The Linux Extremist

Here’s a demonstration of how 3D games could work in the future:

I have to say - just wow.

My parents, now retired, like to keep computing simple. To their credit, when faced with a choice between a PC and a Mac, they chose the latter. However, my father tried out the Linux PC I built in 2006, and was highly impressed by its speed. So, for Christmas, I’ve offered to replace their ageing iMac with a homemade 64 bit Ubuntu Linux machine. I’ve yet to hear if they’re going to take me up on the offer.

The build is complicated somewhat by the fact that they’ve moved to America for their retirement, so the usual haunts I’d use for parts don’t apply. No matter, there is www.newegg.com to the rescue. From this, I’ve managed to put together the following list of parts:

I’m starting with a Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz LGA 775 processor. It’s not the fastes that Intel make, but it is 64 bit and it has a nice balance of cost for performance. It also comes with the necessary cooling equipment.

Sticking with Intel for the moment, I’ve selected their Intel BOXDP965LTCK LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Motherboard. If I need to change the processor to something with more oomph later, the board gives me some room for this.

I’ve proposed getting two sets of Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel memory. The memory comes highly rated, and again, appears to be a nice balance of price and performance.

Linux support for Nvidia is still better than ATI in my view. At the same time, my parents are not likely to be playing graphics intensive games. So for graphics I’ve selected a ASUS EN8400GS/HTP/256M GeForce 8400GS 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready card.

The sound on the motherboard doesn’t look particularly convincing. Hence, I’m proposing that I bolster that with a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE SB0570LPVP 5.1 Channels PCI Interface Low-Profile card.

SATA drives offer better performance than their IDE predecessors. I don’t want to skimp here, but at the same time, my parents aren’t going to load loads of music and photos on it. For the hard drive, I’ve picked a Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500AAKS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s drive. For a DVD-R drive, I’ve picked a SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S203B.

As for the casing and power, I’ve gone with a GIGABYTE Triton 180 Black 0.7mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower and Thermaltake Purepower W0100RU ATX 12V 2.0 500W Power Supply.

With these parts, plus a 22in Samsung monitor, a slimline Kensington USB keyboard, and a Microsoft mouse, the sum total comes to less than $1070. In contrast, to replace their iMac, the entry level model would cost $1199 - this has a smaller screen (20in), much less memory (only 1 GB), and a slower processor (2.0 Ghz). Of course, the Mac does have a lovely casing.

That said, the user experience need not be radically different; The Mac4Lin Project is an example of how the usability of a Mac can be brought to a Linux machine. Furthermore, there are benefits the Ubuntu machine will have: for example, it will be able to run Swiftweasel, and connected to an American cable modem, it should be blazingly fast.

If my parents allow me to execute on this project, I will write an update as to how the project proceeds.

Merry Christmas to all, nonetheless!

There are only a few television shows produced today that are truly funny, in my opinion - the best of the lot is the show done on Friday nights by Ben Miller and Alexander Armstrong - their RAF “chav” sketches are utterly hilarious. Here’s an example:

And another:

Note: It’s been a while since I published a blog entry - however, I’ve updated the software and now it’s fully up and running again.

I’ll re-open this blog with my experiences with a new laptop.

My HP laptop was - at long last - about to die. All hardware manufacturers put in a lifespan on their equipment, mine was no exception. I replaced the battery and the hard drive, but the computer was taking longer to boot, hard drive failures were starting to crop up, and even the power on button was starting to not respond as it used to: it took enough pressure to crush a golf ball just to switch on the thing.

So for my sins, I got a new Lenovo 3000 N200 laptop - with Windows Vista Ultimate.

I experimented with Vista for a couple of weeks; while it was pretty, it annoyed me nearly instantly. This is a new laptop with a dual core processor and 2 GB of RAM. Why was it taking a solid 10 minutes to boot? Granted, some of the blame lies with Lenovo insisting on stuffing the laptop full of their own bloatware, but even with that removed, its boot time was considerably slower than the laptop that I just left behind.

The experiment was further compounded by purchasing Office 2007. This too was slow to boot on a machine of this power; much has been made about its revamped navigation, but the icon and menus motif leaves much to be desired. Furthermore, it nearly choked on the novel I’m writing.

I waited for Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon to be released; its arrival was a godsend. As soon as it came out, I turned the Lenovo into a dual boot machine.

The performance differential is huge. What once was a slow clunker turned into a graceful, fast and elegant machine. I asked someone to time me while I booted the same machine up using Ubuntu as opposed to Vista - Ubuntu was eight minutes faster.

This is not to say that Ubuntu didn’t need tweaking; unfortunately there were two problems to be addressed at the outset - the audio didn’t work, and there was an annoying screen flicker associated with the Nvidia driver.

The screen flicker issue has a simple resolution:

1. Goto: System>Preferences>Advanced desktop settings (The compiz config settings manager)
2. Click on General options>display settings
3. Untick Detect Output
4. Manually input your screen’s resolution (1680×1050+0+0 for this model)

Fixing the sound was more complicated, however, I found some useful instructions here.

Thanks to using the Moomex themes for both Compiz and Gnome, I haven’t lost any eye candy either; its appearance is just as high tech and elegant as that of Vista. The other new installation I’ve made was to put on the Swiftweasel Browser. This has proven to be incredibly fast - far outstripping Firefox on Vista.

So why don’t I get rid of Vista entirely? Were it not for Rome: Total War, I probably would. But having to dip into the Windows world every so often is a cogent reminder of why one is a Linux person: greater speed, efficiency, performance, and apart from the gaming aspect, a lot more fun.

The War on Terror has been brought home to me on several occasions. My mother was in the New York area on September 11, 2001; trying to get through to her on the phone without success for 2 hours was a genuine “heart in the mouth” episode. Fortunately, e-mail still worked and she wrote back to me.

Additionally, I had a long walk home thanks to the terrorism on 7/7; trains as far out as West Sussex were out of commission. I remember standing on the train platform and using my mobile phone to do a text message roll call of people I knew in the city, to see if they were all right. They were, thankfully.

My most recent brush with terrorism was far less traumatic and annoying than these previous incidents. As I was waiting to board the plane to go to Frankfurt last Saturday, I glanced up and saw two security officers dragging a man dressed in dark clothing off of the ramp leading to the airplane. The officers were swift and ruthless. The suspect was dragged off forcefully, and then made to do a “perp walk” in handcuffs, which proceeded past the window of the waiting area.

I have no idea if he was Al Qaeda or just some loony, but it was clear that the fellow, who appeared to be of Asian / Middle Eastern origin, was somewhere he didn’t belong. If he was a terrorist, he failed. If he was a loony, then he was completely bonkers to go skulking about without a proper security pass. Given that we haven’t heard anything on the news about this incident, I suggest it’s the latter rather than the former. Still, it had the feel of a close shave.

The War on Terror is very real. I tried not to laugh too hard when I saw Michael Moore say on television that “There is no terrorist threat”. It’s very clear you don’t live on the same planet I do, Mike. I wonder how he would have felt if he saw the same incident I did last Saturday. I also wonder how he would have felt if he had overheard a security guard say, as I did, “Yes, the government has just broadened the ban; we’re not allowing people to carry any cosmetics or powders on the plane as well as gels and liquids.” But as Mike probably flies solely on private jets (how very environmentally unfriendly of you!) I doubt such incidents even register on his radar.

The temperature of the conflict went up a bit this week; President Ahmadinejad of Iran made it very clear that he’s not going to stop his country’s nuclear programme. The United States is angry, the United Nations is reeling, but it looks like the world is going to be paralysed by indecision about what to do.

However, something must be done. Let’s put it bluntly, President Ahmadinejad is a complete and utter loon. I’m not saying this lightly. He provided ample evidence of how barmy he is in a video distributed by an Iranian website last November. The video quotes him saying that when he made his maiden speech at the United Nations, one of his colleagues said that he saw a “glow of light” around the President.

Rather than suggest that his colleague needed to have his eyes checked, he said:

“I felt it myself too…I felt that all of a sudden the atmosphere changed there. And for 27-28 minutes all the leaders did not blink…It’s not an exaggeration, because I was looking.

“They were astonished, as if a hand held them there and made them sit. It had opened their eyes and ears for the message of the Islamic Republic.”

This is not his sole brush with insanity; worse, he has stated his desire to “wipe Israel off the map”. Such a person should not be allowed anywhere near nuclear technology (unless he suddenly decides he wants to irradiate himself), let alone be allowed to possess a bomb. Forget reasoning with him either; it’s akin to trying to talk to a lunatic with a gun. Rather, he should be treated like a lunatic with a gun; the priority should be to disarm him.

I am sure that the leaders of the world know all this and more; I can imagine the jokes about him having a Napoleon complex doing the rounds at all the fancy diplomatic dinners. However, there is a complete lack of willingness to deal with this problem. The Russians and Chinese like cheap oil and probably secretly snicker at how Iran pokes America in the eye. The French are no-shows in this struggle; let’s not forget how they set a new record for the world’s quickest surrender by first pledging to lead the new UN mission in Lebanon, and then saying they would commit a paltry 200 troops. It was only the shame of seeming weak compared to Italy that made them change this position.

Britain and America are thoroughly occupied with wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; both President Bush and Prime Minister Blair are due to leave office within a relatively short timescale, and thus their political capital is spent. There really is no one who is in a position to do anything particularly tough.

Fortunately, there is one soft option and it is provided by technology. I suggest that we consider hitting Iran’s nuclear facilities with an Electromagnetic Pulse Bomb.

EMP technology, according to Globalsecurity.org, has been tested and can be effective. It’s non-lethal except within several meters of the epicentre. It will completely fry the computers and electronic equipment that Iran is using in their programme. As such, if Iran doesn’t comply with the will of the international community, detonating such a device should be acceptable to everyone. If Iran decides to build these facilities again, they will have to start from scratch. In which case, we can launch another one.

This is just an idea; I am sure a military expert could poke holes in it. However, there is very little of this kind of discussion happening at present. There is a flurry of paperwork and nonsense at the United Nations, accompanied by the hand wringing and posturing that have become typical among modern politicians. I suggest that they need to start doing something, rather than engaging in this flimflammery. The consequences of doing nothing are going to be dire. Given this, it is time to be as forceful and purposeful as any Heathrow security guard would be with any loony or saboteur. I have to say to the world’s leaders, do something, please.

As an insatiable blogger, I don’t just write in my blog, I read others as well. One of the more interesting threads I’ve been following lately has to do with the travails of a young lady who is just getting introduced to Linux. She’s been playing around with Live CDs in the hopes that one distribution is going to work perfectly with her wireless card. Unfortunately, the chipset she’s working with means this isn’t likely; it’s a Broadcom wireless card, and native Linux support is iffy at best: in fact, I’ve not heard of it working except with some hacking around. Most of the time, one has to use ndiswrapper. I’ve done it myself; all told, it took less than 10 minutes, and I was up and running.

What struck me about her plight is her apparent refusal to just install a distribution of Linux on her hard drive. What she wanted was to somehow slipstream these hacks into a Live CD, or alternatively onto a USB key, before daring to actually take the plunge.

I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but this simply isn’t going to work. Working with Linux does require having a sense of the value of play, and being willing to engage in it, even if that involves risk.

“Play” is an often underrated word. Strangely enough, I learned its true value from John Cleese. A very long time ago, when I was a trainee with the British computer company ICL, I saw a videotape of a speech he gave regarding the virtues of “play”. He was doing this in his capacity as the owner of a training videos company called Video Arts.

Mr. Cleese stated that a study of the most effective people in British organisations had in common their ability to play. By this, he meant play with ideas, notions, scenarios and yes, mechanisms. Much of the time, play is a process of experimentation as well as amusement.

This thought reoccured to me when I was learning about Linux; I’ve often had to engage in informed “play” in getting various device drivers to work. At the beginning, I made plenty of mistakes; I screwed up machines, wiped them clean and started again. But trying out new ideas showed me what worked and what didn’t. The feedback loops from these processes combined and eventually I knew what I was doing. This blog’s how to sections are an attempt to provide the results of further “play”, so as to assist others in their “play”.

My advice to anyone who is as nervous about moving from the Live CD state to an “installed” state is this; back up your critical files onto a USB key or writeable CD and go for it. Yes, there is an overhead if not all of your devices are instantly detected by Linux; to be perfectly honest, Linux is better at this than Windows. I have never been in a situation when I’ve installed Windows and not had to have a packet full of CDs with device drivers on them.

Get used to the idea, if you’re a newbie, that you may install the OS a few times before you fully get the hang of it. Be prepared for making a mess of things and experiment. Once you’ve gone through the learning curve, then share the knowledge you’ve gained with others. But above all, keep hold of the element of play; be prepared to try new ideas, even if they sit outside the how-tos on the web or in books.

In the final analysis, this is one of the strengths of Linux; engaging in this process means that the average Linux user has a lot greater idea about what is going on with their computer than the average Windows serf. From knowledge comes the ability to customise and control, and thus, better computing. Not bad for a virtue as underrated as play.

It’s been a rough week. The next 6 months of my working life will involve getting my company off the Microsoft diet and onto Open Source; in the meantime, it’s time to lift that poisoned chalice and chug-a-lug.

Living with an e-commerce application running off of Microsoft technologies has made me grey before my time. Even as I sit here and calmly type in my blog at 9:30 at night, I have to maintain a Firefox tab focused on the website. Every few hours, I test the search facility and make sure it’s responsive.

Admittedly, these are extreme circumstances, when Microsoft is not just bad, it’s hideous. The code is classic ASP rather than ASP.NET. The server is running Internet Information Server 5.0 on Windows 2000; there are issues with it which Microsoft says only an upgrade to IIS 6.0 on Windows Server 2003 will solve. Sadly, we are doing this as an interim measure, but until the upgrade occurs, the struggle to keep IIS crashes to a minimum goes on. At the moment, it’s my life: when a crash occurs, there is an automatic reboot, but sessions are lost in the process. As the server is running business critical applications, this can cause trouble for customers, and these customers call me. Some plead, some get angry, some are just plain rude; I have to deal with them all, counsel patience and fix what I can in the meantime.

Still, I find myself looking at Netcraft.com perusing through server uptime records, in particular I look at servers belonging to previous employers. My favourites are those that are running FreeBSD; these days, seeing that a server I had built hasn’t needed a reboot for over 500 days is like being a child looking into a toy shop window at Christmas and realising that one is only going to get underwear and socks again.

There comes a point where it gets to be too much. It’s a 3 day weekend in Britain, thanks to the Bank Holiday on Monday. So for me, it’s time to get on a plane tomorrow and to leave the world behind.

Don’t get me wrong, I love technology. Here in my home, unlike at work, it’s all in perfect order, largely because Windows is banished; my inventory of computers is three Ubuntu PC, one Fedora Core 5 laptop, and one PC BSD desktop. All make using my 8 MB broadband pipe a joy. But somehow the joy is diminished by having to keep that blasted tab open on the Microsoft server. So now that a three day weekend has come, it’s time to leave it and the world behind; to get on a plane and fly away for a bit from the joys and pains of living with technology.

I am going to my girlfriend’s place in Germany. She has no ADSL. She has one Windows laptop; considering my feelings about Microsoft lately, I am not tempted to switch it on, particularly since her link to the internet is AOL. In effect, the thread connecting me back to the Net will be very slender indeed. It also means, however, that I am letting someone else worry about the Microsoft server for a change. Tomorrow, I will arrive to see the smile of my beloved and we’ll have a lovely time. I will wake up on Sunday morning and realise there’s nothing I can do about work at the moment, shut my eyes and fall back to sleep, and dream of West Sussex and of our solution one day running off of FreeBSD or Linux and the phone at work going strangely silent.

Being technically minded has its privileges in spite of numerous people asking for technical assistance. But I keep thinking about the phrase, “leave the world behind”. Sometimes, one has to do so for the sake of sanity. However I will remember Microsoft’s contribution to driving me to this end; I will also remember with love and gratitude the refuge that my girlfriend provides.

According to reports on BBC News, Britain is the country with the greatest penetration of digital television in the home. Most recent figures indicate that 70% of UK viewers have it. Of course the question that no one is asking is if that’s doing us any good.

A leading example is the UKTV History channel. It used to be that it was sort of like having CNN for 1945, complete with broadcasts of Churchill’s speeches and reports of Allied victories in France. It was refreshing to hear politicians speaking something other than waffle and see an actual enemy of humanity getting pounded into the dust.

UKTV History then decided to turn into the Fred Dibnah channel. Fred Dibnah, for those who aren’t familiar with him, was one of Britain’s last steeplejacks who somehow became a presenter of a series of programmes on 19th century industry. He had a coal mine in his back yard and was prone to saying things like “the scent of oil and steam should be made into a perfume” and telling the audience how he got a skin infection from allowing his cap to sit in a puddle full of pigeon droppings. In other words, he was Britain’s most tediously bizarre presenter, the God of the Train Spotters and their ilk.

The rest of television is not much better; as such, I’ve been watching my “24″ box sets repeatedly, Seasons 1 through 4, to the point where I wonder if it’s possible to burn them out. I am salivating for the arrival of Season 5.

I am happy to report that the show never gets repetitive or boring, in spite of repeated watchings. I have picked up on a small detail which provides a subliminal reason why I love this programme; it seems that Open Source is rife throughout the programme, to the point that it could be considered a long advertisement for it.

I have a bad habit of noticing what hardware and operating systems are being used, even when it’s just on television or film. While there are some Macintosh computers in use during the programme, it appears that most people are definitely not using Windows. The motif on the upper right hand corner of the windows is indicative of the X Window system, not Microsoft. Open Source even makes an appearance on one of the character’s home computers; in Season 4, Tony Almeida’s home PC appears to be using the Xfce desktop environment.

Terminology provides additional clues to the use of Open Source; the characters Edgar Stiles and Chloe O’Brian discuss “the kernel”, “the root”, and so on, in a way that Microsoft technologists do not. The combined linguistic and graphical clues suggest that “24″, in a very subtle way, is advertising all the works of Open Source. Definitely, Jack Bauer’s outfit is too intelligent to be caught dead using Windows.

In a strange sort of way, this is perhaps the most realistic aspect of “24″; it’s certainly much more true to life than Jack Bauer’s strange capacity to avoid eating or using the toilet. No one concerned with security should let Windows anywhere near their PC; an organisation that requires absolute, iron-clad data protection would be insane to use it. In this past week alone, it was reported that the number of “Zombie” PCs (i.e., those under the control of remote hackers for nefarious purposes) has shot up 23 percent due to a new software worm.

That said, the promotion of Open Source on “24″, may not be at all subliminal on the part of the show’s creators, or just an attempt to add realism to the programme. In addition to the clues in the show, it’s interesting that “24: The Game”, is made for Sony Playstation, the video games console that runs Linux. It’s not available for Microsoft’s Xbox.

So kudos to the producers, who are the bringers of good things, in a world of entertainment that is still benighted even though it’s digital. Not only is it gripping stuff, it’s technically correct, and as such, completely satisfying.

Most of the spam that comes into my inbox is extremely boring. I have days when I get so many ads for dodgy pharmaceuticals that I fantasize about force-feeding spammers boxes of Cialis. Cialis, Viagra, Wellbutrin, Viagra, Cialis, Online Poker, Business Credit Cards, stocks in Chinese gold companies: the endless muck of spam just keeps flowing in, and is only notable for its tedium and its obvious chicanery.

This week, however, I received the following spam message:

Call out Gouranga be happy!!!
Gouranga Gouranga Gouranga ….
That which brings the highest happiness!!

Unlike most spam, I read it a few times. I wondered what in the world “Gouranga” was; my first guess was that it was a Japanese energy drink. However, unlike most spam, it had no link in it leading to a dodgy website waiting to cram my computer full of spyware. Were spammers getting sophisticated and trying to build brand awareness for the miracle drink / drug, Gouranga, with this mysterious message?

I did some research; apparently Gouranga is the nickname of the founder of the Hare Krishnas, the Hindu sect once famous for asking for donations at airports, and who are now better known for dancing around Leicester Square and chanting. So this message was religious spam, which is rare.

Rarer still, there is something to this “calling out Gouranga” business. Perhaps it’s my pronunciation of it, but saying it to my girlfriend made her smile. “Gouranga” is one of those words that’s inherently funny to say, like “kumquat”. It’s a function of language that certain syllables strung together do create amusement; Gouranga is definitely one of those. Does this mean that the Hare Krishnas sit around giving each other amusing names like their founder to engender laughter? If so, they are certainly more entertaining than I previously thought.

The spammer sending this particular message appears to have only one e-mail address, NitaiGouranga@aol.com. Unlike most spammers, this one actually replied to a query about his / her activities. Apparently his / her motivations are fairly simple:

I am just very enthusiastic person, who wants everybody to be happy.

If this an honest statement, this certainly was the first bit of spam I’ve ever received that was interested in happiness rather than quick profits. More importantly, they only sent it to me once. So hats off to the Hare Krishnas in this sense, in terms of world religions they may be far down the pecking order in size and wealth, but in terms of sending spam, they’re by far top of the class.

A geek cannot live on caffiene alone. In my experience, another staff of life of technology folk is booze. Indeed, I’ve been employed by companies where you didn’t have to be a borderline alcoholic to work there, but it certainly helped. An entire year of my life is somewhat muddied by the haze of having drunk way too much due to work associated recreation. After that, I promised myself never to work in the City of London again.

I digress. While I’ve put the days of tequila slammers and black sambuca behind me, I still enjoy a tipple now and then. My girlfriend, being a much classier and sophisticated sort than I, is fond of champagne. I like champagne too, but I must admit my knowledge of it could be summarised by the following points:

1. If it doesn’t come from the champagne region of France, it has to be called “sparkling wine.”

2. Cristal is the best. After all, Puff Daddy said so.

3. Dom Perignon was the champagne of choice in James Bond films.

4. Moet tastes like sparkling vinegar.

5. Don’t believe Tesco when they say something has won a silver medal.

Obviously, I didn’t drink champagne too often. Besides, a bottle of Krug Grande Cuvee can cost around £90 a bottle. One gets the distinct sensation of someone oily in a beret fingering one’s wallet when purchasing champagne.

Fortunately, some years ago, someone noticed that the soil around West Sussex is rather like that in the Champagne region; since that time the Nyetimber Vineyard (www.nyetimber-vineyard.com) has been producing excellent sparkling wine. Out of curiosity, I bought a bottle of Nyetimber Classic Cuvee 1998. When my lady tried it, she remarked that it tasted rather like the £90 Krug.

The only way to settle this was to try both at once. You can’t really put champagne back in the fridge after you’ve opened it, so we were going to have to drain both bottles in once sitting. The two bottle taste test was going to leave us blotto, but it would to settle the matter.

Both bottles were chilled to the same temperature and in the same conditions (they sat side by side in the fridge). Upon opening the bottles, the Nyetimber obviously had more fizz; the cork could have put my eye out. My lady and I each had two glasses, one for each wine, and yes, to enable two fisted drinking.

The first taste revealed that they were very similar in flavour, with one very big exception. I am not the sort of person who reads all sorts of different fruit flavours into what is essentially made from grapes, but the Krug had an aftertaste of wood, like it had been stored in oak vats. The Nyetimber didn’t taste of that at all. I like wood furniture, but not drinking wood champagne; I prefered the Nyetimber instantly.

My lady agreed with this analysis. Another couple of drinks and we were both wondering how long the French had gotten away with charging outrageous prices for champagne when Nyetimber was available. A few more and we were laughing at the television news.

The overall result, apart from a slight headache the next morning, was that the Krug may have more status, but the Nyetimber is better value and if you don’t like licking your coffee table, actually tastes better. It’s relatively inexpensive at £20 a bottle for the Grande Cuvee, so one can afford to drink more of it. As it’s not bling, Puff Daddy won’t drink it. As it’s English, we’re not paying for the privilege of being robbed by the French. All in all, it’s just about perfect.