Blackboard...you have issues!

Okay. Blackboard and Linux do not get along at all. It turns out that Blackboard is currently 'unsupported' on the Linux platform. Not cool. I think Blackboard's programming team is living in the dark ages. Anyways...to the point: Fortunately, most of Blackboard's functionality is web-based, and since Firefox (all any platform) is more than capable of handling anything HTML/CSS/JavaScript, Blackboard works.......mostly. Since the Linux operating system is not 'supported', Blackboard performs a user-agent check to see if you are running Windows or Mac. If not, you cannot upload files to Blackboard. Not cool. I have tried the Firefox extension called User Agent Switcher that lets you 'spoof' your browser's identification, the version of your browser, and your operating system. For example, I could be running Mozilla Firefox 3.0 Beta 5 on Linux, and using the User Agent Switcher, I could pretend to be running Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 (GASP!!) on Windows Vista (GASP!!), and no website would know the difference. Isn't that wonderful? Firefox lets the user be in control, and that's what I love about it. Unfortunately, this doesn't fool Blackboard. Blackboard looks for filenames that have backslashes in them. Aha! So if I try to upload a file called myCrazyLongFileName.cpp, Blackboard won't let you upload it. But if I rename the file to be \myCrazyLongFileName.cpp, Blackboard recognizes the file. And it gets better: Blackboard strips this backslash after you upload the file. Yes!! Glorious!!

Arch Linux!!

Arch Linux rules! It is not too difficult for beginners to figure out; if you read the Beginner's Guide on the Arch Linux Wiki, you'll be ready to go. If you want to try Arch Linux, there is a new "Arch Live" ISO image coming out very soon (the Release Candidate has already been released). Even though I've had Arch installed on my PC for about 8 months now, I will definitely test out the Live CD once the final ISO is released. Since Arch Linux is a fairly "bleeding-edge" distro, I have become accustomed to receiving regular software updates (sometimes up to 10 updates per day). In other words, when a new version of a software package on my system is released, I expect the Arch Linux development team to send the updates to me. And...they usually do. Recently, I have been a little frustrated (okay, very frustrated) that my printer software package (HPLIP) doesn't get updated in a timely fashion. It's okay though, because now I know how Arch's ABS system works. I am running the latest version HPLIP, compiled using up-to-date configure options and updated dependencies, and now I'm happy. There is currently a Udev problem on my system, but that's okay. It'll be fixed eventually, and running /etc/start_udev is a temporary workaround. Now go install Arch Linux! If you use Windows, Mac OS X, BSD, or a different GNU/Linux distribution and feel adventurous, I would highly recommend trying out Arch Linux using the upcoming Arch Live CD. Make sure you read (or print out) the Beginner's Guide first though. It, along with the Arch Linux Forums, will answer any questions you may have. Have fun!!!! :-)