Documenting My Audacity

I feel bad writing this post right now.  Not only do I have two midterms tomorrow (the first at 9:30 AM or in 8.5 hours), but I’m writing this in Windows from Firefox.  Which is totally not cool.

Here’s the deal: I gave into my inner geek and installed ubuntu Linux on my computer.  It’s awesome.  I had to have some help from my room mate (who doesn’t even have a Windows partition anymore), but its up and running nowadays and I love it.  I use it about 70% of the time.  At the same time, I installed the Opera browser on both my Windows and Linux partitions.  I like using the Opera browser in Linux.  This stems from the fact that Mozilla has yet to release Firefox 3 for Linux, and I’m stuck using the browser I used about 9 months ago on Linux.  Plus–Opera has some really cool features like Speed Dial (which allows you to preview your favorite sites from a blank tab and to choose by clicking–its hard to describe but its awesome) and “Wand” (which stores your passwords more intuitively than anything I’ve ever seen).  Also, you can type a bunch of information into a form and whenever the internet asks you for that info, you dont have to type it all the time.  It’s amazing.  So instead of typing “Robert [tab] Kahne [tab]  212 S Limestone [tab] Suite 250 [tab] Lexington [tab] KY [tab] etc., all I have to do it to hit the wand.  It’s awesome.  The downside is that flash doesn’t exist for Opera in Linux.  (SUCH a geek).

I’m still rocking the Firefox for Windows though, because I really like Firefox 3.  Also, its widgets are a lot cooler.

Moral of the story: if you have the gumption, put Linux on your computer.  Its just as good as Windows, if not better.  It has some stuff that is more intuitive than Windows, and all the updates are done from one main window.  Plus everything is a lot more secure.  The best part: its free.  And the support is good too, via forums.  I did it, and you can too.

I also discovered this really cool site from my boss today.  Its called “Pandora.”  At this site, you type in the name of an artist or song you like, and it scours its records to find music similar to that song or artist and plays it.  I’ve been playing with it for a while– I seeded 4 stations.  One based on Nickel Creek, another on Talib Kweli, another on Switchfoot, and one more on “School Spirit” by Kanye West.  Based on what you like and don’t like (you get to tell them), the radio stations (as they are called) change their identity.  So its awesome.  You should totally check it out.

I use way too many parentheses whilst blogging.