Giving Ubuntu Another Shot

computer I’m giving Ubuntu another shot. I’m not using my laptop much anymore, mostly because it sucks, so I decided to try Ubuntu again. The install was quick and painless. I think Ubuntu 7 was faster than 6 with the install process. You can tell it was updated to make install a lot easier too, and it was. The one thing that prevented me from keeping Ubuntu on my laptop last time I installed was spending four hours trying to get wireless to work. Today, out of curiosity, I decided to do a google search to see if there were any simpler methods to get my wireless to work. The result was this thread here. It worked like a charm. I do like Ubuntu. I will probably keep it. I can do anything that I would have done on this laptop using Windows with no problem. (Though, this is only a day into it, so we’ll see if I run into any major problems). The biggest issue I’ve seen is running into non-open source drivers or software that have packages for 32 bit Linux, but not 64 (such as Adobe Flash). With some searching, I found work-a-rounds for that too. We’ll see where this leads. Who knows, I may turn my old PC into a Linux box (but will still keep my Vista PC because yes, I do in fact like Vista.)

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Some Life in the Cardinals After All

rick ankiel I was shocked that the Cardinals brought up Rick Ankiel already. They can’t send him back down because the Cardinals are out of options on him. If he would get sent back down, any team can claim him. I knew they’d bring him up, but I thought it would be closer to the end of the season, like in September. Well, I was wrong, and boy am I glad I was. Ankiel has been hot in the minors all year and he continued his streak in the Bigs. In his first two games he hit three home runs and made a great catch. What’s even better is it seems his hot streak as reinvigorated the rest of the team, finally waking up their sleeping bats. Today’s game versus the Dodgers brought 18 hits and 12 runs for the Cardinals. The depressed Cardinal Nation has also begun to make noise again. Everyone is talking about Ankiel, a St. Louis favorite, bringing some excitement back to St. Louis. There is some life left in the Cards after all.

Make 50 Cent Quit Rapping

50 Cent believes his new album will outsell Kanye West’s upcoming disc, and he’s betting his solo career on it. Both 50 Cent and West have albums due out Sept. 11. 50 Cent, who has sold better than West, has been riled by forecasts that sales of West’s “Graduation” could rival those for his “Curtis” CD.

“Let’s raise the stakes,” the 31-year-old rapper told hip-hop Web site SOHH.com in an interview posted Friday. “If Kanye West sells more records than 50 Cent on September 11, I’ll no longer write music. I’ll write music and work with my other artists, but I won’t put out any more solo albums.”

Ok, let’s be honest. Neither one are great rappers. They both have mediocre “flows.” Kanye West is still the better artist. It’s one thing to have a terrible flow and that’s all you do, but Kanye at least brings something else to the table. Actually, two things. He brings better lyrics (do we care who 50 has beef with this week or how many times he got shot anymore?) and better production. Yes, 50 is backed by Dre beats, but Kanye makes his own. 50 is all hype with no skill, plain and simple. So, I hope Kanye outsells him on September 11th. I’ll even buy a copy of his album just to do my part in trying to shut down what’s bad in rap music, and that’s 50 (and Game, and G Unit, and Young Jeezy, any rapper with Young or Lil in his name, well, pretty much all of urban radio… Let the underground shine!)

Substantial- Resurrection of the House Party

Substantial, the QN5 rapper from Maryland, released his first single from his QN5 debut Sacrifice a few weeks ago. The song is one of those classic summer songs that gets you going as soon as you hear it. If you don’t know much about Substantial, check out his MySpace. Instead of posting the song for the song of the week this week, I’m going to post his video. It’s a great song and video by a very talented rapper. Keep on the lookout for this guy. He’s even garnering some attention from The Source.

Some Good News

I may have some good news. It’s not 100% confirmed, and won’t be til the 20th, but it’s looking pretty darn good. Let’s just say I’m one step closer to my dream.

More details coming soon.