more people available to order things.
• Even if you have a lot of people with you, getting constantly interrupted by people pushing carts and having to eye what has come out and is coming around all the time takes away from the meal and conversation.
• If you come at the wrong time, the food won’t come out in the right order.

Yes, there are dim sum places that have little order forms instead of carts, but none of those near us have any good-tasting food. And, yes, there are times we’ve been able to gather up a group of friends to go with.

Yesterday, we lucked out, though. We were only two people. We were constantly interrupted by cart-pushers. But the dim sum was magic. Everything we wanted came out piping hot from the kitchen in just the right order (not dessert first and vegetables and shrimp later). And it tasted good.

I’m still not a big fan of dim-sum-for-two. But I like magic-dim-sum-for-two.

I know I’m probably the millionth person to comment on this (is millionth even a word?), but I have only two things to say.

1. To the anti-Linux folks and tech “journalists” who blame this on Linux not being “friendly” enough for new users or being for only those who want to tinker with their computers, how exactly would Ubuntu (or any Linux distro) have been friendlier or easier to use in this case? Does Ubuntu have any control over the fact that Verizon gives you the impression its software is necessary to set up an internet connection? Or that Verizon’s CD provides Windows-only software for it? Does Ubuntu have any control over the fact that Microsoft has made Microsoft Office closed source and not made a Linux version? Does Ubuntu have any control over MATC’s requirements misleading people into thinking they need Windows when Linux will do just fine? Did this woman really have to drop out of college because of the laptop?

2. To the supposedly pro-Linux folks who feel the need to harass this woman through Facebook or whatever, shame on you. Should she have known better to research what computer she was buying before plunking down $1100? Sure. Is she an idiot? No. She’s just an idiot when it comes to computers, and I know a lot of otherwise brilliant folks who are idiots when it comes to computers (I was a computer idiot only five years ago myself). There’s no need to send hate mail her way when the people really at fault are the “journalists” who don’t actually do any kind of investigative reporting and rely solely on catchy headlines and misinformation to gain readership and website hits.

A friend of mine recently went back to school for interior design and previously had been a Mac user. Surprise, surprise—she got herself a Windows computer, because she knew AutoCAD wouldn’t run on her iBook. Somehow, though, I can’t picture WKOW 27 running a news story on Mac OS X forcing her to drop out of college because it doesn’t run AutoCAD, even if she had stuck with her iBook.

Edit: Here’s an example of a Mac user on Yahoo! Answers who is having trouble with the .exe file to set up her Belkin wireless router. Anyone going to run a news story on it? Doubtful.

I’ve been fascinated by HP’s line of netbooks ever since I saw the phrase “92% keyboard,” but the reviews of the HP Mini-Note have been mixed, and the most recent reviews of the HP Mini MI indicate they’ve based it on Ubuntu but disabled the terminal. There’s probably a way to re-activate the terminal. Still, what’s the point of disabling it? Mac OS X has had a terminal for years. It doesn’t mean Mac users have to use the terminal. It’s just there for the people who want it.

In any case, I’m not actually in a position to buy a new netbook (my old Eee PC is less than a year old). I like to pretend, though, so I walked through the process of customizing the new HP Mini MI, and I came across this (click for a larger image with the full context):
Uh, that’s a Windows logo there, except they’re saying it’s Linux. It’s one thing to hide the typical Linux interface with a slick internet-media interface or even to disable the terminal, but tricking Windows users into thinking Linux is Windows? Even Mac has the weird split square smiley face or the Apple logo. Linux can’t even get a tux penguin or the Ubuntu logo?

“Progress” always has to happen in small steps at first, I guess.