Recession Tech: Ubuntu 10.04 - what I like and don't like (I mostly like!)

Hey all,

Another in my series of recession tech blog postings. Previously we have looked at:
Deciding on Ubuntu
Installing it on my old Dell E1505 laptop

Now after using it for a week or so, I want to relate how it is working for me.

I like it. So far, everything has been picked up by Ubuntu. My wireless card, my video card. I even like that I have circular scrolling with the touch pad.

And seriously, I use webby tings for almost all my functions - I use gMail , and FireFox for email and browsing. And for the few times when I am word-processing a document, I can use OpenOffice, no problem. There is even a HULU client for Ubuntu as well as a Boxee client, for those times when I just want to veg around.

And a super bonus is that things are much snappier - things just pop open in seconds. Even the reboot is faster.

The only down side is that there is not a Netflix client for Ubuntu/Linux. I get around that because I have an old subscription to PlayOn.TV, and it streams the Netflix as a MPEG2 stream which I can pick up in the media player Totem.

I do cheat a little. I have a nice multimedi alaptop that I run some old Windows App that I paid for to create slide shows.

So here is the rundown of tasks and Ubuntu applications:
email - Gmail
regular browsing - Firefox
Adobe Flash - Firefox w/ flash installed
Hulu - native Hulu desktop client for Ubuntu
music - I still really like MediaMondey, and have not found a reasonable replacement. They have a player, but nothing with the full flexibility of MediaMonkey.
Videos - Totem
UPNP Client - Totem with Coherence UPNP plugin
Word processing and other office tasks - Open Office
Facebook (well, I don't really do Facebook, but it just takes a browser) - Firefox.

So seriously, for 99% of things done on the web, you just need the flexible and secure Linux.

I like this!

Recommended.

Lyman

Recession Tech: Ubuntu 10.04 install

Hey all!

Continuation of the Ubuntu investigation as part of my recession tech phase.

I wanted to install Ubuntu 10.04 on my Dell E1505 laptop. The last time I wanted to try Ubuntu on this laptop, I had problems with getting the Dell wireless minicard working (Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN MiniCard). Using the Ubuntu Live CD for 10.04, it looked like this was going to work better.

So Ubuntu released 10.04 a couple of weeks ago. I have waited for a few weeks to let things shake out and reduce some of the traffic on the server.

I plugged my laptop into my network using a cable - I wanted to make sure that I if anything went wrong, I could download what I needed without having to worry about drivers for the wireless card. Then I went to the Ubuntu site.

I downloaded the 10.04 .iso file and burned it to a CD.

I popped it into my CD drive and made sure my BIOS was set to boot off the CDROM drive, and I hit reboot.

After a few seconds of churning on the CD drive, I was presented with a few options from which I selected the default and then let it rip.

After a few minutes, I got to a Ubuntu screen and miracle of miracles, it found the Dell wireless card and offered to install the Broadcom wireless drivers and I was online!

This version of Ubuntu is sweet. It comes with Open Office, Firefox and a number of other standard application installed. I popped my SD card into the slot on the side of my computer, and it found the card instantly.

I had it check for updated drivers and it even installed some drivers for the ATI video chipset on the machine.

I launched my iGoogle applications and I was instantly checking my Gmail, visiting my usual sites and even watching a few videos on the Hulu website.

Next post will tell what I like, what I don't like and what is missing.

Recession Tech: Ubuntu

I kind of have a gadget addiction. I like electronics and technology more the the average bear. But, I have to save for retirement and kids college, so I have challenged myself to come up with more uses for my existing tech.

Challenge #1: Older PCs.

Technology moves quickly, and things seem older faster. Many of us have a PC with an older OS that may seem more than a little long in the tooth. And maybe you feel less secure about it safety wise.

So what to do.

I decided to try Linux - specifically Ubuntu - on it. Ubuntu is cool because it has a Live CD version that you can burn to a CD and then boot off of it for a test drive and not make any changes to the original computer.

I had an oldish laptop still running around that looked like a good candidate. Its a Dell. The last time I gave it a shot, the linux versioncould not pick up the wirelss card, leaving me in the lurch. But I decided togive the Ubuntu 9.04 (?) version a shot. It looked like it was going to find the wireless card no problem, but the next version 10.04 was coming out in a week or so, so I decided to wait it out and install the latest one.

More to come.

A family is made, not born

I'm sorry... it has been too long since my last post, but work has been murder. you don't want to hear about, so I'm skipping it.

Today something happened that reminded me how families are made. A family is not a group made of blood relations, it is a group that has made a commitment together to grow and love and all that good stuff.

Today my son and I were coming back from lacrosse practice. I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Grammar Girl, and she was discussing recent AP Style Guide releases. Among the discussions of Tweets v. Twitter, there was an update on the full spelling of c-section.

Apparently, it is now okay to spell "Caesarean" as "Cesarean." As she was saying that, I caught my son peeking out of the corner of his eye to see my reaction, which was me flapping my arms, rolling my eyes, and muttering, "Jesus Christ! The barbarians have taken the city!" I had to laugh because he knew me well enough to know I would be all pissed off about that.

When I asked him why he looked over, he said, "Well Dad, when I heard that, I knew you would be all pissed off, I just wanted to see how badly." He continued, "I know how you love history and grammar and all that stuff, and I knew that one would get your panties all in a twist. I mean c'mon, you even try to have proper spelling and grammar in emails and text messages!"

Even Lily gets into the act. the other day we were in the car together coming back from vacuuming out the car, and I was teasing her by saying I wanted to get my nipples pierced (the guy at the car wash has some whacked-out piercings). She was all grossed out and said, "No way Dad, that's gross! Besides, its not you." I asked her what is me, and she said, "You should buy a nice book. One of those fancy leather ones you like. Like a Shakespeare one."

She knows me too well.

So I guess the kids ARE paying attention. Plus their insights and responses made me laugh. I think I know them, but they also know me.

We must be a family!

Is the Food Indutry telling us the Truth? - Peanuts

I was reviewing the list of recalled peanut containing items on the FDA website, and I was surprised at the variety of stores represented in that list. If you read the descriptions of the PCA factories, they were pretty wretched. Anf the guy who runs them is a real sleazebag. Willing to do anything and break any laws and take advantage of the system in any way possible to make a penny.

You would think that only the real cheap brands would us his products - the ones that are looking at the way to undercut similar products in cost and quality. But a review of the stores and chains affected reveals otherwise. The list lists premium brands such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, where you pay a pretty penny for your healthy goods. It also lists in-house brands like Price Chopper that you might expect to not have the very best (but still more than adequate) ingredients.

So you have to ask yourself - if everyone is using the same cruddy ingredients (and in this case, they were), how much is it worth to pay a premium for your groceries? Are the organic store brands as good as the organic Whole Foods or Trader Joe's brands? And where is all that extra money going to when you pay extra for the premium brands?

I guess the choice is up to you, and caveat emptor!

Crappy Cinemas

So I went to the cinema for the first time in months. Now I know why the Film industry is having problems. Some of it is DVDs and large screens, but part of it is that they do not know what they are doing.

First, the tickets are outrageous - over $10 to see the movie. 2 kids and me - $30+

The concessions are way overpriced - I think it might be cheaper to buy stuff at an airport... $20+

Oh, and did I mention that the lobby was a pigsty? Crussed popcorn and spilled soda all over the floor. Now they ahve "self serve popcorn butter station" - I steered clear of that slimy area - both for health (butter, year right!) and sanitation reasons - it looked like an oil tanker had holed its hull there.

Things were not much better in the screening room. The print was scratched, the projection illumination was too bright, washing out hte colors and creating bloom in the bright areas. Plus people were talking like they were in their living room - hey! If you want to talk, rent it at home.

I asked for my money back... and got it.

That cinema will not be getting my patronage any more. If the cinema industry wants to survive, they will need to do a better job than that. And if we want a better experience, we need to ask for it.

Slumdog Millionaire

Last night I saw Slumdog Millionaire.

What can I add? It was a wonderful movie. At some parts, it was hard to watch - there were scenes of grinding poverty and abuse, but in the end, it was incredible.

As you know, both my children are adopted from India, so the scenes there of the underside of India and of the orphans were at times heart-stoppingly touching. Sometimes I wonder where my kids woul dbe today if they were not part of my family.

Back to Slumdog. There were levels of depth that I did not expect from the movie. Fraternal conflict, unrequited love, gangsters, scenes of religious strife. Not enough dancing, however.

The music was nice too. Very modern Indian pop - a mix of Bhangra, rap and techno.

The print was bad and the projection was terrible, and the concession area was a pigsty, but that is another blog.

If you can handle the scenes of poverty, then I recommend Slumdog Millionaire - you won't be able to forget it.