Memory Fun

I saw the article http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-linux-memory.html? which discusses how to reduce your memory footprint in Linux. I decided to check it out and play around. I booted my computer and issued the free command.

I had 385876 available, 266060 used and I had 851404 in my swap and 0 being used

I then launched GAIM, Firefox, and Evolution. My used jumped to 343732 but still nothing in the swap.

I then launched a streaming radio station, gFTP, and Text Editor. These are the things I typically run when I edit webpages (the majority of what I do on the computer) My used memory jumped to 374880 and there still was nothing in the swap, but I was getting close.

Based on the article, I use the biggest memory hogs... Firefox, OpenOffice, and Gaim, but they don't seem to be a problem. My system doesn't go REALLY fast, but it isn't unbearably slow either.

I checked out the system monitor and it showed only a few items using over 1 mg. Firefox was the worst at almost 20mg. The other thing was that the applications still took up memory, but they were "sleeping" after I closed them.

So I didn't get anything really useful out of the article, but maybe someone reading this will.

Today the Gnome can Kiss my ###

Okay, so I thought we still had to do the class assignment where we play with the Mapping Tools. I tried to use the two programs (other than inspiration) that we had in class. These things just don't work in Linux. I could not get CMAP tools because the retarded thing would not get past the registration page. FreeMind has two installs. Being familiar with Debian I clicked on that one and was taken to a page where I would have to download and figure out 5 different files. So I said screw it to both of them and went into the Synaptic Package Manager. I did a search for Freemind and it returned a package called Kdissert. I installed it and checked it out.

Kdissert was not very intuitive, but after a quick look into the help file things started to roll along. I got the things added that I had on the map that I created in class and used the program to "create documents" I told it to create a single page HTML which I posted at http://web.utk.edu/~jrieger/cookies Check it out, it looks like crap!

So I wanted the picture... this thing only exports PNG files... I can create a PNG, take it into GIMP, make a jpg, and share that... sounds like a waste of effort to me so I made a JAVA applet. That was a big mistake. I created the files, read the readme file, compiled the applet and opened the main.html in Firefox. Apparently Firefox did not have the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and it refused to install it. I tried a manual install, but got lost when the directions told me to go to the folder with mozilla plugins and make a symbolic link from there to the JRE folder. Why in the world can't they just make the %*^&ing thing work in the first place?

Undaunted but saying things that would make a sailor blush, I returned to the Synaptic Package Manager and performed a search for JAVA. From there I installed all the JAVA Environments I could find (like 20 files 186 Meg...) and then tried my file in firefox...

I got the message HOSTILE APPLETS WILL STEAL AND/OR DESTROY YOUR DATA!! I thought what the hell, if it breaks then at least I will have an excuse not to finish figuring this out so I added it to my White list. There it was, my pretty picture.

I uploaded it to my Unix account with several problems which I'm not going to detail here because I really have no idea what the problem was. It involved me getting disconnect several times and having to reconnect before things just worked. You can TRY to view it at http://web.utk.edu/~jrieger/cookies2 but I tried it in I.E. on my Windows machine and it decided not to work.

While I am at it, I might as well also mention that the idiot that programmed the Kdissert to make main.html the default file name for the webpage files needs to be tarred and feathered. I know... It is open source, if I had the time and knowledge I could just re-write the program and fix it, but I don't have the time or the knowledge.

So, something that would not have been a problem and would have worked in less than 15 minutes in a Windows environment took me almost 2 hours in Linux and is still not right.

UGGG Updates

So I must admit I have neglected my computer since Friday. I wasn't at work Monday and I attended and taught class on Tuesday. Today there were 40 updates waiting!!! 87.6MB... 24 security updates and 16 recommended updates. One of the "Recommended" updates was for a thing called "Popularity Contest" which "Votes for your favourite packages automatically" This was an UPDATE so someone decided to put the stupid thing on there without my knowledge. Next task... turn it off!!

I'm getting a little tired of all the updates. I know they are supposed to keep me safe and secure, but all I ever do anymore is perform updates!

And the Updates Keep Coming

7 updates this morning... well at least that was the claim. The really wierd thing though is that it claimed there were 7 and it said it downloaded 7 files, but it only listed 5 updates in the update manager.

There were 2 security updates and 3 backports. I'm not sure what the other two files were. I guess for now I just have to trust that everything is safe. Of course it would be kind of interesting to see what a virus does to this computer...

Again with the Updates

This morning there were 3 more updates, a total of 1.2MB. All three of them were recommended updates that updated the English Language Pack on various applications.

Updates gone wild

I had another update when I logged in today. This one was a security update and was a whopping 167Kb. There seem to be lots of updates here lately. I remember when I first set up and went almost a week without updates and now there are new ones almost every time I turn on the computer...

Fixed it

Okay, so in the software updates window I clicked on help. When that loaded I selected the Setting Preferences Option. It talked about the "Update Manager Preferences button" which I could not find anywhere. Being aware of stuff like this, I right clicked on the little update manager icon that comes up and alerts me that I have updates. One of the menu options was "Preferences" I clicked on this and went through the tabs along the top. Under Third Party I found an entry for Automatix. I removed the entry from the list and applied the changes. Now it does not look to update Automatix when it does a search for new updates. Not the most intuitive solution. Even Microsoft has a "Don't show this update again" option, but it worked so I can't complain to much.

Now what else can I break...?

Back At It

Okay, so I spend the first half of last week sick. When I finally returned to work, I spent the rest of the time working on converting some of the websites I am in charge of to the new UTK Templates. It was all pretty boring from a discovery of Ubuntu standpoint.

In any case, when I got back to work this morning, I noticed that I had updates. There were 6 of them totaling 5.4MB. However, there was a new twist to the updates this morning. I no longer only have security updates, I now have multiple categories of updates. Today I had
1 Security Update, 2 recommended updates, 2 Backport updates and 1 "other" update.

I told it to go ahead and perform all of the updates and I got a warning message: Warning you are about to install software that can't be authenticated! Doing this could allow a malicious individual to damage or take control of your system.

Well of course this doomsday message is not what you want to see first thing on a Monday morning so I canceled the install and told it not to install the software it could not authenticate (Automatix 2 - that piece of software I installed because it was recommended, but then got rid of because it was worthless...) and let it do the rest of the updates. They went smooth, but now my computer always alerts me to the fact that I have an update available. I can't figure out how to tell it I don't want the update and I don't want to know about the update anymore either...

Guess I have some digging to do.

Finally a new post

It has been over a week since my last post and I must admit that that is due to the fact that I really haven't done much. Most of my week was spent running around in circles. I did some web page updates but nothing new there.

I played with Open Office Chart as part of the spreadsheet assignment for class. I found that it was just as easy to use as Excel. I don't like the graph creator in Chart as well as the one in excel, but the functions that I use on a regular basis were all there and easy to use.

This week also had an unusual number of updates. There were 11 updates totaling 14.2 MB. That was up quite a bit from the previous weeks.

In any case, unless I find some more fun and exciting things to do and play with, I will probably drop down to only one or two posts a week for the duration of this project.

Early End of Week

I am not going to be at work tomorrow so this is the end of the week for me. I did some work on some images in GIMP today. Nothing note worthy occurred. When I got ready to shut down the computer two updates were waiting (7.3 Mb). I am a little curious about these ones though because they were labeled Non-Free Linux 2.6.17 Modules... I didn't supply any credit card information though. Hopefully I won't get a bill either!

I'm going to enjoy a weekend in Pigeon Forge. And you (my loyal fan(s)) enjoy your weekend wherever you are.