This has been around for a while, I just happen to come across it tonight on YouTube.
Author: George
I have been in the IT profession over 27 years. Most of my experience was providing Workstation / Desktop support for several clients.
They other day I stopped at Home Depot to pick up a box of ten 15 A – 125V white power sockets to replace the old 2 prong brown outlets that came with the house 40 years ago. The new outlets have the standard three prong receptacles. Which makes life easier. So many electrical unit come with a three prong plug, that I had to use a plug converter to get by.
To verify the ground was connected, I used my Tripp-Lite isotel 4 surge suppressor which has an indicators for Protection Present, Fault, Line OK. All the receptacles reported no faults. I know there are better tools for testing, but this worked for now.
I still have to replace three more in the second bedroom and purchase another box of ten with covers for the master bedroom, several in the kitchen, the bar, and the laundry room.
I also replaced four old brown light switches with white 15A – 125V switches, replaced three 60 watt cadesent light bulbs with the last three 13 watt compact fluorescent bulbs. When I pick-up the additional power sockets, got to remember to buy another pack of the 13 watt CF bulbs.
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Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock
I saw this episode when it first came out on Big Bang Theory. I forgot about it until someone mentioned it to me the other day. So this is more of a test post with YouTube stuff. Enjoy!
On Saturday May 30th, I woke up and decided to backup my /home folders to the external USB hard drive and wipe out and reinstall Ubuntu 9.04 so I can experience the ext4 file system. Since I know this is a long process on my home PC, I started at 12:00 noon.
I ran Evolution first, caught my mail and ran the backup command located under File from the menu bar. After closing Evolution, I ran rsync -avh /home/ /media/New Volume/backup 05-30-2009 to backup 28.3 GB of data. After 8.5 hours, I was ready to rebuild. While working on this task, I watched the Pittsburgh Penguins play against the Detroit Red Wings for game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Go Pens (even though they lost)!
Since I have to share my PC with my family, and some people are afraid of Linux, I had to use the Windows XP Restore CD that came with my Dell Dimension 8200. I booted off the CD, ran Recovery Console and ran fixmbr and fixboot. This resets the MBR (Master Boot Record) back to a state of Windows only, no other operating systems available. Then of course I booted into Windows XP to verify the family can continue to use the PC.
I then booted off my new Ubutnu 9.04 CD that arrived a few weeks ago, and proceeded to install onto the second hard drive. In order to have ext4 as my file system, I had to select it from the drop down menu, and of course format each partition that would use ext4. The total install time on my PC was under 30 minutes. Heck, you can’t get a pizza under 30 minutes anymore, so I was very pleased.
The update manager started shortly after I logged onto the system for the first time. Afterwards, I rebooted and installed the NVIDIA GForce video card. Of course the cool Compiz 3-D effects didn’t work…and I was sad. However, everything else worked like a champ. I was on-line (because I downloaded my updates) and installed my HP Color LaserJet 2605dn network printer.
I also brought over the following folders
- .purple
- .mozilla
- .skype
- .fonts
Starting Evolution and having it reinstall everything from the backup I ran worked the way it should. All of my mail filter, addressbooks, mail folders, and the two different mail accounts were there. Since everything was working I closed Evolution.
I stared Pidgin and enter one of my AIM accounts and then closed the application. I copied the .purple folder into my home directory so the rest of my accounts and other settings were available when I started Pidgin again. I also ran Firefox and Skype to copied over there respective hidden folders too.
I then followed the directions from “The Perfect Desktop – Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)” submitted by Falko Timme. I picked almost all the same options as Falko, but some I didn’t want or feel a need for a this time. Falko’s directions were easy to follow, and I had my system back up to specs in no time. Ii tested this by watching the Mac ads to verify Quicktime was working with Firefox, watching the local videos with wmv, mov, wma, avi extensions, and I was able to play a DVD with no problems. Of course my mp3’s and other sounds worked, but something was still out of place.
I forgot to add my Desktop Themes from a post I read a few weeks back called “9 Great Gnome Themes with Ubuntu Repositories.” François Vogelweith is the author of the themes and they are great! I really enjoy having them on my PC. Currently I am running Wild Shine.
I also went to OpenOffice.org to download some templates to see if I can get OpenOffice to work better for me so I don’t have to rely on Office 2007.
So now by boot time has decreased from 33 seconds to 21 23 seconds. The best I saw on my PC before I added everything was 19 seconds. I am uploading my bootchart into my Box.net shared files.
I’m glad the re-installation worked as well as it did. I’ve been in the boat of “crap, everything is broke and I can’t recover because the Moon was not aligned with Saturn during the initial backup command”
Well, I’ve been thinking about getting a new notebook PC and I narrowed my decision down to three models; the Dell Latitude E4300, Dell Latitude E6500, and the System76 Serval Professional. Since I am still gathering funds, I will not be purchasing anything until late October. I know the models will change, but these three seem to fit what I want.
The Dell Latitude E4300 and the specs I chose:
- Intel® Core™ 2 Duo SP9400 (2.40GHz) w/Latitude ON™ ready
- Intel® GS45 Express Chipset
- 13.3″ Wide Screen WXGA WLED Panel for Latitude ON
- Mobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
- 4.0GB, DDR3-1066 SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
- Internal English Backlit Keyboard
- WWAN Capable without a WWAN Card
- 250GB Hard Drive, 7200RPM with Free Fall Sensor
- 8X DVD+/-RW w/Roxio and Cyberlink PowerDVD
- Intel® WiFi Link 5300 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card
- Dell Wireless® 365 Bluetooth Module
- 6 Cell Battery (56WHr)
- Ports:IEEE – 1394, docking connector, USB 2.0 (x1) /w USB PowerShare, VGA, RJ-45, eSATA/USB Combo (x1), headphone/speaker out, mic
- Slots: Expresscard 34, SD/MMC
- 3 Year Basic Limited Warranty and 3 Year NBD On-Site Service
The Dell Latitude E6500 and the specs I chose:
- Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9550 (2.66GHz, 6M L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
- Intel® 45 Express Chipset
- 15.4″ UltraSharp™ Widescreen WUXGA (1920×1200) Display-Brushed Metal Black
- NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M 256MB DDR3
- 4.0GB, DDR2-800 SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
- 250GB Hard Drive, 7200RPM with Free Fall Sensor
- Integrated Webcam with digital microphone
- Intel® WiFi Link 5300 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card
- Dell Wireless® 370 Bluetooth Module
- 8X DVD+/-RW w/Roxio and Cyberlink Power DVD
- 9 Cell Battery
- Ports: IEEE – 1394, docking connector, USB 2.0 (x4), VGA, Display Port, RJ-11 (optional), RJ-45, eSATA, USB PowerShare, headphone/speaker out, mic
- Slots: 5-in-1 card reader; PCMCIA & ExpressCard 54
- 3 Year Limited Warranty and 3 Year Mail-in Service
The System 76 Serval Professional and the specs I chose:
- Intel® Core 2 Duo T9550 2.66 GHz 1066 MHz FSB 6 MB L2 (35 Watt)
- 15.4″ WUXGA Matte Finish LCD (1920 x 1200)
- nVidia GeForce GTX 260M with 1GB DDR3
- Built-In 2.0 MP Webcam
- 4 GB – DDR3 1066 MHZ – 2 DIMMs
- 250 GB 7200 RPM SATA II
- CD-RW / DVD-RW
- Intel Wi-Fi Link 5300 – 802.11A/B/G/N Up to 450 Mbps
- Bluetooth
- 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
- Ports: DVI, HDMI, 3 x USB 2.0, eSata Port, FireWire Port, Headphone Jack, Microphone Jack, S/PDIF Output Jack, SD Reader
- Slots: Express Card 34/54
- 1 Yr. Ltd. Warranty and 1 Yr. Technical Support
I think I want the System 76 Serval Professional because it seems to have a little bit more muscle than the Dell models. Some things that caught my eye include; the RAM is DDR3 at 1066MHz rather than the E6500 which is DDR2 at 800Mhz, the choice in which Intel process I want (which is also an option for the E6500), DVI and HDMI video output instead of VGA, the 2.0 MP Webcam compared to an unknown spec from Dell (it could be 2. MP, but maybe it is 1.3 MP), and nVidia GeForce GTX 260M with 1 GB of DDR3 video memory compare to the E6500 which has an optional NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M 256MB DDR3 or the E4300 Intel Graphics Media which might be shared video memory (once again, I need to verify this)
What I like about the Dell models; the Magnesium Alloy LCD back and base, the backlit keyboard, the superior warranty of 3 years vs. 1 year from System 76, and brand name (I’ve been using and supporting Dell PCs for multiple clients since 1996).
Categories
Holiday Weekend
The family and I had a great Memorial Day weekend. The weather was nice and warm with no rain (which they called for), the kids had a great time hanging out with their friends playing on the inflatable water slide, plus great food too.
I finished the rock wall for the swing set and now need to send back the tools my Dad let me borrow. Although I did not get a chance to ride my bike, I did complete the cleaning and maintenance of the Craftsman lawn tractor. I removed the mower deck and removed the old grass clumps. Now I am going to sell it. After all, my yard is only about .25 acres and the gas power push mower is perfect.
I grilled Filet Migon wrapped in bacon again with hotdogs, baked potatoes, peas, and enjoyed a nice cold beer too. The kids had Popsicles for dessert and I just enjoyed being at home.
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Logout Icons on Ubuntu Desktop
A few weeks ago I created a new user on my Ubuntu 9.04 system for guests who come to visit and wanted to use my PC. I modified the guest account and locked it down, but I wanted to make it a little easy for my guest with a logout icon on the desktop. So after searching the Internet I came across a command the will log-off the guest account without asking for a password if you use the sudo command.
I right-clicked on the Desktop and select Create Launcher. I left the file type as Application, gave it the name Logout, and entered this command gnome-session-save –logout fig 1. But the default icon looks terrible, and does not convey to my guests this is a log out icon. I have the Infinity theme pack (which I read about a few weeks ago at this site) installed and I used the logout icon located at /usr/share/icons/infinity/scalable/apps fig 2.
So now anyone who uses my PC can login with the guest account and enter the password. They have access to Firefox so they can read and their web based e-mail, or access anything else on the Internet.
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Moblin
If you haven’t checked out Moblin, then go to this link to watch the Intro Video. Now this looks cool. I wish I had a netbook to try it out.
Drahusz 