Hanging My Head in Shame

Long time, no post. That’s because after I successfully installed and configured Linux Mandriva 2008 for myself and my husband, and after I took the case to the house of a friend with high speed internet so I could download all the updates and bug fixes, I… I… well, I was uninstalling programs we don’t use and I… I nuked a bunch of the files that make the OS run. I even nuked something that makes it possible to reinstall important programs. So there was nothing to do but to reinstall and take the case over to the friend’s again and download the updates and fixes…again. What a maroon.

And did I learn anything? Probably not. My next busy-bee project is to figure out how to include a Windows drive in the configuration. I may be making another trip to my friend’s yet. Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

In other “news”, we’re snowed in AGAIN. No freezing rain this time, but over 12 inches of snow. The roads are in good shape, even our back country roads, but our driveway is 1000 feet of snow-packed gravel. Church was canceled, so here I am writing on my blog while the laundry dries. Ah, life is a constant whirl of incident and excitement.

 

Copycat

I just read somebody else’s blog
http://kathleenhills.wordpress.com/
so I had to be all monkey-see/monkey-do and post to my own.

I’m all full of myself because I bought the 2008 Linux Power-Pack and installed it myself. Well, sort of myself–I had a couple of other more experienced Linux users to call on for help. But MOSTLY I did it myself. Honest. So now I feel like a steely-eyed missile man, deserving of the Pocket Protector of Honor.

We’re finally thawing out from under our latest onslaught of freezing rain. My mother’s biggest holly bush bit the dust, snapped at the trunk under the weight of the ice on its leaves. It’s already sprouting out from the stump, though, so she may have her bush back by next winter. A tree went over, leaning at a 45 degree angle across the driveway, so that was exciting, but my husband cut it down. There goes my last cheap thrill.

 

Foiled

I’ve been wrestling with installing a printer, and the printer has won.  I’m running Linux Mandriva 2006 and my old printer died, so I bought a new all-in-one.  I researched it first, and learned that it’s compatible and well-supported by hp and the Linux community.  Downloaded the driver.  Downloaded the dependency packages, all of which took about eight hours over my dial-up connection.  And the installation failed.

So now I’ve bought Linux Mandriva 2008 and hope that the driver for my printer is in there.  Please don’t tell me that nobody should run Linux unless they know what they’re doing–please don’t.  If I only did things I know how to do, I never would do anything.  At least this program comes with a manual.  I only hope it doesn’t start out assuming I know things I don’t know.  Linux for Dummies, that’s what I need.

Meanwhile, I installed a driver for some other printer, and my printer prints and copies, but it won’t scan.  Two out of three is better than nothing, I suppose.

I also made a meatless loaf for supper and it was very good, except that I seem to have gotten a bit of walnut shell into it along with the walnuts, so it’s rather like eating real meatloaf complete with chips of bone.  Ugh.

I’m not vegetarian, by the way, just prefer slabs to mince and bones I can see and remove before they make it into my mouth.