We wouldn't want you to go all "The Shining" on us from all that string theory. You better keep on playing with your Python scripts I think.
I'm running openSUSE 10.3 with KDE 3.5 at the moment. KDE has gone a bit schizo on me lately, but the CLI underpinnings are still running stable. The tar command fixed the unwrapping errors. So now I have a folder filled with python scripts I have no idea how to use. Yay.
I think I'm going to call it a night and come back fresh after a few hours sleep. I'll keep you updated on any progress or lack thereof.
Enjoy your physics books Kovid.