Monthly Archive for May, 2008

Early adventures with Ubuntu

Published
by
Callum
6 months, 1 week ago
in Open Source, Techy and Videos
. 3 Comments

I’ve been thinking about switching from Fedora to Ubuntu. I downloaded the latest Ubuntu version a few weeks ago. Today I took the plunge and booted it up.

First thing I noticed, no wireless networks. It detected my card and it seemed to work, but no networks were listed by NetworkManager. I unplugged the power and went through to the living room to plug in with a good old fashioned ethernet cable. Fairly quickly I found a solution. So back to my desk on wireless.

Appearance

At first glance, Ubuntu is just not as pretty as Fedora. The graphics seemed a bit too Windows 3.1 for me. I switched to one of the other included themes. It was a bit better. I think I’d have to hunt around for a nicer Ubuntu theme. Personally, I think this is a big failure for Ubuntu. In aiming to bring free software to everyone, appearance matters.

For a Windows user, comparing Windows Vista with Ubuntu 8.04, I think Vista wins on appearance. For many users, that’s an important factor. Personally, it’s not a deal breaker, but I will do something about it.

Installing software

The package manager in Ubuntu is streets ahead of Fedora. Straight away it just works. It feels nice and clean. It tells you the expected download time until all your packages have downloaded. It strikes a great balance between the fine grained control I get with yumex and the simple interface of the default Fedora package manager. Thumbs up for Ubuntu.

Proprietary formats

Playing MP3 files, avi files, or any other non-free format is a little tricky on Linux. You need to install software which can be “questionable” in terms of it’s copyright position. Fedora gets round this problem by not shipping any of that software. Instead you grab that stuff from livna. However, livna is not installed by default. You have to manually add it yourself.

In Ubuntu, I tried to play an MP3 file. It asked if I’d like to search for the codecs. Then it warned me that I was installing software from the Ubuntu community. A minute or so later, the song started playing. Whatever magic happens behind the scenes in Ubuntu happens automatically. A big plus for Ubuntu, particularly for new users.

Installation

By default, Ubuntu boots in Live CD mode. So no changes are made to your hard drive. It’s a great option for new users. You can test the operating system. Check all your hardware works. Then choose to install if you want to. It was at this point that Ubuntu crashed. I’m not sure what went wrong. I could move the mouse, and the clock was ticking, but nothing else. I tried a ctrl-alt-backspace to restart X, no luck.

Ironically, I was proceeding with the install when it crashed. Now I’ve booted back to Fedora. I’m still swaying on whether to try Fedora 9 or not. If I do go with Fedora 9, I almost certainly won’t switch to Ubuntu. In Ubuntu’s favour, I already have the CD. I’ll have to go to the local library to download Fedora 9. That might end up being the deciding factor! :)

Conclusion

I recommend Ubuntu to anyone interested in trying Linux. I think they work really hard to make it easy to use, and largely succeed. Personally, being fairly experienced with Linux, I don’t think there will be much difference. Package managing is better in Ubuntu. TrueCrypt ships .debs and not .rpms, so that’s a bonus. I’m just not sure if it will be worth the effort of switching.

For new users, Ubuntu is great. Personally, time will tell.

I submitted a patch to Zen Cart

Published
by
Callum
6 months, 1 week ago
in Techy
. 0 Comments

My brother has been having some trouble with his ZenCart powered store. Customers couldn’t check out using PayPal’s Website Payments Pro, or something like that. Anyway, today, he finally convinced me to look into the problem. So I dug into the code. Wow. Zen Cart is not a developer’s dream.

It took me forever to get my head around it. Eventually, I tracked down where the issue was coming from, and between Ferg and I, we solved it. I’m pretty confident we found the underlying cause of the problem. So I whipped up a patch and headed off to submit it. Again, Zen Cart is not very developer friendly. I had to file a bug report in this forum and then attach my patch.

I think there’s a huge market for an open-source ecommerce platform. Something with the power and flexibility of Zen Cart but simpler to use, install and manage.

Excess bandwidth charges in Australia

Published
by
Callum
6 months, 1 week ago
in Rants and Techy
. 0 Comments

What is bandwidth?

A quick explanation for non-techies. Think of an internet connection like a water pipe. You can choose what size of pipe to order. The bigger the pipe, the higher the water pressure. Internet is the same. But as well as the speed / size of your pipe, you also have to think about your total usage. So how many litres of water you pull through the pipe. In internet terms, that’s bandwidth usage.

Typically, in the UK / Europe / US / Canada, you choose your size of pipe, and that’s it. You can run the water almost as much as you like. If you leave all your taps on all the time, the company will complain. But otherwise, you’ll be fine. Not so in Australia. All connections charge you per litre, or in internet terms, per gigabyte. It’s the same in South Africa.

It’s not such a bad deal. The more water (or bandwidth) you use, the more you pay. Seems fair enough.

Australia

You choose your quantity up front. So you might pay for 2Gb or 4Gb or even 40Gb. The pain comes if you should go over your pre-ordered usage. Your pre-ordered bandwidth will cost you anywhere from $2.50 to $10 per Gb depending on how much you buy. Once you go over that, the excess charges are typically described as “15c per Mb”. That’s $150 per Gb.

Your first 6Gb cost $10 each, then use one more by mistake, oops, here’s a bill for $150. Arrrgggghhhhhh.

In South Africa when you run out, your connection shuts off. Then you can call your company and pay for some more. At a little over the regular price. In Australia excess bandwidth costs 15 to 60 times more than standard bandwidth. If I were an Australian citizen I’d campaign to have this type of excess charging banned.

Tim Ferris in Sydney

Published
by
Callum
6 months, 1 week ago
in Nomadicness, Personal and Travels
. 1 Comment

Henry very kindly booked me a ticket for Tim Ferris’s 4 Hour Work Week session in Sydney. I haven’t read the book, but I’ve heard about it, and I’m curious to meet the man behind the idea. I wonder if I can get hold of the book and cruise through it before Friday.

WP Mail SMTP v0.7

Published
by
Callum
6 months, 3 weeks ago
in Techy and WordPress
. 90 Comments

I released version 0.7 of the WP Mail SMTP plugin a couple of days ago. To make support a little more manageable I’m going to switch the comments from the plugin page to a post for each version. So please ask in the comments here for all support questions related to version 0.7. If you’re using a previous version, please upgrade and then post your questions here! :)

Please be sure to look back at previous questions before posting here. If you’re having a problem where mails are not being sent, or anything of that nature, please post your debugging output. Send a test mail, then copy / paste the response into the comments. Remember to delete any passwords. I’d recommend you replace any @ symbols with something else (at), [at], #at#, etc.

Charles with Etihad Airways

Published
by
Callum
6 months, 3 weeks ago
in Travels
. 1 Comment

Last month I flew from Johannesburg to Bangkok, via Abu Dhabi with Etihad Airways. The flights were each relatively pleasant, the entertainment was pretty good, and the price was unbelievable, definitely unbeatable.

When leaving the first plane from Jo’burg to Abu Dhabi, I left my phone on the plane. I realised as soon as I got to security at gate in Abu Dhabi. I went straight to the Etihad desk where I met Charles. He jumped on the radio and somebody went out to check the plane. No luck, my phone had not been found.

I checked my bags and my pockets again. I re-walked my route. I was convinced my phone had to be on the plane. Charles took me back down to the gate, and had the bus driver check all 5 buses in use on that flight. No sign of my phone.

I consoled myself that it was time to get a new phone, left my email address and contact information with Charles, and boarded my next flight. I was doing my best to focus on non-attachment, the impermanence of all things, and so on. I was just about to fall asleep, when I thought, it would be great if Charles turned up on the plane with my phone. Stop dreaming I told myself, the phone has gone. Not two seconds later, there’s a tap on my shoulder, and Charles is in the aisle of the plane asking me what type of phone it was. Then he handed me my phone. Charles had sent somebody back to double check the plane, and rushed the phone to me just before we departed.

That’s customer service.

Charles could easily have passed the phone onto lost property or left somebody else to deal with it. My phone could so easily have fallen through the cracks. Charles will definitely impact, positively, on my next decision to fly with Etihad Airways. I’ve emailed Etihad to thank Charles.