Wireless Keyboard for Linux

After building my new home Linux based workstation i was left with a slight issue with physical space for a keyboard, the tradional full size WYSE keyboard i was using just failed to fit comfortably on my desk. After a quick visit to ebuyer i spotted the Keysonic ACK540RF Mini wireless keyboard with a built in touchpad. My only concern at the time of purchase was the compatability with Linux, however after some reseach i took the plunge

The keyboard has been a great success, good key action but a rather difficult placement of the CTRL key. The batteries last very well due to a good power saving implmentation by Keysonic, you can take the keyboard out of power save mode by pressing the 'ESC' key which works flawlessly. The Linux integration works very well with a true plug and play experience, the USB dongle provides an amazing range for the wireless function. All in All a great device,You can pickup this item now for around £30 from ebuyer and amazon......a Very Nice Linux Device but change that CTRL key placement !

Mindmaps for Projects

I use Mindmaps to help me deliver projects, this technique of using mindmaps as project support documents really helps me co-ordinate activities within plans across multiple projects, in effect visualizing a programme of project activities. I recently changed my software tool that i use to create the Mindmaps i now use to the open source Xmind application, for which i can provide a hearty recommendation.

The real trick of mindmapping is ensuring you have the discipline to update the mindmap on a very regular basis along with your other project logs and project support documentation. I am a Prince2 Practitioner and i have adopted the methodology where possible in my work environment, i really should work out what the mindmap could replace if at anything in my project support documents.However for the time being i am happy to be possibly duplicating effort.

If you feel you could benefit from mindmapping check out the wikipedia article below for a guide to Mindmaps

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map

Also search for Xmind on google or indeed Freemind which is another great open source application. You may also enjoy this article on lifehacker which reviews both free of cost and commercial mindmapping applications

http://lifehacker.com/5188833/hive-five-five-best-mind-mapping-applications

I Core therefore i am

So i have decided to refresh my desktop PC for home, in general i like to build my own system, giving me total control over the features and component pricing.

I have looked at HEX core, core i5, i7 and even i3....the processors i normally deal with are server models for high frequency trading financial sector, Xenon Gulftown

The home workstation component market these days is minefield of differing specs chips, boards and suppliers, i only refresh my home PC every 4 or 5 years as i spec well and future proof the system, however this time my choice is bewildering. I ad to resort to buying a magazine to get the best advice and inside story.

Since i don't play games on my home PC (i use a ps3 for that past time) and run Linux, i can build a real screamer of a desktop for a relatively low cost, in fact i amy even throw in a copy of windows 7 and dual boot into Microsoft's latest offering, in fact i may just it within virtualbox.

anyway, the point of this post is the subject of difference in CPU's from Intel, from the specifications the higher spec Core i7 looks a little like a Xenon 5600 series CPU, the high line i7 is hex core with similar frequency ratings.

It only when you see the photorealism in high end games on the PC platform that you realise a gamer now needs as much grunt as a high frequency trading firm these days.

see here

Where next for workstations, servers and gaming rigs....

SLR London to Monaco

Fat Joy......

https://picasaweb.google.com/tonycossey/SLRToMonaco

Nothing Rivals a SLR when it comes to rolling down to Monaco from the UK

Clonezilla to the rescue

I had to convert my test bench computer to an upgraded hardware specification (more RAM) and a 64bit version of Linux to run multiple virtual machines via Virtualbox. I cloned and restored 8 virtual machines hosted via Virtualbox open source edition using clonezilla-Live and a local SAMBA server flawlessly, without doubt Clonezilla is the leading software to achieve bare metal restores for machines running windows or linux that i have used, congratulations and thanks to all the team at Clonezilla.

I was absolutely stunned how easy the Clonezilla Live Cd made the laborious task or backing up and restoring 8 different virtual machines, i have used in past Ghost and the differing Arconis products, all worthy items of software, however this open source solution simply made my task so easy in regards to both portions of the job that i simply had to post this BLOG entry to sing its praises, also i am working on publishing a guide on how i did this as others may find this useful.

In Love with Crunchbang

As i have an extensive SOHO network in my residence run almost entirely on Linux, I tend to use a single workstation as my 'admin' base camp, configuring and manipulating configs of other machines from that central point via SSH or even via tools like webmin or phpadmin.

However i have been using lately the most underpowered machine on my network to perform this task, the ancient Compaq workstation is powered by a Intel Pentium III 733 Mhz (Coppermine) CPU and has a measly 384 meg of RAM, the hard disk is a tiny 10Gig and the network card is a sturdy Intel Pro 100, the machines graphics are driven by a built in Intel 82815 graphics card. Why use this low specification?

Crunchbang linux is why......this distro provides a minimal openbox desktop and is so lightweight that it runs incredibly well on this machine, even in the full resolution of the 22inch LCD monitor i use.

I am so impressed by this distro, i started using around 12 months ago, now i use it as the central point of administration almost every day, i obviously use my more powerful machines for work that requires CPU grunt but as an underpinning OS for an admin workstation the Crunchbang distro hits the spot.

In its latest flavor 'statler' based on Debian Squeeze the distro includes FUSE and thus the ability to mount file systems on remote machines via SSH, which is a great facility, also the terminator shell which includes spilt screen capability is a great tool for a system admin.

The meager hardware spec of my crunchbang workhorse really is hidden by this lightweight distro which seems to be designed to run well on a PC that is 10 years old.

Many thanks to the team at Crunchbang, i am have totally fallen in love with this distro, in fact i am going to re-purpose a powerful worktation on my network to run this great OS to see if i can use it as a day to day workstation rather than an admin buggy.

Watch this space.

Linux Success Story

My father has been using an Atom based PC for some time now, it's a modest system specification but it matches his needs perfectly. The system is an ASUS EEEBOX which is about the size of a paperback novel.

Spec:

• 1.6 Ghz Intel Atom CPU
• 1 GIG of RAM
• 160 gig hard drive
• Wireless and Ethernet
• USB 2.0

After about 12 months of use the system started suffering from 'slowing' performance under Windows XP, as an example it was now taking around 7 minutes to boot into s state where XP could run programs. The system was well protected and after the following diagnostic steps no error or problem was found.

• Spyware/malware/bot/Rootkit scans
• Hard disk optimisation
• Optimisation of startup programs (remove unneeded staryup apps)
• Registry clean
• Check of updates of software,firmware, bios, drivers

The performance problem seemed to be related to XP but all the normal culprits were not to blame, I decided to backup his data and reload the OS from scratch.

I am a Open Source advocate and suggested that my father tried out Ubuntu as a desktop OS and use the open source equivalents of the Windows Software he used.

I placed the 10.04 LTS version of ubuntu on the system, gave a small training course to my dad and let him loose for week on the system.

The results were impressive, his feedback is highlighted below

• Very fast system response in the GUI
• Online banking and other sites work well in Firefox and Chrome.
• All excel and Word documents work perfectly with OpenOffice
• The simple Linux gnome games were to his liking as a casual gamer
• Printing and scanning via his Canon Device worked perfectly
• the quality of audio from the system was really improved as windows suffered from an audio 'stutter'
• Microsoft outlook is easier to use than Evolution for email
• DVD's played back perfectly via his USB 2.0 DVD drive
• Was i sure this system software was free of fees :-)

The only change i have made to the system since was to install the 'Cairo-Dock' application to add a Mac-OSX style dock to the system which in my opinion improves the app window management and app launching better than the standard ubuntu desktop.

My father is over 80 years old and enjoys using his home computer for basic home office work, accessing the internet and likes simple desktop games such as cards and logic puzzles. Also he enjoys viewing DVD's on his computer. Ubuntu 10.04 really has met and exceeded my fathers computing needs and provided a performance boost over XP, this configuration has now been in place 3 months with great success.

I do really think that Linux is a viable desktop for home use for the most basic of users, ubuntu is friendly and seems to allow the user to grow with the system as his/hers experience increases with usage.

I use Windows XP in my workplace in a large corporate and it performs well and rarely lets me down, however there is a team of IT professionals who maintain that desktop environment, for the home user when things go wrong or problems occur there is very little choice when it comes to getting help. The linux community however provides lots of help straight out of the ubuntu forums this again helps out users like my father.

Overall i do think for the most basic of users that a Linux desktop is the best choice.....however i do appreciate it may not suit everyone's needs.