The Great Bit Bucket In The Sky

Want Ubuntu? Go to Best Buy!

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 03:42:00 +0000

I love this! Ubuntu, an extremely popular Linux distribution, can be found at your local Best Buy. It is pretty cool to think that something that was sort of an experiment just about four years ago, is now in Best Buy. Can you believe it?

Ubuntu will remain free, as always. You can even get free CDs via ShipIt. But the Ubuntu that is available at Best Buy is pretty interesting. It is the normal Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron" Desktop Edition that is on the disc. It also includes 60 days of vendor support from ValuSoft, the company that is selling the software. Canonical put this up on their blog.

What I like about this is that people will actually think that Ubuntu is something worth using. If someone offered you Ubuntu, would you rather see a burned disc with "Ubuntu" written in a permanent marker, or would you rather see a nice box with some documentation, printed discs, and 60 days of support? Sounds like it would be worth the $19.99 USD.

Will this even last? Or will we see Ubuntu fail in the brick-and-mortar marketplace? Only time will tell.

Google 411 - A Way to Use 411 Without the Cost.

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 20:00:00 +0000

In the United States, people with telephones and cellular phones can call the number 411 to get access to a directory of different business phone numbers. It can be very handy for when you want to order pizza let's say, but you are in your car and don't have ready access to a phone book. The downside to 411 is that it usually costs money to call it. My telephone service charges one US dollar per call. What if you don't want to pay for it...

Well, thanks to 1-800-GOOG-411, you can get toll-free access to Google's version of 411. If you live in the U.S. or Canada, you can look up business numbers and even connect to that business phone number for free. You must be in the U.S. or Canada looking for businesses in those countries, though. But, you can't complain. It is free, after all!

Just call 1-800-GOOG-411 and go! I wonder how they make money from this...

Participate in Firefox Download Day 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Mozilla will soon release the long-awaited Firefox 3. Firefox 3 has fixed a few issues people have had with Firefox 2, such as being lighter on your computer's resources and all of that other good stuff.

There is an attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours. You can pledge to download it during Download Day. When you do, you'll recieve an E-Mail explaining that they will notify you when it's time to download. I have pledged to download during Download Day. Will you?

Compiz Fusion: Breaking Aero Glass Day By Day

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 01:05:00 +0000

One of the things the Linux operating system has it going for it is Compiz Fusion. To be technical, Compiz Fusion is a collection of things. One of the key things is a compositing window manager, in which the end result is things like "Wobbly Windows," "Desktop Cube," and transparent menus and windows. Personally, my favorite effect is the "Ring Switcher." It's pretty amazing. This is one of the things that I've seen that get people thinking about Linux as an alternative. Whether Compiz Fusion is a good enough reason to switch your operating system is still up for debate, at least for me.

Here is some YouTube videos that I have found to be a great demonstration of all of the cool things Compiz Fusion can enable your computer to do. Some of the eye candy goes too far to me, but you can go as crazy as you'll allow for the eye candy, so when watching YouTube videos about this, notice the differences in effects.

Do you have a good backup strategy?

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Sun, 25 May 2008 22:38:00 +0000

Let me give you a nice little story. My computer had basically broken down. The only way to fix it was to use these restore discs that the computer manufacturer gives you. So, I basically lost everything except my photos and hopefully my songs. It just happened last night, so I am still recovering for this incident. It got me thinking. I am in a serious need of a backup strategy. I don't really have any proper backup.

So, here is a reminder. Do you back up regularly? There are many tools I have heard of, and possibly plan to take advantage of.

SyncToy, by Microsoft, is a tool for Microsoft Windows that would help you sync these files over to another drive. I have also heard of Apple's new Time Machine is supposed to work seamlessly with your Mac experience, and it's part of the new Leopard operating system, so there is no excuse there not to backup.

Except...

What media do you backup to? In my case, I used DVDs. Obviously, hard drives are more convenient. I plan to backup my computer with one when I get one. Apple has this great new product, called Time Capsule, that is supposed to work seamlessly with Time Machine, and it's wireless! I plan to get that because I could use a new router and I would love not to be tied up to a hard drive to backup.

I guess how and (*shudder*) if you backup is up to you.

A Basic Walkthrough of the Ubuntu Installer

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:27:00 +0000

I have been doing a lot of videos recently. This is getting pretty fun!

After experiencing the Live CD, did you decide to go a little closer to the deep end of the pool and install Ubuntu? Well, I do just that by giving you a very high level walkthrough of the Ubuntu installation program. So, here is the video!

I will probably take a break until the weekend. So, see you later!

Exploring the Ubuntu Live CD

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Tue, 20 May 2008 02:49:00 +0000

In this video, we actually explore the Ubuntu Live CD and it's interface before we install it to a hard disk. So, enjoy the video!

How to Burn an Ubuntu ISO to a Disc

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Mon, 19 May 2008 07:38:00 +0000

In a previous video, I showed you how to get Ubuntu. Now, I show you how to burn an Ubuntu ISO to a disc. So, here's the video!

How to Get Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Mon, 19 May 2008 04:43:00 +0000

Ubuntu is a completely free and easy to use Linux flavor (distribution). I show you the three main ways how to get it and specifically how to download it. So, here is the video!

The Sad Realities of Free Web Hosting

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Mon, 19 May 2008 03:32:00 +0000

I have been searching for a free web host over the past couple of days. I don't enjoy it. All I need is some space to host a WordPress installation to play around with it. What do I get? Very junky web hosts. I know there is a free WordPress hosted service, but I need to play around with the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) itself, not actually blog with it.

All I can see is, if you want a free host, feel free to try that. But for any good hosting, either buy it, or befriend an owner of a Web Hosting Company.

Why do you blog?

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Fri, 16 May 2008 06:17:00 +0000

If you are a blogger, you must have a reason why you blog. Some people do it for fun. Some people do it because they have to. Still some people do it only for money.

I ask this because I think about why I blog every time I make a post. I'm not saying I hate blogging. In fact, a blog is something I can look at some time from now and say, I was or still am there. For me, my blog is like my home on the Internet. I don't really make any money. In fact, I actually lose money for buying the domain name. But I don't regret doing so, and I don't regret doing this blog.

But, I have to think about why I do this blog because, I do not want to loose focus on what my goals are. One of my goals in the future is to, maybe someday, have the blog pay for itself. But, making money is not my obsession. I have noticed some blogs who seem to exist only to get money. The problem with this is, they get too focused on the advertising and not on the content. The content suffers, and their blog fails with them probably dropping it. I believe that content should come first and foremost, and the money will come on its own. For me, it may never come. But, because that is not my real reason for this blog, it doesn't bother me all that much.

For me, the fun of sharing what I have to say with people who are interested enough to read it, is good enough.

My Teacher's Switch from Boot Camp to VMWare Fusion

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Thu, 15 May 2008 04:37:00 +0000

My teacher Mr. Bruce Frey, a technology teacher in my local high school, is a Mac person. He decided to switch to VMWare Fusion from Boot Camp. Mr. Frey really enjoys his new virtual machine. He especially likes the fact that VMWare Fusion detected his Boot Camp partition and ran with it. So, without further ado, here is the video!

You can get VMWare Fusion today at http://www.vmware.com/switchtofusion .

Are You a Touch Typist?

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Mon, 12 May 2008 02:09:00 +0000

Touch typing is the fastest way to type. It is much faster than the "hunt and peck" typing that most people normally do. Do you "hunt and peck" those keys on the keyboard? I hope not! I used to do that, and typing was considerably slower than now. I type at around 60 words per minute and I love it.

Touch typing is not only a faster way to type, it also helps you to get a job. On one job application I saw, there was a question asking me if I can type and how many words per minute I can type. 60 words per minute is not that bad...

If you're thinking about it, just do it! Use applications that teach you how to type. You can find many applications for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux that teach you this skill. Mavis Beacon Teaches typing is a popular software program on Windows and Macintosh systems. If on Linux, search in your favorite package manager for a typing program. There are several to choose from.

Using Outlines in PowerPoint

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:38:00 +0000

I love Microsoft PowerPoint. So, I decided to talk about one of my favorite features, called Outlines. I am a touch typist, so I love to keep my hands on the keyboard and use the mouse as little as possible. I like the mouse as well, but the less I switch between the mouse and keyboard, the better.

If you use PowerPoint, or another presentation program, then make sure you know about using the outlining feature in that program. I have made a slide about using Outlines in PowerPoint. Here it is!

Top 10 Mistakes That Presenters Make

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:44:00 +0000

I had created a PowerPoint presentation just a few days ago in Microsoft PowerPoint. This was part of a series of projects where I learn PowerPoint. We really weren't able to talk much about PowerPoint without talking about actually presenting presentations. One of our assignments in our class was to create a PowerPoint presentation about the top ten mistakes that presenters make while presenting a PowerPoint presentation, or any presentation for that matter. So, after creating said presentation, I actually presented this information to my class.

It was pretty exciting. I found about a neat little feature in Google Docs that let's you embed these presentations into a web page. So, I must test this out. I had uploaded my presentation and, with some modifications, here it is!

Upgrading Fedora vs. Upgrading Ubuntu, Debian, etc.

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:38:00 +0000

I was reading an interesting article on Red Hat Magazine and they got me thinking. One of the cool things about both Ubuntu and Fedora is that they both have new versions of their distributions about every six months. Unfourtunately, for a person like me, I have to worry about how this will affect my nice laptop. I also tend to worry about how upgrading would handle third-party software repositories, not that you should do that anyway. The two Fedora developers that were interviewed in Red Hat Magazine made an interesting argument that downloading the DVD or CD sets and upgrading through the Anaconda installer would be better than using the Update Manager in Ubuntu, or running the command apt-get dist-upgrade as the root user on Debian-based distributions. They make a good point that why should you use the old kernel to upgrade your system when you could use the fresh new kernel off the disc.

An interesting benefit to doing this is, as they point out, is migrating your ext3 partitions to the new expiriemental ext4 filesystem. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to change file systems on a live partition. However, one benefit to the Ubuntu way of doing things is that, in the GNOME desktop, a little cute notification icon prompts you to install updates and then offers the distribution upgrade. In just a few days, when Ubuntu Hardy Heron comes out, on both Dapper Drake and Gutsy Gibbon systems, you will see such a notification icon come up. Fedora currently does not have to do such a thing. In fact, you will need to burn a disc to upgrade.

But I read later in the article that they plan to have a neat little tool called "pre-upgrade" that will let you fetch packages that you will need to upgrade your system, and after doing so, will ask you to reboot. Apparently you will be launching the Anaconda installation program to upgrade your system instead of the normal Fedora installation. Now, I like that. You get the benefits of Ubuntu's Update Manager without upgrading a running system.

I'm beginning to like Fedora and other RPM-based distributions over the Debian-based ones like Ubuntu. We'll just have to see what the upgrade expirience will be like. I plan to install Fedora 8 later in May. Then later, I would like to try out openSUSE 11.0 when that comes out.

Also, I've been a little fond of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). I would like to own a laptop that comes with that preinstalled. CentOS is supposed to be 100% binary compatible with RHEL. I would also like to try before I buy. Hmmm... This will be quite an adventure.

I'm on vacation right now so I most likely not post for a little while. Just to let you know.

If you haven't tried other Linux distributions besides the usual Ubuntu, do so now!

Tips to Survive the OS Upgrade

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 03:55:00 +0000

Upgrading an operating system is not a laughing matter. It is the most important software that can run on your computer. With people still upgrading to Vista, Leopard being available to Mac users, and the new Ubuntu 8.04 LTS release coming out soon, you'll probably encounter this issue. I have a few tips after upgrading several operating systems and going through several headaches.

On a Windows machine, make sure that your computer can handle the upgrade. Even my computer wasn't able to handle Windows Vista too well. Make sure that all of your drivers are available. Another good solution is to dual-boot the previous version of Windows and Windows Vista. That will leave Windows XP for your use in case Windows Vista kind of flops on your machine.

On a Linux machine, upgrading can be difficult. I use Ubuntu, and have come to the conclusion that you must wait at least one week or more to upgrade. At least on the Ubuntu mirrors, there is this phenomenon that plagues them each release. The amount of traffic to the servers is amazing. Unfortunately, this means that the newer release will take considerably more time to download and install. Also, if you use third-party software repositories, then the fresh install option is the way to go. Upgrading Ubuntu with third-party packages is just begging for trouble. Third-party packages introduce variables that the Ubuntu developers never planned for when they test upgrades. Unless you wan't to screw up your system, then do a fresh install.

Whatever operating system you upgrade, always be sure to backup your data! And finally, I highly recommend that you do a fresh install of the operating system you plan to run, unless you want to have a headache.

The Ubuntu 8.04 Beta Is Out!

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 02:35:00 +0000

I'm pretty excited. Ubuntu 8.04, due to come in late April, has reached into a beta stage. Most features are well implemented, and development is focused on fixing bugs and such. The cool thing is that they give people the ability to use a counter. This counter counts the days left to the Ubuntu 8.04 release. So, get ready! I'm a little disappointed that there aren't as many new features that are coming to this new release. But keep in mind, Ubuntu 8.04 is the Long Term Support (LTS) release. It will have support for 3 years on the desktop and 5 years on the server. So new features aren't as important as minimizing the bugs on the release. I can understand that.

There is some interesting news for the people who like Kubuntu, the version of Ubuntu with the K Desktop Environment (KDE). Because of the recent release of KDE 4.0, Kubuntu will not be a LTS release. Instead, there will be a Canonical-supported version of Kubuntu with the latest 3.5.x series, which has been used thoroughly. There will also be a community-supported version of Kubuntu 8.04, which will feature the cutting-edge KDE 4.0. So, if you like Kubuntu, be aware of that.

I am pretty excited about the new release that will come out soon, but I would not download the beta for now, unless you want to test it out. Also, try not to download Ubuntu until the new release comes out.

A Quick Review of Windows Live Mail

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 02:21:00 +0000

I recently obtained a Hotmail email account. I never had a Hotmail account before, but I wanted to see what the fuss was about. I had never used Hotmail before, but due to a personal issue, I decided to create one. This review is mostly about the desktop email client, Windows Live Mail than the actual email service, Windows Live Hotmail, but I wanted to tell you why I randomly decided to install it.

I gave Windows Live Mail a try about a few months ago. It didn't work out for me, mostly because I used webmail all of the time. I tried Thunderbird, and I was convinced to keep using a desktop client as my email client. I decided to try Windows Live Mail again, and I like it. I find that the three pane column view, as opposed to the other view that was used in Thunderbird. I also like how it intergrates with other Windows Live services like Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Writer, and all of the Windows Live online stuff. I also prefer the Vista-ish look that appears in Windows Live Mail. It has been treated as an upgrade to Outlook Express (for Windows XP) and Windows Mail (for Windows Vista), and I agree with that. There are some downsides to it though.

My main problem with it is that it requires Windows Desktop search. I don't have any problem with that tool, but I already have Google Desktop. Two programs indexing my hard drive can really slow down slower computers like mine.

I recommend it if you like Windows Live and need a desktop email client, but if your happy if Thunderbird, or something else, then there is no reason to switch to this.

OpenOffice.org Marketing From The Java Updater

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 02:25:00 +0000

The Java updater asks me to update Java. So I update it and, what do you know? It looks like Sun is giving some neat little ad space for the open-source OpenOffice.org office suite. I'm glad to see that some people may see that when they update their Java and say, "An office suite for free?" Yes, OpenOffice.org is free, but you may be wondering... "What's the catch?" Well, just enter the coupon code "GREATBITBUCKET08" and get 75% off your puchase of OpenOffice.org!

Let's see... Free - 75% = Free!

Anyway, I'm really glad to see that OpenOffice.org can get a little bit more publicity. It's good to see that people can get a capable office suite for free. I'm not saying Microsoft Office is bad or anything. In fact, if I had the money, I'd probably purchase Microsoft Office. But, that's something to think about another day, especially since OpenOffice.org is only getting better and better.

You can get OpenOffice.org at, you guess it, http://www.openoffice.org/.

Why I Switched From AVG Free Edition To ClamWin Antivirus

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 03:25:00 +0000

I used to use (and recommend) AVG Free Edition. What's to say? It was free, it did a good job. It was recommended by other people. I pretty much used it as well as Windows Defender. However, after my recent mess with my computer, I decided to give ClamWin a shot at defending my Windows PC. I am still getting used to it, but one thing really sticks out. Updating the antivirus database is quicker than me typing the end of this sentence. In AVG Free Edition, the updating took forever and actually slowed down the startup of Windows. I can understand that, after all, it is the free edition. That's why I like open-source software like ClamWin. They don't really have an incentive to give you a crippled version of the software. These people throw the best of their skills into forging such software. For this reason, I recommend ClamWin over any other free anti-virus software. If I were to pay though, I would recommend something else, but I don't like to pay for software (who does?), but I am not a software pirate. So, for any person who wants a fast and free antivirus should check out ClamWin.

My Thoughts On Linspire

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:36:00 +0000

Linspire is a Linux distribution that tries to be the "world's easiest desktop Linux." It has been criticized heavily because it has extensive use in proprietary software. I don't see much wrong with proprietary software in general. In fact, I like proprietary software, but I also like open-source software. I simply like what software works for me. Now, I haven't tried Linspire, and I don't plan to. I don't have a major problem with Linspire, except for a few things.

For starters, it costs $50 US. That's a good deal when you compare to Windows Vista Home Basic, or even Mac OS X Leopard, but for a Linux distribution, you would still need to justify the cost. I don't see much that I can't get from, let's say, Ubuntu 7.10. Linspire 6.0 is even based on Ubuntu 7.04, the previous release.

Some Linux distributions have similar systems in place for when you need to install certain codecs or hardware drivers. For example, PCLinuxOS, at least when I had previously tried it, could play a ton of propritary formats, it even played Quicktime videos, something I couldn't figure out.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't like their Click 'N Run package managment system. I tried it on my Ubuntu installation a while back and it never worked. But maybe it works our for Linspire, but I like using the Debian and Ubuntu way of handling packages, either by apt-get or through a GUI tool like the Synaptic Package Manager. The RPM format from Red Hat is also something I do like.

With so many new distributions like PCLinuxOS, Linux Mint, and more established distributions like Ubuntu and Fedora stepping up on polish, and even since the community edition of Linspire is available, Freespire came out a while back, why buy Linspire?

What do you guys think about this?

My Computer Is Alive!

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 03:12:00 +0000

I managed to fix my computer by turning it on again, however, I had the urge to restore the computer. I did restore my computer, and I decided to not install anymore programs on this machine, except for the basics. What I mean by that is having OpenOffice.org, Firefox, Thunderbird, WinZip, Paint .NET, iTunes, and ClamWin anti-virus. Pretty sad, huh? My computer runs faster than a cheetah, but only after I restored it, removed all of the "crapware" that comes with the PC, install ALL updates, critical or not, installing all of my open-source programs (nearly all of my programs are open-source, with the exceptions of iTunes, QuickTime, WinZip, Adobe Reader and of course, Windows. For those of you who need to know what software I run, I'll just give you a quick rundown of what I've got.

ClamWin Antivirus
Firefox
Thunderbird
iTunes
QuickTime
Adobe Reader
PDFCreator
OpenOffice.org
Paint .NET

I personally think that it is a little pathetic that my computer can run so fast, but only if I have just a few programs.

I'm gonna backup my data more often...

Microsoft (and Compaq) Ruins My Sleep

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:45:00 +0000

I cannot be anymore annoyed right now. I simply turn my one and only computer, Windows XP loads the desktop as usual, takes 10-15 minutes before you can actually use the computer (as usual), I sync my new iPhone I got yesterday (more on that later), and go on CNETTV, and guess what? It decides to crash! I wasn't to suprised, because I head Molly Wood go "blah blah-ah ah ah," so I assumed Firefox has crashed. But, then I can't move my cursor. Uh. Oh. So I had to force shut off the computer, big deal. Only, I realized, that unusually, the computer itself decides to NOT turn off. Ahhhhh! I realize now, less than 10 minutes later, that maybe the computer broke, because after a while, the frozen Windows screen turns white, and the fans stop working. Against my better judgement, and while I was going to wait for the battery to die (did I mention that this is a laptop?), I took out the battery, WHILE it was running.

All I can say is now... well... is that I am really shaken and frustrated. I feel the need to post this to vent and tell people my problem, but I wrote this whole post on an iPhone keyboard. Does anyone know how difficult it is to get any writing longer than a text message through an iPhone? Believe me. It is taking me forever to type this. It also really hurts your hand.

Now I might have to think about getting a new computer. I mean, I wanted to buy a MacBook, but not because of this. I only made a small backup, now I lost possibly most of my documents, my music, my pictures, and I have to redownload my podcasts. At least I have my iPhone to comfort me...

I'll try to post during this ordeal, but an iPhone just doesn't cut it for posting. I'll hope you'll understand...

Apple Announces Updated MacBook and MacBook Pros

noreply@blogger.com (Emmanuel) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 04:56:00 +0000

Apple today has announced updated models of their MacBook and MacBook Pro line of notebooks. I happen to be very excited about this as I plan to buy a MacBook, and now I can see that they are getting better as I wait. This is also good for some people who like Linux, strangely enough. Some people, particularly people from the Full Circle Magazine, have said that sticking Ubuntu on a MacBook is actually a great buy than, let's say, a System76 laptop. Now, if I buy I a Mac, I don't plan on sticking Ubuntu on it (or I might, who knows?), but if I get a Mac, I probably stick Ubuntu on my PC again, even though I had trouble getting it to work properly.

Anyway, I am excited that they made the MacBook and MacBook Pro a more attractive deal to consumers.