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.