The Tech Enthusiast

Desktop UI comparison

Fri, 20 May 2011 15:05:06 -0500

Today we’re going to make some comparisons of 5 desktop UI spanning across Windows, Mac and Linux. We’re going to start with the worst and end with the best.

The absolute worst Desktop UI goes to Gnome 3. On paper this project sounded like it had a lot of potential, but the “finished” project called Gnome 3 is a joke. To say that Gnome3 is unfinished is a HUGE understatement. There’s no themes, icon support, or what I consider important, UI settings. The minimize and maximize buttons are gone. Added bonus, no menu! You can shove the mouse in the top left hand corner to bring up the open windows an app draw. Which is great, because I didn’t like having a task bar with all my windows open, instead, I have a clock in the center that displays the time and day. Is that not a great way to use screen space or what? Great job Gnome, see you when Gnome 4 comes out(if they can manage to keep a user base).

Windows 7 is the first attempt to separate from windows 3.1 UI. It was brave and bold. I also think there’s quite a few disappointments here. Don’t get me wrong, I like Windows 7, but they came up short. The UI gives you the option to have many apps open, but it’s pretty hard to tell which apps are actually open and which ones are minimized. It also fails to capture the app sometimes, leaving and icon to open the app and another icon that is the app. It’s a very poor way to show and manage open applications. So why use it? They also introduced something very nice, jump list. This is super genius and kinda surprising no one has tried it before. Because of this, the strong menu layout and keeping a usable task bar(with options) it’s definitely better than Gnome 3.

So you may think I’m a gnome hater, but I’ve spent nearly 3 months in gnome before coming back to KDE. Gnome 2 is great, easy to use UI, with tons of features and awesomeness. Mac OS has about the same UI. I would say that about 99.9% of all mac features and design have Linux and Gnome origins. Really, outside of the color scheme, there’s not a difference between the too. Both offer a dock that some people love, I personally feel that it’s a pain in the ass, and not all that convenient But because of the impressive menu options, dock and great space management, it’s better than the Windows 7 UI.

Yeah, you guess it, KDE is next. A lot of people left KDE when KDE4 was released. It was compared to vista. But I’ve got to be honest, I like it and still use it. It’s very slick, modern, and it’s not radically different looking when compared to other UI(Windows). It’s very simple and clean. There’s no need the triple menus that you have in Gnome and Mac. It is, back to the comparison, an Linux version of the Vista UI. Although unstable at 4.0, it’s a most powerful desktop at KDE 4.6. The Vista UI is right here with it, but unfortunately Vista is the WORST OS known to man kind. But window previews and great menus on top of a proven desktop UI make both of the UI a great choice.

So what’s the best UI? Windows XP? Your kidding right? Absolutely not. There’s a reason why Windows XP is the number one OS. The Xp offered a modern UI, absolutely perfect menu, and improved task bar. After a couple of service packs, Windows XP was a solid desktop that delivered all the goods without any gimmicks and flash. While you may say it’s ugly or outdated, this UI is the number one choice for getting work done. It’s distraction free and almost everyone is familiar with.

The future? Look for Gnome 3 to have some drastic changes between now and the next year. It’s an absolute disaster, and with it’s main distro using Unity, it may fade away. For Gnome to stay strong, it needs to finish Gnome 3 and possibly work towards bring the Old UI to the new framework. KDE is planning to hit version number 5 in the next year. Don’t look for drastic UI changes but speed improvements.

For Windows, look for improvements, but not any drastic changes. Windows 7 brought the ribbon for all the native apps. It takes awhile to get used to, but I think It’ll catch on. They’re always be those that cling to the XP UI, and Windows 8 may offer an opportunity to have a Windows Vista like toolbar. Much like XP offered the XP or classic style. If Windows 8 can deliver this, we’ll see the end of Windows XP.

Cons of the Samsung Captivate

Thu, 19 May 2011 15:05:06 -0500

I’ve had my Captivate now for a little over 4 months, and would like to share a few of my negative experiences with you. I still believe that the phone is one of the best that AT&T offers, but they are a few pitfalls.

     First, lets start with RAM. Just like a computer, smart phones have RAM. The more RAM you have, the faster the phone. Samsung advertises the Captivate with 512MBs of RAM. This is the first lie. The Captivate, even after upgrading, rooting, or even flashing will have a maximum of 340MBs of RAM. If you hear some one saying that’s normal because the OS is taking up that space or the applications are taking up that space, please slap them because THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT. Yes, physically, the phone does have 512MBs of RAM, but only about 340MBs is available to the OS and Apps. If someone tells you it’s because of the version of Android you use, like Android 2.1 can’t handle more than 256 MBs of ram, please remember that these people also don’t know what they are talking about. The 512MBs of RAM is divided into multiple parts, 340 being used as RAM, but the rest being used by the system. Think of your computer, it my have say 5GBs of RAM, with 4GBs being RAM and 1GB being used by the graphics card. No matter what you try to do with your computer, the OS and Apps can only use 4GBs of RAM, and the RAM that’s on the graphics card is strictly for graphics. When you bought your computer, it was advertised with only 4GBs of RAM; not the lie that Samsung told you about the Captivate. While components like the GPU, Radio, GPS, etc.. need RAM, it’s a shame that Samsung couldn’t have delivered the 512MBs of RAM that they promised.

     Second issue is updates. Samsung is one of the worst to push Android OS updates to your phone. They just recently pushed out 2.2 a little over a month ago. Yes, they will eventually offer 2.3, but don’t bother holding your breath. It took nearly a year for 2.2 to get here. If your wanting the latest Android OS, you might want to look beyond Samsung.

     Last complaint, AT&T. This phone comes with so much bloatware; Google should revoke AT&T’s license to sell Android devices. It’s a huge problem, because they come with so many AT&T and Samsung apps that can NOT be removed… without rooting. Another AT&T specific problem, Apps. You will only be able to load apps from the Android Market, not greater than 30MBs in size. No Amazon App store will be offered on AT&T phones. If your trying to escape iPhone restrictions and experience freedom, you will have to root your Captivate.

   Again, I think the Captivate is one of the best Android devices yet; but Samsung will need to do something different with it’s next line to keep up with the competition.

Top 10 Awesome Android Features that the iPhone Doesn't Have

Wed, 18 May 2011 15:06:05 -0500

Top 10 Awesome Android Features that the iPhone Doesn't Have:

We love both Android and iOS, but the open nature of Android just means it can do things others just can’t. Here are our favorite Android apps and features that you won’t find on its Apple-clad brethren.

Clear your battery stats

Mon, 16 May 2011 15:17:06 -0500

After flashing a new ROM or Kernel, it’s pretty important to clear your battery stats. This is important because you will not have accurate battery readings without a fresh set of stats. This also can affect your battery life, because certain monitors or triggers would start soon enough to save battery life(ie, wifi turns off at 15%, GPS turns off at 25%, etc…) So when do you clear your battery stats?

After flashing a new ROM
After flashing a new Kernel
After changing voltage settings(overclock or undervolting more than 5%)
After getting a new battery

How do I clear these battery stats? You’ve basically have two routes. I prefer to wait until the battery is fully charged, reboot into recovery mode, and then from the advanced menu in clockwork, select clear battery stats. After the phone reboots you’re good to go. The other option is to use an app. I’ve had some luck with Battery Calibration. It’s an easy to use and clean app. The app will help you calibrate your battery with easy to follow instructions.

Following a successful battery calibration, you should notice a very small increase in battery life(maybe around 5% to 10%). However, if you really love your battery, you’ll follow these rules.

Full charge. Nothing is better than getting a full charge. I know that when we’re on the go, we might just through the phone in the charger for an hour before we leave. This is a bad practice, the battery needs a full charge.
Full discharge. Kinda of goes hand and hand with the above, but you really need to let your phone die every now and then. This is crucial for the lifespan of the battery. Try to avoid charging the phone before bed just because it’s at 50%. You’ll be surprised at how long 50% of your battery will last.
Over clock/under volt limits. Just try to be careful here. The device maker clearly picked the speeds and voltage settings for a reason. Don’t try to squeeze too much out.

How to Install Netflix on Almost Any Android Device

Sun, 15 May 2011 15:01:25 -0500

How to Install Netflix on Almost Any Android Device:

Yesterday’s launch of Netflix on the Android was exciting, but not without disappointment, as it’s only available on a few devices. Here’s how to install it on almost any Android phone.

Kernel Comparison

Sun, 15 May 2011 10:59:45 -0500

Not all that long ago I did a very brief article as to which kernel I thought was the best. I said platypus, but really didn’t give many details. This article will hopefully make up for it. Today I will be reviewing three specific kernels; kang, platypus and Le kernel du jour(aka, TheEscapist’s kernel).

First, before we just into the kernels, I want to introduce an extremely helpful script from the members of XDA. Called Ultimate Kernel Cleaning Script. Basically as the name suggest, you run this little script to clean up after your previous kernel. Not a lot of magic here, it just clears the cache, dalvik-cache and previous kernel settings. While you could do this all yourself, it’s really handy to have it just in a single run file. Here’s a link to the forum so that you can download the file to keep.

On to the good stuff now. I have AT&T’s Samsung Captivate running the latest version of MIUI 1.5.13(Gingerbread 2.3.4) Since the Captivate does not have an official gingerbread release, all gingerbread roms are buggy at best, so when comparing the three kernels, stability is the last thing we’ll talk about. We’re not going to undervolt and we’re going to overclock to the kernel’s maximum safe setting. With that out of the way, we’ll be looking at three different areas, Benchmark, Real World and Stability.

Benchmark

Because this is what we care about the most, right? It’s not a surprise here that Le kernel du jour took hope top honors. TheEscapist’s kernel allows for overclocking of up to 1.55GHz, which is more than Platypus or Kang at 1.3. Using quadrant as measurement tool, all three had about the same scores on the first run, 1700+. After two or three back to back runs though, the Kang kernel tops out around 2100, Platypus around 2200 and the Escapist went the distance, bringing in around 2400.

So when we look at it on paper, the escapist is a “clear” winner. However, if either of the other two aloud overclocking over past 1.3Ghz, I’m sure they would score the same.

Real World

Not that there’s many of us here, but we do need our phones for phone calls and general phone stuff every now and then. So what we’re looking for here is how does it handle is real life. We’re going to measure this with battery life for the most part. So, not a surprise here, that the 1.5GHz kernel is in last place. It’s nothing personal, but more power takes more juice. The kang kernel wasn’t far behind, but was beaten by platypus. Obviously I have not had enough time to test any of the three kernels for more than a day on MIUI 1.5.13, so these results could change in time. I know that in previous releases, Platypus was a very clear winner. I could get a day and a half on platypus, but never more than a day from kang. Kang has improved recently, but from what I can see, Platypus is the battery saver. The Escapist clocked at the same speeds performs about the same as Kang.

All three will get you a full day of use, but Platypus seems to get you the most.

Stable?

I can’t really tell you which one was better here. I did notice that again, TheEscapist kernel performed poorly. The backlight seemed to stay on as long as the screen, but not always. It also had some trouble coming back on or freezing after unlocking. Platypus and Kang both performed equally. I couldn’t tell much of a difference between these kernels. They both however, seemed to be more stable than TheEscapist. This may have something todo with the scheduler having more CPU power than needed.

Overall, I would say that both Kang and Platypus are tied here. Not because they are stable, but because TheEscapist kernel is so unstable.

Conclusion

Overall, if you had three phones with each kernel, and gave them to testers to see if they could tell the difference, they wouldn’t know. Currently Gingerbread has so many bugs on the captivate that the kernels really don’t have an opportunity to shine. I wouldn’t really worry about what kernel your ROM comes with and would probably stay with whatever it was packaged with. While TheEscapist kernel will clearly give you more speed, it’s not going to help you with battery life. I do believe that the Platypus kernel will give you better battery life, but you may be sacrificing stability. For testing purposes, I’m still running TheEscapist kernel, but for day to day use, try Platypus or Kang.

FireFox 4 delayed again?

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 21:35:22 -0600

You may have started to see a flare of post recently about firefox 4 and it’s delay. If you haven’t heard, Firefox has been delayed 3 times now and may very well be on the the fourth set back. My browser version of firefox4 just hit Beta 13, which is unheard of by most. This is the longest development cycle ever by Mozilla.

One of the main reasons for the long delays are the new features that are being introduced. Firefox 4 will almost feel like a new browser, with more features, new UI and new rendering engine. It’s not a surprise that it’s taking such a long time.

Taking too long? Not really. Sure, it may be taking longer than Google, Opera, Apple and even Microsoft, but we should never forget about the end user. The average computer user doesn’t want updates every month, but more like every 6 months. Nerds may be upset with the long wait, but the end user(and nerd too) will enjoy a very stable browser in the end.

Should I join the tablet craze?

Sun, 06 Mar 2011 20:59:00 -0600

If your just looking for the answer, it’s No. My explanation though is below.

The idea of portable computing goes all the way back to the 60’s. Tablets are truely portable computers that can basically do everything a computer can do. All the world’s knowledge in your hands. It’s a pretty powerful concept, however, do we need them now?

If your looking for portable computing, then you shouldn’t look at anything else than a tablet. Like I have said for about the past 15 years, Laptops and Netbooks are just a waste of good money(yeah even I bought one of the worthless things) laptops especially. Laptops and Notebooks have a battery life of anywhere from 2 to 6 hours, that only gets worse as they age. Another down fall to these beast is that they are huge; they are not portable at all compared to a tablet. When looking for portable computing, tablets are superior in all forms, because they are smaller, lighter, built-in 3/4G, long battery life, and have an OS built for being mobile.

If you thinking about getting one because they are going to revolutionise your life or change the way you compute, you are going to be wasting your money. Because, most likely, you already have a smart phone. Smart phones, whether it be an iPhone or Android, keep you connected to the web. These phones are fast, bring only meaningful content and have even better battery life. If you can’t view what you need on a 3 to 4 inch screen, then you probably need to be sitting at your desk anyway. Smart phones have really changed the way we use the Internet and interact with the web. The tablet may bridge the difference between the two, but make no mistake, they are two different arenas. Tablets still suffer from a missing identity.

Are Tablets here to stay? Actually they are, you can expect them to replace every single netbook and laptop within 5 years. I’m really surprised that it’s taken this long for tablets to hit the masses, but the tablet will finally eliminate Laptops and Netbooks.

So if tablets are here for the long run, when is the best time to buy? Well, that would be in about 2 years give or take, because they are seriously over priced. I don’t care what other people may say about how much it cost to make these tablets, the device does less work and there for should cost less. If they can’t lower the price then there’s no reason to buy. When dual-core tablets get into the $250 to $400 price range with WiFi and 3G built in without contracts, laptops will be history and I’ll be a pround owner of a fine tablet. Until then, don’t expect me or anyone with common sense to be wasting money on tablets or laptops.

Bottom Line; The cost of the tablet just isn’t worth it yet. Cost > Practical use

Is the internet really out of control???

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 22:50:37 -0600

Looking past all the news and magazine articles talking about how the web has died, can the internet continue to grow??? Obviously the internet has not died, nor even close to doing so. The internet is still in it’s early stages, with hundreds of new uses just around the corner. But when will it reach it’s potential?

Truth be told the internet could have already taken off, but there is a problem. Who controls the internet? Microsoft? The Government? UN? Google? ISPs? The internet isn’t under control by anyone… which means in turns it’s under the control of the local ISP(Internet Service Provider). This is an issue on many different levels.

One, ISP controls what you have access to. You may think it’s not an issue, but lets say for example, that your ISP is an Cable Provider.

Do you think that they wouldn’t limit access to services like Netflix, Blockbuster or other Internet TV providers? Of coarse they can(and do).

How do they do it? They do it by cutting down your bandwidth. Limited bandwidth prevents you from streaming videos or accessing certain web sites.

Why do we let them do this? Because it’s “the best” for the “majority of users” The ISP only has so much bandwidth to give to users, and they often oversell how much bandwidth they can really dispense. I mean after all, how many people will be streaming Gigabytes of data a week? With services like netflix, Zune, iTunes, Xbox Live, it’s quite easy to thanks to these modern services. If every user of their service used all of the “unlimited bandwidth” they were promised, they would probably go out of business over night. So they limit your “unlimited bandwidth” so that others can enjoy their limited “unlimited bandwidth”. They justify the cause because the networks can’t handle that much, and the cost of Internet access must go up if you really want more internet.

Two, this is also an issue because it can be shut off pretty easy. If ISP didn’t want their customers viewing certain information, they just block access to the web site. If they are under the influence of local business or politicians it could be a disaster for those customers.

So should some government step up and take control? No, I do not want the US government or any government controlling the inertnet. However, I do think that it is vitial as we move towards the future that we are grant equal access to the internet. The Internet is the largest network available ever and everyone should be able to be “connected”. Taking it one step further, everyone should have fair access. No filters or limitations on the internet by ISPs or Governments. It’s a natural right to have fair and equal access to information, whether it be internet, public libraries or even public schools. We deserve to know.

oatmeal: The likability of angry birds. Click here’ish for the...

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 22:56:10 -0600

oatmeal:

The likability of angry birds.

Click here’ish for the full comic

Favorite Way to Listen to music

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 22:28:00 -0600

Grooveshark is an internationally available online music search engine, music streaming service and music recommendation web software application, allowing users to search for, stream, and upload music free of charge that can be played immediately or added to a playlist.

Grooveshark streams 400 to 450 million songs per month, to more than 29,000,000 users. As of April 2009, its audience was growing at a rate of 2–3% per day.

Depending on what internet your own(really some people think the internet is made up of myspace, geocities and aol still) you may or may not have heard about Grooveshark. Grooveshark is possibly one of the finest examples of HTML5 known to the human race. It’s a music player, with it’s own search engine, all accessible from your web browser. Here’s a screen shot of the monster in the act;

To the naked eye it just looks like a drastically improved iTunes, but actually it’s something completely different.

Here’s a list of my favorite features;

Not tied to other programs or hardware

With iTunes, you must have a Mac or suffer on windows. If you use Zune, then it’s only good on windows. Respectively, if you have Apple hardware(iPhone, iPod, iPad, etc) or Microsoft Hardware(Zune or Windows 7 Phone) you must use their matching desktop software. Grooveshark is web based and works anywhere.

Bloatfree

The bitch about iTunes or Zune is that it’s bloated and too tightly integrated with their own stores. Grooveshark is fast, light and free.

Player, Discovery, Manager and Server

Grooveshark is not only a music player, but also a manager and server. You can add songs to a playlist or your library and then access from any other computer. You can upload and buy straight from the web, No crazy sync setups required.

Social

You can also share your music, via email, facebook, twitter, etc.. You can also embed a widget with certain songs. Have a playlist of favourite songs? Make a widget based on the list, that way new favourites is automatically added to your site.

Grooveshark Anywhere

For $3 a month or $30 a year you can enjoy Grooveshark Anywhere. The benefits are that it’s ad free, it give mobile access and you get a desktop app. Plus it helps support and feed the hard working people that make this possible.

Overall, I strongly recommend Grooveshark. It’s fast, quick and clean.

Android browser(s) review

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 13:46:13 -0600

This post contains comparisons between Firefox, Opera Mobile, Opera Mini, Dolphin, and Skyfire. All programs are running on the Samsung Captivate running Android 2.1. As you may notice, I have left the default browser, because we’ve all used it and know what it’s like.

We’ll start with Firefox. Firefox is my desktop browser of choice. I love Firefox and even have work with and help build the program. No one was more excited that me when Firefox went mobile. Even though the app is not available for my phone, I installed it anyway. It is slow to open, but offers a few nice features. The Firefox start pages shows the tabs from the last time it was open, plus tabs you may have open on the computer via Firefox Sync. It has a dead simple UI and is easy to use. It also has built in “Save as PDF” and “Make readable” right out of the box for those pages that aren’t mobile. The browser has been a little unstable in my test, but I am running it on a phone that it is NOT compatible with, so it shouldn’t be an issue for other regular android users.

For some reason, there’s two version of Opera in the market, Opera Mini and Opera Mobile. The “Mobile” version seems to be a more like the desktop version, not mobile optimized. During my experiences with the Mobile Version, it was somewhat slow and unstable. The “Mini” version is much more fresh, and offers more features. My first gripe is that it sends each page through a server to crunch it, which is NOT needed. My phone is more than powerful enough to render a full page. The mini version is too light, which might be great for older or smaller phones, but not for the average Android user. Both versions offer a sync option, which is nice. The mini option offers speed dial, which is more than any other mobile browser.

Dolphin feels awkward. It was somewhat bloated and didn’t really offer any features that either of the above didn’t have. The browser ran slower than the default browser, and looked like the “ugly app of the year” winner. It was also unstable when trying out different themes.

Finally we have Skyfire. It runs normal and was pretty stable. General UI, but with added facebook ~~clutter~~ stuff. If your a huge user of facebook and want to share your mobile web expereince with others via facebook, look no futher. If your like me and not a user of facebook(yeah your not the only one) then you can skip this app.

For those that have an approved Firefox compatible phone, you can’t really go wrong with firefox mobile. For those on the captivate or looking for something a little more stable, go with opera mini. For those that really don’t spend more than an hour a day on the mobile web, stick with the default.

flavors.me

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 23:05:30 -0600

flavors.me:

flavors.me is a custom homepage. From here you can have your own little space on the web. The service is able to take information from tumblr, twitter, facebook, netflix and other services to give you a one stop social website about yourself. For $20 a year you can have your own domain and get stats as well.

Kinect = Expensive Dust Collector

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 12:43:00 -0600

After having the Kinect for three months, I thought I would go back over it and let you know what I think of the product after spending some time with it. This post contains a lot of the flaws of Kinect.

Issue #1- This device doesn’t have any meaningful updates yet. It’s still missing full dashboard control. It doesn’t support netflix, espn or anything except Zune.

Issue #2- The upcoming updates aren’t all that great. I mean who’s idea is it to have a “talk show” with the kinect? It’s not even a great talk show, it’s an avatar talk show. I mean I guess it could be cool for kids, but not really for anyone who has a life.

Issue #3- Games. A video game system isn’t worth anything without good games. This is the problem with the kinect. Some games like Your Shape are well crafted, and then games like Motion Sports just suck. There’s a lot of work to be done here.

I still think that the Kinect is a wonderful piece of hardware, but the software still needs a LOT of work. Maybe in the future this device will pay for itself, but until then, it’s just an expensive dust collector.

Firefox for Android

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 19:08:26 -0600

Firefox for Android:

The world’s most powerful browser now travels to android phones. While it’s not just an exceedingly great app at the moment, it works perfectly with Firefox Sync, making it well worth the download

Angry Birds

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 20:56:07 -0600

Angry Birds:

For those who haven’t tried it, it’s one of the best mobile games ever. Available on many platforms, including iPhone and Android. If your stuck in the snowpocalypse and looking for a way to waste time, it’s a good choice.

What would it take for Linux to be...

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 22:49:00 -0600

If you search any blog about linux, your going to stumble accross the post “linux set to go main stream in [year]” We’ve seen and read these post for years, but Linux hasn’t gone mainstream. What if Google starts supporting linux? What if Windows 8 turns out like Vista? What if Apple OS(es) experience a rash of security attacks?

The answer is no. Regardless if all or none of those things happen, Linux would not go mainstream. Now, here are some reasons that most people tell you what Linux hasn’t gone big.

It’s not simple enough
It doesn’t have codecs out of the box
It doesn’t have enough eye-candy
It doesn’t have the programs it needs

All of these things are not the reason “why”. Example; Windows XP, it was harder for new users and users of previous windows OS due to the slightly modified interface and it didn’t pose all that much eye candy. Codecs out of the box? No, your PC distributor installed all of those codecs and programs. And as with any OS, your program has to be re-written to get the most performance gains.

So what does Linux need? In my opinion, this is what linux would need to be number one.

Direction
Support
Order

Easier said than done, but linux simply needs these three things. Linux has split into about 1,000 different distros, but only a handful have active development and independence. The problem with this that each distro has entered an arms race with the other, pushing for new features, faster speed and smaller size. This is one of the main reasons that Linux is unstable. “Long Term Support” for most distros is anywhere from 6 months to 2 years, which is pale in comparison to Windows products. Does it make it worse than windows, no, but the end user doesn’t want to upgrade every 6 months like a geek. Linux needs to slow the feature development and focus in on bug hunts and stability.

A second benefit of slowing the number of releases is easier support. Documentation could be written in much more detail, and offered in various forms like wiki’s or published books. The average user will be completely new to linux, and could benefit from this. But the end user isn’t the only one who needs documentation. Better documentation could get starting developers off the ground faster.

Something even more vital to make Linux successful is order. If a developer or group of developers don’t like the way things are going, they just leave and start their own adventure. But imagine what that would be like if our government operated in that manner? The dream linux distro must operate more like a democracy, letting the end users make the choices. If linux wants to go mainstream, it has to involve more average computer users.

Getting Mozilla to be KDE Friendly

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 11:00:40 -0600

While both Firefox and Thunderbird are native linux applications, they don’t look to hot on KDE… especially in KDE4. If your distro ships with them, there’s a chance that they came with an KDE Oxygen theme to lighten the blow, but here’s everything you’ll need after your install to get the best results.
After you have installed both Firefox and Thunderbird, you’ll need to make sure that you also have”GTK+ Appearance” installed, which is on most distros out of the box.
Before we open FireFox or Thunderbird
First, open System Settings and then Default Applications. Under email client click “Use a different email client” and type in “thunderbird”. Click apply and then go down to Web Browser. Select “in the following browser:” and type “firefox”. click apply and then go back to the overview. Now we’re going to “Application Appearance” and click “GTK+ Appearance” We want “Widget style: QtCurve” and to “Use my KDE fonts in GTK+ applications”. Remember to click apply and to restart firefox or thunderbird to see the difference.
FireFox
Open up firefox and type “about:config” in the address bar. If done correctly, you’ll get a warning. Click “I’ll be careful, I promise!” You’ll then see a huge list of Integers, Booleans, and Strings. The one that your going to be editing is “ui.allow_platform_file_picker” which is a boolean set to True by default. You will want to make sure that this is set to false(which can normally done by just double clicking it). If you having trouble finding this boolean, there is a filter/search bar at the top, just start typing.
Setup Kprint to work in Mozilla
While we’re in the config file, there’s a couple of other things we’re going to be editing. Change “print.postscript.print_command”, “print.print_command” and “print.print_YOURPRINTER’SNAME.print_command” all to “kprinter —stdin and print.always_print_silent” Now you can close out and restart firefox. (Please note that third string will vary depending on your printer’s name and if you have more that one printer, they’ll more strings that you’ll edit in the same fashion.)
Going the distance
We should notice a difference but there is one extension that can help add that extra polish to your firefox setup. Oxygen KDE 3.0 includes both a theme and extension to help make firefox look like a native KDE app. The extension will give you a ton of extra options that are easy to edit. Here’s the link.

Thunderbird
Thunderbird will be a littler easier to setup. First we’ll go in and change the config file for thunderbird(what?!?! there’s an about:config for the bird?) Go to Edit > Preferences > Advanced and then click “Config Editor…” You’ll get some type of warning that will scare the shit out of you, but be strong and carry on.
We’re going to go in and make the same changes as we did with firefox. “ui.allow_platform_file_picker” will be set to false. print.postscript.print_command” and “print.print_command” should be changed to “kprinter —stdin and print.always_print_silent” Close and restart thunderbird.
As far as extensions and themes for thunderbird, there’s a few less to pick from. I’m using the OxyBird2 theme and it looks pretty good. There isn’t an official KDE theme for thunderbird, but you can decorate as you see fit.

If you followed all the above, you should send up with some pretty slick looking apps that will leave you with much more native looking firefox and thunderbird.

Samsung Captivate

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0600

This review not only covers the Samsung Captivate, but also provides some comparison between Android phones and the iPhone.
After 2 years with the iPhone, it is time to move on. While torn between an Android phone or BlackBerry, I finally decided on an Android. My phone of choice is the Samsung Captivate. It’s a pretty big upgrade for users of the iPhone 3G or 3Gs, but barely surpasses iPhone 4. Here’s a quick breakdown of the specs.

Android 2.1
16GBs of internal storage
5MP Camera with HD Video recording and playback
1GHz processor
512Mb of ram
4” 480x800 Super AMOLED screen
6-axis accelerometer

The phone is powerful, fast and a breath of fresh air compared to the Apple products of past experience. However, in all the Android Bliss, there is a few complaints.
First is AT&T. It’s not the service, but the general greed of the ever growing Monopoly. I’ve found about 9 apps so far on my phone that I can NOT remove, and they all are AT&T apps. Well Stephen, why don’t you like these “AT&T” apps? Well quite simply, they are too damn expensive. I pay roughly $100 a month as it is for the phone, but for only $9.95 a month I can add Voice Navigation(something I can already do for free) or listen to the radio(something else that I can do for free) I would say that if you were to use everyone of the AT&T services, you could be paying as much as $200 a month.
Second, they are just a few missing features from here that iPhone 4 and other phones have. A dedicated Silent button/switch, A led/flash for the camera, or a one-stop sync application. Another, somewhat obvious point to make, is that it’s Google powered. Google users can expect perfect sync between your smart phone and online accounts. For those without Google accounts, you will have the same shotty experience that you had with the iPhone(well unless you had mobileme)
With that aside, here’s just a short list of some of the best benefits Android users enjoy over Blackberry and iPhone users.

Custom User Interface, you can change themes, wallpaper and icons with just a few taps of the thumb
Open App Market, you are no longer limited by AT&T or Apple as to what you can have
Better hardware, you have your choice of phone(slider or candy bar, physical keyboard or touch only, trackball optional)
Better with age, while Apple releases new software every year, you only enjoy the benefits if you get new hardware every year
Independent, you no longer need the slow and bloated iTunes to update or sync music

I loved my iPhone at first, but as I tried getting more out of it, I could really feel the limitations. The iPhone is for those who use Apple products like a mac, but for those outside of the Apple life, you should think twice before the next iPhone purchase. If you use Windows, if you use Linux, if you hate Steve Jobs, if you hate AT&T, if you don’t want to pay $100 a year for mobileme, if you are a Geek, or if you just like to thinker with phones, an Android phone is for you. I went with the Samsung Captivate because it’s currently the best Android phone for me on AT&T. While I may waste 6 months of my current MobileMe subscription, I do not regret the purchase of the Android phone.