Just The Wei I Am

Been using Ubuntu Linux for awhile now. It's touted as Linux for Human Beings, i.e. it is simple for 'normal' people to use, considering that Linux/Unix has always been considered the domain of geeks. And I must say, it was indeed easy to install and to use. Of course, I couldn't help customising it to my liking as much as I could. After all, that is the whole spirit of Linux - modify, modify, modify.

So tada, here's a pic of my desktop. Very gentle green and earth tones overall. Ubuntu comes with the latest Gnome desktop environment and that's cool. But I went further as swapped out the default Metacity window manager which is simple and minimalist, putting in its place the cutting-edge Enlightenment. To quote, I now have an "Enlightened Gnome". *roll eyes* lol.

Streamtuner is a directory software for Internet radio stations. A popular format for such stations is ShoutCast.

Checking out the Most Popular list, I came to Radio Paradise, which IMHO is an excellent station. Their tagline reads "Radio Paradise is Old Fashioned Radio for the 21st Century" and so it is. Helmed by a veteran DJ, built upon cutting-edge technology (music servers controlled remotely by laptop?!) The music selection is excellent too - "creative, eclectic, and diverse radio". Well, good music is self-evident and though I've never heard most of the songs he plays, they sound good! Non-stop and commercial-free too. This is good radio.

Listen to Radio Paradise! If you have a slow connection, listen to the narrow bandwidth version. Oh, Paradise is the name of the town, btw.

Happy listening.

I need to read more.

Of everything.

I wish I have a suitable quote.

But I don't read enough to have one.

Read more.

Was helping my father fix up my uncle's old PC just now. Helping him to connect to mySingtel, the dialup service. My old 56k modem was commissioned for the job. New lease of life for that little black box :)

As I hooked it up to the wall outlet, I couldn't help but reminisce a little about the old days. Ah.. the days when computer networking didn't mean the Internet. It meant BBS'es - Bulletin Board Service. Somebody runs a program on his computer and leaves it on 24hrs (or fixed periods, like opening hours), and other people get to connect to his computer through the phone lines (with a modem, of course). Most were small affairs where only one person could connect at a time. Then there were the juggernauts that could take 30+, even 100+, people.

What did we do on BBS'es? Back in those days when there was no residential Internet access, BBS'es were where you downloaded files, email (most of the time restricted to people using the same BBS), played games, and chatted (if that BBS had multiple users).

I can't even begin to describe the experience in today's context. If your first experience with a computer is Windows, then it's difficult for you to imagine life without a graphical user interface. That's how it was with BBS'es (of course, everything else in DOS too). Everything was text-based. Ah, but there was ANSI art! Here's a sample. So even on a 80x25 screen, things could still look nice and colorful. The subtlety of it.

Well, of course, I'm happy with today's broadband Internet, but I just think there was so much charm on those old VGA screens. Haha, hearing the modem sing its tune when it was connecting brought a little warmth to me. What a geek.