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I’ve made the switch to Ubuntu for my Asus eee 900. I played around with the ubuntu-eee distribution a while ago and convinced myself that the install would work. What finally pushed me to do this what the very stale app repository for Xandros … So I backed up all my personal files to a 16 gb HC SD card, and used a USB stick to install Ubuntu eee 8.04.1.
Ubuntu eee 8.04.1 install and recovery media
So far I am enjoying the Netbook Remix interface, but may eventually switch back to full mode. Given that my Asus is not one of the Atom based units, I want to get the most performance out of the system so I’ll compare the two modes and take which ever one is fastest.
So far the only problem I’ve encountered is that automounting inserted SD cards (and maybe USB sticks) doesn’t work. The mount needs to be performed by root, then it all works nicely. The performance is really good, maybe even better than on Xandros, and the updated apps are great. This is where I’ll stay I think. But just in case, I still travel with a USB sticks with ubuntu and the recovery image in the unlikely event that I do need to go back to Xandros. Since these two sticks will be in my bag from now on, I put my label maker to good use…
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Tags: Asus eee, install, ubuntu, ubuntu-eee
I don’t have to stuff my suitcase full of CarbQuick anymore! There is now a great Low carb grocery store in the Toronto area (Markham 404 & Steeles area for locals). They have a great selection of Low Carb products and are also connected to some pretty talented bakers because their line of very low carb cheese cake and 4 net carbs / slice whole wheat bread is amazing. Check them out at The Low Carb Grocery.
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Tags: bakers, grocery store, Low Carb, Markham, Toronto
For those who are keyboard focused, now you can run Firefox using all the same key bindings as VIM. Take a look at vimperator, a VIM mode plugin for Firefox. When you install it, the menu bar, navigation bar and bookmarks are hidden, and all your surfing is controlled through a VIM like input area by the status bar.
Vimperator Vim Mode for Firefox
It has all the usual page navigation keys like j - k to scroll up and down, h - l for horizontal scrolling, and space bar to scroll down a page. They also have a neat way to highlight links with number that can then be selected via a command + the number to navigate to the link. The search capabilities are there as are using standard Vim commands to go the next match. There are also commands for navigating through the tabs, opening and closing tabs … all in all a very complete VIM experience for Firefox.
Hints let you quickly navigate to a link by entering a number and pressing Enter. Fast link mode is activated by pressing F … each link on the page gets a highlight number in front of it. Type that number and press enter and Firefox navigates to the link.
This is a pretty interesting idea. The only complaint I have is that it breaks the shortcut keys I use in Google’s GMail and Reader and of course if I am typing text into a textarea on an html form, it happily ignores all vimperator behavior. I think that is to be expected. I think I may keep this for a while. Its starting to grow on me. It may make it over to my Asus eee … this gives me about as much screen real estate as possible for actual content.
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David over at 37 Signals makes the following assertion:
You should never hire anyone for something you haven’t first struggled to do on your own. It’ll teach you most of what you need to know to actually interview candidates, it’ll allow you to understand the nature of the work better (do I even need to hire or can we outsource?), and you’ll know exactly what a job well done will look like. It’ll also give you a sense of whether the job is big enough for a full-time hire yet or if you can skimp by on your own (the latter is preferable if possible).
I think this is good advice for more than just a hiring situation. So many organizations purchase software tools and along with it a small dose of services from a vendor to get up and running. While I understand that purchasing services together with the product works well for both you and the vendor, there are some huge risks getting the services locked in so early. You can:
- Underestimate the complexity of the implementation and run the tool into the ground.
- Miss the opportunities to get additional value out of the tool because you are focused the ideas that generated the purchase and that is what the vendor builds for you.
- Hire the wrong people for the implementation.
- Under/Over estimate the amount of help you will need to implement a solution.
Here are some suggestions for how to do this a bit better.
- If the solution involves new technology and skills, invest in limited up front help from outside the organization to get you proficient so you can try things yourself. Note the emphasis.
- If you determine you need additional help, after you and your organization have a better feel for what needs to be done, then pursue external help from the vendor and other sources.
If you follow that approach you will know what you need, have an idea of what the finished solution will look like, and know when you are done. Believe it or not, the supplier will probably be happier with this kind of arrangement. We all like working for prople who know what they want and have a good feel for reality!
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Tags: complexity, purchase software, purchasing services, software tools
With a name like that it has to be good. I ran across Fast Copy while looking for a solution to my failing windows file copies and it looks like a winner. It basically gets better performance for file copies since it doesn’t use the MFC at all. Instead it hits the Win32 api directly and can get near to actual device limit speeds for file copies.
Fastest File Copy on Windows
Try it out and let me know if it measures up to its claim to be the fastest file copy on windows.
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Tags: mfc, utility, win32 api, windows copy
Chris Soghoian has some pretty legitimate sounding security concerns with Ubiquity. I’ve blogged about Ubiquity before, and have it installed on my various Firefox installations, but I have to confess, I haven’t added any extra commands to it. Good thing too, since that could be a pretty serious security risk. Here are issues that Chris identifies:
- There is no protection in Ubiquity for malicious JavaScript commands. The user is responsible for only installing code the trust, but most users will be unable to catch dangerous JavaScript just by reading it. If someone was really clever they could certainly write a command that looked pretty clean but was still dangerous.
- Auto-Update of commands could make it easy for a malicious user to write a useful and popular command and once it was widely used, send out an update that was dangerous.
- Updates for commands are also served over a non-encrypted http connection, which is vulnerable to being intercepted and used in a “man in the middle” style attack.
Ubiquity is certainly not finished and I am sure that Mozilla labs will move to address these issues. In the mean time, it’s proably a good idea to use with care.
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Super Talent has line the availability of a new line of mini PCI-Express SSDs, in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB sizes. These are designed and tested with Asus eee.
The current pricing is $53 for the 16 Gig, $79 for the 32 Gig, and $149 for the 65 Gig models. So if you are running into storage limitations and want to expand your on board flash space, these look like the way to go.
via Liliputing
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Tags: Asus eee, solid state storage, upgrade
I’m digging for a tool that will allow me to resume a failed file copy from a Windows file share. I have to move a bunch of data and am limited to using Windows SP sp2 to do it .. but I seem to get random failures at various points in the 220 meg file copy … Is there a tool out there that will somehow wrap the file copy and let it recover from such errors? Large file copies seem kinda like a gamble with windows …
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Tags: file share, random failures, windows
I think I have stumbled into a weird parallel universe where black is white and white is black .. and manufactured chemical products are … natural. Apparently, the United States FDA has come out to say that High Fructose Corn Syrop (HFCS) is a natural product. Now this is rather surprising since the particular arrangement of atoms in HFCS does not actually occur on its own anywhere in nature and requires some pretty heavy duty chemical engineering to manufacture it from otherwise inedible (for humans anyway) commodity corn.
Of course the problem with HFCS is how it is metabolized. We metabolize fructose directly through the liver, and there is quite a bit of evidence now emerging that HFCS is a major culprit behind many rising diseases of of our time such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, even cancer. Check out The Daily Apple for some more issues related to consuming HFCS. Oh, there is also a book called Sugar Shock!
There is also some good info online. Here is a study on HFCS from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that details a little bit about the differences between glucose and fructose metabolism. Notice how fructose is more efficient at producing triglycerides and seems to short circuit satiety signals:
Glucose provides “satiety” signals to the brain that fructose cannot provide because it is not transported into the brain. … Fructose also provides carbon atoms for synthesis of long-chain fatty acids, although in humans, the quantity of these carbon atoms is small. Thus, fructose facilitates the biochemical formation of triacylglycerols more efficiently than does glucose. For example, when a diet containing 17% fructose was provided to healthy men and women, the men, but not the women, showed a highly significant increase of 32% in plasma triacylglycerol concentrations.
If you are interested in more details on HFCS from a scientific point of view, read The Murky World of High Fructose Corn Syrup. Also Gary Taubes in Good Calories, Bad Calories
So does HFCS matter? It does. Its the number one sweetener used most soft drinks and can be found in processed foods from cheese to ketchup. Best to know what you are eating … and no … its not natural.
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Tags: chemical engineering, fda, high fructose corn syrup, processed foods, satiety, soft drinks, sugar shock, triglycerides
Every day objects re-thought to work right … umbrella edition. Senz aerodynamic umbrellas are designed to handle the wind and still give you protection. Even the supporting tube is oval in shape. Very very cool.
When the economy heats up again, I’m gonna get me one of those 
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Tags: crisis, design, economy, excellence, umbrella
As part of a small weekend DJango project, I needed to have xml and xslt support in python on my hosting provider, Webfaction. lxml was recommended to me as the best library for xml and xslt, so I went ahead and built up a small test app and deployed it to my webfaction account. I discovered that although they had the necessary linux libraries (libxml2 and libxslt), the python environment didn’t have lxml. I built lxml from source and installed it into the python library path for my application. The next challenge was that mod_python was compiled with UCS2 unicode support and the regular /usr/bin/python I used to build the lxml modules for my app was compiled with UCS4 unicode support. My guess is that the webfaction guys have updated their python packages but not their mod_python packages for apache. Anyway, lxml depends on having the right unicode settings and wouldn’t run.
To fix this I followed these steps. I am outlining this here, because undoubtedly I will have to do this again.
Step 1 - Download and compile my own install of python with the right unicode settings.
wget http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.5.1/Python-2.5.1.tgz
tar -xzvf Python-2.5.1.tgz
cd ./Python-2.5.1
./configure –enable-unicode=UCS2 –prefix=/home/account/mypython
make
make install
Step 2 - Add new python to my path
export PATH=~/mypython:$PATH
Step 3 - Build a new lxml and install to my application’s lib
cd ~/lxml-1.3.6 # I used and older version to match the libs on the system
python setup.py build_ext -i -I /usr/include/libxml #
python setup.py install –home=/home/account/webapps/app
I think that is it. The problem that caught me was a difference in how mod_python and regular python were built on the system. If you aren’t installing modules that require compilation, this likely won’t be a problem, but it is probably a good practice to keep mod_python and python synced up so you avoid this issues.
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Tags: DJango, install, lxml, mod_python, Python, UCS2, UCS4 unicode
I’m rather jealous of Mac coders with their fancy TextMate editors. It seems every python screencast I watch features that darn editor! I can replicate most of the textmate features I care about on linux using either gedit or kate. Scribes is specifically aiming to be textmate on linux On windows I use VIM or the e editor (still in my free trial period with e).
What I do really want, though, is a good programming font, one that looks as nice as most TextMate-On-The-Mac screencasts. I’ve tried the Dina font, which is very nice, but lacks font sizes I need for some of the monitors I have … eyes must be going. So I found a microsoft install package for the Consolas Programmer Font Family. Very nice, easy on my eyes, and works well regardless of your editor. And its close to what my Mac fiends … err friends enjoy.
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Tags: consolas, Dina, editors, Font, Linux, Mac Envy, Python, textmate
Lifehacker is showing an improved run at making firefox all chromed up. We’ve mentioned most of the plugins and themes before, but they’ve added a few.
- Chromiglass - Moves tabs to the top of the screen and adds improved graphics for the chromifox theme.
- Locationbar 2 - Highlights the domain in the address bar.
- Personal Menu - Makes accessing the menus easy.
- Prism - Convert tab in firefox to a separate app.
- Resizeable Text Area - Lets the user resize text areas on web forms
- Show Go - Make the show button always visible.
I’m sure that Chrome will continue to make advances, but I think the real interesting thought behind these attemps to make firefox look like chrome is how powerful a piece of software can be if it supports a plugin architecture. The original developers likely would never have built in the flexibility and creativity that the vast firefox plugin ecology has … all they had to do was figure out how to enable it and the resulting community does the rest.
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Tags: Chrome, Firefox, Google, plugin, plugin architecture, theme
Seems like it was only yesterday I was building kernels, downloading source onto diskettes… and now you’re 17! Well Happy Birthday linux. Doc Searls being nostalgic …
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Tags: doc searls, happy birthday, Linux
A pair of Linux programmers demonstrated a 5 second complete boot on as Asus eee. They used modified versions of fedora and Mobiln. The 5 seconds boot time included loading the network manager but not bringing up the network. They used a number of tricks including:
- All unnecessary services were eliminated (like sendmail).
- Kernel built without initrd - include all needed modules in the kernel.
- Use init instead of upstart for booting (fedora specific).
- Significant X related changes.
They were able to pull this off partly because they were targeting specific hardware in the Asus eee, but it is still impressive. Read the whole article here.
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Sunday short post:
It seems the world has gotten better after all … these old ads are truly scary.
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lxml is a beautiful library for handling xml and xsl transformations. Thanks to the blog readers for their excellent suggestions. I put together a quick DJango app to test it out and locally everything works great. Deploying my app to my webfaction account though was a bit tricky. In the end, due to an old installed version of libxml2 and libxslt, I had to downgrade to an earlier version of lxml. Additionally, the libxml2 headers weren’t being found by the easy_install build, so I downloaded the package and used setup.py with a -I /usr/include/libxml2 option… that built the older version without issues.
I was able to use the DJango shell for my app and everything seemed to work, lxml imported fine, so I tweaked the apache setup to run my app and ran into a road block. mod_python couldn’t import the lxml module due to the following error.
[Sat Oct 04 22:13:26 2008] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] ViewDoesNotExist: Could not import change.info.views. Error was: /home2/useraccount/webapps/lifecycle/lib/python2.5/lxml-1.3.6-py2.3-linux-i686.egg/lxml/etree.so: undefined symbol: PyUnicodeUCS4_FromEncodedObject
I take it that it has to do with something not being built with UCS4 support .. but since python seems to work from the command line, it looked like mod_python was the culprit.
Wefaction has the option to use wsgi instead of mod_python so I tried that, but no joy. I got a similar error. Does anyone have any thoughts of were else to look? Google seems to suggest that python is incorrectly built. Does mod_python/wsgi use a different python than what I would get from the command line?
The environment I am running is linux (not sure the flavour), python 2.5, DJango 1.0, apache 2.
Update
Looks like we are zeroing in on a solution. Checkout the comments to this post.
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A recent comment about Sarah Palin, Republican VP contender (who still supports aerial shooting of wolves), reminded me to post something I ran across a while ago. The British Columbia government did a study called A Management Strategy for Mountain Caribou. It points out interestingly, Caribou are threatened by wolves only if the wolves a