Chronological Dissonance

Guitar Gear

2011-09-17T07:55:00.000-06:00

I have pretty much all the guitar stuff I need for now. That's not to say I don't want more of course, but for my abilities I have a good set of gear.

First, of course, are my guitars. I have a black cutaway Art & Lutherie acoustic, and a faded cherry Epiphone Custom SG electric. Two guitars is probably overkill for me, but it's nice having an acoustic and an electric for the different sounds and styles of playing. I actually want to get another electric guitar as well, a stratocaster type, but that's getting greedy. Maybe later when I get better.

For amps I have Peavey Vypyr modeling amp and a Vox AC4TV tube amp. The Vypyr is capable of a ton of different sounds and is really fun to experiment with. I have the 30 watt version which goes way louder than I need it to. I never turn the volume more than about 1 or 2, and it goes to 13.

I just bought the Vox AC4TV because I wanted a low-wattage tube amp to play with, and I found a used one at a price I couldn't turn down. It has a great sound to it, and really lets the sound of my guitar shine through.

I also use an iPad. I watch a lot of videos and learn from tabs, and found my laptop was pretty clunky and inconvenient to use while playing guitar. My Android phone worked really well for this, but the screen is pretty small for my old eyes to see tabs properly with, and even videos were sometimes difficult to make out.

My first instinct was to go with an Android tablet like the Asus Transformer, but in looking at the music apps available for the iPad I had to go with the Apple product. There are way more music related apps available on iPad that simply have no equivalent on Android, like Garageband or Ampkit. Maybe this will change in the future, but I have to go for what works for me now.

I'm really happy with the iPad for videos and tabs, and use the Ampkit link to connect my guitar to it. Garageband is amazing, and Ampkit is great as well.

Now the problem is to learn to play better, and no equipment in the world is going to replace practice.

Why It's Okay To Be Terrible

2011-01-21T07:58:00.003-07:00

I just tweeted that I was learning "Mr. Jones" on the guitar by the Counting Crows. My sister was (is?) a big Counting Crows fan and said she wanted to hear me play it. My predictable response was that I was terrible and she would have to wait a long time to hear it.

It probably gets old hearing from me that I'm terrible. People probably think I'm fishing for compliments, or... well, they probably think I'm fishing for compliments.

Fact is, I've been playing guitar for about 7 months and only practice about half an hour each day. I'm slowly getting better, and am enjoying what I do. The girlfriend enjoys hearing me play, and I like learning a new skill.

There are lots of people who have been playing for years, with very basic skills, no sense of rhythm, and very little hope of improving. You could safely call those people terrible (unless they are much larger than you) without being contradicted.

If you put me beside one of those people you would be hard pressed to decide who is better. Yet, rather than call me terrible, you would probably say, "You're not bad for how long you've been playing," or, "I can hear how you've improved." The music is being judged on potential, not on it's present condition. Also, I'm probably much larger than you, although I would hope that this wouldn't colour your judgement.

That's actually fair, but irrelevant to what my skills are at this very moment. I'm okay with that, though. Look through Youtube videos and there are thousands of unskilled people showing off what they can do. Most of them are terrible, but some will get better, and some will get excellent. And they are all having fun with what they are doing at the moment.

You can't get good without being terrible at first, so you either have to be all right with being terrible for a while and work at getting better, or be in denial and think you're already great. Either way, as long as you're enjoying what you're doing, it's okay to be bad.

Guitar Lessons

2011-01-21T05:48:00.002-07:00

Just reading through some of my posts on my sparsely updated blog. I noted I had started playing guitar, but didn't mention that I had started taking lessons. I was enjoying playing on my own, but started losing focus and didn't really know what to work on next. My technique also needed work, I found my chords and chord changes were sloppy, and I felt it was time to get some professional help. With the guitar I mean.

Started taking lessons last October at a nearby music store, although I took December off. I will probably take time off lessons from time to time and work on my own.

Really happy with my instructor. He has a university degree in music and plays professionally in venues around the province. He tailors lessons to what we think needs the most work. I wrote "we" because what I'm interested in is always considered.

I was a little unhappy with the experience starting in November. Because he's a professional musician he can't always make it to a lesson because he'll be out of town, or playing somewhere. I understood this, but was told there would be a substitute instructor for my lessons. Twice in November he had to cancel lessons, but the store wouldn't provide a substitute instructor because they were shorthanded or busy.

Although I was extremely pleased with the quality of instruction I felt he wasn't getting the backup he needed from the store. In December I actually made an appointment with another studio for instruction, but was stood up. Didn't make me too happy.

After thinking about it I decided that I could put up with the occasional canceled lesson. He's flexible when I have to change or cancel sessions, and the quality of instruction is very high.

Android Apps for Guitar

2011-01-21T03:38:00.002-07:00

When I got my phone I didn't even think about using it for helping with my guitar playing, but it's actually pretty useful. It's convenient and small enough to plop on my music stand without getting in the way of other books or sheet music.

The apps that I use are either standard apps included with Android, or available in the Marketplace. They are all free, although some have paid versions as well.

The most basic tool I use is Music, the default music player for Android. The biggest problem with it though is it doesn't have an A-B repeat mode that allows you to repeat just one section of a song. There is a free app called Squeaker that does A-B repeat. Now the only thing I'd like is the ability to slow down the music.

From the sounds of it, Slow Down Music Trainer would be perfect, although it is not free. Unfortunately as of right now it is only for the iPhone, although the developer claims to be making an Android version. I'm looking forward to it.

Youtube is another great source for learning. There are videos to teach guitar techniques and songs, tips, music videos, and backing tracks. Lots of crap on there of course, but with a little digging you can find some valuable information.

Guitar Backing Tracks searches Youtube for backing tracks based on root note, scales, and style of music. Great for jamming along with.

I use Tabular for searching, downloading and using tabs, but it sorely needs an autoscroll. Also, reading tabs on a small phone screen is a little tough on my aging eyes. This is where I actually see a use for a tablet device, bigger than a phone but not as bulky as a laptop.

Ultimate Guitar Tabs may end up replacing Tabular for me. It integrates with Ultimate Guitar, has autoscroll, and a lot of other really good features. It's not free, but I might end up giving up $2.99 of my carefully hoarded cash for this app because of it's usefulness.

Robotic Guitarist includes a chord finder, metronome, and tuner. I usually use my Korg metronome/tuner at home, but it's nice to have something with me at all times in case I don't have it with me.

If I want something more advanced than the basic metronome included with Robotic Guitarist I use Mobile Metronome. You can tap your tempo, specify the time signature and beat subdivision (quarter notes, triplets, etc.), and even change the sound. More cow bell!

There are one or two other apps I use, but these are the main ones. Now that I'm using my phone for help with my playing I'm looking at tablet devices. I'm still waiting for a reasonably priced tablet that still has the features I need.

Back to Lessons

2011-01-13T19:48:00.002-07:00

Didn't take any guitar lessons for December, went back last week and just finished this week's lesson.

I lost a lot of focus over December. I still played, but started to try to learn about 4 different songs at once. Didn't learn any of them, of course. I need to focus a little better and do one thing at a time.

I've started recording the sessions with my phone, and it's really helped with my practicing. I found I was forgetting tips my instructor told me, wasn't getting the rhythm of the pieces right, etc. I think it's really helped me improve, and my instructor agrees.

Started learning the solo to The Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits last week. I'm getting it, all the parts are in place now, I just need to practice more to smooth it out and get up to speed. I originally thought my instructor was nuts thinking I was going to play Mark Knopfler, but it's not nearly as bad as I thought. Of course, I don't play it nearly as well as Knopfler either.

So I'm going to continue to practice Sultans of Swing, but now I'm learning the rhythm to Proud Mary by CCR. Or Ike and Tina. Or whoever. Next week he's planning on teaching me the lead.

Nature Photos

2010-10-15T05:33:00.004-06:00

Went to a friend's parent's acreage a few weeks ago and took some pictures with my phone. I'm no nature photographer, and you can't really see the detail with these scaled, compressed pictures, but I was pretty impressed with the quality of today's camera phones compared with phones of just a couple of years ago.

If you look closely you can see caterpillar poop on her left hand.

Things That Bug Me About My Android

2010-10-15T04:29:00.004-06:00

Let me be very clear, I love my phone. It's a Motorola Milestone running Android 2.1. It's not the newest, fanciest, fastest phone out, but it has a beautiful, hi-res touch screen and a slide out keyboard. The keyboard was very important, as I find a touchscreen finicky to type with. It's also very customizable, and a lot of fun.

A few months ago I bought an iPod Touch to use as an e-reader, and I'm glad I did. I was very close to buying a dedicated e-reader like the Kobo, but I decided to forgo the large, readable e-ink screen and went for shirt-pocket portability as well as versatility.

Of course, having an iPod Touch made me think about getting a smart phone, but my experience with the Touch, as well as other issues I won't get into right now, made me decide against an iPhone. Eventually I decided upon the phone I have.

I did my research before buying, but there were still a couple of surprises. The biggest one was that applications had to be installed to the phone's internal memory; they couldn't be installed to the SD card. This limits the number of apps you can have installed at the same time. Not a huge deal for me as I really don't use most of the apps I have installed and there are always some I can delete without regret, but it's something I would have liked to know ahead of time.

This has been fixed in Android 2.2, but I either have to wait until I get the update to 2.2, or I have to root my phone and install it myself.

That actually brings me to another issue that I knew about before buying my phone, but it bears mentioning. Most Android phones don't allow the user to update the OS unless the carrier allows it. This has led to phones being several updates behind, with no hope of running the newest software. It's quite contrary to the "open" philosophy touted by Android, but that's for another post.

Most phones can be rooted, allowing you to install "unauthorized" software including OS updates, but that's not something most people are willing to try.

I also wish the battery life was longer. It has to get plugged in every day, which isn't a big deal, but when I've been doing a lot of websurfing or gaming it's a close call whether it's going to make it to the end of the day. I've learned to turn off wi-fi when I'm not using it, and sometimes put it into "airplane mode."

And one other thing. Cut and paste. The iPhone got a lot of flak for coming late to the game with cut and paste, but at least Apple got it right. When I select text on my phone it is impossible to see what is actually being selected because my big finger is in the way. I am always selecting too much text, not enough text, or the wrong text. There may be an easier way to do this, but it isn't immediately obvious.

I'll do another post sometime about what I love about it, which is a lot. I might even bash the iPhone a bit. We'll see.

Electric Guitar

2010-09-23T23:51:00.004-06:00

It was becoming difficult to practice my acoustic guitar and stay a good neighbor. Many times I like to practice very early in the morning or late at night, and I live in an apartment building, so I would try to play very quietly. I was worried that would lead to bad technique, plus it wasn't very fun, so I decided to look for an electric guitar.

An unamplified electric guitar is not very loud, and with an amplifier you can plug in headphones and crank the sound, it would be ideal for playing at night without waking the neighbors. Plus, I wanted one.

I spent a lot of time searching for an electric guitar, checking out online classified ads for used guitars and checking out pawnshops. The biggest problem I had was that I really didn't know enough about guitars to make a good judgment on the quality and condition of an instrument. I spent a lot of time reading online reviews and learning more, but the more I learned the more I felt that pawnshops were asking too much for used stuff, and I didn't feel confident enough to buy privately.

Ended up buying a new Epiphone SG Custom with a worn cherry finish. I'm very happy with it. It looks beautiful and is nice to play. Bought a Pocket Pod effects processor and a small practice amp to play around with the sound as well. Having lots of fun with it.

Practice Practices

2010-09-19T08:04:00.004-06:00

Practicing guitar is one of those weird things for me. I'm never really sure when I should be going on to the next step. Do I have to get everything perfect, or just pretty good? Usually I just settle for pretty good, especially as I don't think there's enough time in the universe for me to get anything perfect.

I try to rely on the fact that some skills will be practiced even when learning different skills. For example, for a while I kind of stalled when learning open chords. I spent a lot of time, weeks in fact, practicing transitions between chords before going on the the next lesson. That time certainly wasn't wasted, as I did get a lot better with the transitions between chords, but that's also something that gets practiced later on as well, as with finger picking.

On the other hand, getting the transitions better made learning finger picking easier. I think the time learning one skill is almost a constant, if I didn't spend the time in one section I would have spent it in another section.

The other problem is learning a new skill while neglecting old skills. Sometimes, as with finger picking and chords, I'm still practicing the old skill while learning a new one. Now, though, I'm learning pentatonic scales and playing the whole fretboard. I really should keep practicing my chords as well, especially barre chords, which I'm still not great at.

The solution is obvious: learn new skills while practicing the old skills. It feels like it cuts into my learning time, but that's the way it has to be. If I want to learn faster, I'll have to devote more time to practicing.

New Hobby

2010-09-03T07:44:00.005-06:00

About ten years ago, maybe less, my mother bought me a guitar for Christmas. Not just a cheap starter guitar, but a very nice black Art & Lutherie cutaway dreadnought. It was part of a musically themed Christmas, where she put a lot of thought and effort into gifts like glasses with music staffs on them, plates with piano keys, and guitar books. It was actually pretty extravagant.

There was a problem. I wasn't really interested in playing guitar.

I took a few lessons when I was a kid, but never got very good. As a kid I liked the idea of being able to play guitar, but didn't want to put in the effort of learning and the hours of practice that are necessary to get even competent. As an adult I knew I would never take the time needed to play. So I strummed it a few times, and into the closet it went, for years.

Mom kept asking me if I was playing it, and I would reply evasively: "A little bit," or "Haven't really had the time," or "I tried it out."

About 3 months ago I decided I needed to take up a hobby that didn't involve computer keyboards or video game controllers and took out the guitar. Downloaded some videos from the internet and started playing. Found I really enjoyed it, and have kept up with it, so far. I've learned a lot, even though I'm still terrible, and though I'm not shredding guitar solos I'm just enjoying what I can do right now, relishing my progress as I slowly get better, and just trying to play through the difficult stuff.

A guitar is a risky gift to give someone, and if you decide to give one as a present be prepared that it may end up as a dust collector. In this case it paid off, although it was years later. Hopefully I'll be playing and enjoying myself with it for years to come, though I may never be very good.

Hello Again

2010-08-30T05:01:00.003-06:00

Ya, I'm posting again, after about 3 years. Not going to focus so much on Linux articles. Some of my how-to articles were pretty popular, but the good articles take a lot of time to write, and I'm too lazy to keep up that kind of thing. Bad articles are easier (and I wrote some of those), but it's harder to be proud of them.

Things are going to even more unfocused than they were before, but there's a good chance I'll write a fair bit about learning guitar. I started playing about 3 months ago, I'm still terrible, but I'm really enjoying it. I may write about my struggles, sites I've found helpful, and perhaps successes.

Virtualizing Windows with VirtualBox

2007-11-13T15:33:00.000-07:00

Many Linux users dual boot with Windows for various reasons. Usually it's either to ease the transition to a new operating system, allowing them to get used to Linux while still having the comfort of falling back on Windows, or because there are applications that don't have any good equivalents in Linux. I dual booted for years just because I had to support people with Windows systems.

Dual-booting does have it's disadvantages, though. The main one is that rebooting back and forth between operating systems wastes time, and prevents a smooth workflow. Virtualization technology allows you to run one operating system under another. Some of the advantages are that rebooting is no longer necessary, interactions between applications from different OSes are more integrated, such as copying and pasting, and you can, if you like, run multiple OSes at the same time.

There are disadvantages, however. Virtualization does take resources. Each additional OS will demand a certain amount of memory and hard drive space. Perhaps even more significant, from the point of view of the PC gamer, is the fact that as of now there is no reliable support for hardware accelerated 3D graphics.

VirtualBox runs on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. It can run a variety of OSes as guests, and is quite easy to install and configure. I'm going to be focusing on using Ubuntu as the host system and Windows XP as the guest system, but except for installation the instructions should be similar for any system.

The following instructions are quite lengthy and might look intimidating to a new user, but once the install of VirtualBox is finished it's mostly just following wizards. Very simple, really.

If you're running Ubuntu it should be available for installing from your repositories in the usual way, but the VirtualBox site has more recent versions packaged for various distributions here. Once you download the .deb file, right click it and open it with gdebi.

There are a couple things that have to be done to prepare your system for running VirtualBox. We're going to use the command line to do this. First, you need to add yourself to the vboxusers group. This can be done graphically, but it's actually simpler to do in a terminal. Open a terminal (in Gnome it will be under Applications --> Accessories) and copy and paste the following, substituting your username for (username):

sudo gpasswd -a (username) vboxusers

Now we need to load the VirtualBox module with:
sudo modprobe vboxdrv
sudo chmod 666 /dev/vboxdrv

To ensure the module gets loaded everytime you reboot we're going to add the module to /etc/modules. In the terminal copy and paste:
gksu gedit /etc/modules

You will be asked for your password and a text editor will open. It should look similar to this, although the exact modules listed may not be identical:

# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.

fuse
lp
visor

At the bottom of the list add vboxdrv and save the file.

Start VirtualBox, either through the menu or by typing virtualbox in the terminal. You should see a window that looks like this:

Click the "New" button at the top, and the "New Virtual Machine Wizard" will pop up. Click "Next", and you will see:

Name the new virtual machine anything you think is appropriate, and select the OS type you are going to install from the dropdown list.

Now you have to choose how much memory the guest system is going to use. You want enough memory to run XP with while leaving your host system with enough for it's needs. My machine has 2 GB of memory, so I was comfortable giving 512 MB to my virtual XP, but if you only have, for example, 512 MB on your computer you'll want to choose less. VirtualBox recommends 192 MB, but if you have to you could run XP with 128 MB, although it will be slow.

Click "Next". Now we have to make a virtual hard drive. Click the "New" button at the bottom of the window.

Another wizard pops up to help create the virtual disk. Click "Next" and you will see:

The explanations of the two disk types are clear. The dynamically expanding image is a little slower with disk writes until the image expands to it's maximum size, though. Choose one and click "Next".

Choose a file name for the image and the size of the virtual hard disk. VirtualBox recommends 10240 MB of space, which is about 10 GB, but if you're not planning on installing many applications you could get away with an image size of 2 GB for Windows XP. After clicking "Next" you will see a summary screen:

If you are happy with your settings click "Finish". We're back to this screen:

The virtual hard disk you just created should be already selected in the dropdown box. Click "Next" to get to the summary:

Click "Finish" to create your new virtual machine.

You will go back to the main window with your virtual machine in the left pane. Now we have to install the operating system. Click on your virtual machine and press "Start". You will be shown the "First Run" wizard which will help you choose how to install. You probably want to install from "CD/DVD-ROM Device", and select your drive from the drop-down list.

After clicking "Next" again insert your Windows XP installation disk and hit "Finish" on the screen that follows. Install Windows in the usual way.

We're still not quite done. Once Windows is installed you'll want to install the Guest Additions. This is a set of drivers and applications that allow for better mouse pointer integration, video support, shared clipboard between host and guest OSes, and shared folders to allow transfer of files between host and guest.

Click on "Devices" at the top of the window and choose "Install Guest Additions". Just follow the prompts and you'll be fine.

There are a couple of other tweaks you may want to make. Shut down Windows XP, and in the main "VirtualBox OSE" window select your virtual machine, then select "Settings". Here you can change things like the amount of memory used, media management, etc. Under the "Audio" tab you may want to enable sound. "Alsa Audio Driver" is probably your best bet for Host Audio Driver.

The "Shared Folders" tab will let you create a folder which you can transfer files between the host and guest OSes. In Windows XP you will access this folder as a network folder.

Hopefully I've covered most of the basics. There's lots more to play with, don't be afraid to experiment and try various options. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please feel free to leave a comment or email me.

It's Been Too Long

2007-11-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, after six months I guess you could say this blog had been abandoned. I've come back to visit, though. Hopefully I'll make more of a habit of it than I have in the past.

My sister finally decided to give Linux a try during my visit with her. She already uses cross-platform, open source applications for everyday use like Thunderbird, Firefox, and OpenOffice, so I though Linux would be a good fit. I installed Ubuntu, and made some recommendations for applications, although I did tell her there were usually many good alternatives for each task.

She likes Evolution for it's calendar, but when she tried the Evolution-RSS plugin it wouldn't work properly. It will download the feeds when first started up, but never updates them again. I've tried it on my system and the same thing happens, whether I use the plugin from the repositories or compile from source. I've suggested alternatives like Liferea for a stand-alone reader, or switching to Kontact, but I'm never happy with suggestions that say "use something else" rather than fixing the issue.

The one thing that seems to be holding her back from diving completely into Linux is the lack of a good blogging tool. She is a compulsive blogger and In Windows she uses BlogDesk, and I'm unable to find anything in Linux with the same functionality. I've tried getting it to run using Wine, but haven't been able to. Dual booting isn't practical, as she would have to reboot many times a day just to use one program.

Since Linux doesn't have a comparable tool (that I'm aware of), a virtualized Windows environment that she can run BlogDesk in seems to be the best solution. I've played around with VirtualBox, and I'm impressed with how easy it is to install, configure, and get running. Tomorrow I'll post a tutorial on how to get Windows XP running under Ubuntu Linux using VirtualBox.

Parrots and Hatchets

2007-05-28T02:36:00.000-06:00

Found this here. For some reason it reminded me of my first date with an old girlfriend. I picked her up in my car, and she noticed a hatchet in the front seat. I won't go into why I had a hatchet in the front seat of the car (something to do with work), but more important is why I didn't move it somewhere else (I'm an idiot.)

Of course, she asked why I had a hatchet in the front seat of the car, and of course being a smartass I said something about bringing one on all my first dates. At the time I thought I was being funny, but looking back it was probably pretty creepy. Not creepy enough that it stopped her from seeing me again, though. That either says something about my charisma and charm, or her questionable taste in men.

Flagpole Sitta

2007-05-28T02:06:00.000-06:00

Okay, I'm about a month behind on finding this one, but that's okay, because it's been about a month since I've posted.

Found this video of Harvey Danger's Flagpole Sitta at Vimeo, and it's a blast. It's just a group of people lip syncing to the song, but they're obviously having a lot of fun doing it. It helps that it's a great song, too.

Incidentally, in case you didn't know, Harvey Danger made their third album Little by Little available as a free download on their website. No, it's not the one with Flagpole Sitta, but it's a great album if you still haven't heard it.

The Annotated How to Tell You're in Canada

2007-04-26T00:57:00.000-06:00

Found this page at http://proudcanadiankids.ca/how_to_tell_you.htm, which apparently took the content from http://www.icomm.ca/emily/, but that doesn't exist anymore.

I found I was making comments about each item to myself, which only crazy people do, and decided that I was preparing for a blog post to share with others, which may or may not be crazy.

Some of the items are absolutely true, some are regional (Canada is huge, and there are cultural differences between different areas), some are true but trivial, and some I've never come across. I haven't bothered to research anything, so don't believe anything I say without checking it out for yourself. And don't read it expecting it to be funny. I don't feel very funny.

I've italicized my comments:

Everything is labelled in English and French.

This is true. Whenever anyone asks if I speak French I tell them, "Just cereal box French."

Everything is measured in metric. (No, the temperature does not drop fifty degrees when you cross the border, and the speed limit doesn't double.)

Mostly true. Some items in grocery stores are labeled with both metric and imperial measurements, and most measurements used in construction are imperial, using inches and feet instead of metres and centimetres. I have no "feeling" for Fahrenheit measurements, but tend to measure length and weight in feet/inches and pounds rather than metres/centimetres and kilograms.

Milk comes in plastic bags as well as in cartons and jugs.

I remember getting milk in bags years ago, but haven't seen it sold that way for a long time. This may be a regional thing, it may still be sold that way in the east.

There's hockey gear everywhere. A guy can get onto a bus wearing goalie pads, a helmet -- everything but the skates -- and nobody gives him a second look.

This is a little exaggerated. I don't remember ever seeing anyone wearing full hockey gear outside of a rink (and I live in Edmonton, which is a big hockey town), but it's not uncommon to see people carrying their gear around in hockey bags.

Restaurants serve vinegar with French fries.

Might be a regional thing again. I've eaten french fries with vinegar, but always have had to ask for vinegar, it's never been served automatically.

There are $1 and $2 coins. The paper currency is in different colors, and it's pretty.

True. I've heard lots of jokes from Americans about our "play money", but it's practical too. I can see at a glance whether I'm selecting a $20 or a $5 from my wallet without having to read the bill.

The Trans-Canada Highway -- Canada's analogue to the US Interstates -- is two lanes wide for most of its length. (There are great big huge wide highways around the major cities. The 401 north of Toronto is sixteen lanes wide in places.)

This always drove me crazy when driving out of town. The highway is divided close to major cities, but in-between cities it's two lanes.

There is still the occasional musical variety show on network TV, and such a show that was on until recently was hosted by a very, very large woman (Rita McNeil).

I have no real comment on this. I haven't watched a musical variety show in years and don't pay attention to see if any are still on. Although I'm not a fan of Rita McNeil's music, I think it's a good thing that a person with talent can have a successful (?) show, in spite of her weight. There are too many successful "artists" whose sole talent is their appearance.

The CBC's evening news anchor is bald and doesn't wear a toupee.

Peter Mansbridge. I've always respected him for not wearing a toupee, against (I'm sure) a lot of pressure. Baldness isn't a handicap or a disfigurement, and I'm more inclined to trust an anchor who doesn't hide himself under a wig than a smarmy hairsprayed mouthpiece.

When new coins are introduced to replace paper currency, people actually use the coins.

There are one dollar coins called "loonies" because there is a picture of a loon on them, and two dollar coins called "toonies" because, well, "toonie" rhymes with "loonie." If you don't manage your change it can get away from you. Once I noticed the change in my pocket was getting a little heavy. I had over $50 in loonies, toonies, and quarters.

Contests run by anyone other than the government have "skill-testing questions" that winners must answer correctly before they can claim a prize. These are usually math problems, and are administered to get around the law that only the government can administer lotteries.

Even contests on the radio have to have skill testing questions, although these are usually lame trivia questions rather than math questions.

Lots of people run around in clothing from Roots.

I suppose, although being fashion blind I haven't really noticed. No different than anyone else paying to wear advertisements for any other clothing brand in any other country. Instead of having to pay thousands of dollars to get their name out, clothing companies have the consumer pay them for the privilege of displaying their brand. I really identified with the main character in William Gibson's Pattern Recognition, who was "allergic" to brand names.

The following gas stations are around (and don't exist in the US):
- Esso (instead of Exxon -- a visitor suggests "Esso" comes from the "S" and the "O" of Standard Oil)
- Petro Canada
- Irving (only in eastern Canada, and a visitor advises me that there's now at least one in Maine)
- Canadian Tire
- Husky
- Mohawk (primarily in western Canada)

I would add Domo to the list as well, although I think it's only in western Canada. And they already mention that Irving, which I've never heard of, is only in the east. Irving is a terrible name for a company.

These are the biggest department stores:
- The Bay (the Hudson's Bay Company, the oldest company in North America and possibly the world -- it was incorporated on May 2, 1670)
- Eaton's (Toronto, Montréal, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver are among the cities that have large malls called the Eaton Centre (Centre Eaton in French)). Eaton's has been having financial troubles for several years now, and finally closed a number of its stores and sold the rest to Sears Canada.
- Zellers -- owned by the Bay, Zellers is similar to KMart (which recently pulled out of Canada) or Target (which isn't in Canada at all).

This is dated. Eaton's Centre in Edmonton has been renamed City Centre or something like that, and as far as I know Sear's has given up on using the Eaton's name. There are no more Eaton's stores. As far as I know.

These are the big banks:
- Toronto Dominion
- Bank of Montreal
- Royal Bank
- The Bank of Nova Scotia
- Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC)
- The National Bank of Canada
- The HongKong Bank of Canada
- Canada Trust (actually a trust company, but offers the same services that a bank does)
These banks are national and have branches all over the country. One sure sign you're in Canada: the federal government has blocked two big bank mergers (the TD wanted to merge with CIBC, and BMo wanted to merge with the Royal), ostensibly because reduced competition is bad for Canadians. Wow.
Credit unions are also popular in Canada, especially in Quebec, where they're called caisses populaires.

Again, a little dated. Toronto Dominion merged with Canada Trust to become TD Canada Trust. Not interesting, but true.

These are the most well-known Canadian restaurant chains:
- Harvey's -- fast food burger joint
- Mr. Sub -- similar to Subway
- The Keg (Le Keg en français) -- a big, high-end yet still generic steakhouse
- Pizza Pizza -- similar to Domino's
- Tim Horton's -- do(ugh)nuts! See below.
- Swiss Chalet -- sit-down chicken and ribs place
- Robin's -- another do(ugh)nut chain, popular in western Canada.

I had forgotten about Robin's. I'm not sure they even exist anymore, I haven't seen a store here for a long time, and I know they ran into financial trouble a while ago. Pizza Pizza is only back east; I ran into them for the first time when I was in Toronto.

The big mass-market beers are Molson and Labatt, and they're a lot stronger than US beers. Molson Golden was recently reintroduced to the Canadian market, but I hardly ever see anyone drinking it -- I get the feeling Molson ships most of it to the States and tells the Americans it's good.

True, but beer snobs won't drink beer from either of them. They buy from small brewing companies until they find out they're also owned by Molson or Labatt.

The major cigarette labels are Player's, Craven A, DuMaurier, Matinee, and Export A. Canadian cigarettes are milder than American ones.

True story. Got into a truck with a friend, sniffed, and asked, "Did you fart?" Turns out he was smoking an American cigarette. Marlboros, I think.

Mountain Dew has no caffeine.

Ya, but so what? I don't demand that my soft drinks contain caffeine, and probably wouldn't notice whether they did or not.

Coke and Pepsi use real sugar instead of corn syrup.

I'm sure there are people who will claim that this makes a big difference, but most people wouldn't be able to tell without reading the ingredients. I've heard it has something to do with how the US taxes sugar, but I don't know for sure.

Instead of seeing Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores, you see Coles and SmithBooks and Chapters and Indigo.

True, but boring.

There are lots and lots of do(ugh)nut shops, especially ones called Tim Horton's (named after the hockey player who started the chain). (The number of Tim Horton's diminishes as you go further west, but I'm assured there are lots of them in Edmonton.)

There are lots of them in Edmonton. I've worked with guys who knew the location of every single Tim Horton's in Edmonton, and there was always one near by when it was time for coffee.

When you step on someone's foot, he apologizes. (This really happened.)

This is a comment on Canadian politeness. I've never run into a situation like this, but perhaps people are generally politer here than elsewhere. I haven't really noticed. For every comment on how polite Canadians are, though, I can come up with a story on how rude they are. Canadians are just people.

There are billboards advertising vacations in Cuba, and Cuban cigars are freely available.

I guess it might be odd for an American to see. I guess Canada sees no need to ape a pointless embargo. I wish we thought the same way for other pointless American policies. Like moving up stupid Daylight Savings Time.

Nobody worries about losing a life's savings or a home because of illness.

They're talking about Canada's publicly funded health care system as opposed to the American private health insurance system. If a person can't work because of illness and has no long term disability coverage, they can still have financial difficulties, although it's not the problem I've heard it can be in the States.

In pharmacies, you can buy acetaminophen or ASA with codeine over the counter, but you can't buy hydrocortisone ointments or creams without a prescription.

Not sure this is something that will leap out at a new visitor, I've never noticed, but sure.

When you go to the dentist to get a cavity filled (or worse), she or he puts a needle in your mouth first to "freeze" it. (Asking for Novocaine (a brand name) immediately pegs you as an American.)

What do they do in the States? Is Novocaine administered topically? Rectally? I've never had to ask for any kind of anaesthetic, let alone by brand name. If a dentist approaches me with her tools of destruction without giving me anaesthetic first, I leave. Quickly.

At county fairs and the Canadian National Exhibition, red ribbons indicate first place and blue ribbons indicate second. (Canadians: it's the other way around in the States.)

Okay. Don't care.

Submitted by visitors:

Any conversation will inevitably include a brief discussion of the weather.

Weather is a large source of small talk, but isn't that true anywhere?

It's almost impossible to get a glass of iced tea in downtown Toronto. (This person must have been a Southerner -- in the US South, "iced tea" is unsweetened, and "sweet tea" has sugar. "Sweet tea" is what you get when you ask for "iced tea" in Toronto.)

I don't think it would be easy to get unsweetened iced tea anywhere around here. I remember ordering iced tea in Las Vegas and getting unsweetened iced tea. No big deal, I just added sugar. I also had a jar of unsweetened instant tea in the cupboard when I had a roommate. He tried some and complained to me later about how it wasn't sweetened. For some reason it didn't occur to him that if something wasn't sweet enough you could add sugar to it.

Teenagers can drink legally. The drinking age in Quebec, Manitoba, and Alberta is 18; it's 19 in the rest of the country.

Yup, and when they drink they act like drunk teenagers. I did, anyway.

Potato chips come in flavo(u)rs such as salt and vinegar, ketchup, and "all dressed" (a collection of just about all possible seasonings -- the person who suggested this one liked it to a "suicide slush" in the States).

Do potato chips not come flavoured in the States, or just not these particular flavours? Ketchup chips are disgusting (if you like I'll show you lab results and studies proving it), and I've never been a big fan of salt and vinegar. Now you know a little more about me.

There are "chip vans" (aka "chip trucks" or "chip wagons"). These are like the van driven by the ice cream man, only they sell French fries. They are most ubiquitous on the roads to "cottage country." (A visitor from British Columbia noted that "chip trucks" don't sell French fries in BC; they drive on logging roads and carry wood chips there.)

I don't often see these, although there is one that makes an appearance during downtown festivals.

Every weekend during the summer, southern Ontarians go in droves from Toronto and its environs to their second homes (ranging from campers to great big houses with all the amenities) in cottage country (usually Muskoka -- I'm told that calling it "the Muskokas" marks you as an outsider).

No, the southern Ontarians that can afford second homes go in droves. I'd like to believe that every Canadian family can afford a cottage on the lake, but it's not true. Every region has it's popular getaway spots, and this is a "How to Tell You're in Southern Ontario" bit, not Canada.

Every weekend during the summer, southern Quebecers go in droves from Montréal and its environs to their cottage country (usually the Laurentians; the Eastern Townships; Burlington, Vermont; Lake Champlain, New York; or Plattsburgh, New York).

See the above comment. Same idea.

Every weekend during the winter, the cottage country people go back to cottage country to go snowmobiling. Gas stations are just as likely to be filling snowmobiles as cars or trucks.

Yup. Canada has snow, and we like to play in it.

Cars (especially on the Prairies) have electrical plugs sticking out from under the hoods. These are for block heaters, to prevent engines from freezing when it's -40.

It doesn't often get to -40 C around here, but even at -20 C it's a good idea to have your car plugged in.

People give distances in times, not miles.

Never noticed this. Might be a rural thing, and I'd bet it's not limited to Canada.

People ask whether you'd like "a coffee" rather than "some coffee."

Sure. Who cares?

Canadians tend to use British spelling. They write about "colour," "cheques," "theatres," and so forth. Most use the American "-ize" rather than the British "-ise" verb ending, however.

Canadians tend to use Canadian spelling, which tends to the British but contains some American.

People drive with their headlights on during the day. Since 1989, all new cars have had to be fitted with daytime running lights.

I'm surprised they don't do this in the States yet. It does increase visibility, and decreases accidents. I've heard of cars from Canada getting stopped by troopers because the lights were on. This was a few years ago, I hope at least the border states have caught on.

In Ontario, you can buy beer only at the Beer Store (formerly known as "Brewers' Retail"). The experience of going into a beer store is documented nicely in the 1983 film Strange Brew.

Again, "How to Tell You're in Ontario."

Movie theatres have one night a week, usually Monday or Tuesday, where they charge matinee prices.

It used to be a really good deal. We used to call them "$2.50 Tuesdays," which had a nice ring to it. Now it's not that big of a discount (even considering inflation.)

There is no mail delivered on Saturdays.

Or Sunday. Or holidays.

"Lieutenant" is pronounced "leftenant."

That's the official pronunciation, but I've never heard anyone in real life actually use it, even those in the Armed Forces.

Mortgage interest is not tax-deductible. The interest rate on most mortgages is not fixed, but rather, is renewed at the end of a term which can be as short as six months or as long as seven years.

Wow. I used to work at a bank and dealt a lot with mortgages, and I still don't care.

Most Canadians will tell you that the last letter of the alphabet is pronounced "zed." Sharon, Lois, and Bram, popular children's entertainers, make it a point in their performances of "The Alphabet Song" to say "zed" instead of "zee."

This throws some Americans. Don't worry though, we still say Jay-"Zee" and "Zee-Zee" Top.

People end sentences with "eh," eh?

Ahh, good old Bob and Doug McKenzie. We also wear toques to funerals (well, actually, we might if it were really cold) and drink beer for breakfast.

Free Ebooks: Part One

2007-04-15T01:25:00.000-06:00

Electronic text isn't new to any of us. You're reading it right now. Paper books have a lot of advantages over electronic text, though. Paper books are usually easier to read, with higher contrast and less glare issues than etext, making them better suited for longer works such as novels. Power isn't much of an issue. Anywhere there's light, you can read. And they are sturdier and cost less than any electronic device you own. Drop a book, no big deal. Drop your Palm, well, that'll be a few bucks to replace it. Get your book wet, well, it sucks, but at least you can let it dry out and keep reading. Get your laptop wet, time to buy a new laptop. Even just the physical act of holding a book, flipping the pages, admiring the cover art, is better than reading text from an LCD screen.

Where ebooks have a large advantage over traditional paper books is portability. I used to have to go out of town a lot on business, and read a lot in the evening at the hotel (I don't watch much TV) and, let's face it, at work when it was slow. Instead of lugging around a number of books in my suitcase I was able to take literally dozens of novels with me in my Palm. My Palm is also something I have with me most of the time, so when it looks like I'm going to be waiting for a while I can take it out and read any time I want to. I tend not to have a book with me when going places simply because of lack of space. Maybe if I carried a purse...

In part one I'm going to point out some places where you can find free ebooks, and in part two you'll find some tools for converting files into a format your Palm can read. If you don't have a Palm, or don't want to read on it, that's fine. You can still find out where to do some great reading.

While reading this, you will find that I tend to point out science fiction books and authors more than other genres. This is for two reasons: I read a lot of science fiction, so I have a preference for it, and the science fiction and fantasy community has embraced the concept of free ebooks more so than others. That's not to say other genres aren't available, especially in the public domain, but for some reason science fiction and fantasy authors are in the forefront of experimenting with giving away their products.

I'll point out the granddaddy of ebooks first: Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg has over 20,000 free ebooks that have fallen into the public domain. This means that most of them are older titles, but they're not all Shakespeare or H. G. Wells. You can find stories from authors like Cory Doctorow,E. E. "Doc" Smith, John W. Campbell, and Marion Zimmer Bradley. I also enjoyed a couple of non-fiction books on real life hackers by Bruce Sterling and Suelette Dreyfuss. Browsing through the Gutenberg Project's collection is like wandering through a second hand book store, finding classics that you had forgotten about or always meant to read. The frustrating thing is that you will never have the time to read everything you find interesting here.

The Baen Free Library offers free science fiction and fantasy ebooks by contemporary authors such as Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Michael Flynn, Andre Norton, Harry Turtledove, Fred Saberhagen, Mercedes Lackey, and more. There is also an excellent essay on the front page by Eric Flint, First Librarian, on the rationale behind the Baen Free Library. Keep in mind that while the books are available online for free, they are not public domain. The copyrights still belong to the authors.

Manybooks.net contains many of the same public domain books as the Gutenberg Project, but also has many Creative Commons licensed ebooks available for free as well. You'll see science fiction authors Charles Stross and James Patrick Kelly here, along with many others. Creative Commons licenses vary, but they generally allow free distribution with restrictions on how the content can be used. You can read more about Creative Commons licenses here.

In part two of this article I'll show you how to make your own ebooks by converting web pages into a format that can be read by your Palm. While almost any web page can be converted, I'll show you some of my favourite sites for reading fiction. Please feel free to share your own favourites in the comments, or email me with suggestions.

Flurb is Rudy Rucker's free online magazine showcasing short stories by him and other authors. Many of the stories are hard to classify although they are generally of a science fiction or fantasy bent. Rucker's almost random, but fantastic, photographs accompany them. There are currently two issues published, with stories by John Shirley, Terry Bisson, Cory Doctorow, Charles Stross, and others.

Strange Horizons is published weekly, concentrating on speculative fiction. Art, fiction, columns, poetry, and reviews make this site a great place for entertainment and information.

While not regularly updated anymore, The Infinite Matrix still has a great archive of original science fiction. The last issue was in January, 2007, and the site has been in and out of limbo before that. Hope it comes back, as it is an excellent example of what an online magazine can be.

In part two of this article I'll show you what to use to read ebooks on your Palm device.

Stupid Canadian Broadcasters

2007-04-02T13:51:00.000-06:00

And not just broadcasters, but apparently artists as well. Michael Geist has written another great article titled "More Web regulation doesn't make any sense", on how Canadian broadcasters and artists want the CRTC to regulate the internet to protect Canadian content. To be fair, it may not be all artists or broadcasters, but the organizations that represent them sure want it.

There's not much I can add to what he said. His line "It is increasingly clear that the blossoming of new media is a threat to old business models, not to Canadian content" sums it up very clearly.

The internet is a huge opportunity for Canadian broadcasters, if they would only take it. They have the ability to put up all the Canadian content they want. I've written before about how CTV is turning away Linux and Mac users from viewing online material and making it difficult for Firefox users. I've also written about the CBC wanting to DRM promotional videos. CBC doesn't make it easy to link to individual videos, and won't even allow people to embed their Google videos in their websites.

That's a little like a real estate salesman talking to his boss:

"Uh, boss, you know all those flyers for new homes I've been passing out? People are copying them and passing them out to other people. How do we stop them?"

"Jerry?"

"Yes boss?"

"You're not very bright, are you?"

They aren't even doing the simplest things like using the internet to make it easy for people to find out what's on and where. The webmaster of TV, Eh?, an independant website dedicated solely to promoting Canadian television, has difficulty finding listings or getting the PR people to email her listings.

They don't know how to use the internet, but it scares them, so they want to limit how we use it.

In his first published story Life-Line, published in 1939, Robert Heinlein had a judge saying this:

There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profits in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute or common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back, for their private benefit.

Now that was a judge with common sense. Unfortunately he's a fictional character.

That's not to say I think the CRTC is going to try to regulate Canadian content on the internet. I'm hoping there are some people with enough common sense to realize how ridiculous these demands are. I'm just a little tired of old dinosaurs trying to stop progress, instead of using it for their advantage.

Non-Destructive Partitioning with GParted

2007-04-01T10:11:00.000-06:00

"Grandpa, tell me a story."

"Okay, little Percival, let me tell you what partitioning was like in the old days. If you already had information on your hard drive, but wanted to re-partition it, all your data would be erased. There were programs available that would partition your drive without erasing all your stuff, but they cost money."

"Gee, Grandpa, that story sure did suck."

It's true. That story did suck. But it's also true that, unless you really, really knew what you were doing and were willing to spend a lot of time on it, repartitioning your hard drive would destroy your data. Commercial programs were (and still are) available to partition your drive without data loss, but they cost money. If repartitioning your hard drive is something you only do once in rare while (and for most of us it is) free tools may be a better option.

Let's back up a bit. What is partitioning and why would you want to repartition? In the simplest terms, partitions are separate areas on your hard drive. In Windows a single hard drive can be partitioned to look like separate drives, so that what appears to be drive C:, drive D:, and drive E: may all be separate areas of a single physical drive. In Linux they may appear as hda1, hda2, and so on. There are many reasons why a hard drive may be partitioned, but a very common one is to keep the operating system and user data separate. In this way if the operating system is to be upgraded or restored the user's data doesn't have to be touched, lessening the risk of data loss. Another reason is to control damage from runaway files. In Linux most log files are kept in the /var folder. Sometimes servers are set up to put /var in a separate partition. If a runaway process starts filling up a log file it can only fill up the partition /var is on, leaving the free space on the other partitions untouched.

GParted is a free utility that allows you to partition your hard drive without destroying your data. It is a Linux program, but can be used to partition filesystems for Windows (FAT16, FAT32, NTFS) and Mac OS X (HFS, HFS+) as well. A full listing of the filesystems and operations available can be found here.

GParted does many checks and is very safe, but keep in mind that the partitioning process is only non-destructive if everything goes well. I think GParted says it best with the message it gives you if you try to run as a regular user:

Always back up your data before major operations on your hard drive.

Even if you're not running Linux on your computer, you can still use GParted by booting from the LiveCD. The LiveCD is a small image (about 50 MB) that contains a stripped down version of the Gentoo Linux operating system, the Fluxbox window manager, and GParted. It's probably the easiest way to partition your hard drive, as you won't have to worry about unmounting partitions. It is dangerous to modify a mounted partition, and using the LiveCD ensures all partitions are unmounted unless you explicitly mount them.

Download the iso image and burn it to a CD. If you're running Windows your CD burning program should have an option to "Burn Image to Disc" or something similar. Don't just burn it as a data disk; it won't work. In Linux, if you're using Gnome, just right click the iso image and select "Write to Disc." With KDE right click the image and select "Actions," then "Write CD Image with K3B." Burn the CD, put it in the CD tray, and reboot.

You'll see a screen like this:

Just select the first option (GParted LiveCD) with the arrow keys and press Enter. You'll be prompted to hit Enter a couple more times to accept the default language and keyboard template. Once the boot process is complete you will see this:

A list of partitions on your hard drive will be listed. Mine looked like this:

I have four partitions on one hard drive: hda1, hda2, hda3, and hda4. Only four primary partitions are allowed on a single hard drive, so hda4 is made as an extended partition, with hda5 and hda6 under it. Don't worry too much about what extended partitions are. They are primary partitions that are partitionable, allowing you to fit more than four partitions on a single hard drive.

My problem was that the partition my operating system was on, hda2, was too small at about 5 GB. I wanted it to be twice that size. I needed to take some space from my data partition, hda3, and give it to my operating system. The first thing I needed to do was resize the data partition, hda3. Highlight the partition you want to shrink, and click Resize/Move. You will see a graph representing the partition, as well as some fields telling you how much space available. We have the option of freeing up space either before or after the partition. The partition we want to give the space to (hda2) is before, so grab the left arrow with the mouse and move it until enough space is freed.

We've moved the arrow until about 5 GB is freed in front. The new free space is represented by the gray area directly to the left of the the arrow. Rather than moving the arrow, you could also have entered the amount of space you wanted directly into the "Free Space Preceding" form.

Click the Resize/Move button.

Now let's select the partition we want to enlarge, hda2. Click Resize/Move, and there will be a window similar to what we've seen before. We want to use the freed space immediately following the partition, so grab the right arrow and pull it all the way to the right.

You will see the extended graph cover all the available space, with the new space being about twice as large as it was before.

Again, click Resize/Remove.

Now that we've told GParted what to do, we're going to tell it to go ahead and do it. Click on Apply, and you'll see a final warning:

If you're sure you've backed up all your data and that you want to do this, click Apply.

Using a graphical tool like GParted hides a lot of the complexity of partitioning. The first operation we asked it to do, freeing up space in front of the partition, actually involves resizing and moving the partition. A lot of data has to be checked and copied, so it takes some time. For this operation, resizing two partitions by 5 GB and moving one, it took a little over two hours. Operations involving moving more data and more partitions will take longer.

Now you can tell your grandchildren about how easy free software made it to repartition your hard drive. Your stories will still suck, but at least your data is safe.

I'm back

2007-04-01T03:37:00.000-06:00

Well, I've had internet access since last Wednesday. I have a few articles I want to get out, I just need to actually get them written. I've just posted a book review I've been meaning to write for a while, I have the first part of a two part article on ebooks written, and I'm waiting for an article called Non-Destructive Partitioning with GParted to get published by blogcritics before posting it here. Yes, it's nearly as exciting as it sounds. Might be a while before I get more articles dugg.

As I said before, I want to write on some of the more advanced features of DVDStyler's beta version, and have everything I need for it now. I just need to do some screenshots and write the article. I would like to try doing something with QDVDAuthor as well. It has some really neat features, but the UI is such a mess. I'll do a project on it and see how it goes.

I also have five other articles that I've started and put aside for a while, one on choosing a linux distro, one on getting help online, another on the MPAA and RIAA (I really need to get that one out), and one on setting up an internet radio station. I've never actually done the last part, so I suppose I should do it before publishing an article on it.

There's one more book review to get out as well, a technical book on programming in Ajax with Ruby. I'm still slogging through it, though. Not exactly light reading. Probably be a couple more weeks.

I mentioned to my sister that there are too many distractions on the computer to focus on one thing. I need separate rooms with separate devices, one for blogging, one for taking internet courses, one for replying to emails, one for taking care of the server and websites... Which reminds me, I've been thinking about an article on internet courses. There are some great free places to learn. There are some terrible places as well, but it would be a waste to write about them.

I've noticed Diane has been going YouTube crazy lately, and making my blog look drab and uninteresting. It's only because I don't have any interesting content though, otherwise it would be fascinating. So I'm posting a YouTube video too. So there!

Book Review: Saban and the Ancient by Dante Amodeo

2007-04-01T03:17:00.000-06:00

Saban is a dork on a mission. Well, dork is probably too strong a word. "Socially challenged" is a gentler way to put it. Saban is the protagonist in Dante Amadeo's Saban and the Ancient, and even though you find out pretty early that he's not an ordinary teenager, you still don't find out just how special he is until much later on.

Saban and the Ancient is the first book in Amodeo's Transformation series. It is aimed at young adults but should be enjoyable by everyone. It's full of slowly revealed mysteries that lead to other mysteries, paramilitary action, martial arts, and mutant super powers. The action starts quickly after we find Saban, a nineteen year old college student, and his study partner Margo in the middle of an apparent military strike against the school. The action that follows shows that Margo is also unusually capable, More is revealed later, but not all.

The book is a progression of mysteries. As you find out more about the characters and their histories, more questions are introduced. The answers to those questions reveal more mysteries. You slowly start seeing the edges of a large conspiracy, then get a feeling of multiple conspiracies plotting against each other. Parts of Saban's past, present, and information about the organization he belongs to, the Ancient, are parceled out piece by piece, giving a good sense of discovery. Questions are raised about Margo, who is more than she seems to be. Nobody has a complete picture of the situation, but everybody seems to have a part of it.

Other people involved in Saban's life are introduced and fleshed out, many of whom have their own special abilities. Amodeo has chosen to give many of the characters code names in addition to their real names, a tactic that could have been confusing. He does a good job of helping the reader keep track of which character belongs to which code name, however.

Lots of pop references and quotes riddle the book. Some I found genuinely funny -- "An accent that thick was normally peppered with the words 'moose and squirrel'" made me laugh out loud. Some fell flat -- "Your mother waz a kangaroo and your fath-air smelt of elderberries" sounded just wrong to me, even knowing it was changed to refer one of the characters' abilities. Everyone will recognize at least some of the references, and most people will get a chuckle or two from them.

Occasionally the author seems to use characters to push his own views, and it's done clumsily enough to seem preachy. A couple of times the characters make references to evolution -- "'Mutation has never produced a generation more robust or viable than the previous,' Saban recited from something he had read. 'People confuse it with adaptation'" seems to need more explanation than a college student blindly quoting from an unknown source, and "That kind of randomness makes evolution look mathematically sound" sounded more like the author speaking than something a teenage character might say. It might have made an interesting discussion into how they got their powers, but we'll probably get that in one of the following books. He also has a character thinking "The price of being one of the cool kids" about an aged Slavic agent's smoker's cough. Being a "cool kid" doesn't really seem to fit an old Russian spy, and it ends up sounding like a public service announcement.

The author explains terms the reader might not be familiar with, especially the military jargon, such as P. E. for "personal effects." He's not afraid to use unusual words in a context that makes their meanings clear however, like "syzygy" and "sternutation" (which I thought was a reference to Frederick Pohl's Heechee Saga series, but it wasn't. Or maybe it was.)

Saban and the Ancient is an enjoyable read that could have used a little more polish. By the end of the book enough is shown about the big picture to be satisfying, yet enough questions are left unanswered to leave you wanting more. I'm sure the next book will answer many of those questions while posing others.

No Internet for Days

2007-03-24T11:56:00.000-06:00

I'm going to be switching internet providers, and I can't have one set up before the other takes over. So my current provider should be disconnecting me tomorrow, but that's a Sunday so I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't until Monday.

Then I have to call the new provider to hook me up. I'd be very surprised if they were able to do it in a day. Two or three days is more what I'm expecting.

That's like going two or three days without food. It can certainly be done, but it's not something you do without a good reason, it won't be any fun, and I'll be miserable.

If I have time before my internet goes dark I want to post on the beta DVDStyler 1.5, and go into a little more detail than I went into on my Free Movies post. Some very nice stuff can be done with it.

Installing and Upgrading and Repartitioning, Oh My

2007-03-21T18:17:00.000-06:00

Decided it was time to repartition my hard drive, to take advantage of a rarely used NTFS partition, and to finally give my /home directory it's own place. Normally I'd save excitement like this for a Saturday night, but I have a day off work and thought I'd save Saturday for the girlfriend. Time will tell if I made the right decision.

If I'm going to repartition, I might as well upgrade my Ubuntu Edgy Eft to the new Feisty Fawn. Did a lazy backup of my home directory, just copied it over to a FAT32 partition on the same hard drive. For some reason my emails wouldn't copy over, possibly due to some FAT32 naming restrictions (they had names similar to 1165045363.8505.rPeh8:2,S.) Didn't feel like burning them to a DVD, so I just transferred them over to the server with sftp (Thanks Mom!)

Downloaded the image for Feisty, burned it, put in in the DVD tray, and rebooted. The cd comes as a live CD, like Edgy and Dapper. I didn't use the live CD when I upgraded to Dapper or Edgy, I just did a sudo /usr/bin/update-manager -c -d. Ubuntu used to have a text installer, which I actually liked. It wasn't as pretty as a gui, but it was fast and simple.

I used Dapper's live CD on my mother's computer, but wasn't really happy with the results. It was dog-slow, and I was wishing for the good old days of the text installer. On my computer, though, I was pleasantly surprised. It ran very smoothly, and aside from a few short freezes as the cd was accessed I couldn't tell it was a live cd. The difference is probably in the memory-- I have 512 MB, and she has 384. That extra 128 MB made a huge difference. By the way, Ubuntu installed fine on her computer, except it doesn't like her on-board Intel graphics. Right now she's stuck with 640 x 480 resolution, which just won't do the trick. I'm going to pick her up an nVidia card and give it another shot.

Used Ubuntu's disk partitioner to manually repartition my drive, I think it uses GParted. I don't use the default partitioning offered, I never really trust it, on any distribution. Selected the partitions I wanted manually, which was pretty easy. Installed Feisty and I'm now just installing programs and tweaking things to my liking.

I notice there's a "Restricted Drivers Manager" menu item. It seems to just be to install the nVidia drivers. It's normally easy enough to do from Synaptic, but it doesn't hurt to have an easy to find place to do it, I guess. There's also a "Desktop Effects" item, which also wants to install the nVidia drivers. That will enable Compiz, a compositing window manager. That just means your desktop have some neat effects, like transparency and wiggly windows and such. I'll give it a shot, but I was pretty happy with Beryl.

Apparently Feisty will offer to download the codecs needed to play multimedia files as well, like DivX or mp3. In the past you either had to download them yourself (not too tough, I think it was one or two packages from Synaptic), or use something like EasyUbuntu or Automatix. I'll see how that works.

Anyway, so far everything is working smoothly. Ubuntu set up my desktop resolution automatically with no problems, the nVidia driver is now installed and working, and the desktop effects are enabled. Just a matter of replacing my backup files, installing all the programs I like, and tweaking my desktop. Fun stuff. Saturday night has a lot to live up to.

Stupid Cat

2007-03-18T00:32:00.000-06:00

Middle of the night, and the cat reminds me he's out of food. He's very good about it, doesn't meow or howl, just runs to his food dish and looks up at me.

Okay, stupid me. I knew he was out, and was going to pick some up earlier today, only I forgot.

I switched shifts with a co-worker, and have to start work at 10:00 AM tomorrow. I know. Boo-hoo. But that's 4 hours earlier than I normally start. That's like 4:00 AM or 5:00 AM to most people.

Now I have to make a decision. Knowing that he won't die if he doesn't have food for the next, oh, 22 hours, and that I have to try to sleep tonight or I'll be completely zoned tomorrow, do I make the run out in the rain to 7-11 to buy a small box of $22.00 cat food, or do I let him stick it out?

Yes, I made the right decision. He doesn't know or care if I don't feel like running out and getting wet and overpaying for cat food. He just knows his tummy is hungry.

What he doesn't know is that I'm going to rent him out for lab experiments to make up for the inconvenience.

Stupid CBC

2007-03-16T23:18:00.000-06:00

My sister sent a link to Inside the CBC, apparently CBC's blog, which I didn't even know existed. Turns out they want to put DRM on their video clips here. First off, why are they worried about people pirating their little video snippets? Some would consider it promotion. I think before they start worrying about piracy they have to get people who want to watch their stuff first.

They also want opinions on whether DRM would be okay on full episodes of shows. Instead of giving you just my opinion, I'll give you samples of the comments left so far. They show that the public, or at least those that are inclined to leave comments on CBC's blog, are far more educated about DRM than I would have expected:

angrytrousers says: "All it seems to accomplish is to make the experience more annoying for Joe Consumer..."

From William Denton: "CBC should use open formats, without DRM, that anyone on any platform can use."

Dwight Williams: "I’ve considered myself lucky to have narrowly avoided such “guilt presumed from the moment of legit purchase/download” bullets messing up my computer gear so far."

Evan Young has an excellent suggestion: "A more progressive and community supportive stance would be to license your material under a Creative Commons license so that CBC fans like myself could share and promote your material freely but CBC would retain the right to prevent commercial use and disallow modification of it’s content."

Luke is the sole supporter (so far), and even he's lukewarm about it: "I’m not a fan of DRM generally, but if it would allow full shows to be made available online…"

The problem CBC is having isn't with piracy, it's with getting people to watch their damn shows. Why are they spending our tax money on a solution that will make it more difficult for people to see their shows, and will do nothing to stop piracy?

On Canadian Authors and Meaningless Labels

2007-03-15T01:32:00.000-06:00

My review on Fast Forward 1 got a comment from A. M. Dellamonica, author of one of the stories in the book, Time of the Snake. She gave a link to the first story she had published about the squids at Strange Horizons. Read the brief bio at the bottom of the page, and was pleasantly surprised to find out she was Canadian. Not only that, but she lives in Vancouver, right next to my sister.

It's neat to find out an author that I like is Canadian (I enjoyed her story in Fast Forward 1, and found out after I wrote the review that I had also read a story of hers in one of David Hartnell's Year's Best SF anthologies, Slow Day at the Gallery, which I also enjoyed). I'm not sure why I find it to be important. I've never really been very nationalistic or patriotic.

Of course, the Canadianness of the author isn't nearly as important as the quality of the story she writes. Years ago I bought the first of the Tesseracts anthologies, a collection of speculative fiction by Canadian authors. I've learned to hate the term speculative fiction. It's an ugly phrase, and nearly meaningless. I also found out that I didn't enjoy most of what Canadian authors were publishing, and decided it was a silly and artificial classification to base a book on. Now I see that it's an important jump start for authors that might otherwise not get a chance to see print, but I've grown wiser since then.

Canada tends to lay claim to anyone who passes near the border. I've read about how Alexander Graham Bell was Canadian, when he really only passed through here on his way to the U. S. There was a time when every article about Michael J. Fox in the local newspapers kept calling him an Edmontonian, which is true in only the strictest sense. He was born here, but I'm pretty sure the family packed up and moved as soon as they could, never to return.

Because I tend to be a contrary person, I've generally bucked that trend, especially with authors. I cringed every time Spider Robinson was called Canadian. He's a New Yorker. William Gibson? Love it if he was Canadian, but he's really from the States. He's just visiting.

Of course I was wrong. Spider Robinson has been living in Canada for 30 years, although he waited until 2002 to get his Canadian citizenship. And Gibson has lived here even longer, almost 40 years. He's lived in Canada longer than I have. How long does a person have to live here before I consider them Canadian?

On the opposite side, I consider Cory Doctorow to be Canadian, even though he moved about five years ago to London, England and then to Los Angeles, California. How long does a person have to be away from Canada before they stop being Canadian.

And why does it matter? Short answer is, it doesn't. I was a fan of Robert Sawyer, Robert Charles Wilson, and Doctorow before I found out they were Canadian. The important thing was I enjoyed the stories. The fact that they're Canadian just gives me a little bit of irrational pride.

Book Review: Fast Forward 1 edited by Lou Anders

2007-03-12T00:42:00.000-06:00

Fast Forward 1 is an anthology of 19 stories and 2 poems by mostly established authors. Some of my favourite writers are here: Stephen Baxter, Ken MacLeod, Larry Niven, Ian MacDonald, Gene Wolf, Paul Di Filippo, Mike Resnick, and Nancy Kress, along with many other excellent authors.

The idea behind Fast Forward is to present a variety of science fiction stories, without imposing a theme on the collection. Every story in the book was enjoyable, while a few of them were outstanding..

Paolo Bacigalupi's disturbing Small Offerings shows us a world polluted and contaminated with chemicals, and some of the consequences.

I really didn't want to like Kage Baker's Plotter's and Shooters, but I did. Besides the obvious comparison to Orson Scott Card's Enders Game, it seems like just another nerds versus the jocks story that you can find in any genre, or bad teen movie. I found myself liking it even though I kept giving myself reasons not to. The ending is what really made the story for me. Happily ever after, but not really.

Stephen Baxter brings us No More Stories. It starts out being almost excruciatingly mundane, slowly builds up a sense of strangeness, and ends up showing us a future on a grand scale.

One of the things I like about anthologies is that they can introduce me to writers I'm not familiar with. I had never read anything by A. M. Dellamonica before, but her Time of the Snake has made a fan of me. It's a story of alien invasion told from the point of view of a human guiding a squad of squids. The door-to-door urban warfare will bring to mind some real life events.

Ken MacLeod tells us of Jesus Christ, Reanimator, a sacrilegious, funny story about the second coming.

Sanjeev and Robotwallah takes place in Ian MacDonald's future India. Robots and war, what's not to like? One of my three favourite stories in the book.

Mary A. Turzillo's Pride tells the story of a boy and his... cat. A very bad cat. It begins by being a slightly amusing tale of a hick, but ends with an emotional wallop.

By far the longest story in the book is John Meaney's Sideways From Now, and it was still too short. Almost two stories in one, one about a future with quantum telepathy, and one similar to Jack Vance's Dying Earth books, where magic, dying technology, and Machiavellian politics reign.

Paul Di Filippo's contribution Wikiworld combines concepts from Cory Doctorow, Bruce Sterling, and Neal Stephenson, wraps them up in his own original idea, and throws in more cultural and online references than any one person is likely to get. Pyr Books has wisely made this story available free of charge online.

I've just touched on a few of the stories available, there are many more well worth a read. If Sturgeon's Law (ninety percent of everything is crud) is true, then there are nine other anthologies filled with dreck, because this one is excellent. I look forward to more Fast Forward anthologies.

[Edit: The forward to the book states the stories are supposed to be "new, unthemed science fiction," which my tiny brain misinterpreted as meaning hard science fiction. Calico Reaction questioned this in a comment on Lou Anders' blog. I've corrected the review.]

Linux Truths, Half-Truths, and Myths

2007-03-05T03:39:00.000-07:00

When people find out I run Linux on my computer instead of Windows or even Mac OS X they sometimes have funny ideas about what it must be like. Some of it is historical; Linux used to be quite difficult to administer in its younger days. Some of it is misinformation, or no information at all. I hope to dispell some of the misconceptions.

Linux is difficult to install - Myth. For the most part. Depending on the distribution, Linux is much faster and easier to install than Windows is. A smooth install of Linux takes me about an hour including installing updates, and even less sometimes. This includes installs of Red Hat (before it was Red Hat Enterprise Linux), Fedora (after it was Red Hat), Mandrake (now Mandriva), and Ubuntu (still Ubuntu). Of course, there are some distributions aimed at more experienced users that seem to go out of their way to make the whole installation process a little more, shall we say, complex. I'm looking at you, Gentoo.

I just recently re-installed Windows on a friend's computer that had become so infected with god-knows-what that it was completely unusable. I didn't keep track of how long the install took, but it was hours and hours, not even including when I had to go to bed and continue the install in the morning. Downloading and installing updates, rebooting, downloading and installing more updates, rebooting again. On and on it went.

Of course, after the install all he had was Windows with some minor applications like Notepad and Wordpad, and some games like Solitaire and Minesweeper. Don't get me wrong, I've wasted plenty of time on both of those, but it's a pretty sparse selection.

When I install a Linux distro I get a complete, usable desktop. An office suite, CD and DVD burning software, image manipulation software, full featured email suites, and lots of games. All for no cost. And lots more easily available. Which brings me to my next point...

Programs are difficult to install in Linux - Half-truth. Most distibutions give you on-line access to repositories, large collections of programs picked and packaged by your distribution maintainers for easy installation. Installation this way is actually easier than in Windows. On my Ubuntu box I open up Synaptic, type in a search for the kind of program I want, select it, and it installs. And again, for no cost.

Compare this to Windows where I have to search the web for the program I want, check forums and review sites to see if anyone has been infected with spyware with it, download it, scan it with my anti-virus program, install it, and then find out it's a crippled trial version of what I want.

Where it can be more difficult to install software in Linux is when the software you want isn't available in your repositories, or you need a more recent version. Sometimes the writers of the program have made a package available for your distribution, in which case installation is still pretty easy. Sometimes you have to compile the program from the source code, though, which can be tricky.

There are very few games for Linux - Truth. Compared to Windows, there aren't many commercial games available. Games such as World of Warcraft can be run under Wine, a program that allows Linux to run some Windows programs, but if you are a hard core gamer you'll either have to dual-boot with Windows or use a game console to get your fix.

That's not to say there are no good games available. PlaneShift, Alteria, America's Army, Sauerbraten, Battle for Wesnoth, and Frozen Bubble are just a few of the great games you can get for free.

I need an anti-virus program for Linux - Myth. One of the most common questions from Linux newcomers is which anti-virus program to use. They simply can't believe that one isn't needed. That's not to say viruses don't exist for Linux, there must be dozens and dozens of them. Very few exist in the wild, and those that do fizzle out very quickly.

One of the common arguments against this is that Linux has such a small share of the desktop that not many are written for it; if there were more Linux desktops there would more Linux viruses. This argument ignores the fact that Linux is fundamentally structured so that you have to work very hard to allow a virus to thrive. If you're interested, this guy goes into a lot of detail as to why that is.

The one time you may want to run an anti-virus is if you're running a Linux server that has Windows clients, for example an email server. This is not to protect the server, but rather to protect the Windows boxes from email borne viruses.

The people you find recommending Linux anti-virus software are usually working for the anti-virus software companies. I'm sure they have your best interests at heart, and aren't only interested in selling more product.

Linux is hacker proof - Myth. Just like any piece of complicated software, vulnerabilities appear and need to be fixed. You must keep your operating system updated, and if you're running servers you must understand how to configure them securely.

Having said that, when vulnerabilities are reported they tend to get fixed very quickly. And keeping your system updated is actually very easy.

Linux users are a bunch of commies and hippies - Truth. I needed to get one more truth in this list.

Getting hardware to run on Linux is difficult - Half-truth. Linux actually supports more hardware than Windows does. There can be problems with some newer hardware when the manufacturer hasn't released Linux drivers, but usually there are Linux gurus working hard to get it working. You may have to wait.

There are also devices that are designed to use Windows to do some of their work. Cheap modems (called winmodems by Linux users) are particularly infamous for this. It is possible with some work to get some of them working, but you are probably better off getting a real hardware modem.

Linux is difficult to use - Myth. There are those who say free (that is, open source) software is hard to use. If you're used to doing things a certain way there may be an adjustment to learning a new way of doing things, but that doesn't make the new way more difficult, just different.

One small example is the difference between OpenOffice and Microsoft Office. In OpenOffice if you want to insert a header or a footer into a document you go to the "Insert" menu, then select "Header" or "Footer". In Microsoft Office if you want to do the same thing you have to go to the "View" menu. One isn't necessarily more difficult than the other, but to me the OpenOffice way makes more sense. If you were used to the Microsoft Office way, though, you may find that hard to get used to.

My programs won't run in Linux - Half-truth. No, your Windows programs probably won't run (although they might under Wine or Crossover Linux) but chances are there exist replacement programs in Linux.

The Gimp will replace Photoshop for 95% of people, although it does take getting used to. I've already mentioned OpenOffice as a replacement for Microsoft Office. There are dozens of different media players, many different web browsers and email clients, peer to peer file sharing programs, DVD and CD burning programs, and so on. All of them are free, and many of them actually better than the ones you've already paid for in Windows.

What are your experiences with Linux like? Do you disagree with me? What else do people get wrong about Linux? Let me know in the comments, or by email.

Software Review: Democracy Player

2007-03-02T03:38:00.000-07:00

More and more content on the internet is in the form of video. Browsing sites like YouTube or Google Video can be fun, but what is really needed for serious viewing is a way to find, download, and organize all those videos from a single application. Less searching, more watching is what we want.

Democracy Player, available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, allows you to select from hundreds of channels, containing thousands of videos, for free, such as Homestar Runner or The NBC Nightly News. You can make your own channels, search video websites, and organize your collection.

The video guide allows you to add new channels and is easy to use, dividing the channels into categories such as animation, business, comedy, health, family, and so on. Channels are also tagged, allowing you to browse even more categories. You can search the video guide for specific items, or check out the most popular or recently added channels.

Channels can also be added manually from your favourite video site, as long as it has an RSS feed that is compatible.

Once a channel is added you can choose to have it download new videos automatically, or simply alert you to new videos and allow you to download the ones you want manually.

Democracy can also search your computer for video files, adding them to your collection. It picked up all of my videos, but it seems that it can't yet distinguish between Ogg Vorbis audio files and Ogg Theora video files, as my video collection ended up containing many audio files.

You can also search video websites such as YouTube, Yahoo Video, Google Video, Revver, Blogdigger, Daily Motion, and blip.tv. Your searches can be saved as channels so that new videos meeting your search terms will be automatically updated. If you want to be able to keep up on the newest "three toed sloth" videos, or even something a little more practical, this is a great feature.

The New Videos option can display all your unwatched downloaded videos. You can browse them and watch only the ones that interest you, or have them all played one after the other.

The Democracy Player website also has a helpful page with information and tutorials on starting your own channel, allowing you to star in your own videos to be watched by potentially thousands of people.

Democracy Player has lots of features for organizing and watching internet video, and yet is very simple to use. This excellent piece of free software is continually under development, so expect to see even more features in the future.

Getting Some Stuff off my Chest

2007-02-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

After reading my sister's post about CTV's Robson's Arms and their cool decision to put episodes online I decided to check it out. Turns out they've made an uncool decision to exclude Linux users from watching. Clicking on the "Watch Season 1 and 2 on Broadband" link gives me a screen telling me "Sorry, your OS is not supported! We recommend Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Mac OS X."

Even after using the "Change User Agent" option in Firefox to identify as IE 6 under Windows XP I get a message requesting I upgrade to Flash 8. Firstly, I'm running Flash 9. And secondly, if their video player is simply a Flash player why limit viewers to OS X or Windows? Flash plays on Linux as well.

I have also heard that some people are having problems playing the episodes on OS X, and even on Windows it doesn't always play smoothly.

I wrote a message to CTV via an online form last week that assured me all submissions are read by CTV execs, but I'm not holding my breath. As it stands now, I may or may not see the show if it happens to be on at the same time I'm watching TV, but I'm certainly not going to make an effort to seek it out.

I thought I had a similar problem with CBC's website. Quite a while ago my sister had blogged about a spoof of House M. D. that This Hour Has 22 Minutes had done. For some reason it wouldn't work for me. After my CTV problem I started getting all righteous about a broadcaster funded with taxpayer money using proprietary video players that wouldn't run in Linux. That's still true, they should be using H.264 or some other open standard, but it's now working with Firefox combined with the MediaPlayerConnectivity extension in Firefox, so now all my righteous indignation has evaporated.

Website Review: In Pictures

2007-02-11T01:50:00.000-07:00

My mother, while not completely hopeless with computers, does have a certain naivety with them. She once called me in the middle of the night telling me "the internet is down" when her dial-up modem gave her a busy signal. When she said her email client wasn't displaying properly I noticed she had somehow made the window tiny. I fixed it by maximizing its window. The list goes on.

Where she leaves me in the dust, however, is in her understanding of Microsoft Office. We were testing OpenOffice to see if it would replace Microsoft Office for her, and she had lots of questions to which I had no answers. Off we went to the online OpenOffice help and the web.

While we eventually got her questions answered it made me realize how little I know about using an office suite. I use it mainly for opening existing documents, writing letters, and using existing templates for projects such as cards or CD covers. When I was alerted to In Pictures I decided to give them a try.

In Pictures offers tutorials on Microsoft Office 2003, OpenOffice 2.0, Dreamweaver 8, Fireworks 8, and HTML & CSS. They seem to update their tutorials regularly; Fireworks 8 was just recently added, and their website says Office 2007, Photoshop, MySQL, and PHP tutorials are coming soon. They also offer downloadable PDF files and bound books of their tutorials for an additional cost.

Their philosophy is "The simpler, the better." The tutorials are given with black and white screenshots, with red markers showing you points of interest or where to click next. The lessons are given step by step, with explanations of what you are actually doing throughout.

The first tutorial I tried was for OpenOffice's database component Base. I had never used Base before, but while following the tutorial I was amazed at how much I was actually understanding. I was really grasping the concepts, rather than just clicking through the steps. The screenshots show you exactly what to do and the steps are easy to follow, clearly explaining what you are doing.

When I tried the Writer tutorial for OpenOffice I was tempted to skip ahead to the more advanced sections, but decided to plod through from beginning to end. I'm glad I did. While I was bored at first by being shown very basic operations, there were always little things that came up that I never thought of doing. That's one of the valuable things about tutorials. They can show you how to do the things you want to do, but can also show you things you never thought of doing.

Of course, you don't have to start at the beginning. Each tutorial is divided into sections, so you can navigate to the area you are most interested in learning. You already know how to use bullets, but want to use footers to number pages automatically? Just go to the "Employ Headers and Footers" section.

In Pictures has been useful for my mother in learning the differences between Microsoft Office and OpenOffice. She knows all the tasks she needs to complete, she just needs to know how to do them in OpenOffice. The tutorials won't cover all the advanced features she needs, but it will give her confidence and a solid footing.

In Pictures is a great place to get started in learning new software, or in covering gaps of knowledge in software you already use. Worth trying out.

Warnings for Stupid People

2007-02-08T02:13:00.000-07:00

Rediscovered this image of a jar of peanut butter I had scanned a couple of years ago because of the silly warning on it:

Here's a closeup of the warning:

It contains peanuts. People need to be warned that peanut butter contains peanuts, because if they aren't they will sue. "Your Honour, there is no way my client could have known that jar of peanut butter contained any trace of peanuts. She is willing to be branded an idiot for the rest of her life on the chance that you will believe this and make her rich."

Here's another silly one that I just noticed today:

A perfectly ordinary bag of raisins. You can see the real raisins in the clear window in the bottom left of the bag, and the picture of raisins on the bag. In the lower right is this statement:

"Photo Enlarged to Show Texture."

"Ma, get the shotgun. We're goin' back to the store. We bought these new space-age giant raisins and they put little itty bitty ones in the bag instead."

What kind of freakish radioactive genetic experiments would they have to perform to get raisins that large? I don't think I'd eat them even if they did come in that size. Well, I probably would.

[Edit: I guess I didn't make it clear that I've taken the photo of the raisins and the scan of the peanut butter myself. I actually own these foodstuffs. Well, the peanut butter is long gone, but I did own it at one point. Some people seem to think I've taken these photos from some email or website.]

Make a Movie of Your Linux Desktop

2007-02-04T00:40:00.000-07:00

Want to show off your snazzy 3d desktop, or demonstrate the features of your favourite new program? Make a movie of your desktop to capture all your actions, edit it, then add a soundtrack.

You need two pieces of software to accomplish this: xvidcap to capture the video and Avidemux to edit the movie and add a soundtrack. You may also need Audacity to shorten the audio file used for the soundtrack.

If your distribution doesn't have xvidcap in its repositories it can be downloaded from here. Debian and Ubuntu users will be able to use the .deb file, others will have to compile from source. Avidemux is most likely available in your repositories, but can be downloaded from here if it isn't.

It takes quite a bit of your system resources to record video while running applications, so you may have to do a bit of tweaking to get a decent framerate from xvidcap. Recording only part of your desktop will get you a better framerate. Click the "eyedropper" toward the right side of the window, then use the mouse cursor to select a region of the desktop to record. Or, if you want to record the full screen, you can lower the resolution of your monitor.

The other thing you can do is tweak the frame rate xvidcap records at. Right click on the file name at the left of the window and select Preferences.

Select the Multi-Frame tab, and lower the frame rate. You may have to experiment a bit with different resolutions and frame rates until you get an acceptable level of quality. You can also change the directory and file name the movie is saved to here.

When you are ready to record click the red Record button. xvidcap will record all your actions to the file specified. When you are finished, press the Stop button. You will be presented with a screen that will tell you the frame rate of your movie. Play it to see what it looks like. If the frame rate is too low it will play very quickly. Do some more adjusting of the frame rate, your resolution, and perhaps record a smaller region to improve the quality.

This is the vidcap I made of my desktop before any editing was done.

Once you are satisfied with the quality of your recording you will probably want to do some editing to remove things like the xvidcap window, long pauses, and stupid mistakes you may have made. We can use Avidemux to do some simple editing.

Open Avidemux, then open your movie. We are going to remove the bits of the movie we don't want. Click the A button at the bottom of the window to select the beginning of the section you wish to remove. In this example we are going to remove the section of the movie that shows me starting xvidcap.

Press Play, Next Frame, or use the scroll bar to go to the end of the part you wish to remove. Click the B button at the bottom of the window to select the end. Click the Edit menu item at the top of the window and select Delete. If you play the movie now you will see that the part you selected between the A and B markers is now gone.

This is a vidcap of the editing of the original vidcap. It's getting recursive now.

Do you want to add a soundtrack? I chose to use the song J-Nic Beatz by Andrew Stevens licensed under a Creative Commons attribution only license to perk up the video a bit. You may have to cut the length of the song down to the length of the video. Audacity is perfect for this.

In Avidemux with the video open select Audio at the top of the window, then Main Track. In the Audio Selector window select External PCM if your sound file is an uncompressed .WAV file, External MP2/3 if it is an MP3 file, or External AC3 if it is an AC3 file. Hit OK, choose the sound file you wish to use, then hit Save.

Here is our final edited Teenage Zombies video with sound.

These techniques can be used in a variety of different ways. Be creative! If you want to do some more advanced editing of your video, try Kino or KDEnlive. Experiment, post your video to the web, burn your new how-to video to DVD, show off what your computer can do.

Do you have any questions or suggestions on making desktop videos? What other programs would you use? Leave a comment or email me.

Book Review: O'Reilly's Backup & Recovery

2007-02-03T08:46:00.000-07:00

"No one cares if you can back up -- only if you can recover."

This is probably the most important point in this book. Using a variety of open source tools, you are shown how to backup, test and restore your Windows, Macintosh, Unix, or Linux systems, including filesystem and database backups. There is even a chapter that will help guide you in choosing a commercial alternative if the open source solutions don't meet your needs.

This is not a book for the beginner. It is aimed at professional systems administrators, although it contains useful information for anybody who needs backups. You should be comfortable with using command line tools and the shell. Having said that, the author (W. Curtis Preston) does an excellent job of explaining the various tools and concepts he presents. There are lots of examples given, and the most fun parts of the book are the real world examples of backups gone wrong.

The first two chapters provide an introduction to the concept of the book and basic backup principles. You are shown why backups are necessary and what should be backed up. Preston explains his philosophy of backing up the entire system, excluding what's not necessary, and automation. There are a lot of eye openers in the beginning chapters, and they should not be missed.

The next chapters cover the open source tools used to do backups and restores. Starting with basic tools such as cpio, dump, dd, tar and rsync for Unix and Linux systems, ditto for Mac OS, and ntbackup and System Restore for Windows, the book continues on with more advanced tools such as Amanda, BackupPC, and Bacula. The reader is walked through each program, with ample explanations and examples given.

How to achieve near-CDP (Continuous Data Protection) with open source tools is given a chapter of its own. rsync with snapshots, rsnapshot, and rdiff-backup are all explained, going over the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Commercial software and hardware are also covered. The author has chosen to not suggest specific utilities, but rather gives guidance on how to choose a backup solution that will meet your needs. The reasoning is that there are so many programs available that are constantly changing that a specific recommendation will soon be obsolete. It seems to be the "if you teach a man to fish" technique. If you are shown what to look for in a backup utility, you can see for yourself the benefits of the various programs available.

Bare-metal recovery, restoring the entire system from the operating system on up, is explained for Linux, Windows, MacOSX, and Solaris, HP-UX, and AIX Unix systems. Preston recommends testing all recoveries, but I found the technique here particularly interesting. He shows how to trash your hard drive so your root filesystem is completely lost. An effective way to see if you can build your system back from scratch. Of course, that's only recommended on a test system, not on an active server.

The chapters on database recovery are very extensive. It is not assumed that the reader is intimately familiar with the structure of databases, and there are plenty of explanations of the concepts of relational databases and the problems with backing them up. Oracle, Sybase, DB2, SQL Server, Exchange, PostgreSQL, and MySQL are all covered, sometimes with multiple backup solutions.

The final part of the book covers VMware, volatile filesystems, and other bits and pieces that didn't fit into the rest of the book.

A companion website is provided at backupcentral.com to cover additional material that didn't make it into the book as well as detailing changes that have happened since publication. A searchable online Safari version is also offered for a 45 day free trial.

Backup & Recovery is clearly written and is full of excellent advice and information. If you need to be able to get your system up after a disaster, you need this book.

Linux for Moms

2007-01-31T01:41:00.000-07:00

Trying to get my mom to switch to Linux. She's actually very open to the idea. She's tired of the constant software updates as well as the virus and spyware scans. Of course, there are still software updates with Linux, but they all come from one central location, instead of having to update your browser, then your email client, then your office suite, etc., so it keeps things a little simpler.

I burned an Ubuntu Live CD for her to try out, but I was actually pretty disappointed with it. One of the things she needs to have is an office suite. I'm sure Openoffice will do the trick for her, but it took forever to open with the live cd. I warned her that running Linux from a cd would be much slower than from the hard drive, but it was ridiculous. She did get to see a video of Nelson Mandela explaining what "ubuntu" means, though. She thought that was pretty neat.

Next time I'm over I'll just install the Windows version of Openoffice and get her to try it, or just install Ubuntu on her computer as a dual boot.

It's cool that she's so open to it. I was talking to a friend on the weekend who's a Unix system admin who thought Linux was difficult to install and maintain.

I have a review of an O'Reilly book that needs to be done, too. I finished reading it last Saturday, but want to go over it again and make some notes. I sort of geeked out when I got it and read straight through it. There's another book available from the same publisher, but I'd like to get the review out for this one before requesting another. Plus I just asked for a review copy of another book (a science fiction anthology) and don't want to over-commit myself.

Simple DVD Re-Authoring in Linux

2007-01-21T12:33:00.000-07:00

The other night I sat down with my girlfriend to watch Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. It's one of the few movies we both enjoy and can watch over and over again. I noticed an odd thing after I inserted the DVD, however. The movie went straight to the menu. There were no previews, no studio splash screens, no advertisements, no videos telling me not to steal this movie that I had already paid for. It was refreshing.

Sometimes, though, when you put in a DVD you are subjected to endless previews, piracy warnings, and splash screens that can last minutes before you finally get to the menu. It's not too bad when you can skip them, but some DVDs disable the "next" button, forcing you to sit through them.

If it's a movie you only watch once or twice it may not be a big deal, but if it's one you want to see over and over again it is especially irritating. When this is done with kid's movies it's almost unforgivable, as they tend to enjoy watching the same video many times.

K9Copy will allow you to re-author your annoying, but beloved, DVD to skip all the content that annoys you, while letting you keep the movie and extras that you enjoy, resizing the movie to fit on a 4.7 GB disc if necessary. It will also let you put the original DVD away from harm. Any horrible accidents involving your DVD, peanut butter, and the dog will be restricted to the copy.

K9Copy should be available in your distribution's repositories. If not, there are packages for various distributions here.

We are going to re-author Shrek 2. It's a great movie, but there are almost 5 minutes of splash screens and previews before you are allowed to get to the menu, and they are not skippable. We're going to make a good DVD even better.

Insert the DVD into your DVD drive and open K9Copy. If you don't see a list of the DVD titles in the window, clicking on the folder at the top left will open the DVD.

Click on the top box beside the DVD disc title, in this case where it says SHREK_2. This will select all the titles, and we can now remove the ones we don't want.

Now we have a long list of titles, but what are they? Which to keep, and which to pitch? If you highlight a title (not a titleset) and press the camera icon at the top, it will play that title for you.

The first six titles (titlesets one through four) are either blank or annoying previews and splashscreens. We can uncheck those titlesets, and the movie and extras we want to keep will be intact.

If you want to keep the original menus, check the Keep original menus box at the bottom left hand corner, otherwise K9Copy will reauthor the DVD with no menus. If you decide to go with no menus you can select the order in which the titles will be played in the right pane of the window.

I only have the one DVD drive, and K9Copy has a nasty habit of crashing on me when the output device I select is the same as the input device, so I'm selecting ISO Image as the output, and we'll burn it to DVD separately.

Click on the DVD icon on the toolbar, and select where to save the ISO image. You'll have time for a coffee now, so go ahead. We'll wait.

We're almost done. Insert a blank DVD. If you use Gnome you can open Nautilus (the file manager), find the ISO image and right click it. Choose Write to Disc, and Nautilus will burn the image for you.

It's almost as easy in KDE. Right click the ISO image in Konqueror, select Actions, then Write CD Image with K3B.

Now you can watch the content you paid for in the way you want to, giving you back control of your DVD player.

Do you have any other suggestions or questions? Let me know by leaving a comment or emailing me.

Making DVDs with DeVeDe

2007-01-20T13:33:00.000-07:00

Mary-Ellen read my Blogcritics article about making DVDs in Linux, and after a little help was able to burn a DVD. The problem she's having is that there are clicks in the audio.

I've suggested changing the audio codec in Avidemux from the default Twolame to perhaps FFM MP2 or FFM AC3. Sometimes it takes a little experimentation until you hit the right mix. The problem, of course, is that transcoding can take a few hours and experimenting can be frustrating. You can cut down the time Avidemux takes to transcode at the expense of quality by selecting the DVD codec rather than the default 2-pass DVD (lavc) under Video on the left side of the Avidemux window. The best I can say is keep on trying. Even in Windows transcoding can be a frustrating experience.

The other option I suggested was to try another program to do the transcoding. DeVeDe uses another method to transcode video, so it may work where Avidemux doesn't. It can also author a DVD, but it won't create menus. If you want menus you can use another program such as DVDStyler to author it.

DeVeDe should be available in your distribution's repositories. Mary-Ellen uses Ubuntu, so she should be able to install it with Synaptic.

When you first open DeVeDe you are given the option of choosing different discs to create. Select Video DVD.

Under Files on the top rigtht of the window, click Add.

Select the file you want to convert. You also need to select the video format here. It defaults to PAL/SECAM, which is used in Europe, so if you live in North America you'll want to change this to NTSC.

Click OK. Now we want to choose how the converted file will be saved. Choose Only convert film files to compliant MPEG files if you want to save the file as an MPEG-2 file and author it with another program such as DVDStyler. I've shown how to use DVDStyler in my Blogcritics article.

Create disc structure will make a VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folder with the menu files and VOB video files necessary to create a DVD. These can be used by a disc burning program to make a DVD.

We're going to Create an ISO or BIN/CUE image, ready to burn to a disk. Click that option, then click Forward.

Select where you want the image saved, and name it. Click OK.

DeVeDe will now spend some time transcoding the movie and creating the disc image. Time to have some dinner, watch TV, or have a nap.

Once it's done, we have to burn the image to a DVD. In Gnome it's really easy. Just open up Nautilus, the file manager, find the iso image, right click it, and select Write to Disc.

It's almost as easy in KDE. Find the iso file in Konqueror, right click it, go to Actions and then select Write CD Image with K3B. When K3B pops up, click Start.

That's it. I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any suggestions or problems. And I know the example movie I use is, umm, odd. It's for my next Blogcritics article, which I'm going to get to at any moment now. Really.

True Story

2007-01-14T15:14:00.000-07:00

Had lunch with the girlfriend while we were shopping the other day, and started reminiscing about old times.

My favourite story I like to tell others about her happened a couple of winters ago. We were leaving my building and as I stepped out I saw a sheet of ice on the ground around the door. Very slippery. I said to her, "Be careful, it's slippery."

She stepped out, and promptly fell on her bottom. To my credit, I did not take any pleasure at all in this. I did not laugh or even smile. I was genuinely concerned for her as I helped her up and asked if she was okay.

"You could have told me it was slippery!" , she barked at me. I was a little surprised by the unfairness of this.

"I did tell you it was slippery!"

"You didn't tell me HOW slippery!"

In a small, small way she reminds me of this guy's girlfriend. But only in a small way. Really.

Sister Knows Best

2007-01-10T01:22:00.000-07:00

Sigh. After my sister nagged me for literally months to start writing for Blogcritics my first article got on the front page of Digg. Her response was, "Is this a good time to say I told you so? There's an appetite out there for the kind of stuff you geek out over. Congrats!"

When my second article went up on Blogcritics she said, "...you're gonna get dugg." I said, " ...it's not going to get dugg, it's sitting at 18 right now, and I don't think it will get much more."

I'm not going to argue with her anymore. My second article went to Digg's front page tonight. That's two articles for two. She knows best.

I was actually surprised. The article was pretty basic, just a few examples of music players with a brief description of each. It wasn't nearly as good as the one on making DVDs. However, when I mentioned this, my sister said, "shut up with the self deprecation, geek boy."

As I said, I'm not going to argue with her anymore. I'll shut up.

Oh, and by the way, I'm not going to write about every single time I get on Digg anymore either. Now I'll be coolly nonchalant, "Digg? Oh, yes, I don't think I had an article on there yesterday, but I'm writing another one today so I'll be back up there soon."

Actually, that's not so much coolly nonchalant as obnoxiously boorish. I can go with that, too.

Playing Music on Linux

2007-01-08T19:42:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of music players available for Linux. If most of them were junk it would be easy to choose one to use regularly, but that's not the case. There are many good quality players, but they all have different features. This article is meant to assist you in choosing the one that's right for you.

This list is by no means complete, but it should give you an idea of what's available.

XMMS

This is the old warhorse of graphical music players on Linux. There are a ton of plugins to extend its functionality as well as skins to change its appearance. The interface is simple if you just want to play music, but it is a bit clunky once you start getting into more advanced features. There are a lot of people that still use this one, but it is dated and some distributions (such as Gentoo) aren't including it anymore.

Noatun

Another simple media player for KDE. Plugins are available, and it is skinnable. It uses simple playlists and isn't a bad choice if all you want to do is play music.

Amarok

This is the player I use. In my opinion it is the most advanced player out there for Linux. Smart playlists, lyrics, album covers, tagging, information about the artists from Wikipedia, transfer music to and from digital audio players, an integrated music store (Magnatunes.com), and way more that I can't describe in the space I have.

Juk

Juk will organize your music into playlists, and can include album covers as well. It will also burn playlists as audio or data cds through K3b.

Rhythmbox

This is a decent music management program. You can create smart playlists, fetch podcasts, and create audio cds from playlists. The most recent versions support iPods and other portable audio players, although it did give me problems with my iPod Shuffle.

Quod Libet

No smart playlists, but it does have plugins for Wikipedia information on artist or album, album covers, burning to cd, and lots more.

Banshee

Banshee will burn selected songs onto an audio CD, supports cover art, and with plugins supports smart playlists, song recommendations through Lastfm.com, podcasts, and more. If Banshee was able to transfer music to my iPod Shuffle this is the player I'd be using, simply because it allows limiting the size of playlists based on MB.

Summary

If all you want is something that just plays music from a simple playlist Noatun is the way to go, although XMMS still has its fans.

If you want to be able to sync your portable audio player and want a music management system like iTunes, Amarok is a great piece of software. Banshee would be my recommendation if you don't need support for a digital audio player.

What did I miss? Do you have any other recommendations, or do you disagree with mine? Let me know by leaving a comment or emailing me.

Dugg

2007-01-07T00:18:00.000-07:00

Well, this is pretty cool. I write one damn article for BlogCritics, and it gets on the front page of digg. It's also on reddit and Netscape, but no one there seems to care.

I feel almost bad about slamming the digg commenters in my last post, especially as there are some useful comments for this one. Nice that some people find it helpful.

Forum Wars

2007-01-05T00:46:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago a post by my sister hit the front page of digg. This was pretty cool, although she already has lots of readers and media attention thanks to her Blogcritics posts, her blog, and her TV, Eh? website. I thought her post was interesting, but nothing new, mostly because I already use open source software almost exclusively.

Others obviously found it useful and interesting. She has a fairly large readership, but all it took for it to hit critical mass was for her to mention open source and Linux. She has received all kinds of emails and comments.

The interesting thing to me is that the comments from digg were very different from the comments she received from Blogcritics. I read digg everyday, but for the most part I use it to find interesting resources or sites, and have stopped reading the comments. For some reason they almost all descend into arguments as to whether the article is a dupe, blog, inaccurate, or whatever. Lots of inane, uninformative jabber that doesn't contribute to a discussion.

A lot of the comments on digg concentrated on whether or not she was a techie, with some stating they were burying the story as inaccurate. They seemed to feel she was trying to put something over on them, and missed the point of the article entirely. It seems they were confused by the thought that a person could be intelligent and not a techie at the same time. Some seemed to feel that the ability to maintain a website made a person a techie. And some didn't quite know what to make of the word "communications."

The Blogcritics commenters on the other hand were, as Diane put it, "Really supportive, helpful people with common sense." A lot of them were Linux zealots (sometimes we can be almost as bad as Mac zealots), but they seemed to genuinely want to help, or at least add intelligently to the discussion.

Obviously I'm generalizing here. There are intelligent comments posted on digg, and I'm sure there are boneheads commenting on Blogcritics, but there seems to be a definite trend in the quality of comments depending on the forum. Perhaps the popularity of digg brings out more of the unwashed masses, or maybe a secret cabal weeds out the undesirables from Blogcritics.

And for the record, although she is intelligent, articulate, and has many talents, she is definitely not a techie.

Free Movies Redux

2007-01-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

This is an edit of a previous post that I've changed to concentrate on Windows and VCDs (Video CDs) at the request of a friend.

First we want to get a movie that we can burn to a CD. A great source of free, public domain movies is Public Domain Torrents. You will need a bittorrent client to download the movies. uTorrent is what I use for Windows. For this example I've chosen to download Night of the Living Dead. It will take a few hours, perhaps overnight or longer, to download a movie depending on your connection speed and the size of the movie.

Once the movie is downloaded we have to convert it to a format that is readable by DVD players. We're going to use Avidemux. You can download the Windows version from here.

There are two types of VCDs: regular VCDs have a resolution of 352 x 240, about the same quality as VHS tapes, or Super VCDs that have 480 x 480 resolution, higher quality but will take more space than a regular VCD. A movie that might fit on one CD as a VCD will need to be put on two or more CDs if it is a Super VCD.

Also, not all DVD players will play SVCDs, but most will play VCDs. Check the specs of your player.

Once you've installed Avidemux open the movie, select Auto -> VCD or SVCD, hit Save, and relax for a couple of hours while it converts the movie.

Avidemux will automatically split the movie into two or more files so they will fit on a CD.

Once Avidemux is finished you should be able to burn the files to CDs with your CD burning program. Details will depend on your CD burning software, but I believe most CD burning programs will give you an option to burn VCDs. You may need a separate plugin to burn SVCDs because of licensing issues with the MPEG2 codec.

There are some other great resources for making video VCDs. The Internet Archive is another great source for public domain movies. Files are downloaded directly from their servers, so you don't need a bittorrent client, but sometimes can be slow. The video quality of the movies is also less, but there are a lot of them.

Christmas Present reviews

2007-01-01T07:45:00.000-07:00

I got some gadgets for Christmas and thought I'd take the opportunity to let you know how everything worked on my Linux setup.

I already let you know how things went with my digital camera, a Kodak EasyShare C533. Not so much with the camera as with my desktop manager. Gnome is working well for me, and I'm using digiKam to import and organize my photos. Very nice piece of software. I'm finding that even though I'm using Gnome most of my favourite apps are from KDE.

My new keyboard is a Microsoft Comfort Curve, an inexpensive keyboard that has a very nice feel once you get used to it. Again, the main problems I had with it had to do with KDE not recognizing all of the extra multimedia keys. Gnome recognized all of them without a problem.

I also got an Epson Picturemate photo printer to go with the camera. It's very small, looking like a high-tech lunch box with its handle. Epson claims that photos printed with it will last up to 200 years. I'll let you know.

I was only slightly worried that I would have problems with it in Linux as Epson printers generally have excellent Linux support. I needn't have worried at all. Adding the printer was a snap with Gnome's printer manager, and I was able to print out great looking photos right away, in both wallet size and 4" x 6".

I'm also very happy with my new LCD monitor. On paper it's the same size as my old 17" CRT monitor, but we all know CRT manufacturers lie. There's a noticeable amount more screen real estate, and the picture is brighter and the colours are more vibrant. I have a feeling there wasn't much life left in the old monitor.

None of my other gifts were compatible with Linux, like the showerhead and bicycle pump, but they seem to work as stand-alone devices well enough.

Have a happy New Year everyone.

Christmas Cheer

2006-12-29T04:36:00.000-07:00

Wow. It's been way too long since I've updated. I'll probably start lots of posts this way.

It was a good Christmas. Looking at the gifts I got this year, I'm beginning to suspect that some of my friends and family think I'm a bit of a geek.

My girlfriend got me a new keyboard, as the cord on my old one was frayed and I had to splice it together. It worked, just looked really ugly with a big wad of electrical tape wrapped around the cord.

She also got me this:

It's a Spudtrooper: Mr. Potatohead working for the Dark Side! She was a little puzzled as to why he was holding a masher, but what else would rebel potatoes fear more?

And like any good minion, he stores his extra equipment in his ass:

Oh, and I got a digital camera and a photo printer from my mother. After fighting for a couple of hours trying to transfer pictures to my computer in KDE, I gave up and tried Gnome. Worked like a charm the first time. I haven't tried the photo printer yet, but I will.

I don't know if this was a KDE thing or an Ubuntu thing this time, but although I love KDE's customization I find it to be a little flaky in a lot of things. It won't detect all my multimedia keys properly while Gnome does, power saving works, sort of, sometimes, and it doesn't always remember what default programs I want it to use.

Looks like I'll be trying Gnome again for a while.

My sister got me an LCD monitor, which is beautiful. I felt really bad, because all I got her was a half tube of used lipstick and a pack of Tic Tacs.

And I swear I won't do this regularly, but I had to take this picture of my stupid cat stuffing himself in a box:

No, he's not jumping into a fishbowl, but I'm sure he would if I had one. Even if it was full of water and fish.

I will be back with other compelling, fascinating posts, so keep tuned.

Free Movies

2006-11-26T00:33:00.000-07:00

Lots of free stuff in this post. Free software, free movies, free DVDs. Well almost. You have to supply the DVDs.

The software used in these steps will work for both Windows and Linux users, since most of it is cross-platform. Except where it isn't. But I'll let you know.

First we want to get a movie that we can burn to a DVD. A great source of free, public domain movies is Public Domain Torrents. You will need a bittorrent client to download the movies. For Windows I use uTorrent, in Linux I've started using KTorrent which has a lot of great features. For this example I've chosen to download Night of the Living Dead. It will take a few hours, perhaps overnight or longer, to download a movie depending on your connection speed and the size of the movie.

Once the movie is downloaded we have to convert it to an MPEG2 format that is readable by DVD players. We're going to use Avidemux. In Linux it's probably available in your package manager (it's in the Ubuntu repositories), and there is a Windows version.

Open the movie, select Auto -> DVD, hit Save, and relax for a couple of hours while it converts the movie.

Now the DVD has to be authored, which means we have to add menus and have the file system set up so a DVD player can read the disc.

I had a lot of trouble deciding between different applications for authoring a DVD because there are so many good ones. I decided to focus on DVDStyler because it's easy to use, can create good looking menus, and is cross-platform, so it can work on both Windows and Linux. Oh yeah, and it's free. [Edit: The wxsvg library is now required for Linux users. You can download it from the DVDStyler website.]

Installation is easy. Windows users just download and run the Win32 binary on the download page. Linux users may have it in their package manager. It's not in the Ubuntu repositories, so I downloaded the Debian package and installed it.

For Ubuntu Linux users: Dapper users shouldn't need to change anything, but because I'm running Edgy Eft I did have to change an option in the settings because it kept throwing me an error about "jpegtopnm" [Update: These settings shouldn't have to be changed under Feisty Fawn]. To fix this you have to go to Configuration -> Settings, and in the Core tab change the first line to:

jpegtopnm "$FILE_IN" | ppmtoy4m -n 1 -I t -L $FRAME_RATE -S 420mpeg2 | mpeg2enc -f 8 -b $BITRATE -o "$FILE_OUT" $VIDEO_NORM

Don't worry, it's not as scary as it looks. Just copy and paste it in, you don't have to know what it means.

There are some excellent manuals and a forum to help you get started, but I'll go over the basics.

First thing we are going to do is choose a background for the menu. It comes with a bunch of backgrounds, but you can import your own if you like. Click the Backgrounds tab on the left and select the one you want.

Now select the Directories button on the left and navigate to the directory you saved the converted movie to. Only valid MPEG2 files will be available to select. Select your movie.

Now let's click the Buttons tab. Drag the "button1" image to the right, right click it, and select Properties. Since there is only one video on this disc the only thing we have to change is the button label, and the font if you wish.

Now you can select File -> Burn DVD from the main menu. Select Burn if you want to burn a disc right away, or you can Just Generate the file system or Create ISO Image if you want to burn the DVD with another program such as K3B.

After a few minutes you should be able to watch your shiny new DVD movie.

There are some other great resources for making video DVDs. The Internet Archive is another great source for public domain movies. Files are downloaded directly from their servers, so you don't need a bittorrent client, but sometimes can be slow. The video quality of the movies is also less, but there are a lot of them.

For authoring DVDs there is also DeVeDe which converts and authors the DVD, eliminating the need for a program like Avidemux. It is simple to use and can automatically divide a movie into chapters. It doesn't create menus though, and is only for Linux.

Tovid is another Linux only program that also converts movies and authors DVDs and allows you to create simple menus. I've had occasional weird issues with the sound not syncing. I can correct this by fast forwarding through part of the movie. It may be an issue with my DVD player. Well worth a try.

New DVD Burner

2006-11-19T22:49:00.000-07:00

I was debating on what software to ramble on about for my next post. I'd like to do something that's cross-platform and useful for many people. Firefox is the obvious choice, which is why I'm not going to do it. I may do something on image manipulation.

All that is academic though, because I'm not going to talk about free software my next post. After years of being limited to 700 MB cds and watching video on VCDs I finally got a DVD burner. I'm still experimenting with the best combination of transcoding and authoring software and want to get some screenshots of a video being prepared, so it won't be for another day or two. Or three.

Of course the software I'm using is all free, so I guess I will be talking about free software. I wish it was possible to write about free hardware. Actually, I knew a guy who could get free hardware, but he's doing time right now.

For the record the DVD burner is an LG GSA-H10N 16x Super Multi DVD/CD Rewriter, an inexpensive drive that reads and writes DVD +/- R/RW discs as well as DVD RAM discs. It installed just like any other optical drive, and Ubuntu found it and was able to use it without any hiccups.

I haven't installed or used the Windows software that came with it, but I'll give it a try and let you know how that worked as well.

Free Stuff

2006-11-12T21:39:00.000-07:00

I like free stuff. If a task can be completed without dishing out money for an expensive piece of software, I'm all for it. Why spend money on bytes that could be better spent on more important things, like beer?

There is a lot of software available for free. Just like anything else, a lot of it is crap. A lot of free software actually comes with strings attached, like your personal information, ads, or important features that can only be used if you send the author money.

There are some real gems available if you know where to look. Software that is professional quality with no strings attached. Real alternatives to commercial applications.

I will be showcasing some of my favourite free applications, letting you know what I like and don't like about them, and where to get them. Hope you enjoy.

One of the most important apps for any user is the office suite. The most popular suite is, of course, Microsoft Office. It's an excellent application, with lots of wizards and templates to make tasks easier, and more features than any one person could ever need. It also costs a few hundred dollars, and they keep changing their file format every few releases just to remind everyone they have to upgrade to the newest version or risk not being able to read others' documents.

Another excellent office suite is OpenOffice. It is also has lots of wizards and templates, and more features than any one person could ever need. It is available for free, however. And while it has it's own file format, it can also read and save Microsoft Office documents, which means you will still be able to share documents with people who are broke because they've spent all their money on Microsoft Office. It's also multiplatform: it will run on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and FreeBSD.

OpenOffice comes with a word processor called Write, a spread sheet called Calc to replace Excel, presentation software (you know, like Powerpoint) called Impress, and a database application they call Base that replaces Access. There is also a drawing program called Draw.

The wordprocessor does what you would expect a word processor to do: process words. You can also do some neat things, like save your document in Adobe's .pdf format or in Aportisdoc format so you can transfer the file to your Palm device. It has lots of wizards to help with some of the more complex tasks, like mail merge.

The presentation software (called Impress) comes with templates, backgrounds, etc. and starts out with a wizard to help you create your slideshow. It can export your presentation as a Flash file, if you wish, allowing you to post it on the web. It does not come with as much artwork and backgrounds as PowerPoint, but you can download more from the web.

I use the spreadsheet only occasionally, for very basic tasks, but it's served my needs. I've been able to import Microsoft Excel files with no problems, but I understand that some people have had issues with complex Excel files with scripts.

I've never had need for the database, so I won't comment on it.

There are lots of extra templates and artwork available here and at the OpenOffice Extras website as well.

Don't let the fact that it's free fool you. OpenOffice is feature-rich enough for almost any personal or small business use. By not buying Microsoft Office this piece of software will free up money to buy enough beer to keep you drunk at work for a week.

Hot Wax

2006-10-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

As sort of a present for my girlfriend I got my chest and stomach waxed last week. I'm not going to get into what would possess me to do such a thing.

I didn't take any pictures, but if you want an idea of how it went watch The 40 Year Old Virgin. I'm not saying it's a great movie, but the depiction of the pain I went through is accurate. I am proud to say I was a little more stoic (I didn't call the woman waxing me nasty names), and I actually finished getting the hair removed.

The woman who did the waxing was actually very sweet. She told me she liked hairy men, and kept apologizing during the process. I think it will be easier for me if next time instead of getting waxed I find a girlfriend that likes hair.

Upgrade

2006-10-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

I've been using Ubuntu for a little over a year now, and I haven't been happier with a Linux distribution. I started using Linux with Red Hat 7.2 in about 2002. I moved to Mandrake (now Mandriva) which I used for quite a while, but there always seemed to be something flaky that just didn't work on each release for me. I spent an entire weekend installing just a base system of Gentoo, then another day and a half compiling KDE, then more time compiling... After about a week of that I decided I didn't have the kind of time Gentoo demanded, even though my geek cred would suffer. I'm also administering a Fedora Core 4 server, which I'll have to upgrade soon. I'll probably replace it with Ubuntu 6.06 because of the long (6 years!) support cycle.

Ubuntu has a reputation of being a newbie distro, which is fine with me. It means it's easy to install, maintain, and use. I'm not quite sure why that's a bad thing. There is a huge list of software that can be easily installed, and there is nothing that can't be done with Ubuntu that can be done with any other distribution.

Decided to upgrade my system to Edgy Eft today. Normally I don't wait until the final release of software, installing betas and release candidates. For some reason I've been taking my time though. I hadn't even updated to Firefox 2.0 yet, mostly because I've being Opera lately because of some issues I've been having with Firefox.

I started the install expecting a lot of problems. I opened up a terminal, typed in gksu "update-manager -c" and let 'er rip. After about 2 hours of downloading and installing, I rebooted the system.

After the boot process was finished the nVidia splash screen surprised me by actually appearing, letting me know that my 3D drivers were actually installed and running. After logging in, KDE started up with no problems. KDE 3.5 is looking very pretty too, with lots of neat effects including true transparency of windows. I'm going to install Beryl and see how it looks.

So far everything has gone flawlessly. I'm still expecting trouble, but I'm pretty impressed so far.

Random Nonsense

2006-10-10T01:44:00.000-06:00

Been a while since my last post.

Turns out I may not be competent to own a cell phone. My last cell I had put through the laundry after I had it for about three weeks. I dropped my current cell phone in a rain puddle after about a week. It dried out and is working fine, but I definitely need to be more careful.

Had Thanksgiving dinner with my mother and a couple of her friends today. Her one friend has been to England a couple of times and is a self appointed expert on all things English. It doesn't matter what we're talking about, she turns the conversation to England. We talked about KFC, she mentioned KFC in England is terrible, we talked about traffic, she starts talking about the roundabouts in England, we were speaking English, she tells us English is from England. Okay, I made up the last one, but I wouldn't have been surprised. She's a lot like the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Without the Windex fetish, though.

Been watching Max Headroom lately. Shame it isn't out on DVD, I'd buy it in a second. Not sure if it's available at the iTunes store as iTunes doesn't work (easily) with Linux. Found it at AOL Television, but you have to have Windows and allow them to install some DRM program to control what you can do with the content.

What I want to do is watch it on my TV. I don't mind paying for it, but don't make it hard to get and limited with what I can do. It's already available for free without any restrictions, why make a crappier version that is difficult for me to get, costs money, and allows you to do less. "Hey buddy, want to buy some air? It's across town, to enter the store you have to wear a Hugo Boss suit, and you can only breath it at home. Three times."

Cheap Grumpy Bastard

2006-09-30T17:11:00.000-06:00

Actually got my cell phone last Tuesday. UPS was reluctant to leave it with a neighbor, so I stayed home from work until it was delivered. I was late by a half hour.

It does what I demand from a phone: sends and receives phone calls. It also has a web browser. The last time I used a cell phone with a web browser a few years ago it was slow, clunky, and damn near useless. It's nice to see that with a few years technical progress the browsers in today's cell phones are still slow, clunky, and damn near useless. Unless you buy a monthly bundle they also charge per page view and per email or IM message sent.

One thing that has improved is the voice dialing. The last phone I had with voice dialing had to be trained. This one needs no training, which is kind of neat. However, it's still a feature I'll never use. It's quicker to use speed dial.

Of course, the phone gives me lots of opportunities to spend more money. They make it easy to download ring tones, which are tremendously overpriced. Why do people pay $2.00 or more for a 15 second snippet of a song, when an entire song costs $0.99 on iTunes? Are the record companies charging a boatload for licensing, or are the wireless companies making a boatload of profit? Both, I would guess.

The phone doesn't come with any games, which is fine with me because cell phone games always suck, but they do offer downloadable games... for a price. They have a weird pricing system. You can buy a game for $4.00, or rent one for 30 days for $3.00. A person who doesn't want to buy a game probably won't be tempted to rent one for a discount of $1.00.

They also offer images starting at $1.50. Why do people buy these things?

I won't have to pay for these extras anyway as I won't use them for the most part. I may try a game or two to test out, but I suspect they'll suck. I find custom ringtones annoying and don't need them. If browsing the web and receiving email wasn't so slow and clunky I might have been tempted to get a package for that. And I don't need to pay for pretty pictures on my phone.

The Tribes are in Great Danger

2006-09-26T15:58:00.002-06:00

I read the Perry Bible Fellowship every week. Some weeks it's funnier than others (like any comic), but when it's funny, it's really funny.

This week's comic cracked me up.

Ebooks in Linux and Windows

2006-09-24T22:42:00.000-06:00

I've owned a Palm OS device in one form or another for a few years now. My first Palm was a Palm m500 that I bought on sale on a whim, without really considering whether or not I had a use for one.

I was a little worried about my girlfriend's reaction, and was sure she was going to give me shit for wasting money. Turns out she loved it. She is very organized and keeps a notebook full of lists of things she needs to accomplish, and thought this would be a good replacement.

When I told her I was worried she would think it was a waste of money she said, "It is for you!" I ended up giving her the Palm and bought a Sony Clie PEG-SJ20 for myself. My girlfriend found she still preferred keeping lists in her notebook, but used it as an address book and for playing games like Bejeweled.

The SJ20 turned out to be perfect for what I eventually ended up using it for: ebooks. The screen, although black and white, was high resolution and very readable even with the backlight on. The m500 screen turned into horrible green-on-black letters with the backlight on, good enough for casual use but not for sustained reading.

I am able to store literally dozens of books on my Palm in a package small enough that I can always have reading material available to me whether I am waiting in line, on the bus, or in bed. My Palm was invaluable when I would go out of town for work.

I found lots of sources for ebooks, but it took me awhile to find ways to be able to read them on my Palm. If an ebook is available in a Palm format it is very easy, but sometimes an ebook has to be converted into a Palm-readable format.

There are lots of different readers for the Palm but I have two that seem to cover everything. I use eReader for books already formatted for that reader. It's a free program, but there's a pro version available with a couple of more bells and whistles. I find the free version does everything I need.

I also use Plucker, which contains a reader that installs on the Palm and desktop software that will convert text or HTML files to Plucker-readable files. It will also allow you to download webpages for later viewing on your Palm. It available for both Linux and Windows.

OpenOffice can read RTF, text, HTML, .doc (Word) and many other formats and save them in Aportisdoc format, which can be read by eReader. Of course, it is also a full featured office suite. Also available for both Linux and Windows.

.lit files are a proprietary Microsoft format that is mostly used with PocketPCs. To be able to read them on my Palm I first run them through the unfortunately acronymed Convert LIT. For Windows I use the freeware ABC Amber LIT Converter. Each of these programs "explodes" the .lit file into HTML and jpg files, which can then be converted with Plucker.

Of course, once the files are ready they have to be transferred to the Palm. I use KPilot, which is a Palm Desktop replacement for Linux. There are others available, but KPilot has been the most reliable and easiest to use for me.

If you have any questions about converting, transferring, or using ebooks with a Palm feel free to contact me through email or the comments. I'll try to help you as best I can.

Work Weirdness

2006-09-24T13:58:00.000-06:00

I started a new job almost 6 months ago, and there are still things I find strange that I am going to have to get used to.

For the most part the people are friendly. Really friendly. Almost too friendly. When I go on a coffee break or lunch I usually prefer to sit by myself and read a book, unless I happen to get my break at the same time as someone I know and like.

Point is, I'll be sitting by myself reading, and very often someone I barely know will sit down across from me and start a conversation. I don't think most people who know me would consider me to be unfriendly, but I would really rather read than try to keep up my end of a conversation with a stranger.

I've never really been good with small talk. I can do the basics like talk about the weather or complain about work, but I don't really enjoy it. I couldn't care less about sports, and that leaves a big gaping hole in my small-talk reportoire, but it doesn't seem to really matter. Sports fans are like religious nuts, they don't care if you care, they just want to keep talking about their favourite team, or favourite god, or something. I'm sure I could get the simile to work if I tried a little harder. Could probably offend less people too.

I got a promotion recently, and everyone seemed to know about it. My promotion wasn't posted anywhere, it just got around by word of mouth for some reason. People I didn't know were congratulating me and asking how I liked my new position. Although I was flattered, I found it a little creepy at the same time.

It sounds like I'm whining: "Boo hoo! All the people here are too nice!" I like the people I work with, and need to stop being such a curmudgeon.

My workplace is also unionized. I've never belonged to a union before. Each position has a set wage, which means I'm working next to people who have been there for years and yet I'm making exactly as much money as they are. It doesn't feel quite right to me, and yet I still accept my paycheque every two weeks.

Playlist Cheese

2006-09-22T23:58:00.000-06:00

I had set up Kopete, the instant message program I use for, well, instant messaging, to display the music I was listening to.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, until it became apparent that my playlist is way too cheesy to announce publicly. Having it revealed that I have Technotronic on my computer is just way too embarrassing. So far nobody has found out about my secret collection of Roger Whittaker, but I'm not going to take any chances.

Disabling that feature hasn't saved me from embarrassment, though. I had my iPod on when I came in to work today, and somebody asked me what I was listening to. I'm about 6' 4" tall, and just shy of 300 pounds. I couldn't tell her I was listening to Frou Frou. I told her I was listening to Satan's Hate Squad. She looked at me oddly and walked away nervously. No, that didn't really happen. I told her I was listening to Frou Frou. She looked at me oddly and walked away nervously.

Exceeded Expectations... So Far

2006-09-22T23:12:00.000-06:00

Telus has really surprised me. When I signed up for a cell phone plan I was told I would get an email confirming delivery of the phone within 3-5 days. "Right," I thought, "I'll believe that when I see it." The reason for that thought was a terrible experience I had with them when trying to get internet access, a story I may share another time.

I received an email on Thursday letting me know that it was being shipped. I was mildly surprised, as that was only 4 days after I ordered it. I expected to actually receive it next week. Early next week was the hope, but I wasn't holding my breath.

Got home from work today to find that UPS had attempted delivery of the phone, and that they'll try again on Monday. Well, colour me surprised. And on Monday I don't start work until 4:00 PM, so I should even be home when they try.

I'm spending a lot of time writing about a stupid cell phone I don't even have yet, but right now that's the big event in my life. Sort of sad.

2006-09-22T13:20:00.000-06:00

Finally decided to get a cell phone with a monthly plan. Up until now, I've mostly had pay-as-you-go phones for personal use. It has actually worked out cheaper for me because I don't do a lot of talking on the phone; I give out my cell number to only a few people and don't do a lot of chatting.

I used to be required to have a cell phone for work, and I think that explains why I have sort of an aversion to them. At one point it was possible that I would have my work cell, the on-call cell, a pager in case they couldn't get a hold of me on either cell, and a personal cell. That's 3 cells and a pager, for one person. I still cringe whenever I hear the ringtone of my old work cell.

I've been cell phoneless for about a month now, ever since I ran my last one through the laundry. And I only had it for about 3 weeks. I should really buy big, brick-like, Soviet era military surplus cell phones so they are more noticeable in pants pockets.

Frankly, the real reason I've decided I need to get a cell again is that I'm playing around with Asterisk (an extremely powerful PBX telephony package, which doesn't begin to describe what it can really do) and I've found it a little difficult to tell if what I'm doing is working if I can't call it. I can't call from my home phone because the Asterisk system is connected to it.

I decided I wanted a camera phone this time. Don't need one, just think it would be handy to have a device that could take a really bad picture of some random boring event while I'm talking. Then I could send it to everyone I know.

I didn't like my options for a camera phone in pay-as-you-go world. Virgin Mobile had a decently priced camera phone, but if you want to transfer the pictures to your computer you have to upload them to a website for 50 cents a picture. I'm not interested in having the pictures that are stored on my phone held for ransom.

Bell Mobility had a decently priced PAYG plan and a good selection of phones, but the phones were all more expensive than I wanted to pay. It looks like they aren't willing to subsidize the price of phones for PAYG plans in the hopes of recovering the cost later.

I finally went with a basic monthly package from Telus. With a one year contract I was able to get a free camera phone. I got an email from them today letting me know that it is being shipped, so I'll find out exactly how good a free camera phone is early next week, I guess.

2006-09-18T05:05:00.000-06:00

This is not a geek's blog. Not entirely. While I do, perhaps, have some geekish tendencies like running Linux, a fondness for gadgets (but not a budget for them), an interest in science fiction literature and movies, and a deep like for science and technology, I have a lot of non-geek interests and characteristics.

For instance: My job is not in any way related to anything tech-related, I have a girlfriend, and I play Dungeons and Dragons. Just kidding. I haven't played that for a couple of years.

I don't watch a lot of TV. I only watch two shows regularly: House MD, which I got hooked on through my sister, and Battlestar Galactica. I will also catch My Name is Earl, Family Guy, and Dr. Who on occasion. I watched The IT Crowd when it was on, and would love to see more.

Point is that there probably won't be many TV reviews, although I've sort of been roped into discussions on certain episodes.

There will be philosophical discussions, manifestos, rants, and gratuitous use of words like "concordantly" and "ipso facto".

That's about enough for a post with no actual content. It's 4 AM, and time I went to bed. Thanks for reading.