It's been a real pain to be without a working laptop. Here's a brief history of my tale of woe, right up to the happy ending.

I was trying to get the new cedega version to work, and somehow I got the idea to run the python updater. I eventually was able to play Deus Ex on my laptop -- or, at least, to run it. It played at twice the normal speed, making it effectively impossible. Meanwhile, a staggeringly diverse array of essential programs (evolution, openoffice, ghostview, firefox, etc.) just started crashing. So Tuesday of exam period, I decided to wipe it & reinstall.

I thought I'd save myself some time (heh) and use genkernel for a default config. My reward was a non-working wireless card and the inability to start X-windows, among other annoyances. Attempts to "patch it up" with a regular kernel didn't really help, so I decided to wipe it and reinstall.

Well before I could get too far into it, Amy got to town, and you can guess who took priority between her and the computer! Not having time to finish up before we hit the road, I decided to wipe it and reinstall.

I never got home for more than a day at a time until it was practically New Year's, and we never stayed anywhere with wireless internet for me to get the installation done. When I finally got settled at home, it was a matter of getting the essentials up and running and sniping at individual problems, one at a time. It wasn't until yesterday that I finally got something genuinely new.

Apparently X does true transparency, and it looks very neat indeed. Be sure to check the transparency screenshots to see what I mean. Well... right now I only have one since my screenshot program is being finicky about actually picking up the transparency. But trust me, it's cool!

I still have to get a few more things done, like getting the USB ports running for digital cameras, or fixing the obnoxious vim scripting error that kills ftp browsing. And, not having a laptop prevented me from getting caught up on my email, not to mention the grant proposal deadline I missed! But at least I'm back in business, and ready for round 2 at CMU.