Ubuntu 11.04
I am loving the newest release of Ubuntu – it is fastest, leaner and more user friendly than ever. I also really like the docking bar on the side – all of the ease of access that previously was in the Ubuntu Netbook Remix, but with an intelligent autohide feature.
Some of the complaints that I have about this version of Ubuntu Linux are:
- Nvidia graphics support has taken a step backwards, drivers are less stable, and you are encouraged to use the native linux driver, which is not as advanced as Nvidia’s
- The Start Menu – this new start menu has a great search feature and usually is able to find what you are looking for, but i’m stubborn and old fashioned and i really miss being able to open a fulll listing of my apps (i don’t always know what I’m looking for when I go to my menus)
- Updates introduced issues – on two machines that are running the desktop version of this Ubuntu 11.04 hard crashes were introduced by system updates. One of them updated the grub files on a hard drive that was not the boot drive, and then removed the MBR records from the boot drive, this ultimately lead to the users data becoming corrupted due to a reboot link it introduced. The other user lost X (graphical mode) and was basically unable to dual screen (with Twinview) for a few days.
None of these issues are super-major, but they all were setbacks in the new version of Ubuntu. I guess that in the open source world when a person installs a bleeding edge software product, one must expect it to still be bloody
Holy crap Crackle on Android
Want a legal and supported way to watch some movies and tv on your android phone? Go to http://www.crackle.com and register, then click the link to have an app sent to your phone. You can find great classics like Married With Children and Seinfeld and movies like Men in Black and Pineapple Express
Maybe crackle doesn’t have the same selection as Hulu Plus, but a key difference: Crackle is FREE
P.s. I did not get paid to make this post
Don’t Forget About Live CD’s
So I’ve been troubleshooting this computer. It’s a Windows XP machine, relatively new, decent hardware, all SiS integrated components. Video works fine, USB works fine all SATA components are fine. No matter what I do I can’t get the network card to work –> fails to obtain a lease, static IP configuration doesn’t allow me to ping my local gateway. I have tried all my tricks, hard coding the MAC address into a static lease in the router, setting up both DHCP and a matching static in the machine. The network cable is good, DHCP works fine on other machines on the same cable. Also, the HD audio is not producing any noise either.
I’ve ran my personal tools, (ComboFix, CCleaner, Advanced System Care and Malware Bytes Anti-Malware) and they found a few things but nothing major. The customer’s machine currently has Spyware Doctor installed and it may have interfered with ComboFix, but I did disable it. I even uninstalled the NIC and rebooted (there were no previous drivers to roll back to). After exhausting these resources onsite, I asked if I could bring it back to the office for diagnosis. My initial gut told me it was a software issue, but at this point I’m leaning toward failed hardware.
Why I didn’t think of it while I was onsite I am not sure, but it occurred to me that I could runfull hardware tests from a Live CD – I downloaded and burned to disc the most recent CD-sized Knoppix (6.2.11) – a great tool for trying out hardware, trying out Linux and just all around access to things Winbloze just doesn’t allow.
Sure enough I booted Knoppix and was instantly online on the same network card that ethernet would not work in Windows. Software issue.
I’ve since booted the AVG Rescue CD and was scanning overnight, and have burned the newest SiS network and audio drivers to disc for a reinstall. I am not sure what the final issue will be proven to be, but the point is, don’t overlook live Linux CD’s as part of routine testing. It can save valuable hours of troubleshooting and truly isolate the problems to hardware or software.
Installing Zint Barcode Generator in Ubuntu 10.04
download from sourceforge http://sourceforge.net/projects/zint/
$ sudo ap-get install g++
$ sudo apt-get install cmake
$ sudo apt-get install libqt4-dev
$ cd /usr/local/src
$ sudo tar zxvf /home/{username}/Downloads/zint-version.tar.gz
$ cd zint-version
$ sudo cmake .
$ sudo make
$ sudo make install
Photoshop express for android
Still early on my testing but I am finding that the android market free adobe photoshop express does a lot of great simple and common edits to pics I take. Great for formating blog and site content on the fly
Blog Metrics to Become a More Active Blogger
So since I’ve installed the blog metrics plugin it has been forcing me to update my site more. Every time I log into the dashboard it forces me to see the fact that i haven’t been very active on my site. for running for over 30 months on the same wordpress install I should have more posts. i think it said my average word count per post was a measly 143 words.. less is more?
