061129 01:22 by iDRMRSR

Had to give up on my webcam. It's just not going to fly under Linux. There's like only two people on the whole planet writing drivers for webcams and they haven't got round to my model just yet.

So then I decided maybe I could do something neatsy keen with MUSIC. So I downloaded this package called Hydrogen which alleges to produce nice drum and bass loops. I know a lot less about music than I do about Linux, let's face it, but when I played the DEMO that came with it, it sounded kind of like when you pull your straw through your Big Gulp lid. Not like drums at all. Squeaky.

Then I tried to play some MIDI file I had laying around, since Hydrogen is MIDI based. Ho HO! No player associated with type MIDI. So it did some kind of scan and told me I should install a package called AMAROK, which is kind of an iTunes for Linux.

I installed it. It's so freaking complicated it had to install a database server, too, which I let it do. Then I pointed it at my Windows partition which had all the music. 58% of the way cataloguing the music, it burped and I never heard from it again.

I cranked it up and tried to feed it a MIDI file. It thought for a while and then said "Unsupported Format". This is strange because, after all, the system RECOMMENDED this package to me! Then I noticed when I tried to quit the stinking program, it argued with me because it wanted KDE and I have GNOME installed. Failed recommendation on TWO counts.

Another quick search on the net finds that there is precisely ONE program which can play a MIDI, TIMIDITY. I installed that sucker, and LO AND BEHOLD it plays MIDI files just great...but the only thing is...it's a CONSOLE MODE program.

Yep, no pussy "click on an icon and pretty music". No, you have to type the whole invocation of the program and then the path to the frigging file every time you want to hear a MIDI file. My fingers would get worn out.

Not only that but I had to download a whole symphony of synth tables, again from some asshole in France, and it pinned the CPU at 100% the whole time it was playing. However, I must admit the SOUND was actually much RICHER than when played under Windows!

TIMIDITY and HYDROGEN do not speak to each other, sadly, so I get the "wet thumb on the rubber balloon sound" instead of snare drums still.

Now I have to figure out just how to UNINSTALL Hydrogen and AMAROK and its SQLITE database server. Cuz, it's not like Linux is going to have a good ADD/REMOVE SOFTWARE thing. Heh, to be FAIR, it has TWO of them...neither of which talk to each other.

Oh, and FIREFOX 2.0 took a crap WHILE IT WAS MINIMIZED WITH A BLANK PAGE! I thought the mantra was Linux NEVER has the same kind of problems as Windows. I could see it crapping out if it was DOING something but it was minimized. My my.

The icing on the cake was the bubble that came up to inform me that I needed to apply 13 CRITICAL PATCHES. Yup, this shit has "automatic update" built right into the pie.

One thing I sort of did solve was the way the FONTS look in Linux. STRANGE. Every program has a different idea what Arial should look like, and Firefox sometimes substitutes a Serif font for the non serif ones! The only thing WORSE looking that I've seen is a Mac.

It turns out you have to download and install TRUE TYPE fonts if you want Linux to look anything like Windows (eg, what I've been staring at for 8 hours or more a day for the last 12 years). Turns out UBUNTU can't include them automatically because they are LICENSED by MS.

Can you believe that, the company LICENSES the fonts!

I wonder if they LICENSE the English language, too. From what I've seen of some of the Linux phraseology, it's obvious the coders don't speak that
language.

I hate to deal with a dialogue like "ARE YOU SURE TO QUIT?" and "Please wait while we gather the informations".

I also had to chuckle because the default installation of Firefox had the RSS feed for the BBC installed on the toolbar! As if I give a rat's ass about England. What's wrong with CNN?

Oh, but then I should have waited for someone to put together a UBUNT-USA distribution. I actually bet there is a team of French programmers right now that are gathering all the "informations" for that distribution as we speak!