Decided

The other day I waxed poetic about whether to replace Ubuntu desktop on my netbook, or to continue as I had been going. I have decided.

I installed the "Netbook Remix" version of Ubuntu 9.04 ("Jaunty Jackalope"). It's nice, though I did like the multiple desktop feature of the regular version. On my home desktop machine (the one with two monitors), having two desktops isn't very important. Actually, each monitor is represented on each desktop. On the tiny 10" diagonal netbook screen, a second desktop was a handy thing.

In the Netbook Remix version, you get a full-screen menu thingy that shows all the programs as large icons on a series of pages. Same basic menu structure that you can customize to add items, remove items, and make items invisible, as well. Yeah, I know you can do this in Windows; it's different in Ubuntu, but equivalent.

Everything opens up maximized, and there's no menu bar across the top that you can add things to. I rather liked that feature of the desktop version, since I put most of the programs I used often on the bar. The remix has a "Favorites" tab that I've done the same thing with. On the other hand, a single click launches things off the menu thingy.

I tried out the newer version, "Karmic Koala," (version 9.10) which is in alpha version 4. The menu thingy crashed on shutdown both times I booted. I also liked the look of the new version, better, but I decided I would rather be productive than always sending crash reports to the folks working on the OS. No offense, but this is a "production" machine for me, not something to experiment with. Note that I am writing this blog post on my netbook. Not that that's something remarkable, despite the fact I've remarked about it.

Perhaps once they've gone gold with 9.10, I will upgrade to it, since restoring all the (useful) applications onto my netbook took only about 3 or 4 hours. Most of what I use already comes with the distro, which is one really nice--dare I say huge--advantage of Ubuntu. There's nothing else (or hardly anything else) to install. It comes with Firefox, Open Office, no fewer than 3 or 4 email clients, Pidgin IM client, and about 25 games. There are many other programs included and/or available. Oh, and did I mention that everything's free?

Free, as in beer. Let's not discount that.

Of course beforehand I off-loaded everything onto a portable hard drive. I have a (relatively) new Seagate Free Agent 250 GB hard drive. Nice small, quiet drive. I reformatted it to ext3 (though that's not entirely straightforward to do in Linux), so it serves as yet one more place where I store stuff. You can never have too many backups. Trust me. Device support in Linux is better than in Windows.

Another useful side-effect of having a Linux netbook is my ever-increasing familiarity with the Linux command-line. That's another thing that the average Windows user never gets to experience. (Too bad.) Of course, I will admit that it's not entirely necessary that every user become familiar with the command line, but if you are it does make many things quite a bit easier. Or maybe it's just because I haven't learned about all the GUI tools that do the same things. *nix was built by geeks who used the command line, and it shows. And that's a good thing.

Not sure what else I can report, except that everything works (including the webcam). What else can I say? I recommend Ubuntu as a solid alternative to Windows.

Decisions, decisions

Who knew? Turns out I installed the "regular" version of Ubuntu 9.04 (aka "Jaunty Jackalope") on my Acer netbook. But they have a "Netbook Remix" version that's been optimized for smaller screens. And, uh, they were right; it's cooler.

I followed the instructions for loading the distro on a memory stick. I so happen to have a 4 GB jump drive I don't use, so I copied the image to it. It's just shy of 1 GB, and seems to include pretty much everything you need. My netbook booted from the jump drive with no problems, even. I rather like the look, though I wasn't all that unhappy with what I had, before.

*sigh* As I said: decisions, decisions. I'm quite tempted to replace what I've loaded (and spent hours getting set up) with this new distro version. But no decisions tonight. Stay tuned.

Oh, in case you haven't figured it out by now, Linux is pretty cool and so is Ubuntu, as well.

Gadget love update

A little while ago I posted my annual "summer gadget love" update, outlining some of the interesting tech toys I have acquired. I thought I'd provide a few updates.

1. My Vantec hard drive docking station ("drive toaster") has essentially died after a year. It keeps unmounting and mounting the drive all by itself, which is damned irritating.
2. I am replacing it with a fan-cooled hard drive enclosure from Rosewill. Newegg customers seem to give it a big thumb's up. I will let you know. It's not quite as "cool" as the drive toaster, but might be a tad more reliable. I priced other drive toasters online, and this fan-cooled enclosure is right about the same price, so I thought I'd give it a try.
3. Amarok is crap as a media player. On my netbook I'm now using Songbird. Since it's a Mozilla app there are about a million plugins (well, maybe a few less than that) so I've been able to get it set up the way I want it. It doesn't seem to work on my home desktop machine, so there I use Rhythmbox. When I run Windows I use MediaMonkey. No other media player even comes close to MediaMonkey.
4. Truecrypt file encryption software. It runs on Linux and Windows. I have tested it on both platforms, and the encrypted data is readable in both places. You can "format" entire drives as encrypted drives, or create container files for encrypted data. I am still a little unsure that I would put my only backup of a file into a Truecrypt-encrypted container, but if I have private stuff that I want to keep private, it looks like the hot tip. Getting my portable hard drive stolen from work got me to thinking about this.
   
5. KeePass, and KeePassX. Password encryption helpers, runnable on Windows and Linux. Not quite as functional as RoboForm, but free. There are plugins for KeePass to make it work with various browsers, but I haven't tried them, yet. I do need a password encryption solution that runs on Windows and Linux, so stay tuned.
6. LaCie 250GB portable hard drive, already inactive at Newegg. This little drive isn't quite as functional as the drive that was stolen, but it's small and light and fast. The USB cable retracts into the case, though it's only about 3 inches (8 cm) long. So far it's working fine, but I do have concerns about the retractible cable. It does come with an extension, however.
   
7. Verizon Wireless USB760 G3 cell modem--no link. Doesn't frigging work on Linux. Supposedly you can get it to work, but I have not, so I am returning it. It was sold to me as working on Linux, but obviously he lied. Maybe in another year, or so, the major carriers will have this figured out.

My Transcend 160GB portable hard drive was stolen off my desk at work. Too bad, it was a really good little drive. The replacement is so far working well, but I have my doubts since Newegg discontinued it so ... quickly. We'll see.

Moon: A movie for the thinking SciFi fan

We saw the movie Moon Friday night. It stars Sam Rockwell, who is essentially the only actor, outside of Kevin Spacey who does voice-over for GERTY, the base computer. Yes, think HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. There are numerous allusions to the 1968 Stanley Kubrick classic, which I found unobtrusive and mostly appropriate.

The movie is a psychological character drama that showcases Sam Rockwell's substantial talent, very well. Space opera this definitely ain't. It's more like a visit to an insane asylum that ultimately leaves you wondering what happened. At the end there are many, many unanswered questions and nothing (well, not exactly nothing) is resolved. In particular, the central conflict of the movie is not resolved, though we are given clues that things just might be different.

I found the premise completely plausible, scientifically. Sure, there are things we can't quite do, yet, since the movie is about a guy working alone in a power generation station on the far side of the moon ... but if you can accept all that as plausible, some other things (that I won't reveal because they would be spoilers) shouldn't bother you, too much. What I found slightly less plausible is the premise that the fictional company would do what they've done to this guy. More along the lines of: Did they really think they would/could get away with it indefinitely? That's the part that chafes on the brain.

I suppose companies are so brutally inhuman as this one (Lunar Industries, I think it's called) is portrayed, but given there is evidence the protagonist is "in" on the cruel deception, I am called to wonder at his own level of humanity. Because, humanity--more specifically inhumanity--is what this movie is about. In the end (and this should not be a spoiler) we find that the so-called inhuman computer is perhaps the more human (maybe even the most human) character. And that's interesting.

I think the movie is rather well done. Definitely something you will want to see more than once. I suggest buying the damn thing so you can get to the heart of what's going on, because there's far too much to absorb in a single sitting. I suspect every moment of film contains clues (perhaps answers) to what's really going on, and you will want to figure out what's really going on.

Good movies are good for various reasons They may have a really good story, with good, compelling characters. They may present ideas, glimpses into life in worlds very different from our own. They may evoke popular tropes (follow mythical storylines) that tell us something about ourselves and the nature of being. They may ask (and answer) the age-old questions of who we are, how did we get here, and where we are going.

This movie is good because its characters are human and elicit our sympathies, and tells us something about ourselves. But it won't leave you with anything resembling a comforting vision of the future, because in the end, human nature isn't changed. It is what it is, and it's ultimately not quite the good thing we'd like to think it is. But humanity does exist, and it's revealed at the level of individuals. In Moon, that's where we find it, so for that there may be a small ray of hope.

Final verdict: recommended. I'm going to buy it and study it frame-by-frame, and that should tell you something.