So you’ve decided to use PostgreSQL as the database for your sparkly new website running some variant of a LAMP stack. Or maybe you just got a new job and must now administer a PostgreSQL install so you excitedly did your research. You’ve read the install docs, tinkered on a VM, and you think you’ve got everything ready.
My apparently undiagnosed masochism has inspired me to switch keyboard layouts. Aiming for pure obscurity, I’ve been typing using Colemak for the past several months. It’s no Dvorak in the popularity arena, having only an estimated userbase of 3000 as of January 2009. According to a computer aided layout optimizer, it’s also more efficient than the venerable Dvorak, ranking highly across all alternatives. Note that all statistics for Qwerty are hideous by comparison. Thankfully, Ubuntu makes it an available default keyboard layout, and for this, I salute Canonical. If only other Linux distributions would follow that lead, considering the benefits.
Over the fourth of long Fourth of July weekend, I decided to experiment with some of the other Linux distributions floating around out there. I made only stipulation: I use a netbook, therefore the distribution must install from a USB flash drive. I have an old 1GB Sony, and a newer 2GB Sandisk, so there’s no reason this should be a difficult task. I told myself, “Self, 2009 is halfway over. Surely the Linux community will not ignore that millions of potential Linux systems lack a CD-ROM.” Sadly, after attempting to install half a dozen variations, I found I overestimated this aspect of the Linux community in a staggeringly inaccurate manner.
What the fuck is Scrollkeeper? No, wait… I don’t care. I’m not even going to look it up. You know what, scrollkeeper? Fuck you! I shouldn’t have to nice down a background utility that suddenly decides it’s the most important program executing on my laptop the millisecond it boots. 90% or more of my CPU to do… what exactly? I don’t even know what this fucking program does, and it can’t idle in the background until it’s done? It has to reduce my system to a useless brick capable only of melting a hole through my fucking lap?