My "Vim-Fu" is getting rusty. I'm getting more and more inefficient.
Hence, I'll try to use vi a little more often, so I'll have to focus
on the really efficient commands. Especially, Vim's VISUAL mode is
"dangerous" -- it makes it really easy for you to do things the wrong
way.
____________________
Been trying to get WPA Enterprise to work without any network
managers, just by using wpa_supplicant. This is a real pain in the
ass. I don't think it's wpa_supplicants fault, though. These
"standards" are simply messed up. They're sooooo complex and hard to
understand...
____________________
I've been writing these lines with plain vi on my netbook, sitting on
the couch. Very calming.
I'll have to use my netbook more often anyway. Although I use the same
software as on my (huge and extremely powerful) desktop machine, it's
much more minimalistic. The display is smaller, the CPU is slower, I
"only" have 1GB of RAM -- which is more than enough, I rarely use more
than 500MB. I don't even use any swap space. It's a small and "weak"
machine compared to today's computers. By using it, I realize, though,
how powerful it actually is. I grew up with Intel 8086 being the
standard. Compared to that, my tiny netbook is just WHOAAAAAAAAA.
Deep inside my head (and heart), I still think that an Intel 8086 is
"the status quo". Do I need more than that? I don't know. I was able
to write text, letters, programs, play games, chat, ... back then.
That's actually quite a lot. What I could not do was browse YouTube,
watch movies, do (complex) audio editing or do 3D graphics. Do I need
to do all that? It's fun, that's for sure.
I want to reduce complexity. Yes, I sacrifice comfort by doing so.
What do I gain? Control, knowledge, it's easier to solve problems. Is
that worth it? I don't know. There's something more to it. By seeking
simplicity, I feel "better", I feel "less clumsy". I'm not exactly
sure what's the point.
Hmmm. Why do I do this? Why don't I just use GNOME? First thing that
comes to my mind: If there's a problem with GNOME, I don't have a
chance to solve it. I'm lost. Same goes for Mac OS or Windows or
anything else. Secondly, with simple systems, I can explain my system
to another person (although this might take a lot of time, but I can
do it). I can explain all the details. I feel like I'm in charge.
Hmmm... All of that is not very rational. It's a lot about how I feel.
I have a hard time stating objective reasons. Is it because there are
no objective reasons or because I haven't figured them out yet?
By the way, none of my colleagues uses a system as minimalistic as
mine. I don't know what that means. I have to add, they're older than
me, so maybe they just got tired of all the thinking you have to put
in a minimalistic setup. One of them once was a Gentoo user and even a
Gentoo developer/packager, so he sure must have his reasons why he
switched to Mac OS. He says, he got tired of it and he wanted
something that "just works". I don't understand that way of thinking.
Seriously, I don't get it. This is not enough for me. I need to know
*how* it works. I don't want to sit in front of a black box. I'm
passionate about computing, these machines are not just another tool
like a hammer.
____________________
Okay, I've been spending the whole evening on the couch, using my
netbook, looking out of the window. It's getting dark outside, but
more and more lights are coming up. This is awesome. It's been a long
time since I've done that...
