A Man and his Penguin

We just got in a TH50PZ700A for the floor. This thing sucks arse. The contrast and brightness (especially whites) are terrible compared to the 42 inch regular HD (TH42PX7A). To add insult to injury, the 50 inch uses 650 watts (the 42PX7A uses 350 watts), and requires 3 cooling fans at the back.

Really, don’t buy this plasma. If you want something in 50 inch and full HD, for god’s sake, get an LCD. Or the Samsungs might be okay.

EDIT: Just watched a little bit of Neighbours on it, which is broadcast in 1080i. The picture is just sharp enough to be able to tell that it’s 1080i. But the contrast, black levels, and brightness still all suck.

The EeePC originally ran Linux only; anybody who wanted an ultraportable laptop for $499 would have to buy a Linux-based machine. However, Microsoft has realised the threat that the Linux-based EEE placed on its Windows operating system, and now Asus offers the EeePC with Windows XP preinstalled.

I told you earlier of my workmate who wanted to buy an XP-based Eee for her son. She was going to choose the XP version because the rep told her it would be "easier to use if you’re familiar with Windows". In the end, I built her a Linux computer and she gave her broken XP/Vista laptop to her son.

Somebody who I met on Friendster a long time ago e-mailed me to ask my opinion of the EeePC. I think she was reading this blog, as before I said that I had wanted to get one. I advised her to buy the Linux version:

• It’s a better fit for the computer’s small screen
• It runs faster with Linux
• More flexible
• It’s simpler to use
• No viruses or spyware
• Bigger flash storage (or lower price)

She’s going to buy the XP version, because "I know it will work well with my XP desktop, and I love XP".

So there you go. If they’ve already got Windows, they’ll continue to use Windows, despite being told that Linux is the superior operating system, and especially the better OS for the EeePC.

It’s great that we can buy a Linux-based laptop from a brand-name vendor, but the idea that the EeePC would bring people to Linux is simply not happening. This probably also means that competing ultra-portable Linux laptops will fail to find market share. Not because Windows is "better", or because it costs more, or because of any interoperability issues between Windows desktops and Linux laptops; but simply because they don’t have the shiny Windows XP sticker on them. Sad, isn’t it?

Here’s a gratuitous Compiz screenshot (yes, you can run Compiz visual effects on an Eee!):

And another one:

Click the thumbnails to view full-size.

Facebook has proven one thing to me: It’s a small world.

Facebook suggested that I might know "Loryn Tozer". She’s the friend of a couple of my primary school friends. Someone called Lisa posted a comment to her wall, and when I went to "Lisa"’s profile, I found that she was the friend of one of my *high* school friends.

None of my primary school friends directly knows any of my high school friends. Yet one of my primary school friends knows someone who knows someone who knows one of my high school friends. Amazing.

My workmate phoned me this evening, asking me about something to do with K9Copy. I think the sole purpose of her computer is to pirate DVDs.

Anyway, after I finished on the phone, I checked my Hotmail inbox, to find that she’d double-clicked the program that sends me her IP address. For some reason, VNC didn’t work to her box… it just gave me a blank screen. But SSH happily connected. I scouted around her computer and found some files she was missing (DVD images, of course), set up the IP-address-sending program so it launches every time she logs in, and left her a message on her desktop.

And I loved the feeling of power it gave me. I guess you’ve never experienced what it’s like to be a Linux user until you’ve used SSH.

I bought Linda an older copy of Linux Format magazine, so maybe she’ll find some inspiration from that to use her computer in different ways. I hate the thought that she’s bought a $620 DVD copier.

I just had a look online for the Kelis song "I Don’t Think So" for my boss. He loves singing along to the Big Brother commercials whenever they come on, and that’s the song they use.

Usually when you try to find Mp3 download sites, they’re always shady paid sites - where you have to pay 85 cents for an MP3. Or, you can click the link for free, but that just takes you to another Mp3 site, and you find the song there and click the link, and it takes you to yet another site.

But today I discovered Bee MP3 (URL is what you’d expect). Bee MP3 actually works - I think the songs are hosted at other sites, but they actually all seem to work, and it’s all quick and painless. Good selection too - who says you need iTunes to get Mylene Farmer albums? I’m very happy.

(I also downloaded the song "Sweet About Me" by Gabriella Cilmi, because I think it would be a great song to have in the background of an Ubuntu TV commercial; this idea is still cooking).

Obviously I’ll still buy CDs, but for one-offs this site is tops.

I must admit that I like the song "4 Minutes", despite the fact that I loathe Justin Timberlake, Madonna, and Timbaland. I mean, I *hate* these people, yet I think their unholy union has produced a good song.

I’ll probably find that, as usual, Madonna has ripped off a Mylene Farmer song. It’s just that I’m having difficulty finding a place to download Mylene’s latest single.

I couldn’t find 4 Minutes in any CD stores I checked in tonight, and I’ve only managed to get a hold of an unreliable torrent and a streaming copy at a ridiculously high bitrate (defeats the purpose of "streaming", doesn’t it?)

What’s better for your computer than running anti-virus software? Simple answer: Getting a virus.

I finally figured out what was wrong with my workmate’s new computer (you need to put the RAM into the FIRST slot, not the second) and dropped it back over. While there, she tried to use her husband’s Windows XP computer to find an e-mail he’d been sent. She was cussing for minutes about how slow the machine was running.

I thought maybe he didn’t have enough RAM. I looked all around Windows at snail’s pace until I finally found the "Task Manager". This program is like Gnome’s System Monitor, with information about CPU, memory, and network usage. His CPU was running at over 80% at every single moment it was turned on. Of the 512 megabytes of RAM in the machine, about 400 megabytes were in use. (contrast: My Ubuntu box is using 292 megabytes at the moment, with total CPU use between 1 and 5 percent).

I found the process list. This showed "avc" something ".exe" was using up most of the CPU time. I told this to my friend and she said "Oh, AVC. Something about that popped up when I started the computer. Bob said this was a really good anti-virus program".

Telling the program to kindly stop the scan worked. CPU use dropped to under 20% (well, it’s an Athlon 2200 running all sorts of crapware, what do you expect?). Frets On Fire still wasn’t playable, but I did wow my friends with my amazing jerky guitaring ability. About 80 additional megabytes of RAM were freed by stopping the scan too.

Everyone knows that viruses use as little CPU time and memory as possible, in order to avoid the user noticing their effects. So what’s worse? Running an anti-virus program and having it keep your computer under heavy load 24/7, or having a virus that you can barely notice?

This is a case of the illness being better than the cure, I’m afraid. Ideally, everyone would run a secure operating system anyway, with a firewall router, and not open random programs that get sent through e-mail.

Work today was great! We had a busy day where we sold a lot of products. We were really happy at the end of the day. And tomorrow I’m planning on going for a long walk, if the weather holds up.

Final pieces of news: Someone recently noticed that the EULA for Safari for Windows has a clause that disallows you from running Safari for Windows on a "non-Apple computer". Heh. But this isn’t news: I read the EULA that cames with my mother’s iPod, and that has the same clause in it. I mentioned it online ALMOST TWO YEARS AGO.

Psystar has released a computer that comes preinstalled with Mac OS X. There’s doubt over the legality of it, but I think EULAs wouldn’t generally stand up in court, if properly challenged. Especially Apple’s, as they distribute software for Windows PCs under the provision that you only use it on a Mac. Unfortunately, there’s also doubt over whether Psystar is a legitimate company. If they give Ars Technica a review model as they promise, then that would be a good first step. Otherwise, this could just be a Medison Celebrity all over again. I like the PC cases they are using anyway. Very nice. Of course I got the idea that I could do the same thing - offer OS X on my computers - but I don’t know how to support OS X when it breaks.

I put some adhesive letters spelling out my surname on the front of my workmate’s PC. It looks great. It’s my case badge

I’m under stress at work

It’s very quiet right now in the retail business. My boss has started lecturing all of us about how we’ve got to "get back to basics". Every single day, we get lectured about it. He listens in on our conversations with customers and tells us that if it sounds like we’re going to lose a customer, he’ll jump in.

It’s very unnerving. When you want to just be sociable and talk, you’ve got to talk about something completely unrelated to work. If you try to make conversation like "Gee, those Kenwood stereos we got in last week have some good features", it always turns into a lecture about something.

The computer I built for my workmate is still having trouble, even after a BIOS update. Now that it’s back here, it’s working fine, of course. I have no idea what’s going wrong, much less how to fix it. If this goes on much longer I’ll just build her a replica of my computer, albeit with more basic graphics and a slower processor.

And finally, yesterday my Dad went into hospital, complaining of chest pains. He’s okay, the doctors say he didn’t have a heart attack; but it was worrying nonetheless. And he’s depressed because now he’s not allowed to go to Melbourne, and he’d been planning that trip for months.

SPOTTED: In the Setup menu of a Panasonic TH42PX7A (42 inch plasma), a menu item called "Software License". When you press OK, you get displayed a copy of the GPL v 2 and a URL where you can download the source code for the following things:

Linux kernel
Autofs (whatever that is)
glibc
mtd
mount
sash (a small self-contained shell, I think).

I don’t know what proprietary software layer might be inside these tellys, or if this is maybe all there is (to facilitate firmware upgrades?) but I found it interesting.

The source code can be downloaded here: http://www.am-linux.jp/dl/EUIDTV5/

165 applications running on Linux simultaneously, showcased with Compiz.

I’ve only got 2 gigabytes of RAM and no swap, but I can use my 2 gig flash drive as temporary swap. Compiz is a little unstable on my computer (Nvidia drivers suck) but I’ll give it a go.

On Digg, somebody said "I’d like to see a video of someone ripping a DVD, rendering out from a video editor, surfing the web, doing IM, checking e-mail, listening to music…" etc. I’ve done very nearly that much on my computer, so I’m thinking I’ll put together a video!

The other fun thing is about SysRq keys. If your Linux system crashes, there’s a way to shut it down safely, using Alt-SysRq and a bunch of keys that you press in order. (the keys individually are useful in other situations, and sometimes it works better with a different order, but this is the most recognised combination and order).

The order is:

REISUB

(Alt+SysRq+R, Alt+SysRq+E, etc).

There are often mnemonics made up to try and help people remember the combination, but I never remember them. This one, posted to Ubuntu Forums, is the most memorable one (it made me laugh):

Arrr! Everything Is Shitty! Un-Boot!