Monday, April 14, 2003

It was a slow day at work today. So, with idle hands being the Devil's tools, I decided "wouldn't it be a good idea to play around with Unix" on my PowerBook. You think I would've learned from my past experiences messing around with Linux, but no, I had to move up to the Big Boy. Since Apple just released a new beta for X11, I decided to download it and replace my old version. Since we still have dial-up at work and it's a 42MB download I managed to stay out of trouble for quite some time. Then, I just happened to have a copy of Fink on CD so I attempted to install it. Fink is allegedly a "nifty" open-source project that ports Unix software to OS X. Well, the trouble is Fink and Virex 7.2 won't play nice with one another. Fink wants to install a /sw folder but Virex got there first. So, after consulting Fink's website for "ideas", I decided to use Terminal to rename the existing /sw folder to /swold. Fink then had no problem installing. The trouble was, now Virex didn't work. Since even Terminal refused to let me remove the new /sw folder I renamed it /swfink and renamed the /swold folder back to /sw. Bingo! Now Virex works again. Next, in order to "use" Fink I edited the default Terminal shell's configuration file to execute Fink's initialization file when a new shell opens. Yeah, like I even know what the hell I'm talking about. Next I attempted to have Fink scan its online database for available Unix programs. No dice. Terminal wouldn't play nice and find Fink. I'm beginning to understand it's name. Remaining optimistic to the end, I downloaded and installed FinkCommander. Well, whatever the hell it's supposed to do is a mystery to me since it "couldn't find Fink" either. Having decided that I'd done enough damage for one day, I bravely exited Terminal and returned to Mac's Aqua GUI. Thankfully, it appears that no damage has been done. Ah, the power of stupidity! File under Geek Talk 8:39:38 PM