Unfortunately we only have one — which cost something akin to buying a large appliance.  I’ve been using it for my university statistical Math course; getting quite comfortable calculating t and z distributions of many sample proportions.  Now with a month left (read: crunch study time), hubby comes along with his condensed Math 12 summer course and I’m sitting here with my unsolved binomial distributions.  How will I ever know the probability of rolling a die 1000 times that it will roll a 6 fewer than 160 times?

Since we are on the same study/school/work schedule, we’ll have no choice but to purchase another, not a very sound investment, seeing as how both courses end Aug 7th and I’ll probably never touch a calculator again — unless I’m trying to figure out a tip (yes, my math is *that* good!)  Now give me back my calculator!!!!

(In case you were wondering, there is a 28% chance of rolling a six fewer than 160 times.)

The 1024×600 screen is brilliantly bright and colourful. The 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor is snappy and the new touchpad/buttons are a welcome change from the first generation of the AA1.

It’s not without it’s annoyances however…the Canadian models ship with an international EN/FR/NL keyboard, which features a half-size Shift key and moves the Enter key vertically under the backspace rather than horizontally above the right Shift. Also, the Acer recovery partition and related software made it a real bitch to add Arch Linux partitions without completely wiping Windows XP. I’ll post my workaround for that soon.

The funny thing is that I almost forget the discomfort of shopping for our car, in fact looking back now I vaguely remember the frustration.  But what I do remember were the endearments…the engaging grandpa from Fiji, the amazing snowfall that crippled us and the city within minutes, the shared laughs about salesman’s idiosyncrasies, and playing hangman by the faux fire in the restaurant we warmed up in.

And in the be careful what you wish for category, yes we now have two cars, two sets of gas bills, two sets of washer fluid jugs, extra keys on our key chains, endless shuffling and discussion about ‘who gets to park in the garage’ and have control over the godly door opener. Should the newer (thus perceived “nicer”) car get the protection from the elements? or does the older car deserve it because the heater doesn’t work (thus takes longer to warm up when parked outside on those cold mornings)?  I think we might have settled that one, and despite the problems we thought having a second car would solve, it has somehow created issues we did not fully perceive.

… so for those eager to know what we finally bought?  A 2000 Ford Focus, 4cyl, high kms, well maintained and in good shape, but now in need of a wash.

Stop 1: A smoking, hoodied gentleman casually explains that there is no need for us to take the car out for a test drive, but if we “really want to”, we can. Uhh onward.

Stop 2: Two dealerships. No, of course they don’t have cars < $10,000!

Stop 3: This car has to be dug out of snow that fell two weeks ago and also needs a battery boost.  The salesman breaks the hood latch doing this but hey, we can deal with that as it means a few bucks off. Out on the road (with the salesman) a cupful of water pours from the visor mount onto the dash.  Back we go.

Stop 4: This car is nice.  It’s got everything we could ask, albeit a  bit larger than we wanted for a 4 cyl, but it’s in great shape.  However, it’s boxed in their driveway by another resident who isn’t home, and there’s no insurance on the car which means that even if we could get it out of the driveway, we couldn’t actually *drive* it–though we did have a really nice chat with Grandpa while standing there.

Stop 5: Reluctantly home. Heavy snowfall sent us home earlier than we planned. But it was mainly due to the fact that the heat in our current car is lukewarm (at best)–the ‘defrost’ mode makes seeing out the windshield worse than if we didn’t turn it on–and it was getting dark at 1630 hrs.  Frost-bitten and tired, we stopped halfway home for warm food and to get the feeling back in our toes. Six cups of tea later, and a pee break we make it home unsuccessful, but planning the next outting for Sunday.

Day 2 – Stop 1: Dealerships at the Auto Mall.  One-stop shopping! Dressed in multiple, wooly layers and another list off we go. We quickly find that Sunday shopping doesn’t exist in the bible belt of the Valley so we settle for walking the humongous lots on our own. Found some good deals, but no way to get in touch with anyone; frustrating, but their loss I suppose.

Stop 2: Smallish, but friendly car lot.  Test drive two cars; one noisy, ugly and overpriced, the other nice, clean, running well but out of our price range.  Some bargaining, but in the end, not good enough.

Stop 3: Notice a small used-car lot on the way to our next destination. Two possibles!  Take the better one out for a road test and see that the wipers aren’t intermittent; they run rapid –or off.  We wipe the condensation from inside the windshield and note the large crack running down the centre.  Bad brakes, no side mirror and rough idling. We don’t bother with our second choice.

Stop 4: Decent salesman, new car just came in from a trade-in.  Bingo!  The back seats are a bit roughed up, but not a problem.  This is it… our new car.  Just needs to pass the test drive. Topped up with gas and away we go. Less than two blocks from the lot, the heating gauge jumps to H.  Okay maybe it’s a glitch; we drive a bit further but then notice the smell.  We turn around and while stopped at the red light, the car shakes and just about dies. Back on the lot, we open the hood to smoke billowing and the salesman mumbling, “well that’s no good…”.

Stops 5,6,7,8,9...  various dealerships, backlots, salesmen, u-turns, illegal and dangerous driving, phone calls, bad directions, train-crossings, drive-bys and non-stop rain.

Home: The goal was to purchase –and drive home a car before the end of this weekend. We weren’t fussy, we had cash, we thought we were as prepared as we could be.  It would be easy and fun!  Instead we found the weather, our current car and our timeframe were all against us.  Who would have thought that spending thousands of dollars would prove to be so damn difficult?

Everything should be working OK, but don’t be surprised if you find a hiccup or two over the holidays.

Well…that all changed for me recently. For the past two months I have spent a great deal of time in front of my 15″ laptop screen–juggling four on-line courses, paid design work, and my usual duties as an Arch Linux developer. A few weeks ago I noticed I was getting headaches much more frequently than I’m used to. I also became aware that their intensity was directly proportional to the amount of time spent ‘at the keys’.

For a bit of background, my desktop consists of a 15″ widescreen LCD at 1680×1050. It is normally set to 100 dpi, with Arial 8pt for GUI stuff and Dina 13px for terminal applications.

I began experimenting with my desktop config last week, trying darker and low contrasting colour schemes in a vain attempt to ease the strain on my eyes. After each significant change, I’d go back to my routine for a couple of days to get acclimated. Despite this, nothing seemed to help and before long another headache would set in.

At some point I realized it wasn’t so much the contrast level that was bothering me, but rather my ability to focus on large blocks of text for extended periods of time. That’s when I decided to tweak my fonts.

The result? It’s been about a week now and I haven’t suffered a single headache. Not only that, but I can now sit comfortably in my chair without unconsciously leaning over my keys! And In case anyone is wondering the obvious…yes, I already wear glasses–a very light and up-to-date prescription.

For anyone interested, here’s what has changed:

I bumped the dpi/ppi from 100dpi to it’s natural setting of 124×125dpi (determined by X’s DisplaySize settings and the physical measurements of the screen (13″ x 8.3″)). This made an enormous difference for most GUI applications, with the exception of Firefox.

For Firefox, I have forced the minimum font size to 13, though I may bump it to 14 in the near future. It is not an ideal solution as there are several instances where small fonts are appropriate (sidebar text, etc.) however there’s no easy way to discern the body of a page from peripheral elements.

Lastly, for the terminal I’m still using Dina, but now at it’s maximum size of 16 pixels. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a decent console font any larger than that without jumping up to a 20px Terminus.

We’ve been wanting a dog for a while but when we heard about a 17-week old, Miniature Schnauzer who was a purebred, registered, chipped and already house-trained puppy, we just had to see him. We spent most of the day with the pup and the breeder getting instructions on bathing, clipping and basic commands. After an overwhelming amount of information about his parentage and breed, the owner sent us on our way to go outfit our home with everything our new pup would need.

(It should be noted that the last time we seriously bought anything from a pet store was at least ten years ago and so it came as quite a shock to see bejewelled leashes, dishes, bedding and every funky treat and toy imaginable. We had to dig through mountains of neoned coloured brushes and leashes to find something plain… no foo-foo stuff for our guy!)

So with a trunk full of must-haves, back we go to pick up Higgins, MacDubh, Saxon, Barley, Murdoc, Duncan, Dougal, Lochy, Madagen or Guinness. At one point we took a break from all the shopping to sit down over a beer and discuss the serious ramifications and stigmas of picking a name. We originally liked Saxon a lot, but thought calling his short name might be construed as yelling for SEX, which might be fitting for some, but after looking at his little face and noticing his stoutness of character and stance, we agreed on Guinness.

Well Guinness puked in the car on the long journey home (poor little guy) and I in turn just about joined him (poor little guy). The last 24 hours have consisted of us doing nothing else but getting him set up: a poop area in the yard (yes we even brought home a baggie of his poop from the breeder, so that he could recognize his scent on our lawn) with multiple trips in and out just to make sure. The biggest trick is to get him used to his new name and his surroundings, so we have basically alternated sitting with him in one area of the house. The first night he cried a bit but seemed to sleep through, even if we didn’t sleep as well. We had to go out to the pet store again the next day to get a better cuddly and of course it was a well-debated decision — should we get the giraffe or the ducky? He’s very interested in chewing plants, walking between our legs, getting behind furniture and exercising those baby teeth on our fingers.

I had somehow assumed we could bring him home and quickly settle back into regular life, like homework, reading, computing, cooking and the usual day-to-day stuff, but it is not happening. In fact we have neglected just about everything else to talk about how cute he is, how temperate and smart he is and to marvel at his poops in the yard. Ah crazy pet owners. I hate those people who talk about their pets like they are their children, and we don’t want to be those people either but it’s hard not to want to show him off! By the way, we bought the ducky….Check out our little bundle of Guinness at: Flickr

According to dictionary.com, newbie is “an inexperienced user of the Internet or of computers in general.” However this term now applies to anyone who is new to anything in, and outside of computers. In fact, noob is so widely used nowadays that the meaning is completely lost in redundancy.

On forums where text, avatar, and alias are the only defining characteristics, what then defines a newbie? One of the most common ways of judging a newbie from the pack is by simple post-count (or lack thereof.) Many forums use this database which shows joining date and number of posts. It does not matter how much time is spent lurking, studying, or how much prior knowledge one has; the fact is, that until post-count (contribution worthiness) reaches an acceptable level and/or date of joining exceeds some milestone, newbie status reigns. The general consensus seems to be that time-in and “enough” posts of relevant material determine the shedding of the newbie title. Another popular determination is found within the quality of posts. Seasoned users scrutinize topic headings, relevance, and levels of complaint as gauges in making their newbie assessments. It is almost certain death when a new user complains or spews destructive criticism. However, it is interesting to note that it is extremely acceptable for seasoned users to complain, go off topic and hijack posts.

The question then is, ‘how much experience is enough to lose the status of newbie?’ Lately it seems that newbie status has become less about self-deprecation (“Help! I have a newbie question”) and more about being negatively viewed by those who have long lost their own newbie label. The assumption is that newbies are less educated about the topic and/or do not understand the rules of an on-line community, and/or are only causing trouble. This view is strikingly similar to debates surrounding new immigrants and their socialization.

The newbie label has become a derogatory term more than ever before; it’s as if newbies have become parasites of the internet asking stupid (ill-researched) questions, posting the wrong kind of topic heading (“help me I’m stuck!!!”) or generally being disruptive to the community. If post-count or joining date were not displayed for all to see and to judge by, would it be as easy to pick out the newbies simply by what they type and how they type it? Would seasoned users then also be criticized for going off topic and being disruptive?

Equally, by post count and joining date we could also easily ask – what doth make an expert? Perhaps another assumption is that those with high post-counts must be more knowledgeable and serious than those with lesser counts. Sure it may be true for some, but anyone can post to the “fluff” discussion and throw in their two cents on any number of topics from ‘how long is your hair’, to ‘what do you eat for breakfast’, without gleaning any more knowledge than the truly inexperienced members. The logical assumption is that if people have been active in a community for a long time, they must be serious about the forum topic, successful in assimilation and therefore a “non-noob” user.

One popular and over-debated topic on a forum in which I lurk is, “is Arch for newbies?”. It begs the question: How new is the newbie? Have they ever turned on a computer? Or have they tinkered and consider themselves savvy, but are just new to the concept of Arch? There is a huge difference here, but for some reason this fact is overlooked as new and seasoned users alike heatedly debate the question ad nauseum. Everyone has an opinion, but it is so obvious that there is no straight-up yes/no answer to that question. The answer (without knowing if the person in question has ever turned on a computer) should be hell yes! If people are willing to learn then that’s all that should matter. Is Arch for everyone? As with taking up anything new, people have to research it, experience it and then decide for themselves. No other variables matter. Experienced users cannot decide what works best for a non-user. It is like explaining to women that it hurts to get kicked in the gonads…we know it hurts, but we don’t understand how exactly.

As in any community forum, and much like many societies, there is a definite hierarchy in place. The difference being that one’s status within the community is not based on real life success or monetary wealth–it is based on knowledge, who holds it and…oh, post count. Joining a forum is to become part of a community where rules are established and enforced to maintain order, and where protocol must be followed for the collective good of the group. Despite those that test these limits, many join a community for common reasons, mainly to share ideas and to learn.

The term newbie is no longer a valid assessment of one’s worth or experience on-line. In labelling someone a newbie, is to identify them as being at the bottom of the hierarchy–plain and simple. The social construct of the rite of passage from joining (newbie) to becoming a respected member restrains everyone from the goal of sharing knowledge. New users may restrain themselves from posting for fear of repercussion, while seasoned users expend useless energy pointing out the flaws within the posts. With it’s overuse and blatantly ambiguous nature, “newbie” can no longer describe the varying degrees of experience people have. Despite the reasons for people joining, showing up, posting or not, the basis of any good community is diversity. Differing opinions, controversy, and open discourse is what makes a community great, and this should be acknowledged. In grouping all new forum registrants with the burdensome label of newbie with a big fat 1 post count, is to perpetuate the negative connotation and stagnate growth. So what doth make a newbie? Remove the post-count and joining date and find out.

The Arch Forums screenshot thread is the most popular, most viewed thread each and every month.  It is a place to show and tell and for others to see how to best maximize space, usability and creativity.  After being a faithful follower for months, I noticed (and not surprisingly) that a number of wallpapers displayed bikini-clad models. If there was a person displayed at all, they were more often females (fantasy characters, actors) than males. Rarely are males depicted in wallpapers, unless they are game characters or Anime.

I also know there are quite a few women users of Arch who also regularly post their screenshots and wondered what would happen if I threw in a partially nude male model in my screenshot with a strategically placed Openbox menu?   Would users ask where to find the photo as is very common with many partially nude female photos? or would anyone comment in general?

Well maybe it was just waiting in anticipation, but hours went by without a word. I posted at 1600 hrs on June 8 and the next post was a long 12 hours (and the next day) later. Certainly odd and to my knowledge there was never any remark about my screenshot.  I waited for something—anything, especially because my post also had the disclaimer, “This might be NSFW for some…” I thought that at least one person would express their opinion about it, good or bad.

I also wondered if the lack of response was because no one wanted to admit to actually looking at it (after all, more than 450 users did view it) or if people just didn’t know what say. I can understand why most males wouldn’t want to say anything remotely in favour, as it might be construed the wrong way but I thought at least some of the women would comment.

It is always interesting to challenge double-standards and the status quo; to gauge reaction and see what it all might mean.  On the surface, my wallpaper had no meaning at all — or maybe it provoked something deeper. No reaction at all could be just that—nothing, but I am hopeful that it challenged the norms somehow or made some impact on the other half. I also recognize that my own biased assumptions are at play here and maybe I expected too much but the bottom line is,  I will never know.

This influx must be due to the ‘want it now’ generation where people can’t stand to spend more than a few minutes on one thing before losing attention. Want to learn about Italy? You can now find out everything you need to know, not by reading a travel guide written by an experienced traveller, but by quick facts summarized by a computer, with cute little diagrams to keep your attention. These invading, generic and shoddy attempts at information could be called the Walmartizing of books.

A while ago, I noticed this invasion of Dummy books at our small,local book store where the computer section is nothing but “Windows for Dummies”. There was not one independently written book on anything other than mainstream technology.*blah*

It is discouraging to realize how popular and how invasive these books have become, while independent writers are pushed aside by these seemingly informative and digested knock-offs.  It is sad too as I realized that over time, our wonderfully diverse bookstores will become one big yellow store for dummies.