Posts
| Ok folks, this one is for the Gamers out there. I've been hooked on a new game lately and I've not been able to put it down. Seriously, if you're a fan of Quake, Doom, or Unreal Tournament, then you're really going to like this. The game is called Sauerbraten. Its been said that there is nothing new under the sun. This is true with Sauerbraten. It has the usual weapons and powerups. It has nice looking graphics and a lot of levels to run around and blow stuff up. In short it is your typical First-Person Shooter (FPS). But Sauerbraten has something that makes it stand out from the pack, at least for me anyway. In Sauerbraten you can quickly and easily create your own maps and share them with others. And get this, you edit the game while you are INSIDE the game. In fact you can edit the game with other people in multi-player cooperative edit mode. Ok, so great. You can edit it in game... whoop dee doo. Whats so special about that? Well, it means that there are just tons and tons of awesome user-made levels out there to be played. Not to mention all new modes of play. Have you ever played one of these games and thought to yourself "Hey, I can do better than this!"? Well, this is your chance. If you've ever had a desire to get into game design, well this one is wide open. They take submissions for models, skins, levels, music... the works! Its a completely open opportunity to jump in and get involved in making a great game even better! Or not. You're perfectly capable and welcome to install Sauerbraten and just partake of the great levels and content created by other users. Its a game that will just keep growing and growing. If you're interested in giving it a try, make sure you have a decent 3D accellerated graphics card. Windows users can download the client at www.sauerbraten.org, and Ubuntu users can just download it from within Synaptic Package Manager since it is already in the repositories. Sorry Mac users, but there's not a client for you yet, though it is on their TODO list. The game is completely free to download and play, and its open source so the guts of the programming code is available for your perusal and/or improvement. Personally I'm working on a pretty fun level myself but I won't be hosting it online until I feel it is ready, so if you download the game, be looking out for a level by yours truely in a few weeks from now. See you in game. If you live in Russell County or the surrounding areas and you need help fixing your computer, give me a call at (606) 219-4088 to set up an appointment. If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to http://straightshootincomputin.blogspot.com |
Sunday, June 15, 2008
SSC #68 Sauerbraten
Monday, June 2, 2008
SSC #67 Reader response and virtual machines
I have a letter from a reader I would like to share today before getting into the nitty gritty.
Hi Jeff,
What kind of hours do you have there? I need to bring my metal monster in for a good 'blowing out' (dust and pet hair I'm sure). The problem is I work on the thing and don't have a back-up, so I can't be without it for any great length of time :-/.
It's not doing anything 'wrong', but it is shutting itself off every now and then - which I'm assuming has to do with needing cleaned. I can hear the fan kick in audibly after it's been running for a little while (at least I'm assuming it's the fan I'm hearing).
Also wanted to ask you - what is the difference between CDs and DVDs when you're talking about saving text and .jpg files to disc? CDs are what I need for that, right? Not DVDs.
Thanks!
Suzi
Actually I come to you. :)
I don't run a shop in a traditional sense, I do all of my work in the customer's home. So if you'd like to set up a time for me to come out and clean your machine, just say the word. And you will only suffer 15 minutes or so of downtime.
And yes, shutting down is usually a sign of overheating. Not always, but usually. The clicking could be a harddrive. Those overheat too, which is why good airflow is important in your machine. Burning a processor is an annoyance and a small bit of cash. Losing a harddrive, that can really hurt because all your data goes with it and harddrive recovery services are expensive.
As for your question, the only major difference between DVD's and CD's is the amount of data they can hold (this is due to the color and width of the laser beam they are read with). A CD can hold about 700MB of data, and a DVD can hold about 4.7GB or 4800MB. If you are using a specific piece of software for the specific purpose of putting a picture slideshow on a DVD then you're going to probably want DVD instead of CD, or generally whatever the software recommends. But as far as just plain-jane data discs, it is only a matter of capacity. Unless you have a boatload of pics and text to burn, CD's will probably do the trick, since JPG's and text is usually small files.
A more cost effective solution to moving these types of files around is to grab yourself a USB thumbdrive. They have them at the X-mart(s) ranging in sizes from 256MB to 4GB or so. And you just keep re-using the same little drive.
Now, as promised, I present the nitty gritty.
SERVER VIRTUALIZATION
The tech world is abuzz with the merits of virtualization. In response to this Canonical has released a new version of Ubuntu called Ubuntu JEOS. JEOS (pronounced 'Juice') stands for Just Enough Operating System. The majority of hardware drivers have been removed as well as everything that is not essential to the basic running of the operating system. In fact, the only thing that is left is what is needed to run within virtualization software like VirtualBox or VMWare. When you install Jeos into a virtual machine, you are left with nothing but a command prompt. From this command prompt you can use the APT command line package manager to install any software in the Ubuntu repositories. Sounds technical, doesn't it?
Needless to say, my curiosity was piqued. So I downloaded Ubuntu Jeos 8.04 and installed it within a virtual machine running inside VirtualBox. Setup was quick and simple.
Using Jeos, I was able to install a lightweight graphical environment, a file manager, and a window manager. At this point I had a very small and swift-running graphical operating system in a virtual machine. What to do, what to do... Now I installed Synaptic which is basically a graphical front-end to APT. From within Synaptic I installed Apache 2 Web Server, Amaya Web Page designing software and Bluefish HTML editor. Going back to Synaptic I installed Firefox Web Browser.
Now I had a full website creation studio and web server running within a virtual machine. Using this setup I can create a website and serve it up on my local network or even on the internet. Using Firefox I can test how it will look to people viewing the site. And since it was created using Jeos, it is lightweight and doesn't have any software installed that isn't absolutely neccessary to its function. Now I can create a Snapshot of the virtual machine. If at any time I mess something up, I can quickly and easily roll back any changes to my last Snapshot.
Whats even better is that this is a virtual machine. The entire thing exists inside of a file on a real computer. Whats more, VirtualBox has versions for Windows and Linux. So I can copy this to a disk and put it on any other machine and run it, just making sure to forward specific ports from the Host operating system to the Guest operating system. So yes, even a Windows machine can have a web server with industry proven security and stability... when it is running Linux. And if someone were to somehow get outside control of the web server, there's really nothing that they can do. They are entirely contained within the Virtual machine. As soon as it is discovered that the virtual machine is compromised, I can just reset it back to a Snapshot image and undo any changes that the hacker may have made. Or if the Windows machine were to need to be wiped completely (as they often do) and restored, I would have my entire server setup on a disc that I could quickly put back into action.
As I said when I started out, the tech world is abuzz with the merits of virtualization. From what I have seen with Ubuntu Jeos, I can truly see why.
If you live in Russell County or the surrounding areas and you need help fixing your computer, give me a call at (606) 219-4088 to set up an appointment.
If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at
straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com
If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to
http://straightshootincomputin.blogspot.com
Hi Jeff,
What kind of hours do you have there? I need to bring my metal monster in for a good 'blowing out' (dust and pet hair I'm sure). The problem is I work on the thing and don't have a back-up, so I can't be without it for any great length of time :-/.
It's not doing anything 'wrong', but it is shutting itself off every now and then - which I'm assuming has to do with needing cleaned. I can hear the fan kick in audibly after it's been running for a little while (at least I'm assuming it's the fan I'm hearing).
Also wanted to ask you - what is the difference between CDs and DVDs when you're talking about saving text and .jpg files to disc? CDs are what I need for that, right? Not DVDs.
Thanks!
Suzi
Actually I come to you. :)
I don't run a shop in a traditional sense, I do all of my work in the customer's home. So if you'd like to set up a time for me to come out and clean your machine, just say the word. And you will only suffer 15 minutes or so of downtime.
And yes, shutting down is usually a sign of overheating. Not always, but usually. The clicking could be a harddrive. Those overheat too, which is why good airflow is important in your machine. Burning a processor is an annoyance and a small bit of cash. Losing a harddrive, that can really hurt because all your data goes with it and harddrive recovery services are expensive.
As for your question, the only major difference between DVD's and CD's is the amount of data they can hold (this is due to the color and width of the laser beam they are read with). A CD can hold about 700MB of data, and a DVD can hold about 4.7GB or 4800MB. If you are using a specific piece of software for the specific purpose of putting a picture slideshow on a DVD then you're going to probably want DVD instead of CD, or generally whatever the software recommends. But as far as just plain-jane data discs, it is only a matter of capacity. Unless you have a boatload of pics and text to burn, CD's will probably do the trick, since JPG's and text is usually small files.
A more cost effective solution to moving these types of files around is to grab yourself a USB thumbdrive. They have them at the X-mart(s) ranging in sizes from 256MB to 4GB or so. And you just keep re-using the same little drive.
Now, as promised, I present the nitty gritty.
SERVER VIRTUALIZATION
The tech world is abuzz with the merits of virtualization. In response to this Canonical has released a new version of Ubuntu called Ubuntu JEOS. JEOS (pronounced 'Juice') stands for Just Enough Operating System. The majority of hardware drivers have been removed as well as everything that is not essential to the basic running of the operating system. In fact, the only thing that is left is what is needed to run within virtualization software like VirtualBox or VMWare. When you install Jeos into a virtual machine, you are left with nothing but a command prompt. From this command prompt you can use the APT command line package manager to install any software in the Ubuntu repositories. Sounds technical, doesn't it?
Needless to say, my curiosity was piqued. So I downloaded Ubuntu Jeos 8.04 and installed it within a virtual machine running inside VirtualBox. Setup was quick and simple.
Using Jeos, I was able to install a lightweight graphical environment, a file manager, and a window manager. At this point I had a very small and swift-running graphical operating system in a virtual machine. What to do, what to do... Now I installed Synaptic which is basically a graphical front-end to APT. From within Synaptic I installed Apache 2 Web Server, Amaya Web Page designing software and Bluefish HTML editor. Going back to Synaptic I installed Firefox Web Browser.
Now I had a full website creation studio and web server running within a virtual machine. Using this setup I can create a website and serve it up on my local network or even on the internet. Using Firefox I can test how it will look to people viewing the site. And since it was created using Jeos, it is lightweight and doesn't have any software installed that isn't absolutely neccessary to its function. Now I can create a Snapshot of the virtual machine. If at any time I mess something up, I can quickly and easily roll back any changes to my last Snapshot.
Whats even better is that this is a virtual machine. The entire thing exists inside of a file on a real computer. Whats more, VirtualBox has versions for Windows and Linux. So I can copy this to a disk and put it on any other machine and run it, just making sure to forward specific ports from the Host operating system to the Guest operating system. So yes, even a Windows machine can have a web server with industry proven security and stability... when it is running Linux. And if someone were to somehow get outside control of the web server, there's really nothing that they can do. They are entirely contained within the Virtual machine. As soon as it is discovered that the virtual machine is compromised, I can just reset it back to a Snapshot image and undo any changes that the hacker may have made. Or if the Windows machine were to need to be wiped completely (as they often do) and restored, I would have my entire server setup on a disc that I could quickly put back into action.
As I said when I started out, the tech world is abuzz with the merits of virtualization. From what I have seen with Ubuntu Jeos, I can truly see why.
If you live in Russell County or the surrounding areas and you need help fixing your computer, give me a call at (606) 219-4088 to set up an appointment.
If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at
straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com
If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to
http://straightshootincomputin.blogspot.com
Monday, May 19, 2008
SSC #66 Russell County WiFi
One of the things that this county routinely depends upon is its tourist trade. Having a great location near Lake Cumberland has been a big factor in the growth and influence that Russell County has enjoyed.
With the long history of tourism starting with the original sulphur springs that prompted the creation of the town of Russell Springs, long has Russell County received its bread and butter by its ability to draw teeming crowds of summer funseekers and give them a quality vacation spot to get away from the big cities.
Love them or hate them, the tourists are coming. They are planning their trips, they are making their reservations. They are currently arguing with their in-laws over who left who's cooler back at the fishing shack when they were here last year.
But some of these tourists are going to be a little different this time around. They're going to be coming along with a plethora of tiny devices and gadgets. They'll be looking for available power outlets so they can charge laptops while they shop. They will be getting frustrated and inconvenienced by the lack of open WiFi hotspots.
These are people who have become accustomed to widespread free wireless internet access. Malls, gas stations, libraries, coffeeshops, restaurants, hotels... when driving through St. Louis last week it was simply astonishing how many signs all over the place proclaimed free wireless internet. Its getting so saturated that you can likely surf Flickr at the dentist's office while you wait for your root canal.
I actually got the chance to use my laptop "in the wild" at a gas station in Mulberry Grove, Illinois at around 1 AM when we were on the way back from the concert (which was awesome). I simply booted up and connected to their wireless network which had the SSID of "Welcome to CC Food Mart". Using their WiFi I was able to use Google to find a campground nearby where my wife and I could set a tent and catch some much needed rest. And when we got there, the campground had free WiFi. I didn't try to connect to it though, we were pretty worn out.
With more WiFi equipped handheld devices becoming widely used such as Skypephones and Mobile Internet devices a.k.a. "MID's" like the Nokia n810, its getting easier and easier for people to communicate with and through the internet. With two Skypephones at coffee shops on opposite ends of the planet you can bacially have free Starbucks-to-Starbucks communication indefinately. Or at least until all the caffeine gives you an anurism. Alexander Graham Bell would be proud.
The younger generation is really poised to capitalize on this sort of connectedness. With cool phones and MID's becoming the new status symbols of highschools across the nation, these kids are one tech-savvy crowd. And enterprising business owners in Russell County should take note of this. Because these are the tourists of the future. They'll pick a WiFi equipped restaurant over the competition because at that restaurant they can grab some great food AND they can check on their Ebay auctions. And they'll stick around a little longer as well, grabbing a dessert and another cup of coffee while they grab the latest Doppler radar images from Weather.com so they know what the weather will be like for the trip back home.
Hotels you better listen up too! For the future tourist, being able to connect beats out coffee and donuts... er.. *cough* continental breakfast... any day of the week. Being able to offer your customers free WiFi means you are connecting them to their online lives. Creullers just cannot compare.
From the tourists perspective they can email the pictures of lil' Billy catching his first fish to Grandma in less time than it used to take to drop off the film. When on the lake these folk want to feel like they are roughing it. But when they come back to town for supplies, they want the conforting embrace of civilation.
If your business already has open WiFi available, be sure and advertise it loud and proud. It could really be a big boon to your business. If your business doesn't offer open WiFi, perhaps you should consider whether it is something that your customers would appreciate. Its cheaper than you think. If your business already has an internet connection, adding a wireless router can be very inexpensive. Even as little as $50. And the possibility of greatly increasing your business's "coolness" factor for as little as $50 is something you can't afford to disregard.
If you live in Russell County or the surrounding areas and you need help fixing your computer, give me a call at (606) 219-4088 to set up an appointment.
If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at
straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com
If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to
http://straightshootincomputin.blogspot.com
With the long history of tourism starting with the original sulphur springs that prompted the creation of the town of Russell Springs, long has Russell County received its bread and butter by its ability to draw teeming crowds of summer funseekers and give them a quality vacation spot to get away from the big cities.
Love them or hate them, the tourists are coming. They are planning their trips, they are making their reservations. They are currently arguing with their in-laws over who left who's cooler back at the fishing shack when they were here last year.
But some of these tourists are going to be a little different this time around. They're going to be coming along with a plethora of tiny devices and gadgets. They'll be looking for available power outlets so they can charge laptops while they shop. They will be getting frustrated and inconvenienced by the lack of open WiFi hotspots.
These are people who have become accustomed to widespread free wireless internet access. Malls, gas stations, libraries, coffeeshops, restaurants, hotels... when driving through St. Louis last week it was simply astonishing how many signs all over the place proclaimed free wireless internet. Its getting so saturated that you can likely surf Flickr at the dentist's office while you wait for your root canal.
I actually got the chance to use my laptop "in the wild" at a gas station in Mulberry Grove, Illinois at around 1 AM when we were on the way back from the concert (which was awesome). I simply booted up and connected to their wireless network which had the SSID of "Welcome to CC Food Mart". Using their WiFi I was able to use Google to find a campground nearby where my wife and I could set a tent and catch some much needed rest. And when we got there, the campground had free WiFi. I didn't try to connect to it though, we were pretty worn out.
With more WiFi equipped handheld devices becoming widely used such as Skypephones and Mobile Internet devices a.k.a. "MID's" like the Nokia n810, its getting easier and easier for people to communicate with and through the internet. With two Skypephones at coffee shops on opposite ends of the planet you can bacially have free Starbucks-to-Starbucks communication indefinately. Or at least until all the caffeine gives you an anurism. Alexander Graham Bell would be proud.
The younger generation is really poised to capitalize on this sort of connectedness. With cool phones and MID's becoming the new status symbols of highschools across the nation, these kids are one tech-savvy crowd. And enterprising business owners in Russell County should take note of this. Because these are the tourists of the future. They'll pick a WiFi equipped restaurant over the competition because at that restaurant they can grab some great food AND they can check on their Ebay auctions. And they'll stick around a little longer as well, grabbing a dessert and another cup of coffee while they grab the latest Doppler radar images from Weather.com so they know what the weather will be like for the trip back home.
Hotels you better listen up too! For the future tourist, being able to connect beats out coffee and donuts... er.. *cough* continental breakfast... any day of the week. Being able to offer your customers free WiFi means you are connecting them to their online lives. Creullers just cannot compare.
From the tourists perspective they can email the pictures of lil' Billy catching his first fish to Grandma in less time than it used to take to drop off the film. When on the lake these folk want to feel like they are roughing it. But when they come back to town for supplies, they want the conforting embrace of civilation.
If your business already has open WiFi available, be sure and advertise it loud and proud. It could really be a big boon to your business. If your business doesn't offer open WiFi, perhaps you should consider whether it is something that your customers would appreciate. Its cheaper than you think. If your business already has an internet connection, adding a wireless router can be very inexpensive. Even as little as $50. And the possibility of greatly increasing your business's "coolness" factor for as little as $50 is something you can't afford to disregard.
If you live in Russell County or the surrounding areas and you need help fixing your computer, give me a call at (606) 219-4088 to set up an appointment.
If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at
straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com
If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to
http://straightshootincomputin.blogspot.com
Monday, May 12, 2008
SSC #65 Last.fm internet radio
A wise man once said you can fool some of the people all of the time, and you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. If you replace the word "fool" with the word "please" then you have aptly summed up the problems of a music radio network. Unless you are Mr. Average, you have 1.5 kids, and your tastes play along the lines of the common denominator of society, chances are that sometimes the music played on the radio just doesn't suit your tastes. So you switch the channel... and catch the tail end of your favorite song just before the DJ decides that it is time for a 5 minute block of news, weather, and commercials.
Radio has its problems. I really don't envy them their job. They have to do the best they can to please all of their listeners all of the time. This is why they tend to stick to the Top 40 hits from the last 20 years. It is just a way for them to play it safe. But some musical artists don't really get good until you get off of the beaten path and delve into some of the stuff that never saw airtime. And sometimes you really just want to hear something new. There is a lot of great music out there that just isn't getting heard. If this describes your feelings toward music you hear on the radio then Last.fm is for you.
Last.fm is a great new internet radio service that brings a breath of fresh air. Its kind of like a radiostation that is built on the fly to suit your mood. With a single artist name, song name, or even just a keyword that describes what you want to hear, it will line up a playlist of similar music that will play commercial free, non-stop until you turn it off. And controlling it could not possibly be simpler.
You start off by going to www.last.fm and signing up. Don't worry, its free and they don't ask for anything personal, just your name and email address. Once you have an account, you can listen via the flash player on the website or you can download their Windows client. Ubuntu users, fear not, Rythymbox, Ubuntu's default music player already has Last.fm support built in, just look for it under plugins. They also have a stand-alone Linux client availble as well.
When you start it up, you start off with just a text box, and a little drop down menu to select between a tag or an artist. More on tags in a minute. You simply just type in the artist you want to hear and it starts playing. It may not immediately play the artist you entered, but it will eventually, as well as artists that belong in the same music genre. If you type in Tammy Wynette it will fill the list with Tanya Tucker, Conway Twitty and George Jones and more like that. If you put in Megadeth it will put in Pantera, Rob Zombie and more of the same. Much of it will be stuff you've heard, and some of it will be stuff you never knew existed. Myself, being a big Radiohead fan of course, I put in Radiohead and I was introduced to a couple new bands (Mogwai, Muse) that I liked immediately.
Now what if you want to listen to something but you can't really think of an artist to put in? Or perhaps you're going for a specific mood? This is where the "tags" come in. You could put in "easy listening" and thats what you'd get. You could put in an emotion such as "melancholy" or "angry" and you'd get music that represents that feeling. Or you could put in something completely off the wall like "purple" and it would do its best to serve up a playlist of purpley music. And here's the greatest part. If you hear a song you don't like, then with one click of the mouse, you can ban it forever. Alternately you can click the "Love" button and Last.fm will try to play that song more often.
The only downside that I found at all to the whole thing was that occasionally it would throw in a song in another language. But really that is to be expected since it is designed to service the entire planet. And to be fair, the music sounded like what I was looking for, I just couldn't understand the words. But no worries, a quick click of the "Ban" button and it was gone, immediately replaced with something else.
In testing out the limits of the service I tried really hard to stump it, but it seemed to have all the bases covered. From Perry Como to Iron Maiden just about everything I typed in came back with some music. So no matter what your music tastes are, and especially if your music tastes differ from what is served up by the local radio stations, Last.fm is something you should give a try.
I must admit, I'm not sure how well Last.fm works on Dial-up internet access, so if you're a dial-up user and you give it a shot, please do drop me a line and let me know how it works out for you. Enquiring minds want to know.
Until next week, Rock on! ...or not. Its up to you!
If you live in Russell County or the surrounding areas and you need help fixing your computer, give me a call at (606) 219-4088 to set up an appointment.
If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at
straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com
If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to
http://straightshootincomputin.blogspot.com
Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
Radio has its problems. I really don't envy them their job. They have to do the best they can to please all of their listeners all of the time. This is why they tend to stick to the Top 40 hits from the last 20 years. It is just a way for them to play it safe. But some musical artists don't really get good until you get off of the beaten path and delve into some of the stuff that never saw airtime. And sometimes you really just want to hear something new. There is a lot of great music out there that just isn't getting heard. If this describes your feelings toward music you hear on the radio then Last.fm is for you.
Last.fm is a great new internet radio service that brings a breath of fresh air. Its kind of like a radiostation that is built on the fly to suit your mood. With a single artist name, song name, or even just a keyword that describes what you want to hear, it will line up a playlist of similar music that will play commercial free, non-stop until you turn it off. And controlling it could not possibly be simpler.
You start off by going to www.last.fm and signing up. Don't worry, its free and they don't ask for anything personal, just your name and email address. Once you have an account, you can listen via the flash player on the website or you can download their Windows client. Ubuntu users, fear not, Rythymbox, Ubuntu's default music player already has Last.fm support built in, just look for it under plugins. They also have a stand-alone Linux client availble as well.
When you start it up, you start off with just a text box, and a little drop down menu to select between a tag or an artist. More on tags in a minute. You simply just type in the artist you want to hear and it starts playing. It may not immediately play the artist you entered, but it will eventually, as well as artists that belong in the same music genre. If you type in Tammy Wynette it will fill the list with Tanya Tucker, Conway Twitty and George Jones and more like that. If you put in Megadeth it will put in Pantera, Rob Zombie and more of the same. Much of it will be stuff you've heard, and some of it will be stuff you never knew existed. Myself, being a big Radiohead fan of course, I put in Radiohead and I was introduced to a couple new bands (Mogwai, Muse) that I liked immediately.
Now what if you want to listen to something but you can't really think of an artist to put in? Or perhaps you're going for a specific mood? This is where the "tags" come in. You could put in "easy listening" and thats what you'd get. You could put in an emotion such as "melancholy" or "angry" and you'd get music that represents that feeling. Or you could put in something completely off the wall like "purple" and it would do its best to serve up a playlist of purpley music. And here's the greatest part. If you hear a song you don't like, then with one click of the mouse, you can ban it forever. Alternately you can click the "Love" button and Last.fm will try to play that song more often.
The only downside that I found at all to the whole thing was that occasionally it would throw in a song in another language. But really that is to be expected since it is designed to service the entire planet. And to be fair, the music sounded like what I was looking for, I just couldn't understand the words. But no worries, a quick click of the "Ban" button and it was gone, immediately replaced with something else.
In testing out the limits of the service I tried really hard to stump it, but it seemed to have all the bases covered. From Perry Como to Iron Maiden just about everything I typed in came back with some music. So no matter what your music tastes are, and especially if your music tastes differ from what is served up by the local radio stations, Last.fm is something you should give a try.
I must admit, I'm not sure how well Last.fm works on Dial-up internet access, so if you're a dial-up user and you give it a shot, please do drop me a line and let me know how it works out for you. Enquiring minds want to know.
Until next week, Rock on! ...or not. Its up to you!
If you live in Russell County or the surrounding areas and you need help fixing your computer, give me a call at (606) 219-4088 to set up an appointment.
If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at
straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com
If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to
http://straightshootincomputin.blogspot.com
Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
Monday, May 5, 2008
SSC #64 Linux Lament
There's nothing really huge to talk about this week that I'm aware of... I know that's not really the best way to start out a newspaper column, but I'm not one for sensationalism for the sake of sensationalism.
I know I have spent a lot of time hyping Ubuntu up and making it sound really good, but I want you to know that you always get the straight story from me even when it is news I would rather not have to be reporting.
Case in point, I've been installing Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron around town amongst friends and customers for the last little while, and I'm beginning to see through some of the shine and polish. I'm finding that it is better installed freshly as opposed to an upgrade from Gutsy Gibbon. One friend of mine who was using Gutsy has said that his machine has started acting very sluggish and that things that formerly worked very snappy and crisp are now delayed for unknown reasons. I am thinking some of this is a result of the Beta status of Firefox 3. They did some heavy tweaking in it to make it lighter on your RAM and as a result it is almost as though it runs with lower system priority and hence runs sluggishly and even freezes at times. He was also a big fan of XMMS, like myself, and is having trouble making the transition to a replacement music player. I plan to go over and help him to either work out the bugs or perhaps even switch him back to Gutsy, with which he was very happy.
Another friend of mine has a fairly new machine from Dell, and I spent 12 hours yesterday trying to get Hardy Heron correctly configured on it. It installed fine via the Wubi installer, and everything worked great except I couldn't get the wireless network card to work. Also it seemed that every time I installed the nVidia 3D-acceleration drivers then the monitor would be limited to a low resolution of 640x480. Oh, the 3D would work, and the windows would wobble and I could do all the cool special effects, but in 640x480 that just isn't enough to satisfy. In the end I realized that the 3D drivers were working fine, they just didn't properly recognize her flatscreen monitor, and as a result of this failure, they refused to display in resolutions that it could not detect.
After spending all of this time on it and failing to get these basic hardware components to work, I gave up. And a little piece of me died inside. I booted back over to Windows Vista and I removed Ubuntu.
After a brief moment of silence, I went and passed out in exhaustion.
I spend a lot of time in this column touting the benefits of Linux and other Open-Source software. Its something that is important to me. And if you're a computer owner, I feel it should be important to you also. But even I must admit that Linux isn't for everyone. While Linux works on more hardware than any other operating system (this is verifiably true) it doesn't work on ALL hardware. My friend could have spent some money and replaced her graphics card and her wireless card with components that are definitely supported. And if you're really determined to get Linux to work, sometimes parts replacement is the only option.
In a perfect world, all of the hardware manufacturers would release their driver specs openly and Linux would work perfectly with every piece of hardware ever made. But this isn't a perfect world. Companies go out of business and their specs are lost. Some companies refuse to release theirs for fear of losing a market edge. And some companies don't have the choice to open their drivers because contracts signed with other companies for various reasons.
If you have recently tried Ubuntu on my advice and you couldn't get it to work. I apologize and sympathize with the frustrations you felt. Its a great operating system and I love it dearly, but I admit that it isn't perfect and it doesn't work for every machine. If you had some frustrating encounters with Linux, I'd love to hear about them. In some cases I may be able to help.
On the other hand, if you tried Ubuntu and everything worked out and you decided to stick with it, I'd like to hear from you as well. After the discouraging times I've had lately with it, it would be nice to hear some success stories.
I've been thinking a lot lately about starting a LUG. A LUG or Linux User Group is a local club for Linux users to get together and swap stories, tips, and help eachother. The Ubuntu Loco group (basically a Loco group is just like a LUG but its just for Ubuntu users) for Kentucky is located in Lexington, and I'm a member, but I'd kinda like to get something started here in Russell County.
If you'd would be interested in gathering together with other local Linux users, please contact me by the one of the methods outlined below. If there is enough interest, I believe it would be great to have a local community LUG.
Next week we'll be looking at Last.fm and how it has been revolutionizing internet radio, be sure to check it out!
If you live in Russell County or the surrounding areas and you need help fixing your computer, give me a call at (606) 219-4088 to set up an appointment.
If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at
straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com
If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to
http://straightshootincomputin.blogspot.com
Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
I know I have spent a lot of time hyping Ubuntu up and making it sound really good, but I want you to know that you always get the straight story from me even when it is news I would rather not have to be reporting.
Case in point, I've been installing Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron around town amongst friends and customers for the last little while, and I'm beginning to see through some of the shine and polish. I'm finding that it is better installed freshly as opposed to an upgrade from Gutsy Gibbon. One friend of mine who was using Gutsy has said that his machine has started acting very sluggish and that things that formerly worked very snappy and crisp are now delayed for unknown reasons. I am thinking some of this is a result of the Beta status of Firefox 3. They did some heavy tweaking in it to make it lighter on your RAM and as a result it is almost as though it runs with lower system priority and hence runs sluggishly and even freezes at times. He was also a big fan of XMMS, like myself, and is having trouble making the transition to a replacement music player. I plan to go over and help him to either work out the bugs or perhaps even switch him back to Gutsy, with which he was very happy.
Another friend of mine has a fairly new machine from Dell, and I spent 12 hours yesterday trying to get Hardy Heron correctly configured on it. It installed fine via the Wubi installer, and everything worked great except I couldn't get the wireless network card to work. Also it seemed that every time I installed the nVidia 3D-acceleration drivers then the monitor would be limited to a low resolution of 640x480. Oh, the 3D would work, and the windows would wobble and I could do all the cool special effects, but in 640x480 that just isn't enough to satisfy. In the end I realized that the 3D drivers were working fine, they just didn't properly recognize her flatscreen monitor, and as a result of this failure, they refused to display in resolutions that it could not detect.
After spending all of this time on it and failing to get these basic hardware components to work, I gave up. And a little piece of me died inside. I booted back over to Windows Vista and I removed Ubuntu.
After a brief moment of silence, I went and passed out in exhaustion.
I spend a lot of time in this column touting the benefits of Linux and other Open-Source software. Its something that is important to me. And if you're a computer owner, I feel it should be important to you also. But even I must admit that Linux isn't for everyone. While Linux works on more hardware than any other operating system (this is verifiably true) it doesn't work on ALL hardware. My friend could have spent some money and replaced her graphics card and her wireless card with components that are definitely supported. And if you're really determined to get Linux to work, sometimes parts replacement is the only option.
In a perfect world, all of the hardware manufacturers would release their driver specs openly and Linux would work perfectly with every piece of hardware ever made. But this isn't a perfect world. Companies go out of business and their specs are lost. Some companies refuse to release theirs for fear of losing a market edge. And some companies don't have the choice to open their drivers because contracts signed with other companies for various reasons.
If you have recently tried Ubuntu on my advice and you couldn't get it to work. I apologize and sympathize with the frustrations you felt. Its a great operating system and I love it dearly, but I admit that it isn't perfect and it doesn't work for every machine. If you had some frustrating encounters with Linux, I'd love to hear about them. In some cases I may be able to help.
On the other hand, if you tried Ubuntu and everything worked out and you decided to stick with it, I'd like to hear from you as well. After the discouraging times I've had lately with it, it would be nice to hear some success stories.
I've been thinking a lot lately about starting a LUG. A LUG or Linux User Group is a local club for Linux users to get together and swap stories, tips, and help eachother. The Ubuntu Loco group (basically a Loco group is just like a LUG but its just for Ubuntu users) for Kentucky is located in Lexington, and I'm a member, but I'd kinda like to get something started here in Russell County.
If you'd would be interested in gathering together with other local Linux users, please contact me by the one of the methods outlined below. If there is enough interest, I believe it would be great to have a local community LUG.
Next week we'll be looking at Last.fm and how it has been revolutionizing internet radio, be sure to check it out!
If you live in Russell County or the surrounding areas and you need help fixing your computer, give me a call at (606) 219-4088 to set up an appointment.
If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at
straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com
If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to
http://straightshootincomputin.blogspot.com
Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
SSC #63 Hardy Heron First Look!
Wow, its been a pretty exciting week for Linux fans. Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron was released last week, and I downloaded the LiveCD and set about testing out the new Wubi installer on the only computer in my house that runs Windows XP. I also did an upgrade on my laptop via the built-in upgrade process.
First lemme talk about the Wubi install. Essentially I just put the newly burnt Ubuntu CD into the computer while it was running Windows XP and it popped up a neat little window asking me if I wanted to reboot and try it out in Live mode, or if I wanted to install it inside of Windows. I selected the option to install within Windows and was greeted with a second screen, which I will be including in this article. Here I made a mistake. I put in a password that was only a single digit long. The installation seemed to progress properly until it got to the point where it wanted to reboot. Upon rebooting it went into a LiveCD session off of the Wubi install. I realized this wasn't correct almost immediately. So rebooting back to Windows, I went into the Control Panel and clicked on Add/Remove Programs. Ubuntu was there on the list and two clicks later it was removed.
I started up the Wubi install again and this time I put in a password of 8 letters (it turns out you need at least a six-letter password) and commenced the installation a second time. This time Ubuntu installed flawlessly and I was able to do all of the normal customizations that I like to do just like a normal Ubuntu install.
Booting back to Windows was easy, in fact it was the default option. To clarify, all you have to do to boot into Windows is just turn your machine on. There is a menu to select between Ubuntu and Windows when it first starts up and if you don't select a choice, it will automatically boot into Windows in about 10 seconds or so.
From what I hear, it doesn't go so easily on Windows Vista machines. Apparently Microsoft has done something in an attempt to block the Wubi installer by ejecting the CD during the installation process. To get around this, if you're a Vista user, you copy the Wubi.exe file from the CD to someplace on your computer and start it from there. This will allow you to bypass the little MS tripwire and install Ubuntu via Wubi.
All in all I consider the Wubi installer to be a success. A few bugs to work out for consistency's sake, but it installed fine and it uninstalled cleanly. I just wish it had a warning about expected password length.
My laptop upgrade went well, all my software was updated to the newest versions and my custom wallpaper and application settings were all left alone. I didn't even have to reconfigure my wireless card. One thing that was a little disappointing to me was the loss of XMMS, which happens to be one of my favorite audio players. Apparently it is no longer supported by Ubuntu. Thankfully there are about 4 or 5 clones of it (XMMS itself is a clone of the Windows program Winamp) and I've started using Audacious, which looks exactly like XMMS did, but has some advanced features added.
I haven't yet gotten a chance to mess with the Pulse Audio other than to verify that it was indeed there. I did notice that while it is installed by default, the Volume Control application doesn't look any different from before. So I am guessing if you want to utilize all of the special controls then a quick download of some Pulse Audio utilities from Synaptic Package Manager is probably neccessary. For the most part it is invisible, but when I get into some music making later on I believe I will be very happy that it is already installed and configured properly.
Something else I noticed was that on the Wubi install, Open Office was not a full install. It had the word processor and spreadsheet but had left out the database and a couple of the other elements. Of course installing the rest of it was painless and quick. Alternately, on my laptop, which already had a full Open Office install, it continued to have the full installation which was upgraded to the latest version. Just something to be aware of for those of you trying it out via Wubi. If you need the full office suite, be sure to go to "Add / Remove" at the bottom of the Applications toolbar and add it in.
For users wanting to do a full install (not via Wubi) I noticed that they had changed the timezone selection process a little. Where before was a zoomable map with points to select a city that shares the same timezone as your own, now they have a hyper-sensitive auto-zooming map that does the same job, but somehow seems to make it harder. I was vastly disappointed in this change and jumped into the #ubuntu chat room--which was a complete mad house with over 1600 users logged in--to let them know how I felt. I was responded to by a user named Evand who asked me how I thought it SHOULD have been. After expounding upon the flaws and should-have-beens he told me I should go and make a bug report. Upon doing this, I found that Evand was the programmer responsible for that portion of the installer. So he was basically asking me to make a list of things for him to change to make it better. That was pretty awesome. Perhaps Evand will have improved it by the time Intrepid Ibex comes out.
If you tried Ubuntu in the past but were stopped by wireless support issues, well (Mr. Moss), from all appearances, Hardy has just about the same wireless support as the last version. There are minor improvements, but nothing really big. If you card was supposed to be supported but for some reason you couldn't get it to work, you may have better luck with Hardy. If your card wasn't supported before, it is likely not supported now. Although I have been hearing some faint rumors of something major going on with wireless drivers, nothing concrete has manifested as of yet. I'll be sure to let you know when something does.
All in all, I think Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron is a good strong release. It doesn't do the dishes or bring back the dead, but its a solid operating system that does more than the last version did while also being easier to install than it has ever been before. If you're at all curious about Linux, I invite you to go to www.Ubuntu.com and order a CD, or alternately you could just go to http://wubi-installer.org/ and download Wubi which will then download the ISO and install Ubuntu automagically without ever needing to burn a disc.
If you live in Russell County or the surrounding areas and you need help fixing your computer, give me a call at (606) 219-4088 to set up an appointment.
If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at
straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com
If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to
http://straightshootincomputin.blogspot.com
Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
First lemme talk about the Wubi install. Essentially I just put the newly burnt Ubuntu CD into the computer while it was running Windows XP and it popped up a neat little window asking me if I wanted to reboot and try it out in Live mode, or if I wanted to install it inside of Windows. I selected the option to install within Windows and was greeted with a second screen, which I will be including in this article. Here I made a mistake. I put in a password that was only a single digit long. The installation seemed to progress properly until it got to the point where it wanted to reboot. Upon rebooting it went into a LiveCD session off of the Wubi install. I realized this wasn't correct almost immediately. So rebooting back to Windows, I went into the Control Panel and clicked on Add/Remove Programs. Ubuntu was there on the list and two clicks later it was removed.
I started up the Wubi install again and this time I put in a password of 8 letters (it turns out you need at least a six-letter password) and commenced the installation a second time. This time Ubuntu installed flawlessly and I was able to do all of the normal customizations that I like to do just like a normal Ubuntu install.
Booting back to Windows was easy, in fact it was the default option. To clarify, all you have to do to boot into Windows is just turn your machine on. There is a menu to select between Ubuntu and Windows when it first starts up and if you don't select a choice, it will automatically boot into Windows in about 10 seconds or so.
From what I hear, it doesn't go so easily on Windows Vista machines. Apparently Microsoft has done something in an attempt to block the Wubi installer by ejecting the CD during the installation process. To get around this, if you're a Vista user, you copy the Wubi.exe file from the CD to someplace on your computer and start it from there. This will allow you to bypass the little MS tripwire and install Ubuntu via Wubi.
All in all I consider the Wubi installer to be a success. A few bugs to work out for consistency's sake, but it installed fine and it uninstalled cleanly. I just wish it had a warning about expected password length.
My laptop upgrade went well, all my software was updated to the newest versions and my custom wallpaper and application settings were all left alone. I didn't even have to reconfigure my wireless card. One thing that was a little disappointing to me was the loss of XMMS, which happens to be one of my favorite audio players. Apparently it is no longer supported by Ubuntu. Thankfully there are about 4 or 5 clones of it (XMMS itself is a clone of the Windows program Winamp) and I've started using Audacious, which looks exactly like XMMS did, but has some advanced features added.
I haven't yet gotten a chance to mess with the Pulse Audio other than to verify that it was indeed there. I did notice that while it is installed by default, the Volume Control application doesn't look any different from before. So I am guessing if you want to utilize all of the special controls then a quick download of some Pulse Audio utilities from Synaptic Package Manager is probably neccessary. For the most part it is invisible, but when I get into some music making later on I believe I will be very happy that it is already installed and configured properly.
Something else I noticed was that on the Wubi install, Open Office was not a full install. It had the word processor and spreadsheet but had left out the database and a couple of the other elements. Of course installing the rest of it was painless and quick. Alternately, on my laptop, which already had a full Open Office install, it continued to have the full installation which was upgraded to the latest version. Just something to be aware of for those of you trying it out via Wubi. If you need the full office suite, be sure to go to "Add / Remove" at the bottom of the Applications toolbar and add it in.
For users wanting to do a full install (not via Wubi) I noticed that they had changed the timezone selection process a little. Where before was a zoomable map with points to select a city that shares the same timezone as your own, now they have a hyper-sensitive auto-zooming map that does the same job, but somehow seems to make it harder. I was vastly disappointed in this change and jumped into the #ubuntu chat room--which was a complete mad house with over 1600 users logged in--to let them know how I felt. I was responded to by a user named Evand who asked me how I thought it SHOULD have been. After expounding upon the flaws and should-have-beens he told me I should go and make a bug report. Upon doing this, I found that Evand was the programmer responsible for that portion of the installer. So he was basically asking me to make a list of things for him to change to make it better. That was pretty awesome. Perhaps Evand will have improved it by the time Intrepid Ibex comes out.
If you tried Ubuntu in the past but were stopped by wireless support issues, well (Mr. Moss), from all appearances, Hardy has just about the same wireless support as the last version. There are minor improvements, but nothing really big. If you card was supposed to be supported but for some reason you couldn't get it to work, you may have better luck with Hardy. If your card wasn't supported before, it is likely not supported now. Although I have been hearing some faint rumors of something major going on with wireless drivers, nothing concrete has manifested as of yet. I'll be sure to let you know when something does.
All in all, I think Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron is a good strong release. It doesn't do the dishes or bring back the dead, but its a solid operating system that does more than the last version did while also being easier to install than it has ever been before. If you're at all curious about Linux, I invite you to go to www.Ubuntu.com and order a CD, or alternately you could just go to http://wubi-installer.org/ and download Wubi which will then download the ISO and install Ubuntu automagically without ever needing to burn a disc.
If you live in Russell County or the surrounding areas and you need help fixing your computer, give me a call at (606) 219-4088 to set up an appointment.
If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at
straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com
If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to
http://straightshootincomputin.blogspot.com
Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
SSC #62 Ubuntu Linux 8.04 Hardy Heron LTS release
By the time this is in print, the new version of Ubuntu Linux, codenamed Hardy Heron will be available. This new version 8.04 is an LTS (Long Term Support) version and as such will be supported with security updates until 2011.
This new version has loads of great new features and improvements that are sure to impress.
Included in 8.04 is the Pulse Audio Sound Server. This software layer audio proxy "makes it possible to mix audio from multiple applications together, assign audio from individual applications to specific sound cards, adjust volume levels of each individual application, and perform advanced operations on audio streams such as transferring the audio to another computer or changing sample formats and channel counts."
What this means is that audio aficionados will be able to have fine control over what where and how audio is used inside the system and how it outputs as well.
Another new feature, Likewise Open, available from the Universe repository, enables seamless integration of Ubuntu within an Active Directory network. Users can use their AD credentials to log onto Ubuntu machines and access any kerberized services provided by an Ubuntu server. Thats even greek to ME. But if your a fan of Active Directory, this could be a deal maker for you.
From the Ubuntu site: 'KVM is now a fully maintained option for virtualization, libvirt and virtmanager have also been integrated in Ubuntu, allowing for easy guest creation and basic management of virtual machines out of the box. Virt-manager can be used to administer guests on a remote server.'
What this means is you can easily create a virtual machine within Ubuntu in which to install guest operating systems. Not familiar with Virtual Machines? Its a pretty hot topic right now in the tech world. A virtual machine is basically a 'pretend' computer that is installed inside of your real computer. This lets you do cool things like install Adobe Photoshop into Windows XP that is running INSIDE a window in Ubuntu. Head scrambled? Its not as scary as it sounds, just unexpected. Its not something the average user expects a computer to be able to do. But it works well provided you have decent hardware.
"There is a new installation option for Windows users. Wubi allows users to install and uninstall Ubuntu like any other Windows application. It does not require a dedicated partition, nor does it affect the existing bootloader, yet users can experience a dual-boot setup almost identical to a full installation. Wubi works with a physical CD or in stand-alone mode, by downloading an appropriate ISO to install from. It can be found on the root of the CD as Wubi.exe. A full installation within a dedicated partition is still recommended (for permanent installations), but Wubi is a great way to try Ubuntu for a few days and weeks before committing dedicated disk resources."
This is the thing that has me the most excited. If you are kinda curious about Ubuntu Linux but not ready to jump in head first, this allows you to install Ubuntu into a folder within your Windows installation, and if for some reason you don't like it (perish the thought) you can quickly and easily remove it completely via the Add/Remove Programs function in the Windows Control Panel. Wax on, wax off.
If you DO really like it, then with the same exact disk you can boot into the LiveCD session and repartition your harddrives and install it permanently. I myself will be attempting both kinds of installs and I'll let you all know how it goes next week with my First Look at Ubuntu 8.04.
There are lots more features to talk about, but for this week I'm going to keep this pretty short. So tune in next week and get the full scoop!
I would also like to alleviate any confusion about whether or not I do computer repair work. Yes I do in-home computer repair and I try to keep my rates low. Fixing your computer shouldn't break the bank.
Its come to my attention that my article header doesn't quite catch the eye like I wanted it to, so I'll be redesigning it in the next few weeks to try to find something that does the job a little better. So when you think I've gotten it right, feel free to write in and tell me so. And if you think you can do a better header, feel free to send submissions to the email address below.
If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at
straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com
If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to
http://straightshootincomputin.blogspot.com
Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
This new version has loads of great new features and improvements that are sure to impress.
Included in 8.04 is the Pulse Audio Sound Server. This software layer audio proxy "makes it possible to mix audio from multiple applications together, assign audio from individual applications to specific sound cards, adjust volume levels of each individual application, and perform advanced operations on audio streams such as transferring the audio to another computer or changing sample formats and channel counts."
What this means is that audio aficionados will be able to have fine control over what where and how audio is used inside the system and how it outputs as well.
Another new feature, Likewise Open, available from the Universe repository, enables seamless integration of Ubuntu within an Active Directory network. Users can use their AD credentials to log onto Ubuntu machines and access any kerberized services provided by an Ubuntu server. Thats even greek to ME. But if your a fan of Active Directory, this could be a deal maker for you.
From the Ubuntu site: 'KVM is now a fully maintained option for virtualization, libvirt and virtmanager have also been integrated in Ubuntu, allowing for easy guest creation and basic management of virtual machines out of the box. Virt-manager can be used to administer guests on a remote server.'
What this means is you can easily create a virtual machine within Ubuntu in which to install guest operating systems. Not familiar with Virtual Machines? Its a pretty hot topic right now in the tech world. A virtual machine is basically a 'pretend' computer that is installed inside of your real computer. This lets you do cool things like install Adobe Photoshop into Windows XP that is running INSIDE a window in Ubuntu. Head scrambled? Its not as scary as it sounds, just unexpected. Its not something the average user expects a computer to be able to do. But it works well provided you have decent hardware.
"There is a new installation option for Windows users. Wubi allows users to install and uninstall Ubuntu like any other Windows application. It does not require a dedicated partition, nor does it affect the existing bootloader, yet users can experience a dual-boot setup almost identical to a full installation. Wubi works with a physical CD or in stand-alone mode, by downloading an appropriate ISO to install from. It can be found on the root of the CD as Wubi.exe. A full installation within a dedicated partition is still recommended (for permanent installations), but Wubi is a great way to try Ubuntu for a few days and weeks before committing dedicated disk resources."
This is the thing that has me the most excited. If you are kinda curious about Ubuntu Linux but not ready to jump in head first, this allows you to install Ubuntu into a folder within your Windows installation, and if for some reason you don't like it (perish the thought) you can quickly and easily remove it completely via the Add/Remove Programs function in the Windows Control Panel. Wax on, wax off.
If you DO really like it, then with the same exact disk you can boot into the LiveCD session and repartition your harddrives and install it permanently. I myself will be attempting both kinds of installs and I'll let you all know how it goes next week with my First Look at Ubuntu 8.04.
There are lots more features to talk about, but for this week I'm going to keep this pretty short. So tune in next week and get the full scoop!
I would also like to alleviate any confusion about whether or not I do computer repair work. Yes I do in-home computer repair and I try to keep my rates low. Fixing your computer shouldn't break the bank.
Its come to my attention that my article header doesn't quite catch the eye like I wanted it to, so I'll be redesigning it in the next few weeks to try to find something that does the job a little better. So when you think I've gotten it right, feel free to write in and tell me so. And if you think you can do a better header, feel free to send submissions to the email address below.
If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at
straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com
If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to
http://straightshootincomputin.blogspot.com
Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
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Vote for my Ubuntu Brainstorm Idea!!!
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Join Ubuntu Brainstorm and vote!
