Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala First Impressions

With the final Karmic Koala release just hours behind us and with a week of playing around with the Release Candidate, I have to say that upgrading from 9.04 was definitely worth it.

Karmic brings a number of improvements that are well worth upgrading for in my opinion and I wanted to share some of the observations I have noticed while using the RC for this past week.

Startup/Shutdown Time

The startup times of Ubuntu has increased in Karmic. Although I failed to take a time measurement before installing Karmic on top of Jaunty, there are several aspects of the startup process that I as a user definitely like better. One example is that the desktop is shown once its ready to be used, not as it is leading all the aspects of it. Previously, the desktop has always loaded its items progressively while you wait, much in the same manner Windows does. The Karmic experience is much more pleasing and also faster compared to what I recall Jaunty to be.

The shutdown and standby times are also vastly improved. I measured a complete shutdown to take around 7 seconds at the most, which is a pretty good. The one oddity I noticed in standby mode is that the computer seems to go through the battery life a lot quick than it used to. That may still be something that will be improved in the final version, which I am downloading as I'm typing this.

Sound Settings

One of the things that drove me up the wall when I upgraded to Intrepid about a year ago was the loss of the mic boost that Hardy had. Being a frequent user of Skype, I suddenly found myself without a proper way to actually use Skype without jumping through a number of hoops to just get the mic to work properly. I wasn't the only one either and in the end, I ended up using my XP machine for any Skype use.

In Karmic, the situation has been remedied to some extent. The mic boost has returned in a sense and once again allows me to increase the level of the input on the mic. It's still not as good as it was but it's a remarkable improvement and actually makes Skype somewhat usable again.

Ubuntu Software Center


The Add/Remove Software menu option has been replaced with Ubuntu Software Center, which seems like a way to organize the software a bit differently and also provide the framework for perhaps offering commercial applications at some point. I do think the new structure makes it a bit more user-friendly interface for those that may not be as technical as what Linux users traditionally are made out to be.

Network Manager


The Network Manager continues to improve and with it, support for wireless broadband. Using a Franklin CDU-680 unit means that I've been able to move away from many of the irritating terminal commands I'd used to have to enter to just get online. The CDU-680, among many others, is instantly recognized by the Network Manager once switched into modem mode and can be used immediately to connect to the Internet. Although this was really introduced back in Jaunty, I believe, it continues to improve.

Notifications


I've noticed that the Notifications app is now also supporting more applications. I've always found it to be a very useful way to find out what's going on and seeing it evolve is great.

Instant Messaging


Pidgin has been replaced with the Empathy IM client. Although I haven't used Empathy much yet, for some reason I never quite liked Pidgin. One primary reason was the lack of video and audio support on MSN, something that numerous other clients had managed to accomplish way ahead of Pidgin. I always found this to be quite astounding, that the premier IM app for Ubuntu didn't seem to be able to keep up. Empathy at this point seems a bit thin so I'm withholding my judgment on it for now. As always, I'll go look for what works best for me and if Empathy isn't it, I won't be using it.

Initial Impressions


I've only been at Karmic for a week now but these are my initial impressions. So far, I'm impressed with what I see. Although this install caused me a few more headaches because of going the 64-bit route, it's been worth it in the end.

In the next weeks, I'll be offering a few more impressions on Karmic. In particular, I intend to give those of you that use Dell XPS 1530's an idea of how it works on a Dell.

Stargate Universe - A New Chapter

I have always been a fan of the Stargate series. I liked the movie and I've seen an episode of SG-1 here and there. When Stargate Atlantis came along, I watched every single episode, from the beginning to the end. The cancellation announcement was sudden and sad. However, a glimmer of hope that the Stargate saga would continue remained. Stargate Universe was announced as SG-1 and Atlantis were winding down.

It was clear from the very beginning that SG:U would be different than before. Centering around a mysterious ship which would leave its passengers stranded, it seemed destined to break new ground.

Finally, a month ago SG:U premiered and five episodes later (the premiere was two, I hear), I'm glad to report that SG:U is a great show.

Let's talk a little bit about background. SG:U begins with an accident on a distant planet where a Stargate with 9 chevrons exists. It's the only one around and the brilliant minds working on in theorize that a 9 chevron gate address found on Atlantis can be dialed through this gate. However, their attempts dial fails.

After recruiting a bit of outside help from a gamer whiz, they find the solution and together with an unexpected alien attack on the planet, they end up being able to dial the address. Since a that point, their only options are to either go through the gate or die when the planet they are on explodes, the whole base population that is alive runs through the gate.

The gate leads to a ship called Destiny. Sent out by the ancients a long time ago, it's on autopilot, flying through space towards a destination that is unknown.

As they arrive with limited supplies and a bunch of people, they are immediately faced with a dilemma: the life support system on the ship is busted. How do you fix something you don't have the parts for?

The following episodes continue along the same theme. Problems arise, in some cases due to their lack of understanding in regards to how the ship works, other times because they think they know how something works only to be shown that they don't. As you may imagine, this causes a lot of interesting problems.

As expected, the crew is completely new and with new characters, there are new interpersonal dramas. I've also noticed that SG:U goes into the romantic aspects much more directly than say S:A did. In some cases, this distracts a bit and feels a bit rushed, almost as if it's added on just for the sake of having a steamy sex scene in the episode. There is some romantic tension between characters that may develop later so there's plenty to see still.

I'm not going to go into detail in about the episodes at this point but for me, being a Stargate fan, I like it. As the show goes on, I may post reviews of individual episodes. For now, I'm looking forward to the next episode this coming Friday on SyFy.

Alaska State Troopers - A Review

The last couple of years, Alaska has become a household name. Starting with TV shows like Deadliest Catch to the failed Vice Presidential bid of Governor Sarah Palin, everyone is curious about Alaska. It is no surprise then that more and more shows are popping up on the good old TV, displaying the last frontier and all its dangers. So, when I heard that the Alaska State Troopers were making their contribution to the Alaska mania, I was pretty excited.

Surprisingly, Alaska State Troopers on NGC is a cop show unlike any other cop show and whether that's good or bad is up to the viewer. Someone from Alaska will most likely come away with a different impression of Alaska than their grandma down in Florida.

At first, I was a bit embarrassed. The first part of the show takes us along with the Troopers as they have to deal with drunks, fights, people spitting blood and such. Being understaffed obviously doesn't help. I was thinking that "gosh, Alaskans look like a bunch of drunks."

Later on, a woman turns up on a porch completely wasted and is taken to the hospital, all while calling the Trooper who responded to the call "her friend." Another lady is pulled over for an equipment violation, who turns out to be on probation for something involving drugs. The canine unit, which happened to pull her over, takes a peek, indicating on a pack of cigarettes. Fortunately for the driver, no drugs are found.

Later on, we witness a dead moose in a lake, illegal trapping and a few other things. Mixed in with all of this are the monologues by the officers, as seen on many other cop shows. There's also a bit of showing off with the snowmobile if you ask me, although I wouldn't be surprised if that's more of a production stunt. The law riding wild on the side of a mountain looks better on TV.

The one thing that comes up several times during the show is staffing. One of the challenges for the AST is staffing. Very often they're spread out over large areas with very little support that at times can put them in sticky situations, situations that at times can make it very dangerous for them. It's not like Cops where you call for backup and you have five other cars there within minutes. Alaska Troopers must often act independently and alone and it makes it a very dangerous job. They definitely need more staff.

AST isn't like Cops or Police Women of Broward County. It isn't all action every second of the show. On most shows, something exciting happens all the time. That's what keeps you glued to the TV. In fact, there's a lot of build-up at times that results in nothing exciting. Take the dead moose on the lake, for example. We see the pilot go check it out but then nothing much more happens. The lady on probation us pulled over but no drugs are found. The most exciting part of the show must have been the snowmobile accident that required a helicopter to pick up the injured person. Taking close to three hours, you can see the agony of the guy on the stretcher and you sympathize...and wonder why in the world would you do such a thing.

Being an Alaskan, I'll watch all the coming episodes as well. Although AST is a bit slower compared to other shows, it does present a unique picture of the challenges of law enforcement in Alaska. It may not be all guts and glory, it may at times be a matter of staying alive because you're the only Trooper around. Let's just hope for the sake of all other viewers that the pace picks up a bit in the next few episodes.

Google Wave - The Next Everything?

When Google Wave was announced earlier this year, I knew I had to somehow be a part of it. The concept of working together on things online at the same time with this new media was appealing to say the least. Naturally, once it was possible to do so I requested an invite to this great experiment called Google Wave.

Quite a bit has already been written about Google Wave and I imagine that quite a bit more will be written before Google's latest experiment becomes available to the masses of the Internet. As of right now, Google Wave is in a "preview" stage, whatever that means. I'm guessing this is the stage before the open beta that GMail went through for a couple of years. Obviously, it's not open to the general public at this point so that must be what it means.

For those of you wondering what Google Wave really is, here's a short explanation from Wikipedia:

Google Wave is "a personal communication and collaboration tool" announced by Google at the Google I/O conference on May 27, 2009.^[1][2] It is a web-based service,computing platform, and communications protocol designed to merge e-mail, instant messaging, wikis, and social networking.^[3] It has a strong collaborative and real-time^[4] focus supported by extensions that can provide, for example, robust spelling/grammar checking, automated translation between 40 languages,^[2] and numerous other extensions.^[4] Initially released only to developers, a "preview release" of Google Wave has been extended to about 600,000 users since September 30, 2009, with the initial 100,000 users each allowed to invite up to eight additional users.

So, essentially it does everything you do on the web all at once, in one place. Well, maybe not quite but as you can see in the above quote, Google Wave is definitely aiming to become the new standard of communication and collaboration.

How does it work?

If you're a user of Gmail, in a way you already have a sneak peek of Google Wave. Just as a series of emails and replies between you and another party are gathered together in one place and sorted almost as if it was a discussion on IM, Google Wave does this but it takes it to the next level. Instead of having to post replies as they are received, you can post replies anytime, your typing is seen in real time if the other party is online and you can edit other content from previous entries. Basically, the typical email conversation in Gmail makes up your Wave in Google Wave.

Your inbox consists of Waves as opposed to emails, with notifications of new blips (entries). You can invite other people to your waves and collaborate within the Wave. So, the Wave itself can be just a conversation, like IM, or it can be editing of documents, policies etc. It could also be a wiki or even a collaborative novel (several of these exists).

In addition, there are gadgets and extensions available and under development so you can easily add things like a MSN IM Wave (no need to use a MSN client anymore) or a Twitter Wave or maybe just a map with your house on it so that the friends you invited for dinner can find your house. You can also add yes/no/maybe surveys, to-do lists, mindmaps and more.

Does it work?

Obviously, that's the question everyone will ask. First of all, it's obvious this product is still in a preview stage. There is plenty of stuff that still needs to be fixed, tuned, added and so on. Many gadgets, extensions and bots just don't work. However, the basic concept is there and it works.

Let's use instant messaging as an example. The rest of my immediately family lives on the other side of the planet. The only time where we can really chat, talk or video conference at a good hour is late at night or early in the morning. Naturally, this is not always convenient because it may very well happen that one party is sleeping. With Google Wave, this doesn't matter anymore. With Google Wave, you can being a conversation that's always there. You can invite people in, you can start a conversation, whether it's live or not, and continue for days. There's no pressure to have to be up and online at the same time. Sure, your conversation may take longer but at least you have it. For me, that's a pretty important thing.

Another example is a small book project I'm working on with a couple of other people. We're gathering stories, putting them together into one big book of sorts so that it later can be shared with others. Before Google Wave, collaborating in real time could be a bit cumbersome and although Google Docs allow for this, it wasn't quite ideal for us. So, here we are, working on a project all together on Google Wave.

So, the idea behind Google Wave is definitely interesting and I'm curious to see how it could be deployed in a business environment. However, that's for the future, I imagine, once Wave is out of preview and beta.

Will Google Wave revolutionize how we communicate? Maybe, maybe not. I've found it to be more interesting than email, more exciting than discussion forums and more useful than IM.

The one thing I can see happen is that the political realm will jump on this bandwagon real quick. While Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube quickly have become political tools, I have no doubt that before you know it, Google Wave will be invaded by political agents from both parties here in the USA and elsewhere. In fact, there are already Waves for both major political parties, the Republicans and Democrats. There is a pretty lengthy wave about the current health care debate and numerous other things.

I think Google Wave is here to stay.

District 9 Review

In the theatres of the world, science fiction has been well represented the last couple of years. With movies such as Star Trek and Transformers, we've had our share of intense action and mind-blowing technology on display. When District 9 rolled in, I was therefore completely unprepared.

District 9 is science fiction but science fiction on a very different level. With movies like Transformers, Star Trek and others, you see something cool but not necessarily believable. District 9 comes across as something that could be happening in the world right now.

he background goes as follows. At some point in time, a giant space ship parks itself over Johannesburg, South Africa. Nothing else happens until the brave human race decides to open it up and see what's inside.

>Inside they find a starving a leaderless alien population that is transferred to camps on the ground for humanitarian reasons. It doesn't take long, however, before the camps turn into slums and the aliens turn into beings that were saved from death to a race that the humans would rather see dead.

he movie follows the events that take place as the MNU organization carries out a relocation of the whole alien population to what can best be described as concentration camps and the events that occur during this relocation. It deals with issues we can all recognize, such as racism, profiting on the poor and so on.

I don't want to ruin the plot so I won't go any further into it at this point. However I do want to point out a few other things about the movie.

I learned from an article in another magazine that there are no Hollywood actors in the movie. I'd have to say that's about right because I don't recognize a single character in the movie. Supposedly, this was done on purpose. A lot of the dialogue was also created on the fly to create a sense that both the characters and what they were saying appeared genuine. In addition, the filming has all the marks of a documentary. Much of the movie appears to be an interenal MNU video documentary, supplemented by security camera footage as well as the occasional TV news footage. Again, all of this was done to make the movie seem more realistic.

The obvious question is: did it work?

Without a doubt, I think it did. Of all the sci-fi movies (and other regular fiction as well) I've seen in the last couple of years, this movie by far appear to be the most realistic. When you watch it, you actually feel like it really could be happening right now, or last month, in South Africa. It's a story that's sad but also eye-opening.

Being a sci-fi movie, there is naturally a ton of cool technology involved, all of it alien. However, for the most part, the technology itself isn't the focus of the story, it's merely the tool with which the story is told. The story could just as well have taken place in the New World after Columbus came or in Germany during World War II. As such, the human drama is the main focus of the story and as such, it should appeal to those that may not like sci-fi in itself. Although quite violent and gory at times, it feels very realistic.

Overall, District 9 is a must see movie if you don't mind a bit of blood and gore here and there. In my book, it's one of the best movies of the year.

Nanowrimo Title Revealed

With the 3 Day Novel Writing Contest now weeks behind me, I've been using the last couple of weeks to diligently prepare for Nanowrimo, National Novel Writing Month.

Status so far: I'm working on my first "outline draft" and I've finished part one of three of the story so far. So, so far so good. My goal is to finish my "outline draft" and then clean it up a bit before November 1 comes along.

After several ideas, I have also finally decided on a name for the novel: The Departure Protocol. As an inspirational item, I have also created a little graphical banner (at the top) that I'll be using in my Nanowrimo forum signature as well as on here whenever I blog about the progress of this novel.

One thing I'm still trying to decide is whether to separate the Nanowrimo blogging from this blog itself, since a lot of other stuff on this site really relates more to technology. Feedback on that is welcome.

Djl - Steam for Linux?

Digital distribution of software and games in particular has grown quite a bit in the last couple of years. I've checked out some of these services myself, such as Steam by Valve and Direct2Drive.

Being a Ubuntu user for much of the time these days, PC gaming hasn't been much of a focus for me lately. However, I'm always on the lookout for interesting thing to take my mind of the more serious stuff. Today I stumbled upon Djl.

Djl? What kind of name is that?

Naturally, my curiosity got the best of my so I decided to check it out.

In a nutshell, Djl is essentially Steam for Linux, except that Valve has absolutely nothing to do with it.

If you're not familiar with Steam, let me explain how Djl works.

Djl provides you, the user, with a client with direct access to a repository of games. To play these games, you select the game and click "Install" and after downloading the game, it's installed through Djl and started through Djl.

Sounds simple, right? The question is, is it as simple as it sounds?

The answer is yes and no.

The Djl interface is easy to use and works as advertised I guess you can say. However, when it comes to playing the games, it's a bit more hit and miss. All games I've tried to download seemed to download without problems. However, only half of the ones I tried actually worked.

The ones that downloaded, installed and ran as intended were a great example of what the potential of this product is. Unfortunately, the majority of the games I tried to install failed to run for a variety of reasons. In some cases due to incompatibilities with other software, in some cases without any real reason.

So, although Djl has a lot of potential, at this point there are just too many things that are not working. I do have to say that I have found a number of very interesting games I wouldn't have known about if I hadn't tried Djl. Since it's also updated quite frequently, I expect I'll continue to find new entertainment gems in the future.

Review - The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Robert Langdon, famous from the adventures of "The DaVinci Code" and "Angels & Demons" one night finds himself on the way to Washington D.C., summoned by his close friend and mentor for a favor. He arrives in D.C. only to find that his friend had actually been kidnapped and that he must solve a mystery to grant the release of his friend.

That's how "The Lost Symbol", the latest novel by Dan Brown, begins. Once again, Robert Langdon is faced with a mystery that must be solved and if he doesn't solve it, his friend and mentor will die. He must use his knowledge in symbols to follow the clues and find the answer that the kidnapper is looking for and he only has a few hours to do it.

In short, it's a plot set up to be fast paced, intense and full of action. It involves plenty of references to the Freemasons, their rituals and other related mysteries. "Neotic science" plays a prominent role, closely tied to the mystery Robert must solve and for the first part of the book turns into a bit of a parallel sub-plot involving the sister of Robert's kidnapped friend. Add a little bit of mysticism, new age and general history about the USA and you have a very interesting mix that makes for an interesting read.

Unfortunately, it's not as riveting as Brown's previous books. His writing style hasn't changed and frankly started to annoy me in TLS. As before, he reveals vital information to his main characters but the reader only finds out later what this information is. The chapters are short and very often ends with mini-cliffhangers. Now and then, he dumps a lot of information, whether it be background information or an involved dialogue about mystical concepts. Very often, it slows down the pace of the story and although useful information, it seems that at times it just feels inserted in the wrong places. In short, his writing style still makes it a page turner but not because of the plot being as interesting as before but because he writes the novel in such a way that to find out what is happening, you have to turn the page.

All the mysteries and puzzles in this book are just not as fascinating as in the previous books either. Although the Masons has a lot rituals and mysterious aspects of it, they just don't seem as intriguing as Opus Dei in the previous books. The New Age aspects and the mysticism that Brown introduces as plot elements just aren't convincing enough. I have no doubt that plenty of people in the religious community will be unhappy with Brown's portrayal of God and religion in this book. Although Christianity isn't really the focus of this book, Brown takes up plenty of space with philosophical arguments about man being god and God as we know him not really being real, that all religions really worship the same deity in one way or another, just with another name. In fact, the last 20% of the book is very much focused on this. While reading, I noticed that by the time I was about 80% through the book, the major aspects of the plot were done, yet the story kept going for many more pages. At first I figured that there would be one final twist to the story but in the end, the ending was very anticlimactic and left me disappointed.

Overall, "The Lost Symbol" was a page-turner that disappointed in the end. If you're a Dan Brown fan, you'll no doubt like it either way but you're more likely to get a more riveting adventure out of a Lee Child or David Baldacci book than this one.

The Kindle Experience

Being an avid reader of everything from fiction to religion to science, I love books. I love reading. With fiction, it's a way to escape reality and dive into another world somewhere else, where things may be completely different. Religion teaches me a lot about "why" while science tells me a lot about the "how." So, reading is definitely a passion of mine, not to mention that doing my own writing is a lot of fun (hello to all fellow 3 day novel contestants out there).

Anyway, I'm not just an avid reader but also a tech junkie. I love technology, what you can do with it and how it can improve your life. Computers, laptops, gaming consoles, Blackberry etc., they are all present somewhere in my life. A couple of months ago, I started looking a bit closer at the ebook readers. For one, with a two week vacation coming up, I was planning on reading a lot of books but I wasn't looking forward to bringing along a suitcase of books just for that purpose. Yet, I wasn't sure and kept looking at the Sony ebook readers, the Kindle 2, the Kindle DX and a few others. Ultimately, at that point, it ended up being something I'd love to have but didn't have to have.

My wife took notice of my interest in the Kindle and, sweet as she is, got me one for my birthday. In fact, it arrived late which magnified the surprise by quite a bit.

First impression? Very impressive.

Of course, those are not very objective assessments of anything so let me try to give you a better idea of what my impressions are after a week of being a Kindle 2 owner.

First of all, let's touch on the features of the Kindle. The most important part of the unit is obviously the screen. On a reader intended to replace books, the importance of a good screen cannot be overstated. With the eink technology that the Kindle and other ebook readers use, Amazon has succeeded in providing a very readable screen from every angle and it's completely different than what I expected it to be. Essentially, the screen is pretty much the size of a paperback novel.

Of course, without books, the Kindle would be pointless. To help out on this front, Amazon has come up with a pretty neat solution. The Kindle has built in wireless data service as opposed to wifi. For me, this was actually one of the main selling points. The Kindle uses EVDO and 1xrtt data service provided by Sprint or their roaming partners and it allows you to literally access the Amazon book store anywhere you are and buy the Kindle version of the books on the go, something you can't always do with wifi. Since I live in Alaska, I had to find out whether any of Sprint's partners actually provide the service up here. A quick call to Amazon's customer service confirmed that there is indeed coverage in Alaska.

Another aspect that helps out on the reading front is the dictionary that comes pre-loaded. Find a word you don't understand? Just look it up, right there, on your Kindle.

As far as the interface goes, a full keyboard is available, which comes in handy for searches, taking notes, bookmarks etc. The Kindle has strategically placed "Next Page" buttons on both the right and left of the unit making it easy to hold it in either hand and easily navigate to the next page of whatever you're reading. The Kindle also has a five-way directional joystick for navigation as well as a couple of additional buttons related to navigation.

On the top of the unit, there's a headphone jack which can be used listening to music, audiobooks etc. The on-off switch is located next to the headphone jack.

There are also a few other features worth pointing out. First, the Text-to-Speech is definitely one of the more exiting ones. For the ebooks that have this feature enabled, it basically allows you to listen to the book instead of reading it. Although you can still notice that the voice is computer generated, it is a whole lot better than the typical reading voices I've seen previously on computers. I imagine, though, that text-to-speech will work best with non-fiction material. I can see some serious problems emerging with the software properly trying to convey dialogue in a realistic manner. So, for "Liberty and Tyranny" it's ok but I doubt "The Lost Symbol" would survive it properly.

The Kindle also has limited browsing capabilities, which allows you to use the wireless connection to do Google searches and to view other basic pages. However, despite the EVDO connection, it is pretty obvious that the browser is not intended for more than the just most basic browsing. Some of the mobile web bookmarks saved by default are a testament to this.

Another of the "experimental" features (text-to-speech and browsing are the other two) is MP3 playback. What this allows for you to do is to not only listen to your favorite music but also listen to your favorite music, all at the same time.

There are a number of other small features as well but let me point out a couple of things I've found the Kindle to be missing:

First of all, the Kindle does not have a background light. Although a light can be purchased for about $20, it is a bit disappointing that this basic feature is not available. However, for me, it wasn't a deal-breaker. I usually read a book with a light on and I expect I'll be doing the same with the Kindle.

The second feature that I miss just a little is a touch-screen. Although not something you absolutely have to have on a device like this in my opinion, it would make some aspects of using the device a bit easier. The five-way joystick takes a it of getting used to but ultimately, it does the job that it was designed for. Being a Blackberry user I would actually like to see a trackball similar to what's used on the Blackberry instead of the five-way joystick.

The third thing I noticed is that the Kindle lacks any memory card slot of any kind. However, considering that the Kindle has around 1.5GB of available internal memory, the missing memory card slot really isn't a big deal. The Kindle isn't intended for watching high resolution photos, after all, and it's not intended to replace your iPod.

Finally, it would be good if the Kindle came with some sort of software package to accommodate transfer of files, music and so on. As it is right now, it comes with a USB cable that once plugged in treats the Kindle as a large USB drive. Any copying, you'll have to do manually using the typical drag and drop or copy and paste functions of whatever operating system you may use.
Fortunately, there are plenty of third-party options that will give you the software you need to do this. On Linux in particular, Calibre is an excellent piece of software (I'll post a separate post about my experience with Calibre in a couple of days).

Ok, so I think we can leave the discussion about the features the Kindle has and doesn't have behind and look a bit closer at how it actually works. Is it a good substitute for reading a real book on paper?

My short answer is yes, it most definitely is. Obviously, being a new owner, the first thing I had to do was to get something to read. The manual, the welcome letter and the built-in dictionary only goes so far in satisfying my desire to read.

I started thinking about what books I've been wanting to get and quickly decide that "Liberty and Tyranny" by Mark Levin would be my first purchase. Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" would be my second.

I logged into my Amazon account on my computer and added a credit card for quick, 1-click payments. Focusing once again on my Kindle, I found the titles I wanted and clicked "Buy" and then waited. About 10 seconds later, my first book was downloaded and ready to read.

Very impressive.

"The Lost Symbol" ended up being a pre-order so I had to wait a few days to get it. However, thanks to the Amazon wireless service, the book was delivered to my Kindle the day of the release, before I even woke up.

Very impressive, once again.

Buying books is, in other words, very easy and very quick. The price is also pretty good. Typically, Kindle books are $10 or less, which is very affordable. In addition, search for "-domain" and you'll see a selection of free titles. In fact, one titles currently on the Kindle top sellers list, "Full Moon Rising", just a couple of weeks ago was $6.99. Now it's free.

In addition, there are quite a few sites that offer free books, everything from the King James Bible to classic literature such as Sherlock Holmes and more.

How about the reading experience?

Well, I'd say it compares very much to reading a regular book. Thanks to the e-ink, fonts and the screen, reading a book on the Kindle feels like reading a book on paper with the exception that instead of having to flip the page, you just click "Next Page" and you'll have the next page right there. In fact, holding the Kindle with one hand is very comfortable and whether you use your left or right hand, your thumb is pretty much always in a comfortable position to click that button.

The only negative I've found so far: if you're flying, since the Kindle is an electronic device, it has to follow the rules that apply to electronic devices on aircraft. No use until the crew gives you the ok, usually around 10,000ft. When you're reading a part of the book that is particularly exciting, it's a bit irritating to have to stop reading just because someone else tells you to. So, a bit annoying but not a big deal.

I've also found that battery life is excellent. Once you actually start reading, there is really no point in leaving the wireless connection active (it'll just drain your battery) and with it off, you can read for days without recharging.

So, what's my impression overall?

I'm very happy with my Kindle. It's a fantastic device. I love reading and sometimes don't just because going to the book store to get one takes time. With the Kindle, I buy my books right there and they are delivered instantly. It saves me time and I get to do more of what I really like to do: read interesting books. If you are anything like me in this aspect, I warmly recommend it. Yes, it may be a bit expensive at $299 but for the convenience and for the amount of books available, it's definitely something to consider.

I know I love it.

Prism and Web Apps

For decades, applications and their use have been limited to computers and their specific operating systems. We as users have been used to going about our computing needs using a variety of applications.

For word processing, MS Word has been the main contender.

For spreadsheets, accounting, tables, graphs and all kinds of other calculating needs, we've had MS Excel.

We've played games on our computers.

We've created graphical masterpieces using Photoshop, websites using Dreamweaver and chatted with friends using MSN, ICQ, AOL etc.

Now, these days, much of the normal use has moved out of the desktop realm and into the realm of the world wide web. As a freelancer, I use numerous apps online already to provide me with the tools I need, no matter where I am.

A few examples of these are:

• Freshbooks for invoicing, billing and time tracking
• Outright for accounting services
• dotProject for project management
• Google Apps, such as docs, email, reader for various other needs
• Dropbox for syncing files locally and remotely
  

Bottom line: much of what I used to do on my computer, I now do online.

Recently, I've heard about a project by Mozilla called Prism. In essence, what Prism does is to create separate "apps" from all of those web that you can access from your desktop and view independently of your browser.

Let me explain a bit further, using Freshbooks as an example.

Typically, when I use Freshbooks, I open up my browser, type in the URL, log in and do my work.

With Prism, I don't need my browser anymore. Instead, I click on a link on my desktop, a windows opens up just like any other application and I proceed to log in very much in the same way as I do in the browser. So, what Prism does is show you whatever web app you're using without opening up a browser.

You may ask, what is the benefit of this? Well, for one, you avoid any browser issues you may experience. There's less clutter and it's quicker to get to. For me, that means I can save a bit of time and be a bit more productive. Best of all, it's free.

Is it easy? Yes, it's very easy. Prism can either be downloaded as it's own standalone app or added as a Firefox add-on. I used the Firefox add-on. The add-on adds a "Convert Website to Application..." option in the Tools menu in Firefox. Once you click on this, you will get another window that will allow you to select the name and the graphic icon for your desktop icon. Then you're done. It literally takes no more than 30 seconds to create.

So far, I've "liberated" Freshbooks and Outright and more are to come. Google apps, for example, would fit perfectly into this. Even better, it works for Ubuntu!

How about problems? Well, to be honest, I haven't had a chance to use it long enough to see how stable it is. Time will tell.

Links:

http://labs.mozilla.com/prism/
http://www.freshbooks.com
http://www.outright.com

My 3-Day Novel Writing Experience

One time, a few years ago, I stumbled upon an interesting experience: write a novel in a month. The event, appropriately named National Novel Writing Month, was very interesting and I decided to participate. The problem was that it was almost over by the time I had found it.

I had to wait for year before I could participate and by the time November came around again, I had forgotten about it again and just barely made the beginning. I started with an outline for one day and ended up writing 50,000 words in a month. Subsequently, I added another 30,000 words or so, just to get the story closer to an acceptable end.

The problem with that novel for me was that writing without a clear plot and end in sight, it ended up being a mess. I have since decided that at some point I need to just re-write it and add some new story elements that I always wanted to have in the story as well as be a little bit more organized.

After the NaNoWriMo, I found out about the 3-day novel writing contest. It sounded interesting but it ended up taking a couple of years for me to actually decide to participate.

In early August, I started thinking about what story to use for this particular contest. I had one story in mind I had been working on an outline for since the beginning of the summer but it felt like too much for three days. Maybe more suitable for NaNoWriMo. Fortunately, I had another story in mind that has been brewing in the back of my mind for the last year and it felt more suitable lenght-wise for a three-day rush.

During the last weeks of August, I set out to put together a suitable outline that I felt was doable in three days. I came up with locations, characters, events and so on. I ran the general plot by my wife, a few friends and since they seemed to think it was a great story, I felt confident I would be able to produce something of substance.

In preparation of the Labor Day Weekend event, I took one day before and one day after the event off, the one day before because it happened to be my birthday and I just wanted a day off but also because I wanted to get a few things done that I normally would do on the weekend, the day after because I figured I'd need to sleep.

Today, it's the day after and I figured I should recount this experience and what it really was like.

First of all, let me share the "tools" I used for this event. I found that everyone has their favorite way to write their stories and naturally I do as well.

• A Dell laptop loaded with Ubuntu 9.04
• Gwibber for keeping up with the #3dnc Twitter feed and posting updates to Twitter and Facebook
• The excellent yWriter5 novel writing software for writing my story, running on Windows 7 in Virtualbox
• Google Earth for mapping routes for the story
• Dropbox for off-site syncing
• Pandora for music (although I wrote without music for the most part)
  
• Firefox & Google for quick research mid-writing
• Plenty of Irish Breakfast and Black Peach tea from Stash
• Mountain Dew (regular and Code Red)
• Other unhealthy foods
  

Initially, my greatest fear was that I just wouldn't have enough time to type my story. I had a pretty good outline with a good beginning, middle and end but I was unsure about the time. As a result, I pushed ahead fairly aggressively the first day, finishing about 13,000 words the first day. Had I not taken that one nap, I could easily have reached 15,000 or even 16,000 words. However, I found that when I get tired, my mind doesn't work well, no matter how much caffeine I pump into my system.

Progress was pretty good on Sunday as well and at some point Sunday, I was confident that I would have no problem finishing the story. I actually took a couple of longer brakes for other projects, like dinner and painting my porch.

Monday was the hardest day by far for me. It was just rough going. The story was there in my mind but it was difficult to get it out, for some reason. Eventually, I managed to get it out and finished it with plenty of time to spare, just a few thousands words short of my 30,000 word goal. However, to me, the most important thing was that the story was done, not that I got to 30,000 words.

I then spent several hours editing, adding and removing. My wife was very helpful in that area, reading through much of the finished story and correcting grammar, punctuation and other things I didn't have time to focus on while writing.

Overall, the 3 Day Novel Contest was a very positive experience for me. The thing that surprised me that most is that while I before had punched out 50,000 words in a month, I did more than half of that in three days straight. To me, this was amazing and puts a new perspective on NaNoWriMo for me. I easily made the 50,000 words last time I participated but having gone through this, I don't see a reason why I couldn't get much further now, as long as I prepare properly.

I do want to point out all of the motivation and support I received from my dear wife. She was one of the first people that I ran the story by and she was very supportive throughout the whole event, putting up with my constant typing for three days straight and reading my work in progress with great interest, which motivated me even further. The rest of my family was also very supportive, understanding my need to continue my writing, as well as being curious about the story itself (patience, you'll get to read it!).

Naturally, I can't forget all the folks on Twitter and #3dnc that constantly posted about their progress (and lack of progress). You were all a motivation to me and helped me put my own writing into perspective. It was a joy "hanging out" with you all this weekend. Let's do it again!

Also, all of those who encouraged me through Facebook, thank you. The work is done, the novel is written.

For those of you curious about what happened during these intense hours of typing, check out my Twitter feed at:

http://www.twitter.com/tallswedishguy

Also check out the combined 3 day novel contest Twitter feed updated by numerous contestants on an hourly basis at:

http://twitter.com/search?q=%233dnc

What's next? It's too early to tell yet. With this behind me, I'm shifting a lot of my thinking to the other project that has been brewing in my mind. For those curious, the first sentence of the first chapter of the draft I've started goes something like this:

Waking up for the last time didn't feel any different than any other morning, Wared decided as he opened his eyes.

The reset, well, you'll have to wait for that.

PS3 and Ubuntu

With the recent release of the PS3 Slim and the removal of the ability to load other operating systems onto it, my thoughts went to my original release PS3 that I have Ubuntu installed on. I figured that if I have the ability that many new PS3 owners don't have, I may as well find a way to use it for something useful, right?

So, I left the games and the flashy new firmware 3.0 behind for a bit and booted into my Ubuntu partition. It looked so bare but then again, I haven't done a whole lot with it, so no surprise there.

Next, I figured I better run a few updates...and that's what I'm doing right now. So, for a few more hours, I'll be busy "waiting" while all the updates are downloaded. From there, we'll see what happens.

10 Must Have BlackBerry Applications

10 Must-have BlackBerry applications

A quick Google search for Blackberry apps will reveal numerous blogs and articles full of glowing reviews and recommendations of many different kinds of Blackberry apps. Since I recently aquired a Blackberry, I felt it my duty to add another entry into this ever growing list of must-haves. Although, to not look like I copied every other list out there, I've tried to focus on some more obscure apps as well as the well-known, main-stream apps. Also note that all of the below apps currently live on my BlackBerry.

Let me know if you find this useful and if you have other suggestions, especially apps that might not be that mainstream but definitely are cool and useful, please let me know!


1. Pandora

The application that I have used the most by far so far is the Pandora music player. Being available for multiple platforms, Pandora essentially lets you pick an artist or a song and it plays music by that artist as well as other artists within the same genre. At first, I was a bit dubious as to whether this actually would work or not but I was pleasantry surprised after just five minutes. I've found myself listening to Pandora for hours without hearing a song that I don't really like or don't think fits that particular "station." To make things even better, I can listen to Pandora on my computer and on my PS3 as well. I was particularly pleased about the latter since my PS3 is connected to my stereo at home. In other words, it's a fantastic app and absolutely worth using for all music lovers. I use it heavily on a daily basis.

Download at: http://www.pandora.com

2. Slacker

Slacker is another music app that also works very well. I discovered Slacker before Pandora but have since mostly used Pandora. The difference is simple but substantial. Slacker plays music along genres, Pandora plays music according to your artist selection. So, Slacker has 'rock' categories while Pandora lets you pick the actual artist. Having said that, Slacker is still a great app if you just want to listen to a specific genre in general and I've included it in my top list even though I hardly use it anymore.

Download at: BlackBerry App World

3. Shazam

Shazam...such an odd name but what an amazing app. Just having tried it recently, it's basically an app that will connect you to the music you don't know but wish that you did. Let me explain: say you're driving down the road, listening to the radio, you switch channels and hear parts of a song that you like but you don't know the artist. Launch Shazam, hold it to your speaker and Shazam will find your song for you with a convenient link to buy it. Shazam! Will I ever use it? Now and then, maybe, but definitely cool!

Download at: http://www.shazam.com (free trial)

4. Opera and Bolt

Opera Mini is almost a must have for Blackberry users. Although the built-in browser will do for the most part, in some cases it's very convenient to be able to look at a site the way you would on a regular computer. Opera doesn't support flash and all that other fancy stuff though so it's still lacking in functionality. But, it's a good complement to the Blackberry browser.

I also wanted to mention Bolt in the same sentence as Opera since it's basically does some similar things. One added feature is that you supposedly can stream video in Bolt, although my limited testing was not able to successfully do this. However, if you're looking for a bit more than what Opera offers, check out Bolt. It's a very competent alternative

Download at: http://mobile.opera.com
Download at: http://www.boltbrowser.com

5. Facebook

Facebook, the most popular time-waster at the moment, has been available on the Blackberry for quite a while now. It's an easy way to stay in touch with all your friends anytime, whether it be at work, on the road or at home. A must-have for any Facebook and Blackberry user.

Download at: BlackBerry App World

6. Myspace

MySpace, the previously most popular time-waster, is also represented on the Blackberry platform. The functionality is very much like that of the Facebook app so in other words, it lets you keep in touch with all your friends and pretend-friends. A must-have for any MySpace and Blackberry user.

Download at: BlackBerry App World

7. Google Apps

Google, the new master of the Internet world, as naturally made it a point to have a presence on every platform imaginable, not to mention that they make their own mobile platform. However, even on the Blackberry, there are plenty of representation and since these apps are all related, I'll mention them all in one go.

Google Maps is probably the most popular of these, I'd imagine. Connecting to the massive Google Maps database and GPS enabled, it's the perfect app to replace the Yellow pages once and for all. With GPS navigation and even street view, it's a regularly used app on my BlackBerry.

Google Mail is next on the list. Although the Blackberry easily lets you connect your personal email accounts, Google actually has a very good BlackBerry app that provides similar capabilities and with an interface that's very similar to what you see on your computer. If you want to keep personal stuff separate from business, it's the perfect app to use. One thing I would point out is that it is lacking a bit in features. Attachments, for example, are non-existent. Annoying.

Google Search is part of the downloadable Google App and features an interesting option to search by voice. Although I haven't tried it that much at this point, it seems to work ok for the most part.

Google Talk is the instant messaging system that's tightly integrated into Gmail. Although I rarely use it with friends, I've found it useful for use with ReQall, another one of my favorite apps.

Download at: http://www.google.com

8. ReQall

Ever have problems remembering what to buy at the store or forget to send that report to your boss before you head out the door on vacation? ReQall is the solution to your problems. ReQall is basically a reminder of sorts. It allows you to set up reminders for to-do lists, meetings, add shopping lists and other things. ReQall will then "jog" your memory through various means, such as SMS, instant messaging (Google Talk in my case) or even email (premium edition). With the BlackBerry app you can also easily add new reminder either by typing them in or even by speaking. You can also type your reminder into IM and there is even a toll-free number you can call to record reminders, hear updates and so on. I found it to be just what I need to remember things.

Download at: http://www.reqall.com

9. Qik

Qik is a very interesting little application. Essentially, it's a video recorder. But wait, there's more: it's a live video recorder. Yes, that is correct. Register on their website, fire up the Qik app and hit record and within a few seconds, you will see a live feed on the website coming from the camera of your phone. Very cool! So, going on a crazy ride at the fair? Let your family in the lower 48 watch all the craziness while you're at it.

One important note about Qik: streaming video requires quite a bit of bandwidth. The BlackBerry Curve I have is only EVDO so the upstream is pretty terrible. However, if you have a RevA device, the quality is pretty good. If worst comes to worst, you can always record and then upload. Qik will also upload the video to Facebook and other social sites based on your configuration on your profile. A fun application although maybe not very useful.

Download at: http://www.qik.com

10. BeeJiveIM

The Blackberry is not only great at email, it's also great at instant messaging. From being able to constantly be connected with my work, I can also use all the other IM clients, such as MSN, Yahoo!, Google and so on, to keep connected with all my friends. Then I found BeeJiveIM.

BeeJive IM is all these clients put together in one plus some. BeeJive supports all the regular IM clients (A.OL, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, Google, Jabber) plus Facebook and MySpace chat. The best of it is that you have it all available in one program and the program also looks significantly better than any of the standalone clients. Having used this program on my PPC previously, I've found it to be a good program before and I was excited to see a version for the BlackBerry as well. A must for all your IM needs.

Download at: http://www.beejive.com (30 day trial)

Hooked on BlackBerry

Being a HTC PocketPC fan for a long time, I've hesitated to jump ship to the also excellent BlackBerry for many reasons, some professional, some purely personal.

However, forces outside of my control suddenly presented me with an offer I couldn't refuse so as of this past Thursday, I am now also officially addicted to the BlackBerry.

Now, that means there's a whole new world to explore...can't wait to dig deeper!

Hulu Desktop - Expanding Online Media

When Hulu launched its services, I was an instant fan. Finally, I thought, a way to watch some of the shows that I've missed on TV or just other shows I might not normally watch and I can do it on my computer! Of course, for me, this all played into a greater scheme of mine, to be able to watch as much TV on my computer by connecting it to my TV using HDMI.

At the time, this plan went down the tube due to overly restrictive bandwidth policies by my ISP so I had to abandon my plan at the time and just fork out the money for DirecTV. In hindsight, I don't regret it because there's plenty of content still you can find online.

The last year or so I've played around with the Boxee software and I've tinkered with the idea of getting a good computer set up to use as a content player for my TV. Boxee seemed like the perfect candidate, until Hulu pulled their support. At that point I could see my dreams go down the toilet.

In the last few days or so, it become apparent why Hulu pulled their support. They wanted to do their own Boxee thing. They released the Hulu Desktop through their brand new Hulu Labs. Talk about coincidence. One good idea leads someone else to copy it? I can't say but I figured I should at least check it out.

The Hulu Desktop software is less than 1MB in size and uses Flash. It actually reminds quite a bit of Boxee, which is so ironic. The question of course is if it does the same thing any better.

Hulu Desktop (HD), like I said, has pretty much the same interface as Boxee. You can easily use a remote or just they keyboard to navigate around between the different categories. You can easily find the shows you're looking for, based on categories, channels and so on. The picture quality is the same as Hulu itself and it looks like the content is too (although I think the HD content is missing).

The player is not that different from the browser version but it does have a cool preview pane that you can use to find a specific scene in a show that you'd like to skip to. So, let's say for example that you're looking for a super funny scene in a movie, you point your mouse pointer at the place where you think it might be and you'll see a small preview window pop up and play that section of the show in the window. If it's the right one, you click on it and you're taken there. Of course, you'll have to watch the ads if they come in the way. However, this is definitely a cool feature that I wish all online streaming video sites would implement.

The navigation takes a bit getting used to. It's not as intuitive as Boxee is, for example. I'm still not quite happy with it but I guess over time you'll get used to it.

Overall, I think it's a very capable player that will be a perfect fit if you're watching Hulu on a TV or just want quicker access to the content since the content browser is pretty efficient.

If you're a Linux user, at this point you'll have to wait. There is no Linux version. I tried to install Hulu Desktop using Wine on Ubuntu 9.04 and had some success. In fact, it installed fine and it starts fine, it just doesn't play any video. For some reason, it appears it can't find the Internet connection. Of course, I'm sure some smart guy will figure that one out before long too. Until then, VirtualBox and Windows works although playback isn't as smooth. So, those of us with Linux, for now I think we're stuck with the browser version.

Ubuntu 9.04 on XPS 1530

Having installed Ubuntu 9.04 from scratch onto my Dell XPS 1530, the question that first came to mind was if anything is different and works better? I remember I had some minor but very irritating bugs when I first installed 8.04 on this same computer. So, let's do a quick overview of some of the issues I had back then.

1. Eject Button - the eject button did not work on 8.04 and unfortunately, it does not on a fresh install of 9.04 either. Bummer. I'll have to fix that one again.
2. Touchpad - fortunately, the touchpad worked right out of the box this time around. No need for a fix.
3. The Nvidia driver - this one still had to be enabled but that was no big deal.
4. Touchbad take 2 - the touchpad still is a bit too sensitive...when typing it jumps all over the place sometimes...annoying annoying, will have to look for a fix for that one.
   

Other things that work, that I have tried:

• built-in camera - seems to work without problems, at least in Skype.
• mic - the mic works although the volume is pretty low. I'll have to look into this one.
• HDMI output - works once the secondary screen is detected in NVIDIA X Server Settings (found under System>Administration). The sound is a bit uneven though. MP3's will play fine while Flash videos play in the computer speakers instead of through my TV. Will have to work on that one too.

I'll be adding more info as I come across and use it, naturally.

For now, doing a fresh install has been a good experience and I'm glad I did it, if nothing else only to get rid of Windows Vista. I still have access to Vista but it's through VirtualBox for now.

Liberated from Windows!

This last year, I have progressively been moving away from Windows and I have embraced Ubuntu. I've been stuck with Windows for many reasons, specifically because some things I just can't do on Ubuntu yet.

This past week, I finally started experimenting with VirtualBox and I've discovered salvation from the Windows empire...or at least something like it.

I discovered that with VirtualBox, I can run the software I need to while not having to boot into Windows every single time I need to do it. So, today I made the decision that my laptop is being liberated from Windows once and for all (with the exception of VirtualBox).

Ubuntu 9.04 will be installed fresh!

Mobile Video Streaming

In our world of instant access to everything, now and then we see news clips where someone somewhere managed to record something regarding a newsworthy event, such as a plane crash, a cool car, silly cat or whatever. In some of these cases, the clips end up on the news.

Last night, as I was just browsing for cool PPC apps, I stumbled over the Qik application.

What is Qik, you ask?

Qik is an application that when loaded on your phone, be it a PocketPC, Blackberry etc., will allow you to share videos from your phone. The kicker is you can do it live! So, essentially, your phone becomes a live recording device and the content is viewable to anyone has access to your feed. Like the punchline of the site is, "See what happens."

Here's how it works. First, you register on the website with a username and password. If you want to you can tie your Facebook account to Qik for easy uploading of your videos. Pretty neat. You then download the application to your phone, start it and hit "Stream" and you're suddenly live on the Qik website.

Is that awesome or what?

A quick test I did last night seems to indicate that there is about a 5 second delay from recording to website broadcast but that's not bad. It's a live webcam on your phone.

So, what are the potential applications? I can see a few interesting things, like capturing noteworthy events as they happen, whatever they might be, recording on the go. Either way, it's a pretty cool application.

Check out my feed at http://www.qik.com/2tall although I'm not sure when there will ever be anything there.

Jaunty Notifications for Thunderbird

So far, Jaunty is working pretty good and I haven't run into any potential problems yet. I'm still investigating to see if some of the problems I had with 8.10 have been resolved or not and the verdict is still out on that.

However, one cool thing I really like with Jaunty is the new notification system that's been implemented system-wide (with proper support from the software, of course). Essentially , system notifications all appear in the same manner now and apps can apparently be integrated into this system fairly easily.

I found that Pidgin works great with this system and so does wi-fi and ethernet connections. However, I found that since I just Thunderbird and not Evolution for my email, Thunderbird wasn't quite responding with the same notifications.

However, it didn't take me long to find that someone already began work on a plugin for Thunderbird that adds this functionality and I got it to work fairly easily.

The plugin can be downloaded here:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/11530

And once installed, it looks like this:


It's pretty neat and although not a major functionality improvement, it adds a more sophisticated look to Ubuntu.

One note of importance: for this plugin to work properly in Thunderbird, you will have to turn off "Show an alert" when new mail arrives. That's the default notification with Thunderbird and is not needed anymore.

More information, including issues others have been having, can be found at the links below.

More Jaunty experiences coming soon!

Sources:

• https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/11530
• https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/thunderbird/+bug/334344/comments/5
  

Ubuntu 9.04 Upgraded on XPS 1530

Friday night, after letting all downloads finish during the day Friday, my upgrade from Ubuntu 8.10 to 9.04 was finally complete. It worked out without any problems at all, which is more than I can say for 8.10.

Now what? Well, so far everything seems to work. I'm just curious if what didn't before works any better so off to tinker with all the things I have and see what works and what doesn't. And of course, time to upgrade my desktop as well, I think.

Jaunty Jackalope Release!

Ubuntu 9.04, AKA Jaunty Jackalope, is out! I had initially decided to hold off a bit before upgrading but after reading some initial very positive reviews I figured that what the heck, let's go for it.

Having said that, my laptop, a Dell XPS 1530 is now upgrading. I will of course post any issues I run into.

To give Ubuntu a try, download the ISO here.

Facebook on Windows Mobile

If you're a Facebook user and a Blackberry owner, you truly have a very fantastic combination. A fantastic phone that can deliver new Facebook messages and updates as they arrive.

If you're a Faceook user and a Windows Mobile owner, things haven't been looking that bright and there hasn't always been quality software to give you the experience Blackberry users can brag about.

Fortunately for us WM users, things are slowly changing. Being somewhat of a Facebook addict myself, I've tried numerous different ways to effectively get the best Facebook experience on my Windows Mobile. Since I know there are many others out there with WM devices as well, I figured I'd share my experiences.

1. Mobile Web

WM devices can usually handle mobile websites pretty well. Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are a few sites that does the mobile thing pretty good. Leaving MySpace and Twitter for now, let's focus on the Facebook mobile site for the moment.

The Facebook mobile site is located at m.facebook.com. Logging in is as simple as entering the same information you enter on the regular site to login.

A note about logging in: I always have to select the "HTTP Login" found at the bottom of the screen. For some reason, when I try to login on the first page, I get an error. So, if you run into that, just hit the same link and try to login again.

Once logged in, you will be presented with the typical Facebook setup:

• The Home page shows you your status, lets you update your status and shows you the status updates of your friends.
  
• The Profile page shows your profile information as well as your wall. There is also easy access to your photo gallery from here as well as the wall, notes and groups.
  
• The Friends page basically contains a list of your friends and their status updates.
• The Inbox of course contains mail and lets you send new messages if you want.

Overall a pretty simple interface that allows the typical Facebook users to do what they need to do. Best of all, it's free and easy to access.

2. Microsoft Facebook Application

Naturally, those of us more engaged and completely addicted will want a slicker interface than just a web page. So, we go out looking for applications that will do the job. Fortunately, it seems that Microsoft has realized that Facebook is a vital application that no serious Windows Mobile user should be without so one is being introduced in Windows Mobile 6.5

But wait, you only have WM 6, you say. No problem.

The handy guys over at XDA Developers have managed to extract the application from the OS and have made if available for download. It's easily accessibly from the WM6 Software website. The download link on this page will download the .CAB file right to your phone and you only need to run it to install it.

For those interested in the origins, check out the XDA Forum page.

Now, the application itself appears to be an early beta, a pre-release, so it's not quite complete and you can tell from using it. It has a few rough edges here and there.

So, looking a bit closer at the application, what does it have?

• Again, the Home page has the News Feed, Status Updates and Photos, as supplied by the feeds from your friends.
• The Profile page contains the Wall, the Info page and your Photos. Your status can be updated easily from here and photos and videos can be uploaded as well.
• The Friends icon of course contains all your friends and you can easily access their profiles from that page.
• The Mail page has your inbox and your sent messages as well as notifications and requests.
• Finally the Phone page (with the phone icon) gives you easy access to the phone numbers of all yours friends and you can easily dial them from here if you so wish.

So how does this application work? Well, considering that it's a bit rough around the edges, some annoyances are expected. The app doesn't appear to auto-update, for example, when something new happens. You have to manually refresh the screens you want to refresh. Also, the refresh option doesn't communicate throughout the whole application. So, if you hit refresh on the Home page, it will only refresh your news feed, it won't refresh your mailbox. If you refresh your mailbox, it doesn't refresh your news feed. Yet, somehow, friend requests are updated and displayed when the news feed is refreshed.

There are also other bugs. The application tends to time out or get stuck from time to time. At times, the news feed won't update, other times photos won't upload and so on. Of course, this is not surprising considering this is version v0.14 but still, it's a bit annoying.

However, overall the application is a good start and shows potential and hopefully we'll see future versions once WM6.5 gets closer to release.

3. Skybook

Skybook is another WM application which used to be known as Snap2Face. I've tried this app out a bit but mostly without much success. Most of the time, it doesn't run or it freezes and it's just a plain pain to use. If it worked well, it seems like it would be a good application but it seems that I can never get to a point of usability where I can actually make a good decision regarding this.

4. FriendMobilizer

FriendMobilizer is a new application that I've just encountered so it's new to me although it might not be new to all of you.

It's available at faceofmobile.com and it's $1.99 after a 2 day trial.

I've downloaded it and tried it and really, there's not anything worth paying $2 for as far as I can tell. I rather stick around with an incomplete version of MS Facebook than use this.

Of course, that's just my opinion. Give it a try and see what you think and if you think I'm wrong, let me know but basically, it just didn't work well for me at all.

5. Other third-party apps

There are several other applications that will allow you to access Facebook as well.

• Yahoo's Go! application has a widged plugin that adds Facebook access, for example. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get that one to work lately.
• Yahoo's brand new mobile site (new.m.yahoo.com) also has a nifty little add-in that allows you to see updates from Facebook, MySpace etc. You can also update your status but not a whole lot more at this point. I'll review the new Yahoo mobile site over the weekend, I think but I already like it (for the most part).
  
• Fring, which is an application that can handle pretty much anything when it comes to instant messaging (MSN, Yahoo, AOL, Google) also has plugins for Twitter and Facebook, amongs others. The Facebook plugin works fairly well but it's pretty slow, which I think is a side-effect of it being a plugin to another program

I believe there are more ways to access Facebook than just the ones listed above and I will add any new cool applications as I find them.

Note: all of these apps and methods were tested on a HTC 6800 (Mogul) running on the ACS wireless network but should work on most PPCs, including the HTC 6900 (Touch) and so on. Some require Windows Mobile 6 while others don't.

Anyway, fellow Facebook addicts, there you have it. Dig in and see you on Facebook!

Jaunty Jackalope Coming Soon

It seems like Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex just came out not long ago and here we are, just days away from the release of Jaunty Jackalope. Another upgrading cycle begins.

Now, although I'm quick to embrace new versions, I'll be doing my upgrades in steps. Since I have two computers currently running Ibex, I'll be upgrading the one that's used less first, hoping to avoid any major issues and it'll also let me explore the new items and get used to them before upgrading my XPS 1530 Dell laptop that is my primary work machine.

It'll be an interesting experience, no doubt.

Facebook Going Mobile

Those of you fortunate enough to own a Blackberry are well familiar with the portability and easy access of social networks on the platform. Access to MySpace and Facebook is easy and convenient and I know I have been looking for away to get similar access on my Windows Mobile device.

I think I might have finally found what I'm looking, at least in regards to Facebook.

While browsing around wm6software.net, I found a new Facebook application. After a bit more research it turns out it's a rip from the new 6.5 ROM, all done by the good chaps over at XDA-Developers.

So, is the application any good?

Well, essentially the application has five different tabs:

1. Home
2. Personal Profile
3. Friends
4. Mail
5. Phonebook

Home

The home tab contains the typical things you might see on your Facebook homepage. The newsfeed is present as are status updates and tagged photos. The home page will let you easily see what is going on with your friends.

Personal Profile

The profile tab has more of the personal stuff. The wall, for example, is found here, as is the info tab with all your personal info and your photo albums. From here you can also upload photos and videos to your albums. One drawback is that at this point it doesn't appear that you can actually update any of your personal information so you're still stuck with doing that online.

Friends

The friends tab of course contains an alphabetical list of all your friends and has a search function and a few basic filters.

Mail

The mail tab naturally contains the inbox, sent messages, notifications and requests. It allows you to easily read and compose new messages and handle incoming notifications and requests.

Phonebook

The phonebook tab is actually quite interesting. It allows you to call those contacts of yours that have phone numbers listed directly from the application itself. It's a pretty neat feature.

Summary

Overall, this early version (v0.14) does a lot of what you'd expect from a Facebook application. What I'd like to see in the future is an integration with the OS itself so that notifications are delivered when status updates happen and new messages come in.

Having used the app for just a few hours so far, it's a bit early to form a good opinion but so far, I like what I see. I'm looking forward to seeing future versions.

One thing I can say for sure is: if you use Windows Mobile phones and like Facebook, you need this application.

Use sudo without Password

Those of you that use Ubuntu with any regularity might have run into the very annoying instance of always having to enter the root password when running certain commands with sudo.

For me, I use a LAMPP server on my computer to test scripts and such locally and I installed the LAMPP control panel, a GUI, to make things a bit easier. LAMPPCP is one of those programs that requires the root password every single time you run it.

So, I had to find a way around it.

A word of caution: performing the below steps can screw some things up pretty nicely so be sure you know what you're doing before you jump right into this whole thing.

1. Open a terminal window.
2. Write "sudo nano /etc/sudoers" to open up the /etc/sudoers file.
3. Add the following at the bottom: "username ALL = NOPASSWD: ALL"
   
4. Save and exit.

If you do this right, you now have one less password to enter, especially if you're running this program through the start menu.


Sources:

• http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=102758
• http://linux.byexamples.com/archives/315/how-to-shutdown-and-reboot-without-sudo-password/
• http://linuxtipstricks.wordpress.com/2009/03/21/how-to-change-sudo-to-not-ask-for-your-personal-password/
  

DirecTV2PC Success!

I mentioned in my previous post how I stumbled over DirecTV2PC while trying to get some of the media sharing functionality of the DirecTV receiver to work. Well, I have taken a bit of time to download and try it out and I have to say it works remarkably well.

In a nutshell, DirecTV2PC does the following: it connects to your Dish DVR (that is connected to your network) and allows you to view any of your recorded shows on your computer. Essentially, it gives you a remote version of your list of recordings that looks and behaves just like the DVR version. From there, you just pick the show you want to watch, relax in your lawn chair, bath tub or bed and enjoy the show.

The obvious question is this: does it work well?

The short answer is yes. It works very well.

To give you an idea of what's needed for it to work well, here's a quick description of my network. I'd say it's fairly typical. My DVR is connected by cable to my router. The computer this was tested on, a Dell XPS laptop, connects using wifi to the router and streams it this way. Very simple yet very functional.

I have tested both SD content and HD content and both work without noticable problems. I don't have a HD display on my laptop so I can't really say how well it would work on a real HD screen but with what I have, full screen playback works great with both SD and HD content.

As far as I am concerned, DirecTV2PC is a great little piece of software and I expect that I'll get quite a bit of use out of it.

Now, if I can just get the media sharing part with my computer to work, I'll be all set...

Oh, and no, DirecTV2PC does not work on Linux, at least not using Wine...from what I can tell, at least.

DirecTV

A little over a month ago, we decided to drop out local phone company as our phone carrier (we don't use local phone service anymore), Internet carrier (go wireless!) and TV provider, mostly because we were able to shave about $75 of our monthly bill in regards to these specific services.

I'm very happy with DirecTV and I'm especially enjoying their HD channels. This past week, I found something I hadn't known before: the HDDVR that I have is capable of showing media from the media server I run on one of my computers. Up to this point, I have primarily used this to listen to music and such on my PS3 but it was always an extra step. Being able to feed it directly to my DVR would be even better.

So, I've started exploring this "MediaShare" functionality of the DVR. As of yet, I have had no luck getting it to work with either Orb, TVersity or WMP but it's just a matter of time, I'm sure.

In the process of researching this, I also stumbled upon DirecTV2PC, which is a feature that allows you to view recorded shows on your PC while on your home network. What a great idea! So, I have now started the process of trying this out so let's see if I can get it to work. It would be really cool under Wine on Ubuntu but we'll see about that, I suppose.