Just Another Tech Blog

Keep Your Computer Safe

2009-05-05T14:22:00.003-04:00

Hello again all,

I join you briefly today to discuss a little bit of Internet security. We all know how dangerous the web can be if you are not careful about what you view and download, so we all take the usual precautions and hope for the best. Well, sometimes the best doesn't happen, and you're left with a nasty virus, noisome malware, or some other sort of security vulnerability. Most users are caught unawares by these issues, and when they realize what's going on, they usually don't know what to do. That's why it's good that there are sites like PCThreat.com out there.

I got an email about PCThreat.com a while ago, and while honestly I usually ignore such emails, PCThreat.com actually seemed like a useful site. Every day I hear about peoples' computers getting viruses or griding to a halt under adware, and so often do I hear the scared cry of someone who thinks their computer is about to blow up because of all this stuff. Well, I can usually tell them that nothing is going to blow up, but really, however annoying these problems are, they are usually fixable, and most often preventable. That's where PCThreat.com comes in. They have a really good website that outlines a lot of the troublemakers that are out there in the vast tubes of the Internet. I was looking through their list of "Parasites" and came across some interesting things - such as a rouge antispyware programs that seem to be helpful but are actually dangerous malware programs. Ironic eh? And while many skilled users out there will laugh at this, the fact is that many people don't know the good from the bad on the internet, and fall victim to these kinds of scams. PCThreat.com has information on thousands of these sorts programs seeking to cause you harm or violate your privacy.

Of course, when you actually have one of these nasty things on your computer, you often don't really care what it is as long as you can get it off as quickly as possible. PCThreat.com again comes in handy here with instructions on how to alleviate your computer's malware ailments. For example, check out their page on the Trojan.Agent.cbdr trojan. They have an excellent description of the infection and also list in simple terms the danger level and the common symptoms (see the sidebar on the page). Very useful indeed.

Everyone loves to browse the web, but it is important to remember to do so safely. Check out PCThreat.com and become more educated today.

Cool Blog of the Day: La Habitación del Geek (International FTW!)

2008-07-05T20:48:00.003-04:00

Every so often, as I wander my way through the myriads of blogs in the blogosphere, I stumble across one that strikes me as possessing a certain "something" that sets it apart from the usual monotone self-absorbed blogging world one is exposed to on a daily basis. Other times, that blog happens to stumble upon you!

Recently, I was contacted by a very nice teen who happened to be Spanish and wanted to share some bloggings. I checked out his blog and, although it was in Spanish, I liked what I saw (I am actually learning Spanish in school at the moment, and I'm quite enjoying the language). It's a fledgling blog, but I think it has potential, and the fact that the author contacted me was pretty cool (props to you man!).

Really, it all kinda reminds me of when I started blogging... I never really thought anyone would take notice of my blog. However, I spoke to some more experienced bloggers, and they helped me out (thanks :) ). Sometimes, all it takes is a link to get a new blog going!

Anyways way, check out the site! HERE is a link for the blog in full Spanish, and HERE is one translated w/ Google to English.

Note from the Nerd: Gotta love that name too eh? The best start is a good name :D

Enabling Media Keys on the Saitek Eclipse II Keyboard (Ubuntu 8.04 and most other Linux distros)

2008-06-23T20:55:00.009-04:00

One of the few problems I experienced in my recent fresh install of Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) was the non-functionality of the media keys on my Saitek Eclipse II keyboard. This problem came as quite the odd surprise, seeing as the keys worked great in 7.04 and 7.10. It has always been puzzling to me that a new release can actually take a step backwards in terms of device compatibility... but what do I know? I don't code it, so it must be harder than it looks.
Either way, I soon set out to find a solution for this irksome issue I had on my hands. Who would have guessed that salvation came in the form of a Gentoo wiki page? Nice eh? Well, if you have explored that link a bit, you may note that it is quite lengthy and perhaps just a tad confusing for the Linux newbie. So... I bring you my simplified version! I have taken only the essential steps that were required to get the media keys on my Saitek Eclipse II keyboard working. I am sure that the guide works for other keyboards as well.

The first step of this process is find the raw scancodes that the kernel spits out and X interprets when a key is pressed. To do this in a nice, simple fasion, issue the following command and press the keys you would like to configure in an order that you can remember:

xev | sed -n s/"^.*keycode *$[0-9]\+$.*$"/"keycode \1 = "/p | uniq
Close the window when you are done. There should be an out put left that looks somewhat like so:

keycode 36 =
keycode 144 =
keycode 162 =
keycode 164 =

The first line isn't actually a media key, so just ignore/ delete it.

Now, we must set up xmodmap to recognize the keys and assign them their proper keysyms. In your home directory, create a file named .Xmodmap. In this file, you will enter the appropriate keysysm to match the media key. My file ended up looking like this:

keycode 162 = XF86AudioPlay
keycode 164 = XF86AudioStop
keycode 144 = XF86AudioPrev
keycode 153 = XF86AudioNext

You can find all possible keysyms listed in the following file on Ubuntu: /usr/share/X11/XKeysymDB.
This should now all be automatically loaded at startup. If it doesn't... try:

/usr/bin/xmodmap $HOME/.Xmodmap

Now that we have the keys properly identified and configured, we can assign them to the actions of our choice. I like to have my keys set up in Amarok, so I set the to their respective functions under Settings > Configure Global Shortcuts. You can also set the keys through gnome by going to System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts. However, in the past, I have noted that this can cause conflict with Amarok, so I usually just leave the keys disabled in the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog (Amarok will handle them just fine that way).

If all went well, that should get you full support for you mutlimedia keys in Ubuntu and Amarok. If it doesn't work, then take a look around the wiki page... maybe you will find something that fixs the issue or (even better) inspires you to come up with your own hacks and workarounds :D

Have fun!

Note from the Nerd: Many thanks to the people who contributed to the Gentoo wiki page I have so extensively referenced in this post!

A Look at the Latest Ubuntu (8.04 "Hardy Heron")

2008-06-23T18:43:00.005-04:00

Hello all! I start this summer's posting off with a review of the topic that is on everyone's mind... of course... the new Ubuntu release! Or rather, it was on everyone's minds. Seeing as I just didn't have the time to crank out a review during the entire post-release-blog-all-you-can-about-Ubuntu hype fest, I bring you my review now and hope that it reaches just a few of you out there. Let's get started.

Installation

What can I say, I love Ubuntu installations! As with most previous releases, Hardy Heron comes on a nice LiveCD through which you can dip your toes into Linux and decide whether or not to take the plunge. As for me, I've done my fair share of dabbling, so I tend to just boot up the CD to see if the preliminaries work (wifi, sound, video(ish), etc). With Ubuntu, there is a great probability that a large percentage of your hardware will be detected (if not, as in many cases, all) and configured properly right off the bat.

On loading the CD, you have the choice to try the "Try Ubuntu Without Making Any Changes to Your System", go straight to the install, boot normally, check the CD for defects, or test memory. Choosing the "Try Ubuntu Without Making Any Changes to Your System" will get you into the nice LiveCD mode. From there, you can test out your internet connectivity and check and see if your basic hardware has been detected. Clicking the installer icon on the desktop will start the installer.

The installer is excellent as usual, and even the unassuming Linux newbie can figure out what to do. Most of the process consists of the standard language/ time/ user/ password setup. The installer also features an assistant to help import your bookmarks and other preferences from older versions of Ubuntu or other operating systems. My favorite part of Ubuntu's installer continues to be the integration of the nice gparted disk partitioner GUI. It really makes a difference seeing how the hard drive is layed out. Other distributions like openSUSE don't have this nice visual aid and can be confusing. Ubuntu really has it figured out.

In its entiretity, the install was amazingly simple. The total install time on my AMD 3700+ system was about half an hour (about 10 min of which were spent messing w/ my partition scheme).

First Impressions and Usability

Usually, this is the time when I grip about how ugly Ubuntu looks... but honestly.. why bother? I can theme it all I like, and quite seriously, Ubuntu has a much more refined look than any other distribution I have ever come across. I'm actually kinda warming up to the whole brown-orange theme. In Hardy Heron especially, I find it to be tastefully done and altogether not all too obtrusive.

Ubuntu scores big again on hardware support in Hardy Heron. All my devices worked and required practically zero configuration. The exceptions to this are my wireless connection (rate set at 1MB/s on startup) and the media keys on my Saitek Eclipse II keyboard. I'll discuss my solutions to these problems in upcoming posts.

Media support is great again too. The helpful codec installer gets you all the plugins and codecs you need to jam to your favorite mp3s and ogle at your beloved DVDs. I immediately installed Amarok, seeing as it is the single best media player in existence and greatest thing since pre-compiled kernels (aka good stuff).

Not sure what else to say... everything just worked :-) Compiz can be simply enabled after installing the nvidia driver through the restricted driver manager and provides several levels of desktop-effects goodness.

Overall

Overall, Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron ) is another great release in the Ubuntu line, and surely deserves the prestigious "LTS" (Long Term Support) title that accompanies it.

So, this hasn't been quite as inclusive as some of my other reviews, but I'll be churning out a few other posts to explain my fixes for my keyboard and wireless issues. I'll also update the review as I see fit (hoping that some more inspiration will randomly come to me). Hope you enjoyed what I did have :-) I'm slowly getting back into the blogging world, so give me some time to re-adjust.

Peace out everyone! And remember, have some fun with Linux this summer!

Open Graphics Project to Announce Pre-Orders for First Hardware

2008-04-12T22:27:00.003-04:00

Many moons ago I posted about a fledgling project seeking to provide fully open graphics cards and drivers to the open source community, and consequently the world. After some separation from the tech world, I have come back and note that this wonderful project has made some brilliant strides! In fact, it has come so far as to now offer pre-orders for their first card, the OGD1. The road hasn't been an easy one:

The OGD1 design has actually been finished for a couple of months now. In that time, we've been chasing a chick-and-egg problem. We can take all the orders we want, but there's as much as an 8-week lead time between when we place our order for 100 boards and when we get them so that we can test and then ship them. It would be inappropriate to charge our own customers until we ship to them. That leaves us with a $60000 bill to pay before we have any revenue, and that's too much for Andy, Howard, and I to float on our own. We didn't want to make a formal announcement for re-orders until we solved this problem.

The card will initially be offered at $1500, with discounts of $100 for the first 100 pre-orders. But who is this card aimed at? Obviously the $1500 price tag is a bit high for the performance offered, so those seeking cutting edge graphics acceleration will have to look elsewhere (Matrox?). Rather, the card is meant for hackers and for those wanting to accelerate the pace of open graphics.

We often get inquiries about the use of OGD1 as a graphics card. It can easily-enough function as a graphics card, but for most such uses, it is badly over-priced. On the other hand, OGD1 is very competitively priced as an FPGA development kit. We need to make it clear what OGD1 is and why buying one is an important step for Free Software.

Check out the full announcement on the project's mailing list or read a bit @ Kernel Trap. Also, be sure to visit the project's wiki.

When Penguins Fly

2008-04-09T08:19:00.002-04:00

Everyone loves a good April Fools joke, and this year the BBC came up with one which was quite appealing to the Linux crowd. Since I am particularly partial to penguins, I simply must share this video, be it a week or so old now (live with it, you can never see too many penguins). I'll let the video speak for itself:

However, the true geek will want to know how this was made possible. Of course, "CG" can blurt out of anyones mouth, but I'm sure there was more put into this than just computer graphics. So, I went off to stroll the Internet in search of some behind the scenes footage. Well, leave it to BBC to make my search easy, apparently I wasn't the only one asking questions after having seen this vid. Here's some great "making-of" footage:

But now, what would a great joke be without a parody on it? Leave it to digg to share the most random stuff on the Internets... I recently found this rather nice Linux-themed "improvement" on the original video:

I particularly enjoyed the music on this one. It is well made, almost as though it were always meant to be a Linux commercial.

Well, I hope that these penguins have brightened your day as they have mine today (and for that matter the other 5 days I have watched this vid).

A Look Into A Pesky USB Drive Issue

2008-04-08T20:20:00.003-04:00

Recently, my trusty 2GB Corsair Flash Voyager died on me when it's head suddenly popped off as I was attempting to use it. It was one of those moments where your whole life just flashes before your eyes... Ok, so maybe it wasn't that bad, and, like all bad things, this rather tragic incident had a quite enjoyable bright side! Namely, I got to buy a new flash drive! Yes, the nerd inside of me is still alive and kicking. I decided to go with the same brand/ model because it had been so good to me for the years of its service, with one "small" upgrade... 4x times the storage :-) Yup, that is 8GB of flash memory goodness in my pocket. Great stuff really, I got it off the 'egg for just $40! That's how much the 2GB model cost a few years ago! It is really crazy how much flash memory prices have gone down.

As one usually is when receiving new hardware/ gadgets, I was rather excited when the drive shipped just 2 days later (I love you newegg). I popped it in my computer and received an interesting surprise. Instead of nautilus opening up, I was greeted by gtkpod. Apparently, the drive was being recognized as a "Digital Audio Player." Annoyed, I set off to find a solution to my problem. Sadly, forums were not much help, but finally I found a post far back in the Ubuntu support forums that quelled my need for an answer.

According to Bug #90286 on launch pad, I was not the only one experiencing these issues. Check out the solution @ the Ubuntu forums.

That worked for me! Now my drive is recognized as a normal USB disk.

I'll include these keywords to aid searchers:

Corsair Flash Voyager Recognized as Digital Audio Player

IMPORTANT UPDATE: I forgot to mention in my original posting that one of my best friends kindly saved my data for me as my flash drive was dying. Using a complex system of holding the drive in place and quickly maneuvering through "My Computer", she managed to save the most essential of my data. Here's to you! :: CHEERS ::

Asus Eee PC: Touchscreen hack

2007-12-21T09:49:00.000-05:00

The Asus Eee PC is one of the hottest new "gadgets" making its hype around the internet. The sub-laptop became an instant hit, offering extreme portability, great performance, and excellent productivity. Some would say that the device is just about perfect. Then there are some that want more! And so we get awesome mods like this one from jkkmobile who modded a touchscreen into his Asus Eee PC. Needless to say, this thing is awesome, and extremely sturdy to boot! A HOW-TO is promised soon!

Check out the vid @ jkkmobile.

History: Where Did The Fun Go?

2007-11-25T20:44:00.000-05:00

I sit here at my desk tonight, studying for an AP World History test. Bored out of my mind, yet stressed to the point of depression, I just have to wonder: what happened to the fun in history? Where did the "interesting" go, and who says that it has to be this dull? Throughout my entire schooling (up to now, 10th grade that is), I have noticed a disturbing trend in the teaching of history classes. It seems that teachers simply do not put forth the effort to make history a mentally stimulating or in any way compelling class.

Upon each onset of a new school year, I delve into a higher level history class hoping that I will stumble upon a teacher who actually cares about what they are teaching; One who makes an honest effort to present the curriculum in such a way as to make it appealing to the teenage mind, or any mind for that matter. Sadly, it seems that this year I have hit rock bottom. AP World History has proven to be a class so incredibly dry, yet so frustratingly difficult, that even the mention of it evkes a horrid sense of dread. DO YOU SEE THE IRONY? How, is it even POSSIBLE to make a class on the HISTORY OF THE WORLD so dreadful that a student fears the mention of its name? Quite simply, it is a complete and utter lack of teacher effort.

By all means, I am not one to criticize a class simply because it is too difficult or because the teacher is too strict. No. I enjoy a challenge and praise a structured class. However, when a teacher gives no effort in making a class interesting, it simply sickens me to no end! Case in point: AP World History. Although my teacher is an incredibly nice person, there is no love in her teaching. Class will begin with an "opening activity" of some sorts, usually asking us to apply our knowledge to reach broader conclusions. This is perhaps the only conceptual activity that we participate in all class. The rest of class is occupied by the teacher reciting to us, the exact same things which we had read the night before for homework. How is that teaching? If we are required to read up to 30 pages a night, then PLEASE, do NOT insult our intelligence by "REVIEWING" the exact same content. In an AP class, if a student does not read and partake in self study, then that student deserves to fail. It is NOT the teacher's responsibility to spoon-feed the students facts which were covered in more detail elsewhere. This is not fair to the students who were prepared and ready for a higher level of thinking. Things must change.

Incorporate discussion and higher level thinking skills.

I absolutely love discussion. If I could discuss a subject all class, I would regardless of the topic. I also feel that the only way in which one can grasp broader concepts about history, or any subject for that matter, is through active discussion. Now, I have seen many a teacher label something as discussion, when in fact it is not. Discussion is not asking a student, "Who founded the Tang Dynasty?" Discussion is not asking a student to spit back information which they memorized from the reading. Discussion is the active use and application facts and human, high level comprehension to achieve a more profound level of understanding and a reach conclusion, formulate a thesis, or propose an issue. Discussion is the analyzation of the "why" and how it relates to the "how." Discussion is the synthesis of knowledge and evaluation. This is what history is all about! As Bloom's taxonomy of thinking skills shows, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation comprise the highest levels of thought. An AP World History class cannot dwell on the lower level of simple knowledge, the teacher of such a class should strive to require the highest level of thinking skills possible. Assign an essay (yes, I am asking to have write an essay)... grade it ... discuss it! Stage a mock trail... discuss it! Debate an issue... discuss it!

Say no.

When a teacher asks a question, and a student replies with something that is wrong... then the teacher should say it is wrong! They should say that they aren't right, and EXPLAIN why. Unless the student is truly an idiot, in which case they should be ignored, it is not beneficial to learning when you are never told you are wrong. Even better, ask the CLASS to explain why! Often, I will ask a question and the teacher will simply beat around the bush, never saying I'm wrong, but never answering the question either. Perhaps the teacher doesn't know (in which case they should say they don't, and not waste time), but in any case, my feelings would not be hurt if I was told I was wrong. If it is possible that a statement be misinterpreted, then it should better not be said, especially when explaining intricate concepts.

Kick out the "faint of heart" and the low in intelligence...

What more is there to say? Those that are not intelligent enough for an AP history class or simply to lazy, should be kicked out of the class. An AP environment should be one of students interested in the subject. A teacher's faults can only be made more obvious through the accommodation of students not willing to learn.

Make it possible.

Now here is where I get truly annoyed: testing of concepts that the teacher hardly attempted to cover in class. In a class that conveys only factual knowledge, it should not be expected that a student do well on a test that examines only the more profound concepts of the subject. This may seem like an excuse for bad grades, but it simply another issue that I feel teachers do not address properly. I try my best to study hard and examine closely the intricate relations present in world history. Yet for a 10th grade student, it is extremely difficult to go from the lower levels of thought required in "honors" classes or below, to the high levels required in AP. Yes, I realized that these are college classes, but does that excuse the teacher from not making any attempt to help us in seeing attaining these higher levels of thought? I think not! I do not mind thinking! Where other students may groan at the thought of having to analyze, interpret, and apply, I rather relish the opportunity to expand my comprehension. However, when the occasional conceptual question is asked in class, it does not help if it the teacher never reviews it! Especially in this first semester, it is difficult to grasp the needed concepts to do well on the test. If a teacher poses a question which requires much thought from the student, then a teacher should spend the time reviewing that question. Here is where step one comes in. Discuss! I would adore my history class if we could simply discuss our work with the teacher, and with other students. If I have to write a detailed essay comparing political development in post classical China and the Byzantine Empire, then the teacher should make an effort to go over such things in class. No, I am not asking for the answer! I am asking for the basis from which to draw my conclusions. Simply reading won't do me any good, and hearing the same information spit back at me during class doesn't either. Again, discussion! Discussion reinforces the concepts. If a student gets something wrong in a discussion, then the teacher can go back and review the facts. However, it is a waste to repeat facts that we should already know, and which, in their raw form, won't help us any on the test! Please do not misinterpret this. I am a student who has, for the extent of his scholastic endeavor, made excellent grades and has ranked in the top of his class for the extent of his current high school schooling. I wish simply to facilitate learning in such a way as to better prepare the high school student for the future requirements of higher learning. Spoon-fed analysis and evaluation would be no better then spoon-fed facts! The key is finding the balance between "telling" and stimulation of thought, so as to make concepts accessible to the high school student.

Bring back the fun! (Please?)

As I have said before, history class would already be better if we could simply discuss things at a higher level of thought. However, I am sure that I am in the minority, and most students will again groan being required to think at a higher level. Regardless of the fact that these students should not be in an AP class, there are other ways to make history interesting. I have always found that watching a video on the subject is very beneficial to my learning. While broader concepts are stressed, small details are also gained which are very helpful in the writing of essays and answer of multiple-choice questions. However, this video cannot be from the text book or in any way affiliated with it... this would again be the reiteration of knowledge already acquired (yes, I realize that repetition will assist in the memorization of facts, but this can really be done at home). Also excellent are games. Games in an AP class? Why not? I'm not suggesting "heads up, seven up" but there are education games that the teacher can improvise which really aid the learning experience and again, incorporate discussion.
Rather opposite, there are also ways to make history a definite bore. Number one, extensive notes. Sitting in a class taking notes all day is not helpful if one is being tested on the application of knowledge. However, notes, when in moderation and properly formulated, can be extremely helpful. Still, this is yet another thing that can be done at home. One of the few things I actually approve of in my AP World History class is having to do "IDs" or "identification" vocabulary. Not only does this present an excellent opportunity to take notes, but it actually requires thought (*GASP*) to provide reasons for each ID's significance.

And so...

I'd love to have fun in history, and I find it impossible that a history class is even ALLOWED to be taught in such drab a manner. History simply IS interesting, there is absolutely no denying that. Those who say it is not important, say so out of blunt ignorance and idle apathy. I don't see how such a excellent school as the one I attend can hire such teachers who make history a painful matter. Perhaps they are very nice people, but I'd rather have a strict teacher who facilitates higher learning than a nice one who tarries over simple facts. History is such an important topic to understand, and every day we must analyze the past so as to make for a better future. If my generation grows up with such disdain and ignorance towards history, then I wish not to be around to experience the dreadful consequences! A change must be in order, and I call upon every teacher of history to truly put forth their all. Be it cliché, I must say that it is the least they can do to help the future of humanity. We'll need all the help we can get.

Please, do feel free to comment. However for the senile amongst us, I am not asking for an easier class. I am asking for more effort by the teacher and even by the students. An easier class would evoke the same dread in me were it taught in the same mind numbing manner. And for the lazy seeking solace and excuses, turn not to me! Express none of these thoughts in such a manner characteristic of your ineptness. If nothing else, I wish for a class in which history is once again fun, yet challenging and thought-provoking.

Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon: A Quick Look

2007-11-25T19:22:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I know that I enjoyed the days off of school, and thankfully having nothing better to do than finally install the latest Ubuntu: 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon." So onwards now, lets see how it fared:

As usual, I downloaded the i386 architecture Live CD. I didn't go 64bit mainly because of poor experiences I have made in the past concerning 64bit Linux. If life would be so kind as to grant me more time... I will check out the 64bit version and report on that. After popping the CD into my drive, I waited for the system to boot up. Oddly enough, startup time was fairly long, around the 5-6 minute mark. This really isn't all that horrible seeing as the Live CD performed beautifully after it got started; however, I am used to shorter startup times, even from a Live CD.

When the Live CD was finally fully up and running, I was ecstatic to see that my default screen resolution of 1680*1050 was detected by default. This was a very pleasant surprise as the standard resolutions really don't look all that great on my high-res, wide screen monitor. Also nice was the fact that my wireless card was once again detected by default. The updated network manager showed all the available networks to connect to in a nice drop-down menu from the tray icon. After entering the WEP key for my wireless network, I was for the interwebs. Just for fun, I also tried the networks of my neighbors foolish enough not to have their network encrypted... needless to say, they all worked flawlessly.

Moving on, I went straight to the install. As usual, installation was flawless. No major updates were made to the installer, and there really wasn't any need. Perhaps the most confusing part of any Linux install, to the Linux newbie, is partitioning the hard drive. Ubuntu does a great job of making this process as painless as possible. The guided partition setup can make use of any available space on the disk and doesn't prompt anything that could make a new user uncomfortable. Due to the more complex nature of my partition setup, I went to the "manual" option. This loaded a fairly full-featured partition manager similar to gParted. Selecting the disks to be formated was as simple as checking a box, and mounting options were also intuitive.
After the standard array of questions pertaining to you (area, username, password, etc), the true install began. As is Ubuntu fashion, there is no addition package customization, which is beneficial to the new user who may get confused by such choice. A more "seasoned" user, such as I, may like to see customization of package selection integrated, but is by no means necessary.
Install time itself was a little longer than how I remembered my Feisty install, but none-the-less came in under 35 minutes on my AMD 3700+ (2.2Ghz) system.

Ubuntu initial boot, I experienced no major difficulties. As with the Live CD, my screen resolution was again set correctly, and my wireless connection was easy to set up. I could insert a long rant about the "Human" theme now, but really, it simply isn't worth it as it is so simply to install a different theme. The default desktop wallpaper is nice although a tad dark. It actually made me think of chocolate... and so... I got chocolate.
Upon the finishing of my chocolate, I noticed that the restricted drivers manager was notifying me of available proprietary drivers. For me, this was the official nVidia driver for my graphics card. Others may see different drivers available. After checking the box for this driver to be used, Synaptic handled the installation. Upon the required reboot, I was greeted by a fully function graphics accelerated desktop. Apparently, the installation of the proper video card drivers will automatically enable Compiz Fusion to start up.
The default configuration for Compiz Fusion was subtle (no cube, just basic animations, expo, window switching, etc), but gave the whole operating system a very professional feel.

Media support in Ubuntu is always an interesting issue. By default, mp3 playback and such is not available. However, if you try to play and mp3 file, Ubuntu will present you with a nice option to install the necessary (proprietary) codecs. This is excellent for almost any user, as it simply makes full media support that much easier to come by. Upon installation of Amarok, I was again asked if I would like to install the necessary packages to play mp3 files. As any sane person would do, I agreed, and Synaptic popped up, did its thing, left, and... there was mp3 support! Very nice.

As I continued to explore the many small improvements, Gutsy was truly shaping up to be a winner. Then... I opened Firefox. As I waited in anticipation for Google to load, one second passed... two... three... four... five... six... seven... EIGHT?... NINE?... TEN?... ELEVEN? After about 11 seconds, my Google homepage finally loaded. I immediately recognized it as the same problem I had in openSUSE 10.2... slow internet... no solution? I searched Google and again came up with many people reporting the same issue. Apparently ipv6 was the culprit once again... but however many guides I followed which apparently "fixed" the issue.. I couldn't get my internet to speed up. Just do a Google search for "slow internet Ubuntu Gutsy" and you will see the others that share my plight. I am not sure what the solution is... or even what the problem really is, but in any case, such an issue is definitely something keeping me away from permanently upgrading to Gutsy.

Overall, Ubuntu Gutsy features a plethora of small updates that uphold the great Ubuntu quality. However, the issue with my internet will keep me from permanently upgrading.

That's all for today's quick look :-)

The AMD Spider Platform: Hope for AMD?

2007-11-18T09:55:00.000-05:00

AMD recently announced a new breed of gaming PC: the AMD Spider system. A combination of AMD's upcoming Phenom quad-core processor, RV670 GPU, and 7-Series chipset, the system is touted as proving "teraflops of performance" reaching performance levels of up to 80 times that of the PS3 and 200 times that of IBM's Deep Blue computer. The goal of AMD's Spider platform is to provide the cinematic quality of movies released this year, rendered in real time on the desktop. Check out the video:

Via: GeekZone.co.nz

The system also sports a brand new overclocking utility by AMD which effectively redefines the overclocking experience. Video:

Via: GeekZone.co.nz

Read more @ Register Hardware.

Just Another Tech Blog To Be Included In Top 500 Blogs

2007-11-13T06:40:00.000-05:00

Back in the day, if you didn't know HTML, or code, you couldn't
publish content on the web. Well, nowadays with tools such as
Wordpress, and services like Blogspot, and Xanga, anyone.. yes anyone
can tell the whole world what is on their mind through blogging.

But, there really isn't a robust way to search for the best blogs on
any specific topic. Sure, there's Technorati, but what else? Besides,
much of the world wide web is full of splogs, spam, and
made-for-adsense blogs. And how many times have you read the same
exact post over and over in different blogs?

That is why a project, listing the top blogs by general categories
would prove useful. The book, titled "The Top 500 Blogs" is being
written by Vicky Zhou of GotACrush.com. From topics ranging
from dating to technology, lifestyle, sports, music, health and
fashion, the books aims to be a comprehensive list of the top 500
blogs on the world wide web.

The Top 500 Blogs will be out in bookstores in Q4 of 2008. Just
Another Tech Blog will be included in the category of "Technology",
so keep an eye out for that!

I received an email notifying me of this the other day. Some things just make you smile :-) Thanks!

Compiz, Beryl, eyecandy vs. productivity. My approach to quantify interfaces

2007-11-11T21:20:00.000-05:00

There is no doubt that Compiz is some of the best eyecandy available for Linux now-a-days, but many people have raised the question: where does the eye candy translate into an actual productivity increase? I, myself, approached this question some time ago in my post: "A Look at Beryl: Function vs. Eye Candy." That was back in the day when Beryl was still the best thing around, but really, the basis of Compiz now and Beryl then remains the same. So, the question comes up again: what kind of increase in efficiency can be achieved through the use of Compiz (or whatever interface you use).
Paul over at Paul's Digital World has taken a very mathematical approach to the problem. Basically, he has come up with a fairly simple formula to determine the "computer interface efficiency index" or CIEI for short:

So the formula is CIEI = AWP * weighted average of task b (over all tasks) times b's efficiency index (which is 1/eb1 + 1/eb2+ ...) So with a computer that does two major tasks b, c (others are just too rare so we approximate it with a 2 case) 1/3, 2/3 of the times and there are 2 and 3 ways to start each application respectively.
CIEI = AWP * ((1/3)*(1/b1+1/b2) + (2/3)*(1/c1+1/c2+1/c3))

Don't let the names or the math scare you, this formula makes perfect sense with a bit of thought! I encourage you to read the full post and try the formula for yourself! Check it out at Paul's Digital World.

Compiz Fusion: New Plugins, Applications, Fun

2007-11-05T06:59:00.000-05:00

Sam over at the "SmSpillaz - Random Compiz Fusion Stuff" blog has written up an excellent post on recent Compiz Fusion happenings. It is part of his excellent series of Compiz Fusion "Community News." Some of the highlights in this posting:

Freewins Plugin
Anaglyph Plugin
Photo wheel
Stars Plugin

Along with a few application updates. Check out the full post. Lovers of Compiz Fusion should have his blog bookmarked! I know I do! It is a most excellent resource for everything Compiz related.

A Fun Day for Hardware Enthusiasts: The 8800GT and Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650

2007-10-29T21:24:00.001-04:00

Today was an exciting day for hardware enthusiasts, as the first reviews of the recently released nVidia 8800GT made their way to the crowd of eager PC gamers looking for the next best bang-for-the-buck video card. After looking through a few reviews, it can easily be said that the 8800GT presents the best value for performance that has been seen in nVidia's GeForce 8 series. To see for yourself, check out these reviews on the following respected tech websites:

As one can see by merely glancing through these articles, the 8800GT outperforms the 8800GTS in most all current and upcoming games! Yes, that means Crysis and UT3! Crazy stuff, really. And the best part is that the graphics card should come in at around $200-$250 when prices settle, making it the card to beat at the moment. Check out more on prices @ newegg.com.

In other news, the first reviews of the brand new Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 hit the interwebs today. This is the first processor on Intel's new 45nm line, sporting increased efficiency and an overall 40% clock for clock performance improvement! Not to mention, an unprecedented overclocking ability... 4Ghz + on stock cooling anyone? Check out the specs on this beast over at Techage or Bit-Tech.

Rejoice! Salvation is Come! Death to the Human Theme!!!(?)

2007-10-29T21:05:00.000-04:00

I, as I believe many others too, despise Ubuntu's human theme. Nothing is less welcoming to a new OS than a color scheme that looks like... well... I'll let you fill some colorful adjectives here. Really, I don't mean to insult anybody here, as I must say, the theme is the most professional and thought-out that I have seen in any Linux distributions, but the whole brown/ orange thing... just doesn't work for me. So, it is with great pleasure that I read today that the color scheme in Ubuntu 8.04 will be changing!
Well, at least so I hope... The HardyTheme page at the Ubuntu wiki has been set up, so I hope to track the progress of this new theme as each new advancement is made.

OS X Leopard on your PC!

2007-10-27T19:41:00.001-04:00

I know that I, as many others too, enjoy the Mac OS X user interface, but simply can't afford a Mac, or justify getting one. So, a while ago (I believe in the time of Tiger or so) a hack was developed to let OS X run on pretty much any normal PC. Exciting, to say the least. And now, with the advent of OS X Leopard, the hack continues, with hackers churning out a DVD patch, just a day after the official Leopard release, which allows users to install OS X Leopard on their PC!

Well its been only a day since the Mac OSX Leopard was released officially by Apple and the hackers have managed to create a patched DVD that everyone like you and me can use to install Leopard on PC’s without having to buy a Mac. Please note the tutorial that I am going to post is still experimental and things might not work the right way simply because it is still early days in hacking Leopard to work on PC’s. Well if you don’t mind your PC getting screwed then go ahead and try out this tutorial.

Sound pretty cool. Check out the nice 3-step tutorial @ dailapps.net.

Note from the Nerd: Well, as my first post back into blogging, I was hoping for something a little more exciting... but today seems to be a slow news day. Just my luck. But, I'll try to be posting regularly from now on :-) Bare with me as I readjust to the blogging lifestyle. I'll see if I can try this out on my PC... just as it stands right now, things are working so darn well, I'm afraid to mess with anything! Haven't even upgraded to Gutsy yet. But I suppose, it is just a matter of time until I take the plunge back into reckless OS/ Software experimentation.

Linux Fund Credit Card!

2007-08-21T08:42:00.000-04:00

Well, I thought I'd start off my return to posting with something that I just thought was super cool: The Linux Fund Credit Card! Everybody seems to have some special credit card now-a-days aimed at getting you some nice rewards... but so far, nothing has truly been geek-oriented. Well, now there is a card for every true Linux lover: the all-new Linux Fund Visa Card! The card works as such:

Each time a cardholder uses their card, a donation is made to The Linux Fund by the card issuer, U.S. Bank. These donations add up to tens of thousands of dollars per year which The Linux Fund then gives out in grants. The Linux Fund has donated to new ideas and teams who maintain things like Debian.

Pretty cool eh? For those who don't know, here is some background on the Linux Fund project:

The Linux Fund began in 1999. Since then, the organization has handed out over one-half million dollars in grants to Free and Open Source Software (F/OSS) projects like Blender, FreeGeek and the WikiMedia Foundation.

You can check out some more information on this awesome project at their website: linuxfund.org.

Note from the Nerd: I wish I were 18 or older... I'm going to get this card as soon as I can!

Hi Again!

2007-08-20T21:12:00.000-04:00

Hello dear readers!
I have returned from Germany, and once again find myself at home at my computer. Its been a few days since I got back, and I find it hard to get back into the swing of things. But, I'll be posting new stuff soon, so stay tuned :-)

Until later then!

Away for a Bit

2007-07-19T09:19:00.001-04:00

Hello all!
I am leaving for Germany today on vacation, and will not return until August 15th. Much to my dismay, I will have very limited internet access on this trip, and will therefore not be able to post much, if anything at all.
So, until then, enjoy your summer, and I'll continue posting when I return!

Farewell!

-linnerd40

Officially past 100,000 visitors :-)

2007-07-07T20:11:00.000-04:00

Hello all.
Just recently, Just Another Tech Blog received its official 100,000th page view (check the stats here)! Needless to say, I am very excited!
I'd just like to thank all my returning visitors who have been with me since the beginning! And pretty much all my visitors! I strive to make excellent content available on this blog, and enjoy every minute I spend blogging!

-linnerd40
Blog Author (ha, ha! Who else?)

Awesome CompizFusion Plugin: Cube Atlantis

2007-07-06T12:05:00.000-04:00

People are quickly discovering all the awesome plugins of the new CompizFusion. One of coolest plugins, in my opinion, is the new "Cube Atlantis". What the plugin does is basically render a few fish, sharks, whales, and dolphins in your desktop cube! It is quite fun to watch :D

Check out this vid:

Sorry about the horrible quality, xvidcap really lags things up a bit :) (the actual performance is excellent!) Here are a few screen shots that I took, on the right you can see the various settings available for customization under the compiz-config settings manager:

The settings available for customization include:

Number of fish (1-100)
Different color fish (Yes or No)
Fish Size (1-10000)
Shark Size (1-10000)
Dolphin Size (1-10000)
Whale Size (1-10000)

To install this plugin, along with a wealth of other entertaining and useful plugins for CompizFusion, select the "compiz-fusion-plugins-extra" package through your favorite package manager or apt. A great guide to installing CompizFusion on Ubuntu can be found on the Ubuntu Forums.

* For those finding the theme portrayed above appealing, the skydome wallpaper can be found here, and the desktop wallpaper here.

A Review of openSUSE 10.2

2007-07-05T12:27:00.000-04:00

Back in the day, when I first started using Linux, Novell's SUSE Linux was the first distribution that I came across that actually worked with my wireless card. Over the course of a year or so, I went through versions 9.3, 10.0, and 10.1. Needless to say, a lot has changed since SUSE 9.3 that makes the distribution ever more welcoming to new and advanced users alike. In this review, I'll take a look at the latest openSUSE release, 10.2, and see how it stacks up to its previous versions and other distros.

The Install:

Installing openSUSE 10.2 is not a very difficult thing to do. Download options consist mainly of 5 CDs (with an optional add-on CD) or 1 DVD in the common architectures (x86, x86_64, PPC, and IA64). Also available is a LiveDVD which lets you try openSUSE 10.2 before installing.

The installer is quite intuitive, and provides ample support along the way in the form of a sidebar displaying helpful information about the current step. For those liking to customize almost every detail of their installation, the SUSE installer is superb.

As with many installers, you are first asked about your default language. In the next step, you have the ability to check your installation media for errors which could compromise the installation (very useful). Then, after reading and agreeing to a license agreement, you can chose to upgrade an existing installation, or go for a completely new one. If you downloaded the Add-On CD, you will be able to add that to your repository for installation. Following this is a step in which you choose your desktop environment, both Gnome and KDE are available along with a few more obscure choices.

After this configuration is done, you are presented with an installation summary. READ THIS CAREFULLY! The default option for partitioning is to simply clear all partitions and create a new one for openSUSE. I question this choice, as it can easily be overlooked by a novice user. Losing all your data is perhaps not the first problem you want to deal with as a new Linux user.

The afore mentioned installation summary is also the place where you can change the packages to be installed. This is very useful, as it is often much easier to install packages right off the bat. The interface for choosing packages is what you will see when using YaST later on. Although not pretty, it does the job. With the add-on CD (included on the DVD), you can chose Non-OSS software such as the Java runtime environment and Adobe's Flash Player. The default package selection is excellent, and many users will find it perfectly adequate for normal, everyday use.

After setting everything up as you like it, the installer proceeds to install your new system. During the actual install, you can see the progress in a bar at the right which also lets you know how much time remains. You can also view individual package progress in the the second tab.

First Boot/ Configuration/ Appearance:

After installation was finished, there was still a bit more configuration do to. After restarting, I was greeted by a very nice looking GRUB splash screen with openSUSE 10.2's blue/ swirl color scheme. Also, the installer had detected my Windows install and my Ubuntu install. Sadly, this is where the fun ended.

Starting openSUSE 10.2 the normal method did not work, it simply hung forever on the startup screen. Luckily, there was a "failsafe" option already on the GRUB menu, which I chose. Although this got me to the configurator, I received an error message saying that the graphical interface was not configured properly due to the lack of a driver for my video card ("minimal install") or an improperly placed video card. This was a surprising error as my card (GeForce 6200) had always been detected in the past. I had to go through the configuration in a text like interface.

The configuration itself consisted of the usual setting of the root password, the creation of new users, and hardware configuration (more on this later).

After the configuration was complete, I booted into Gnome, as though the errors with my graphics card/ driver had never been. Surprisingly, my default screen resolution was detected (1680*1050) and was already set! This was very nice, as usually I had to install nVidia's driver first, manually (or in Ubuntu, through the "Restricted Drivers Manager").

The default openSUSE 10.2 Gnome desktop looked very professional, with a very appealing blue theme. I found this theme to be much more pleasing than Ubuntu's and even better than Fedora's. Another great feature was the new main menu. This menu incorporates your favorite applications, recent applications, a search feature, and links to system configuration/ management. Here's a quick pic of the default Gnome desktop (left, courtesy OSDir) and the KDE desktop (right):

After a bit of tweaking, I got my desktop looking like so:

In the top left corner, you can see the new menu, which is a good step up from the standard "Applications, Places, and System" menus on most Gnome desktops. Overall, I love the look and feel of openSUSE 10.2, and think Ubuntu and other distributions can definitely learn from this professional attitude towards desktop themes (or just get rid of the "Human" theme!).

Hardware Support:

This is where it gets interesting. As I mentioned before, upon initial reboot into configuration, openSUSE could not detect/ configure my video card. However, after initial configuration, I entered a desktop at my monitor's default screen resolution. I checked the xorg.conf file and found the driver to be set to "nvidia". This was a pleasant surprise as most distributions make one manually install the nVidia drivers. However, "glxinfo" reports "direct rendering: no". Apparently, this is so because these drivers are in fact not the proprietary nVidia drivers. The proprietary drivers can, however, be installed via YaST through the Add-On CD.

Another nice surprise was instant support for my wireless card. I was able to easily configure and enable my rt2500 based card, which was not the case in previous SUSE/ openSUSE versions. However, my surfing experience was painfully slow. My iGoogle homepage took more than 15 seconds to load! On my Ubuntu install, it loads almost instantly. My first thought was that it was a driver issue. So, I followed E@zyVG's excellent guide on his blog to install the rt2x00 drivers (beta). Although this helped performance a little bit, web pages still loaded really slowly. I Google'd the issue and found that it may be because of something to do with ipv6. So, I disabled ipv6 in my /etc/modprobe.conf file (add "alias net-pf-10 off") and in Firefox (about:config -> search ipv6 -> set "network.dns.disableIPv6" to "true"). I proceeded to tweak Firefox and install FasterFox. Webpages load a lot faster now, but performance is still fairly poor in comparison to Ubuntu or even Windows. I'm really not sure why this is so, and the problem is certainly annoying.

EDIT: I have been reading up on this problem, and it may have to do also with DNS lookups.

Other than these issues, openSUSE detected and configured all my hardware without problems.

Configuration Tools:

YaST (Yet Another Setup Tool) is openSUSE's system configuration center. Through YaST, you can do pretty much anything from installing software and adding repositories, to configuring network services and managing users. It is a very powerful tool, with but one major draw back... it's slow. It can also be fairly greedy with system resources such as RAM (don't try running SUSE on a system with less than 256MB of RAM).

However, for simple configuration, most options can be found through the new "Control Center." This control center, with built in search and filtering, makes customization and configuration a pleasant and easy experience.

The package manager found in YaST is nowhere near Synaptic, and I personally don't like the interface. Adding repositories also requires a good deal more work than in Ubuntu or Fedora. I would have liked to see yum installed by default, but I fear that it won't be in any openSUSE release anytime soon. Still, its is included on the DVD and can be installed through YaST (search "yum").

Media Support:

As with nearly all Linux distributions, media/ MP3 support does not come out-of-the-box. However, this can be enabled by adding the packman repository and installing the appropriate packages (a good guide can be found here). To get MP3 support through Amarok, you can follow the guide on the Amarok site.

Desktop Effects:

Many Linux distributions are now embracing desktop effects as a default feature that can be enabled after installation; openSUSE 10.2 is no different. If your hardware allows it, you can enable desktop effects by going to the new Control Center and from there choosing "Desktop Effects". The desktop effects that you get are courtesy Compiz. The dialog provides a few tab with options on customizing your effects.

Although this method is extremely simple to use, I prefer having more control over what effects I want and how they are to be used. In light of the new Compiz/ Beryl merger, I decided to go with the all new (and unstable) CompizFusion. Providing the best of both worlds (Beryl and Compiz), CompizFusion is the way to go! Installing CompizFusion is actually a very simple process, which is wonderfully explained and shown on the CyberOrg blog. In my experience, Compiz performs much better than Beryl, although it does lack some of Beryl's cutting-edge plugins and features.

Security:

openSUSE 10.2 is an incredibly secure Linux distribution. Yes, as is their nature, most Linux distributions are secure, but openSUSE takes it to a new level. The secret weapon? AppArmor. From the AppArmor information page: "AppArmor is designed to address the application security problem, which is to ensure that attackers cannot cause applications to do something undesirable." It does just that, providing excellent application level access controls, while being easier to maintain and configure than SELinux.

Thoughts:

Overall, I found using openSUSE 10.2 to be a very enjoyable experience. The one of the major downfalls that I came across was YaST. I am definitely not a fan of YaST. Ever since SUSE 9.3, I have been hoping and hoping for a better YaST, but I have yet to see even one major improvement. However powerful it may be, I just don't like its overall interface, and the package manager is dreadfully slow. I think the openSUSE team needs to spend just a bit more time to performance tune YaST and maybe touch up on the interface (especially the package manager). I can see how many people find YaST to be an excellent tool, and I encourage everybody to try it out for themselves.

My only other gripe about openSUSE 10.2 is the updater, which needs to be manually configured to see your third-party repositories. I really wish that it would automatically recognize the repositories that you configured through YaST. It is by far the worst updater I have come across, bested by both Fedora and Ubuntu.

On a much brighter note, I absolutely adore openSUSE 10.2's look and feel. The default Gnome desktop is so professional looking and aesthetic that it really doesn't need to be changed around much. Add to that the extraordinary new menu and control center, and you have a recipe for awesomeness.

In my experience, performance was excellent. Applications responded quickly and I felt that I never had to wait to long for something to open. Boot up was good, although it took just a tad longer than Ubuntu or Windows. Sadly, this excellence is greatly marred by YaST and the incredibly slow internet I experienced (no, I know it is not a connection issue, this same connection is perfect in Ubuntu and Windows).

I truly wish I could say that I wanted to switch to openSUSE, but it just won't happen. However great it feels, the internet issue and YaST will keep me from using this distro anytime soon. I can see that the openSUSE team has payed immense attention to detail, and I commend them greatly for that. They have created a distribution that is displays the best of what Linux has to offer.

To me, openSUSE is like that luxury car you want, but just can't have because it isn't economical.

Overall rating: 6/10

Controversy: What review of openSUSE would be complete without a comment on the controversy Novell has created in the Linux community? When Novell first made the deal with Microsoft, of course I was appalled, but I believe that people are taking out their anger on the wrong people! The developers of openSUSE strive to make a great Linux distro, and want to bring Linux to both the personal desktop and the workplace. I am sure that many of its developers were not in agreement with the Novell - Microsoft deal, and seeing people bash openSUSE makes me question what kind of community I am part of. Do I think that what Novell did to the Linux community is wrong? Of course! But will I take my anger out by not respecting a great Linux distribution? I don't think so. Let us see past the controversy, and embrace openSUSE for what it is, a first-rate Linux distribution made and supported by first-rate members of the open source community. One can only hope that Novell does not steer it in the wrong direction... that would be sad indeed.

Google Desktop for Linux!

2007-06-28T09:27:00.000-04:00

Google has finally released a long-awaited native Linux application: Google Desktop for Linux. As with the already shipping OS X and Windows versions, Google Desktop enables Linux users to search for text inside documents, local email messages, their Web history, and their Gmail accounts.

This first beta version doesn't offer the sidebar and gadgets, which are found in other versions of the application. Those will come later, according to a Google representative, who stated, "We focused most of our efforts on desktop search. Gadgets and sidebar are not supported, but will probably be added in the future."

Well, no pretty sidebar with widgets yet, but that is soon to come! It is great to know that Google is making such an effort to bring their excellent products to all platforms! Download Google Desktop for Linux at the Google Desktop download page. Read more @ DesktopLinux.com.

Amarok 1.4.6 Released!

2007-06-21T21:19:00.000-04:00

Simply put, Amarok is the best media player available for Linux. its team of developers has put much working in to the latest release, 1.4.6, which is now available for download! From the release announcement on the Amarok website:

Your very own Amarok team announces the immediate availability of the latest 1.4 series release, 1.4.6.
So, what's new?
Funky new icon set, featuring KDE4 Oxygen colors by Landy DeField; for 2.0 he will be working to ensure that Amarok has a complete Oxygen icon set.
Default database backend is a lot faster due to a new SQLite version.
A gigantic load of bug fixes, the main focus of this release.
Introducing rockbox support for iPod.

Performance tuning.
More wockas per square inch.
A miracle in software engineering - we added less people to an early software project and made it later, disproving the Mythical Man-Month.
Packaged with FUKITOL.

Looks like another superb release with many improvements on an already magnificent piece of open source software!

Read more @ the Amarok website. Downloads for multiple distributions can be found here.

Lets all give the Amarok Team a big hand for creating one of the best media players in the world! ::claps::

Gutsy Feature Plan

2007-06-19T22:14:00.000-04:00

Now that the set of feature goals planned for Ubuntu 7.10 ("Gutsy
Gibbon") has been largely finalised, it seems like an appropriate point
to announce the plan to the world.

While this is based on the approved blueprints for gutsy[0], which are
expected to be implemented in time, we do release according to a
time-based schedule[1] rather than a feature-based one. It is not
unusual for some planned features to be delayed to later releases;
happily it is also not unusual for our developers to introduce neat
features we weren't expecting either.

-> https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/gutsy/
-> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GutsyReleaseSchedule

This is shaping up to be another great release! The best features so far seem to be Xorg 7.3 and the newly merged Compiz and Beryl projects (compcomm/OpenCompositing) for a default window manager. Regardless of what gets done, there are some really good ideas on this post so read up!

Read more @ the Ubuntu mailing list (see links above for even more info).

Fedora 7: A Final Look

2007-06-19T20:53:00.000-04:00

The time has come to say goodbye to Fedora 7. Over a week has gone by now since I installed the OS on my hard drive and later on a virtual machine. Lets take a short look and see just how Fedora 7 fares as a desktop distribution.

Installation:

Installation of Fedora 7 was a very nice experience. The installer is simple enough for almost anyone to use, but still provides enough power for even advanced users to be satisfied. Although the partitioner offered in the install is not quite as "pretty" as the one the Ubuntu offers, it does seem to have a few more advanced features and certainly does its job very well.

Unlike the Ubuntu installer, the Fedora 7 installer allows for customized package selection. This is a very important feature considering that after installation, if an Internet connection isn't present, software installation (through the package manager) is not possible. In my opinion, this option for customization alone puts the Fedora installer above Ubuntu's.

Overall, installation is a simple procedure that shouldn't take much longer than about 45 minutes, but depends on your package selection.

Hardware Detection:

I never managed to get my RT2500-based wireless card working in Fedora 7. I tried nearly every driver available, and still did not get a connection. The card was always detected but was I was never able to activate the device. I know that out of the box, it is a known bug that Fedora 7 will not allow activation/ proper configuration of rt2500-based card. However, it surprised me that none of the drivers I tried worked... not really sure if it was something that I was doing wrong, or just a stubbornness on Fedora's part. In any case, I am sure the issue will be resolved soon (hopefully in a future update).

Aside from my wireless card not working, Fedora 7 properly recognized all my hardware without any problems. Still, Ubuntu recognized all my hardware, including my wireless card, without flaw, and I didn't have to do any tweaking to get it to work, (just had to fill in my network information under the Network manager to get a working internet connection, right out of the box). Wireless support is essential for me, so I have to hand it to Ubuntu for giving me the best experience in this category.

Installation of the nVidia driver is incredibly easy on both distros, although Ubuntu has a slight upper hand with its "Restricted Drivers Manager". Fedora 7 actually works best with a custom nVidia driver from the Livna repository (follow the link for more information).

Since reviewing a distribution without an internet connection is rather pointless, I went ahead and installed Fedora 7 on a virtual machine through VMware Workstation. All my "virtual" hardware was detected, and I finally had a working Internet connection.

Look and Feel:

Out of the box, Fedora 7 looks much, much better than Ubuntu. The "Flying High" theme is elegant and very appealing, unlike Ubuntu's dreadful "Human" theme. Both the KDE and Gnome desktop environments are available through the installer, and either one can be easily installed after the other. Fonts too look excellent.
For the greater part of the week, I have been using KDE as my primary desktop environment. KDE is great because it allows me to use my beloved SuperKaramba app for awesome desktop widgets! I never really like the default KDE look for any distro, no different for Fedora 7, so I made ample customizations to suite my taste.
As with any Linux distribution, customization is endless, so if you don't like something... CHANGE IT!

Package Management:

Before I used Fedora 7, I had a downright horrible opinion of RPM style package management, mainly attributed to horrible experiences with SUSE. But, after spending just a week with Fedora 7 and yum, my opinion has made a full turn in the other direction. Yum, together with Yumex and the Livna repository, made installation of packages incredibly simple. Never once did I experience RPM hell, even when installing rather obscure, or random apps from the Internet. I really must say that Fedora 7, contrary to my initial beliefs, has proved to be excellent in managing packages.

General Thoughts:

Working with Fedora 7 has been a great experience, rivaling that of Ubuntu. However, although this is an excellent distribution, I feel that there is nothing really special about Fedora. There isn't much that sets it apart from other distributions. It isn't really hard to setup, but it isn't quite as easy as Ubuntu, and once its set up, theres not much to do that I couldn't do with other distributions. Perhaps I have not dug deep enough into Fedora 7, or I may just not have enough know-how to tell when something is spectacular in a subtle way, so I may very well be wrong. Perhaps Fedora 7 shines in areas other than the Desktop (maybe its great for servers, or for corporate solutions), which I was not able to explore. Then again, maybe Fedora 7 is just a great blank slate for you to build an ultimate desktop install, just as you see fit, free from any obstructions. If you have anything to share about what makes Fedora 7 great for you, by all means do so (just comment)!

Recommended?

Sure, why not. Really, there is no reason that you shouldn't use Fedora 7, although there really isn't any reason you should. Setup is easy enough, and all packages are up to date, if not quite bleeding edge. Still, I really do urge you to give Fedora 7 a try, as I believe it holds great potential.

Rating:

Let's say I had to give Fedora 7 a rating in the form of a number 1-10 (1 being the lowest, 10 the highest). I would have to say that Fedora 7 is a 7. The only reason it lost points was because my wireless card, although detected, could not be configured or activated (which may very well be different for other people) and just because the distro lacked that special "something" that would make it really stand out. *Keep in mind this score is very subjective, and only reflects what I feel after using the distro for a week*

Here's a quick screen shot of my final Fedora 7 desktop:

Enable Complete Media Playback in Fedora 7

2007-06-19T20:28:00.000-04:00

As we all know, Fedora 7 ships without support for playing MP3s, DVDs, and many other media types that we are exposed to every day. The default repositories don't offer much help with this problem, but luckily it is an easy one to fix.

First, we must add the Livna repository. This can be done through the following command issued as root:

rpm -Uhv http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-VERSION.rpm
The Livna repository provides an excellent array of packages to satisfy most all your needs.

To install all the packages necessary to enable MP3, DVD, and other media playback, issue the following command:

yum -y install totem-xine totem-xine-plparser rhythmbox mplayerplug-in mplayer mplayer-gui xine-lib-extras-nonfree libdvdcss libdvdread libdvdplay libdvdnav lsdvd libdvbpsi compat-libstdc++-33

This method was found through an excellent guide on the Fedora Forums. PLEASE READ THROUGH THIS GUIDE. I could reproduce it here, but it would simply be a waste of time as it works splendidly as it is, and will answer all your questions. Check it out to satisfy all your media cravings!

So Close, Yet So Far...

2007-06-14T17:48:00.000-04:00

Today I once again tried to get my wireless card working in Fedora 7. Still no success, but I believe that I am very near to a solution.
The Linux drivers I was using for the card just weren't working... so why not try the Windows drivers? Using ndiswrapper, I successfully installed the Windows drivers for my wireless card which I got of the driver CD. This was actually extremely simple. After installing ndiswrapper, I found the necessary .inf and .sys files on the Windows driver CD required for installation. To get the driver installed I merely issued the following command in the directory of the .inf and .sys files:

# /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -i rt2500.inf
After that I ran

#/sbin/modprobe ndiswrapper
Just to make sure that the driver was loaded. After this I opened up the /etc/modprobe.conf file and added the new line:

alias ra0 ndiswrapper
I then proceeded with configuring the card through the Network configuration tool. The card was properly recognized as ra0. After configuring the card, I hit activate and crossed my fingers...
Well, it failed. BUT, it didn't give me the error this time saying that the card wasn't present. It just wasn't able to retrieve any ip information.
I am really hoping that this has brought me closer to solving my problem (which I think it has), but it has also brought me to a sort of road block. It seems as though I have everything configured properly, and apparently the card is detected and it is configurable. So what is missing? What is going wrong? Here are some screenshots of my current situation:

If anybody has any help to offer, I would appreciate it :-) See my thread @ the Fedora Forums.

Open-Source R500 Driver Released

2007-06-13T20:21:00.000-04:00

Via Phoronix:

The very first (and very rudimentary) open-source Xorg driver for the ATI Radeon X1000 "R500" series has been released! However, before downloading it, this driver only contains code to initialize and set video modes on the Radeon X1300 to X1600 graphics cards. RandR 1.2 support for the R500 driver is being worked on and may surface shortly. Their current road-map is for getting the Radeon X1600 to X1900 series initialize using this driver, add the RandR 1.2 support, add simple 2D acceleration, work on R500 3D reverse engineering, and implement TTM DRM for memory management. Today's first open-source driver release for the R500 series is available through git on FreeDesktop.org. As this driver progresses we will provide additional information and ultimately benchmarks. The release announcement can be read on the Xorg list.

Great to hear that something is being done about the horrible state of ATI Linux drivers! Although the drivers won't be bringing you the latest and greatest 3D acceleration, this is a very important step towards full ATI card support in Linux. As it stands, cards from the X1300 series up to the X1600 work:

The code released today is able to initialise and set video modes on rv515 and rv530 (X1300 up to X1600); we still lack proper initialisation for r520 & r580 (X1800 and above, some X1600) because of lack of time and hardware.

On the roadmap:

Find out missing bits for r520 and r580 hardware initialisation
RandR 1.2 support with a dumb memory allocator
Simple 2D acceleration (we will put more focus on 3D acceleration as now Xorg provides infrastructure to best utilise 3D drivers to display the desktop, thanks to the Glucose interface)
3D reverse engineering: We believe that this engine is very similar to the r300 3D engine which has already mostly been reverse engineered
TTM DRM driver for proper memory management
and likely port the driver to new DRM modesetting work.

Sounds good! I can't wait until ATI cards are once again viable options when using Linux. I had been eying the X1650PRO for a while, as it often delivers superior performance to nVidia's 7900GS. However, I guess I'll wait for a 8800GTS :-)

Once again, read the official release announcement on the Xorg list.

Yay for yum and yumex!

2007-06-13T15:44:00.001-04:00

It seems as though my postings on Fedora 7 have become a daily occurrence now. There is much to say, and the more time I spend with Fedora 7, the more I like it!

I believe my bias against RPM is beginning to leave me, and I am beginning to see that RPM is a very viable package management system. The reason for this sudden support of RPM is yum. Yum is awesome. I could leave it at that... or continue. Let's continue, with a bit of history to start stuff off.

Part of the reason I like the Debian method of packages management is because of apt. Apt makes installing and updating so incredibly easy, I never have to worry about dependencies or anything of the sort. I just "sudo apt-get install package" and its done.

When I was working with SUSE back in the 9.0/ 10.0/ 10.1 days, Yast was the only viable method I had for installing packages. Needless to say, it often didn't work out too well. Its then lack of support of gpg keys and rather poor mirror/ repository management made finding myself in dependency hell a commonplace occurrence. After moving to Ubuntu, I didn't think I'd ever try RPM style package management again. Until now.

Like I said, yum is awesome. Yum and Fedora 7 have really made me reconsider RPM based distros. Not only is yum extremely easy to use, but it also handles dependencies excellently. This again probably has to do with the repositories too, but so far I have not come across a package that I couldn't install due to dependency conflicts. The Fedora 7 package installer is also excellent, although a better application to manage your packages is Yum Extender:

Yum Extender, or yumex for short, is a great extension to yum. Just as synaptic is a GUI to apt, Yum extender is a GUI for yum. It is a very powerful GUI which lets you easily select what repositories to use (and not to use), install, update, remove packages from list of available packages, and quickly search through all packages. If you doesn't feel quite confident with CLI yum, but want more features than the standard Fedora package installer, yumex is the answer.
Installing yummex is just about as easy as managing packages with it! Simply yum it:

su
yum install yumex

Although a simple screenshot doesn't do it justice, here is hint of what yummex has to offer:

UPDATE: There is one downside of yumex that I failed to mention before. Fact is, yumex is slow. It just will not deliver top-notch performance. This is perhaps its only downside, but one with fairly major implications if you are one wanting instant gratification. Still, yumex is an excellent GUI for Linux newcomers and is great for looking up that occasional obscure package or getting information about available updates.

As for repositories, I have found rpm.livna.org to be excellent. Anything that isn't included in the default Fedora repositories can be found here. That means that through livna you can find packages enabling mp3 and dvd playback, along with the new NTFS driver for read/ write support of your NTFS/ FAT32 disks (a HOW-TO on enabling these features in a later post).

I'm liking Fedora 7 more and more now that I have it fully working in my VM. I continue to customize Although my wireless problems remain unsettled in my physical install, I must say that I could have done more research on the topic before installing. My bad I guess, although full wireless support right out of the box would have been nice :)

Fedora is shaping up to be an ever more excellent distro. I would definitely recommend it so far, although perhaps not to complete beginners with Linux as there is still a bit of tweaking that goes into getting everything just right. But, as far as that goes... there is nothing that can't be fixed with community help :-)

More On Fedora 7: Wireless Woes and Second Opinions

2007-06-12T21:34:00.000-04:00

After my second day using Fedora 7, I believe that enough of my opinions have changed to warrant a second post about the distro. Lets jump right in:

Wireless Woes:

Still no wireless Internet. This is becoming a rather vexing problem, as I have yet to find a solution to what may be the biggest problem I am experiencing with Fedora 7. After trying a multitude of drivers, both from the rt2x00 project (rt2x00.serialmonkey.com) and the official Ralink Linux drivers, I have yet to come upon a driver that works (some don't even compile) and is properly recognized. A quick Google search for "rt2500 fedora 7" shows that I am not the only one with this problem. The guide on the "Life With Linux" blog looked very promising, however when I try to activate the wireless device I get the following error:

rt2500 device wlan0 does not seem to be present, delaying initialization

This error just won't go away, and seeing as I cannot accomplish much without a working Internet connection, I have had to resort to "Plan B" for now:

A New Testbed:

Since Fedora 7 stubbornly refuses to allow configuration and activation of my wireless card, I have gone ahead and installed Fedora 7 in a virtual machine using VMware Workstation. In doing so, I now have a working internet connection. Until I get my wireless issues worked out on the physical install, I will be using the virtual machine off my Ubuntu install. Hopefully, I can in this way more justly review Fedora 7.

Package Management:

My last post has received a number of comments criticizing my criticizing of the RPM package management method. I must admit that bad experiences with SUSE and RPM in the past have made for my biased view against RPM. My comments on the system where perhaps not fully justified as I have yet to truly experiment with Fedora's "yum" system. This system, as a reader pointed out, is pretty much apt-get for RPM. After some experimenting in my virtual machine, I must say that yum is doing an excellent job of managing dependencies. However, I have yet to try to install applications I randomly grab from the internet (these were the ones that often threw the weirdest dependencies at me in SUSE).

Another aspect of package management that many people fail to consider is the repository. Repositories are where your packages come from, so to say. They are places where people have created huge compilations of applications, and (hopefully) their dependencies, for you (the user) to chose from (think of them as apple trees, and the packages are the apples). A good repository means a pleasant experience finding and installing packages. Ubuntu has a wealth of excellent repositories which encompass nearly ever package available for the distribution. Rarely must I go out and find a dependency for a package I want to install. Say I am compiling from source, and I need a specific library to properly compile the package. I have always been able to simply apt-get the library instead of having to search for the library and compile it from source. I am hoping that Fedora will be the same way.

Tomorrow I will begin the journey to find the best repositories for Fedora 7. When I have found these, I will proceed to test the RPM system and uncover the true power of yum. I am hoping that I will end the week with a more informed opinion of RPM and Fedora 7.

One More Annoyance:

One truly annoying error I keep getting when using my physical install of Fedora is the inability to use a GUI for installing RPMs, even when straight off the Fedora DVD. The error is apparently linked to my non existent internet/ network connection.

I receive this error even when selecting an RPM that I have right in front of me, as in...on the Fedora DVD. Perhaps this again is a case of a poorly configured repository (maybe it doesn't realize that the DVD is there to be used). I will see about fixing this tomorrow if I can find where the repositories are configured in Fedora (something like apt's sources.list file?). Still, one would think that such a situation be accounted for automatically.

What I'm Liking:

Fedora feels... nice. Not sure how to describe it, but it feels elegant. Not over done, but with noticeable attention payed to detail. Fonts are clear and crisp, colors are appealing to the senses, and even the "Flying High" / bluish theme is really growing on me (I have however changed the desktop wallpaper). Also, performance is noticeably snappier than Ubuntu. Applications open quickly and respond smoothly and instantaneously. Windows dragged around update position at once, leaving no trail behind them (this is a problem I have been recently experiencing in Ubuntu). Overall, the distro's look and feel is very professional but light enough to fit in any environment.

More on Fedora 7 in later posts!

Day 1 With Fedora 7

2007-06-11T19:37:00.001-04:00

Please view my new post on Fedora 7!

Although I don't intend to keep daily journals of my trials of various Linux distributions this summer, I will chronicle the first day I spend with each distro. The first day with any new operating system (or variant) is a day when "first impressions" are conceived and ultimately, judgment is made (I know, I know, one is not to judge anything at first glance, but who doesn't form a bias for or against something after the first encounter?). And so, after slight delay, I start my adventure into the wide (wild?) world of Linux distributions: First stop, Fedora 7.

The Install:

Installing Fedora was very straight forward. After choosing my default language and keyboard layout, I was met with some partitioning options. Opting for a "custom setup", the partitioner that the Fedora installer provides leaves little to be desired for a basic install. I was able to select which disk partitions I wanted to use, which of these I wanted to format, and where I wanted each partition to be mounted. I chose to use my home partition from my Ubuntu install, and everything appeared to work well.

Along the install process I was also able to chose whether or not to install a boot loader. I chose yes, and was presented with options on adding other distros to boot. By default, it detected Windows on my first hard drive, but failed to notice Ubuntu. I added the root partition where Ubuntu was installed on to the list, but upon boot, I did not see an entry for Ubuntu in the GRUB menu. This was not a huge problem as I was easily able to manually edit the GRUB menu.lst file and add an entry for Ubuntu. For first timers to Linux, the most important issue was that the installer detected Windows, and allowed for an easy dual boot setup.

As with all installs, I was asked which timezone I was in after which I was asked to set the root password.

Moving on, I was offered to customize my package selection. Choosing to do so, I was able to select or de-select large package groups, such as games, office productivity, editors, and others. This step also presented me with an option of which desktop environment to install. ~~I generally like to see a more detailed and customizable approach to package selection, as openSUSE and other distros provide.~~

EDIT: Upon reviewing the installation process in a VMware virtual machine, I noticed that one can in fact choose exactly which packages to install. This can be done by click on "Optional Packages."

Including configuration, Fedora 7 took a little over half and hour to install.

Overall, the installer was very simple to use, but also surprisingly powerful. Instructions were always readily available and one could read the release notes at any time.

Initial Boot:

As I mentioned before, the installer did not manage to add Ubuntu to the GRUB menu, however I was able to load Fedora without any problems.

While the OS was loading, I notice that my screen was way off, and that a good 2 or so inches were off the screen. Adjusting my monitor did not help this problem. Apparently my resolution was not detected and the nVidia drivers were not installed.

Next problem came when startup tried to activate my network connection, which it thought was an Ethernet connection. It took forever to realize that it just wasn't going to get ip information from a non existent connection, and finally just [FAILED].

The setup following installation held no surprises. I was asked if I wanted to configure a Firewall and if I wanted to enforce SELinux. After this I was asked to set the date and time. Next came a screen outlining my hardware profile which I was asked to send in to Fedora to help with development. Since my internet connection did not work at that point, I had to choose not to send the information. Then came user creation and finally a test of my sound card (it worked).

On attempting to log on I was presented with a wonderful error saying that I didn't have permissions to my own home directory. This did not let me log on, and even made X crash. Interesting error considering I just installed the operating system. I messed with a few permission but nothing worked. Then... it dawned on me: I shared this home partition with my Ubuntu install and I have the same user name with both. So, it created the new "linnerd40" folder in the home partition over my other "linnerd40" folder from my Ubuntu install. However, the "linnerd40" folder was still only accessible to Ubuntu. Great. Since time was running rather short, I decided to go for another install, this time just letting the root and home partitions be the same (not the way I like to set stuff up). This worked.

Before going any further, I added Ubuntu to the GRUB menu.lst file so that in the case of an emergency, I had at least one stable operating system to boot into. I rebooted and tested going into Ubuntu. Everything worked, until login. I received the same error as I had when I tried to log into Fedora. Apparently, when tampering with the permissions in Fedora, I had screwed up access to my own home folder in Ubuntu. I messed with some more permissions and ended up fixing the problem (with some help from the Internets) using the following commands:

sudo chown -R linnerd40 /home/
sudo chmod 700 /home/

Yay for the command line! Long story short, Ubuntu and Fedora now work.

First Impressions:

After a successful login, I was greeted by a fairly decent looking Gnome desktop. The new "Flying High" theme is not going to be winning any awards but appeals more to me than Ubuntu's "Human" theme. First on my list of problems to fix was the screen resolution. After pulling the latest copy of nVidia's Linux driver from my flash drive, I killed X and went into run level three (run: /sbin/init 3) for the install of the driver. However, installation failed when it detected that gcc-devel was not installed. So, I got back into X and searched for an application for installing packages. I found an "Add or Remove Programs" entry in one of the menus and tried that. However, it gave me an error saying that package information could not be retrieved due to lack of a network connection. I popped in the Fedora 7 DVD and tried installing packages from there. I found the .rpm file I needed in the FEDORA directory on the DVD, but upon trying to open the file to install it, I received the same error. This was extremely aggravating as installing from a .rpm file that was present on my hard drive (I copied it from the DVD) should not require a network connection. So, I went with the command line method of:

rpm -ivh package.rpm
This worked... but immediately I found myself in dependency hell. To install gcc, I needed glibc, but I also needed glibc-devel which needed glib-headers which needed the kernel-devel package. Perhaps that wasn't quite the order, but needless to say, I was searching for and install packages for a quite while. RPM dependency hell was why I stopped using SUSE. Apt is a much more efficient method of package management and I don't see why a distro wouldn't use it.

EDIT: Upon reevaluation of Fedora 7 in my VM (with working Internet), I see that some of what I said above is unjust. Yes, RPMs do have a tendency to lead to dependency hell, as I experienced much with SUSE and previous versions of Fedora. However, yum (the package manager used in Fedora) does handle dependencies quite well, much better than I had remembered. A simple:

yum install gcc
fixed my problems. Still, I prefer apt/ Debian style package management over RPM any day.

After going through hell to get all the packages I needed, I was finally able to install the nVidia driver. I then set my screen resolution using the nVidia- xconfig tool and was well on my way to a more pleasant desktop experience.

The next problem I wanted to tackle was wireless support. Although my card was detected (rt2500 chipset), it was impossible to configure it correctly. Using this guide I was able to get very close to success, but I continued to get errors when trying to activate the device. As of yet, I have not found a fix.

So far... :

So far, my experience with Fedora has been less than enjoyable. However, I hope that after spending a week with Fedora, I will change my mind. It seems like a very stable and thought-out distribution. The default package selection is excellent using Firefox for web browsing, GIMP for image manipulation, Pidgin for instant messaging, Rhythmbox for multimedia playing, and many other stable software selections to fulfill the daily needs of any average computer user. The Fedora team has made a great effort to provide a usable, friendly installer while allowing for advanced configuration and has done so superbly. Back when I first started with Linux, Fedora Core 4 was one of the first distros I tried to install. I had to give up on it since my wireless card was not detected, and at the time I did not know how to fix such problems. Fedora has definitely evolved since Core 4, and I am certain that once I get my wireless card working I will be able to see its true power.

Moving Partitions and GRUB Errors...

2007-06-05T11:04:00.000-04:00

Summer has finally come! And with summer comes the onset of my latest project: install and review a new Linux distro every week (until mid-July that is, when I am off for Germany)! I want to experience what Linux really has to offer, so I am leaving Ubuntu for a while (although it will still be on my hard drive) and trying out a number of different distros that have piqued my interest over the last few years.

In preparation for this project, I first had to decide where I was going to house these new distros on my hard drive. In other words, it was time to update the my partition scheme. Before, I had a fairly basic layout: just a /home partition (about two thirds of my hard drive), a / (root) partition (about a third of my hard drive), and a swap partition (one gigabyte). If I wanted to try out new distros, I would have to change things up a bit. So, I pulled out my handy dandy Gparted LiveCD and started moving things around:

To start off with, I shrank my home partition from about 160 gigs to around 100.
Next, I had to move my root partition over a bit to the "left". Since my root partition was 60gigs and every single byte had to be copied over to the new sector , this did take a while... about 4 and a half hours to be exact.
After that, I simply created a new partition of again, around 60 gigs formated in ext3 style.

GParted made all these steps exceedingly easy, and after the desired operations where complete, my new partition layout was ready to go. My plan is to use a common /home partition for my distros, and a common swap space. The extra partition can be split up further to give me even more room for distros (right now, I plan on only having two install at one time: Ubuntu (current) and one other distro- but that may well change). As I was soon to see, the fun was just beginning.

Upon reboot, I was greeted by... nothing. No GRUB. "No problem," I thought to myself, "I'll just pull out the Unofficial Super GRUB disk and have GRUB restored in no time!" So, I go ahead and boot up into the LiveCD. Or try to... Seems I few settings in my BIOS were mixed up, and booting from a CD or DVD was third on the boot list. After switching that around, the Super GRUB disk booted flawlessly, and after navigating through a few menus and pressing ENTER a few times, I was told that GRUB was restored (chalk up another victory for SGD!). Again: or so I thought...

Yes, GRUB was back, BUT every time I tried to select an operating system from the list, I recieved the rather cryptic error message:

Error 22: partition not found
Great... were my partitions screwed up? Would I never see my precious Ubuntu install again? After the initial shock, the problem solving and trouble-shooting part of my brain jumped into action. Not for long however, as I decided to retire for the night (the GRUB error would haunt my dreams... literally!). So, this morning, I got up and set to working trying to get GRUB working again. I reconsidered the error, and in a way it made sense. I moved my root partition, and now GRUB can't find it. OK, well, I don't like it... but I should be able to fix it.
First on my list: check the menu.lst file. Booting into a Ubuntu LiveCD I had lying around, I quickly browsed the GRUB configuration files and took a close look at my menu.lst file. Nothing strange there, it was just how I had left it.
Next, I tried reinstalling GRUB. To do this, I booted into the Ubuntu LiveCD again, and opened up a terminal. The follow should have done the trick:

$ sudo grub
grub > find /boot/grub/stage1
grub > root(hd1,2)
grub > setup (hd1)
grub > quit

A bit of explanation: "find /boot/grub/stage1" will return the value in the form hd?,?. The two ?s should be used in the next steps (ie: for me, it returned hd1,2 so I used hd1,2 in the root and setup commands).
Hoping that this would work, I rebooted. Fingers crossed, I watching anxiously as GRUB loaded. I selected Ubuntu from the list and... * heart sinks * "Error 22: Partition not found". Great... Now what?

Not wanting to spend for ever figuring this out, I did a minimal install of Ubuntu 6.10 on my new partition. In doing this, I hope that GRUB would be reinstalled and reconfigured freshly. Again.. no luck. I tried reinstalling and setting up GRUB using the above method using the values for the new partition I had just installed Ubuntu on (I did this because I now probably had 2 GRUB configurations on 2 different partitions, and the old configuration was being used (being on the "nearest" parition, and already being setup). A nice stream of logic I suppose... but again, no go.

Then, the thought hit me, "What if this isn't GRUB's fault, and its my BIOS sending it the wrong value or something." I thought back to when I configured the boot order, and remembered maybe switching the order of my hard drives. Interesting... I thought I was on to something. Entering the BIOS of my motherboard, I hit F9, which restored the "optimal defaults." This basically reset all my settings (I lost my perfect overclock... but hey, that can be redone). Fearing the worst once again, I restarted and chose Ubuntu (7.04) off the GRUB menu. What do you know! It worked! The whole time, the problem had merely been a mixed up setting in my BIOS!

To say the least, I am incredibly relieved now, and will sleep in peace tonight (no random interruptions of my dreams by Linux, partitions, and GRUB).

Now I can go ahead with my project of installing a new Linux distro every week. First on the list: Fedora 7 (in light of the recent release). Other distros I will be trying: PCLinuxOS, openSUSE, Gentoo, Mandriva, Debian, and maybe a few others (depends on how much time I have!). I'll be posting updates regularly!

Tux500: Linux penguin to race in the Indy 500

2007-05-27T09:57:00.000-04:00

Penguins, start your engines. If you watch the Indianapolis 500 on TV this Sunday, look closely at blue No. 77 car and you might see a penguin running at more than 250 mph.
Two enthusiasts have taken it upon themselves to make Linux a household name by organizing a grassroots effort called Tux 500. It is aimed at raising money to help sponsor an Indianpolis 500 race car operated by Chastain Motorsports.

The Tux500 program has been caught in much controversy over the last few weeks, as quite a few members of the open source community had labeled it as a scam or complete nonsense. However, it is now official that Linux will in fact be a sponsor on the No. 77 car at the Indy 500. You can check out some pics of the car @ C|Net News.

Still, the question remains... is this the right kind of advertising for Linux? I mean, will people watching it at the Indy500 actually know what Linux is, or even care? I headed on over to where this story was submitted on digg and took a look at what some people had to say about all of this. Schestowitz, I believe, has the right answer:

The words stick in people's heads and when they see it on the shelf or a person's computer they'll think differently. It's like branding.

I really do think that people will notice it, and when they see or hear of it again, they will think differently. Since Tux is also such an endearing mascot, it should be easy for people to remember. And just a handful of people who actually saw Tux and were intrigued by the Linux name look it up and spread the word, Linux will be that much more successful.

Another excellent point was made by masterr:

It's not about the actual air time for the logo it self. The whole point of the Tux 500 project was to stir up news in the mainstream media, and it worked. I have already seen 2 articles on non-tech news sources that have talked about it.

This is also very true. One cannot say that the Tux500 hasn't brought Linux out a bit more into the limelight. I too have seen many stories about the Tux500 in places that generally don't discuss Linux all too much. This kind of exposure can in many ways be more beneficial than the actual ad on the car, as people reading about it online are more likely to look up Linux and maybe even give it a try. Although this seems to scream "publicity stunt" or something of the like, I believe the leaders of the Tux500 project have brought some much needed exposure to Linux, and done so in a very effective way.

But, does all of this shine the right light on Linux? With some very prominent adversaries of the project, will people reading about the Tux500 be lured into the Linux/ open source community, or will they be scared away? I believe that the awareness stimulated by the Tux500 project has definitely been of good intent and excellent outcome, marred only by non-supports who have decided to spread FUD about the project. Yes, perhaps being a sponsor on an Indy car is not the right place to promote Linux, but is accusing those that support the project doing any good? Everybody has a right to their own opinion on a matter, but diatribe against those who have the initiative to actually do something to bring Linux into the mainstream to is not helping anything, and can only scare people away for Linux. Despite what people might have thought about the program before, it can definitely not be called a scam, as it did what it promised; there is actually an "ad" for Linux on a car in the Indy 500. What have these "accusers" done but blemish the light that has fallen upon Linux? A light, that had only the aim to help Linux. After all, I am sure we can all agree that any sort of advertising for Linux is a good thing.

Ubuntu Now Shipping on Select Dell Systems!

2007-05-27T09:48:00.000-04:00

Well, it has finally become a reality. Dell is now officially offering Ubuntu Linux on the Dimension E520 N, Inspiron E1505 N, and XPS 410 N platforms.

You asked, we listened. For advanced users and tech enthusiasts, we’re happy to offer a new open-source operating system, so you can dive in and truly enjoy a PC experience just the way you want it. In addition to the FreeDOS systems we already offer, we are proud to announce PCs with Ubuntu.

The systems are very well equipped and start at $599 for a desktop (Dimension E520 N) with Core 2 Duo processor, 1 gig of DDR2 RAM, and a 250gig hard drive. In general, all systems are very nicely equipped and are priced below their Vista toting siblings.

I am very anxious to see how this all turns out. People around the Linux/ open source community have been in much discussion about whether this is a good move for Linux in general. Some say it is, while others say it will spell Ubuntu's doom. Personally, I believe that this is a great step forward, and should be viewed as a great accomplishment for Linux.

Read more @ the Dell homepage or go ahead and shop for Ubuntu based systems.

VM enables "write-once, run anywhere" Linux apps

2007-05-27T09:10:00.000-04:00

A startup in Alameda, Calif. plans to release a kind of holy software grail the third or fourth week of June. Lina said its dual-licensed Lina virtual Linux machine will run more or less normal Linux applications under Windows, Mac, or Linux, with a look and feel native to each.
The concept recalls Java, which has long promised "write once, run anywhere" compatibility. As with Java, Lina users will first install a VM specific to their platform, after which they can run binaries compiled not for their particular OS, but for the VM, which aims to hide OS-specific characteristics from the application.
In Lina's case, the VM is essentially a Linux environment that supports standard C/C++ applications, or even perl and python, if their respective interpreters are installed. CTO Nile Geisinger explained, "You have to compile binaries specifically for Lina, but it's fairly trivial, no different than compiling binaries for SuSE or Red Hat."
In the big picture, the goal is really to bring the huge world of open source software to the masses, said Geisinger, explaining, "We work in an office park with dozens of companies, and we're the only Linux users. Everyday, we are motivated to bring all the fantastic open source applications to the rest of the world."

This looks like some extremely exciting software. If this really does work as it promises, it will open up a whole new world for open source and Linux, letting people run whatever open source software they want to, regardless of operating system. Read more about it @ Linux Devices.com or visit the LINA homepage.

Media Keys Working In Amarok

2007-05-24T16:21:00.001-04:00

Hello all!
Great news today! I have finally been able to get my media keys on my Saitek Eclipse II keyboard! A million thanks to Boni over at the Amarok forums. He replied to my thread with the simple advice:

Disable all the Shotcuts for Media Playback in System > Settings > Hotkeys in your Ubuntu

So, I went under System -> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts, and disable all the shortcuts by pressing backspace. I booted up Amarok, set my media keys and... IT WORKED! A billion times thanks to Boni again. This is what I love about Linux, people helping people. I love it! Now to listen to some music with my functioning hotkeys.

A Day Without X

2007-05-21T19:08:00.000-04:00

Perhaps the nightmare of some Linux users, a day without X seems.... well, impossible. Or, rather, unlivable. However, Luke over @ Terminally Incoherent has present us with a great list of CLI based tools to do everything you ever wanted to do! That's what makes Linux great, through the use of curses and/or framebuffer, one can create functional user interfaces without ever having to start X or any other window system. The article covers everything from web browsing, all the way to listening to music and watching videos!
I highly recommend reading this and checking out some of the tools described, as you never know when you might find yourself in a X-less world...
Read more @ Terminally Incoherent.

IBM Boasts "Fastest Chip Ever"

2007-05-21T18:59:00.000-04:00

IBM claims to have doubled the performance (or halved the power requirements, depending on your point of view) of its top-end processor for servers and mid-range systems. The dual-core "Power6" processor clocks to 4.7GHz, has 8MB of L2 cache, and breaks four widely used Unix performance benchmarks, according to the company.

Features of this beast include:

300GBps processor bandwidth -- claimed to be 30 times greater than Intel's Itanium

First UNIX microprocessor able to calculate decimal floating point arithmetic in hardware

Low-voltage operation, for processor blade applications, and high-voltage operation for SMP server operation

Separate power supply "rails" for circuits that can't support low-voltage operation

Voltage/frequency "slewing"

Dynamic clocking

That's pretty amazing. Read more about it @ LinuxDevices.com.

Need Help With Ubuntu 7.04 and Multimedia Keys in Amarok

2007-05-19T13:42:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: FIXED

Hello readers!
I am hoping someone here can help me. I recently upgraded to Ubuntu Fiesty Fawn 7.04 (see my review here), and everything has been going great, except for one extremely annoying issue. Before upgrading, I was able to flawlessly use the multimedia keys on my Saitek Eclipse II keyboard in Amarok. After upgrading... they don't work anymore :( . That is, Amarok recognizes them (I can set them in the Settings -> Configure Global Shortcuts dialog), but using them while Amarok is running doesn't do anything. They are recognized correctly as using the XF86Audio tags (such as XF86AudioPlay or XF86AudioPrev), but again, they do not work.
It seems as though other users have been having the same trouble: link 1, link 2. However, it doesn't seem as though there are any fixes. My thread in the Ubuntu forums has received no replies despite numerous BUMP's.. so I am calling out to you (readers of this blog) for some help. Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

PS3 fab-to-lab, Part 1: Build Linux lab equipment from a Sony PLAYSTATION 3

2007-05-17T21:14:00.000-04:00

How do you take the Cell Broadband Engine™ (Cell/B.E.) processor from an off-the-shelf Sony® PLAYSTATION® 3 (PS3) and use it to construct a piece of Linux®-based laboratory equipment (in essence, taking the Cell/B.E. from fab to hab to lab)? In this series, Lewin Edwards shows you how to go from game console to simple audio-bandwidth spectrum analyzer and function generator. First up, uncover the design intent of the project and then make a close inspection of the details of the user interface implementation as you start a journey to generate and analyze signals on the Cell/B.E. processor.

IBM developerWorks brings us yet another great HOW-TO type article. This one illustrates how to take the incredibly powerful PS3 and put it to good use. Check it out @ IBM developerWorks.

Linux: 2.6.22-rc1, "You Name It, It's There"

2007-05-13T10:07:00.000-04:00

The latest Linux kernel release is upon us: 2.6.22-rc1. This new release sports a plethora of features, and as Linus puts it, "architecture updates, drivers, filesystems, networking, security, build scripts, reorganizations, cleanups.. You name it, it's there." From the Linux kernel mailing list (full announcement):

Ok, the merge window has closed, and 2.6.22-rc1 is out there.

The diffstat and shortlogs are way too big to fit under the kernel mailing list limits, and the changes are all over the place. Almost seven thousand files changed, and that's not double-counting the files that got moved around.

Architecture updates, drivers, filesystems, networking, security, build scripts, reorganizations, cleanups.. You name it, it's there.

You want a new firewire stack? We've got it. New wireless networking infrastructure? Check. New infiniband drivers? Digital video drivers? A totally new CPU architecture (blackfin)? Check, check, check.

That said, I think (and certainly hope) that this will not be nearly as painful as the big fundamental timer changes for 2.6.21, and while there are some pretty core changes there (like the new SLUB allocator, which hopefully will end up replacing both SLAB and SLOB), it feels pretty
solid, and not as scary as ripping the carpet from under the timer infrastructure.

So give it a good testing. We'll see how the regression tracking ends up working, but in order to actually track that, we want people actively testing -rc1 and making good reports!

-Linus

Overall, an impressive release. Read more @ kerneltrap.org.

ATI Committed To Fixing Its OSS Problems

2007-05-11T19:54:00.000-04:00

Via Slashdot:

"Chris Blizzard blogged from the Red Hat summit that an ATI marketing spokesman said, from the stage, that ATI knows it has a problem with open source and is committed to fixing it. Does this mean ATI will finally resolve alleged agpgart misappropriation, and fast track the release of open source 2D drivers on its latest cards while releasing specifications for its mid-range cards? Or is ATI only concerned with fixes to its binary driver to maintain feature parity with competitors?"

ATI makes some excellent cards (although I am an nVidia-type guy), which in the past I have considered purchasing. However, their terrible Linux drivers have kept me from doing so, and I have decided not to buy any ATI products until they actually put a good effort into their Linux drivers or at least OSS. I am sure many felt the same way. So, technically it is good news to hear that ATI actually does care, or seems to care, about open-source. However, somehow I have a feeling that ATI may not follow through... and if it does, can it repair the damage already done? I have read many a story of a loyal ATI fans who simply became disgusted with ATI and their blatant lack of support for OSS. Many of these people pledged never to return. So the question is: How far will ATI go? Can these "lost" customers be reclaimed?
At the moment, there is not much to read about this yet, and neither are there many official announcements on any ATI or AMD website (yes, the speech is official, but not everybody had the privilege of going). Right now, it seems that all ATI is doing is going up and saying "Yeah, there's a problem, we'll fix it." Somehow... this all sounds kind of hollow. I mean, let's see some code, some action, some drivers! As Linux Torvalds so eloquently put:

Talk is cheap, show me the code.

-Linus Torvalds

Until I actually see these drivers working... I'll have to remain skeptic.
Not to forget, lets hope that these drivers come out before the hardware is obsolete. Having drivers for hardware that is out of date... doesn't really help all too much.
So, basically, I think the general consensus of the community is that until we actually see ATI working actively with OSS standards/ community, we can't really get all too excited.
Looks as though for the time being, you'll have to stick with nVidia.

Read more @ Slashdot and Enterprise Linux Log. Direct link to blog post from the summit @ Christopher Blizzard's blog.

Ubuntu Plans Mobile Linux Version

2007-05-11T18:59:00.000-04:00

Ubuntu Linux developers plan to extend its open-source software development to handheld Internet-enabled devices.
Developers meeting at the Ubuntu Developer Summit, which runs through the end of this week in Seville, Spain, will discuss details of the new Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded project, announced on Saturday.
Ubuntu programmers will develop a mobile version of their Debian-based Linux operating system in collaboration with Intel Corp., which plans a new low-power processor and chipset architecture designed to allow full Internet capability on mobile devices, according to a statement published on the Ubuntu Web site. .... [LINK]

Ubuntu continues to push Linux into the mainstream market, this time with ideas of a mobile version of the already immensely popular Ubuntu Linux distribution. The thought of having Ubuntu running on mobile devices makes the future oh so much brighter. I can't wait to see what kind of awesome user-driven developments and applications come out of this. Interestingly, the release for this mobile version is slated to October... of this year (in time w/ the Ubuntu 7.10 release)! Amazing to think that such great advancements (hopefully) can happen in such a short amount of time. I guess that is the power of the open-source community! A new era for the mobile device approaches... led by Linux!
Read more @ Yahoo news.

ESA Presents the Sharpest Ever Satellite Map of Earth

2007-05-11T18:38:00.000-04:00

The most detailed portraits ever of the Earth's land surface have been created with ESA's Envisat environmental satellite. The portraits are the first products produced as part of the ESA-initiated GlobCover project and are available online.

To say the least, these portraits are amazing. ESA's Envisat satellite has taken pictures of the world in unprecedented resolution. Best of all, its available to most everyone! Read more about it @ the ESA Portal website. You can also start downloading the GlobCover mosaics in the form of a massive Tapisserie de Montreux (7,50 m x 4,00 m, 900m resolution: 3.89GB -> LINK TO TORRENT) or a more sizable poster (1,00 m x 0,55 m, 900m resolution: 300 MB -> LINK TO TORRENT).

How-To Geek: Set Gmail as Default Mail Client in Ubuntu

2007-05-11T06:55:00.000-04:00

Here's an incredibly helpful guide from the How-To Geek on setting Gmail as the default mail client in Ubuntu. This means, whenever you click an contact link (containing mailto:"") on a website, it will automatically open in Gmail as a new message. Here's the process:

Go to System -> Preferences -> Preferred Applications.
Under Mail Reader, select Custom, and then put this into the Command window, changing "username" to your username.

/home/geek/open_mailto.sh %s

Now, create a script in your home directory called open_mailto.sh (view the How-To to download the script):

#!/bin/sh

firefox "https://mail.google.com/mail?view=cm&tf=0&to=`echo $1 | sed ’s/mailto://’`"

Open a terminal and type in the following command, to make the script executable:

chmod u+x ~/open_mailto.sh
And there you have it! "Mailto:" links now open in gmail! Check out the full How-To @ howtogeek.com. Thanks How-To Geek!

Gentoo Linux 2007.0 Released!

2007-05-07T16:36:00.000-04:00

After several delays, the Gentoo Release Engineering team is proud to announce the release of Gentoo Linux 2007.0, code named "Secret Sauce". This release includes a completely rewritten version of the Gentoo Linux Installer on the AMD64 and x86 LiveCD and LiveDVD images. It also includes GNOME 2.16.2, KDE 3.5.5, Xfce 4.4, Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.3, OpenOffice.org 2.1.0, and the 2.6.19 Linux kernel.

Improvement to the x86/amd64 versions include:

x86/amd64:
Updated hardware support is among the highlights of the x86 release. Besides the many updated office and productivity packages x86 also brings an update to GLIBC 2.5.

On amd64 you can enjoy updated 32-bit emulation libraries improving support for many closed source applications and browser plugins.

x86 and amd64 also provides both hardened and normal stages in this release. Hardened stages are still using GCC 3.4.6 and GLIBC 2.3.6 but it's possible to upgrade from hardened to normal if needed.

Altogether, a great release! Can't wait to see reviews of this around the web. Grab the CD or DVD @ the Gentoo website downloads section. Read the full release release announcement for more information.

The ext3cow File System

2007-05-03T21:42:00.000-04:00

The ext3 file system is a very popular, and powerful file system used in many of today's distros. But, there is always room to innovate, as the developers of the ext3cow file system are showing.

Ext3cow is an open-source, versioning file system based on ext3. It provides a time-shifting interface that allows a real-time and continuous view of the past. This allows users to access their file system as it appeared at any point in time.

The ext3cow file system is basically an ext3 file system with (and this is where it gets interesting) a copy-on-write mechanism (hence, COW). The developers explain it better:

COW stands for copy-on-write, the mechanism used to implement block versioning. It works like this: When you make a change to a file, instead of writing the new data over the old data, we preserve the old data, and allocate new data blocks for the new data. Only the changed data is given a new allocation, allowing similar data blocks to be shared between versions — this minimizes the amount of data required to support versioning.

This feature can be useful in a wide variety of both desktop/ client and server applications, as one can well imagine. The best news is that there is a relatively low overhead (one has to allocate space for those "backups" somewhere), ranging from about 5% - 15%. It also has in extremely simple interface (see here), which adds to its appeal. Add to that the fact that it is completely modular (no changes to the kernel or VFS interfaces), and you have a very compelling argument for the ext3cow file system.
Read more about the ext3cow file system @ ext3cow.com.

Note from the Nerd: I'll have to try this when school is out... right now, its just tests, exams, projects, studying, etc. I have some nice stuff in store for the summer though.... :-)

Order a HD-DVD anti-DRM T-Shirt Today!

2007-05-01T21:40:00.000-04:00

If you have been on the web recently, you have seen the hype. I need not to explain, and I had better not unless I want a visit from the DMCA. However...

Recently, the hex code used as a key in the DRM of most if not all HD-DVDs to date has been found by the technological community. In light of this, websites across the web have been posting, copying, and showing off this sequence of characters in base 16. Many of them are receiving DMCA notices, forcing them to take down the "offending content". Show your suport for DRM-free and restriction-free content by buying a T-Shirt showing off the hex sequence, as well as a short snippet on anti-DRM. The design has not yet been finalized, but will be white text on black. The font will be Courier or Courier new. And as it's best for this site to not receive a DMCA takedown notice, I will not be posting the hex sequence here: Feel free to Google it if you'd like.

'nuff said. Order now! Digg this story, get the word out! I want to see this t-shirt all over the place! w00t! Kudos to the creator, great idea!

Biggest Internet Hype Ever?

2007-05-01T21:28:00.000-04:00

Wow, with the HD-DVD key circulating the web, it seems that it is all people can talk about! Yes! I too find myself guilty of this, but I mean... it is a big deal. Not sure if "hype" is the right word for it, but its just about the most popular thing on the Internet right now. Take a look at the digg technology homepage. EVERY story is on that magical hex value, portrayed in every way imaginable! Read more about how the processing key was actually discovered @ the Doom9 forum. Be sure to digg all those stories, we can't let digg keep this off the front page (for those non diggers among us, digg has been removing stories related to this key from their front page and banning the users submitting them, which has outraged just about the whole digg population) ... we will win! Also, times like these are when we need to know how broken and dangerous DRM is, and has always been. Visit DefectiveByDesign.org for more information, and join the fight against DRM.

UPDATE: It seems that every upcoming news story is also on the HD-DVD processing key. My, oh my.
UPDATE 2: Yeah, we won :-) (sorry, a bit late)

Review: Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04

2007-04-29T13:18:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I finally got around to installing the newest Ubuntu Release, Feisty Fawn (read more: The Upgrade to Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04). That went fairly well, and so, today I take a look at what's new in Feisty.

Installing/ Upgrading:

Although I used the update manager to upgrade to 7.04, I went ahead and download the install CD and popped it in to see if the installer had changed. I was pleasantly surprised that the installer did in fact feature a couple of nice updates. Probably the most significant of these improvements was the "Migration Assistant." Basically, what it does is detect if you have an older version of Ubuntu installed or are using Windows, and asks if you would like your settings to be imported. I chose my old Edgy install, and it asked me if I would like to import settings from apps like Firefox and GAIM. For what I have heard from others, upon reboot, Firefox and GAIM would have all bookmarks/ accounts/ settings ready to go. (Silly me, forgot to take screen shot, picture shown courtesy of Peter @ FOSSwire: Ubuntu Feisty Fawn install screenshots)

Appearance:

Appearance wise, not much has changed. That is, I kept my custom installed themes from Edgy, and everything still looks fine. The boot screen has changed however, with the Ubuntu logo giving of a seemingly eerie glow. The progress bar beneath the logo seems to have a green taint (can't see it much on the picture)... something which I think looks rather unpolished... just a minor issue though. Another slight change is found in the volume adjust. It now features a nice translucent finish and is quite a bit larger than previous version.

The New Control Center:

One of the many improvements that Feisty has to offer is a new, redesigned control center. By default, it is not activated (as you can really access all the features simply through the "System" menu), so to activate it, you can right-click on the system menu, and choose "Edit Menus." In the left column, select "Preferences" and then in the right section, check the box next to "Control Center." Now, you can access the Control Center through System -.> Preferences -> Control Center. The navigation is quite easy to use, and the "Filter" feature makes for quick finding of preference and administration options. Overall, the new control center feels fresh, and is quite easy to use, another plus for Ubuntu.

Restricted Drivers Manager:

Another new feature of Feisty which I discussed in my last post (see: The Upgrade to Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04) is the new "Restricted Drivers Manager." This manager makes it exceedingly simple to install propriety drivers such as the nVidia driver. Before actually being able to use the manager, I had to install the Linux restricted modules package for my kernel (System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager -> search "restricted modules" and install package matching your kernel).
Once in the manager, all one has to do is check the "Enabled" box next to "NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver." One reboot later, the nVidia drivers were active and ready to go. Easy as that.

Auto-suggest codec installation:

One feature which has received great publicity is Feisty's auto-suggestion and installation of the proper codecs for multimedia files. Althouh I already had the proper codecs installed from my last install, I decided to remove them and see how Ubuntu faired in getting me the right codecs to play mp3 files. So, I found a nice mp3 file to play, and opened it up. By default, it opened in Totem. Immediately I was presented with a dialogue asking me if I wanted the program to search for a suitable codec. After clicking "Yes", I was prompted by message saying that the list of available applications was out of date, and gave me an option to reload (internet connection necessary). After doing so, I was given a list of options for which packages I could install and thereby gain mp3 support. I went ahead and checked all of them. I received a message about some of them being "restricted software", after consenting to their conditions, I clicked OK and synaptic handled the install. My mp3s then played flawlessly! This is a great feature to see in a Linux distro aimed at Linux beginners, as codec installation used to be a picky thing. Props to Ubuntu for including this helpful tool.

Installing Beryl:

A major "selling" (or "downloading") point of Linux has been Beryl, and its excellent desktop effects/ eye candy. I have used Beryl for quite some time now, and I can honestly say that living without it is hard. Again, I already had Beryl installed, but it wasn't working all too well after the upgrade (probably the nvidia driver update/ xorg.conf changes). So, I reasoned a fresh install could only do good. By following the guide on the Beryl wiki, I had Beryl running in no time. The only difference being that I used Treviño’s Ubuntu edgy beryl-svn repository instead of the default ubuntu.beryl-project repositories (I love cutting edge :D ).

Although I find the above method very simple, I can see how editing the xorg.conf file can be daunting for new users. Apparently, the Ubuntu team thought so too, so they made it easy to enable desktop effects. Just go to System -> Preferences -> Desktop Effects. From there, you can chose to enable desktop effects, and then chose whether you want wobbly windows, a rotating cube... or both! Can't be made any easier than that! The only downside of this method is that you don't have control over many settings, but as a basic user, chances are you don't want to change much anyway. If you are itching for more, follow the above mentioned method.

Mounting NTFS Partitions with Read/Write Access:

Mounting NTFS partitions with write access has never been easier under Ubuntu than now, with Feisty. Simply apt-get the following:

sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g ntfs-config

Then, it is but a matter of going to Applications -> System Tools -> NTFS Configuration Tool. Just check the boxes that apply to your setup, and you will have full read/ write access to your NTFS partition! This comes in especially handy if you have a dual-boot system, such as mine where you don't constantly want to switch from OS to OS to transfer information. Interestingly, this also presents a slight security concern. Since you have FULL read/ write access to your entire NTFS disk, meaning you can do whatever you want in your Windows partition, you can pretty much see and modify all the documents and settings of any user on the Windows install on that partition. This is of no concern to systems with a single user, but if Ubuntu is installed with this NTFS support on a system that has multiple users, pretty much anyone that has access to your computer can modify any of your files on your Windows install. Just keep this in mind when installing.

Hardware support:

As with all Ubuntu version, Feisty fawn provides excellent hardware support. However, there are a couple of issues that I have yet to work out. The more major of the two is that my digital camera no longer works with any program I throw at it.
Nothing I use can connect to it, and I usually get an error pertaining to libgphoto2:

"An error occurred in the io-library ('Unspecified error'): Could not query kernel driver of device."

This is odd indeed, as I never had any problems before, and the camera is the same (Nikon Coolpix 4500, family camera).

The other problem I am now experiencing is with the multimedia keys on my keyboard. They do no function anymore in AmaroK, although when I set them under "Global Shortcuts", the program clearly sees that they are there, and are supposed to be used. A vexing problem indeed.

Wireless support is excellent, and the Network dialog under System -> Administration -> Network has been updated. There is also a new system tray icon (outlined in red, below) for network configuration, not really necessary, but definitely a nice touch (saves going through the menus).

Performance:

Ubuntu has always been a well performing distro. Nothing to rival Gentoo or such, but not at all slow. This continues in Feisty. Applications load smoothly and quickly, and I don't have to wait around for system task or so to be complete. However, in comparison to my previous Edgy install, system load times seem a bit longer, especially the time it takes from logging in, to a fully working desktop. Just a few seconds difference really, but it is noticeable. Usually as soon as the splash screen was gone, my desktop was ready for use, and now I have to wait a few seconds more. I know, I am being very nit-picky here, and it truly does not change my high regard of the distro.

Stabiliy

Ubuntu, for me, has always been extremely stable. The same goes for the latest release. I experience absolutely no stability related issues, and have not had an application crash on me yet. Although I have only had a day to test out this new install, I can fairly safely say that I don't think it will cause me any problems. In comparison to my experiences with SUSE and the like, Ubuntu is more stable now, after a brand new release, than SUSE ever was for me even with mature releases (perhaps it was due to the fact that updating in SUSE was a pain with the broken updater of the early 10.x series). If you are looking for everyday stability, Ubuntu is an excellent choice.

Conclusion:

After much review, I can conclude that Feisty is an excellent upgrade to Ubuntu, and well worthy of the new release. Although experiencing a few issues with my keyboard and digital camera, along with a few problems getting X to configure right (see The Upgrade to Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04), the upgrade was fairly flawless. Here's an overview of "What's Hot" and "What's Not" of this latest release:

What's Hot:

Great, flawless installation/ upgrade for most users.
New control center
Codec auto-suggest
Easy installation of "restricted" drivers
Easy desktop effects for the masses
Easy Read/ write access to NTFS partitions.
Very stable, as usual
Easy desktop effects

What's Not:

Default look could use some more polish... never really been a friend of the "Human" theme
~~I am still waiting for the day when I don't have to edit the xorg.conf file to get Beryl working.~~
UPDATE: It seems that I am in error in the above statement. Multiple readers have already said that in fact you do not have to edit the xorg.conf file. Intrested, I reset my xorg.conf file and reinstalled Beryl from the default Ubuntu repositories (no svn). And, behold! No having to configure X :-)
Sorry about this error on my part, I'll put this under the pros now! Thanks readers!
Camera and keyboard not fully working is quite annoying

Overall:

Overall, this is yet another excellent release by the Ubuntu team and community. Far ahead of other distros in terms of "ease of use" (for beginners), Ubuntu is bring desktop Linux into the spotlight. Everything that I wanted to do, I was able to do quite easily. Having hardware work automatically is simply wonderful, and Feisty continues the Ubuntu tradition of providing excellent hardware support. I recommend this release to anybody wanting to try Linux for the first time, and even users that are familiar with the OS.

Get Ubuntu!

The Upgrade to Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04

2007-04-28T21:39:00.000-04:00

A few days late, yes, but today I upgrade my Ubuntu Edgy Eft 6.10 installation to the brand new Feisty Fawn release, 7.04. Instead of doing a complete reinstall with a fresh CD, I decided test out the update manager in seeing how it could handle upgrading my current installation to 7.04. This way, I kept all my settings and data, and also saved me quite a bit of time.

I started up the update manager (System -> Administration -> Update Manager), and there was already a notice waiting for me telling me that a new release was ready for installation. So, I went ahead and clicked "upgrade". The update manager started to prepare the update:

After analyzing my system and package installations, the update manager prompted me with a list of packages that would be removed, newly installed, or updated. Needless to say, there were quite a few. I had to wince, seeing Beryl at the top of the list to be removed was not my idea of an ideal update. But, decided that I could always re-install it later, so on I went.

Next came the lengthy process of actually downloading all the updates. This took about 30 minutes on my cable connection, average speed of 600 kB/s

Downloading went without a hitch, so on to the install! Installing the new software and updating the old took about another half an hour on my Athlon 64 3700+ system. Throughout this processes, CPU usage was rather high, so I couldn't do much else except watch the progress bar steady get longer and longer.. by all means, a very fun task.

The one notice I got while actually installing and updating was a dialog asking me if the the /etc/services configuration file could be replaced. Since I hadn't made any changes to it, I gave it the go-ahead, and the install continued.

When the installing was finished, the system was again checked for obsolete packages. 27 packages were found which could be removed, none of which I needed, so I again gave the OK to remove.

After all this was done, I was told to restart my system.

And now, the fun began... Upon reboot, I was greeted by a nice X error, saying that the X server was not configured correctly. Wonderful... I had had these problems before, and they were a mess to get out of. I narrowed the problem down to the nvidia driver not working any more, for some reason, after the upgrade. So, I went ahead and uninstalled nvidia-glx, and downloaded the latest nVidia Linux drivers from the nVidia website (through Windows). Armed with these new drivers, I got myself to a terminal and attempted to install the drivers. Of course... the kernel source files were not installed (which are necessary for the installation of the driver), and without knowing the specific package name, apt-get'ing them was not an option. So, with all these setbacks, I went into the xorg.conf file to see what I could change manually. Basically, all I did was change the Driver identifier under the "Device" section back to the standard "nv". That did the trick, and upon restarting X, I once again found myself in my familiar Ubuntu environment.
The resolution on my 20.1" display was not set correctly, so I naturally had to reinstall the nVidia drivers. Doing so gave me a nice look into the new "Restricted Drivers Manager."
Before actually being able to use the manager, I had to install the Linux restricted modules package for my kernel. This package includes the following proprietary drivers:

- madwifi (Atheros)
- fglrx (ATI)
- nvidia
- fcdsl, fcdsl2, fcdslsl, fcdslslusb, fcdslusb, fcdslusb2, fcdslusba,
fcpci, fcusb, fxusb (AVM ISDN)
- ltmodem (Winmodem)

After installing this package through Synaptic (just search for "restricted modules" and chose the package that matches your kernel, find out your kernel by typing "uname -r " at the terminal).
Once in the manager, all I had to do was check the box next to "NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver" and Synaptic went about installing the the nvidia-glx package and dependencies. Could have done that myself... but its nice to know that Ubuntu is still making things even simpler for new users.

A reboot later, the nVidia drivers were installed on my system, and ready to go. All that was left to do was run the NVIDIA X Server Settings Manager, and set my screen resolution just right. No problems there.

Tomorrow I will post a more complete review of Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04, and take a look at "What's Hot" and "What's Not". Stay tuned.

17 Must-Have Free Apps for New Ubuntu Users

2007-04-27T17:29:00.000-04:00

Here's a great list from over at the Free Geekery on 17 apps that any new Ubuntu user should have.

...we hope to pave some of the new Ubuntu user's rocky road with 17 apps that will make that Ubuntu transition smoother. Since Ubuntu comes packaged with all the open source apps that an average user might need (Firefox 2.0, Open Office, Rhythmbox, etc.), it might seem crazy to add more "clutter" to the situation. But what happens if you'd rather use the Opera browser rather than Firefox? Or, perhaps you'd like to add more sound and video apps to your repertoire beyond Rhythmbox. Since the server and desktop versions of Ubuntu support the GNOME 2.18 desktop environment, literally hundreds of additional applications are appropriate for Ubuntu users. But the following free software apps, listed in alphabetical order, provide the new Ubuntu desktop user with a logical beginning to an enhanced open source experience.

The list includes some of my personal favorites such as amaroK, Beryl, and CheckGmail, along with a few apps new to me, but also very useful (ie. AllTray). Take a look at this if you are new to Ubuntu, or just want to get some cool new apps! Read more @ The Free Geekery.

DistroWatch: Top Ten Distributions

2007-04-26T06:53:00.000-04:00

DistroWatch has released its new "Top 10" list outlining the major Linux distributions available today. Of course, the list has the major players like Ubuntu, SUSE, Fedora, Debian, Gentoo, etc. But, there are also distributions like PCLinuxOS, Mepis, and FreeBSD. Head on over to DistroWatch.com for more information on the distributions on the list and on any other Linux distros!

Note from the Nerd: I really must try some more of the distributions on this list, it seems that they are well worthy of me spending some time on them. In any case, I want to try out PCLinuxOS, as I have heard much good about it. Perhaps over the summer, when I have time...

Reiser4's Future

2007-04-25T22:25:00.000-04:00

The future of Reiser4 was raised on the lkml, with the filesystem's creator, Hans Reiser [interview], awaiting his May 7'th trial. Concerns that the filesystem wasn't being maintained were laid to rest when Andrew Morton [interview] stated, "the namesys engineers continue to maintain reiser4 and I continue to receive patches for it." He further added, "the namesys guys are responsive and play well with others." As to why the filesystem hasn't yet been merged into the 2.6 kernel, Andrew explained, "to get it unstuck we'd need a general push, get people looking at and testing the code, get the vendors to have a serious think about it, etc. We could do that - it'd require that the namesys people (and I) start making threatening noises about merging it, I guess." He then made joking reference to the recent debate regarding the new CPU schedulers, "or we could move all the reiser4 code into kernel/sched.c - that seems to get people fired up."

Here's a very interesting read from the lkml (Linux Kernel Mailing List). It discusses, rather in depth, the future of Reiser4 file system. There seem to be some problems to work out, but it looks as if maintenance on the system will be continued. However, as of right now, the developers are working purely on enthusiasm, so let's hope that doesn't ware off. After all, the Reiser4 file system showed quite a bit of promise. (You can check out some preliminary benchmarks of the ext2, ext3, and Resier4 file systems @ linux.inet.hr.) In any case, Reiser4 will not be included in the Linux kernel, not any time soon at least. Mainly, the debate goes on about what to do with some file system plugins currently found in Reiser4.
Read more @ Kernel Trap.

Note from the Nerd: Perhaps a rename would be appropriate? Well, can be decided after the trial (set for May 7).

UNIX History

2007-04-25T22:05:00.000-04:00

I know, everybody has seen the myriads of Linux distribution history time lines, but this is a time line of UNIX (UNIX != Linux) history. Yes, Linux evolved from UNIX, and so you will see it in the chart. This is a time line based off the various UNIX kernels, and quite complete by the looks of it! Very interesting, if not a bit confusing.
Take a look @ levenez.com. For more info and printable versions navigate here.

Complete Linux LiveCD List

2007-04-25T22:02:00.000-04:00

Here is an excellent list which lists pretty much all the Linux LiveCD distributions. I say "pretty much" because it doesn't contain a few like BackTrack and mPentoo. But, that aside, a great look at all the choices Linux has to offer, with links to more information for all!

Check it out @ TheLiveCDList.com.

Kernel Comparison: Linux (2.6.20) versus Windows (Vista)

2007-04-19T21:12:00.000-04:00

This aims to be the most comprehensive kernel, comparison of the latest most popular Unix style kernel versus the latest most popular kernel. In Q2 2007, this means Linux 2.6.20 kernel versus Windows Vista kernel.

This is an excellent comparison of the two kernels, comparing nearly every aspect a kernel encompasses.

Here's a nice example:

Estimated kernel bugs total: Linux: 1200 Windows: 30000

I just love that statistic. In any case, this provides some great insight into the workings of both kernels, and their respective strengths and weaknesses. Read more @ Widefox.

Note: When going through, green text represents better or more flexible and red text represents worse or less flexible, neutral or controversial.

Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Released!

2007-04-19T06:34:00.000-04:00

The wait is over! The latest version of Ubuntu (7.04, Feisty Fawn) is out of beta and officially released! Although still not reflected on the main ubuntu.com site, Ubuntu 7.04 has become available for x86 and AMD 64 archs as well as in desktop and server flavors. Here's a short list of what's new:

New Gnome control center
Faster searching with Tracker
Tracker is a search tool much like Beagle. Both programs will be available in the repositories.
Easy codec installation
When trying to play a multimedia file, Ubuntu will try to install the necessary codecs automatically.
Inclusion of NetworkManager
Connect to wired and wireless networks with the click of your mouse!
Kernel Virtual Machine
Built in virtualization in the Linux Kernel.
Migration assistant
Migrate documents, files and settings with ease from your previous operating system.
VPN
Easy VPN access with NetworkManager.
Desktop Effects
Bring up cool desktop effects that make Vista and Mac OSX pale in comparison.

And of course, much more. You can also expect some new artwork, but nothing drastic (still the "Human" theme). Overall, a release to get very excited about!
You can grab the torrent here (PLEASE USE THIS IF YOU WANT TO DOWNLOAD). The official release page is getting quite a bit of traffic right now, so give it some time. Read the official release announcement here. Or, head here to read the Release Notes. More on Feisty Fawn later!

My Linux Toolkit: GParted LiveCD to the Rescue!

2007-04-17T21:47:00.000-04:00

Today, I had the rather gratifying experience of being able to save a friend's data after his computer at school crashed. The computers at are school are sub-par to say the least, and so when my friend's computer crashed in our Introduction to Engineering class (don't ask...) I was hardly surprised. Any boot would take ages, and finally result in a blue screen of death. A registry error, it seemed. Now, seeing as the school does not like people messing around with their computers, I immediately thought of bringing in a live Linux CD to try and recover his data. I tried multiple CDs (Knoppix, BackTrack, miniPentoo, Ubuntu, etc.) but none of them booted. That is, they may have, but it would have taken longer than the hour and a half we had in that class (yes, the computer was that slow... it's a Dell). So, in a last effort, I remembered my trusty GParted LiveCD. This CD had a very basic interface and was not loaded with tons of features that would slow down the boot processes. So, I pop the CD in an wait, half an hour to be exact. But, things are going well, and I finally get to a command prompt. I didn't even try to get into a GUI, seeing as that would have probably taken the rest of the class. So, at the shell, I started getting to work on saving his data. Really, it was a very simple process. I simply mounted the hard drive partition with his data on it, and proceeded to copy it to my USB Flash Drive. A flawless rescue, made possible by the GParted LiveCD.
This is, of course, by far not the extent of the CD's power. Based on the powerful GParted partitioning tool, it has countless times served me well when I needed to partition a drive. Featuring the very functional FluxBox window manager and excellent device support, this CD is sure to boot on any system (even a horribly malfunctioning Dell, as I explained above). With the perfect combination of light weight (the iso is only 45MB) and function, the GParted LiveCD is a CD meant for every Linux user's toolkit.

Hacking Ubuntu to Improve Performance

2007-04-16T22:15:00.000-04:00

Here's an article that's gained recent popularity. ExtremeTech writes about "hacking" Ubuntu to improve performance. From the article:

This feature includes various hacks to boost Ubuntu's performance, such as viewing running processes, identifying resources, finding process startups, tuning kernel parameters, and speeding up boot time. This is a complete chapter in the ExtremeTech book "Hacking Ubuntu: Serious Hacks Mods And Cusomtizations."
The default Ubuntu Dapper Drake installation includes some basic processes that check devices, tune the operating system, and perform housekeeping. Some of these processes are always running, while others start up periodically. Occasionally you might see your hard drive start up or grind away for a few minutes—what's going on? On mission critical servers, serious gaming boxes, and other real-time systems, unexpected processes can cause huge problems; administrators should know exactly what is running and when. The last thing a time-sensitive application needs is for a resource-intensive maintenance system to start at an unexpected time and cause the system to slow down.
In order to fine-tune your system, you will need to know what is currently running, which resources are available, and when processes start up. From there, you can tweak configurations: disable undesirable processes, enable necessary housekeeping, and adjust your kernel to better handle your needs.

An very informative article indeed! A large part of the feature provides excellent tips on process management and system analysis. If you've seen other tips floating around on the Internet on how to make Ubuntu faster, this is a great collection of the best of them. Not only is this a friendly read for the Ubuntu beginner, but it also provides some rather advanced tips! Check it out @ ExtremeTech.

IBM Extends Moore's Law to the Third Dimension

2007-04-12T12:46:00.000-04:00

IBM today announced a breakthrough chip-stacking technology in a manufacturing environment that paves the way for three-dimensional chips that will extend Moore’s Law beyond its expected limits. The technology – called “through-silicon vias” -- allows different chip components to be packaged much closer together for faster, smaller, and lower-power systems.

"This The IBM breakthrough enables the move from horizontal 2-D chip layouts to 3-D chip stacking, which takes chips and memory devices that traditionally sit side by side on a silicon wafer and stacks them together on top of one another. The result is a compact sandwich of components that dramatically reduces the size of the overall chip package and boosts the speed at which data flows among the functions on the chip."

An impressive advancement, to say the least! I hope to be actually seeing this technology in the near future!
Read more @ PhysOrg.

Cedega 6.0 Released! Now You Can Play Too!

2007-04-11T10:39:00.000-04:00

After many months of intense development, we couldn't be more thrilled to unveil our latest and most exciting Cedega version yet: Cedega 6.0. With sweeter graphics, increased performance, vastly improved usability, and more games supported than ever before, there's never been a better time to be a Linux gamer!

Another excellent release by Cedega, further improving gaming on Linux. New features Cedega has to offer are:

GLSL

Shader Model 2.0

Point size, scaling, sprites

Volume textures

Floating point textures

FBO Re-write

Support for new FBO extensions

New memory allocator

Optimized file operations

Anti-Aliasing

Improved ALSA

Dmix and MMap

Improved multimedia timer thread

Dynamic CPU speed support

Improved joystick functionality

D-Bus improvements

Steam improvements

Improvements for ATI users

Copy Protection improvements (SafeDisc 4.x)

Cedega UI Improvements

Ubuntu Edgy fixes

GDDB multiple volume support

Updated GDDB files

Improved mount handling

Improved richedit support

Networking improvements

Quite a list, with some very welcome improvements. Read more about the latest Cedega release at their website: transgaming.com. Also, be sure to check out Techage's review on the new version. For yet another view on the matter, navigate to Phoronix and read their review.

Note from the Nerd: Sadly, Cedega is still a subscription service, and costs about $5 a month, or $55 a year. ~~A free version, or a least a demo, would be excellent...~~ My bad, there is a timedemo that you can download! Head on over to Softpedia for the download.

Joost: What's Hot, What's Not...

2007-04-10T10:33:00.000-04:00

Let me start by introducing Joost, if you don't already know what it is:

Joost is a new way of watching TV on the internet. With Joost, you get all the things you love about TV, including a high-quality full-screen picture, hundreds of full-length shows and easy channel-flipping.

That said, Joost also has a nice "community" feel, as there are many ways the program enables you to interact with other users:

Sure, you can be a couch potato with Joost. But sometimes, you want to share your feelings with someone too. Joost includes several 'widgets' that help you get involved, including a chat programme for discussing the channel you're watching and an IM client that's works with your Google Talk and Jabber lists. And you can even rate the shows you're watching. Become an armchair critic today!

In all, an excellent idea. But, how does it live up to what it claims?

Let me first take a look at "what's hot." These are the thing that I like about Joost, and find new or innovative.

Free TV

Duh. Everybody likes free stuff, and with Joost, you can get free TV! It may not be your 1000 channel cable lineup, but there are quite a few well known channels that Joost provides including: The National Geographic Channel, MTV, and Comedy Central. A complete line up of channels can be found on the Joost website.

Community

Being an Open Source / Linux type of person, I am all about community. Joost has made an admirable effort in creating a nice community among its users. The integrated IM client is nice, but there never seems to be anybody online (this will probably change as Joost gets out of Beta and more people start using it). The "Rate it!" feature is also nice, as you can see what other people think about a show, before you devote the time to view it.

Interface

A nice clean interface scores big point in my book, and Joost provides just that. There is not much clutter in the way of what you are watching, and the menus are all semi-transparent, providing good visibility. Nicely laid out menus and easy navigation are further pros of the interface.

Very few commercials

In my viewing experience, I have run into very few commercials. Commercials are why I don't get cable TV anymore, so being able to watch something, and not have 10 minutes commercial blocks every 5 minutes is a breath of fresh air. That said, there are commercials, however they are in now way as extreme as the amount found on a regular cable TV channel.

Now, I must come to the part of "What's not [hot]". There are some aspects of Joost that need a bit of TLC. Granted, the software is still in Beta, so these can merely be seen as suggestions for improvement.

Performance

Dismal. I can hardly watch a show without it being interrupted periodically. These random pauses can last anywhere from a few seconds, to a few minutes. My connection is not the problem, as I have high speed internet, and the problem is apparent on both the wireless, and wired computers I have tried it on. Occasionally, I will get an error message saying the program is "not available for viewing at this time." I am then told to go watch something else. Annoying, to say the least. An integrated tool to reports such problems immediately would be greatly appreciated, as there must be awareness and information about a problem before it can be overcome. Although there is a feature to report bugs (press F1 and then choose "Report a Bug"), it is based on the website, and is not quite as practical as I like.

Quality

Joost advertises a high quality viewing experience. I must say, mine has been everything but that. Shows have a very grainy texture, and on my 20.1inch wide screen monitor, things just don't look as good as I would like them too. Although this is the least of my worries, considering this is all free, a better image quality would be very much appreciated.

And so, I come to my verdict. Is Joost hot, or is it not? I say... yes, Joost if very hot. If the developers can work out some performance issues and produce a clear, constant connection (perhaps faster servers?), I am all in. I wouldn't mind the low quality so much if only I could watch a whole show with no connection lag. With all this said, I am very excited about Joost, if this really is the future of internet TV, things are looking bright. Kudos to the developers! I look forward to what Joost has yet to offer!
All that is missing is the Discovery channel... but maybe that's just the nerd in me speaking :D

KDE 4

2007-04-06T06:30:00.000-04:00

KDE has really been catching my eye lately, especially their upcoming KDE4 desktop. As a user of Ubuntu, I have been using Gnome for the last couple of months. Although I really like Gnome, I do miss some of the features of KDE, mainly the awesome applications that come with it. Konquerer is simply amazing, it is by far the best file manager I have ever seen, Gnome's Nautilus pales in comparison. There are just so many features that come in incredibly useful, such as tabs, split windows, and a plethora of things I could go about hours elaborating upon. But, for now, let me stay on the topic of KDE 4. From what I have seen, it will quite possibly be the best desktop environment for Linux. To be released on October 23 of this year, KDE 4 holds many improvements over the KDE 3 series. Most all the applications are being overhauled and a whole new line of thought is going into its development, along with a completely new art scheme. KDE 4 will also come with a new file manager, Dolphin. I really can't wait to see how Dolphin feels and works, in comparison to my beloved Konquerer. Exciting things happening, to say the least. I will be sure to get KDE 4 as soon as a beta comes out, and hopefully set it up as my main desktop environment later on. In the mean time, here are some links to more information about the various new features of KDE 4:

Dolphin | Dolphin and Konquerer
Oxygen Artwork and Icons
Amarok2
Decibel

And, here is some info about its most prominent developers.
Of course, for the latest news and updates, you can always check by at KDE Dot News.

Beryl and Copiz: Official Announcement of Merge

2007-04-05T06:44:00.000-04:00

"After several weeks of discussion the leaders of Compiz and Beryl have agreed that the two communities shall reunite. This decision is supported by both David and Quinn and represents the majority decision of the administrators and developers in each community. At this early stage not a lot has been decided, but these are the main points of the agreement..."

This is what I like to see, communities setting aside differences and becoming one for the good of the community. I can't wait to see what changes are in store, as I continue to be an avid Beryl user and supporter. With these two strands of working coming together, there is more possibility for exploration and new lines of thought, brining about new products. The future for Compiz and Beryl look bright. Congratulations to all that made this possible, and I wish them the best of luck together. Read more @ the Compiz forums and at the Compiz blog.

A Quick Guide on Customizing Ubuntu: Themes, Icons, Login Windows, and Splash Screens

2007-03-24T11:09:00.000-04:00

One of the best qualities Linux has to offer is the literally endless possibilities for customization, both aesthetic and system based. In this post, I will take a look at how you can customize Ubuntu to just the way you want it.

Themes

Lets start with themes. Themes compromise the basic appearance of your desktop. This includes window decorations, icons, and general look and feel. The default Ubuntu theme is "Human", a mix of glossy orange and brown. Not the nicest of themes.... But that can be changed! The best place to look for new themes is gnome-look.org. This website has EVERYTHING you need to fully customize your gnome desktop. To find themes, navigate to the "Metacity" section. Here you will find myriads of themes fit for you desktop. It is only a matter of finding one you like, and downloading. My personal taste lies with the "soft metacity" theme.
All that's left is too apply the theme. Open the "System" menu, and head to Preferences -> Theme. Now, choose to install a new theme. Find the .tar.gz package you downloaded, select it, and... there you have it! A new theme applied to your desktop! Easy enough eh?

Icons

The next major area you may want to look into is getting a new set of icons. Open System -> Preferences -> Theme -> (highlight theme you are using) -> Theme Details -> Icons tab. You'll notice that Ubuntu has several icon themes already installed by default. If you happen to like any of them, just select and close. However, there are many superior themes out there. Again, gnome-look.org holds the solution. This time, move to the "Icon Themes" section. Find a theme you like, and simply download it. My personal favorite theme is "nuoveXT" however, if you are a big fan of the OS X interface, there is the excellent "OSX" icon theme. Once, downloaded, open up the Themes dialog again (System -> Preferences -> Themes). Highlight your current theme, and choose "Theme Details". Tab on over to the "Icons" tab. Select "Install" and find your downloaded icon theme. Select it, click "Open", and you're done!

Login Window

So you have a nice theme set up and a good icon set... but your login window just doesn't fit. Easily fixed. This time, open up System -> Administration -> Login Window. As this is an administrative process, enter your password. You have a few styles to select from, however they may not fit your theme either (or you may just not like them). You can probably already guess where to go to... yup, gnome-look.org. In the "GDM themes" section, it is again but a matter of finding the theme you like and downloading. Switch back to the "Login Window Preferences" dialog, and select "Add". Find your theme, and click Install. Select it in the list, and close. That's it.

Splash Screen

Another feature you may want have matching your overall theme is the splash screen. Personally, I find the default Ubuntu splash... well, hideous. Luckily, that too is easily changed. So, guess where you're going again? Yeah, gnome-look.org. The "Splash Screens" section provides many nice splashes that you can use. These are usually just png images. So, find one, and save to the desired location. The best place to put your splash images is in the /usr/share/pixmaps/splash directory, although this is not absolutely necessary. To get your picture into this folder, you will need administrator privileges. So, run the follow line at the terminal:

sudo cp [your image].png /usr/share/pixmaps/splash
Now that we have the splash in a good location, we can point gnome to it so that it can be used. To do that, open the Configuration Editor. The easiest way to do this is by hitting ALT-F2 and entering "gconf-editor" in the dialog (minus the quotes). In the left panel, navigate through the tree: Apps -> gnome-session -> options. Make sure that show_splash_screen is checked, and then edit the value for splash_image, pointing it to the image you placed in /usr/share/pixmaps/splash. Log out and log back in to test!

Now that you have a nicely customized Ubutnu interface, sit back and enjoy your [easy] work!

Play MP3s and Other Multimedia File in Ubuntu

2007-03-24T10:40:00.000-04:00

So, you've installed Ubuntu, like what you see, and have gotten situated. You decide to put on some music, of course in mp3 form. Wait... what is this "Cannot play media: proper codec not found!". This is an all too common problem that many users experience. And yes, by default, Ubuntu cannot play mp3 files. However, there are many ways to get it so that it can!

The easiest way is just to use EasyUbuntu. " EasyUbuntu is an easy to use (duh!) script that gives the Ubuntu user the most commonly requested apps, codecs, and tweaks that are not found in the base distribution - all with a few clicks of your mouse." It really is that easy. Just download, and then use!

However, I generally don't prefer that method. Here's the method I have used for ages (excuse the hyperbole). This comes pretty much straight from the "Ubuntu Guide".

First, one must add a few extra repositories:
sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
Replace everything with (unless you have added your own sources, which your should leave):

## Add comments (##) in front of any line to remove it from being checked.
## Use the following sources.list at your own risk.

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy-proposed main restricted universe multiverse

## MAJOR BUG FIX UPDATES produced after the final release
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy-updates main restricted universe multiverse

## UBUNTU SECURITY UPDATES
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy-security main restricted universe multiverse

## BACKPORTS REPOSITORY (Unsupported.  May contain illegal packages.  Use at own risk.)
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy-backports main restricted universe multiverse

## PLF REPOSITORY (Unsupported.  May contain illegal packages.  Use at own risk.)
deb http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/ edgy free
deb http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/ edgy non-free
deb-src http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/ edgy free
deb-src http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/ edgy non-free
                                                                                                                   
## CANONICAL COMMERCIAL REPOSITORY (Hosted on Canonical servers, not Ubuntu
## servers. RealPlayer10, Opera, DesktopSecure and more to come.)
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu edgy-commercial main

## Listen
#deb http://theli.free.fr/packages/ edgy listen

Save, and then run:

wget -q http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
sudo aptitude update

Now, time to install stuff! By installing the following, you can pretty much play any media type:

sudo aptitude install gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-gl gstreamer0.10-plugins-base \
gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse \
gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse libxine-extracodecs w32codecs

All that is left, is to find an audio player you like (I like Amarok). Enjoy your MP3s!

For more information, and instructions on how to get files to play withing Firefox, see the rest of the "Ubuntu Guide's" multimedia section.

Just Ask!

2007-03-21T22:32:00.000-04:00

As a good supporter of Linux and open source software, I always try to get people to at least give Linux a try. They are usually like, "Yeah, that sounds cool." Then they are like, "So you'll help me out with everything?" Of course, I say yes, but then I mention that there is a huge Linux community, on forums across the Internet, that is there to assist beginners. But, then they are like "No way! Forums are for n00bs!" A part of me just dies when I hear that. Forums are a place where people help people. Everybody has a different skill level, and if someone can help, they are always eager to post. Besides, open source is all about community. I just have to wonder what is wrong with people that don't want to JUST ASK! What is wrong with asking for help on a forum or IRC channel? Nothing. I do it all the time, and even the experts ask!
I'm thinking that this is a fundamental problem that keeps people from using Linux. Are they afraid of the community or something? I'm not sure, but this attitude that they are "too good" for forums is despicable. Linux was built around community, and so it shall grow too. No, taking the plunge may not be easy, but it will be impossible if you don't trust the community, and let them help. People need to overcome their arrogance, and JUST ASK!

A tale of a new case, fried hard drives, a save by the unofficial "Super GRUB Disk", and Windows oddities...

2007-03-18T10:30:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: My new SATA2 disk has arrived. Its installed right now, and awaiting a fresh install of Ubuntu!

Well, I got my new case in the mail about a week ago, the Raidmax Smilodon. At any rate, an awesome case. Sadly though, I had been moving for the past week or so, and wasn't able to put everything in the new case. But, yesterday, I managed to find time, and put everything together. Things were going fine until I went to turn my computer on again... it didn't work... I looked inside, found nothing wrong, and tried again. Didn't work... but this time I noticed an odd smell emanating from the case. My first though: "Crap, my PSU is dead." So, I made sure not to turn it on, and put in the PSU that came with the case. Again... no start up... and I noticed that the PSU I had pulled out didn't smell any. Now I started to worry, "has my motherboard been fried?" So, I started some troubleshooting. First, I disconnected every device, save the motherboard. On power on, it worked. Good, at least it wasn't my motherboard. Then I connected my graphics card. It worked. Next, the network card. It worked. Next, the CD burner. It worked. Next the DVD burner. It worked. Next, my old 40gig hard drive. It worked. Next, my new 250gig. It didn't work. Crap. That's not good, considering that is where I have all my stuff. So, I disconnected it, and the system worked again. I checked all the jumpers, all the connections, all the pins... everything fine. I happened to inhale while close to the hard drive and I realized that that was where the odd smell was coming from! So, I came to the conclusion that my hard drive was fried. How, I don't know, perhaps splitting two fans off the connection wasn't good... but I had done that multiple times before without any problems. So, I spoke with a good friend of mine, who recommended I put the hard drive in the refrigerator. Yeah, I too was thinking "WTF?" But apparently, it is a method known to restore hard drives for at least enough time to make backups. As of right now, it is still sitting in my fridge.
So, since my GRUB config was on my 250gig, which died, I couldn't boot into Windows. But, I was saved by the unofficial "Super GRUB Disk." I love that CD. Its saved my life about three times now. Kudos to its developers!
Now, being able to boot into at least Windows, I was a bit more relieved. Off I go into Windows, looking forward to some time on The Internets. But wait... what is this? My network card doesn't exist? Hmm... maybe a poorly inserted card. I take pull out the card, replace it (even in a new slot), and try again. No such luck. I reinstall the drivers... everything. No go. So, now I am thinking "Great, a fried hard drive and network card. There goes any thoughts of a CPU upgrade..." In a last effort, I boot into a Ubuntu LiveCD. Hey! The wireless card works! So... what does that mean? Another Windows oddity I suppose.
That brings me here: working off a LiveCD on a computer with only one hard drive (with Windows), and a network card that Windows has chosen not to like anymore. Great.
At least I can get a loan for my new hard drive, and I don't have to buy anything else. I'll see how the refrigerated hard drive goes. I have a feeling it won't help, but I hope I am wrong.
Until later then!

UPDATE: Using the latest drivers from the RaLink website... network card works again. New hard drive ordered.

Cool Blog of the Day: Linux By Examples

2007-03-16T07:00:00.000-04:00

Every so often, one stumbles across a blog that is just truly outstanding. One of those blogs is Linux By Examples. Their simple summary: "We explain every GNU/Linux command by examples." And that is exactly what they do. In a manner that is easy to understand, they introduce new, unique Linux commands which, after you learn them, seem like one of those things: "How could I have ever lived without this?" There are also times when you will know the command that is being explained, but Linux By Examples always adds something fresh and interesting. Something that you didn't know about that particular command. Take their latest post for example: ssh reverse tunneling. Just about everybody knows about ssh, but did you know that you can create reverse tunnels?
Really, a great blog, which I recommend every Linux user check out. I guarantee that there will something useful! Check it out @ linux.byexamples.com.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Released!

2007-03-15T06:51:00.000-04:00

Red Hat has released version 5 of their Enterprise Linux series. As with before, this includes both server and desktop options.

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, released in March 2007, contains more than 1200 components with development spanning over a two year period, so there are a huge number of new features covering a broad range of functionality. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 provides CIOs and IT managers with the means to reduce costs while improving operational flexibility throughout their computing infrastructure."

Some new feature include:

Virtualization fully supported
Based on the Linux 2.6.18 kernel
Support for multi-core processors
Broad range of new hardware support
Updated crash dump capability provided by Kexec/Kdump
Numerous enhancements for large SMP systems
SELinux enhancements include Multi-Level Security and targeted policies for all services
SEtroubleshooter GUI simplifies SELinux management
Desktop enhancements include updated configuration tools, applications, and laptop support
Conga cluster and storage management (with Advanced Platform)

Overall, a very nice looking release. Read more @ the Red Hat website.

Beryl 0.2.0 Released!

2007-03-15T06:32:00.000-04:00

Beryl 0.2.0 is a complete overhaul of Beryl. The last stable release 0.1, featured a very fun, and eye-candy based compositing window manager. However, since it’s release, many parts of beryl have been rewritten, replaced, or simply dropped. The Beryl team has put in numerous hours to bring you this release. It’s filled with fun, eye-candy, better user support, new features, and most of all, stability. While Beryl has had numerous developer releases, known by their 0.1.X versions, 0.2.0 has been throughly tested by many more users.

Yay! Although... for those using svn releases, there is probably nothing new. Still, quite impressive that beryl has come this far. Head on over to the Beryl Blog to read more about the release. If you haven't tried Beryl, you are missing out on a whole lot. Get help getting started @ the Beryl Wiki.

HOWTO: Setup Ubuntu as a wireless router

2007-03-12T06:49:00.000-04:00

GOAL: To have a seamless replacement for my Linksys WRT54G with more wireless range and more control.

Achieved? Yes. This HOWTO on the Ubuntu forums (posted by pedalwrench) is a great read for any that may want to set up an old computer as a wireless router. It is very easy to follow, and provides good instructions on what you need to do to get everything working! I just may have an old computer lying around that I could try this on... hmm.... ;)
Check it out @ the Ubuntu forums.

Running a full computer as a wireless router is probably not for everybody, due to the increased power consumption over a normal router. But, for those looking for a noticeable difference, this is the way to go. Also, having a computer (running Linux) as a router provides infinite possibilities to do some nice hacking and get your network, exactly how you want it.

Thousands of Open Source Web Designs!

2007-03-11T10:00:00.000-04:00

"Open Source Web Design is a site to download free web design templates and share yours with others. We help make the Internet a prettier place."
Awesome site. Thousands of great web design templates all for free download. There are 2080 designs, and counting! I recommend that anyone wishing to get a template for their site check this place out, chances are, you will find something you like! Check out the website @ oswd.org.

Stable Linux Kernel 2.6.20.2 Released

2007-03-10T09:42:00.000-05:00

We (the -stable team) are announcing the release of the 2.6.20.2 kernel. It contains a metric buttload of bugfixes and security updates, so all 2.6.20 users are recommended to upgrade.

Check out the full changelog and summary of fixes @ LWN.

Framebuffer UI (fbui)

2007-03-10T09:19:00.000-05:00

FBUI, or FrameBufferUI, is a small, in-kernel graphical user interface for Linux.

A summary of its key features:

It is very small, about 50kB.
It is inside the Linux kernel, which places a limit on GUI bloat.
It permits multiple programs to share the framebuffer by letting each have graphical windows.
Each program may have multiple windows.
Windows may overlap, and be moved, resized, raised, lowered etc.
There can be windows on each virtual console.
Program interaction with FBUI is via a small set of system calls (ioctls).
Drawing primitives now support transparency.
It includes a small library libfbui to make using FBUI easier, and it includes an image-manipulation library and a font library.

fbui provides numerous advantages in comparison to an x server:

Eliminates GUI bloat, and minimizes the interface to the simple and elegant ioctl interface.
You can have a GUI right from boot time, as the Enhanced Functionality module demonstrates with its simple line-drawing pattern: As soon as the penguin appears, you have EF graphics appearing.
FBUI could be improved so as to entirely replace the framebuffer device and framebuffer console so that you could never deal with any of that.
FBUI could provide the basis for a completely graphical startup à la Macintosh.

Quite impressive for something that fits in about 50kB of kernel space. It seems this would be perfect for people running lightweight servers, as often a gui is just a nice thing to have :) Besides that, the concept of producing an in-kernel GUI has been brilliantly accomplished, in contrast to Microsoft's attempt at it which ended in utter failure.

Check out the fbui homepage.

Awesome Tux-shaped PC (Server)

2007-03-06T19:01:00.000-05:00

Italian embedded software specialist KDev is shipping Linux-based firmware for a tiny RISC-based SBC (single-board computer) available with a Tux-shaped case. Kdev's FoxServe firmware for the Acme Fox SBC provides a dynamic web server environment, including Apache, PHP, SQLite, SSL/TLS security, and Web-dav.

The whole system board is but a mere 2.6 x 2.8-inches (66 x 72mm) in size! In that tiny space is packed 4MB of flash and 16MB of RAM, Axis's Etrax 100LX, a highly integrated system-on-chip with a 32-bit 100 MIPS (million-instructions-per-second) RISC core, on-chip controllers for 10/100 Mbit Ethernet, four high speed serial ports, two USB ports for both host and device, IDE, SCSI, and two IEEE-1284 "fast" parallel ports. That's an impressive list! All this inside a super cool tux shaped case... what more could you want? Read more @ Linux Devices.com.
You can get the board in the case from ACME systems.
And here's some more info on the Tux case :-)

BackTrack v.2.0 Final Released!

2007-03-06T18:38:00.000-05:00

It has been almost 5 months much hard work, but BackTrack v.2.0 has been released from beta, and given "Final" status!

Every time we thought we were done, a new idea or improvement would surface, and we just *had* to implement it. Many features were added, and many of the old (yet persistent) bugs were fixed.
We honestly believe that BackTrack v 2.0 Final is the leanest, meanest and sexiest version to come out and hope that you enjoy using it as much as we did making it.

Check out what's new:

Wireless Attacks @ their best

We included a bunch of new drivers into the latest release and where able to make the desired packet injection functionalities to a wider audience.
Broadcom 43xx based cards should be able to inject - a bit sloppy but should work.
The following drivers are now on our CD:
madwifi-ng (Patched for Injection)
hostap (Patched for Injection)
prism54 (Patched for Injection)
bcm43xx (Patched for Injection)
rtl8180 & rtl8187 (Patched for Injection)
ipw2200 (Patched for Injection)
rt2570 (ASPj's Drivers)
rt2500, rt61, & rt73
ipw2100 & ipw3945
acx100
zd1211rw

Faster @ Work

Most of our Main-menu entries have a grouping "All" menu, which allows the experienced user to quickly find a tool.
Less experienced users are guided through the new menu structure to find the right tools for the right tasks.

Alignment to Open Standards and Frameworks

Being superior while staying easy to use is key to a good security live cd. We took things a step further and aligned BackTrack to Penetration Testing Methodologies and Assessment Frameworks (ISSAF and OSSTMM). This will help our professional users during their daily reporting nightmares.

Cutting Edge Exploitation Framework & Information

We put extra effort in integrating Metasploit Framework3 as well as the Stable Metasploit Framework2. Features such as db_autopwn, Wifi driver exploits etc are all functional.
Default password lists and online resources have been added and updated.

Latest Tech

Packages are now based on the Slax 6 LZM format, which allowed use to get more space and work in a more stable environment
We are running on a tweaked Kernel 2.6.20
Apple patches are applied
Broad Wireless Card Support
Lorcon Wifi / Metasploit integration
Wireshark Wifi Frame Injection patch
Over 300 updated security tools

Awesome stuff! Check it out and download at the Remote-Exploit website. Remember people, this is Live CD is meant to help improve the security of networks. Don't do anything illegal, you know better!

A Look at Beryl: Function vs. Eye Candy

2007-03-05T07:00:00.000-05:00

I am quite sure that any reader of my blog will know that I am an avid Beryl enthusiast. In this post, I will be discussing what aspects of Beryl are actually functional, and help increase productivity, in opposition to what is "eye candy." Readers of digg, have probably already heard die hard Beryl fans argue with the septics about what good Beryl really does for desktop productivity. I will be taking a look at some of the major beryl plugins/ features, and will see just how "useful" or functional Beryl actually is (besides the fact that Beryl just makes life better).

What is Beryl?

Beryl, as defined by the Beryl-project homepage is:

Beryl is a combined window manager and composite manager written in C using OpenGL to provide acceleration. It is designed to be highly flexible, extensible, and portable, all the while keeping in mind that the users know how they want their desktops to act better than we do. With Beryl the rather esoteric concept of the computer desktop is brought down to a more human level, allowing for a more native and intuitive understanding of your workspace.

I could not have said it better myself :-). Now! To the features!

The Cube

Perhaps the most famous (or infamous) feature of Beryl. I say infamous, because every where you look, there are Beryl videos of people just constantly spinning the cube around, and around, and around, and around again, and then once more. Yes, it does get annoying when you watch it in a video, but on your personal desktop? I would have to say the cube is one of the most beneficial features that Beryl has to offer. Every Linux user is familiar with virtual workspaces (or desktops), a feature which many (me included) find exceedingly useful. I mean, no one wants a cluttered desktop, and with more than one to spare, its much easier to organize your windows. Beryl's desktop cube adds a whole new dimension to the virtual workspace. Placing one on each side of a geometric shape (Yes! You can have more than just a cube!), the cube can then be rotated to view the different desktops. This rotation can be activated by a simply flick of the scroll wheel on your mouse, or any other key combination (such as CTRL + ALT + any arrow key). You can also unfold the cube if you like, to see every desktop in a film-like strip. Eye candy? Yes. Increases productivity? Yes. Especially when transparency is enabled, the cube literally adds a new dimension to desktop efficiency, letting you easily see where / how your windows are spread out.

The Desktop Wall

As the younger brother of the desktop cube, the desktop wall offers equally as much functionality as its elder sibling. Initiated by default through the SUPER (windows key) + E key combination, the desktop wall provides a wall composed of your 4 (or more) desktops. While viewing the wall, one can click & drag windows around to different desktops. Many may find this feature even more functional than the cube, seeing as it eliminates some of the "eye candy" factor. A very functional feature indeed. Sadly, the desktop wall and the desktop cube can not be used together (perhaps sibling rivalary got the best of their relationship ;-)

Transparent Windows

This is yet another very useful feature of Beryl. Again, through a simple key - mouse combo (usually ALT + move scroll wheel), you can easily set the transparency of a window. This is a very nice way to see what is behind the window you are currently using. I often use this feature when taking notes off a web page. I can set the transparency of my word processor down (I really don't need to see what I am typing.. I'm just that good :D ), while keeping it in focus, so as to allow me to see the web browser with opened web page beneath. Then, I can just type away.
With transparent windows, it is also possible to have a terminal open, with a semi-transparent background. As with the previous example, you can then see what is going on behind that window, and can copy commands from a web page without ever having to adjust the position of windows to get a good view. Overall, transparency yields a major productivity increase.

Animations

The burning windows, the magic lamp effect, the zoom in / zoom out, and even explosions. All these are present thanks to Beryl's "Animations" feature. Having cool effects while maximizing and minimizing windows is nice... but what does it do in terms of functionality? Well, not much to be honest. While very awesome, and quite entertaining, animations sure do make life a bit more exciting, but don't do much for productivity. If anything, some may get distracted by the "action" and spend their time just maximizing and minimizing windows, while they should be getting work done (What? No, of course I never do that * wink wink *).

Window/ Desktop Switching and Management

This is where Beryl really shines through in the realm of functionality and productivity. The newest innovation in this area is the window "ring switcher." This awesome little feature lets you tab through your windows while grouped in a ring position, with LIVE previews of each individual window. Not only does this add a new twist to the standard ALT + TAB, it gives you a great overview of each window, and what is happening within it, so you can spend less time searching for the right window, and more time in the right window (unless you, like me, get addicted to making the windows go around, and around in circles). Not to be dismissed is Beryl's standard ALT + TAB which also gives you live previews of each window, just not in a cool ring formation. Both features are very functional, I use them all the time.
Another great feature you have at your disposal when using Beryl is the window thumbnails. Hovering of a window's section in the task bar will give you a live preview of what is happening inside, whether the window is maximized or minimized. You can set the delay for instant gratification (just hover for 100 or so milliseconds), or set it so that you can graze over the task bar for a little while before being given a window preview. Not the biggest productivity increaser, but does provide some nice functionality... not completely eye candy.
The last major feature in Beryl's window management sector is its expose` like feature. Jam your mouse in the upper right hand corner of your screen for the area to clear, and give you a nice layout of all your open windows (even on other desktops). Then, simply click on the window you would like to have opened on top, and there you have it, right in front of you! No need to flip through virtual workspaces, just click and go! At any rate, a very useful feature!

Accessibility Options

Judging by this section's header alone, one can already guess that this feature provides some great functionality. The Beryl manager dedicates a whole section (tab) to four features (two of which I will review) that can help many with seeing disabilities. Easily the most practical of these is the zoom feature (Labled "Input Enabled Zoom" in the Beryl Manager). With this enabled, one can zoom in very close to the window, and still have input while doing doing so.
Second in line for most useful is the "Negative" feature. Through an easy key combination, you can set a window, or the entire screen, negative. Provides great contrast, and can be quite helpful.

Wobbly Windows

Of course, how can one talk about Beryl and not at least give mention to the wobbly windows? This is a feature purely meant as eye-candy. I can not feasibly imagine any task that could be simplified by this truly pointless feature. That said, I love it. Wobbly windows are my friend. There is just something about having a window wobble while you move it that just makes your heart skip a beat. Yes, I know, I don't get out enough :) . That, and they portray the power behind XGL/ AIGLX... so perhaps not completely useless... but still, major eye candy.

So, having looked at most all major Beryl features and plugins, I can say it is safe to conclude that while nearly every aspect of Beryl is eye-candy related, the great majority of what Beryl has to offer is also functionality driven, and can actually increase productivity.

Configuring a Linux home internet gateway

2007-03-05T06:43:00.000-05:00

I love Linux though, and so this opposition doesn’t stop me from wanting to setup a Linux machine at home. I upgrade my wife’s computer in the study about once every couple of years, and often my kids’ machines get a parts upgrade from the old machine at the same time. Recently, however, I found I had enough spare parts to put together an entire machine, so I took the opportunity to replace my LinkSys router with a custom Linux router. In this article, I’d like to describe this process because it was more difficult for me than it probably should have been—mostly for lack of clear instructions.

Awesome guide to setting up a Linux box as a home router. Easy to follow, anyone can do it! Read more @ FreeSoftwareMagazine.com. I may even get to do this, seeing as I have a couple old computers just standing around here, or perhaps set up a really small network file server/ proxy.

Preinstalled Open Source: The Next OS Battleground?

2007-03-03T22:19:00.000-05:00

The consumer response to Dell's request for product suggestions showed alarge interest in PCs preloaded with open source operating systems and applications. Negligible financial benefit has often stood in the way of such offerings. Unknown interest among consumers has also been an obstacle, but now that Dell has asked them directly, can it afford to ignore their replies?

Read more @ TechNewsWorld.
My opinion: No, they can't ignore it. Dell asked directly, and for them to ignore the consumer's wishes now would hardly be in their best interest. Offering FreeDOS, on some of their computer systems is a step in the right direction, but really just a small step (considering the systems are actually more expensive!). If any PC vendor wants to be successful in the future, they are going to have to embrace open-source and Linux. Some people just don't need Windows, and to make those people pay for it as a price included in the system... well that's just wrong, and people are realizing it! Consumers need a choice, and ironically that is what Dell thinks it is all about. But having just one operating system to chose from... well, that doesn't qualify as choice in my book! Recently, I read an article discussing why hardware vendors won't do Linux pre-installation. I find their "reasoning" of "one size doesn't fit all" is really just a lame excuse. If Dell, or other PC vendors loaded Ubuntu defaultly on the machines, and then offered a few other options as well (SUSE, Red Hat, Fedora, etc), everything would be just fine. Any competent user can, if they wish, load a different distro later, and for those who can't, Ubuntu is an EXCELLENT option. When it comes down to it, its about the money. Dell can't make money off of something that is free! Or so it seems... for as more people are realizing that open-source is the way to go, if PC vendors did go with Linux pre-installs, there would be a larger crowd to appeal to, perhaps offsetting the "losses" of not selling Windows on their systems. Also, a happy costumer may become a returning customer or refer friends. More sales = more money. However, there is another point, discussed in afore mentioned article, that is perhaps THE opposing factor for Linux:

Although it might make sense for Dell to start offering Linux preinstallations for regular consumers a few years from now, most people wanting to make the switch from Windows to Linux at this stage should do so with the guidance of a Linux enthusiast who can perform the installation and help them make the transition, or by purchasing from a shop that specializes in Linux preinstallation.
I'm not saying this because I think that Linux isn't ready for the desktop. I'm saying this because I don't think that Dell is capable yet of providing full technical support for desktop Linux. Dell has a hard enough time as it is supporting Windows.

I had to laugh out loud the first time I read this, I mean... that's Dell for you! On second glance, it made me rather sad. In a world where we are all dependent upon computers, there is still so much ignorance about their use. Most people would find an excuse for why they can't work a computer, but really, it just comes down to the initiative it takes to learn something new. An initiative some people just don't seem to posses. Training employees to support Linux would most likely be a one time thing. For the basic user, Linux is not that difficult to learn! If PC vendors focused on offering Linux compatible hardware, there would really be no cause to worry at all!
Even if pre-installing Linux is not an option, please, at least offer open-source software for pre-install! Thousands of people using, and paying hundreds for, Microsoft office would fair perfectly well with Open Office. There's an open source alternative for nearly everything. The applications are there... use them!
It's time for a paradigm shift in the world of computers and operating systems, a shift towards the adoption of open-source. Its not just a nerd thing any more, its real, and for the masses.

FIRST, Robotics, and an Amazing Person!

2007-02-28T20:58:00.000-05:00

The last 6 weeks of my life have primarily been consumed by robotics team. Yes, a nerdy sounding activity to say the least, but it has probably been the best 6 weeks of my life, and I think many others feel the same way. But first, let me get into what this robotics club is, what FIRST is, and of who Dean Kamen is.

What is FIRST?

FIRST stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology." It is a not-for-profit organization founded by Dean Kamen. As Mr. Kamen says, FIRST's vision is "To create a world where science and technology are celebrated... where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes." Making up FIRST are four competition "realms." These are the FIRST Robotics Competition (high school), FIRST Vex Competition (high school), FIRST Lego League (9-14), and the Junior FIRST Lego League (6-9). Founded in 1989, FIRST has grown from just couple teams in one region with one event, to many thousands of teams from 45 countries around the world! There is so much more to FIRST than just engineering though, it is also about teamwork, and uniting a group of people in a common interest. Building the robot is but half the fun, the true fun lies in working with others, helping others, and learning leadership and responsibility. Even if a team doesn't manage to ship a fully functional robot, they have still learned irreplaceable values and skills that they can then carry with them throughout their life.And I think that is what FIRST is all about.

So Who is Dean Kamen?

Dean Kamen is simply an extraordinary person. Founder of FIRST, and the leader of DEKA (his research and development company), Dean Kamen is changing lives around the world, quite literally. People may know him as the inventor of the Segway. This super cool "human transport" device is already making great strides forward in the realms of police force transportation, and quick, reliable transport for the everyday person. However, this invention seems to be almost insignificant in comparison to the other remarkable work he has done for the medical field. Mr. Kamen's most profoundly important device is probably his small, portable HomeChoice™ dialysis machine. This astounding, practical device allows patients with chronic renal failure to have more freedom than ever imagined, letting them go just about anywhere. In addition to this, he has developed/ invented the first insulin pump, the IBOT™, Hydroflex™ Irrigation Pump, and has led work in the production of better stents, fully functional robotic arms for those having lost an arm, and treatment systems for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). Already, an amazing list of achievements, but just the tip of the iceberg. Mr. Kamen is now working on bringing electricity and water to every remote area in the world that doesn't have any. His new inventions are a breakthrough to say the least. His device for purifying water can take literally any water, however polluted, and make it virtually sterilized. His device for creating electricity also works in a similar fashion. Through the use of technology including Sterling engines, he can take literally any "$#!T", as he puts it, and make it into electricity. Yes, this IS for real!
Just recently, I had the great privilege of attending two speeches Mr. Kamen made for the FIRST Robotics community in the South Carolina area. He is a true inspiration. Talking about being an entrepreneur, he made it apparent that conventional thinking just isn't good enough. If you want to be an entrepreneur, you have to think out of the box, and even further! He said that if you go to someone with an idea, and they claim it is possible, then it is probably not going change the world. Chances are, someone had already thought of it, and tried it. Nearly every one of Mr. Kamen's inventions was initially thought of as impossible, and look where he is now. The difference he is making in the world is real, and beyond belief. Gaining more and more momentum, he is trying to help ever more people, and to say "it's working!" would be an understatement!
Dean Kamen says he is NOT a bashful person, and this is one of his major strengths, as he illustrated in his talks. He told us about particular incident when he was meeting a group of governors from various states, rallying support for his FIRST Robotics league. He asked for use of their universities to hold the competitions. When he wasn't acknowledged he threatened them with a class action law suit, accusing them of fraud, and that if they want to settle it out of court, they should rename their university to something with sports, because that seemed like the place where all their money was going. That got him support.
Dean Kamen is a man to admire greatly. Step by step, he is changing the world, and even on the level of a single person (ie; me) he is making a profound difference. I just want to say Thank You Mr. Kamen, you really are a hero to many.

Robotics, Team 1293

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I myself am a member of a local robotics team. Team 1293 to be exact, D5 Robotics (District 5 Robotics). Since the build season started about seven weeks ago, the members of this team have dedicated countless hours of hard work, to produce a robot to accomplish a certain set of goals (see this NASA stream to learn more). The six weeks of build season were really the best I have ever experienced. Robotics has made me think in ways I never had before, and has made me stretch my realm of comprehension to embrace ever more ideas. We had our setbacks, but in the end, we managed to ship a fully working robot (we shipped on the 20th, last Tuesday). This is quite an accomplishment. I mean, in six weeks, we had to think up a complete design for the robot, build it from pretty much scratch, AND program it. This years challenge was "Rack 'n' Roll!" We had to create robot to lift inflatable tubes on to a dynamically moving rack. Not an easy task, but I believe our robot, Atlas we called him, accomplishes it quite nicely. Although the students did most of the work, we could not have gotten ANYWHERE without the immense help our mentors gave us. Educating us in every subject imaginable, we learned not only how to work power tools, but also how to act as a team, to get things done. I'd like to give all the team 1293 mentors a huge thanks. Giving up countless hours to help us was not something they had to do, but they wanted to make a difference, and, I think I speak for the whole team, when I say we are eternally grateful.

Now, go out, and promote FIRST! Also, be sure to check out the D5 Robotics website, which contains news and information about our team (be sure to view the media gallery too!).

New Gmail feature out! Fetch mail from other accounts!

2007-02-28T18:45:00.000-05:00

Now there really is no reason why not to use gmail. This new feature lets you retrieve both new and old mail from up to 5 other accounts, and see it in gmail! I'm trying it with about 4 other adresses, and so far, its looking good! I no longer need to keep up with multiple accounts, passwords, logins, etc. It's all in gmail! Keep up the awesome work Google!

Now Gmail can check for the mail you receive at your other email accounts. You can retrieve your mail (new and old) from up to five other email accounts and have them all in Gmail. Then you can even create a customized 'From:' address, which lets you send messages from Gmail, but have them look like they were sent from another one of your email accounts. Please note that you can only retrieve mail from accounts that have POP3 access enabled. Learn more

Sadly, yahoo doesn't offer POP3 for free, so I can't access that account it seems. But, having multiple Gmail address, this is a great feature to have! Here's a quick screenshot:

Submit to digg?

A Blog Of Note

2007-02-27T21:57:00.000-05:00

It seems I have been chosen as a "Blog of Note" by the "Blog of Note" team! Awesome! Again, many thanks to all my visitors, especially the ones that return! I started this blog about 10 months ago, in March of 2006. I never even dreamed that this blog could achieve such success. I put a lot of time into this blog, and its nice to see people like my posts. I'm just passionate about technology, and I know many others are. What ever interests me, I post. As I have said in the message board, I am working two rather large posts (sort of the first of their kind) for this blog. If things go well, I'll get the written up by Saturday. I'll see how things go from there. Anyways, thanks for visiting the site! Enjoy and be sure to browse the archives or use the search box (powered by Technorati) to look up all your favorite tech topics!

First desktop motherboard supported by LinuxBIOS: GIGABYTE M57SLI-S4

2007-02-25T11:53:00.000-05:00

The GIGABYTE M57SLI-S4 is the first-ever desktop motherboard supported by a Free & Open Source BIOS, thanks to AMD engineer Yinghai Lu who released GPL-licensed code last month. This state-of-the-art motherboard is based on the NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI chipset and AMD's latest Socket AM2.

As mentioned in the article, this really is a huge step forward in the quest for a "completely Free & Open Source general-purpose computer that enables users to have full control over their own hardware." You can read more about the motherboard @ gmane.linux.kernel. For those interested in the board, you can check it out @ Newegg! Here are some quick specs on the board:

Support for AMD Athlon (Socket AM2) 64 X2, Athlon 64 FX, and Athlon 64 processors
2X PCI Express x16 slots
3X PCI Express x1 slots
2X PCI slots
3X 1394a (FireWire) ports
10X USB 2.0
16GB maximum memory
SATA RAID
6X SATA 3Gb/s slots.

Amusing: If Operating Systems Ran Airlines...

2007-02-24T16:11:00.000-05:00

An amusing little piece theorizing on how each individual operating system's airline would be. Quite amusing. Check it out @ zyra.org.uk.

Linux Air

Disgruntled employees of all the other OS airlines decide to start their own airline. They build the planes, ticket counters, and pave the runways themselves. They charge a small fee to cover the cost of printing the ticket, but you can also download and print the ticket yourself.

When you board the plane, you are given a seat, four bolts, a wrench and a copy of the seat-HOWTO.html. Once settled, the fully adjustable seat is very comfortable, the plane leaves and arrives on time without a single problem, the in-flight meal is wonderful. You try to tell customers of the other airlines about the great trip, but all they can say is, "You had to do what with the seat?"

WOW! Logitech X-230

2007-02-23T07:07:00.000-05:00

Just WOW! That is all I can say right now about my NEW Logitech X-230 speakers. I can not even begin to describe how much better these are than my old speakers. It is simply amazing how great they sound!!! I used to have the world's cheapest speakers, probably costing $5 with my mouse and keyboard. Well, they are gone now, and they will NEVER return. Logitech simply makes amazing products. These speakers, in my opinion, can not be beat for the price. In a 2.1 configuration with 64 watts peak power, the sound these things produces is beyond belief. The subwoofer is great, and provides excellent, solid bass. The two speakers both produce crystal clear sound at all volumes. Spectacular! For those interested, check them out at Amazon.com.

Big Debian Linux Payday For HP

2007-02-22T21:39:00.000-05:00

"HP is making $25 million by supporting the free Debian GNU/Linux distribution in what may ultimately turn out to be a challenge to commercial distributions from Novell and Red Hat."

And people say Linux isn't profitable!? HP is pretty cool about Linux. I just wish/ hope some (or all) of the that $25 million was going to open source / Linux development. Read more @ internetnews.com.

Get the most out of bash

2007-02-22T21:03:00.000-05:00

If you use Linux or UNIX you most likely spend a lot of time at the shell (or command prompt). Chances are that you are using bash. This insightful article at IBM developerWorks shows you how to get the most out of bash:

Ease your system administration tasks by taking advantage of key parts of the Bourne-again shell (bash) and its features. Bash is a popular alternative to the original Bourne and Korn shells. It provides an impressive range of additional functionality that includes improvements to the scripting environment, extensive aliasing techniques, and improved methods for automatically completing different commands, files, and paths.

Check it out @ IBM developerWorks.

Also check out this article by Sam Rowe at Deadman.org. He also provides great advice on how to proficiently use the bash CLI. He writes:

If you've ever used GNU/Linux, chances are good that you've used bash. Some people hold the belief that using a GUI is faster than using a CLI. These people have obviously never seen someone who uses a shell proficiently. In this tutorial, I hope to show you just a few of the amazing features bash provides that will increase your productivity in the shell.

Ubuntu, Kubuntu, & Xubuntu Benchmarks

2007-02-22T20:47:00.000-05:00

With Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Xubuntu each deploying a different desktop environment (GNOME, KDE, and Xfce respectively), how do each of these distributions compare performance-wise? We have taken two systems -- one with dual Intel Clovertown processors and the other an AMD Sempron -- and tested out each of these distributions in some of our commonly used Linux benchmarks to see how the performance truly stacks up.

Interesting comparison via Phoronix. This is only part one of the results. Get this, test set up one consists of 2 (TWO) Quad Core (4 CORES) Intel Xeon E5320, with 4GB RAM. Nice. Check it out @ Phoronix.

Easily extract audio from any YouTube video

2007-02-19T11:09:00.000-05:00

There are times when you come across a YouTube video that has a soundtrack that you just must have. You can download the video... but then you still have the video attached. What if you want just the audio? Well, if you're running Linux, ffmpeg has come to your rescue. Using any YouTube ripper, first download the video. Make sure it saves in .flv format. After that we can simply run the following command:

ffmpeg -i input.flv -f mp3 -vn -acodec copy output.mp3
This will give you just the audio of the video in nice mp3 format. From there, you can encode it as you wish.
Another method you may want to use, utilizing mplayer, is:

mplayer -dumpaudio [name of file].flv
This gives you a file called stream.dump in the original audio format. Rename the file as you wish.

Enjoy!

Cool stuff with X: xwinwrap

2007-02-14T22:10:00.001-05:00

Xwinwrap is an awesome little application that allows xgl (works with AIGLX too!) users to replace their desktop background with a movie or screen saver! You can install the application through synaptic. All you need is xwinwrap + xscreensaver! Commands to get it to run (with the MatrixGL screensaver):

xwinwrap -ni -argb -fs -s -st -sp -b -nf -- /usr/lib/xscreensaver/glmatrix -window-id WID -delay 10000
Check out the vid!

As usual: AMD Athlon 3700+ @ 2.76Ghz, 1.5gig DDR400 RAM, GeForce 6200 128MB ; Ubuntu Edgy 6.10 latest nVidia drivers

Linux: New Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Driver

2007-02-12T22:26:00.000-05:00

James Ketrenos announced a new 80211 based driver for the Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG network connection adapter, "this new driver uses the new d80211 subsystem previously only available as part of the wireless-dev tree." An earlier incarnation of the driver code was much criticized for its inclusion of a userland binary-only daemon [story], prompting the OpenBSD project to create their own blob-free driver for the card [story]. "The [new] iwlwifi driver for the 3945 does not require the user space daemon, but does require a new microcode image," James explained, "over the past year we were able to make the necessary changes to the microcode used with the 3945 such that we were able to remove the regulatory daemon."

Great news for laptop users wanting to use Linux! Next to the Broadcom chipset, the Intel PRO Wireless chip is one of the most popular ones in laptops. As Roy Schestowitz puts it: "No more 'I got Ubuntu installed, but I can't get my Wi-fi to work without ndiswrapper'. Good news. Maybe the "free drivers" initiative [1] is paying off."

Read more @ KernelTrap (with some Q and A).

South Carolina Computers & Technology Expo

2007-02-12T21:21:00.000-05:00

As some may know, I live in South Carolina. Long have I been itching to go to a technology expo... yet all the good ones are in the North East or California (I'm a freshman in high school... no job... no money... no $$$ for travel). Luckly, a reader (Tim) has called to my attention a Computers and Technology expo right here, in Columbia, South Carolina! The expo will feature the following exhibitors:

Acumen
Bearweb.com
Computer Business Systems
Discovery Training Center
DSB Scientific Consulting
Eagle Business Solutions
EMC
Keypoint Solutions
MicroStaff IT
Netcommart
SCANA / Spirit Telecom
SDI*Networks
Servin
Serviza
Solutience
Time-Warner Cable
VC3, Inc.
VMWare
Unitrends
USC School of Computer Science and Engineering
USC Information Technology
Yorel Integrated Solutions
Zimbra

Not bad, for the area. In any case, this is something I would definitely like to see.
More information can be found at the South Carolina Computers & Technology Expo homepage.

The expo is to be held on February 23, from 10AM to 7PM in the Columbia Conference Center.

Linspire to go Ubuntu

2007-02-08T07:04:00.000-05:00

This week, Linspire and Canonical, the lead sponsor of the popular Ubuntu operating system, announced a technology partnership that will integrate core competencies from each company into the other's open source Linux offerings. This is very exciting news for both Linspire and Ubuntu users. Through this sharing of technology and working together, all users will benefit from quicker release cycles and expanded features, products and services.

Linspire will remain Linspire, KDE and all. Just the basis will be on Ubuntu, which is another step in the right direction. Read more @ the Linspire website.

Cool new Beryl Feature: Desktop Wall

2007-02-07T08:15:00.000-05:00

A couple of svn releases ago, Beryl released a new feature called the "Desktop Wall." Initially, I experienced some problems, but now with the latest release, it is fully working. As the name implies, this plugin creates a desktop wall. Not only that, but you can also drag and drop windows on this wall to organize your desktop. Check out the vid:

Quick Tips to Find Files on Linux File System

2007-02-05T20:43:00.000-05:00

One of the first hurdles that every Linux newbie working on Command Line Interface (CLI) bumps into is finding files on the file system. Administrators who switch from Windows environment are so much used to the click-n-find mentality that discovering files via Linux CLI is painful for them. This tutorial is written for those friends who work on Linux and don’t have the luxury of Graphical User Interface (GUI).

As the description says, this is a great guide to anyone new to the Linux CLI. The tutorial talks mainly about the "locate" and "find" commands, and how they can be used to their maximum potential. Check it out @ SecGuru.

Stable Linux Kernel 2.6.20 Released!

2007-02-05T07:11:00.000-05:00

The latest stable kernel has been released, 2.6.20. The release fixes many bugs in previous versions. Check out the full changelog for more information!
From Kernel Trap:

Linux creator Linus Torvalds announced the release of the 2.6.20 kernel, summarizing, "a lot of stuff. All over. And KVM." He further noted, "I tried rather hard to make 2.6.20 largely a 'stabilization release'. Unlike a lot of kernels lately, there aren't really any big fundamental changes to some core infrastructure area, and while we always have bugs, I really am hoping that we fixed many more than we introduced." His announcement started with a news parody, "in a widely anticipated move, Linux 'headcase' Torvalds today announced the immediate availability of the most advanced Linux kernel to date, version 2.6.20."