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Aug
29
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My recent enthusiasm for Laptop Linux has been somewhat stiffled. I fired up my laptop to extract some files only to be told that Ubuntu couldn't find the display so would continue in headless mode. It offered to show me the log files which I accepted but which obviously told me (a mere mortal) nothing. That's a real shame because the single endearing quality of Sony Vaio laptops is the awesome display. I quickly Googled for the problem but found nothing - so for now the laptop gets added to the pile of things that need to be debugged. At one time (3 or 4 years ago) I used to enjoy mucking about with Linux but today I just need a working laptop.
Update Thanks to the tip from ThinGuy Ubuntu is back up and running in glorious 1280x800. If you are stranded in the same situation - follow these simple steps and you'll be fixed in just few minutes.
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Oct
3
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I've been a Linux laptop user for about four or five years but my recent laptop upgrade set me back a bit - to the point where I've been forced to use Windows XP as my primary work environment. Which, I should add, is pretty nice once you have removed the Outlook and IE cruft and added a decent mail reader and browser (and added some security). Anyway for about 9 months I've been trying to find time to take a look at some additional distro's to see if they support my Sony VAIO any better than JDS / Suse.
I was reading David Coldrick's blog entry about running NetBeans on Ubuntu - and that reminded me I really should give Ubuntu a try (after all it claims to be the Linux for Humans); so before I'd finished reading David's entry I'd kicked off a download of the Ubuntu 5.10 Live CD
I quickly burnt a DVD (I didn't know you could burn DVDs from CD images) and booted my laptop. My heart sank as the bootloader came up - the video was all messed up - indicating it had detected the wrong refresh rate or something (the Sony VAIO 1280*800 screen has given other distros problems too). Fortunately, I let the boot run its course - when the window manager started it correctly identified the screen and corrected the display.
Anyway, I wasn't in the mood for a debug session so instead decided to look around the base Live CD install - all in all it seems pretty neat (though the default brown Ubuntu theme is a little depressing) and it has pretty much everything I need - though I would have to upgrade to a more recent version of Firefox and Thunderbrid, get the Cisco VPN software running and tackle the depressing APM / ACPI issues that I always anticipate with Linux and laptops. All that said, Ubuntu could well be worth investing a little more time in. I didn't manage to see if the included Totem would play DVD's out-of-the-box because you can't remove the Live CD DVD (Obviously). I'm going to order the *free* CD's and give it a try when I get some spare cycles but not before I give the latest Mandrake a spin.
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Jul
19
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I'm a self confessed gadget-head; I've always had an interest in technology and the art of "how things work"; often an innovation comes along that really gets my interest though probably a lot less than most people - it takes something pretty specical to pique my interest.
One of the most overlooked gadgets I'm exposed to on a fairly resular basis is the Sun Ray. I admit that it's not the primary device I use during my workday (ie. I don't have one in my office or at home [yet]) - I'm still "tied to a laptop" (I'll explain that dichotomy later). I typically use a SunRay when I'm in a remote office and just need to dive into my mail quickly (yes quickly) - unpacking, booting, connecting my laptop vs. plugging my card into the screen; I also use them when I'm giving a presentation (inside Sun, conference rooms have Sun Rays integrated into the A/V system) - I usually drop my preso. into a mounted folder on my laptop or home machine before hand; then simply plug my card into the screen and start presenting. I really hate it when you have to wait for a speaker to connect their laptop, change the resolution, plug in the power, mouse, etc. So when I present at Sun Executive Briefing Center - I'm always really amazed when I plug in my card and the session resumes exactly where I left off - usually the last slide of the last presentation I made.
OK, back to the "tied to my laptop comment". I'm lucky, I have a really small, modern laptop (a Vaio S170B) but it is still WAY TOO BIG for what it does - it does mail, browsing, blog editing and documents. I'm sick of lugging it around (plus all the associated cables). So, I have a plan to detach myself from it - soon I'll be able to pick up corporate mail on my Treo650 - so, I'll always have the option of dipping into my mail wherever I am (something the laptop can't do despite increasing coverage of 802.11) - when I'm in an office or at home, I'll have SunRays (when I join the WFH program).
One of the under-hyped aspects of Sun Rays is that they are extremely unintrusive - ie. they do what they do without you really having to invest much time in them - it seems that every time I turn on my home Windows machine these days I have to perform some kind of upgrade, malware eradication or virus scan of one form or another. I guess that's mostly a Windows issue but having my machine adminstered centrally is also a part of it - for example I'll no longer be responsible for backing-up my laptop (you all back-up your laptop regularly I presume ?)
So, where does this lead ? Eventually my laptop gets relegated to long road-trips without access to a Sun office (ie, writing documents, etc.) - this is a pretty infrequent thing these days. Amazing when you think I have been absolutely attached to a laptop for the last six years - that's progress.
Note - this was blogged on my laptop - I'll be looking at some blogging tools for Palm V this week.
Technorati Tags : SunRay, Treo650
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Apr
24
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Many of my Artistic Flickerite Friends have been sporting cool transparent displays on their notebooks (mainly Macs) so I thought it was about time I got one for my Sony Vaio;
I thought I may as well upgrade my Palm Pilot as well :
In case you're wondering : 1. using a tripod take a picture of where the laptop will be; 2. crop the image as tight as possible to the screen size and set it as the desktop on the laptop; 3. using the same exposure take another photo(from the same place) of the laptop with the desktop showing - this is the hard bit - getting the desktop image to line up with the background.
A couple of hints - 1. use an SLR if you have one - the difference between the viewfinder and lens on a point-and-shoot will mess the image alignment up; 2. try and get a 'normal' depth of field - otherwise the perspective will make it hard lining the image up; 3. Try and shoot the screen straight on so you don't have to deal with perspective (maybe a few degress off if you are shooting with a flash)
