The Installation of Operating Systems

So, this weekend, I decided to reinstall Ubuntu on my desktop, which is actually not that impressive of a feat, considering a) how many times I’ve done it before and b) the fact that the Ubuntu installer is very straightforward and easy to understand (at least for a techy like me). 

Well, the whole process took about a day (in this case, Friday), and by the time I was done, it was about 3am the next day.  However, I must say, I’m quite proud of myself.  There were certain issues that popped up, but all in all, this is the best I’ve ever done with an installation of Ubuntu.  At the moment, there’s only one issue with the operating system, which, considering that previously, I’ve had somewhere between 6 – 20 separate issues, is not bad at all.

Right now, the only issue I have is the fact that for some reason (and this is a known bug in the Ubuntu Forums), whenever I start Gizmo5, I cannot use any other sound (no music, youtube, system sounds, anything).  In addition, if I use one of these other programs, Gizmo does not work.  This is somewhat frustrating, since this means I can’t use Gizmo to get incoming calls when listening to music (for those who don’t know, Gizmo is an open source program similar to Skype, but it has free incoming calls and integrates quite nicely with Google Voice).

Well, I was so proud of myself for this accomplishment, that I decided it was time to reinstall Windows XP on my laptop.  My laptop had been kinda bogged down from 4 years of use, and a reinstall seemed to be in order for it.  So, the next day, I started with the (considerably more arduous) task of reinstalling XP.

First off, the whole thing took about a day and a half.  It wasn’t that hard, but having to get 4+ years of updates, including a service pack, takes a really long time (to be precise, it took me 2.5 hours to get all the updates).  Afterwards, I had to install all the programs, which is a very tedious task, since I had to look for them online, download, install, and repeat.  At least with Ubuntu, I could check some boxes, and it would download and install all of them in one go.

However, eventually, I more or less got my computer to the point where it was before, with one major difference: it now loads REALLY QUICKLY!!!  Where before my laptop would load in about 5 minutes total, it now takes about 2, which is a huge improvement in speed.  This is, of course, taking into account all the startup programs I have, which do slow down the startup process.

Anyway, right now, I have to see if I can fix the Gizmo issue on Ubuntu, and set up my new wireless-N router that I got from woot.com.  But, all in all, it was a productive computer-fiddling weekend.

My Google Voice number

Today, I finally got a Google Voice number. I've been waiting for some time for the invite, so I got the first number that I was able to find that I remotely liked. Unfortunately, the choices were fairly limited. Fortunately, I got a number I'm satisfied with.

However, after changing some settings and doing some general THINKING, I came to realise that a Google Voice number would actually not be that good of a thing right now for me. First off, I'll actually use minutes to call other Verizon numbers. Also, they'll use minutes as well. Therefore, I'll hold off with major use of my Google Voice number for another year, until I get a new plan. I'm probably going to get a Family and Friends plan from Verizon, so, I'll just add my Google Voice Number to that, and predent it's not a Verizon phone. That way, I still get free calls. However, others will not, but that's more or less fine with me, because I don't call people very often, and that is why they have minutes in the first place.

The one nice feature right now of Google Voice that I plan to use a lot is the infinite text messaging. I only have 250 messages a month on my cell phone, but with Google Voice, I have infinite. Also, since I disabled forwarding text messages to my cell phone, I only receive them online. Since I'll have easy access to Wifi for pretty much the whole 5-6 years I'll be at Michigan, it should be easy to check my text messages. So if you want to send me a text message, unless it's extremly urgent, send it to my Google Voice number (if it's urgent, it might be better to send it to my phone directly). The number is listed on my Facebook profile, as "other."

Official Google Blog: Introducing the Google Chrome OS

In a move that directly threatens Microsoft's home turl, Google announced late Tuesday night of a new product: Google Chrome OS. According to the official Google blog,

"We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work."

This seems like a good time for Google updates. With Google Wave introduced a while back, the Google Apps products recently coming out of Beta, and the (arguable) success of the Google Chrome web browser, Google's OS is in perfect position to have a strong entry into the world of PC's.

Official Google Blog: Introducing the Google Chrome OS