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Samsung Chromebook Review

I spent a weekend with the latest Google Chromebook and wanted to update real quick with my impressions. I tried to do as much as possible from the machine so I could really get a feel for what it would be like if it were my only computer. I like some of Chrome OSs ideals, but have never spent “hard time” with one of the Chromebooks to be able to see how it would work for me. I also really wanted to figure out if it would be something I could recommend to my family and friends looking for a cheap notebook.

First of all, the Samsung is not that cheap, $500 is the price of a low end notebook and a high end netbook. It is also right in the sweet spot for tablets and about 1/2 the price of any notebook I’d consider good. So does a $500 web browser live up to it’s expectations? No. Here’s a quick breakdown.

Good:

• Portability – Small and light, but not as small or light as a netbook or tablet.
• User management – There is nothing to manage here, that’s a good thing.
• OS management/updates – Automatic, until there are problems. Trust me, someday, there will be problems.
• Boot/resume time – Good, but only on par with a SSD equipped netbook and less than a tablet.
• Keyboard spacing – Better spacing than a netbook and no need to muck around with onscreen keys. Oh and Dvorak support was a good surprise.

Bad:

• Build quality – Worse than low end netbooks I have used.
• Touchpad – Multitouch scrolling wasn’t as bad as the CR-48, but clicking was a nightmare.
• Missing keys (home, end, f*, delete, super) – With such a terrible touchpad I turned to the keyboard to make up for shortcomings, too bad a lot of the hotkeys I rely on for writing were absent
• missing tools (citrix/rdp, screenshots, storage) – It came down to the fact that I could not do my job with this computer, and that’s a deal breaker.
• Price – As stated above, when the price is around the same as a low end notebook running Windows, something is wrong.
• Display auto brightness – I had multiple occasions when the screen ignored all brightness level I set and did its own thing. Very rough on the eyes.
• Video out/adapter – No extended monitor means, why put video out on the thing at all?

As you can probably see, I wasn’t a fan. I used the Chromebook for 2 solid days before I gave up and went back to my HP 2560p which costs twice as much but does 1,000,000 more things (even run Chrome OS). Battery life on the Chromebook was about the same as my notebook and so was resume/sleep times which are typically two of the selling points of the Chromebook.
Because the Chromebook is not a serious work notebook, if someone asked me what they should get for casual internet browsing and games for ~$500, I’d recommend a TouchPad. If they said they needed a real keyboard, I’d tell them to get the bluetooth keyboard and touchstone. If they still didn’t want that, I’d recommend a netbook.
The Chromebook only makes sense for businesses doing the monthly rental, and if they have a Citrix environment set up so users could get real work done. As my companies Citrix XenDesktop engineer, I look forward to that day, but for my family and friends, never.

HP 8460p Review

HP has been drastically trying to re-brand their computer models for a few cycles now. They have openly stated they want to be Apple and they are starting with trying to make laptops that look like Apple’s Mac computers. Their latest attempt that I was able to use for a while was the 8460p which is a step in the right direction but still a ways off from the hardware and software experience that you can expect with the business forbidden fruit.

The particular model that I was able to use had:

• 14″ 1600×900 screen
• Intel Core i7 2620m 2.7 GHz processor
• 4 GB of RAM
• AMD Radeon HD 6470M video card
• 160 GB Intel SSD

Needless to say the specs on this machine were quite good, but that is to be expected for any new laptop in 2011 now that Intel has released their sandy bridge processor line. To be honest the best part about this laptop was the Intel SSD which was an option on previous models as well.
Some of the less-spec-more-Apple features that HP incorporated into this laptop were the extra large glass trackpad (more on that later), the front indicator lights (redesigned), the bottom access panel, and looks-like-unibody design. Other welcome changes are the return of the hardware volume and wireless buttons, instead of previous infuriating capacitive slider, and new screen latch which is a huge improvement over the 8440p’s joint & knuckle that rarely worked.

Hardware

Because this notebook is a business machine it directly competes with Apple’s MacBook Pro which is why I make so many comparisons. The problem is, the base HP 8460p starts $100 more than the base 13″ MacBook Pro and has the ability to climb up to $3581 with no accessories. This is more than the highest price 13″ MacBook Pro even when you add the $1,200 512 GB SSD. In a world when Google is trying to make their way into business with $30/month laptops, price is a big selling point, and HP is pricing themselves out of the game. For businesses HP can give discounts, better support, and fewer man hours to configure machines, but for end users there is no contest to the Apple store.
While HP is making some progress with making their laptops look and feel just like Apple’s they are still quite a ways off. Not only is this laptop 1/2 thicker than a 13″ MacBook Pro, but the case is still riddled with stickers, which you can’t order without, the bottom casing is still plastic, and the battery life is still lacking despite HP’s claim of 32 hours per charge. Granted I was able to go 3.5-4 hours with the battery, but the MacBook still has better life and the only way I’d even get close to 8-10 hours is with the 9 cell battery which is three times the capacity of the standard.
Disappointingly HP still does not have a backlit keyboard and instead still uses a screen mounted keyboard light which is inadequate for lighting anything especially if your hands are on the keyboard where they are supposed to be. They moved to function keys for their volume controls, but there is no option to change the default F key behavior. Instead you still need to hold the function key to change volume which can be a stretch with one hand and a nuisance with two.

On the plus side, HP added a quick release bottom panel that gets you access to everything with a simple slide of a button. The panel is a great idea for a business minded machine but may lead to security issues if documents are sensitive even if the hard drive is still held in place with three screws. I’m not sure how often the average user needs to swap out their RAM, but for me I would have rather seen this engineering go into a screwed on bottom with larger battery capacity than quick access to something I never need.

Trackpad

The large glass trackpad is a welcome change to HP’s normal minuscule trackpads, and supported two finger scrolling is also a welcome driver update even if it isn’t implemented very well. I can’t blame the hardware for that drawback though because it seems like a Windows 7 limitation that two finger scrolling is so delayed. Even on Mac hardware with Windows 7 installed the two finger scrolling is not as good as it is in OS X or Linux. If you got the touchstyk with your trackpad there is also the option to program all 4 buttons to do their own thing which is completely broken in the driver because the driver requires that each set of keys have a primary click which leaves you with only one button that you have the option to change. The feel of the trackpad is a big step up from the normal plastic coating and the rim on the edge of the pad makes sensing the touchpad better than on a Mac where often I tend to rub the casing next to the touchpad without looking.

Screen

The screen on the HP 8460p was one of the worst screens I have ever looked at on a modern laptop. The color and lines were so washed out it brought me back to the days of my original black and white Gameboy when the batteries were on their last leg but I still refused to change them until I couldn’t see Mario anymore with my 5″ magnifying glass. Things like Gmail’s stars and calendar lines were incomprehensible on the screen no matter what brightness was chosen. Luckily I know from repetition and keyboard shortcuts how to deal with this, but the terrible panel quality showed itself on many occasions. I may be slightly spoiled with the IPS panel used in my Dell monitor, but even my HP 2740p with a not-so-great TN panel, anti-glare, and plastic capacitive top sheet is better than the standard view I got from the 8460p.
I tried updating video drivers, changing resolution, and viewing angles but no matter what the built in display washed out subtle details and color in any application. An external display had no problem compensating but this really should have been addressed before release. This may not be an issue with the default 1366×768 panels but I won’t know that until I get my next model to test.
The ambient light sensor also had a mind of it’s own. HP moved the sensor from the normal bottom of the screen bezel to the top, next to the keyboard light, and even when the sensor was disabled the screen would constantly change brightness depending on what webpage I was viewing. It was very distracting in day to day use but I expect will be fixed with a driver or BIOS update in the future.

Added Software

HP continues to put crapware even on their business laptops and this is not exception. While I would have liked to see a webOS splashtop OS, instead it had the default HP QuickWeb which runs a base OS of Fedora with Skype, HP molested Firefox, and Thunderbird installed. This was the first time I have ever actually thought QuickWeb was marginally useful but that was outweighed by the fact that this machine had an SSD. Boot times to HP QuickWeb was 10 seconds while boot time into Windows was 17 seconds and resume was typically less than 2 seconds. While I do think the splashtop OS has it’s place, particularly the way Sony handles it on the Vaio’s as a low powered media hub, the way HP does it currently is just unnecessary clutter that adds no benefit to the user.
If webOS was the splashtop with a media center app, DVD playback, and access to the internal storage, all while keeping power low and battery life high, this would be a feature worth noting on the box.

Wrap Up

When it comes down to it, the new 8460p is a good laptop that improves on last years 8440p, but there are too many nagging things that make this laptop not consumer friendly and still over priced for what you get. Businesses will still buy this machine without a second thought and it still has better flexibility than its Apple counterparts, but HP is lacking an ecosystem that can rival the bitten fruit and does not add enough software differentiation to stand out among the other PC drones like Dell or Acer.
Here’s to hoping that HP’s next refresh cycle with webOS will add something new to the game.

HP MediaSmart Server ex485 review

I bought my HP MediaSmart Server quite a while ago and I have had a few random posts about it but I wanted to do an official review to let you know what I think of it. In order to successfully review this I am going to break it up into 2 sections: hardware and software.

Hardware:

The hardware is almost identical to HP’s old ex475 MediaSmart servers on the outside but the inside now has a Intel Celeron 2.0 Ghz processor with 2 GB of RAM. That is a pretty big upgrade compared to the old AMD 1.8 Sempron with 512 MB RAM. One of the biggest jumps internally for the ex485/ex487 is the jump to a 64-bit processor. While this currently doesn’t matter to much, Microsoft’s next version of Windows Home Server is going to be built off of Windows Server 2008 R8 which is 64-bit only. This means that the ex480 family can technically run the future software without another hardware upgrade.
Externally, the hardware is great. Four hard drive bays right where they should be, three USB in the back, eSATA, and gigabit ethernet. At first I didn’t even think I would use the front USB port but I find that I use it quite often when copying large amounts of information to the server.
I can’t say much about the hardware except for the fact that it is wonderful. I haven’t had any hardware problems and the device is small enough and quiet enough to leave next to my laser printer and no one knows it’s there. The device is fairly quite, but one of my hard drives is a bit old and I think makes more noise than necessary. I would say I have never heard the device over the TV being on, but when the room is completely silent, the hard drive noise is enough to not let me fall asleep.

Pros:
Small
Relatively Quiet
Lots of storage options (4 hard drive bays, 4 USB ports, 1 eSATA port)
Plenty of speed

Cons:
The bays were a little awkard at first
eSATA not replicating (no daisy chaining eSATA devices like you could with the old systems)

Software:

First of all, the NAS solutions I have used in the past have always been DIY solutions. Even the Buffalo Linkstation I hacked so that I could load a full Debian Linux install on it for more flexibility. Other than that I have used Ubuntu Server, FreeNAS, Windows, and a few other solutions, and have looked at solutions like unRAID, Linksys, and QNap. So far every single system I have used just seemed pieced together and not a finished product. That was until I used Windows Home Server.
Windows Home Server is built off of Windows Server 2003 and this is a very good thing. Windows Home Server is available as a retail purchase or you can buy it pre-installed on a lot of NAS systems out there. The retail version allows you to build your NAS from the ground up. Everything from the hardware, OS, and add-on software can be customized which is great for people that want a bit more control but don’t want all the headaches of some Linux incompatibilities. Plus if you buy the software retail you can start with cheap hardware and then work your way up as you get small amounts of budget instead of plopping down ~$600 for a all-in-on retail solution.
The key feature of WHS is the folder duplication. It allows you to use any hard drive and adds all the storage to a pool of available space, similar to the Drobo. The reason this kicks the Drobo’s ass is if your WHS machine dies, all of the drives are formatted with NTFS so you can just pull the hard drives and get the information off of a new computer. With the Drobo, if your Drobo dies, so does everything stored on it cause it uses a proprietary format. This type of storage is really the way things are moving because people are finally realizing that RAID is not a backup solution. RAID is for speed and eliminates down time, period.
The software does what you would expect and the configuration is handled in a stupidly simple Home Server Console. I actually dislike the console just because I feel like it makes things too easy. As much as you can do with the console some things just aren’t there yet (such as copying from a local USB drive to a share). But because the system runs Windows Server you can just RDP to the machine and copy things that way. I hope small tasks like this are fixed in future releases and it would also be nice to see some sort of official add-on store/repository or at least a official Microsoft site for them. It gets annoying trying to rummage the internet to find the best add-ons.
Add-ons is one area that I find very feature lacking and yet is something that should be so much better. Where is the add-on to let me ping my DNSomatic account? How about the one that integrates with my webcam for security viewing/recording when there is movement? Home automation? Game server? Heck even some more advanced features like Active Directory would be nice for the power users, and people with more than just 1 computer in the house.
I haven’t tried printer sharing through the system but the good news is, if it works in Windows Server 2003 it will work in Windows Home Server. And that is the main thing that separates Windows Home Server from all of the other DIY and Linux systems I have used. Windows Home Server takes a very successfully platform and strips it down to just what you need, and then they allow anyone to make minor additions to the system using add-ons. The software is the same across all platforms that use Windows Home Server. It doesn’t matter if you build it yourself or buy it from HP, Acer, or Shuttle.
This kind of flexibility makes me very excited for the next release which is based off of Windows Server 2008 R2 (a.k.a. Windows 7). If the next version of Windows Home Server lives up to 1/2 of it’s expectations it will still be a killer system that will be worth every penny for a upgrade.
Pros:
DIY availability
Add-ons are compatible with any WHS system
Easy to use
Remote desktop
The first NAS I don’t manage on a weekly basis
Cons:
Console can sometimes be too simple
Key Add-ins are missing
Network warnings for stupid things (firewall turned off, updates needed, etc.)

The HP MediaSmart Server came with one other thing that you won’t get on any other WHS system. Custom HP software built just for the MediaSmart servers. When I first bought the MSS the software wasn’t very feature rich for my needs. I don’t use iTunes so I don’t need the iTunes music server, I don’t have a Mac so I don’t need Time Machine backups, I don’t use snapfish, flickr, facebook, or Picasa for my pictures so I don’t need the Photo Publisher, and I don’t want the server collecting all of my media and putting it wherever it wanted to so I don’t want the HP Media Collector. The other features the MSS includes that retail installs of WHS don’t get are Twonky Media Server, Remote Access, HP Media Streamer, and HP Video Converter. Here is why they all suck.
Twonky Media Server is basically why I bought a MSS and didn’t build my own. You can easily buy Twonky from their site for $30 and install it and you are probably better off. HP by default locks me out of a lot of the advanced settings (but there is a way around it), but at the time I thought I might actually use some of the other features HP includes. Also to compare, I had Twonky on my Linkstation Live and it worked wonderfully with my PS3. With the MSS, Twonkey reports that I don’t have any music, photos, or videos stored on my MSS.
Remote Access lets you set up a website so you can access your WHS from anywhere in the world. While this is just fine (and Microsoft allows for free sites using *.homeserver.com), HP wants you to pay for a TZO site at $30 $10 a year. Not terrible but when free sites like www.dyndns.org and a million others let you do this for free it just seems like a waste. As a matter of fact before the HP 2.5 upgrade there was no option to have a *.homeserver.com site so you had to pay to get access to your server. Unless of course you set that portion up on your router.
HP Photo Viewer is probably the best software out of all the crappy software HP includes in the MSS. Of course first you have to publish all of your pictures locally to the HP Photo Viewer and make sure you put them in albums manually. Once they are “published” you can password protect them let users order prints download a full album view pictures full screen view the pictures in a small area of your web browser. OK maybe this software does suck. Don’t use it. The only benefit it could possibly have over online sites is you have unlimited storage because it is served locally. But if you need that just buy a domain and set up a gallary2 installation, or pay for flickr, Picasa, etc. At least then you get a off site backup of your pictures at the same time.
So how about the HP Media Streamer and HP Video Converter those at least are worth looking at right? Not for me. The idea is the Video Converter runs in the background and converts your files so that you can share them in the HP Media Streamer and to your iPhone/iPod Touch. The media streamer is supposed to play your music, pictures, and videos to a flash player in your browser wherever you are. The good news is the HP Media Streamer is password protected so at least not just anyone can access your files. The bad news is, ever since I upgraded to the 2.5 version software the HP Media Streamer doesn’t see any of my music or videos. That seems to defeat the purpose. Oh and the video converter converted all of my video files and then seems to have misplaced them because it started to convert all of my video files again, thus overwriting the old video files it just converted. So I just turned it off and forgot the feature was even there. I also have yet to be able to play any music, photos, or video to any of the 3 iPhones I have tested. Every single one either says it cannot connect or there are no files to be played.
Pros:
A good feature list to compare to other WHS’s on the market
Cons:
Nothing works the way it is advertised

Closing

My next WHS box will probably be a home built system with 8-10 hard drive bays. In the long run that will probably be cheaper and I can make sure only the software I need is installed. I still do like the MSS and if you don’t want to mess with it (or have Apple products) it really is the way to go for mass storage on your network.

HP 2730p Review

I am up for a new computer at work and I couldn’t force myself to go with a netbook as my main laptop just yet. I currently have a HP 8510p and it works well for my needs. My biggest problem is its size. Sure the 15″ 1680×1050 screen is great but 80% of the time I am using it docked at my desk with a 24″ screen as my only display. So really what is the point of having that big of a machine 20% of the time.
So instead I opted for the HP 2730p. While not quite netbook size (12.1″ screen) it is still almost half the weight of my current laptop (3.7 lbs vs. 6.2 lbs). I had used the 2730p predecessor (2710p) last year as a demo and I had 3 major complaints with the system.
1. No touchpad (TouchStyk only)
2. No soft keys around the screen (like every other HP tablet has ever had)
3. Super slow performance (1.3 Ghz processor, 4200 RPM hard drive, GMA X3100 video)
The 2730 has fixed 2 of those issues so I thought I would give it a try as my main system this time.
The first complaint I had met was the lack of a touchpad below the keyboard. HP managed to squeeze in what looks like the touchpad from the HP 2140 (a.k.a. mini 1000) netbook but instead of having the buttons on the sides (thank heavens) they managed to cut out two slits from the metal casing which makes buttons that I think are even more worthless than the 2140 buttons. These buttons are so flush to the case and so hard to push you almost have to push straight down just to make sure you hit one. If I try to hit the buttons with my thumb I find I miss 70% of the time. I really wish they would have followed in Apple’s footsteps and made a buttonless touchpad because then at least there would be some space to move my finger on a normal size pad. I have actually just adapted to using the TouchStyk to avoid the touchpad all together. And as far as TouchStyk’s go (I wouldn’t say I was a fan but I loved the option), this is by far the best one I have ever used. The buttons feel just right and the sensitivity is almost perfect. It reminds me of my friends old IBM T42p.
HP did not see it fit to add any soft buttons back around the screen on the 2730p but they did put the ambient light sensor in the most ridiculous place possible. While they put it on the screen bezel just like they do for every laptop, if you want to use the tablet to, oh I don’t know, write on the screen, your hand constantly moves across the sensor making the screen dim and brighten with every line that you write. It is by far the most annoying part about this laptop. Luckily Fn+F11 still does work to disable this “feature”.
The performance has been bumped up significantly from the previous model. The model I have been demoing has a 1.86 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 3 GB ram (vs. 2 in my last 2710p), Intel 4500 MHD video card (still integrated but way better), and a 80 GB SSD which is awesome. The final machine I will be getting will have everything except the 80 GB SSD hard drive (mine will have a 160 GB 5400 RPM drive) which should still be an improvement over the 2710p. In case you are curious, the SSD option costs almost as much as the tablet itself.
After using the 2730p for about a week now I have 3 new things that I still just don’t like about the device and hope HP gets it right in the next model they put out.
1. Touchpad still sucks and might as well not be there.
2. Screen is not multitouch and only works with the stylus. (I have Dell envy right now) I have also seen some HP training material and know they plan to fix this with their next tablet line. It will function similar to the current Touchsmart tx2 but for busness users.
3. When the screen is flipped there isn’t much you can do (especially if you don’t have the pen out). I can’t change the volume, I can’t launch a program, and I can’t even click on a link or go back in the web browser.
The functionality in this laptop just seems to be lacking verses the old tc4400/tc4200 series tablets which my wife and sister-in-law have and enjoy. If the screen didn’t require the stylus (capacitive screen preferred) this wouldn’t matter at all but I still thought it was a relevant complaint on the current model.
Overall I still do love the size and reading in bed is much more enjoyable, so long as I have the stylus out. At work I don’t notice any of the shortcomings because I have a full mouse, keyboard, and monitor and at home I love the fact that I don’t have to be tethered to my plug to get enough juice for a whole evening of web browsing.
Overall the 2730p is what the 2710p should have been (and with the 2710′s short life of ~3 months it shows that HP knew this). Despite this review sounding very negative, I am fully satisfied with the performance, screen, size, battery life, and keyboard of this machine. Would I personally buy one for $1700? No. I would go get a current model Dell with a capacitive screen or maybe wait till HP rolls out their new tablet with a Intel Core i5 next year. Let me know if you have any questions or anything to add in the comments.
I added comments to a lot of the pictures so click through the gallery if you want some more info that I just didn’t put in the review.

Linux Mint 7 review

Linux Mint 7 “Gloria” RC came out this past week and I spent some time installing it this morning. While it is based on Ubuntu 9.04, my first impressions of Linux Mint 7 are drastically different.
Here is a mini review of why I still use Linux Mint as my main OS at home.
The install was painless, as usual, and the theme was just as elegant and smooth as ever.
After the install I went ahead and updated my video card drivers and turned on advanced desktop effects. From there I needed to install some software that I use day-to-day. Instead of turning on the package manager like I normally would I opened the mintInstall tool expecting the software to refresh it’s list for the next 30 minutes. I was very surprised to have mintInstall ready to install software right when I opened it. I was even more pleased to find the featured applications option. One click on that button and it had a list of popular software that isn’t install by default. With a few check boxes I installed VLC, amarok, f-spot, picasa, etc. The only software not on the list that I needed to install was Audacity and Conduit. Ten minutes past my fresh install I had all my software installed and I was back up and running. Thanks to storing all of my information on either a network drive or a separate partition I had a fully functional Linux Mint 7 installation at this point.
One of my biggest complaints with Linux Mint in the past was the mintMenu application. While I loved its functionality of allowing you to search for programs and documents all right when the menu is open, it never had the ability to open with a hotkey, until now. I found out by accident. I pushed the “Super” key and started typing Firefox because that is what I usually do in Vista. About half way though “fire” I realized I had opened the mintMenu with the “Super” key. After reading the changlog I found that you can also change the key which is very helpful in Linux because many other programs use the “Super” key for activation (Gnome Do, Compiz shortcuts, etc.).
One other change that I didn’t expect, but am OK with, is the fact that Gnome Do does not start up by default. Because past mintMenu’s could not open with a shortcut key I began relying on Gnome Do to launch my programs and find my documents. I very much like the program but with mintMenu being able to open with just a keypress I don’t know if Gnome Do is needed any more in Linux Mint, at least not for program launching.
The only other surprising feature to find was that Evolution was not the default mail client and instead Thunderbird still held that title. While I still do like Thunderbird I feel like Evolution is a step in the right direction and I love that it can not only manage all of my personal email addresses but it can also painlessly get my works Exchange email.
In summary, Linux Mint 7 is absolutely wonderful. I have all the features and support of Ubuntu with all the polish and software I have come to love in Linux Mint. I look forward to using Linux Mint 7 more and hopefully I will be able to keep this install for at least 6 months until Linux Mint 8 comes out. Great job Clem and team, another success in my book.

Ubuntu (9.04) Jaunty Jackalope first impressions

I installed Ubuntu 9.04 on my main laptop (HP Compaq 8510p) and I wanted to post what my first impressions:

My first issue was with the installation. I am not sure if this feature was taken out or if there was just some other reason I couldn’t do it, but what happened to the ability to resize your Windows partition to install Ubuntu on the newly created free space? I only had two options on my install, use the entire disk (erasing Windows), or manually select which partitions to use (without the ability to resize a partition). What I ended up having to do was boot back into Windows Vista and resize my main partition to free up unallocated space on my drive manually. While this wasn’t horrible to do, I can imagine there are quite a few people out there that don’t know how to do this. After I had freed up 15 GB on my drive I had a third option to install Ubuntu on the largest available free space but it was still a bit of a hassle to do in the first place.
Once I actually booted into Ubuntu I was greeted with all of my hardware working out of the box…until I rebooted.
I am not sure why but my sound wasn’t working past the login screen. It worked just fine on the first boot and it has never failed to work in any previous Ubuntu installation on this laptop (8.04-9.04). I was eager to play some of my music, but I soon remembered one of the reasons I switched to Linux Mint…and that sent me to the package manager to install the restricted extra’s package so I could listen to my music in MP3 format. Once I finally had the package installed I then realized I couldn’t hear any music coming from the Rythumbox player. I started up Firefox and headed to YouTube to see if I had any audio there. Back to the package manager to install flash and then restarted Firefox to see if I had sound from YouTube. This confirmed that I had no sound working whatsoever. I went to the forums and installed the Gnome ALSA mixer cause I heard it solved the problem for some people but for me it would just open up with a blank window with no options but to exit. So I gave up on my sound thinking I could just use my USB sound card that has worked with every other distribution of Ubuntu I have tried it on (back to 7.10). Wrong I was. The USB sound card did not work with Audacity however after 3 more reboots all of a sudden my onboard sound worked again. I tested it with Audacity and I was set to record the next mintCast.
During all of this work to get my sound working again I probably had Firefox crash on me, I’d say, 6 times. While I am not new to having Firefox crash, especially not in Linux, I was quite surprised to have this sort of instability for a newly released OS. Sure I installed the Adobe Flash add-on but in the past when Flash crashed it just wouldn’t play videos anymore until I rebooted the browser. These crashes were full system locking, power button holding, not even RSEIUB would help kind of crashes. I will admit in the second day I used Jaunty I haven’t had Firefox crash on me once but the bitter taste of a unstable browser still frightens my every keystroke.
With everything working as it should I decided to test this famed boot speed improvements using ext4. I have seen video’s of sub 20 second boot times and I am very curious what my laptop can do. With Linux Mint 6 installed my boot times from the time I pushed the power button till the time I loaded a webpage with Firefox was about 50 seconds. I defiantly felt like Jaunty was faster than that, but after 2 tests (with auto login and and Firefox set to auto run) my best time was still only 41 seconds. Once again, a little bit of a downer.
Next thing to test was one of my outstanding problems with Ubuntu/Linux Mint. At work and at home I use a docking station to dock my laptop to be able to use a full keyboard/mouse and large monitor. When my computer is docked I get video on the external display but it never detects as a second monitor through the docking port, and instead it just mirrors my display and never lets me change my resolution on the external monitor. If I plug the monitor in to the VGA port on the laptop it is just fine however. I tried to open system preferences and all I was greeted with was this empty window that I had to force quit every time I opened it. This was finally another strike that made me very sad and disappointed that Jaunty isn’t what I thought it would be.
The final little nagging feature was the pop-up that asks you to confirm your shutdowns and restarts just like OSX. I heard an interview with Mark Shuttleworth and he said that this was necessary for the new desktop notifications so I wasn’t too bummed about it but it does make shutting down a little more annoying.
On the plus side I do like the pop-up notifications, which I didn’t think I would, and I like the improvements made to Evolution (and it is really winning me over from Thunderbird). I think 9.04 isn’t a step backwards like 8.10 was compared to 8.04, but I don’t feel like 9.04 is living up to the hype.
I have no plans to stop using Linux Mint or Ubuntu (or Linux in general). I think they are both fantastic operating systems and I am so thankful for the countless people that put in all of their free time and talent into the system. I try to contribute in as many ways as I know how and will continue to support the community whenever I have the chance.
For now, I am looking forward to what Ubuntu 9.10 will have in store.
Let me know what things you love and hate about 9.04 in the comments.

Take one down, pass it around…

In my recent trip to Capri Deli I decided to be adventurous and try a couple more root beers. And of course, with my bad memory, I need to write them down or I would have no idea I ever knew they existed.
First up is Route 66 Beer. It had such a clever name I just had to try it. This Root Beer tasted very smooth with hardly any fizz to it. It tasted like some kind of syrup candy and was fairly thick while drinking. It reminded me a bit of Henry Weinhard’s but with more of a caramel after taste. It was very pleasant but a little bit heavy. I don’t think it was nearly as sweet as Boylan root beer but more of a subtle candy undertone to the root beer itself.
The second root beer was Frostie Root Beer. This was actually Beth’s choice for dinner but I drank my fair share. It was a little bit weird how similar these two root beers were. Frostie had a very similar after taste but there was so much fizz to this root beer it tasted more like drinking caramel Nerds or root beer Pop Rocks. I think out of these two I would pick frostie because it had the candy taste without the heaviness. One weird thing with Frostie was the after feel in your mouth. It wasn’t so much the taste this root beer left in your mouth as much as it was the feeling on your tongue. It kind of felt like after you eat a few Altoids mints. When your tongue feels a little bit raw but kind of good, like your mouth got a good cleaning or something. I know it is strange but that is what I thought of after taking a drink.
Sorry for the lack of updates in my root beer log but I really go through phases trying new root beers and this will probably end up being one of my “projects” that lasts a long time. And the big pictures make it easier for you to see them and gives me an excuse to write a little bit more and then you don’t feel like the log is all text. Let me know what new root beers you have tried in the comments, or root beers you recommend I try next time I am out.

Some more root beers

I had the chance to have a few more root beers this week and I thoroughly enjoyed them. The first root beer I tried was Red Ribbon. I must say it tasted pretty plain. Nothing really stood out about it and it had a very generic IBC/Barq’s root taste. If I hadn’t taken a picture I probably would have completely forgotten about it. Beth pointed out that Red Ribbon had almost zero aftertaste. It was almost like you forgot you took a drink of anything. Then I had the Americana root beer.
This one was fantastic. It wasn’t too sweet, had a very good aftertaste and actually tasted like I was drinking something. It wasn’t quite as sweet as Virgil’s but with the food I was having that was a very good thing.I would have to say at this point this is my second favorite root beer, and depending on what I am eating at the time I would probably go for one of these over a Virgil’s.
Finally, I had Boylan Bottleworks. This was probably the sweetest tasting root beer I have ever had but that made it taste a bit more like liquid candy than a drink of bitter, brewed root. The label said it is sweetened with pure cane sugar and it was very tasty. I wouldn’t say I didn’t like it, but when drinking it the sweetness got in the way of the taste. Beth on the other hand loved this one and kept asking for more.
Overall Boylan Bottleworks was a great change from traditional root beers and I will keep it in mind when I want something to sip on while watching a movie. But I probably wouldn’t drink this one on a regular basis while eating my dinner. Unless of course my dinner is licorice.

Dog n Suds root beer

So first of all I want to say thank you Ken and Jeanne for my birthday gift. Second, I wanted to start a series of posts reviewing some of the root beers I have tried. I’m not as big of a fan of root beer as I used to be, mainly because of a bad experience my freshman year at college, but I do enjoy the occasional break from Dr. Pepper, Cherry Coke, and Vitamin waters. And when that break calls, it is nice to have a good cold root beer at hand. On top of that I love trying new things.
I have tried just about every big brand root beer I can think of (IBC, Stewart’s, Henry Winehard’s, Virgil’s) and I would have to say so far Virgil’s in my favorite. I don’t plan this root beer log to get fancy with reviews or even have a rating system like this awesome site. But I just want to keep track of what I have tried and what I thought of it as I go.
So first up is Dog n Suds. I tried it last night with a Italian sub and it reminded me a lot of Stewart’s root beer. It had a bit of a creamy taste at first and then dulled away with almost 0 after taste. It was kind of strange because I was waiting for the after taste blow that would make me not like it but it just went right into my stomach making me forget that I took a drink of anything. This is not a bad thing but at the same time it is not a good thing. It is just a dull existence for a root beer to go into your mouth and right through your body without so much as a flavorful burp.
Overall I would say it was good but you can probably do better with something that will leave a more lasting impression.
Please let me know in the comments if you have a root beer you think I should try.

PS3 Pro Triggers

I first saw a glimpse of the pro triggers for the sixaxis controller about a month ago and immediately I was trying to figure out a way that I could add this much needed extension myself. I didn’t realize at the time that the extension was actually a product of gioteck. Thanks to a friend I was shown this thread over at the AVSforum that said the pro triggers were included in the December edition of the PSW magazine. Off to Borders I went to find the magazine. The one by me didn’t have it. The one by my friend didn’t have it. The next day I tried another Borders and they didn’t have it either. Finally I went to a Barns and Noble Bookstore and they had 1 copy. As soon as I got home I fired up my PS3, snapped on my new Pro Triggers, and started my favorite finger-slipping racing game Motorstorm.

Someone at Sony really should be fired or at the very least beat for making the triggers on the sixaxis controller so inward and slippery. The Pro Triggers get me one step closer to making the sixaxis controller feel less like two sticks duct taped together and more like a next generation console controller.  As soon as these triggers go on sale without needed to buy a $10 waste of tree I am all over it.

But seriously, I think everyone who has the slightest problem of their trigger/gas finger slipping off should invest in a pair of these.