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Archive for October, 2007
OLPC
One Laptop Per Child is an initiative to try and spread the use of computers and aid education in developing countries. The hardware is rather interesting, and two things piqued my interest: the first being that the operating system for the XO laptop is based on a Fedora/Red Hat derivative, with a virtual machine available for download, and the second being the Give 1, Get 1 campaign.
The Give 1, Get 1 campaign starts on November 12 and is an opportunity to buy two XO laptops for the price of one. The purchaser gets to keep one, the other is sent to a child in a developing nation. I’ve signed up to be notified when the offer starts, but fear that it’s restricted to the USA. The XO would be a great first laptop for Alexander.
Since it’s unlikely that we’ll get to purchase the XO for some time to come, the next best thing is to download the virtual machine image and play around with that. The starting point is the installation of VMWare, a free virtualization environment. Next, get the image. There’s little to do, as a converted image of the machine is already available. The best resource is the OLPC Wiki, which contains all the information you’ll need.
Don’t expect any flashy interfaces or applications. First off, this is for kids. Second, it’s designed to have a long runtime and be fairly robust. The first time the system is booted, a name has to be provided. This name is used to identify the system on the network and for interaction with other XO users.
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Blu-Ray getting cheaper
This is not an advertisement for a certain dutch mass retailer who forces the use of cards to track consumer spending and purchasing habits. It’s about the falling cost of technology and a further indication how hardware simply gets cheaper and cheaper.
That the cost of a multi-format Blu-Ray writer has fallen so quickly is quite astounding. From the claimed ZAR 6500 to just under ZAR 4000. The Verbatim disk costs ZAR 145, about the same price I remember paying for a single DVD-R some time back. Except that this one will provide 25GB of native storage. Get a dual-layer disk and stick 50GB of your data on that. Not a bad idea for a personal backup solution.
I thank the Chinese and Koreans for such price drops. Where would we be without them? In any case, hang ten for another six months, and you’ll probably be able to pick this same drive up for under ZAR 2000. Then it starts entering the territory of mass appeal.
First look at the HP iPAQ 514 Voice Messenger
4 years ago
The HP iPAQ 514 Voice Messenger is a lightweight Windows Mobile 6-based smartphone. It seems to have easily supplanted Mel‘s rather basic Nokia 1600 and is in use primarily as a phone. That’s what it’s supposed to be used for, isn’t it? Given its size and weight, the transition has been easy for someone who is not accustomed to using a mini computer. The fact that the battery life is decent – first charge to last bar indicated on the battery indictator: 5 days, is certainly a plus. Another bonus is the ability to charge via USB, definitely something I miss on my E90.
But being a smartphone, there’s obviously far more to it than just basic telephony. The iPAQ 514 is fully-featured and provides a number of connectivity options: wireless LAN, Bluetooth and USB 2.0 connectivity augments the cellular network’s EDGE connectivity. The screen is easily readable, though the resolution is somewhat disappointing. The inclusion of a 1.3MP camera is a bit of waste, but it’s well-suited to the screen. For emergencies it will do, but at a time when 7MP cameras are available for less than ZAR 1000, it is no longer acceptable to have such a low resolution camera on any device. That’s a minor gripe. The unit sports a keypad that is comfortable to use, with dedicated softkeys, dedicated phone answer and reject keys and the usual directional keypad with a centre select button. A home key takes you to the home screen, the back button does double duty as a delete key and to move to the previous menu or screen. Quite handy.
The home screen maintains a list of recently run or currently running applications, all accessible from the topmost section of the screen. The usual content fills out the home screen. We’ve even added an item for HandyWeather in the meantime.
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Nokia N810 released
Nokia released the latest incarnation of their web tablet device last week. The Nokia N810 Internet Tablet sports a 800 x 480 high resolution touch screen. The most notable feature that previous versions of the Nokia Internet Tablet were missing is the slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
There’s a built-in GPS unit, ambient light sensor and the usual wireless LAN radio as well as Bluetooth and a USB port. It’s not a mobile phone, so there is no HSDPA or other means of connecting to a cellular network provider. That means you’re bound to wireless hotspots. I think the screen is of sufficient size to permit comfortable surfing and the real keyboard would make instant messaging and other data entry quite painless. It’s an ideal device for reading web news at home without the need to move from the dinner table to the workstation in the study 
Some may take exception to this statement. I apologize in advance to my wife…
It runs the maemo Linux-based OS2008, for which a number of third-party applications are available and contains a Mozilla web browser. On sale soon in Europe, it would be great if we’d finally be able to lay our hands on this great device in ZA… The list price is around the USD 450 mark.
KHALMNPR.EXE driving me crazy
This damned executable is getting on my nerves. It seems irrelevant whether nx8220 is hibernated or rebooted from scratch. Every now and then, with alarming irregularity, KHALMNPR.EXE sucks up any and all available CPU cycles. The result is a machine that is completely unresponsive and the only way to fix the problem is to kill the process:
KHALMNPR.EXE is not a virus, though it behaves like one! It’s actually installed to provide additional management of Logitech mice. Like telling you when the batteries are dead. Like every month. Like you need a damned daemon to tell you that. It’s an extremely poorly behaved utility and is absolutely useless. I think I’ll try to find it in the registry and kill it dead once and for all.
Spook Country by William Gibson
This is easily my most anticipated novel of the year. As you know by now, Gibson is my favourite author and I certainly couldn’t wait to get my grubby paws on this one.
There’s little to say: this is typical Gibson. He has a distinct style, and I found myself unable to put Spook Country down. Moving swiftly from one chapter to the next, Gibson maintains a great pace and introduces interesting characters and situations. Hubertus Bigend is known to us from Blue Ant, the marketing company we’re introduced to in Pattern Recognition, the novel preceding Spook Country. As with Pattern Recognition, the story is set in the present, so there are no surgically implanted lenses or high-tech operations. Nonetheless, Gibson continues to impress with his ability to blend a slew of technologies into a compelling spy drama. The book lives up to its name. There is no resolution and the story could continue easily in a future third part. Even so, it’s fully self-contained.
Tito is the mysterious Cuban-Chinese runner, tasked with the delivery of iPods containing secret information to the even more mysterious old man. Hollis Henry, former Curfew band member turned reporter covers the story of locative technology in art. She’s writing for Blue Ant‘s Node magazine, possibly the author’s tribute to the real-world Wired magazine. Thrown in for good measure is an ex-spook named Brown who is hot on the heels of Tito.
This is top-notch. The writing style of Gibson is unique and the story intriguing. When can we have the follow-up, Bill?
Hier kom die bokke!
4 years ago
by manfred
in Life in South Africa
The cup is coming back to ZA!
Well done to the Springboks! Rugby World Cup champions, 2007.
Fedora 8 is a Werewolf
4 years ago
by manfred
in Linux/Unix
It seems that the Fedora community has finally provided Fedora 8 codenamed Rawhide with its real name. Based on the code change in a recent build of Fedora 8 that name is Werewolf.
-%define release_name Rawhide
+%define release_name Werewolf
%define dist_version 8
Given the alternative of Kwass, that name would have been my choice too.
I’m hoping to successfully upgrade my running Moonshine system to Werewolf. I am somewhat uneasy. What will a full moon do – cause my hard disk to sprout hair or necessitate a silver bullet to fix various compatibility and software issues?
RWC 2007 final
4 years ago
by manfred
in Life in South Africa
The closest I’ve come to RWC is WRC. At least I now know the difference: the one involves an oddly-shaped ball, the other fast cars on various surfaces. In any case, the Springbok rugby team has made it into the finals against England and I hope we can be proud to call ourselves winners later tonight.
Then, I think about the rather dismal time Germany had in their European Championship qualifier against the Czech Repulic. 3:0 against the underdog and not having lost in quite some time. Torn apart by the press and fans alike, the previous favourite to head up Group D still qualifies but moves down to position two. So, what’s this have to do with tonight’s game of South Africa versus England? Not much. Except that I hope we are kinder to our team in case the result we are all wishing for does not materialize…
As an aside, the loss by England against Russia in the same European Championship qualification may be a good omen
Google Maps on the E90
A new version of the mobile Google Maps is available. This application looks really great on the E90 and is a pleasure to use with the HSDPA network access – maps and satellite images are downloaded in a few seconds. The download is tiny and installs in a flash. Using the application is intuitive and easy: search for where you intend going or the place of interest:
and Google Maps immediately shows a map view if the target has been found.
Zooming is supported by the joystick. Pressing the centre button zooms a rectangular view for a closer look.
The satellite view is a pleasure to behold on the E90, as the screen resolution and aspect ratio is similar to what you’d expect on a desktop. Again, zooming is supported in a similar fashion as with the simpler map view.
There are a variety of menu options available, though it seems as if Google Maps‘ ability to provide decent directions in our part of the world is a bit limited. Still, this is a very worthwhile download for your E90 and is certainly an application you’ll enjoy using. Of course, the mobile Google Maps application is also available for a number of other handheld platforms – open this link on your handheld for the download link.
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