Professional, Personal

The other day I ran across a couple of interesting posts on whdb.com which together make a great resource for any evangelist of open-source software:

• The Top 50 Proprietary Programs That Drive You Crazy - And Their Open Source Alternatives: a comprehensive list of applications that have open source counterparts. Some well-known applications appear on the list, such as OpenOffice as a replacement for Microsoft Office, and Mozilla Firefox as a replacement for Internet Explorer. But there were a couple I had not heard of before, such as TurboCash as an open source replacement for MS Money, and Compiere as an open source replacement for QuickBooks. I will be sure to give those a try, and I will provide a report of my experiences.
• Top 25 Linux Games For 2008: all work and no play makes Paul a dull boy, so we can't forget games! Of the 25 games on the list, the only one I have actually tried is the FlightGear flight simulator (available for both Linux and Windows), but you bet I'll try FreeCiv (similar to Sid Meier's "Civilization" game) and Frets On Fire, which appears to be a "Guitar Hero" lookalike.

I'm excited by the amount of open source activity out there. Linux and open source are no longer for hobbyists: it's for everyone. Why pay a ransom to some big corporation for mediocre software? Try an open source alternative instead.

(Photo credit) (License)

This week, I gave my notice of resignation to my boss. In two weeks, I will be entering the exciting but unstable world of self-employment. I have been working up to this moment for years. It started as a seed, planted roughly 10 years ago, when I was unhappy with my role in my job. I managed to change roles a year later and was happy again, so I put aside aspirations of self-employment, but I never forgot about it.

It didn't take long for the seed to be replanted. In 2001, the mighty powerhouse of an employer I worked for, the employer I thought I'd grow old with and eventually retire from, cut me loose along with 70% of its workforce, because they mismanaged their money during the Internet bubble. Luckily (sort of), I was offered continuing employment with another company as part of a technology transfer, so I was never without a job. However, it made me realize that there is no such thing as secure employment: no matter how big the company you work for, and no matter how good your performance reviews are, the management boobs above you could still screw things up, sending you and your coworkers to the unemployment office. When you work for somebody, your financial security is in the hands of those management boobs. So much for security!

Now don't get me wrong: I am not suggesting that self-employment is any more secure than working for somebody. But I am suggesting that it is no less secure. As a self-employed person, I will be the decision maker. The buck stops with me. If I perform well, I will reap the rewards. If I perform poorly, I will pay for it. It's all up to me now. But at least I don't have to worry about some idiot atop the corporate ladder making a stupid move and ruining my only source of livelihood.

It's all in my hands now. It's great. It's scary. I'm excited!

18+ Miles

Today culminated week 12 (counting backwards) of my ING Georgia Marathon training plan. I ran 18 miles this morning, through Buckhead, Midtown, and Downtown Atlanta. It was a beautiful day for a run: sunny and cool, but not overly cold.

The Tourist Encounter

15 miles into my run, I was in Centennial Olympic Park, when two British tourists stopped me and asked me if I knew of anything interesting to do around Downtown. They didn't have a car, so they were bound to walking and maybe transit. I felt bad: I did not have much to recommend to them. Other than the aquarium and the World of Coke, I could think of very little else within walking distance of Centennial Olympic Park that would be interesting for them. (Later I did realize I could have recommended the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center, though it would have been a bit of a hike from there.) They also asked about any independent restaurants around Downtown, noting (correctly) that the area was dominated by chain restaurants. I could think of a few (Dailey's, Stats, and Pittypat's Porch), but that was it. I recommended that they take the train to Midtown where they'd have more independent options, but they showed me their tourist map, and the north part of the map cut off at North Avenue! Midtown was not even on their map.

It's pretty sad that Downtown Atlanta has so little to offer tourists. It has improved over the last few years, especially near Centennial Olympic Park, but it has a long way to go.

Happy new year! For 2008, I have decided to stop using Microsoft Windows as my primary operating system on my home computers. My replacement of choice: Ubuntu.

I have already been using Ubuntu on my home desktop for the past year, but not on my laptop--until now. I burned the CD image of the latest Ubuntu release, 7.10 (code name "Gutsy Gibbon"), and I installed it on my laptop last night. So I now have a dual-boot laptop, with Ubuntu as the primary operating system.

I did have a couple of installation challenges, but I overcame them:

• Partitioning woes: I needed to partition my hard drive, giving Windows its own space, and Ubuntu its own space, along with a little swap partition. That required me to resize the Windows partition and create two new partitions. The partitioning tool in the installer did not seem to allow me to do that (or at least I could not figure it out). I overcame it by running the partitioning tool from the live CD: it was available through the System menu.
• Wireless woes: The CD did not include the restricted (non-open) driver to support my internal Broadcom wireless card. I could not enable that driver, or any restricted drivers, until I took my laptop upstairs and connected it directly to my router with an ethernet cable. Once I did that, the Restricted Drivers tool allowed me to quickly download the drivers I needed for my laptop, and I was up and running on wireless in just a few minutes.

Even despite those challenges, I got it installed and running in just a couple of hours--even with going out for a New Year's Eve dinner with my wife. By the time we got home and watched the ball drop, I was tinkering with my Ubuntu-enabled laptop on the sofa.

As I mentioned, I've been running Ubuntu on my desktop for a year, and I rarely have needed to get out the laptop and run Windows for anything. I can even VPN to my office and connect to my office PC via Remote Desktop--and yes, the office PC runs Windows (I can't change that). The only things I have not been able to do from Ubuntu:

• Run iTunes. However, I rarely need to run iTunes any longer--only if I want to download a song that only iTunes carries. That is becoming less of a necessity as Amazon.com adds more downloads to its inventory (and Amazon's downloads are DRM-free).
• Run tax preparation software. I could use one of the web-based sites to prepare my tax return, but I'm still a little nervous about entrusting the protection of my tax return (complete with Social Security number) to some third party. So I may still need Windows for that. If somebody has a solution for 2008, let me know.

So why am I doing this? Because I'm tired of what Windows does to my computers. I'm tired of waiting for it to boot. I'm tired of Microsoft's slow updates. I'm tired of how much the operating system hogs memory and CPU. I'm tired of all the anti-virus precautions. But that's why I hate Windows--why do I prefer Ubuntu? It works, and it works well. Ubuntu is the most popular Linux desktop distribution for that reason. I can do just about anything with it, and I can do it quickly.

Are you as fed up with Windows as I am? Give Ubuntu a try.

The best long run ever!

Yesterday culminated week 14 of my ING 2008 training plan (counting backwards--next week is week 13, and the week leading up to the marathon is week 1). I ran a little over 17 miles for my Saturday long run. It was probably one of the best long runs I have ever had: I remained strong throughout the entire run, and I didn't feel the need to collapse at the end like I usually do. The only major difference this week is that I have been on vacation and have been getting plenty of sleep. It reminds me that I need to make sleep a priority when things get hectic again.

Something I don't get...

Between miles 9 and 10 of my run yesterday, as I started crossing North Highland, a car pulled up to the intersection and stopped for the red light in front of the crosswalk. There were three people in the car, all probably in their early 20s. The driver was a young man with a round face--clearly overweight. He rolled down his window, looked directly at me, and started laughing, loud and long, while I crossed in front of his car. It was a fake, belabored laugh--perhaps what you would get if you mixed a department store Santa's "Ho Ho Ho" with the laugh of a villain in a cheesy superhero flick.

I was dumbfounded: why would anyone even bother? Here I was, one of several anonymous runners out for a Saturday run, and this guy took the time to roll down his window, look directly at me, open his fat face, and let out a fake belly laugh! Was he trying to impress his companions in the car? If so, they didn't look impressed.

The only reasonable explanation I can think of is that this guy, being overweight and presumably unhealthy, warped, and miserable, believed he would find salvation in putting down healthy people and their healthy lifestyles. It's sad to think about it. It makes me feel sorry for him.

Of course, at the time, my reaction to him was far from sympathetic. At first, I was surprised, not knowing what to make of this strange, bloated creature cackling at me, so I continued running past the front of his car. But then, I got angry. I turned around and walked back toward his car, yelling, "Do you find something funny? Huh?" But a few seconds later, the light changed, and the coward sped away as fast as his little car could carry his oversized body.

But now, I do feel sorry for him, even though I'm still angry too. Surely, to anyone who witnessed the incident, this guy looked like an idiot. I hope that he will eventually mature and see his unhealthy ways as a threat to his life and happiness. Maybe someday, instead of taking his misery and anger out on healthy people, will use that energy toward making himself healthy and happy.

But who am I to judge?

My faith calls me to love my neighbor, and it further reminds me that everyone is my neighbor. But it is not easy when my neighbors include an occasional miscreant like this guy. Incidents like these remind me that I am far from perfect myself. It would be easy to dismiss this incident as another day, another idiot. But instead, it gives me something more to pray about: not for fewer idiots in the world, but for me to have sympathy for all those who are broken, just like me. This guy showed his brokenness by taunting me, and I showed mine by yelling at him.