Installing Linux on a Dead Badger: User’s Notes

This is funny, but oh how it shouldn’t be: Articles: Installing Linux on a Dead Badger: User’s Notes, by Lucy A. Snyder

Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger!

Easter Sunday

From Mark 16, NIV translation

The Resurrection

¹When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. ²Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb ³and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

⁴But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. ⁵As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

⁶“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. ⁷But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ “

Windows XP upgrading…

Irony is, the thing that didn’t work was something that’d been paid for. Again. That’s twice this has happened now.

Pop the disc in, over a perfectly legitimate install of Windows, to wipe and upgrade (from within the installer, so it can detect Windows first). Naturally, it doesn’t work. So I pull out a legitimate Windows disc to flash at it. Of course, it doesn’t work. On one of the installs, it wasn’t even an OEM modified disc (I’ve got a Windows ME disc here from Gateway which it also choked on, later) — but alas, it would not work.

Aharrrr! Thar be pirates lurkin’!

A quick sail over to them thar dangerous peer-to-peer waters quickly patched up the problem, especially when I can download an OEM disc image (~400MB) faster than Windows XP actually installs. Not that anyone ever would, of course. Yarrrrrr!

It’s now installing rather happily, just for the record. And there are separate licenses for each of the computers Windows XP is being installed on (or has been installed on), and the pirated copy of Windows 98 isn’t in use… but it sure simplified the installation process! Thank you, Gnutella!

The Dog Bunk

I’ve got no idea why there are so many dog photos at the minute, but I just have to share this — our dog has decided to employ furniture as its own bunk bed of sorts. He was asleep, but by the time I ran to get the camera he’d been woken up, and looked towards the camera as he heard the zoom go…

A holistic approach to accessibility

In light of the Digital Divide, what can the “web standards” community be doing to ensure most accessible practices are employed?

• Understanding that the Digital Divide is as much about training and usability as it is about physical access and type of resources
• Designing websites with this in mind, in terms of physical layout and usability for first-time users or users unfamiliar with technology:
  • layout of websites
  • prominence of navigation/logical structure
  • effective use of iconography/pictures/glyphs to communicate
  • content avoids use of technical jargon, or adequately explains it (i.e. IT related, not other industry specific)

Lots more could be written about this, but I thought it best to simply put the idea out there, rather than write a lengthy post on it. I may explain this at greater length at some point, but the thought just hit me as I was writing a related but not web usability oriented essay, and the distraction was too great!