LUG August Meeting

August's LUG (Linux Users Group) meeting will be on 4:00PM Saturday, August 9th at the Belle View Apartments (for directions see

LUG Location). This time they will discuss this:

Virtualbox: Run Anything Anywhere
Presenter: Marwan Al-Sabbagh
Presentation Type: Technical Presentation
Summary: Virtualbox is open source software that let's you run Linux in Windows or Mac, and Windows in Linux. It's very mature and easy to use.
Installation: Overview of Windows and Linux installation
Virtual OS Setup: Basic installation steps
Virtual Disk Manager: Creating Hard disk, CD Images
Clipboard Setup: Bi-directional clipboard setup
Network Setup: Basic NAT, and more advanced host interface
Shared Folders Setup and accessing them
Advanced Discussion: Portable virtual machines, using existing partitions, snapshots, USB Support

Support the open source community. Let's see you there!

The best autoconfiguring WIFI programme

I wish my laptop does that at the local gahwa.

A new pet by Linux

LUG: The ASUS eee PC notebook

I posted before about the February Linux Users Group (LUG) gathering in February the 9th. The discussion was about the Asus eee PC.
for those who do not know, the eee PC is an amazing sub-notebook. It has a screen of 7 inches only, is under a kilo (900 grams) and costs BD 150, only! I'm not kidding!
No, this is not like Windows mobile or some limited OS. It has a fully functioning Linux Distro (Xandros). I mean fully working because you can browse the net, check email, write letters, watch movies and everything else just like a home PC. Marwan, the presenter and proud owner, did an amazing job familirizing everyone with the machine. The eee PC is damn sexy for sure. It's perfect as a cafe laptop, for watching movies, travel PC, presentation (can be hooked to a projector) a cheap student laptop for lectures (instead of an actual notebook) or even a kids first laptop.
It has an easy interface which is neat and an advanced interface that looks like a normal Linux distro.
I took tones of pictures and videos and wanted to make my own video, then I found this video online which did a great job summerizing it.
You can find it on Amazon, click the banner on the right. I expect someone to buy it for me on my birthday (cough, 30th April, cough).

Linux Users Group (LUG) Feb. Meeting

The Bahraini LUG is meeting up on Saturday, 9th of February at 3:30 PM. Some bloggers expressed interest in learning this new "Linux" thing. I urge you all to come, if only to blog about it.

In each meeting, a certain topic is discussed. For February, they'll speak about this:

Colinux: Run Linux on Windows

• Presenter: Marwan Al-Sabbagh
  
• Presentation Type: Technical Presentation
  
• Summary: coLinux, is software which allows Microsoft Windows and the Linux kernel to run simultaneously in parallel on the same machine.

The meeting will be at the Bell view apartments in Exhibition avenues. Look at the map or visit the LUG's page here for directions.
Laptops are most welcome!

Newsflash: Microsoft Office is made by Microsoft!

I was working on outlook, as usual, it crashed. I opted to report the problem and in comes the verdict (marked in yellow above): Microsoft Office crashed because of Microsoft office itself. Oh, and that Microsoft office, is made by Microsoft, by the way; just in case you don’t know.

You LOVE WINDOWS VISTA!

So, Bill Gates announced during the 2008 International CES that Microsoft have already conquered 100 Million PCs with Windows Vista.
100 Million. Read it like Dr. Evil from Austin Powers movies. 100 Million!

So, with all the complaining, nagging, jokes, PC mac commercials, Ubuntu uprising. They STILL go and conquer the world. Chances are you are reading this on a Vista PC right now.

For what its worth, I'm glad my current employer downgraded all PCs from Vista to XP. Else I strongly recommend using Linux Ubuntu. Vista wont be ready for a year or two.

Most fatal Windows Vista Error!

Abandon all hope.

Western Digital Hard Disks

I just bought me self a Western Digital Passport Portable Hard Disk. Since I left my last job, I had many files to take away with me. So I thought I'd go get me one of these sleek portable Hard Disk thingies.

So off I went to Gean't. It's where I go to first if I want anything IT, if I can't find it there then I'd bother looking about. They had several models from iomega, Toshiba & Memorex. But the Western Digital Passport was on Special offer. A 120 GB HD costs BD 31, while a 160 GB HD costs merely BD 46. That is a bargain. You'd find drives for half this capacity with the same price in other brands.

I got the 160 GB model, it comes with synchronisation software (Windows only) that syncs your "my documents" folder, outlook mail, wall paper and favorites. Any Windows PC you plug this drive into turns into your PC (well.. close enough). I found that to be liberating as I go back and forth between several PCs.

Some complained about the Passport's power consumption. This drives draws power from the USB port, but some PCs do not give enough power and thus need a special cable (a Two to One Cable) to draw power from 2 USB ports, this cable is not included.

Still, I highly recommend it. Run and get it. And in order to not promote Gean't, you'll find it for 10 fils cheaper in Lulu Hypermarket as well! Knock your selves out.

Vista is Unproductive. In comes Ubuntu 7.10

I have been using at the office Windows Vista Basic with MS Office 07. It has been bothering me for reasons that I find absolutely unacceptable from such an experienced veteran name like Microsoft. Now my laptop, at three months old, is not that bad. It has a new Core 2 Duo processor and 1Gigs of ram. Still, I keep getting problems of slowness and of sheer stupid design, allow me to elaborate:

• I once started my laptop, carried it with me to the car (I needed to get a phone number off an email) and drove from Riffa Hajjiyat, to Isa Town (WITH Traffic) before Vista booted up and Outlook started.
• Excel 07 crashes always at least once in each session. For no reason, it just does.
• Outlook 07 does not send emails out. After investigation, it seems that if I type part of the email then select the address from the drop down short list, it could freeze and stop all email after it. I need to go off line & disconnect, then get to that email and delete it. After which, if I want to send it again I have to retype it in its entirety then hit send.
• Outlook 07 sends my emails as text. Despite me checking every possible option to confirm I want my emails as HTML, it still sometimes sends them as text. It is absolutely random.
• If my battery is at 0%, then I insert the AC adapter; it will not charge. I swear. You have to turn the PC off, wait for it to charge at least 1% then you can use windows and charge at the same time.

Need I go on?
Needless to say I wasted hours everyday just trying to get basic functionalities like sending an email to work. It eats ram like crazy. My PC was so slow, heck my Pentium 1 I bought in 1996 was way faster.

Enough! I reached a decision: I cannot live with Vista. I must downgrade to XP or... use Ubuntu. I opted to go the Linux way.

This is my experience so far:

• Ubuntu had a problem at install (if you can call it that); it was not able to resize a windows partition (I guess it was locked by windows). I started vista, went to my computer, right clicked on the drive and selected "Manage". From here I freed up 50 Gigs (you could work with less), and installed Ubuntu normally.
• The install took about 15 minutes and had no problems with it.
• OpenOffice.org took the place of MS Office immediately. It even had some better features, like the document writer had a button to export directly to PDF.
• My wireless network was connected easily. This was a problem at previous Linux distros. I have now connected at work, home, my parents home, college and the local Gahwa (coffee shop) with no problems.
• The visual effects of Compiz are amazing. What Vista couldn't (or wouldn't) do, compiz does and more!
• All programmes that you wish for are easy to get. There is a programme called "Synaptic", start that up and type whatever you want. You can write a programme's name or a description. Like I typed ".rar" and a list showed up, I selected several programmes and clicked apply. The programmes were downloaded and installed without the need to restart. Currently "Synaptic" lists 23133 packages available to it!
• There is an advanced desktop search field, that can search anything you want in no less than 8 websites and on your PC. Just click your choice.
• My Samsung MP3 player would not work in Windows without its own programme. But here, Ubuntu knows it is an MP3 player and shows a small ipod icon for it!
• Bluetooth off the bat. I could browse and be discovered but I didn't know how to connect. Configuration I guess.

I have some minor problems, like the Ricoh printer at work is supported, but I can't enter the usercode I have to type in order to print. And openoffice had formatting issues with presentations and documents in Arabic. Also I am yet to find a way to sync my P990.
Of course, these are gripes unique to me, the normal user wouldn't face these problems.

So, after using it for a while without the need to type a single letter in the terminal like before, I must hereby dub this version the first Ubuntu or Linux version that is totally user friendly.
This is a solid substitute to Vista, it needs no technical knowledge and is secure and fast.
I am really happy with this. I strongly suggest you download it and give it a try.

Excel is the most expensive useless calculator

A bug was found in Microsoft's Excel 2007.
You see, for some formulas that has an answer of 65535 (like 154.2*425, or 850*77.1), Excel will show 100000 .
Meaning, in any Casio calculator: 850*77.1=65535
In MS Excel 2007: 850*77.1=100000

This is a stupidly inexcusable bug. Speechless!

(Edited 26 Sept @ 12:27: 65535*1 does return the correct number. Thanks to Buzain for the heads-up)

Vista didn't last 3 days with me!

So I got a new job. With it, came a brand new laptop sporting the new Vista in its Basic flavour. On the third day it had trouble starting and asked me if I wanted to "Start Windows normally".

The future is bright, Linux. Sieze it!

My laptop is dead

My laptop, an Acer Aspire 1315 LM passed away today at 10 AM. It was three.
The laptop was purchased early 2004 and was quite impressive despite the lack of bluetooth, wifi, and only 64M graphics card.
It underwent major life threatening surgery in 2005 as the motherboard died, the surgery was performed at Jarir Bookstore in Khobar, KSA and was long, but successful.
Several flavors of Linux were installed on the late device all in a bid to ease it's breathing as he was suffocated with Windows XP.

The Acer leaves behind a Dell PC, a Nintendo Wii and a Sony Ericsson P990i and a frustrated owner.

R.I.P. LM 1315
2004-2007
You will be missed

I Installed Ubuntu 7.04

I just installed Ubuntu 7.04 on my desktop

My PC will not handle Vista, I tried. It takes minutes to get "my documents" to open.

But this?

It simply rocks!

My PC is lighter and faster (boot up, opening files, starting programs). It even performs better than XP which I was using!
The new desktop effects are amazing, think vista's aero style. Just look at this:


Open office is lighter than MS office, produces smaller files than the latter and can read / write ms office files.

Installing programs is easier now. You have synoptic which is like add / remove programmes. Tick on the ones you want and it will install (a list of all Linux programmes are downloadable and refreshed every time)

Wine will enable you to run win exe's (including games)

you will mostly need no drivers as Ubuntu will take care of it, in the off chance, use ndiswrapper to use the windows driver.

It even migrated my windows account (I have a dual boot) and I don't feel like I'm missing anything at all!

I am really impressed with this release. I strongly suggest that you download the cd, it has a live cd session, just boot from cd and you have a full working Ubuntu (great as a rescue CD BTW) and if you like it you can click the (install) button.

Seriously, try it out and tell me what you think.