Ubuntu will be switching their default search engine from Google to Yahoo in the next release (v10.04) because they have struck a deal where they will get a cut of the money made whenever a user clicks on a advert after doing a search. The only reason that this is interesting is that Yahoo search [...]
I need to remind myself that there’s no point whining about a shortfalling in a piece of software unless I can be sure the author is aware of it. To that effect, I filed a bug with the Chrome team: #31833. I also submitted a tiny patch for the Jodometer JQuery plugin.
I recommend the new Ubuntu 9.10 release (Karmic Koala), it works well on a Sony VGN-AR51E.
Karmic Goods:
It includes a new piece of software called “Ubuntu One”:
Ubuntu One currently gives you 2GB of free cloud storage via a folder called “Ubuntu One” in your home directory or via a URL (https://one.ubuntu.com/).
Ubuntu One allows you to sync [...]
We gave Fred (my father-in-law) a hand-me-down computer because his one is suffering from Windows rot and is unbearably slow. Our one comes with a catch… It has Ubuntu instead of Windows.
How do you make a Ubuntu computer easy to use?
Turn on Auto login
Remove all icons on the desktop, then add back “Internet” and links [...]
Our first site as freelancers is more-or-less finished. It should hopefully look clean and simple?
I’m currently in the process of incorporating a company and http://www.businesslink.gov.uk is my friend, especially the “Business start-up organiser” which is the ultimate “to do” list of things that need to be done. However, I found the site was annoying in that it kept logging me out if I went away for 5 minutes and [...]
We have quite a good Freeview box which does scheduled recordings including series-record but it could be better because it is missing a HD output, DVD playback and Video streaming.
We decided to build our own HTPC in order to take control of our viewing options once and for all.
Hardware List:
Case: Lian Li PC-C37B Muse HTPC [...]
I wanted to watch freeview on my PC so I bought a brand new Hauppauge Nova-TD-500 card. Unfortunately I found the picture quality to be exceptionally low – There were significant image artefacts and glitches where everything is fine if I plug the same cable into a normal TV. I tried a whole load of [...]
A jackalope?
I highly recommend the new Ubuntu 9.04 release (Jaunty Jackalope), it has A+ compatibility on a Sony VGN-AR51E. I also recommend upgrading from previous Ubuntu versions. Apart from the pretty new style system notifications the other thing well worth upgrading for is the promise of better boot performance.
Boot speed: Obviously, when I turn on [...]
The Google Charts API is great but it can’t handle date-based data. Lets say you want to plot some values over a timespan, how do you do it? One way is to sample the data at regular time intervals and plot it as normal. But if the timestamps you want to plot are not regular, [...]
Our house is sprinkled with little geeky elements:
Subtle:
Not so subtle:
(If you can spot 5 geeky things in this photo, you yourself are a geek…)
VERY subtle:
(hint: Gnome Logo, “Perl”)
Not so subtle:
(The doormat says “welcome” in ASCII Binary. The laptop is running Ubuntu Linux with Compiz snow flakes to add a Christmasy feel.)
To further prove our cat is a geek, her brush has the Gnome Logo on it!
I have also realised that Cypher is a good Halloween cat seeing as she’s black and witch-like:
After installing Ubuntu 8.10 on my Sony laptop (VGN-AR51E) this is a list of some of the configurations I’ve made:
Fixes
The web-cam (MotionEye – Ricoh USB r5u870) doesn’t work, I think the driver isn’t in the kernel for Ubuntu 8.10. In fact, /dev/video0 is completely missing (see bug 255678). This is how to fix:
lsusb gives: [...]
I upgraded to the new Ubuntu 8.10 release and found it included a few improvements. These are some of my favourite:
Nautilus now has tabs so you can middle-click folders to open them in a new tab.
The included version of F-Spot has had a bug fixed so it now correctly imports comment metadata from photos.
The [...]
