Joe Blog's A Day In The Life Of Your Average Joe

31Oct/080

Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Pt. 1

I'll be posting a couple more parts to this I'd imagine (that may turn into just 1 other part ;) don't hold me to a definite number).

So Ubuntu 8.10 was released to day - as always, downloads were slow, websites went down, torrents were seeded, the usual (yes the forums went down too - in fact they've just come back online :) ).

I've in the middle of installing Intrepid on my laptop as I write this, so far it looks nice, not to different visually from Hardy when you first boot the live CD, but there are some differences that I think are noticeable when you finally get around to using them.

Anyway, I've got stuff to be doing and /home directories to be restoring, so I'll post back in a few days when I've been running Intrepid properly!!

A few links you may find useful:

http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/8.10/
http://www.ubuntu.com/
http://ubuntuforums.org

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27Oct/087

I Gave Up

So I finally gave in and bought an iPhone! I know that means some of you are going to hate me now ;) nevermind I like it.

I found out after syncing my email with google that Ubuntu sees the iPhone as a camera, which I found interesting. It also means that I can charge my phone. When running Ubuntu, though for convenience I bought an iPhone dock :)

Also, I happen to be writing this from the WordPress for iPhone application, which is actually pretty good!

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21Oct/0815

Slicehost

Now, I'm sure a great many of you have at least looked into getting dedicated web hosting or VPS Servers at some point or another, I know I have! The real killer on it for me, was partly cost, and partly due to the fact that I would be limited as to what was on there, as I couldn't install anything on the server - no company would give you root access for obvious reasons.

Well I found out that's not quite true! Slicehost give you FULL root access. How or why may be what you're thinking...well it's because you actually have a virtual machine on one of their servers. What's even better is that they're not slow servers either!

I personally have a 256 Slice as I don't really need a massively powerful server. I'll let you read the other types of slices on their website, but the 256 Slice gives me:

  • 256MB RAM
  • 10GB Hard Drive Space
  • 100GB Bandwidth

I personally think it's a brilliant idea, and it costs me $20 per month (now as I'm in the UK that works out to about £11.50). Some people may have noticed that I'm on IRC 24/7 now too...screen and irssi work great for that ;) I should also point out that all the servers you can install are Linux servers, they offer plenty (I noticed Gentoo 2007.0 got updated to 2008.0 recently) - mine runs...Ubuntu of course :D

From my (albeit brief) experience, I'd highly recommend Slicehost to anybody looking for hosting of any sort next time you're in the market for it.

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15Oct/0816

ISP’s Require MS/Apple…Apparently

So I called my ISP last night. My broadband connection is running at 1.2MBps down 66kbps up – This is, quite frankly, appalling – When I moved into this house in July, we were receiving 8MBps but now we’re on such a measly connection (6 people live here, and use the internet, 4 Machines accessing the net at any given time).

I called up – after holding for 15 minutes (no joke) I finally got to talk to somebody, who was more than likely reading straight from his script. Here’s a little example of what the conversation went like:

Tech Support Guy: Ok, so what operating system are you using on your computer? Windows or Mac OS?
Me: Errm…Linux actually
TSG:…………………
Me: Ok I’ve moved to a Windows Vista PC

That – in all seriousness – is just not acceptable! They provide an Internet connection, not a software package. Since when did I need Windows or Mac OS* to be able to browse the internet!???!?! I really think that ISP’s need to realise that the service they provide is platform independent, and stop asking customers to “Please click on the start menu, then the big ‘E’ for Internet Explorer”. It’s just frustrating and patronising, it’s no wonder people still think that IE is THE Internet!

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12Oct/082

Configuring a Wireless Repeater

Ok, so not strictly Linux related, but technical nonetheless, and I was using Ubuntu when I set it up ;)

I have a BT HomeHub (V1) which I...modified...to use the firmware for the router it was originally (a SpeedTouch 7G) so I could use it with a different ISP. This was back in June/July, and I've been having to boot into Vista (sad I know) to get internet access to play on Xbox Live, etc.

So I finally gave up today, and got around to trying to configure another HomeHub - this one with the BT Firmware as the repeater. After a lot of tweaking, I found the solution to be quite simple, and I found it here.

Now, I have 2 ethernet ports in my room, and my laptop hovers at around 95% all the time now, which is nice, better than the 40-68% I was getting before anyway. It also means I can have my Xbox 360 online without paying out for either a really long eth cable, or a wireless adapter for the 360 (they retail at around £60 here in the UK).

Either way, I'm happy with it, so I won't complain :)

Edit: I forgot to mention, I experimented a little after setting it up (and nearly broke it!) and I configured the 2 routers to broadcast the same (E)SSID, which seemed to be ok, and caused a little confusion initially on my laptop, but it seems to work just fine now, and my laptop automatically switches to whichever has the strongest signal :)

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9Oct/080

New Xbox Experience Dated

I'm sure all you Xbox 360 Owners have heard about the NXE (New Xbox Experience) headed for us this year.

Well...it's been dated & confirmed by Microsoft. Mark a date on your calendar for the 19th of November :D I read it this morning over on TrustedReviews. I'm really looking forward to it, but unfortunately I'm out all day on the 19th (at least until 16:00 GMT) so that's a bit of a bummer. Nevermind :)

I thought I'd put it out there for everybody

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