So I’ve spent the last week in a dual Ubuntu/XP environment and while I haven’t succeeded in improving either one of them very much I’ve at least been able to alleviate my load time problem with Yahoo News.

Of course now my YouTubes won’t play, so it’s all a compromise.

And I hate, hate, hate the keyboard translations that make my numeric keypad useless for selecting and transferring text (Ctrl-Insert, Shift-Insert, Shift all directions to select text).  Works fine off the extra keys and their teeny tiny carpal tunnel inducing foot print.

Not able to get that scroll wheel desktop switch thing working again in this version either which slows me down some, though for viewing (not composing) it’s still an incredibly efficient environment.

I’m also not having much luck getting DOSBox to load my old tired games like Scorched Earth, or AVG to do scans of my NTFS Windows drives.  I’m itching for a clean lean install of XP to see if that solves some of my issues on that side, but I’m waiting for a 32 Gb USB drive as a platform and yet maybe I’m foolish to do that.

You see I’ve always had a hankering to run a superfast development system in RAM.  Take 10k lines of code and see how fast you can get a native executable.  Now I have unimaginable amounts of RAM just on my Video Card, but I’ve never been able to set up a development system that worked as well as my CCPM-86/Desqview dual boot on my 286-12.

What I do to amuse myself instead is speed install OSs and I had thought that a Flash Drive installation would be noticeably faster than a straight SATA or 133  or even one of my notoriously unreliable RAID setups.  What causes me to question my assumptions is the availability of this part which provides the secondary benefit I desire- being able to boot from an independent drive so you can virus check and fix configuration problems (Trendnet Easy Go?  Don’t install that.).

I also take ‘normal’ questions.

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Well, Team Radio Shack has a stage victory from Sergio Paulinho.  While I congratulate the team and rider, Stage 10 didn’t change much though it is interesting that Samuel Sanchez continues to hang with Schleck and Contador.

Your US commentators keep hanging their hats on Leipheimer, but it’s not happening.  Lance lost time.

Most analysts don’t expect anything exciting before Sunday when the Tour hits the Pyrenees for 3 days of climbing, a recovery day, and then a 4th day in the mountains.

And then the moving finger will have writ, and having written moves on; but that’s the beauty part of sports, it has at least novelty.

Today’s stage is 115 miles from Sisteron to Bourg-lès-Valence and has only one climb, a category 3.

One of my subtler themes is the appalling lack of innovation and creativity in entertainment (which is the primary reason sports figures deserve every dime they can wring from their dilletant billionaire toy boy masters).

This makes selecting Prime Time features difficult since as much as I admire Phineas and Ferb I’ll often spare myself a 4th viewing in favor of novelty, if it’s available.

Sometimes not so much.

Executive Decision is Kurt Russell’s worst movie ever, including The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes.  ESPN has the ESPYs.  Every time I’ve watched The Cable Guy has been one time too many.  The Departed, just because it’s Scorsese doesn’t make it memorable.

Mythbusters Buster’s Cuts looks pretty good though it’s likely to be painfully hoaky.  Man v. Food is always the same but different.  The only thing I’m really looking forward to is Zahi Hawass’ new show on History @ 10.

Later-

Jon from 7/5, Stephen 6/28.  David has Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Laurie Anderson. Alton has Herbs.

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Crunch decision due on BP oil test

by Mira Oberman, AFP

1 hr 41 mins ago

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

And then there were 2.

The reason these elbow and collarbone injuries are such a big deal is that you actually spend a lot of time with your weight on the handlebars.

Today’s 112 mile stage from Chambery to Gap has the one category 1 climb that might change things but is unlikely to since everyone seems to be writing their Champs Elysees scripts and excuses.

Unless Schleck uses it to drop Contador which he keeps threatening to do.

As I mentioned way back a week ago the problem with unlimited racing formulas is that small time gaps tend to magnify and there are not a lot of what NASCAR types call ‘passing opportunities’.  Now sometimes there are flaming chunks of twisted metal and the prospect of seeing that live may suit your Madam Defarge sensibilities and will certainly cement your revolutionary credentials on sport.

If it were popular like the World Cup everyone would be watching.

Major League Baseball All-Star Game!

Explain to me why I should be watching this exhibition again?  Am I scouting for stretch and playoff trades?

As a Mets fan I’m content to work off injuries and dangle our bait and satisfied when everyone plays to their potential.

And we’re competing against the hated Braves and not the upstart Phillies, what could be better than that?

The reason for Junior League ascendancy of late is simply that since the designated hitter rule every single game they play is an exhibition unless it’s in a National League park during (shudder) inter-League play.

Now, about those wild cards and short play-offs, and there’s that lowering the mound thing…

Every record since the live ball is suspect.

Not Baseball–

• AMC– Tin Cup
• ESPN– Sweden @ US Women’s Football for the Cup deprived.
• History– 10 pm Top Shot from Sunday.
• SciFi– Warehouse 13, last week’s season premier and a brand new episode.
• Turner Classic– To Be or Not to Be, the good Jack Benny/Carol Lombard one not Mel and Ann Bancroft’s homage.
• Food– 10 pm New Chopped.

Later-

Jon 6/28, Stephen 6/30.  Letterman, Kristin Chenoweth and M.I.A..  Alton, Crabs.

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 BP praying cap will end Gulf oil nightmare

by Mira Oberman AFP

Tue Jul 13, 12:32 pm ET

How do you make Dems care about the midterms?

Posted at 4:20 PM ET, 07/12/2010

The White House and Dems have made this case every which way: They’ve charged that Republicans will again rule as stooges of Big Oil and Wall Street. They’ve claimed that Republicans will rain a blizzard of subpoenas on the White House if they take control of Congress. They’ve framed the elections as a choice between the policies that got us into this mess and those that are getting us out of it. And so forth.

Yet rank and file Dems don’t appear to care that much. The latest polling shows that the “enthusiasm gap” remains the same, with Republicans far more excited about voting than Dems are. In other words, Dem scaremongering about the GOP takeover doesn’t yet appear to be revving up Dems to turn out this fall.

What if the only way to boost Dem enthusiasm isn’t to reveal how successful those awful Republicans were in rendering the Dems quasi-powerless, but to succeed in spite of this problem and do more to mitigate the crisis and the pain it’s caused?

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

The uptempo singing and dancing is supposed to distract you from the fact that there are only 3 names you need to care about for the next 12 days rest of the Tour-

Evans, Schleck, and Contador.

Oh the announcers will try to get you hooked on Levi Leipheimer, but he’s almost as old as Lance and farther away from his dreams of glory.

Or, you know, busses.

127 Miles from Morzine-Avoriaz to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne including 2 category 1s, a category 2, and a category ‘K’ that I suspect does not stand for ‘Kute Kuddly Kitty Kat’.

Especially if you’re stiff as a board.

9 pm, Total Drama World Tour premier- “Anything Yukon Do, I Can Do Better”.

• AMC– Mad Men
• ESPN– Home Run Derby
• FX– Man on Fire
• History– Pawn Stars, American Pickers
• SciFi– Another repeat of the season premier of Warehouse 13.
• TBS– Family Guy and Neighbors from Hell
• Turner Classic– Roman Holiday
• TLC– Cake Boss

Later-

Letterman- Nicolas Cage, Steel Train.  Jon (6/30) and Stephen (7/7) in repeats.  Good Eats has Tacos.  Turner Classics– Spellbound.