Slackware64 13.1 on an HP Pavilion dv8000

My in-laws got a new laptop, so they wanted to know if we wanted their old one, an HP Pavilion dv8000 (ummmm, yes!). Yesterday I installed Slackware 13.1 on it. I expected to fight with the wireless and the graphics drivers. The drivers that are used automatically (kernel DRM?) work well for 2D stuff. 3D works somewhat. Not sure if that's a driver issue or the fact that the ATI Radeon Xpress 200m is nothing to write home about.

I was able to get the wireless working relatively easily. It uses a Broadcom chipset. I just had to follow these instructions to get the firmware for it installed. After that, it fired up just fine. Very impressive for something that used to be a major PITA.

There are still a few things I want to tweak, but the installation was surprisingly painless.

Exercise 7

OK, here's my attempt at playing Sweep Pick Mechanics Exercise 7. Obviously it lacks a bit in the smoothness department, but I was pretty pleased with how it turned out--on the first take, no less! I also have to roll my finger more consistently on the one barre pattern so that multiple notes don't sound. Progress!

I find it interesting, though, that there's only so many times I can play these exercises in a row before the law of diminishing returns kicks in. It seems that after a point, I actually start playing them worse. So, I just put the ol' guitar down for a bit and come back to it later.

On to Exercise 7

I'm working on exercise 7 in Sweep Pick Mechanics. It combines the first four three-string arpeggios you learn into one progression. Yesterday I mapped it out so I could make it clear to myself which arp went where. Today I've been working on playing it in the right order. I can do so . . . very slowly. Now it's just a matter of repetition to build up the speed.

First Recording

Well, here it is. The moment you've been waiting for. This is my first clip of me trying to play exercise 4 of Sweep Pick Mechanics. I have played it smoother and more fluidly than this, but this is the best I could get for now. I recorded it using TapeMachine on my HTC Desire phone. I edited (just for length, no other processing) and converted the resulting WAV into an MP3 using Audacity.

Exercise 4

For what it's worth, the signal chain looks like this: Jackson DK2M->modified BYOC OD2->Boss DD-6->Jet City JCA20H head->Jet City JCA12S cab

Minor Breakthrough?

I was playing my guitar unamplified last night whilst watching T.V. I was working on exercise 4 of Sweep Pick Mechanics. To my amazement, it actually sounded like I was sweep picking! I've been taking my time with this, making sure that I don't mess up the left hand fingering while also making sure I'm picking properly and not "cheating." Despite having two eyes, it's hard to watch both hands at the same time. Nevertheless, there seems to be progress! I need to post some clips . . .

Road to "Freaking Awesome"

I just picked up a new DVD from Metal Method called Sweep Pick Mechanics. I've always been interested in sweep picking but didn't know the ins-and-outs. At the end of introductory video, Dan Mumm (the author), says somewhat jokingly that if you consistently practice, in a year you'll be "freaking awesome." I don't know if anyone would ever call me that in regard to anything, much less sweep picking. So I decided I'd take him up on it. I'm going to resurrect my blog here to track my progress, including posting clips. Use the label "R2FA" (see the title of this post for an explanation) to follow along.

Here's the intro video I mentioned:

Intellitxt Blocking

I've been trying to go without Adblock Plus since I got my new box. Flash can't eat up all my CPU cycles anymore and I want to try to support the sites I like. The only ads that drive me nuts are the Intellitxt links. Usually they cause popups that link to Bing but other companies use them as well. It makes text harder to read and heaven help you if you accidentally mouseover one of the stupid things. So I reenabled Adblock, but instead of using a filter subscription, I just added a filter that says:

http://*.intellitxt.com*

Problem solved.

Compiling Mediatomb

I've been using Mediatomb to stream pictures and MP3s from my computer to my PS3. I had some issues getting it to detect Slackware64 13.0's sqlite3 installation. MySQL worked, but seemed like overkill. With a little help from my friends at LinuxQuestions I was able to get it to work. Turns out I had to do this when issuing ./configure before compiling:

LDFLAGS="-ldl" ./configure --with-js-libs=/usr/lib64/seamonkey --with-js-h=/usr/include/seamonkey/js

After that, it all worked great. I just had to change the one line in my config.xml (which is clearly pointed out in the comments for the file itself) for use with my PS3. Done!

digiKam . . . Much Easier Now

Well, I've already found one benefit to installing Slackware 13.0. It's much easier to install digiKam. Now all of the prerequisites are a part of Slack13, so I just have to download the digiKam source and follow the directions.

Adventures in 64-Bit Slackware

I bought myself a new i5-750-based box and am installing Slackware64 13.0 on it. All told everything is going reasonably smoothly. I upgraded to KDE 4.3.1 (using these packages) because of some problems that I've heard with the default 4.2.4. That would have been easy except that I tried to install 4.3.2, not realizing he had made those packages to work with Slackware -current. No wonder it didn't work to well.

All told I'm very happy thus far. The only issue I had is with my onboard LAN. Slackware was setting that up before my wireless card. So I disabled the onboard and we're all good. My only complaint is that my network isn't working so hot so I'm finding easier to transfer files from my old computer via my USB pen drive and sneakernet. Oh well.