Got my Chrome on -- finally!

After a whole bunch of testing, tweaking, and head-banging, Google Chrome is now working on my Linux box.

At issue was an nss file; I'm not real sure what it does, but it makes Chrome work. That's all I need to know.

I couldn't find it on any of my Vector Linux repositories, so I had to do some serious Web searching to dig it up. But it's there, on a web site called slackfind.net -- of course, it is now bookmarked in my system.

Here's the file:

Keep in mind, this is for a Slackware version of Linux, specifically Vector Linux, which is the one I use. It's in .tgz format, for me a breeze to install.

And Chrome is as fast as I knew it would be.

Firefox? What's Firefox?

###

Chrome becomes headache on Linux box

I'll admit it. I had my early misgivings about the Google Chrome browser when it was first coming out. Like, what's Google doing in the software business?

But after using Chrome a few times on Windows systems, it sort of grew on me. It's one fast browser, maybe even faster than Opera. It's less likely to blow up in memory like Firefox. I have a Portable Apps version that I use on borrowed Windows machines, though it doesn't seem to save my bookmarks.

On my Linux box, I'm always experimenting with browsers. I have Firefox, Seamonkey (which is built off the old Mozilla code), Dillo, Lynx, and Opera available to browse the Web, and I use them all. For the past few months Opera has been my go-to, and even that feels poky next to Chrome.

So I put myself on the Chrome mailing list, waiting for the Linux version to come out. A few weeks ago, the first version for MacIntosh and Linux was released, with all the warts.

Now, understand, this version is in beta. Which means it may or may not work. That's what happens when you go for such bleeding-edge software. You're volunteering your services as a crash-test dummy.

So far, only binaries of Chrome seem to be available in Linux; I haven't seen any source-code bundles just yet. I use Vector Linux, which runs with .tlz and .tgz binary packages, but I like to compile my programs from source. Best I was able to do was to download the .rpm binary (which Red Hat and Fedora use), and convert it over to .tgz. Here's what I did, from the root shell:

root:# cd /home/eric
root:# rpm2tgz google-chrome-beta_current_i386.rpm

From there, I was able to install it directly into my system. I was ready to go. I had my seatbelt buckled and my Tony Stewart racing gear on, 'cause this was going to be one fast browser.

A problem, though. I could only go so far; the sandbox (a security tool) wasn't configured right. My command shell told me what to do, so after a few days of deliberation I went ahead with the fix. Here's how, again from a root shell:

root:# su /opt/google/chrome
root:# chown root chrome-sandbox
root:# chmod 4755 chrome-sandbox

Then fired Chrome up from the command shell -- success, for a minute.

As it stands now, I can work Chrome all day, as long as I don't use it to go online. That's when it quits.

Seriously. Here's what I get in the command shell:

eric:$ google-chrome
[7241:7253:703254262:ERROR:/usr/local/google/home/chrome-eng/b/slave/chrome-official-linux/build/src/base/nss_init.cc(89)] Error initializing NSS with a persistent database (sql:/home/eric/.pki/nssdb): NSS error code -8174 Assertion failure: lock != NULL, at ../../../../pr/src/pthreads/ptsynch.c:205 Aborted

In non-technical language, that means it crapped out. Back to the drawing board.

Might need to download the next version, maybe attack one of the nightly builds. And if anyone has any ideas of their own, I'm willing to try them. But despite my early misgivings I see Chrome in my future, and I'm not talking about a chrome dome here.

I'm gonna keep trying, because I'm stubborn and enjoy fooling with software when it's in beta. Face it. I make a good crash test dummy.

###

(You tell me: How about the rest of y'all Linux users? Have you had any better luck than me? Use the comments section below.)

Single-tasking rules with new text editors

Maybe it's a longing for a simpler time, or the realization that your computer is loaded with distractions, but lately I've been seeing lot of text-editing programs designed to narrow your focus.

Multitasking is out now. Welcome to the wonderful world of single-tasking.  

I've been reading about the Darkroom program for Windows, and Writeroom for the Mac. Then there's WriteMonkey and PyRoom, two other programs that do absolutely nothing but give you a background to type your words on. Almost nothing to play with on any of these programs.

The big question here is, what fun is that? It's not like you can adjust your margins, change fonts, or add fancy graphics here. Your screen looks absolutely barren; even the desktop icons and Freecell game are blanked out.

I use PyRoom (which is pictured here), a text tool that shows you nothing but a green box on a black screen. My text shows up in green in that box. No formatting, no toolbars, no dancing paper clips -- just the text in a box.

When I wrote for the Fontana Herald-News, we used the old Harris typesetting system, which was ancient even in the late 1980s. PyRoom reminds me of the terminal I typed on back then. The only real difference was that there was a string of commands at the top of the screen, which were for setting the type and meant nothing to me, the writer. I was limited to eight characters for the file name (which we called a "slug" back then.

I was quite productive on these old-school screens because, well, there was nothing else to do but write. I'm easily distracted, so it's probably a good thing I don't have an Internet connection at home or I'd get nothing done.

Much as I've tried to multitask, I always do my better work when I'm going the opposite direction. That means when I write, I write. When I design the page, I design the page. Those two disciplines used to be -- and still should be -- kept separate. That's why I do most of my writing on a plain-vanilla text editor instead of something like OpenOffice or Microsoft Word.

With PyRoom you can set the background to a variety of color schemes, but I stick with the default green-on-black. And I understand with WriteMonkey you can even set the sound to give you the clacking of a typewriter; how cool is that? Other than that, your commands are pretty minimal with these programs. Here's the help file with PyRoom:

---------
Control-H: Show help in a new buffer
Control-I: Show buffer information
Control-P: Shows Preferences dialog
Control-N: Create a new buffer
Control-O: Open a file in a new buffer
Control-Q: Quit
Control-S: Save current buffer
Control-Shift-S: Save current buffer as
Control-W: Close buffer and exit if it was the last buffer
Control-Y: Redo last typing
Control-Z: Undo last typing
Control-Page Up: Switch to previous buffer
Control-Page Down: Switch to next buffer
---------

While Darkroom is a Windows program and Writeroom is ported to the MacIntosh, PyRoom has no real preference. It's written in the Python programming language, so it should work with all operating systems. It's also free. 

I wasn't sure I'd like using such a stark text editor, but the more I use it the more I like it. And I get a lot more done when I'm using it.

###

Chrome browser finally available for Linux

A beta of the Google Chrome web browser is now available for Linux.

About time!

Downloading now ... as I write this. Expect more after I install it.

Available in .deb (Debian) and .rpm (Red Hat/Fedora) binaries.

Try it with me, y'all penguinistas!

Running bombproof Vector Linux on netbook

When it comes to computers, I'm always up to something. It's probably one of my failings.

Although my netbook works very well with the mini-Linux system I recently installed, I wanted to standardize things a bit. I've been working toward a "final solution" that mirrors the system I have on the desktop unit.

So, I was up until around 3 a.m. one Saturday morning, installing a new operating system on the netbook. I am now using Vector Linux, a Slackware-based, rock-solid OS.

It wasn't difficult, but then I've installed many a system on my computers. Really, the only part that was different was that the netbook doesn't have a CD-ROM drive. I was using a thumb drive for the dirty work.

But it's up, running, and all that good stuff.

Part of it is, as I mentioned, I just can't leave stuff alone. In fact, that's partly why I needed to make changes to the netbook anyway -- in full experimental flight I toasted the Windows XP installation, corrupted some system files, and was left with a rather expensive paperweight until I broke out the tools and thumb drives.

In the interim I ran Puppy Linux, a fast little system that weighs in at less than 100 megabytes for the download. It's one of those simple-as-it-gets systems, blistering fast and a joy to use. Really, it's almost too much fun to be on a computer.

But Puppy Linux is a little squirrelly when it comes to downloading and installing new software. That's something the developer is working on and while he's making some real strides, it's not there yet. Plus, I wanted my laptop to have the same system I have on my desktop. Some consistency is always a good thing. That's why I opted for Vector.

OK. Linux is Linux. It's all built around the same kernel, the same X windowing system, the same basic command-line programs you never see. Over the years the gap between the graphics-happy Windows and stodgy command-line Linux has closed, but the solid UNIX base remains. Plus, Linux is free, and tailor-made for those of us who keep experimenting and breaking things.

Vector Linux is based on Slackware, which is probably the most stable, most Unix-like of the Linux versions. I've followed its development for several years, and it was the version I've stayed with the longest. I'm using version 6.0 on the netbook, the same as on my desktop. In fact, it all came from the same download.

See, that's one of the things about Linux. The licensing is different. You can take a download and set up as many computers as you want with it, and there's no Bill Gates around to tell you you're a pirate. In fact, this share-the-love practice is encouraged. I can burn as many CDs of the system as I want, give them away, sell them for a few bucks, as long as the GPL license (which they call a "copyleft") is intact.

Again, installing is a little problematic on the netbook because there's no CD-ROM drive. The best workaround is by using Unetbootin with a thumb drive. I put Unetbootin and the Vector Linux .iso file (which is what you get when you download) onto the drive, then used a Windows computer (had to go to the library for that) to install Vector on the drive so it will boot up. Then clear up some room on the netbook hard drive, use gparted to create a partition for Vector, and reboot with the thumb drive. Follow the prompts on the screen (on my Acer, I hit F12 for boot options), and install Vector on the new partition, a process which sounds dangerous but it's a simple matter of following the prompts. Then put Vector on the GRUB boot loader (a simple cut-paste in a text file), reboot, and I'm running my new system.

OK. That's the simplistic version, and I know I lost many of y'all here. Let's just say I've done this a few times. Don't be surprised if I eventually put together something more detailed, something you can download.

The big zillion-dollar question: Did I lose my work files from the old Windows system? No. They're all there, and I can open and edit every one of them. What's even better, I have an emulation program called WINE that will run most of the Windows programs. In fact, the Windows installation is untouched. Should I rebuild my broken system files and get XP to work, then I have a choice of which system to start when I turn the computer on.

A couple of things still need work. At first Vector didn't recognize my onboard condenser microphone, ruling out recording. Strangely enough, though, I downloaded my favorite sound-editing software (Audacity) through Vector's repositories, and the mic works well with that. I kind of wish I knew why it would suddenly work, but I'm not going to complain. It took a bit of experimenting to get the webcam going, though it's not something I expect to use. So at least these issues are resolved.

I'm still looking for software that would put the laptop in hibernate mode when I close the lid. So far I'm not having much luck. The computer continues to run and the screen saver kicks on, so there's still some battery drain. Unless I find a handy program I can plug in, I may have to recompile the kernel. Now that's getting into territory that's way advanced for me.

But everything else works just fine. My wireless connection works as it did before. I added some of the pretties, installed Open Office, included my favorite news feed reader, and the netbook is battle-ready. With a system that's practically bombproof.

###

You tell me: Does the thought of installing a whole new operating system scare you? Do you break a lot of things while experimenting, or do you leave well enough alone? Any suggestions for my hibernation problem? Use the comments section for feedback.

Screenshot:

Vector Linux running on the netbook. The graphics interface is xfce4. Programs visible are Open Office, and xmms music player. Oh, if you insist, that's a command shell in the foreground, 'cause it IS Linux. I actually use mine. To the right is the gkrellm system monitor. I shot the background photo in Hawaii. Enough eye candy for you?

Chrome OS promising, but it's more for the future

It won't be ready for the general public for another year, but the sneak preview of the Google Chrome OS is generating quite a buzz.

It may be a Windows-killer, some claim. It'll put Linux on the map, say others. It'll be a fiasco, say still more pundits. So far, nobody's neutral.

Google Chrome, built from the Debian GNU/Linux operating system (which I've always liked), is designed for the ultralight, ultracheap netbooks that are not really built for much more than Web browsing and lightweight office work. And the Chrome system is really little more than a front end for "cloud computing" -- the use of online applications and storage.

According to the Google blog:

... it's all about the web. All apps are web apps. The entire experience takes place within the browser and there are no conventional desktop applications. This means users do not have to deal with installing, managing and updating programs ...

That in itself is enough to really stir the pudding in the computer world.

I guess that's the future of computing, and it stands to reason that one may not even need a hard drive in the future. That's the trend I'm seeing carried out to its logical conclusion, though it doesn't mean I have to like it.

I've fooled around some with online applications, such as Google Docs. While they're OK, I have trepidations about using these for everything. I've also played with bubbl.us, an online mind mapping program. While these concepts are great for portability -- you can access your stuff from any computer without even a thumb drive. I'd rather keep my documents on hard drive. I'm even chary about backing them up online, and I like a lot more choice about what applications I do use. But from what I've read, the Google Chrome system throws you right into the future.

Although InfoWorld’s Randall Kennedy says Google’s Chrome OS will be a big failure, Robert Scoble thinks it's just ahead of its time:

... what about my son who is in high school? By the time Chrome OS comes along in big numbers he’ll be in college. Why take a $1,000 computer to class? Couldn’t he do everything he needs to do on a low-cost computer that’s lightweight, replaceable, uses low power, and just uses the web? Absolutely. InfoWorld is making assumptions that the world is going to stay the same. That simply is NOT true ... what will run on these new devices? A heavyweight OS like Windows 7 that takes me 40 seconds to boot up and does a ton of stuff I really don’t need, or a new OS that just has Google Chrome as its centerpiece?"

Even with nothing but a Web browser? Scoble says this:

... hey, I just wrote this post on Google Chrome while sitting listening to Marc Benioff at the TechCrunch Real Time Crunchup. I have not seen a single thing demonstrated on stage yet that won’t run on Google Chrome OS ... this is a winner, but on a new field ...

I may download the Chrome OS and give it a shot, though I'm not all that enthused about it. Since it's a front end with little more than a graphic user interface, a few core programs, and the Chrome browser, why does the download weigh in at around three gigabytes?

Out of the box, the download on my current Linux operating system is a tick over 700 megabytes. And that includes all the programs that make the computer a self-contained one. You can get surprisingly complete Linux distributions on a 100-megabyte download.

Still, I'm intrigued by this system, and hope it is adopted early and often. There's no secret that I'm a big fan of Linux, and the Chrome OS may finally dissolve the perception that Linux is too busy being geeky to be useful.

Now, understand that none of this is carved in granite, or even in bologna. This sneak preview is available in source code format, and it'll be a while before the final, battle-ready version is ready. In the interim, those who grabbed the download are essentially beta testers. Run it, crash it, make note of what you did, and report back to the developers.

The new operating system still begs the question: What will it do with Microsoft's death grip on the PC market?

Taking the pundits' comments and working the middle ground, the answer is not a lot. TechCrunch writer M. G. Siegler suggests Chrome will nibble into the bottom end of the Microsoft market -- the netbooks, the cheap computers. But until Windows 7 was released, Microsoft had conceded that end of the market. Most netbooks came with some form of Linux preloaded, while a few had Windows XP. Part of the game plan behind Windows 7 (which I'm not going to review; I'm more interested in open-source software) was to recapture some of the netbook users, and by most accounts the new Windows is one of the best systems Microsoft has ever produced.

Siegler writes:

... Google’s positioning for Chrome OS reads like a page out of Apple’s playbook, only from the opposite direction ... Apple, of course, takes the opposite approach, targeting the high end of the market with their high-quality and high-margin machines. If Google is successful with its Chrome OS netbooks (let’s call them ChromeBooks), what we could see is the squeezing of Microsoft, an idea I first laid out a month ago. With attacks from the top and bottom, Windows will be relegated to the middle. And ultimately, if Google has its way, marginalized ...

Stay tuned.

###

After rough start, Firefox marks fifth birthday

I never would have expected this. Firefox is five years old.

Despite its promise from the jump, Firefox spent its beta period without any real identity. Literally.

At first no one was really sure what to call it. For a while it was known as Phoenix, then Firebird. I believe the developers had to come up with a fast name change because there's another piece of software called Firebird, and branding is a big thing in the computer world.

With such an inauspicious beginning, it's amazing to see that the product survived, let alone developed a reputation as a stable browser.

To further confuse things, Firefox is open source, meaning you can take the code, tweak it, build something else from it, and rebrand it. This was done with Debian Linux, as the Firefox brand is copyrighted though the source code is not, so that thing that looks and feels like Firefox is called Iceweasel or some such thing. I've also used BonEcho, a rebranded, stripped-down version of Firefox for the ultralight Puppy Linux.

For a while, one of the lesser-known and more tongue-in-cheek Firefox extensions available was called firesomething, which would put a whole different name on the browser every time you run it. The name on it may be SnowSnake this time, and maybe something like BlizzardLizard the next. It was a goofy extension, but brought a chuckle to this user who remembered Firefox's early search for a name.

The browser made it out of beta and released Version 1.0 five years ago this week. Within four days, more than a million people downloaded it. I was one of them.

I was one of the early Firefox adopters. I was running an assembled-from-scratch computer, and already I was sick of Internet Explorer's balkiness and security leaks. I went to the old Mozilla suite, and when that company announced it was throwing its resources into a new, browser-only project, I had to try it out.

The design was a thing of beauty. You were getting a basic browser, and you'd add whatever you feel you needed to it. Now, five years later, the modular design remains. My Firefox has the experimental Google Gears extension, plus the LastPass password keeper. But the biggest extension I have is ScribeFire, which allows me to compose blogs within the browser and post them seamlessly. ScribeFire is big, adds more bloat to the browser, and is sometimes buggy so I'm a bit lukewarm about it. But I use it.

A caveat about Firefox: The more add-ons and extensions you install, the slower it will run. It's like running a car with all the options instead of a model with power nothing and the kind of air conditioner you get when you open all four windows. But even with a lot of chrome on it, Firefox is a good browser, stable, and secure. The developers stay on top of things, and are quicker to solve their bugs than the Microsoft people are at admitting there's a problem with IE. For a while, Firefox had a problem where it would blow up in your memory and consume every CPU cycle you had, but that was solved several updates ago.

Over time, Mozilla dropped its old browser and made Firefox its big Web browsing application. Recently, some fans of the old Mozilla browser took the source code, tweaked a few things, updated the whole thing, and released it as Seamonkey.

Now, Firefox is taking a decent chunk of the browser market. It's the main browser by about 25 percent of Web users, but that's a funny number. Firefox is not routinely installed on computers out of the box, and many users tend to stick with what's already on the box -- like Internet Explorer. Figure it. To use Internet Explorer you unpack the computer, plug it in, and double-click on the big "e" on the screen. You have to go out of your way to get Firefox -- and then install it yourself. But, Firefox now grabs a bigger share than the obsolete IE version 6, which is still a step ahead.

Recently, MozillaZine announced that Firefox was present on a majority -- 50.6 percent -- of computers, based on numbers by the exo.performance.network. So someone, somewhere, is doing an awful lot of downloading.

But while Firefox has seen some real growth lately, the year-old Google Chrome is growing even faster. Roughly four percent of computer users are making Chrome the prime browser, so that one has a way to go, but the growth rate matches the buzz it's generating. I played some with Chrome, but its development has primarily been on the Windows and, more recently, MacIntosh side. Still, I'm pleased by its lightness and speed -- by comparison a fully-loaded Firefox is kludgy -- but Chrome has an unfinished feel to it. I do suspect that, once it is ported to Linux, I may put it on my front line.

Firefox is still my go-to browser, but mostly because it works better with much of the stuff on the Web (particularly the experimental Google Labs widgets). It's probably a little bloated for my taste, though. Much as I tend to shy away from those large, do-everything suites (such as Open Office), I like Seamonkey (the rebuilt and reissued Mozilla browser suite) a bit better. Even with the built-in mail reader and HTML editor, its design is lighter than the browser-only Firefox. I do like Opera for the same reason, though it hasn't caught on in the mainstream computer world at all. Too bad. Opera is the only one that has a chance of outrunning Chrome in a speed test. Both of them are much quicker than Firefox, while IE lags so far behind you'd need searchlights to find it.

But if you want pure speed, Lynx runs circles around all of them, including Google Chrome. But since Lynx is text-only, you might have a problem watching those YouTube videos on it.

Computer issues being resolved

I can say it now: The laptop is back among the living.

Most of my software is back up. I've knocked off most of my to-do list. I'm writing this column on it, and soon I will upload it and download email and news. I'm extremely pleased.

One of the things I noticed is that, with the new configuration, it's handling power better. I haven't checked to see if I'm getting any better battery life, as I tend to forget about things like time when I'm online. Gee, I could fly a passenger jet ...

But I have noticed that it's running much cooler when it's plugged in to the A/C adaptor. Seriously. It's not like I took its temperature (I'm not sure where to stick the thermometer), but I can tell the difference. I take that to mean the CPU isn't working as hard, a good thing.

From my master list, I still need to locate a program that will put the computer into sleep mode when I close the lid. My temporary operating system had that, so this shouldn't be difficult to find or install. From there, most of the work is either convenience or cosmetic -- like rebuilding my menus so they'd be a little more intuituve.

I still want to find an uncorrupted version of the Windows system file I blew out (hal.dll), but there's no rush there.

For the geekus extremis among us, here's a printout of some of the basics. If your eyes glaze over when someone mentions "CPU," feel free to skip over this part:

-Computer- Processor : Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N270 @ 1.60GHz Memory : 1022MB (267MB used) Operating System : Unknown distribution Date/Time : Tue 27 Oct 2009 01:31:22 PM GMT+5 -Display- Resolution : 1024x600 pixels OpenGL Renderer : Unknown X11 Vendor : The X.Org Foundation -Version- Kernel : Linux 2.6.29.3 (i686) Compiled : #1 Tue May 19 23:43:56 GMT-8 2009 C Library : GNU C Library version 2.9 (stable) -Current Session- Computer Name : epulsifer Desktop Environment : Unknown (Window Manager: Fluxbox) -Misc- Uptime : 17 hours, 5 minutes Load Average : 0.23, 0.15, 0.15

This "uptime" is interesting. Keep in mind, this is a laptop and I don't have that sleep-mode switch fixed, so it's been running, powered and plugged in, with the lid closed.

Just for yuks, I checked to see how long my desktop (which also runs on Linux) unit has been booted up without a restart:

7d 17:46

OK. I rebooted that computer a week ago. I usually only shut the desktop down when I'm experimenting with another computer (not enough power cords to go around), replacing a part, or moving the unit.

Just try doing that with Windows.

###

(Pictured is a screenshot from the laptop. OK, you may not recognize a lot of this stuff if you're a Windows user. The interface -- Fluxbox -- is pretty minimal, but it stays out of my way.)

Resurrecting laptop took plain & fancy fixes

OK. I think I'm back up and running.

Was out of the loop for a few days; my main access to the Internet went south until I was able to fix it.

This laptop is my mobile workhorse. Although I do much of my writing on the home computer, it's strictly a standalone unit that doesn't conect to the web. To upload and download, I use my Acer netbook for all the dirty work.

The Acer was victimized by my tendency to experiment. I'm not even sure what I did. I jiggled when I should have joggled, and corrupted a couple of system files. Now, that computer is driven by Windows XP, which doesn't lend itself well to evil experiments. Anyway, when I boot up into Windows, an error message pops up letting me know just what I'd b0rked, and won't let me go any farther than that. A dead computer.

Thanks to some other experiments I'd run, the netbook wasn't dead in the water for very long. I have a few quick-and-dirty solutions that brought it back to the land of the living, but I'm not done yet. Working on a "final solution," but the duct tape and spit will work for now.

From quick-and-dirty land:

I have a Linux system installed on a 1-gigabyte thumb drive, and I set up the laptop's BIOS to look there first before booting anything else up (instructions are on the screen). I'm using a variant of Puppy Linux, which is great because it runs in memory. Once I'm booted up, I can pull the thumb drive and work without that thing hanging out of the computer. It's probably an OCD thing.

If you're a Linux user, you can set up any version to run with a program called Unetbootin. It's very cool. You grab the .iso image file of whatever Linux version from the Internet, install it to the thumb drive via Unetbootin, fire up the computer with the thumb drive installed, and you're running Linux. You'll be able to access the files on your hard drive as before. The only caveat is that, unless your version of Linux is designed to run completely in memory (such as Puppy Linux), you won't be able to remove the thumb drive without screwing things up.

On that USB drive, I have all the goodies I need -- wireless fixins, a Web browser, text editor and word processor, and a program to play mp3s while I work. I'm all set there, at least for now. And I have the same system installed on a smaller, 256-megabyte USB drive that stays in my cell phone case, so I have a backup.

That was my temporary fix, and it served me well. But it wasn't the final solution. The good news is that over the weekend I got much closer to something more permanent. A newer, more expandable version of Puppy Linux is now installed on my hard drive, and I can boot directly into it without using the thumb drive. Much cleaner, much more permanent.

One of the limitations of Puppy Linux is that its ability to install newer software is a little squirrelly. The developer, a nice Australian guy named Barry Kauler, built the system for speed and a small footprint, and many of the add-in programs had to be adapted for that system. But, through the "woof" project, one is able to import software from Ubuntu repositories or the Slackware-based .tgz format.

I know this means nothing to non-geeky types, but here's the upshot: Newer, better software. With the old Puppy Linux, I'm limited to version 2 of Firefox; now I'm able to grab the newer -- and in this case better -- version 3.5.

OK. Almost there. But something's still missing:

I'm a news junkie, and a big part of my blogging is my ability to capture all the news I need. Plus, I want something that would give me some flexibility. I want to be able to move all this news from my laptop to the desktop at home.

In short, I want a portable RSS reader that I can use online or offline.

For those who don't know about such things, an RSS reader is the world's greatest invention for news junkies such as myself. You subscribe to your feeds, download the news you want, and read it at your leisure. Most news websites and blogs -- including this one and The Column, Reloaded (which I highly recommend) -- allow you to subscribe; but some will just give the partial feed, a paragraph or two, while others give the full text and graphics.

My own feeds include a handful of news outlets -- Yahoo! News, CNN, Newsweek, the BBC, ESPN. Plus many blogs. I have tons of political blogs in my feeds -- Daily Kos and the Huffington Post on the left, The Heritage Foundation on the right, and the libertarian Cato Institute. Although my politics are pretty well defined, I like to see what all sides have to say.

I never bothered counting the number of news feeds I have, but I have more than 1,00 news items to sort through every day. Some, obviously, are good for little more than a glance at the headline. Others I'll read, mark, prioritize, quote from, and link to in my blogs. And still others I'll forward to friends.

If you're a Gmail user, you have access to Google Reader, which fits most of the bill. But I wanted my news to be more portable than that. Google Reader does have offline capabilities, but that's still experimental.

I considered using a second, 8-gigabyte thumb drive that I use as my mobile storage disk. That's where I keep my work files, plus my Portable Apps suite.

I love Portable Apps. That's where I have a handful of to-go programs. There's Firefox, Abiword, Thunderbird, a few games, and Open Office, all on a flash drive that I can plug into anyone's computer, do my work, and leave no trace. I wrote about Portable Apps in my other blog, and it's one handy tool. The developers have some great programs available, but no RSS reader. And I'm ticked. In a pinch Thunderbird will work, but it's a poor option at best. And, these Portable Apps programs are Windows-based, meaning I need to use an emulator -- such as WINE -- to run them. Useful as WINE is, that's one layer of software I don't want to mess with for something as crucial as gathering the news.

While running my temporary system from the thumb drive, I experimented with several Linux-based RSS readers, and none were satisfactory. But with the freshly-installed Puppy Linux I tried the multi-platform, Java-based RSS Owl, and so far the interface works. While uploading this blog, I will test my installation to see if it actually downloads the news. I hope so. RSS Owl was my go-to news reader on Windows, so there won't be any real learning curve.

Fast update: It's working! I'm excited!

OK. What's still unresolved is my ability to share my RSS news with my desktop computer. The only real solution I see -- and this is theoretical -- is to score a router and network the two computers. But that's another project I'll study on later. My plate is already piled so high it's ready to tip over.

Here's my to-do list:

- Laptop lid switch - fix. (One problem with my system right now is that it doesn't go into sleep mode when I shut the lid. This means I either leave it powered up, or shut the whole thing down.
- Firefox 3.5 (Will download this in a few days.)
- Thunderbird, with calendar (My favorite mail reader, and there's a calendar add-on that, well, keeps me organized. Shoot, keeping myself organized is a losing battle most of the time, but let's not go there.)
- A couple of games (I'm not real big on that, but it's not all work and no play, and I do like a lightweight game or two every once in a while.)
- Gantt (This is a program that I use for planning, when time is important and there are definite steps to be taken. The one I use on my desktop is a Java-based program, and it's a simple download and install.)
- RSS reader!! (As I mentioned, this is being addressed.)
- qt3 (This is a series of library files that are needed to run Scribus, an open-source page layout program.)

That's the more important stuff. The rest of the list is something I can attack later:

- GIMP (This is an open-source graphics and photo-manipulation program, on a par with PhotoShop.)
- Audacity (This is a simple sound-editing program. I've used the laptop to record band rehearsals. Also need to come up with something better than the lousy condenser microphone that came with the laptop, but that's not an immediate need.)
- Open Office (I do have that, via Portable Apps, on my thumb drive. In truth, I don't use it all that much.)
- TweetDeck (This helps me organize my Twitter account, and it's quite useful. Twitter, by the way, is great for keeping up with the absolute latest news, but it's also the biggest time-waster since the Internet was invented.)

Enough already!

Torvalds: Creeping feature-itis bloats Linux

Linus Torvalds is getting nervous about the growth of his creation.

At a LinuxCon conference in Portland, Oregon, Torvalds said the Linux operating system is "bloated."

In 1991 Torvalds, then a student in Finland, created the original Linux kernel -- the base of the free operating system -- and is still involved in developing the kernel.

According to Slashdot:

... while the open-source community has long pointed the finger at Microsoft's Windows as bloated, it appears that with success has come added heft, heft that makes Linux "huge and scary now," according to Torvalds ...

My own thoughts here: You mean he finally figured this out?

Before the DVD became popular, the size of a Linux download was measurable in CDs. I always preferred the smaller, lighter versions that would take up, at most, one CD. One version of the Debian GNU/Linux operating system, though, weighed in at 14 CDs.

This bloat factor took off as Linux packagers tried to make a more user-friendly (read: more like Windows) system. And one of the selling points of Linux -- that you can run it on computers long deemed obsolete with each new version of Windows, became more of a stretch.

My own favorite Linux distribution, the Slackware-based Vector Linux, morphed in the past few years from a run-on-anything download of less than 400 megabytes to a bit over 700 megabytes. More features, more eye candy, but ... more bloat. To be sure, you can still get some extremely usable out-of-the-box versions that can run on anything from a Pentium on up, but they're getting a) harder to find and b) less visually appealing than before.

Review: Are Netbooks hip or hype?

I've joined the laptop crowd, kinda sorta.

Recently I acquired an Acer Aspire One, one of the new breed of mini-laptops that they in the industry call "netbooks." A pretty handy little device; about the size of a hardback book.

It's not a full laptop, and if you put it up against one of the larger, faster portables you'll definitely see a difference. But these smaller units have caught on, sold like crazy,  and created their own category: netbooks.

A bit of history on these netbooks: The idea came about a couple of years ago with the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project. This effort was to design a mini-computer rugged enough to tote everywhere, with wireless connectivity, no hard drive, and cheap enough to be distributed among third-world children. Or something like that, anyway. The designers hoped they could make a tough little $100 laptop. Of course this concept didn't work out in the real world as it did on paper, but the Acer -- like the Asus Eee, is a direct descendant of the OLPC project.

The last laptop I'd used was an old Toshiba Satellite, a 486 system running Windows 95. I can't remember how much RAM it had, but it certainly not enough to handle today's software. And for years I used a roll-your-own laptop, which was little more than a Sony Clie handheld (with a Palm OS) hooked up to a foldout keyboard. This was the ultimate in portability -- I could stow the two pieces in my coat pocket -- but I was limited in what kind of files I could move. This setup didn't have Internet access, though I could connect up by piggybacking through my desktop rig. This was great for what I really needed to do, keeping myself organized (always a monumental task) and editing text files away from home.

For a long time I had my eye on a cheap (read: thrown-away) laptop, but that wasn't forthcoming. Instead, I opted for the Acer, which goes for about half the price of most laptops, has wireless connectivity, allows me to work on the go, and is small enough to stow in my backpack. At a little less than two-and-a-half pounds, we're not talking about any significant load at all, and I keep it in a zippered document bag that fits it nicely.

It's lightweight under the hood, too. My unit has 1 gigabyte of RAM, an Intel Atom processor with 1596 mHz CPU speed, and a 160-gig solid-state hard drive. This last part is cool, as many Netbooks lack a hard drive, leaving you to save files to a USB thumb drive).

For connections it has three USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet port, a six-in-one memory card reader, and a slot for an additional storage card. Add some nearly-useless stereo speakers and a minimal built-in Webcam, and that's the package. None of it is truly outstanding, but that's where you decide exactly what your needs are before buying the Aspire -- or if you're half smart, any other computer.

Personal note: My desktop/workhorse is quite old (256MB RAM, 1.3 GHZ, 80G hard drive, running Linux), so the minimal hardware on the Aspire is not as big an issue with me. About the most memory-intensive thing I do is editing and mixing sound files, and I try to stick with software that's as bloat-free as possible. Plus, I'm not above a little vest-pocket engineering. I'm saving most of my files on a thumb drive anyway so I can work with them on the desktop (Linux) computer, and you can pretty much do anything with a USB drive that you can do with a CD-ROM -- including boot the computer directly from it.


Because it's a subminiature, it will take a lot of coordination and patience to use the Aspire. The screen is small -- a teeny 8.5 inches on the model I have, though some are 10 inches or larger. This one ... well, I find myself maximizing all my windows to fill the screen just so I can see them. The LCD screen is quite clear, though, so reading it is not a problem. On many Web sites, memorize where your PgUp and PgDown buttons are. You'll be using them a lot.

The keyboard is likewise small, in fact the same size as the Belkin foldout keyboard I used with the handheld. Although I'm good with a keyboard, I end up making more typos with this one because of the smaller keys and because I basically have bricks for hands. I don't recommend using this keyboard for long stretches.

The touchpad is a little squirrelly, too, mostly because I've never used one before. Like on a lot of laptops it's below the space bar, in the middle. In fact, right about where my thumb thinks the space bar should be. My unit did come with a half-sized USB optical mouse, so that's an option if that touchpad drives you buggy.

No real problems with the graphics, though sound leaves a lot to be desired. Even using headphones, playing music through it doesn't sound as good as it does from my desktop or mp3 player. I tried recording with the built-in mic, and immediately decided it's pretty bad.

Now that I've eviscerated the Aspire ...

I find it's best at going on line just about anywhere. The other day, bicycling home from work, I stopped off at a college campus, plunked my butt down on a bench, dragged out the Aspire, found a wireless signal, and went to work. Email. Downloaded a few songs. Checked a few Web sites (if you must know, some sites with info on how to put Linux on the Aspire!). Edited a column or two. Got quite a bit done. The only real on-the-road drawback is that battery life is limited to between two and three hours, so if there's some heavy work ahead you might want to pack the two-piece A/C adaptor.

I'm also keeping my most important files -- particularly my mp3 collection (at more than 1,800 songs and growing) -- on this unit's hard drive as a backup. That in itself is huge.

I'll grant you, this unit is nowhere near as powerful as the newer laptops or desktops you can get. Not even close. It clearly won't run under Vista, and Microsoft has been keeping XP around mostly for these Netbooks. That in itself doesn't worry me; Vista is an abortion anyway.

What was almost a deal-breaker for me is that most netbooks -- including the Aspire One -- have no CD-ROM drive. And the keyboard is much smaller than even your average laptop's. But the Acer isn't really designed to be someone's main unit, and even the limited specs make it a whole lot faster than my ancient desktop.

Another almost-deal-breaker for me is that it's very difficult to install or run a different operating system on this rig. Some versions of the Acer come with Linux, but this one is loaded with Windows XP Home Edition (Service Pack 3) -- ironically, Linux is my preference. Theoretically, I can install Linux via dual-boot, using the thumb drive in lieu of a CD-ROM to load the system. I'm still toying with it, and this will become fodder for a future posting.

Here's some bottom line stuff:

Don't buy the Aspire One because it's "cute," although I'll admit the little bugger IS cute. Don't get it if it's the only computer you have, unless you will only use it to go on line. Don't buy one expecting the latest gee-whiz bleeding-edge software. Don't get it if you plan to use the keyboard a lot, or have problems with smaller keyboards, or need a large display. Don't get it if you want Vista or whatever operating system Microsoft develops to replace that abortion. Don't get it if you can't leave stuff alone. Don't get it if you already have a perfectly good laptop, unless you're looking for a spare.

Get it, though, if you need to go ultraportable, if you want a mini-laptop that can go with you everywhere, or if you're looking for a cheaper option for a laptop.

==========

[You tell me! What's your experience with netbooks? Do you have one? Do you love it or hate it? Use the comments section for your input.]

Word processors? Bah!

(As seen on my home computer: MetPad in the front, Geany in the rear.)

Although a big part of my life is working with words, I don't process them.

In the past I have used most of the major word processors -- Microsoft Word since version 3.0, several Lotus programs, Open Office, and some of the old DOS-driven oldies such as PC-Write and Leading Edge. I've fooled with Google Docs. My computer has AbiWord on it, but I seldom use it.

Sounds almost blasphemous, especially for a writer. Why wouldn't I be interested in a word processor that does everything, checks my spelling and grammar, offers tips with that little animated paper-clip dude, and makes my coffee?

Although I'm cheap, it's not a matter of cost. AbiWord and OpenOffice are free. It's not because I use an old, resource-challenged computer -- my word processor doesn't eat that many CPU cycles. And it's not because I don't know how to run the software -- not with my background.

Part of it is simplicity, but the biggest issue is flexibility. Very little of what I write finds itself on a printed page. If you do much work with a computer, you might find this to be true yourself.

Most of my writing shows up in the blogs I keep. Some will be sent as email. Quite a bit of it stays on the hard drive, as notes to myself. It's a very rare occasion when I'll need to print something. Maybe a business letter to someone who does not have a computer or email (all three of them), occasionally song lyrics or lists for some of my musician friends, and that's about it. I don't even own a printer, and I don't plan to get one any time soon. If it wasn't for all of my on-the-go notes written out on yellow legal pads or index cards, I'd have a paperless office.

There was a time when word processors were the greatest thing since the toilet seat. But those days are gone, and that breed of software is fast becoming passe.

OK, so how do I write?

On the computer I use a text editor. Think of Notepad that comes with your Windows installation -- and that's a poor example of an editor. There are no font settings to mess with. There is no spell check. It's just text. Chances are your files will be saved with the .txt suffix, which is a magical word in these parts.

Try this sometime. Send someone a document as an email attachment, written with your favorite word processor. Is your recipient able to read the thing when he gets it?

If he has the same version of Your Favorite Word Procesor as you do, then there's no problem. But if you wrote it in, say, OpenOffice 2.x and he only has Microsoft Word or OpenOffice 1.x, there may be a problem. He may or may not know what that .ods suffix means when he's used to .doc or .sxw, and there will be translation headaches. Back in my word processing days, I'd let the reader know what word processor I used and maybe include instructions on how to convert the document, but most people won't do that.

With a .txt document, there is no translation issue. Something written in .txt can be read and edited by any word processor without any effort at all. It can be uploaded into a blog, added to a Web site, or filed away. And without all the font parameters and formatting, the document takes up less space on your hard drive and takes less time to upload.

But don't I miss the spell checkers and other fancies?

Not really. Your spell checker merely determines whether a word is in the dictionary. OK. So you meant to type "from" and got "form" instead. Your spell checker is not human, it knows nothing other than whether the word is in the dictionary. It will miss that error, but your reader probably won't.

While spell-checkers are a marvelous convenience, I believe they do not help writers write. The software does all the work; it becomes less necessary to edit the document. Or at least that's the perception. In truth, with all these conveniences, Americans have regressed in their ability to spell, to write, to communicate.

What's worse, a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) word processor forces the writer to pay attention to how the document looks rather than what is being communicated. If anything, the whole process is bass-ackwards. When you write, you think about what you're trying to say first, then worry about how it looks. At least that's the intention.

After I'm done writing the document, I'll decide what I want to do with it. If it's for print, then paste it or open it in a word processor or LaTeX formatter. If it's going into an email or in the blog, I'll just paste it into Gmail or ScribeFire, whatever I want. Old-time computer operators call this the "workbench" approach -- get it written first, save it, then format it. If this sounds like an extra step, that's the idea. You're taking off your writer's hat and putting on your typesetter's hat, and those jobs should be separated.

On my Linux box I'll use one of several word processors. The one which I used for this blog entry is MetPad, a variation of the old "vi" that gives me all the mouse usability and a sackful of keyboard commands (and I find the commands a lot faster than moving my coffee cup out of the way to get to the mouse). But I'll also use Geany, Nedit, or several others.

Windows users may find themselves considerably behind the curve when it comes to text editors. I mentioned Notepad, and it's horrible. The default setting gives you no word wrap (a function I insist on), but if you hunt around in the menus you should be able to find it. Your Windows box may have WordPad, which is a lot more useful. I recommend that one. Or if you can get Scite, that's even better.

Part of why there's so much more choice among text editors with Linux users is because many of us are programmers. I myself am not, but I've written a few small shell scripts to automate a few functions and did a lot of work with home-brewed .bat files back in my DOS days. Text editors are designed more for programming, but don't let that throw you.

You can use those same industrial-strength text editors to write a letter to Grandma. Or dash off a short blog entry. Or maybe your next million-seller novel.

You might not even miss your word processor.

Gettin' Geeky 1: Personal to-do list

Personal to-do list:

Deadline: Whenever.

- Install second hard drive (has Windows XP), put it in lede position. Reconfigure Grub boot loader. Partition; XP may get 10 gigabytes if I'm feeling generous. Use the rest for experiments.

- Install Vector Linux 5.9 on back end of "new" hard drive. Test it; potential blog TK. Want to pay attention to how it handles wireless; was a deal-breaker in v. 5.8. Potential blog entry?

- Check out website on getting Chrome to work through WINE emulator. Maybe give that a shot?

Some stats ... 'cause I can

Just for giggles, I was able to compile stats of the last 50 people who browsed on the sister site, The Column Reloaded, to illustrate which operating systems and Web browsers are being used by my readers.

Operating systems:

4 used Windows Vista.
38 used Windows XP.
7 used Apple OSX.
1 used what was called an "unrecognized" operating system.

Web browsers:

22 used Internet Explorer. Of those, 13 used version 7.0, and nine ran 6.0.

22 used Firefox. Of these, 16 used version 3.0, five were on 2.0, and one used version 1.5. Interestingly, that one was running the unrecognized OS.

6 used Safari.

(I used The Column, Reloaded because this tech blog is too new to generate any meaningful statistics.)

My blog is certainly not a real good sample of what people are using in their computers. In fact the numbers are practically useless, though they are interesting.

Interesting that Vista hasn't shown up more in my readership; I'd figured with all that hype somebody would have bought the system. But even brand-new, made-for-Vista-with-the-system-preloaded can be downgraded to XP, and I understand quite a few people have gone that route.

Being a dyed-in-the-wool Linux user, I'm disappointed there are no fellow penguinistas in the mix.

If I was a betting man, I'd say that "unrecognized" operating system is a BSD type. More of an industrial-strength UNIX, largely unknown among the masses but there's a following there. I'd fooled with BSD systems here and there, but really little more than a test drive. (Linux, too, is built from a UNIX base, and OSX -- the MacIntosh system -- has its roots in BSD.)

I'm intrigued by that even split between Firefox and IE. Now that's a real anomaly; in the real world Firefox doesn't have that big a market share. Most computer users, I'm afraid, think that big "e" icon on the desktop means Internet.

I'm also surprised no one was using Opera. I've run that off and on, and always liked it. It's fast, but you can't add all those extensions like you can with Firefox.

As for myself, I'm using a Debian Gnu/Linux derivative, with the Sid (unstable -- bleeding edge) build. To surf the Web I'm using Iceweasel, an unbranded version of Firefox 3.0.

Where did I get my statistics? Through Feedjit, which provided that "Playing In Traffic" box on this site. Another of those cool tools every blogger should have.