Idiotprogrammer Blog

Category: Linux/Open Source

  • Network Media Servers

    I am really close to buying a Network Area Storage solution. The frontrunner: Buffalo Technology Linkstation gigabit 250 gigabyte solution for $200. Actually, I may upgrade to the 300 gig solution ($280) after learning that installing the linkstation open firmware lets you install a server and media player software like swisscenter or twonkymedia (which apparently work well with my Avel Linkplayer DVD player via its ethernet connection).

    I have a lot of things on my plate now. I really don’t need the chaos of having to maintain a buggy opensource hardware solution. All I really need is a backup solution. On the other hand, I’ve always been a gadget/hardware kind of guy, and it would be a feather in my cap (and nice to mention on the resume) if I can claim to put this together.

    Update: Gosh, money doesn’t grow on trees. $300 for a backup NAS seems excessive for someone currently on sabbatical and trying to pinch every penny. 300 gigabytes; couldn’t I make do with 250 or 160? Maybe. But I have 4 devices (XP Desktop, XP laptop, Fedora Core 5 Laptop, Nokia 770 pda) I need to back up, many of which are media files, some of which are high definition files (and need to be viewed) on my HDTV. Those things, plus the advantages of having a nice media player interface on my HDTV/DVD player, makes spending $300 seem like not a big deal. Plus, having the ability to run media server software for my HDTV would really add to my ability to use my HDTV.
    Now all I need to do is buy a HDTV capture card, and I’ll be set (just joking).

    Update #2: By combining the order with two other things and ordering from newegg instead of amazon, I ended up spending $281 for the network storage server.  Not bad.

  • Nokia 770 becomes better, much better….

    I’ve been surfing through the maemo catalog for Nokia 770 PDA. I’ve noticed that growing pains have been solved, and a newly released Beta version of the OS promises to greatly improve the PDA’s functionality. On the bulletin board users are estatic about the improvements, although it is still only beta software, so users like me shouldn’t be messing with it. It’s hard to say when the final upgrade will appear, although it probably will happen within the month. Here’s a brief summary of the Nokia 770 improvements (and open issues).
    Notable things:

    1. PIM improvements. The linux PDA GPE had lots of good features, but it had several omissions. First, no good appointment alarm (apparently because Nokia didn’t make that functionality possible). Also, the calendar offered only rudimentary ability to set up recurring appointments (which annoyed me so much that I even filed a bug about it). This absence was a real deal breaker, but the developer got on it, and now it’s fixed for the 2006 version of the OS when it is released. Also even though there’s still no easy way to sync with Outlook, at least solutions are coming closer.
    2. microphone. Strangely, 770 came with a built in microphone that didn’t work. The new version not only has an audio driver, it also supports Google Talk, a web voice chat program (and here’s tapioca, a nifty new platform integrating VOIP with chat).
    3. Maemo mapper, a program that lets you map locations, seems to be popular and stable.
    4. apparently the PDF reader works much better. Also, fbreader–the ebook program of record–has been updated several times. Actually I filed a bug about that too which was fixed by the developer within days. Now that’s awesome!
    5. now it seems to come with a default password management program.
    6. performance improvements. Apparently the browser loads faster and the file manager has usability improvements.
    7. apparently, it now has an apt-get updating capability, making it painless to upgrade applications (it really wasn’t bad before though).

    My problem with Nokia has been stability of files I edit. I seem to have corrupted an awful lot of these files (although this may be related to my particular memory card or the applications I am using). The device still is rough on the edges, but so far, I’ve found gpe-to do quite useful. The browser, while not perfect (I wish you could change from landscape view to portrait view and you really can’t keep open multiple windows) works well enough. Fbreader works almost flawlessly. I found that I used the Nokia 770 as a lightweight laptop, something I could keep in my pocket (along with my bluetooth keyboard) and use when I didn’t feel like lugging that heavy thinkpad around.
    Still, when the new OS upgrade comes out, it probably will make nokia 770 more versatile of a gadget. Interestingly, the documentation on the wiki page makes it more attractive; often the nokia 770 had functionality, but it just wasn’t easily documented anywhere.
    Honestly, I had meant to play around with the 770 over the last few months, but lack of time prevented me. Now with the new OS coming soon, I probably will spend more time

  • Not Your Typical Linux Disclaimer

    From a FC 5 Disclaimer:

    NOTE: This is not an official form of support. This is not an official service of Red Hat. These things may solve your worst nightmare, or they may eat all of the cheese in your house. I make no guarantees.

  • Wireless for the Linux Laptop (FC5) (Part 4)

    Longtime readers of this blog will recall how I suffered under the agony of getting wifi to work on FC4 and inhabited the ndiswrapper limbo(which I vow never to go through again). So I bought a laptop with a well known linux Wifi driver and installed the latest-and-greatest version of Fedora Core 5 distribution.

    Now, alas I find getting Wifi to work is still painful. Here’s what I’ve found:

    • in previous versions of FC, it defaults to an ethernet hardware setting (and still does so in FC 5).
    • in this version (which I still haven’t gotten to work) they have an earlier version of the drivers, but they don’t appear in the configuration wizards (although they do appear in the command lines–such as /sbin/lspci ).
    • there’s a nice network status manager available in Gnome, but it isn’t turned on by default and you need to do so. (Here’s how to get started on that).
    • Bill Moss wrote up a great little guide about updating the firmware/drivers, although it’s still very complex. (sorry, here’s the correct link). Here’s the intel GNU documentation. Apparently, you need to update the kernel and firmware and drivers and probably some configuration files as well (and update some rpms while you’re at it). Egad! (update: the kernel recompile was NOT necessary).
    • Most of the instructions for configuring wifi make the assumption that you have easy access to ethernet, which is not always the case. For once, I’d like a CD to have all the tools necessary to work.
    • even if you get the Intel drivers to work, you still need to download wpa_supplicant in order to have a relatively recent encryption method for wifi.

    Perhaps you may think that this 2915ABG driver I’m talking about is an edge case. Actually this is default wifi hardware device for almost every single Intel-based laptop out there these days. I really have to wonder why the FC5 testers didn’t make sure it would work before they shoved this distribution out the door.

    This post will detail my progress for getting the 2915ABG driver to work.

    Update: I am happy to report that my problem was solved with little difficulty. (The main difficulty was getting familiar with yum commands and yumex, which was time-consuming, but not difficult. Then I downloaded the ipw2200-firmware rpm. After a reboot, the network configuration wizard (in gnome, System –> Administration –> Network) now showed my intel miniPCI card in the list of devices, and everything after that was a piece of cake.

  • Why not a Gimp book?

    While reading a Slashdot book review about Linux Multimedia Hacks, I wondered aloud why no one hasn’t written an up-to-date gimp book. Well, it seems that someone has (or will) . Looks like the idea for this book came from a Linux Chic email course . The author Akkana Peck has a weblog and is actively involved in linux development. Here’s a list of her favorite gimp links.
    Curiously, her blog (powered by pyblosxom) has no working RSS feed (at least not one detectable by bloglines).

    I am still a novice at graphic design, but I switched to Windows gimp two years ago, if only for basic photo editing. Over time, I’ve aquired a small bit of knowledge, and my video projects make it probably a good time to expand my proficiency on this.