Windows Vista

Vista is getting released worldwide. Not for my computers!

UPDATE: Similar thoughts after vista release party

Debian on Windows

Following the Ubuntu installer for Windows initiative, Debian has just released their on version of the operative system installer in an .exe, for those who want to just try this operative system. This, just like the Ubuntu version, can be uninstalled through the add/remove programs in windows, just like any other program! Download and infos here (with a very suggestive URL).

Updating to Ubuntu 7.04

I've decided to update my Edgy Eft, Ubuntu 6.10, to the development version of Ubuntu, the Feisty Fawn, that's going to become Ubuntu 7.04.

• Step 1: tiagoboldt@Niath:~$ sudo update-manager -d
• I've just issued the command, update manager has looked and found the development version, update is automatic and 976 packages are currently being downloaded.

• Step 2: Unpacking and installing EVERYTHING automatically! Probably it will take a long time! It says about 23 minutes, fingers crossed, no errors must appear, like appeared from 6.04 to 6.10.
• Step 3: Rebooting, after a long wait of updates and a quick reboot, everything seems now to be properly working. Some programs will probably crash sometimes, but this is still the development version. But everything seems to be smooth.

Operation successful


Update:
Answering to Mike's comment, yes, there is a way to install through Feisty Alternate Install CD (not the Desktop CD), for this, just insert the cd, open a terminal and type:

gksu "sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade"

Some updates might still be needed, but, anyway, it will be just a small part of it.
Job done :)

Letting go

Comics

I'm a comic lover. Especially those who pretend to be funny, with a little bit of geekness included. Due to this, I've decided to post those specially funny comics that I sometimes find online, from xkcd, dilbert, sinfest and a lot more, under the label comics.

93 years old blogger

Donald Crowdis, born December 24, 1913, as just surprised my, after I discovered is blog. With is 93 years of age, Crowdis writes about is daily life and thoughts. Recently, he has posted a very interesting article about is fear of death. While Don to Earth, is blog, is a very interesting view of the world, through the eyes of life experience, it's also a way to show us that the new technologies aren't definitively only for new people, and that the blogosphere is here for anyone who wishes to use it.

Internet Explorer vs W3C

Via Hugo Silva

CNR package management

CNR, standing for Click and Run, is a package management system, originally developed for freespire, that is now spreading to other linux distros, like ubuntu, debian, fedora and others. It seems to be a good alternative to apt-get/aptitude/synaptics, since it's able to give a lot more of information about the product that's going to be installed, it will be able to install proprietary software, check all package dependencies and still manage to keep the computer clean. It will maybe be a good choice, but, still, I think I'll stay with the official ubuntu package manager, I believe that it would be changed if CNR really becomes that great!
More at CNR official page.

Gaming on ubuntu

I've spent some time enabling my ATI Mobility Radeon X700 on my Acer 1694WLMi Laptop. It gave me some headaches, there was some problem with the official ATI, driver, fglrx, and mesa didn't want to go away. After some tries, I've decided to reinstall everything, xserver and fglrx, with the kernel restrictive modules. After that, I've just "sudo moddep -a" and rebooted. All went smooth, and I can now see:

tiagoboldt@Niath:~$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: MOBILITY RADEON X700 Generic
OpenGL version string: 2.0.6011 (8.28.8)

This means that my graphic card was already recognized and was ready to be user. So, what is a graphic card used for? GAMES, I've just installed the recently released second life client, savage for linux and a couple of games from the repositories, like Xmoto or Tremulous.

Second life runs really good, but I don't see any point in playing that.. It can be freely downloaded here.
As for Savage, it's total fun, just spent the evening playing it. Worth a try!

Busy Week

Almost a week now, since my last post. The work at FEUP has been giving me some really headaches. I'm still a freshman, and the whole new experience is being really great. Despite all the studying hours needed, the people are great, the facilities awesome and I'm really loving it. Yesterday I had my last test, for now at least, two weeks to the next round, I'll spend them happily online.

Give linux a try

For those of you who are afraid of removing or try partitioning your windows in order to try to install some linux distribution, you can now try the ubuntu installer for windows. Just like any other problem, it's a normal .exe file, it allows you to install a ubuntu system. After the installing is done, a reboot will be needed and, before your windows begins, grub, a boot manager, will ask you if you want to boot windows or ubuntu linux. If you ever want to remove it, just go to the add/remove programs and there will be a ubuntu entry. Remove it, and all will be back to normal. There are still some problems with the application, but I believe they'll be soon corrected. The only important issue is that, at this point, you're forced to login with the username and password 'ubuntu'. This will surely be corrected in the next releases. Wanna test it? Get infos here and download it here(version 3, there could be a new one available).

Virtualbox

Virtualbox, just like VMWare, is a virtualization software. Specifically, Virtualbox allow the user to create virtual machines to run several operative systems. The program is freely available as open-source here, and it has binaries available for several operative systems. Ubuntu package available!

War on Microsoft

As all of us already know, the Microsoft empire is being more and more attacked by a lot of other companies and open-source movements. In this image, we're able to see who's attacking what, with all the companies and applications names, from the Microsoft side, against some big names, like Oracle, Mozilla, Linux, Google, Apple, Sun and several more!

Ubuntu repositories generator

For those of you who use, witch I recommend, Ubuntu, I've just found what could be a very handy tool, a sources.list generator. For those of you who don't know what the sources.list is, it's the list of repositories to be used by ubuntu software manager, in order to update and install software. This generator will give you, according to our selections, the appropriated sources.list file. Once done, you should put the file in /etc/apt/ directory. For that, save the text in your home directory and just use the command sudo mv file /etc/apt/sources.list (this will erase the previous config). After that, just run synaptics or any other package manager and you'll notice some speed improvements, and the whole new available packages for you to try. Give it a try!

Linux powered PC's

I've recently found a computer store, with linux powered only computers on sale. It's System76 and it sells all of it's desktops and laptops with the latest version of Ubuntu pre-installed. They are also selling servers with ubuntu 6.06, the long term support version of ubuntu installed. The price gets lower without the usual windows installation, and all the system is fully linux supported. They've got some special beauty, maybe some kind of Apples' macmini imitation, the koala mini. All of the computers are fully customizable, from the cpu, to monitor.

iPhone

According to the rumors, there was a new apple mobile phone to be released and called iPhone. The rumors have become true, a couple of days ago, Steve Jobs, the apple man, has himself divulged to the attendees at CES, this past Monday, the capacities of this new apple beauty.
The mobile phone is able to browse the web throw wi-fi and the new EDGE technology, receive and send emails, view maps, and a lot more!

The Specs:

Screen size 3.5 inches
Screen resolution 320 by 480 at 160 ppi
Input method Multi-touch
Operating system OS X
Storage 4GB or 8GB
GSM Quad-band (MHz: 850, 900, 1800, 1900)
Wireless data Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + EDGE + Bluetooth 2.0
Camera 2.0 megapixels
Dimensions 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches / 115 x 61 x 11.6mm
Weight 4.8 ounces / 135 grams

This as it all to keep the good name of apple rising in the market. It has only on disadvantage, that was immediately pointed by Nokia, it's still 2G. But, who would miss video-conference, with all those possibilities?

Migration

Português -> English