Linux

BLU R1 HD - 2 Weeks Later

2016-08-07T01:35:00.000-04:00

I have been using the R1 HD from BLU now for over 2 weeks as my daily phone, and I wanted to share my experience with it. So, two weeks in, and I am still impressed with the build quality of this phone. It still feels great in the hand with the aluminum edging.

After the 2 weeks of usage, I am even more impressed with the phone. I have experience no funny lags when switching between applications, or when scrolling webpages or applications like Newsstand. Even Google Maps and navigation run great. Battery life last me a day easy with my usage. I typically end with over 50% left at the end of the day. As my daily driver, it functions just fine for everything I do.

One of the shortcoming of the phone was lack of NFC, which meant lack of ability to install Android Pay, which I had come to depend on for my loyalty cards like Lowes, Qdoba, Best Buy, AutoZone and CVS. I found Stocard, an app that allowed me to store all the cards into it solving my lack of Android Pay. One other feature I have missed is the wireless charging I had with the Nexus 6. Plugging it in is a step backwards, but it is no deal breaker by any means.

Another difference I notice is the screen colors. Coming from the Nexus 6, I notice the green is not nearly as vivid on the R1 HD. It isn't that the colors are bad, it is just majorly tuned different and it has been a noticeable change. The screen works well with its auto brightness as I have used it outside and was able to use the phone without issue.

At this point I am still missing the VoLTE and Band 12 support. The BLU website still shows the update will come shortly after the phone is released. In addition, I will also miss WiFi Calling that the BLU R1 HD lacks for when I travel to the boonies to my parents where no cell carrier has clean coverage.

I was able to successfully use the camera for a mobile check deposit. Have only taken one photo of my pet, so not much to go on there, but the camera functioned fine and the picture captured what I wanted, so it can at least cover the basics. It is obviously not going to stand up next to the current top phones, but it gets the job done for a fraction of the cost.

After 2 weeks with this phone, I can now say I will be sticking with this phone for the foreseeable future as it covers all my needs at this time, or will when the Band 12 update arrives.

BLU R1 HD - First Day

2016-07-19T00:07:00.001-04:00

BLU is well known for making lower end with multiple SIM phones. As we have moved towards removing contracts, these low cost phones have become more appealing. I've had my eye on them for some time but never moved forward cause they have only made phones supporting AT&T or T-Mobile, for reasons I completely understand, but never fully supported T-Mobile like Band 12, VoLTE or WiFi-Calling. Since I'm with T-Mobile, these were important to me, which is why for my last phone purchase, I went with a Nexus 6. Last week, I dropped that in a rocky driveway and now have a shatter screen. Now enters the BLU R1 HD, which is supposed to be releasing an update which will enable VoLTE and the Band 12 the phone hardware supports. I purchased the upper model with 16GB of storage and 2GB of memory. Seems like a no brainer at $10 more putting the total at $110.

Upon first sliding the phone out of the plastic wrapper, it is very shiny. It doesn't at all look like $100 phone. The outer border feels solid in hand and the back had a solid grip to it. Coming from a Nexus 6, the BLU looks and feels to be the same quality. Powering the device on you see BLU custom boot screen and then greeted with the standard Android setup. After getting my account setup and applications installed, I began to run my typical tasks on it. Reading email, scanning news articles and messaging with friends. After setting it up yesterday afternoon and using it all day today, I found no performance issues when searching IMDB, browsing Redbox or loading my usual webpages.

Upon inspecting the back of the phone, the camera bulges out. This is nothing unusual as even the iPhone does this as did my first smartphone the HTC EVO 4G. The micro USB port is not in the center bottom as with most phones. The power button is also different. It is located below the volume rocker. It took some adjusting, but it becomes natural.

The display is nothing special. The colors get a bit washed out when the brightness is up but overall, text is clear. The touch input works just fine. Never felt like there were delays or incorrectly read taps. The benefit to the lower resolution screen is that battery has less of an impact.

After using the Nexus 6 for over a year, I've come to know well what stock Android is. I notice a few differences that BLU has implemented in the R1 HD, but for the most part, it is stock. Some of the subtle changes are a clear all button in the recent section, status bar shows 4G LTE, and the quick settings auto starts with having hotspots enabled plus adds in audio profiles for quick changing audio settings.

The phone has a flash which is very bright. The camera take moderate pictures. I'm no camera expert but it appears to be similar to my Nexus 6, though it appears a bit slower at focusing and loading to take pictures, but its fast enough for me. One unique item is this phone has a front facing flash as well, but I haven't tried it yet at this point as I don't do video chats.

Network performance on the phone is fine. I don't notice any weaker signal than my Nexus 6, just the lack of Band 12. Phone calls were clear and data is fast over LTE. I haven't tested a second SIM in the phone. The SIM was difficult at first to figure out how to insert as the instructions were vague, but I soon figured out how to slide the holder so it can lift up and allow the SIM card to drop in. This setup is very nice as you won't risk getting SIM cards stuck, especially when using adapters like I had to for the nano SIM to fit.

What this phone lacks in hardware features is NFC, wireless charging and fingerprint sensor. This is no surprise for a phone at this price. With no NFC though, this phone is not compatible to run Android Pay, and that is the biggest drawback for me as I have all my reward cards in there like Qdoba, Lowes, Kroger, etc.

So, after a days use, I'm thoroughly impressed with the phone. Although it isn't as easy to read large articles or emails as the larger Nexus 6, it does grip well in the hand and performs solid enough for my needs. With no VoLTE at this point, I might find it hard to switch to this as my daily driver, even though my Nexus 6 has a shattered screen, I prefer the connection when in the office. Once the VoLTE update hits, then I will likely make the change to use the BLU daily and find another app over Android Pay to store my reward cards.

Ubuntu on a Dell Latitude e6320

2015-06-05T11:18:00.000-04:00

About a year and a half ago I received a Dell Latitude e6320. Initially it had Windows 7 but I eventually put Ubuntu Linux on it. I've been running Ubuntu on it for over a year now and thought I would share my experience for anyone else looking to pickup this laptop for running Ubuntu as it is appearing on Woot and many other places as refurbished for

around $200.

My system was configured with the Core i5-2520M, 3 cell battery, broadcom wireless, 250GB hard drive and 8 GB of memory. The machine has always performed well and the 8 GB of memory is likely overkill for my day to day needs. Now I have a 6 cell battery and Atheros wireless card, more on that later, and a Samsung 850 SSD.

After first installing Ubuntu on it, which was 13.10 at the time, everything worked out of the box. The graphics is the Intel Sandy Bridge graphics with the i5 and has great Linux support. The touchpad works as expected and defaults to two finger scrolling, the touchpad disable switch worked as did the standby. The sound also worked fine without a hitch, but the audio jack port is the combine microphone/headphone, so you need an adapter for most headsets out there that aren't USB. The wireless card was from Broadcom and it worked out of the box during the install. Speedtests showed the card to perform perfectly fine as expected, but there was a problem as I came to learn later.

I was pleased with how well everything worked because my previous HP DV2 had numerous issues, some of which never got resolved. But after a few weeks, I began to notice an issue. The system sometimes failed to come out of standby. If it was a short period, it would work but not after 6 hours. The machine also would lock up while I used it periodically. I hoped after the upgrade to 14.04 the issue would go away, but it didn't. I thought it might be a overheating issue, but I ruled that out as times when it froze, it wasn't hot and the CPU temps were within normal operating range.

I eventually decided to check if it was the wireless. The laptop has a switch to disable all wireless devices and I found that when that was turned off, the laptop never froze and always came out of standby. I still had the Atheros chipset I bought for my HP DV2 to replace the Broadcom chip in it that performed sporadically so I grabbed it, put it into the Dell praying that the Dell didn't restrict the hardware. The Dell accepted the Atheros card and booted into Ubuntu without a hitch and connected to the wireless. I've not had the system freeze since.

The Dell e6320 has an older chipset compared to what is available now, but it still performs like a champ and works great with Linux. I've found everything works out of the box but if you have a Broadcom ship, be prepared to find an alternative. ThinkPenguin.com has chips that are 100% Linux compatible and its where I bought mine for the HP DV2 that I'm now using in the Dell e6320.

For $200 this laptop is great and once you add some memory if needed and change over to a SSD, the laptop is a great daily Linux driver that will suit the needs of most users. I use this machine now to develop Java applications and browse the web. It isn't flashy but it gets the job done and is a solid built machine.

Nexus 7 LTE (2013) - Review

2014-02-02T17:17:00.000-05:00

I've been a fan of Android ever since I got my HTC EVO 4G on Sprint. Since I heavily use most Google Services, it puts all those right at my fingertips having access to do everything right at my fingertips.

I was interested in getting a tablet but I didn't know exactly what I wanted. A 10" would be great for viewing and reading, but I knew it wouldn't leave the house in that case, plus it was then nearly the size of the screen on my laptop. So, I pretty much settled on going with a 7" as it was good for reading, plus would be easy for use in the car or friends houses.

Nexus 7 (2013)

When the Nexus 7 (2013) was announced I knew that was the tablet for me. It had a 1080p resolution screen, Snapdragon S4 Pro with Adreno 320 graphics, plus it was thin and light. I opted for the LTE version because T-Mobile had just announced their free data plan, which was perfect for me cause most months, I wouldn't need more than the 200mb of data on the go, but a few months a year I did, in which I could upgrade the plan for those months.

The device is great. It is thin and lightweight. It is easy to use while watching TV or a movie. Great for playing videos in the kitchen while waiting for the food to cook or showing your favorite YouTube video to your friends. With it being the size it is, its not clunky to take in the car or around town.

The screen is top notch. With the tablet pixel density, the pixels are to small to discern and the colors are very vivid. The brightness can be cranked up for in bright light making it usable in all conditions. The touchscreen is very durable and responsive. The finger slides nicely along the surface though it does tend to pick up fingerprints but they wipe away with ease.

Since this is a Nexus device, it runs Android with out the bloat, just the Google Services and it gets its updates fast as compared to most other devices. The tablet is smooth and responsive, which it should be with the power it has under the hood. The device came with Android 4.3 and this was great on the device. Since then, Android 4.4 has been released and makes the Nexus 7 an even greater deal and purchase.

At $350, this tablet was just a bit more than the iPad mini, but with much better hardware plus LTE radio that is compatible with Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile.

All in all, this tablet is an amazing device and a great buy. I've used many other tablets and this one is the best in my opinion as it doesn't have any bloat interface and is a great price.

Samsung Chromebook - Is it useful?

2013-07-21T21:57:00.000-04:00

Recently, I picked up the Samsung Chromebook as it seems like a decent device for web browsing at a very compelling price. Since the laptop share hardware closer to a tablet, it runs very cool and has no fans. It has an SSD which offers quick boot speeds.

So, lets start off with the good and what this machine has going for it. It is light, gets 6 hour battery life and runs cool but yet has with the dual core processor enough power for a good web browsing experience. This makes it great for coffee shops and students taking notes in class. The screen is very bright and has great colors and contrast. The keyboard keys are clearly a lower grade plastic but the keyboard does feel decent and the key spacing feels normal. Finally the touchpad which your finger easily glides over and the gestures to work well.

The laptop doesn't have many ports, but it has HDMI, 2 USB ports one being 3.0. It as a SD card slot which accepts SXDC which can have very high speeds, but the card doesn't insert all the way, so left in it could get snapped off. There is also a headphone jack for planes or to not disturb others.

Now, for the bad. So, this laptop has many limitations. The machine runs Chrome OS, which runs solid but only gives you access to the Internet and applications available in Chrome. This also means the machine is mostly useless without an Internet connection. You can use some application in offline mode that support it The machine has 2GB of memory, which is enough since Chrome OS uses little memory, but don't expect to be able to have piles of tabs open without impacting performance.

The laptop is not perfect, but if the drawbacks are not something that you need or care about, then this little machine could very well be the machine for you. My current laptop runs warm with a short battery life. I got this to do light browsing and emailing and it is working very well at that. I also will be starting classes in the fall and this will be very handy for notes without having to plug in or worry about the fan.

Ubuntu 13.04 - Worth the Upgrade?

2013-05-01T15:25:00.000-04:00

Right on schedule the next release of Ubuntu is here. Looking over the listed changes, there doesn't appear to be too much to get overly excited about, so is it worth the upgrade. In short, yes. The new version adds some very handy features that make is much more enjoyable for everyday use.

So, first lets cover the major visual changes you'll notice. The first is the shutdown process which now brings up a nice looking window that fits more to the Unity style of things. They have also updated several of the system application icons which help improve the appearance. There are also some new wallpapers to choose from.

They have also added some new usability features. Most notably, more options for viewing multiple application windows. The previous way remains the same, but now you can right click on a icon and view the open windows names in that list. You can also scroll on the icon and it will cycle through the open windows. This is proving to be a nice addition to offer more convenience for navigating through open windows.

They have also beefed up the notification area. There is now a indicator for Ubuntu One which is very handy for accessing your Ubuntu One files and settings. They have also modified the Bluetooth menu. On top of that, they brought back the Messages indicator which went missing in Ubuntu 12.10. I am very happy to have it back for use with Pidgin. They have also added better integration in Unity with the social media networks to tie in with Unity. Many people will find updating status from Unity to be a new fun way to find out what there friends are up too.

The biggest change, in my opinion is the improvement to performance in Unity. The interface feels much more smooth and responsive on my laptop and desktop. This is most likely due to the Unity interface being adapted for use in phones and tablets as well.

Ubuntu has come a long ways with Unity is now shaping to be a very usable and responsive interface. Now that is Steam is available on Linux with a slew of games and many more coming every day, Ubuntu has really become my daily driver and I rarely go into Windows. Even Netflix is available on Linux now with the help of Wine.

I am very pleased with Ubuntu 13.04 and would say it is worth the upgrade for the more responsive interface alone. This surely is shaping out to be the Year of Linux.

Why 2013 is the year of Linux

2012-11-22T21:40:00.000-05:00

When compared to Windows, the number of Linux desktop users is very small. This has always been the case and is due to the lack of main application support that users are looking for. This would include programs like Adobe Photoshop or tier one games like Crysis.

Mac has been able to get a few of the major programs over to it which is why it has been able to remain popular for a small set of users. Linux has a great set of open source applications but not enough to convince users to make the move.

Linux has become more and more user friendly over the last several years and has many eye pleasing features. Ubuntu has made it very easy for a normal user to find applications that can do what they are looking for and install them with the click of a button. This is not enough as Linux needs the applications people want and are used too.

Valve is in the process of releasing there Steam platform to Linux. With this they will be porting over all their Source based games starting with Left 4 Dead 2. Steam will no doubt be very popular on Linux and get a slew of indie games that will be available on Linux but it will depend on how well Valve can convince other tier 1 development companies to move over to Linux as well.

All the major tier 1 games I have played that were available on Linux were very cumbersome to install. They required downloading the binaries from the Internet, and coping certain files from the CD in order to install the game. Steam will make the install and update process clean, making it easy on users and developers. There are many gamer's out there who run Windows only because they have too. If the option of Linux was a valid option, they would make the jump.

With Windows 8 out in the wild now, it is clear Microsoft has plans to have there own distribution store that they could force all development companies to start using it. This could drive the companies to Mac and Linux.

Next year has the high potential of bringing the popular games and applications to Linux which will make it a viable option to Windows or Mac. With the shift in the last few years to more Cloud based applications and services, the applications tying people down to Windows is growing smaller and smaller.

I look forward to 2013 with great anticipation. Please let me know your thoughts. Leave me your comments below.

Linux Mint 13 - Mate Edition

2012-11-04T02:06:00.000-05:00

Ubuntu has served me well for many years. It was stable and feature rich. I loved the interface and easy access for these compared to Windows. When I upgraded and was then provided Unity I gave it the benefit of the doubt but was just not able to enjoy it.

Linux Mint 13 Mate

I missed my places menu to easily load my common directories. I missed a menu to look through my installed applications. This was all minor issues. I was able to adapt and make the new UI work for me. My main issue was that I found the new UI slow. Things were just not as quick as in Gnome2 and it seemed to consume more resources as well.

I'd had enough and decided it was time to try something new. I eventually settled on Linux Mint 13 Mate. The great thing about Linux Mint 13 is it can use any Ubuntu packages as it is based on it.

The Mate version runs Mate, which is a fork of Gnome2 so it is the interface I, and most other people, are used too. It also then has all the plugins and applets available for it that were there for Gnome2. What I like best about it is it is fast and responsive. It doesn't consume a lot of resources and require a 3D graphics to run the UI.

All the popular games and applications run just fine on it like Dropbox, Chrome and Linux Tycoon. LibreOffice comes preinstalled along with Gimp. You do of course have access to the entire Ubuntu repository so you can easily add any application you want from there to personalize you install.

Running Linux Mint 13 on my HP DV2 runs great. I have a OCZ Vertex Plus in the laptop and it boots up quickly and all my applications load quickly. I am very happy with Linux Mint 13 Mate Edition and plan to stick with it as long as I can.

Unfortunately the future of Mate is a little uncertain. Hopefully things get worked out and all the future UIs run as well and are feature rich as Mate.

Desura - A Linux Game Changer?

2011-10-24T17:54:00.003-04:00

Desura is a media distribution software. The most popular application of this type is Valve's Steam which is currently available on PC and Mac. Desura though sets itself apart from Steam in two major ways.

First is that Desura offers a Linux client. This is a huge deal as there are a lot of indie games available for Linux so Desura helps get those games easily to customers as well as gets it a good foot holding in a platform where nothing else like it currently exists. This also in turn will help Linux become more popular as a gaming option.

The second thing that helps set Desura apart is that is has a strong focus on indie games and game mods. They are trying to close the gap between the developer and gamer bringing the ability to create changes in the games and giving support through Desura for automatic updates. This is a huge deal for many gamers and could really give Desura the edge it needs to keep in strong competition against big hitters like Steam.

Desura has a very nice interface that makes it simple for making purchases plus installing and running games. It is just a simple as Steam making it very easy to install games on Linux which is really exciting to see. Like Steam, Desura will also handle updating the games keeping you up to date with little effort on your part.

Desura is now another tool in my Linux toolbox that is a must have on my machine. In my account right now I have Oil Rush and the Frozenbyte games from the Indie Bundle. It is so cool when companies like Unigine and Frozenbyte allow you to buy the license and play on any platform you want and don't lock you down to a single platform.

Is Desura a game changer for Linux? Desura is clearly a huge step in gaining more ground to converting users too Linux.

Ubuntu 11.10 - Yay or Nay

2011-10-21T14:01:00.002-04:00

I have been running Ubuntu since 5.10 upgrading to the latest each time it is released with 11.10 being no exception. I’ve been a huge fan of Gnome for quite some time. What I like best was its menu setup which was simple and intuitive. KDE always felt too much like Windows and it seemed very bloated. I have not tried it again in several years. I’ve read it is much improved and I’m sure is a solid product.

Ubuntu 11.10 bring many new features and changes, the first big one you see when booting the new system is the login screen. LightDM is now used and it brings to the table a faster loading speed as well as a very clean look.

The second noticeable being Unity. With 11.04 I never tried Unity and immediately changed back to the classic gnome interface. With Gnome 3.0 now in 11.10, I tried this and the old interface is very rugged, doesn’t work right and is nothing like it was with Gnome 2. I was very unhappy with this as I did not want to learn a whole new interface.

Since my preferred interface is now gone with Gnome 3, my only options are Gnome Shell or Unity. I tried Gnome Shell and it gave me nothing but issues on my desktop. It had display issues and I didn’t look into it any further.

I switched back to Unity to give it a try and see if I could learn to use it. I still liked the old Gnome interface for my desktop but I am liking several things about Unity on my laptop. The first is that you have more screen space. This is very nice for my laptop to get extra viewing space. But on my desktop with its high resolution monitor, it is more of a hindrance because it is now harder to switch between running applications. Unity has been stable for me so far. It had its quirks in 11.04 which is another reason I kept my distance but it is clear a lot of work has gone into making it more stable.

As for the rest of Ubuntu, the new software center is very nice. There are a lot of games and applications available now to purchase as well as a nice interface to find applications you may want to try. It provides a nice description of the applications with nice selection of screenshots of the applications to get a feel for what it is.

Other small changes include Thunderbird replacing Evolution, Linux Kernel 3.0, LibreOffice 3.4 and Firefox 7. Ubuntu is also using Deja Dup for doing backups. The new Ubuntu Software Center has replaced Synaptic but you can install it still if you prefer.

I am pleased with the latest updates and am pleased to see Ubuntu making strides to stand out from the other Linux distributions. I will miss the Gnome 2 interface but Unity is working very nicely on my laptop and the future is looking bright.

Next on my agenda is to give Desura, a digital distribution for gamers that supports Linux, a try to see if this could be the next big for Linux.

My Linux Applications

2011-07-04T20:13:00.001-04:00

I’ve been using Linux for years and have come across many applications over this time. Over these years, my day to day applications have changed a bit as new more promising applications come along. I’ve decided to compile a list applications I couldn’t live without in Linux.

KeepassX

I don’t know how I survived before I was introduced to this application. It efficiently manages all my passwords and provides a simple method to automatically type the passwords for me. It saves me time and energy. Plus, it can auto generate very complex passwords that makes my online presence much more secure.

Pidgin

I’ve been using this applications since back when it was Gaim. It has always been my #1 choice for multi-protocol messenger. I have tried numerous others but always come back to Pidgin because it is stable and just simply works. It allows me to rename my contacts (who keeps track of people by screen name anyway?) and organize them into groups.

Fluendo DVD Player

You need a break from time to time to watch DVD’s. That is where Fluendo comes in. It is not free but it works and works well providing a great sound and picture on Linux. The feature set is simple allowing you to focus on enjoying the movie.

Firefox

I used it originally as Mozilla, then it shed it’s bloat and became Firefox, the browser that changed everything. Now we have Chrome on the scene but I’m still holding true to Firefox because of its great longstanding support for Linux.

Banshee

I previously used Rhythmbox and Amarok prior to that. Amorok was nice but I moved away from running KDE and Amorok felt to heavy and out of place. I enjoyed Rhythmbox which shipped with Ubuntu and enjoyed its simplicity while still offering cover art, CD rip and internet radio.Ubuntu recently made the decision to switch to Banshee and I see why. It is similar to Rhythmbox, but with a much better interface and control over your music.

KeepNote

I need to keep track of things from time to time. That is where keepnote comes in. It is a simple note taking tool that stores notes in a folder structure layout. This is what is most natural to me. I’ve tried Tomboy and other note taking tools and none worked for my style of thinking like keepnote.

Eclipse

I am a programmer and require a IDE to do heavy projects. Eclipse is a great tool that can debug code by stepping through it one line at a time as well as connect to databases or any repository for tracking the code. Eclipse supports almost every language and has plugins that enable it to do just about anything.

VI

When needing to do simple edits from the console, nothing handles it like VI. No other editors works so well to always keep your hands from bounding all over the keyboard or forcing you to move off to the mouse. This is still the best editor in my opinion and will be for all time.

SQuirreL

Working on projects will almost always involve a database. Squirrel is my program of choice for connecting to a database to run SQL. It puts all new query results into new tabs so you can run new queries and keep your previous results. It’s interface is very java like, it can be slow at times and can be overwhelming at first but its list of features quickly makes up for this. It can edit data inline, have several connections to different databases and save all your connections in an easy to use list.
TrueCrypt
Security is an important thing. I use TrueCrypt to create encrypted volumes to secure my data. That way my important stuff stays safe even if my computer is lost.

CrashPlan

So much data is stored on computers now. You need to keep your data safe. That is why I use CrashPlan to backup that data safely so that if my computer crashes, I have a safe and secure backup that can be restored so that I haven’t lost any memory photos.

LibreOffice

These days I don't do much word processing or spreadsheets but if I need something powerful, LibreOffice is my choice. Formerly I used OpenOffice.org but once Oracle took over LibreOffice forked and is now the primary option shipped with most Linux distributions.

Well, that’s it. These are the main Linux applications I use on a regular basis. Over the years I’ve mostly stuck with the same applications and have only changed a couple and added as I’ve gone. Please feel free to leave in the comments your Linux applications you couldn’t live without.

Fluendo DVD Player

2010-04-12T22:15:00.001-04:00

I have been watching DVDs on my PC for as long as I've been running Linux. I have tried and used many different players but always tend to fall back on Xine. It is the only player that reliably plays my DVDs with full DVD menu support.

A small problem with Xine is that it has its own, out of date look and feel. It does offer the most amount of tweaking to have the playback just how you want but most of this is unnecessary nowadays.

My biggest issue with DVD playback in Linux is that the quality for me is poor. Some movies playback better than others but for the most part, scan-lines and other issues can be seen in the movies.

I have also recently started to move to making everything in my computer legit. That's why I have always kept my music in ogg format. But with DVDs there was no legit option for me until I found out about Fluendo's DVD player.

I am running Ubuntu 10.04 beta 2 on my Desktop and Laptop. The player works with both just fine and integrates well with the Gnome desktop. There are not multitudes of options like in Xine but you have control over the main things that matter like audio and video settings.

The other great benefit is there is now a Windows version also available. I have lightly used this version and it works as expected. A nice added benefit.

I love free open software but I have no problem buying a good piece of Linux software when it is required.

The DVD player works great and producing an excellent picture. Much better than Xine or any other player I've used with the libcss2 decoder.

There is also PowerDVD for Linux which I have not tested. This player only works on a 32-bit OS and since I run 64-bit, this player was not an option.

If you want a quality DVD player or you want to have a legitimate Linux DVD player (or both) then the Fluendo DVD player is definitely worth the money.

http://www.fluendo.com/shop/product/fluendo-dvd-player/

Flash 64-bit - First Released to Linux?

2008-11-23T16:07:00.001-05:00

Last week Adobe released flash for a 64-bit operating system for the first time. The surprise is that it was first released to Linux.

Adobe stated on there website that there are not any performance improvements. Although this may be true, that fact that it is now native to 64-bit removing the need for NSPlugin wrapper. This alone removes the need for the translation layer from 32-bit to 64-bit. From my experience so far with using it, I have found that it is now more stable and faster. Pages now load faster and scroll smoother.

This release is still in alpha but it works much better than your typical alpha product. Most features work and every site I've browsed has not had an issue. These include YouTube and Hulu.

The big question is though, why did Adobe release this to Linux first? They have been trying to do better at supporting the Linux community. They previously did they by releasing Flash 10 on Linux the same day as Windows.

Is this a big step for Linux? Although this is a great thing, I do not think its as big as it might seam. What needs to be looked at is the number of people complaining about there not being 64-bit Flash and who the larger number of 64-bit users are. If you break it down I'm sure you'll find that the majority of 64-bit users are Linux users. Windows XP 64-bit and Vista 64-bit have not been heavily promoted or installed to the typical user. The main users running these OS's would be your tech users. Also, since Windows has a emulation layer for 32-bit applications, this enables them to run a 32-bit browser making is virtually issue free.

So, kudos to Adobe for ansering the demand of the Linux community. Hopefully this is the first of many big Linux things to come.

Follow the link below to download the new Flash 10 64-bit for Linux:

Download Adobe Flash 10 64-bit

Happy Browsing.

How to setup Mumble Server on Ubuntu

2008-03-02T17:54:00.001-05:00

This guide was created to assist in the setting up of Murmur on Ubuntu 7.10. Murmur is the server for the program Mumble. Mumble is an open source, low-latency, high quality voice chat software primarily intended for use while gaming.

This guide has no warranty and is not guaranteed to work in all situations, it just gives the basic on how to get Murmur up and running.

Get and Install Murmur (A.K.A. Mumble Server):

So, first off, you must get Murmur installed. Currently in Ubuntu 7.10, Murmur is not in the repository but a Debian package is given so we will use that. The version at the time of writing this is 1.1.3. To download the most recent click here. Otherwise, follow these steps to download 1.1.3.

 cd /tmp
 wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/mumble/mumble-server_1.1.3-0ubuntu1_i386.deb?modtime=1203796511&big_mirror=0
 dpkg -i mumble-server_1.1.3-0ubuntu1_i386.deb

Configuring Murmur:

The server configuration is done through the murmur.ini file. Go to the Mumble homepage to view the example file.

To change any of the default settings you must edit the mumble-server.ini file. This file is well documented and fairly self-explanatory.

 gedit /etc/mumble-server.ini

The default port for murmur is 64738. You will need to open this port, or whichever port you changed this too, in the firewall. If you are running a GUI you can install firestarter to open the necessary ports.

 sudo apt-get install firestarter

Note: If you aren't running the GUI then you'll have to manually edit the iptables to open the port.

Create the Database and Users:

Our first step is to setup the database and create the password for the mumble-superuser ( "SuperUser" ). Running this command will create the database in the current directory and create the superuser user in the database.

 sudo mkdir /etc/murmur
 cd /etc/murmur
 murmurd -supw %password%

Now that the database is created and the super user is created, we can start adding more users. To do this go to Mumble website to download the needed script.

 firefox
 navigate to http://mumble.sourceforge.net/Running_Murmur
 copy the script
 cd /etc/murmur
 gedit config.sh
 paste script
 save and close

This script must be ran from the same directory that the database is in. So make sure to save it where ever that may be.

Once the script is in the same directory as the database, then you're ready to add some users. To add users, it requires 4 things. The first is the name, then password followed by the server number and the email address.

This is very simple. Just run this command replacing the content with your own:

 cd /etc/murmur
 ./config.sh adduser bob test1234 1 bob@gmail.com

To get a listing of all the usable command do:

 ./config.sh --help

You can add users, delete users, change there passwords and change email addresses.

Running Murmur:

We have now successfully setup Murmur and are ready to run it. Murmur can take a couple of parameters. One we already used earlier to create the superuser and database. You can also specify the ini file that you want to use as well as run the program in the foreground. To get a complete listing read it in the man pages.

Here is the command to start Murmur using the ini file /etc/mumble-server.ini:

 cd /etc/murmur
 murmurd -ini /etc/mumble-server.ini

This will start the Murmur as a background process.

Congratulations, you now have have a Mumble Server up and running. Enjoy chatting will all of your friends.

Further Reading:

There are more options to Murmur than what I've covered here. If you want further information on what options there are then visit the Mumble homepage and read into the documentation for how to setup these features.

Ubuntu 7.10 - Gutsy Gibbon

2007-11-11T01:39:00.000-05:00

The latest version of Ubuntu was released but I didn't jump on the wagon right away to upgrade. I felt that nothing in the newer version had anything new I needed and that it wouldn't make a difference for me. Well, much to my surprise I was wrong. The new version doesn't have any major changes, just a lot of little ones.

So, the new version adds in all the latest programs like Firefox 2.0, Pidgin 2.2.1, OpenOffice 2.3 and Gnome 2.2 containing all of its goodness. In the new Gnome many enhancements were made to improve performance, features and usability.

One of the changes in Gnome is its interface. They have updated the themes a little bit and the way you select the theme. Now, you have all the theme related stuff (theme, background, font, interface, visual effects) in one place separated by tabs. The standard themes are nice (I like the new Clearlooks in dark blue) but you can always download or customize your own. There has been a change to the visual effects part. In Ubuntu 7.04 they added the ability to turn on and off special effects (compiz) by opening the "special effects" application. Now this has been moved into this new tabbed interface. For the special effects, there are three options. You can have no special effects, some effects (transparency and such) or full blown effects (wobbly windows).

One new application is the "Screens & Graphics" program in Ubuntu. This program allows you to easily setup your video card driver and monitors through a simple GUI interface. Now, I tried and tried, but I couldn't get this interface to get things setup for me. I have a unique monitor though that doesn't get properly detected so I'm not surprised to see an issue here so I manually went and setup my monitor the old fashioned way.

They have also upgraded Gaim where it is now the new Pidgin (the replacement for Gaim). The new interface was adapted nicely to the Ubuntu theme. I didn't like the new Pidgin at first when I used it in Windows but they have made several changes to its Linux counterpart and I must say, it fits in very nicely. Its default settings are very light and don't consume unneeded space.

For networking there has also been a big improvement. Ubuntu now has a nice GUI interface that easily lets you allow which network you want to connect to. It now integrates with wpa_supplicant so you just plug into the GUI interface the information (passcode, type and such) and it will then connect. It worked very nicely, though its nowhere near perfect yet but it is a step in the right direction.

Those are the major enhancements. Most of the other changes are small but nice. One major thing I noticed in the upgrade was the performance. My installation of Ubuntu on my computer was actually Ubuntu 5.10. I have upgraded the distribution 5 times now. I'm not sure at what point Firefox started performing slowly for me, but I had noticed recently that Google Docs and flash videos sometimes slowed down the system and if I tried to multi-task with one of these open and running the whole system would come to a halt. I found though, once I upgraded to the new Ubuntu 7.10 I was flying along in Firefox. It performs now like I upgraded my computer or something. I'm interested now to boot up the previous version and see if was just a bad upgrade or if it is the version of Firefox. Ultimately, it doesn't matter, all that matters is the new version with Firefox is fast and reliable.

All in all, the new version of Ubuntu is very usable, and they have added a few new utilities that will make it easier for the average user, but there is still some work to be done.

ASUS Eee PC 701

2007-07-04T09:51:00.000-04:00

ASUS has released news about a new laptop, Eee PC 701, they are going to sell. It has been announced to cost around $200.

It is going to be small and lightweight weighing in at 2 lbs. It will have a somewhat full size keyboard and a 7" LCD. There are 4 usb ports and a hookup for an external monitor. The hard drive is flash based and will be 4 gigs in size.

The laptops processor is a Pentium M 900 MHz Dothan on Intel's 910 mobile chipset so it will be able to run any x86 compiled OS. The laptop ships with an installation of Linux but will possibly have Windows available as an option (not that I care). It ships with Firefox and some MS Office compatible software.

The laptop will have 512 MB of DDR2-400 memory that will be shared with the laptops video card.

For extras, the laptop comes with a 56k modem, a 10/100 Ethernet card, video camera, hi-definition audio and a 802.11b/g wireless card. It is said to have a 4 cell battery with 3 hours of battery life.

It can supposedly boot in 15 seconds into the OS for you to then load what it is you want.

All said, I am waiting eagerly for this PC to be released. Its so light and portable and fast booting that it does just what you need without any of the clutter.

My only concern is the wireless card. Obviously its supported in Linux because they are shipping it with what is believed to be a flavor of Xandros. My real question is if this wireless card will support WPA easily or not. My current wireless cards have the RT2500 chipset so the driver for them is in the Kernel with WPA support so setting them up is a breeze.

So, we'll just have to wait and see, but my guess is that ASUS will not disappoint. This laptop has everything the average user needs on the go and gives it to them at an incredible price.

I'm definitely going to try and get my hands on one as soon as I can.

For more information check out these sites below:

LinuxDevices.com

Hot Hardware

PC Pro

KeePassX - A Linux Password Manager

2007-06-23T13:25:00.000-04:00

So, I decided I needed something to keep track of my many passwords. A buddy at work introduced a program named Keepass to me. I really like the program and wanted something similar to it for my computer at home in Linux.

I found a program in the Ubuntu repository named Password Manager but I just didn't like the interface as much as Keepass. I looked at the Keepass site and found they had a port to Linux named KeepassX. This made me quite excited. I installed it and wholla, I was up and running.

Now, I have all my passwords for all my Internet accounts located in one simple database that is encrypted by passcode and key file.

If you're like me, and are having issues when you come to a site you haven't been to in over a year and can't even remember your username, then this is the program for you. It will securely keep track of that information with ease.

Links:

KeePassX - Linux version

KeePass - Windows version

Fun with Ubuntu 7.04

2007-06-23T09:03:00.000-04:00

Not long after getting Ubuntu 7.04 up and running did I have the need to check out what was new and play around some.

The first thing I new that was new was OpenOffice. The version was now 2.2. I knew in 2.1 they added the ability for Impress, their Presentation program, to output to a second monitor. I knew this worked in Windows but what I wanted to know was if they also made it work in Linux. So I proceeded to open the application. I already had my extended desktop setup, so all I had to do was see if OpenOffice would work. I went to the slideshow settings and sure enough, there was the option for which monitor the slideshow would output too.

The other program that had a newer feature I wanted to setup was Rhythmbox. This newer version now supported album clipart. So, I proceeded to play some of my albums and it would try to find the albums automatically from Amazon.com. The issue was that it didn't always grab the 100% correct one or it didn't find one at all. So, I then began a search to find out how its underlying system works so I could possibly provide it my own clipart instead because I already had all the album covers for all my music. I did a bit of searching and came a across a forum with someone asking my very question. Fortunately for me, someone had already replied with the answer.

All that has to be done, is the album cover is in the directory with the album as a jpeg and named as one of the following:
"cover", "album", "albumart", ".folder", "folder"

Then Everything worked fine for the albums that didn't have the art already, but the ones that previously had art found, were still displaying. I then had to navigate into the Rhythmbox directory and remove the ones it had saved. Then everything was fine.

For the most part, everything else stayed the same but these two changes kept me entertained for a while as I was trying to get them setup. So far I'm loving the new Ubuntu and can't wait for more new applications and features to be added.

Links:

Forums explaining setting up Rythmbox

Ubuntu - ATI - Dual Monitors in Gnome

2007-06-23T00:21:00.000-04:00

So, once I got my second LCD, it wasn't long until I was looking into how to get it setup in Linux.

It didn't take me long to get to a good walk through. The issue was I couldn't get the walk through to work. I was copying and pasting the commands in the guide, but nothing seemed to be changing in the xorg.conf file. As it turns out, the dashes in the guide, don't paste as the correct dashes into the gnome terminal. So, I just typed the command myself and it then worked fine.

So, I got it setup and the login screen would work fine with the extended desktop mode but as soon as I logged into Gnome it would cut into cloning mode. It took me a while to find out what the issue was, but with a refined search into Google I finally found the answer. I had to delete an entry from the Gnome configuration which was setting the resolution every time I logged in.

Once this was taken care of then all was working properly with Gnome and its extended desktop. Now, Gnome doesn't have a nice configuration utility that allows you to easily turn off extended desktop and such. But, in Ubuntu, when I go to the screen resolution program, I see that the resolution I'm running when in extended desktop is 2048x1536. So, if I just bump this down to 1280x1024, then it switches to cloning.

So, I'm enjoying the extra screen space in Linux and am quite impressed with how well it handles the dual screen setup.

Here are some useful links that will helped me get my setup running.

ATI Dual Monitor Setup - Don't copy & paste the commands from this article

Beryl Project

Ubuntu Forums - fix Gnome so it supports the dual-view

Ubuntu 6.06 to 6.10 and then 7.04

2007-06-02T22:47:00.000-04:00

This past Memorial day I decided to upgrade my Ubuntu version. I was currently running 6.06 but fealt the need to upgrade to get some of the updated versions of programs like Firefox, Gaim, and Rhythmbox.

I started the process in the morning, and followed the guide from here. It took several hours, but it eventually downloaded all the files needed and updated the system. I then rebooted when it was all done. I had a little trouble with the video drivers, but after some quick configuration changes in the xorg.conf file it then worked fine. I tested most of the sytem applications and my personal applications which all worked fine. No real issues were found.

So, after a few hours, I decided, I wanted to upgrade again from 6.10 to the latest 7.04. I figured the hardest part was over, I thought going to 7.04 would be a simple change. Well I was wrong.

I used the graphical updater and it started the process. The first bump was that it didn't have enough space on the root partition. I then proceeded to remove unnecesary Kernel sources I had laying around as well as many other things. After a little effort I was able to free up enough space for it to do the upgrade process. This took over two hours for it to do all of its downloading. I went to grab some food to eat while it was doing its installation process. My plan was that it would be all done when I returned.

Well, this is not quite how it went down. I got back and things looked well. It was at the login screen but failed to login. I then rebooted and the system wouldn't even load. It failed to even load the kernel. So, I then loaded the Ubuntu Live CD. I loaded the hard drive system and looked at the state of the packages installed. As it turns out, not all the packages were configured, so I reran the process to get things up and running. Some packages couldn't setup becaure when they try to configure, they fail because they try to startup process but since the system isn't running its not possible. So I had to edit there configuration scripts so they wouldn't try to startup any processes.

Once I got most of the critical components fixed I then rebooted and things loaded properly and I was able to finish the rest of the process no problem from the command prompt. It took a while to get the fglrx drivers working again, but after doing some changes to the xorg.conf file and uninstalling the fglrx drivers and reloading the repository, I then was given a different version of the fglrx drivers which then worked fine.

So, now I am running Ubuntu 7.04 which originally started as Ubuntu 5.10 a year and a half ago. This system has been incredibly stable and I almost feel its faster now after this upgrade. Maybe its just me.

All in all I'm very impressed with the new Ubuntu and can't wait to try out some of its new features.

Ubuntu 5.10 to 6.06

2006-11-18T11:37:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago I decided to upgrade my distribution of Ubuntu. I have had it installed for almost a year now. I decided to just run the self upgrade instead of completely reinstalling. In the past this has always been somewhat of a problem. When completely switching out some of the core objects, its very easy for things to break. I decided though to go this route because I didn't feel like backing up my stuff to do a complete new install.

So, I started the upgrade process. I don't know how long it took because it ran overnight but surprisingly, it went well. I didn't lose any information and didn't lose any of my main programs. I noticed some programs went away, like AmaroK and Mplayer. But they were easy enough to bring back. Actually though, I didn't reinstall AmaroK, I have now switched to Rhythmbox. Its quite nice, and does just what I want.

The main reason that I wanted to upgrade was to get Firefox 1.5 so I could have better control over using tabs. I also wanted to install and try out XGL/Beryl.

I'm very happy with how smoothly things went. I never dreamed it would be this easy. Now they have Ubuntu 6.10 with Firefox 2.0. I want to make the switch again, but I've heard bad things from people that tried to upgrade. I'm going to do it though and soon, because I want to use the latest Nvidia drivers so I can hook up faster with Beryl and have an even better experience with a OpenGL desktop.

My Linux History

2006-11-12T17:34:00.000-05:00

I was first introduced to Linux 4 years ago as I was starting my freshman year at Lake Superior State University. My roommate was quite into it. Later that year I got my first computer and I then made two partitions, one for Windows and one for Linux.

My roommate used RedHat 7.3, so that's what I tried. At the time, RedHat 8 had just come out, but I didn't have the CD'S for that install. So, I tried using RedHat, but it was more of a mess around for a few minutes, then boot back into Windows to play games and stuff. I tried to use RedHat but it was just to hard for me to get everything to work. Mainly the sound. For whatever reason my integrated sound would not get recognized.

I didn't use RedHat a whole lot. I did however get Xemacs setup, and wrote several of my class programs in there. We were learning C++ so it was quite nice using Linux for writing projects. Many of my classmates went out and bought the IDE that the professor was using where I used Linux and the free Xemacs which actually got the job done better.

That wasn't enough to keep me away though. Sometime the following spring, they released RedHat 9. I downloaded and installed it. It was much cleaner looking than 7.3 and detected my sound card without a problem. The problem came when I tried to play my mp3's. This was after the time when the distribution had to stop shipping with thecodecs . I eventually got the sound working, but it wasn't the most reliable thing. The system would lockup often. It wasn't to long before I stopped booting into RedHat and just used Windows again.

The following year, I tried a distribution name ALT Linux. It was recommended to me by my brother. I tried it and it worked very well for me. I was using KDE and I was able to figure out most things on my own to get what I needed done. I had been already using Gaim and OpenOffice in Windows so I was very familiar with them already. ALT Linux, like most other distribution came with Mozilla web browser. This was my web browser of choice in Linux. (in Windows I did used Opera) The first semester I had a Java class so I did most of the programming in Windows, though I did mess around with compiling some of the projects in Linux. The following semester I had a C++ class as well as a class that used Borland Delphi to connect to a database. I then used Windows to do all of my programming. I did occasionally boot into Linux, just because it felt cool to use it.

The following summer I got a laptop from my Grandma. Initially I put Windows 98 on it, then I got Windows 2000. Once school started my programming class was with Perl. We had to telnet into a UNIX machine. Working in Unix got me wanting to try Linux again. So I installed ALT Linux on my laptop. It didn't go well. The sound didn't work and the mouse did quirky things. So, off I went to find another distribution that might suite my needs. I instantly found Mandrake 10.0 and gave it a try. It worked great and it even detected my mouse pads scroll section. It, however, still didn't work with the sound card off installation (though I did eventually get it working) but it ran very stable, and everything else worked great. I enjoyed Mandrake very much and using telnet in the console of Mandrake was much easier than using it in Windows.

I continued to use Mandrake heavily all year. The spring semester I worked a lot with C++ and had to use ssh a lot. Linux was very handy for this. That following summer though, I got tired of KDE. It was to bloated for my laptop. Eventually I settled down on IceWM. It was very light, easy to configure, was in Mandrake's package manager and could be setup how I wanted. Now my laptop ran loaded much faster and ran better.

Now I was to the point where I used Linux more than Windows. I would do everything on my Laptop that I could. The only time I used my desktop was when I wanted to play games.

Now came my Senior year. I was using and loving Mandrake. I made friends with some freshman and they were excited about the new release of Ubuntu. Now, I'd been using Linux for a while, but I'd never done much looking at what the other distributions had. I was pretty much just looking and keeping updated with, what at this point was Mandriva. So, they installed Ubuntu and showed me all of its simplicity. After seeing it, and Gnome, I wanted it. I like its package manager way better than Mandriva's and its hardware detection was supposed to also be very good.

So, I eventually made the switch from Mandriva 2006 to Ubuntu 5.10. It was a complete success. I loved it. Gnome ran just as well as IceWM on my laptop, but looked and felt so much better. I've now been using Ubuntu for over a year and its hard for me to even think about trying another distributions.Ubuntu has such a large user base that there are so many applications that are easily accessible without having to worry about dependencies.

Currently I'm running Ubuntu 6.06 on my desktop and laptop and my server (the server has Ubuntu Server Edition) and am loving every minute of it.