Why Windows still lags Mac OS X

I received a Thinkpad T530 earlier today and as soon as I got home, I opened it up to configure it. As per the few instructions on the pamphlet which came with it, I connected the battery and the power adapter. I set it to charge for a few minutes in case the battery had no juice in it.

After about 10 minutes, I pushed the power button to turn it ON and the Thinkpad logo appeared... and it didn't go away. No lights except the green halo beside the power button. No HDD activity at all! After waiting for about 3-4 minutes, I shut it down and tried again. 5 minutes and nothing changed. Third time, I powered it on and started looking for customer support information. Took me some time and when I looked towards the screen, it had something.... that was around 10minutes after powering ON!

I have had Mac machines and their power ON and the configuration (which I usually skip) is almost instant. It has been like this since at least 2006 Mac OS X Tiger. If Windows/Lenovo or other laptop makers cannot get their hardware/software to be more responsive, they are going to continue to loose the fight to Mac OS X.

That wasn't all though - during the configuration the mouse pad or the red pointing device DID NOT WORK. Luckily I know how to use a machine without a mouse and was able to get through the configuration without the mouse. After initial configuration, I started Windows updates and I still cannot use the mouse pointer!!

PS: Machine is for someone else, I would have slapped a Debian install by now if it was for me.

FPN registration woes

I recently bought a couple of Sailor fountain pens. As one of them was quite expensive, I was thinking of asking on the FPN forum on tips for first use, if any. As expected, the forum required a registration and I filled up the form (see below). However, after multiple tries the form gives the same error that I didn't write the answer to their spam protection question correctly!

FPN registration form error screen capture

As you can see on the screen shot above, all required fields are filled up and after multiple tries (with different answers to the question), the error still comes up!!

The spam protection feature seems to be preventing legitimate users to signup too. I wonder if FPN really want users to sign up to their forums.

It was hard to find a way to contact them too. Took me about 15minutes to find an email address: fpnadmin@gmail.com. Waiting to get a reply now.

If it matters, I'm using Iceweasel 24.0 browser on a Linux machine.

Why Newegg has turned into Blackegg?

Newegg's packages that I have received have phrases as "May Contain Awesome", and "Go Ahead and Review me" and a tag line "Take it from a Geek" as the website cites itself as the online place where computer hobbyists get their components from at great prices. They stepped into Canadian waters in late 2008 with their site Newegg.ca. A lot of people were happy to be able to get good prices that their friends were getting south of the border e.g. this. Many-a-times the deals were the best anyone could get from other online retailers in Canada. However, over time the deals have become "cold" as many would say. I have noticed that pattern even in their ShellShocker deals. The latest example is the ShellShocker Soul by Ludacris SL49C earphones. They are listed in the deal for $58.31 and free shipping (with original price as $103.31). That looks like almost half the price. But if you go over to the Newegg.com site, the same product is priced $39.99 and free shipping and the original price being $69.99!

Neither the original price are anywhere representative of the CAD/USD conversion nor does the deal price look attractive when considering that the same product goes for even less without Shell Shocker south of the border!

In general, either the ShellShocker discounts are not significant enough or they are on stuff that one doesn't care for much. Where did the original Newegg idea of special prices for great stuff go? We don't want the Blackegg, we need the Newegg back.

PDFCreator installs malware

I have been using a free software called PDFCreator to save files as PDF on my Windows XP machine. Being a SourceForge hosted project, I was quite confident that it was not one of those free software with crippled features which you only get when you buy the "Full" version or that it would be a clean software without any malware.

However, I noticed something odd today when I had to install it on a VM, during the installation process, it "asks" the user for installing an add-on "DefaultTab" (giving you an addon called Search Settings in your IE/Firefox/Chrome browsers).

In the screenshot below, you will notice the sneaky way that they try to make you install this malware:

• The options to uncheck the three browsers are in a "greyed out" colour to appear disabled
• The cancel button is also in a grayed out hue 

The only options that seem obvious are 1) to scroll down the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy text - which I'm sure more than 99% of users never read, and 2) the Next button.

Search Settings window while installing PDFCreator

Advice: when installing software, choose "Advanced" install rather than default and read the prompts at each step.

Another user found the inclusion of the malware distasteful for this open source project. His investigation contains more information, you can read it on the blog post.

PS: As it was a VM on which I installed it, it was easy to revert back to original state after creating the PDFs.

Chance

What are the chances that we are still alive on this planet? ...

Base64 image and how to save it

Almost 2 years since I put anything here. This post is as a reference if I need to convert base64 image data to an image.

I have seen the base64 encoded URI earlier and knew what it is essentially. For example:

data:image/png;base64,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

The browser does the job of displaying it seamlessly most of the time. However, today I got it as text in a email. The email client wrapped each line by = and newline character. So I got curious how to "view" the image.

I took the following steps (possibly unnecessary as base64 command can strip garbage from input*):

1. Saved the encoded data to a text file
2. Used sed with the following commands to strip unneeded characters (I'm nowhere a sed expert :( )

3. ~$&> sed 's/=$//' imagedata.txt > imagedata.txt

   (remove trailing = on each line)

4. ~$&> sed ':a;N;$!ba;s/\n//g' imagedata.txt > imagedata2.txt

   (remove newline character from each line)

5. ~$&> base64 -d -w 0 imagedata2.txt > imagedata.png

and the file imagedata.png is easily view-able in a image viewer e.g. Geeqie.
*: see base64 man page

Logitech M515

Picked up a Logitech M515 mouse from Bureau en Gros/Staples ($40). The mouse is sealed at the bottom, except for the On/Off switch. It has one of those "unifying" receiver for the wireless function.

Here the main points:

1. Scroll-wheel does not do the middle-click: if you do the middle click, it toggles the scroll wheel to free scroll or clickity-click wheel. The middle-click is done by the [o] button near the wheel.
2. The specs didn't indicate if it is SFF or full sized mouse. It is a SFF or laptop mouse.
3. Unifying feature cannot be setup in Linux. As indicated in the document on Logitech Unifying Receiver, Unifying software does not support Linux. You have to setup the unifying feature separately e.g. setup on Windows and then reconnect the receiver and to Linux machine. I did it on a virtual instance but lost the cursor during the setup. Restarted VM and both worked fine.
4. M515 is designed for couch (read cloth), so it might not function on glossy surfaces. Mouse pad, sofa, table top and paper worked; blue-ray player cover (black), glass, and fridge surface did not work.
   
5. Logitech says that it is active when you hold the mouse. They don't lie and it is advised that you hold it properly as I noticed that it stopped functioning when holding lightly with two fingers. You can easily test by pushing it with one finger.
6. I like the smooth scrolling wheel, but the M510's form factor suites my hand better.
7. Works even if you are 3-4 meters away just like the M510.
8. Lacks the extra buttons on the M510.
   

One important question which comes to mind is the cover at the bottom. It consists of two parts: regular grey plastic cover on the outer side (see image) and the shiny dark translucent plate covering the laser inside. Over time, the shiny central part is going to get scratchy (it is not hardened glass) which would affect the performance of the laser. Would the scratches be enough to cause scattering of the laser so that the mouse gets confused?

Still deciding if it stays or goes back.

Bash Programming

Been reading some Bash introduction stuff and found that TLDP article contained errors right in the first couple of chapters (grammatical and programmatical both). Need to search further to find better quality stuff. This log will be updated with other links with time.

CBC covers STOP THE METER

Distribute as much as possible.
Stop The Meter

STOP THE METER

View and repost as widely as possible.

Sony BDP-S370 and NTFS

Warning: If you want to call Sony support, be very very patient. It took me 1h25m to get to a support representative!

Spoke to the Sony rep on Sony support about the in ability of BDP-S370 to NTFS formatted USB disks and he said it will only read FAT32 (as I read in the manual). When I asked him if a software update would add this feature in future, he said that it won't happen as it is limited by hardware.

So for now, it is the Samsung BD-C5500T which stays and Sony goes back as an open box item! Sorry Sony but you need to be more competitive in today's market. Alors tu ne me intéresses plus.

Seiki BD660

This is an unknown brand of blu-ray player that I picked up at Walmart for the sake of testing.

+ plays almost all kinds of files DIVX, XviD, MKV, MPEG2, MP3, etc from USB stick
+ DVD or Blu-ray region change
+ Reads NTFS formatted disks unlike Sony

- ethernet port is present, but no app uses it!
- no DLNA support
- does not control the TV (TV does not turn on when Seiki unit does)
- @ $78 it is way too expensive
- front panel buttons are hard to distinguish
- no front USB port

Find more info about it here.

For now, it goes back to Walmart this weekend. Had it been $40 or so, I would have kept it as a secondary unit.

Good Bye Sony BDP-S370

I bought two blu-ray players over the boxing week sales to be able to play various types of media files on the LCD TV. One was the Sony BDP-S370 and the second one was Samsung BD-C5500T. I have tested them for basic functionality. Here are my findings in brief:

Both players have cheap build quality, but at about $100 each and the features they offer; I can live with that. The last DVD player I bought was $90 without any USB port or network features!

Samsung has a touch sensitive plate on the front and it is quite sensitive. I have turned off the player by mistake while attaching the USB drive which is right under the power button! Sony on the other hand went with really tiny, hard to find buttons on the front panel. Both models disappoint for their front panels. Both of them turn the TV ON automatically though - one button to press :)

Both have wireless ready functionality (which I don't care for) as well as a real network port. Connected network cable to each of them and after basic configuration both of them upgrade to the latest firmware. Upgrade of firmware over network was a breeze.

Interface: I prefer the Sony interface as it is similar to the PS3. Samsung has too many things on the same screen and too many colours. Sony interface design simply trumps Samsung.

As far as media playing is concerened: Sony just sucks as it won't understand anything except FAT-32 formatted media. Sony does note that in the fine-print, but hey we are in 2010 and if Samsung does not have any problem in reading content from NTFS formatted USB drive and XFS formatted disc on the DLNA server (and update of the Linkstation Live firmware to 1.07 made that problem go away; Sony reads the files from the DLNA server now), why isn't Sony able to implement that! Samsung is also able to play MKV 5.1/6.0 profile video files unlike the Sony. Maybe Sony can outsource the software development of their blu-ray players (and maybe TVs too) to Samsung!

There was one thing keeping me from returning the Sony but after finding out the media playing ability of the Samsung, there is no confusion.

Update: removed DLNA issue with Sony

Wikipedia Down? -- UP NOW

Wikipedia.org seems to be down. No ping response and traceroute cannot proceed after 10 hops.

Lots of reports on Twitter from different places about this.

Update: After a few hours of downtime, it is back up @ 23:30hrs EDT.

Ironic

Logged in to Flickr account to check new photos by friends and found this "suggestion" at the bottom of the main page! What are the chances of this?

Debian/KDE 4.4.3 Upgrade

I did an aptitude safe-upgrade today and was pleasantly surprised to see that KDE 4.4.3 was finally in unstable. The only problem I had with the upgrade was that I got a black screen when I tried to re-login to KDE.

I didn't find much on Google or Debian lists but this post on KDE gave me an indication and I checked the status of the package plasma-desktop. dpkg told it was uninstalled at some point. I installed it using aptitude and lo-and-behold, I was able to login the new version of KDE.

Apple - The Gatekeeper: Bends ....once again

Bad publicity forces Apple to ask Mark Fiore (Pulitzer prize winning cartoonist) to re-submit his iPhone app which was rejected four months ago. They seem to stick to their ground using whatever whimsical reasons they want unless it gets them in soup!

While the iPhone app is being submitted and gets approved, you can enjoy Fiore's cartoons on his website.

Lucid > Firefox > Search Provider Confusion

After all the hoopla about changing search provider, Ubuntu has changed its mind and went back with Google for the Lucid release. I don't understand why this is such a big issue. Ubuntu is open source and so is Firefox. Search feature of Firefox is well known and so is the knowledge of how to change search provider or the default one. I guess Ubuntu users are getting accustomed to being spoon fed by a beautiful looking, always working, hassle free Linux distribution.

PS: This is another example of the philosophy that Apple is leading the way to make computer users dumb rather than techsavvy. I hope Ubuntu doesn't join the bandwagon.

Lucid Lynx -- Ubuntu 10.04

30.04.10 - Lucid Lynx, coming soon to a server near you. If you can't wait, you can get the beta.

Just upgraded my Karmic box to Lucid and the process was very smooth. I wish Microsoft was able to give upgrades like this ;)

Pros:

1. Fast bootup.
2. Less sluggish, faster response.
3. ......
   

Cons:

1. New theme has nice gradation and feels nice, but the color combination is a bit of an eye-sore. Solution: Change it from System > Preferences > Appearence
2. Window close, minimize, maximize buttons are on the left! Last time I checked, Ubuntu wasn't Apple's official distribution, so why is it trying to act like one? Solution: System > Preferences > Theme > Customize.
3. I had the idea that Gnome was simple, however take a look at the context menu for a USB flash disk; there are 16 options displayed and many of them are grayed out as they probably don't even apply. Unavailable options should be invisible and Format and Compress can be easily put in Properties window.
4. If that wasn't enough to cause confusion, the user gets two choices for the USB stick removal: Eject and Safely Remove Drive. Isn't Eject safe enough? Why not just have one option of Safely Remove Drive?
5. Default search engine changed to Yahoo! even though my earlier default was Google. Easy fix is to open about:config and change browser.search.defaultenginename property to Google

......will be updaed later though.

Ice Hockey: Canada v/s US

Watching the first encounter of Canada against USA in Ice Hockey. The rivalry between the teams on the ice seems exactly like the India/Pakistan cricket 1 day match.

Score 1st Pr (end): US 2 -- Canada 1
2nd Pr: US3 -- Canada 2 (3min remaining)
Final: US won 5-3