Shane Joe Lazar's Blog

The Warthog Said To The Meerkat...

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 21:43:00 +0000

I came across this old image today. The current relevance immediately jumped at me.

All the best, Maverick and the Ubuntu team for the big 10.10!

Tidbit: Fonts - The Subtle Eyecandy

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:22:00 +0000

Us Linux users, for the most part, enjoy tweaking and fine tuning our computers so that they are just right for us. That is just the kind of users we are. Apart from being functional, we also love eyecandy, and it shows in all the different desktop effects, add-ons and themes available. But one thing I often see ignored are fonts. Considering that while you're not spinning the cube or wobbling the window, all you see are widgets, images and text, it makes sense to say that fonts are a very important part of the user experience. So, I just want to share a few tweaks I use to make my user experience better. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Use what works for you!

Set your system-wide font configurations

There are many tweaks and settings available for fonts. For a full description read this. I prefer to use a ready-made font configuration and a good one is PaulBredbury's configuration. Follow the link in the forum post to his latest configuration file and save it as ~/.fonts.conf in your home folder. Log out and log back in.

Find a font you like

This is a matter of personal taste, so there is no 'best font'. However, I find that fonts that require a minimal amount of antialiasing (blurring around the edges) without looking pixelated or blocky work the best. This means they will look crisp and they will 'pop', making them easier and a joy to read. Generally, for screens, sans serif fonts are recommended.

Personally, I have taken a liking to the taller sans serif fonts like Droid Sans, Aurulent Sans, DejaVu Sans Condensed and Aller. You can find them all and more on Font Squirrel. Install your preferred font using the GUI tool in your distro or unpack them to your ~/.fonts directory.

Set the font as your system default

Depending on your desktop environment the steps will be slightly different.

Gnome: Preferences > Appearance > Fonts Tab

KDE: System Settings > Application Appearance > Fonts

LXDE or Mint Fluxbox: Preferences > Appearance > Fonts combo box

One more thing

So far it's all nice, easy and nothing new. There is one more thing that I like to do and that is bring my preferred font to the web. I force the browsers to render pages using the font I want and IMO it makes for a much more pleasant experience. Here's how I do it for the browsers I use.

Firefox: Edit > Preferences > Content tab. In there set your default font, then click 'Advanced' and set your font there as well. Unselect the option 'Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above'. Save your settings.

Google Chrome and Chromium: Install the Chrome Stylist extension. In the extension's 'Options' page, go to the Styles tab and click 'Add new style'. In the dialog that appears, name your new style, select 'All sites', paste the following CSS code into the text box, then enable and save the settings.

Opera (10.60): Create a file ~/.opera/styles/user/user.css and paste the CSS code below into the file. In the address bar of Opera, navigate to opera:config. In the filter field type in 'local css'. Set the value of 'Local CSS File' to the file you just created and 'Local CSS Files Directory' to the directory containing the file. Save your changes.

CSS for Chrome and Opera

* { font-family: "Droid Sans" !important; }

Replace 'Droid Sans' with the font of your choice.

Log out and back in, just to make sure all is freshly loaded and enjoy your uniformly crisp and beautiful fonts both on the desktop and online!

Distro Review: Arch Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Wed, 19 May 2010 15:33:00 +0000

Tidbit: lnk - A Script To Create Symbolic Links (For Idiots)

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Sun, 02 May 2010 10:04:00 +0000

Is there something that is so simple and something that you use so often that you should know it off the top of your head? And yet you brain just refuses to register said info... The nemesis of my memory is the simple ln command. I cannot, for the life in me, remember for sure which argument comes first: the target or the link name. To save repeatedly checking the help documentation, I wrote a tiny script. I thought I'd share this little gem now that I've been working on many virtual machines and realize how much I depend on it.

Use of this script is very simple and straightforward. You provide it with two file/folder paths: one to the target and another to the symbolic link you wish to create. Therefore, one must exist (the target) and the other must not (the link name). It doesn't matter in which order you put them. The script checks if they exist and creates a symbolic link from the link name to the target. That's about it!

Just copy the following code, save to an executable file and drop it in a folder included in your $PATH directories. Mine is $HOME/.bin/lnk. Enjoy!

#!/bin/bash ################################################################ # AUTHOR: SHANE JOE LAZAR # SCRIPT NAME: lnk # VERSION: 0.1 # LICENSE: GPLv2 or later # # CHANGELOG # --------- ##0.1 (2010-03-26 15:37) # - Initial release. ################################################################ #--VARIABLES-- ARG1="$1" ARG2="$2" TARGET="" LINK="" #-/VARIABLES-- # Catch unbound variables set -u #--FUNCTIONS-- # Usage instructions usage () { echo "----------------------------------------------------------" echo "" echo "$0:" echo " This script creates a symbolic link to a file/directory." echo " It will automatically determine which of the two provided" echo " arguments will be the target and which will be the link." echo "" echo " $0 [path1] [path2] " echo "" echo "----------------------------------------------------------" } # Check if arguments provided sanityCheck () { if [[ -z "$ARG1" || -z "$ARG2" ]] then usage exit 1 fi } # Function to create link createLink () { ln -s $TARGET $LINK ls -l -a $LINK } # Function to check if files exist checkArg () { if [[ -e "$1" || -h "$1" ]] then echo "true" else echo "false" fi } # Function to determine target and link findArgs () { CHECK1=`checkArg $ARG1` CHECK2=`checkArg $ARG2` # If both arguments exist if [[ "$CHECK1" == "true" && "$CHECK2" == "true" ]] then echo "" echo "Error: Both $ARG1 and $ARG2 exist." echo " Cannot create link." echo "" usage exit 1 # If argument 1 exists elif [[ "$CHECK1" == "true" && "$CHECK2" == "false" ]] then TARGET=$ARG1 LINK=$ARG2 # if argument 2 exists elif [[ "$CHECK1" == "false" && "$CHECK2" == "true" ]] then TARGET=$ARG2 LINK=$ARG1 fi } #-/FUNCTIONS-- #--RUN-- # Exit on errors set -e # Action! sanityCheck findArgs createLink exit 0 #-/RUN--

Ubuntu's New Yahoo Search Engine - Is It Up To The Task?

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:01:00 +0000

Anybody who is interested should know by now that Ubuntu is switching from Google to Yahoo as its default search engine. Of course this change can be reverted very easily for those who prefer Google. However, it is the n00bs that will be most affected by the change as they will most probably just continue using the default search engine in blissful ignorance.

From my experience in forums, the biggest problem I see with new users is that they do not know how/what to search for when faced with a problem. And this is where the search engine used becomes vital to quickly finding a possible answer. What is the point in scolding new users for not searching before asking if the default search engine does not bring the most relevant information to them. More so when the user searches for vague or inaccurate terms.

So, I decided to put the two search engines to the test. I did a few searches on both engines using terms that I think new users would use and for problems new users would likely face. The 10 links below will run the same search in both engines. You be the judge of how good the results are and how fast they were provided. Here we go!

google widgets in ubuntu

desktop cube with ATI graphics

cant boot ubuntu after installing windows

watch apple trailers in ubuntu

how to install programs in ubuntu

install codecs in ubuntu

ubuntu connect to internet with broadband modem

ubuntu install canon printer

ubuntu copy photos from camera

ubuntu share internet with another computer

What is your conclusion? Which engine provided the better results? Does the search engine really make a difference? What other searches would a new user run? Leave a comment below!

What was Apple Thinking?

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 08:56:00 +0000

If you don't know already, Apple announced their new tablet yesterday. The name? iPad. What where they thinking? This inevitably brought the 12 year old out of the Internet's collective closet with the abundance of feminine hygiene product jokes. And as if to add salt to injury, have a look at the Trending Topics on Twitter hours after the launch. Pretty hilarious!

LQ Votes Again!

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:57:00 +0000

We have the Grammys, the Oscars, the Golden Globes, the Webbys and the LQ Members' Choice Awards! Yes folks, it is that time of the year - time for the 2009 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Awards!

For as long as I've been using Linux, the Linux Questions site and forums have been a wealth of help, ideas and knowledge. It is probably the largest non distro specific Linux forum out there with over 420,000 registered members. Every year members of the Linux Questions community vote for their favorite applications, programming languages, distributions, toolkit, desktop environment and more! It is a great way to show your support and appreciation for the projects you love and use, to find projects that are sparking others' interest and feel the pulse of what's beating in the the heart of the Linux world.

Voting ends on February 9th. So head over, register (if you're not already registered) and vote!

Tidbit: Firefox Extension - Invert Colors

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 13:17:00 +0000

I spend a lot of time in front of the computer screen and this can be a real strain on the eyes. The easiest way for me to cope with this is to use dark themes and reduce the brightness of the screen. But these have their limitations. Using dark themes only affects window decorations and system wigdets, while decreasing brightness can make things near unreadable especially during the day time. Then there is the fact that most a lot of my time on the computer is spent in the web browser where themes have no effect and most pages are bright.

Enter Invert Colors. This is a great little experimental addon for Firefox. Basically it does does what it says on the box. It inverts the colors of web pages and removes background images. It works relatively well. So far only one site (www.hattrick.org) crashes Firefox with this Addon enabled. Gmail is not affected by this addon but this can be rectified easily with Gmail themes.

In general, sites continue to work well although some buttons and links do not appear on some sites e.g. the thumbs up and down icons for youtube comments. Pages look more "90s" without all the images and backgrounds. But the important thing is that it does what I expect it to do and that is dim down the pages and reduce eye strain. If you would rather Invert Colors does not modify a site, you can configure it to do just that. Simply disable it for the site and reload to see the page as it was meant to be.

I would recommend Invert Colors to someone who likes dark themes because they are easy one the eyes and can handle the less flashy and occasionally buggy web experience. I certainly think it is worth it. If you use some other method to achieve this effect, please do let me know!

Here are some example screenshots

Click here for a Google Wave invite. First come, first serve!

The Irony of OpenOffice 3.2

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:11:00 +0000

Today, while I was going through my usual tech news feeds I came across the OpenOffice 3.2 RC2 release announcement. I thought this was pretty cool and decided to have a look at what new features we could expect from the next release of OpenOffice. Nothing unusual. Yet.

Perusing through the 'What's New' section, something caught my eye. What's that? "Initial implementation of docx export." Nothing ironic. Yet.

Now those of us who like to keep up with tech news will know that Microsoft lost a patent infringement suit against XML specialists i4i, and then lost again after appealing. Basically, what this means is that Microsoft is banned from selling Microsoft Office from January 11, 2010, until the code that infringes on the XML patent is removed. And this code is what provides support for Microsoft's new XML formats which includes the infamous .docx format. Are you beginning to get the picture?

Now Microsoft already has plans to replace this infringing code in the next release, Microsoft Office 2010. As of now, MS Office 2010 is in the Beta stage of development and the final release date is set for some time in the first half of 2010. But OpenOffice 3.2's final release date is set for sometime this month. Getting clearer?

Thus, it follows, if you need support for Microsoft's .docx format right now, your only legal option is to use OpenOffice! It makes me warm inside :) Open Source FTW! Or am I missing something that is painfully obvious... Let me know.

Here's a Google Wave invitation!

Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:01:00 +0000

Hope everyone out there has a blessed Christmas!

Music: Mishal Moore - Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas

Text from here.

Images found using Google.

Video compiled using only free and open source software (Kdenlive, The GIMP, KDE 4 and of course Linux!)

Poor art and video directing by yours truly :)

No copyright infringement intended.

Here's another Google Wave invite!

Acer Extensa 5630EZ Review

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:07:00 +0000

After almost 5 years of service I decided it was time to move on from my trusty Acer Aspire 3003NLMi and get myself a new laptop. But first of all, like a good geek, I must pay homage. The Aspire was my main machine and it took everything I threw at it. And then some. All Linux Mint Fluxbox CEs that I was responsible for were built on it. But the AMD Sempron 3000+, 768MB RAM and 40GB HD just weren't cutting it. Not to mention the Broadcom wireless card that required a proprietary driver, the SiS integrated graphics chip that has poor support in Linux and many ailing components.

This time around I was determined to choose wisely. I did my research and armed with my new found knowledge I set out on my hunt. For almost two months I scoured websites and brochures looking for that perfect deal. I settled for the Acer Extensa 5630EZ and here is my review after about a week of tinkering.

Let's get to the juicy stuff.

The Specs.

CPU: Intel Dual Core T4300 running at 2.1GHz with 1MB L2 Cache and an Intel Chipset

Memory: 3GB (2+1) DDR2 @ 667MHz

Graphics: Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M with 64MB dedicated memory

Storage: 320GB Western Digital drive spinning @ 5200rpm

Display: 15.4" WXGA Acer CrystalBrite 1280x800 display (8ms/220nit)

Audio: Intel 82801I HD Audio Controller

Ethernet: NetXtreme BCM5764M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe

Wireless: Atheros AR928X 802.11b/g/Draft-N Wireless Network Adapter

Bluetooth 2.1+EDR

Integrated Acer Crystal Eye webcam with 640x480 resolution

Multi layer DVD-RW optical drive

PCMCIA card slot

6 cell Li-ion Battery with a claimed 3 hours of juice

3 USB ports

1 VGA port

2 Stereo speakers

Weighs about 3kgs

What I like

First of all, there is the price. I bought this machine for a few Lei shy of 1,800RON. I think that is quite a bargain for a new laptop! Most other laptops in the price range where Intel Celeron based and most netbooks were only 100-300RON cheaper! Also, I made it a point to buy a laptop either with Linux or no OS preinstalled. This one came with Linpus Linux. Plus 1 for Linux sales!

The laptop seems of a good build quality. The exterior is sturdy black plastic with a textured matte finish which looks simple but very good. The display hinges are wide and feel like they will survive my torture. The full size keyboard has a curved layout and the keys have good travel and feel. The touchpad is a decent size and has a metal bezel that adds a nice touch to the otherwise understated look. The display is very clear and bright (sometimes too bright) with a glossy finish. The speakers are loud enough (they are average laptop speakers).

This Acer machine runs cool and quiet. The fan only occasionally spins into action and even then it is quiet. Under normal use temperatures hover around 45°C. The underside is never too hot for comfort.

So far everything works out of the box in Linux! It is such a boon to have full support for your hardware. Just a little research goes a long way to enhancing your user experience. Running Linux Mint 8, CPU frequency scaling, 3D accelerated desktop effects, wireless (using the ath9k driver), bluetooth, the webcam and the hotkeys (some required configuring) all worked fine. I also installed and am using Arch Linux without any closed drivers.

It is no slouch. OK, it is no speed demon by today's standards either, but I am very pleased with the performance. Benchmarks are mostly academic, though I might put it through its paces at a later time. Nowadays, when 3GB of RAM doesn't seem all that much it is a real joy to be using Linux. Even with a lot of applications running (during normal use), I have never seen my RAM usage go over 2GB. Also many 3D games work e.g. Warzone 2100, Tuxkart, Neverball, Neverputt, World of Goo and Globulation 2. After 5 years of Sudoku and Solitaire, I was like a kid on Christmas morning!

What I don't like

The synaptics touchpad doesn't seem to recognize two or more finger actions. Thus things like two-finger scrolling are not possible. My not knowing how to configure it is also a possibility. The touchpad buttons are a bit too plasticky. They have some play, the travel is very little and the clicking action gives a cheap plastic sound. My biggest issue with this that my old Acer laptop had the same kind of touchpad buttons. And after repeated use they started getting stuck on the down click, thus becoming mostly useless. Preemptively, I have configured my touchpad to handle all clicking actions, so hopefully they'll last longer.

Another issue, which is more a matter of personal preference, is that the audio I/Os are located in the front of the laptop. This means that if you're using headphones, the jack is prone to getting bumped and skewed if the machine is placed on the lap and from hands moving around the touchpad. It's not a big deal if your headphones get messed up but eventually the headphone socket develops some play and causes contacts inside to become loose. That is annoying and will require sending the laptop for repairs. Manufacturers, please put the audio I/Os on the side!

The ath9k driver in the 2.6.31 kernel is not the best around. Quite frequently (2-3 times a day under heavy traffic e.g. file transfers), it would lose the signal and refuse to reconnect. The only way to get it working again was to reboot. Thankfully, upgrading to the 2.6.32 kernel solves this problem.

The glossy LCD display can be quite reflective but setting the brightness to maximum counters this for the most part.

What I haven't tried

I haven't tested the battery life yet. The battery requires formatting which means a 16 hour charge with the laptop off. I'm not bored of fiddling with it just yet to leave it off that long.

The ethernet card hasn't been used yet simply because wireless works. Anyway, I haven't yet come across an ethernet card that doesn't work in Linux. Then there is the PCMCIA card slot, because I don't have anything to put in it.

What I would have liked

The only thing that I really wanted that is not in this machine is a card reader. I just wanted the freedom to not worry about compatibility of various devices with Linux. But if I really need it, a card reader is not an expensive purchase.

That about wraps up my review. Once again, Acer has won me over with their product. At this price point there is almost no competition, even if it was on a Christmas sale. I am very pleased with my purchase. I would definitely recommend it, and more especially to Linux users.

Here is a Google Wave invitation. First come, first serve! If you do get it, drop me a line so that I know it works.

Tidbit: Migrating Data From One Computer To Another in Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:09:00 +0000

There comes a time when a computer user gets a new machine and has to migrate his/her data. This is far from a fun experience. Wouldn't it be nice if you could have all your files and settings transfered to the new machine? I'm sure there are many ways to go about this, but this is the way I did it using rsync.

For clarity's sake, commands run on the old machine will be pink and commands run on the new machine will be blue.

First, I installed rsync and openssh on both machines using the package manager. For openssh you need at least the server on the old machine and the client on the new one.

Ubuntu/Mint: $ sudo aptitude install rsync openssh-server
Ubuntu/Mint: $ sudo aptitude install rsync openssh-client

Arch Linux (as root): # pacman -Sy rsync openssh
Arch Linux (as root): # pacman -Sy rsync openssh

Secondly, you will need to have both your machines on the same network. I have a wireless router at home, so that simplified things having both laptops connect to the local network. However, a 802.11b wireless network plus ~30GB of data makes for a lot of waiting while things are copied over. If you do not have a home network, you could use a crossover cable to connect the two machines together. Basically, make sure the machines can ping each other. You may need to change the firewall settings to allow a connection to the SSH server. Then, start up the Open SSH server on the old one.

Ubuntu/Mint: $ sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart
Arch Linux (as root): # /etc/rc.d/sshd restart

Thirdly, we will create a folder where we will put all our data and then copy the files over.

Ubuntu/Mint/Arch: $ mkdir ~/<destination folder>
Ubuntu/Mint/Arch: $ rsync -avz --progress <user name on old machine>@<IP address of old machine>:/home/<user name on old machine>/ ~/<destination folder>
E.g. $ rsync -avz --progress shane@192.168.16.100:/home/shane/ ~/from-old-machine

You will be prompted for the password of the user on the old machine. Once it starts, sit back and wait. If the transfer gets interrupted you can resume it later with the same command. If a file has been modified on the old machine after if has been copied over, it will be updated. See the rsync man page for more info. If you want any settings from your old machine e.g. your Firefox plugins, saved passwords and bookmarks, move the ~/from-old-machine/.mozilla folder to ~/.

If you want the entire setup to be transfered over as is, log out from the GUI on the new machine and log in on a virtual terminal (Ctrl+Alt+F1). This will delete all user files and settings on the new machine. Run:

Ubuntu/Mint/Arch: $ rm -rf ~/* ~/.??*
Ubuntu/Mint/Arch: $ rsync -avz --progress shane@192.168.16.100:/home/shane/ ~/

Enjoy your new computer!

[EDIT] I am not sure if this will work, but here is a Google Wave invitation. First come, first serve!

Music Store Coming to Ubuntu?

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:00:00 +0000

It seems like Ubuntu will be getting a music store integrated into the desktop music player! The Ubuntu One Music Store! Specifications and details have not yet been published but a Launchpad project page has been created.

It is about time Linux users, and especially those in less favored countries, have a decent and well supported route to acquiring high quality music legally. Many would suggest running iTunes in WINE. But I have no intention of supporting a service that does not support my OS of choice. Then there is the Amazon music store which does not sell outside the U.S.A. Other online stores I have looked into have a rather limited library of content, and most of the time I do not find the music I am looking for.

I am looking forward to seeing how this store and project develops. Will there be DRM? I surely hope not. Will it be limited to Ubuntu users? How large will the library be? Will it offer free content? Will it use free codecs? Will it provide a new and unrestricted platform for independent artists? Will it offer more incentive for people to switch to Linux? So many questions... A meeting is scheduled for Wednesday at the UDS. Let's wait and see.

More power to you Ubuntu and Canonical!

Tidbit: Using Yahoo as your default email client

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:56:00 +0000

I just wrote a post on using GMail as your default email client and I thought there should be an easy way to do this for Yahoo Mail as well. And of course there is! Create a bash script with the following code and use it just as you would the gmailer script from the other post.

#!/bin/bash getopen () { if [ -x /usr/bin/xdg-open ] then export opener="/usr/bin/xdg-open" elif [ -x /usr/bin/kde-open ] then export opener="/usr/bin/kde-open" elif [ -x /usr/bin/gnome-open ] then export opener="/usr/bin/gnome-open" else echo "Requires xdg-open, kde-open or gnome-open" exit 1 fi } getemail () { export address=`echo $1 | sed 's/mailto://'` export targeturl="http://compose.mail.yahoo.com/?To=$address" } getopen getemail $1 exec $opener $targeturl exit 0

Tidbit: Using GMail as your default email client

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:36:00 +0000

I mostly use GMail for email purposes and so it makes sense to make it my default email client. There are many ways to do this on the web. However, most are desktop environment or browser specific. It is nice to have things behave similarly across desktop environments or even installations. So I threw together a quick bash script that would use the default browser that is configured for your system. Here it is.

#!/bin/bash getopen () { if [ -x /usr/bin/xdg-open ] then export opener="/usr/bin/xdg-open" elif [ -x /usr/bin/kde-open ] then export opener="/usr/bin/kde-open" elif [ -x /usr/bin/gnome-open ] then export opener="/usr/bin/gnome-open" else echo "Requires xdg-open, kde-open or gnome-open" exit 1 fi } getemail () { export address=`echo $1 | sed 's/mailto://'` export targeturl="https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&source=mailto&to=$address" } getopen getemail $1 exec $opener $targeturl exit 0

Save this in a file. I called mine gmailer and saved it to ~/bin. Make sure it is executable and that your system is configured to search ~/bin for executable commands. Now configure your system to open mailto: links with gmailer. That would be gmailer %s in Gnome/XFCE and gmailer %t in KDE4. Cool thing is that gmailer emailaddress@isp.com run from command line or the Ctr+F2 launcher works just as well!

There is a limitation to it. If you are not already logged into GMail or your browser does not automatically log you in, it will not work. It surely can be better but it works just fine for me right now. Obviously, suggestions are most welcome! Enjoy!

[EDIT] Want to do this with Yahoo Mail instead? Click here.

Farewell MJ

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:28:00 +0000

New York Times report

The World According to Monsanto

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Sun, 10 May 2009 13:52:00 +0000

This a very good documentary on genetically modified food, biotechnology, manipulation of people using food and its affects on all of us. A 100 minute movie worth watching.

If the U.S.A. and Spain Were Kids...

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Fri, 08 May 2009 00:53:00 +0000

Spain: U.S.A., your former leaders and officials committed crimes against humanity...

U.S.A: Yeah, and your people downloaded Lil' Jon's intellectual property...

Linux Passes the 1% Mark!

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Sat, 02 May 2009 21:04:00 +0000

According to marketshare.hitslink.com, a site that collects internet market statistics which can then be used to study internet trends, Linux for the first time passed 1% of desktop operating systems in the month of April 2009!

What does this mean? Well obviously it means that more and more people are beginning to use Linux as a desktop OS. And that means that the quality of Linux as desktop OS has improved enough for one out of every hundred computers to be running it. Does it mean that this is the year of Linux on desktop? Or that Microsoft is finally crumbling? I think not.

Geeky celebrations aside, this is what I think should be taken away from this. Everybody knows that the whole world is going through an economic crisis. And according to a report on www.bloomberg.com, a financial news site, PC sales are predicted to drop by 12% to 257 million units in 2009 as compared to 2008. So:

Manufacturers will be battling each other fiercely for a sizable piece of the smaller 257 million pie,

People are looking to spend less on computers at least until the economic times change,

1% of 257 million is still a whole lot of computers and money... especially when the pie is smaller.

As the growing segment of the market, Linux users are a group manufacturers should be targeting.

Now, Linux has been for the most part a fringe user base and still remains so for the time being. And as a Linux user since 2004, one inconvenience I have experienced is the sub par support for hardware compared to the likes of Microsoft. This usually means carefully selecting hardware that I will purchase and choosing the said hardware solely for its support for my OS of choice. This includes motherboards, graphic cards, wireless cards, TV capture cards, digital cameras, portable MP3 players, mobile phones, PDAs, and the list goes on. Moreover, us Linux users are usually the techie types that love all these kinds of gadgets and products and hence would more likely splash a few bucks on some new hardware this year.

Here we have this growing user base that love tech products, we're all going through rough economic times where consumers want to spend sparingly and manufacturers want to win over every possible customer... Common sense would dictate that it would be a perfectly sound business strategy to provide solid support for products on Linux. And with Linux being free, the price of a PC preinstalled with Linux and all hardware working perfectly will surely win over at least 1 in a 100 customers. Hardware support for money? What do you say? Come on, show us some love!

Ulteo Open Virtual Desktop

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:54:00 +0000

The first ever Linux distribution that I really used was Mandrake 10. It was the newbie distribution of the day! And I kept using it through the merger with Conectiva and subsequent name change to Mandriva Linux... until the founder, Gaël Duval was somewhat unceremoniously laid off from the company. That was when I looked for an alternative distribution, which I found in Ubuntu Dapper Drake, and I am glad I did!

I sometimes wondered what became of Gaël Duval. He talked of launching another distribution called Ulteo Linux... or so I thought. But what he and his team have come up with is something quite impressive: Ulteo Open Virtual Desktop.

Ulteo Open Virtual Desktop (UOVD) seems like it would be an ideal solution for an enterprise that needs cost-effective deployment of cross-platform (or maybe even single-platform) applications to their employees. What this allows you to do is have Windows and Linux application servers on which the applications are actually run. Multiple users then use remote thin clients that only need Java enabled web browsers to run whichever Windows or Linux application they need. Integration of both platforms on UOVD looks seamless with a single desktop and menu! What is great for enterprises is that savings increases proportionally with the size of the company in the application server - thin client model. I have only scratched the surface. The feature list is really impressive

UOVD hit version 1.0 on 23/04/2009. And in true open spirit, UOVD is open source and anyone can download it and try it out now!

I am glad that the leader of the number one Linux distribution on Distrowatch in 2002, 2003 and 2004, the distribution that won me over from Windows, has made a comeback with an innovative, new Open Source project. Hats off to you Gaël Duval! All the best!

Here's your chance to support Linux Mint!

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:01:00 +0000

Bryan of the Linux Action Show is having a 'Set your own price' sale of his software which ends tomorrow 6th April. You can see what software is available on his site.

Here is the catch. He will donate the proceeds from this sale to an open source project. He will hold a poll tomorrow to decide which one, and presently the options are Getdeb, Ardour and Linux Mint! We should probably mobilize the hoards of Mint fans :D

Follow the links below, support Bryan, buy his software if you like it, and support Linux Mint!

http://lunduke.com/?p=314
http://radicalbreeze.com/store.shtml
http://lunduke.com/?p=331

Why Am I Not Surprised?

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:02:00 +0000

War Crimes Committed by the Israel Army

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 21:52:00 +0000

I came across this video about a news report done by The Guardian of the U.K. on war crimes committed by the Israeli Army during the latest offensive in Gaza. It is truly heartbreaking.

I cannot embed the video. Here is a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLZgNy46aTQ

Here is the article on the Guardian website.

What Happens When a Fiat Currency Collapses

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 22:59:00 +0000

Quoted from Wikipedia

Fiat currency (fiat money) is money that exists because an authority or custom declares it to be money. (From the Latin fiat, which means "let it be done"). It achieves value because a government requires it in payment of taxes and says it can be used to pay debt or buy goods and services and because people trust that the value of the currency will be reasonably stable.

What happens when a fiat currency collapses? Watch this video first before continuing. Sorry, embedding has been disabled.

Obviously, I am not basing my conclusions on economic studies and/or theories, but on real life events and a current situation which has clearly become a humanitarian crisis. When money that is only as valuable as it is declared to be collapses, people will turn to what has real value. And we should realize, especially in these hard economic times, that what we choose to represent value should itself be backed by something of undeniable value, whatever it may be. I think the lesson is simple, clear and demonstrated for all to see in this video. I just hope we take heed and make amends before we are in a situation as desperate as the Zimbabweans.

The Obama Deception

noreply@blogger.com (Shane) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 12:45:00 +0000

The Obama deception is a new movie by Alex Jones that claims reveal a sinister conspiracy that put Barack Obama in the Oval Office and continues to control him for the good of their agenda. I do not want to impress an opinion on you... watch it for yourself and make up your own mind.