Up early this morning to get Ian up early (never an easy feat, and sometimes not all that pleasant) to get him to the airport. He’s headed back to Norman and school today, leaving a noticeable hole here at home. It has been wonderful having him home for the break between semesters and for the Christmas holidays.
We’re definitely seeing that as Li gets older, she misses him more each time he leaves, which makes these transition days as and after he departs even harder for all of us.
… or at least slowed so much that to those riding it, it appears to have stopped.
Since the time I jumped into the Linux waters for some of my computers at home and at work, I’ve done a significant amount of hopping between distributions. In the beginning, many of those jumps were simply out of curiosity to see what the different distros were bringing to the table and to get a better feel for the extent to which they easily supported my hardware. After the first couple years, the hopping took on a different purpose and became a bit more intermittent: I was looking for a distro that worked for me, not just on my hardware but for me personally (as well as for those who also used those same computers). I have a stack of CDs and DVDs of distros that I have tried to varying extents; that stack is approaching 8 inches in height (and it clearly doesn’t include all of the distros I’ve tried via bootable USB sticks or as a VM over the past couple years).
So it is a bit of a shift, in many ways, for me to realize the merry-go-round has slowed, possibly stopped. I think I’ve found it. I’ve been running Arch Linux on my Asus netbook for several months and it fits well: very good support for the hardware and for me personally. It has the packages I want, and I love the rolling release model that keeps packages current continuously as software projects release both major and minor updates (something that always bothered me to the point of kludging work-arounds in other distributions). Over the Christmas break, I moved my older Gateway desktop to Arch, as well. That is still a work in progress, as I am wrestling with a couple of items there but I have a fairly high degree of confidence I will resolve those. (And that’s a very different box with a very different usage profile than my netbook in terms of how I use it and how frequently.)
For now, I’m happy and don’t foresee any hopping in the near future. I absolutely do not miss the periodic upgrade-or-reinstall dance from the other distros I’ve primarily used in the past (Mint and Ubuntu being the two distros I spend the majority of the past 5 years living in/with). I like the pace at which new software versions, once release, make their way through the package management process. The package manager itself does everything I need it to in a very straightforward manner (even in situations where I’ve had to ignore updates to things like video drivers for my desktop’s antiquated graphics adapter). The software I want to use is present. The resulting systems, particularly given their older and/or low-end hardware, are stable and are far more responsive under Arch than any of the other distros I’ve had installed on them. The distro has an active and supportive community, along with a very usable and useful wiki.
Arch probably isn’t for everyone, but it works for me. (And it is the underlying aspect of this — having the availability of a broad spectrum of variations on a given OS, each with different strengths and philosophies to choose from — that makes me truly appreciate Linux, but that’s possibly the topic of a future ramble.)
Discuss.
I’ve spent a bit of time this past month or so getting back into my Komodo-CFML project, and have an updated preview available for the 0.2.0 release. This update is based on the following changes:
My plan at this point is to address some consistency issues in the tokenizing of different syntax elements that are common across the various languages Komodo-CFML addresses (e.g., parens and braces) and to start working on the XML catalog for Railo’s CFML implementation (possibly along with a unified CFML XML catalog). I have also been doing a bit of work on a different dark color scheme for Komodo based on Chris Kempson’s “Tomorrow” series, and am getting close to making a version of that available.
Download: cfml-0.2.0-ko.xpi
With Amazon’s official press conference on their updates to their Kindle line of products — which in my mind can no longer be considered just a line of ebook readers — behind us, it seems only fair to revisit my post from a couple weeks ago in which I posited that Amazon had it mostly wrong in their approach to entering the tablet market and see how some of my points appear to have held up.
In general, my underlying perspective remains that to succeed on any significant scale in the tablet arena, a company must be positioning itself to compete either directly or indirectly against the Apple iPad. I stand by that perspective: that particular product is the point of reference and the product against which most consumers will make their purchase decision in terms of functionality, price, performance, design and pretty much any other metric that matters to a given consumer. And if the consumer’s own weighting puts the two products on roughly equal footing, all but the diehard Apple-hater will lean toward the iPad simply because it is a known product with a track record as opposed to a new entry.
Having said that, it would appear that Amazon’s Kindle Fire is in fact not positioned to be a successful competitor to the iPad. Most of the rumors regarding the then-unnamed Amazon tablet were reasonably close to the mark. Where the Fire does appear to be relevant is as a competitor to the B&N Nook. Much of the Fire’s capability along with the updates to the rest of the Kindle line render the Nook as an almost-completely overtaken product line (at present). Can the Fire compete there, rather than with the iPad? Absolutely and successfully, I think, but in my mind that’s a different market and a market with only limited overlap than the market in which the iPad and other vendors’ tablets compete.
Looking at my original points:
Other interesting aspects of the announcement: First, the price point has some interest implications, some of which are already being seen/discussed in various places. At this price point, it is positioned as a viable alternative to an iPod touch — although the two devices clearly exist within different ecosystems for content — and may be a better platform for games and video just based on the larger size.
In addition, the price point for this device has already been followed by significant price drops on existing “traditional” similarly-sized tablet devices. From that perspective alone, this entry may have significant ripples through the rest of the tablet market.
So, overall? I still maintain that this device is not positioned in many ways to be a viable competitor to the iPad. Can it be successful, though? Yes, it can and likely will be but in a different and only slightly overlapping segment of the market than the iPad. This is not the device that makes any sort of dent in the iPad’s market share.
Discuss.
Today is our last day on the Oregon coast, and I can already tell that leaving will be hard on all of us, but probably especially for Li. Deb commented that she thinks Li has laughed more this week than she has ever before… every single wave that catches us results in a delighted laugh. It has been a very relaxing week of doing very little: lots of time just walking and playing on the beach, chasing (and being chased by) waves, watching the surf continuously sculpt and change the beachscape. Where yesterday was our last full day here (we head south to Newport today and then to Albany to see friends this evening before starting for home on Saturday), we pretty much did nothing but hanging out yesterday and played on the beach as much as Li wanted to.
Deb and Li on the sandstone bluff at Cape Kiwanda
We took part of Wednesday and ventured south to Cape Kiwanda, for a change of scenery and it was definitely that: impressive surf, sandstone, and dunes. It was also surprisingly busy for mid-week in late September, and left us wanting to get back to the quiet of Rockaway Beach where we are staying. As soon as we were back, Li and I headed down to the beach to play in the waves and were treated to the highest water we’ve seen all week: lots of wave-racing, laughing, giggling, and more than just a little getting wet. Li and I got caught by a couple surprising waves that left us wet more than waist high…
This is about as hard as we've worked all week...
We’ve intentionally not filled our days with much: a late afternoon stop at the Tillamook Cheese factory early in the week (and a subsequent return for ice cream), an afternoon trip to the Cape Meares lighthouse (and the Octopus tree there), and our jaunt to Cape Kiwanda mid-day yesterday. Other than that, we’ve just hung out on the beach or spent some time reading.
Renting a place here on the coast was a great choice. Having something resembling a “home” has worked really well for Li in terms of stability and has contributed greatly to a relaxing week. A washer and dryer have been a godsend to deal with changing clothes multiple times a day. We’re right on the beach — as in 10 seconds from our door — in a sort of condo building that appears to be new construction on the northern end of Rockaway Beach (the town) where they are renting four of about a dozen units, but we’ve had the place completely to ourselves almost all week (another family showed up late yesterday afternoon).
Playing in the waves on a grey afternoon
We’ve had really weather since we arrived, with lots of sun and really comfortable temperatures. Yesterday was grey and overcast, and was misting (not quite drizzling) when we hit the beach. A bit of a breeze yesterday also marked the first we’ve really seen of anything other than calm. Today looks to be dawning grey and overcast, but without the fog and mist of yesterday morning; we’ll pack and then venture down to the ocean one last time for this trip to say our goodbyes to the sand and waves…