Why Buy a Mac?

So I've been slowly getting over my disdane for Macs over the last few years as they have produced hardware and software that is less "cute" and more "sexy." Recently, I have been considering picking up a second hand MacBook just to have a new, fun toy to play with. Well, as a quick distraction and an effort to prevent another unnecessary and expensive expense, i found a little how-to online to change my interface to a more leopard like experience. If you want to try it (for ubuntu) you can follow the instructions here http://www.howtoforge.com/mac4lin_make_linux_look_like_a_mac
There are a few things that are no longer correct, so if you run into those issues, feel free to drop me a note...

Aardvarchaeology : US Politics Have No Left Wing

Aardvarchaeology : US Politics Have No Left Wing

Yay for perspective. Finally someone to justify why I only agreed with 40% of the most liberal canidates.

Skip Commercials in Windows Media Center

Skip Commercials in Windows Media Center

I know this isn't ubuntu/linux related but i do still run my media center through the windows environment... hey , chill out.. i did run mythTV on Fedora in my second year in Philly. When i came up here, i just didnt have the time to hack it into working (back then, it was a lot more of a pain to set it up)

Maybe i'll goto myth again when i rebuild the media center box.

when ubuntu doesn't "Just work"

After extolling the ease of linux (ubuntu in particular) i've hit my first time that it "didn't just work."
So here i am, about to rip my brand new copy of "For Your Own Special Sweetheart" (jawbox's third and arguably BEST album) in SoundJuicer and of course i want it in MP3 format, Not ogg, flac, aac or speex dammit!
ah well.. go to settings and select forma....
what the fuck? MP3 is already there as a profile... but. i .. can't.. select... it...
waaaaaaaaaah?
apparently it's a common problem with feisty installs (even clean ones)... it looks like some dependency just didn't make it into the final version of gstreamer... anyway..
to fix it
go into synaptic and install the gstreamer bad multiverse package.
it'll fix it.
cheers!

a great 915resolution tutorial

so i have been playing around a bit.. checking out other desktops within linux (kde and xfce) and ended up with a version of each application (one for xfce, one for kde and one for gnome)... well that and i have had so many things that ive added and forgot about or screwed up, that the system was bogging down.. (for linux it takes a lot of screwups to be noticeable.)... anyway... eventhough i just built the mobile computer (see below) i couldn't remember for my life how to install 915resolution... the readme wasn't nearly as informative as i remembered...
so... a couple links down in google was the following tutorial.. fking awesome:
absolute beginner guide to 915resolution

and of course.. my new kubuntu based Mobile Computer (or is it computer mobile!)