VisorCentral.com - Questions galore

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Posted by dick-richardson on 01-15-2002 05:15 AM:

Questions galore

I'm in Linux. Completely. I decided if I was going to learn to use it, I wouldn't give myself the temptation to boot into a known OS to "get things done." The problem is, now I can't get things done. And, since I'm all about bandwidth conservation, I'll ask some questions that may not be related to anything else in particular.

What are my hotsyncing options?

How do I install Star Office?

How do I change my default mouse (so I can use my scroll button)?

How do I watch TV?

How do I watch DVD's?

How do I burn CD's ?

Is there a DOS emulator?

How do I import cd music (.ogg format, preferably)?

I drop off papers for the local shopper at small towns around the area. While I'm in one of the small towns, I do computer work for my second job. Should I (can I legally) charge the mileage to get to the town in question to my second employer? How about the time in transit (I am on salary, but need to put in my 40 hrs/wk)?

Women: why is anything smaller than the norm "cute"?

__________________
-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Posted by K. Cannon on 01-15-2002 02:02 PM:

Re: Questions galore

quote:
Originally posted by dick-richardson
Women: why is anything smaller than the norm "cute"?

Well, I don't know jack about Linux, but the answer to your last question is because we say so!

**I edited my original comment about whether we think size matters**

Posted by homer on 01-15-2002 04:05 PM:

I'll take a shot at a few of these...

To start, what installation of Linux are you using?

quote:
What are my hotsyncing options?

Pass.

quote:
How do I install Star Office?

I believe that there is an RPM for this (Redhat *something* manager) which, provided your flavor of linux support this, makes installing apps a LOT easier that dealing with tarballs and compilers. You should be able to install it via your package manager.

Alternatively, you could read the manual.

quote:
How do I change my default mouse (so I can use my scroll button)?

Probably in your linuxconfig settings.

quote:
How do I watch TV?

Find the remote, go into the living room, and turn it on.

quote:
How do I watch DVD's?

I know there are DVD players for linux. I can't help you get it running, though.

quote:
How do I burn CD's ?

See above.

quote:
Is there a DOS emulator?

Check out http://www.lindows.com (that said, why bother with DOS now?)

quote:
How do I import cd music (.ogg format, preferably)?

Import would just be copying off of the network. If you mean ripping them, you will need an MP3 ripper for linux.

quote:
I drop off papers for the local shopper at small towns around the area. While I'm in one of the small towns, I do computer work for my second job. Should I (can I legally) charge the mileage to get to the town in question to my second employer? How about the time in transit (I am on salary, but need to put in my 40 hrs/wk)?

Time travelling is something you should bill your clients...not write off on your taxes. As for mileage, yes, you can write that off.

__________________
We're all naked if you turn us inside out.
-David Byrne

Posted by PDAENVY on 01-15-2002 04:15 PM:

Re: Questions galore

quote:
Originally posted by dick-richardson
[B]What are my hotsyncing options?

I believe when I downloaded the Windows Palm desktop from www.handspring.com, I saw an "unsupported" version for Linux. But their support section is down right now, so I can't check.

__________________
Jeff

Posted by sowens on 01-15-2002 04:34 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by homer
Time travelling is something you should bill your clients...not write off on your taxes. As for mileage, yes, you can write that off.

Yes, you can write the time spent travelling from one job to another off. Dick's situation seems a bit more convoluted, to me anyway.

Dick, I'm going to assume you're using your own vehicle and that the first company is paying you mileage for travelling from site to site. Since you're already being paid mileage, you can't double-bill. While I won't get into the legalities of it, it certainly won't reflect well on you if the companies you work for catch you double-billing, plus I'm pretty sure there will be tax consequences for doing that.

Now, what you can probably do is bill the second company for the distance you need to travel from the first company's local site to the second company's site in the same town, billing the first company only for the miles between the first company's sites. If not, the mileage between the first company's sites and the second company's sites in the same town can, I believe, be deducted from your taxes as a job related expense, but you'll have to keep really good records. This will be a PITA, but a mile here and two there will add up quickly if you're doing this every day.

As always, check with an accountant if you can, or you can check with the IRS directly.

As far as the Linux stuff goes: It's been over a year since I used Linux, so I unfortunately don't remember how to do any of the things you want. I only remember it was a PITA when I tried it.

__________________
It's gotta be weather balloons. It's always weather balloons. Big, fiery, exploding weather balloons.
-- ComaVN (from Slashdot)

Posted by dick-richardson on 01-15-2002 04:59 PM:

quote:
To start, what installation of Linux are you using?

I'm using Mandrake.

quote:
Alternatively, you could read the manual.

I currently have (excluding VC windows) 5 web pages, the documentation file, and the help screen in bash open trying to figure things out.

quote:
Probably in your linuxconfig settings.

I take it I am to edit them manually with a text editor. Where is it?

quote:
Find the remote, go into the living room, and turn it on.

That takes the fun out of my tv tuner card.

quote:
(that said, why bother with DOS now?)

I have this driving need to play Wizardry VII.

quote:
If you mean ripping them, you will need an MP3 ripper for linux.

That's exactly what I mean. Know of any?

sowens, thanks.

__________________
-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Posted by Toby on 01-15-2002 05:29 PM:

Re: Questions galore

Since you finally specified distro, I may be able to offer some clues (although I don't really like mandrake):

quote:
Originally posted by dick-richardson
[...] What are my hotsyncing options?

You need pilot-link first of all, but it should be included in any decent distro released recently. Here is a bit to get you started.

quote:
How do I install Star Office?

http://www.sun.com/products/staroffice/

quote:
How do I change my default mouse (so I can use my scroll button)?

XF86Config is the default. I'm sure Mandrake has their own graphical tool. Have you done much reading at http://www.linux-mandrake.com yet?

quote:
How do I watch TV?

What tuner card do you have?

quote:
How do I watch DVD's?

How do I burn CD's ?

Not sure WRT your distro.

quote:
Is there a DOS emulator?

Yes. It's probably included in the distro somewhere. DOSEMU IIRC.

quote:
How do I import cd music (.ogg format, preferably)?

Don't they have a website? Never fooled with ogg much.

quote:
I drop off papers for the local shopper at small towns around the area. While I'm in one of the small towns, I do computer work for my second job. Should I (can I legally) charge the mileage to get to the town in question to my second employer? How about the time in transit (I am on salary, but need to put in my 40 hrs/wk)?

Women: why is anything smaller than the norm "cute"?

Now you're just getting silly.

Posted by dick-richardson on 01-15-2002 06:10 PM:

Re: Re: Questions galore

quote:
Originally posted by Toby
Since you finally specified distro, I may be able to offer some clues (although I don't really like mandrake):

I didn't realize distro was that important. Why the aversion toward mandrake?

quote:
Here is a bit to get you started.

Danke.

quote:
http://www.sun.com/products/staroffice/

I've got the .bin's downloaded - I'm just not sure what goes where or how to put it there. I'll do more searching on their site. Again, danke.

quote:
Have you done much reading at http://www.linux-mandrake.com yet?

Yeah, but not enough apparently.

quote:
What tuner card do you have?

The all-but-ubiquitous all-in-wonder.

quote:
Yes. It's probably included in the distro somewhere. DOSEMU IIRC.

I didn't find it. It may be a package I didn't install. Thanks for the dosemu to go on, though.

quote:
Now you're just getting silly.

Nonsense.

__________________
-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Posted by Toby on 01-15-2002 06:19 PM:

Re: Re: Re: Questions galore

quote:
Originally posted by dick-richardson
I didn't realize distro was that important. Why the aversion toward mandrake?

It's not important in the grand scheme of things. I just had a bad experience installing it a few years ago which was never explainable. Not my cup of tea is all.

quote:
I've got the .bin's downloaded - I'm just not sure what goes where or how to put it there. I'll do more searching on their site. Again, danke.

I thought there was a shell script in there somewhere. I can't remember because it's been a couple years since I installed from scratch.

quote:
[...] The all-but-ubiquitous all-in-wonder. [...]

Cool. I can definitely point you the right way on that one: http://gatos.sourceforge.net.

Posted by dick-richardson on 01-15-2002 06:35 PM:

Re: Re: Re: Re: Questions galore

quote:
Originally posted by Toby
I just had a bad experience installing it a few years ago which was never explainable.

Speaking of which, Mandrake never did get along with that 3com card. I finally swapped it out with a Linksys.

__________________
-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Posted by jhappel on 01-15-2002 10:19 PM:

quote:
I drop off papers for the local shopper at small towns around the area. While I'm in one of the small towns, I do computer work for my second job. Should I (can I legally) charge the mileage to get to the town in question to my second employer? How about the time in transit (I am on salary, but need to put in my 40 hrs/wk)?

Let me try to answer this as I used to be the tax manager for a CPA firm and still prepare taxes. As a disclaimer - this is based strictly on current IRS laws and regulations, I do not suggest that these answers are true for any state or local taxes, this varies from state to state.

Whether or not you can charge your 2nd employer for the miles strictly depends upon their policies. Most companies that I know of do not allow employees to submit expense accounts for what is considered by Federal rules "commuting". If the company does allow it go ahead and submit; the reimbursement rate under IRS regs just went up to 34.5 cents per mile. As to charging that the travel time counts towards your 40 hours - no way. This is strictly considered commuting and I have never heard of any company paying their employees for getting to work.

The same answers would apply if you wanted to deduct these costs off your Federal income tax, for example on Schedule 2106, as unreimbursed employee expenses. Since the costs are considered as commuting you are SOL.

Sorry about that.

__________________
Jonathan

Posted by homer on 01-16-2002 01:50 AM:

quote:
XF86Config is the default. I'm sure Mandrake has their own graphical tool.

Well, I spent an hour with Mandrake 8.1 and the XF86Config file trying to get my monitor res changed. I finally was told to use XFdrake to get it to work. Supposedly, XFdrake is the GUI for XF86Config, but from my xperience it is not, at least it wasn't the file that XFdrake was configuring.

__________________
We're all naked if you turn us inside out.
-David Byrne

Posted by dick-richardson on 01-16-2002 02:00 AM:

homer, ctrl/alt/+ changes screen resolution (at least on my computer).

I got StarOffice installed. I just needed to chmod the .bin files.

This is why Linux doesn't command the market share that windows does. People don't want to hack their system to watch a DVD or burn a CD. They want to come home with their PalmPilot, click "next" a bunch of times on an install that started automatically when they put the cd in, and sync with a cheap system. They want to go to Wal-Mart and buy functionality which they don't have to think about installing.

__________________
-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Posted by Toby on 01-16-2002 02:42 AM:

quote:
Originally posted by homer
Well, I spent an hour with Mandrake 8.1 and the XF86Config file trying to get my monitor res changed. I finally was told to use XFdrake to get it to work. Supposedly, XFdrake is the GUI for XF86Config, but from my xperience it is not, at least it wasn't the file that XFdrake was configuring.

Actually, I meant xf86config (I forgot that the executable was lowercase) which is a command line level utility for configuring X. It should modify the appropriate file. The catch is that some distros seem to have multiple copies of XF86Config. I'm in Windows right now, though, so I can't check the location (normal is /etc/X11/XF86Config, but I think I've seen it in /etc/X11/xinit/XF86Config in a couple of distros - that's the directory I'm not sure of, though).

Posted by Toby on 01-16-2002 02:46 AM:

quote:
Originally posted by dick-richardson
[...] This is why Linux doesn't command the market share that windows does. People don't want to hack their system to watch a DVD or burn a CD. They want to come home with their PalmPilot, click "next" a bunch of times on an install that started automatically when they put the cd in, and sync with a cheap system. They want to go to Wal-Mart and buy functionality which they don't have to think about installing.

The problem though is that unless you buy your system with those things already installed, you wind up having to do some hacking in lots of cases anyway. Then there's the instances of a program installer overwriting a perfectly good .dll with an older one. More hacking. Bleh. My next computer's going to be a Mac.

Posted by dick-richardson on 01-16-2002 03:50 AM:

I got the mouse working. DrakConf was the key.

__________________
-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Posted by homer on 01-16-2002 03:58 AM:

quote:
This is why Linux doesn't command the market share that windows does.

Of course, you are referring to the desktop OS market. Linux will NEVER be a consumer desktop OS. There is no defined direction for the GUI and user experience to go towards.

That's what makes OSX so great. The power of linux WITH a unified user-experience plan.

__________________
We're all naked if you turn us inside out.
-David Byrne

Posted by dick-richardson on 01-16-2002 03:35 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by homer
There is no defined direction for the GUI and user experience to go towards.

Are you trying to tell me that Windows has a "defined direction" and a set "user experience" it is trying to achieve? There's no way in hell. First MS comes out with win95 and nt - one for consumers and one for business networking. Then they come out with 98 and Me - home editions with more of the networking of nt, but still based on dos - at the same time as releasing win2000/pro with multimedia enhancements. It makes sense from MS's standpoint, but there's no way you're going to convince me that consumers - who have been swallowing this crap for years - give a rat's ass about a "defined direction" for their OS. I'd go far as to say that Linux has as defined a direction as Windows - bug removal, standardization, and ease of use.

quote:
That's what makes OSX so great. The power of linux WITH a unified user-experience plan.

And look at the market share OSX commands. There's no denying it's a damn fine OS - arguably the best yet. But it illustrates quite well that consumers don't care about direction or a set user experience. The average person doesn't want to work with the OS any more than he/she wants to change his/her own oil.

__________________
-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Posted by sowens on 01-16-2002 05:55 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by dick-richardson

Are you trying to tell me that Windows has a "defined direction" and a set "user experience" it is trying to achieve?

Of course! They're copying what Apple puts out!

Sorry, but..I...just....couldn't............resist......

quote:

And look at the market share OSX commands. There's no denying it's a damn fine OS - arguably the best yet. But it illustrates quite well that consumers don't care about direction or a set user experience. The average person doesn't want to work with the OS any more than he/she wants to change his/her own oil.

While I agree that the "average consumer" doesn't give a flying fig about the OS, I'm not quite understanding the market share argument. The market share that OSX commands is directly tied to the number of Macs out there. Does this mean it's less valuable because it's only supported on a single platform?

__________________
It's gotta be weather balloons. It's always weather balloons. Big, fiery, exploding weather balloons.
-- ComaVN (from Slashdot)

Posted by homer on 01-16-2002 06:55 PM:

quote:
Are you trying to tell me that Windows has a "defined direction" and a set "user experience" it is trying to achieve?

Sure it does. Is it good? Not really. Mainly because it comes secondary to profits, but they still have defined parameters that they build around and towards...much more so the Linux ever will have.

quote:
give a rat's ass about a "defined direction" for their OS.

Consumers want a good, friendly user experience. Linux can't do that as there is very little consistency across the OS.

quote:
But it illustrates quite well that consumers don't care about direction or a set user experience. The average person doesn't want to work with the OS any more than he/she wants to change his/her own oil.

That's a contradictory statement. A good user experience means that they DON'T have to work with the OS. It's just there.

OSX is VERY easy to use out of the box. It is also VERY powerful for those that want to dig deaper.

Linux is NOT easy (nay...IMPOSSIBLE) to use out of the box. It IS powerful, for those that take the time to wrestle it.

Windows is usable out of the box. Not perfect, but usable. If you can use one version of Windows, you can probably get by on any other version of windows. It is powerful, but can fall a part the deeper you dig into it.

__________________
We're all naked if you turn us inside out.
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