Wenn mich Daheimgebliebene nach dem Wetter fragen, schwingt da schon manchmal ein ironischer Unterton mit. Im Winter ist das in Oregon nämlich eher eine rhethorische Frage: So zeigt das typische Klimadiagramm aus dem Pacific Northwest nicht unbedingt mehr Regen über das Jahr wie in Deutschlands Südwesten, nur leider ist das Ganze weitaus schlechter verteilt.
More RAM!
The Mac user's last words: "More RAM!" ;)
After using the Mac Mini for quite a while, I switched my primary Operating System to Linux/PPC (more exactly, Ubuntu Linux, but this might change over time).
Meanwhile, I found out that Java is a pain on Linux, especially on the PowerPC architecture. The Sun Java packages are not available, so the only ones you can use are the GNU Java Compiler or a commercial Java variant from IBM. As the GNU version is very unfortunately quite slow (and some applications do not even run on it, for numerous reasons), I managed to install the latter. For that, I followed a Java PPC Howto in a Ubuntu forum. Quite frankly, the fact that the howto is in Chinese didn't make the process any easier, but I managed to read the important information out of the few code snippets on that site.
Now, the Java programs I want to run work quite flawlessly most of the time. Unfortunately, one of the components seems to have a memory leak. And I am not quite sure if it's the Java JRE or the (always very memory-greedy) Java-coded software I am using. Recently, it even filled up my whole system memory, including Swap, preventing me from accessing the system for almost five minutes, until the Java program crashed and I was able to work again. The system load had reached the truly magical number of 49 at this point. At least, the whole system did not crash: Respect to the stability of the PowerPC Port of the Linux OS.
In any case, even though I really like Linux on my Mac, I wanted to use OS X at some time again. But since "it is just no fun to run OS X with less than 1 Gig of RAM" (German quote), I ordered some this week. This means, I will address the challenge of opening the Mac Mini soon.
Especially as the hard drives shipped with the Mini are not pretty fast either (and therefore the Swap space is even slower than it "usually" is), I expect the upgrade to be a true relief -- because currently, the constant swapping of memory content to the hard drive and vice-versa is the most annoying thing about the little barebone sitting on my shelf.
I'll keep you posted.
P.S.: The "last words" up there I just made up myself, but they are an intentional reference to the last words attributed to the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: ("Mehr Licht" = "more light"), just in case you didn't notice ;)...
Oregons Sterbehilfe-Gesetz
Obwohl es international gar nicht so hohe Wellen geschlagen zu haben scheint, war gestern in den Oregonischen Zeitungen nur von einem Thema die Rede:
Boise im Bilde
Wie versprochen, habe ich ein paar Fotos von meinem Trip nach Boise hochgeladen. (Die Stadt spricht man übrigens "Boißi" aus ;) )
Page me!
In den guten alten Zeiten, als das SMS-Schreiben in Deutschland noch günstig war und es überall im Internet kostenlose SMS-Services gab, erinnern wir uns daran, dass es auch einige E-Mail to SMS Gateways gab. Da sendete man eine E-Mail an eine bestimmte Adresse und flugs kams beim Empfänger als SMS auf dem Handy an.
Prinzipielles
Übrigens: Wir werden Weltmeister.
Google Pack is coming
Google has made some sort of Meta Updater package ("Google Pack") that bundles quite a few useful applications.
Among these: Firefox :), Adobe Reader, AdAware SE and of course some Google Applications.
Even if this seems to be totally useless for the experienced user, it could greatly facilitate staying up-to-date with these essential tools without regularly having to look for updates in every single application.
Probably targeting the unexperienced user, it could make them install a couple of useful tools they probably would not have thought about otherwise. And it could give Firefox another boost by making it even less complicated to install. A real contribution to a more secure internet experience for the average user. Well done, Google.
Additionally, administrators might appreciate the package in order to install a few tools all at once, reducing overall installation time. Eventually, they might even include it in an unattended Windows install CD, letting them roll out new boxes with only a couple of minutes of work. (Looks good for me, as I really only want to waste as little time as possible on installing Windows ;) )
Try it out :)
(via digg)
Verschollen im Gem State
Good evening and greetings from Boise Airport. Sicher habt ihr mich vermisst. Falls nicht, macht auch nichts.