Online Learning: IBM Developerworks

Category: Techtoday

Like most people, I love Wikipedia. I think it's the greatest reference and entertainment site on the Internet. However, I'm appalled that two of the most popular search engines, Bing and Google, always list Wikipedia entries so high in their results. This is especially disconcerting when searching for developer topics such as XML and HTML5. As well-written as Wikipedia entries are about Internet standards and current technology, referring to Wikipedia as your primary resource for those fields crushes whatever legitimacy you have. Most people forget that search engines are driven by unholy forces that are not as accurate as you may like. A whole course on researching on the Internet should be developed for the general public. This is the reason why it's always recommended to bookmark exceptional and well-written online resources and not depend too much on Google and (shudder) Wikipedia. Use CTRL+D or your Bookmark bar when you find a diamond in the rough.

One of my favorite online resources is IBM Developerworks. The articles are written by professional developers/technical writers. The content is relevant to non-developers (like me) and developers alike. Although it's regularly updated with cutting-edge discussions about current standards, I visit Developerworks for their archived articles that deal with consumer technologies such as XML, EPUB, and XSLT. Some of the articles expect a level of competence, but there is always something to learn. The Linux section in particular always proves to be interesting and worth a visit. Although the Linux articles don't treat its audience with kid gloves, there are plenty of articles available dealing with straightforward concepts such a command line trick or two which are actually useful for non-enterprise home users.

IBM Developerworks is for the serious learners - it's not a website you casually browse and leave after two minutes. You actually commit to the articles or tutorials. The site is generous, with many of the articles available in PDF. Although it's not as media-centric as Microsoft Virtual Academy, it's also much more comprehensive and detailed in its discussions. You pull up topics and areas you want to learn and it's really up to you to absorb the admittedly heavy text.

IBM may not have the same brand-awareness it used to have during its heyday but it was (and still is) a powerful contributor to the progress of the Internet and personal computing. Learning from IBM Developworks' impressive technical library takes effort, but it's definitely worth the time.

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Windows 8 Hybrid Review from a Linux User's Perspective Part 2

The Tiles and Charms Bar

Once you get used to snapping a tile down to get the options, rearranging and working with the Start tiles is actually fun. I tried to envision the KDE Netbook interface on a tablet in my mind and realized that although Linux fans like myself would love it, a casual Mac or Windows user would hate it. The Windows 8 tiles were colorful and seemed much more engaging than the iOS home screen. Moreover, there are more configuration options. It is, however, an unfair comparison since the iOS layout has been around for years while Windows 8 is only getting started.

When I was working on the preview build of Windows 8 released to developers, I never saw the point of the Charms Bar. However, I began to realize just how useful the Search option is on the Charms Bar when I began to work regularly with a touch screen tablet. It's a surprisingly clever but subtle innovation. I understand why so many "experts" use it as a bullet point for Windows 8's usability issues, but if they actually invested time in getting something done rather than complaining about their fingers they'd actually understand what it's for.

Other features

NFC (Near Field Communication), in theory, is neat but it takes two to tango so it's fairly irrelevant right now. In the future though, I can certainly see people bumping tablets while walking on the road once everyone owns an NFC-supported tablet. Setting up wireless and bluetooth was nothing new on the Vivo tab and admittedly a cake walk compared to my recent experience with LXDE and xFCE-based Linux distributions.

Although I would have liked more time with the Wacom digitizer, I can safely say that Wacom did a good job making their pens work with a touchscreen. I am worried about durability though. Corning Fit Glass panel or not, you can get really rough with a digitizer pen especially when drawing something very detailed in CorelDraw or Painter.

Secure Boot: Fail

I docked the Vivo tablet and plugged in a LiveUSB of Knoppix. I quickly entered the BIOS and disabled Secure Boot and set the system to boot to USB. The system booted into Windows 8 in a flash. I played around with the settings of the Security tab in the Aptio BIOS, allowing all removable media to execute boot. As expected, neither Knoppix or a LiveUSB openSUSE 12.2 I had with me booted. I wasn't surprised that I was unable to boot into Linux though I was pretty sure if I had more time with the system I would have been able to work around the BIOS locked Secure Boot the way I was able to with the Windows 8 desktop. That said, it was nice to actually see Secure Boot work and protect the hybrid system from another OS (even if it was my beloved Linux).

Conclusion

It's a Windows tablet and you can use it with a keyboard. I don't see why users should gripe so much about the Windows 8 interface. If you can learn an HTC phone's interface or a customized Samsung Galaxy S, why should you complain about the tiles, the Charm Bar, and the apps? For all the points leveraged against Windows being able to support legacy software, many people also complain when their old stuff stops being compatible. Even Linux users recognize that Windows' ability to support older applications and hardware is one of its strength and if that's a necessity in your work than a Windows 8 hybrid should be up your alley. Like most devices, you have to understand what you would want a Windows 8 hybrid. For me, it provides quick access to Windows applications and still provide the entertainment a tablet provides. The experience can only get better when Microsoft apps quadruple and offer not only quantity, but quality apps.  Imagine when dual-booting a Windows 8 hybrid with a Linux OS or Android is perfected. The possibilities would be endless.

I dread the day that an Ubuntu tablet is released and it's not really a dig against Ubuntu or Linux in general. I'm just impressed with Android and Windows 8, both of which can only get better. Forcing KDE, LXDE or (perish forbid) Unity to work on a tablet would be a lot of work considering those desktop environments are already perfect for real serious tasks on a full system.

openSUSE KDE Plasma Netbook interface

After a scant couple of days with the hybrid tablet, I grew comfortable swiping around Windows 8 and was always reassured that dependable applications in Windows (VLC, Chrome, Media Player, Acrobat, SyncToy, Photoshop, CorelDraw, Office, and dare I say it, old-school favorites like Britannica and Encarta) were only a Windows+D away.

Would I buy a Windows 8 hybrid if I could ever afford one? Sure. As any true-blue Linux user knows, Linux plays just fine with Windows and some time in the future, it might be a good idea to add another Windows system in my Linux playground.

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Windows 8 Hybrid Review from a Linux User's Perspective Part 1

Category: TechToday

Having enjoyed Windows 8 for months now and learned just how important the shortcut keys are in using the desktop, it was time to get my hands on a Windows 8 hybrid. So, I took it upon myself to try out the ASUS Vivo Tab - a Windows 8 tablet with a keyboard dock. Unencumbered by reviews from Windows haters, I unseated the tablet and tried all the tasks I would normally be doing on my iPad and ran it through a normal day similar to what I what do with my Windows 7/openSUSE/Lubuntu machines

To fully enjoy a Windows 8 tablet, there is one thing every user should keep in mind. And it's an important point that most "experts" missed when they wrote their close-minded articles about the "dual" OS: When you're using Windows 8 as a tablet, think "tablet." When you're using Windows 8 with a keyboard, think "desktop". When you're in the Start screen (with the tiles), don't think about Task Manager, menus, Device manager, and desktop settings. Focus on Windows Apps and touch the same way you would on an Android tablet. When you're on the Windows 8 desktop (accomplished by pressing Windows+D), try not to touch the screen or swipe around. You're in a newly redesigned and smartly revamped Windows 7 desktop. Being aware of what you're doing goes a long way in ensuring you catch the nuances of Windows 8 on a tablet.

Essential lessons

The first lesson I learned with the hybrid is because the bezel is designed differently, you would have to drag your finger from the top edge of the bezel all the way down to close an app. This was initially confusing because I kept dragging down the app the normal way I would drag items on an Android or iPad and the Win8 app wouldn't close. Before I figured out that my finger had to be on the extreme edge of the bezel, I had to close the app using the classic ALT+F4 shortcut - which still works on the desktop.

The second lesson I learned was that you don't need that many apps. Sure, if you'll be spending most of your time using the hybrid as a tablet, it helps to run a utility or application designed for touch but to be honest, I hardly noticed. I ran VLC to watch videos, played music, and worked on vector graphics (using the included Wacom digitizer) and it all worked like usual. I was hoping to do a bit of troubleshooting and try out the new Windows 8 Task Manager but nothing out of the ordinary happened.

I'm not an app junkie but since Windows 7desktop  applications are compatible on Windows 8, I don't get the whole hullabaloo about the lack of Windows 8 apps. The Comic Rack utility I use in Windows 7 installed fine in Windows 8 and using it on the tablet was comfortable and it certainly had more features than the available iOS comic book apps installed on my iPad. On occasion, the menus were hard to "click on" when I used it in tablet form but Comic Rack and even Adobe Reader were still usable considering how large the display was. And if you're suffering from iTunes withdrawal, you can install it on a Windows 8 hybrid and access everything like normal (meaning you can play podcasts and MP3s).

The third lesson I learned that the hybrid experience is great for hobbyists, digital artists, developers, and animators. I docked the tablet, pressed Windows+D, and wrote an XML document in Notepad+++. I undocked it, rotated the tablet 90 degrees for a portrait view, and previewed the code in a browser. Embarrassingly enough, I was vainly adoring my admittedly disorganized code in Google Chrome as I swiped up and down.

For creators and developers who work on applications like Photoshop or Painter, there's definitely something to be said about seeing your work immediately on a tablet. This alone may be a strong argument for digital artists to get a Windows 8 hybrid. Even if you didn't like the included Wacom digitizer and preferred a Cintiq, it's still quite satisfying to pop out the tablet and show your finished work to someone. Writers can publish their EPUB file using open source Sigil or InDesign and hand the tablet to a friend, proofreader, or skeptical publisher.

Reading with the Hybrid

Since I primarily use my iPad for reading, I tried out the Windows 8 Reader and MyLibrary apps. The 11.6 screen of the Vivo Tab felt large even though it was only "slightly" bigger than the iPad. I remember a time when people hated the 10" screen introduced in netbooks for being too small and now not only are 7" tablets like the Google Nexus 7 popular, it's more likely going to be the standard size for tablets.

The Reader and MyLibrary apps handled EPUBs and PDFs very well. The Designer Elements PDF ebook rendered faster on the Win8 tablet than on my iOS though it was equally slow with the Hong Kong Trail Guide which my iPad had trouble with. Take note, however, that the Vivo Tab has an unimpressive Intel Atom Z2760 processor. A Windows 8 tablet with a quad core processor would have fared much better.

One thing I had to get used to while reading an ebook with the Vivo Tab was the Charms Bar. The Charms Bar will pop up when you swipe the right edge of the screen and since I normally read ebooks like I read normal books I kept triggering the Charms bar. Soon, however, I got used to swiping from the middle of the page rather than the edge of the page to avoid the Charms bar.

Windows 8 Hybrid Review from a Linux User's Perspective Part 2: Secure Boot, the Charm Bar and Conclusion

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Why is installing openSUSE software using Yast slow?

Category : openSUSE

When using openSUSE's exceptional Yast to install software, users may feel like the software package manager takes too long to load. Moreover, clicking on Abort or Cancel really doesn't work as Yast will still attempt to connect to the software repositories (and can be very stubborn about it). Once a user runs the software manager, it can be pretty difficult to disconnect from the process even if you click the Skip Autorefresh button. Slow or a blocked Internet connection often result in annoying messages regarding your network connection.

As bad as it sounds, the Yast software manager is still much better than Apper, which is much slower and can cause havok on the KDE desktop.

One workaround is to disable the autorefresh settings of all or specific repositories. Better yet, remove repositories you don't need any longer (like that one time install of a game or utility you eventually uninstalled). When you disable automatic refresh of a repository, Yast won't refresh the repositories when you run Yast's software manager. If you're planning to install a new or updated software package (such as a new release of Chromium), then you either won't be able to search for it in the repository or you'll come across an older version. If you're planning to install a fairly pedestrian piece of software which hasn't seen much updates (say, an old text editor), it's fine to install the software without refreshing the repositories.

A better option for an improved experience when installing applications is to use Konsole, KDE's default terminal. Using the zypper command, you can have precise control over how openSUSE installs applications and which repositories to access. Admittedly, zypper doesn't necessarily make installation any faster especially if your Internet connection is really bad. However, you do have more options when it comes to specifying packages and accessing specific repositories.

For a quick tutorial on the zypper command visit the openSUSE Zypper Cheat sheet

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The Keyboard Experience: Laptops, netbooks, tablets, and QWERTY

There was a time when people ranted about keyboards. IBM Thinkpads were once lauded for their exceptionally tactile and responsive keyboards. Gamers shelled out good, cold cash for expensive desktop gaming Logitech keyboards just to strafe opponents properly and with gusto in Doom, Duke Nukem,Descent, or even Wolfenstein. When Bluetooth came around, mobility was more of a priority than keyboard comfort. Keyboards were a secondary concern just six or seven years ago when laptops became affordable and people shopped for portables based on the processor (this was the time of Intel Pentium M), battery, and overall performance. Laptop shopping advice columns were written urging shoppers to try-before-you-buy the laptop keyboard before investing in an Acer, Dell, or HP portable, but casual users were more concerned about the price to performance ratio than anything else. A full-sized keyboard for 14" laptops was plenty real estate after all.

Keyboards became a huge issue once again when netbooks came along. Reviewers eviscerated the netbook for its key placement, cheap plasticky feel, and lack of resistance. American tech sites wrote repetitively about how men with huge Hulk-like hands could never use the netbook. Manufacturers took steps to improve the keyboards in netbooks until even the cheaper ones provided a good typing experience. But by then smartphones were coming along and touchscreens became the latest fad. Now no one gives a damn how bad a keyboard is. It's about touch now.

It's strange how fickle the general consumer is. The old cellphones had horrible keypads and weren't ideal for typing messages of any length (thus the rise of horrible grammar and extremely abbreviated sentences) but countries all over the world held Nokia or Samsung sponsored "texting" contests. Onscreen keyboards in Windows and Linux have been around for years but once Apple made the onscreen touch keyboard standard on their iPhones and iPods, you'd think it was the second coming of Wonder Bread.

As a user who is happy with any electronic device I can afford, I have nothing against touch screen keyboards, but any developer would tell you that the keyboards on a well-made netbook are a hundred times better than those on a tablet or smartphone. Unfortunately, the tablet and touch trend dictates the industry moves away from physical keys towards touch-sensitive capacitive ones. Ultraportables have the same quality of keyboards as mainstream laptops or mid-sized netbooks so they don't really count as a new thing, but the keyboards on hybrid tablets such as the Microsoft Surface are definitely going to come out and try to bring something new to the table. IPad keyboard accessories from Belkin and Logitech started the trend years before so perhaps there's nothing new in these detachable typing sets after all.

In the old days, my brother had a generic whitebox with a clunky keyboard. I felt guilty mangling that keyboard while I played Space Quest, Wing Commander, Hexen, and Quake. It surprisingly survived my days of shooting and battering orcs, heretics, and Kilrathi pilots. As long as I could also write journals in Wordstar or WordPerfect ala Doogie Howser M.D., I didn't mind that the keyboard kept my dad awake or was slowly giving me arthritis. Later on, I equipped my own makeshift PC with a super-cheap Genius keyboard that sadly required the proportional strength of a spider in order to type with. I was horrible at "texting" with my first Nokia phone and even worst with a QWERTY smartphone a few years later. I initially thought I could write whole stories on-the-go on my iPod (I was wrong) and hardly ever type on my iPad except for adding notes on the Calendar app.

I've never been picky with keyboards. However, after testing a Windows 8-powered hybrid tablet I realize now that the best keyboards I've ever used were on my retired 7-year old Acer Aspire 5500Z and my 3-year old ASUS EEEPC 1000H netbook. Although I spend 75% of my life hammering away on a desktop keyboard, the netbook and laptop's keyboard fit me better than any desktop keyboard I've ever used in any company I've worked with. Ironically, I'm more prone to errors on my Lenovo Ideapad Z360's full-size, island-style keyboard than I am on the 1000H netbook or the old Aspire. I guess it takes all kinds.

I wonder what's next for keyboards. Replacing physical keyboards with touch screen keyboards is similar to replacing printed books with ebooks. It's almost inevitable. There are many people who prefer the feel of a page and cover to an ebook in the same way programmers and developers prefer the clicking and clacking of keyboards than with a synthesized beep. The keyboard, like the mouse, is an aging and obsolete input device . . . but I think the keyboard is perfect the way it is. Can you remember your favorite keyboard?

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Lubuntu Basics: Setting up Bluetooth Part 2

Category: Linux

To send files using Bluetooth in Lubuntu:

1. Click the Bluetooth icon on the panel and click Send files to device. You can also click on the paired Bluetooth device listed (e.g. MAC-Brian in the screenshot below) and click Send files.

2. Select a file to send. 

3. Select the device to receive the file. Click Send. Click Accept from the recipient device.

By default, the Bluetooth applet should load on boot though this really depends if Lubuntu detected a Bluetooth device during Lubuntu's installation. If you want the Bluetooth applet to load on boot, open the LXPanel and click Preferences then Desktop Session Settings.



In the Desktop Session Settings window, select Bluetooth Manager and click OK.

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Lubuntu Basics: Setting up Bluetooth Part 1

Category: Linux

Running a cursory examination of the default Lubuntu menu will merit no entry for any Bluetooth utilities. However, Lubuntu supports Bluetooth-equipped hardware out-of-the-box. This overview will make use of an ASUS EEEPC 1000H.

For the ASUS EEEPC 1000H, pressing FN+F2 will switch on only the Wi-Fi card in Lubuntu and not the Bluetooth module. Other laptops will more likely function in the same way.

To pair Bluetooth devices using Lubuntu:

1. Press ALT+F2. In the Run window, type bluetooth and select bluetooth-applet from the suggested search results.

2. The Bluetooth logo will appear on your Panel items. Right-click the logo and select Turn on Bluetooth.

3. For the ASUS 1000H, the Wi-Fi LED will light up indicating the Bluetooth module is on.

4. Click the Bluetooth logo and select Visible to allow other devices to detect the device.

5. On the Bluetooth menu, select Set up new devices to launch the Bluetooth New Device Setup wizard.

6. The system will detect available Bluetooth devices. Filter the device types and change PIN options if needed.

7. Select the Bluetooth device you want to pair with on the list. Click Continue.

8. Lubuntu will display a PIN. Enter the PIN on the Bluetooth device.

9. Once the Bluetooth pair has successfully been set up, click Close.

Lubuntu Basics: Setting up Bluetooth Part 2 - Sending a file and starting Bluetooth on boot

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Video podcast iO9's "We Come From the Future" ends

Surprisingly enough, there are very few really good video podcasts out there. New York Times, Minute Physics (my personal favorite), Dilbert, and io9 We Come From the Future, which sadly aired their last episode recently, are some of the video podcasts that are definitely worth a look.

Unlike most video podcasts I follow, iO9, which was hosted by the bespectacled Esther Inglis-Arkell and adorable Annalee Newitz, is less of an educational podcast and more of a short entertainment clip. Still available through YouTube, iTunes, and Revision3, the videos are high-resolution and of exceptional quality. Production values and the editing were also very good. The download sizes for each episode is a little bit bigger than normal if you're using iTunes, but I always felt it was worth the wait. The series discussed comic books, games, TV shows, popular culture, and science fiction. Esther and Annalee carried the show with their infectious enthusiasm for both the absurd and the rational. Although some of the topics were clearly for a today's generation (e.g. Twilight, Harry Potter, and romance books), Annalee would make the occasional reference to old-school movies such as The Last Starfighter and Tron. Oddly enough, I wasn't really familiar with many of the books they discussed or the TV shows they mentioned (save for the popular ones like Fringe), but the show was goofy and the hosts endearing.

The show made me realize just how broad the geek culture and popular sci-fi community was. Unlike other self-serving video podcasts primarily produced by egotists and attention whores, We Come From the Future was refreshingly honest about being opinionated. Fanbois can be extremely volatile and the hosts had fun while treading extremely shaky grounds (from fandom perspective at least). Their recent episode discussing James Bond was certainly a different look at the aged superspy, while an earlier episode previewing the awesome Avengers film made me want to hit the theater a second time. Although I really didn't know the guests (particularly the sci-fi authors) they had on the show, I did like lovely Felicia Day's brief appearance through webcam and cutie Veronica Belmont (co-host of Tekzilla among other shows) serving as a temporary co-host.

It's sad to see an entertaining show go especially with such few episodes aired. There were many other topics I would have liked them to take on such as Game of Thrones, MacGyver, and Spider-Man (though it's obvious the pair were more Batman and DC). Ester and Annalee had their odd and awkward moments (such as that ridiculous Jedi sword-fighting tutorial) and less interesting episodes, but not as terrible as some of the low-brow forced crap out there. Esther gets Experimental was nice but the fun was more about seeing them run the experiment than demonstrate the science behind it. Overall, however, the webisodes were funny and a welcome break from all the educational content I watch on my iPad.

Kudos to Ester and Annalee for a great and truly underrated run. And I hope we get to see them again . . . in the future!

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Goodbye Asiator.net!

During the Internet bubble, the death of so many web sites and services was largely ignored. Communities and dedicated users weren't quite devoted to any web site quite yet in those days. Although apathy and detachment still reign on the Internet (except when it comes to fan sites about vampires and wizards), users today are more aware of their loss when a website closes down. It's the niche websites that don't get much attention in the Internet primarily because they're users are fewer and extremely consistent.

Asiator.net specialized in torrents for Asian movies, Asian movie subtitles, and Asian music videos (including K-Pop and J-Pop). The concept was unique and the content was broad. At a time when Japanese anime has become extremely long in the tooth (it was already an underground sensation in the late 80s and early 90s), fans of Asian celluloid were provided access to Japanese Pinku films, exceptionally well-made Korean comedies, Thai horror and porn films, Taiwan soap operas, and underrated non-martial arts HK movies. I only discovered Asiator.net quite recently, but was truly impressed with the wide variety of content. As a fan of Asian literature and media, Asiator.net provided a service that no other torrent site provided.



It's sad to see a good web site go, but I understand just how expensive it is to set up and maintain a torrent server, especially one that has the amount of traffic as Asiator.net. I feel for the site administrator and salute him for his efforts. There are so many independent and free web services out there that are maintained by tireless men and women which many users all over the world take for granted. "Sophisticated" Internet users often callously jump from one web site to another when it goes down. Most torrent fans hardly blinked when Mininova.org was temporarily put out to pasture. Goodbye Asiator.net! And thank you once again for the service!

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Internet Explorer 10 Preview: Nothing to be Embarrassed About

In my predominantly Linux network, Google Chrome and his neat and less colorful brother, Chromium, can do no wrong. Mozilla Firefox, on the other hand, is still the default browser included with most Linux distributions so it's always around on my PCs as back-up on the rare occasion Google Chrome crashes due to an Adobe Flash foul-up.

When I boot into Windows 7, however, to update my iPod using iTunes or work on Windows-only software such as CorelDraw, I find myself clicking on that all-too familiar blue E. Even with Opera and Firefox pinned to my taskbar, I always launch Internet Explorer, the most lampooned and derided browser in all of Internet-dom.

It is not without embarrassment that I admit that it's a great browser and my browser of choice when I'm using Windows.

Now, discussing and reviewing browsers isn't the most sexy technical topic out there. It's nearly as dry as discussing consumer external hard drives. Chrome, Firefox, Opera, IE, and Safari all have their merits (Safari being that it's the IE5 of Apple devices - you can't get away from it in iOS). I find it sad that there are people who still believe the old articles published before about how only old people, widowers, and Internet-illiterate people use Internet Explorer. That was Internet Explorer 6. It was bad, but admit it,  companies were all running it at the time. IE8 had its bugs and IE9 still gets shocked when you try to play a streaming Quicktime video, but both browsers have shown that Microsoft has gone a long way.

It's so easy to throw apples at anything with the name Microsoft and Internet Explorer (an application that really, really needs a new name as cool as Microsoft's SkyDrive). IE is especially the easiest target for Apple users and people who believe they are technical. Internet Explorer 9, for all its horrible pedigree, is a competent and dependable browser during the long period I used it. Its interface is a welcome change of pace especially if you spend most of your time with a Linux-powered system or a Mac.

As part of my work, I've tested the "App version" of Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 8 and was more concerned with my inability to use the touch screen UI than the browser itself. Now that Microsoft has finally released Internet Explorer 10 (which Microsoft tagged as a Release Preview just in case something goes awry) for Windows 7, I get to use Microsoft's spanking new browser without worrying about sliding my finger or opening the Charms bar.

Downloading the installation file was a surprise. I regularly use Windows Update on my Windows machine but found IE10 wasn't even part of the Optional Updates. It shows a certain amount of wariness on Microsoft's part perhaps due to old complaints about browsers being forced down people's throats (which is mostly Apple's game now). My second surprise was how long additional updates took after running the setup file. Again, as a regular follower of Microsoft' weekly patches, it seems that IE10 requires more than the usual maintenance.

Out of habit, I rebooted Windows 7 and there was the expected slow bootup after several updates. The blue screen and cursor displayed as Windows 7 digested the cumulative updates struck me as somewhat more comforting than Linux's almost casual disregard for any new changes to the system (Don't get me wrong, it's great having not to reboot after running Linux updates but it can get scary sometimes). I launched Internet Explorer 10 immdiately and opened up a few sites to check for issues with the "new" browser. China's 360Buy site didn't have any language issues. I was expecting Adobe Flash errors assaulting me at every turn but nothing happened over at ArsTechnica, SuperheroHype, Newsarama, Amazon or at any of the other technical and entertainment sites I routinely visit. Newsarama, which is notoriously difficult to render even in Firefox and Chrome, was particularly a surprise since it loaded quickly and didn't have any incomplete pages. Finally, I went over to the Apple Trailers site doubly sure that the Quicktime plug-in would halt the browser. I pulled up the trailer for Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage and Oz, the Great and Powerful. Quicktime reminded me there's a new version available but the trailers played fine. As did several other previews.

I was actually hoping to troubleshoot some issue but even the software rendering error I encountered with Internet Explorer 7 and 8 with the Nvidia Optimus GPU had no problems whatsoever. In fact, it felt like I hadn't even updated to IE10 - which is actually a good thing for users who are easily affected by jarring changes. I am now satisfied that I can continue using IE10 for now, though I still reflexively look over my shoulder every now and then in case anyone was watching.

So, if you're using Windows or you're a Linux user dual-booting into Windows, give Internet Explorer 10 a shot. The water's warm and there's not a Safari in sight.

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Reboot Mania: James Bond, Spider-Man, and Windows 8

I recently played around with a hybrid tablet/laptop with Windows 8 and a sluggish Intel Atom processor. Although I'm a proud iPad owner, I found myself wondering what I would do with the machine as a tablet, preferring instead to use it in its netbook form. In short, Windows 8 is a great desktop OS, but like iOS when I first started using it years ago, I'm not sure what to make of Windows 8 as a tablet OS. It's a totally different paradigm from how I normally look at Microsoft's venerable operating system.

Windows 8 is a . . . it's a . . . reboot. Just like Casino Royale in 2006 and The Amazing Spider-Man this year.

While I was studying in the university many, many, many years ago, I was more obsessed with Indiana Jones, MacGyver, and your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man than James Bond. A coed who I shared Philosophy classes with dismissed my manhood when she found out I didn't know from what movie Carly Simon's Nobody Does it Better came from. A James Bond die-hard fan, she rolled her eyes when I admitted I didn't like Roger Moore. At that time, the only two Bond films I had watched were Sean Connery's Goldfinger and From Russia With Love, both of which I watched during a James Bond marathon at a hotel in Australia. Fast-forward to today: I'm a huge fan of Ian Fleming's original novels (Raymond Benson, John Gardner et.al just couldn't write Bond very well), watched all the Bond films, and routinely rock to You Know My Name while writing Linux technical documents. Casino Royale was a reboot in every sense of the word - if you've ever had the time to watch all the Bond films from Dr. No to the sucktastic Die Another Day, you would understand how the franchise totally spun a full 180 degree paradigm change with Daniel Craig and Eva Green's star-making film. It was James Bond, but not James Bond. Just like Windows 8 is not Windows, but still is.

"Well, I certainly didn't reboot Sean Connery's hairline."

After recently watching The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) on Blu-ray, I wrote a dissertation on the merits of the movie, explaining the historical aspects and references to the 70s and 60s comic books in the flick. I wrote how Lizard will always be a better character than the impotent Norman Osborn (who should've stayed dead until retarded Marvel writers in the 90s brought him back due to a Spider-Man Clone boycott and Marvel's bankruptcy) and how Spidey's attitude in TASM was actually more accurate to the 1960s Peter Parker than Tobey Maguire's weepy version. Like Peter Sanderson, Marvel's historian who wrote a piece on Spidey during Spidey's 365th anniversary (ASM#365 1992), I wrote a critique on just how bad the Spider-Man comic books today are and how the TASM reboot had the guts to start fresh in the same way DC Comics had the balls to reboot everything in the New 52 Universe. And then I stopped, thought about it, and deleted the whole thing, scans of old comic books, the dissertation, and all. As one fan wisely put it, publishers (i.e. Marvel) and film studios (i.e. Sony and Marvel Studios) no longer create content for my generation, but for today's tablet-buying, cellphone-toting, Internet-hogging generation. Readers and fans today have no idea how much of a prick Flash Thompson was or that John Jameson, Mary Jane's fiancée in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 (2004), was Man-Wolf, Captain America's driver in the Avengers, and an astronaut in the 1960s.

"Please don't reboot. I promise never to dance again!"

The word "reboot" is a poor word to describe Microsoft's attempt to improve Windows, but in today's Twitter-obsessed society, it's the only apt word for it. Balding tech pundits (that's Dvorak over at PCMag.com) and nearsighted IT professionals mutter obscenities as much as they want about Windows 8 in the same volume I swear loudly when I hear the name "Dan Slott" (Amazing Spider-Man's current inept writer). Windows 8, for better or worst, wasn't designed for the gray-haired, bespectacled generation who loved DOS, Wordstar, and Leisure Suit Larry. Windows 8 is Microsoft's Casino Royale and The Amazing Spider-Man. You may curse the Start Screen in Windows 8 in the same breath you hate Daniel Craig, but you also might realize that no one has ever killed anyone in the James Bond films as brutally as Craig either. And suddenly, after repeated use, you find out that the Charms bar really isn't all that useless on a Windows 8 tablet and the tiles really aren't that bad.

File Explorer with the ribbon is actually a welcome "reboot" for Windows Explorer.

While teaching English in Ho Chi Minh a couple of years back, I asked a British co-teacher of mine how he felt about Casino Royale and Daniel Craig. I instantly saw the familiar blazing eyes of a fanboy like myself and he rattled on about how they removed everything that was awesome about James Bond - the gadgets, the humor, and the sex appeal. I thought he would pop a blood vessel or kill someone with a tray of scones. With Skyfall (2012) contributing an exceptional chapter in the Bond films, I wonder if my old British friend is beginning to appreciate the reboot. And I wonder how he feels about Windows 8, too.

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Lubuntu Basics: Language Support and Input

Category: Linux

Language input and support is installed based on your selections during your initial installation of Lubuntu. You can also install additional language support and configure language input after installation.

To install and setup additional languages in Lubuntu:

1. Click the LXDE menu. Select Preferences then Language Support.

2. In the Language Support window, a set of desktop languages are listed under Language for menus and windows:. In the screenshot below, my system only has English (United States) and English. This setting applies to all my Lubuntu applications.



3. Click Install/Remove Languages....

4. In the Installed Languages window, double-click on the languages you want to install. A checkmark will appear on the Installed column as you select languages. For this example, I'll be adding Japanese, French, Filipino, and Castellano (Spanish). Once you've selected your languages, click Apply Changes. Lubuntu will download any required packages and install the languages.



5. To select your default desktop language, click and drag the languages listed on the Language Support window according to your preference. Any language listed below English is disabled. In the screenshot below, the default language is French, then Japanese, then Spanish, and finally Filipino. This means that my desktop will use French words to display menu and screen elements. If there are no equivalent French translations, Lubuntu will use Japanese, then Spanish and so on until the system uses the default English.



6. Click Apply System-Wide.
7. Log off and log back into Lubuntu. The desktop elements will now display your selected language.

Language Input using Lxkeymap

Using the Language Support settings only configures menus and desktop elements. If you need to switch input, you need to use LxKey Map to set up your keyboard.

1. Click the LXDE menu. Select Lxkeymap.
2. Select your language input and test it on the text field below. Click Apply.
3. Log off Lubuntu and log back in.

Embarrassingly enough, I once switched the input to Traditional Chinese and found out I couldn't type my username in the login screen and panicked. On the unusual scenario of finding yourself unable to type your username or password using your selected language input (say, Japanese katakana or Modern Chinese), click the Language field in LXDM (Lubuntu's login manager) and switch to Default if your default language is English or click More and select English (United States). Reboot and you should be able to type your name in good old American English once more.

For users accustomed to switching languages using the language controls found in the System Tray in Windows, you'll have to install additional utilities via your software manager to switch input or desktop language on-the-go. However, for most users, Lxkeymap should be adequate.

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Linux on Film: The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) Part 2

Piezoelectric technology and microcontroller

From a plot perspective, Peter probably made use of existing equipment like the video card and Osborn supplies (more likely provided by Curt Connors) to create a piezoelectric-based shooter.  Piezoelectric actuators and sensors used in conjunction would take care of precision and the web-shooter's trigger. However, he would need a microcontroller, say one from a Raspberry Pi, to make sure that everything works with the motor to shoot the webbing and manage flow properly (say, when creating web balls and nets). The web pellets, due to their shape and composition, would reload based on basic fluid mechanics and gravity, unlike the old mechanical web-shooters in the 60s where Peter had to keep switching cartridges to keep up with usage.


The new web-shooters are now equipped with a power meter/web gauge and are mounted on a wrist watch base.


Definitely less bulky than Peter's 1960s web-shooters.

Personally, I didn't like the red LED that lights up on the watch-size web-shooters whenever Spidey would fire webbing. It's a dead giveaway when fighting opponents such as Lizard, who didn't need enhanced intelligence to crush Pete's wrist and destroy the web-shooters.  However, as any electronics engineer would tell you, LED lights are used to inform the user if something is functioning properly or not, so there is logic as to why Pete added the LEDs (though I wish they would remove it in the sequel).


Spidey's web-shooters and utility belt as designed by Steve Ditko. Screencaptures from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1.

Raspberry Pi (or Arduino microcontrollers) would've been a realistic alternative to the video card shown on the film since they are cheap and Pete wouldn't have to scale the components much.  Even with Pete losing an uncle, he would've been able to afford it (hey, he has a Sony Vaio).  Moreover, like the Raspberry Pi, Andrew Garfield's British (I'm entitled to a Spidey joke every so often).

The ARM processor is certainly powerful enough to manage the microcontrollers of Pete's web-shooters and is certainly more practical than cannibalizing an Intel Atom processor or Core i3 from a netbook or laptop (much less an Nvidia chip from a tablet). Plus, wouldn't it be great if Pete would use the web-shooter as a makeshift computer in one of his adventures (though the technical side would probably be lost on the audience and would seem more of a deus ex machina)?

An Android-powered Spider-Tracer

Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies never made use of Pete's technical know-how, but TASM certainly did despite Peter's questionable ethics and the likelihood of him developing the pellets on his own now that Curt Connors is in jail and his department shuttered. Hopefully, fans get to see a Linux or Android-powered Spider-Tracer (which first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #11 published in 1964) in the sequel, though Peter would probably take apart a Sony Experia smartphone just to design one rather than use a Raspberry Pi and build one from scratch (tracking devices are available anywhere these days).

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Linux on Film: The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) Part 1

Ok, for dedicated fans of the latest Spider-Man movie (me included), Sony made use of this brilliant flick to advertise their Sony Vaio Desktop and support Microsoft Bing. Our hero, Peter Parker (played by the exceptional Andrew Garfield), uses his Vaio and Bing to search for clues about Richard Parker, Oscorp, and the spider-bite. So where's Linux?


To be fair, Sony provided Peter with an old-school Sony desktop and not one of those slick touch-screen Vaios.
 
Well, this blog entry is somewhat like the old Marvel comic book series, "What if. . .­". If Sony wasn't a major player for The Amazing Spider-Man (hereon referred to as TASM), Peter would have used a Raspberry Pi (a complete portable Linux platform) or Arduino microprocessor when he was designing his web-shooters. As it was, Peter used a video card's GPU processor to power/design/test the trigger control and reloading system of his fashionably smaller and less bulky web-shooters. The circuit board shown on the scene is possibly an old video card, more likely with an Nvidia chipset, as seen in the montage where Peter works on the web-shooters using Oscorp-provided materials (more on this later).


Realistically, Pete probably used an old board with an integrated processor (more likely a video card) as a testing platform. The VGA, USB, audio, and Serial port gives it away.


A small circuit board is visible on Peter's desk which resembles a Linux-powered Raspberry Pi.


Peter rigs a police scanner using his Sony Experia's transceiver with what could also be a Raspberry Pi. I'm pretty sure he could have just downloaded an app though.

Fans of Spider-Man during the 60s-80s know that Peter's original web-shooters were purely mechanical with a simple double-tap electrode, pressurized cartridges that held his web fluid, and a nozzle that Spidey adjusts on-the-go to create solid, semi-solid, and wet webbing that can be shaped and manipulated when exposed to oxygen.   The original stainless steel web-shooters were actually bulky though artists never drew the odd protrusions on Spidey's gloves. Intelligent supporting characters and villains, such as Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, have noticed the web-shooters and even used them to their advantage (such as the Kingpin and the retarded Punisher). Later on, Peter would design plastic/ceramic web-shooters to avoid alarms in airports and places that make use of metal detectors (such as when he visited Flash Thompson in ASM#278, then accused of being Hobgoblin, in prison). This redesign didn't decrease the size of the web-shooters - the web-shooters still took up most of Peter's forearm when worn depending on which artist drew him.


Spidey's web-shooters take up a huge part of his forearm as seen in the classic story "The Boy Who Collects Spider-Man" (ASM#248)

One glaring scientific flaw in Stan Lee's concept of the web-shooters is the sheer amount of fluid Pete expends per webline, net, and makeshift weapon. Physics would tell you that even if Peter constantly replaced the cartridges in his web-shooters during his adventures, he would still run out (Pete often commuted and patrolled across New York city and the whole metropolitan area up to New Jersey).  Worst still, artists rarely drew Spidey reloading his cartridges, except for extreme cases such as Pete's climactic first encounter with the Juggernaut in the 80s (ASM#229-230). Ironically, Pete running out of webbing occurs more often in the animated versions of Spider-Man (e.g. Spectacular Spider-Man 2011 and Spider-Man 1981) than he did in the comic books.


In a rare comic book instance, Spidey runs out of webbing as he faces down the unstoppable Juggernaut in ASM#230

The movie The Amazing Spider-Man fixes many of these problems scientifically and though the concept is still farfetched, it was executed very well, upending Sam Raimi's notion that Spider-Man could not exist on film without mechanical web-shooters. As a grudging supporter of the Spider-Man 2099-style organic webbing approach by Raimi, I was impressed with TASM.

Osborn Technology

In a montage sequence, the properties and advantages of Oscorp's experimental genetically modified webbing is 10x stronger than steel and one pellet "can safely store several hundred meters of webbing". A spherical form factor for storing the webbing in pressurized form is definitely a more credible explanation for Peter's wondrous web-shooters and solves the problem of web-fluid. Unfortunately, the montage focuses on the Oscorp packaging and the pellet video briefly and most of the audience would have likely missed it. There are a few questionable plot holes (such as Pete "stealing " the tech from Oscorp Industries and Curt Connors) but the science is pretty good.


Peter gets an Oscorp package of 24 units of modified webbing in pellets, more likely courtesy of Professor Curt Connors.


Peter would have to learn how to reverse engineer the webbing and the "pellets" especially now that Connors is in prison at the end of the movie.

Linux on Film: The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) Part 2: Piezo and the Spider-Tracer

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