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1526

General Software Discussion / Re: How to choose the best Linux distro for laptops

« Last post by Edvard on March 14, 2011, 03:22 PM »

I'm one of those that th PCLOS folks would find intolerable: I REALLY WANT a 64-bit version.
I understand it's a solid OS, nothing gets in an official release that threatens to be too unstable.
"It's ready when it's ready" is a fine motto for most things, but golly-gee-whillikers, folks... 64-bit has been a viable option for more than a few years now.  

That said, I've heard over and over that PCLinuxOS is a wonderful distro; lightweight, friendly, and stable.
Give that one a shot as well, Deo.

1527

General Software Discussion / Re: Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch - Aaawwweeesssooommmeee

« Last post by Edvard on March 14, 2011, 07:56 AM »

Here's the Windows XP startup sound at 10x with a window size of 3.125:

1528

General Software Discussion / Re: How to choose the best Linux distro for laptops

« Last post by Edvard on March 14, 2011, 07:17 AM »

...
If you know a distribution well, then just about any distribution that allows you to build up from a minimal install will work, and is a worthy approach since you already know the distro and the community. Gentoo, arch, Debian, Slackware (being a contrarian that is what I tend to use ) (I would not try this with any of redhat, suse or fedora as I have never had any luck getting any of these to give me what i would consider a minimal install)

-iphigenie (March 13, 2011, 08:22 AM)

I too ran slackware for a few years and learned much from the experience, but hand-installing lib after lib just to get one application that wasn't pre-installed running grated on my nerves.
I hear they fixed that...

The big challenge with that approach is figuring out
- the windowing/desktop environment
- a good mix of apps that fit well together and with the libraries of your chosen environment (qt, gtk, etc.)

that is a lot of research and figuring out (and I always end up giving up after I realise I have just messed up the mix by picking an app that has added half of KDE or Gnome or both!)

Which is why I like the APT system of Ubuntu/Debian.
It tells me what the dependencies are and if I suddenly have to download 100 megs of dependency to run a note-taking application, I know to look elsewhere.
Many strides have been made lately to further separate applications from their intended Desktop Environment.
It's not perfect yet, but better.
I also prefer the Xfce desktop for it's relative agnosticity toward toolkits.
OK, it leans pretty heavy on GTK, but it doesn't complain when I want to run a Qt app, either.

This is where I think that slitaz, pclinux0S and salix, for example, have "pre-made" a set of choices. Salix has access to everything in slackbuilds, and pclinuxos has a very large repository. Slitaz has "recipes" for a lot less, but it is easy to create one for a lot of software (even I managed) once you understand the process.

+1 for Slitaz, although it looks as if the website is down: http://www.downforev...ustme.com/slitaz.org 

1529

General Software Discussion / Re: How to choose the best Linux distro for laptops

« Last post by Edvard on March 14, 2011, 06:37 AM »

...

Though the download pages for Debian confuse me. Do I really need to download/burn 52 CDs to install it? Does it seriously require 8 DVDs?

-Deozaan (March 13, 2011, 04:57 PM)

Nope, just the first CD.
Even better, try the "Live" images first; they're more desktop-oriented as far as included packages.
Everything else can be installed via APT.
In fact, I would recommend the XFCE/LXDE versions (which may run faster), scroll down to the bottom of the download pages, you'll find it.

I agree Debian's website has NEVER been the friendliest, and prevented me from trying it for many years.
The '8 DVD' option is apparently for those without a constant internet connection.
Quite archaic, IMO, but might be useful for someone on a desert island with FedEx service. 

1530

Living Room / Re: Which cartoon character do you most relate to (and why)?

« Last post by Edvard on March 13, 2011, 09:09 AM »

Tinker from Speed Buggy 

1531

General Software Discussion / Re: How to choose the best Linux distro for laptops

« Last post by Edvard on March 13, 2011, 07:33 AM »

To be fair, a Netbook is by design a rather limited machine, and the various distros targeted for the platform are doing their best to fit in the smaller package, and so some things do end up more or less missing. 

Actually, this post says Debian proper works pretty well, and then you'll have the benefit of the APT package management system and the vast Debian repositories:
http://duopetalflowe...tbook-uses-less.html

You could also use the magical "alternative-to-kernel-patch" speedup hack and see how she goes:
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=24650.0

1532

General Software Discussion / Re: How to choose the best Linux distro for laptops

« Last post by Edvard on March 13, 2011, 01:45 AM »

There are several Netbook-specific distros like xPUD and MeeGo.
Here's a comparison with a bunch of links:
http://en.wikipedia...._Linux_distributions

1533

General Software Discussion / Re: Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch - Aaawwweeesssooommmeee

« Last post by Edvard on March 13, 2011, 12:02 AM »

Apparently It's almost a new meme:
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/800-slower

It would be cool if the "tunnel echo" could be removed some.

-Renegade (March 12, 2011, 07:25 PM)

The code is there to play with, maybe a tweak to the "smearing" process would help.
Here's Paul (the software's author) explaining to NPR how it works:
http://www.npr.org/b...rt-of-a-time-stretch
Renegade, how does this compare to your own Guitar & Drum Trainer software?
Does it work similarly?
NVM, I tried a few and it's an entirely different beast.

Wow!
Now I can turn my 15 second musical ditties into full length albums!

-Deozaan (March 12, 2011, 07:23 PM)

Care to share a clip?  

1534

General Software Discussion / Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch - Aaawwweeesssooommmeee

« Last post by Edvard on March 12, 2011, 07:02 PM »

For all you audio manipulation freaks...

This is a program for stretching the audio. It is suitable only for extreme sound stretching of the audio (like 50x) and for applying special effects by "spectral smoothing" the sounds.

http://hypermammut.s...rge.net/paulstretch/

Check it out stretching the Jurassic Park theme 1000%!!
http://soundcloud.co...rk-theme-1000-slower  



from http://admit-one.net

1535

General Software Discussion / Re: original win98 games

« Last post by Edvard on March 12, 2011, 06:48 PM »

Ah... IIRC, yes.
Which is why they were offered on the MS website as a downloadable update for 98.

1536

General Software Discussion / Re: original win98 games

« Last post by Edvard on March 12, 2011, 06:14 PM »

If you could remember the names of some of the games, that would help.
Perhaps are you talking about the "Plus! 98" stuff?
It's got Spider Solitaire, Microsoft Golf Lite, and a few others...

1537

Official Announcements / Re: What DonationCoder.com Would Do with a Two Million Dollar Donation

« Last post by Edvard on March 12, 2011, 12:34 AM »

I would buy a cruise ship with private helicopter and satellite internet link.
Cruise ship so geographical location is flexible, we can pick up and drop off at most major sea-ports, and the helicopter to fetch in the more landlocked members.

$2Mil probably wouldn't buy much of a ship, though...

@app:   

1538

General Software Discussion / Re: 20 New User Misconceptions about Linux

« Last post by Edvard on March 09, 2011, 11:56 PM »

Never had a problem with finding installing or running 64-bit since I 'graduated' two years ago, including custom compiling of things that aren't in the repositories.
Maybe that's just me - I'm a bit tenacious when I want to be.

I agree audio needs to be cleaned up, and PulseAudio needs to get out of the way for that to REALLY happen.
As it is, Pulse is doing a great job of making things "just work" but it's like finally finding the right combination of duct tape and bailing wire to make the old Nova run consistently, when what you really need to do is build a freakin' Porsche.

As for X, I am hoping the Wayland project doesn't turn into a nightmare.

Nice to see you again as well, Iphi; I am sorry your Linux experiments have not been satisfactory.
I often find myself in that unenviable position of being the guy in the chat rooms and forums who simply parrots "works for me..." when others complain bitterly.
Sorry 'bout that...

1539

Living Room / Re: Five Reasons Why People Hate Apple

« Last post by Edvard on March 09, 2011, 11:35 AM »

Motorola Xoom is running Android 3:
http://www.motorola....mers/XOOM/index.html

1540

General Software Discussion / Re: OS recommendations for Pent.III 128MB laptop

« Last post by Edvard on March 04, 2011, 01:45 AM »

@40Hz
  Awesome!  

@Tomos
Yes, I knew you were talking about writing, as in novels, poems and short stories, not pointers, variables and API calls.  

Since AbiWord is installed by default, you should be good to go with that.
I've used AW successfully on Windows when OpenOffice was too much (slow computer, dialup internet) and WordPad just wasn't enough.
It has it's own native format, but can also write .doc files that I've never had a problem with Office users reading.

From what I remember, Puppy doesn't use the APT system, but it does have it's own nice little package manager that doesn't have to involve any arcane special commands or anything, although you can do that if you want.
http://www.puppylinu...ckage-management.htm

Most all Linuces are very similar under the hood, and anything that needs to be done in a command-line terminal should work no matter where you are.
It's the User Interface that is most variable across distributions, and documentation ranges from nonexistent to way-too-technical.
Unfortunately, both extremes are the most common; fortunately for YOU, Puppy has a very comprehensive HOWTO section accessible from the Start menu, a pretty active forum, and the Puppylinux.com FAQ can usually point you in the right direction.
http://www.puppylinux.com/faq.htm
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/

Have fun!

1541

General Software Discussion / Re: OS recommendations for Pent.III 128MB laptop

« Last post by Edvard on March 03, 2011, 04:04 PM »

Hey now, I can't take any credit; it was Tomos who took the plunge, I only made a few humble recommendations. 

I'm just glad it turned out less painful than it could have been.
I've lost my fair share of scalpage wrestling with Grub and installations that don't go quite right, so relatively painless installs, as common as they are lately, I still meet with a certain degree of relieved anxiety.

That said, I'm also willing to get in the hot seat and lend a hand if something goes wrong down the line.
Are ya with me?

1542

Living Room / Re: Is this the worlds most elegant keyboard?

« Last post by Edvard on March 03, 2011, 03:33 PM »

AAIIIEEEEE!!!
THE GOGGLES, THEY DO NOTHING!!!!!  





(although I'm strangely attracted to the comic sans...)  

1543

General Software Discussion / Re: OS recommendations for Pent.III 128MB laptop

« Last post by Edvard on March 03, 2011, 03:26 PM »

 
Looks great!

Glad to hear it went (mostly) well.
The CD bug is strange, never seen that one before. 
Grub pathing is less than intuitive and they've changed it a couple times now, so you're not alone; it confuses me as well.

I was impressed how helpful the install was, I had to use gParted to change the format - I had used that before, so that helped. But in general very user friendly, and you could tell it was written by humans :-)

That is one feature I did like about Puppy; the folks who put it together have tried to balance the austerity with a certain type and level of user-friendliness I've been hard-pressed to find elsewhere.
One thing that has bugged me in the past is that almost every Puppy Linux fan I communicated with via mailinglist would end their post "I love my Puppy!" 
Since trying it myself, I couldn't bring myself to exactly agree, but at least I now understand where the sentiment comes from.

Now the challenge will be to use it for actual work you intended to do and resist the urge to play.
Welcome to Penguin-land, Tomos, hope you enjoy the ride! 

1544

General Software Discussion / Re: OS recommendations for Pent.III 128MB laptop

« Last post by Edvard on March 01, 2011, 04:36 PM »

I'll agree with most sentiments here that XP should do you just fine.
The minimum specs are 233MHz and 128MB, so maybe disable as many services as you can stand, use the 'Classic' interface to reduce your memory footprint, and +1 for giving it an nLite shakedown.
Plus, your familiarity with XP means you know what to expect and how to use it as soon as it gets installed, so spare you some possible frustration.
I'd also go for the extra 256MB especially if you plan on keeping this laptop around for a while, every little bit helps to extend it's life.

As far as Free OS's, I hope you brought a can opener for those worms  .
You say you want something as easy as XP to install, and to be honest, I've had most Linux installs go much easier than Windows, even though they might seem more complicated at the time.
It's what you do after it's installed that will be uncharted territory for you.

I agree many of the big-name Linux distros (Ubuntu, Suse, Fedora, etc.) won't be very comfy on what you have, but I had good experiences with Debian Stable on even lower-spec machines.
Still easy to use, but without a whole lot of 'extra' to get tangled in (saving memory), and it'll have a full complement of drivers, so hopefully no issues there.
Just do a little reading to get familiar with Debian's "APT" software management system, and you'll be trying out writing tools in no time.

For low memory and speed requirements, I recommend Slitaz or Puppy.
I've ran them both on a 400MHz laptop with 128MB, and both ran very well, despite Eóin's comments.  
They're both designed to run from a CD or USB so you can try them out right away, but can be installed very easily to the hard drive, which would save memory.
The tradeoff is there will be some learning and setup involved, which might be more than you want to tackle for just a writing machine, and especially since you don't have experience with alternative OS's, but it's there if you're game...

1545

Living Room / Re: [Humor]: An update is available for your computer!

« Last post by Edvard on February 28, 2011, 10:13 PM »

Geez guys, if you're going to "well, actually" the cartoon, at least make some mention that updates to OS X don't cost $99.

... They're actually $29 ($49 for the 'Family Pack')
http://store.apple.c...roduct/MAC_OS_X_SNGL

 

1546

General Software Discussion / Re: Ubuntu: Where Did the Love Go?

« Last post by Edvard on February 28, 2011, 10:01 PM »

I personally think the biggest problem for some dragons in the Linux community is that Shuttleworth is not out to personally destroy Microsoft, or humble Bill Gates, like they are.

Well...
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1

I believe part of the problem is this, and I wish I could explain lucidly and at length why I feel this way, but:

Those who don’t understand Unix are doomed to reinvent it, poorly.
– Henry Spencer

There's a reason or three I'm still running Xubuntu 9.10, and haven't blindly upgraded like I have (and regretted) in the past.
Why?
So far, there's nothing the newer versions offer that I don't already have, and plenty I don't want.
More and more of the core systems are getting dependent on stuff I don't want, don't need, or are just a bad idea IMO, and I'm getting less choice in the bargain.
Stuff like PulseAudio infecting everything, NetworkManager doing a BLASTED job of managing my network, WTH does ConsoleKit actually do besides spamming up the process tree, UbuntuOne not letting VLC in on their party, all of these things are only the tip of the iceberg.

Don't get me wrong, everybody here knows I love Linux.
I love what it stands for, I love the freedom it gives me, I love the software that wouldn't have been possible otherwise, and yes, I greatly appreciate what Ubuntu has done for the Linux community.
But I'm not afraid to pull off the fanboy mask and face just how soiled the penguin's undies have gotten lately.
More and more it's beginning to feel like a bunch of capricious but oh-so-functional hacks piled in and bolted on like Frankenstein parts to something that was at one time elegant and promising.

I wish I could have listened to the original presentation, but if any of THIS is to be believed, I may keep the Windows on any new computer I purchase, just for insurance.
Lennart Poettering seems to think it's FUD, but everything in that paper and slideshow has been bugging me about Ubuntu and Linux in general since at least 7.10.
I wish I had a Big Idea^tm that would take all this, unify it in purpose and utility, then implement cleanly so we can all decide if Linux is just a more advanced Unix, or something else entirely to Unix like Windows was to DOS.
...But I just don't have the time, intelligence or resources, and the job is too multi-faceted for one guy to do much about anyways.

I don'tknow if any of this is reason for the slide in Ubuntu's popularity, but it certainly gives ME a case of chronic facepalm.

1547

Living Room / Re: Apple acquires music service Lala

« Last post by Edvard on February 27, 2011, 09:41 AM »

It's months later and this STILL ticks me off, but now there's more fuel to the fire:

Apple's Lala purchase appears to have been "insurance"
http://arstechnica.c...e-just-insurance.ars

According to the execs speaking to FT, Apple likened its long-rumored plans to bring iTunes to the cloud as "insurance." Instead of cannibalizing its own wildly successful download service by introducing a streaming equivalent, Apple said it plans to make it possible for existing iTunes users to store their music remotely. This would enable them to access their libraries from various devices without having to sync via USB.
Incidentally, this model is exactly what streaming music service Lala began offering in 2007...

 

1548

Living Room / Re: Odd Google Behavior

« Last post by Edvard on February 16, 2011, 06:28 PM »

Is it that whole "google getting spam results" thing?
http://googleblog.bl...rch-engine-spam.html

1549

DC Gamer Club / Re: Minecraft - An Incredible Indie Game

« Last post by Edvard on February 16, 2011, 06:21 PM »

Slightly NSFW:
http://www.escapistm...ation/2680-Minecraft

 

1550

Living Room / Re: [FOR FUN] Stupid Questions

« Last post by Edvard on February 16, 2011, 05:27 PM »

(Actual question when I worked at Kinko's ages ago)

"Wow, transparencies are kind of expensive... Oh hey, can I get them double-sided to save a few bucks?"