noel alanguilan

i noticed a couple of things that changed when i ugraded to ubuntu 9.04

• the menu entry of grsync was moved from applications – internet to applications – system tools
• opera disappeared. i don’t exactly know how but the .opera subdiretory with my previous settings was still there. i just had to download the latest .deb package directly from the opera website. it wasn’t in the add/remove applications program and there’s one dubious looking entry in synaptic so i decided to do a direct download.
• skype disappeared too (there’s a pattern here). so i had to download the .deb package directly from skype. because of the relative newness of ubuntu 9.04, the available versions are for ubuntu 8.10 but these should work as before.
• after ugrading to firefox 3.0.9 flash videos became choppy. i remember uninstalling the flash plugins–all of them–via synaptic. then downloading and installing the latest .deb from the adobe website. i also noticed that firefox’s memory footprint became quite a bit larger–a little over 500 megabytes in my case–especially after spending a good amount of time in javscript and ajax-heavy sites i.e. facebook.
• the booting, shutdown and login screens are new.
• when shutting down the computer there’s a new confirmation dialog box with a 60-second countdown timer confirming if you really want to shutdown or not. this also applies when you want to restart the computer.
• booting seems faster–around 20 seconds on one workstation.
• there’s a new theme called new wave which i switched to.

i’m just wondering how it performs with older computers (pentium 4, 256 meg ram). if you know, please leave a note.

i’ve thought about a handful of ways for technology to maybe help businesses (and maybe homes) to save a little money.

• use what you have. do not upgrade your software to anything unless its free. if you’re using windows xp then stay with it. there’s no point in switching to linux when you already have the license for xp. same goes with whatever version of microsoft office you have installed — if you have it installed at all. there’s also no point in pirating ms office when there are a bunch free alternatives already just waiting to be downloaded.
• standardize on the  basic file formats to adopt within the workplace especially with documents and spreadsheets. choose the common “denominator” — the file format that all word processing or spreadsheet program can save as.  this way, you can use different versions of the word processing or spreadsheet programs and not have to worry about compatibility or forced to pay to upgrade to the latest and greatest version of that program.
• make use of old computers. if possible, max out the memory or plug in at least 1 gig then install linux. you probably should use at least a 1 ghz pentium 4 or equivalent for desktops. mind the type of memory modules needed by the computer. older computers need older memory modules.
• you can possibly use these old computers as print or file servers. just max the memory, put in a really large hard drive and you’re in business. install a server-specific linux distribution and you’ll save a lot from server licensing especially if you have a large population of users.
• if your company is buying new computers, try purchasing them with linux installed. it should come out a little cheaper compared to when windows xp or vista is installed. if it isn’t cheaper then tell the vendor that windows is not free and when you woke up that morning it still isn’t free and that you’re just buying the hardware and not the software. for office applications you can always download and use open office.
• not buying new hardware? give a little speed to your old computer by increasing its memory to 2 gig. 4 gig would be nice but 2 seems to be the sweet spot. this is certainly cheaper than buying a new computer.

this is my eight-year old desktop computer. overclocked, i used to use it a lot back when electricity was less expensive. the last time i turned it on was october/november 2007. a need for another computer came up and i decided to take it out of storage, disassemble and clean it up component by component and put it all neatly back together. that chore took about three days — well, it has plenty of components .

it refused to boot when i finally turned it on. grrr. the fans were running, the cdroms and hard drives were doing their thing but nothing’s coming out of the screen. there were no error beep(s). heck it didn’t beep at all. this is not good.

i think the motherboard has gone to heaven.

dang. i just can’t leave it at that and relegate the whole computer to being an oversized doorstop. i don’t want to throw it out and add more pollutants to the planet. i don’t believe that a computer, even one that’s two or three generations old, would be completely useless if just one of its components dies. the rest of the components are still in pretty good shape — only the mobo is kaput. the truth is, its really impractical to replace the motherboard with a completely new and up to date one simply because — aside from getting a new mobo — i’d have to get a new cpu and memory modules to match. ugh. my pockets are not exactly overflowing with money here. the practical (and cheaper) choice would be to get a motherboard that supports the current cpu and memory that i have. the only hurdle is where to get a brand new, old motherboard. worse case is i have scoure tipidpc for a second hand mobo.

i’ve always thought that old technology can still be useful. i have  a pentium 3 300mhz running a linux firewall and a pentium 4 1.6ghz running a linux file server. this one is no different, it can be my son’s desktop for his studies (and games of course) or another linux file server.

being known as the “computer guy”, a good number of people ask me for recommendations of what computer to get or what computer-related “toy” to buy. and i get asked these questions quite often warranting this post.

get a laptop.

honestly. laptops are cheaper these days. almost everything you need is there and you can fold it up and go. i don’t think you can do that with a desktop.

some specifics:
try not to get the ones with the uber speed cpus. leave that to the desktops. you just want to get something that can handle the type of work you will do on it plus some. you’ll save some money that can best be spent on more memory. do get one of those dual core cpus — either amd or intel would do although amd is usually cheaper. get the maximum memory that the laptop can handle. seriously. if its 2 gig, get that. if its 4 gig, buy it. you’ll thank me for it. the minimum should be 1 gig. 80 gigabytes is usually the standard capacity for the hard drive. if you have some extra, try to get a 160 gig drive instead. the optical drive should be at least a cd burner although dvd burners are common now. and lastly, if you can get an extra battery pack, why not?

operating system:
laptops usually come with windows pre-installed. i would not wish on my friends the trouble that is called vista so if you can get xp pro that would be better. being the geek that i am, i would recommend getting linux as an operating system. its not as fancy and polished as windows but its almost there. it gets the job done and its free. i’m using it now.

brand:
for the brand of laptop, well, there are a handful of good ones. stick with a manufacturer that is well known. hp comes to mind as well as asus and lenovo. fujitsu and sony has been around for some time as well. but if you prefer the mac then by all means. what ever brand you get just make sure that they can give you the technical support you need when the time comes.

my gurlfriend and i got a cateye velo 8 for an upcoming project of ours. it will fit our intended purpose perfectly. and its cheap too at 600 pesos (us$14; € 10).

the last cyclocomputer that i had was a vetta. i think it was one of those two-button entry level models too. the wire near the pickup eventually frayed and that put an end to it. but that was several years ago and i haven’t been riding with one for a few years now. i never had a good enough reason to convince myself to get one. i still don’t. but this project of ours sort of dictated the need for one so…

i don’t mind though.

it started about a couple of months ago. my electricity bill went down by almost a thousand pesos per month. that is pretty big. you can buy lots of stuff with 1k. and the only thing that i did was stop using my desktop computer. seriously.

for the record, my desktop is an athlon xp 2 ghz (slightly overclocked) with three hard drives (1 is scsi), a cdr/rw, a cdr, six fans plus two for the power supply, three expansion cards and a 17″ crt (read as power hogging) monitor. it seems that this setup can really pull some decent current.

these days, i’m working off a pentium m 1.6ghz laptop with a 15″ screen running on linux. i can still do my work thing (with the exception of my games) at essentially the same pace while drawing less power — 1k pesos less.

this got me thinking. considering the rising prices of fuel and electricity and the growing availability of smaller, less power-hungry (but faster) computers, it would be beneficial to get a smaller, energy-efficient computer. better if one gets a laptop so you can add mobility to the list of pluses. and of course, there’s that “wow” factor of possessing a laptop.

although the prices of reasonable laptops has gone down, they are still up there compared to the currently available desktops but not by much. the cheapest laptop in rising sun is the msi vr320-p2 (intel dual core 1.8ghz, 2 gig ram, 80 gig hd, 13.3″ lcd) at almost 30k pesos and a pc package with the equivalent configuration would run to about 25k pesos.

do the numbers and then add in the cost of running the thing (electricity) and you’ll find that getting an energy-efficient computer or a laptop is actually cheaper in the medium to long term.