I was growing a bit tired of the development lag in Crunchbang Linux and needed a new distribution. I want a well-built system that doesn’t take too much administration so I can focus on other things. (As you may know, I have a tendency to set up and administer machines for fun, forgetting to do any “real” work on top of it.)

Fedora sounded good. All free software with fairly frequent updates. RPM hell is avoided with Yum. I particularly appreciate the use of the free Nouveau driver for my Nvidia card, and Kernel Mode Setting for a smoother start and fewer hassles.

When it works, Fedora is slick. They’re a bit ahead of Ubuntu in terms of features, with default SELinux, KMS, and better video drivers. Another thing I appreciate is that one of Fedora’s goals is to stay close to upstream. They don’t want to apply 10 patches to every package, preferring to send patches upstream and get down to zero distribution-specific patches if possible.

It’s quick to boot, particularly with KMS. The battery life is about 10-15% longer than with Crunchbang, even with more daemons running.

However, I ran into a couple related bugs that hurt the experience. First, since I migrated my /home partition from a prior system without SELinux, I got a lot of SELinux warnings about my file labels. It told me to use restorecon, but that didn’t fix everything. The solution was to run “sudo touch /.autorelabel” which tells SELinux to relabel the entire system at the next boot.

This was complicated by the fact that HAL couldn’t start due to the SELinux failures. In today’s world of Xorg 1.4+, HAL detects and configures all of your input devices by default.

Without HAL, you have no keyboard or mouse to use in order to fix SELinux labeling. The solution is to log into single-user mode and fix it there. To get into single-user mode in Fedora, turn on your computer and hold Shift after the POST, before you see the Fedora startup screen. This will give you a Grub console. Hit “a” to append to the kernel line, adding a space and a “3″ to the end, then hit enter. (“3″ technically gives you multi-user mode with networking, but the point is that it doesn’t start X.) From there, you can create the autorelabel file or whatever else you need to do.

Note: If you just want X to start without worrying about SELinux, or if you have another problem related to HAL input devices, there’s another option. You can tell X to start even without detecting any devices from HAL. This makes it use the default keyboard and mouse types. Just create an /etc/X11/xorg.conf file with the following contents:

Section "ServerFlags"
  Option "AllowEmptyInput" "off"
EndSection

Summary: I’m going to stick with Fedora for a while because I trust a distribution that likes staying close to upstream.

Why did I start? Out of respect for its creators, Rob Pike and Ken Thompson. They helped create and popularize Unix, C, UTF-8, Plan 9, and many other things. It may seem like they’ve been under the radar lately in their research wing at Google, but I think they’ve just been building up a foundation of code and ideas.

Why is it exciting? It seems to have solutions for concurrency, compilation speed, and safety, while still looking somewhat familiar. You can run hundreds of thousands of concurrent goroutines. The entire Go library compiles in ~5 seconds. Go code runs almost as fast as C, without even being optimized yet. It’s type-safe without being too verbose.

It’s not as high level as Ruby or Python, but it can be more mentally satisfying in an OCD geek kind of way. It’s C without the pain.

Sure, it took ideas from Alef, Limbo, Newsqueak, and other languages (watch this then this for proof, and for enlightenment) – but how else can you make progress? Go has the momentum those languages never got.

And I, for one, am glad that the legacy of Bell Labs lives on.

Here’s a code sample that I think particularly illustrates the elegance of the language, taken from the Go tutorial. Whether you come from an imperative or declarative background, I think it should be impressive.

This generates prime numbers with the standard sieve of Eratosthenes, but it does it by creating a steam of integers and piping together filters for each prime to exclude multiples. It’s all run concurrently and uses synchronous channels for communication. And it’s fast.

func generate() chan int {
  ch := make(chan int)
  go func(){
    for i := 2; ; i++ {
      ch <- i
    }
  }()
  return ch
}


func filter(in chan int, prime int) chan int {
  out := make(chan int)
  go func() {
    for {
      if i := <-in; i % prime != 0 {
        out <- i
      }
    }
  }()
  return out
}


func sieve() chan int {
  out := make(chan int)
  go func() {
    ch := generate()
    for {
      prime := <-ch
      out <- prime
      ch = filter(ch, prime)
    }
  }()
  return out
}


func main() {
  primes := sieve()
  for {
    fmt.Println(<-primes)
  }
}

If you find Go interesting, you can get involved by writing some open-source libraries. The standard library has a lot to go on, and cat-v has a list of resources to check out.

• Adrenalyn Stack – Berry Energizing: 7/10

  First you get a strong blast of berry flavor, but unfortunately it doesn’t last very long. It fades to a general fruity flavor, similar to the Subzero Red, but has a slightly chalkier texture. I didn’t get an aftertaste, though, so it’s not bad overall.

• Ripped Force – Fruit Punch: 8/10

  This is a good option if you want a strong energy boost. The Ripped Force drinks have 200mg of caffeine along with some blend called Adrenergic Catalyst Technology. I have no idea what that means, but it gives me a bit of the jitters. The Fruit Punch variety is an interesting beast – it has a nice (though very sweet) fruity flavor at first, and then completely disappears, as if you didn’t have a drink at all. Then, there’s a bit of chalky texture, but no real aftertaste. I haven’t had that experience before, but it’s not too bad – a little better than the Berry Energizing flavor.

• Speed Stack – Lemon Lime: 9/10

  I love the flavor on this one. That means something because I normally hate lemon-lime flavors. In this one, the citrus is toned down and it’s fairly sweet – not overly bright. The energy level is fairly strong, as in other Speed Stacks, but not as strong as a Ripped Force. There’s a bit of aftertaste, but not of chemicals, just a slightly sweet flavor.

• Diet Turbo Tea – Peach Tea: n/a

  I don’t like peaches, so I’m not going to give this one a number rating to be fair to people who like peaches. (It would have been a 7.) In essence, this tastes like the lemon Turbo Tea with a bit of peach flavor. Pretty simple. Neither the lemon nor the peach flavors are too strong. You get a faint teabag-like taste, some lemon or peach, and a strong sweetness. If you like sweet tea, you’ll like these.

• Speed Stack – Fruit Punch: 9/10

  This is better than the Ripped Force Fruit Punch – the type of additive really makes a difference in taste. The flavor is more consistent and there’s no chalky aftertaste at all. It has a very slight aftertaste, but just of fruit – similar to the Lemon Lime speed stack but a little deeper. It’s a good balance of fruit and sweet, even though it has no sugar.

• Adrenalyn Stack – Fruit Punch: 6/10

  Tastes a little chalky and bitter compared to the Fruit Punch flavor of Speed Stack or even Ripped Force. The energy boost is really strong, but I’d rather have one of the better-tasting alternatives.

• Diet Turbo Tea – Green Tea: 7/10

  Fairly smooth, like the other Turbo Tea flavors, but the green tea flavor isn’t as good as the lemon. It’s still sweet, but drier and slightly bitter. I wouldn’t have guessed it was green tea if it weren’t on the label, to be honest. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it just doesn’t stand out like the lemon flavor.

• Speed Stack – Grape: 8/10

  This is better than the Ripped Force grape because it’s not as jittery and a bit smoother. Other than that, it’s similar – very sweet, slightly artificial, but if you like grape drinks you’ll probably like this. I happen to like grape, but the flavor could be a bit more mellow.

• Diet Turbo Tea – Raspberry Tea: 9/10

  Another great drink in the Turbo Tea line. It’s very different than the other ABB drinks, though – more like a flavored water than an energy drink. The raspberry flavor itself is great. It’s not even as sweet as the other Turbo Teas. Slightly sweet aftertaste, no chemical flavor, and no chalkiness. One of the better drinks in the line.

• Adrenalyn Stack – Berry Blast: 5/10

  I expected this to be similar to the Berry Energizing flavor of Adrenalyn Stack, but unfortunately it’s a couple steps down. It’s a little chalkier, a little more bitter, and tastes less like berries – almost metallic. I’ve certainly had worse – see my previous energy drinks reviews – but this is the worst from ABB.

Suggestions for ABB: More complex flavors. Packaging that works outside of the gym. They could justify the price if it came across as a high-end energy drink rather than only being for bodybuilders. I love Hugs, but not everyone does.

Free Bonus Review!

• essn Energy: Pomegranate Limeflower – 8/10

  This is another tea-based energy drink, like some of the others I’ve reviewed, but they managed to subdue the green tea / yerba mate flavor with a slightly fruity back-end of pomegranate. The limeflower, which I had never heard of, isn’t very noticeable. It just classes up the tea a bit. The energy boost from this is not strong at all, even though it has 240mg of guarana and a bunch of B vitamins. It only uses evaporated cane juice for sweetness so it falls handily into the “natural” category. This one’s worth a shot, particularly if you like tea, and I can recommend it over most other green tea-based energy products.

Note that free products are great, but they don’t affect the ratings. ABB did well overall, and there are a couple great drinks, but there were still a couple let-downs. I’ll have some suggestions for ABB at the end.

I tried five types of drinks:

• Speed Stack – No sugar, 250mg caffeine total.

  A couple ingredients you can pronounce, a few you can’t. This gives a moderately strong energy boost, and doesn’t seem to affect the flavor much.

• Ripped Force – 350mg of their Adrenergic Catalyst mix, i.e. a bunch of things you can’t pronounce.

  This gives a strong energy boost, but affects the flavor slightly more than Speed Stack. Some of these still got very good scores.

• Diet Turbo Tea – No sugar, 90mg of caffeine and guarana, plus some ginseng.

  A nice light energy boost. Doesn’t affect the flavor.

• Adrenalyn Stack – 200mg caffeine and a whole pile of things you can’t pronounce.

  The most additives, the strongest energy boost. Unfortunately, it really affects the texture and flavor of the drinks. These got some of the lower scores.

• Speed Shot Intensity – No sugar, but a lot of things you can’t pronounce.

  One of the more potent energy mixes. It doesn’t affect flavor consistently – sometimes it’s not noticeable, sometimes it is. See the individual reviews below.

There are a number of flavors for each of the above types. Originally, I was going to review the types and the flavors separately, but they affect each other more than I expected.

So, you get 15 reviews for the price of one!

• Speed Shot Intensity – Subzero Red: 8/10

  This reminds me of a red Hug (the little barrel-drinks) but not as overpoweringly sweet. It’s sugar-free, so I’m not sure how they managed this without getting a chemical aftertaste. The energy boost was noticeable but it didn’t keep me up all night – just what I wanted. I can’t pretend I know what all of the energy supplements in this drink are, but they work well.

• Diet Turbo Tea – Lemon: 9/10

  Tasty, natural tea with added guarana for energy. There’s only 90mg of caffeine total, so if your only goal is energy, try one of the stronger alternatives. The lemon flavor is balanced correctly for my taste. There’s a bit of tang from something – either the ginseng or the sucralose, I think. No chemical aftertaste. The tea flavor could be a bit more pronounced, but overall it’s quite tasty.

• Speed Stack – Lemon Tea: 8/10

  The flavor base is the same as the Turbo Tea, but this one has a much more potent energy mix. It masks the tea flavor slightly, but it still doesn’t taste like chemicals. There’s a slight sticky, sweet aftertaste. I’m impressed that they’re able to make these drinks powerful without the strong overtones of common energy drinks.

• Ripped Force – Grape: 7/10

  Similar to the Subzero Red, this flavor reminds me of a Hug. If you remember Hugs from when you were a kid, you can imagine these drinks. Sweet, slightly artificial fruity flavor. Not quite as sweet as a true Hug, which is a good thing. The energy boost is similar to the Speed Shot and Speed Stack, but a bit stronger. I’m a little jittery.

• Speed Shot Intensity – Purple Frost: 6/10

  Tastes like the Grape flavor of Ripped Force, but you can taste the added chemicals in this concentrated form. It’s not too strong, but since it’s noticeable, it detracts a little bit. The energy boost is on the strong side.

Stay tuned for part 5, the conclusion of the ABB reviews!

Sobe Power: 8/10

This is a nice break from the artificial tastes of typical energy drinks. It’s a standard fruit punch flavor but there’s no aftertaste or any hint of additives. It’s a little on the sweet side, but at least that comes from natural sugar. Don’t rely on it for an energy spike because the additives are relatively minor and you’ll have a slight sugar crash. High marks for taste and natural ingredients.

Steaz Orange: 8/10

Steaz is going for an earthier approach to orange flavor with the addition of yerba mate. If you’ve had yerba mate you’ll know what I mean. I don’t like pure yerba mate (or some other green teas) because it tastes a little like grass. However, adding a touch of it to orange juice is a nice combination and balances the sweetness. There’s also a hint of acai, and it’s lightly carbonated. If you want something a little sweeter, Kaboom Orange doesn’t have any tea and tastes more like pure juice. Steaz is good for a change if you like yerba mate.

Emergen-C Health and Energy Water – Dragon Fruit: 7/10

Emergen-C is the strange cousin of Vitamin Water that’s quiet at the family reunions. It’s definitely more of an enhanced water than an energy drink, so if you need a powerful kick, look elsewhere. There are a few things you have to look past – it has a disconcerting pale yellow color, it smells a bit off, and it’s a little thicker than water should be. If you ignore that, it has a nice, subtle fruit flavor and 16 times the vitamins. Seriously – up to 1660% of the daily value of some vitamins like Vitamin C, hence its name. It also has “Okinawa Deep Sea Minerals,” whatever that means. (They might be the culprit for the thickness.) A bottle was pretty cheap and it’s one of the healthiest options I’ve reviewed, while still offering a little sweetness. Worth a shot.

Sobe Energy: 8/10

There’s a hint of creaminess to go with the citrus flavor. The citrus is mostly orange but you can taste some others that add a bit of depth. (The label says lemon, cherry, and elderberry.) It’s definitely on the sweet side since they added sugar to the fruit juice – 66g per bottle total. That’s usually not necessary if you’re using good juice. Otherwise, it’s good – mostly natural, smooth, and the creaminess is a great addition.

Red Bull Sugar Free: 4/10

Tastes like Rockstar Sugar Free, but a little less sweet, so it’s not like being hit in the face with a five pound bag of Smarties. That’s a good thing, and it gains a whole point for it, but this is still very run of the mill. I suppose I should have expected that with Red Bull being one of the original energy drinks. If you want to imagine the taste, just water down some sour Smarties. On the plus side, they carve a bull out of the can’s tab. (Not worth it.)

Rockstar Juiced – Guava: 6/10

So close and yet so far away. This could be really good if it weren’t so carbonated and sticky. The flavor is nice – the guava itself is soothing – but the artificial texture throws it off. It also tastes worse and worse as it warms up. I have to give this drink some credit – it’s much better than the other Juiced flavor, mango/orange/passionfruit. I’ll save that for another review, to be written when I’m depressed.

Vitamin Water 10 – Energy: 8/10

Very light and refreshing citrus flavor. The difference between Vitamin Water and Vitamin Water 10 is that the newer 10 version uses stevia as a sweetener instead of sugar. This gives it less calories, a sweeter taste, and (unfortunately) a little bit of sweet aftertaste. High marks for taste and health benefit, but I have to take away a couple points because of the slight aftertaste and because I wish the citrus were a bit more pronounced.

• Arizona Green Tea Energy Drink: 2/10

  Tastes like honey. Honey that just fell out of a bee’s ass. A homeless bee that hasn’t showered in a year. Add in a little spoiled cough syrup. Tea could be a great base for an energy drink, but this is not the right tea, nor was it sweetened properly.

• Monster M-80: 6/10

  80% juice. Tastes like passion fruit, pineapple, and guava. Not bad, but a little too tangy from the pineapple. Tastes a little like cough syrup. In fact, I just had some cough syrup, and it mixes well.

• Sobe Essential – Berry Pomegranate: 8/10

  Only 7% juice, but very tasty. Raspberry and pomegranate flavor, lightly carbonated. It does have a hint of tanginess, whether from the fruit or the additives I can’t tell. A little too much sugar to be considered one of the “natural” alternatives, but it’s a great option.

• Rockstar Sugar Free: 3/10

  Tastes like carbonated Smarties. Drinks shouldn’t taste like Smarties. I really don’t know what else to say about this one, except that Smarties are a lot better.

• Full Throttle Zero: 7/10

  Citrusy, but it doesn’t hit you over the head. Overall it’s pretty nice, but it does have a little bit of funny taste from the additives, and I don’t know who needs so many additives in the first place. Each of the mainstream energy drink brands has a “standard flavor”, and this is probably the best of that lot.

• No Fear Sugar Free: 7/10

  Mostly grape, a little blueberry taste. Tastes similar to the Full Throttle Zero except for the choice of fruit. A good option but a little artificial.

• Amp Sugar Free: 7/10

  Tastes like bubble gum. Actually pleasant if you like the idea of drinking bubble gum. Not as many additives as some of the other energy drinks, and has no unpleasant aftertaste. Just bubble gum!

• Rockstar Zero Carb: 5/10

  Slightly bitter, moderate carbonation. I can’t pick out the fruit flavors because it’s a bit medicinal, and they don’t list which fruits make up the “natural flavors.” I appreciate the lack of aftertaste, but it’s still a bit sticky and artificial. The No Fear Sugar Free has a similar fruity taste but it’s definitely a step up from this.

• Lo-Carb Monster: 5/10

  Tastes incredibly similar to Rockstar Zero Carb. Really – just reread the last entry. Same artificiality and almost the same taste. I suspect they come from the same original manufacturer. It does add a few extra vitamins, but this is another one you could skip. Mixxd is the best of the Monsters so far.

• Amp with Black Tea: 4/10

  This doesn’t taste as spoiled as the Amp with Green Tea, but it does have the unpleasant tea/syrup combination of the Arizona Green Tea energy drink. It leaves you with an awful aftertaste for quite a while. The only saving grace is that the honey flavor isn’t as strong as the Arizona, which makes the overall flavor a bit more like a regular Amp… but why not just drink something else?