Musings is Fun & Politics — Tech is just Tech 
Peyton Hall holds the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University, and rumor has it that they use Springdale Linux there. If you’re headed there then you probably already knew that.
I once tried to get into Princeton University, before the days of computers ‘n internet, but they rejected me after I had walked ‘n hitchhiked to there from ‘Toilet Seat Cut‘.
My last Pantum P2502W printer gave out last week and I immediately started the dreaded search for a new printer. I had actually purchased three of them @ Newegg Business 10/11 years ago, one at first, and then two more after I saw how well it worked. They were on sale for about $25 each, each printer came wid a “700-page starter cartridge,” and I was looking for a printer wid high Page Yields – ‘Page yield is the approximate number of pages you can print with one cartridge.‘
I had grown tried of buying replacement cartridges at around $27-40+ each, depending on if it was a Black or Color cartridge. Page yields were closer to 120 pages for those cartridges; however, lack of page yield wasn’t the only problem, i.e., those small cartridges often clogged up for lack of use!?! Cheap printers wid expensive replacement cartridges – what a gimmick! Before the Mono Pantum, I had spent more on cartridges than printers…far more, and I didn’t really print a lot!
(11/6/2025 UPDATE: This was an old post from my old Linux Newbie blog that I moved over to here)
I never realized that keyboards came in sooooooooooooo many versions ‘n styles!? How many people actually use the number pad on a keyboard? I don’t ever recall using it on any of my keyboards, but there it was, always occupying 3.25+ inches of Prime Desktop Real-estate!?! For the past few years, I have had 2-3 of them on my Desktop, which adds up to about 6.5-9.75++ inches of Prime Desktop Real-estate being used for number pads that I’ve never used.
Porteus 5.0 Cinnamon may be my favorite Linux OS, but I have no doubt that Fedora Linux is the ‘Leader of the Linux Pack‘. No one knows how many Linux OSes there are, but the “600” guesstimate is the most often used, even tho you’ll see new Linux OSes show up all the time. What ever the actual number is, Fedora leads them all when it comes to a Total Package of supporting cast, dependability, stability, cutting-edge kernel, ease of use, and great Package Managers.
Once had an ASUS MeMO Pad 10″ Android tablet ‘n hated that ‘Thang. Have stayed away from “smartphones” because that Android tablet was such a pain to use ‘n move around in. The flip phones weren’t much better, i.e., even adding contacts were a pain…probably because I never figured out how to use that durn keypad. How to enter a space? How to use all caps? Needed to leave the phone’s guide open any time I needed to add something. For some reason, I had thought a “smartphone” would be even worse!?
Build my own computers ‘n test all kinds of Linux OSes, but cell phones have baffled me for years!?! However, all that phone baffling ended last week. I do a lot of searching ‘n researching over the internet, and at one point last week I came across some “smartphone” marked down from $149.99 to $74.99, but the price wasn’t what caught my eye, it was the phone’s screen:
