fjellstad.org

For the last couple of years, I’ve been using Kubuntu on the desktop and Debian on the server. Initially, I used Debian both places, but after feeling that Debian on the desktop didn’t give me an unified look ‘n feel, I decided to try out Kubuntu.

I recently decided to visit that decision again. After trying out both Kubuntu and the Kubuntu remix (and Ubuntu remix), I decided to try Debian on the desktop again. The experience has been pretty good, although I think most of it is how far KDE has come since I used Debian on the desktop.

Kubuntu pro
1. Unified look’n feel (still)
2. Most things just work (keybinding etc)
3. Out-of-the-box home encryption

Kubuntu con
1. Too many applications installed that I don’t use. Uninstalling them breaks upgrade path
2. Upgrade is not smooth (compared to Debian)
3. Too much control given up in name of user-friendliness

Debian pro
1. Pick ‘n choose exactly what I want installed
2. Same system as I use on servers
3. Easy upgrade path

Debian con
1. Still not unified (Iceweasel on KDE looks horrible)
2. Difficulties implementing fileencryption with ecryptfs

Still haven’t really decided. Right now I’m running Debian/KDE Plasma Netbook on my EeePC, Kubuntu Lucid Lynx on my workstation and Debian on my servers.

It used to be installing a printer in Linux was somewhat a pain. I remember installing my first printer, a Canon inkjet. It would work in one version of Linux, and then when upgrading to the next version, the printer would stop working because of something had changed. And this was a local printer. It was very annoying (especially when you are a student ands needs to print your homework. Well, not really, since we just ended up going to the computer lab before class).

That said, ever since I got introduced to CUPS, printing has become much more enjoyable (well, the fact that I usually go for HP printers probably helps too). I usually connect the printer through the USB port to a local server, and use CUPS to set up a printserver for the local network.

LaserJet M1522n is one of HP’s multifunction printer. It is also network based, and I was curious whether it would cause problems installing on Linux. Surprisingly (or maybe not at this point), installing the printer part was pretty painless. Printer got discovered by CUPS. Just answer some questions, and away I went, having a network printer. I had some problems with the scanning part (xsane would not discover a network scanner), but I finally found the solution.

Run # hp-setup -i, and download some hplip-plugins, and away you go. Discovered by xsane, scanning fine over the network. Pretty happy by at this point

I spent my Christmas in the country of my birth, Vietnam. It was an interesting experience.

People keep writing how going back to the country they’re from gives them such religious experience. How it fills an emptiness which they usually didn’t know existed. I didn’t get that feeling at all. Don’t get me wrong, it was a nice trip. Wonderful food. Interesting people. But it wasn’t that much different than going to any other exotic place in the world (except I understood the language, more or less). I’m not sure I’m supposed to be disappointed or happy.

I felt a sense of home when I moved back to Norway. And even now, I miss California and everything I knew there. If Norway is my cultural and emotional home, then California is at least my home away from home. And Vietnam? Not sure where I would put that.

It did make one thing clear though. I need to go back and visit California this summer

I just broke down and bought myself a TV. I haven’t owned a TV since I moved back to Norway, although I have watched some TV when visiting the old folks.

It’s been an interesting experiment. I can’t say I missed it too much. I don’t really watch TV too much anyways (most of my free time is spent on the Internet). I do miss watching movies whenever I feel like it. Watching it on the computer is not the same as watching it on the big screen while leaning back on my couch (much more comfortable than my office chair).

What really changed it was that i got a serious case of the flu (swineflu?) this past week. Really boring. Problem is, didn’t feel well enough to sit in the chair reading article after article. OTOH, didn’t feel like reading a book. Didn’t have a TV to watch. Made for really boring sick days.

Since my apartment is wired for IPTV, and the mediabox is basically a Windows Media PC with built-in DVD, I don’t really need to buy a DVD player. The only problem is that the stupid DVD player is wired to be region 2, and most of my DVDs were bought while I lived in the US (region 1). Very annoying. I might build another media box and just rip all my dvds. Haven’t really decided yet.

While I was at it, and buying the TV, I ended up buying a PlayStation 3, mostly for the Blu-Ray player. Hopefully, I can do some gaming too, but don’t really see any games I might be interested in yet…

I’ve been geeking out lately. Watching Big Bang Theory while listening to Jonathan Coulton and reading Wil Wheaton‘s Just A Geek.

I think part of it is that I miss living in Silicon Valley. I miss being a geek among geeks. Going to The Tech Museum, being among fellow geeks when watching Star Trek or any other science fiction movies. I miss the cons, whether it is Comic-Con or JavaOne or SDWest. Or spending a day at a local Fry’s. It’s very comforting.

Although I don’t really miss the work hours and the uncertainty of working in the US, I do miss working for an engineering company (even though I don’t feel like IT is being second-class citizen at my current company). Granted, having Norwegian vacation time means I could pop into Silicon Valley at least once a year. Still, I miss it.

Probably need to get out more.

I’ve been wanting to build myself a new computer lately. Although my current computer kind of serves my current needs, I do sometimes get annoyed by its limitations. Mostly, I want a little more power to run more virtualization. I would also love to be able to try out some of the games, like Mass Effect (I so love those BioWare games). It’s annoying to have the game on the shelf and not being able to install it because I don’t have good enough graphic card.

My two last systems were laptops, which kind of served me well. It was nice having a system I could easily take with me when travelling between US and Norway. With the new netbooks, I’ll probably just build a really powerful workstation, and then a simple and cheap netbook for travel.

Of course, I could just get a gaming console and then I don’t have to worry about gaming on my system. Still thinking about that.

I do want a want to run 64-bit system on my main system, though, and I really want to check out those new Intel’s i7 CPUs. Hmmm… choices, choices. Nice to be a childless bachelor sometimes

Recently upgraded my phone to the Nokia N97. It was a huge upgrade to the N70, since it came with wireless connection and a proper browser.

1. Touch screen. Not as responsive as Apple’s iPhone. Somewhat inconsistent interface (sometimes you can use the whole screen to scroll, other times you need to use the scrollbar at the side).
2. Navigation/GPS. Works great, includes voice navigation. Drove from Drammen to Lillestrøm and back (about 55 km) without much problems. Navigation controls is somewhat confusing. And direction sometimes gets confused (you’re on a highway and it ask you take continue pass the intersection when you drive over an overpass etc)
3. Browser. Works OK. Opera Mini does better caching. That is, the included browser is good, but when you navigate back to a previous page, instead of loading it from the cache, it will try to download the page again.
4. Ovi Store. OK. Not sure how to compare with Apple’s AppStore since I’ve never used the latter. Ovi store is somewhat redundant in Europe since there are so many other places you can download and install S60 software
5. Email. Still crap. Can’t move email from one folder to another in IMAP

Overall, I must say I’m happy with the phone and would probably recommend it with some caveat.

I decided to remove the photo gallery. Part of it was that I wasn’t really happy with the gallery application I was using, and partly because it stopped being updated by Debian. I could continue from the upstream version, but since I haven’t really been happy with it, I decided to remove it for now. I’m looking into alternatives (there are some photo management plugins for WordPress).