lilduckling.com

Gosh, time flies! I’ve been using the Windows 7 beta, which is expiring. After today it’ll start shutting down every 2 hours. I started getting warnings a few days ago and thought it would be a good time for me to try switching to ubuntu again to replace the windows 7 beta.

So I headed over to ubuntu.com and downloaded ubuntu 9.10. I must say I am impressed with linux efforts like ubuntu. They are making progress all the time and I have had a very easy time installing ubuntu 9.10. No hardware issues like I used to have. However, it still doesn’t ‘just work’. For one thing, flash/shockwave (installed using synaptic package manager, the install from Adobe website does not work at all) support seems buggy for me. I was having issues using flash videos. And I still do not know what to do to be able to watch apple.com/trailers, i.e. Quicktime support.

Needless to say I use wine for running those windows applications I must have (games!). So far I have only got World of Warcraft working, albeit with disappearing sound. The proprietary drivers from nVidia did not give me any grief, though. This used to be a problem for me when I tried older versions. Another plus I’ve noticed but cannot confirm, is that the network response seems to be better. I get better ping in WoW, and Firefox seems snappy. And I swear my AMD64 system is running with less heat. I’m not sure why this is.

All in all, using linux can still have its hassles, but I find the experience much more painless and smooth this time around as compared to my previous experiences with linux. I’ve previously tried Suse (tried using this as my work environment), ubuntu 6/8, Slax and DSL to various degrees. I find the progress linux is making quite heartening as I do like the system. If you’re a windows 7 beta user like me, and don’t want to spring for Windows 7, I suggest you try out one of the flavours of linux out there. They’ve come a long way and matured quite a bit. You just might be surprised.

I am posting this from my phone right now via the Wordpress application. Still getting used to the touch keyboard so I will have to keep this short.

First off, I am not a power user when it comes to phones, so I chose this phone knowing full well it is entry level smartphone amd has some limitations.

So what are my first impressions? Well, this phone totally met my expectations of it. It can get slpw and bogged down amd that can be an inconvenience while typing, but nothing I can’t get used to.

My main gripe is the battery drained super fast on me twice after I installed a bunch of things to try. So I just got rid of those apps without trying them. I guess this is more an app/market issue rather than phone though.

Anyway, I will write more after living with it for a longer time. But so far I have been rather happy with it.

Update (1 March 2010): Seems like the android 2.1 rom for this phone has been leaked. http://www.greaky.com/2010/02/samsung-i5700-galaxy-spica-android-21.html

Just an update.

I posted about seeing Tux, the Linux mascot, being used by a store at the Expo last year (In my May 2007 archives). There’s an article on BoingBoing yesterday about a similar thing. Apparently Tux is so adorable people are using him everywhere.

I actually didn’t realize this until today. I feel kinda outraged…

Let me explain.  You see, I use Apple’s iTunes on my home PC as well as my laptop at work. On my laptop, I’ve installed Safari so that I can test web pages. I did not install it on my home PC, and have no intention to. A few days ago, there was an Apple software update. I saw that it listed Safari as an update, so I clicked the Install button as I always do. After all, keeping your software up to date is supposed to be a Good Thing.

I didn’t realize that it installed Safari on my home PC until I saw the Safari icon on my home desktop. It took some time to sink in too because I see this icon almost everyday on the laptop. I know it may seem like a small matter. After all I’m not entirely against having another browser choice on my PC. Or I could just simply uninstall it. I’m just angry because I don’t like software being installed on my PC in such a way.

There are lots of software out there that try to get you to install their sponsor’s software, or some tracking software, or toolbar, or even send emails to everyone on your mailing list without your express permission. I get angry at every one of them. But I DID NOT expect such sneaky tactics from an established brand. Through an update service, no less!

Apple, I am gradually losing my trust in you.

For those of you who like printing your photos from one of those print stations (see picture), a word of caution. If you insert a memory card/stick, do scan it for viruses when you bring it home.

If possible, just use IR or bluetooth or a CD to transfer your photos. To be safer, you should de-activate the auto-play feature in your Windows machine. Of course, if you are not using Windows then you may not worry about these issues, but you would still need to clean your memory card.

I was at Tiong Bahru Plaza to try the instant print recently. The prints came out a bit washed out and skin tone appeared very yellow. I was disappointed with the results, but then I only printed out 2 photos just to try it out. Little did I know I got even more than I bargained for.

When I later inserted the the thumb drive I used at the print station into my PC, my anti-virus immediately warned me of a trojan. There were extra EXE files in my memory card that were trying to auto-execute via autoplay. Good thing I had a good anti-virus installed. Thank you Avira!

I came to no harm, but I just thought I should put this out as a warning for others. Those print stations are running Windows and I doubt they see much maintenance or full virus scans. They can be pretty good carriers for computer virii.