So, what else is new?
Well, I am trying a new bluetooth keyboard. Hopefully this will make it easier to type and post things. How cool!
My thoughts about the iPad
If you follow technology or at a minimum, listen to the news. You know that the iPad is a table device manufactured and sold by Apple. Being that this is hardly news there have been a lot of commentary about the device. I am not going to rehash on that.
I got one for work, in which many may consider me lucky, but at the end of the day is just another tool to get my job done. Now a bit on the device. The iPad is a well made product, in par with the workmanship and quality expected from Apple. It is, after all, an overgrown iPod touch, but the extra real estate does provide some comfort and some challenges.
Many technology reviewers conclude that it is a lay back device to surf the web, and for the most part I concur, however with the right tools, it could be used for general computing needs, as long as these do not include programming.
Going about on most productivity applications, we are talking about drawing pads, a couple of office suites (word processors, presentation), very few database applications and a fair share of mind mapping tools.
However, there is a plethora of social network tools, from tweeter tools, blogging tools and location tools. This is nice, but they are hardly useful for business users and software developers.
There are few and far between that can be considered as serious development tools and the ones there are, they are mostly for web development. I have only seen one general purpose editor for the iPad that allows you to type, but not test, your code and Code Monkey that is basically an assistant/reference for UNIX development.
It’s a shame, a full blown UML diagraming system (which entails improvements to Code Monkey) would have certainly fill the bill for on the road code brain storming. Although Apple will frown on having a development tool, I do not see an harm of having an interpreter running in isolation from the rest of the environment that allows for prototyping while on the road. Being that we do not have these, many developers will use the iPad to tweet about what they are doing on their laptops/net books.
Silly chart created with easy chart HD on the iPad.
Living with Ubuntu Netbook Remix
I purchased a refurbished Asus EEE Pc 701 SD in Ebay at a decent price. Considering that this model launched at almost 300 dollars, I am quite happy it. Nevertheless the version of Linux that came with it, an Asus based Xandros installation, felt quite dated even though it provided a good performance for the system. I decided to try Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR), version 10.04 as a mean of updating the operating system.
The results have been mixed. There are things I liked compared with the Xandros bug as always, things that could improve.
Things that I like are:
- Applications work the way that they are supposed to do and takes advantage of the accelerated hardware on the 701.
- For the most part the use of the window maximizer proves to be effective on providing the needed real estate for many of the applications that are included in the distribution.
- Unlike the Xandros distribution, you can run executables off the SD card. In this way it increases the amount of space available to store programs.
- So far I have not got any issues with drivers. Many devices that were not working on the Xandros distribution work well in UNR.
Things that they deserve improvement are
- My biggest pet peeve with UNR is that they have forgotten those that have a 7 inches netbook. It seems that for the most part many of the applications have been tailored for a 9 inches display. If the current trend continues, many of the tablets that have been coming from Asia they use a 7 inch display. If this trends continues and if Ubuntu is serious on the emergent cheap tablet market, many of these applications need to be rethought for a 7 inches display.
- Evolution is useless on a 7 inch display. No amount of tweaking can make it to work. Thankfully thunderbird can be used as an email tool with the penalty of not been able to use Exchange. Being that using Exchange on Linux is an iffy proposition, it is really not a big loss.
- Maximus works well with Gnome, but so-so with other GUI toolkits. I tried to install the qGo client and I was not able to have the whole on view. I think it is because …
- For some odd reason, if the window is larger that the view, Maximus reinstates the windows decorations, making the application even more unusable. For instance, on Planner, I had to reduce the size of the icons to make it work well.
- OpenGL games need to be run in full mode, however extreme tuxracer does not work because it expects a larger window than the one provided by the 701. I presume that there is a workaround for it, but it does not work the way it is supposed to out of the box.
As you can see it has been a mixbag of good and bad, but I do not regret making the change.
We just finished breakfast. Waiting before we head out.
We are having lunch.
I am up and having breakfast while listening to the 444.5 repeater.
BLT+ Tuner
I started working on my next project, a BLT+ tuner, but it has the bnc jacks missing. I’m going to head out to radio shack for replacements. Bummer.
papoanaya thinks gosh it’s been a while.
