Monthly Archives: April 2009

Testing the Jackalope

★ Posted on at 08:05 am ★

The Jackalope is a mythical creature that is supposed to be a cross between a rabbit and an antelope. In this context, it is the name of the next version of Ubuntu I’m currently testing on my Eee PC.

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Not the usual stuff about life but just a geeky tech piece on the upcoming release of Ubuntu, a Debian based derivative of the Linux operating system.

Just testing out the release candidate of Jaunty Jackalope on my Eee PC now and so far I’m quite impressed with the performance. Apparently they’ve made boot times faster but as I’m trying the Live CD environment via a USB stick, it still takes a while to get into the desktop but subjectively, it seems faster to get into a working state once you hit the desktop screen.

Another gripe I had since Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) was that I’d need to plug my Eee PC into wired LAN to download an updated kernel to enable the wifi card on my netbook. Now it’s automatically detected and all I need to do is just to put in the encrypted passphrase in and it took all but 30 seconds for me to get onto the web.

The last tweak I needed to do was to configure the font sizes from the default size 10 to a size 8. Sure readability is better with bigger sized fonts but with the limited screen real estate of the Eee, this slight tweak offers more to you at a single glance and helps with the continuity or reading/editing documents.

Heh, the official release is sometime before the end of this month I suppose and once that’s done, I’m going to nuke the custom 8.10 install on the SD Card sitting in my Eee PC.

I am becoming more and more familiar with Ubuntu and having played around with other distros, I’m just sticking to learning this one at the moment. I fancy it over Windows because it’s FREE, for one, and that it comes with most of the latest software I need to start doing things from the first boot after installation. Need to surf the web, just fire up Firefox. Need to chat with friends, Pidgin offers most of your IM needs. OpenOffice is built right in so you can read and edit your documents/spreadsheets. A PDF viewer is bundled in by default etc etc. So you imagine all the time you save just by going with Ubuntu (although, there are counter arguments to these, like antitrust litigation against Microsoft bundling specific products into their operating system, or having new users trying to figure out how to work around the Ubuntu desktop, which would arguably take them more time to learn). The 6 month development cycle of a new version of Ubuntu means that you won’t have to wait too long for certain improvements. I know that Vista is out but having experienced it on my Dell XPS laptop, I’d have put XP on it if I had to use it on a daily basis.

Can continue on championing the pros of using Ubuntu as a daily desktop but it will get boring pretty soon, if it hasn’t already. Heh, time to go tinker around with it a little more.

Soccer Fanatic

★ Posted on at 07:14 pm ★

on the way home

Woke up during the ride home from Mildura to capture this shot. Skies during hot days give off the most vibrant colours.

Just recently purchased a wired flash chord from eBay so I can try some off camera flash shots with still objects. I’ve been previously using the commander function on the on body flash to trigger my SB-800 but because it uses light to trigger the external flash, it over illuminates closeup subjects. Haven’t done any testing yet but I’m keen on using the reflective umbrella I have on a tripod to get a soft light on some subjects I will take.

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Been up two days in a row at 430am to watch soccer. It was the 2nd leg of the Champion’s League quarterfinals and what a match between Chelsea and Liverpool. It started out steady enough, then silly errors from Chelsea saw Liverpool 2-0 up. Liverpool was trying to cut the deficit from their first leg 3-1 defeat by Chelsea and as this is Rafael Benitez’s team, anything is possible. Chelsea made it into the second half being only two goals down and with the substitution of Nicolas Anelka on, a cross and some fumbling by Reina and Chelsea suddenly have a goal. Another foul outside the penalty box and Alex converts with a screamer of a goal. It’s now 2-2 and once again Liverpool is chasing the game. The ball is going from one end to the other rapidly and Liverpool provides too much space for Lampard who cooly shoots pass Reina to make it 3-2. You’d think it’s all over for Liverpool but no, they strike 2 back in quick succession, making it 3-4. Just one more goal and they’d be through to the semi final. Some last ditch defending from Chelsea and suddenly they hit back with another goal, and ending the game with a 4-4 draw, winning the two legs of the tie with a 7-5 aggregate. It was definitely one of the more exhilarating matches in recent history. Chelsea now faces the all attacking Barcelona in the semi finals, it’s going to be another mouth watering match.

Got up early again this morning to see if Manchester United could beat Porto in their home ground. The statistics were stacked against them, with United always crashing out of the competition after drawing their first leg at home during the quarter finals. No English team has beat Porto in their home ground for the past 30 odd years. It seems daunting enough and the match starts of with United controlling the pace of the game. Nothing exciting and I’m just watching the match when a pass from Anderson to Ronaldo, who makes a few steps and hits the most spectacular goal I’ve seen in a long, long while. From 35 metres out he belts a ball just past the finger tips of the Porto keeper into the top left side of the goal netting. That wonder goal got United through to the semi final, who must now face Arsenal in another must see match. Heh, two more weeks before the two matches.

Heh, been sleeping at 1130pm the past couple of nights, waking up at 2am just to make sure I haven’t overslept and dragging myself out of bed at 430am to go to Ken’s place to catch the action. I’ve been promising to go to his place since the beginning of the year to catch these early morning Champion’s League matches but have so far failed to deliver on those promises. Then suddenly I decide to watch two matches in a row. Well, it’s already April and it all ends next month when a flurry of matches will occur and a long break until August before all the excitement starts again.

Mildura

★ Posted on at 08:29 pm ★

orange!

Was at Mildura over the long Easter weekend. Here’s where they produce all the oranges (that I know of) in Australia. The ones I ate had a tinge of sourness to it, the kind you associate with citrus fruit, but was generally sweet overall.

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It’s generally a 6 to 7 hour drive up north to Mildura from Melbourne. Travelled with my cousin, her spouse to be and Vyanne on this trip. Heh, didn’t have to drive, so that made the trip all the more pleasant for me. Mildura is located inland, near the border of New South Wales, and is well known for their fresh fruit. Throughout the trip around Mildura, there were plenty of kiosks that sold fruit unattended. You just leave a few dollars in a box, and you pick up a bag of fruit. The fruit is plenty fresh and we liked it so much, that we bought 10kg of grapes (they were of the red variety, sweet and crunchy to the bite) and a giant watermelon (weighed to about 12.4kg!) for only $6.

large watermelon

Set out early on Friday, and arrived by mid afternoon. It’s quite a large town, feeling like a suburb in Melbourne. There are plenty of stores and rows upon rows of residential areas. The accommodation for the region was booked out due to the Easter break. Mildura comes alive during Easter, with the population tripling due to the festivities they have here, like water sports along the river. Stayed in a sort of apartment where my cousin was and although fairly old, was pretty comfortable.

We went to Orange World and went on a tractor tour around the estate, looking at the various kinds of oranges and learning lots of their production throughout. It’s a tough life, growing fruit for sale, as you don’t get much from it. Mildura also produces plenty of grapes, with the vineyards of Trentham just across the NSW border, next to the Murray River. There’s plenty of good food here, and on Deakin Avenue, where all the restaurants are, we dined at a few restaurants, like Seasons, Stefano’s etc. Mainly relaxed and did some sight seeing on this trip to Mildura. Visited the local farmer’s market, had fun in a sort of playground and visited a gemstone shop.

suncatchers

Heh, it’s probably a very vague description of the entire trip, but it was quite fun and a change of scenery from the usual urban sprawl. Enjoyed myself quite a bit.