Monday, 23. November 2009, 11:06:35
computers, ubuntu, linux
I haven't posted on this since my original post here
Mostly everything works well, but there have been a couple of niggly things that I needed to fix.
One of these is syncing with my PDA/ mobile phone. I really like the fact that I can keep appointments, contacts etc. on both my phone and desktop and synchronise them from time to time. Of course you would expect that there would be problems communicating across the Great Divide from the Free World (linux) to the Empire (Windows- including Windows Mobile). But the Open Source community has come to the fore and made it possible to do this through a bunch of applications called generally SynCE and open-sync.
My problem is that whenever I upgrade to a newer version of Ubuntu (every 6 months on average) I usually have to play around with the sync stuff because it doesn't work straight away. The problem is usually that old settings are retained and not quite upgraded correctly. This time I had to delete the partnership (that is the connection between the desktop and the PDA), and then delete the synchronisation groups- for some reason one of these had been duplicated meaning that it was trying to re-duplicate all my contacts etc then ran into more problems trying to compare everything. So once I started everything with a clean slate it worked fine, except for the annoying problem of adjusting times on my computer for recurring appointments to negatively allow for daylight savings.
Anyway details of synce are here and the Ubuntu specific directions are here.
My other complaint with Ubuntu is that it only installs the gnome screensaver. Although this is based on xscreensaver, it doesn't offer the same amount of configurability. For example if you choose a "Random" screensaver in gnome-screensaver you have to take all of the screensavers, whereas with xscreensaver you can choose out of a very long list which ones you want to show. You can also set up xscreensaver to use "fortune" to generate the text for text-type screensavers- I have generated a huge database of bible verses in a fortune file which I like to have come up on the screen rather than the bland "Linux- date- time" texts. If you want to replace gnome-screensaver with xscreensaver then follow the steps listed here
Well that's my geek knowledge thoroughly exhausted! At the moment I'm happy with just aobut every aspect of my computer system. I still have to install 9.10 on my Eee netbook but that can wait. I also have to upgrade Margaret's computer but I'll do that some time when she isn't looking. 
Sunday, 1. November 2009, 11:36:10
ubuntu, computers, linux
I'm a big fan of Ubuntu Linux. Of all the flavours of Linux out there it's one of the most user friendly with a huge range of software and nearly everything works "straight out of the box" (except there's no box).Upgrading is a snap. Usually, you just click on the "Upgrade now" button in the Update Manager and wait for it all to download and install itself. I've done a couple of upgrades now and it's all been sweet.So I really didn't think that there would be any dramas. Just click and leave it to download while we have the wedding happen and automagically it would be no longer 9.04 but 9.10.But this time of all the hundreds of thousands who did that, I was the one with the rogue problem. The problem was quite severe- it would not recognise my password, or rather it would recognise it but wouldn't do the next thing which is to acccept it and log me on.Tim and I spent hours trying to track down the exact problem, unsuccessfully. In the end I had to use a "live CD" to boot, then use that to back up as much data as I could onto a portable hard drive before doing a complete "fresh" install. That means it is inevitable that some things have been lost but mostly I saved my data. And now I've nearly got all my settings and programs back to "normal" so it's all good.And Ubuntu 9.10 itself- brilliant! Everything just looks so darned good! Fonts are nice, colour scheme is great. Gnome is itself a great desktop. I haven't even changed the wallpaper or the colour scheme yet, which I normally do soon after any install.
The only problem I keep running into is the Ubuntu version of Open Office does not support databases, whch is a must for me. There's probably an extra package somewhere that is optional but I havne't found it. I downloaded the original version put out by openoffice.org.Anyway, now the trauma of the faulty upgrade is over, 9.10 is a great release.
Thursday, 30. April 2009, 03:48:50
computers, ubuntu, linux
Last week, the latest version of the Ubuntu Linux Operating System was released- version 9.04 (meaning it was released in April 09) aka Jaunty Jackalope.
I duly downloaded the files and installed it. I think at one stage we had 4 computers in the house going at once on the upgrade!
My desktop computer upgraded without too many issues. The biggest problem is that there seems to be a mistake in the Open Office derivative bundled with Ubuntu which does not allow you to open databases. I ditched that and installed the original version from the Open Office web-site and it works like a charm.
The other, lesser, issue is that I have not been able to get sound to work on Flash videos (such as Youtube). I've tried all the recommended fixes but there is still something not quite right. It's a minor issue that I will get around to looking at when I get some space in my head.
Last night I decided it was time to resurrect my beloved Eee. For the uninitiated, the Eee is the original "netbook" or super tiny lap top. The Eee comes with a version of Linux (Xandros) pre-installed, but it's a bit clunky. People have produced several different operating systems for the Eee, including the earlier versions of Ubuntu. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the wireless card to work in any of those that I tried, so I stuck with the native OS.
Why did the Eee need resurrecting? Well, last week while I was in Newcastle, I decided to use Opera on the netbook to import my RSS newsfeeds. Within a couple of days, I had filled up the flash drive to capacity and it was no longer able to boot, because it needs to write to the drive when starting up. This is exacerbated by the fact that the Eee OS keeps a copy of itself in a separate partition, so that if your file system is corrupted you can, in theory, tell it to reset to the original factory condition by copying all the files back to the main partition.
Ubuntu 9.04 comes with a special version called the "netbook remix" which can be loaded onto a USB memory stick and then used to boot the netbook. The problem is that you need to run a special program that makes the USB drive able to boot the netbook. I wasn't able to get that program to run properly on my desktop system- other people may have more success.
But, I do have an external USB CD drive which the Eee can boot from. So I got the full desktop version of Ubuntu which comes as a CD image, I burnt that to a CD and very quickly was able to install Ubuntu onto the Eee from that. I was surprised to find that not only did the wireless card work straight away, without configuring drivers or settings, it actually found the network and asked me for the password. I didn't think it would be that easy! In fact the next time I booted, it connected me without asking.
It all seems to be working fine. I've tweaked a few desktop settings and replaced firefox with opera and evolution with claws-mail (my preferred browser and email programs). I've played with Open Office, which is the other main application I use on the Eee and it seems to be working fine.
If you want to give Linux a go on either a desktop system or a lap top or even a netbook, I really recommend Ubuntu 9.04 It is excellent. About 12 months ago I installed a fresh version of Ubuntu on a friend's computer. It was just a matter of creating the CD and inserting the CD. The CD ran as a "live" version to give potential users a taste. On the desktop was an icon labelled "Install Ubuntu". After I clicked the icon it was just a matter of minutes before it was up and running- brilliant.
Thursday, 19. February 2009, 22:41:30
church, ubuntu
I just found this quote on community and it seems really good.
The Corner: The faith community we are part of is broke:
Desmond Tutu talks of something very similar to a "constitutive community of emancipatory transformation" when describes the African ethos of ubuntu:
A community with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.
That's a good description of what a church is called to be.
Tuesday, 19. August 2008, 10:30:12
computers, ubuntu, linux
At the Trivia Night on the 1st August, I bought a new computer at the auction. James had put it together to be auctioned, so we knew it would be a quality product 
I think it's my first new computer in about 15 years- all of my upgrades sine the old 486 have been hand-me-downs.
I wasted no time in installing a proper Operating System i.e. Linux. I had previously used Debian but I decided this time to give Ubuntu a whirl.
It took a while to download and install all the software, but everything pretty well as worked out of the box, as they say.
The reason why I chose Ubuntu is that I have never been able to synchronise my PDA which runs on Windows Mobile 5 with my desktop. There is a suite of programs (SynCE and OpenSync) which are supposed to provide that functionality from the Linux side, but I had never been able to get it to run on Debian. With the Ubuntu packages available on the SynCE web-site, I decided to download them and give it a go. It worked like a charm! Brilliant! There are a few anomalies with repeating appointments- there is a known bug where some appointments are shifted by an hour, but I've got some that are shifted by a day! After a couple of syncs, I thought it was going to be a winner- but it stopped working and I'm having on-going discussions with the developers.
The new desktop came with a built-in card reader. I noticed the other day that if I plugged my USB memory stick into it, it didn't detect it. I thought maybe there were driver issues or something of the sort. I tested a couple of cards on it (a CF and a SD card) and they were instantly detected and opened in the file manager. Then I plugged my camera into the USB port and it worked fine. What the? as my boys would say Turns out that the USB port on these particular devices is fractionally too deep and so some devices just don't make contact.
James mentioned that the card reader comes with drivers for Windows. I was puzzled as to why it would need drivers in Windows when Ubuntu just finds it without extra drivers. He said the driver just gives it fancy icons that light up when you have a card in a slot. Personally I prefer the OS to just open the file manager and show you what's on it... the icon that the file manager shows is pretty cool looking anyway (by which I mean it's pretty obvious that the system has found your card and knows what it is and what's on it).
Overall I'm very impressed with the hardware and software. It's nice to be able to run things and not be waiting too long for them to start. I was quite happy with my previous computer, but this one is just another few steps further along.
When I get the PDA and the desktop talking to each other then I will be really happy! Not that my joy or happiness really depend on things or technology or anything like that... but I do get a bit of a buzz when all my toys play together happily 
WIDGETIZE