Ow how I love these morning posts :). Once again dawn slumbers through sleeping streets in Hasselt. From the window of my office people can see the amber light of my desk-lamp mixed with the ever changing tones of a computer display. I am at ZEN with my world today , although another busy day is rushing towards me. But I do not mind. Yesterday evening was an evening as should all friday nights be. Before heading home I popped by the local hardware store to treat me to some goodies. That laptop docking station I had been dreaming of for a few weeks now was going to be mine. And what do you know. Once I popped in my Pc laptop I instantly regretted the fact I had not bought this baby sooner. Its nice looking , its slim, slick and ultra ergonomic. Thanx to this little baby my office table is no longer cluttered with external displays and large keyboards. It just pops my mobile companion up diagonally and lets me enjoy the laptop screen at eye-height without the ever so dreaded neck) strain caused by over-use of portable equiptment. I also got myself an external keyboard mouse combination ( Logitech of course) but am saddened to say i'm gonna have to take it back. I need USB on both the keyboard AND the mouse and it always seems to be one OR the other. ( Unless one goes for the more expensive models). But those logitech keyboard are worth it , I have one lying around here and its about 5 years old now (used daily) and it does not show any sign of wear and tear nor does it go out of fashion.
I also upgraded the internal network here (had a new adsl router lying around) and took a chance to install it . The 6Mbit pipe we have here (instead of the 3mbit we used to have) does show right now. Its a whoooole new world. ( + the addition of yet another router behind the first router does give us extended security and makes me sleep more calmly at night).
And like cream on the cake it was time to sit down with my Ubuntu. As Nyana traded the non interactive linear entertainment of TV for a nice webcam chat with some friends, I dug my heals in for a session of Ubuntu. I had not had the chance to try the thing out after I installed the AUTOMATIX script.. But boy oh boy .. Was I in for a treat. For years and years i've been fretting and fighting the cutting edge of linux desktop design. Never was there a distribution that pleased me or that gave me simple tools to "make it work for me" . With ubuntu THAT has changed. MSN / Skype / bittorrent / Email / surfing / Playing multimedia.. it ALL WORKED like a charm. Plugging in an external usb keyboard ? No problem .. usb mouse ? go ahead. There was no limit to its capabilities. I even downloaded an RPM (redhat) version of my mail client FIRSTCLASS. With ONE line of command code I changed it to a .DEB (debian or ubuntu-proof) program. With ONE more line I installed it. But i thought hey .. It does not show up on my desktop ? So its probably broken.. But when I checked the programs menu it was already waiting for me in the APPLICATIONS / INTERNET menu ? How the hell did ubuntu know it was a mailclient ? Fantastic .. and of course it WORKED !
Enough banter .. I must be off , talk to you guys tomorrow.