On Video

Just thought I'd throw this together to show it working. Hopefully, I can find somebody who would like to help getting the touchscreen working.

I _love_ Ubuntu

Last night, I decided that it was time to reinstall everything, mostly because I had trouble with getting my mic to work for some recording with audacity and later trying to place a SIP call. Since I was reinstalling everything, I thought I'd save a partition for Redmond, but the recovery disks did not work because I completely wiped the disk when I installed Kubuntu.


So I sent an email to Fujitsu. They recommended I call Technical Support, so I did. They said t4hey could not help me and my only two options were to buy a Windows XP install disk or send the laptop back to them and pay $155 for them to reinstall the XP tablet version. I told them, "No, thanks I'll just run Linux."


So fresh install, this time it is GNOME for me and some surprises. The hardware keys to change the screen brightness now works, and I am not certain if it was all the extra packages from Add Progras or not, but I can now use the onboard Video camera to take pictures from Cheese and video from Skype. Oh and the microphone problem that started everything, a switch on the cable that electrically isolates the microphone! Geez, you mean this turns it ON?!?!

Testing Sugar

In order to install and run a sugar emulator on my computer, I had to install the default GNOME desktop by Ubuntu. Mostly because there are so many dependencies which are just assumed by sugar to be on the system already. I did try to run it in KDE, it started up but did not make any progress.

In case you didn't know, sugar is the desktop environment for OLPC , and it is quite a revolutionary break from the traditional desktop metaphor. One really interesting thing that happens is I can also log directly into Sugar from the KDM/GDM login prompt, and this allows me to see the fullscreen, as my laptop has a screen that is 1024X600 it doesn't quite fit the xephyr window fully onto the desktop. But that is all cool. I am hoping to be able to connect with my daughter's XO when it gets here soon.

Rather than doijng real work...

I have been playing around with settings on my little precious. Last night, just for kicks I enabled the Enlightenment desktop. I have to say, e17 has made quite a bit if ground since I last checked it out. However, there are a number of areas where I was not pleased. The primary regard is the File Manager, coming from KDE with Konqueror and now d3lphin on my machine, I have got quite accustomed to a flexible and powerful file manager which does not open a new window when I drill into subdirectories.

I also found the configuration to be bit ackward and difficult. Perhaps that was because the buttons did not quite do what I expected them to do or the level of configuration was superficial at best. However, I can see why gOS chose to use enlightenment as the Desktop Environment for their $200 Walmart special.Snappy, attractive and with preconfigured Webrunner or Prism Google buttons, it makes for a nice little machine for web based activities.

Then I briefly flirted with installing the GNOME desktop which comes default with Ubuntu, but quickly came to my senses. ;-)

However, this has inspired a new round of shifting the furniture about, and now the desktop is in a new configuration- yet another step farther away from default. One day, I'll actually have a desktop that enables me to be productive rather than giving me more to play with and thus distracting me from getting anything really done!

First thing in the Morning

I wake up and sit down at my desk, I have several things to do in the morning at the computer, write my personal journal, shift through email, read news etc. This morning waiting in my Inbox was a message from the crew at OLPC saying that the Buy One, Give One program was now open. So, of course I signed up so that The Bubster can have one for Christmas and another child in a developing country can also have a laptop.

I'm really excited about this project, have been for sometime, and am really happy to be able to put two into the hands of children who are poised to begin some real learning that is fun. If you have a kid in your life, or know of one that needs an advantage, I encourage you to participate in this program.


Technorati Tags: OLPC

Shall we proceed with insanity (Not a Prince Song)

After getting some new hardware, I have been testing
 it and trying to enlisted some help at UDS-Boston.

Now for the short list:

• the touchscreen is not working yet.
• the webcam is not working yet.
• the special buttons are not working yet.
• the fingerprint scanner is not working yet.
• the hardware volume is sort of working.
  

Another list:

• WiFi worked immediately after install
• Graphics worked immediately after install
• Sound worked immediately after install

What I'm hoping to have happen in the next six weeks, is finding a solution for the touchscreen. That's really the one piece I want happening. I'd also like it if X was flipped automatically  when  the screen is moved into tablet mode. Also in tablet mode, browsing would be so much better if the special hardware buttons worked--there is a bug report for this already in lauchpad.

My primary interest in this machine was its diminutive size coupled with the prospect of having some neat functionality after some work, I did not anticipate that it would all be perfect from the start-but I am quite surprised at how well all the general laptop stuff works which means more can be concentrated on solving the fancy bits.

I do expect that I am not going tol be the most successful at solving these bits, but hopefully there are  number of giants shoulders which I can crawl upon.






Technorati Tags: U810, hardware, hackinjg, Ubuntu, Linux

Oy Karamba!

One of the more positive new things I have enjoyed about getting my new computer is being able to throw some pretty graphical things at it. While the Fujitsu U810 is still not a mega-monster in terms of raw processing power or graphical capacity, I do get to play with the 3D desktop stuff occasionally, you know just to see what all the fuss is about.

Last night, I spent some time configuring a couple of Superkaramba themes on my desktop. By doing so, I gain some attractive functionality, like the weather display and that really nice looking clock but me favorite is the buddy list that is put on the desktop. This allows me to be able to swee when some special people sign in, its sort of a subgroup of my buddies. As you can see, I have been chatting with one of them this morning.

Reflections from the Summit

Last week was the Ubuntu Developers Summit, it was held in Cambridge, MA within spitting distance of MIT. There were lots and lots of really supercharged developers, community members and officials from many companies who have an interest in Ubuntu Linux in attendance. As I am writing about my experiences, you can safely assume that I was there, and due to events outside of my control, my daughter was also there. She was a great hit and really helped me with meeting many different people.

My primary focus in attending this particular conference was on community. My desires were to find a manner to link the work in our community at the local, national and global levels into an organization which can provide answers and insight into our community to large organizations such as the United Nations. There were some ideas in roundtable discussions about providing a pointer to the Local Community team for a user during the installation process. This could greatly help people with support issues and provide an easier method to lend a hand for those who are not technically astute.

I also suggested to Jono that if this gets implemented or even as a separate submissions, we could collect a database of why people are installing Ubuntu, and in what sort of environment it will be used- for instance as part of a small business (<25 seats) in Podunk. With a suitable database from global results, there could be a good study presented to some fairly large organizations along with the lessons learned and special attention areas pointed out, this could help guide major organizations to changing over.

I'd say that would go quite some ways towards solving Bug #1.

The other side of this focus, the Local Community Team, is where this work gets done. I was able to speak to some other people who are really active in their LoCo. Here are some the observations compiled across my observations from these conversations.

• You do not need permission from someone to advocate for Ubuntu. You just need to start doing it.
• You are allowed to make mistakes, as long as you learn from them.
• If you want something done, like an event in your neighborhood, city or your part of the state, then start planning it and execute it even if you are the only one there. If you keep doing this there will be more people from the team and your local neighborhood, but keep planning them.
• You have the authority.
• It doesn't matter how many channels you have open (blog, wiki, IRC, facebook, etc) you still need to have face to face meetups- this is Linux for Humans!!
  

I'm sure I have more to say about all of this, and will continue to try to express it,but right now, I think I am going to have to get some sleep!!


Technorati Tags: Ubuntu, UDS-Boston, Comunity, Organization

Full Day

So, today was The Bubster and my first full day at Ubuntu Developer's Summit in Boston. Actually, it's in Cambridge at MIT but won't want to confuse the people who think there is a Cambridge someplace else in the world. Anyways, we sat in an Artwork team session and helped out with a new spec or two, and The Bubster created some new artwork. It was quite enlightening to sit in on the session and see how the process works. EJ was not really ready for deeper sessions, so we just stayed in the hallway and worked on our community skills together.

I was able to get some insight from the leader of the Massachesuetts LoCo Team into their organization as well as meet up with some of the people with whom I have exchanged emails regarding the UN and other such advocacy positions. Extic Hardware was alover the place, including my little U810, which attracted nearly as much attention as the Bubster!

Now we are chilling in the hotel, resting up berfore a bigger day tomorrow-- half day at conference then travel home on the bus back to Brooklyn.


Technorati Tags: UDS, ubuntu, Boston

Full Day

So, today was The Bubster and my first full day at Ubuntu Developer's Summit in Boston. Actually, it's in Cambridge at MIT but won't want to confuse the people who think there is a Cambridge someplace else in the world. Anyways, we sat in an Artwork team session and helped out with a new spec or two, and The Bubster created some new artwork. It was quite enlightening to sit in on the session and see how the process works. EJ was not really ready for deeper sessions, so we just stayed in the hallway and worked on our community skills together.

I was able to get some insight from the leader of the Massachesuetts LoCo Team into their organization as well as meet up with some of the people with whom I have exchanged emails regarding the UN and other such advocacy positions. Extic Hardware was alover the place, including my little U810, which attracted nearly as much attention as the Bubster!

Now we are chilling in the hotel, resting up berfore a bigger day tomorrow-- half day at conference then travel home on the bus back to Brooklyn.


Technorati Tags: UDS, ubuntu, Boston