Costello Calls to Buy a Computer from Abbott

• ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
• COSTELLO: Thanks. I’m! setting up an office in my den and I’m thinking about buying a computer.
• ABBOTT: Mac?
• COSTELLO: No, the name’s Lou .
• ABBOTT: Your computer?
• COSTELLO : I don’t own a computer. I want to buy one.
• ABBOTT : Mac?
• COSTELLO: I told you, my name’s Lou .
• ABBOTT : What about Windows?
• COSTELLO : Why? Will it get stuffy in here?
• ABBOTT : Do you want a computer with Windows?
• COSTELLO : I don’t know. What will I see when I look at the windows?
• ABBOTT : Wallpaper.
• COSTELLO : Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.
• ABBOTT : Software for Windows?
• COSTELLO : No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What do you have?
• ABBOTT : Office.
• COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?
• ABBOTT : I just did.
• COSTELLO : You just did what?
• ABBOTT : Recommend something.
• COSTELLO : You recommended something ?
• ABBOTT : Yes.
• COSTELLO : For my office?
• ABBOTT : Yes.
• COSTELLO : OK, what did you recommend for my office?
• ABBOTT : Office.
• COSTELLO : Yes, for my office!
• ABBOTT : I recommend Office with Windows.
• COSTELLO : I already have an office with windows! OK, let’s just say I’m sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal.  What do I need?
• ABBOTT : Word.
• COSTELLO : What word?
• ABBOTT : Word in Office.
• COSTELLO : The only word in office is office.
• ABBOTT : The Word in Office for Windows.
• COSTELLO : Which word in office for windows?
• ABBOTT : The Word you get when you click the blue ‘W’.
• COSTELLO : I’m going to click your blue ‘w’ if you don’t start with some straight answers. What about financial bookkeeping? You have anything I can track my money with?
• ABBOTT: Money.
• COSTELLO : That’s right. What do you have?
• ABBOTT : Money.
• COSTELLO : I need money to track my money?
• ABBOTT : It comes bundled with your computer.
• COSTELLO : What’s bundled with my computer?
• ABBOTT : Money.
• COSTELLO : Money comes with my computer?
• ABBOTT : Yes. No extra charge.
• COSTELLO : I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?
• ABBOTT : One copy.
• COSTELLO : Isn’t it illegal to copy money?
• ABBOTT : Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.
• COSTELLO : They can give you a license to copy money?
• ABBOTT : Why not? THEY OWN IT!

A few days later

• ABBOTT : Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
• COSTELLO : How do I turn my computer off?
• ABBOTT : Click on ‘START’…

Now that I’ve been exposed to the harsh reality that I’m getting older, let me know if this was your first time being exposed to the famous Abbott and Costello comedy duo from the black & white days of television.

This Skit’s Ownership

Edited 05 October 2009. I recently got a comment from Tom King saying that he is the originator of this Abbott and Costello computer skit. He stated that it’s copy written and has no issues letting us use it as long as we link back to his site. I have to issues linking back to the source. I would like to make it known that I don’t know who Tom King is and in our SEO-driven world, this could be a ploy to get more traffic to his site. Oh well. Visit the link of the original skit here > http://twayneking.blogspot.com/2009/05/costello-calls-to-buy-computer-from.html

I wonder if the cut n’ dry world of Microsoft or the stylish enthusiasts of MacWorld could make me feel the way I feel right now. I’m having such a great time with Linux, learning all kinds of new commands and functions, etc.  True; it has its limitations, but the advancements that we have has been produced by majority of volunteers who have a love for open source.  I joined the ranks of the Fedora project and I’m slowly getting more acclimated to working with a community… I’m so used to doing things by myself and this group has allowed me to be apart of something greater.

Yes, one can say that religion or a local charity or organization can help me feel a sense of higher purpose – but those “avenues” don’t really appeal to my core.  Technology is a driving force for me and anything that involves a computer will grab my attention and stir up my passion.  When I first learned DOS, Windows 3.1 up to Windows 98, there were tons of things to learn and I learned them quite well.  After that I just became more proficient at them.  I’ve been running Linux as my main machine for over 9 months now.  I’m back in that “learning” mode, but there is no horizon line for the end of knowledge – open source is so broad, so vast, so liquid that I may never learn everything about FOSS (free and open source software).  That’s something to reach for.

Within the past day (really, several hours) I’ve learned about PGP/GPG encryption, SSH and command-line document editing using vi, and syndication. I’m a firm believer of supply and demand.  With Linux, and my distro of choice being Fedora there will always be a demand to perform some sort of function and FOSS will provide me the means of supplying it.  Yah, this post wasn’t very technical, but it’s a result of technology.  If you haven’t already joined, come and join us here at the Fedora Project.  I encourage to be part of your distro or any open source project.

You like my mathematical equation for dead playtime with World of Warcraft on a linuxbox?  When I first installed Fedora 8, I ran Wine 0.9[something] with nVidia’s proprietary drivers.  I had no problem playing World of Warcraft.  I did notice something though – that every time there was a kernel update – when I restarted my Xserver that things would be kind of haywire.  I would normally have to reinstall the video driver and then I’ll be back to status quo.  So; now I’m a bit more seasoned with linux and open source or non-proprietary software means a little more to me than before – and getting that to work with WoW has proved to be quite difficult.

The Free-be Process

First I’m going to talk about the natural progression of a user migrating from the “Windows/Mac” world into this vast ocean of the “linux” world.  I heard on a podcast that most folks come into the linux world for various reasons, but the consistent reason is for the FREE software.  It’s awesome NOT having to pay anything anymore.  As for me, I’ve been used to not paying for software for a very long time… I’m a digital pirate.  There; I’ve come out of the closet (on that issue, I’m really a heterosexual).  I haven’t paid for software in over 10+ years.  But over the past couple years my conscience has gotten the best of me and my escape from the underground is linux.

So; the natural progress is people want free software, later on when they become familiar with all this software – they are exposed to GNU and the fight between proprietary and non-proprietary software.  And that is where I am, my friend.  I wish to run linux with no proprietary software – well except for the NEEDED ones like Flash, etc.  If you’re running open source/non-proprietary software – you will have less complications as the kernel and operating system progresses and improves.

Getting WoW Installed

Ok; back to my dilemma at hand.  I installed Fedora 9 (F9) and I was stoked to see that Wine released their stable version, which is “one point oh” (1.0).  It’s a great milestone to release a 1.0 version and Wine has been in works for years.  I was happy to see that F9 had this in their repos.  I installed it and immediately installed World of Warcraft.  I had no problems with it.  I also installed the kmod-livna drivers for my nVidia GeForce 8600 GT video card.  It worked because I was able to apply “Desktop Effects” and get the whole cube and wobbly windows effect.  But when I try to run WoW nothing would happen.  So; I ran the command in my terminal to see what the error messages were and it seemed to have not registered something with the Wine/Windows Registry.

I’m not certain which component is the culprit, but so far I can’t install any of my games using Wine 1.0.  GTA: San Andreas, Battlefield 2, etc.  I always get some freaky error and I usually just move on to other things I have to do.  So; I’ll try and keep a log of what happens, but this is my situation at the time.  I’ve done some Google searches and WIne forum searches, but no luck yet.

I’ve created a new category called “Linuxapade” – from the multilingual word “escapade“.  I wanted to see if I can document my adventures with the wonderful, yet frustrating, yet rewarding world of linux.  It’s a mad house over here, almost like going on a seven day adventure to the land of nowhere and you learn to build fire by your self, hunt for your food, enjoy the kill and the feast.  In this case you’re actually forced to learn how an operating system works and hardware, etc.  It doesn’t do it for you like Windows or MAC.  There are some automated features that work out-of-the-box, but if it starts to break you have no choice, but to find a solution – no matter how many hours it’ll take you to first understand how this device is supposed to work.