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.