I'm a gnome man!!!

gnome desktop screenshot

Yes, definitely I am. I'm a gnome man. The first desktop I used was KDE and I liked it a lot. I started using GNU/linux with SuSE and learnt a lot of things with the powerful KDE and all its applications. However since I switched to Debian and installed Gnome by default I grew so used to it that now I can't do without it. (Even though I also like LXDE a lot and on occasion I enjoy the Midnight Commander, a personal favourite)

Last weekend I installed Lenny on Aelita (Acer Aspire laptop) with KDE just for a change but man, I had to go back to Gnome again. It's the one I feel more comfortable with and  besides it is not so bloated with applications that constantly distract your attention. Anyway I might try KDE on future releases. Even though I'm not much excited about the 4.x series. 

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This is my birthday calendar!

This is my birthday calendar for this year. It was high time to change the old one. The design was inspired on a picture we discovered on the net but it grew on its own with our ideas.


I hope you like it and a big thank you to all of you who have helped me with it!!! You  know who you are.


I had to take at least 8 pictures until I found the one I liked best. You can see my penguin decoration below.

Here's inkfly!!!

Let me introduce you to my new printer: The HP Officejet J4580 All-in-One. Its name is Inkfly. It came home on the 19th of November 2009 at 16:45.

I had an Epson Stylus CX3200 called Inky which stopped working on the 12th of November in the afternoon after 7 years of real hard work. It's unbelievable how well it worked and never had to be fixed in any way although lately it sounded as if there was something broken inside but it still printed in high quality until the end. This post is more than an introduction to the new piece of hardware a loving homage of Inky my beloved printer.

In the meantime I borrowed my uncle's HP psc 1315. It does not have the same quality as Inky but it definitely convinced me to buy an HP. Why? It's real simple. HP has excellent Linux drivers!!! What else can I say?

I'm exited about the new purchase. It has a good scanning and printing quality and exellent drivers for Linux. I had hplip installed (hp linux imaging and printing v. 2.8.6) and I used HP toolbox gui to configure it properly. I have been trying it for two days now and I'm happy about the results even though I know it's difficult to foresee its performance in the long run. Will it beat Inky's seven years of service? I have my doubts but I hope so ...

Now inkfly is the default printer. It prints from the gui and also perfectly from the cli using the lpr command.

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Garden season's over

Today with the stone path I've finished the garden work for this season. Now everything is clean and ready for the spring to come when new plants will fill each and every corner with scents and colors but until then ... Let winter in.

In the picture you have an overall view of the garden. Next week I'll start pruning the other trees.

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Almost done with the garden!!!

I have been working in the garden for some time now. Yes, I know it's november and the real work will not start until the spring, but 19 degrees Celsius is quite an unusually warm temperature to resist doing some preparations for next year.

Today I have finished preparing the flowerbeds and this means that I've almost fulfilled all my expectations. I've got the new fence (not painted yet), the table and the swing!!! Tomorrow I'll start with the stone path. It's gonna be a real garden!!! I mean it'll look gorgeous.

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White mulberry tree

If I'm not mistaken I posted some other day that I had finished pruning my white mulberry tree during the summer but I had not uploaded any picture yet. I do now. It was a 12 meter-high monster and it was real hardwork pruning it 90% by hand with a saw. But I did and lived to tell. In the final stage I used a chainsaw.

Next month I'll start pruning the other trees, not so daunting work though.

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You can see here the huge pile of branches after the pruning. It's just the branches; the heavy logs appear in the previous picture.

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Can your pets browse the net? Mine actually do!!!

Obviously just kidding!!! But it is really true that I've just installed a new internet antenna in the country to surf the net occasionally and in time to set up an ip camera. Possibly at Xmas.


In the picture you can see the first orientation attempt . The pun here is that I've got the best signal on top of the dogs' kennel. So I have placed it right there. 

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Halloween

Halloween was great fun but we have carved our Jack o'lantern today. Yesterday it was all about trick or treating. 

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