Skip to content

Category Archives: Commentary

Opinions

Ubuntu 8.04 SSH login slow

Sunday, July 19, 2009

SSH Login to my Ubuntu 8.04 machine was slow. (It would delay about 5 seconds after I issued the ssh command for the remote machine to request a password.) I believe this is because the remote machine is on my home network, and I have set up it’s hostname using host entries instead of [...]

Also filed in Linux | Tagged | Comments (0)

Compiz keybindings in Ubuntu 9.04

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Ubuntu 9.04 comes with some visual effects from Compiz turned on by default. This post contains a list of the key combo’s used to active some of them. Compiz also offers many other “cool” effects. If you install the compizconfig settings manager you can enable/disable all of the neat effects (most of which are [...]

Also filed in Linux | | Comments (0)

Encrypted home partition for Ubuntu 9.04

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Following the directions on Lars’ blog, I set up an encrypted home directory on Ubuntu 9.04 using LUKS.
The following commands were all executed with root permissions. Add “sudo” to the front of the commands if you are not running with root permissions.

Also filed in Linux, Projects, Useful Links | | Comments (0)

Setting Netflix / Silverlight bandwidth usage

Friday, July 10, 2009

The netflix watch on demand video player uses Microsoft Silverlight. Silverlight has an “adaptive playback” mode which attempts to choose one of multiple bandwidths for your video (and switch on the fly if your internet connection has more ore less bandwidth over time).
To see what it is currently using, press the Control, Alt, Shift and [...]

Also filed in Technology, Useful Links | Tagged | Comments (1)

Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Annoyances

Sunday, May 17, 2009

I upgraded to Ubuntu 9.04 from 8.10 over the weekend.
The good:
Faster boot up. (worth the upgrade all by itself)
New notification “bubbles” that appear and then disappear again without any fuss.
OpenOffice 3.0 and other software upgrades.
The Bad:
Required tweaks to my pam_mount.conf.xml file to get my encrypted home directory to work. (Not an issue [...]

Also filed in Linux | Tagged | Comments (1)

Ubuntu 8.10 bootup time compared with 9.04 and Windows Vista

Saturday, May 16, 2009

One of the claimed features that made me upgrade to Ubuntu 9.04 was the boot-up speed increases. Before the upgrade using Ubuntu 8.10 it took my computer 55 seconds to boot up to the login screen. Including a very fast (2 second) login, it took 1:25 until the desktop was “usable”. Starting Thunderbird and [...]

Also filed in Linux | | Comments (1)

DM-Crypt encrypted volume upgrade problems to Ubuntu 9.04

Saturday, May 16, 2009

I just used the distribution upgrade option to move from Ubuntu 8.10 to 9.04. My dm-crypt encrypted home directory initially refused to load, and I had to change my volume entry in the /etc/security/pam_mount.conf.xml to make it work again.
Specifically, a few of the defaults had changed, so now I had to specify the old (8.04) [...]

Also filed in Linux | | Comments (1)

Printer Ink, $9507 a gallon

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Just replaced an HP 74 black ink cartridge and purchased another backup cartridge for $13.11 (well below the standard price). Difference in weight between the full (28g) and empty cartridge (23g) is 5 grams. Assuming ink has the same density as water, that is $9507 a gallon. Assuming the 200 page per cartridge yield from [...]

Also filed in | | Comments (0)

Getting 20,000 skymiles

Thursday, March 12, 2009

The Delta Airlines Skymiles American Express card will offer 20 to 25 thousand bonus Skymiles (Frequent Flier Points) when you first sign up. However, once you have signed up for a card, collected the miles, and then canceled the card, they no longer give you bonus miles for signing up again.
However, Northwest (NWA) and Delta [...]

Also filed in | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Atlanta / Decatur Over the Air digital channels

Friday, February 6, 2009

2_1 – ABC
2_1 – RetroTV
5_1 – Fox
8_2 – GPB Kids
8_3 – GPB Know
11_1 – NBC
11_2 – NBC Plus (weather)
12_1 – GPB
17_1 – Peachtree TV
30_1 – PBS
34_2 – TeleFutura (Spanish)
36_1 – MyATL
43_1 – The CW
46_1 – CBS
48_0 – Univision (Spanish)
63_1 – TBN
63_2 – Church Channel
63_3 – JCTV
63_4 – Enalce
63_5 – Smile

Also filed in | Tagged , | Comments (0)