Tag: Rochester

Battery Life and Other Nonsense

As I mentioned before, I have switched my laptop to Gentoo again after getting a new battery for it.  When I first finished my Gentoo install there was this beautiful feeling of euphoria…  It was just a raw Linux system, somewhat optimised for my machine.  It could be a normal Gnome desktop, it could be a mobile server…  It could be a workstation with no GUI at all…  So much potential, so many things I could do without having a predetermined computing environment like what Ubuntu provided.

Yeah, I ended up putting Gnome on it, along with the other types of apps normal people tend to put on their laptops: OpenOffice, Firefox, Pidgin (thus completing the desktop publishing-Web browsing-instant messaging trifecta), etc.  And now I find myself trying to replicate a lot of the things Ubuntu did configure out of the box.  Things like PulseAudio, multimedia codecs, and power management settings.

Actually the power management was a bit of a sticking point with Ubuntu.  I mean, it did provide decent control over LCD backlight brightness, and it configured CPU frequency scaling out of the box.  But at the same time I still never got the battery life I got in Windows.  The same is true for Gentoo.  I can get maybe four hours of life, which is nice.  But the older, smaller battery was rated for about this also.  Yeah, I know that rating’s a bit optimistic, but I sitll got maybe three of those hours on XP.  I’d like to get about 5 or 6 with this battery.

So I have some tweaking to do, no matter which distro I use on here.  I really do like having a less-bloated system, and at the very least Gentoo is a little more encouraging of tweaking, and is more familiar to me, so I may as well try diferent power saving methods on here for a while.  (Yeah, compiling software takes a bit of juice, but I do that when I’m plugged in anyway.)  Ubuntu 9.04 is coming out soon, and I’m thinking I might go and try it on here.

So, that’s that.  On an lighter note, the sun is coming out more and more here in Rochester.  We’re finally starting to get some Spring weather, even though we also just got some snow.  (I woke up one morning and it looked like it was winter outside.  It didn’t last long, but it was still weird.)  Though I do enjoy winter I am looking forward to the warmer weather a lot.  Soon it will be summer, and I will (hopefully) be working.  Getting away from class will be nice.

Spring and Optimism

It’s coming up on mid-February, and the weather is beautiful.  Not only is it warm out but we’re also getting plenty of sun.  Well, it is a little cloudy right now, but it’s been beautiful.  I really don’t even need a coat going outside.  Of course this won’t last forever; already it’s supposed to drop into the 20’s come the weekend.  But I’ll enjoy it while it’s here.  Soon it will be March, then April…  And soon it’ll be too warm.  But whatever.

Well, all the quirks of Rochester weather aside this has made me feel good, despite hard times in classes and such.  The whole seasonal affective disorder (SAD) thing never really got to me much (I don’t think), but the sun definitely uplifts me.  So, despite not knowing what I am going to end up doing over the summer I can say that I’m quite happy right now.

So I’m feeling optimistic.  I know that doesn’t necessarily jive with some people, but for me a positive angle on things is healthy.  Now, there’s a difference between being optimistic and delusional, and it’s something every optimist (and pessimist) should watch out for.  But, at least for me, if I am to get through life I have to try at least to be happy about it.

And you know what?  Ask me when the weather’s crappy, or when I’ve just had a bad day, and I may very well feel otherwise.  Bad days do that to everyone.  I guess overall I would say I’m 51 % optimistic.  Well, whatever, take it how you will.  But at least join me in taking pleasure in the fact that it will be spring soon.