http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsamwel/laptop_mode/tools/index.html
Using the instructions here I was able to easily squeeze some more battery life out of my laptop while running in Linux. If this keeps up I won't have a reason to use Windows anymore, hah!
Sunday, February 27, 2005
SimplyMEPIS Day 3
A few days ago the Linux distro I had been most anticipating, SimplyMEPIS 3.3, was released. I downloaded the ISO, checked the md5sum, and immediately burned the CD. The LiveCD bootup went well, with a few minor error messages here and there. But I was not discouraged. Once the LiveCD finished booting I tried to activate my wireless. This caused the Mepis System Center to freeze. I tried again and got the same result. Hoping that once it was installed it would work, I formatted my Linux partitions and let it go. This time things went worse-- on startup it was getting page faults when loading the IPW2100 driver. This never happened in SimplyMEPIS 2004.06.
This is when I decided that I would rather have a stable Linux installation than a "bleeding edge" one with the latest packages. SimplyMEPIS 2004.06 (contrary to what the name suggests, came out in mid-December) installed like a dream and everything worked "out of the box," so to speak. I did an "apt-get update" followed by an "apt-get upgrade" and all was still good. Tuxrucer using 3D acceleration worked without installing additional drivers. GLQuake worked as well.
Since I am running MEPIS on a Centrino laptop I needed to enable CPU speedstepping (i.e. slowing the CPU down when the speed isn't necessary) to save some battery life. After a quick search on the mepislovers.org forums I was ready to go, effectively doubling my expected battery life in Linux. Unfortunately the battery still does not last as long as it does in Windows. Currently I'm getting between 3-3.5 hours in Windows XP Pro and 2 hours in Linux while doing everyday operations such as instant messaging, web browsing, word processing, etc, with my wireless networking enabled.
Using KDE System Guard I've been keeping an eye on the memory usage of Linux and have been comparing it to the numbers in XP's task manager. XP's task manager usually reports about 250 mb of swap being used while just having instant messaging and a web browser (Gaim and Mozilla Firefox) running. Linux reports no swap being used and only about 256 mb of physical memory occupied with the same applications. Wow! And I was worried that my 256 mb swap partition would be too small. Linux seems a bit quicker for this "everyday use" as well.
In the past few days (this being day 3) I have been spending the bulk of my computing time within Linux and I am loving it.
This is when I decided that I would rather have a stable Linux installation than a "bleeding edge" one with the latest packages. SimplyMEPIS 2004.06 (contrary to what the name suggests, came out in mid-December) installed like a dream and everything worked "out of the box," so to speak. I did an "apt-get update" followed by an "apt-get upgrade" and all was still good. Tuxrucer using 3D acceleration worked without installing additional drivers. GLQuake worked as well.
Since I am running MEPIS on a Centrino laptop I needed to enable CPU speedstepping (i.e. slowing the CPU down when the speed isn't necessary) to save some battery life. After a quick search on the mepislovers.org forums I was ready to go, effectively doubling my expected battery life in Linux. Unfortunately the battery still does not last as long as it does in Windows. Currently I'm getting between 3-3.5 hours in Windows XP Pro and 2 hours in Linux while doing everyday operations such as instant messaging, web browsing, word processing, etc, with my wireless networking enabled.
Using KDE System Guard I've been keeping an eye on the memory usage of Linux and have been comparing it to the numbers in XP's task manager. XP's task manager usually reports about 250 mb of swap being used while just having instant messaging and a web browser (Gaim and Mozilla Firefox) running. Linux reports no swap being used and only about 256 mb of physical memory occupied with the same applications. Wow! And I was worried that my 256 mb swap partition would be too small. Linux seems a bit quicker for this "everyday use" as well.
In the past few days (this being day 3) I have been spending the bulk of my computing time within Linux and I am loving it.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Intec dance mats suck
One of the reasons we got a PS2 was to play Dance Dance Revolution. So, on the same day we got the PS2, we bought an Intec dance mat and DDR Extreme; all was good. Soon afterwards we even bought a second mat. Woohoo! Then things went sour...
The first dance mat suddenly stopped working. Not just a single sensor, but the whole thing stopped working altogether. We took it back to EB and exchanged it for another (which will be referred to as the third mat).
A few days later the second mat began to act up. The "up button" sensor wouldn't always work. This was remedied by putting some cardboard under the said sensor.
One day, out of nowhere (again) the third dance mat stopped working. We went to take it back to EB, but they were out. They assured us that we will get one as soon as they come in. To add insult to injury the second mat decided to quit as well.
Data:
PS2 purchased December 26
Three dead Intec dance mats
Three dance mats in less than two months
Conclusion:
Intec = teh suck
The first dance mat suddenly stopped working. Not just a single sensor, but the whole thing stopped working altogether. We took it back to EB and exchanged it for another (which will be referred to as the third mat).
A few days later the second mat began to act up. The "up button" sensor wouldn't always work. This was remedied by putting some cardboard under the said sensor.
One day, out of nowhere (again) the third dance mat stopped working. We went to take it back to EB, but they were out. They assured us that we will get one as soon as they come in. To add insult to injury the second mat decided to quit as well.
Data:
PS2 purchased December 26
Three dead Intec dance mats
Three dance mats in less than two months
Conclusion:
Intec = teh suck
Ubuntu Linux Thoughts
In my never ending quest to find new ways to procrastinate, I decided to give Ubuntu Linux a try. Initially I tried the "Warty" LiveCD version and was disappointed right away by the lack of support for my laptop's wireless. Afterwards I decided to give the stable 4.10 "Warty Warthog" installable release a try.
Initial impressions: Very nice, clean interface. User-friendly menu system. Stable. Good selection of packages.
After playing with this distro for a couple of hours it has become painfully obvious - it just isn't for me. I am not looking for a new primary OS since I still need to run Windows applications to do some school programming assignments. My plan is to have relatively small partitions for my Linux installation while still having the bulk of my documents and media files on my FAT32 partitions so they can be accessed from both OS'. Every distro I have ever used has automatically mounted my FAT32 drives, until Ubuntu. I had to manually edit the /etc/fstab file and create mount points before I could even mount these partitions.
Another feature I am used to being able to use is to copy my fonts over from Windows. Let's face it, Linux fonts are rather lacking. So I copied and pasted all my truetype fonts from my Windows/Fonts "folder" into Ubuntu's font directory. Apparently the files transferred, but they weren't showing up in the file manager, nor were they showing up in OpenOffice. After some Googling I found out that I was supposed to manually edit a text file for the fonts and add an entry for each one. Thanks, but no thanks.
I am not saying that Ubuntu is a bad OS. It seems perfect for someone who is looking for a user-friendly, memory-efficient and secure primary operating system. For transitional Windows/Linux experimenters like myself, however, I'd have to say that Mepis is what the doctor ordered.
Initial impressions: Very nice, clean interface. User-friendly menu system. Stable. Good selection of packages.
After playing with this distro for a couple of hours it has become painfully obvious - it just isn't for me. I am not looking for a new primary OS since I still need to run Windows applications to do some school programming assignments. My plan is to have relatively small partitions for my Linux installation while still having the bulk of my documents and media files on my FAT32 partitions so they can be accessed from both OS'. Every distro I have ever used has automatically mounted my FAT32 drives, until Ubuntu. I had to manually edit the /etc/fstab file and create mount points before I could even mount these partitions.
Another feature I am used to being able to use is to copy my fonts over from Windows. Let's face it, Linux fonts are rather lacking. So I copied and pasted all my truetype fonts from my Windows/Fonts "folder" into Ubuntu's font directory. Apparently the files transferred, but they weren't showing up in the file manager, nor were they showing up in OpenOffice. After some Googling I found out that I was supposed to manually edit a text file for the fonts and add an entry for each one. Thanks, but no thanks.
I am not saying that Ubuntu is a bad OS. It seems perfect for someone who is looking for a user-friendly, memory-efficient and secure primary operating system. For transitional Windows/Linux experimenters like myself, however, I'd have to say that Mepis is what the doctor ordered.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
More Linux
After the annoying issues I had with Mandrake 10.1 I became bitter enough to uninstall it from my desktop PC (PIII 800 with 384 MB of RAM). I then promptly replaced it with Mepis Linux, which has been an absolute breeze to use. The Mepis LiveCD even runs nicely on my laptop, detecting all my hardware properly. I would install it on my laptop as well, but I am waiting for the new version which is due any day now. I think I will also try Ubunto's LiveCD in the meantime.
Sunday, February 20, 2005
EverQuest II - /pizza
Ever get hungry during a long session of gaming, but were too lazy to get up and make yourself something to eat? Sony and Pizza Hut bring you: EverQuest II - /pizza.
Order pizza while you play, yay. Now your lazy MMORPG-playing ass only needs to get up to use the toilet, or answer the door when the delivery man comes. Now THAT's progress!
Order pizza while you play, yay. Now your lazy MMORPG-playing ass only needs to get up to use the toilet, or answer the door when the delivery man comes. Now THAT's progress!
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Naruto CAW's
Lately I have been playing around with the create-a-wrestler (CAW) function in Smackdown vs RAW for PS2. In the picture above are five characters from Naruto: (left to right) Kakashi, Naruto, Rock Lee, Kabuto, and Orochimaru.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Go Firefox!
This image says it all:
Whoo!
If you haven't already done so, Get Firefox-- the best web browser on the planet.
All entries on this blog were posted using Firefox under either Windows XP Pro or Linux.
Whoo!
If you haven't already done so, Get Firefox-- the best web browser on the planet.
All entries on this blog were posted using Firefox under either Windows XP Pro or Linux.
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