Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

Opening the Windows

Posted January 13, 2012 under Technology | Tagged: | No Comments Yet

When my laptop died just over a year and a half ago, I made a plan: when I built my desktop I would use Linux until the new version of Windows came out (and I had saved up for it). But since I liked Ubuntu so much, I felt no need to do the whole dual-booting thing.

But given the recent-ish changes in Ubuntu (which I wasn’t exactly a fan of) plus the fact that I wanted to play games properly1 on my computer (which was why I built it so souped up in the first place!) I decided to give in and get Windows 7.

The install process went very smoothly and so far I really like what I am seeing. It’s taking a while to get used to things since I’ve never used 7 before (I went XP to several Ubuntu releases to 7) but it’s quite intuitive, for me anyway. It’s very nice to have programs back that I gave up when I stuck with Linux, although of course the trade-off is that I have lost programs that I grew to love on Linux.

But the big upside is I no longer have to whip out my netbook whenever I need to do something like download ebooks from the library or get files from the external harddrive. That got annoying real fast.

I haven’t made the decision of whether to dual-boot Ubuntu back onto Epic Comp. I’ll give Windows 7 a few more days just on its own to force me to get used to it and then decide. I’ve been iffy on Ubuntu ever since Natty/Oneiric went off in its new direction so I’m really going to give it a good hard think.

In the meantime, Windows users, would you like to educate me on some of your favourite programs/7 features and addons? It’s been a long time since I’ve looked for new Windows programs.

  1. Seriously. I skipped and jumped and juddered my way through the first two acts of Dead Island via Wine and that was enough to break me [↩]

Last Minute Preparations: Software

Posted October 31, 2011 under Technology, Writing | Tagged: , | 2 Comments

So. NaNoWriMo begins in less than 24 hours – for me, anyway. I am both terrified and excited about it all. And as part of my last-minute preparations I am cleaning making sure I have all my software on my comp installed and set up the way I like it, as I have recently done a fresh install of Ubuntu to upgrade to 11.04.

Anyway, here’s a brief list of all the software things I will be using this coming month, for various reasons.

  • Scrivener: Since it’s now available for Linux this’ll be my first year using Scrivener for NaNo. I like it though.
  • Write or Die: Because sometimes you just need a major push to get those words out.
  • NovProg2: As this is a word counter that stays on my comp, it means I don’t have to run to the NaNo site every time to check how I have been doing, and risk getting distracted by the rest of the internet.
  • Songbird: Because I need music, goshdarnit! This is also why I will have my iPod ready to go at all times.
  • Pidgin: For the few times I will venture online to chat with writer friends and keep in touch with the #nznano IRC channel.
  • The GIMP: For getting distracted making pretty things like book covers and playlist covers.

And, of course, there is always the classic pen and paper – I especially like stuff from Smiggle. I have a long calendar on my wall that I think I shall put a sticker on for each day I meet the target. Because everyone likes stickers.