In Search Of Tux Episode 1: Xbox 360 S 250gb unboxing

Sorry for the lateness of this video. The title and credit sequences took longer to sort out than I expected.

It's coming

The ISOT vlog

Why I'm excited about the Apple Tabet

The almighty Apple Tablet has been rumoured since before the iPhone but in recent months these rumours have hit fever pitch culminating in the belief that Apple will announce their unicorn tablet on the 27th January.

I have no illusions that the Apple Tablet will be anything other than overpriced. I am however still excited about it. Before the iPhone was released in 2007 the touch screen phone market was stale and unattractive, since then however your not a major phone company unless you have a touch screen smart phone. Apple has a knack for reinvigorating any market they enter. I believe the same will be true for the tablet PC market. It is currently fairly stale with few OEMs making tablets and fewer making tablet accessories.

I'm currently awaiting delivery of a 2nd hand Motion M1400 tablet PC and of course the hunt for accessories has begun. Keyboards aren't a problem as bluetooth is a standard. Things like cases however are a bigger problem. A case in point (no pun intended!) is from a company called OtterBox this company is know for making hugely rugged everything proof cases and they used to make a tablet pc case which would have been perfect for use on field trips etc. However because the market has been stagnant for so long Otterbox no longer make this case.

Being a Linux user and advocate I will be looking to install Linux on my shiny tablet PC. Easy, I thought, Linux is so adaptable that someone will have made a tablet orientated *buntu by now. This however isn't the case. The few tablet orientated projects that exist have not seen new code or refinements for years. The Linux community is renowned for its ability to make new ideas its own. Days after the launch of Windows 7 the community figured out how to get Compiz to emulate Aero Snap. Hopefully Apple will make Tablets "trendy" again making accessory makers and the Linux community sit up and take notice of this platform.

On an unrelated note: I've finally figured out how to get Blogger to notify me of comments on this blog so comment away and I'll get back to you quickly

Also, since when did I actually start getting visitors to this blog? I've got over 30,000 views! Thank you :-)

Why I'll never buy another Microsoft product.

About a week ago my motherboard gave out on me. Luckily I'm running an AM2 chip meaning that a replacement was fairly inexpencive. After putting the new motherboard in I booted into Ubuntu 9.10 without any problems. I boot into Windows 7 however and apparently my copy is "not genuine" and a few seconds after boot I get told I might have been the victim of piracy. Now I'm tech savy enough to know that 7 is just throwing a hissy fit over the change in hardware so I go to the activation screen and re-enter my code only to be told that because my hardware has changed my license is no longer valid. I am told to call a toll-free number and input a 48 digit code just to recieve another 48 digit code which I input into the activation menu.

Ironically this total palarva would have been avoided if I had been running a pirated copy of Windows 7 as a pirated copy would have had the activation checks removed!

I will not be buying Windows 8 no matter what features it has. From this day on I no longer consider myself a Microsoft customer.

HTC Hero on Virgin Mobile

My current mobile phone provider, Blyk, is about to stop supporting its mobile phone network side of the business. For me this means that by the 26th August I will no longer have a phone service.

I've been looking for a new mobile network and decided on Virgin Mobile. The network piggy backs on T-mobile, which has good signal strength at my house. I went for a SIM only deal which gives me unlimited texts, unlimited web (very important for Android) and 300 minutes a month for £18.

Got my SIM this morning popped it into my phone and realized that the 3G wasn't working. After quite a bit of Googling the settings are as follows:

Name: Virgin Internet
APN: goto.virginmobile.uk
Proxy: not set
Port: 8080
Username: User
Password: Not set
Server: 193.30.166.003
MMSC: http://mms.virginmobile.co.uk/8002
MMS Proxy: 193.30.166.4
MMS Port: 8080
MMS Protocol: WAP 2.0
MCC: 234
MNC:30
APN type: *

I don't think these settings make MMS work but if I find them I'll post them up.

Tumblr

Just a quick post to let you know that I'm trying out Tumblr. I'll post a link when I've finished tweaking!

Et Voila: http://www.grindboysthoughts.tumblr.com

Jolicloud Review

If you read my post on instant-on/cloud operating systems you'll know I'm enthralled by the idea of not having any data locally but still having very fast access. This all started when I learned about the existence of Jolicloud an OS which lives mostly in the cloud. Sadly at the moment Jolicloud is in private alpha so I signed up for an invite and waited a few months.

The main (?) interface

Yesterday I got an email from Jolicloud with an invite and subsequently a download link :-) installation was very similar to Ubuntu NBR because Jolicloud is based on it. I installed it very similarly to my NBR installation as a result boot times are very fast from the 4GB SSD (less than 25 seconds)

First Impressions

What surprised me was that instead of booting into the Jolicloud interface it booted into a stripped down UME launcher. I've now discovered that the UME laucher IS Joliclouds main interface. This can make the experience slightly jarring as you install applications (both web and native) from the Jolicloud interface but cannot launch them from there.

The one click graphical installation is a wonder to behold and at the moment very useful but I'm not sure how useful it will be once there is a larger range of applications. The universal people and applications search will probably help.

Having downloaded the Twitter and Facebook "apps", which are simply Prism bookmarks, I was surprised that they didn't integrate with the Jolicloud interface. The main page of the Jolicloud Interface is an activity feed for your friends this however doesn't extend to Twitter and Facebook. It would be nice to open Jolicloud and see updates from the people I'm following on Twitter. Of course there might be a setting for this but the settings are strewn across the system, would it be in the settings menu on the UME launcher or in the Jolicloud interface or in the settings of the Twitter program?

This discontinuity also extends to the search bar which will allow me to search application and (the rather cryptically named) "people" at first glance for a social OS you'd think this would be Twitter and Facebook profiles but it is limited to the profiles of other Jolicloud users.

At the moment I must admit I'm a little disappointed but being an Alpha product I'm going to assume that tighter integration with the rest of the OS and web services is coming.