They steal my shiny things...

   As I mentioned earlier, one of Amber's caregivers at her group home decided to steal the laptop while she was away at the hospital and to replace it I picked her up a new MSI E7235-295US and installed Fedora 13 Linux.

   Everthing worked right out of the box but a few tweaks were needed for optimum performance.

   Since it took a while to find all the info I needed, I thought it would be helpful to others to share my results here.

   The start, get all updates and install the rpmforge repository.  As root, do:

rpm -ivh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm
rpm -ivh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm

Audio

The first thing you're going to notice is that internal speaker audio is really crappy.  Easy to fix.

Add the following line to the bottom of /etc/modprobe.d/dist-alsa.conf

options snd-hda-intel model=3stack-6ch-dig power_save=10 power_save_controller=N

Next, edit /etc/pulse/daemon.conf and change default-sample-channels to 6.  Don't forget to remove the semi-colon too.

; default-sample-format = s16le
; default-sample-rate = 44100
default-sample-channels = 6
; default-channel-map = front-left,front-right

Video

By default, Fedora installs the nouveau video drivers, which work but they don't take full advantage of the GeForce GT 130M.  To install the vendor nvidia drivers, as root do:

yum -y install kmod-nvidia

If the default 1440x900 video mode is a little too much for you, ModeLines can be added to xorg.conf for other resolutions.  Here is my /etc/X11/xorg.conf which you should only modify after installing kmod-nvidia

###

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Default Layout"
    Screen         "Default Screen" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
    ModulePath      "/usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia"
    ModulePath      "/usr/lib64/xorg/modules"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option         "AIGLX" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "keyboard"
    Option         "XkbLayout" "us"
    Option         "XkbModel" "pc105"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    Option         "DPMS"
    Modeline "1280x768" 80.14 1280 1344 1480 1680 768 769 772 795 -HSync +Vsync
    Modeline "1280x800" 83.46 1280 1344 1480 1680 800 801 804 828 -HSync +Vsync
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Videocard0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Default Screen"
    Device         "Videocard0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Modes      "1440x900" "1280x800" "1280x768"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
    Option         "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

###

For everything else, I recommend reading Personal Fedora 13 Installation Guide

Last but not least, if this has helped you out, please help Amber get her service assist dog.

   Now I'm really starting to know how Amber feels about all her missing iPods.

   My old Dell laptop disappeared when the person I loaned it to left the country before returning it.  At least I know where it went.

   But now, while Amber was at the hospital recovering from surgery, one of the staff members of her group home went into her bedroom and stole the Gateway MX8711.  Unfortunately, I had just upgraded the OS and had not re-installed the anti-theft software yet (it was on my todo list for today, in fact.)  To make it worse, when I got home and tried to access the backup drive which I used just a couple days ago, it was completely dead.  I am so incredibly screwed at the moment.

   So I was just in the kitchen tossing a roast into the crock pot for overnight cooking and I suddenly experienced something I can only refer to as a delayed exploding noema.  Years delayed, in fact.

   I can't explain it all because it's just too odd except to the few I've told the story to.  Let's just say that for years and years I thought the answer to my unexplainable interest was pepperoni when it was actually just plain old garlic.  Weird.

   If you know what the hell I'm rambling on about, it's pretty damn funny, but if you don't, it's meaningless and I prefer to keep it that way.

   Garlic?  Really?  Who the hell would have thought?  This is just too funny!

   Yep, I'm still working on the new design for SaidSimple.

   Amber is back in the hospital so I'm spending my time there rather than code.   She's been in for 3 days and they have yet to determine what the problem is but until they do they have 3 different broad spectrum antibiotics running through her IV.  The IV stand is starting to look like a Christmas tree.  CT scan didn't show anything that we didn't already know.

   When I got home I watched the Facebook episode of South Park again which which made me laugh at the silliness of it all.  It's funny what it takes to get booted off someones friends list.  Last month some stranger in a mall decided to just walk up to Amber, stick their hand inside her dress and grab and adjust her bare left boob and say "your caregivers should not allow you out of the house that way!"   Her sister said the person was just trying to help where I gently pointed out it was felony sexual assault and boom, her very own sister took both of us off her friends list.  Amber was sad but I was amused.

   But, the episode did prompt me to check my own friends list and I discovered a small number of my old friends deleted me from their list.  The funny thing is that I had already silencly blocked every single one of them, some up to a year before, and not because I disagreed with them, but when 90% their posts were spamming game scores, business opportunities, products and coupons, I cut the cord.  I have absolute respect for those who I disagree with politically, philosophically or religiously (because I learn things from them) but I have a no time for those who try to sell me shit and pretend it's a conversation.  Seriously though, it's pretty fucking petty to end any type of personal relationship just because you disagree with their point of view.  Life is about learning from the good and bad ideas of others.  Open minded my ass.  Yes, I am indeed still amused.

    Oh, about the site.  I did promise Danielle I would have the new design online by the time she returns from camp which is July 14.  I have so many things I want to do but have resigned myself to putting up what is ready and then add the rest as I get it working.   The sad part is all the really good code is on the member and administration side so visitors won't get to see all of its awesomy goodness.

   Not much else going on at the moment.

    The new site design is coming along well.  The part the readers see is complete and all that is left to finish is the authoring system.  It's about 80% done.

    I'll be adding a few more new bloggers to replace the few I unceremoniously disabled recently.  I didn't delete any accounts, I just turned off the pages of people who haven't logged in for a while.  I'll be turning off a few more when I put the new design up.  If anyone wishes to re-enable their account and start blogging again, they can log in and do it themselves.

    Personally, I'm doing well.  Staying pretty busy with projects and friends.

    The other day I met Amber at the mall while she met with the people from Arizona Goldens about getting a service dog.  They seemed a bit upset by my presence even though I stayed far away from her until they were gone.  One of the trainers, who also stayed far back, commented on it and I finally had to tell her that I was not there to judge how the dog interacted with her, I was just there to see how the dog interacted with her wheelchair so that I would know what customizations to make on the chair when she finally got a service dog.  I found a few minor issues with the chair that the dog could certainly work around, but it would be better for the issue to not exist at all.

    My Meetup group is doing well but I may cancel the meetup.com subscription and move it all over to Facebook instead.   Meetup.com is rather expensive and since they seem so dead-set about making themselves look like Facebook anyway, I may as well just move it over and save myself the $150 a year fee.  Most of the new members are coming from the Facebook group anyway.

    Mom was supposed to come vist this month but life happened and plans got changed.  She said should could come in June but coming here any time past May is not such a good idea if you're not used to the bone bleaching sun and heat.   Perhaps when the weather cools, and then I can take her for a desert hike too.

    Life is good.  :)

   Yep, I'm still around.  Been busy.  Still busy, in fact.

   About Amber, after another 14 day stay in the hospital, with a lot of meetings, fancy footwork and dealing with state agencies, the hard work and patience finally paid off! Amber has a new home. It is her very own place, with 24/7 caregivers assigned just to her, and to top it off, a wheelchair van. This is a dream come true and she's excited.  She's getting to know the area and is slowly making new friends.  A service dog and wheelchair soccer is in the works.   The only bad thing is that her wheelchair broke the day she moved to her house but it's should be repaired any day now.

   Now that she's all settled in, I've been keeping busy with the re-write of this site.  A new look and much easier administration of the site for members.

   I didn't get to do any desert hikes at all so far but now it's getting too warm to dare trying.  I'll hold off until November.   I haven't been lazy though.   I still get many miles a week in walking to the store.

   Hopefully i'll have the new version of the site up in a few weeks.

   Okay, sometime this morning I realized I had a big blog post idea in my head but I forgot what it was by the time I got to the computer.   So instead...

   Amber came over for dinner the other day and I made one of my favorite meals to share with others.  I've made it for a few and the results are always good.

   In a non-standard recipe format... Coat several boneless chicken breasts in bread crumbs and put in a 400° oven for 15 minutes.  Take it out of the oven and top each with a little shredded Cheddar/Mozarella, then finely chopped ham, another sprinkle of cheese, several strips of bacon (cook it first) and then top with a mound of cheese.  Put it back in the oven for another 5 minutes or so.  I love cheese so I even sprinkle on a little more after taking it out of the oven.

   I then top it off with home made Honey Mustard sauce which I make with 1 part spicy brown mustard, 1 part of honey, and 2 parts Miracle Whip salad dressing (not the pour stuff, but like what you would use in a tuna fish sandwich.)   Other have suggested using oil instead of Miracle Whip but it's pretty disgusting to me.

   Some people like to marinade the chicken in honey mustard for a day first but I just brined it for times sake.

   With that, I made some flat noodles, with a small amount of butter for lubrication and a few taps of Garlic Festival's Garli Ghetti spice.

  Good stuff.

  Next time I make it I'll take a photo.