I has new WiFi

In a previous post, I wrote about my resurrected laptop (the ancient dino) that has the old 802.11b wireless (Intel PRO/Wireless 2100). Now I have received my new Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 BG and I am now enjoying 802.11G speeds.

The tear down and replacement wasn't overly hard. Ubuntu once again made the driver issue relatively painless (the ipw2200 drivers were immediately seamlessly installed).

Next would hopefully be a probable modest update in processor (if I can find a cheap Banias core CPU that is).

Old WiFi (installed) beside the 'new' card

Striking down a bottleneck on the Laptop

I love 'new' toys. :)

A problem I have with the laptop (apart from the stupid laptop keyboard, stupid touchpad - I hate touch pads coz my thumbs keep grazing them when I type at my 82WPM speed, stupidly low amount of RAM, and stupidly little USB ports) is with the slow 802.11b WiFi. Meh. 11Mbits just doesn't cut it when I wanna browse and stream my big FLAC files all over WiFi. :\

The current first gen Intel Centrino dinky PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter that is on my laptop is about to be replaced! I ran across an Intel PRO/Wireless LAN 2200BG 3B Mini PCI Adapter that will give me a more modern 802.11g 54Mbits of WiFi wholesome goodness. Best of all,it was $12 on fleabay and it should arrive this week or next. GOD SPEED!

Scott's Top 10 FREE Software

Well I'm gonna cheat and divide it half Windows, half Ubuntu/Linux. A little something for everyone *shrugs*. Linkies are complimentary. Enjoy dear internet readers (if there are people who actually read or otherwise).

Windows
1) Foobar2000
LINK
WIKI
By far, my favorite music player for Windows (haha had to recently redefine it to my now broader usage of OS's). Highly tweakable interface and output. and has superior sound quality. WMP? iTunes? Foobar2000 FTW!

2) μTorrent
LINK
WIKI
Download much? Want less resources to use (aka light footprint)? Want control over the use of a BT client (disable DHT, encryption, set max ups and downs and # of peers/connections - aka not killing your home router). Look no further. :)

3) IMGBurn
LINK
WIKI
Hate the bloat that Nero has become lately? Hate Nero wasting your precious Taiyo Yuden Japanese disc media? Want something free and simple and works? Give this thing a shot. I love it to bits (and no more wasted discs).

4) Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP)
LINK
WIKI
I absolutely love this codec pack. It will pretty much allow you to play all the videos file formats (dual audio, subs, etc) right through Windows Media Player. Unlike some, I actually really love WMP 11. I don't like other players (Zoom, WMP Classic, etc) for Windows. CCCP allows me to keep using it (there is a full installation minus players options during install - and make sure to force Haali Media Splitter by checking the box). Watch in peace my brethren.

5) Mozilla Firefox
LINK
WIKI
You think I would forget my favorite browser? Firefox is probably a prime example of the best of what the freeware/open source community can do for multiple platforms. It is a true success story. How successful? Well about ~21% market share (second behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer) worth. But at least there is some friendly competition going on between number one and number two (doesn't appear to be as ugly as the IE vs Netscape from a way back when). So nice infact, that they got not one, but two cakes from the IE Dev team. Aww... :)

Honrable mentions: CutePDF, 7-zip, CPU-z (VERY narrowly edged out), Exact Audio Copy (number 1 ripping tool. Forget the rest, make sure to rip in FLAC... :p ).

Whew!

Ubuntu
The links may or may not work (and may not matter for the matter). Regardless, look them up in your respective package manager. I somehow don't think this half will be too challenging though (hey everything is open source right?). Though please go easy on me, I have just had Ubuntu for like 3 days LMAO.

1) Ubuntu itself
LINK
WIKI
Hahaha. What can I say? It is free. And it totally saved a good part of the day for my friends today. Stuff worked as soon as it was installed. Everything from my sound, to my WiFi, to the battery meter, to the volume control buttons on the laptop just worked. And, it comes included with #2.

2) Mozilla Firefox
LINK
WIKI
Hahaha. Included with the Ubuntu version I have (8.10). Cross platform FTW!

3) BMPx
LINK
WIKI
This is so far my favorite player for Ubuntu. Hey, it includes built in Last.fm support (for my scrobbling, I need a separate client for my main Vista x64 machine). Plays my preferred audio format (FLAC - anyone who really knows me, knows that I am a BIG FLAC nut - a requirement for everything I use that involves digital music playback). And most importantly for a big Ubuntu/Linux n00b, support for a mounted music folder (that is in NTFS - though that partly is due to the NTFS File Configurator I have installed too I suppose), built in lyrics download (you can view details of the song and grab the lyrics. About everything I'd want right now (as a Ubuntu n00b). Though it doesn't really have the level of tweaking that I am used to with Foobar2000. Probably the only downside I see. Amarok seems to be a decent player (tons of stuff to mess with) but for the life of me, can't seem to figure out how to get it to see my mounted NTFS folder. Need something that 'Just Works' for now. I guess I really should give hydrogenaudio.org a visit. But, on the flipside, this is a ancient relic of a machine with uber old pre Intel High Definition Audio onboard sound. Meh, will probably just stick with BMPx I suppose. That or listen to my FLAC Trekstor Vibez seperately.

4) MPlayer
LINK
WIKI
This is one of the best players I've tried. I currently have VLC installed as well as the included Movie Player with Ubuntu. This one seems to just be more willing to play the various video containers I have (with all of the GStreamer codecs I downloaded that is). So I am reasonably comfortable putting this and number 4.

5) Screenlets
LINK
WIKI
I love having widgets on the right side of the screen. I use it a lot in Vista and I totally love the ones in the Windows 7 Beta. So here I was wondering if there was anything I could use on Ubuntu, and I ran across a mention of Screenlets. Sure there are other alternatives but I tried it and liked it so done. Hahaha! Now I get my CPU, RAM, Swap file, CPU Temperature, and local weather (also have it on the top 'taskbar'). Happy me.

Honorable Mentions: tons of others, just go look coz that's what I'm doing too. :o

If you guys would like to chime in on anything that you felt needs a mention anywhere, feel free to drop a comment. :)

Ubuntu saved the day

So today, I was hanging out with my buddies who wanted to learn how to set up a web server (well one of them was teaching, the other was learning, and I just wanted to play some more with Ubuntu while hanging out with them) that consisted of Apache, PHP, and MySQL. (please know that I am totally nub) So our plan was to chill out with two laptops (one my Ubuntu system, and the other a Windows machine - No open source people, it is not what you think... ;) ). Unfortunately, there was a mission critical issue that we faced as the Windows machine was unable to function (due to a left at home crucial component - aka the power brick + plug). I told them, if they can bear the slowness ancient dinosaur that my laptop is, they are more than welcomed to set up a webserver on it (for localhost) to mess around with (haha me being a true Utilitarian).

So they took me up on the offer and to make things more accessible, we hooked it up to a bigger monitor (haha we sheepishly found how to mirror the laptop monitor to it), hooked up a USB keyboard and mouse and to me and my friend's complete surprise, it simply worked (in the words of Ubuntu). The thing that I've heard is it either works or it doesn't (which the latter tends to happen at times and when it does, you're pretty much boned - no FUD intended, just being objective).

Then setting up Apache, PHP, and MySQL, was real easy through the command line (again, I am teh nub - so no hate kthxbai). A far cry from the hour and a half it took on my 'normal' machine (again it is still my main machine - definitely not replacing it with Ubuntu). After that, it was smooth sailing and the lesson commenced (while I nodded kinda sorta understanding what was going on from a conceptual-though-not-really-technical point of view) and everybody was teh happy (and we all celebrated by stuffing our faces - kinda regretting that now though).

Yay?

Ubuntu

For those of you who aren't sure WTF 'Ubuntu' is, it apparently is Zulu for 'Humanity for others'. But specifically, it is the name of a Linux distribution (that is one of the more popular ones).

I have this reasonably really ancient old laptop (ASUS M2400N) that has been crawling on Windows XP (*gasp* I am starting to sound like a Linux User - joking). The (then) current build of XP on this dinosaur of a laptop was woefully full of spyware viruses due to years of coupon searching and god knows what else (hey it wasn't my laptop). It was also corrupted (BSOD after a few minutes of the aeons it took to boot up). Now I have copies of OS' lying around (even have a copy of XP Pro SP2 that I could have installed in its stead), but I chose to be a bit more adventurous and installed Ubuntu 8.10 32bit (yes yes, old hardware).

Well at least thats what I thought. I booted up the CD and after selecting to install Ubuntu 8.10, I was met with a single blinking cursor on the top left cornet of the screen. Upon further research (aka Google), I found out that I needed to update the BIOS on this dino. And there are only two ways. One is to use a floppy (hah on a laptop = teh funnies) or use a CD (didnt want to waste a CD), or flash it through Windows. So guess what did I do. I reinstalled windows so I could flash the BIOS (lol me being me), and tried everything again. And there we go! Installation started without skipping a beat. Since I didn't really know what I was doing, I let Ubuntu decide for me how to install (and they formatted the puny hard drive).

Now I have to say, I always had this perception of Linux being something not very user friendly (especially a prime Windows user - haha that won't change due to the gaming I do) that basically required a lot of 'effort' to get going. I am however pleased to say that I was completely wrong. Right away from the start, I was completely blown away by how everything was set up. I had sound, nice resolution, and a little window popped up telling my that it detected my home wifi. Laptop battery meter was showing how much juice I still had left. And the speed of it all! Booted up like a champ in record time.

One thing that I think is pretty cool (in a geek like kinda way) is the Synaptic Package Manager. I was quick to learn that this is how most of the stuff is installed on Linux (no real complains). Find something you want, fire up the package manager and go look for it and select it for download (it will prompt for other required components). The benefits that I see from this immediately is that 1) You won't be downloading crap, and 2) it helps update things for you (yay!). Another thing that I really like is that you have a 'virtual' dual screen (workspace) that you can switch back and fourth easily.

So first impressions were real good.

Now to figure out how to get it to do what I wanted to do. First thing that came to mind was how to connect it to my Windows Home Server to access my media. Fortunately, I could already view the computers that were hooked up to the home network. But then after loging into my Windows Home Server, I was met with a blank screen. HMM! Quick google stated that I needed something to read NTFS (the preferred file system on Windows XP/Vista). So I fired up the Package Manager and got myself the NTFS Configuration Tool. Set it up and success! I could now see all my stuff (after mounting the location as well). Next, I needed a music player to play my sonic FLAC goodness. I knew for a fact that my beloved Foobar2000 only worked on Windows (*sob*). A buddy of mine (who is a big UNIX/Linux nut) recommended me BMPx. I really love it! It even has a built in Last.fm scrobbler. Two birds with one stone! So far,I am pretty happy with the sound quality of it (I have one of my AudioTechnica headphones right now connected through the laptop).

Next up was a video player. For that, I use VLC and Mplayer (still trying out both). I can seem to play some stuff but I get stuttering. This is definitely due to the dinosaur wireless 802.11b module that is on this. DEFINITELY on my upgrade list (yay I get to take apart the keyboard on this laptop). Might as well check the processor and see if I should upgrade that as well (and more RAM I guess - only have like 700 odd MB left after shared video allocation). I definitely think that is worth my precious money to upgrade this machine a tad as I will most probably be using it more.

So if you have a spare system/hard drive/partition out there, give Ubuntu a spin. Lemme know if you guys figure out how to do some neeto stuff that newbies could do. I guess I will step into the world of command lines one day. But for now, I need to reteach myself how to get around a new OS (haha screenshots require a utility :o ).

Oh yeah, screen shot time!

That is my current lovely Ubuntu desktop. :)

RAID Update Update

Well its been a while since I've updated anything here on my little nook up in the interwebs.

Regarding the RAID stuff I've posted, I have to pretty much scrap all of the results. Me being the quasi perfectionist at heart (though in practice, it can differ at times - LMAO), I am simply not happy with the methodology in regards to IOmeter results. Furthermore, the lack of real world application testing really bothers me. I attempted to install some games in my onboard RAID testbed but for some odd reason, the installation would corrupt inexplainably. Since then, I have traced the source to FUBAR'd RAM and if the above reasons aren't enough to persuade you that my testing was junk, then this certainly would be the final nail in the coffin. RIP RAID benchmark results.

Though in a more constructive view, I can say that things are running smoothly and nothing has gone bonkers just yet (knock on teh wood).