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Archive for March, 2008
Revolution OS
Want the low-down on Linux and the Free and Open Source Software movement? Then you should watch Revolution OS.
The documentary is informative, but is dated and its ending doesn’t convey the message any Linux or Open Source software fan would want to make public. J.T.S. Moore directed and produced Revolution OS at the end of 1999. It was a time when the public at large had just been introduced to the rather alien concepts of open source software and Linux. Richard Stallman, father of GNU, features prominently in the interviews and is frank about his point of view and mission. Linus Torvalds makes a number of appearances and instructs viewers on the correct pronunciation of Linux. No, it’s no Lie-nux.
The Apache Project is mentioned as the major force that helped Linux become a leading solution for Internet applications. VA Linux is the company that is tracked throughout the documentary, starting off in a small office, then making history as the company having the highest IPO of all time.
At the end of the 85 minutes, the rather sad news that VA Linux had to radically change its business model is displayed on screen, together with the low stock price Red Hat had sunk to in 2000. That may leave non-geeks with the impression that Linux didn’t actually make it, though quite the opposite is true! VA Linux is now Sourceforge and Red Hat is certainly not performing too poorly.
Though quite informative, this is one documentary that is crying out for an update! Still, worth watching.
EU ratifies DVB-H standard
4 years ago
by manfred
in Connectivity
The European Union is well on its way towards ratifying and enforcing the standard that will enable users of capable devices to view television on their mobile handsets. The standard in question is the DVB-H standard, for Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds and should finally pave the way for a unified means of providing content.
The reason the Europeans are banking on DVB-H is to capitalize on the existing infrastructure and technology already available. Nokia and Motorola already provide handsets capable of receiving DVB-H broadcasts, with most service providers able to transmit the necessary data packets utilizing their existing infrastructure.
Maybe this will spark some interest for us in ZA – though various trials were concluded and MTN indicated they would be keen to broadcast the 2010 World Cup to DVB-H enabled handsets, little has been heard about the local state of mobile broadcasting since early last year…
Vista SP1 available
With the arrival of the G2S, I’ve become a statistic. Vista Ultimate is pre-installed, and I haven’t yet decided what OS will eventually replace it. Vista looks ok and works reasonably. I struggle with it, though.
Microsoft has officially released the Windows Vista Service Pack 1. If you are afflicted, you may choose to download the rather large file to determine whether this fix pack helps you with any issues you may be frustrated with.
The download is about 435MB in size.
wave0…?
Anathem
Besides William Gibson, Neal Stephenson is my next favourite author. They both fall into that category of: new book – must buy! Thankfully, Gibson‘s works are far shorter than Stephenson‘s. I’ve all three volumes of the Baroque Cycle trilogy waiting for me on my bookshelf. Three failed attempts, and I’ve not even managed to get halfway through the first one…
What good news then that Stephenson‘s latest is available, in hard cover, as a pre-order from Amazon. There’s no cover image available yet, and very scant information what the story is about. The title is Anathem, a story not set on planet earth, featuring aliens. Knowing Stephenson, mathematics will feature heavily. And the book will probably comprise many, many pages. I won’t have the Baroque Cycle finished by the time Anathem arrives at the end of the year. I look forward to having this one wait on my bookshelf for some time, too!
Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
The story of Dune continues with this eight hour audio book, read by the same crew that worked through the 21 hour reading of the novel Dune.
As with Dune, there’s little consistency with certain segments being narrated and appropriate voices provided for the characters. Then, it seems they tire of the reading and entire segments are read by a different person. It’s a bit irritating. Scott Brick‘s narration is top-notch. It’s a real pity that the entire book can’t be read by him with the character’s voices acted out appropriately. That’s the bad. The rest is pretty much as you’d expect: we get to follow the latest exploits of Paul Artreides‘ life on Arrakis, with its intricate social order and plenty of intrigue. It’s not as good as Dune, but rounds out the story nicely. Basically a story of betrayal and deceit. If you’re a fan of Herbert, this one should fit the bill nicely.
Wireless earbuds
Got to admit that the Germans come up with some funky stuff. Sure it’s probably just designed in Wennebostel then manufactured in China. But some famous Yankee’s do that too: designed by you-know-who in California, blablabla…
In any case, the Sennheiser MX W1 are a set of earbuds I’d trade in my Shure‘s for. The main feature is the fact that they are wireless and are optimized to deliver sound without distortion and loss over 10m. That’s the distance between the MX W1‘s in your ears and the transmitter connected by 3.5mm jack to your audio source of choice.
The transmitter is the size of a matchbox, doubling as a charger for the earbuds. They will run for a claimed five hours on a single charge. And the transmitter is held to an iPod or other portable by means of an elastic band. Not the most elegant solution…
The Sennheiser‘s are based on technology by Kleer which uses the overcrowded 2.4GHz band in an adaptable fashion, switching among 16 channels to retransmit damaged streams.
The transmitter is able to serve two pairs of earbuds at the same time, so rocking along with someone else is possible, even though onlookers would wonder at a pair of gyrating figures dancing to silence… For the princely sum of roughly USD 600, one may just have to dance in silence for a while. That amount of cash could lead to a serious dent in those plans to buy an amplifier…
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue
Hamilton wins the Australian GP. Yawn. How interesting. Yawn. Less than a yawn is the almost official fact that Gran Turismo is coming to the Playstation 3. Rather than be hugely disappointed by its non-appearance, as I was by the promised-but-never-seen GT for the PSP, I’ve waited with the purchase of a PS3.
Off course, the Prologue is just that: the demo of the actual game everyone is waiting for. Promised to be available by December 2007, it’s obvious that the Prologue is late to arrive. It is available for purchase. Fan-boys will no doubt buy the Prologue and the actual game too. The final version of the game should be available in late 2008, but who’s holding their breath? The screenshots look good, and if the past franchise is anything to go by, this should be a great racing game. Just depends how much longer we’ll have to wait for the real thing…
GNOME 2.22
4 years ago
by manfred
in Linux/Unix
GNOME 2.22 is the latest incarnation of the GNOME desktop for Linux. I’ve been quite intrigued by the KDE 4 release, but haven’t had the heart to leave the clean, uncluttered desktop environment offered by GNOME.
The latest release enhances many features and improves usability. Providing a PhotoBooth alternative in the form of Cheese is a well-considered addition. For those systems with adequate graphics power, the Windows Compositing now includes drop shadows on windows, live previews when switching windows with Alt+Tab, and transparency effects. The new calendar with an international clock and weather is useful, and the Remote Desktop viewer will be handy for VPN work. There are some additional new features: their full description is available here. Now, it’s just some time to wait for the latest Fedora update to provide the new GNOME.
Notebook arrived!
At the beginning of the year I decided to get a new notebook to replace nx8220. If you visit here regularly, you’ll also have noted the poor service Dell provided, unable to order and deliver the D830 within the promised four weeks.
I got off the track, unsure what to choose. On Monday, I selected. Today it’s here. The latest notebook choice is influenced by the excellent impression the Asus Eee imprinted on me. It’s huge and pretty heavy, but has features in spades: the Asus G2S.
It’s gaming notebook. That’s not why I decided on this model. It has a large, 17″ screen that is ultrabright, Lightscribe-capable DVD writer, 160GB hard drive, 2GB of RAM, nVidia 8600 graphics adapter with 256MB onboard and Core 2 Duo processor. There’s a built-in webcam, storage card reader, Express PCI slot, 3 USB ports, HDMI output, SVGA output and 1394 port. The package includes a gaming mouse and backpack by Targus. Sure, the red accents on the carbon-look chassis may not be everyone’s taste. The aluminium screen cover attracts fingerprints, as does the area around the keyboard. But it doesn’t look bad at all. Vista Ultimate is pre-installed. Also, the notebook is media ready and includes an integrated TV and FM receiver – antenna and remote control supplied!
Full details here.
Cost comparison: the G2S worked out to a similar price as the D830. Except, it features so much more. For portability, I’ll use the Eee. The G2S is a mobile desktop replacement.
Mount ISO’s without creating a coaster
I spend most of my day attached to networks that are absolutely unusable. Slow as hell, or firewalled and proxy-protected to death. Fat chance of any web page showing up reliably. Perish the thought that a download of an ISO has any chance of succeeding. And if it does, chances are it’s corrupted. Since you wouldn’t know until you burn to a CD and insert the useless volume, I’ve resorted to a software application to help me check the ISO out before continuing with any other action.
For Windows XP only, the VirtualCd control panel is available here.
The installation is not complex, but certainly not automated. Before operation, the included driver for the virtual CD ROM has to be moved to the SYSTEM32\DRIVERS directory. Then, it may be a good idea to create a new directory under Program Files and copy the single application executable there. Creation of a Start Menu item is recommended. Run the application and register the driver, then start it.
When adding a new drive letter, an unused drive letter is chosen. In my case, Y: was chosen. Why? I don’t know…
Some UNIX parlance: the ISO is mounted to the selected drive letter. I choose the 29th copy of the download for the Fedora 9 Alpha. Holding thumbs!
It mounts
and I’m able to browse the file structure.
Rather handy! With a large hard drive installed and ISO‘s ripped to it, this may be a practical solution to get rid of CD‘s and DVD‘s in your gadget bag.
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