Intel Linux Graphics Driver Update Utility for Ubuntu and Fedora

Category: Linux

The folks working with Intel for Linux graphics drivers recently released an updated Intel Linux Graphics update utility late July for Ubuntu 13.04 and Fedora 19. The download can be found on the 01.org website with a guide and links to earlier versions.




The team helpfully once again reminds users of Intel graphics chipsets to run their respective Linux distribution's own software update system to download necessary updates rather than force the .deb or .rpm to install on their machines.




My experience with the Intel graphics installer in previous installs is that it works pretty smoothly as long as you're aware of the following:

1. Odd versions of Intel's graphics chips won't work with the mainstream Intel drivers for Linux (such as my Toshiba NB520 series Atom processor or the controversial Intel chip found with Nvidia's Optimus systems).




2. Your distribution should be prepped for the Intel Graphics installer, which requires dependencies that you have to install separately. For example, my Fedora 18 Xfce system requires PackageKit installed before running the utility.

Note: PackageKit is included with the mainstream Fedora Gnome 3.x release but Fedora 18 Xfce includes Yumex as an alternative.





Updating graphics drivers regularly is great for enthusiasts and those who tinker regularly but Intel's drivers haven't really provided much improvements in my somewhat aged Linux machines. An old graphics update a few years back improved my VGA out capability for Ubuntu but Linux gamers shouldn't expect any earth-shattering improvements in graphics/video performance.

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Using Infographs while Jobhunting Part 2

Continued from Using Infographs while Jobhunting Part 1




The broad range of fields and expertise existing in many industries today can be an advantage to jobseekers who know what they are good at since they can specialize and focus on a specific skillset or area. Proven proficiency is the emphasis here -  a graduate armed with standardized knowledge such as Cisco networking concepts does not necessarily mean he can compare to a hobbyist/enthusiast who has been working with his own Debian/FreeBSD servers and has maintained his own server farm for years. You can be great at HTML5 but terrible with MySQL. You can be a devoted MacOSX user but have zero knowledge about Unix or even Linux. There are people who have a strong understanding of network security, IPv6, wireless standards and network infrastructure but can barely create a PivotChart in Excel 2010 or draw a circuit in Illustrator CS5. Veteran programmers come with and without certifications - their work in code published online speaks for itself. As for self-proclaimed "designers" and "digital artists", a ten year-old can create amazing art with a Wacom and plenty of spare time. When designing an infograph describing your skills, try to answer the answer this question: what exactly are you good at and what can you contribute to a company that others can't?

When illustrating your skills, be specific and use other skills to display relationships between what you can do and what you can't do. The drawings don't really need to be fancy or even colorful. Use shades, tints, and different types of charts and graphs. Use imagery to define your industry and remind your audience/recruiter you can get the job done. Use small images or customized icons to make your point.

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Consumer Electronics Buying Tips: Download the User Manual First Part 2

Continued from Consumer Electronics Buying Tips: Download the User Manual First Part 1

Admittedly, the quality of user manuals/guides/documentation between manufacturers vary. Some are highly technical and are intended for a specific audience. For example, Intel and AMD provide well-written and copious amounts of documentation for developers and engineers for use with their processors and motherboards. Networking companies such as Cisco, Netgear and D-Link often simplify advanced networking concepts to prevent intimidating new users. Lesser known companies provide minimal documentation with little text and diagrams. Other manuals are poorly written with minimal useful information. Wacom tablets comes with an animated tutorial while PDF photography control guides can be downloaded for Sony NEX cameras.


Sony NEX cameras users can download a free instruction booklet for new photographers. Screenshot from SONY Interchangeable
Lens Digital Camera handbook.


Besides learning how to use a product, the free PDFs from companies also inform the discerning consumer of the following:

1. Exact specifications. PCMag and CNET reviews are embarrassingly often corrected by people who have actually bought the product and decided to comment on the review. Reading Engadget, Gizmodo and the manufacturer's own home page (and marketing pages) is great, but the real specifications are found on the user manual (assuming the user manual is well-maintained of course). Size, processor, memory, type of lens, weight, battery life and other important specifications are listed accurately in better written manuals.


Wireless specifications excerpt from the Netgear R6300 WiFi Router 802.11ac Dual Band Gigabit
User Manual

2. Physical features. So you prefer buying in Amazon or JD.com. You don't like showrooming and you don't have friends to borrow from. You look at the pictures online and watch reviews in YouTube before you buy that saliva-inducing new gadget. Hours later, you return the product and scream in Facebook how the button placement and grip aren't perfect for your grubby calloused hands. The user manual will often have diagrams illustrating engineering dimensions, button placement and even menu navigation. Although firmware and software updates do change the final software interface, the design principle always remains the same (it is a finish product after all). You don't need to be an engineer to realize a 3.5 screen is too small for a $300 unlocked phone. It's amazing how many people gripe about basic physical features once they get their product!



Smartphone diagram from Nokia Lumia 928 User Manual

3. Product features. Disposable income, a propensity for clicking the Shopping Cart icon online and outright laziness often cause the mainstream buyer to assume a feature is available from a product. "It doesn't support MS Exchange!" "It doesn't take pictures in RAW!" "It doesn't clean my toilet and satisfy my girlfriend!" Check the manual before you buy. It's free and takes less than 3 minutes to download.

4. Instructions and ease of use. Users today are spoiled and lazier than ever. Reviewers often complain there are too many menus and executing X and Y is too hard. If you're worried about specific tasks with a product, check the instructions in the manual. Is removing the battery too hard for you? Is resetting the device with a safety pin too inconvenient for you? Do three taps on the touchscreen take too much of your time? If the instructions are too difficult or executing a task is too complicated for you then consider a different product.


Instructions from Logitech Boombox Wireless Bluetooth Speaker Setup Guide

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Consumer Electronics Buying Tips: Download the User Manual First Part 1

Category: Tech Today

The best way to determine if a product or device right for you is by trying it out first. "Showrooming", which is the practice of checking out products at the retailer before buying it online, is an unfair but very real practice. I understand why so many people do it - any electronic product is a long-term investment. On the other hand, there are lots of other ways to try out devices without showrooming. I'm fortunate enough to occasionally get my hands on prototypes, but most people have friends they can borrow a device from for a few hours (it's amazing how many people with disposable income buy several tablets and smartphones). As long as you know what you're looking for in a product, a few hours with a well-used or previous version of a device (or even a new one) can help you make a decision if a product is worth your money. I have mixed feelings about depending on online reviews in blogs (including mine) and consumer websites such as CNET and PCWorld. There are very intelligent well-written product reviews out there but 80-90% of reviews, particularly in consumer websites, are pretty narrow minded, technically inaccurate and biased. What I look for in communication devices, for example, are very different from most users out there (which is one of the reasons why my web site is called Unsolicited But Offered).


Exerpt from the Kindle Paper White User Guide PDF provided by Amazon.com

The advice RTFM (Read the F*ucking Manual) is no longer quite applicable today when tablets and smartphones come with apps that don't include (or need) a .CHM help file or an interactive guide. As a technical writer who works with consumer electronics, I'm fully aware how irrelevant documentation is in a lot of software and hardware available in the market today. Having also worked in technical support for many, many years, however, I pray that mainstream users do their homework first before shelling out their money or adding a product to their Amazon shopping cart.

Why read the User Guide before buying?

I read product reviews regularly from different online sources and many of those found in Amazon, Newegg and other shopping sites can be quite entertaining. Users who purchase products complain about button placement, "missing" settings, weight and screen size. A well-known smartphone review site had a "professional" reviewer ranting about apps in a Windows Phone 8 product and how he couldn't perform tasks he could execute in Android or iOS (it was a terribly written and close-minded review). Downloading and reviewing the user manual and guide helps remove many preconceived notions about a product. You don't have to read the whole manual - if you know what you are looking for then skip to the sections that are important to you. Moreover, a user guide helps you distinguish facts from opinions or brand association (e.g. Apple Macbook's have better hardware components than everything else in the market).



Excerpt from the Smart 3D Blu-Ray Home Theater System Owner's Manual PDF provided by LG (www.lg.com)

Continued in Consumer Electronics Buying Tips: Download the User Manual First Part 2

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Troubleshooting Table of Contents in Adobe InDesign

Category: Tech Writer

Adobe InDesign is exceptional at page layouts but when it comes to even basic document organization, FrameMaker, Microsoft Word 2010 or open source LyX handle table of contents more efficiently. If your PDF's bookmarks or table of contents hyperlinks aren't working, try checking the following:

1. If you created a Book in InDesign to organize your .indd files, make sure that each document is saved separately especially if you deleted or added pages. Save the Book then "refresh" your table of contents. In Adobe InDesign CS4, click Layout then Table of Contents...If the Update Table of Contents option is not available, this means that major changes in pagination were made to your Book or InDesign document and you have to recreate the table of contents.

If you don't recreate or refresh your table of contents, any PDF exported from your Book or InDesign file will not have working bookmarks or hyperlinks.

2. When exporting an InDesign file or Book to PDF, select the Bookmarks, Hyperlinks and Interactive Elements options on the General window. Selecting the Bookmarks option instructs InDesign to create a list of bookmarks based on specified styles and the document's table of contents. Selecting the Hyperlinks option enables hyperlinks on the table of contents text itself.

3. If you've manually numbered the sections and chapters in your document, review the table of contents once it's created. Proofreaders and editors normally review the content and skip the front matter. Check the chapter and section numbers if they are sequentially correct. This is especially important if text is moved often and paragraph threads were left unbroken. The text frame may have moved but InDesign will still follow the original arrangement. Unlike FrameMaker, InDesign will not inform the writer of numbering errors. 

4. Generated table of contents in InDesign are just plain text and are subject to errors too. Even if you accurately defined the paragraph styles of entries in the table of contents, formatting errors can occur especially when the text includes symbols or special formatting such as superscript.

In the screen capture above, the registered trademark symbol's superscript formatting affected the preceding text and the leads as well as the page number. Writers can safely select the text and remove the superscript formatting without affecting the functionality of the table of contents once exported to PDF.

5. Writers can shorten the text entry f the generated TOC entry (which is based on the section heading style) is too long and ruins the consistency of the table of contents (See 3.2.1 on the previous screen capture). Like tip #4 this does not affect TOC functionality in the resulting PDF.

6. If a new InDesign template doesn't have working PDF bookmarks and TOC, the most common cause is that the Create PDF Bookmarks option wasn't checked in the Table of Contents Style window.

7. If the InDesign document is very long and the table of content links in the PDF or bookmarks still don't work, consider creating a new Table of Contents Style. TOCs are heavily dependent on styles and starting with a fresh set of parameters will make sure a working TOC is produced.

8. Always check if your bookmarks and table of contents links are working after exporting to PDF.

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Using Infographs while Jobhunting Part 1

Category: Tech Today

As a former teacher and trainer, I strongly believe that a person shouldn't be reduced to a number or set of metrics. Many of the industries I worked in involved associating an employee with an ID and a bunch of tables and measurements. A person is more than the numerical equivalent of his skills (which can be subjective and inaccurate). Even IQ shouldn't be used as a basis for measuring a person's ability to get things done.

Unfortunately, in the working world (and in the Internet), everything can be reduced to an image or to numbers. It's more attractive to audiences, more compelling and impressive and more accessible to the rest of the world. Like interviews and exams, any graphical or visual representation can only paint part of the picture and isn't totally accurate. That said, visuals and superficial measurements are a reality job seekers have to contend with. Breaking down a job seeker's skills to numbers and visually illustrating a summary of competencies can be a good tool for jobhunters who want to present themselves in a different way online or during a Mad Men type of presentation or interview. Moreover, you have full control of what you want to say.

This article lists a few ways of breaking down your skills and visually expressing them.

Note: All illustrations made by the author using CorelDraw X3 and Microsoft Excel 2010.

Marvel Fleer Cards - a basic approach

During the boom years of Marvel Comics in the early 1990s, Fleer released several series of Marvel cards which provided a description of the character and a power meter to gauge the character's skills. The approach was certainly more meaningful and more fun than reading all the numbers behind the popular NBA cards of the time (though as usual Wolverine's power ratings were overrated).

Using the same approach, jobseekers can provide a short text description and a brief profile of your strengths and interests on your landing page, blog or web site. Obviously, you can create Flash/HTML5 animation and add Javascript interactivity but a simple static image is fine and less cumbersome for the HR personnel who would eventually view your profile.


You can design a huge infograph that can fill a whole web page, but sometimes a simple approach also works.

A graphical representation of your skillset doesn't necessarily focus on your weaknesses, rather it points out a range of skills and emphasizes your strengths while providing a picture of what areas you can develop on. It can answer the typical interview question "What are your strengths? What areas need improving?"

Specifying software and hardware skills

Everyone these days believes they are technical. Very few IT graduates and employees would admit their PHP needs work, they don't understand networking at all or have trouble using Windows 8. Contrary to popular belief, being an IT graduate or working in the IT industry does NOT mean you're qualified to work in all areas of IT or even consumer electronics. Technology fields are remarkably diverse and specific - the list is longer than the college catalog of courses or the certifications available from most institutions. Tech fields are no longer classified as just software or hardware. In short, just putting down "Skilled with a variety of multimedia and web software" doesn't mean anything any more and neither does "Proficient with desktop and laptop hardware".

Continued in Using Infographs while Jobhunting Part 2

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Back up your old Yahoo! Mail using Opera Mail

Category: Tech Today

Despite all Yahoo management's efforts, Yahoo! Mail is a mess - the "new" interface doesn't offer anything useful and their mail servers are prone to spam and all sorts of malware. However, the old dotcom mainstay has been around for so long most people have email stored on their servers that prevented them from closing their account and moving on from their decrepit service. Although Yahoo! didn't widely publicize it, their email service allows POP3 and IMAP service.  In the old days, only Yahoo! premium members (and certain countries like Australia) could download their email to clients like Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird (or you can use a proxy email server like YahooPOPS). If you're ready to end your relationship with Yahoo!, now is a good time as any to back up your Yahoo! mail and delete your Yahoo! account permanently.

Opera Mail is a dependable standalone email client. Although Mozilla Thunderbird is still around, it hasn't seen much development lately making Opera Mail a great alternative for Windows users.  To backup your email and attachments, set up a POP or IMAP connection in Opera Mail. This article focuses on POP.

To set up Yahoo! Mail for Opera Mail:

1. Log in to Yahoo mail and click the Settings button on the upper right hand corner.




2. On the left panel, click POP and Forwarding.




3. Select Access Yahoo! Mail via POP. Select Don't download spam email in the list.

4. Click Save.

5. Launch Opera Mail.

6. Click the Opera Mail main menu in the upper left hand corner and click Mail Accounts...




7. Click Add...

8. Input your email address. The Yahoo account will now appear on the Accounts list. Select your Yahoo email and click Edit...




9. In the Account Properties window, click the Servers tab.




10. Enter Yahoo's POP information. You can get both the IMAP and POP details from Yahoo!'s Help page.

Take note that if you've had your Yahoo! Mail for a number of years (like me), it takes awhile for all of the messages to end up on your system. In my case, it took two sessions on my Windows 7 to get all of my messages from 2007-2010 (I had already backed up my old messages from the 90s).

To find the location of your messages, click the Opera Mail main menu then click Help. Click About Opera Mail. The mail directory will be listed on the window.

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Yahoo!?

Category: Tech Today

Yahoo! recently popped up in the news recently due to its "success" in attracting web visitors in the U.S. Now, anyone who has been online for the last three years or works in the web industry knows that when it comes to tracking sites and visitors, numbers can be fudged pretty easily (and this has nothing to do with SEO).

At the risk of sounding like a superficial reader, I actually visit Yahoo!'s home page - but only when I'm thoroughly bored and want to read the latest garbage on celebrities/movies and nonsensical information about the U.S. job industry and jobhunting. Yahoo!'s editors over at the Yahoo Singapore page are also pretty good about culling world-shaking news such as Korean cosmetic surgeries, HK celebrity romances and gossip (they have a section devoted to K-Pop too).


Quick, use Yahoo!
Screenshot from Sherlock DVD (2011)

Yahoo!'s home page (regardless of country) and news section is occasionally the equivalent of a trashy tabloid or a less reputable digital version of UK's The Sun (though Yahoo! doesn't have a Page 3 girl). Unsurprisingly, the Yahoo SG articles have active readers who make snide and occasionally scathing comments about Asia and showbiz. Yahoo!'s US home page, on the other hand, runs some pretty head-scratching articles on dieting and odd videos that serve as excellent click bait for the bored housewife. The editors are definitely not aiming for BBC quality programming that's for sure. What makes their pages interesting (aside from the horoscope section), are the lively comments from readers. Let's just say that after reading news about Linux and the latest consumer electronics from sites such as Ars Technica, Phoronix, Engadget, and All Things Digital, the mudslinging, taunts and earnest opinions by Yahoo!'s exuberant readers can be extremely entertaining and provide a reflection of what type of users visit Yahoo!

It's actually nice to see Yahoo! is still around. That's not to say Yahoo! is relevant, useful or even fun. It's just good to see that one of the web sites from the old dotcom era is still breathing (albeit using a respiratory device named Marissa Mayer). Their e-mail service is terrible and they really don't provide any type of service that you can't get from Google or Microsoft. Other than triggering brief feelings of nostalgia for the 90s, Yahoo! is a curiosity for today's generation and a memory that refuses to go away for those who remember its heyday.

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Cheap and Discriminating

Category: Tech Today

It was my mom's birthday the other day so I made a long-distance call using my mobile phone. After a friendly greeting and stories about Asia's weather, she asked me how I was doing. Without thinking I sighed and said: "I think I might have to finally invest in a smartphone." Instantly, my mom responded in our native language and in no uncertain terms said: "You're such a cheap bastard." (Thanks mom! And happy birthday again!)

The truth is if I ever get mugged in Belize, New Jersey or Jakarta, all they're going to find in my pockets are a 2008 Nokia E63, an iPod Touch which isn't even eligible for the iOS7 upgrade this year and maybe $5.00 worth of instant coffee. And I'm pretty sure my assailant will throw both devices and my instant coffee in my face in disgust. While riding Line 1 in Shanghai, I often pretend that the aforementioned iPod Touch, which I use religiously and was the best gift I've ever had, is an iPhone. This is mostly because the attractive ladies and the well-dressed office workers are all toting Samsung Galaxy, Apple or Lumia phones.

I have no complaints. Between my Linux machines, my iPad 2 (which I also received as a gift) and iPod Touch, I have all that I need to stay in touch with the rest of the world. Technology is supposed to make the world a better place and to make people more productive. When did it become a source of discrimination and prejudice? I can't go through the tech forums these days without running into some guy proclaiming that "Only poor people buy Android or Windows Phones!" or "I've had four smartphones and five tablets, what do you know?" Sometimes, discussions reach a point when it becomes very personal and offensive and the responses are clearly no longer just about the Android-Apple-Windows argument or about a particular brand or model.

I'm fully aware that the Internet has plenty of citizens who are hardly the best representatives of the human race nor is the Internet free of the evils of the real world. However, it's alarming to see technology, once viewed as pure and amoral, as a source of so much bitterness and pride. And it's not just limited to smartphones. I was reading news on the latest superhero movies over at Superherohype.com when there was a comment about how late the Blu-Ray release for Iron Man 3 was. A gentleman commented that a few months isn't so bad - when VHS was around fans had to wait for months before Raiders of the Lost Ark or Tim Burton's Batman was released on video. This poor guy, who was probably from my generation, received a scathing insult telling him that "...they had steam engines back then too. Go back to your bed, grandpa!"

"Better living through science and technology." That's what science textbooks used to headline. This is back when very few people could afford laptops. In those days, no one ever said "Haha, you're just running an 800Ghz processor? Haven't you ever heard of Pentium M?" or "64MB of RAM? Do you live in a shack somewhere?" People used to have power over technology and it now looks like it's the other way around. Who would ever thought consumer electronics would not only change people's way of working but also their behavior and attitude towards other people?

So, will I finally get a smartphone? As a working class Joe in the IT industry, I accept buying a smartphone for myself was inevitable. I'm glad I didn't tell my mom it took me 7 months to decide though.


Sadly, I spent years watching people use a smartphone (and like Sherlock borrowing someone else's too)
Screen capture from Sherlock (2010) DVD

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Quick Fix: Clean an overheating Lenovo Ideapad

Category: Tech Today

The Ideapad series is aimed at consumers and may require more maintenance than the more robust Thinkpad series. Even if you keep your Lenovo Ideapad in the office or at home and use your Ideapad as a desktop replacement, the fans and vents can still accumulate plenty of dust over time. Due to the design of the Lenovo Ideapad series, Lenovo includes a utility that helps the fan "clean" itself. However, if your Ideapad starts running hot, particularly on the left side where the vents are, then it's time to manually clean the fans and vents.


The Z360 has a touch button for the fan.

Symptoms of Overheating

Some of the Ideapads were never designed to be placed on your lap since the build materials really doesn't manage heat very well. Some of the symptoms I've experienced indicating overheating are:

1. The older Core i3 of my Lenovo Ideapad Z360 can run so hot that objects placed close to the vents are affected.
2. The fans switch on more often and are noisier than usual when previously the fans stayed quiet.
3. My well-maintained Windows 7-Lubuntu dual-boot powered down a few times due to heat issues (this was actually also partially caused by the heatwave in Shanghai a few weeks ago).
4. If the tabletop or surface also starts leaving an unmistakeable heat trail, it's time to get a screwdriver, a can of compressed air and a q-tip.

To clean the internal fan of an Ideapad Z360:

1. Power down the system and unplug the power adapter from the rear of the system.
2. Lay the Ideapad face down on a flat surface.




3. Locate the vents on the side of the machine. The fan is positioned next to that area. For the Ideapad Z360, the right panel should be removed to get access to the fans.




Tip: You do not need to fully remove the screws. Loosen the screws with your screwdriver and ease the panel off.

4. Point the can of pressurized air into the vents. The air will blow away some of the dirt and dust bunnies that have accumulated on the fan and vents. The fan will also spin as you send air into the vent.
5. Using a q-tip, carefully clean leftover dirt on the fan blades and parts of the motherboard. Make sure that no dust clumps are left on the ICs, processor and memory.




Note: If the fans are extremely dirty, you can moisten the q-tip a little but do not let the q-tip touch any part the motherboard or other hardware components. Let the fans dry completely before replacing the rear panel.

6. Screw on the rear panel back to its original position.

As a final note, consider installing a free temperature utility for monitoring your system's heat output. There are several freeware available for Windows and several dozen utilities for Linux.

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Tech Flashback: The Lethal Weapon series 1987-1998 Part 1

Category: Tech Today

The Lethal Weapon series, once hailed as one of the best movie franchises of all time, has been overlooked in the last couple of years for less worthy movies such as the unimpressive Rush Hour (1998) and the gratuitous Bad Boys (1995). Despite the number of buddy cop characters that have inundated movies and TV over the years, the mismatched couple of Sgt. Murtaugh and Martin Riggs can't be equaled in any current medium - their friendship in the four films was consistent and entertaining even when poor writing crippled the final installment of the series. Perhaps the series would be better remembered today if actor Mel Gibson had aged gracefully out of the limelight and avoided personal altercations and tabloid headlines.

Besides the well-written characters, one of the more visible characteristics of Lethal Weapon is its curious timeline. The first installment was released in 1987. The plot's milieu is clearly identifiable by its very risque opening which features an attractive, scantily-clad and topless blonde jumping off a high-rise building in a largely undeveloped Los Angeles. Despite the poor last act of Lethal Weapon (a laughable and unnecessary backyard brawl), its popularity triggered an excellent sequel in 1989 and then a satisfying third installment in 1992. The final Lethal Weapon movie whimpered in 1998 - a movie that would raise eyebrows today because of its questionable scenes and references to Hong Kong and China.


Martin Riggs shouts as Sgt. Murtaugh realizes Riggs is truly suicidal.
Screen capture from Lethal Weapon (1987)


As the series progressed, the filmmakers of Lethal Weapon took into account many of the developments of technology at the time. The police department in California had more allowances in terms of taxpayer's money way back in the 80s and there is authenticity in the equipment shown in the first two movies, from the firearms to the computers.

Lethal Weapon

The first Lethal Weapon movie was largely episodic but audiences today will see a surprising piece of equipment 30 minutes into the movie after Martin Riggs "discourages" a stressed office worker from committing suicide.
Upset by the suicidal shenanigans of his crazed new partner, Danny Glover's Sgt. Roger Murtaugh uses a short-wave field communicator to call up the police department's resident psychiatrist.




Army enthusiasts would recognize Sgt. Murtaugh's choice of equipment. Today's generation, on the other hand, would jeer at the sheer size and inefficiency of the field communicator. The plastic keypad is installed on the earpiece on a separate circuit board soldered to the handle. The transmitter, antenna, receiver and the power pack (which takes up more than 45% of the weight) is amazing to behold in today's bevy of miniaturized cellphones and incredibly powerful phablets. That scene alone illustrates just how far technology has gone in terms of personal communication - a single smartphone today has more power than all the police equipment in Los Angeles back in 1987.

Midway through the film, Sgt, Murtaugh receives a package containing details about the identity of Amanda Hunsaker, the aforementioned sex kitten who jumped off the balcony. Glover's character finds a VHS cassette tape and pops it into his VHS player and finds out about the lurid and depraved life the young woman had led.




Now, these days, the denizens of the Internet would probably find that sex tape online 3 minutes after it was filmed and Sgt. Murtaugh would probably get a hyperlink instead (he wouldn't even get a SD card or CDR).




Continued in Tech Flashback: The Lethal Weapon series 1987-1998 Part 2

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Quick Fix: Search using Duck Duck Go

Category: Tech Today

Most users are happy between Bing and Google searches since both are integrated in Android and Windows Phone 8 and are found as default in the most popular browsers. However, what can you do if both these search engines are rendered unusable?



Duck Duck Go is a search engine that features private searches and unlike Bing, isn't restricted by country or region settings. Although Duck Duck Go lacks the advanced search capabilities of Google, it does have certain advantages in certain parts of the world where even search engines are controlled or limited.

If you find yourself prevented from making searches due to sensitive search strings or end up with a severely crippled Google service (as it occasionally happens in China), try Duck Duck Go.

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Manjaro Openbox on a 7-year old Acer Aspire 5500Z Part 2

Category: Linux

Continued from Manjaro Openbox on a 7-year old Acer Aspire 5500Z Part 1

Quick Hardware Rundown

The installation didn't take very long mostly because I had no access to the Arch repositories. After rebooting, Linux proved once again why it's great for old hardware. Manjaro supported the old Broadcom and Intel networking components without further tweaking (Fedora's recent releases no longer supported the wireless card out-of-the-box). I quickly connected to my N network and found passable connection speeds. Important FN keys and the physical wireless button found at the lip of the Acer Aspire 5500Z worked too.




As mentioned previously, the Numlock key was enabled by default on boot. If you encounter this issue, try installing the package numlockx and edit the configuration file to switch off the Numlock key. Instructions can be found in the Archlinux forums.

Openbox and Manjaro performance

The 7 plus year old Acer Aspire 5500Z had seen its share of Linux distributions during its workhorse days. The Aspire grappled with earlier buggy openSUSE (10-11) and Mandriva releases as well as being a testbed for several versions of Fedora and Ubuntu.

I must admit that I was surprised how fast the Aspire felt with Manjaro's one-two punch combination of Openbox and Arch. Applications didn't struggle (as they did with openSUSE KDE) and multitasking didn't take a hit on the legacy components. I did, however, work only with the preinstalled applications since I couldn't access Manjaro's repos or UAR. I'm fairly confident, however, that most users wouldn't be disappointed with Manjaro on a legacy system such as the Acer Aspire 5500Z. After all, the included VLC was able to play movies and Qupzilla (the default browser) was able to pull up Flash pages without crashing.

Manjaro Openbox applications

Discussing preinstalled applications is somewhat unnecessary in Linux because most Linux users probably remove them or install a more familiar replacement. I can't help, however, but point out some of the interesting inclusions the brilliant Manjaro developers tucked into their Manjaro Openbox release:

1. Geany handles all configuration files by default - Several configuration files for Openbox, Conky and Pacman are listed on the menu and once clicked, will automatically open in Geany, an open source lightweight editor. Although I'm partial to basic text editors and Bluefish, I thought Geany was a great choice. Geany loaded quickly and remembered previously edited config files, which is pretty useful for those who regularly tweak their settings.




2. Qupzilla browser - Manjaro doesn't include Mozilla Firefox or Chromium, but instead uses Qupzilla. I've had a poor experience trying out Epiphany, Konqueror and Midori browsers in other distributions so I was apprehensive with running Qupzilla. The browser, however, proved its mettle even when running on the slow wireless card of the Aspire 5500Z. I was also happy that it used the DuckDuckGo search engine as default.




3. Avahi SSH browser and VNC browser - I've never tried the Avahi SSH or VNC browser before so finding them on the menu was definitely a plus.

4. Xnoise for playing MP3s and videos - Manjaro includes codecs by default so I didn't have to struggle with playing media the way I did with Fedora Xfce's Pragha.

5. Htop - This terminal utility for monitoring elements of the system was featured in an episode of Linux Action Show and could be very useful for hardcore administrators who love watching data changing right in front of them.

As a final note, Manjaro Openbox does not come with any office applications but does provide a LibreOffice installer from the main menu.

Bottomline

Due to issues with repository access, I didn't get to experience the full Manjaro desktop as the great folks over in Europe intended. However, the Openbox desktop was very polished and left me with a good impression. Linux has always been exceptional on old components and Manjaro's performance on the old Acer Aspire is another example of Linux at its best. The combination of Xfce and LXDE components was tastefully and judiciously applied to this Linux distribution.




When I try out a new Linux distribution, I always ask myself if the release can be used to teach children or students Linux (trainer present!). Most releases can be used both for teaching Linux and for teaching a plethora of subjects. In Manjaro's case, I would probably lean to the former (though mostly because of my incomplete experience with the distro and lack of access to the repos). If I was to donate the Acer Aspire 5500Z to a struggling student, would I leave Manjaro installed? Probably not. If I was going to tutor him/her personally on running the system, would I do it with Manjaro? Why surely!

Mageia and Linux Mint recently had their time in the limelight and now its Manjaro's turn - and deservedly so. Three thumbs up and a two-gun salute for Manjaro Openbox.

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Manjaro Openbox on a 7-year old Acer Aspire 5500Z Part 1

Category: Linux

Anyone who has been working with Linux distributions on different types of hardware is generally no longer surprised with the improved performance over mainstream OSs. Even the most bulked up KDE release can ably compete with pretentious MacOSX and superfluous Windows 7/8. That said, recent Linux distributions running Gnome 3.x and KDE 4.x can be a challenge for older hardware that would otherwise run fine on LiveCD based distributions such as Puppy Linux and Knoppix.

Enter Manjaro - a controversial Archlinux derivative that has been receiving attention from the Linux community as of late.

Archlinux and my two cents

Arch users tend to criticize derivatives of the fabled Archlinux distribution. Devoted Arch users accuse and lampoon distributions such as Manjaro and Archbang for missing the point by prepackaging the system. Having ran Archlinux for a certain time and consulted the forums on occasion, I'm often surprised at the vitriol from Arch community members towards users from popular derivatives.

However, I don't see anything wrong with derivatives at all. An operating system/platform is for getting work done and if a user prefers to build it from the ground up or get it up and running with a LiveCD without tinkering then that's perfectly fine.

Openbox

Everyone has a favorite desktop environment and I've leaned towards LXDE and Xfce over the last few years (with KDE on openSUSE only because it's the definitive DE for the lizard distro). Manjaro's default environment is a well-crafted Xfce system, but I opted for the Openbox release because I was curious if there were stark performance improvements running the low-key window manager on legacy hardware. 

My beloved Acer Aspire 5500Z had previously ran openSUSE KDE and Ubuntu for years before it slowed to a crawl and I knew the hardware would be able to handle LXDE and Xfce easily. But would just the Openbox Window Manager, coupled with Manjaro's Arch origins, provide significant impact to performance?

Target hardware specifications

Model: Acer Aspire 5500Z (2006)

Previous OS before Manjaro: openSUSE 12.1

Processor: Pentium M 1.73 GHz

RAM: 1.5 GB

Wireless/Network card: Intel Wireless PRO 2200 B/G

Graphics: Intel 915GM Mobile Chipset

Notes on Installation

Manjaro's developers are proud of the friendly installation process of their Linux distribution with good reason. For users who expected to wade through configuration files, Manjaro is certainly a leisurely jog with a FreeBSD/PCBSD-like setup guide that walks administrators through the installation. Anyone who has installed Ubuntu, Fedora or Mageia would no doubt miss the shiny GUI wizard (and promotional images), but would definitely appreciate the ease of use and the overall experience of Manjaro's setup.

Here are a few observations in brief:

1. The dd instructions for creating a LiveUSB on the Manjaro wiki didn't create a bootable LiveUSB from Fedora and the most updated version of Imgburn for Windows no longer supports creating bootable USB sticks (at least it didn't when I tried it in Windows). So, I turned to tried and tested Unetbootin, which worked as expected.

2. Boot up using the LiveUSB was unexpectedly fast, beating out my trusted LiveUSB Knoppix 6.x by almost half a minute on the Acer Aspire. Shutdown was even faster (Super+X)

3. Users accustomed to having an install icon on the desktop and the ability to press ALT+F2 to produce a command window will be surprised at Manjaro. Click Super+M or right-click the desktop to produce an application menu. Manjaro Openbox also includes the launcher Synapse which is triggered by clicking Super+S as instructed from the guide that appears on the Manjaro desktop. Users run the installation wizard by using Synapse or the application menu. Unlike the Enlightment desktop, I quickly got accustomed to using Synapse and the application menu despite my ingrained habit of using the ALT+F2 key combination.

3. Step 2 in the Manjaro setup involves formatting and creating the partitions but Manjaro's wizard refused to format the openSUSE system still present in the hard drive. Manjaro, however, includes GParted in the System menu. To work around this issue, exit the Manjaro installation wizard and run GParted to delete the openSUSE boot, home, and system partitions. Format the partition and restart the Manjaro installation.

4. A curious keyboard issue (that remained even after Manjaro installation) occurred while booting into LiveUSB. Numlock was automatically switched on and I had to disable the key using the FN combination of the Acer Aspire. Forums normally report they prefer this feature (Numlock activated on boot), but I found it odd that the Aspire encountered this issue only with Manjaro and not with any of the other Linux distributions I've tried previously. It was, however, a nuisance at best and  I chalked it up to the legacy BIOS and motherboard the Aspire was sporting.

Note: The Acer Aspire 5500Z does not have a Numlock configuration option in the BIOS.

5. The longest part of the installation was setting up Alsa and updating the Pacman repository. Unlike Archlinux, which cannot be installed without access to the repository, Manjaro completed installation despite failing to update or connect to the repositories.

Note: I was unable to connect to the repos due to my location in Shanghai, China and my ISP. I had previously failed to install Arch due to the same issue. Manjaro finished installation but even after running the proper pacman mirrorlist steps, failed to connect, update or install software.




Continued in Manjaro Openbox on a 7-year old Acer Aspire 5500Z Part 2

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Quick Fix: Identify the PDF producer in Adobe Reader and Okular

Category: Tech Writer

There are so many ways to create a PDF today that Adobe Acrobat and Adobe products no longer have monopoly over the file format. XSL-FO, Microsoft Office, Google Chrome and directly from any Linux application are only some of the more popular ways of producing a PDF from a document or project. 

If you need to identify what application produced the PDF (for example to check the design or imitate the formatting) you can use the free Adobe Reader to check the PDF properties. Adobe Reader has lost some of its gloss over the years due to security problems and lack of features compared to other open source or freeware offerings, but it can still be found installed in most enterprise Windows machines with a dated version available for Linux (Adobe Reader 9).

To check the PDF producer in Acrobat Reader:

1. Open the PDF in Adobe Reader.

2. Click File then Properties.

3. On the Description tab, the Application and PDF Producer items indicate which applications/utilities were involved in creating the PDF.

Unfortunately, complete PDF properties are only available on desktop versions of Adobe Reader and currently can't be viewed from the iOS app release.

Linux and KDE users can check the PDF producer of a document using the excellent document viewer Okular.

To check the PDF producer in Okular:

1. Open the PDF in Okular.

2. Click File then Properties.

3. On the Properties tab, the Creator and Producer items indicate which applications were used to create the PDF.

Checking which PDF engine was used to create a PDF is a great way to learn about which industry standard applications are popular with today's software and hardware manufacturers. The Sony DOStudio manual documentation, for example, was exported from MadCap Flare while AMD's developer guides use an earlier version of Adobe FrameMaker. Lenovo, on the other hand, alternately uses Adobe InDesign CS3 and XPP XML Publishing depending on their product line.

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