Nick's Morning Beat Blog

Top Gear meets a camera store in Hong Kong

2011-08-21T20:21:00.003+01:00

I've always been into cameras, and in the last couple of years have got quite seriously into photography. Recently I've bought a few bits of new kit and found on-line reviews a great help in choosing the right compromise. Better still are the video reviews where camera experts actually demonstrate the kit in the real world, and in my searches no-one does these better than DigitalRev TV.

From what I can fathom, DigitalRev are a Hong Kong based camera shop serving primarily the UK market. However, their web site not only sells you kit, but it also hosts tips & review reviews in both written and video form. The videos for me are pure entertainment, with the host Kai Wong (who appears to be of Hong Kong origin, but must have spent some impressionable years in the UK) doing for cameras what Jeremy Clarkson does for cars. His videos are very well made - can be a tad crude at times - but generally are great fun and very informative.

I bought an Olympus E-PL1 camera and Billingham Hadley camera bag on Kai's recommendation and love both items. Kai is an interesting character - Leica & Nikon loving, but usually often seen testing Canon gear. He's always inventing unusual ways to test lens 'bokeh' and does a great take-off of your stereotypical British paparazzi. His latest video is a good example of the formula - actually, this is a self-take off - gently mocking Kai's much more traditional predecessor on the DigitalRev TV channel. If you're into cameras, and enjoy a 'Top Gear' style sense of humour, then I recommend you check out DigitalRev TV.

Thanks for reading, and happy shooting!

Nick

The marvellous Mac.

2011-08-07T13:24:00.003+01:00

I briefly blogged a while back that I'd taken the plunge and purchased a new Macbook Pro (13" i5 Thunderbolt). I've set this up as a desktop replacement, connecting it to my existing Samsung LCD monitor, giving me a 2-screen set-up, perfect for photo editing which is my main use for it. Having lived with this for a few months now (and recently upgrading to Lion), I can confirm it is everything I hoped it would be.

For a long while I've wanted to break free from Windows but have never found a satisfactory alternative in Linux. Nice as many distributions are (especially my favourite, Fedora), they all have one fundamental flaw - lack of support for commercial desktop apps. I wish to use MS Office, Photoshop, and iTunes - all of which just do not exist on Linux (although, of course, similar alternatives are available). Having tried hard to migrate to these alternatives, they simply do not give me the functionality I want. As such, I had 2 choices: stick with Windows, or 'Think Different' with a Mac.

So, how have I found the Mac? It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn close, and to be honest, it's by far the best computing experience I've ever had. Here are the pros and cons as I see them:
Cons:

Despite the powerful processor and large memory, apps still tend to 'hang' more often than I'd like, exhibiting the spinning beach ball pointer while they think about what to do next. What's that all about?
The hardware is somewhat expensive compared to equivalently specified Windows laptops.
Hmm, I can't think of any more cons!

Pros:

The hardware, despite it's price, is absolutely exquisite. The aluminium unibody detail is wonderful - having a solid base with no fans to suck the fluff from your trousers means you can properly use it on your lap without fear of gunging up the internals.
Wonderful screen.
Very quiet most of the time - silent hard disk, very quiet fan, and no flashing activity lights. Fan does get noisy when the processor is working hard however.
Great backlit keyboard, although the flat keys take a little while to get used to.
Appstore - borrowing heavily from Linux repositories as a way of distributing software, I have to say this is such a good system. Being able to purchase high quality apps and install them almost instantly is just better.
Support for commercial apps on a Unix-based system is great - MS Office is very smart on the Mac, and I have since moved from Photoshop to Aperture which is simply a joy to use.
System updates are handled in a smooth and unobtrusive way, similar to Linux. No longer do I have to suffer Window's insistence that, before you can get any work done, you must spend half a hour installing updates.

I've always been dismissive of Macs as expensive form-over-function devices, although I have always admired OSX since it's release. Whilst they do cost more, I genuinely believe you get value for money especially with such a high quality of build. I can't see myself replacing the hardware for many years, and with OS upgrades for only £20, and apps cheaper via the appstore, the running costs feel less than Windows.

So, I'm very happy to kiss goodbye to Windows. I also bid a fond farewell to Linux desktops (although I will still run some form of Linux on my netbook - currently Fedora 15). If you too are trying to break free from Microsoft's finest, and Linux just isn't delivering, then save-up and buy a Mac - you'll love it.

Thanks for reading, Nick

Note to self: coming soon!

2011-07-11T23:55:00.000+01:00

Long-overdue blog updates coming, featuring:

Mac OS X vs Linux - which is my favourite Windows alternative and why?
Fedora 15 - in my mind the best Linux desktop out there.
Cars: The Goodwood Festival of Speed
Google +
Chromebooks
Photos & cameras, including my new quirky favourite: Olympus EPL-1 fitted with a Lumix 20mm F1.7 'pancake' lens.
More music lists.
Possibly some work-related talk.

Come on then Nick - warm-up those fingers.

Irresistible Apple

2011-02-28T21:39:00.000Z

I've finally been sucked-in to the hype and can resist the shininess no more. Last week I ordered my first Apple Mac - a brand new i5-powered Macbook Pro 13". It's the base-level machine only with the HDD expanded from 320 to 500Gb:

This left the factory in China today according to UPS - once it arrives I may post some comments on how it runs. Next stop Germany by the looks of it. Handle with care please UPS!

Nick

Linux Mint Debian Edition - a green goddess

2011-01-17T21:03:00.002Z

Still on the hunt for the ultimate netbook Linux distribution, I recently discovered a great new project by the Linux Mint team. Until recently they have focussed on re-packaging Ubuntu Linux into a more attractive desktop distribution. Recently though, they have launched a project which, like Ubuntu itself, is now based directly on Debian. However, unlike Ubuntu, Linux Mint Debian Edtion (LMDE) is based on Debian's 'testing' branch, which means that instead of having a periodical release schedule, new updates are added all the time. In theory then, you install LMDE once, and once only. Just run online update to keep up with the latest developments.

So the rolling release philosophy, along with Mint's exquisite design and artwork, for me combine into a very interesting project. I've just installed it onto my HP Mini 110 netbook and can confirm it works a treat. It takes a little more effort to set-up than, say, Ubuntu, but in theory I should never have to re-install, and the pay-off is to enjoy the Mint team's wonderful attention to detail. Below are some screenshots, plus my installation notes in case anyone else wants to try this on the HP Mini, or similar netbook.

Screenshots:

The standard desktop, with my own minor customisations for my netbook.

Mint uses a custom 'start' menu which is extremely functional and very attractive. The best I've used in any distribution.

Mint's theme applied to the standard Gnome file browser.

Mint's software centre for finding and installing apps.

Installation notes:

These notes are for my installation onto the HP Mini 110 based on my own needs. This is not an exhaustive guide, but I've tried to include as much detail as possible:

Setting up an SD card with 32 bit Mint Debian DVD for installation:

Format a 2Gb or larger SD card with FAT32 on Windows.

Download the 32 bit DVD .iso from the Mint web site (http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=66) and install to SD card using Windows UNetbootin (download from http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/). I used the 'Mint 9 Live' preset.

Installation:

Connect wired LAN cable (needed to install wireless driver).

Insert SD card into netbook and switch on.

Press 'F9' on BIOS screen to select boot from SD card.

At UNetbootin boot menu, select 'Default'

Boot to the live desktop, then install system using the standard installer with the following options:

Computer name: hp-mini-110

Install GRUB on /dev/sda

When prompted. re-boot into the new desktop, install all updates, & reboot once more.

Fix missing wireless:

Install propriatary Broadcom driver thus:

(Reference: http://wiki.debian.org/wl#Squeeze)

In a terminal, type:

sudo aptitude update

sudo aptitude install module-assistant wireless-tools

sudo m-a a-i broadcom-sta

sudo vi /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-common.conf

Append the file with the following:

blacklist brcm80211

sudo update-initramfs -u -k $(uname -r)

sudo modprobe -r b44 b43 b43legacy ssb brcm80211

sudo modprobe wl

sudo iwconfig

Then reboot, disconnect your wired LAN cable, and configure wireless using Gnome Network Manager.

Install some essential apps:

Install using Software Manager or via terminal:

sudo apt-get install chromium-browser ttf-mscorefonts-installer gnome-alsamixer

Disable PC speaker (to stop an annoying buzz on boot and shut-down):

Launch Gnome Alsa Mixer, and mute the PC Speaker.

Desktop settings:

Desktop Settings -> Change button layout to 'Left - Mac like'.

Change panel from bottom to top.

Remove 'show desktop' icon from panel and replace with 'workspace switcher'.

Add Computer, Home, Network, and Trash icons to right-hand side of desktop using Desktop Settings. Untick Mounted Volumes.

Enable Compiz

Add the following Gnome startup entry:

Name: Compiz

Command: compiz --replace

Description: Start compositing manager

Reboot to enable Compiz, then In CCSM select:

General Options -> Focus & Raise Behaviour: Untick 'click to focus'. Tick 'auto-raise'.

Enable Application Switcher

Enable Minimize Effect

Move Window -> Change opactity to 75%

Enable Desktop Cube and Rotate Cube (needed to enable multiple desktops, otherwise you are stuck on just 1)

Desktop Cube -> Change cube colour to black (to remove blue cube top & bottom)

Rotate Cube -> Transparent Cube -> 'opacity during rotation' = 50%

Configure Power Management:

On AC Power:

Put computer to sleep: Never

When laptop lid is closed: Shutdown

Never spin down disks

Put display to sleep: 30 minutes

On Battery Power:

Put computer to sleep: 10 minutes

When laptop lid is closed: Shutdown

When laptop power is critically low: Suspend

Do spin down disks

Put display to sleep: 5 minutes

Do reduce backlight brightness

General:

Keep default settings

Configure Firewall and allow browsing Samba shares on Windows PCs, etc:

In a terminal type:

sudo vi /etc/default/ufw

then change:

IPT_MODULES="nf_conntrack_ftp nf_nat_ftp nf_conntrack_irc nf_nat_irc"

to:

IPT_MODULES="nf_conntrack_ftp nf_nat_ftp nf_conntrack_irc nf_nat_irc nf_conntrack_netbios_ns"

Save and exit vi, then in a terminal type:

sudo ufw enable

sudo reboot

And that's about it. I hope I've inspired you to try this interesting new distribution - I'm certainly hoping to keep it on my netbook in the long term.

Thanks for reading,

Nick

1,000 mph on the streets of London

2010-10-17T17:16:00.004+01:00

I like fast cars, and none come faster than Britain's latest attempt on the world land speed record - Bloodhound SSC. SSC stands for Super Sonic Car, which is precisely the aim of this latest project - a car which breaks the sound barrier (around 750mph) and then press on to over 1,000mph. Fiction you might think? Well, think again, as today the full-sized mock-up of the car was on-show on The Strand in London.

I have childhood memories of Richard Noble breaking the record in Thrust 2, but it was Thrust SSC (the first and only official supersonic record holder) which really captured my imagination. This car was run in the Black Rock desert in autumn 1997, a time when I was in Canada attending an extended software training course at Nortel. It was a fantastic time, and to be able to follow the record attempts on line, via the web site and e-mail updates, was cutting edge at the time and really engaged us followers in the runs. The webcam pictures of the Airshelta told you when the car was running (i.e. it was empty), and I still remember checking my e-mails in the classroom when instead I should have been paying attention to the lesson, and the day the record was broken. I wish I'd kept that e-mail!

Now the team are attempting to break their own record with Bloodhound, and I'm both a member of the supporters' '1K club', and an educational ambassador for the project, which is one of the key objectives of Bloodhound. In a world where land speed records may be a little out of fashion (ecologically, financially, etc) Richard Noble has put the emphasis on Bloodhound to make it a vehicle to inspire young students to pursue careers involving Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. To this end, Bloodhound is working closely with the UK government's STEM organisation, and ambassadors like me are taking the Bloodhound message into schools and hopefully inspiring more kids to go on to be the UK's technology pioneers of the future. I think it's a great idea, and I understand Bloodhound is proving a very popular addition to the curriculum.

Below are a few shots from today's demo in The Strand (including an appearance by Mr Noble who is a real star wherever he goes). I hope the traffic wasn't held up too much - buses, taxis, coaches, and even traffic wardens were pulled in to help set the scene! Good fun. Meanwhile, I urge you to visit the project's web site, and join the 1K club or contribute in any way you can.

[edit]
Some of my shots made it to the project's web site!

Thanks for reading,
Nick

A brand new word processor from 1995!

2010-09-08T21:43:00.000+01:00

I received an e-mail out of the blue last week from a stranger. His name was Andreas Magerl from Germany, and he asked the a question: "Are you the Nick Harvey who wrote TextEngine for the AMIGA?"

After a quick flashback to a pre-internet 1990s, I recovered enough to reply "Yes"! As it turns out, Andreas runs an online magazine at http://www.amigafuture.de/ servicing what appears to be a thriving Amiga community. TextEngine was a hobby of mine during my younger years. As an owner of an Amiga A500, and later an A1200, I decided to programme my own simple word processor just for my own use. By today's standards it's no better than Windows Notepad, with a couple of additional features. But for me it did the job. For fun I submitted version 1.0 to Amiga Format Magazine who very kindly included it on their cover disc (issue 25, August 1991 to be precise). From there I released it into the Public Domain as a fully functional shareware product (via 17 Bit Software in the UK - now Team 17 - if I remember rightly), and was very lucky to receive some donations from generous users all over the world.

Even though back then the Internet as we currently know it didn't exist, there was a growing FTP site called Aminet, the de facto repository for Amiga Public Domain software. TextEngine has resided there in good company for many years, and looking back it feels like that was in some way one of the places today's open source community has grown from. I hope it was.

Anyway, getting back to Andreas - he suggested I re-release TextEngine as a freeware product. Once he convinced me there would be a demand (I was rather sceptical) I fired up Devpac (within the incredible WinUAE emulator running on my PC) and was quickly making changes to my 15 year old 68000 source code. The result?

http://aminet.net/package/text/edit/TextEngine

And Andreas was right about the demand - it's been online for 2 days and has so far had over 100 downloads. So many thanks to everyone who has downloaded the 144kb file and still find it useful. Also an especial thanks to everyone who sent in money during the Shareware days - your names all still appear in the Amiga Guide file which accompanies the programme. And a final thanks to Andreas for giving me a brief opportunity to return to the good old days. TextEngine was a real pain to programme - I wouldn't do it again, and have no plans to return to it, but seeing it on-line, on magazine cover discs, and in magazine reviews (even the bad ones!) was very satisfying indeed.

And for those young kids amongst you who never enjoyed owning an old 16 / 32 bit computer such as the Amiga, here are some screenshots...

TextEngine's icon on a sparse desktop

TextEngine, editing its own source code

A very basic spell checker, but better than nothing

Thanks for reading,

Nick

Cool stickers from Google's GMail Team

2010-08-12T19:25:00.000+01:00

I'm a GMail user, and received an envelope full of nice stickers in the post this morning. Here they for the curious:

Thanks Google! But what does it all mean...?

OpenSUSE 11.3 - just how do you configure this animal?

2010-07-19T22:47:00.000+01:00

In my last post I complained about issues in the latest OpenSUSE 11.3 release which annoy and frustrate me, especially as I believe they could be easily avoided. I've persevered with the distribution for a couple more days, hoping I could get to like it, but I'm rapidly loosing faith. Mainly due to the very confusing settings system SUSE employs.

One common but astonishing discovery is that the SUSE integrators appear to have included two of many of the main configuration panels. Granted, the duplication is between Gnome or KDE's built-in tools, and SUSE's proprietary YaST system, but as a user I've just got very confused. How am I supposed to know which tool to use? And who knows what happens if you switch from one to the other, creating duplicated settings for the same devices. Why have they left this choice to the poor, hapless user, instead of doing the sensible thing and removing the Gnome or KDE default where a better alternative exists in YaST?

Not convinced? Well, I'll stop moaning and will let the following screen-shots from a default Gnome installation do the talking. Who says you don't get value for money with Open Source software - two for the price of none anybody?

1a. Keyboard settings - Gnome:

1b. Keyboard settings - YaST:

2a. Mouse settings - Gnome:

2b. Mouse settings - YaST:

3a. Network settings - Gnome:

3b. Network settings - YaST:

4a. Printing settings - Gnome:

4b. Printing settings - YaST:

5a. Software updates - Gnome:

5b. Software updates - YaST:

I'll be keeping Fedora 13 on my netbook thanks, even if it does only have half the configuration options that SUSE offers. Sometimes less really is more.

Thanks for reading,
Nick

OpenSUSE 11.3 - my Linux love / hate relationship continues...

2010-07-17T13:14:00.003+01:00

OpenSUSE 11.3 was released this week after an 8 month development cycle, and so I had to download and try it out. This distribution is the only one which keeps me interested in KDE. It is also, in my opinion, the distribution which gets closest to feeling like a proper commercial product, including everything a user needs to get started. 8 months is longer than Fedora and Ubuntu takes to knock-out a release, so I expected the latest OpenSUSE to be highly polished.

I've played around with it for a bit in Virtualbox, trying to decide whether to replace Fedora 13 on my HP Mini netbook, and, well it's not been great. I've always had a love / hate relationship with Linux desktops, and the latest SUSE release has done nothing to help. What follows are my thoughts as to why this is. Granted, some of these issues are not specific to OpenSUSE, but I as far as the general integration and coherence of the Linux desktop is concerned, I think we still have a long way to go.

So let's start with the 'hates':
I installed the KDE desktop first, with default options, and booted-up. First look through the Kickoff menu, I notice the hateful 'Edutainment' category is there as usual, containing only the Marble desktop globe programme. I decide to uninstall this, but when I try I'm told Marble is a dependency for Digicam. Why? What have these two programmes in common? I load Digicam and open the 'Digicam handbook' to investigate. But instead of seeing the handbook, I get a KDE Help Centre error: "The file or folder help:/digikam/index.html does not exist". I give up.

Next, I install Google Chrome and launch it. It complains it is not the default browser so I tell it to become so. But wait, next time I launch Chrome, I'm told again it is not the default. And again, and again. OK, this is a known issue with Chrome but it's been around for months. How frustrating that such an apparently simple, yet annoying incompatibility between two significant open source products can hang around for so long.

Oh, and on the subject of browsers, why is Konqueror still included? I would like to see this removed by default in future releases. It just seems to be irrelevant. So I've just uninstalled it, which worked fine actually, so this annoyance is easily solved.

There are two different control panels: System Settings, and Administrator Settings (YaST). Both appear in different locations in the main Kicker menu, and there's no obvious clue as to which one contains the setting you want to change. In fact, both tools overlap in some areas, such as network settings, date & time, system services, and so on. If I change a setting in one tool, then change it in another, what happens? I'm just amazed nobody has stood back and said "this is confusing, we need to simplify this". Just one single control panel next time will do thanks.

Oh, and one more comment about YaST's omnipresence in the Kicker menu. When I click on the 'Computer' view, I see an icon named YaST, with a sub-title of 'Administrator Settings'. However, in the Applications -> System menu, it appears with the same icon, but now named 'Administrator Settings' and sub-titled 'YaST'. Unnecessary inconsistency - does anyone check for this kind of thing?

It's a shame SUSE has not adopted the Plymouth boot system for seamless graphical boot. It's a matter of taste, but I like my PC to just switch on and take me to the log-in screen without any fuss. MacOS X and Windows does this quite nicely. So does Fedora. But SUSE shows you the Grub menu for too long (8 seconds), followed by ugly text as the Kernel is loaded, and then finally quite an attractive graphical load while everything initialises. It all feels a bit old fashioned.

EDIT 19/07/2010:
Oh, and what appears to be one quite serious bug to make it through to release, is that as far as I can fathom, you can't enable AppArmor. Try it. Go to YaST, AppArmor Control Panel, which brings up a fairly blank panel with a check box entitled 'Enable AppArmor'. Enable this, then click 'Done'. AppArmor is now enabled, yes? No! Open AppArmor Control Panel again, and the check box is de-selected once more.

EDIT 28/09/2010:
I've actually been running Suse on my netbook for the last couple of weeks having decided to try it one more time. Today a fix for this Apparmor issue has just downloaded and I can confirm this is now resolved. We're heading in the right direction.

OK – that’s enough moaning. Now, what do I love about this distribution?
The installer is very nice - attractive, user friendly, functional, & fast.

I love the way that, on first boot, the system checks for updates and automatically pulls-in Adobe Flash Player (which also works great on the 64bit distribution) and then offers you an option to download Microsoft Fonts & MP3 codecs. OK, slightly at odds with the spirit of free software, but since most users install this stuff anyway, I love the fact SUSE makes it easy (and optional, should you wish to remain free). This is better than any other mainstream distribution I have tried.

I love OpenSUSE's integration of OpenOffice into the KDE theme. Very smart.

Excellent default desktop theme in fact, although why does the Gnome desktop have a larger selection of wallpaper than KDE? Annoying inconsistency [sorry, I know this is the 'love' section]!

YaST, despite the appalling name, is an extremely capable system configuration tool. Probably the best out of any of the main distributions.

KDE's 3D desktop effects are very slick and attractive, and I prefer them to Gnome's equivalents.

Conclusion:
Again, please don't take all of my complaints to be directed specifically at OpenSUSE. These are frustrations I feel with most distributions, but OpenSUSE's latest release just prompted me to write about them. Functionally SUSE has a lot going for it, but it could be so much better with some attention to detail in the user interface.

Fortunately though, with Linux being so configurable, I might just spend some time trying to get things how I want them. I'm not convinced yet that 11.3 will replace Fedora 13 on my netbook, but I might just install it and see.

Finally, I must recognise the fact that OpenSUSE, along with all the other distributions, is completely free. For the cost of a 4Gb download I have a hugely sophisticated and powerful system at my disposal. I can only thank everyone who contributes to these projects, and hope all of these distributions continue to improve over the next few years.

Thanks for reading,
Nick

Fedora 13 & Gnome Shell - looking great.

2010-05-16T17:24:00.001+01:00

Having just declared my admiration of Ubuntu 10.04's slick new look, too soon has my in-built need to find something better kicked-in. Not that there's anything wrong with Ubuntu 10.04, but I've always been a Fedora fan, and with version 13 due for release on 25 May, I had to give the latest beta a try. And I reckon it's great.

Having installed the Gnome live CD to my hard disk, all my usual apps have installed well. Fedora's default theme though, despite some attractive wallpapers, is looking rather out of date in my opinion. Having enjoyed Ubuntu's latest look, I went in search of a way of improving Fedora's look, and installing Gnome Shell (a preview of the new user interface due in Gnome 3.0 later this year) seems to have done the trick.

Gnome Shell is still under development and therefore incomplete, but from my initial tests, it is already very usable and stable. If you want to learn more about what it does, I suggest you follow the official tour here. Otherwise, below is a quick guide to getting it working in Fedora 13:

1. Open the Add/Remove Programs package manager, and install the following package:

gnome-shell

2. Once installed (it only takes a few seconds to download), open the Desktop Effects settings, in which you will notice a new option for Gnome Shell. Enable this now:

3. That's it. Simple eh?

Below are a couple of screenshots of the new desktop in action. Of course, getting this working depends on your system having a compatible graphics card and drivers, but I believe if you are already able to run Compiz, then Gnome Shell should work too. My test laptop has in-built Intel graphics and works fine.

So I think I'll stick with Fedora & Gnome Shell for the time being (farewell Ubuntu!), and very much look forward to Fedora 14 later this year, which should hopefully include Gnome 3.0 and Gnome Shell by default.

Thanks for reading.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx): By 'eck it's gorgeous!

2010-05-06T21:28:00.001+01:00

After switching regularly between Fedora, openSUSE, and Ubuntu for years, I've finally found a Linux distribution I think I can call 'home'. The lovely Ubuntu 10.04 LTS is it.

I won't go into much technical detail here - by now there will be huge numbers of online reviews picking through the distro in minute detail. Below are a couple of pictures of how my desktop looks on my Acer Aspire laptop. I love the new Gnome theme, and choice of backgrounds. In my opinion this is the closest a Linux desktop has come to rivaling the sleek lines of Mac OS X, and maintaining an original modern look. And I like the new window control position in the top left corner. I tend to drag windows off to the right of the screen to temporarily hide them, so having the controls still visible, poking out from the edge of the screen when I do so, is just better.

Behind the scenes, everything seems to just work: apps install easily through the Software Centre; security is handled by the reasonably simple ufw firewall and Apparmor; and it all happens really fast, boot and shutdown especially so.

I've also installed Ubuntu 10.04 on my HP Mini 110 netbook (the full desktop, rather than the netbook remix) and it runs beautifully. Additionally I've upgraded my media server to Mythbuntu 10.04 from 9.04, and all is well. Finally, I have tried Kubuntu 10.04, but have yet to commit it to hard disk - Ubuntu's new Gnome theme is just too nice to leave!

So, go try it - it's awesome. I'll leave you with a couple of screenshots and an obvious 6 May pun: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS get's my vote!

Brooklands Hotel, Surrey. Boys with toys, check in now!

2010-05-02T11:00:00.000+01:00

Last week I had the opportunity to stay a night in the new Brooklands Hotel in Surrey. Built within the original historic race track (and indeed, the foyer is slap-bang on the Solomon Straight), this is a modern contemporary hotel but with many cues from the 1930's racing scene.

Apart from a rather muddled on-line booking system (which I understand is now fixed) I found the hotel experience very positive. The hotel is beautifully decorated throughout (enjoy spotting the motor themes, such as the spark plugs in the lobby flower vases!), with excellent service from the staff, a great choice of drinks & cocktails in the bar, and excellent food. The evening menu is Italian themed, and delicious throughout. The breakfast buffet differentiates itself with a wonderful choice of freshly made fruit smoothies, along with the usual favourites.

On paper, the hotel is situated a little out of the way - you certainly can't stroll out in the evening and find any local bars or restaurants. It is, however, just across the road from Mercedes Benz World, and about half a mile from the Brooklands business park. I imagine then the hotel will be popular with overseas businessmen flying-in to meet in the offices of Sony, Proctor & Gamble, etc. I can also see great potential for a day's entertaining (either business or personal) at Mercedes Benz World to end comfortably at the hotel.

I can thoroughly reccomend the Brooklands Hotel for anyone who wants to enjoy the historic motor racing atmosphere, or just enjoy a comfortable contemporary hotel experience. It is sad, though, to see the Brooklands track in its current state - chopped-up to allow traffic in to the business & retail parks, and the old runway now filled by Mercedes Benz World. Such a shame the track is not still intact so cars old & new can still drive the circuit. And an even bigger shame that, in a site so important to the British 2nd World War effort, a German car company has such a dominant presence. A sign of the times I guess.

Now, if there was only a Bentley World there instead...

Ubuntu 10.04.

2010-04-23T16:24:00.000+01:00

I've been testing Ubuntu / Kubuntu / Mythbuntu 10.04 over the last few weeks, and they all look great. I'll be posting some thoughts when the final releases are out and I've tested them properly. For now though, click below to learn more:

My perfect Android development environment #2

2010-02-19T22:24:00.001Z

Awhile ago I posted an entry detailing an Android development system based around Kubuntu 9.04. I used this for a while but later moved back to my usual Fedora set-up, based on Fedora 12. Whilst this worked well, I've since been wanting to get back to a KDE based system, but one with good security which Fedora has, but which Kubuntu seems to lack (firewall, and SELinux / Apparmor).

Anyway, I've now completed a working installation using OpenSuse 11.2 on my new Acer Aspire 5332 laptop which I'm very pleased with. I've also found that there are no good guides on-line on how to get Eclipse / Android SDK / OpenSUSE 11.2 to all work together, so if you (like me) have been struggling with this, read on!

Firstly, here's a screenshot of what we're striving for:

I used OpenSUSE 11.2 64 bit DVD for my installation. I assume these instructions also work fine for the 32 bit version. First step then, download the OpenSUSE 11.2 DVD from here: http://software.opensuse.org/112/en
I installed the system using mainly the default settings. Once complete, I got the laptop on-line and installed all updates, ready to begin the Eclipse / Android SDK installation.
Using Yast's Software Manager, I selected 'Patterns' from the 'View' drop-down, and then installed the following three patterns: Base Development; Linux Kernel Development; Java Development.
Next to install Eclipse. I found the version in Suse's repository to be problematic, so instead I download the latest version straight from the Eclipse Project web site. The following link is a useful reference to help you do this: http://developer.android.com/sdk/1.5_r3/installing.html
Firstly, download the 64 bit Linux version of Eclipse Classic 3.5.1 from here: http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/
Next, download the Android SDK from here: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
Assuming the two files you just downloaded are in your Downloads folder, follow these steps in a terminal to unpack and install them:

cd ~/Downoad/

tar -xvf eclipse-SDK-3.5.1-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz

tar -xvf android-sdk_r04-linux_86.tgz

mv eclipse /usr/local/bin

mv android-sdk-linux_86/ /usr/local/bin

chown -R root:root /usr/local/bin/eclipse #Do not do this for the android-sdk-linux_86 directory, otherwise you won't be able to install the SDK later!

Then we create a custom start-up script to launch Eclipse to work-around a known GTK bug (see http://mou.me.uk/2009/10/31/fixing-eclipse-in-ubuntu-9-10-karmic-koala/ for more details):

vi /usr/local/bin/eclipse/eclipse.sh

and make it look like this:

#!/bin/bash

export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1

/usr/local/bin/eclipse/eclipse

Save this, then make it executable:

chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/eclipse/eclipse.sh

Next, create a new Start Menu item for Eclipse by right-clicking on the Suse KDE Start Button and selecting 'Menu Editor'. Then add the following to the 'Integrated Environment' section of the start menu:

Name: Eclipse

Location: /usr/local/bin/eclipse/eclipse.sh

Description: Java IDE

Icon: /usr/local/bin/eclipse/icon.xpm

Start Eclipse, select the default workbench location.
Then select Help -> Check for updates.
Click 'Available Software sites'.
Next set-up the following software sources:

Android SDK

https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/

Galileo

http://download.eclipse.org/releases/galileo/

The Eclipse Project Updates

http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/updates/3.5/

Install all updates then restart Eclipse. Then
Help > Install new software....
Select the Location:
https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/
If you have trouble aqcuiring the plugin, try using "http" in the Location URL, instead of "https" (https is preferred for security reasons).
Select the checkbox next to Developer Tools and click Install...
On the subsequent Install window, "Android DDMS" and "Android Development Tools"
should both be checked. Click Next.
Read and accept the license agreement, then click Finish.
Restart Eclipse.
Now modify your Eclipse preferences to point to the Android SDK directory:
Select Window > Preferences... to open the Preferences panel.
Select Android from the left panel.
For the SDK Location in the main panel, enter: /usr/local/bin/android-sdk-linux_86
Click Apply, then OK.
Disable useage stats.
Finally download the SDK packages using Window -> Android SDK and AVD manager.

Done! You should now be able to develop Android apps on your smart and secure new OpenSUSE 11.2 installation.

If you get stuck post a comment and I'll try to help. And if it works, post a comment and I'll just feel good!

Thanks for reading, Nick.

I’m Alive: Top 5 songs for the broken hearted.

2010-01-31T19:40:00.000Z

Anyone who has been in a long-term relationship knows the challenges and rewards it can bring. When things go wrong, it can feel like the end of the world. That's certainly true for how I felt last year when my marriage of 5 years ended.

The emotional turmoil I've gone through during the split was the worst experience of my life to date. Fortunately I had some good support from friends and family to help me along, but it was music which really helped me put my life into perspective, and start to move on.

This post is not about me, nor my divorce - that's history now. Instead, and in the spirit of Nick Hornby's excellent book 'High Fidelity', I'd like to share my top 5 all-time greatest break-up songs, and try to describe what they meant to me. If you are going through a similar experience, well you have my sympathies, and I hope some of these songs help you like they helped me.

So, in time-honoured reverse order, let's start:

5. Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) - Green Day.
I first got seriously into this song via the Glen Campbell cover, but Green Day's original on their ‘Nimrod’ album is better. At first glance the song sounds to me like an angry retort to a relationship gone bad. Listening deeper to the lyrics though suggests a more reflective view on changing circumstances. Sung in a vulnerable style against simple acoustic guitar, this song summaries my feelings of giving up trying to fix things, and accepting the inevitable.

Significant lyrics:
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go. So make the best of this test, and don't ask why. It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time.

4. On Silent Wings - Tina Turner
I’m not a massive Tina Turner fan, but I’ve always loved this melancholy ballad which I own on the ‘All the Best‘ greatest hits CD. Strangely I’ve never realised the full significance of the lyrics until one evening last year, walking down the street with my iPod playing this, I listened more carefully than usual and suddenly got it. The meaning hit home hard, and to me the song is a perfect description of how problems build without you knowing, and then take you by surprise. Furthermore, the ‘silent wings’ indicate to me the way a relationship can slip so easily through your fingers, especially when problems are realised too late. Finally, Sting’s appearance at the end is a wonderful poignant addition.

Significant lyrics:
You never see it coming. But you know it has to end. On silent wings.

3. Breakfast at Our House - Gretchen Peters
From the album ‘Burnt Toast and Offerings’, just wonderful – smouldering, painful, regretful. A song about two lovers in a loveless marriage, silently staring at each other over the breakfast table, and the sickening realisation of the reality. Perhaps not an accurate reflection of what happened to me, I still love this song just because it helped me realise many others are going through similar break-ups.

Wonderful music and haunting electric guitar make this song for me. Each time I listen I just hope the couple in the song were able to find the strength to talk through their problems and go on to re-build their dreams.

Significant lyrics:
And this is how it is. And it’s no easy trick. We can promise what we want to. But we can’t make it stick. Half a life ago. With this ring we wed. And now were sittin’ at this table. With the things we never said.

2. The Healing Kind - Lee Ann Womack
OK, I like contemporary country music, not least because some of the saddest of sad songs appear in this genre. And this is one of the saddest. The song wears it’s heart on its sleeve and there’s not much ambiguity in the lyrics. But anyone who has found it almost impossible to get a lost lover out of their mind, well, Lee Ann is right there with you. Lovely, delicate harmonies and sweet violin make this one of my very favourite sad songs.

Significant lyrics:
But the pain just grows stronger every day. I think of you and I’m on my way. Down memory lane with your hand in mine. Guess I’m just not the healing kind.

1. Sky Blue & Black - Jackson Browne.
I’m a big Jackson Browne fan, and whilst I don’t love all his songs, those I do are some of my favourite of all time. The ‘I’m Alive’ album on which this song appears is recommended anyway for anyone going through a split, and it contains many strong songs I could have added to my top 5. For a long time I considered Jackson’s earlier ‘Fountain of Sorrow’ to be my most favourite, and indeed saddest of his compositions, but more recently ‘Sky Blue and Black’ has overtaken it.

Why? Well, for me this song is the one which has most helped me getting through my emotional split, and it is great in so many way. The lyrics are mesmerising, suggesting how reminders of lost love are in everything around us, and impossible to ignore. All the happy memories of doing things together, and the realisation that you’re on your own now. As a UK dweller, I have a romantic image of California, and Jackson uses references to this to great effect, conjuring images of him cruising along the coast in his open top car, trying to get her out of his mind. I too found long drives to be a good help in getting my head straight. As a match to the incredible lyrics, the music is sublime, and the exquisite guitar work by Mark Goldenberg feels like it is being played directly on your heart strings. Yes, it really does! A truly inspired song.

Significant lyrics:
But the moment has passed by me now. To have put away my pride and just come through for you somehow. If you ever need holding, call my name and I’ll be there. If you never need holding. And no holding back, I’ll see you through.

Without doubt, my number 1. Thanks for reading.
Nick

Apple iPad - oversized iPhone or svelte new computer?

2010-01-27T23:42:00.000Z

Despite the on-line communities' best attempts to spoil the surprise, I still admire Apple's ability to keep a secret. The launch today of the iPad seems to have kept the usual Apple sparkle, despite Steve Jobs doing basically a sales pitch for the new gadget, albeit in his usual slick style.

Time will prove whether Apple have created a truly popular & new computing form factor. Personally, I like the fact the software will be custom-built for the device, ensuring the interface is smooth and capable. At the same time, this will restrict what can be run on the device, which would frustrate me. If you can make phone calls on it then I think that would be an advantage. The device does appear to be very desirable, something which the more generic competition might struggle to match. As 2010 progresses then, I'll be interested to see how many iPads are sold, and how the competing, lower-cost, and possibly Linux-powered competition pans out.

For me (a Google fan), a sub-£200 tablet running Google Chrome OS might be a perfect alternative.

Porridge - the ultimate camouflage?

2010-01-25T19:32:00.001Z

Anyone like me who works in an office will have experience of the office kitchen, complete with communal fridge. If everyone plays fair, what you put in the fridge in the morning will still be there at lunch time. Not always the case in my office, as today I was reminded of an incident almost exactly three years ago.

A software developer (who remains anonymous to this day), having had his sandwiches stolen once too often (so, twice then), decided to apply his engineering skills to catch the culprit. The next day, along with a stern warning note pinned to the fridge, an out-of-place box of Weetabix Seriously Oaty appeared on the adjacent water cooler. Below are a couple of photos I snapped at the time on my mobile phone - can you spot the subtle modifications?

The box had no wires, and was fairly heafty when lifted - which I'm sure was not down to a full bag of wholesome oats within. I couldn't work out whether just placing a bare camera in the same spot would have been just as subtle, as the package stuck out like a sore thumb. It must, however, have been effective as after just two days the device had gone. No doubt the sandwich thief in our midst had been banged to rights. Well, either that or someone had made off with an expensive wireless video camera!

TV as it should be...

2010-01-11T18:19:00.000Z

...well, almost. Just wanted to share a link to the 'Remote Control' blog, which is able to sum up the cream of British TV like no-other. Go here to read more:

http://www.remotecontrol.merseyblogs.co.uk/

What caught my eye was the review of an episode of Nightwatch with Steve Scott from a couple of years ago, here. Anyone who has caught Nightwatch and ask themselves afterwards what were they thinking, well, you have a friend over at the Remote Control blog!

XBMC 9.11 Live on Acer Aspire Revo

2010-01-08T08:30:00.006Z

I posted an entry last year detailing how to set-up the excellent Acer Aspire Revo as a high definition media streaming device using the equally excellent XBMC 9.04 software. The post proved quote popular, and thanks to everyone who commented on the article. Since then the XBMC have released the new 9.11 version, which I have recently installed onto my Revo.

Installing 9.11 is almost identical to 9.04, with a few steps removed due to 9.11 being more complete. In case it helps, below are the steps I took to get XBMC 9.11 working successfully on a Revo, using WPA protected wireless (with unhidden SSID only). I did note that some people have struggled installing from a USB memory stick. I've been using an external USB DVD-ROM drive which has simplified things, but I'm sure posts elsewhere can help regarding memory stick issues.

So, here's the installation sequence:

Physically install the Revo - connect HDMI, power, keyboard, Ethernet network cable (VERY IMPORTANT to start with) and in my case, a Windows MCE remote control USB IR adapter.
Switch on the power, and hit DEL to get to the BIOS settings. Disable Revoboot as this is not required.
Next, download XBMC 9.11 Live from this link.
I burned the ISO to a CD ROM, then plugged-in my USB CD drive to the Revo, inserted the CD, and rebooted.
Hit F12 to get the Revo boot menu. Select the CD ROM and proceed.
Follow the instructions to install XBMC Live to the hard disk, which is now a Debian-style text-mode installer. Just select the default options if in doubt. Once complete, reboot.
After about 20 seconds of boot time, I was greeted with the familiar XBMC welcome screen. Remote control working right out of the box. Before configuring XBMC itself, some system-level tasks are required first.
Since the WLAN does not work out of the box, I first install SSH from the command line by hitting CTRL+ALT+F2, logging in as XBMC user, and then typing: sudo apt-get install ssh
If you like, you can continue to use this command line to complete the set-up, but I found the text was cropped by my Sony TV, so instead I SSH'd from my main desktop PC using PuTTY.
Next, I performed a system update with sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade. I then rebooted after this.
Next, SSH back into the box and install more essential packages for the WLAN to work: sudo apt-get install ntp wpasupplicant wireless-tools. Some of these packages are already installed in 9.11. I included NTP so the Revo can keep accurate time.
After another reboot, time to set-up the WLAN. My home network uses a hidden SSID which I have not managed to get the Revo to connect to. Having now unhidden my SSID it works. If anyone knows how to get this working with a hidden SSID then please post a comment! Additonally, I have WPA / WPA2 security enabled. First thing to do is sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces and make your file look just like mine:

# Used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8). See the interfaces(5) manpage or
# /usr/share/doc/ifupdown/examples for more information.

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

#iface eth0 inet static
#address 192.168.0.100
#netmask 255.255.255.0
#gateway 192.168.0.1

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
pre-up wpa_supplicant -B -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
post-down killall -q wpa_supplicant

Next, you need to configure wpa_supplicant. Two pieces of information you need are: a) your SSID, and b) your WLAN password. In my example below, I will use your_essid and your_ascii_key to replace my actual values used. A good reference for this part can be found here. First thing then is to get your HEX password by using the following command: wpa_passphrase your_essid your_ascii_key
Which will give you, as an example, this output in a terminal:

network={
ssid="test"
#psk="12345678"
psk=fe727aa8b64ac9b3f54c72432da14faed933ea511ecab1 5bbc6c52e7522f709a
}

Next, copy this, and then sudo vi /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf and make the file look like this:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ap_scan=1
network={
ssid="your_essid"
proto=WPA RSN
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=CCMP TKIP
group=CCMP TKIP
#psk="your_ascii_key"
psk=fe727aa8b64ac9b3f54c72432da14faed933ea511ecab1 5bbc6c52e7522f709a
}

Save this file and you are ready to test the connection. If all has gone well, running the following command will confirm you can connect via WLAN now: sudo wpa_supplicant -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -Dwext -dd
Hit CTRL-C to quit wpa_supplicant. You can now manually bring up the connection with sudo ifup wlan0, or just reboot.
And that's it for getting the WLAN working. The final base configuration required to ensure XBMC can play audio through the HDMI cable correctly is as follows:

Go into XBMC's settings, and select the following:
Audio output -> Audio output (digital) - Digital
Audio output -> Audio output device - hdmi
Audio output -> Passthrough output device - hdmi
Audio output -> Downmix multichannel audio to stereo - ON

The rest of the XBMC configuration is up to you, but having done the above, you have a solid, fully working system to build on.

Thanks for reading. Have fun!

Avatar 3D

2010-01-08T07:52:00.000Z

I finally got around to viewing James Cameron's 3D Avatar last night at the local cinema. The most stunning visuals I've ever seen, and most likely the future of cinema. It does seem ironic though that a film which is meant to get you thinking about looking after the planet, will probably trigger many people to throw away their old flat-screen TVs and go out and buy new 3D ones later this year.

Certainly though the most comfortable, convincing, and beautiful 3D experience I've ever had.

Amazing Space Shuttle launch footage.

2009-11-29T15:10:00.002Z

Long time no post, but having just discovered this amazing Space Shuttle launch montage, I had to share it. Sit back for 12 minutes and be amazed and inspired...

STS-129 Ascent Video Highlights from mike interbartolo on Vimeo.

Sony MHS-PM1 - a great take-anywhere camera / HD camcorder.

2009-09-13T07:46:00.006+01:00

I recently saw Amazon selling the Sony MHS-PM1 camera cheap for around £140, and thought this might be an ideal camera to carry anywhere, for those impromptu photographic moments. So I ordered one this week (in tasteful orange), and can report it is an impressive device.

Already owning a small Lumix compact, plus an FZ18 for serious photo taking, I wanted something which could slip into a jeans pocket, and could be pulled-out quickly for immediate shooting. The Sony is good enough for this, and here are the pros and cons as I see it:

Pros:

Small, and lightweight.
Removable battery and memory card, a plus in my opinion over the rival Flip cameras.
Quick and easy to use. Frame your shot on the LCD screen, then either press 'photo' to take a 5 megapixel still, or 'movie' to start shooting digital video.
Up to 1080p video resolution.
Fixed focus lens, which eliminates focus hunting issues which traditional camcorders can suffer from.

Cons:

The glossy LCD can be difficult to see in bright sunlight.
The fixed focus lens can limit artistic shots, but then this camera is not designed for that kind of photography.
No optical zoom, and the digital zoom is quite jerky. I can live without these though.
Sony still sticking to their expensive Memorystick card format.
Plastic enclosure feels a little cheap. Had a metal case been used this would have been a hugely desirable camera.

Here are a couple of photo and video examples taken yesterday. I'm really pleased with this camera, and plan to keep it tucked in my pocket from now on. Some reviews report the low-light performance might suffer a bit, but for this price, I'm not worried. £140 for a pocket-sized, HD camcorder and digital stills camera? A bargain!

This video clip was shot at 1080p, and trust me when I say the quality is very good when viewed on my Bravia TV!

My perfect Android development environment.

2009-09-03T11:15:00.010+01:00

Hi Everyone

In case you spotted my previous post, I'm dabbling right now with software development on the Android phone platform. To do this, I've set-up a dedicated development system on my Acer 4520 laptop, and below is my installation guide, in case anyone wants to do something similar.

The specification for the system is as follows:

Kubuntu 9.04 running KDE 4.2 (I wanted a KDE environment specifically for this system, mainly for the looks!)
Latest Eclipse Galileo development environment.
Latest Android 1.5 SDK

Here's the installation sequence I used:

Screenshot of the finished environment:

Base installation

Clean installation of 32 bit Kubuntu 9.04. 32 bit required for Android IDE compatibility.
Boot into desktop and enable wireless networking.
Enter the WPA password twice when prompted.
Just enter a blank password for the KDE Wallet.
KDE might crash once networking has been enabled. Reboot at this point, and network will connect when you log-in again.
Install all updates using System Settings -> Add & Remove software.
Reboot
Next install NVIDIA v180 driver using Hardware Drivers tool. Ignore the proprietary Atheros driver option.
Reboot

Packages to install

Using command line to install these packages in order for the Java license to be displayed correctly:
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer sun-java6-jdk
Verify Java version with:
java -version
javac -version

Installing Android development environment

Reference: http://developer.android.com/sdk/1.5_r3/installing.html

Download eclipse Galileo and Android SDK 1.5. Then install as follows:
tar -xvf eclipse-jee-galileo-linux-gtk.tar.gz
unzip android-sdk-linux_x86-1.5_r3.zip
sudo mv eclipse /usr/local/bin
sudo mv android-sdk-linux_x86-1.5_r3 /usr/local/bin
Then add Eclipse manually to the KDE start menu:
Name: Eclipse
Location: /usr/local/bin/eclipse/eclipse
Description: Java IDE
Icon: Search for 'Eclipse'
Start Eclipse, select the default workbench location, then close the Welcome tab on launch.
Then select Help -> Check for updates.
Install all updates then restart Eclipse.
Now set-up the Android plugin in Eclipse with:
Help > Install new software....
Click Add Site...
Enter the Location: https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/
Select the checkbox next to Developer Tools and click Install...
On the subsequent Install window, "Android DDMS" and "Android Development Tools" should both be checked. Click Next.
Read and accept the license agreement, then click Finish.
Restart Eclipse.
Now modify your Eclipse preferences to point to the Android SDK directory:
Select Window > Preferences... to open the Preferences panel.
Select Android from the left panel.
For the SDK Location in the main panel, click Browse... and locate /usr/local/bin/android-sdk-linux_x86-1.5_r3.
Click Apply, then OK.
Disable Google usage stats.

The Android environment is now ready to use. All that is left is to fine-tune the desktop to my preferences, and we're done.

Configure Konqueror

Install Adobe flash player: Having installed the flash plugin in the earlier steps, launch Konqueror and do the following:
Settings -> Configure Konqueror
Web Browsing -> Plugins
Plugins tab -> Scan for Plugins
Flash plugin should then appear in the list.
Hit 'OK' to confirm, then test at http://www.bbc.co.uk/
Settings -> Configure Konqueror
Set homepage as: /usr/local/bin/android-sdk-linux_x86-1.5_r3/documentation.html
Set Konqueror to load homepage on start-up.

KDE desktop configuration

Right-click workspaces -> Configure Desktops. Increase workspaces from 2 to 4.
System Settings -> Appearance -> Fonts. Change font DPI to 96.
Add the following apps to Start menu Favourites: Applications -> System -> Terminal; Development -> Eclipse
System Settings -> Notifications. Event Source -> KDE System Notifications. Remove sound from Logout and Login events.
Go into sound mixer and maximise Front and PCM sliders (or there will be no sound in Flash Player).
Set wallpaper.
Lock widgets.

Done!

Acer Aspire Revo - the perfect high definition XBMC media center.

2009-08-01T14:55:00.009+01:00

I'm a big fan of home media streaming. Storing all of your photos, music, and video files on a single server, and then accessing these from your PCs and TVs around the house makes a lot of sense to me. For many years now, I've run such a system at home, with a single large central server, and a number of clients of different kinds. My two favourites are my Logitech Squeezebox which is the perfect on-line music player, and a modified old XBOX running the XBMC media center.

If you are unfamiliar with XBMC, it provides a slick interface to connect to your TV, through which you can access all kinds of media stored on network hard disks. I tend to use mine fo viewing photos on my TV, and accessing centrally recorded TV programmes from my MYTHTV viewer. Anyway, whilst an XBOX + XBMC works well, it cannot play high definition content, not to mention the fact it looks a bit ugly, and the fan makes a lot of noise whilst running. So, when I saw Acer had recently released a tiny, cheap desktop (or 'Nettop') PC called the Aspire Revo, this looked like the perfect upgrade for my XBMC system.

I won't go into detail about the Revo's spec here - many other sites have that well covered already. I purchased mine from eBuyer in the UK - the linux version, with 1Gb RAM and 160Gb hard-drive, for the bargain price of £160 including free delivery. I then set to installing this with XBMC, which in the most part was very simple, but I did struggle to get the WLAN working. Therefore, I thought it might be useful to note my installation procedure here, in case anyone else can benefit from the experience.

Before we talk software, here are a couple of shots of the physical installation using the supplied mounting kit. Neat huh?

Right, now for how I went about installing this. Proceed as follows:

Physically install the Revo - connect HDMI, power, keyboard, and in my case, a Windows MCE remote control USB IR adapter.
Switch on the power, and hit DEL to get to the BIOS settings. Disable Revoboot as this is not required.
Next, download XBMC Live custom build including the latest NVIDIA ION drivers following the instructions in item 3 of this post.
I burned the ISO to a CD ROM, then plugged-in my USB CD drive to the Revo, inserted the CD, and rebooted.
Hit F12 to get the Revo boot menu. Select the CD ROM and proceed.
Follow the instructions to install XBMC Live to the hard disk - pretty straight forward. Then reboot.
After about 20 seconds of boot time, I was greeted with the familiar XBMC welcome screen. Remote control working right out of the box. Before configuring XBMC itself, some system-level tasks are required first.
Since the WLAN does not work out of the box, I first install SSH from the command line by hitting CTRL+ALT+F2, logging in as XBMC user, and then typing: sudo apt-get install ssh
If you like, you can continue to use this command line to complete the set-up, but I found the text was cropped by my Sony TV, so instead I plugged-in a network cable into my router, and SSH'd from my main desktop PC using PuTTY.
Next, I performed a system update with sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade. I then rebooted after this.
Next, SSH back into the box and install more essential packages for the WLAN to work: sudo apt-get install ntp wpasupplicant wireless-tools. I included NTP so the Revo can keep accurate time.
After another reboot, time to set-up the WLAN. My home network uses a hidden SSID which, to this day, I have not managed to get the Revo to connect to. Having now unhidden my SSID it works, so I still need to figure out how to get the Revo to connect to an unhidden network. Not urgent though. Additonally, I have WPA / WPA2 security enabled. First thing to do is sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces and make your file look just like mine:

# Used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8). See the interfaces(5) manpage or
# /usr/share/doc/ifupdown/examples for more information.

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

#iface eth0 inet static
#address 192.168.0.100
#netmask 255.255.255.0
#gateway 192.168.0.1

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
pre-up wpa_supplicant -B -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
post-down killall -q wpa_supplicant

Next, you need to configure wpa_supplicant. Two pieces of information you need are: a) your SSID, and b) your WLAN password. In my example below, I will use your_essid and your_ascii_key to replace my actual values used. A good reference for this part can be found here. First thing then is to get your HEX password by using the following command:

wpa_passphrase your_essid your_ascii_key

Which will give you, as an example, this output in a terminal:

network={
ssid="test"
#psk="12345678"
psk=fe727aa8b64ac9b3f54c72432da14faed933ea511ecab1 5bbc6c52e7522f709a
}

Next, copy this, and then sudo vi /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf and make the file look like this:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ap_scan=1

network={
ssid="your_essid"
proto=WPA RSN
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=CCMP TKIP
group=CCMP TKIP
#psk="your_ascii_key"
psk=fe727aa8b64ac9b3f54c72432da14faed933ea511ecab1 5bbc6c52e7522f709a
}

Save this file and you are ready to test the connection. If all has gone well, running the following command will confirm you can connect via WLAN now: sudo wpa_supplicant -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -Dwext -dd
Hit CTRL-C to quit wpa_supplicant. You can now manually bring up the connection with sudo ifup wlan0, or just reboot.

And that's it for getting the WLAN working. The final base configuration required to ensure XBMC can play everything correctly is as follows:

Go into XBMC's settings, and select the following:
VIDEO: Setting > Video > Play:Set Render to - VDPAU
AUDIO: Settings > system > audio hardware > Audio output (digital) - DigitalAudio output device - plug:hdmi (if you just use hdmi here, your music files will play about 10% faster than they should!)
Passthrough output device - hdmi
Downmix multichannel audio to stereo - ON

The rest of the XBMC configuration is up to you, but having done the above, you have a solid, fully working system to build on.

First impressions of the Revo are excellent, and it appears to be perfectly suited to the low-cost media centre application here. I hope this information was useful - thanks for reading.

Nick.

Acer Aspire One + OpenSolaris 2009.6 = a great combination.

2009-05-31T22:46:00.004+01:00

It's been rather too long since my last post, so here's another quick MS Windows-alternative related update.

I've been running an excellent Acer Aspire One since January, which I've tried a number of Linux distributions on. I pretty much settled for Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix, but decided last week to try OpenSolaris 2009.06 preview (build 111a). I've always been a fan of OpenSolaris' beautiful Gnome themed desktop, plus the feeling that it's a fully integrated Desktop. However, it's always fallen short, for me at least, on hardware support. Even the most recent official release will not even recognise the network card on my desktop PC - crazy!

Well, a huge amount of work must have gone into the latest builds of OpenSolaris, as, out of the box, everything works perfectly on my Aspire One, and even though I'm running a 'preview' release, the desktop is extremely stable, and very attractive. I'll be installing the official release when it comes out in June, and thoroughly recommend it to anyone wanting an attractive Ubuntu alternative.

Thanks for reading,
Nick

B&W digital photography

2009-03-15T18:47:00.003Z

I've been enjoying the BBC's 'Genius of Photography' series currently airing in the UK. Yesterday's covered some fantastic B&W photographs from the mid 20th century, which inspired me to try to get some similar effects from my modern-day Lumix FZ-28.

Previous attempts to achieve pleasing digital B&W shots have been disappointing. Quite often because the technique has been to shoot a conventional colour shot, desaturate it in Photoshop, and then try to add some contrast and grain to achieve the vintage B&W look, without destroying too much detail. Last night I stumbled upon the following article by Tony Karp which gave me some clues as to how to configure my camera to take a good B&W shot directly, with little post-processing required:

http://www.tlc-systems.com/artzen2-0093.htm

I configured my Lumix with settings I believe are close to what Tony was using, and here are my initial results:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mobile.harvey/TwickenhamMarch2009#

OK - not the most exciting subject matter, but I'm very pleased with the contrast and texture of these shots. Certainly the best B&W results I've ever achieved on a digital camera. I'll be taking more in the near future for sure!

Thanks for reading,
Nick.

Time passes quickly...

2009-03-07T12:28:00.002Z

...not just since my last Blog, but also since buying my first ever album, back in 1985 (or was it '86?) - Paul Hardcastle's, self-named LP.

I remember this having a huge influence on my at the time - from the revolutionary Synclavier sampling & time stretching (put to amazing effect on the classic track '19'), to the high-tech circuit board front cover. I pretty much wore out the cassette (chrome tape, with Dolby B if I remember rightly!) listening to this over and over again (it was my only album at the time after all)!

25 years, and almost a 1000 CD purchases later this album is still not available to buy on CD - something I've never understood. So, today when I found it for MP3 download at Amazon I couldn't flex my Amex fast enough. OK - ideally I'd like a lossless FLAC format, but listening to the album now as I type this, the quality is good enough, and so much better than the original cassette!

Finally, Paul Hardcastle inspired me to want to become an electronic music producer. Not something I ever did professionally, but I dabbled with various software on my Spectrum (yes, really) Amiga, and later Windows PCs. This week I've decided to build a new mini studio, based around my Vista laptop, an M-Audio Oxygen 8 V2 keyboard, and Cakewalk Sonar Studio 8. The Sonar software is still on its way from Amazon, but the rest is here ready to go. If I can bash out anything good, I might put it online - you have been warned!

Thanks for reading,
Nick.

Sorry, I don't speak English.

2009-02-03T19:47:00.004Z

So, I logged into Facebook this evening and received the following notice:

Hello Nick, do you speak English (UK)?

Help translate Facebook into English (UK) so that it can be used by people all over the world, in all languages.

Hmm, so if the site is not already in English (UK) then what language is it in, and when did I learn it?

Seriously though, this is a great example of how us English folk find ourselves speaking a 'regional' dialect of the language, rather than just plain old English.

Looks like a good year for music!

2009-02-03T19:37:00.002Z

Fantastic - Spinal Tap to release new material this year. But of course, nothing will ever surpass 'Cups and Cakes'!

Prince Unveils Plan to Release Three LPs Via Lotusflow3r Website at Private Gig

2009-02-03T19:24:00.002Z

How to launch a new web site in style.

Can't wait for the new albums to be released. Having seen Prince live a few times now, most recently during the 21 nights at the London O2, I'm partucularly enjoying the CD which came with the Randee St Nicholas book. Just buy the book for the CD - it's that good!

Jurassic Coast

2009-01-25T13:13:00.002Z

I managed to take advantage of the fine weather yesterday, and took my camera down to Dorset for a scout around Corfe Castle and the coastline around West Lulworth. It was a fantastic day, with not too many people around, allowing some nice interrupted shots to be taken.

The best ones are on-line here

http://picasaweb.google.com/mobile.harvey/DorsetJanuary2009#

I find the winter sun a much better light than in summer, as you have a lot more time (i.e. all day) to enjoy the soft light and long shadows. Next time I fancy getting out onto the Isle of Portland and Chesil Beach a few miles west from where I was yesterday.

Nick.

Where next?

2009-01-18T11:58:00.002Z

Here's a neat gizmo I just nicked from my work pal Tim Dickinson's blog.

I like travelling to places, and the map below shows where my carbon footprint has lead me so far. It's a big world!

visited 19 states (8.44%)
Create your own visited map of The World or try another Douwe Osinga project

Bloodhound SSC

2009-01-17T21:32:00.004Z

As I mentioned the other day, I have now signed-up as a gold supporter of Richard Nobel & Andy Green's latest land speed record attempt, Bloodhound SSC. Their web site is already showing significant progress in the project. Be sure to check it out.

Fedora Linux 10

2009-01-17T17:12:00.009Z

Alright, let's take a moment to embrace one's inner geek.

I've always found Windows a little painful to use - not sure why, and after all, should it really matter? A computer's OS is just a way of launching your web browser or e-mail client, so why do I (and many others) feel the need to try new alternatives? I've often been tempted to get a Mac, but exquisite as they are, I could never justify the premium compared to much cheaper PCs. So how to get the Mac experience, without buying one?

I've been playing around with Linux alternatives, and think I have finally found one to move wholesale from Windows Vista: Fedora 10.

Whilst I still don't believe Linux is easy enough to use for the mainstream, it does now offer a powerful and attractive alternative to those who want to 'Think Different' without buying a Mac. Fedora 10 (a product of Red Hat) works very well for me, having tried all the mainstream alternatives (Ubuntu: too ugly; SuSE: too fussy). I might talk a bit more in detail about the benefits some time in the future, but for now here are a few screenshots to show how my desktop looks as a basic illustration of the Fedora experience:

1. Here's the basic desktop, as it appears having booted-up:

2. Firefox web browser:

3. The OpenOffice suite, an effective alternative to MS Office (and of course, free):

4. Virtualbox running Windows Vista for occasional times when I can't get a job done in Fedora (i.e. updating my Tom Tom, and synching my iPod). I admit, this is not an ideal solution (especially as you have to buy a copy of Vista!), but it works very well:

5. For me, here's the best bit: multiple desktops. When I started work at Nortel, my first PC was a HP Unix workstation, which had multiple workspaces on the desktop. Once you're used to this way of working, it is very hard to go back to a single desktop (i.e. Windows). Even Mac OS X has recently added this feature - I was surprised Vista didn't have it. In my opinion, Fedora, and the other Linux distributions, implements this feature the best out the lot. My last screenshot is just one example of how this looks - you have to see it in action, and use it, to reaslise how much easier it makes juggling multiple tasks. Anyway, here's a 'zoom out' of my four virtual desktops:

Alright, that's enough nerding around for today. There are loads of reviews and videos of Fedora out on the web in case you want to see more. If I have already inspired you then get over to the Fedora web site and download (yep - it's free) the operating system and try it for yourself.

On a slightly more serious note though, why on earth hasn't Apple released OS X as a software product you can buy and install on your standard Windows PC, to rival Vista directly? Surely this would open a whole new route for people to migrate from Windows to Mac, generating more sales for Apple. Right now, you have one option if you want to migrate:

1. Buy a new (expensive) Mac.
2. Dispose of your old PC.

Not the cheapest, nor the most green approach if you have no good use for the old hardware.

Instead then, if people could buy Mac OS X and install it over (or along-side) Windows, then this is what could happen:

1. PC user buys an iPod. Installs iTunes on their Vista PC, and likes the simplicity and style of his small Apple product. He wants more of it.
2. He buys a Mac OS X CD-ROM and installs it on his Windows PC. Apple will have written a very friendly migration tool, so the PC user does not lose any documents, all his mail is migrated, and his internet bookmarks. He's now a Mac user, albeit on his existing PC hardware.
3. After a while, the PC user is loving the Mac OS experience, but hates his ugly old PC hardware. Time to upgrade, so he walks into an Apple Store, and buys an iMac.

There you have it. Apple have ultimately gained a sale of an iMac which they might not have got otherwise. They have also made some high-margin revenue from the sale of the software-only Mac OS X CD. Finally, as long as the technology all works, the user is then locked-in to the iMac hardware, and so becomes yet another very loyal Mac fan.

No doubt this is a stupid idea, otherwise why haven't Apple already done this (well, perhaps the iPod and iPhone have kept them busy enough)? Anyway, seems like a good plan to me!

Thanks for reading.
Nick.

Crazy mixed-up second week.

2009-01-14T21:22:00.002Z

OK - I have a confession to make. I work for Nortel. And, I'm proud of it!

Today's announcement, and resultant media coverage, that the company had taken protection against bankruptcy was quite a shock, but to be honest, not the most surprising news.

I'm not a financial expert, but our business is struggling to shake off debt, a lot of which is left over from the dot com boom & bust. Admittedly, the company has had it's dark times during the early 2000s, but those responsible have been punished, and we have an entirely new organisation. Our current CeO, Mike Zafirovski (Mike Z to us employees) is the best we've had in a long time. Hell, even us Brits have adopted the 'Mike Zee' rather than 'Mike Zed' pronunciation, such is our loyalty. That's a big deal!

I joined Nortel in the UK straight from University in 1996, so have seen the amazing highs of 1999 - 2001, and the subsequent lows. A lot of people have come and gone, sadly most have gone. What remains, however, is in my opinion a group of tough, battle hardened, dedicated professionals, just aching to enjoy the good times again. I know we would all agree the excesses of 2000 will never return. Fine by me. All we want is a fair chance to turn a decent profit, and continue to contribute to the global telecoms revolution.

Reading the Canadian Globe & Mail news coverage of today's events, I was most impressed by comments left on their web page, in the middle of the freezing Canadian night, by readers of various opinions. There was a lot of support for the company, and some people ready to have a kick. What most made me smile, though, were those who were correcting the other's spelling and grammar. Great fun, and an example of how the Canadians take pride in everything they do.

I've worked in Nortel's Technical Support organisation for the majority of my career, and have recently moved to become a Project Manager. I have worked with some of the most innovative, clever, and hard working people in the industry. A lot of them are still here. If you can value a company on it's products, people, and customers, then we are certainly a world leader (even despite my admittedly biased opinion).

Tough times, but tough characters. The banks have had some help - I hope there are a few dollars (or a few hundred million dollars!) still free for the manufacturers. Then we can get on with delivering the future.

Thanks for reading,
Nick

Survived the first week.

2009-01-10T07:48:00.002Z

Had a pretty good first week back at work fortunately - no disasters or nasty shocks, which is always good. I tend to avoid new years resolutions, but this year I've decided to put a list together of things I'd like to do, or get involved with.

The usual items are all there: get fitter (I'm a part-time long distance runner, and have had a few modest successes, completing the Greenwich 'run to the beat' half marathon in London last year in under 2 hours). Learn to play my (two!) guitars is another I hope to make some progress on. Watching 'Guitar Heros at the BBC' on TV last night gave me a bit of inspiration. Perhaps I'll pick-up my white Stratocaster later today...

One other project I'm looking at, as an observer at least, is Richard Nobel & Andy Green's new bid to produce a supersonic land speed record car. Bloodhound SSC is aiming to hit Mach 1.4, or 1,000 mph - quite incredible. I was a close follower of the Thrust SSC project back in 1997 (via their then ground-breaking web coverage) and watching the on-car video of some of the supersonic runs, I'm amazed Andy Green wants to go through that again. I do love his comments on the Bloodhound web site, stating that breaking the land speed records is considered his 'holiday job'! Anyway, I'm toying with the idea of buying the Gold membership for £75 which includes, amongst other things, to attend a test run of the car in the UK. Seems like very good value to me.

Anyway whatever speed you drive today, be it 30 mph, or indeed Mach 1.4, it looks pretty icy out of the window today, so take it easy around those bends!

Nick.

Let's kick-off.

2009-01-04T18:40:00.001Z

Greetings people of the Internet - I come in peace!

Working down my list of new years resolutions for 2009, the next to get started is a blog. Well, here it is!

I've no specific agenda to talk about - I plan to post my thoughts as and when I feel like it. My main interests are technology related, so chances are I'll be posting some thoughts, and tips on items such as computer networking, migrating from Windows to Linux, and that sort of thing. I may also impose my tastes in music on you (you have been warned!), and if anyone has spotted the musical reference in my blog's title, then you'll know what my favourite album is currently!

I'm also getting more into digital photograph, having received a recent birthday gift from my folks of a fantastic Lumix DMC-FZ28 (thanks again Mum & Dad)! This will replace my good, but tempremental, Samsung Pro815 I've had for a few years now. I've not had much chance to test the Lumix out in anger much yet, but plan to as soon as the dreary English winter weather brightens up. Meanwhile, I've recently set-up an on-line gallery (another new years resolution) where I'm uploading some of my favourite shots. Hopefully you might like some of them too. The photos are located here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mobile.harvey

I'm sure other topics will come and go through this blog - let's see where 2009 takes us.

Final thought for today: I, like a lot of people, will be heading back to work tomorrow, into unprecedented workplace uncertainty, which of course started last year. I work for a Telecoms manufacturer, and have been going through cut-backs, redundancies, and falling share prices since the dot com bust in 2001. From a personal perspective, I'm hoping my company is doing enough to weather the storm, but only time will tell. I just want to wish everone out there, heading back to work this week, a smooth return to the office - whatever form that takes. If we all get our heads down, work hard, roll with the punches, and make the most of whatever comes our way, I hope we'll be facing a more certain future this time next year.

Thanks for reading,
Nick.