Free Ebook: Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference
Posted by Scout on February 4, 2009
Why go pirated when you can have a great operating system for free?
For those who have been itching to try Linux, Ubuntu is probably your best bet. It’s a user-friendly Linux OS that doesn’t need any technical know-how to install, thanks to WUBI, which enables you to dual boot Ubuntu with Windows by installing it as a regular program. If you need other how-to guides, there are many out there written by an awesome and extremely helpful Ubuntu user community.
One such thing is the newly published Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference, written by Keir Thomas. The printed version is on Amazon for $9.94 a pop, but he’s made it available online for free download for all you budget-conscious geeks. Can’t argue with free, especially if it’s legal.
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A list of my favorite free software
Posted by Scout on February 2, 2009
These are just some of the programs I use everyday. My rule when selecting programs is that they have to be free, stable, and light on resources since I’m using a low-powered laptop. For example, I switched to Paint.NET after I realized that Photoshop is an overkill for the kind of light editing I do (mainly resizing, contrast adjustments, and a few effects). I also got tired of how slow Photoshop is, and I was pleasantly surprised at how snappy Paint.NET performed.
As for VLC, I don’t know how I can live without it. It plays almost every format there is, smoothly and without much fuss. Wish I could say the same for Windows Media Player. I’ve also learned to love OpenOffice 3.0, which is much, much better than its predecessors. Since switching, I have not missed Microsoft Office at all. Here’s my list. Care to share yours?
Compression Manager: 7-Zip
Anti-Virus: Avira AntiVir Personal Edition Classic
Video Converter: Any Video Converter
Disc Burner: Ashampoo Burning Studio 6 Free
Torrent Manager: Bitlord
Comic Book Reader: CDisplay
FTP Client: Filezilla
3D Design: Google Sketchup
Browser: Mozilla Firefox
Office Suite: OpenOffice 3.0
Ebook Reader: yBook
PDF Reader: Sumatra PDF
Media Player: VLC Player
Image Editor: Paint.NET
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Finally, a disk encryption standard
Posted by Scout on January 30, 2009
Wish they figured it out sooner. On Engadget today:
We’ve seen quite a few hardware-encrypted disks hit the scene lately, but to be honest, we’ve always thought they were a risky investment, since all the systems were proprietary — we wouldn’t want to store our encryption-worthy data on a disk that can’t be read at all in a few years, after all. That’s happily about to change, though - the Trusted Computing Group has just announced that virtually every drive maker has agreed on a set of 128-bit encryption standards covering SSDs and HDDs. That’s Fujitsu, Hitachi, Seagate, Samsung, Toshiba, Western Digital, IBM, Wave Systems, LSI, and ULink Technology, if you’re keeping score at home (and we know you are). Ideally this means that we’ll see easy cheap disk encryption filter onto mainstream consumer storage, which would basically invalidate all those “I’m stealing this hard drive out of your laptop and using it to log into your Facebook account” crimes of passion we know the kids are into these days. Best part? Fujitsu, Seagate and Hitachi are all already shipping drives that support the TCG standards.
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Study forecasts explosive growth in netbook shipments
Posted by Scout on January 29, 2009
Various firms have come out with their predictions for the coming year, including the continued strong momentum for netbooks. The most conservative estimate comes from Gartner, which forecasts a mere 8 million unit shipments for 2009. IDC Corp., meanwhile thinks the figure is going to be around the 21 million mark. However, the most optimistic prediction belongs to New York-based ABI Research, which pegs the value of netbooks shipments this year at 35 million units. The figure seems a little too high, but I’m sure ASUS wouldn’t mind.
Going a little further, ABI Research forecasts that worldwide shipments will reach an incredible 139 million by 2013. To give you an idea of the current environment, there were about 16 million netbooks shipped in 2008 alone. That’s remarkable given that this category of small and cheap notebooks was introduced just a little over a year ago with the EEE PC.
Although I’m pretty bullish myself about this segment, 35 million seems a little too high, especially when you consider ABI reasons. Among them is the mushrooming of several $200 netbooks with processors from FreeScale, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, all packed with Linux, to lure certain parts of the market. I’m not as convinced as those same manufacturers were interview at CES, and their estimated time-to-market for their products is the second half of this year, in time for the start of the next school year (for the US) and the Christmas season. This might be too late to reach the lofty 35 million figure.
If I were to venture a guess, I would put 2009 netbook shipments at around 25 million units. Additionally, as the prices continue to drop, expect the bulk of those shipments to swing from Europe to Asia. No doubt ubiquitous sub-$200 and even sub-$100 netbooks will come, but in 2010 and beyond. Then, the One Laptop Per Child dream will be reached, albeit in a most circuitous manner, and a little longer than was hoped for.
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Amazon’s Top 10 Bestselling Laptops
Posted by Scout on January 27, 2009
Just a quick check on the current top sellers in Amazon. A few months ago, the Acer Aspire One was on top. Today, Asus has knocked them of the spot with the EEE PC 1000HA. It’s followed by variants of the Samsung NC10, Acer Aspire One, Asus EEE PC 900HA, and the MSI Wind U100.
As is the overwhelming trend, netbooks dominate the list (here, they are treated as a subset of notebooks). The only full-on laptop that sneaked into #6 is Apple’s 13.3″ Macbook. Price seems to be the biggest factor, with netbooks averaging about $400 a pop, while the Macbook sells for a cool $1,229.99. The hourly updated list can be found here.
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Review: LaCie External DVD Writer with Lightscribe
Posted by Scout on January 26, 2009
I’ve had this LaCie DVD writer for about two weeks now and have burned over 100GB worth of data. This is my personal review of the unit as per my experience.
Build Quality
My first impression of the design was, “that’s it?” For all the hype of this model being design by “world-famous Sam Hecht”, I expected to be dazzled. It was actually underwhelming, but I’m fine with its simplicity. It’s among the lightest external DVD drives out there, coming in at 319 grams. The chassis is made of durable plastic and the drive is tray-loading (it’s basically a stand-alone laptop DVD drive). I had my doubts about it at first because applying pressure in the middle of the chassis easily made it flex, until the unit accidentally fell from a height of one meter and survived, without so much as a scratch. The shiny chocolate brown finish is a smudge magnet, though.
Performance and Reliability
Right off the bat, I was able to use the external drive without the need for drivers. I was able to burn a DVD using just one USB cable connected to my laptop for power. However, when it had trouble reading an install disc that came along with the unit (for Roxio), I had to use the AC adapter to help it along. Sourcing two USB ports for power was not a good idea as Windows reported power failures for those ports, which almost disabled them permanently. To be on the safe side, I always connect it to an electrical socket when I’m at home.
Noise and Heat
The drive was a bit noisier than I would have liked and there doesn’t appear to be much dampening mechanisms inside the chassis. It isn’t a deal breaker. My desk drowns out any noise handily into the background. As for heat, I’m happy to say that its temperature remains fairly constant even after continuous burning sessions. The drive stays cool to the touch no matter how much I work I give it, unlike my experience with an old Philips external DVD drive, on which you could almost fry an egg.
Lightscribe
Arguably its nicest feature is Lightscribe printing - that is, being able to directly laser-print labels on special Lightscribe CDs and DVDs. It’s my first one so I can’t really compare it with others, but so far I’m happy with the results. I used the free Lightscribe Template Labeler software and Bonus Packs to create labels. It takes anywhere between 5-25 minutes to print a Lightscribe label, depending on the complexity of the pattern.
Conclusion
For P4,500, I think I got my money’s worth. It could have been a little quieter, but it’s not a big problem. Thanks to the impromptu “drop test”, I’m more confident about lugging this around on my travels, in case I feel the need to, and with its light weight, it’s an ideal netbook companion. The cherry on the cake - Lightscribe - also comes in handy for special occasions, when personalized CDs can be creative alternatives to expensive gifts.
Update: I found several TipidPC sellers that offer this unit for just P3,700. Have a look here.
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eTrike: Pinoy public service in the 21st century
Posted by Scout on January 23, 2009
I just wanted to share with you a report I first saw on GMAnews.tv. It was about an innovative project for enriching students’ computer education. We all know how under-funded and ill-equipped our public schools are. Well, five young scholars from Manila decided to do something about it. They’re giving back to the community by piloting a roving low-cost, hi-tech educational facility, in order to help increase computer literacy among under-privileged students. Here are parts of their press release:
“The eTrike is a fully selfcontained mobile, wireless telecentre which travels into urban communities in Manila and provides youth with access to participate in new digital ICT technologies, basic computer lessons using multimedia CD-ROM’s and live internet lessons. The eTrike mobile unit carries 3 laptop computers, a mobile cell phone repair unit, 1 digital camera, 3 cell phones and a printer. The Internet is provided via a wireless connection and electricity is provided from an onboard generator. The power source actually will have to be sourced from the school’s AC.
“Schools are contacted by the Mobile Telecenters team to schedule a training which is carried out the on-campus usually lasting a full day. Charging institutions a small fee for the training service the eTrikes are also sustainable as they offer a variety of paid services such as cell phone repairs, SMS services, internet access, recharge services and more.
“Christine Lopez (team leader) said “We envision, that through onsite training our student recipients will become competent and literate in the job and business opportunities which ICT’s represent. Our vision is to help empower Filipino youth to become independent and productive citizens of the Philippines.”
I’ve looked up their site at MobileTelecenter.com and they seem to be a very well-organized group. It’s a great idea and I’m wishing them the best. Hopefully, I’m be able to create similar computer literacy programs in the future, but in the provinces this time, starting with my hometown.
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Windows 7 Beta 1: Installation and musings
Posted by Scout on January 22, 2009
With all the good reviews bloggers have given Windows 7, I couldn’t pass up the chance to have a look at it myself. I downloaded a copy of Windows 7 Beta 1 (Build 7000) for two laptops in order to test the rumor that it works well on netbooks and older systems (unlike the much maligned Windows Vista). Let’s go!
MSI Wind
Specs: Intel Atom 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM, Intel 950 onboard video
For the first test machine, I did the installation the cleanest way possible. That is, reformat the drive and create new partitions: one for Windows XP Pro SP2, another for Windows 7, and the last for a data-only partition. First to be installed was XP, and then Windows 7, both from their respective bootable discs.
Dual boot works. I’ve read forums saying it can’t happen, but apparently it can. They coexist in harmony. Windows 7 is the default OS. It boots up fast and runs smoothly even in Aero without any hitches. Unlike Vista which had more than a few driver issues, this one had none. Almost every component was installed automatically, except for the WiFi adapter. My XP driver wasn’t compatible, so on a tip I connected to the Internet via the ethernet cable and enabled Windows’ Automatic Updates. It immediately downloaded the appropriate driver for the Wind’s Realtek WiFi adapter and installed it in a snap. After entering my wireless network password, I was connected to the Internet. Painless.
ECS W330D
Specs: Intel Pentium M 1.6GHz, 768MB RAM, Intel 915 onboard video
I was curious to see how Windows 7 would perform an a low-spec’ed system as I’ve read people saying it’s not as big of a resource hog as Vista is. For this system, though, I had the problem of having current Windows XP installation that I didn’t want to reformat. Taking LifeHacker’s advice, I used a Live CD of GParted to shrink my data partition to make room for Windows 7. Minimum space required is just below 8GB, as opposed to the advertised minimum of 16GB. Of course, performance might be sacrificed a bit if you push it.
Same as in the MSI Wind, dual boot went fine without a hitch. Interestingly, on both systems, I could access the Windows 7 partition while in XP, but the XP partition is inaccessible while in Windows 7. It doesn’t even show in Windows Explorer.
This time there were more more drivers left uninstalled by default (video, audio, wifi, mass storage), but the same procedure of getting Windows Updates did the trick. The onboard video couldn’t handle Aero this time, but overall performance was acceptable and by no means sluggish. The only hitch was that whenever I tried to set Youtube videos on fullscreen mode, the computer would freeze and never recover. I had to manually shut it down by pressing the power button, which was enough to warn me never to do it again. Haven’t tried to play movies yet, though.
Conclusion
If your system has comparable or better specs than the ones listed here, go forth and download! Windows 7 Beta 1 is available from Microsoft or, if you’re feeling rebellious, from your favorite torrent site. Either way, it’ll work, and you’ll have a grand time exploring all the features.
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Asus T91 netbook tablet demo video
Posted by Scout on January 21, 2009
As part of its campaign to tease us all into submission, Asus has just released a preview of what its new T91 and T101H “netvertibles” can do. This demo runs on Windows XP, but on top of it is a shell specially designed by Asus to make the touchscreen more finger-friendly - big icons, simple navigation, onscreen keyboard, etc.
It looks good overall, but I’m more interested in seeing reviews of an actual production unit. For one, I’m curious about how the rumored processor for the T91 (Intel Atom Z520 1.33GHz) will perform, especially under Windows 7. I’m also hoping that the build quality will be solid, especially the all-important swivel hinge.
If Asus comes out with another winner here, it might just be the catalyst for a new trend in the consumer electronics space. Ready for the netbook tablet invasion?
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Warning: Seagate Barracuda 1TB hard drive multiple failures reported
Posted by Scout on January 17, 2009
A word of caution for would-be buyers. Tom’s Hardware has just posted news on alarming Seagate hard drive failures for those with model number ST31000340AS, more popularly known as the 1TB Barracuda 7200.11. The issue has reached the Seagate support forums where it’s been gaining considerable attention.
As expected, news like this drove people into paranoia, and who came blame them? Hard drive manufacturers don’t have any legal responsibility for data loss. Sure, they’ll replace your drive if it’s still under warranty, but you’ll get a blank one for it. If you value what you have: back up, back up, back up. Today’s storage technology is sadly unreliable.
From the Tom’s Hardware report:
“The issue lies with faulty microcode in firmware version SD15, found on drives manufactured in Thailand. Generally, the drive will operate normally until the time of failure and at some point will lock up and prevent detection by the BIOS, rendering it completely unusable.
While Seagate has not publicly acknowledged the problem as of yet, they have reportedly updated the firmware on all newly manufactured drives, however the firmware cannot be update on drives that have already failed because the BIOS does not even detect them. This means that owners of affected drives require data recovery services to save their critical data.
No recall on unsold drives with the affected firmware has been issued.”
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