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Posts in 2009 April
Hulu might not be bringing in too much money, but they have certainly taken a larger step than anyone towards bringing television online and into the future. What’s their secret? All they did was provide content to users in the way they want it. It took them long enough to catch on, too, since a small group of people have been saying that for years, but Hulu actually seems to get it, most of the time at least.
Yes, Hulu’s breakthrough is realizing something people have been saying for years. Whatever that says about the content industry, Hulu’s relative success seems to have sparked almost every TV studio to publsih full episodes online, either on their own or through Hulu.
The verdict is still out on Hulu’s success, but they have undoubtably helped open the eyes of the big studios. With any luck, that will be a lasting effect.
Operating System Reaction Times
When you’re driving a car, the road in front of you changes fast and, in order to avoid a collision, you have to turn, speed up, and slow down in response to these changes. Now imagine if you couldn’t change course or speed until the person sitting next to you told you. Before too long, you’d probably crash. That’s exactly where Windows is right now.
The tech world is changing faster than ever before. Did you know you can buy a flash drive with an eSATA connection
Just look at what happened with netbooks. Microsoft may have caught itself, but they were not prepared for the emergency of netbooks. Netbooks are currently forcing them to keep alive an operating system they wanted to kill years ago. New technology doesn’t wait for 5 year release cycles. It just comes.
This isn’t necessarily about open-source vs. proprietary software. In theory, you could develop an incredibly flexible piece of proprietary software that could be modified to react as soon as the new technology hit, but at this point, the only operating systems that can consistently be there for the people releasing new, cutting edge technology are those that are open source – specifically Linux.
Microsoft is being the backseat driver in an era when there is no time for a delay.
HP has announced their new ProBook business laptop line. The laptops feature an LED-backlit screen (14″, 15″, or 17″) and a choice of red or black (excuse me, “glossy merlot” or “noir”). More interestingly, though, they also feature the option of SuSe Linux pre-installed for $50 to $100 less than Vista.
The new ProBooks are one of HP’s first experiments with Linux on non-netbook end-user computers. Considering that the original Mini 2133 didn’t prove to be a huge success and they switched to Ubuntu rather than SuSe, it is surprising to me that HP would use SuSe on the new ProBooks. These are business notebooks, though, so it may simply be that most of their customers use SuSe.
HP’s ProBook is already being seen as a more consumer-oriented business laptop, so it will be interesting to see if HP intends to bring Linux to the home laptop line. I wouldn’t bet on it anytime soon, but I’d say there is a decent chance they will eventually bring Ubuntu to some of thier home PCs if the Linux ProBooks sell well.
Brilliant Brainstorms #57 – Don't Confuse The Newbies!
Brilliant Brainstorms is a (usually) weekly summary of some of the best/most interesting brainstorms from the Ubuntu Brainstorm site as well as various other Brainstorm-style sites.
Hack'n Ur Crap: External CD Drive > DVD Drive
With the abundance of netbooks and other optical drive-lacking computers, a USB external DVD drive is quickly becoming an essential accessory for any geek. Unfortunately, a new one will run you about $50 from most stores. Luckily, you can upgrade most external CD drives for half that.
I picked up an external CD-ROM drive that was about to be thrown away. It’s likely that if you look around you can find one, too, since they aren’t much use as they are. Once you’ve found one, go out and pick up an internal DVD burner. It depends on the external CD drive you find, but most likely you will need an IDE drive, rather than a newer SATA drive.
Parts
- External CD Drive (free)
- Internal DVD Burner (~$25)
Total: $25 (About half what this would cost pre-assembled.)
Putting It Together
Open up your external CD drive and take a look at the insides. If you got one that looks anything like mine, you will see a CD drive connected by a few cables to some circuit boards and switches at the back. You should see a Molex connector (four connections, usually white) that provides power, a long rectangular IDE connector (colors vary) with many spots for pins on it that carries the data, and, possibly, a smaller audio connector that has spots for a few pins.
Remove the CD drive from the case (look for screws on either side of the drive) and disconnect the connectors. If the Molex connector is on tightly, you may need pliers and/or super-human strength. (As a side note, this project will give you an incredible appreciation for new SATA power connectors.) Set this drive aside and connect the new drive just like the old one was connected. Screw it in and close the case up again.
That should be it, there are a couple of things to keep in mind, though:
First, while unlikely, it is possible that you get a CD drive that uses the SATA connection. If you connectors don’t match what I described, you may need a different type of DVD drive. More about SATA, IDE.
Second, 5.5″ optical drives vary somewhat in length. If there is very little clearance between the end of the drive and the other stuff in the case, make sure you check the lengths of the drives. There is also something called a “slim” drive. These are shorter in height. Try to get a new drive that is as physically similar to the old drive as possible.
Obviously every drive will differ, so be ready to adjust these steps to whatever you get.
I’ve been thinking a lot about backups recently and am starting to implement what I see as a fairly comprehensive backup system. Since it doesn’t seem like there is enough good information about realistic backups systems and how people really use them, I am going to keep posting anything useful I learn. Before I get in to all the technical bits, I’m going to start with the planning stage.
Before you touch any of the hardware or software, you have to know where you want your data to be. There are basically three types of backups that you need to have:
- A remote backup to protect against the worst case scenario – fires, bad earthquakes, etc.
- Semi-frequent snapshots for restoring after a hard disk crash
- Frequent, portable backups of critical information to minimize lost time after a hard disk failiure
Each of these backups is an essential part of protecting your data, but these will likely not mean three different backup locations.
In the simplest example, the remote backup could be Amazon S3, the local snapshots could be a USB hard drive, and the frequent backups could be an SD card. In most cases, though, one backup medium will cover two or even three of the needed backups. As another example, here is what I am aiming for:
Frequent (every three hours) backups will be made to an SD card that remains in the computer no matter where I go. Snapshots then go to a networked Drobo. Since I live in an area where about the worst we get is thunderstorms, the Drobo in another room is good enough for both the remote and local snapshots.
If you only had a few files to backup, a service like Amazon S3 might even serve all three purposes, provided that you are always around an internet connection.
While everyone’s specific solution will be different, these are the key types of backups that you should have. Obviously, any of these is a huge step up from nothing..
And for anyone out there figuring they’ll just chance it, it won’t work. Only a few months ago my elbow completely wiped out all of my data, not to mention my opinion about Dell’s build quality, in seconds. It might not be your elbow, but something is bound to happen.
I admit that the Ubuntu Artwork Team has a very hard job, since themes and looks are so subjective, yet I can’t help but feel Ubuntu’s art is going downhill fast.
Brown debate aside, there are some serious inconsistencies across the entire theme.
The login screen in Ubuntu 9.04 takes a dramatic leap from anything we have seen before. It’s dark, sharp, high contrast, and brand-centric. Apart from the lack of any design in 90% of the available space, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Ubuntu does need a change and the login screen looks like a promising start, even if I don’t particularly like it’s style.
Next, we move on to the background. It looks like Ubuntu a year and a half ago. In other words it’s light, soft, blended, and brand-free. Slight inconsistency? Yeah, and did I mention that it lacks a design beyond a few abstract lines. After seeing what is possible in Ubuntu 8.04, that drives me crazy.
Whoever was in charge of the window themes actually did a decent job. Including several themes was quite smart, but I’ve been watching the Ubuntu art process for a while and this stuff is not new. If even one of these themes was designed for Ubuntu 9.04, I’m surprised. I was using Dust (one of the window themes) for quite a while before Ubuntu 9.04 arrived. Reusing a good theme is hardly a crime, though. This is the open-source world, right? The real problem is that many of the themes, not having been designed specifically for this release, do not look natural against the background. (The exception to this being DarkRoom, which first appeared in 8.10.)
The real problem with all this is that there is so much talent out there, but it never gets put together right. I’ve noticed a patten: Right around the early alphas I usually post something praising the artwork that’s already been posted. Within only a few weeks, contributors already have impressive concepts, yet, in the end, these ideas get thrown out the window in favor of whatever can be cobbled together quickly.
As I said, the Art Team certainly has a difficult job and I don’t mean to criticise them, but I can’t help but think that some real leadership is needed to pull together the talent into something consistent and impressive. Until then, I guess I’ll just have to keep drooling at Fedora’s art.
Ubuntu Launches 9.04, Get's Serious About Netbooks
As usual, Ubuntu’s home page advertises both Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope 9.04 Desktop Edition and Server Edition. This release, though, a third product joins them: Ubuntu Netbook Remix.
Until now, Ubuntu’s Netbook Remix has been focused on OEMs like Dell and HP, both of whom now use Ubuntu and some custom software on their netbooks.That piece may always be their biggest percentage of installations, but it is clear that they are going to try and change that by offering the Nebtook Remix right on the home page as a download for any netbook.
Given that consumers are apparently already uncomfortable trying something new, it is not clear that they will be willing to install a new OS. For those who are willing to install a new OS, Ubuntu is clearly positioning for your limited SSD space. Right now, it looks like they’re gonna get it.
Oracle, maker of one of the largest proprietary database solutions, recently purchased Sun, who makes MySQL, a piece of open-source database software. Naturally, this sounds like trouble. One of the biggest database companies buys another of the largest?
If MySQL was closed-source, this would be much more of a concern, but since it is open-source, the immediate concern is almost nothing. Even if Oracle slowly tried to kill offf MySQL, it could still survive as a volunteer-based project, at least for some time.
It is very hard to know what is going to happen as a result of the Oracle deal, but I don’t think mySQL is at risk of any issues. MySQL’s open license protects it from being killed by Sun.
How To: Pain Free Backups With GRsync and Gnome Schedule
Advanced backup tools that keep multiple copies of files and so on have their place, but sometimes you just need a simple scheduled sync, not a full backup. For example, I have an SD card that stays in my laptop almost all the time. On this, I keep a copy of most of my home folder that gets updated every day at 1:30 in the morning. I no longer have to think about it, it just happens. Here’s how you can do the same thing:
- Install GRsync and gnome-schedule. In Ubuntu, you can install GRsync from Add/Remove programs, but gnome-schedule is only available from Synaptic.
- Open GRsync and create a new session. Choose the source folder location in the first box and the target folder in the second box. Then you can configure the options below. You will almost certainly want the “delete on destination” option. I have also selected “preserve time,” “preserve permissions,” “verbose,” “show progress,” and “Windows compatibility.”
- Move on to the advanced options tab. The most important part here is the “additional options” section. Here you can specify anything else you want to pass to rsync, the backend program that actually does the file transfer. The most useful argument you can supply is –exclude=”something”. For example, I have entered this:
–exclude=’*.iso’ –exclude=’.VirtualBox’ –exclude=’.miro’ –exclude=”.nautilus” –exclude=”.Trash”
This tells rsync to ignore any file with the extension .iso, skip the VirtualBox, Miro, and Nautilus folders, and skip the trash. If your target directory is a USB hard drive, you may not have to worry about this, but my SD card can’t fit everything, so I don’t copy some of the less important stuff. - Press “Execute” and make sure everything works.
- Open Gnome Schedule (in Ubuntu, you can find it under System > Preferences > Scheduled Tasks. Click on new and create a recurring task. Enter whatever you want for a description and choose when you want to backup to run. Finally, enter this as the command:
grsync -e “name of session”
- That’s it!
As a bonus, if you want to be able to easily check to make sure your backup ran, create a blank text document somewhere. Then open a new black document and type this in:
#!/bin/sh
grsync -e “session name“;
touch test file location;
Save this as something.sh. Then go back in to Gnome Schedule and change the command to ./filename.sh. Remember that the command is run in the home directory, so if the script is in /home/username/files/scripts/script.sh, you have to say ./files/scripts/script.sh.
Now after every time the backup is run, the test file you created will be updated to say it was last modified at the current time.
Now you lost your excuse. Go back up!