Category: IT

running win98 se on my notebook didn’t match my needs very well (e.g. network throughput when using pscp was only about 40 kb/s). consequently i quickly replaced it by windows xp pro (downloaded from codezone.ch). using windows xp, pscp throughput is about the tenfold (~400 kb/s). i guess scp on linux would yield even better rates, but as i lack space i decided not to install linux on that box anymore.

fortunately, the blog you’re reading won’t let you miss even a single tiny bit of the following extremely interesting and worldshaking news:

i’ve installed windows 98se on my stone-age-notebook! oh yeah baby – that rocks! it’s the most sophisticated os you’ll ever see.

next i’ll try to install onebase linux (features, screenshots), a promising distro i’ve recently discovered on distrowatch.com.

[update: onebase seems to be very similar to gentoo (and other source-based distros) by concept. it’s just not as powerful and flexible but a bit more joe-average-friendly in exchange. now that i realized that onebase still needs to be compiled from scratch, i probably won’t test it on my notebook (as it would take too long)]

that’s all, folks!

ps. sorry, i’ve forgotten to feed the current blogger hypes! ..like the hysteria about that french band.. uh what was its name again? some three letter thingie.. hm.. *cough* ..looks like i’m somewhat lost in translation here. further there seem to be more and more pin striped suits reading business class.. ehm.. flying, of course. apropos flying.. there’s a new virus circulating which forces bloggers prove their savoir-vivre by posting two-tone world maps. sure, that’s almost monotonous, so better publish a book with your blog’s best entries instead. don’t hesitate, the world has been waiting for it too long. or just stick with blogging and become a us-president one day ..eventually, that is. spicing up your blog with blurry pics and juddered video-feeds (a new “dogma”) may serve as afterburners.. eventually. last but not least, don’t forget to make some fun about those trend-followers, hypers and karma whores – that’s trendy and will make you superior and immortal. remember: “you’re unique, just like everybody else” :)

pps. oops, i did it.. be assured it will never happen again ;>

i tried to install the new progeny componentized linux on my notebook, but the kernel of the installation cdrom crashed when probing for pcmcia support (most kernels fail at this point, my notebook seems to have a wacky pcmcia implementation). unfortunately even the “noprobe” kernel option didn’t help. a componentized, debian-based linux is a nice approach however.

currently, i try to install mandrake 10.0 rc1. eventually i’ll also have a look at the new gnustep livecd..

astonishingly most linux livecds easily detect and correctly configure the hw of my somewhat special notebook whereas most distros already fail when booting the installation cdrom. and if they don’t fail at booting, they usually require the administrator/user (iow: me) to configure most things manually. obviously it’s not the linux kernels but the distros’ installers which are responsible for the installation nightmares.

[update: installation of mandrake 10.0 rc1 failed. its installation routine was rather buggy and quite many essential (base-)rpms couldn’t get installed for unknown reasons. the gnustep livecd failed to recognize the ide controller as, even in expert mode, i couldn’t supply the required ide2=0x180,0x386 kernel option. i know i could supply it using grub’s fallback-menu, but this would be bad style for a livecd..]

an ideal linux installation would be: boot knoppix, then let it install itself (including the configuration!) to the hard disk. good news: it can be done, though i’ve never tried it myself. it’s described in the knoppix faq, last question! uhm.. i think i should give it a go :)

[update: the livecd distro morphix seems to be suitable for persistent installation :) ]

i just tried to install the windows longhorn pre-alpha preview edition (downloaded from http://00001001.ch/students/).. and.. well, you know.. there was a bluescreen 5 seconds after booting the installation cdrom ..which in turn abruptly ended my endeavour. i guess that’s why it’s called pre-alpha ;)

never mind, it’s xp-erimental only..

time to start believing in voodoo..

first, i figured out that the wlan card (zyxel zyair g-100) i bought upon recommendation (by another lugs-member) is not that great at all.. looks like an increasing number of wlan card manufacturers don’t include flash-eprom chips anymore.. as a consequence, one needs to fiddle with firmware files for using this card with linux. how nasty! and this just because of a lacking 0.10 $ piece i’d gladly overpay with 10 $. thus: don’t buy this card or any other card with a prism54 chip unless you know what you’re doing!

next, i’ve booted my notebook just to find out that its very new 40 gb hdd is broken. it made some rattling noise and that was it. nada, nothing worked anymore.

murphy #1: the data i had on my notebook was the only data i didn’t have backups for (yesterday i remembered i should backup the stuff soon). gone my nice fluxbox-setup, my suse and win xp installations, most of the stuff of my studies, my mindmaps and so on.

murphy #2: i bought this hdd from a shop (computerexpress) that went bankrupt shortly thereafter. can’t return it.

antimurpy #1: murphy #2 doesn’t matter that much as i would never return/send in a hdd containing private data anyway. no way to “dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/hda”-it, it’s severly broken.

at least i still had the old hard disk at hand. transplantation went smoothly, patient (i.e. my notebook) is alive again. yet it’s a very regrettable thing. apart from losing my data i now have to live with the ibm-hdd’s much smaller (6 gb instead of 40 gb), slower and louder predecessor again. dang.

this is now the 3rd 2.5″ hdd within 15 months that died (r.i.p.) and for the first time it was my notebook’s hdd (the other two hdds died due to overheating inside my barebone-server). two of these hdds were manufactured by ibm (now hitachi). coincidence?

antimurphy #2: i probably won’t install linux on that 6 gb hdd again. it’s too much of a hassle (my notebooks hw is rather specific) and space is scarce. positive effect: no need to worry about proprietary and silly wlan cards anymore ;)

antimurphy #3: having lost all that data i am at the starting point again. plenty of options, no more legacy stuff.. os-wise i might even try to install longhorn. i doubt this is a good idea (hw is probably not powerful enough), but it might be worth trying.

it’s not only time to start believing in voodoo, it’s probably also time to watch the market for new notebooks/tabletpcs..

looks like an interesting project.. i’ll take a look at it as as soon as there is time: linux on windows (via circle.ch)

[update 20030126: there seem to exist other, similar projects: colinux (german introduction by symlink), umlwin32 ]

recently, i’ve checked out magnolia cms. it can be installed and configured very quickly (in about 10 minutes). editing is easy as well. in fact, i’ve never seen any cms with such an ease of use before. sure, it only offers basic features so far (story publishing, simple forms, basic content-management), but my impression of it was a good one. i particularly like its emphasis on standards, notably the upcoming jcr (java content repositories).

so far, i haven’t taken a look at its internals though. i thus can’t comment on code-quality, architecture, documentation etc. yet.

all in all recommendable for anybody who doesn’t need bells and whistles but simple yet flexible, easy content management with an excellent protection of investment (both open-source and built on standards). well suitable for personal, soho and smb use.

recently i’ve revisited freedesktop.org. it’s amazing how fast this community-driven project is making progress! particularly the x server, a better replacement for xfree86’s x server. just take a look at these nice screenshots on keith packard’s page! this x server offers many new features we all have been waiting for, among them hw-accelerated, true transparency, shadows and shades (keith’s explanation of the implementation).

freedesktop.org also hosts a pile of other desktop-related projects. very promising: cairo, a “vector graphics library with cross-device output support”. this will enable quartz-/quartz extreme-like, hardware-accelerated, device-independent pdf display/output, but even with greater flexibility (it also supports postscript display/output) :)

go freedesktop, go! :)

take a look at the remail website! this interesting project by ibm research comes close to my vision of an ideal “communication center client” :) remail is flow-based instead of just entity-based, integrates different kinds of communication facilities and information sources (i guess it’s modular and easily extendable), ties information to time/calendar functions and offers more flexibility and better customization (e.g. various message flags, better categorization, keeping track of important things etc.).

btw. ka-ping yee (of roundup fame) is credited as an intern.

let’s hope there will soon be a public (open source?) prototype to test-drive..

(source: symlink, infoweek.ch)

see this page (at the bottom) on how to get rid of the distracting color-flip-ads and make acrobat reader 6.0 advertising-free..