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Bootchart is a tool that monitors and graphs your Linux boot processes. The detailed view will allow you to view CPU and disk usage, as well as the timeframe that certain daemons and modules require. This seems to be an interesting option for Netbooks and optimizing OS startup time.
The analysis can be rendered in png, svg or eps format and are dumped to /var/log/bootchart/
Here is an example from my Acer Aspire One running Ubuntu
Ubuntu is up and running properly and the most important devices are running. I had a USB IDE adapter handy so i installed it from the new 8.04.1 CD release.
WiFi will not run out of the box install, here is a quick tutorial to get it running http://wiki.robinward.com/doku.php?id=aao
The install will require some tweaking in order to get everything running nice and smooth. Especially Firefox ist laggy at some time.
I will add some more stuff to the wiki page regarding the UME interface and card reader installation.
Here is a screenshot of ume running in XFCE. As you can see the formatting is a bit buggy
Got my Acer Aspire One 110L yesterday and just upgraded the Ram from 512 MB to 1,5GB, which is a real pain compared to other Notebooks with a dedicated access bay to the SO-DIMM slot. 0-Day warranty destruction is a must 😉
Here is a video documenting the Ram upgrade
The display quality is really amazing regarding the size of the Netbook. Very clear and sharp but it might take me some time to geht used to the glossy display type.
Overall the build quality is very good although the shiny cover will have your fingerprints all over the place 😀
I was having quite a hard time with the operating system – i simply hate yum because the performance sucks pretty bad when installing applications. The user interface is OK i guess – the Xandros Desktop on the Eee PC is far better (and its Debian powered 🙂 )
I will be going for Ubuntu – either the Netbook remix or the new Ubuntu UME.
Some more footage will follow…
No media component has so dramatically increased the progress of information technology more than the fibre optic cable.
So i decided to gather some information about the manufacturing process and other interesting facts.
Video: Corning Glass Fiber Optic Cable – Historical Footage
Video:Manufaturing a fiber optic cable [english]
Video:Manufaturing a fiber optic cable [german]
Video: Short Film about Undersea cabling
Howstuffworks.com – How Fiber Optics Work
Eavesdropping on fiber optic cable
If you have any more interesting footage, let me know by email and i will be glad to update.
Freifunk is a german initiative of private people operating a wireless netwerk througout cities and communities. The basic goals are interconnecting neighborhoods and communities to data networks but also getting together and modifying Wi-Fi hardware, basically a bunch of geeks that create large wireless networks for fun and information exchange.
The Wiki from the Leipzig Project Group features a compact guide on ourdoor mounting and usage of indoor Wi-Fi devices.
If you speak german and plan on setting up an antennae a router or maybe even joining an open network community you will find some quick and effective setup guides on mounting your devices without them being exterminated by the forces of nature (pictures included 😉 ) Its best to have a helpful and nifty community member handy to pimp your Wi-Fi
http://wiki.leipzig.freifunk.net/Gehaeuse
Find a freifunk near you http://start.freifunk.net/
User Interface online
There is an interactive online version for the Asus EEE default Xandros Linux Interface.
This will give you a first look on the operation of the device. Hope the EEE will be released in Germany pretty soon.
Getting started in under 10 Minutes
Here is a youtube video by thougthfix that shows the amount of time required to get hooked up to the net. Took about 6 Minutes from unpacking so i guess a normal user should be set uo in about 10-15 Minutes.
EEE Hacks Blogspot
Here is a blogspot focusing on EEE hacks/mods
Not much time for playing around with the internet tablet lately but quite some news…
Nokia is about to release its third generation Internet Tablet device – which in my opinion is quite strange, since the N800 was just released this year. Looks like Nokia is pushing for improvements on ultra mobile computers.
The Device will be equipped with the new Linux based OS2008 Operating system and features some minor improvements such as an integrated keyboard.
Asus has released its ultra mobile low cost notebook eee 701 in 4 different versions varying in the amount of Ram and the size of the solide state hard disk. Sales are so far limited to Taiwan but the eee will definitely hit the European market this year.
The cheapest eee features 256 MB of DDR2 ram and a 2GB solid state disk at around 170€ whereas the top model consists of a 4GB solid state disk and 512 MB ram at around 300€. So far, these are the prices in Taiwan so there is no definite price tag for the market in Europe yet. The batteries will be between 4800 and 5200 mA which should keep the notebook powered on between 2,8 and 3,5 hours.
Check out these videos on youtube on the eee presentations so far:
The original n800 Opera browser can now be replaced by a gecko engine – thus a mozilla browser for your favorite pocket gadget. The ui is identical to the old opera browser and adds further functionality such as full AJAX support and the possiblity to install add ons.
Installing the new engine is quite simple:
Note: Since the install will only replace the rendering engine of the browser, all your bookmarks will remain untouched, but make sure you back up your n800 before updating the firmware.
Skype has been finally released for the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet.
It has been running pretty stable so far and thus will add another commuication base to the n800. A roadtest can be found on the skype homepage.
Download skype for the n800 here.
Updating to the new nokia firmware is quite annoying because all data is lost…
Updating N800 firmware hints:
Backup the sources.lst to one of the sd cards:
cp /etc/apt/sources.list /media/mmc1
Create a list of all your previously installed applications:
dpkg -l | cut -d " " -f3 > /media/mmc1/install_list
