OLPC: Now a Dissapointment

When I heard about the One Laptop Per Child Project (OLPC), I said to myself that it could be what the poor countries needed to curb the ever heightening divide between the computer “haves” and “have-nots”. Think: it is a way for children of poor countries will be given an opportunity to have a low-cost laptop, giving them a tool that could help them in their education. But I guess the excitement about the OLPC will be shortlived due to recent developments. It came to my attention that the OLPC laptop will now cost $175 from the original annouced cost of $100 per unit. Also, the laptop is also poised to run the $3 Windows software suite (which I affectionately called the $3 Microsoft Rip-off), not just Linux. One that strikes me with the recent changes to the OLPC Laptop is the commitment to also make it run Windows. I have real doubts about it. Windows is categorically bloated software. Since the OLPC Laptop is a wind-up computer, can you imagine how many times it needs to be wound-up to get Windows running, heck, Windows isn’t resource efficient, unlike Linux. The other thing would be the price. It would be a better proposition to give, hmmm, maybe a “hand-me-down” laptop loaded with a lightweight Linux distribution donated by a non-profit organization. That could certainly work, since there are such organizations that are willing to give such machines.

I’m very sad to hear the latest OLPC news. It’s like an added teeth to the stronghold of the Evil Company from Redmond, securing well to the future of poor countries

GParted – Clonezilla Live CD

When one needs to do various activities regarding partitions and hard disk cloning, the usual response is to use an expensive proprietary solution like Symantec’s Norton PartitionMagic and Ghost (or may a bootleg copy of those). Well, you don’t need to blow the bank on those close source solutions (neither go to your friendly neighborhood software pirate for bootlegs). All you need is the GParted – CloneZilla Live CD. This Live CD is so wonderful. It packs a two punch combo. It has GParted: a visual partition editor; and CloneZilla, an open source utility for hard disk cloning.

I used GParted to copy my Linux partitions from my first drive to the second drive. Man, it was so easy! Gparted controls were very intuitive. All changes are not instantaneous. They can undo changes or add some more. The real changes will happen if you choose to commit for the changes. My partition copying rountines took about 30-45 minutes. It sure beats the hassle of reinstalling my Zenwalk system from scratch. Now, I was not able to use CloneZilla for the need did not arise. But I guest the inclusion of CloneZilla to the package was a value to in itself. And one to appreciate the caliber of the tools in this Live CD. Added to that, all of these for absolutely no charge. Yeah!

The Gparted – CloneZilla Live CD has a special place in very computer toolbox. Try it, it won’t even hurt your pocket that much

The $3 Microsoft Rip-Off

Lately, Bill Gates, during his visit to China, introduced to the world the $3 Student Innovation Suite. It seems to be Micro$oft’s answer to the Digital Divide in the Third World. But we all know that when Micro$oft make such announcements, there’s always a catch. Such an offering from Evil Company from Redmond is a Trojan Horse. It may sound like a helping hand but really its is a direct attack on Free/Open Source Software. By offering dirty cheap Micro$oft software now, Bill Gates and Co. is securing their monopolistic hold on the future by nurturing would-be customers, the Micro$oft way. How sleazy, isn’t it? It is also idiotic. M$ should have spend their time and energy on improving software and changing their software development model than doing “survival marketing” like this.

To the FOSS Community: Let this tactic from Micro$oft be the catalyst for a more vigilant push on educating and informing people about Free/Open Source Software. The seeds of information we plant today will hopefully blossom and spread to a greater audience, so people will know that there is a technological life beyond Micro$oft. The Future Belongs to Freedom.

Arrr! Crack for Window$ Vi$ta

Well blow me down?! This might put a smirk t’ all Window$ lubbers out thar. T’ be now a crack for Window$ Vi$ta. Arrr! but why go for a crackin’? Better o’ with me buxom beauty Linux. Arrr! Window$ lubbers…. Avast!!!

2007 Summer of Code Projects Known

I found the story here. Search giant Google yearly holds an event called The Summer of Code. It’s Google’s way of supporting the Free/Open Source community by lending a hand, of sorts, to various FOSS projects. This year’s SoC boost of 900 approved projects.  It’s  one of the reasons one should love Google, because they are really giving back something to the FOSS Community. Congrats to the ones that made it to the SoC!

The Inquirer: Linux Install So Easy!

What to know how easy a Linux install can get? Well, here is an article from the The Inquirer telling how easy it is To tell you frankly, a Linux install these days is much more easier than a Window$ (yuck!) install

Debian 4.0 (Etch) Released!

Well, finally! The long-awaited release of the popular GNU/Linux distribution is now here! I congratulate the Debian Project for their latest milestone Even if I’m not a Debian user, the project are still a very respectable part of the Linux community. Again, congratulations to Debian!

Gaim becomes Pidgin

I got this from Digg. Gaim is now Pidgin. The name change is brought about by legal issues (trademark law). The legal story behind the name change is in their website. Frankly, What’s wrong with Gaim? It seems that AOL is just picking on the little guy. I hate those kind of companies… And also the legal BS…

When Tech Support Goes Bad

What’s your take on tech support? I personally don’t like tech support. I can pretty much manage my computer problems on my own (and also there’s Google). But here’s added fuel for the fire: I have a cousin who I helped with her computer problem (details is on this previous entry). One of her problem was she can’t access the Internet for couple of days (she’s on the Smart Bro WiMax service). Some folks from Smart Bro came to her, one of them told her that the problem is the hard drive. I don’t know if this technician from Smart Bro is dumb or just plain opportunistic, but I came to resolve the problem: it was just an unseated LAN card! I have heard of how bad tech support from Smart Bro is, but I guess this proves it, big time. Smart should not be hiring idiots or hooligans in their tech support ranks. Stupid Smart!…

Zenwalk on a NEC Mate

While we were working on my cousin’s PC, I noticed a slim-type PC laying around. I asked what’s the story with that PC. I turns out that she does not use it anymore. I asked if I can take it home and play around with it, she agreed. After we fixed her PC (details is on the previous entry), I brought the other PC home. After some research, I found out that it was an NEC Mate (Model PC-MA10TTZZMEB9). It has the following specs:

• Intel Pentium III 1 Ghz processor

• 512 MB PC100 RAM

• 40 GB Seagate Hard Drive

• NEC Slim Type CD-ROM (like those on laptops)

• 1 3.5” Floppy disk drive

• 3 USB 1.1 ports (1 at the front, 2 at the back)

• 2 PS/2 ports

• 2 PCMCIA slots

• Integrated LAN interface

• Integrated Sound

• Integrated Video

• 50 W Power Supply

Hmmm, it seems still to be a very usable rig we got here. Will it run Linux? That I want to find out.

Initial Attempt

There was still a Windows install on the HD. I tried to boot to it, but it gives me a BSOD (blue screen of death), very much a characteristic of Window$, if you ask me… I tried to boot Knoppix or Ubuntu on the NEC PC so I can remove the NTFS partition and make the needed Linux partitions, but to no avail. I found out that the CD-ROM drive is picky. The only CDs that got recognized were Slax and the Zenwalk 4.4.1 Install CD. I tried to install Zenwalk, but when the installer got to the autopartition part, the procedure hanged. I guess another way of reformatting the hard drive was in order…

Hard Drive Reformat Blues

To make the necessary Linux partitions, I needed to remove the hard drive for the NEC PC, mount it on my PC, boot from the Ubuntu 6.10 CD to use Gparted (Gnome equivalent of QTParted), delete the whacked partitions from the failed Zenwalk installation, create the new partitions, put in the NEC PC hard drive back to the NEC PC and do a other Zenwalk install (and hope for the best). The hardest part was getting the HD off the NEC PC. It’s kind of an obstacle by itself(along with some hurting hands). I quite had a time figuring out the assembly of the innards. With some patience, I finally taken out the hard drive from the NEC PC. I mounted it on my PC case, fired up Ubuntu 6.10 LiveCD/Install CD, launched Gparted, removed the old partitions and created the new root, home and swap partitions.

Second Attempt

I reinstalled the newly reformatted HD to the NEC Mate and tried again a Zenwalk installation. Lucky, the installation pulled through. I now have Zenwalk on an old NEC Mate PC. And man, it has screaming performance!

What’s Next?

Well, I’m torn. I thinking of getting a KVM switch so I can use my PC andthe NEC Mate with one monitor, keyboard and mouse OR just yank of the hard drive from the NEC Mate and use it on my PC. Don’t you hate choices sometimes?…