Justin X

Analog TV is gone now. For those of us with cable, satellite, fios, TIVO — well, we won’t even notice. All those systems switched to digital a long time ago. If you were getting TV via antenna you hopefully have a converter box by now All this cost $$$ for anyone who isn’t able to get a free converter box. Here’s the deal: the poverty sticken who can’t afford cable or satellite probably won’t be able to afford to get the box. The government is only giving away so many…. To add to this hurricane season just started. All those old cheap black and white or color portable TVs that many of us used as hurricane supplies will no longer work. That means more $$$$

The other day I went to a book store and looked through the computer books. The were all at least a version or 2 behind on all the Linux software books. With new versions of just about everything coming out every 6 months it’s hard to keep up. My dad got a subscription to the newspaper but he’s also been reading the news online. All the news in the paper was already old by the time he read it in print.

Here’s the good news: you can get all kinds of info online. Here’s the bad news: print media is becoming seen as old and stale. Even Craig Ferguson made a joke the other day that you could tell he was old because he “picked up a copy of the Rolling Stone.” Then he air-typed to show that the “kids” were all getting everything from the net these days. The problem is that the print world is often more reliable and employs a lot of people.

The other problem is in reading the media. The reading devices are just too pricey right now to be mainstream. Think about this: I can read a magazine and then pass it to someone else to read when I’m done. Then I can read a book. If all of my media is on a device like a Kindle…sharing is a little hard unless there is more than one Kindle in the house. That means $$$$$

In less than 20 minutes analog TV will be no more. Goodbye 20th century…

Windows 7 Under Construction

So, I just finished installing the new Ubuntu on my office computer.   I had a license for Vista from another computer but it wouldn’t install.  I wanted to use the copy of XP I put on it for another computer so I gave up on having Windows on the computer at all.  That is….until now.  It seems that Microsoft just released release candidate 1 for free until June 2010.  Now when June 2010 hits it will start doing things to let you know it will stop working soon.

You do need a license for it but Microsoft is providing them for free.  The only catch I could find was that they required a Windows Live ID (Microsoft Passport).  I’m not sure if there will be any limit (like one per windows live id) or not.

The only thing I’m afraid of with this new Windows is the death of XP.  Vista is OK but I think Windows 7 will be better.  It’s XP that I will miss.  XP runs better on slightly older machines.  The only reasons my old laptop is running Ubuntu rather than XP are licensing (I wanted to use that copy of XP for another machine) and the virus problem (XP needs a lot of Antispyware and Antivirus protection).   Both XP and Ubuntu run fine on a Pentium III 800Mhz Laptop with only 256MB of memory and a 10GB hard drive, although the Windows programs keep clogging up the hard drive and Linux programs tend to let you know what they put where.  Windows 7 includes an XP mode which I’ve heard both good and bad things about.  I would rather they have revamped XP with some new tools and called it Windows 7 Netbook Edition or something like that. What would really have been cool would have been to release XP to the public for free but we all know that won’t happen

The last couple of times I came up with ideas that I wanted MySpace to implement, they did so.  They also came up with MySpace apps which were a pain in the ass at first.  Interesting sidenote:  I actually knew about MySpace apps a couple of months before they implemented it because of my involvment in the developement side of social networking at the time.

Anyway in the past I asked for the following from MySpace and got them:

1) Photo albums like Facebook had
2) Photo tagging like Facebook had
3) status updates / friend updates like Facebook had
4) the ability to view more than 250 bulletins.
5) the ability to make individual sections of myspace private or available to certain groups
6) making a separate app request section in mail like facebook had so that our comments and messages wouldn’t be full of them.
7) autosaving of drafts like some other sites have (they still need to work on this) searchable messages (still needs to be worked on)
9) security against bad external links (still needs to be worked on)
10) the ability to move modules around like in Spaces
11)  Make MySpace mobile a website instead of a closed application and make it free.
12)  You should have the ability not only to block apps but to block your likeness and name from being used on them.  I don’t like the idea that someone can “own” someone who blocked the program.

So here’s my list this time:

Myspace:
1) The ability to tag someone in a blog like you can in Facebook
2) Inbox folders (because Inbox, sent, and saved) just aren’t enough
3) the ability to create blank html box modules like WordPress or Blogger
4) a calendar in the blog section…EVERY OTHER BLOGGING SITE HAS THIS
5) better implementation of RSS
6) the ability to do MySpace IM from the web and have it save chats on the myspace server
7) not masking external links but instead post-processing like Yahoo does in their e-mail You should be able to directly to the default pic and comment on it like on Fubar and other sites
9) the ability to sift through bulletings by assigning user groups
10) in myspace mobile you should be able to view pictures in bulletins
11)  someone should write an app that simulates the MUMMs from Fubar

Livejournal:
only one request for this site:
fix the mobile version of LJ.  That’s it.  Make it work and I’ll be happy.

Facebook:
1) organize the news feed on the home page better.  It’s a mess.  It should have dates next to the events and be organized by date.  It should also have the ability to view or not view types of events by clicking somewhere.
2) Inbox folders (because inbox and sent aren’t enough)
3) Give us a bit more control over the whole profile page like we had before.
4) Make it easier for us to find our friends and stop limiting the number of friends we can add
5) let us decide what parts of our profile to be made visible and to whom.  This whole regional thing is rediculous.
6) Notes should have a calendar.
7)  Very important and this one MUST be done:  Move the group messages to another folder besides inbox.  Sometimes I don’t even look at my facebook inbox because it’s cluttered with group messages.

WordPress.org:
1) implement OpenID
2) Have a centralized user database from friend’s list that admins can opt the sites into.  WordPress.com would work.  Really, it’s not that hard.
3) Give it the ability to log into MySpace and get import the blogs from there.  It could make friend’s only blogs private until a friend’s list system can be implemented.
4) Implement a better way to view WordPress sites on mobile phones.

I’m sure I’ll think of other things after I’ve made this list.

So I’m testing out this new quickpress thing to see how fast it is. So I’ll just steal a link to an image off of the Ubuntu site and post it here.

Ubuntu example

And now for something completely different….

Yay!  Media Portal 1.0 (for Windows) is finally done!!!!  It’s out today.  Team MediaPortal has finally release a full release of their media center.

I know it seems crazy to be exited about a software release but hey, I’ve been using this program as a media center for over 2 and a half years!  And did I mention this program is free…

They are already working on version 2.0.  They wanted to stabilize a release of 1.0 first and then continue work on version 2.

Justin

oh yeah, I forgot…. http://www.team-mediaportal.com/

Yay….I actually reformatted my really old laptop (from like 2001 or 2002) and put Ubuntu 8.10 Linux on it.  I am now running brand new software on it and it’s so damn fast because I don’t have to use anti-virus software like I did with Windows.  I’ve actually got it running as fast as it did back when it was new with Windows ME on it (yes, Windows ME that buggy piece of crap released between 98 and XP, uggghh).   The only problem I’ve noticed is that the shutdown doesn’t work properly on it???? Other than that and the weird partitioning issue (had to make it 2 partitions because of the crappy old bios in it).  But I mean hey, to get a Pentium III 800Mhz Laptop with only 256MB of memory and a 10GB hard drive run that damn fast was worth it.  [tech note: partitions are sda1 : 7GB, sda5 :2.5GB (mounted at /home), and the rest as sda6/Swap. ]  Now if I can get the damn thing running as a media center….  Oh wait, one more weird issue—-it won’t show the battery status.  Now that’s an issue.  I’ll have to look more into that because using it to take notes might be difficult if I don’t know how much power it has.  I guess the Handheld PC is better for that purpose anyway.  In any event I now have a computer running that I didn’t have before and it has all the standard crap with a full office suite, which is basically what I had running on it under Windows but the anti-virus software was slowing it down to a crawl and the software on it (especially office) was really old.  Oh and it’s nice to hook up a USB flash drive or USB hard drive without it complaining about not being USB 2.0…

This is why you need an antivirus program when you use Windows.  I had one of these hit my other computer in October so bad it was easier to reformat than to try and fix.  I wondered what what happen with Kaspersky if I ever encountered one of these.  You don’t have to even click on any strange links to get one of these.  A simple visit to a regular site like MySpace’s home page is all it takes.

Justin

Familiar Linux on my Jornada 728 Handheld PC

I got a HP Jornada 728 Handheld PC for my birthday. It comes with a Handheld PC version of Windows with Internet Explorer 4 and it is almost impossible to put any IM programs compatible with Yahoo Messenger on it. IE4 came out more than 10 years ago and a lot of websites won’t even run on it anymore. I started searching forums right away looking for links to a better web browser and IM program.  I kept running across people suggesting using Linux or BSD on the H/PC instead of Windows.  My recent interest in returning to IT having been sparked I decided to take on the task of putting Linux on the H/PC.  I did start using SSH to get onto my website earlier this year but that has been my only experience with *nix based systems in 11 years since early versions of Red Hat Linux.

I won’t give detailed step-by-step install instructions here but I do intend to write a blog soon doing just that.  The most daunting task in all this was that I had to use Linux on my PC in order to get Linux onto my H/PC.  Eh, that had me a little nervous because I didn’t really have a test system running.  Not only that but I had just re-installed Windows a month before because I got hit with a particularly nasty virus.

Then I heard about Live CDs and LIVE USB FLASH DRIVES.  I was running low on CDs and decided to use my USB flash to run Linux.  Ubuntu was a complete disappointment.  I needed a root user to get the permissions correct and I really didn’t see the point of the sudo program.  Then I tried Fedora but I still had trouble.  Finally I find instuctions on how to use Puppy Linux to install JLime Linux onto the H/PC and I used those same basic instructions to install Wicked‘s prebuild version of Familiar Linux (available here) on the H/PC (More info here).  It finally worked.  It helps having a Linux distro where root is an actual user!

Once I had the Compact Flash card partitioned and formatted I unarchived the files into the proper places and was ready to roll.  That was when I quickly learned that it was necessary to read BOTH the README and the FAQ that were available.

Other than customizing the desktop (which is NOT as easy as you would think) the only other major change I made was to downgrade the included Word Processor.

While I would rather be running Firefox 3, OpenOffice, and Pidgin, I am quite happy with the installed Firefox 1.5 (Deer Park), Minimo, AbiWord, and GAIM.
Now my H/PC does IM, Word Processing, web browsing and more.  I will post more details on this later and link the post to this blog.

Justin X

And now for some pix:

The HP Jornada 728 Running Windows CE

Here are some screenshots running Linux:

After Linux was installed (after changing the desktop icon from Dillo to Firefox)

This is my customized desktop! This is what the H/PC looks like now.

Here’s what you need to know now BEFORE you buy a computer:

Do you have ANY software or hardware that needs a 32-bit OS?

Is the computer I want to buy 32-bit or 64-bit?

The first one is easy with NEW hardware or software.  It will be in the requirements.  Older stuff may require you to do a bit of digging or calling.

The computer version is the EASY part.  But here’s the thing:  not even all the store clerks know where to look.  That’s why you have me:  cause I rock like that.

It’s simple: Click on the start button in the lower left.  If they have the computer locked asked THEM to do it.  You are about to spend money on a computer after all.  Yeah they don’t want you messing up their computer.  As a former computer lab associate I understand that.  But they can do this or let you while they watch.  After clicking on the start button (which is now just a Window symbol) you will notice the word “Computer” on the right-hand column.  This is the equivalent of “My Computer” in XP for those of you with older computers.  Now right click on that.  No really.  Click on properties.  Now look for system type.  You will see either “32-bit Operating System” or “64-bit Operating System.”  That’s it.  That’s what you need to look for.

Now here’s why:

A couple of years ago unless you were a gamer or had specific needs you just went to the store and bought your computer and that was it.  The most you had to worry about was that new bleeding edge OS called Vista right?  Not really the case any more.  Yay, Vista finally has service pack and it’s been out for a while so everything should work with it.  Simple, right?  WRONG!

We have finally reached the point where computers were at maximum and needed to go beyond.  Software developers were not on the ball at all this time.  They just assumed that anyone that wanted a system over 3GB of memory was a “gamer” and they didn’t need to worry about all that.  Their lack of forsight hurts us all.

My brother went to Best Buy to buy a new computer.  He has to use voice activiation.  He can’t use his hands to type at all and this new Microsoft voice activation software:  not that great.  He had me install the NEW Dragon Naturally Speaking on his computer only to find out it won’t install onto a 64-bit system.  Huh?  He called them and they aren’t planning to have a working 64-bit version until MAYBE 2010.  I’ve noticed more and more pieces of software and hardware that state under the requirements Vista 32-bit edition.

How many computers did Bestbuy have that were 32-bit in the ENTIRE store:  2.  They were the crappiest computers they had.  Circuit City was almost the same except that we managed to find a 3GB (we’re talking memory here – that’s where the 32 and 64 bit systems differ).

In 2 years we probably won’t have to worry about any of this.  Are you worried about those old scanners and printers that won’t work under XP anymore?  Really, neither am I.

But for now in 2008 and 2009 this is a MAJOR issue.  We usually don’t have to deal with crap like this unless a new version of Windows comes out.  This time it’s not software but hardware that’s screwing us up.

Yay.

Justin X

http://justinx.net