I’m stating a new project at home.  Going to write a program to keep track of our vehicles.  Installed Options, mileage, MPG,  maintance, after market parts, and probably much more will be stored by this program.  I have a begun thinking about it.  I know it will be written in C# with a SQL database attached to it.  I’m thinking of using SQLExpress since it is free and I can tie it into the install program.

When I have the design written up, I will post them.  I have a feeling it is going to take a bit of drawing in Word to come up with the design documentation and some mock ups of the screen layout.   After that, I will post up the Alpha, Beta, and release versions of the software as they come in.  At this point I am not sure of which license to use, but I know it will be one that allows for the software to be freely distributed.

On the other side of things, I need to learn Lua because I am in need of a specific type of add-on for WoW.  I think I can just modify one of the other add-ons to get the information.  Shouldn’t be too hard.

I have been running Ubuntu 7.10 (Gusty Gibbon) on the server for a while and it runs flawlessly. I really didn’t have high expectations when installing it on the laptop, but I was impressed. Everything, except for adjusting the screen brightness worked out of the box. The screen brightness was just a quick python script install and then that worked too. I decided to make it look and partially function like Mac OS X to a degree and I am very satisfied with the results.

For starters, the visual effects seem to run flawlessly on this machine. Really fast and not using many resources. Good job on the Compiz team in creating an excellent piece of software. I enjoy eye candy, so having my windows fold up into airplanes and fly away when I close them is fun.

Take a look at this screen shot. I used an OSX theme for the windows and top gnome panel and Avant Window Navigator (AWN) to give me the bar at the bottom. AWN gives a lot of nice items to add to the bar. Like a battery meter, a quick button to access the desktop, weather, a built in terminal applet.

One of the big things OS X users love is their stacks. AWN gives you the same options with their applet. I only have one file in that folder, but I think that I will be finding it very useful. Especially when I come up with a way to sync my files between the laptop and my desktop.

I just love Ubuntu. All of the pre-installed software is great and the ability to customize forever is great. I don’t think I will ever be done setting up this laptop the way I want it. There are just too many options. In all reality if I didn’t want to play games on my desktop, I would switch it over to Ubuntu and leave Windows. At least until Windows gives me these kinds of options.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I don’t hate Microsoft, but sometimes installing these things makes configuring programs in Linux look like child’s play.  Soon I will be posting about my pleasant experiences with Windows Vista, despite what has been said elsewhere on the Internet.  Yet, now I have to attempt install number 2 of Portfolio Server.