Installing Ubuntu Linux
I have an old laptop which I rarely use. It had Windows 2000 installed on it. I decided to install a Linux operating system as an experiment.
I downloaded
Ubuntu Linux 8.04. The download is an ISO image. To convert this to a readable CD I used
BurnCDCC. This program is very simple to use as it is designed just for burning ISO files to CD.
With the bootable CD it is possible to run Ubuntu Linux live of the CD without installing it. The install was very simple. I just started up the computer with the Ubuntu Linux CD in the drive and then I was guided through the install. There are options for a dual boot system and partitioning the hard drive. I just kept it simple though.
Once the install was complete I restarted the computer and everything worked fine. I haven't spent a lot of time playing around with it, but the interface is very simple to use and all the software you need is included. This includes the OpenOffice.org package and programs for playing music and video files.
Interestingly the Windows 2000 system had a problem with the driver for the sound card and I was never able to get the sound to work. However, after the Ubuntu Linux system was installed then the sound worked fine.
The laptop still runs very slowly. I am not sure of its exact specifications, but I suspect it is because it only has 256MB of RAM. Otherwise it seems fine though. The system seemed very stable and I have not detected any problems.
I am not going to switch my main PC (which currently has Windows XP) to Linux just yet, but I will certainly think about doing it some time in the future.
Labels: tech
My first video production
I rarely use the video function on either of my digital cameras. However, when I went to the
temple festival in Xinzhuang on Saturday I determined to capture some of the events on video. There is so much action at these events that it is impossible to convey the entire experience with photos. The beating of the drums, blowing of horns and explosions of fireworks all contribute to the atmosphere.
I took a little over four minutes of footage in four separate takes using my Nikon Coolpix 5200. None of the videos on their own were really very interesting and all included some messy bits. I decided to try and edit some of the better footage to make a short video.
I had never done this before, but it wasn't so hard. I have Windows Movie Maker which is included with Windows XP, but before I could start editing I had to convert the .mov files to .avi. I did this by downloading a free program called RAD Video Tools. The conversion was fairly simple although the .avi files had an extremely large file size which made the editing a little cumbersome.
In Windows Movie Maker I simple chose the better segments of video and put them in sequence. The software was user friendly and intuitive. I added a title to the front and credits at the end. It was a lot more straight forward than I thought. I could have spent some more time making it look more professional, but I was already pleased with the results. The movie was 1:47 and the .wmv file was a manageable 10.8 MB.
You can download it
here (10.8 MB file) or watch it at
Youtube or
Google Video.
Technorati tags: video |
TaiwanLabels: tech
Upgraded to Firefox 2.0
I upgraded to Firefox 2.0 today. The install was very easy. There were a few plug-ins that I was using in Firefox 1.5 that were incompatible version 2.0 and these were automatically updated the first time I opened 2.0.
One of the most noticeable new features is the spell checker. It just underlines words that aren't in the dictionary in red. A right click on the word suggests alternative spellings or allows you to add it to the dictionary. It is fairly unobtrusive, but works well. The other feature that is much needed is opening new pages in a new tab rather than a new window. That saves the hassle of right clicking on a link when you don't want it to open in a new window.
I also installed Internet Explorer 7 a few days ago. I don't use it much but it does seem to work much better than the dinosaur-like IE 6.
I still think Opera is probably better than both of them, but I switched from Opera to Firefox about six months ago. One of the main reasons was because Firefox had better support for blogger. I no longer use blogger for my main blog, but I have never felt the need to switch back to Opera. Opera 9.0 supports widgets, which are like the plug-ins in Firefox.
Technorati tags: Firefox |
internetLabels: tech
Watching DVD movies on a PC
After I bought my computer I thought I would be able to watch DVD movies without any problems. I put a movie in the DVD drive and selected "play with Windows Media Player", but then found I lacked some of the necessary software.
I was lead to
this page and
this page on Microsoft's website. It seemed like I would have to pay US$15 or thereabouts to download a DVD decoder plug-in for Windows Media Player.
A little more searching via Google lead me to discover the
VideoLan site where I was able to download the VLC media player for free. After installing the program I put a DVD movie in the DVD drive and I was able to watch it without any hassles.
It really is amazing that there is so much free software out there that is often just as good as the stuff you pay big dollars for. With the exception of Windows XP, all the software installed on my computer was free. And it is totally legal!!!!
A few of the excellent programs I can recommend are
Irfanview for editing photos and
OpenOffice.org for word processing. Mozilla's
Firefox internet browser shows up Microsoft's Internet Explorer as a hopelessly inferior product.
Labels: tech
Skype me!
I bought a new computer a few days ago. My apartment has an ADSL line, but not a phone line, so I thought I would try
Skype as an alternative way of making phone calls.
I downloaded Skype and paid for 10 Euros of credit with my Visa card. I bought a USB phone and then I could dial away. I was surprised how simple the process was. I have already called my family in Australia. It will now be able to talk to them more regularly.
Labels: tech
