Mom tried out Ubuntu

My mom uses a game site to play games using Java. She's played for years, and until now, everything has been good. Recently, she came to me and told me that she couldn't get her games working. Well, it looked like she had to update her Java, but when I went to the place to update it, I learned that I had to update the OS (Windows ME) so I could install the latest version of Java!

You can see where this is going, can't you?

Her computer has a P3 @ 1Ghz and 256Mb of RAM; a perfect candidate, especially since Gutsy just came out. She's ok with me installing linux, but I'd thought I'd do one better, and let her test-drive the ubuntu system with a liveCD. It didn't go so well.

First of all, I should have realized that with a machine with only 256 Mb of RAM, there would be problems, especially with the 12x cdrom drive. Once the OS was loaded, it was fairly responsive, not the fastest, but pretty good - until she tried to run openoffice. We all know that openoffice is a resource hog, but apparently nobody told my mom :)

Long story short, the experience didn't leave a good impression with my mom, but she's still ready to try out ubuntu!

Problems with Gutsy so far, and some upsides.

In my previous post, I basically said how cool Gutsy+Compiz is. And it is cool, no question there. But I also had some problems with it, which is what I'm going to relay to you.

2 days ago, Kubuntu Feisty box: I was reading some article on digg about Gutsy, and how it was ready, but just waiting for the release date, or something like that. I'd had some problemes before when trying to upgrade by replacing all instances of edgy with feisty in my /etc/apt/sources.list, then doing sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y dist-upgrade, so I decided to do it the "official" way, which is to do gksu `update-manager -d` (replace -d with -c now, because Gutsy is officially out now). Ok, the window comes up. Hey, what do you know? There's a new version of kubuntu out! I click on the 'upgrade now' button, and apt-get starts churning away, but not before it informs me that all third-party repos have been disabled temporarily, as they may not have gutsy packages ready, etc...

2 hours later:
Hey cool, it says it's ready to restart! So, I restart, and I'm greeted with the kdm splash screen, oscillating at 60Hz, which makes my head hurt. Turns out, the kernel module that interfaces with the driver for my nvidia FX5500 card either depended on something in the older kernel, or something in the newer kernel broke it. Regardless, I was stuck using the 'nv' driver, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when I couldn't adjust the frequency of the display, it was terrible. So, I dropped down to Virtual Terminal 1, and installed nvidias driver with envy. Hmm, now I've got no X. So I dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg (the -phigh option didn't give me any option-changing screens), and confiugred X to use the nv driver. Next, I did sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx, and when that didn't work, tried nvidia-glx-new, which also didn't work. So, I was stuck with no accelerated graphics, no monitor frequency over 60Hz, and a semi-broken system. What was I to do?

I downloaded (by mistake) the ubuntu-gutsy-i386 install disk from here onto Sarahs computer, and installed it. Like I said before, I've got my /home on a different partition than /, so I wasn't worried about losing my data. Once I booted, I was surprised at how nice GNOME looked, and decided to try it out for a while (KDE was ok, but the performance was pretty poor). So far, GNOME is shown itself to be a very capable Desktop Environment, and now Sarah says she wants to check it out, and maybe install gutsy on her lappy. I'm hoping that Gutsy will have some kind of workaround for her Broadcom card. I have to use ndiswrapper to use it, which is way less than ideal.

Looking forward to learning more of the ins and outs of GNOME!

PS - Sorry for any spelling errors. I was typing this up while I was moving 7 gigs of data from a VM to the host machine, which doesn't lend itself to a responsive environment, :)

Moving to the Gutsy Distro

Last night, I did an gksu `update-manager -c`, and update my desktop to Gutsy. This really wasn't that great, as the binary nvidia driver I was using broke when I updated the kernel, plus there were other problems as well. The main thing I was concerned with was graphics, as I'm pretty much all about burning, zooming, or wobbling windows. I really screwed up my xorg.conf trying to get my wobbly goodness back, but to no avail. So, I downloaded the torrent from here on sarahs lappy, then did a clean install. Luckily, I had my /home on a separate partition, so no big deal there. After I got back from work, I rebooted into a rather pleasant GNOME environment. I'd been using KDE before, mainly for the "cute" factor, but I figured I'd give GNOME a try before I downloaded 1400Mb of KDE stuff. Anyway, my experience with GNOME has been pretty good: I rebooted into a very spartan, very nicely organized space. I started poking around, and BOOM, there's Desktop Effects. Enable Extra Desktop Stuff, now I've got minimize/close/maximize animations. Install CompizConfig Settings Manager: WOOHOO! After about 20 minutes of fiddling, I've got all the eye candy I had previously with Beryl, but now I've got stability, and some cool new features, like the "Airplane" animation that FOLDS THE WINDOW I'M MINIMIZING INTO AN AIRPLANE AND FLIES IT DOWN TO THE APPLICATIONS BAR!! Seriously this is so cool! I've got everything I had before, and now with a new Desktop Environment. I've only been in gnome a couple of hours, but I'd like to try my hand at an analogy: KDE is the Rastafarian guy you pick up on the side of the road and buy LSD from, and GNOME is the guy you see in a business suit buying a hotdog from a sidewalk vendor at lunchtime in the financial district. Both are good, but GNOME is more reserved, more respectable, and more organized.

Last days

Alright guys, even though nobody is reading this, I'd just like to say that I'm pretty much finished with polyphasic sleep. I've slept normally for the past week or so, and any attempts to break out are much harder than before. I think a big part of it is my diet (lots of carbs and fats), which seems to require quite a bit of time to digest, as opposed to a vegan diet, which is what this guy ate, and seemed to digest in less time. From now on, I guess I'll just blog about my linux experiences, and hope someone cares about them, ha ha! It was fun when I actually got into the groove, but I just couldn't keep it there...so I'm back to sleeping normally with the rest of you!

Days 7, 8, and news about my life

Sorry I haven't been posting lately, some punk kids hit a power pole, and died. They also knocked out my power! When the power came back up, it fried my dsl modem (I think), and now I have to wait 4 days for AT&T to send me a new one. I'm really kinda fried about that. At the moment, I'm using an old dial-up modem that works with linux, but the speed is just killing me. Anyway, back to the polyphasic sleep stuff:

The last 2 days have been total disasters in regards to polyphasic sleep. I'm well-rested, alert, and slept for approximately 16 hours in the last 48. What a waste, when I was sleeping 4 to every 24 hours or so...I hate to think I'm going to have to do the whole sleep deprivation, napping thing again. My alarm clock fails to wake me up anymore, so I'm thinking about getting one of those shock collars for dogs that shocks when a loud noise (alarm) is present...that'll be fun. Anyway, not too much else to report. I'm going to dinner at my moms house tonight...hmmm, good food!

Day 6

Ok, I'm starting to slide into this rhythm a little easier each time. My main problem at this point is oversleeping. It's been about 24 hours (at least) since I've slept normally, and I'm really feeling it. The good part is that I'm zonking out every naptime that comes around. I slept at 12AM, 4AM, 8AM with no worries. At 12PM, though, I took a 30 minute lunch to come home and nap. The next thing I know, one of my co-workers is knocking on my door, wondering if I'm ok. I'd slept for over an hour! When I went back to work after that extended nap, nothing felt right. My mind was really sluggish, very difficult to think of things to do, etc...not fun! Fortunately, after about 20 minutes or so, I started to really engage. At 4 I got off work, came home, set the alarm, and the next thing I know, it's 430PM, which was nice, but the lack of dreaming seems to indicate that I'm not hitting REM sleep like I should be...hopefully this is something that will straighten itself out as time goes on. It's about 443PM right now, and I'm feeling a little sleepy, but also rested. I'll update as the day goes on, as usual.

Day 5

Wow, I'm so tired right now. Last night, I didnt take any naps. My girlfriend needed reassuring about something, so I stayed up with her until about 12, then slept for about 8 hours with her. This morning, I felt as awake and alert as I had since I started this ordeal. I haven't taken a nap all day, which has led to the present feeling of sleepiness. It's about 12:38 right now, and I'm proud to say that my 12AM nap was my first nap that I slept all the way through, but still woke up in less than 30 minutes, ha ha. I'm pretty lucky though; I had forgotten to set my alarm again, so Sarah woke me up. What a girl! Anyway, I'm gonna try to stay awake 'til 4, wish me luck...ugh, my eyes keep closing...

Update: It's 1:00AM, and my head feels a lot clearer. I don't know if it's the sleep inertia finally going the other way or what, but I'm feeling positive about this next segment.

Update from the following morning: Last night was a total success! I slept at 12, at 4, and again at 8 in the morning, for about 30 minutes each time! I'm finally getting the hang of this!

Day 4

Wow, today's been pretty crazy. I didn't nap at 8AM, because I woke at 6:30-ish, and there was just no way it was going to happen. I napped at noon, but no sleep. I did get into this very dream-like state, kind of like I'd forgotten to put my brain in gear. I was seeing these strange scenes, almost dreamy, but I had no control over them, and I knew (for the most part) that it wasn't real. Very strange to experience, but not detrimental at all. Sarah (my girlfriend) and I went to Costco today and got some supplies; while we were shopping I noticed that I felt emotionally dulled, which is probably a result of the sleep deprivation. I also feel like my skin has been coated in something (like when you sit in the smoke of a fire when you go camping), but showering doesn't help. Again, most likely a result of the sleep deprivation. Moving on, I napped at 4PM, and actually slept for about 10 minutes. It may not sound like much, but I've never ever really slept in the middle of the day, so to have this happen tells me that it's working, I just have to keep at it. My next nap is in about 2 hours, but I think I'm too awake for it...but we'll see.

Oh, and one more thing. It was very strange. I am eating a bowl of mac 'n' cheese with tuna, and about 2 minutes ago I scooped some up in my spoon, and there were some drops of liquid dripping slowly off of the bottom of the spoon. I don't know why, but it looked so beautiful, I just started smiling. I must have looked pretty weird, with my spoon halfway between my bowl and mouth, watching the drops drip off!

Day 3

Well, I'm doing a little bit better. Last night, I went to sleep at 12AM, which is good, but I didn't wake up until approximately 6:30AM, which is bad. I couldn't sleep during my naps at 8AM and 12PM, and I skipped my 4PM nap because of work. It's about 11:00PM right now, and I'm feeling very dopey. I had to drive a distance of about 7 miles, and I think the sleep deprivation is catching up to me; I had trouble keeping the car in the middle of the road! I think I'll let my girlfriend drive until I get settled into this new habit. It's amazing, this feeling of dopiness. I'm usually a very good typer, but I've spent twice as long as normal on this post, simply because of all the corrections I've had to make. Ugh, it feels like I'm falling asleep right now, with this weird spinning sensation (not visual, must be related to my inner ear). I've felt this way before when I smoked way too much cannabis sativa. Not very pleasant, but I shall nap in an hour or so, and hopefully wake up. Last night, the problem (besides sleeping in), was that I slept through the egg-timer that I used to time my nap. This time, I've got my trusty alarm clock that I've used since I was a freshman in highschool (about 5 years ago). The good thing about this clock is the alarm will not shut off unless I move a switch 2 positions over. I wish I had one of those "Simon-Says" clocks, but this will do, I hope. I'll update this post in the morning.

UPDATE: I made it to my 12AM nap, but no sleep. I watched The Running Man, and stayed up until 4, at which time I fell asleep. I set the alarm for 4:30, but unfortunately, I forgot to turn it on, so I think I slept until about 6, then kind of dozed for an hour or so. When I finally got up, my eyes felt really scratchy, but this is a good sign. I'm beginning to get into this darn cycle, finally!

Day 2

Well, I'm not totally happy with my progress so far. Yesterday, I laid down for about 30 minutes at 12, 4, 10, and 12 again, but I couldn't fall asleep. I wasn't too worried about it, since it would be like trying to fill up your gas tank when it's already topped off. The big thing that I didn't like yesterday was that I couldn't try to nap at 8PM, but had to postpone that nap for two hours. Also, after my 12AM nap/lay down time last night, I was super sleepy, and ended up sleeping from about 1:30 to 6:00 AM, which is less than ideal. I'm kind of disappointed that that happened, but my sleep deprivation is still occurring, since I've only slept about 5 hours in the last 24. My plan of action is to deprive myself of sleep until I'm ready for a nap, then force myself up and at 'em until the next nap, until I switch over (or go on a killing rampage, ;) ). Anyway, today I had to skip my 8AM nap, which was fine, and my 12PM nap doesn't start for about an hour. I'm really foggy-headed right now...not the best time for any surprises or heavy mental work.

First day of polyphasic sleep

Wow, I'm actually doing it! Polyphasic (many phases) sleep basically means that instead of sleeping in one big 6-8 hour chunk, I can take 20-30 minute naps every four hours. The biggest challenge so far was finding the right 4 hour cycle to jump into. The main things for me to get around were my school and work schedule, which is pretty crazy on Tuesdays and Thursdays: 10-12 at work, 12:30-2:30 at school, then 3-6 at work again. I've written it all down, and I think the best times for me to nap are at 12, 4, and 8 (every 12 hour period). The only sketchy part is taking a 30 minute lunch every day when I'm only working 6 hours....but we'll see how that turns out. It's about 11:14 AM right now, and I'm due for a nap at 12, so we'll see how that goes. I'll probably be posting daily, but I may start consolidating several days into one post if nothing big happens. For further information, check out here and here.