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Business as usual

I’ve been busier than usual working on my leadership practicum and rebuilding computers destroyed by worms and trojans. I’m empathetic for the folks whose units have been destroyed. In at least one case it was older people on a dialup line. They have a Dell with Windows XP Professional and there is no way you can get your Windows updates and antivirus updates on a 56K modem. I made some money which will pay for my classes at St. Bonaventure but I really want to recommend Ubuntu to more people like those folks because if you’re going to be on dialup and you cannot afford a Macintosh or don’t want to then Windows is not a realistic option for you.

I don’t listen to the news everyday and get most of my updates on current events at Huffington or from colleagues on Twitter and Facebook, but the news from Washington, Baltimore and Dallas is snow storms. I live in what used to be called the “snow belt.” We live about 50 nautical miles from Lake Erie and we usually get large amounts of snow. I’ve noticed too in the last twenty plus years that we no longer get the bone numbing cold we got when I was younger. We used to get -20 and -30 degrees fahrenheit in the winter months and that doesn’t happen anymore. We also don’t get the huge snowfalls we used to. Right now there is more snow in the Baltimore-Washington area than there is in my backyard. I read “Inconvenient Truth” about four or five years ago. A Franciscan friar recommended it to me and since he usually is a reasonable voice I read it and what Al Gore described in the book is the type of weather we’ve been experiencing in the past few years. In the summer our rainstorms have been more violent and in the winter, well, we don’t get as cold nor do we get as much snow. It may be an inconvenient truth for politicians who are owned lock stock and barrel by oil companies to admit that there is something called global warming and that if something isn’t done about it there won’t be a planet nor consumers left to feed their greed.

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Overnight

It’s been a while since I stayed overnight at Mt. Irenaeus and even longer since I participated in an overnight with St. Bonaventure University men. Last Tuesday night while grabbing a bite to eat at La Verna Cafe on campus one of the young men involved Mountain ministry invited me to join them and I’m glad I did. Following a lovely dinner we moved into the cold and contemplatively walked from the House of Peace to Holy Peace chapel. It was so cold that I could hear the snow crunch under my shoes. Once inside the chapel we had some quiet time followed by readings and then one of the young men introduced the theme of the evening which was “New Beginnings.” Following a reading from the 9 Chapter of Acts of the Apostles by Br. Joe Kotula, OFM we separated into small groups and began to examine what new beginnings had happened or were happening our lives. Following that session we gathered together in the larger group and eventually the topic became forgiveness. The session lasted over two hours and there were lots of young men and some older ones too who shared what was on their heart this night in the middle of the Allegany County woods.

Eventually our session ended in the chapel and we made it back down the hill to the House of Peace and the warmth of the fireplace. I found myself visiting with my friend Br. Kevin and watching these young Bonaventure men enjoy themselves. I finally made it to bed and had a very peaceful sleep. Thanks to Sam and the other young men who made me feel so welcome. I look forward to doing this again and soon. This was my first men’s overnight as a student. There were actually two of us St. Bonaventure University graduate students in attendance. This has been a busy semester for me and this was a lovely way to take a break and very Franciscan too.

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Ubuntu v. Macintosh and Windows continued

Since writing my first piece on Ubuntu v. Macintosh and Windows I’ve had thousands of visitors to my blog and over a dozen comments. All of the comments have been instructive and constructive in my own growth and I’m grateful for them. I’ve learned more about the Macintosh Pro I use at work and the one I have at home. I’ve learned how to load Xcode to the Macintosh so I can use it at the command line in some ways identical to Ubuntu. I’ve also had ample opportunity to re-examine what I said and what I experienced and Ubuntu still comes out on top. Apple’s got great multimedia tools and I have really enjoyed using them. I have enjoyed using iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes etc. I was an iTunes user on the Windows side before I ever used one of these newer Macs. I’m still prefer Firefox to Safari and OpenOffice.org to anything Microsoft or Apple produce. I’m mostly a Google Docs user but when I need a desktop productivity application I tend to use OpenOffice.org. One of the aspects that concerns about Macs and Windows desktops is the file system. What happens when you lose the GUI on a Mac? I know that the fabled blue screen panics most PC users. I know that ext3 and now ext4 are stable file systems and even if I lose the GUI I can get my files back and in many cases reconfigure X so that I get a GUI back.

What happens when a Mac loses its GUI? What are the advantages of NTFS and HFS? Are they superior to Ext3 or Ext4? One of the greatest gifts I can give to PC users who have been hacked or had their system trashed by a trojan is the use of Linux and Ubuntu in particular to mount their file system and move their important files to relative safety. I’m looking forward to your responses. Thanks in advance.

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Worshiper or follower?

This past week I had dinner with my friend, Br. Kevin Kriso, OFM. We’re both reading a book by Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM entitled Naked Now. As we chatted over dinner at the Linger Longer Cafe in downtown Allegany, New York Kevin mentioned that one of the points from that book was whether you were a follower of Jesus or a worshiper of Jesus. I think it’s an important distinction and actually very radical too in the best sense of that word.

In the past eight or nine years I’ve had many discussions with pro-war folks who worship Jesus and are very devout in that worship. They justify their support of military intervention with the just war theory of St. Augustine and even the Vatican itself says that war is justified under certain circumstances. I’ve found that troubling and though I’m not a Quaker or a Buddhist I’m drawn to try to their practice because it seems more in line with following Jesus. During our conversation Kevin made a good point and that is, “did Jesus ask us to follow him or to worship him.” I think there is an interesting distinction here and one that will keep me thinking for a while. God blesses the warriors and the peacemakers too. Peace.

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Red Spanish Tile

This morning I got up at 7 AM, showered and got ready for the first class of the Spring 2010 Semester at St. Bonaventure University. I was excited to once again be meeting with this small group of nearly two dozen educators from all across Western New York. It’s only been since July of last year that I’ve been a Bonaventure student, in the Educational Leadership program, but in that short time I feel a kinship the like of which I’ve never known prior. Coming to St. Bonaventure has been like coming home from a long journey. I drove the twenty plus miles from my home in Franklinville to the university, parked near Hickey Dining Hall and then walked across the campus to Plassman Hall. As I climbed the steps at Plassman I thought of my wife and how she had earned her Masters degree in this building. I thought of our marriage, our children, our first date at the Reilly Center and common love of basketball which often brought us to this wonderful Franciscan institution. I thought of the Allegany Franciscans who welcomed me to Kindergarten in 1957 and also of the Franciscan Friars who taught me at nearby Archbishop Walsh in the mid-1960’s.

After finding the classroom and greeting our professor Dr. Gibbs and my classmates I grabbed a hot cup of coffee and sat down in my seat in Room 150. Dr. Gibbs welcomed us and as he lectured I looked to my left and through the windows. The sun was streaming onto the brick of one of the adjacent buildings. My eyes looked higher toward that streaming winter sun and then I saw the red Spanish tile roof and I remembered how I used to sit in study hall at Archbishop Walsh nearly 43 years ago looking at those same red Spanish tile roofs. My eyes misted briefly as I thought back over all those years and the dreams of a teenage boy who could not have imagined all that would be in store for him. That moment filled me with gratitude to be sitting in class for the first time at Plassman.

On my way out of the building after class I spotted the plaque dedicating the building to Fr. Thomas Plassman, who was born in 1879 and died in 1959. He did a lot of living in 82 years. He became President of the University in 1920 at the age of 43. That’s an amazing feat for such a young man. I’m very grateful to be a member of the St. Bonaventure University community and to the Franciscans and others who built this place over the years. Deo gratias!

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Whoa!

I cannot believe the responses I’ve received and the number of site visits my piece on Ubuntu vs. Macintosh and Windows has received. I originally wrote that as an email to my brother who has followed my Macintosh, Windows and Linux adventures over the past decade and a half. One of the readers of my piece inferred that I must have an older Macintosh. I own a three month old MacBook Pro which I really enjoy and continue to use every day. I purchased it when I began my program of study in Educational Leadership at St. Bonaventure University. Prior to purchasing the MacBook Pro I purchased two MacBooks. One for my daughter and another for my son. I really enjoy the Macintosh interface and I was using a Macintosh Plus and programming with HyperCard over twenty years ago. I’m not an Apple hater. Apple Computer has great products, but that being said, I work in education where there are dwindling dollars and when one can purchase two Dell’s equipped either with Ubuntu or Windows 7 for the price of one MacBook one must make choices.

I’ve been using Linux since 1997 when I purchased Red Hat 5 at Staples and a teach yourself Linux in 24 hours book. I’ve progressed from Red Hat 5 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and I’ve used Centos 3 and 4, Fedora 1 through Fedora 5. I was on a trip Portland, Oregon in 2005 when I attended a Portland Linux User Group meeting at Portland State University and a guy handed me Ubuntu 5.04. At first I didn’t like Ubuntu because of “sudo” but then gradually over the last four years it has come to be my favorite Linux distribution even on the server side of things. I’ve used it on standalone servers, created Linux terminal servers, print server, a Mythbox, several desktops and several laptops. I’ve got my Mother using Ubuntu and she likes its simplicity and reliability. Thanks to everyone who left a reply as I’ve learned something from each of you.

Since I originally wrote that piece I’ve installed Ubuntu 9.10 on my new Dell Inspiron 1545 and it works even better than Windows 7 did on that platform. I will eventually virtualize the Windows 7 that came with the notebook using Virtual Box. Today I drove over to pick up a computer that I donated over a year ago to the Franciscan Friars at Mt. Irenaeus. It’s a Dell mini-tower with Windows XP Home. I’m going to give the Friars the option of installing Ubuntu and then virtualizing Windows in that too. There’s something to be said for a stable host operating system and a virtualized guest OS. I’v benefited more than once from reverting my virtual Windows XP desktop to an earlier state after spyware and or Windows updates caused problems.

One the features of the MacBook that I really enjoy is the ease of converting old video tapes to DVD format for clients of mine. I did some of that over the holidays and helped an old friend recover memories of a deceased brother that were locked away on tape. Peace!

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Prayer request

Tomorrow I begin a new chapter in my life. It’s the official beginning of my leadership practicum at St. Bonaventure University. I’m confident that I can do well and that I’ll learn a lot, but like most things academic there is a fair amount of the proper crossing of tees and dotting of i’s. I’m excited that I’m going to be working in a Special Education scenario and that I’ll be forced to learn not only special education law, but also how to properly educate special education students. The best part of being Irish and worrying is that its such a relief when I stop.

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Putting other people first

A couple of days ago I wrote a short piece for a colleague who is the senior class adviser at Franklinville Central School. I was trying to be helpful and I’ve found that whenever you try to help others you invariably help yourself too. Several people have responded to that request. My son who works in the Rochester, New York area was one of the responses. Devin realizes how important it is to give these young people a hand. More than that many of these students who come from low income backgrounds get a chance to get out and see what opportunities exist for them. It can be a mind expanding and opportunity expanding experience for them.  Franklinville’s need has been our opportunity to be helpful but also to think about how we can help on a broader scale. Peace.

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Ubuntu v. Macintosh and Windows

I’m not bowled over by the Macintosh.  It’s a great OS with some great tools and like a friend said on Facebook when I first got it, it is Linux with great multi-media.  I love Photo Booth, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD all great software products that work together rather seamlessly. But are they worth double the price of a Dell for the average person. I don’t think so. I think Apple’s future is with the iPhone and maybe their upcoming tablet. They are really a desktop OS and the future belongs to mobile platforms. I think Microsoft has gotten the bugs out of Vista in Windows 7. So far it’s quite easy to operate and doesn’t have all the “yes/no” permission questions of Vista. I got Windows 7 Premium because I wanted to experiment with their multimedia tools too. I bought this Dell Inspiron 1545 because I got a great price. It was a refurb and most of my PCs are Dell refurbs. I save $200-$300 per unit that way. I wanted to install Ubuntu on it from “go” and I also wanted to virtualize Windows 7 and experiment with it. I will use Virtual Box which is really a great product and one that I’ve got almost two years experience with. I bought the machine for the added RAM, more storage and faster processor because I intend to have some more virtual machines running.

One of the things that I’ve discovered in my Mac adventure is that there is no where near the number of great open source applications on the Macintosh side of the house as their is in either Windows or Linux. I missed that. Also, I do some web application development and the tools aren’t there as easily as they are in Ubuntu. I really discovered that over Christmas break when I was building the Eucalyptus “cloud.” Apple has that software on disk that you can load on the Mac, but since its BSD Unix it’s a bit different than Linux and it just makes it more difficult. The other real pain in the butt with a Mac is its real lack of the second button on the mouse even when you are using a touch pad on a laptop. There are keystroke shortcuts you can use, but its just not as easy as with a PC or a Linux desktop. I’m used to cutting, copying and pasting with Cntrl-X, Cntrl-C etc. and with the Mac it’s a bit different. I miss the big screen of the 15 inch and Linux in general and Ubuntu in particular supports virtual desktops. That’s really not supported as well on either Windows or Macintosh.

The other plus with Ubuntu and Linux in general and this is where Linux really kicks both Windows and the Mac is you have the same OS whether mainframe, desktop, laptop or mobile device and it’s just plain stable.  I’ve had no blue screens with Windows 7 and I didn’t with the Mac either. I can run Ubuntu or Linux on darned near anything and have resources to spare. I also think that Apple doesn’t use the fastest DVD/RW drives and the USB ports on the MacBook were noticeably slower than the USB on my nearly three year old Dell Inspiron 6400. Go figure! Not all Linuces are equal to Ubuntu on the desktop. Red Hat is decidedly more server oriented and their development product Fedora (which I used a lot at one time) is not the equal of Ubuntu at present. Ubuntu is more international in it’s flavor which is probably a good thing. Both Dell & IBM are favoring Ubuntu on the desktop and server and much of Amazon’s cloud (EC2) is Ubuntu oriented too.

I really think the future is mobile and Microsoft understands that well and is positioned to support that with mobile devices. Ubuntu and Linux in general is mobile oriented too. Motorola, Google and a host of other vendors are or have developed mobile devices using Linux and Apple Mac while cool is really a desktop OS and although the OS is inexpensive at $29 a copy it is very proprietary after that point. Their real mistake in my opinion is not opening up their platform like Microsoft did with Windows, but that’s because they are desktop or laptop oriented. Apple is a great company and I have always loved their innovative products, but they are pricey too.  Well those are my thoughts. In short you can get two computers for the price of one if you use either Ubuntu or Windows 7. In this day thrift the $1200 Mac has a tough row to hoe. If Microsoft got smart and put Windows on a Unix core the game would be up for Apple.

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Senior Trip

A few days ago the faculty advisor for this year’s senior class at Franklinville Central School approached me with a problem. He’s got some seniors who cannot attend this year’s senior trip because their parents recently lost employment. Now, I know compared to many of the world’s ills this is truly minor. But, if you’re a kid in Franklinville, New York where so many of our students come from low income families the senior trip can be an experience that provides these young people with a vision of what life could be like.  If you’re interested in helping,  the Senior Class Advisor is Ed Butler. Ed’s a very caring person and a great man for the job. He has a heart for children especially those in need. The students raise a lot of the money for the trip themselves by working at car washes, bake sales, spaghetti dinners and you know the drill.  There is a portion however that comes from in kind contribution by the student and usually that falls to the parent or parents.  You can contact Ed via email if you’d like to help. Thanks and peace.