Gnome Shell

So I have now installed Ubuntu 12.04 on one of my computers so I could test it outside of a virtual environment.

First off Unity isn't as bad as it was when I last tested it on 10.10 it is however still unusable for me. All the menus are on the top bar like on a mac (I haven't used a mac for years) I'm sure there is probably a setting to change to give you proper menus but I couldn't really be bothered with it.

I installed Gnome 3. In a terminal either type or copy-paste (ctrl-shift-v rather then just ctrl-v for pasting into a terminal window)

          sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3
          sudo apt-get update
          sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

My main problem with Gnome 3 classic was I was unable to get rid of the bottom panel, like I was able to do in Gnome 2.x; In Gnome 3 it isn't there by default. Gnome 3 would only run in classic mode in the virtual environment because of graphics limitations. I was unable to test it completely. So here it is on a real machine.

Here is the standard Gnome 3 desktop, I like the minimal look.

I good friend of mine suggested that if I was using Gnome 3 that I had to look into shell extensions. After just a brief look I agree it is a must.

And if you are going to use extensions (and you will) one that you HAVE to get is the extension list extension, it shows you a list of the extensions on your machine on a tab in the dash menu. But for some reason print screen doesn't work when I have dash open....annoying, something to look into.

I am using a few extensions:

          Alternative start menu just shows the shutdown option without having to

          hold down alt.

          Advanced settings in user menu is just a quick way to get to the advanced 

          settings.

          Remove accessibility icon from the top panel does what it says. 

         Axe Menu also looks very cool

I have a few others but I'm not sure they are going to stay, I really like the usage model. Go to the extensions.gnome.org site and just switch the extension on. A little popup asks if you want to install the extension say yes and there it is. 

Over all I am a fan of the new Gnome shell, I will continue testing it to see if I can promote Ubuntu 12.04 with Gnome shell onto my work machine currently running 10.04 LTS. It needs to be stable and have very good interaction with VirtualBox. I will need to make a decision before 10.04 hits EOL next year.

Oracle vs Google - more stuff

Looks like Google has won another round here.

Lawyers for Oracle said “We plan to continue to defend and uphold Java’s core write once run anywhere principle and ensure it is protected for the nine million Java developers and the community that depend on Java compatibility,”. This is just bullshit and bravado, they are trying to legitimize their case by saying that in the end we will be vindicated???

This makes sense for them, they are trying to paint themselves as the "good guys" or even the under dogs. But it doesn't really work for them, Oracle is one of the biggest companies in the world, one of the problems is they didn't develop Java, they purchased it along with Sun Microsystems. The bit in the quote on Java comparability is also crap, because a significant portion of the existing Java code (.JAR) files can be recompiled strait to android. Wiseandroid has a good guide on including existing Java code in your android application.

Linus Torvalds said “Prediction: instead of Oracle coming out and admitting they were morons about their idiotic suit against Android, they’ll come out posturing and talk about how they’ll be vindicated, and pay lawyers to take it to the next level of idiocy.”. I think this is quite a good short sweet view on the whole mess that this case has been.

The only ones that have benefited from this case have been the lawyers. Although if this weighs in on the decision to make APIs non-patentable / non-copy-writable then it may have been worth it.

Editing suite for digital video, update

After some fairly extensive research, read tech specs for the DX79SI and then got in contact with intel tech support. Looks like the DX79SI is out. It can't be confirmed that it will boot from PCIe.

There are plenty of motherboards that will boot from PCIe just look at OCZ -Mobo guide

I am currently looking at the Asus Rampage IV Extreme/BF3. It has all the current set of requirements. Socket 2011, support for the new 3rd gen i7 processors. 8 memory slots supporting up to 64GB of memory. Supports boot from PCIe on bios rev 1101. 


It is mid-range in cost, when looking at this end of the motherboard spectrum, the cheapest socket 2011 board is about NZ$300, the Asus is NZ$550 with the most expensive at NZ$850. It is also the cheapest to meet all the specs that I have.


It is a little annoying that the Intel board didn't support boot from PCIe, as it is NZ$390 and meets all the other specs. I may keep it in mind as the hardware RAID controller supports raid 5. And an array of 5 120GB SSD's would give twice the storage capacity, similar performance, though slower in IOPS then the revo drive for very similar money. 


240GB revo drive at 200k IOPS @ max 1500MB/s read & 1225MB/s write. NZ$953

5x120GB OCZ Agility III drives 20k IOPS each @ max 525MB/s read & 500MB/s write. NZ$1025. 

Because of the RAID overhead the SSD's would give 480GB storage, probably around 60k IOPS and a sustained throughput very similar to the revo drive maybe even faster. 

The question is, is it worth the hassle of setting up RAID and making sure it always works, or spending slightly more (more expensive MB reqd) and getting lower storage latency???? 

Editing suite for digital video, first post

My brother has a digital video business. He has asked me to spec out / build him an editing suite. The budget is fairly significant, I am looking into various options. Leaning towards the Core i7 3930k on an Intel DX79SI, with 32 or 64GB RAM.

I haven't decided on graphics hardware yet, but at this stage will be nVidia 6xx/7xx series card.

Storage is giving me a bit of an issue, I need to do more research at how SSD's fair in RAID for the system drive. There is also the option of a PCI-E based storage device, such as the OCZ revo series.

More research is required, but I feel the most important part is going to be the storage, latencies in storage are what makes computers feel slow. Especially in modern computers, you are not often waiting for the processor but the info to get to the processor.

I am not planning on liquid cooling as I believe that I can achieve, appropriate temperatures and low enough noise levels on air cooling.

There will be more posts, with more detail as the planning stage continues. Then when I have budget approval, final pricing and purchasing. There will be pictures of the build process.

Testing new OS Ubuntu 12.04

My Current OS is on my work computer is Ubuntu 10.04, it has become very familiar to me. I have tested 12.04 with unity and I have to say it isn't for me. Too many settings are hidden / harder to get to then they need to be.

Here is a screen shot of my current desktop, it is Ubuntu 10.04 and I have setup the desktop and panels to use as little room as possible without being silly about it. All the things that are important, I have it set to 24pix on my 1920x1080 screen.

 
I find that I want my work space to take as much room as possible, when I initially started using Ubuntu I had a lot of desktop effects turned on. The longer I worked with it the more these turned into distractions. Now I have a very basic workspace, it keeps out of my way and I find that it is easier to work with. I do occasionally turn on the effects so someone can see what is possible with Linux if you want to enable it.


Below is another screen shot this time Ubuntu 12.04 with Gnome Shell installed booted into Gnome Classic. It looks similar to my current environment, however I wasn't easily able to see how to remove the bottom panel (bar) and move the functionality to the top panel. This was very easy in the old version of Gnome, I will have to spend more time looking at how to do this.

Ubuntu 12.04 with Gnome Shell running in Gnome Classic Mode

Smartphone growth

I just read an interesting article on ExtremeTech about the growth rate of various technologies.

The conclusion I draw from this is infrastructure makes the technology, the electricity and phone took years (Electricity 0 - 10% 30yrs; + 10 - 40% 15yrs; + 40 - 75% 20yrs = 65 yrs) and (Phone 25 + 39 + 20 = 84yrs). Because cable had to be strung from supplier to customer, this is a time consuming and expensive process.

Wireless tech which has a much easier and cheaper install requirement, i.e. radio, TV, mobile phone and now smart phone; are much much faster. The infrastructure is much easier to put in place so it is put in place faster.

If some major catastrophe destroyed the mobile phone and fixed phone infrastructure, I doubt anybody would go to the expense of re-laying the cables to put the service back in place. Mobile phones would become even more ubiquitous then they already are.

Easy way to Remember Passwords

Security concerns are at the back of peoples minds when using the Internet. This is a bit of a worry really.

One thing that I used to do, which is probably the biggest security mistake you can make. Is use the same password on different sites. I know it is really difficult to remember many 10's of passwords, but you don't have to remember anymore then one password.

I use a password database application called Keepass (v1.18), it works across all the platforms I use. Linux (Ubuntu 10.04 & 12.04, Mint 12), Windows XP, Windows 7 and Android 2.3.4. Keepass is an encrypted database, I use both the master password and the key file options. Newer versions also have more options that I will look into soon, I will test these on all the platforms before I make the switch.

Now as you can probably guess from looking at the list of OS's that I use, there are a few computers that I use on a regular basis. To keep all these computers synchronised with the most up to date password database. I use Dropbox, this also works on all the platforms that I use. If you haven't herd of Dropbox yet then check them out at dropbox.com you can connect as many computers to your cloud storage as you want, I currently have 7 connected.

Now because Dropbox is a remote storage for your files, if you want to store sensitive files then I would highly recommend encryption. I use truecrypt, it is a bit of a learning curve, but it is free open source software and will ensure that your files are uncrackable. Hint use keepass to generate passwords for the truecrypt containers.

One final note, make your keepass master password a sentence, these are easy to remember and hard to break.

e.g. "MyPasswordIs: the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" as a master password would be extremely hard to break. Basically impossible with current tech.