This blog has been in updated every now and then since October 2007. Just in case you didn’t see the first post written on this blog, here is the text.

This is a new blog that I decided to put up. I wanted to talk about things related to tech. There is so many things related to technology and I feel that I would like to post them up here. In the end, how this blog will turn up is really mostly unknown. I’ll just start this and I’ll see what happens next.

I honestly did not know that this blog would get this far. I got bored one day, and thought, “Maybe I should start a blog. It’s what everyone does now.” A quick decision and 15 minutes later, I was writing my first post to my shiny new blog. I started making posts about topics I liked. Within a couple of months, I felt that this is something that I saw that I would do long-term, and I purchased the domain name http://www.thegreatbitbucket.com/.

Now is another change. It may not make a huge difference to people who visit this blog, but for me, it is a change that affects the way I work with this blog. I decided to migrate my blog from Blogger to WordPress.com. Why would I do this? Well, I have always appreciated the WordPress content managment system (CMS). I had appreciated the way certain websites looked and felt and I noticed that many of these sites were powered by WordPress. I got somewhat sick of the way Blogger was handling certain things. I still recommend Blogger to people who want to start a blog easily, though WordPress.com is also pretty easy.

The benefits of working with WordPress.com outweigh any losses from the switch to it from Blogger. For starters, the design of this blog has improved (in my opinion). I can have several pages of content instead of just one. And, if the need should arise, I can eventually get my own web host and host my own WordPress installation.

So, this blog is definitely going somewhere. I am very excited to be here. Hopefully, you will continue reading. If you have any thoughts on the blog’s design, or any suggestions for the blog in general, feel free to post a comment.

Google Reader is a service provided by Google (obviously) that lets you subscribe to RSS feeds (like my blog *ahem*) and read them through a web browser. Now, I didn’t really use an RSS reader, because whenever I have the time to use a computer, it wouldn’t necessarily be my own. It may be a friend’s computer. I have also used various mobile devices with Internet capablities, such as the iPhone/iPod touch. Having a desktop-based RSS aggregator (like Firefox’s Live Bookmarks, Liferea, or even Microsoft Outlook) isn’t very useful when you are not using a desktop. I would always just visit the site directly.

However, Google Reader solves that problem of not being able to use my computer every time I visit the Internet. I can use a recent web browser (such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome), whether on a desktop, laptop, or mobile device, and have one place to get all of the latest news on things I am interested on.

I have found the mobile expirience particularly useful and useable. I tested Google Reader on a Blackjack II running Windows Mobile 6.0 with Internet Explorer Mobile. And what can I say, I love it. Of course, it’s my own opinion. You may dislike the mobile expirience. Also, the expirience is probably different with other devices, such as the iPhone, etc. But, I can say that on Windows Mobile, I love the mobile version Google provides.

Also, I can even share certain posts that I am interested in with other people, even the general public. I plan on checking out this feature at some point in the future.

For me, Google Reader is a wonderful RSS Aggregator and has boosted my productivity significantly. Give Google Reader a try and see if you find similar results. Did I mention it’s free?

Also, this would give you a chance to subscribe to my blog’s RSS feed. I try to post in this blog whenever I have time. So, you know what to do! *wink* *wink*

MacHeist has done something that is pretty interesting, at least for the Mac community. They are giving away certain shareware at no charge. It’s mainly Mac software, but you can also try to win some iPhone/iPod touch software as well. Visit http://www.macgivingtree.com/ to get it. I think it will only last until the 25th (Christmas Day 2008), so make sure you take advantage of this.

I do not receive money or anything else for teling you about this. I just want to help out people who want some free software.

I own a Nintendo Wii. I have purchased some Wii Virtual Console games more than a year and a half ago. A couple of these games are Sonic the Hedgehog 1 and 2. I recently started playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 again. I just love the simplicity of the older games. When I look at some more recent video game titles, I just see more “good graphics” come along than actual content at times.

Don’t get me wrong! I love some of the new games out today. Also, a few games got much, much better partly because of the graphics (i.e. Final Fantasy X), but I still think that when people had less room for graphics, they had to be more creative when it came to the game. Some people make fun of the Nintendo Wii’s graphics performance (I think it’s good enough). But isn’t the point of a game to be fun? Some games have the best graphics, but they weren’t very fun…

I’m just repeating myself over and over now… Anyway, what “old school” games do you like? Let’s discuss.

It has been brought to my attention that posting comments was either difficult or impossible to do. I had tried to comment on my own posts, and realized that I wasn’t able to comment easily. I changed the way you can make comments, and hopefully it will now be functional.

I’m sorry for the inconvenience.

I had just installed OpenOffice.org 3.0 today. I had downloaded the installer a little while ago, when it was originally released. I wanted to give a quick test run of the 3.0 release. So far, I am quite impressed. I pay attention to the look and feel of the program and one thing that really bothered me about OpenOffice 2.x was the toolbar look in Windows. I can say now, that they made a nice choice in making the toolbars look the way they do. Also notable is the native Mac OS X support. Previously, Mac users had to install the X Window System to use OpenOffice.org. Now, you can use OpenOffice.org without going through that mess. It looks much more native from the screenshots I say. Let me give you a few screenshots of the Windows release.

Do you use Ubuntu? Well, why don’t you go and support the Ubuntu community by downloading the latest 8.10 Release Canidate. It is suitable for use by most users. Ubuntu 8.10 is coming soon!

Recently, Apple announced some new notebook computers. I’m not going to go talk about what was announced or anything like that. I think other sites like Engadget, Gizmodo, and the New York Times have got that covered. I just wanted to write down how this could affect me in the future. I was considering the switch to the Mac. The things I love about the Mac is that I have the ability to run any PC operating system like Mac OS X, Windows Vista, FreeBSD, OpenSolaris, Linux distributions like Ubuntu, openSUSE, CentOS, and so on. I just like expiriementing with such things when I have lots of free time. I like using laptops. I wanted to go with an aluminum notebook, but that required a MacBook Pro. That was $1999 USD out of my pocket, far too much for me.

The great news about this new notebook announcement is that one could have a back lit keyboard, an aluminum casing, and the other styles of the MacBook Pro for a considerably less amount of money.

However…

My problems with then new MacBook is the lack of FireWire. I don’t currently own a video camera, but the main reason I like the Mac is for Movie Editing. I looked at a Dell Studio 15 at Best Buy. It was $849, with a 9-cell battery and FireWire. I really want that. I also don’t want to pay $2000 for a MacBook Pro. I’d rather use that on a down payment on a car.

For now, I think I’ll stick with these PCs. I am very content with them. It’s not like I need a new notebook today. Maybe in a couple of more years…

If you use Kubuntu (or Ubuntu, Xubuntu, etc.), maybe you’ll be interested in getting KDE 4.1 on your desktop. It isn’t too hard. I found these instructions at the Kubuntu website. I’m taking these instructions there and reproducing them in a different way here, because these instructions that I made up made more sense to me. Maybe it would make more sense to you.

NOTE: I take no resposibility if your system breaks as a result of you following these instructions. Proceed at your own risk.

Now that we have that out of the way…

I started with a fresh install of Ubuntu 8.04 with the GNOME desktop environment. I don’t have KDE installed at this point.

First, download and install all updates for good measure.

Next, open the file /etc/apt/sources.list in your favoite text editor (as the superuser):

NOTE: You may want to replace “vi” with “gedit” or “nano” if you don’t want to use vi.

Now, add the following line to the top of the file (as one line):

   deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-members-kde4/ubuntu hardy main

Then, type the following commands:

You will probably be asked to install packages without verification. If so, enter “y” to say yes.

Hopefully, you will enjoy KDE 4.1 as much as I did.

Google is probably the most popular search engine out there. It has become so popular that the name “Google” is even in the dictionary. Maybe you use Google Search for the results you receive. Maybe you use Google because that is “what everyone else uses.” Maybe you used Google because you didn’t know that there were other choices. All I ask is that you take one day and try to use some other search engine. I’m not saying that Google is evil and you should never use its search feature or any other service that it provides ever. That’d be somewhat extreme. Google is not evil (yet) and they provide some really handy services like Search, Email Accounts, an Online Office Suite, and more. I just want you to look at some alternatives. Maybe you will thank me for the suggestion.

Here are some alternative search engines:

• Live Search – http://www.live.com/
• Ask.com – http://www.ask.com/
• Yahoo! – http://www.yahoo.com/

I’ve been using Live Search for a few days. Now I’ve grown accustomed to it. I like the interface a little bit more than Google’s. I’m not saying that you should switch from Google to another search engine. Just give a try.

Maybe you know about a few more search engines. Then try those. Take it as a fun game to challenge yourself and maybe your friends. If you do know about a search engine that is not listed here, then submit a comment. I’ll add to this as time permits.