Munich, Germany goes Kubuntu!

[xennex81]

I'm planning on getting good at using Gimp. I'm not good at it just because I haven't used it that much. I have PhotoImpact installed under VirtualBox/Windows 7, and I'm highly skilled at it. When I need to image edit something, it's way easier to just open up the program that I'm good at and go for it. There are Youtube videos on how to use Gimp, and other tutorials on the net. I originally got good at PI because I couldn't afford Photoshop and I had access to some very good tutorials on the web. The big advantage of using Gimp would be the ability to run it straight in Kubuntu with no need to use VirtualBox and all the resources that uses. I would recommend that you use the Youtube tutorials to get up to speed on Gimp. You won't have to pay a cent for it. If you try and absolutely hate it, then the poor man's Photoshops are PhotoImpact and Paint Shop Pro, both of which are owned by Corel. PI is orphaned now, but you might be able to get it dirt cheap. Paint Shop Pro is probably about a hundred bucks, but if you can find an older version, you should be able to get it a lot cheaper.

I am not very good visually myself. This makes it even harder to learn a tool. I have tried Photoshop in the past and I was working well with it, just very novice level. I have spent many hours in GIMP but not quite getting very far with it. I just don't have the patience or the time to learn these difficult things in GIMP, and I forget how to do it once I've learned them. It is too difficult. I have used Photoshop Elements for a while (It came with a Netbook also) but the interface was poor. The way Adobe Acrobat is now very ugly. Same interface style. I want a simple thing that can do simple things. Photoshop Elements was also 1 gigabyte in size. . But in the past I also used Paintshop Pro. I have long used it, I could do with it what I wanted, which was not much.

[Tom_ZeCat]

Linux needs more women in any case. The reason the software is so bad is because the feminine aspect is undervalued, underappreciated.

There are some Linux women. One of my favorite Youtubers is a woman. Her name is Nixie Pixel. You might like her:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBE...OghSysV9gjTeHw

Her videos are always informative. Plus, she's pretty cute. I'm not ashamed to admit part of the reason I watch her videos is because she's cute. We're men. We're supposed to like attractive women.

I actually think Microsoft was onto something when they battled bloat. In about Office 2K or XP they set it so that the menus would only display the features that we're being used. The problem was if someone didn't know it did that, they would search for a feature that existed and not find it and assume it did not exist. I think it would have been smarter to have a wizard that runs the first time someone uses Word which asks what features they want and then show those in the menus and hide the others. Of course, in options there would be the opportunity to go in and check stuff you want and uncheck stuff you don't.

Microsoft took some heat for a feature I actually liked. I liked the Office Assistant. It defaulted to "Clippy" the talking paper clip, but I always changed it to Merlin the Wizard, this guy:

They even had an ActiveX control that Visual BASIC programmers could use to put Clippy or Merlin into your apps. I know it wasn't ultra useful to have a cute character giving you help information instead of just giving you the info, but I thought it was fun. I thought it showed a sense of humor. Other people that it was stupid, however, and Microsoft junked it with Office 2003.

I was a Visual BASIC programmer creating freeware. It was free in the sense that it didn't cost any money, but it was not open source. Then one of the biggest things Microsoft did to piss me off was to orphan Visual BASIC. Version 6 was the last true Visual BASIC language. They replaced it with Visual BASIC.net, which was actually a different language incompatible with the old one. They broke all my code. I was POed and moved to a similar product named REALbasic (now known as Xojo). Microsoft has done a ton of things to infuriate me. That was just one. I won't go into them all or we'll end up with a long dissertation. I was never upset about the talking paper clip.

Btw, way back when I created in Visual BASIC a multiple file renamer named RenameStar. It runs in WINE except for the help system. I don't have a programmer's web site anymore, but if you want the program, let me know. I'll put it up as a download. I believe I've designed it to be easy to use. I've considered getting back into programming so that I can contribute to the Linux community. I've even got some training books for C++. I've just been too busy with other things. I would love to rewrite RenameStar for Linux and also make some modifications to LibreOffice Writer.

[Tom_ZeCat]

And, for your enjoyment, here's a Nixie Pixel video:

I want my Linux distro to look exactly like Nixie Pixel. I think I'll start a distro named Linux NixiePix.

[claydoh]

And, for your enjoyment, here's a Nixie Pixel video:


I want my Linux distro to look exactly like Nixie Pixel. I think I'll start a distro named Linux NixiePix.

Dag nabbit, Tom_ZeCat, I have to go out of my way to avoid Linux-using redheads wearing green, because I don't get any work done
I am supposed to be working tonight

My own personal redhead would not be happy.

[xennex81]

.

I have seen some cuter girls though :P. Where are my favourites... I'm not sure if I still have them.

I can't find her :P. So here is a replacement. The original was better . But I can't remember her name.

SNAP cute girl disappears, other cute girl surfaces with wicked soundtrack. Bumps up the volume of the subwoofer.

Okay it seems her face video's are gone. Still. Good music.

(Other girl still prevalent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUHsdCGyrLI
haha, she's crazy.
Anyway.

This one is Czech. I can't understand her. I don't care ;-).
https://www.youtube.com/user/TeriBlitzen

[xennex81]

There are some Linux women. One of my favorite Youtubers is a woman. Her name is Nixie Pixel. You might like her:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBE...OghSysV9gjTeHw

I might, but ... ;-).

Her videos are always informative. Plus, she's pretty cute. I'm not ashamed to admit part of the reason I watch her videos is because she's cute. We're men. We're supposed to like attractive women.

Of course, that's how it's supposed to be ;-). Haha.

I actually think Microsoft was onto something when they battled bloat.

I agree with you here, but me too I didn't quite like that shrinking of the menus. I still want to see everything that's there, not have weird random stuff hidden away. I agree.

Microsoft took some heat for a feature I actually liked. I liked the Office Assistant. It defaulted to "Clippy" the talking paper clip, but I always changed it to Merlin the Wizard, this guy...

I never liked it. Glad you did! It was funny, but an ill-humoured attempt ;-).

They even had an ActiveX control that Visual BASIC programmers could use to put Clippy or Merlin into your apps. I know it wasn't ultra useful to have a cute character giving you help information instead of just giving you the info, but I thought it was fun. I thought it showed a sense of humor. Other people that it was stupid, however, and Microsoft junked it with Office 2003.

Nice that that could be done. I never quite used it for a single second, always clicked it away ;-). In the time that I was still using Office. I used Office 97 I believe.

I was a Visual BASIC programmer creating freeware. It was free in the sense that it didn't cost any money, but it was not open source. Then one of the biggest things Microsoft did to piss me off was to orphan Visual BASIC. Version 6 was the last true Visual BASIC language. They replaced it with Visual BASIC.net, which was actually a different language incompatible with the old one. They broke all my code. I was POed and moved to a similar product named REALbasic (now known as Xojo). Microsoft has done a ton of things to infuriate me. That was just one. I won't go into them all or we'll end up with a long dissertation. I was never upset about the talking paper clip.

Those are really things I can deal with, you know. New versions breaking old code, okay. Fine. You still had your old version that could compile it. How come REALbasic was able to compile your code? I never quite fancied .NET, I never wanted to go there either with Delphi, which was my tool of the trade.

Btw, way back when I created in Visual BASIC a multiple file renamer named RenameStar. It runs in WINE except for the help system. I don't have a programmer's web site anymore, but if you want the program, let me know. I'll put it up as a download. I believe I've designed it to be easy to use. I've considered getting back into programming so that I can contribute to the Linux community. I've even got some training books for C++. I've just been too busy with other things. I would love to rewrite RenameStar for Linux and also make some modifications to LibreOffice Writer.

Nice, I currently do such things just using the shell and some scripts seeing as that usually I rely in Linux on command line tools to do my work. I am glad Dolphin functions modestly in 14.10 but after all, Linux is where the Shell is. I still don't know how to go around in Linux or Kubuntu without using the shell all the time.

That is a landmark, by the way, of a bad system. If I mostly spend my time typing commands because the gui programs (particularly the file manager) is not up to the task... well I 'd not call that user friendly.

I hope I am still allowed to speak critical comments of Kubuntu though here. Two of my threads have already been locked because they resorted to "name calling" apparently. If I say critical things of Kubuntu, I get in fights. That is mostly my perception anyway, or my impression: that critical remarks are not to be said, but loving or embellishing remarks are very welcome. A bit... anyway, I am glad that in here we can still just talk. (They only want to hear positive stuff, not negative. Can't stand the negative criticism or the truth.). Anyway.

[xennex81]

Personally, if I want to state my goals here, which could be nice:

* I want to have a Linux version (probably Kubuntu or Ubuntu Server with Kubuntu-desktop) running within 2 months that I can keep running for at least 2 years. That means it has to be a 14.04 LTS version. Thus far I have not achieved installation of a 14.04 version yet. Two versions failed (Ubuntu Server 14.04.2 and Kubuntu 14.04.2). I have no love for versions that I need to keep updating (to newer versions) that are then very much different and not to my liking (15.04) or the alternative of not having any updates anymore after 2 months from now, which means I am stuck at present.

* I want to start writing my own java software again within a month (chat server).
* I want to finish up my shell scripts that I used for backup purposes and publish them on Github most likely.
* I want to start writing for Calligra within 2 months and seeing if I can start a project of bugfixing for them. In a certain theme (the bullet/numbering feature).

That is all there is to it for now.

I really want to get that Software Writing for an Office application going, which in my case is Calligra. I believe Linux is the future, but it has a long road to walk still.

[claydoh]

No, I locked that last one because you called someone a name.
If you hadn't noticed we do not make it a habit of moderating or banning people very often; actually it is quite rare here.
There are plenty of critical posts here at KFN, so please do not twist things in to what they are not.

[xennex81]

Well thank you for the clarification but that's what I said, I believe. I do not believe I am twisting and I believe these are harsh comments.

[mcNisse]

On the subject of word processing. I like lyx and Emacs org-mode. The formatting of the text should not get in the way of writing. That's why I don't like libreoffice and Ms word..

[SteveRiley]

Well thank you for the clarification but that's what I said, I believe. I do not believe I am twisting and I believe these are harsh comments.

You called Qqmike a "bully" for describing the way things are in the open source world and for explaining that actions count for more than words when users have certain desires about their software.

Xennex, it's you who's being harsh here at KFN. Watch yourself.

[Tom_ZeCat]

Those are really things I can deal with, you know. New versions breaking old code, okay. Fine. You still had your old version that could compile it. How come REALbasic was able to compile your code?

It wasn't able to, but I was so mad at Microsoft I preferred to move to another product if I was going to have to recode anyway. Plus, REALbasic offered the ability to compile for both Macintosh and Linux. Alas, I never got to the level of skill in it that I had with Visual BASIC, so I mostly just kept coding in VB until Microsoft's newer versions of Windows obsoleted even that. I'm lamenting my decision to learn Visual BASIC instead of C++, as those skills would still serve me now. If anyone had any question as to why I have tremendous disdain for Microsoft, that should answer it. There are other reasons, but that's one of the big ones.

[GreyGeek]

In 1993 the NE adept of Revenue adopted FoxPro and followed it through all of its iterations until VFP 6.0 in 2002, at which time MS turned to .NET and moved VFP their back burner, where it died a slow death. I was tasked with finding a new GUI RAD tool. Rather than .NET I looked at and tested a variety of C, JavaScript, Java, Python, PHP and C+ tools. I chose Qt. I tried to convince TPTB to switch to PostgrSQL, but they wouldn't buy a free DBM because of "no support" since they assumed open source support forums would be worthless. They purchased Oracle. Taxpayers have paid through the nose for it and Oracle's support is so notoriously poor that they rely on the open source forum. In the last ten year millions of dollars could have been saved with no sacrifice in functionality.

[SteveRiley]

FoxPro

The only thing I remember about FoxPro is going to their developer conference in 1998 in Toledo, Ohio, where I got smashed on lime jello vodka shots and then called my soon-to-be wife to say hi.

[xennex81]

You called Qqmike a "bully" for describing the way things are in the open source world and for explaining that actions count for more than words when users have certain desires about their software.

I called him a bully for being a bully. That's different ;-). And how come if someone is being a bully, we can't say it? :P.

He basically fed me back everything I had said before, as a way of proving it? . I told everyone how small contributions are not rewarded, and then he goes and tells me that small contributions are not rewarded. In a really mean way. I already knew everything he told me, that's why I said it, and then he proves it to me.

It's like saying "I don't like how people from <<town>> are always hostile towards me" and then a person from that town comes along and says "Well, rightly so."

I KNOW the rhetoric okay of "actions count more than words" I was DESCRIBING that. And I was describing what's wrong with it. And then someone comes along and repeats that sentiment verbatim. Like pushing a button. Garbage can opens.

Hate flows out.

Sometimes in life I admire myself for getting myself in trouble that I suggested to the other person, and the other person goes and gives me what I suggested to him. And If I hadn't suggested it, he wouldn't have thought of it. Just the other day I was asking someone for permission to leave the place I am in. Because I posed it as a questionable thing, it suddenly became one, until I got myself together and turned it into a statement "I'm leaving." Then the response was "oh, okay". Sometimes I hear my words repeated to me verbatim. As if it was the other person's idea. And I get my own words or descriptions thrown back at me. And the other person actually thinks it was his idea and it was handed to him on a platter.

Your own confidence or lack thereof is often mirrored in the responses by and of other people. Doing something with utmost confidence will always cause other people to fall in line, because they will not longer question in their mind that what you want is right; how else could you be as confident about it.

In this case I guess I invited my own demise by complaining about something and then that something happens.

I was complaining about insensitivity and then insensitivity happened.

Like, I was *also* describing how thing are in the open source world and that action count more than words, but I was saying it as a negative thing ;-). Then someone comes along and repeats my words to me as a matter of fact or status quo and that it is right that it is so.

He was the bully that I sought out, apparently. Got what I deserved, or wanted.

Perhaps pointing at "flaws" is not the best thing to do if you want to avoid triggering those "flaws" in people. Giving attention to the negative can only cause the negative to pour forth, since you have put the focus light on that.

Zooming in on negative qualities or aspects; oops, I am suddenly surrounded by it. Well, it was my own doing.

Like wise giving attention to the positive would cause the positive to pour forth. And you are suddenly surrounded by it. Maybe I should try that out some time ;-).

Maybe we just get what we choose to see in people. See the good, and you get the good.

So I want to say that Mr. Mike is a very qualitative person to write about software and many of his remarks and statements attest to years of experience and relate of a balanced judgement.