Fedora Core 3 woes

OK, so I misjudged a lot of things. The PCQLinux people did at least take care of a few things.

Fedora (from Core 1 and upwards) has done away with MP3 support due to worries over codec licenses. This I discovered when I tried to play my collection. As I have not yet succeeded in getting my modem to work, I had to search forums by rebooting to Windows.

Before that, I tried to install VLC (older version), but lacked a few libraries. I thought of downloading the FC3 version today, but at 15 MB, it's a bit too large to get away with for the connection I shouldn't be using. So I'll wait for an update by Digit then (and update this blog, too).

In the meanwhile, I tried to build MPlayer from another CD that has everything in source form. Found that I lacked some libraries for the GUI. Then I tried updating packages, thinking the ISOs on my hard drive would work, but NO. Apparently, Redhat (and/or the developer community) still believes in hardcoding (I remember the claim PCQuest made for PCQLinux 8). The stupid package management tool (system-config-packages) still does not offer a way to set options. It steadfastly sought the libraries from the CD.

I therefore had to burn all 5 CDs. Didn't know that Nero required me to be an Administrator to burn CDs, so wasted some time. Finally succeeded burning four of 'em, but halfway down burning the last rescue CD, there was a power BLIP (it had rained, you see, and I needed less than a minute!), and I have still not managed to buy a UPS (no money!). So goodbye, 9 bucks.

Tonight, I'll try to build MPlayer again. Hopefully there won't be any flags during configure or errors during make.

I have resolved to be a Linux-only user by the time Fedora Core 4 (final) is released. Let's see if this resolution goes the way of all my earlier ones.

My experiments with FOSS

I recently installed Fedora Core 3 from a Digit DVD. Actually, I copied several ISO images to my FAT32 partition, created a Linux Boot CD (extracted the image using WinRAR from an ISO) and went ahead. The installation experience was the same as with PCQLinux 8.0 (Redhat 8.0) PCQLinux 2004 (Fedora Core 1). Manual partitioning with existing NTFS/FAT32 partitions is still a problem, while automatic partitioning resolves the issue.

Some of my biggest problems with Linux have been enabling support for my internal modem (aka winmodem, PCTEL HSP789), soundcard (now resolved with newer kernels and Alsa), DV camera etc.

There are some drivers available for the winmodem, but you have to compile them and insert them, if you are lucky enough to have a version matching your kernel. If you don't (current stable release is for kernel 2.4.x, while I have 2.6.9 / 2.6.10), wait till somebody develops something.

In case of the DV camera where the manufacturer only supplies Windows drivers, Michael Xhaard has some drivers for SunPlus chipsets. I have downloaded it, but not tried as yet. The clips I have recorded with this camera play only under Windows. Why? It uses the MS MPEG4 ISO V.1 codec, which relies on DirectX and has compatibilty issues (when I enable the camera's normal or high-res modes) with open source projects such as VLC, which otherwise can do a LOT of things with video and audio files.

Yet another problem was enabling NTFS support in my kernel. One option was to rebuild, but was no option at all as I don't know enough of it, and as I am missing some libraries. I found an RPM at Sourceforge, which has installed perfectly, but with WRITE SUPPORT! Really dangerous this can be for your native Windows partition.

I could only read the NTFS partition as root, so I tried to chmod -R 555, but the permissions have been applied only to the directories, not the files. So it's some more man and info till I find a way to do it while managing not to destroy the partition.

Why do I plan to go to all this length? Since the last few days, whenever I've logged on to the intenet, most of my time has been spent blocking network intrusion attempts that my firewall notifies. This is because Windows XP (even with SP2) and various malware demonstrate a force of attraction unparalleled in strength anywhere in the universe.

Now Microsoft wants to enforce the Genuine Disadvantage, so that unauthorised copies of its OS cannot get updates. It now plans to use the combined strength of virus writers to ward off piracy. However, it will end up creating more of a mess on the internet if out-of-date computers fall prey to DoS attacks or become virus repository and dissemination centres. Another big joke is the stripped down version of Windows XP, which runs only three concurrent processes, for Rs. 1500 and lots of free viruses.

Microsoft first tried product activation on Windows XP, which failed because there were cracks available. It also resulted into compromised pirated copies. It tried to restrict SP1 to genuine users, but failed miserably as it gave rise to more cracks and compromises. SP2 was a much better effort, as it updated systems regardless of license. However, have you noticed the size of each of these service packs starting from Windows NT 4.0? Even after applying SP2, users spent a lot of time getting even more updates and fixes online, only automatically. Did anybody count the cost of maintenance in this instance?

Why not rather use a free, secure operating system that makes so many more things possible for the user, at the least upfront and maintenance costs, even if it takes a little bit of effort to learn and configure? At least you won't be forced to format the native partition every six months. So, as soon as I get that modem driver loaded, it's goodbye Windows.

There is one good piece of software available for Windows, though. It's Ray's Letters and Numbers, a really good FREE educational program for kids from 1.50-3.50 years. It's creator seems to have understood child psychology and teaching methodology in real depth. My daughter, who is 2 years and 5 months old now, can recognize letters from the second character alphabet, use a mouse to click on them, and copy out the spelling (colours, numbers, household objects, etc.) shown on screen. Another good free software is Letter Sounds, from Owl & Mouse software. My daughter loves this one too, and it is the next step after Ray's ABC.

We now need open source versions of these two, and something more from the K stable than what it currently offers.

Freedom and openness

I installed (after some mysteriously failed attempts on Win 98 SE, bug report submitted) Picasa 2 today. It's Simply Superb Software. It's one of the best and non-sinister image/video managers available today, and to top it, it's free!

And of course, I love Firefox 1.0! Firstly, it's much lighter and safer, unlike IE. Secondly, it's OSS, unlike Opera. Lastly, IT'S EXTENSIBLE!!! Thunderbird also seems very promising, but I'll only start using it exclusively after its integration with Sunbird. I've just taken a brief look, and I like what I saw.

One thing is certain, as OSS gets more and more popular (and much more sophisticated), there will be lesser incentive for people to pirate Microsoft's offerings!

Godspeed, FOSS! And may you soon be known as only OSS, and thereafter, Software.

As an aside, think of all the skills that were developed and refined and passed down from generation to generation and spread all over the world by our ancestors. Now imagine what Microsoft would have done with them.

Addendum

The self-implicating commentator says this:

> -> there were assembly elections round the corner
> -> there had been by-elections to 4 seats some time back
> -> the ruling party lost 2 of these 4 seats
> -> the care-taker cheif minister contested 1 of the 2 victorious seats
> -> various constituents (farmers, middle class, small-time businessmen & traders, irrespective of their religion/cast) were pissed off with the performance of the ruling govt

How well the human mind can mix facts to derive pet inferences! I won't deny that Keshubhai did such a bad job at governance and politics (he is still at it: look at how he's playing into Congress' paws by opposing electricity reforms) that the BJP would have lost much of its earlier majority in fresh elections. However, the intervening period saw Shankarsinh display his true mettle and things became really bad. He has been rightly relegated to his constituency, rife with caste equations, and may he stay there forever. And what has Modi's winning his seat got to do with the larger scheme of things, as alleged?

Even after the riots, the elections would have been tough for the BJP, if not for the superbly timed FATWAH. Even the secularist's favourite constitutional watchdog, out to admonish and insult every Gujarati and managing it from within the State, after all his barks, snarls and snaps, only looked on with his tail down between his consecreted hind legs as the people voted AGAINST the secularists and FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE may lightning strike me if I'm wrong.

Will you point at the Parliamentary election results? Do you know the demography of the seats the BJP lost by slender margins and Keshu Patel's influence there? DO you know that the Gujarat Samachar, the Congress's favourite Dr. Goebbels published in two inch bold headlines that cooking gas prices WILL go up by Rs. 98 'tomorrow' (oh oh, I forgot to mention - smack on election day), and the number of half-literate housewives who would've been just pursuaded to vote for poor widowed hallowed white skin Sonia? YES, it is the misfortune and lethargy of the broad base of BJP supporters who didn't go out and vote, too much taken in by the now undeniable INDIA SHINING that it would win anyway.

The bastardized travesty that is the present Government formed by money-grabbing, power-crazed, morally corrupt undesirables who hate their own roots, the UBIs, that had their own INDIA WHINING (go scour the TOI and its spawn for their advertisements) now want to bask in reflected glory, which if not the creation of the BJP, is owed very much to its nurture. CAN you deny it?

To 0.0

0.0 wants to publish his (?) Thinking Person credentials. Bubba, are you from Gujarat? Did you have to conduct your pregnant wife through hostile "them" areas in an ambulance, (after a night's hazardous journey in a train journey all for a futile-but-necessary-to-this-secular-country's-all-important-Government's purpose) still under curfew two months after the initial four days' fires because the secularists were encouraging revenge and spreading venom? Have you ever passed through a hostile mob of LACS out on the road, praying for your life and have a large rock chucked at your window of the bus you are traveling in and this TWO years before the carnage and at the smallest pretext? Have you ever seen the police presence there during an India-Pakistan match? Have you ever bumped a bicycle wheel on Relief Road and managed to get away unscathed?

HAVE-YOU-EVER-FELT-THE-HATE-IN-THE-AIR???

And then having to bear a bastardized English media and prudes like you who can't tell their right from left, who call us mass criminals. Why, my brother, is it that although the majority outnumbers the minority by 4:1, the ratio of deaths in riots is nearly equal? Have you ever stepped out of your metrosexual mentality (or your metro) to see fashions in children's names and adult's grooming change from local to Arab over just five years? Have you heard the names of the places now called Mini Pakistan, whether in Mumbai or Ahmedabad, and ever wondered why?

Did you ever see the difference between Chiman Patel's and Keshu Patel's governments? And did you ever see the difference that Narendra Modi made to the administration and corrections to Keshu Patel's treasurehouse of misjudgements? Do you know what the name Santok Jadeja meant during Chiman Patel's rule, apart from what you learnt through Godmother? Have you EVER seen a car bearing the name KARAN in huge letters speeding around Race Course and understood what it means to be rid of it, that you talk of people being fed up with the past administration? Wnat DO you know, by the way, apart from the depth of and the grime in your own navel?

I AM leading my own sweet life, however misguided it may seem to you. I don't need your encouragement, admonition or indifference. I am sure nobody else does, either. So go finish your self-important book, if you can hang on to a thought that manages to bear a semblance to integrity while successfully hiding your prudishness and pretence.

Why acknowledge my blog? You can keep your opinion to yourself, if you don't like me expressing mine, and keep on grabbing at straws in the wind elsewhere.

Go get a reality check. There are good people and bad, in every country, community, caste and even a family. They will churn, they may even burn. A lot of wheat may be thrown out with the chaff. THAT is life. It never did, doesn't now, and never will need your holier than thou attitude.

Whatever happened was unfortunate, wrong, unpardonable. But was it inhuman? Was it the first instance of such an event in human history? So get a better yardstick.

A guided inquiry

So you have it. A retired Supreme Court judge, and an NGO (hallelujah) have opined that the train burnt from the inside due to a cigarette or cooking. Now, the passengers must have been really hungry, you know, having just left the station where they wouldn't eat something sold by a vendor of another community (did they insult him?), and being so far away from their destination. How far away? So they cooked, and smoked.

Smoking is prohibited inside coaches. They broke the law. So they brought it on to themselves. Only secularists are allowed by law, consititution and morality (not religion, they can't make a choice) to make this argument.

Nobody ever smokes inside railway compartments. Not in India. This is why we don't have many railway accidents. But they did. That is why the inevitable happened.

People are cautioned not to disembark from moving trains. However, this train was stationary. So they couldn't break another law, and sat there, waiting for somebody to find a solution.

People living around the tracks saw that the coach was burning. They ran to the rescue, and started urging everybody to get out. All in vain, because the passengers wouldn't pay attention to anything said by the other community. The outsiders tried breaking the windowpanes to let the flames out. They also cut the vestibule open, so that those inside could get out.

Oh woe, the fire was actually in the way to the vestibule! Unfortunately enough, the coaches were also mostly made from plywood, rexene and styrofoam. Only if the present Railway Minister had been in charge then, he would have ordered everthing converted to earthenware.

So the stubborn, communal, hungry, lawbreaking passengers suffered their fate.

Those on the outside did their best to rescue these hapless people. They tried to pull the fire trucks, mysteriously stalled, to the burning coach - but they were too heavy, and the eager-to=help crowd didn't help matters. They even tried to douse the fire with a revolutionary new fire extinguishing liquid, that they brought in large cans carried in rickshaws. They sprayed it and they prayed. Some even sustained burns for all their acts of kindness.

Only the insiders never got out. If they had, we would have known the truth about this benevolent, unselfish act of kindness blessed by God ^H^H^H (sorry, the secularists can't have that!).

Of course, there were some pretenders who tried to cash in on all the aid flowing in after the incidents. However, we know the truth about them. They are all liars. If they managed to get out, why couldn't 58 others? They are the real culprits, by their silence, for the aftermath.

Now, after almost three years, and at a very unopportune moment, we are faced with the whole and ubiased truth. We salute the Minister and the judge, and genuflect before them for their fairness and bravery in the face of so much opposition and hardship.

If only we had known then. If only we had known then.

The decision

In the beginning Google (not really) created the Search and the Space. Now the Space was formless and empty, confusion was over the surface of deep thought, and the Spirit of OSS was hovering over the mind. And Google said, "Let there be a blog", and there was a blog. Google saw that the blog was good (brag) and he (!) merged the blog with the lack of clear thought.

To blog, or not to blog, was the conundrum. Exposure of the confusion was the fear. Wastage of time during work hours was another. Opportunity to cast the pearls of wisdom was the lure.

Then came the Blogger, Son of Google. The Spirit of OSS completes the Trinity.

In the end, the lure won over the fear.

Hence this Blog.

"Are there Woods down the Road, or is there a Road through the Woods?"