Elementary OS Challenge is over

My one week Elementary OS Challenge is over. If you recall,  I wanted to see if iI could do whatever I needed to do on an $80 laptop from Craigslist and a free Linux based operating system.

In short,  not a problem.

That's not to say that I didn't miss the extra speed of my regular laptop,  but if I had to do it, I could live with it day in and day out no problem.

Here's a brief list of what I did in this week:

Gmail
Google Calendar
Looked at some PDFs for lacrosse
Facebook
Watched online video podcasts
Listened to Pandora
Watched Hulu
Recorded and started to edit an audio podcast that I never ended up using.
Google+ postings
Twitter postings
Updated my blog (with this)
Edited my Evernotes
Played solitaire
Installed and referenced my password database - KeePass
Posted my minivan on Craigslist (hint hint)

And that's really about it.

I think I'm going to try another week or so and see what I think... of both the laptop and the OS,  although the keyboard has a decent amount of flex that makes it miss some of my  letters.  I may take it apart and see if I can put in some bracing in it.

Thanks for all your interest and comments.  If you have any questions,  feel free to contact me!

Regards,

Lyman

My Elementary OS / Craigslist laptop challenge

As you know, I finally got a working installation of Elementary OS, the new Linux operating system distribution, after a few false starts installing it.

After reading the back to school advertisements, chock full of fancy quad core laptops running Windows 8, I decided to see how cheaply I could get online.

So here's my challenge to myself:

Can I use my $80 Craigslist laptop and the no cost operating system Elementary OS for a week?

Now I can't use it for my work, because currently our VPN doesn't support Linux, but they supply me with a computer anyway. But when you think about it, pretty much everything that one does online, besides gaming, runs in a browser... Gmail - browser; Facebook - browser; YouTube videos - you got it... browser. Even if you want to write a document and print it, you can use Google Documents and Google Drive and do it all online.

Here is what an $80 craigslist laptop is... first a confession, I am a bit of a craigslist junkie - I scan the computer section nightly to see if any interesting (and cheap) equipment has been posted. I particularly like computers with weird features or sizes. I have an early Dell all-in-one that is still chugging along after 5 years or more of Lymie's homework and "other stuff." I am looking at a Dell Duo - a netbook with a rotating touch screen, and I am looking for a used Raspberry Pi to run as a digital photo frame on steroids. My name is Lyman - I have a computer problem.

Laptop specs - this was purchased from someone closing a business. This was a training laptop with a gimpy WiFi card. I decided to give it a shot (she was asking an absurdly reasonable $80 for this laptop), thinking at the worst I would add a WiFi dongle to it to get it online. It turned out it was a firewall issue - it took me 10 minutes to sort that out. The CPU is a dual core 1.6 GHz with 1.9 GB RAM and a 150 GB hard drive. Screen size is a common 15.6 inches at 1366 x 768. It connects via Ethernet or 802.11 G. Noting fancy but it works.

Elementary OS has all the stuff you need to get online - a browser, wifi software, a few basic applications and an app-store to get more. After installing Google Chrome and logging in (I do all my online stuff with Google) within 3 minutes I had all my bookmarks, my preferences and my extensions at my fingertips - auto-magically!

I put my regular laptop in  the corner of my office, booted the Dell Vostro and started creating this blog entry.

Check back in a week and see how I  did!

Thanks.

Elementary OS - a working installation!

This is a bit of a response to my previous post about problems with Elementary OS -  the new and highly anticipated Linux distribution.

I was determined to get it installed on a machine and see what all the fuss was about. So I grabbed an old laptop that I have lying around for just that purpose (installing and testing Linux installations - yes, I'm weird like that) and gave it another shot. Although there are some tweaking applications that one can add to the basic Elementary OS install, I suspected that the tweaking application was the issue, so I demurred from adding it - I'd just live with the standard install for a while.

That appeared to do the trick, and I was rewarded with a successful and so far stable installation of  Elementary OS.

First impressions... its FAST! I am using a relatively slow 1.6 GHz dual core business laptop, and it whizzes right along.

Its also very pretty. I hear that Linux users have said it is a MAC clone, and MAC users have said its too Linux-y, so I guess the designers made the right decision.

It's a distribution with its own idea of how a windowing operating system  should work. Either you buy into them and go with the flow, or you try to fight them and are probably miserable and should probably just go and install Linux MINT15 and be happy.

Me? I haven't decided yet. I'll live with it for a while and get back with a quick review.

Thanks!

Elementary OS - a new operating system

Interesting... I got all excited about the Elementary OS Linux Distribution release, but tried to install it on 2 different Machine (a Dell and an HP) and neither one worked properly, for different reasons.

I finally decided to try Linux Mint (it had been a while since I installed it on a computer) and I was pleasantly surprised. I started using it with the MATE desktop, but moved over to the Cinnamon desktop because it had more flexibility. It also uses a bit more horsepower, I think, but I like the extra desktop applets. Here's a quick video comparing Mate vs. Cinnamon - yes, I know the reviewer has a weird voice... but at least he made a video.

Has anyone else installed Elementary OS and had success? It's very pretty, and I hear it is fast, but I just couldn't get a solid install.

ZVOX and my tale of losing wires

RATS
Recently, my receiver’s HDMI board croaked and I had to replace it (sending it to my son at college - those kids need to listen to music on REAL SPEAKERS). As I was looking at the rats' nest of wires running back there, I started dreading the upcoming receiver swap. I ended up purchasing an Oppo Blu-Ray player (refurb/outlet - but these things are built like a tank!) that allowed me to get a few items out of the cabinet, I replaced the receiver, and I ordered some new HDMI cables from MonoPrice (great prices and quality) that were shorter and reduced the length of cables hanging back there and that eased my dread. I will talk about the choices I made there in another post.

WHAT’S THAT (HORRIBLE) NOISE?

You would think there is an alternative, and there is - consolidating your speakers into a soundbar. If you have replaced your TV with a flatscreen, you were probably shocked at how bad are their speakers. Yes, we thought the speakers on our old tube TVs were bad, but nothing prepared me for flat panels. It’s really just a matter of physics - if you can’t move the air, you can’t make the sounds. And with today’s panels that are skinnier than a fashion model with a tapeworm, there is barely room for connectors, much less decent speakers.

BARS AND BOXES
Hence the popularity of soundbars. They usually have 3 speakers and many have an amplifier, and they are made to complement your TV, especially if hung on the wall, but in their quest for fashion, most sound bars begin to limit themselves in the same way as skinny TVs - they get too thin. In my bedroom, I had an old set of Cambridge Soundworks PC speakers (satellites and a bass module that powers everything) that I had hooked up to the cable box and the DVD player via the headphone outputs, but they were getting a terrible humming noise that I couldn’t get rid of no matter where I hooked things up and placed the bass module. Plus, I missed the center channel speaker, which would allow me separate the dialogue from the effects - and my ears are not getting any younger.

So I started listing my options:

• Purchase a really nice set of amplified speakers, like something from Audio Engine
• Purchase a receiver and a 2.0, 2.1, 3.1 set of speakers (the .1 is the bassmodule/subwoofer)
• Purchase a receiver and an passive sound bar or an active soundbar with or without a bass module

OR...

• Purchase one of those new fangled ZVOX speaker thingies I’d been reading about in my audio magazine.

I didn’t want to go with the Audio Engine speakers because I wanted a center channel.
I didn’t want to go with the receiver and speakers because of the cost, the mess of wires, and the number of boxes.
I didn’t want to go with the Soundbar because that was getting me too close to the original problem - skinny speakers and I didn’t want to get a bass module for those lower octaves.

MY SOLUTION
That left me looking at the ZVOX speakers. What can I say, I like the underdog. ZVOX is a small New England company (and I respect the old New England speaker builders) that have if not invented, then at least popularized the all-in-one speaker pedestal. This is like a soundbar, except that it’s much deeper - deep enough for the unit to act as a TV stand, and deep enough to include a 6 inch speaker to act as a bass module. It is also clever enough to learn your volume commands from most remotes, so if you have a simple setup and are using your cable remote to control everything, you don’t have to add to the remote clutter in this setup.

I ended up purchasing their ZVOX 555 on a decent sale, and was able to send the audio from my BR player, TV and media box via optical and coax, and hook the video up to the TV for each box via HDMI. Yes, I have a few extra connection cables, but no speaker cables and no receiver!

So how does it sound? Well, it sounds pretty good. The sound is balanced - without the treble or bass being too prominent. I appreciate the center speaker and the Dialogue Enhancement feature that emphasizes the center (dialogue) channel, especially when the volume is low - perfect for the bedroom.  I even use it to listen to streaming audio from Pandora, Music Choice (from my cable company) and my own music via UPNP/DLNA through the BR player. It sounds so good that when I was reviewing my setup in the living room (where I have a full 5.1 setup), I seriously considered chucking it all and replacing it with the top of the line ZVOX box.

I ended up sticking with the status quo 5.1 system because on weekends and some evenings (if no one else is home and the windows are closed), I’ve been known to cue up some Mahler, Gershwin, or my favorite - Hilary Hahn (Hilary Hahn's website, Hilary Hahn on YouTube) and crank it up to Symphony Hall levels - and that takes a decent amp and some big, efficient speakers. I’ve also been known to crank some Stones or the Who on occasion.

I’d be curious to know what kind of setup other people have done in their main viewing/listening space, or in their bedroom - especially if it is creative or new.

Comments are open below.

(while writing this I was listening to “Abby Road - the mono masters” in FLAC. The Beatles ROCK!)

What the hell is that!

So, its a lovely day on a 3 day weekend and I decide to give the dog an extra walk around the block.

We're cruising around and I see the neighborhood high school kids shooting hoop in the street and I see what looks like a couple of rolls from a pizza joint in the street. You know the rolls I mean... pizza dough rolled into a ball about the size of a billiard ball and baked in the brick oven - oh YUM!

Anyway, I ask them if those are crab apples, and the youngest one says no, and he's not sure what they are.

Me, being Mr. Smarty-pants, figures I can tell what they are, so I cruise on over. He grabs a stick and pokes one of them and picks it up for a closer look and then sticks it in my face.

I look at it.

I look more closely.

My minds starts racing, but nothing comes out.

It still looks like a roll, except it has cracks in it and the inside is kind of an amber clear stuff. I'm thinking its some sort of fungus, but there does not seem to be a place where it was touching the ground, or anything else. Plus, there is that clear, jell-o like stuff inside.

Then it hits me...

I call them over and say, "Its some sort of alien pod or seed and you're that person who goes over and pokes it with a stick." And we know what happens to him. He taken over by the aliens and is either possessed or dead before the first commercial (if it is TV), or before the beginning credits are over. He's doomed.

I back away and tell them, "Just kidding. My best guess is that its a fungus. Probably a good idea to not touch it or breath to deeply around it." But I know its an alien and he's a goner.

Maybe tomorrow I'll go over and take some photos of it and post it to see if anyone recognizes it.

Always something new under the sun!

Postscript: I went there the next day with my camera and it was gone.

Definitely an alien pod.

So Long Commander Armstrong

Neil Armstrong died last week. He was a true American hero.

Hero.

That gets tossed around a lot nowadays. I got an email from a vendor the other day passing along tips from their “customer support heroes.” Seriously? I emailed them that they need to put a leash on their marketers.

But I digress.

I was 7 years old when they landed on the moon. Kids nowadays have no idea how big the space program was back then. We watched them take off - even if we didn’t expect them to blow up on the pad. We watched them land. We watched their ticker-tape parades.

I built models of the Apollo craft. I was young, so I painted mine a pretty shade of green. The gas stations passed out cardboard punch models of the lunar landing and I made a bunch of them as well. Heck, I even had my own NASA astronaut jumpsuit that I played and slept in until the sad day that I outgrew it.

You get the idea.

Anyway, these guys were heroes. They risked their lives to advance science and (let’s admit it) to stick it to “the Rooskies.” They didn’t get paid much. They were risking their lives, and some of them even died on ships (Apollo 1). Remember, they didn’t even know what to expect on the surface of the moon. Was it so dusty that it would affect their suits or the lunar lander? Did they really calculate the fuel and the descent speeds correctly? Were they going to get home? Who really knew? These guys couldn’t be sure, but they went anyway, because that was what we asked expected them to do.

And now the most famous of them has died. A little part of my childhood went with him. But I popped his photo back up on my wallpaper, and for the next week or so I’ll remember back when a few brave astronauts, inspired by a fallen president, backed by the brightest minds at NASA, and the hopes of an entire country left the gravity of the small rock we call home to set foot on our closest neighbor.

This famous poem may be the best description of what he must have experienced.

"High Flight"
 Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
 And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
 Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
 of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
 You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
 High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
 I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
 My eager craft through footless halls of air....

 Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
 I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
 Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
 And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
 The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
 - Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

- John Gillespie Magee

So long, Commander Armstrong. I hope that they’ll name something great after you. Until then, you’ll just have to settle for the fond memories of a little boy back in the 60’s.