On The Road with Vicky Lamburn

I haven’t been using my blog much over the ast few months. I have generally been very busy with life in general. Not least of course with work which has been a great player in my life this year. Not in a negative overtaking way but apart from my photography and walking, it has been my main creative output. So, trying to get things back on an even base before I leave once again for a weeks (for Christmas and New Year) it’s about time I updated this blog on my exploits with OpenSUSE 11.0.

OpenSUSE 11.0 Desktop with Firefox 3 and LyX

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Although this is not currently released until September 2008, I have been working with the latest working version of the upcoming OpenOffice.org 3.0 release.

So far my work has been squarely in Writer (the word processing component) which I have grown to really like over the past year. While some of its interface is a little sprawling in places, it can’t be accused of lacking features. I also happen to think that it works a lot better than Word. Two areas where Word always manages to drive me up the wall is complicated numbered lists and documents of any length with sections. It can get messy and frustrating when the section break doesn’t do as intended and often enough these problems are fixed by diving into Normal mode.

However Writer in its 3.0 iteration is looking very good. It has much improved note/reviewing features, a nice tidy zoom control in the lower right (clearly from MS Office 2007) and also supports multiple pages in the view when editing which I have never found a need for but that might be more in part due to me not owning a widescreen monitor or laptop. I could see some merit in two pages per view on a 1680 by 1050 widescreen display. However, on a 4:3 aspect screen at resolutions of 1280 by 960 or lower, it’s too small to look at comfortably.

The icons have also been a given a subtle touch up and they look nice.

I think OpenOffice.org has a bit of a dilemma here. It’s clearly become a very powerful alternative to Microsoft Office and I do genuinely feel that for the majority of uses in the enterprise or corporate environment would be served by OpenOffice.org very well; especially as its interface is much closer to pre-Office 2007 Microsoft Office products than 2007 is. The only exceptions are people with legacy Microsoft Access databases (which do get around a fair bit still), Powerpoint 2007 and very complicated and deeply workflow entrenched Excel spreadsheets.

The Access databases speak for themselves as they are often entwined in Visual Basic for Applications code and use a bunch of forms that are in the database itself. These don’t lend themselves for OpenOffice.org Base usage, but it’s not impossible for this situation to change if Microsoft does indeed drop VBA with the next release of Office for Windows, over time a replacement will need to be found. Invariably these databases tend to be small affairs on a desktop as most databases that are critical to an organisation’s functioning should now at least be on a dedicated database engine such as SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL etc. which is far in advanced of the scalability and reliability of Jet.

The second is Powerpoint. Up until 2007, it was a decidedly tired looking affair with naff slide styles, terrible clipart and it was a feature of dread in any meeting when someone beamed up their Powerpoint slideshow which could have been just as easily created on Powerpoint 4.0 from 1993. At least 2007 improved this by getting cool slide styles, excellent drawing functionality and generally it is harder to make a bad looking presentation now than before, although the Comic Sans risk always lurks in every company… Impress however whilst alright, isn’t that impressive. Generally the slide effects are very Powerpoint 4 and whilst OpenOffice.org 2.4 addressed this to a degree, there is always a chance that even a decent 128MB dedicated video card will grind to a halt doing a simple slide in transition. This has always been a huge problem with me adopting Impress as it is inexcusable. Even my old 14MHz Amiga 1200 15 years ago with Scala MM200 could exact smoother transitions. Sort it out, please. On top of this, Impress has for as long as I recall, has come with the crappest presentation templates in the world. They suck, all two of them. Sure you can install more and then have something great looking. However most users do not do this. After all, why have Powerpoint presentations looked the same since the dawn of time even when Microsoft offered templates to download. Please for the love of god sort this out for 3.0.

One good thing however that I hope is replicated into Writer and Calc is the table styles which give a nice professional look that Office 2007 offers to tables.

Finally Excel isn’t something I know a lot about but it’s clear that some organisations have Excel spreadsheets deeply embedded in the workflows they work with and a simple straight swap may not be just that. However for the majority of statistical analysis and chart functionality, Calc is great.

Essentially I am impressed with the quality of the current OpenOffice.org 3.0 beta and more is to come such as improved Office 2007 (OXML — formerly OOXML) import/export and other bits I am sure I have missed. However, it does strike me that many more companies shell out for Office licenses when probably 70-80% of their workforce doesn’t need all the functionality Office 2007 provides.

It’s even more mind boggling that a seven year old child would need Microsoft Word? Even Wordpad surely suffices for what they want most of the time. After all, us lot from the early 90s didn’t have this at all until 1993 when the Acorn Archimedes computers most schools had (a legacy of the BBC Micro programme) started getting a word processor called PenDown. It didn’t do masses but it was good enough. I do really think that so much money could be saved in education with suites like OpenOffice.org. Government is another good example.

This of course doesn’t detract from the fact that on the whole the MS Office ecosystem is great and has done a lot for the office but I am struggling to think why most people need Word when really they are using it as a glorified Wordpad application with most documents I see, no usage of styles or anything.

So what does OpenOffice.org 3.0 really need in my book to really sharpen its game?

• Some decent default slide templates for Impress. The current ones are bloody awful. Sorry guys.
• Tighten the interface up, try to introduce a bit more space in things, let the dialogs/windows breathe a bit more. There’s a lot of functionality, so don’t let that get hidden. I’m not suggesting a ribbon interface.
• Enhance Writer’s default styles to have nice suave styles like Word 2007 has with its nice colour schemes too

Perhaps also a leaf out of Firefox 3’s book is needed, skin the application to look more comfortable on the target systems. E.g. Luna style for XP, Aero Glass style for Vista, Aqua/Leopard style for OS X, GTK/QT look for Linux distributions. Sadly we live in a world where most people look at appearances first and that will often win them over rather than whether something is actually better. I’m currently using Live Writer (a Microsoft product) which looks great. Invest some time on aesthetics please.

Otherwise though, this is shaping up to be a good release. Let’s hope it becomes a fantastic release.

Up until recently the thought of running my own network seemed to be an exercise in frivolity, needlessness and just wasn’t worth it. After all why does one person need to operate a network? I’m a geek through and through (but a cool one I think hehe!) and this means that I have four computers. The ThinkPad which I am using now is my notebook computer, the Dell GX240 desktop is my main computer for doing just about anything — testing new software, programming, designing, scanning slides/negatives, browsing the web etc., the eMac is my main media computer which also doubles up as a television (with a USB tuner) and DVD recorder and secondary computer, and finally the iMac G3 in my bedroom is for when I want to kick back on my bean bag, and write sipping Costa Rican coffee in the light of a banker’s lamp! They all have a purpose you see.

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I have nothing but praise for Virgin Mobile. Certainly the best carrier I have been on as they are backed by T-Mobile’s rather good network. (Can’t remember when I was last without signal and I tend to go to remote places.) Anyway remember my post about Virgin Mobile’s recent offer if you take out an 18 month contract at £25 or more a month (new or existing customers) you could choose from an iPod nano, PSP Slim or £100 credit? Well they’ve turned up the goods before Christmas.

Even better is that they rang me on Wednesday to say that it was going to be dispatched and confirm it was the iPod I had chosen. Excellent service.

So yesterday I went over to Newhaven to get it. On the way I understood why Yahoo’s Weather had been telling me on Worthing.gov.uk that the weather was FOG. It seems the whole of Shoreham, much of Brighton & Hove and East Sussex beyond that was covered in some of the worst freezing fog we’ve had in a long time. Couldn’t see bloody 3ft in front of me in the car. Anyway got back safely and have unwrapped it. The packaging is a lot smaller than when I used to work selling Apple gear and iPods in ‘05. I remember iPods coming in big cube shaped boxes (mostly because Apple actually included the accessories you need.. another story) and I was there for the iPod nano’s first generation’s launch and those boxes were in themselves pretty tiny compared to the iPod 4g’s and Minis. Now it’s stupidly tiny!

Anyway I’m no fan on iTunes on Windows. The last time I used it was on Mac OS X 10.4.8 I would guess and iTunes 7 actually ran perfectly fine on a G4 1.4GHz but on Windows, I have yet to see a PC that bats it around like a little play thing. It’s a dog. Plus I don’t wish to be locked into DRM either. So iTunes is a no go.

Especially when my ThinkPad runs Ubuntu and to top it all; my Dell GX240 runs Windows 2000 now (another thing to write up) and the iPod Classic and Nano 3g require Windows XP SP2 or Vista.  Long and short of it is that to remain legal and to keep my Nikon Coolscan LS-30 working I have to stick with Windows 2000.

Easy ways to get iPod Nano 3g/Third Generation and Classics working without iTunes:

Windows:

• MediaMonkey 3 (Currently on RC-5) — very good. Works on Windows 98/ME/2000/XP and Vista. Much more lightweight but very full features. Supports iPod Nano 3g and Classic out of the box. Freeware with paid for version offering all features. Download Version 3 Release Candidate. (Version 2 does not support the new iPods)

Ubuntu / Debian Linux in general

THIS IS ONLY NEEDED FOR iPOD NANO 3rd GENERATION or iPOD CLASSIC MODELS (FALL 2007 MODELS)

1. Download from here: ftp://64.22.103.45/packages/ubuntu/gutsy/libgpod/ the following packages:

   libgpod-dev_0.5.3+actually0.6.0-0.1_i386.deb
   libgpod2_0.5.3+actually0.6.0-0.1_i386.deb

2. Install them in that order (double click their icons)
3. Plug in the new iPod with the supplied USB docking cable
4. Open up a shell/terminal
5. Enter the command df (press enter) and look for the line that has /media/IPOD/ at the end at the very start of the line should be something that reads /dev/sdb1 or similar. Make a note of this.
6. Enter as root user with: sudo bash and enter your password. (Ubuntu)
7. Run the following:

   /usr/bin/ipod-read-sysinfo-extended [/dev/xxxx] /media/IPOD

   Where [dev/xxxx] is the /dev path you made note of in step 5. E.g. my iPod registered on /dev/sdb1 so I would enter:

   /usr/bin/ipod-read-sysinfo-extended /dev/sdb1 /media/IPOD

8. Eject the iPod (right click on the iPod icon on the desktop and select Eject), close the terminal.
9. Plug in the iPod again, Rhythmbox should automatically run and now you should be able to manage your new iPod through Rhythmbox again.

Why and Final Words
You have to do this as Apple added a layer of encryption to lock you into using iTunes which I personally think is wrong. What is wrong Apple with me using a player that I like? Two faced-ness abounds from Apple on such matters considering their rhetoric on Microsoft and the Windows empire.

But the good thing is that both Windows and Linux users now have an alternative to iTunes and also for Linux a way of actually being able to use their new iPod.

Plus you don’t absolutely have to run Windows XP or Vista on the Windows side. I appreciate XP and Vista account for about ~85% of the Windows marketplace these days but Windows 2000 still takes a sizable 8% of that according to web statistics I collect, which is more than the Mac accounts for, so Windows 2000 isn’t too insignificant to ignore yet!

Ok here’s a screenshot everybody of my Ubuntu 7.10 desktop set to only use sub pixel smooth with no hinting in Firefox with the New York Times’ website open:

(Click on the thumbnail to enlarge)

Yes, Linux font rendering does look good, n’est pas?

I’m a big fan of Adobe’s products; I have been using at least one of them for over twelve years (Photoshop 3.0) and also I soon picked up Illustrator and latterly InDesign. I like them a lot and have grown fond of them over the years even when they have been downright infuriating. However any switch to Linux necessitates leaving the Adobe ‘Creative Suite’ as they now call it behind unless you fiddle with WINE. (Which is not difficult, particularly with Crossover’s package.)

However that is not the cleanest of routes and you are better off looking for free software alternatives. Now; do you think you can get print press quality desktop publishing, high quality vector drawing and photo/graphic editing software for Linux?

Here’s some of my experiences summarised for the creative types who are interested in Linux. Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, first of all it’s not here because the actual code is spare three lines identical to 0.1. The big difference is that the Fn+F7 part is now controlled thankfully via ACPI. ACPI in this case is the ‘thing’ that triggers hotkey events such as Fn+F7. This means the script is called in a much neater way in the system.

I’m sure many Linux gurus will be like, “Yeah so what–we knew this anyway.” Well I’ve found it now, how to call the script on an ACPI event. So this will make whatever work I do from here a lot cleaner.

I’ll post it soon.

Also I have a stack of emails to reply to, and comments here too. I’ll do my best to answer ASAP; as it’s fair and this blog has had quiet days and I’m really appreciative of all the wonderful feedback and so forth Lil old me eh, who’d have thought it; using Linux for a mere three months and already hacking around getting some stuff working fairly simply. That’s what I love about Linux in 2007; it mostly on supported hardware works great and allows you to work, but if something doesn’t work, it’s almost like you’ve got the right to rewrite the bits that are broken, with a closed source OS you’d be dependent on the vendor for that!

I hope one day I’ll get back to LyX and writing Memoirs of a Time… After all that is my real passion.

Whew what a productive day.

I’ve written a script to easily switch between LCD, VGA, LCD+VGA Mirror, LCD+VGA Extended Desktop (Dual Screen) on a ThinkPad and other Radeon based laptops; for all systems using Xrandr 1.2 and Xorg 7.3; such as Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon.

It works well and can be bound to the Fn + F7 key combination. It’s not perfect, it’s basic but it does what I need it to do, does it well and it’s minimal. I will develop it further in time with a GUI and complete reconfigurability.

At its simplest, this is the easiest way to make the most of your external VGA screen, easiest way to mirror and the easiest way to to create dual screen setups on a ThinkPad on Ubuntu and Linux. Probably. Well once it’s installed it just sits there and works Read on to find out more…

The inevitable bug reports as comments on this post would be good. As would your feedback. Please be nice

Download: OutputSwitcher.zip

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It’s often cited that Linux just looks bad put simply. A lack of ‘professional artists’ some might say even, but that’s a ludicrous statement. What Linux does well is promote absolute configurability with the user interface and the whole system. Counter this with Mac OS X’s default “Blue” and “Grey” theme, and Windows XP’s Blue, Silver and Green (Vista has a couple more options but they all look like ‘Aero’) and you can see that by default the interface on Windows looks much the same from system to system. In fact the basic window widgets of Windows haven’t changed since Windows 95 (Close is still an ‘X’ etc.)

In fact Mac OS X has elements from 1984 in it–the Apple menu for one and the window resize remains in the bottom right hand corner; as does the system menu bar at the top of the screen.

Linux however can with KDE and Gnome (and others) be configured so differently that what one person sees as Ubuntu can end up looking not too dissimilar to OpenSUSE, or Fedora, or not even Linux at all (which apart from the Jaguar-esque tabs is very close.)

The point is Linux can look pretty darn beautiful but the problem is that out of the box it’s very easy for someone with no sense of aesthetics to come in and change it all and whilst they think it looks good (they’ll change it again in a few days when they get bored) it often looks like a dog’s dinner. Mac OS X and Windows are good at being firm on the user’s shoulder saying, “We’ve given you a couple of colour variations but you can’t easily change this to something totally different.” Microsoft reputedly disabled skinning in Windows XP for this very reason as users may have ended up creating a Windows system that was inconsistent(…) and also couldn’t guarantee their apps on a third party skin that might be incomplete.

Linux has its inconsistent interfaces but on the whole most of them are up to scratch now. Again it’s a bit of a pain that there is more than one gadget (there’s an Amiga term if there was one) toolkit like GTK, QT etc. but overall the system looks more consistent than it ever has done. Windows has its fair share of inconsistencies too, the much vaunted ‘Add Fonts’ dialog in the Fonts directory that has survived since Windows 3.0 (1990), Windows 2000-eque 16 colour icons here and there and Win16 (WoW)/DOS windows uisng an old skin… Mac OS X with its Aqua, Staintless Steel and Plastic interface types (being refined in Leopard.)

Linux (or rather Gnome and KDE mainly, as Linux isn’t the desktop itself but for simplicity’s sake) isn’t therefore the only inconsistent user interface experience. The reason it can look so rubbish is the same reason most people’s Word documents look awful because they have found they have 50 fonts and 16.7 million colours to choose from and they want to use them all at once.

Some distributions look ‘just OK’ out of the box, Ubuntu and Fedora are in that for me. Some look drop dead neat like OpenSUSE 10.3 and Mandriva which just look great, particularly OpenSUSE’s green which is just fab. Some look corporate and steady like Slackware and so forth.

The point is Linux doesn’t look amateur because it’s Linux, but because the configurability of Linux allows for people without the sense of human interface design considerations and basic aesthetics to slap down a nasty theme with ease; where as Windows and Mac OS X need skinning engines, or system file adjustments.

Here’s my Ubuntu desktop (Gnome) with a nice background and a simple Window Border (Splint), Clearlooks Classic Controls and a green lead background – blues and greens are complimentary hues. No Compiz in action but I don’t need it and it’ll only slow down my Radeon 7500 (but it does work.)

My Ubuntu 7.10 Desktop with Tracker Instant Search

So food for thought, should some distributions limit the skinning capability to improve consistency, usability and the general professional image of the distribution for it to be perhaps accepted for a widespread corporate roll out?

I’m all for configurability; but you won’t catch me using a black user interface because it’s too much with my Thinkpad being black but I also find it straining on my eyes.

Let me sum it up in about three words:

It just works.

Let me kid you not this is huge news. The only downside is that the GUI is not there yet but any one with a basic idea about the terminal and the command line can see this working now in its full glory; in my case I’ve tested it with Ubuntu 7.10 Gusty Gibbon (release candidate.)

Easy Radeon TV Out and Linux

Ok, I’m not sure how well this works on other Radeon GPUs but on my T40 which has a basic Mobility Radeon 7500. A popular chip that has been in many machines from Apple, Dell, other IBMs and many more. But hasn’t it been a complete stupdity basically; no ill meaning meant for those who have made solutions and worked on previous code. Here’s what you need on the command line to enable S-video output:

xrandr --addmode S-video 800x600
xrandr --output S-video --mode 800x600

That’s it. It works.

Only downside is PAL does not seem to work at present (scrambled display) but NTSC works fine. Only downside is many CRT PAL TVs will show NTSC in black and white. However some PAL TVs can cope with 60Hz NTSC signals fine. It works great here!

VGA Output

Ok I have a VGA output on my T40 but it could easily be a DVI output if need be. To mirror generally all you need to do is plug in the display and it works. To see what xrandr has detected as such; type in xrandr at the prompt and ‘magically’ it’s found the resolutions it believes the screen can display though sometimes these can be lies. But mostly it’s correct.

So if I had a 1024×768 main display and wanted to mirror at that resolution, I’d enter:

xrandr --output VGA-0 --mode 1024x768

That’s it.

Turn off Display

Say I wanted to turn off my laptop display:

xrandr --output LVDS --off

Or if I wanted to turn off the DVI output:

xrandr --output DVI-0 --off

Extend Desktop over two displays

(Say my laptop display is 1024×768 and my external display to the right is 1600×1200.)

This requires in my case one tweak to the xorg.conf file on a Radeon 7500 using the ‘radeon’ driver. In the Screen section by default you should see something like:

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "ATI Technologies Inc Radeon..."
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Modes "1024x768"
Virtual 2624 1200
EndSubSection
EndSection

The addition is the Virtual line where the size is the maximum width of the displays added together by the height of the biggest resolution height. So in this case the width is 1024+1600 = 2624. Between my laptop and external screen, the latter has the highest vertical resolution so that’s 1200 (instead of 768.)As another example I have a 1400×1050 laptop screen and a 1440×900 external screen so:

• Width: 1400 + 1440 = 2840
• Height: (1050 is larger than 900 so…) = 1050
• So the line to insert is: Virtual 2840×1050

After sorting out the xorg.conf file from the command line after restarting the X Server (Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, Log Out or Reboot) enter:

xrandr --output VGA-0 --right-of LVDS
xrandr --output VGA-0 --mode 1600x1200

That’s it. Not quite as straight forward but still bloody simple. All we need now is a robust GUI and we’re laughing!

Conclusion

This is such a big improvement it’s not funny. This almost brings Linux up to speed with Windows and Mac OS X with regards to screen management. All it needs is a decent robust GUI and I may step up to this challenge…

I believe the radeon, nv and intel drivers support xrandr 1.2. Please let me know if others do. Certainly the radeon driver does.