Hardy Heron

April 19, 2008 – Click on image for higher resolution version.

I updated to the Hardy Heron Ubuntu Linux release candidate today with remarkably little fuss.

Coffee Quote

It is inhumane, in my opinion, to force people who have a genuine medical need for coffee to wait in line behind people who apparently view it as some kind of recreational activity. I bet this kind of thing does not happen to heroin addicts. I bet that when serious heroin addicts go to purchase their heroin, they do not tolerate waiting in line while some dilettante in front of them orders a hazelnut smack-a-cino with cinnamon sprinkles. ~Dave Barry

Coffee Quotes and Sayings about Caffeine

Vista Performance (not)

I have had almost no personal experience of Windows Vista, and having watched my manager struggle with it on her laptop, I am quite content to keep it that way. Randall C Kennedy of InfoWorld decided to compare Vista versus XP and Windows 2000 on the same hardware and produced this chart.

Not only is Vista and Office 2007 the most bloated desktop software stack ever to emerge from Redmond, its system requirements are so out of proportion with recent hardware trends that only the latest and greatest from Intel or AMD can support its epically porcine girth.

Read the complete article.

Lily

I rode Lily yesterday for the first time since the start of winter. When I went to call her out of the mare field, she craned her head and looked at me quizzically, instead of galloping down the hill with a sliding stop inches away from the gate. The sliding stop is impressive, but scary, since I am always afraid she will misjudge the distance. She walked down to meet me when I went out to catch her, so I decided she was just feeling exceptionally mellow.

I tacked her up with her western saddle, and then decided to ride her without longing her first. Why wake her up when she was in such a relaxed mood? Besides, watching Lily on the longe line has been intimidating me. She is no worse than Hap at that age, but I was a lot younger then, and in theory at least, bounced better.

We didn’t do much: a friend was working her young Arab/Percheron cross, and I wanted to stay our of her way. However, I was once again amazed at Lily’s sensitivity. I joke with my trainer that Lily’s philosophy is “we don’t need no stinkin’ aids.” She wants a very light, very consistent feel on the reins, and a very light, very consistent leg. Turning and transitions should all be done with minute shifts of the rider’s weight. I think she plans on teaching her riders to communicate with telepathy next.

LOL Cats

For those who didn’t understand my Friday post Spring, Pleez? I used the fractured syntax from Lolcat graphics occasionally found on the Internet in my photo. The Wikipedia article on Lolcats has a history of the genre. The I Can Has Cheezburger? site has examples.

I’ve never quite understood why LOL cats use such fractured syntax. I’ve always felt that if cats would deign to speak to us lowly human beings they would use the snooty accents once common to BBC announcers, with impeccable grammar.