The day after automatix !

We've got a lot of stuff to talk about today. So open your veins and stand by for a short but high-energy information post. But first : To those of you who think I’m dead , judging by the evening hours I have spent on-line these last week : Your rumours are slightly incorrect. I am however getting pounded by stuff in the real world. So much even that I was far from feeling my chirpy self yesterday and Nyana sent me to bed at nine ! ( Ok , I was feeling poorly and when i'm sick I feel so sorry for myself I can make a clown cry). Bunked in the trunk 5 minutes later and my lights where out faster then an compaq Proliant server during a thunderstorm. No rest for the wicked as I've got some reinstalling to do tonight, a MAJOR meeting with my family on Thursday ( delicate subjects ) some drop-offs and pickups on Friday night and a IT-course on Saturday (all day long). So I’m swamped till next week.
What is more surprising is that I’m feeling more worn out from all the stress that I have with all this stuff going on with my family .. then the rushing around I’m doing. Thank heavens for a lovely and supporting fiancé like Nyana. I would not be able to pull it off without her and I love her to bitts !

The automatix script. 

But enough about little old me. Some tech stuff was done yesterday. I installed Linux on the HP NX6110 HP laptop I had at home and found it to be an exceptional experience. Installation was fast and swift. I selected all the updates and ran the 'AUTOMATIX script'. This is the little magic program that lets you add all these bonus funtionalities to UBUNTU that turn your computer from a 'linux workstation to play around with' to a fully fledged desktop system.

Here are the three magic lines. (just copy and paste them one by one in your terminal window)

sudo apt-get install xterm
wget http://beerorkid.com/automatix/automatix_5.1-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i automatix_5.1-1_i386.deb

Then you can click on the Applications--> System Tools and you will find the AUTOMATIX icon there. Click it , select ALL the options you want to install and sit back. Installation takes about an hour but after that you'll have all the goodies you need ! DVD playback , MP3 playback , ripping DVD's... and so on and so on. All the things I’ve been looking for in Linux for the last few years in 3 freaking lines of code .. fan Tas Tic !
(you'll find all the info here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=66563 )

Google online bookmarks.

Meanwhile I just want to give you PC users something worthwhile too. I just installed the new Google toolbar and there is one function I absolutely LOVE : The on-line bookmark repository. It means that you can add bookmarks to the google toolbar.. These are then stored on line. If next time you work on another pc and have a Google toolbar installed there as well .. you'll be able to access those same bookmarks :) For me its a fantastic solutions to share my bookmarks between home and work. Here is the link. http://toolbar.google.com/intl/nl/index_ie.php
And its available for firefox too of course :) .. But no mac or linux version yet .. Bummer :(

And finally : From one of my favorite Blogg's : LIfehacker ( http://www.lifehacker.com/ ) comes this fantastic collection of must-have software for your pc : The lifehacker pack.
No explenation is required. Just trust me .. download install and use.
http://www.lifehacker.com/software/feature/geek-to-live-lifehacker-pack-149665.php

Tonight I’ll try to tackle a little more ubuntu-misery and get the wifi card going on the HP laptop. Keep your fingers crossed for me :)