RBI 2.0

Google +

2011-06-30T07:05:00.000-07:00

The buzz has been all over about the new google +! This is the social networking that google lovers have been waiting for. There are multiple posts about it as well.

Information can be found at endgadget or phandroid.

Many reviews I have read have been positive. It appears Google is confronting social networking head on this time instead of half-baked.

Oh, and if anyone would like to invite me, I would love it!

Daddy's day

2011-06-27T08:40:00.001-07:00

My little girl gave me the cutest card for fathers day.

Nexus S 4g

2011-05-15T16:05:00.001-07:00

Just got three nexus S 4g when it was released by Sprint. I'm going to try to review some of the good and bad of it and see what I can do.

Today I downloaded a beta version of SwiftKey, keyboard the uses some amazing prediction to help me type much faster on my Nexus. The phone is very responsive with this keyboard and works extremely well, so we'll in fact that I am typing all this text from my phone.

Some other rings I have noticed in quick summary about the Nexus:

-the screen is beautiful

-it feels like very responsive, and though I have noticed something when it is searching for a wifi connection and I am trying to do multiple other things with it. For the most part it is very fast and responsive. I compared it to the Nexus 1 this week and found it to be quite and upgrade in speed.

-it seems that Sprint has left the tethering mode available for the current time.

-battery life is decent. I am able to make it through about 12 hours without having to plug the phone in before it gives me the 15% battery left notice. This is when I have the phone on wifi continually and use it often to look things up.

-interestingly, and I have seen some reports of poor reception for the nexus S 4g. I can confirm that this seems to be an issue. The phone often has dificutly connecting to 4g and When it does it has poor reception. I am hoping this is a software glitch that will be repaired soon.

Forgive the brevity, and the but I am typing from my one and will update this more when I have a chance.

Maverick Meerkat

2010-10-09T12:39:00.000-07:00

Maverick Meerkat is due to be released tomorrow!

I installed the RC of Maverick Meerkat (Ubuntu 10.10) on my Lenovo x61t Thinkpad a while back. As it usually does it broke my screen rotation and middle mouse scroll functionality. I've been working to get middle mouse scroll and have finally found a solution:

Create a new file


sudo gedit /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-thinkpad.conf

In the file paste the following


Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Trackpoint Wheel Emulation"
MatchProduct "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint|DualPoint Stick|Synaptics Inc. Composite TouchPad / TrackPoint"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Option "EmulateWheel" "true"
Option "EmulateWheelButton" "2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "false"
Option "XAxisMapping" "6 7"
Option "YAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Save the file, close it, and restart your computer. That will correct the middle mouse scrolling.

I still haven't figured out the rotation. Any suggestoins?

Lucid Lynx

2010-05-01T21:43:00.000-07:00

The good: I installed Ubuntu Lucid Lynx (10.04) yesterday on my x61t Lenovo laptop. The instalation process itself has gotten much easier since I started back in 6.04, however the most drastic improvement i have noticed with Lucid is the look. I am very pleased they finally left the brown in the dust (where it belongs) and picked up a nice purplish color. The icons located on the panel are much cleaner and have more of a "mac"ish appearance.

Another treat was to find that Pitivi, a non-linear video editor, was included by default. Though pitivi is not an impressive video editor it functions and, what is more important, shows that Ubuntu is committed to become a major OS (adding features before any other major OS and catching up on some features it is missing).

As usual there are some problems I ran into when installing Lynx, but they are usually easily solved.

The two problems:

1. Middle mouse scrolling button (just for the lenovo 3 button mouse)

2. Clicking on flash doesn't work - a huge bother!

1. Middle mouse scroll was easily solved

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-thinkpad.conf

Paste the following in the file:

Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Trackpoint Wheel Emulation"
MatchProduct "TrackPoint"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "evdev"
Option "EmulateWheel" "true"
Option "EmulateWheelButton" "2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "false"
Option "XAxisMapping" "6 7"
#Option "YAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

You should then be able to restart and it will work!

2. Flash player

sudo gedit /usr/lib/nspluginwrapper/i386/linux/npviewer

Add the following line before the last line:

export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1

Save, exit, and restart anything running flash. It should work, as it works great for me now. One thing I did notice is that the scroll bar buttons on Chrome have disappeared, but since my middle mouse scroll works it doesn't bother me a bit!

It has been a while, but I am trying to post more! Good luck with the lynx!

Internet Radio

2009-09-12T11:05:00.000-07:00

I've tried a lot of radio stations on the internet. Found Pandora to be great, but it will kick you off or require payment after 30 hours (or so) of listening to it. It was some time ago that I found last.fm and I am now in love with it!

Last.fm uses "audioscrobbler" to pick songs that are similar to the type you listen to (simply enter an artist or song). This is great because it is completely free (there is a paid membership that has a few more options) and works as well as Pandora - and even outdoes it in some ways. Last.fm is also a social networking place, so you can chat and comment on other people who use it. Give it a try, or just use pandora if you don't listen over 30 hours!

Surfing the "Wave"

2009-08-30T21:25:00.000-07:00

Sickter! That's all I have to say about google's new WAVE program. It's email on steroids! You can check out plenty about it here .

I am very excited for this to come out! The only thing that gets me nowadays with technology is how long it takes for someone to release a product after it has been announced! I guess it's a good thing for the people to build up some hipe, but man I just want to try this stuff out right now!

An interesting bit of info: "Wave" actually comes from the series "Firefly," well the name at least. The error message you get one wave crashes also comes from the movie.

I've been slow posting lately. School started back up and I had to finish all my research and reports. I'll work back into things though!

News Flash

2009-07-09T09:56:00.000-07:00

I have been predicting this for about a year, ever since Google Docs came out. Google just announced they will be creating an OS! It will be tailored for Net books, but who cares... Android is tailored for phones, but it's sweet.

Get on board cuz the GOOOOOGLE gears are going!

Check it out here: Google Blog

Also, Sun has just released Virtualbox 3. I haven't had time to check this out too much, but they are working on 3d support. I sure hope it works. You can look that up here: Download site

Panoramas the easy way!

2009-06-24T06:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I discovered a new program to create panoramic shots!! It is really interesting and fun to use.

You'll want to click on the picture to really see it.

Sweet little progam, eh? It's name is Hugin. I currently use the progam in Linux, however it is available to download for Mac or Windows - and of course its free! Download it form their site - http://hugin.sourceforge.net/download/ .
To install in ubuntu is easy

sudo aptitude install hugin

There are tutorials available at the site, however I found it easy enough to just use.

One pointer, the images need a lot of overlap to be easily "stitched" together, so make it a point to do that when you take your pics.

Easty VIrtual machine (VM) on Ubuntu

2009-05-03T16:18:00.000-07:00

In my experience with Ubuntu Linux I have been terribly satisfied! As a medical student I have been able to run almost every program/web page I have needed; there have been some exceptions. For this reason I began to look into virtualization. I researched many programs; Qemu, vmware, Xen, etc. I soon found that many of them were, frankly, beyond my level of programin. I finally found one program that was simply to use, had a nice GUI, and performed as well (or better than) the others.... VirtualBox!! Created by Sun Microsystems this program is simply amazing.

To explain a few things: a virtual machine is a machine running inside another. I run Ubuntu Jaunty 64 bit most of the time, and when I really needed something in windows I'd have to restart my computer (dual boot) and run windows. Now I run Ubuntu as my "host" and have a windows "guest" operating system when I need something from windows. Virtualization is very powerful, but it's not completely the same as a native OS, direct 3d and direct X are just experimental in these systems and don't really work (so games, FOX.com HD viewing, and some other things don't work). Most of the school programs I use run very well on VirtualBox.

Howto:

Vbox is easy to install, setup and run. You can install it from the Ubuntu repositories if you would like, but there are some definite benefits if you don't. The program in the repositories is the OSE (open-source edition). I love open source, but in this program some of the features are disabled in the OSE. Sun offers a PUELA (?personal user end liscence agreement?) for this program that allows a person to download the full version and evaluate/use it on their own computer without buying it! So that's what I do! To get the full version visit http://www.virtualbox.org/ select your OS and download the program. I selected Linux and chose the Jaunty AMD64 flavor! Once it's all downloaded, I simply double clicke the ".deb" file and let the installer go! You can do it in terminal, but I just don't bother.
After installation, VBox isn't too hard to manage.

1. If you have USB devices you want to attach to your VM, you need to run VirtualBox as root.

sudo VirtualBox

This will solve problems later on. I've read many sites explaining ways to fix the USB problem, but none of them worked, simply running the VirtualBox as root fixed the problem for me. I use VBox enough that I've added a custom launcher to my Panel. Very easy, simply right click on the panel> add to panel. Then select Custom Application Launcher. Name it whatever you want, but in the command box put the above code. You can also click on the image and change it the VBox image. Click okay and it will appear on the panel.

2. You need to add a virtual hard drive to run your "guest" OS's on.

File> Virtual Media Manager. Then click on "new." VBox should be able to guide you through the rest (if you need further clarification, just ask in a comment).

3. Once your virtual disk is created, you simply create a new virtual machine by clicking on "NEW." Once again, the guide is self-explanatory. Just try not to use up over half you available RAM when you are setting up the VM. When it asks for a virtual HDD, just use the one you created in step 2.

4. Now that you've created your VM, you'll need to install the operating system. If you are installing any distro of windows, you'll need a cd and product code! Simply click on the CD/DVD rom before you start your VM and attach your computer's drive to the VM. THus when you boot your VM it will use the drive to install your OS (you can also attach an .iso file to the vm that will work just like a cd!). I've found that Vista allows me to install a copy as a virtual machine on my laptop that came with Vista when I bought it (So, I can either boot directly into Vista or boot linux and then start my Vista VM!).

5. The last step to run VBox well is to install the "guest additions." Guest additions allows you to resize your VM (adjust the resolution), use mouse integration (instead of capturing), and a lot of other goodies.

Devices> Install guest additions.

This will automatically download the guest additions and start installing them. Your windows "guest" will require you to allow certain drivers to be installed. Allow them all! Once this is done, Windows is ready to go!

Internet TV (sorta)

2009-05-02T19:46:00.000-07:00

My brother-in-law showed me an interesting program the other day. This program automatically downloads the programs you want and saves them on your computer until you watch them, then it will delete them in 5 days! No commercials, no interruptions, HD if you want, and no hassle! The name, "Miro." It's simple to install, but takes just a second to figure out how it works. To get the program, visit http://www.getmiro.com/. There are options availabe to download the application for Windows and Mac OS (if you use one of those, you'll have to figure out how to install it). To install the application in Linux, you can follow the directions when they give you on the website or (if you're running Jaunty 64 bit) do this:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

This will open a text editor. Scroll to the bottom and add this line.

deb http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/pculture.org/miro/linux/repositories/ubuntu jaunty/

Click the save button and close the editor. You've just added the miro repository! Now just a few more lines of code and you'll be done!

sudo aptitude update

sudo aptitude upgrade

sudo aptitude install miro

Yes, install miro-data too!

Sweet, now it's all installed, but now you have to learn how to use it! Don't worry it's easy!

Applications> Sound & Video> Miro

Once the program is all running, go the the website http://tvrss.net/shows/. Find the show(s) you are interested in and click on it. It will open a page that lists the episodes of the show and some rss links. Right-Click on the "RSS Search-based RSS Feed" and select "copy link location." Now in the Miro toolbar click Sidebar> add new feed. Copy the link into the URL box (linux seems to have it already copied there for me!). Click "create feed" and it will be automatically added. You can right-click the feed in the sidebar and change the name to something meaningful. You're ready to watch, when the program is downloaded! Happy Miro-ing!

New to improve

2009-05-01T19:31:00.000-07:00

So, I've begun blogging so I can retrieve and share the things I'm doing with my computers and everything else. I have become an avid Ubuntu linux fan and constantly tweak my system to do more new things... problem is, things often go awry and I have to relearn how to fix things I've already done (I'm a slow learner). So I thought I would start my own blog as a archive of things I've done. SO, to begin...

Last night I updated my desktop (custom built) to Jauny Jackolope (64 bit). Things almost went without a hitch. Two problems!

1. My nvidia graphics card driver was downgraded and no longer worked

- Installing the NVIDIA drivers for Jaunty 64.
I have a ASUS en9500gt 512 mb. :-) but Linux doesn't always play nice, it never seems to find the right drivers. FIX:

a. visit http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

b. select the appropriate material for you nvidia card/OS and download the driver. (I got the GeForce 9 series for Linux-64 bit). I saved the file to my desktop.

c. The NVIDIA installer doesn't play nice when X is running, so you have to stop the xserver. There were a few ways of doing this, but only one seemed to work for me (read on before doing this!):

sudo telinet 1

This command will drop you to the a command prompt with no GUI! From here things are simple. Change your directory to the location you saved the driver

cd /home/(insert username)/Desktop

then

sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-180.51-pkg2.run

This was specific for my version of the driver, yours will probably be different if you have a different card. (The easiest way to make sure you get the command right is to simply push "Tab" after you type in the N or NV and it will auto-complete the rest of the command for you; if you're new to the terminal or linux this should be one of your favorite tools!)

The NVIDIA installer will ask you a few questions (it may suggest you enter runlevel 3 to install the driver, but that didn't work for me because X is running- so I just said no and kept going) that are simply. I let the installer redo my xorg.conf file and most of the other settings.

Once the installer is finished and you get back to your command prompty, simply restart and you're golden!

sudo reboot