Debian Squeeze on a ThinkPad X201

Note: boot windows first and create the Rescue and Recovery Media immediately after unboxing.. Note #2: yes, there are Intel i915 video issues, but both the Debian Squeeze d-i graphical and text installers work fine with this video chipset, however, the screen is blank on first boot – either a) install the SSH Server task [...]

My Thunderbird 3 Fix-ups

I’ve been using the Mozilla Thunderbird email client for many years and found a few annoyances upgrading from v2 to v3 – here are my gotchas and fixes for it to fit my email habits. While I’m sure it’s great for most people and cases, if you have the slightest bit of complexity in how [...]

mplayer Video File Properties

I was looking for some native 1080/720p HD media files and also comparing some lower resolution files played back on a new HDTV. Many times you can get some quick info on media file properties with the ‘file’ utility: mshuler@gaea:~$ file Life.Of.Brian.1979.avi Life.Of.Brian.1979.avi: RIFF (little-endian) data, AVI, 640 x 336, 25.00 fps, video: XviD, audio: [...]

MacReport.Net Media Publishing, Inc. <- IDIOTS..

Public notice to the idiots at MacReport.Net Media Publishing, Inc.: For over a year, various morons at your organization have been sending email to my gmail.com address. Repeated replies requesting that the senders completely remove my email address from your organization’s contact lists have failed. Various forms of assuredly private information including profit/loss statements, merchandise [...]

What I Think About the iPad

Yesterday, a friend asked my opinion of the iPad (“If it can’t print what’s the point..?”), and this morning, Michelle asked me about whether it would be a good device for teaching, working on documents and presentations, etc. My answer to both is: It depends. For one, it’s difficult for me to provide a completely [...]