The Computer Geek

My own computers run Debian GNU/ Linux in Ubuntu configuration.

• My Web materials are generated by PHP programs. Each page has a link to the source code in the footer. You may also view my HTML directory hierarchy with all of the supporting files. If something interesting is inaccessible, that's an accident: just ask. (There are still a few legacy items in raw HTML.)
  
  
• My desktop Ubuntu/Debian GNU/Linux system is called Celionati. It has no unfree code on it. The name comes from a character in the story Prinzessin Brambilla by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann. Celionati now runs an HTTP server called Wild Worb Weed. That's an anagram of "World Wide Web," except that I don't think "Worb" is really a word.
  
  
• My laptop is called Tumbleweed. It runs the latest stable Ubuntu Studio.
  
  
• My netbook is called Barataria (for the fictional yet true island in Don Quixote de La Mancha). It runs the latest stable Ubuntu Netbook Edition.
  
  
• I am in the process of validating all of my actively maintained Web pages to HTML 4.01 transitional. The button at the lower right corner of each page indicates my progress, and invokes a validating parser.
  
  
• OK, I still see discussion of whether we should call it ``Linux,'' or ``GNU/Linux,'' so I guess I'll have to explain why I call it ``GNU/Linux.'' It has nothing to do with my view of Richard Stallman's personality---I don't even need to have an opinion about that. It has everything to do with reading carefully what he wrote on the subject, and realizing that he's exactly right. The packages of stuff that people refer to as ``Linux'' normally contain the Linux kernel, plus a whole lot of software, most of which either comes from GNU, or is derived from work at GNU. I might sensibly call it ``GNU+.'' But, since the leader of GNU suggests that I call it ``GNU/Linux,'' giving equal emphasis to the kernel and all of the other software, I'll go along with him.
  
  
• I'm working on specifications and design for a network handle system.
  
  
• I think someone claimed that a chicken could be trained to install Debian Linux by tapping the "ENTER" key with its beak. That's nothing. I let an inanimate object install my Ubuntu LAMP server on Celionati from a CD on a flakey drive. Well, pretty much. I had to type in a bit of configuration, then the installation kept failing due to read errors from the bad drive. So, I left a small dead weight (a 9 volt battery) on the "ENTER" key while I went to my singing lesson. When I returned, I had a working LAMP server. Who needs the chicken?.
  
  
• It seems to be almost universally accepted that central control of the Domain Name system is crucial to the health of the Internet. I used to use the deviant DNS root provided by the Open Root-Server Confederation DNS root, and never noticed the difference. My Wild Worb Weed HTTP server operates without a domain name. On the other hand, I have often been led astray by the authoritative and supposedly reliable DNS approved by ICANN.

Copyright Michael J. O'Donnell <michael_odonnell@acm.org>. Licensed for free use.
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