Re: Happy 2013 Winter Solstice!

[Robert <http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert>]

 > From: "Simon D. Levy" <http://www.wlu.edu/~levys>
 > Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2013 17:13:38 -0500
 >
 > Hi Robert,
 > 
 > Thanks for all your news! It sounds like you've had a good year.  I was 
 > looking forward to watching the movies you listed, but it turned out I'd 
 > seen them already -- so I guess we have similar tastes.

I would like to see Oliver Stone's "The Untold History of the United
States", but haven't seen it available on Netflix yet.

Noelle was looking at your video on gesture-controlled flying devices.  It
reminded me of that movie "Sleep Dealer", among my most favorite scifi
movies.  She told me to tell you that she's now subscribed to your youtube
channel.

 > I guess my biggest news is (as you might put it: sudo apt-get install 
 > happiness !  I've gone completely over to Ubuntu from OS X (and to 
 > Android from iOS).  With so much of my work dependent on open-source 
 > technology, I got tired of fighting Apple for the ability to do 
 > interesting things in software (Python packages) and hardware 
 > (connecting my phone / tablet to a non-Apple-approved Bluetooth and USB 
 > devices), and tired of paying them and various third parties for 
 > adapters to connect to Thunderbutt or whatever other non-standard 
 > bullshit connectors they make).  Free at last!  I was so excited to get 
 > Ubuntu running on my new laptop that I made a video 
 > <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeNTtn231cU> about it.

Cool.  (I have to admit that I have given up on Ubuntu since I hated the 6
month upgrade cycle; with Linux Mint Debian Edition, I'm on Debian testing
and only upgrade insecure, vulnerable packages.  I find this less painful.
(I do have to say, last night, I went through a bad experience when I
noticed that the folder manager "caja" was eating up CPU.  I upgraded it
and it resulted in a bunch of other updates which resulted in a pretty
non-functioning system.  I ended up having to recreate my desktop settings
by hand after reinstalling "mate".  (Ubuntu uses Unity, which is based on
Gnome3, so you shouldn't have to go through this, at least.)))

 > Give my best to Noelle,

Sure.

 > and have a safe and happy holiday.

You, too.

 > As ever,
 > Simon