A Piece Of Me

PCLinuxOS, I have my eye on you

2010-04-24T10:41:00.002+12:00

Very, very interesting. I must say, as a KDE user, after experiencing OpenSuse, I will probably never use Kubuntu until I hear consistent reports that it provides a better experience than OpenSuse. I must say though, the mention of a performance boost in PCLinuxOS and the fact that the author says he has tried OpenSuse (though he does not say what version) has me quite interested. I always suspected that KDE was being held back by other parts of the system and this review confirms my suspicions.

I was planning on trying Win7 for the games, but I think instead I will give this one a shot on a separate partition. Compare it to OpenSuse 11.2, which I have absolutely no complaints about at the moment, except that the UI does get a little jerky when you're moving multiple GBs from various sources on an NTFS partition onto an EXT4 one. Edge case though that I'm willing to live with. However, if PCLinuxOS can nail that part, it will go a long way to convincing me to switch. If it can give me easy to use Samba administration in addition, I will switch. OpenSuse is great, but if I want a no frills setup, the simplest way is still to write a bare bones config file. Finally, if it can install the drivers for my all-in-one Brother DCP-115C (because there are no linux drivers for it - you need to use the DCP-220C drivers instead), label me an evangelist.

It is interesting how things come full circle, even in technology: I started off on Mandrake, moved to RedHat, then to SuseLinux, on to Linux from scratch, then to Debian, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Linux Mint and finally OpenSuse. Having used and lived with each distro, I find myself heading back to a derivative of what I started off with :)

A little tip about Firefox

2010-02-12T08:58:00.002+13:00

I use Firefox a lot. I use it because I like the way it works. I also use it because I like the way things I don't know about yet work.

Fan boy you say? Think about it, I say. Here's an example:

I know that pressing the Control key (I'm on a PC) and clicking a link will open that link in a new tab without switching to the new tab. I use it all the time. What I just found out was that holding Control down and clicking the Back or Forward buttons does the same. I like that. Imagine one of those crazy web sites where you have to fill in a form, submit it and then get some results. You like the results. You press the back button to get back to the original page because you want the link to email out to those you want to share it with. When you press Forward again, depending on the site, there is a good chance you may never get back to the results again. Ctrl+Back lets me work in a new tab without affecting the results I already have. Simple. Effective.

And that's my tip of the day to share with you.

Software Installation on Linux

2009-06-26T08:05:00.002+12:00

Software is only as good as how its perceived to be. The perception of its usefulness is controlled by the user. These days, the user really does not care if the software installation is "user specific" or not. From a user's point of view, it needs to work. That's it.

As a user who doesn't care about how the system works, if you're prompted to enter a password for software installation, that's one more dialog box you have to deal with. If software could be installed on a per user basis, as a user, you'd still see a dialog box that asks you if you want to install it for you or for everyone. Now, does that sound familiar? Windows does it. How many times have you actually stopped to think about the merits vs the demerits of installing the software for others when you answered that question? That's your answer for you right there - the real problem is the additional step of communication required.

What is needed is an App Store for Linux that is distribution agnostic. From a user's point of view, they need one place to search for "an application that does what they want". They need one way to install it. Finally, they need to know how they can access the application they have installed.

What I'm essentially talking about here is reducing the learning curve for Linux. A byproduct of this effort will be making distributions more compatible. Nintendo and Apple have both proven that if you want real market growth, you need to convert new users. Easing installation of applications on Linux will go a long way towards that. What will also help is integrating the functionality of websites that provide the names to the Linux equivalents of popular Windows and Mac software from within the same application installation search box.

A new user is most likely to look for "photoshop for linux" if they're after a good photo editing suite. If they get results that show them equivalents and how they have been rated by others, that will go a long way into boosting the user's confidence that they might actually be able to get what they want done using Krita or The Gimp.

Have your cake and eat it too

2009-05-27T07:51:00.002+12:00

If you're building a PC right now, the AMD/Intel choice essentially comes down to two things - your budget and how often you would want to upgrade. I'm assuming here that you want the fastest processing power your budget can buy.

Until now, if speed was a real priority, you were going the Intel i7 route. If you wanted to be reasonably future proof, you'd go the AMD socket AM3 route and sacrifice a little speed for long term compatibility.

Phoronix have posted a series of benchmarks that say that an overclocked AMD Phenom II X3 710 is very similar in performance to an Intel Core i7 920. Further, the overlocking is easy - no hardcore stuff. You can get i7 performance out of an X3 710. The price difference between the two processors alone is about USD100. This is not counting the difference between motherboard costs. Suffice it to say that your budget will not be affected that much - you get the speed of an i7 with the longevity of the AM3 socket with some simple overclocking.

Now you tell me - isn't that cool?

Microsoft Office 2007's OpenOffice Support

2009-05-21T09:15:00.005+12:00

In a word - destructive. Microsoft might claim that Office 2007 has support for OpenOffice documents. Here are the facts:

MS Excel 2007 removes formulas from an OpenOffice spreadsheet
Microsoft Office 2007 does not support password protected OpenOffice files.
Microsoft Office 2007 does not support tracked changes in OpenOffice files.

If you're the type of person who, like me, believes in the details, here's a PDF for you. Here is the press release from the ODF Alliance about this issue.

So if you're about to buy Microsoft Office 2007 because you think it will allow you to edit both MS Office and OpenOffice documents perfectly, you know now better.

There was a suggestion on Slashdot not too long ago about the need for an ODF Acid Test. I think its right on the money and the sooner we have one, the better. The fact that Microsoft were even able to get away with it to date points to a problem. There is lack of a transparent mechanism to measure ODF standards compliance. The root of the problem needs to be addressed and an ODF Acid Test is the answer.

Convince me Windows 7 is worth it

2009-04-08T08:40:00.006+12:00

Windows 7 is expected to be better than Windows Vista. What I’d like to see are real world performance comparisons with Windows XP. What’s keeping me away from upgrading XP are two things: performance and DRM. So Windows 7 would have to improve on both fronts.

Before you ask, between work and home, on a daily basis, I use flavours of Windows from XP Home to Vista Ultimate, Mac OS X Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard beta and 3 of the latest Linux distros. I do believe that’s sufficient grounds for me to compare.

Guess which ones I end up using the most? Ubuntu with KDE 4.2.2 and Mac OS X Leopard. I’m sorry, but Windows anything looks dated in comparison. The Mac has its uses and between the two, the only place I cannot escape using Windows is to play games (for now). I have found that has actually started affecting the games I choose to buy - I will not buy a game that does not support Linux, unless I really really want it (going by the quality of games these days, that is a rarity). Sure, I’ll fire up Windows to check out a demo if I don’t have anything else to do, but that’s a rarity too.

Honestly, I do not see the need for Windows these days. I have even stopped using Picasa because digiKam is so amazing - it has automatic DSLR lens correction built in! So unless anybody can give me a damn solid reason for Windows 7, I’m going to keep using my combination of Linux (for the most part) and the Mac (for my mobile computing) and will keep recommending that combination to everyone I meet.

A Linux App Store?

2009-02-02T09:27:00.003+13:00

This is just an idea, but one whose time might have come. Take the packaging systems that Linux supports and add the ability to purchase software from within it. So in a typical use case, you could filter the applications available in your package manager based on whether you need to pay for them or not, you can choose the applications you'd like to install, pay for ones you need to and download and install in one step. Wouldn't that rule?

There are a lot of side effects, one being that the advantage "free" applications have right now would vanish - that of all being available and searchable from one point. Then there's regulating the descriptions and claims of the commercial software packages - what qualifies as a description and what qualifies as an ad? Speaking of ads, do you let them on? God no! But then with companies, that's a hard sell. How would you do it?

I think the answer is similar to the question, "How do you know which websites you can trust?". I think the solution is similar too - let the community (and the customers) regulate it based on ratings, popularity, etc. Guess what? We already have that built in! Well in Ubuntu at least (that's based on Debian - I'm not sure about other packaging systems though I would be surprised if they did not have something similar).

If any of you guys at Ubuntu are reading this...please do try it out. It has the huge potential of funding other open source projects. Take a small percentage from the application sales (Apple and Android take 30%). Make it self sustaining. Put the profits into the open source projects that matter.

I need a better game review site

2009-01-13T09:15:00.003+13:00

I used to use gamespot, ign and gamespy to decide what games I'd like to try out and then buy. Lately, these sites (like a lot of others) have been recommending games that I simply don't enjoy. Well, maybe I've started out at the middle. Let me introduce myself.

I'm a PC gamer. I'm a techie. I've been playing games for the last 15 years. That means, I've played most of the best games in the last 15 years and I've loved every minute of them. Has that raised the bar for what I consider a good game? I'd like to think so. Does the fact that its really hard to find a good game that I don't get tired of soon mean that the quality of games has dropped? I hope not and I don't think so. Maybe the quality of games on average has dropped due to the increased volume of those mass produced titles that your local game stores are so full of. But there are still classics being made today. That brings me back to my problem.

How do I find them? It would seem the big three's recommendations have been diluted somewhat. What I'm looking for are games that I find truly enjoyable to play. Nowadays, I find myself having to look at about 20 sites and read tons of reviews before deciding on a game. I'm simply filtering out the noise through averaging, nothing more. I don't care about quantity and the top 10 lists. I want quality. I have a life outside games and would be really grateful for a site that really picks out the diamonds from the dung.

Why do I use Linux?

2008-08-29T09:40:00.003+12:00

Just got me thinking and I decided to publish my thoughts.

Two main reasons:
1) I do not like lock-in - being forced to stick with one company's products and services.
2) I value my freedom of choice - I do not like my computing experience being directed by some company's vision and marketing goals.

For me to use Linux, I needed to have these conditions satisfied for my three main uses for a computer : Internet, Office & Gaming

First, Microsoft controlled the way I browsed the Internet by forcing me to use Internet Explorer - sites that did not work in Internet Explorer were a pain to navigate.Firefox helped me out of that hole - I could finally browse the Internet and expect the same experience on any operating system Firefox would run on. Google sweetened the deal because I now had a search engine that was not controlled by Microsoft giving me search results that were really useful. Google has gone on to give me more and more reason use it. However, the moment Google becomes another Microsoft is the day I stop using it. Anyway, I was now free as far as browsing the Internet went.

Microsoft still forced me to use Windows - because I had to use MS Office for stuff like resumes, spreadsheets, presentations and the like. OpenOffice helped me out there. I was no longer tied to Windows on the Office front, because OpenOffice worked on Linux as well. Those same documents would open without formatting changes and I could easily adapt my limited MS Office skills to work with OpenOffice - the cost to benefit ratio made it worth it. I was now free on the Office front.

I have always been a gamer - a casual one. Gaming helps me relax and is fairly important to me - I designed my computer so it could cope with the demands of the latest games. However, at this point in time, I am still forced to use Windows to play any game I want to. I hate being in this position and am therefore forced to keep Windows around for when I want to play a game. I do not have the skills to help change the way games work on Linux, but I do have some money and I will try to help the cause the only way I can : by buying video cards from whichever manufacturer gives me drivers that work well with Linux (NVIDIA: I'm looking in your direction - your drivers messed up KDE for a lot of people) and only buying games that also work on Linux. I do not have a lot of money to throw around and I am a statistic, but when multiplied enough, any statistic becomes significant - If enough of us do this, it will eventually change the market and force game companies to take notice and start releasing games that work on Linux as well.

At this point, I must mention id software, a company that has been releasing games for Linux. The game I'm currently playing (and really enjoying) is Quake Wars on Linux. In fact, I'm enjoying it so much that I hardly play any other game. So thank you id, for letting us gamers play on Linux. I will be buying more of your games in the future.

So that's why I'm now using Linux, in a very big nutshell. There are a lot more reasons, but these are the ones that matter the most to me. If you are a developer involved in an open source project, I thank you for helping to make my time at the computer so much more enjoyable.

Do you "take a decision", "make a decision", or decide?

2008-08-18T09:13:00.002+12:00

Well, I've heard English spoken in India, the United States, the U.K. and New Zealand. I've heard all three forms being used. Now I'm no grammar nazi nor am I a grammar expert, but which one is correct english? According to Google, all three. General opinion seems to be that "make a decision" is heard more in American English and "take a decision" in British English ("decide" is used across the board). However, "take a decision" is definitely the most rare of the three.

I also came across a Grammarphobia blog entry that seems to prefer "make a decision".

Here's my take on all three used in a simple question:

"Why don't you take a decision?"
"Why don't you make a decision?"
"Why don't you decide?"

This does not sound logical to me. Unless I'm wrong, you can only take something that's been created or conceived of already. A decision does not exist until you create it by deciding, so how can you take it? This only makes sense if someone has already made the decision for you and you're taking the decision and going with it. But "take a decision"? Doesn't sound right. I could definitely see it being used in corporate circles, but I do not agree with its usage.
Implies you're the person who's going to weigh the options and create a course of action based on what you see. That sounds a little better to me.
Pretty much the same as 2, but in my opinion, is more efficient because you're saying more in less words.

I wouldn't take a decision. I wouldn't make a decision. I would decide.

Tense and other factors can definitely affect which of these three are preferable. I only question them in their current form.

Extortion I tell you!

2008-07-08T12:59:00.005+12:00

So I'm back from WWDC, Steve Jobs' promise that the iPhone will not cost more than $199 still fresh in my memory and waiting for Vodafone, New Zealand to announce their pricing for iPhone plans, because, well, everyone who isn't an idiot knows that Apple will be getting a cut from the cell phone carrier too.

Well, today Vodafone put their plans up. Guess how much you will have to pay to get the iPhone for $199? $250/month! I'm sorry Steve, I like your iPhone, your AppStore and all its features, but if this is what you really meant at your keynote, I'm staying well away from your device because it's just not worth it. It looks like you just pushed the price up. That leaves me with a problem - what new phone should I buy? (because I do need one)

You know what? Maybe I'll go with a phone where nothing is hidden. I mean nothing. I can get it for US$400 and then decide what plan I want. Yes, it has GPS built-in. Yes, it knows when its being tilted. Yes, it has a touch screen. Yes, I can add however many ring tones I like. Yes, I can make my own applications for it (and I will). No, it doesn't have 3G, but then, Wi-fi is good enough for me...and yes, it has 802.11g. It doesn't look as cool, but it works and by the time I have to buy a new phone again, the playing field will be a lot more even.

I think, Steve, for all practical purposes, you can take New Zealand off the list of countries that you will be selling the iPhone in.

The Amazing Browser called Firefox 3

2008-07-01T09:25:00.006+12:00

Firefox 3 has been released. Over 26 Million downloads to date. Lots of new stuff under the hood. That new stuff allows for some cool new addons. Here are the 3 addons I cannot live without:

Adblock Plus : Block most of those annoying popups and banners. I find the internet is just so much more enjoyable with this add-on installed. I tell Adblock Plus to allow text based ads, because they don't get in the way, are usually relevant to site content and because I can copy and paste any information I find in an ad to say, an email.
Web of Trust : This one's a beauty - it rates the sites you visit based on universal trafiic light colors - red = dangerous, yellow = caution and green = good/safe. It even rates things like vendor reliability - how else would you have ANY clue as to whether the place you're buying stuff from online has a good reputation or not? Best of all, its community driven, so you know the ratings are coming from other users of the site. Finally, if you want to know why a site has been rated the way it has, there are comments and more details available. In my opinion, this is exactly what is needed.
Foxmarks Bookmarks Synchronizer : An amazingly simple and elegant solution to the problem of keeping your bookmarks the same across the different computers you use everyday. I have several Firefox installations and I move between them several times a day. If I add, update or delete a bookmark on any machine, I know that when I start Firefox on one of my other machines, that change will be reflected in its bookmarks. I don't have to think about it and I like it that way. If I ever need to access my bookmarks outside these 3 computers, well then I can sign into my.foxmarks.com and they are available to me. Yes, I know services like StumbleUpon are available and have been for some time. Have you seen the StumbleUpon add-on? It adds a toolbar and takes up screen real estate. The foxmarks add-on stands out because it does its job in the background. Interesting, isn't it?

Now, there are several other extremely useful add-ons ( I have about 23 installed right now ). Each has its place and makes one little part of using the internet that much more enjoyable. The three in this list are what I consider my "survival pack" - the first two keeping me away from the rubbish on the net and the third serves as my map.