Open Letter to the Speaker of the House

Today I spent a few minutes thanking Madam Pelosi for her leadership and courage in standing up the Bush Administration and the spineless entity we call the Democratic Senate.

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Dear Madam Speaker,

I am nothing more than a citizen concerned with the policies and decisions of the Bush Administration.

Prior Congresses failed in their duty and obligation to provide Congressional oversight to an administration that abused both executive privilege and the trust of the American people.

When I learned that the House of Representatives decided to go on break WITHOUT renewing the flawed warrantless wiretapping bill, I was relieved.

Thank you Madam Speaker for upholding the rights and freedoms of Americans.

I support your decision to confront the White House on this important matter. Hold the Executive branch and private corporations (AT&T) responsible for their actions. Freedom stands on a foundation of accountability, not secrecy.

--Andy Choens

Almost Forgot

In the coming days, weeks, months, etc. I will provide updates on the success (or lack thereof) of my conversion of Linux at work. I converted all of my personal computers to Linux more than 5 years ago. I expect this process will be very similar. I will find some things very hard to do but I will figure out how to succeed. In the process I will learn more about Linux and computers.

Taking The Open Source Plunge

Today, I spent most of my day installing Kubuntu onto my work laptop. No, I haven't told my boss. Even though the hard-drive is a miserly 40 GB, I decided to partition it and install Kubuntu. A fait accompli will be easier to deal with that asking for permission. :-)

I am sick and tired of trying to get work done in an environment (Windows) that is clearly not meant to help me get my work done. The default installed tools are clearly inadequate. MS Office, while faster than OpenOffice.org, drives me bonkers.

Since starting at this company, I have successfully avoided using Outlook, etc. For almost 6 months, I have used FireFox, Thunderbird, jEdit, and other open-source tools. But, I missed Konqi, Kate, and the other tools I have been using regularly for years.

Because of some bad sectors on the hard-drive and my own overly cautious reactions, it took me most of the day to install Kubuntu. I'm still in the process of importing calendars, contacts, and other important information but most of the conversion is complete.

Right now I have 90% of the tools I need for my job. I am a policy analyst for a consulting firm that specializes in human services. Here is how I plan on getting my work done.

Browser - Konqueror, FireFox (More than adequate.)
Pim / Email - Kontact (I will miss some things from the T-bird + Lightning combo I was using.)
Documents - Writer
Spreadsheets - Calc
Access Database - umm, reboot and use Access . . . . . . .
Statistics - R-CRAN (Rkward, Kate, Rcmdr), Qalculate, Gnumeric

That pretty much covers what I need. Of course, I will also be using (and loving) Amarok and the other great KDE tools. Too bad I don't really have room to install all of my favorite KDE toys!

Open Source Tools

One area of computers that really really interests me is how I can integrate open source software in my own personal work-flow at work. I work as a researcher/policy analyst for a small consulting firm. We specialize in research and policy in the human services field. As an avid Linux user it is _killing_ me to use Windows at work. I have every intention of replacing Windows with Kubuntu at my first real opportunity. But, before I do that, I need to meet a few criteria:

1. Microsoft Office Compatibility - I don't mean similar, I mean EXACT. OOo currently has some real weaknesses (highlight, bullets to name a few) that limits my ability to use it at work.
2. Access - Related to #1, but needs to be separate. We use Access for everything. Clients often send us data packets in Access files and we have literally hundreds of data sets from past projects stored in this format. Any migration solution that does not GUARANTEE continued access to this information is dead in the water.
   
3. Exchange - Our groupware server is currently running Horde but we may switch to Exchange in the coming months. If we do, I need a client side solution for my email, calendar, etc.
   
4. SPSS - We mostly use SPSS for data analysis. I think R can become a drop-in replacement for SPSS but I need to learn it.
5. Cross Platform - I want to help move the company away from it's reliance on the Microsoft beast. In order to do this, I need to be able to give people specific tools they can use on Windows AND Linux in order to help make the transition smoother.

I use OpenOffice.org at work whenever I can. Unfortunately, OOo's inability to highlight text or use bullets in the same way as MS Office limits when and how much I can use OpenOffice.org. I am currently exploring the full dimensions of compatibility between OOo and MS Word (2003). I will post this when I have more information.

I am also learning R this week. I have decided to focus my efforts on the JGR (Java R GUI) and RKward. RKward isn't cross platform (yet) but it does appear to be a powerful R interface. JGR has the advantage of being distributed within R-CRAN itself and is completely cross platform, thanks to Java. This week I am going to focus my efforts at work on JGR and learn RKward in my free time at home.

As for Access, I am exploring Kexi in the KOffice packages for migration and I am interested in learning more about virtualization. At some point I need to put Kubuntu onto this laptop and make a stronger commitment to my open source ideals.

Adirondacks Ice

Feb. 2 - 3 was my first ice climbing trip in the Daks. We drove up to the Chapel Pond area and climbed Chapel Pond Slab (W2) Chouinard's Gully (W3) and a short but fun W4-.