5 May 2008

FeedBlendr

Do you use an online aggregator or desktop software to read RSS feeds? I mostly use Google Reader and have an account at Bloglines as well.

I’ve also discovered FeedBlendr.

It takes the feeds you give it, pulls the individual entries from each of them, sorts them in date order and provides a new, blended feed of all entries. Read more »

Tags: aggregator, computers, internet, news, Technology
0 comments


2 May 2008

Operating system compatibility

This isn’t meant to be a geek blog, but I want to vent a little here. I contacted the manager of a commercial website yesterday to point out the site didn’t render properly in Linux.

It’s the first site I have ever come across which does not view sensibly in Linux. The response:

“Thanks for letting us know. Based on the fact that only .36% of our traffic originates from Linux users, we cannot currently justify the time, money and manpower to amend this issue. We can look into adding this to future tasks.” Read more »

Tags: browsers, computers, internet, linux, Technology
3 comments


1 May 2008

Ubuntu Hardy Heron

I’m using Linux again for the first time in about nine months. The release of Ubuntu Hardy Heron caught my attention and I decided to give it a go.

I recently revisited Puppy and Sidux without satisfaction. The main problem with Sidux was I just couldn’t get the fonts to look good. Read more »

Tags: computers, linux, software, Technology, ubuntu
1 comment


14 January 2008

Staying connected

Last year on holidays I kept in touch with the electronic world using my mobile phone as a modem with a laptop computer. The connection was slow, and as I later discovered, very expensive (about $500 on casual data rates).

There’s a strong argument to not stay in touch at all. I resisted that because I’m an info junkie and in my job I don’t like surprises. I can read emails on holiday without having to act on them.

This year I have a USB wireless modem. The cost is still excessive ($89 a month) but I know in advance what it will be, and the connection speed is better.

The laptop suffered a casualty though at the hands of Margaret, who pulled out 10 keyboard pads. I’m a pretty good typist, but without clear direction I kept entering a comma instead of an “m”, etc.

I finished up buying a $20 keyboard from Harvey Norman to attach to the laptop until I figure out a solution. I haven’t been able to reattach the letters myself.

Tags: computers, holiday, mobile, Technology
0 comments


23 June 2007

Windows Vista hardware problems

A few months ago I bought a new Dell PC with Windows Vista Home Premium installed. I now wish that I hadn’t bought the computer, or that I had bought it with XP instead.

I have had ongoing problems with hardware recognition and installing software.

Firstly, to show that I’m balanced, I will write what is good about Vista:

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Read more »

Tags: computers, software, Technology, vista
6 comments


22 June 2007

Sidux Linux

I was always a fan of Kanotix. It’s a Debian-based Linux distribution which forked from the popular live distro Knoppix to offer a solid desktop system.

Somewhere along the line, I messed up an upgrade and moved away. By the time I revisited Kanotix it seemed to have lost impetus. Indeed, the last news items on the site today are from 2006.

I believe there was a split between the lead developers and one of them branched out to help create Sidux. I’ve now got Sidux installed in parallel with Windows Vista and I’m very impressed.

I had some initial glitches with screen resolution and fonts, but once they were sorted I’ve had no problems. It is a fast, attractive desktop which is easy to keep up to date.

Tags: computers, linux, Technology
0 comments


3 June 2007

Cross-platform applications

I was just looking at the 15 program icons on my Linux desktop and noticed that 12 of them are cross-platform applications which also operate in Windows.

The three Linux-only programs are Digikam (photo organiser), Bluefish (web editor) and Kontact (organiser/email). The 12 cross-platform applications are:

• Firefox (web browser)
• OpenOffice (office suite)
• The Gimp (image editor)
• Pidgin (instant messenger)
• Acrobat Reader (PDF reader)
• VLC (movie player)
• Songbird (desktop web player)
• RealPlayer (audio and movie player)
• PeaZip (archive utility)
• Skype (phone/messenger)
• JFTP (file transfer)
• Frostwire (file sharing).

The last two are interesting in that they are java programs.

The common use of these programs across operating systems shows that Linux is a valid option for desktop users who don’t want to pay a lot of money for Windows or software. It makes the transition less difficult.

Tags: computers, linux, software, Technology
0 comments


30 May 2007

PCLinuxOS

I went for a couple of months where I hardly used Linux at all. I had Suse on my laptop and Puppy, but for various reasons I stuck mainly with Windows XP for that period.

I think I had less time and no inclination to experiment. By the time I did want to revisit Linux there were problems with my Suse upgrades, so I checked out Distrowatch and the visit there coincided with a new release of PCLinuxOS.

I’ve used this Mandriva-based distro before and liked it. The CD is packed with useful software and more can be added easily through Synaptic.

My only issue at the moment is that fonts look a little furry. I’m trying various things to fix this, otherwise I’m a happy user. A full-size screenshot is here.

Tags: computers, linux, Technology
0 comments


12 March 2007

Malignant freeware

After getting a new Windows Vista PC I visited my favorite freeware site to look for a free FTP program to upload files to my various web sites.

I’ve used the open source FileZilla in the past, but had some issues with large transfers dropping out.

Anyway, I had to upload Wordpress today for the Hannans Rotary Club site and used the freeware program I discovered.

I went to install and found an error message related to the functions.php file. I checked the file and found some code had been inserted to promote the freeware FTP program. I deleted this, only to come across a similar error message in the admin/functions.php file, and sure enough, more foreign text had been inserted. Read more »

Tags: computers, software, Technology, WordPress
0 comments


10 March 2007

Toddler computer rage

I suspect that toddler computer rage is a relatively new phenomenon. We had a computer when Kathleen and Michael were little, but they weren’t allowed on it and didn’t really start using it until they were seven or eight.

We now have three computers, including one that’s pretty much free for James and Margaret to use. I’ve tended to keep computers when I upgrade, rather than sell them or get rid of them.

The twins are three years old but they are already able to play simple games. James loves the various penguin games on Suse Linux. He’s a sore loser though. When his penguin dies he sometimes throws things to the floor or smacks the screen.

Curiously, Margaret spends much less time on the computer.

Tags: computers, Kids, society
1 comment