
Let me start off by saying, I love Ubuntu, or at least I used to. I love Linux in general and I had been a huge Ubuntu fan for quite some time now. Ubuntu is not only my primary desktop, it’s my only desktop. Despite that, Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) is the crappiest Ubuntu release to date and greatly undermines my opinion of the distribution. If you own a laptop with Intel integrated graphics (almost any Dell or netbook) you know exactly what I’m talking about.
The official Intel driver in Ubuntu 9.04 has some 2D and 3D graphics performance issues and bugs. Even something as simple as scrolling in a web page using Firefox is choppy. There are fixes available, and I’ve tried most of them, but I’ve never been able to get the issues fully resolved. It’s been extremely frustrating, which is what prompted this blog entry. Why in Milky Way would Ubuntu knowingly include such a horrible Intel driver in their official release? I blame Microsoft!
In all seriousness, I’ve been dealing with these problems for a couple months now and I’ve had it. Of course, I could just switch back to 8.10 or wait for 9.10, but Ubuntu is one of many Linux distributions. Although it’s been my preferred distribution since 2006, I think it’s time to move on to something new and better. I’ve heard some really good things about Arch Linux and I think I’m going to give it a whirl. Sorry Ubuntu.
I haven’t blogged in a VERY long time. I’ve just been too busy or too lazy, pick one. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m an avid Twitter’er now and I don’t actually have the need or desire to blog anymore. Well, despite all that, I thought I’d share a few web design sites that I believe are worth bookmarking. I’ve tagged or bookmarked exactly 645 websites using Delicious, many of them about web design. Here are a whopping 12 of them, in no particular order.
1. Smashing Magazine (http://www.smashingmagazine.com/)

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According to Alexa.com, a website best known for providing web traffic information, it may be. Here are some comparisons to consider. All data and graphs are from Alexa.com (2/12/2009).
Myspace.com

According to Alexa, Myspace has seen a 11.28% drop in reach (percent of global Internet users who visit the site). -Alexa.com
Facebook.com

Facebook, durring the same period, has seen a 28.36% increase in reach. -Alexa.com. A contrast to Myspace, but is this data acurate?
According to Wikipedia there are some concerns over Alexa rank information. For example:
“There is some controversy over how representative Alexa’s user base is of typical Internet behavior. If Alexa’s user base is a fair statistical sample of the Internet user population (e.g., a random sample of sufficient size), Alexa’s ranking should be quite accurate. In reality, not much is known about the sample and possible sampling biases. Alexa itself notes several examples. A known source of bias is the self-selecting, opt-in nature of Alexa traffic tracking software” -Wikipedia.com
I’ve seen a recent influx in the number of friend requests I receive on Facebook. More of my friends and family are joining. What are your experiences and what do you think?

Right on schedule is the next Alpha release of Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex, Alpha 6. Intrepid brings a host of new features to Ubuntu including Gnome 2.23.91; with tab support and increased archive types support (ALZ, RZIP, CAB, TAR.7Z), Xorg 7.4; better support for hot-pluggable devices, Linux kernel 2.6.27; better hardware support and numerous bug fixes, Network Manager 0.7, and many more improvements.
For the full release announcement (including full features list, download locations, known issues) go here: http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/intrepid/alpha6.
To see the release schedule go here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IntrepidReleaseSchedule.
Thanks

I just wanted to take some time to thank all of my visitors for, well, visiting. Because of you, sketec.com is now listed in the Alexa top 100,000. I hope to continue publishing even more original and interesting articles in the near future and continue to keep this site AD FREE. There are big changes happening right now in my professional life, and in the end, I’ll have a lot of extra time to work on sketec.com (as well as a few other projects I am starting). I’m always learning and growing with every blog post and I thank all of you for any response I’ve been given (positive or negative).
THANK YOU!
Helvetica Neue LT Pro (BUY HERE)

Garamond Premier Pro (BUY HERE)

Gill Sans Display MT Pro (BUY HERE)
