oddfox

Hello again deviants, this is a very quick initial journal entry before I add more after a short time (I have to take a shower and fill out an appication and return it all within a very short timeframe). I just wanted to make a quick observation on a story making it's rounds at Slashdot right now.

The story can be found here, and it's titled "Google Hiring Programmers to Work on OpenOffice". Part of the summary includes the following line, as well:

"Perhaps Google's work will address an oft-heard complaint about OO.o: "Google believes it can help OpenOffice--perhaps working to pare down the software's memory requirements or its mammoth 80MB download size.""

I don't know about you guys, but the last time I installed any version of Microsoft Office, it was a far cry larger than a measley 80 megabytes, and I can guarantee you the only reason people didn't care about that in the past that was largely dial-up based is because they got it on a shiny CD so they didn't have to spend any time downloading it (Unless they pirated it, in which case most pirates find the time to download a fair tradeoff compared to the price, dial-up or no). My Office 2003 installation, as of right now, takes up the following amount of disk space: 78.8MB. This is in the Microsoft Office folder in Program Files alone, and the I don't have all the components installed. I have Excel, Word, and PowerPoint, as far as I can remember from viewing the filenames (I'm in Gentoo right now, I can't be absolutely certain what components I have but those are what show up in the OFFICE11 folder). Three programs, 78.8MB. OpenOffice.org, a complete office suite (Especially as of 2.0) clocking in at an 80MB download. Which one is mammoth now, especially considering OpenOffice.org is cross-platform by design?

More to come later, I've got to shower and get ready for work, I just got called in while I was typing this. More hours, yay, but ugh, I hate such short notice, and now my plans will have to shift to tomorrow. I'll update when I get back which should be way later in the night, this is all the way out in Omak, WA.

P.S. -- To clarify, the Microsoft Office installation media is a far cry larger than 80MB, and if one were to install every Office app included with Microsoft Office, it would again be far larger than 80MB. Frankly I'm surprised at how large the installation is showing itself as because I seem to remember the installer telling me it would be at least 100+MB. Oh well, shower time. y'all.

Late Additions: As a heads-up, I finally got my website working again, my other one at www.oddfox.net/ will be up when I have the resources to manage it. At this point I'm still seeking full-time employment, and I've had a part-time job since August, getting 10-30 hours every two weeks which I've used to eliminate portions of my debt and pay for my cell phone that I have. Hopefully sometime soon I'll be able to resume my hosting agreement but it hasn't been financially feasible for some time now. People are encouraged to not shy away from using the temporary location for my site since it's the same thing they'd get at the webhost, and I'm exercising consistency from now on regarding my own hosting. The major issue that was going on was I couldn't figure out why Windows XP was suddenly freaking out and not letting me access my webserver proper. These issues have been ironed out and lately I find myself booting Linux less and less, since my PC has turned into a gaming/music/chat rig. The site itself is running almost all the time off my Qwest DSL, with a 90KB/sec cap on uploading, so it should be fast enough for most anyone, except when downloading the big honking images I havn't had time to optimize and downsize. Please treat her kindly.

As much as I love Linux I'm thinking I want to build another computer for Linux specifically and leave it at that, two machines, one OS each. This should be possible when I have a full-time job going and I've completed saving up for the trip I plan on taking sometime soon. I really need to figure out my financial situation in greater detail once I do have a reliable source of income, so who knows how long it will take for me to actually get this whole thing setup.  People interested in what I'm looking at putting into my Linux rig might take a look here. I hope the link works, but that's a baseline. I've got a spare monitor and the other missing components won't be too expensive nor difficult to add.  Anyways, again, y'alls.

Hello once again fellow deviants! Another update from your friendly local OddFox! Let's have a quick run-down of the day before I get started with the beef of the post, aye?

A) Woke up to an excellent chat with a certain German friend of mine
B) Played some excellent Fate with my awesome sorcerer (I pwn n00bs!)
C) Got into argument with another family member about money again, woot!
D) Had an excellent casserole for dinner, mmm, tater tots and cheese and hamburger
E) Wrapped up convo with previously mentioned German friend after he stayed up way too late, eek!
F) Watched the movie Crash, or at least the second half/last third, damn good movie, I'm going to have to watch it all sometime soon
G) Wandered off for a cigarette since I was unable to speak hardly, I guess the movie got to me more than I thought and I was choking trying to speak, felt better soon afterward
H) Rested, watched Comedy Central until now

Alrighty, now that the list is all done, details for everyone interested! Apparently I'm being extremely selfish keeping 30 bucks for two-weeks worth of "comfort" in my living, out of paychecks ranging from 50 to 100 dollars. I've had personal debts for quite some time with more than a few people, this is nothing new, and it's also nothing new that I've always maintained a minimum comfort level with regards to having recreation money. Unfortunately, it suddenly becomes an issue to a certain family member, argument ensues, I get headache from how stressed it makes me. Whatever.

I end up getting a call from littlepiggyslasher inviting me to hang out with him and matanza as well as centhwevir. I respectfully and regretably decline due to the previous mood-killer which has left me feeling pretty crappy. Hopefully we can get together the next day and chill, since I've been meaning to in the first place. Good company. I may be getting called in to the office sometime tomorrow for a test/certification, and get myself on a schedule as well as raise. Hey, raises are nice, eh?!

I spoke with my family at the dinner table about the argument I had since I simply could not keep it in (Nor could I hide my bad mood, I hadn't the energy to pretend things were peachy), pretty much had my feelings on the situation validated by all present so I guess I can't be completely in the wrong. After that, I wrap up the convo with my German friend on a pleasant note, felt a bit peeved that my mood killed our convo earlier, but meh, crap happens, it's all understood well enough. I'm thinking at this point that I should go watch that movie I wanted to watch from the beginning but was too "busy" to. I don't regret it one bit, except that I wish I could've started it over from the beginning because this movie is phenomenal, and I expected it to be from the cast, story, and internet buzz (To quote Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back). I always get emotional during movies, this one got me especially, it might have been a combination of me missing my mate as well though because hearing couples say "I love you" so much does remind me of what I can't say very often (Broken computers are fun). Mom tries to talk to me after the film and all I can choke out is "I need a smokie!"

So when I get back from that I pretty much just chill upstairs and watch some TV, and that Insomniac Tour on Comedy Central is superb, jeez, I havn't laughed that much in a while. When I load up Slashdot to check the news I am greeted with a blurb about the new Harvey Danger album being released for free online in both MP3 and OGG Vorbis formats (Hint: OGG Vorbis is the bomb), and the torrent was fast, get it while it's hot, you can find it here and the story on Slashdot here. I really recommend it, I like it a lot, still listening to it, hehe.

That pretty much brings me to right now, posting this entry. I'm not sure what else I should mention, other than, errr, I got some new shoes, and they're Lugz! Smudged them at work the other day though, damn you Super 1 Foods! Hehe, it's alright, I'll get them cleaned up when I get a chance, I got most of it clean but damn, it's hard work! Gotta change Guy's bedding soon, too. Guy's my rat.

So yeah, I'll post anything of significance tomorrow if anything ends up happening, but I felt I should give a shout-out and all that good stuff.

for Sevet and all those I love and care for, thanks again for being there and being awesome as per usual.

Just a quick post before I have to run out here to the store -- I've got my web server configured right again (Sheesh am I a moron -- don't answer that ) so my latest batch of photos are available right here.

Note these are the raw images, uncompressed save being in .jpg format, many are multiple megabytes. My DSL connection is more than capable of delivering to a broadband user, but most people will want to wait until I add them to my gallery script.

Anyways, that's most of what I wanted to place here before leaving, I'll edit later after I get back and fix things up some.  

So it seems the community is in a buzz about the recent events surrounding the administration, jark and spyed to be specific. There's been a lot going on apparently in my short absence (I thought it had only been a day or two since the last time I visited today, but if this developed so quickly, well, it is a great testament to the spirit of the deviantART community), and I got to wondering if I even want to be here at deviantART anymore... No, I take that back, I do want to be here, but under conditions the don't involve an administration seemingly directed by someone who's been less than truthful (Referring to spyed's explaination and brazensix's dismantling of it with regards to journal entry/comment deletions) and is being incredibly distant from deviantART itself, the community. For all the pandering and posing I see on spyed's part, I don't see any sincerity with regards to how this situation is being treated. I won't say spyed never cared for deviantART, or doesn't, his mind is not mine, but I will say that it is very, very disturbing that this could happen. jark seems to be being discarded like nothing, matteo is not sitting pretty with it, and way too many people close to the fire are jumping ship.

What's the resignation count up to now?  Eleven?  Don't really know what to make of it, but for the most part, it seems to me that this site's administration-base has become (Maybe even has been for a while) fragmented to a large degree.  I would like to state that I am disgusted at how jark has been treated and how spyed has handled the situation, especially with regards to founding the community.  I've been here for a long time, my userpage says it, "is a deviant since May 23, 2001, 9:18 AM" and my memory is not so horrible as to not remember who the original lineup was especially in terms of the big-hitters that obviously were the driving forces behind everything, and going by my own view of how the history of the site has transpired, spyed's journal entry is nothing short of aggrivating.  Are we really supposed to gobble this up?  Are we really supposed to see this as anything that could have brought positive change?  Forcefully removing a founding member for reasons unknown, and downplaying it to a degree that is really just unspeakable.  I can't believe what's happening is happening.  jark - you have my condolences, I hope when all this is over, I can regain my respect for the site that has been knocked out today.

I know I've had my problems with deviantART and it's administration in the past, we've not always seen eye to eye, but something like this has the potential to do great harm to the community, and it also lays bare what many have been wondering all along -- Just how much does deviantART's maintainers care about turning this into a cash-cow rather than an art community, at the heart?  This is an interesting indicator, especially because nobody's ever had any reason to question Scott's intentions, as far as I know.

So I guess after typing all this out I've come to the conclusion that the side I'm firmly planted on is that of jark, everything's becoming way too clouded on the other side of the fence, it's like spyed would like this all to just go away, be swept under a rug.  Now I know what to think, I just don't now what to do.   Oh deviantART, what will become of you?  I hope we can look back on this someday and laugh.  I'm not the most active person here anymore due to how my life is going lately, but I certainly make an effort to try at times, and the loss of this community would be immense indeed.

P.S. -- I will also add that as a paid subscriber to the site, I'd like to know a little more about the whole situation, although it shouldn't be an issue of having paid or not.  Everyone here deserves to know.

I've been meaning to update my journal on deviantART lately since my previous entry was not really applicable after a couple of days. Things settled down right quick like they always seem to in this family, get into a big argument and then everyone would rather pretend it never happened in the first place, y'know?

I havn't been dead though and wanted to post somewhere an update on what's up w/this fox.

So I lost my job due to *drumroll* ATTENDANCE ISSUES again a bit over a month ago.  I'm not saying it as an excuse but basically the same thing happened that caused me to lose my job I had before, my ride wasn't on top of anything and I ended up getting the shaft because of it.  Lesson learned from these events?  Sleep at home on worknights, DON'T RELY ON OTHERS AT ALL for that, even if they reassure you that it will be okay.  So for the past month or so I've been watching all the exact same jobs flow in that I was avoiding in the first place, so I'm buckling down and am going to get a PoS job that I know I won't enjoy, because hey, what else can you do?  I don't have a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science so I can't do jack computer related in town, regardless of my qualifications and eager willingness to expand my already (I think) large knowledgebase.

The next thing on my list once I get a job is working towards getting my driver's license, especially with the Spring and Summer seasons going on.  Transportation is one of the biggest limiting factors in the jobs that I'm even able to apply for, I've been turned away a couple of times because the first question was do you have a car, and I'm a horrible liar, in that I don't even try.  Maybe I'll be able to start saving up for that El Camino I've been talking about for so long!  Mmmm, conquest of the night!

My webhost is also waiting for me since a couple days ago to pay off my negative balance, and my hosting has been suspended.... probably a good idea to pay 'em, esp. since I like having the site and helping other people with putting their stuff online when they would otherwise have no option to do so (Save finding various services around the net that have gotchas out the ass, limitations, etc.  I give free reign).  Right now there's sevet.oddfox.net, orbit.oddfox.net, the plain www.oddfox.net, and then I have my development going on at www.oddfox.net/dev .  The sites are not accessible right now, though, so don't whine about them not showing.  I really recommend that any music lovers check out Orbit's site when I get the bill paid, it's where my cousin stores anything related to his music (Bassist with a heavy jazz influence but interest in tons of genres).  While I'm recommending sites, I also would like to give a shout-out to Clintch, a metal group in the area, they're at www.clintch.com.  A friend of mine is always hanging out with them, helping with shows and practices while raving about their music, and when I told him to get me a CD he told me to check the website.  There's some NICE clips on there, I'm happy, I would definitely buy an album.

Hmmmm, what else.... Can't think of anything at the moment other than I'm really enjoying my time playing around with amaroK, a multimedia player for *nix platforms.  Aside from a few quirks that make it seem a little unpolished (Which are probably my doing in the first place.  I am in the unstable AMD64 branch of Gentoo, with CFLAGS and LDFLAGS that some people might consider inappropriate) it's a very slick media player I must say.  I've gone from XMMS to Rhythmbox to Juk to Beep Media Player to amaroK, isn't choice grand when it's a simple emerge away?  So yeah, I guess I'll wrap up at this:

SHOUT OUT to Sevet!  Love yas!