Musings on the Train

It’s times like these when I find myself sitting on the train, with the best combination of technology I own for the purpose of writing in front of me, that my mind decides to remind me of all the things I should do now I have a week where I don’t need to go into work. The first is to try to restart the blog I was writing back in the halcyon days provided by my previous job. This new one requires more time, energy and concentration from me. Don’t get me wrong, it is a great job, where I am expected to perform well and do the best I can, my colleagues are amazingly supportive and some of the nicest people I have ever had the pleasure of working with, but it all leads to very little time away from it all. So let’s begin with a few recaps.

All the things in my bag

The MacBook Air is awesome

I realised as I sat down on the train that I would now be able to describe myself as ‘adequately catered for this journey’ in the technology department. I have a small bag with all the technology I could possible desire for a train journey of 4.5 hours. I have my MacBook Air which has been on and in use for 2 hours and 50 minutes, and still shows over 7 and a half hours of battery left even with Spotlight trying to read everything on my drives.

MBA battery after nearly 3 hours

This laptop takes battery life to a new level, and still doesn’t have the longevity of the 13” model. My iPod Video from 2007 is still working well and playing the music required to drown out the token screaming child that seems to always be accompanying me on any train or plane I find myself on. On the other hand, my Nexus 7 (2013) is sitting along with my Nook eReader in the bag still, no doubt feeling rather neglected. But all this just goes to show the amount of technology I have and how prepared for avoiding boredom I am. Perhaps it’s a little sad really, but after travelling up and down the country, and expecting to use all of these different devices during my trip anyway, they might as well all be ready to use! Plus I like to keep them all nearby during the journey, and not with my big bag out of my view down the aisle. That means my Nikon D3100 has joined the bag on the seat next to me for the journey too. What a technology geek I am.

My technology-filled Go Bag

On the Matter of Tablets

I wrote a series of posts a few months back detailing the differences between the Cr48 and the iPad 1,1 in several different criteria. Having waited for the 11” MacBook Air refresh and sold my Alienware M11X R3, I was finally able to buy one, and what a machine it is! Over the past few months, it has completely replaced the Chromebook, and was a major factor in deciding to sell the iPad. It has even replaced the iMac in a few cases where I am able to have a supremely fast machine in bed or the iMac’s bigger screen at my desk and will take the lazy option and use the MacBook Air in bed! The Chromebook has become the machine that I will take out only if I know a few people need a computer with internet, as its guest function is great, but otherwise it languishes in the drawer only taken out every few weeks to put a little charge into the battery and receive updates. It is the machine I would take on holiday with me if I expected to take serious numbers of photos or needed to use WIFI, but for everything else the MacBook Air rules the roost.

I mentioned the Nexus 7 above, that is my replacement for the iPad. After getting the iPhone 5 and then the MacBook Air, I realised two different things. Firstly, that the iPhone 5’s screen size is great for a pocketable phone, but not only does it have a small battery I need to prevent from getting too low in case of emergency, but it simply is not great for tasks like getting work done, reading long articles or watching videos on the go. In those cases I usually would differ to the iPad, but since I got the MBA, I found myself leaving the comparatively bulky iPad in favour of the more powerful and useful MacBook. I found that the only actual uses my iPad was fulfilling was as a media consumption device while I was in bed before I went to sleep. So this has led me to decide that a 9.7” iPad just isn’t necessary for me anymore, so I looked towards the smaller Nexus 7 and iPad mini. I decided on the Nexus for its smaller size, lower price and better display than the iPad. I had also previously used, rooted and upgraded an old Galaxy S phone and was interested in running several of the apps available for Android and not available on a regular, un-jailbroken iPhone like console emulators and all kinds of ways to change the look and function of sections of the device.

The iPad mini looked better built and better served by some seriously high-quality apps, but for my use case, I didn’t want to risk the extra expenditure, especially as I wanted to buy the 32GB model to put lots of 720p and potentially 1080p video on it. So I bought the Nexus 7 2013 32GB model off eBay for £210 and I haven’t had any major issues with it yet! There are a few gripes as with most purchases, but on the whole I am very happy with it, and it does almost everything better than the iPad it replaces, and financially considering the amount of money I got for the iPad, I think it was a bargain!

On the matter of a new desktop computer

My iMac 21.5” is great, but having bought the new MacBook Air with its Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 I/O, its PCIe SSD, things like file transfers, read and write times the boot-time, app opening, file-reading appear so very slow on it. Another problem is the greedy technologist in me also wants a larger screened desktop computer in my bedroom since it doubles as my television. So now comes the decision-making process of what I do to solve the different problems here.

Questions: Do I bring the Xbox into my room as well and use the screen to double as that? Probably not a good idea as I’d never leave! 

Prerequisites: I do want my desktop machine to be a Macintosh. It must have USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt to have some future-proofing, it must have a larger display, or I’ll have to buy a separate one.

I’d prefer it not to use the MacBook Air to double as my desktop machine as sitting a laptop as a desktop is probably a surefire way to burn through its battery’s health, plus I’d rather not have to get everything out of my bag when I get home and plug all the cables in again and then put it all away again for the morning. And the method to save that happening: a Thunderbolt display seems incredibly PRICY! Nor  do I really want to be restricted to the desktop during the evening while tasks like video transcoding, CD ripping is taking place. Perhaps a Mac mini with a display or a 27” iMac? Perhaps an old Mac Pro with a third party display, even if it is a beast of a machine on a desk? That would keep the tinkerer/ upgrader in me happy. Hmm, plenty of questions. I guess I’d better do some research!

And the train pulls into the station after a 4.5 hour journey and my MacBook Air says it has 9 hours and 44 minutes of power left. I love this machine and Mavericks!

MBA battery after 4.5 hours of continual use

Lubuntu 12.04 on the M11X R3

Since I had a bit of time after my final degree hand-in, I am finally able to get a few different hobbies back on the go. Since I was able to uninstall all the software I needed for my project, I had a clean slate to test the Operating Systems on my laptop that I have had on the back burner for a while. The first is Lubuntu 12.04.

Introduction

Since I used Lubuntu to bring my 12 year old Vaio Z600 back to life last year, that laptop has only seriously been used once. That was the week I locked myself out of my flat. Using that machine really tested the lower bounds of the OS's compatibility. With so little processing power and an anaemic amount of RAM, the laptop performed surprisingly well. I wanted to see what Lubuntu could do on my M11X R3, a completely different beast. So over the period of a week I wanted to see whether it could be used as direct replacement for the Windows 8 Release Preview install I had just deleted.

Caveats

Windows Phone

There are several things I knew would not work before I had even started. The first is the syncing software for my Windows Phone, based are Microsoft's Zune music player. Unless I was to set up a virtual machine running Windows simply to run Zune, I have been unable to find any software that would be able to replace it. While there is software that I could use with my iMac instead, it is not as full-featured.

For this week I have simply deleted the software and will use the phone as-is, hardly a hardship. However I would not be able to receive any OS-updates without connecting to the software, so using Linux would not be a viable option with my choice of phone.

iMac

As mentioned above, I have an iMac which I use as my desktop computer, TV and general syncing machine for most of my tech things. This means that the number of things I need my laptop to do is a lot smaller than if it were my only machine. This means that the pressures put on Lubuntu are going to be lower than many others may need. It is my portable work machine and goes with me when I need to work anywhere away from the flat. But it doesn't need to sync my iPad/iPod, backup any of my files or hold all of my music etc.

Installation and first boot

As with the vast majority of Linux installations with a computer able to boot from a USB flashdrive, this took 10 minutes. Using a 4GB drive and the software that is easily available from the Ubuntu website, I was able to create a bootable install drive of the Lubuntu .iso.  I then restarted the computer with the flashdrive in and pressing F12 at the right time, which allowed me to choose to boot from the Lubuntu install. It asked me to plug in an ethernet cable and it started the installation. I decided to do a simple wipe and install, but you can partition the hard drive if you want. The installation then required a few entries such language and name, and then took about 15 minutes more to complete the process. Very straightforward.

Wifi worked right out of the box, so I just typed in my network password and was able to unplug the ethernet cable and start installing the apps I need.

Lubuntu 12.04 Desktop

My Required Apps

This is my list of things that I always install when I use Linux:

Dropbox
This is possibly my favourite app/ service ever. It meant that after a quick install all of my important files and folders over. Macintosh, Windows, Linux, all works great. Very happy with it.

Text Editors

gedit 3.4.1

My choices are gedit and PyRoom. I love "gedit" for being able to have two .txt files open at once. This means I can read a message in one column and reply to it in the other. This is something that the bare-bones "Leafpad" isn't able to do. I know I don't use it to anywhere near its full extent, but it works for me and opens instantaneously, something a full-blown word processor is unlikely to do.

PyRoom 0.4.1

PyRoom is based on WriteRoom for the Mac. It is one of those "distraction-free" text editors which goes full-screen and gets rid of everything on-screen apart from your text. I use it every so often for when I'm typing something that doesn't need to refer to other sources all the time- it isn't as useful if have to jump in and out of the program. I love using it in a busy place at university to reduce the distraction on the screen, even if the world around is pretty busy!

Browser

Chromium, the open-source browser which Chrome is built upon is the browser Lubuntu is bundled with. It was too resource intensive for my Z600, but on this machine that is no problem at all. However, I found it had a problem displaying hyperlinks inline with text. I downloaded Chrome instead, and the problem isn't there, so it will do nicely for me. On top of that both of them allow for the Chrome sync, which allows for my bookmarks to sync over from Chrome on my other machines, which is very useful!

Email client

Mozilla Thunderbird 15.0

Thunderbird. I have used this app instead of Outlook on Windows for many years. It is still just as good for Linux, and allows me to check my different email addresses all at once, and while I don't like it quite as much as Apple's Mail, nothing on Windows is better than that for me either. Even with the development slowdown at Mozilla, and the apparent exodus from client to web-based email, I still think it is a great app!

Word Processor

Here I would generally use Pages on the Mac or Word on Windows, although lately I have been using LibreOffice's Writer with them both as a basic level of compatibility between the two. While it will never be quite as good as Microsoft Office, it definitely does enough for me, and probably the vast majority of people.

Picture Editing

GIMP 2.6.12

The GIMP - Great app, and while it isn't Photoshop, it does everything I have so far needed to whilst playing with the bare minimum of graphics and photo editing. I continue to be very happy with this app.

The Good

It's all free!

This is something that Linus has that other desktop operating systems cannot compete on. I can download, install and use the operating system and all the apps and not worry about paying a thing.

Boots fast!

Compared to Windows 7, this machine boots fast. Even with my Windows 7 installation on a 7,200 rpm drive compared to Lubuntu being on a 5,400 one, it takes a little over half the time to boot into Lubuntu, about 30 seconds. However with the approach of Windows 8 and its rapid boot time, this may be less of a draw for people.

Massively compatible!

This OS works on my 2011 M11X, my 1999 VAIO and everything in between, including Intel and PowerPC Macs. This means I can install it on every machine I own and keep them up to date far beyond the original manufacturers leave them behind.

Installation and usage is a breeze!

With the Software Centers available on all distributions of Ubuntu, finding, installing and updating apps and the OS itself is easy. Perhaps even easier than OS X and Windows, as they stand at the moment.

Very customisable!

Everything that can be changed in terms of layout, colours, toolbars, docks etc can be. This makes it very easy to make the desktop look and behave as you want it to. This is something that neither of the two main Operating Systems will allow to the same extent.

The Bad

The laptop runs hot!

Even running Chrome, Thunderbird, Audacious and gedit, this machine is incredibly hot and the fan is going. This is something that would not happen under Windows 7 or 8 and definitely restricts its use as a true "lap"-top! Not impressed so far.

Software Centre delays

The apps available in the software centre is a little out of date. For example, the LibreOffice version available at time of writing is 3.6.1, whereas on the software centre it is 3.5.4.2. This is a full 0.1 behind, which leaves it behind the version that can be downloaded from the web. This isn't a major problem, but it does mean the software centre is a number of weeks behind.

Random assumptions

I initially assumed that closing my laptop's lid would put the computer to sleep. I then found myself surprised to find the battery very low the next time I opened it. It also turns out that single clicking the power button of my laptop now turns it off, rather than hibernates the laptop. Again, it isn't a big problem now I know, but it was an inconvenience finding it out.

Conclusion

After a week of using Lubuntu with my M11X, I can say it is a great operating system that allows me to do almost everything I need to do with my laptop away from my desktop computer. It doesn't do anything better than my Windows 7 or 8 installs, however, it definitely gives a good option for when you don't want to pay for a Windows OS install or your computer is to old to run the more modern OS updates. For me, even the ability to those that require Windows are not such a big problem. But the way in which the computer continues to run hot under very little load, really stops me continuing to use Lubuntu on this machine as its daily driver, especially on the sofa or in bed!

On the Use of Old Technology

This is my fourth day without access to my flat, and therefore the fourth day without access to my work on my machines. This has led me to several different realisations about the technology I use:

Dropbox is awesome

While I always knew Dropbox was good, it has really come into its own since I've been here! I was able to dig up my 1999 Vaio laptop from my dad's loft and get it to sync all my files and folders to its home directory as if they were its own. This means that I have all the work I had done before I left, exactly where I expect it to be. Plus, as I edit them and save them, I know they will continue to be updated in the "Cloud" ie Dropbox's servers, and on my machines back at home. A wonderful piece of technology!

No hardware is too old to be useful

The '99 vintage Vaio Z600 I'm typing this on has an old Pentium III processor running at a rather sedentary 650Mhz and 256MB of RAM. Its trackpad and mouse buttons don't work, and its battery lasts a matter of minutes. However, with a few trips up to the loft for more accessories, a bit of Google-Fu, as well as several hours of updating the Lubuntu OS, the apps and my own Dropbox stuff, it is now up and running fine! I'll have to write something on that, maybe others with 'ancient' machines could find something interesting in it, or could suggest something better!

I miss my iMac and its screen

Working with the Vaio and its 12" 1280 x 768 screen really shows the increased productivity that you can have with a larger monitor and the iMac I have at home has a 21.5" screen which gives me plenty of room to work with! The iMac is also much more powerful and I can have many different applications running at once, whereas I am currently running a text editor and a web browser, with any extra programs really slowing the machine down! Everything takes just a little bit longer, which throughout the day takes up a surprising amount of time!

Ah well, fingers crossed I can get back into my flat on Tuesday, and leave this hardware in my dad's loft for another occassion where I am without my keys or any computers!

David x