Today I installed a Linux version of tweetdeck, specifically for a Ubuntu 8.10 version of Linux. First step was to install Adobe Air: http://get.adobe.com/air/ Adobe knew I wanted a Linux version, and downloaded the install program to my computer. (more…)
These are two pictures from the April 7, 2009 demonstration in front of the Authors Guild over text to speech in Kindle 2. Details about the issue and the demonstration are available here and here. The pictures were taken by Manon Ress, and may be used under any of the Creative Commons attribution licenses.
Two of my kids have three hard drives they would like brought back from the dead. (more…)
I just installed Ubuntu 9.04, beta, on a Dell M1530. The install program asked if I wanted a dual boot configuration with the older 8.10 version, and I said yes. That resulted in a longer install, but it worked fine. Then I was asked if I wanted to migrate my data settings from the older partition. This was a nice option, but since I didn’t have much on the older partition, I couldn’t evaluate how well it works.
I did notice right away the cursor worked fine, without having to tweak the grub loading commands, as was necessary for the m1530 for Ubuntu 8.10. Open Office 3.0 is also supported, which is a good reason to consider upgrading when the final version is ready.
I turned on the “partner” repositories, and installed the “Ubuntu restricted-extras” packages, which I highly recommend.
I next went to www.medibuntu.org, and followed the directions for adding the medibuntu repositories.
I installed Cheese to see if the webcam worked, and it did, without any problems. More important for me, I used the Synaptic Package Manager, to install Skype, which I tested with a USB Logitech headset and also a USB VOIP phone. Skype recognized and used both devices without any problems. The voice quality from the USB Logitech headset was particularly good, which show shows the value of a good microphone. It also found and worked well with the m1530 webcam. The built-in webcam seems to work quite a bit better with skype than with cheese.
So far, the beta version looks pretty polished, and it works better on this machine than did final 8.04 or 8.10 releases.
The Dell XPS m1530 is in some ways a nicely designed machine. Mine has a very high resolution screen 15.4 inch screen, 1920 x 1200 (16:10), and a fast NVIDIA video card. It has a fingerprint reader you can configure for log-in, an SD/MMC (8 in 1 they claim) memory card reader, built in web cam and microphone, bluetooth and lots of I/O, including HMDI and S-Video for video. It is also pretty light, and has a decent keyboard.
Despite all of this, right now I am using my older Dell 1420n, which is heavier, and has a smaller, but still pretty decent screen. The reason I switched back was that when using Ubuntu 8.10, the m1530 was not as dependable as the 1420n when I used suspend. And even more important, the battery life for the m1530 has been terrible for me, and this is a big deal when I travel.
If I can resolve the battery issue, I would probably switch back to the XPS m1530. But for now, I am more comfortable using the older laptop.
Like many others, I have had considerable difficulty getting the internal microphone to work, or even one that uses the front microphone jack, on a Dell Inspiron 1420n, currently using Ubuntu 8.10. I found, however, that USB microphones seem to work quite well. A Logitech USB Headset worked fine, as did an older USB VOIP phone I had laying around, both with quite good sound quality.
I have been using T-Mobile for some time, in part because of its early ability to use GSM networks in Europe and elsewhere. For whatever reason, T-Mobile is charging me roaming charges of $1.59 to $1.87 per minute when I receive calls in Europe, and that plus another dollar per minute if I call from Europe.
My roaming for the WIFI hotspot service was billed at $.69 a minute in Switzerland — at a location that promised the roaming rate would be $.18 per minute.
If I called Europe from the U.S., which I do a lot, I was being charged $.69 per minute. I had been told earlier I had a lower rate for Europe. Either T-Mobile never applied the lower rate, or I was switched to the high rate without notice.
As a consequences of three calls to T-Mobile today, in theory, they are going to apply the lower international calling rates I was promised earlier ($.08 to landlines and $.25 to mobile phones), and find out why my voice roaming charges are 60 to 87 percent higher than promised.
I canceled the T-Mobile hot spot service. It is cheaper to use the Boingo International service, which is $39 per month, without any additional roaming charges.
ROAMING CHARGES Date Destination Time Number Call Type Minutes Airtime Toll Total Austria (T-Mobile) 11/25/08 International 8:57 AM 436645170810 1 0.92 - 0.92 11/25/08 International 9:14 AM 805-637-7249 (G) 1 1.87 - 1.87 11/25/08 Incoming 9:15 AM NBR Unavail 1 0.92 0.99 1.91 11/25/08 International 4:12 PM 805-637-7249 (G) 1 1.87 - 1.87 11/25/08 International 4:29 PM 805-637-7249 (G) 1 1.87 - 1.87 11/25/08 International 5:12 PM 436645170810 2 1.86 - 1.86 11/25/08 Incoming 5:24 PM 41227916727 2 1.86 1.98 3.84 11/25/08 International 10:29 PM 571-331-6879 1 1.87 - 1.87 11/25/08 International 10:35 PM 805-637-7249 (G) 1 1.87 - 1.87 11/25/08 Incoming 10:56 PM 571-331-6879 10 9.32 9.90 19.22 Sub Total 21 24.23 12.87 37.10 Switzerland (Swisscom) 11/03/08 International 8:13 PM 571-331-6879 1 1.59 - 1.59 11/03/08 International 8:14 PM 202-332-2670 33 53.03 - 53.03 11/04/08 International 5:19 PM 703-522-4380 13 20.88 - 20.88 11/04/08 International 5:31 PM 805-637-7249 (G) 1 1.59 - 1.59 11/04/08 International 8:56 PM 805-637-7249 (G) 2 3.20 - 3.20 Sub Total 50 80.29 - 80.29 SUBTOTAL 71 104.52 12.87 117.39 T-MOBILE HOTSPOT SERVICES For T-Mobile HotSpot Customer Care, Please Call 1-877-822-7768 Date Description Total 11/03/08 Swisscom Mobile Hotspot - Switzerland/PER MIN/69 min 12.42 SUBTOTAL 12.42
Fenimore thinks this is a cool thing to do, run Linux from a flash drive, from anyone’s computer. These are my notes on how to do this.
Most computers can boot from a usb drive, but the commands vary. For several machines, f12 during the boot brings up a boot device menu. For other computers, this may be f9 or another key, usually identified by the computer during the early boot screens. In some older computers, you may have to change the bios settings to allow booting from a usb device.
How do you create the bootable flash drive? This is not difficult if you download the free utility Unetbootin. Unetbootin runs on both Windows and Linux.
I haven’t used the Windows version yet. For the Linux version, you can install from an .rpm or .deb file, or download an executable file. (For the latter option, you have to change permissions to permit the file to be run as an executable).
To install Ubuntu on a USB drive, you download the ISO image of the version you want to install, and run Unetbootin. (Unetbootin can even do the download for you). The menus are very straightforward, and it works with flash drives or usb connected hard drives. This makes it easy to download and test different Linux distributions, without having to change a single bit on the main hard drive of computer you use to run the program.
I have not had much luck making an Apple computer boot from a usb device.
A flash drive of 1 gigabyte or larger will work fine. It boots, runs and shuts down surprisingly fast from a flash drive. I have been impressed at how well a flash drive version of Ubuntu 8.10 can boot from many different computers, and find and use properly the video card, sound system, wireless connections, and use the computer’s drives and even bluetooth devices. A default Ubuntu install comes with a lot of software to begin with, including open office, Firefox and many other programs. You can upgrade and install new software, and keep your settings, and store whatever documents you like, depending upon the size of the flash drive.
One important use of a bootable flash drive is data recovery. You can boot up a computer from the flash drive, and also read the normal hard drive data. I have used this to copy data files from a disk that has too many errors (or viruses) to boot directly from its own internal hard drive.
Another use for a bootable flash drive is to bypass some of network security features that normally would make it hard to use a computer or access the Internet. There are times this will come in handy.
UPDATE
There are issues concerning the “persistence” of the data stored on the flash drive. In the default Unetbootin install of a Ubuntu “Live” drive, stored files are wiped out when you power down. You can fix this by tweaking some of the Grub options. However, an easier method is to create a drive using the Ubuntu 8.10 utility, usb-creator, which you can find on the Ubuntu System/Administration menu. This utility is present in the Ubuntu 8.10 live distribution, so you can use Unetbootin to create a bootable flash drive with Ubunut 8.10, and then use the bootable flash drive to create one that allows you to store data. One would think that Unetbootin should include this feature at some point.
In August 2008, I bought a Dell XPS m1530.
I recently had a hard disk failure. I am still not sure if the cause is physical or a shutdown/freeze related event. I decided to do a fresh install with Ubuntu 8.10. It went well at first, except for the touchpad, which went nuts, a problem I did not experience when installing 8.10 on a Dell Inspiron 1420n.
I was advised to add this to the grub boot line: i8042.nomux=1
To edit the boot script, I used this command:
sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.1st
It worked fine, but it seems surprising that someone would have to know this to make the featured Dell Linux laptop work right after the 1st Ubuntu upgrade.
Backups and data migration
Here are some tips on moving data from one computer to another. First, if you can, save your email from evolution using the backup settings option off the file menu.
Second, in Firebox, back up and migrate your bookmarks by using the export/import options in Firefox’s Bookmarks/ Organisation Bookmarks menu.
I use grsync to back up and restore the rest of the data files, using the option of preserving the file dates. You can also do this from a unix copy command using the -p option. (You will find it useful to keep the original file dates.)
Software you will want to install
Go to http://www.medibuntu.org and follow the directions on repositories.
I would add all of the recommended repositories and multimedia codecs. I recommend using both free and non-free components.
After this is done, here are some programs I like:
adobe acrobat reader: arcroreader
archive utility: 7z
archive utility: rar
archive utility: unrar
art: art manager
art: gimp data extras
art: open clip art
backup: grsync
create-resources
editor: bluefish
editor: Gooby
internet: gftp
internet: skype
linux-restricted-modules
multimedia: vlc
statistics program: r-base
text to speech: acroread-plugin-speech
text to speech: espeak
text to speech: festival
ubuntu restricted extras
utility: gpass Password manager
utility: gprename
utility: kchmreader
If you want to collaborate with anyone who doesn’t use Linux, you will need to add the Microsoft True Type core fonts:
sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts
Sound and Video
Next, I’ll try to get the video cam and the microphone working.
So far, this seems to be a challenge.
Today KEI hosted a meeting on patents and standards.