You may notice a difference in the layout of my blog from today - the addition of a Digg widget. Yes, after being subscribed to Digg's RSS feed for months, I've finally signed up and started Digging items.
In the time I have been subscribed to the feed, Digg has informed me of many bizarre or interesting things that I would have missed out on otherwise. Since I already spend a few minutes every day going through their feed, I might as well take the opportunity to Digg or comment on a few of these.
One thing though - they say that you can set it up to send items from Digg direct to your Blogger blog (including if it's a Google login like mine), but it doesn't seem to work for me, though I've followed the instructions on the site.
I've also signed up to Slashdot and StumbleUpon, but Digg is the one I imagine I will be getting the most use out of.
Saturday, 15 September 2007
Wednesday, 12 September 2007
A story short
When I was at school, I used to read the collections of SF short stories that they had in the library. I remember that they were from a series called Space (not terribly imaginative for SF). I think I read volumes 4, 5, 6, and 8. They were always very entertaining, and I read them through several times.
Although I continued to read SF after leaving school (if anything I read more because I could afford more books), I somehow stopped reading short fiction.
A couple of years ago I read Allen Steele's Coyote novels, and Charles Stross's Accelerando (brilliant, and available to download from the Internet in pdf format for free here). Both of these were structured as a series of short stories featuring the same characters, and it rekindled my interest in the short story. I've since gotten into the habit of buying the annual Mammoth Book of Best New SF which is an excellent source of short stories.
I've just bought this year's one (number 20) which promises to be a corker. It includes Ian McDonald's The Djinn's Wife, set in the same world as his brilliant novel River of Gods and his previous short story The Little Goddess. It also includes three other stories that I've already read and were great, one by Stephen Baxter, the other two by Alastair Reynolds. Only one thing: take a look at the cover. For those who've seen Firefly/Serenity: does the spaceship look familiar? Not an exact copy, but certainly looks like it was "inspired" by Captain Mal Reynolds' ship, doesn't it?
Another of my favourite anthologies is the Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction, which has some awesome stories. The first one, ...And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon, explores what happens when household objects are given communal sentience, and is downright bonkers, but astonishingly good. And the rest of the stories are even better.
On the train, I'm currently reading Infinity Plus The Anthology, which isn't as good as the Mammoth Book of Best New SF usually is, but is still quite interesting reading. Still reading Black Man at home. What with the demands of work, my course, blogging and everything else, it's hard to find time to read it.
Although I continued to read SF after leaving school (if anything I read more because I could afford more books), I somehow stopped reading short fiction.
A couple of years ago I read Allen Steele's Coyote novels, and Charles Stross's Accelerando (brilliant, and available to download from the Internet in pdf format for free here). Both of these were structured as a series of short stories featuring the same characters, and it rekindled my interest in the short story. I've since gotten into the habit of buying the annual Mammoth Book of Best New SF which is an excellent source of short stories.
I've just bought this year's one (number 20) which promises to be a corker. It includes Ian McDonald's The Djinn's Wife, set in the same world as his brilliant novel River of Gods and his previous short story The Little Goddess. It also includes three other stories that I've already read and were great, one by Stephen Baxter, the other two by Alastair Reynolds. Only one thing: take a look at the cover. For those who've seen Firefly/Serenity: does the spaceship look familiar? Not an exact copy, but certainly looks like it was "inspired" by Captain Mal Reynolds' ship, doesn't it?
Another of my favourite anthologies is the Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction, which has some awesome stories. The first one, ...And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon, explores what happens when household objects are given communal sentience, and is downright bonkers, but astonishingly good. And the rest of the stories are even better.
On the train, I'm currently reading Infinity Plus The Anthology, which isn't as good as the Mammoth Book of Best New SF usually is, but is still quite interesting reading. Still reading Black Man at home. What with the demands of work, my course, blogging and everything else, it's hard to find time to read it.
Friday, 7 September 2007
The iPod is dead, long live the iPod!
Alright, I hold my hands up. I should have waited for the press release and got one of the new iPod Classics, shouldn't I? If I'd gone for the 80GB model, I'd have saved money, or for about the same price I could have got the 160GB model. They're already on Amazon.co.uk to pre-order as I write this.
I have no excuses. I heard all the rumours on Digg and Engadget, and I'd been told of them by other people as well, so I knew something was imminent.
Ah, well. Live and learn, I guess. Besides, I have a big CD collection, but not big enough that I'd need a 160GB iPod (at least, not unless I put Rockbox on it and ripped every single CD I own in FLAC format, and I'm not that bothered about sound quality when you're going to be listening on crappy little headphones).
I have to say, though, that I think the iPod probably isn't going to be around much longer.
You what! I hear you say. They've just released a new Shuffle, a new Nano, the two Classics and the Touch! No-one else can match the iPod!
Well, that is true. Apple now have the vast majority of the digital music player market. But, I think that is going to change, probably in the next five years. The reason for this is that storing your music on your player will become unnecessary, thanks to improvements in networking.
I think there have been two great advances in portable music players. The Walkman was great in that it allowed you to listen to music on the move, but you had to take the tapes with you, so it wasn't as portable as an iPod is. This didn't change appreciably with the advent of personal CD players.
The iPod also revolutionised music on the go, in that for the first time, it was practical to take your entire music collection with you everywhere you went. That was a fantastic development. I've found that having a portable music player of this type has a bigger effect than is obvious. It actually changes the way you listen to music, because rather than having to choose a few favourite CD's or tapes to take with you, you have them all with you and can listen to any when you want, encouraging you to listen to things you otherwise wouldn't listen to very often.
I foresee a third revolution in portable music players once the 4G revolution is upon us. 4G would mean that in any area with the right kind of coverage (probably via mobile phone network), you'd be able to stream music or other content at 100Mbit/s. Under these circumstances, there'd be little point in having a hard drive built in. You could probably use your mobile phone to listen to music, since this would already have to connect to the network, so you might as well integrate the two devices.
I've heard a lot of talk along these lines, and I think it's true. I think there would be several ways you could access your music. Home servers are likely to become more and more popular over the next few years, and you could store music there, or you could keep it on an online storage service. Alternatively, you could use a Napster-style subscription service. Or my perennial favourite, music site Last.fm, perhaps. This way, you wouldn't just have access to your own collection, you'd have access to everything. Think about it - any song ever recorded only a few button presses away at any time! Cool, huh?
Don't believe me? Believe Rick Rubin. The man has been in the music industry for over two decades as a well-respected producer and is now a head honcho at Columbia Records. He recently gave an interview with the New York Times where he outlined a similar vision of the future of the music industry.
Of course, Apple may be able to move with the times. There is actually plenty of evidence that they may be able to do so. The new iPod Touch has built-in WiFi, and of course they have the iPhone as well. But I think there is one company that are very likely to do well out of this, and that is Sony. They have much more experience than Apple of making mobile phones that also play music, they have belatedly learned that proprietary music formats are a pain in the proverbial (making them more likely to embrace more open standards), they are one of the few companies that can match Apple in terms of product design (those Vaio laptops look amazing!) and they are also a record company. I think this puts them in a very good position to benefit from developments along these lines
Oh, and my progress on the web design course: I didn't use the link tool on Blogger to do the links on this post. I edited the HTML myself! So now I have written some lines of HTML which are on the Internet. A small step, but a satisfying one.
I have no excuses. I heard all the rumours on Digg and Engadget, and I'd been told of them by other people as well, so I knew something was imminent.
Ah, well. Live and learn, I guess. Besides, I have a big CD collection, but not big enough that I'd need a 160GB iPod (at least, not unless I put Rockbox on it and ripped every single CD I own in FLAC format, and I'm not that bothered about sound quality when you're going to be listening on crappy little headphones).
I have to say, though, that I think the iPod probably isn't going to be around much longer.
You what! I hear you say. They've just released a new Shuffle, a new Nano, the two Classics and the Touch! No-one else can match the iPod!
Well, that is true. Apple now have the vast majority of the digital music player market. But, I think that is going to change, probably in the next five years. The reason for this is that storing your music on your player will become unnecessary, thanks to improvements in networking.
I think there have been two great advances in portable music players. The Walkman was great in that it allowed you to listen to music on the move, but you had to take the tapes with you, so it wasn't as portable as an iPod is. This didn't change appreciably with the advent of personal CD players.
The iPod also revolutionised music on the go, in that for the first time, it was practical to take your entire music collection with you everywhere you went. That was a fantastic development. I've found that having a portable music player of this type has a bigger effect than is obvious. It actually changes the way you listen to music, because rather than having to choose a few favourite CD's or tapes to take with you, you have them all with you and can listen to any when you want, encouraging you to listen to things you otherwise wouldn't listen to very often.
I foresee a third revolution in portable music players once the 4G revolution is upon us. 4G would mean that in any area with the right kind of coverage (probably via mobile phone network), you'd be able to stream music or other content at 100Mbit/s. Under these circumstances, there'd be little point in having a hard drive built in. You could probably use your mobile phone to listen to music, since this would already have to connect to the network, so you might as well integrate the two devices.
I've heard a lot of talk along these lines, and I think it's true. I think there would be several ways you could access your music. Home servers are likely to become more and more popular over the next few years, and you could store music there, or you could keep it on an online storage service. Alternatively, you could use a Napster-style subscription service. Or my perennial favourite, music site Last.fm, perhaps. This way, you wouldn't just have access to your own collection, you'd have access to everything. Think about it - any song ever recorded only a few button presses away at any time! Cool, huh?
Don't believe me? Believe Rick Rubin. The man has been in the music industry for over two decades as a well-respected producer and is now a head honcho at Columbia Records. He recently gave an interview with the New York Times where he outlined a similar vision of the future of the music industry.
Of course, Apple may be able to move with the times. There is actually plenty of evidence that they may be able to do so. The new iPod Touch has built-in WiFi, and of course they have the iPhone as well. But I think there is one company that are very likely to do well out of this, and that is Sony. They have much more experience than Apple of making mobile phones that also play music, they have belatedly learned that proprietary music formats are a pain in the proverbial (making them more likely to embrace more open standards), they are one of the few companies that can match Apple in terms of product design (those Vaio laptops look amazing!) and they are also a record company. I think this puts them in a very good position to benefit from developments along these lines
Oh, and my progress on the web design course: I didn't use the link tool on Blogger to do the links on this post. I edited the HTML myself! So now I have written some lines of HTML which are on the Internet. A small step, but a satisfying one.
Monday, 3 September 2007
Pissed at Vista! (I'm using the American sense here, of being angry, as opposed to the English sense of being drunk!)
I hate Windows Vista. Have you ever used it? It's very flashy, but it supports sod-all. It crashes all the time (even for Windows, it's bad). Just about every application that you can think of has some kind of problem with it (with the notable exception of The Sims 2, guess not even the Evil Empire can ignore that).
I was fed up with XP (which was what encouraged me to move to Kubuntu), but compared to Vista, XP is a shining beacon of brilliance. At least, that didn't crash virtually every time you tried to start it up.
Now that Linux is starting to be preinstalled on the desktop, we may now finally be seeing Windows in retreat. Believe me, there's no better advert for Linux than Windows Vista. With easy distros like Ubuntu and Linux Mint now available, I think people will increasingly start to question why they are expected to pay for Vista. Since I switched to Kubuntu, I've never looked back.
Rant over...
I was fed up with XP (which was what encouraged me to move to Kubuntu), but compared to Vista, XP is a shining beacon of brilliance. At least, that didn't crash virtually every time you tried to start it up.
Now that Linux is starting to be preinstalled on the desktop, we may now finally be seeing Windows in retreat. Believe me, there's no better advert for Linux than Windows Vista. With easy distros like Ubuntu and Linux Mint now available, I think people will increasingly start to question why they are expected to pay for Vista. Since I switched to Kubuntu, I've never looked back.
Rant over...
Sunday, 2 September 2007
Reading Matter
I'm still ploughing through Black Man. Like most of Richard Morgan's work, it's very good and very violent. I won't explain the plot here, you'll have to look on Amazon if you want to know what it's about, but I have to say, I don't like it as much as Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs novels.
I have finished reading The New Space Opera. The quality of the stories in it was very high throughout, but the final story, Muse of Fire by Dan Simmons, is absolute genius. For those of you unfamiliar with Simmons, he's an author who writes SF and fantasy, as well as horror, and has always been one of those authors who can straddle several different genres with ease, and also has a very good understanding of great literature. His Hyperion Cantos and his two books Ilium and Olympos are books of tremendous literary merit.
Muse of Fire paints a grim vision of a humanity subdued into slavery by a fierce alien race called the Archons, who themselves are the lowest of four increasingly powerful alien races (the others being the Poimen, the Demiurgos, and Abraxas, a kind of God). It follows a troupe of actors who travel to planets where human slaves are kept by the Archons to put on Shakespeare plays for them. One day, several Archons come to watch their play, and they are summoned to perform before the rest of the Archons, before embarking on a journey to perform Shakespeare's plays to each of the other races. Eventually they discover they are performing for the future of their race.
Simmons packs more ideas into this one short story than many writers can come up with for a huge novel. I'd highly recommend this story.
I'm going back to work tomorrow so I need to choose a book to read on the train.
I have finished reading The New Space Opera. The quality of the stories in it was very high throughout, but the final story, Muse of Fire by Dan Simmons, is absolute genius. For those of you unfamiliar with Simmons, he's an author who writes SF and fantasy, as well as horror, and has always been one of those authors who can straddle several different genres with ease, and also has a very good understanding of great literature. His Hyperion Cantos and his two books Ilium and Olympos are books of tremendous literary merit.
Muse of Fire paints a grim vision of a humanity subdued into slavery by a fierce alien race called the Archons, who themselves are the lowest of four increasingly powerful alien races (the others being the Poimen, the Demiurgos, and Abraxas, a kind of God). It follows a troupe of actors who travel to planets where human slaves are kept by the Archons to put on Shakespeare plays for them. One day, several Archons come to watch their play, and they are summoned to perform before the rest of the Archons, before embarking on a journey to perform Shakespeare's plays to each of the other races. Eventually they discover they are performing for the future of their race.
Simmons packs more ideas into this one short story than many writers can come up with for a huge novel. I'd highly recommend this story.
I'm going back to work tomorrow so I need to choose a book to read on the train.
Thursday, 30 August 2007
Kblogger
I've just discovered Kblogger, a tool for KDE to enable blogging from the desktop. It's a bit primitive, but I can see myself using it a lot of the time. So, let's see if it works ok...
Update - it doesn't work well with Blogger! So, I'm not going to be able to use it. It doesn't support title entry, so I will stick with using Blogger's own entry system, perhaps with Google Docs as well from time to time.
Update - it doesn't work well with Blogger! So, I'm not going to be able to use it. It doesn't support title entry, so I will stick with using Blogger's own entry system, perhaps with Google Docs as well from time to time.
Wednesday, 29 August 2007
Arachnophobes, look away now...
I've had a Google Docs and Spreadsheets profile for ages now, and I've decided to use this to write my blog from now on. It seems to have all the same tools as Blogger, but I think it will probably work out to be more convenient, as it's more geared towards being a useful word processor.
Anyway, here's something that happened the other day, that might give you the creeps if (like me) you're an arachnophobe. On Monday, I was drying my hair with a towel and I put my hand just below my right ear. When I took it away, I noticed something looking like a mat of hair (I didn't have my glasses on). I took a closer look, and suddenly saw that it was a spider. I must have jumped about a metre in the air! Believe me, I did not sleep well that night!
Anyway, I really must get some more work done on my web design course. I'm now onto the third chapter, which is about hyperlinks...
Anyway, here's something that happened the other day, that might give you the creeps if (like me) you're an arachnophobe. On Monday, I was drying my hair with a towel and I put my hand just below my right ear. When I took it away, I noticed something looking like a mat of hair (I didn't have my glasses on). I took a closer look, and suddenly saw that it was a spider. I must have jumped about a metre in the air! Believe me, I did not sleep well that night!
Anyway, I really must get some more work done on my web design course. I'm now onto the third chapter, which is about hyperlinks...
Tuesday, 28 August 2007
Down to work...
Well, today I made a start on working through the exercise book for my web design course. Like anything of this type, it is harder than it sounds. Also, since I have to do it on the computer, there's the obvious temptation of the whole Internet to distract me, not to mention games, and it's very hard not to procrastinate.
Still, I've got a bit of an advantage. Having played around with Google Page Creator and Nvu, as well as putting the widgets onto this blog means I'm not a complete newcomer to HTML. I've also copied out a couple of lines of HTML to run Java applets.
Speaking of Nvu, I decided to use Kompozer instead. Kompozer is essentially a version of Nvu with a load of bug fixes, and designed specifically for Ubuntu, so I am using that instead for the moment. Effectively it's exactly the same as Nvu except in name and these bug fixes.
I'll keep you abreast of how I do on the course.
Still, I've got a bit of an advantage. Having played around with Google Page Creator and Nvu, as well as putting the widgets onto this blog means I'm not a complete newcomer to HTML. I've also copied out a couple of lines of HTML to run Java applets.
Speaking of Nvu, I decided to use Kompozer instead. Kompozer is essentially a version of Nvu with a load of bug fixes, and designed specifically for Ubuntu, so I am using that instead for the moment. Effectively it's exactly the same as Nvu except in name and these bug fixes.
I'll keep you abreast of how I do on the course.
Monday, 27 August 2007
Distro blues
Today, I bought the new issue of Linux Magazine. To my delight, the cover DVD this month is Debian Etch. I've been itching to try Debian for a while. Don't get me wrong, I love Kubuntu, but I'm always eager to try new distros, and Debian sounds like a good choice. For one thing, it's very similar to Ubuntu, so the skills I've acquired with Ubuntu will transfer across easily. Also, I have had some problems with getting Ubuntu working on my laptop, and I'm hoping that Debian, with its strong reputation for stability, might be more resilient. The other thing that tempts me is Debian's gargantuan repositories. Apparently, with over 18,000 packages, it has about three times as many available for it as Ubuntu, the distro with the next biggest repository.
I've also been tempted by Slackware a few times, but this would be a huge step into the unknown. For one thing, the Debian package management tools are easy to use, whereas Slackware is much harder.
Ultimately, there's one thing I really want in a Linux distro above all else. I won't consider any distro where I can't get the wireless working. That's very important. I had a look on the Debian Etch DVD and I found Network Manager in there, so it's very likely that I could get wireless working in Etch. I've tried the alphas of Kubuntu Gutsy, and I had a problem with installing anything from the repositories. I reported this as a bug, but I'm not sure they'll be able to do anything about it. If Gutsy does have these kinds of problems with my laptop on final release, I'll have a hard choice to make. If I can't install from the repositories, I can't use that version of the distro, so I'll either have to stick with Feisty (which hasn't been very reliable, I'm afraid to say) or look for a new distro. If I do switch, then Debian is very much at the front of the queue, thanks to its familiarity. It even has a graphic installer these days.
Never mind. Here's hoping they iron the kinks out of Gutsy (please! I love it so far!)
I've also been tempted by Slackware a few times, but this would be a huge step into the unknown. For one thing, the Debian package management tools are easy to use, whereas Slackware is much harder.
Ultimately, there's one thing I really want in a Linux distro above all else. I won't consider any distro where I can't get the wireless working. That's very important. I had a look on the Debian Etch DVD and I found Network Manager in there, so it's very likely that I could get wireless working in Etch. I've tried the alphas of Kubuntu Gutsy, and I had a problem with installing anything from the repositories. I reported this as a bug, but I'm not sure they'll be able to do anything about it. If Gutsy does have these kinds of problems with my laptop on final release, I'll have a hard choice to make. If I can't install from the repositories, I can't use that version of the distro, so I'll either have to stick with Feisty (which hasn't been very reliable, I'm afraid to say) or look for a new distro. If I do switch, then Debian is very much at the front of the queue, thanks to its familiarity. It even has a graphic installer these days.
Never mind. Here's hoping they iron the kinks out of Gutsy (please! I love it so far!)
All change again!
Well, my iPod Video finally arrived on Friday, and I'm really pleased with it. I got it scrobbling to my Last.FM profile in no time. Now, all I have to do is spend hours on end ripping all my CD's to it. Still, once I'm finished, my profile will show a truer reflection of my listening habits.
Anyway, sorry it's been a while since my last post (once again!). I've changed my IM client AGAIN! I finally got Kopete working OK, so I'm using that. I don't think it's as good as Pidgin or the Google Talk client. For one thing, both Pidgin and Google Talk tell you when you have a new email in your Googlemail inbox, whereas Kopete doesn't. So, when I change to Kubuntu Gutsy in two months time, I may install Pidgin (assuming Google Talk for Linux doesn't become available in the meantime).
I was also using Kontact for my e-mail for a short while, but I ditched it. As I mentioned previously, I recently decided to stop using Automatix, which I had previously used to install my favourite e-mail client (Thunderbird 2). As the Ubuntu repositories only had Thunderbird 1.5, this left me with a choice - either use Thunderbird 1.5, or a different e-mail client. As it was just as hard to set up Kontact for Googlemail as Thunderbird 1.5, I thought I'd give it a try, but it just wasn't for me. So I decided to install Thunderbird 2 manually.
I'm starting to reach a new level of competence with Linux now. I've passed the point where the command line starts to become easier a couple of months ago, and I'm now quite happy using apt-get and dpkg to install software. I'm now beginning to get more confidence in myself in installing from tarballs as well. I've installed Seamonkey, Thunderbird 2 and NetBeans from tarballs now, and it wasn't hard at all. NetBeans was one of the things I used Automatix for, but I needn't have bothered.
Still, from the sound of things, I won't have to reinstall these three from tarballs when I upgrade to Gutsy. NetBeans appears to be properly available as a deb package for Gutsy, Thunderbird 2 will certainly be in the repository, and so will Iceape, which is a version of Seamonkey. So if I'd waited I wouldn't have had to learn. Never mind, it's still a useful skill to learn.
Anyway, sorry it's been a while since my last post (once again!). I've changed my IM client AGAIN! I finally got Kopete working OK, so I'm using that. I don't think it's as good as Pidgin or the Google Talk client. For one thing, both Pidgin and Google Talk tell you when you have a new email in your Googlemail inbox, whereas Kopete doesn't. So, when I change to Kubuntu Gutsy in two months time, I may install Pidgin (assuming Google Talk for Linux doesn't become available in the meantime).
I was also using Kontact for my e-mail for a short while, but I ditched it. As I mentioned previously, I recently decided to stop using Automatix, which I had previously used to install my favourite e-mail client (Thunderbird 2). As the Ubuntu repositories only had Thunderbird 1.5, this left me with a choice - either use Thunderbird 1.5, or a different e-mail client. As it was just as hard to set up Kontact for Googlemail as Thunderbird 1.5, I thought I'd give it a try, but it just wasn't for me. So I decided to install Thunderbird 2 manually.
I'm starting to reach a new level of competence with Linux now. I've passed the point where the command line starts to become easier a couple of months ago, and I'm now quite happy using apt-get and dpkg to install software. I'm now beginning to get more confidence in myself in installing from tarballs as well. I've installed Seamonkey, Thunderbird 2 and NetBeans from tarballs now, and it wasn't hard at all. NetBeans was one of the things I used Automatix for, but I needn't have bothered.
Still, from the sound of things, I won't have to reinstall these three from tarballs when I upgrade to Gutsy. NetBeans appears to be properly available as a deb package for Gutsy, Thunderbird 2 will certainly be in the repository, and so will Iceape, which is a version of Seamonkey. So if I'd waited I wouldn't have had to learn. Never mind, it's still a useful skill to learn.
Tuesday, 21 August 2007
IM a message
Instant messaging is something I've only just started to get. You know, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger, that kind of thing. Until today, I'd never once used it.
That changed today. I've had Google Talk since April, when I first started using Google Mail. The trouble was that the Google Talk application didn't work in Vista, and there wasn't one available for Linux. You were supposed to be able to get it working with other clients including Kopete (the official IM client of KDE), but I couldn't get it working at all.
Today I looked at the website and decided to try again on my Vista laptop. I got it working in Pidgin (which was formerly known as Gaim, and is popular in Linux, but also available for Windows). Then I looked and saw that the official client now works in Vista, so I downloaded and installed it. Then, I thought to myself, if I can get it working in Windows, I should be able to get it working in Linux.
So I set about it again. Unfortunately, the version in the Ubuntu repositories was an old version of Gaim, before it became Pidgin, and I found it hard going, but eventually I got it working. I didn't like it as much as Pidgin, so I decided to go looking for a deb package of Pidgin to install.
Surprisingly, I found one! So I uninstalled Gaim, and installed Pidgin in its place, and it works perfectly.
I'd still prefer it if I could use Kopete (as it integrates better with KDE), or even better the Google Talk application (word is that a Linux version is in the pipeline, and I've added Google's Linux repository for Ubuntu so I'll easily be able to download it when it comes), but so far I'm very impressed with Pidgin. It even tells me when I get an e-mail, and with just a few mouse clicks I can go to my Google Mail account and check it.
Now, I just need to find someone to talk to...I've added the Google Talk button to this blog, so feel free to have a chat!
That changed today. I've had Google Talk since April, when I first started using Google Mail. The trouble was that the Google Talk application didn't work in Vista, and there wasn't one available for Linux. You were supposed to be able to get it working with other clients including Kopete (the official IM client of KDE), but I couldn't get it working at all.
Today I looked at the website and decided to try again on my Vista laptop. I got it working in Pidgin (which was formerly known as Gaim, and is popular in Linux, but also available for Windows). Then I looked and saw that the official client now works in Vista, so I downloaded and installed it. Then, I thought to myself, if I can get it working in Windows, I should be able to get it working in Linux.
So I set about it again. Unfortunately, the version in the Ubuntu repositories was an old version of Gaim, before it became Pidgin, and I found it hard going, but eventually I got it working. I didn't like it as much as Pidgin, so I decided to go looking for a deb package of Pidgin to install.
Surprisingly, I found one! So I uninstalled Gaim, and installed Pidgin in its place, and it works perfectly.
I'd still prefer it if I could use Kopete (as it integrates better with KDE), or even better the Google Talk application (word is that a Linux version is in the pipeline, and I've added Google's Linux repository for Ubuntu so I'll easily be able to download it when it comes), but so far I'm very impressed with Pidgin. It even tells me when I get an e-mail, and with just a few mouse clicks I can go to my Google Mail account and check it.
Now, I just need to find someone to talk to...I've added the Google Talk button to this blog, so feel free to have a chat!
Something I thought I'd share...
I saw this on Digg and I thought "Why warn about this? Who would do this?"
KDE4Ever!
One of the most common preconceptions I've noticed about Linux is that people think it's a very basic, DOS-like environment where you have use the command line for everything, when in fact that couldn't be further from the truth.I started using Linux in February, trying out a few distros, before eventually settling on Kubuntu when Feisty Fawn was released in April.
To give you an idea just how nice your average Kubuntu desktop is, here is one of my four virtual desktops (I think the background picture is of Mumbai during the monsoon). Nice, isn't it? Not what you expected to see perhaps? Maybe you were thinking it might be a few lines of text. The fact is, these days Linux can easily match Windows in terms of how pretty the desktop is, and it even gives Macs a run for their money. The only reason the command line is used a lot in Linux is that it's a lot better than it's counterpart in Windows. These days it's possible to do virtually anything you want to in Linux without using the command line, it's just generally a lot easier to do it from there.
I think that part of this is due to competition. You see, there are two main desktops available for Linux - GNOME and KDE. I've tried GNOME, and it's a good desktop, resembling the Mac's one, but for me KDE was the winner. Partly because it's laid out similarly to Windows, so it was easy to get used to, but also because it is more configurable, and the native applications for it are more powerful. But with two competing desktops, they're constantly striving to outdo the other. I think this has helped them develop faster than they would have otherwise.
But, believe me, you ain't seen nothing yet. In October, KDE 4 will be released, and so far it looks amazing. Check this link for a picture. The best part is that it's also going to be available for Windows and Mac, so if you like it, you can have it too! And, it includes Amarok, a music player that beats the crap out of iTunes or Windows Media Player.
Those of you who have Windows Vista may be thinking "Yeah, it looks good, but it doesn't have the fancy effects that Vista has". You wait till you see Compiz Fusion KDE. It blows Vista's GUI out of the water.
Monday, 20 August 2007
Nvu-sness
I heard a great quote today. Can't remember who it was, but they said "If you want to sound like a creep, just add the word ...ladies to the end of every sentence."
Anyway, today I've been having a bit of a tinker with several HTML editors to find one I liked. I've tried several, including Bluefish, Amaya, and Quanta Plus, none of which quite did it for me.
For a while now, I've had the excellent Nvu (pronounced n-view) HTML editor installed on my Vista laptop. As I hate Vista, I wanted to get a copy for my other laptop. Unfortunately, it's not in the Ubuntu repositories, so I couldn't just download it from there, so I went searching. To my delight, I eventually found a package for Debian Etch that also works in Ubuntu, so I downloaded and installed it, and I couldn't be happier with it.
I daresay that once I've completed my course and start doing this for a living I'll have to use Adobe Dreamweaver at work, but I love Nvu, and if anyone were to ask me for a recommendation as to what software to use to make their website, Nvu would be right at the top of the list. You can switch between modes easily by clicking on a tab, allowing you to add an object by entering HTML, then move it around easily.
Since I first became aware of the whole Free and Open-Source Software movement about a year ago, I've become very keen on it. I really can't stand to see people wasting money on expensive proprietary software when there are very often alternatives available that are just as good, if not better. MS Office is a particular annoyance of mine, especially considering that it's complete crap. I think that OpenOffice.org is perfectly suitable for most people and is completely free to download.
That's all for today ...ladies.
Anyway, today I've been having a bit of a tinker with several HTML editors to find one I liked. I've tried several, including Bluefish, Amaya, and Quanta Plus, none of which quite did it for me.
For a while now, I've had the excellent Nvu (pronounced n-view) HTML editor installed on my Vista laptop. As I hate Vista, I wanted to get a copy for my other laptop. Unfortunately, it's not in the Ubuntu repositories, so I couldn't just download it from there, so I went searching. To my delight, I eventually found a package for Debian Etch that also works in Ubuntu, so I downloaded and installed it, and I couldn't be happier with it.
I daresay that once I've completed my course and start doing this for a living I'll have to use Adobe Dreamweaver at work, but I love Nvu, and if anyone were to ask me for a recommendation as to what software to use to make their website, Nvu would be right at the top of the list. You can switch between modes easily by clicking on a tab, allowing you to add an object by entering HTML, then move it around easily.
Since I first became aware of the whole Free and Open-Source Software movement about a year ago, I've become very keen on it. I really can't stand to see people wasting money on expensive proprietary software when there are very often alternatives available that are just as good, if not better. MS Office is a particular annoyance of mine, especially considering that it's complete crap. I think that OpenOffice.org is perfectly suitable for most people and is completely free to download.
That's all for today ...ladies.
Sunday, 19 August 2007
Ahem...
Remember on Tuesday I said I was making an effort to blog every day...The best laid plans and all that.
Anyway, yesterday I officially signed up to my web design course. I've got the training book for the first section, so I think I'll have a quick read through of that some time over the next couple of weeks.
I've also done something I've been thinking of doing for a while - I've set up a Facebook profile. So far I'm very impressed with it, but I'm disappointed that I can't put my Last.FM widgets on my profile. Give it a few months and maybe they'll be able to do it. Considering the way Facebook is growing, it has to happen sometime soon.
Anyway, yesterday I officially signed up to my web design course. I've got the training book for the first section, so I think I'll have a quick read through of that some time over the next couple of weeks.
I've also done something I've been thinking of doing for a while - I've set up a Facebook profile. So far I'm very impressed with it, but I'm disappointed that I can't put my Last.FM widgets on my profile. Give it a few months and maybe they'll be able to do it. Considering the way Facebook is growing, it has to happen sometime soon.
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