Phones, phones, phones

Ive got a lot to think about when it comes to phones. Currently, I have a few offers lined up for me:
There is an Incredible S on offer for 170 and then I can buy a SIM only deal to accompany that, I can get a contract with the Galaxy S II, for 25.00 per month with 50 handset cost, or 20.00 per month with 190 handset cost (it all depends on the minutes and texts as to those prices), or I can buy a Nexus S when it goes down in price and SIM only that.

Two things: Why are similar phones all priced randomly, with the Wildfire S going from over 300 down to 160 or lower, and then other phones all outselling each other? It makes no sense. The phones all fit into the 150-500 range and that is a massive problem. They need to be put in smaller brackets.

And the other point is, when buying a phone, try and keep it simple for yourself. It make life much better.

Gnome, Guhnome, Genome...

I've just been thinking about Gnome 3.2 and Gnome Shell.

The new updates of 3.2 have included some good and bad stuff. Good has been the new Documents app, and some theme integration, and making things more shell-like, but the login screen is different

Yes is looks like Shell, and not the old Gnome, but there is a purple border around the password box, which is not at all fitting, and you have to press on the up/down key to be able to select the username and press enter to login without using the mouse.

Other things like Online accounts, improved Usermenu (when you click on your name in the top right corner), and general Theming is awesome.

As a concept, the desktop is awesome. Fullscreen program menu, with search and categories, search for documents, contacts, etc. and tucking everything away in the Activities overview. Also, the CSS theming, and the default black is very subtle, making for a nice experience. All they need to do is keep improving stuff, making it simpler without removing functionality, making it look nicer, and easier to use, and to redesign the login screen. Again.

If you don't have an iPhone, well, you Don't have an iPhone...

When the iPhone 4 came out, they said "This changes everything"

The 4S should say on the ad "This changes the whole course of human history. A bit."

Let's break down the iPhone.

iPhone smartphone... Not really good as a phone... i Smart... Not that clever, really... I... The whole world doesn't revolve around you.

If it's crap, then it's scrap

I've been playing with Wordpress, but have decided to keep the blog here on Blogger,  as the only way to get the most out of Wordpress is to set up your own server with your own installation on it. (just noticed, that Blogger recognises Blogger in the spellings, but not Wordpress!) I don't have the time, and prefer Blogger for most stuff, so i'm staying here.

 I won't budge!

Also, if you _DO_ read this/mine/whoever posts on it the most's blog, then tell others about it Please

Don't make me write it all in the HTML editor, i hurts my poor brain!

Google? Froogle? Scroogle?

If you haven't already, read Scroogled, by Cory Doctorow. It's a short story about what would happen if Google got hold of all his data. it makes you think. It's a free PDF to download, but make sure you don't get the Spanish version.

Of Habits and Googles

Just thinking about Google and their phone making, i looked closely and saw this:


Google tried htc but Sense prevailed. They tried Samsung but when the touch was so Wiz they gave up and bought Motorola. Now they will be the Android people and that weird moto interface will be no more. or Google will try LG. Google will own the Hardware and software.

But for companies they have the habit problem:

Take off the h and a bit remains. take off the a and bit remains. Take off the b and it remains." The quote from some old English teacher.

Dependant on Dependancies? "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em"

I think I have just found the best Package Management system ever. Probably. Definitely. And, as far as I'm concerned, even though I would rather get rid of the Packagement problems and have some sort of Mac-style App system, but with a Libs folder for all external libraries to go to, this is as good as package managers get. It's even got an awesome name.

...The world's best package manager ever, is.....

Pacman!!! from Arch Linux. I've been installing Arch (and am using it at the moment to write this post) and it's so simple to use

Like normal commands, options can be strung together, rather than Apt-get's way of making you either update, upgrade OR install, but not update and then install a new package.

To update the mirror list and upgrade to the latest packages, you simply run (as root) pacman -Syu

To install package foo, simply type pacman -S foo

It can also install package groups, so for example instead of having to install each dependency of gnome like sudo apt-get install gnome-system-monitor empathy empathy empathy-dbg... you just type pacman -S gnome and it asks you for the packages you want install (it displays a list)

Gary the Snail

Windows users are like snails. And so is Windows to be fair. It takes ages to do anything, and puts in features what happened ages ago, but the most snail-like thing I have found is this:

Back in the early 2000s and before that, we had the browser wars with Netscape Navigator, and Internet Explorer (4,5,6) and a few others. But, then it all ended and we now have FF and Chrome, and other stuff. But Windows users, with the release of Windows 7 have discovered the browser wars, and are fighting Chrome against IE.

That was so last decade, lads! keep up!

So, in 20 years time, when windows is Dead, it will be Linux vs MAC OSX, at the rate everything is moving in the proprietary world.

Hair, sorry, hare and tortoise, except the hare wins

Dyslexic, Illiterate, and utterly useless

Have u ever read the laptops for sale in the paper?
You get stuff like:
Dell 1.8 photoshop 2GB dual windows 15" silver
£99.99

I'm like oh dear at least put the right specs together!!!!!!!!!! a 1.8 photoshop? Dual windows? WTF? Get someone who knows what their putting in the ad to write it
Come on. Dual core 1.8Ghz Celeron, Windows Vista or something and 2GB RAM, 15" display. Ya Know. It makes my life hard, but at least they sell it for a ridiculously low price :)

"Package Managers...Why"

Right, a quote form Mike Saunders about package managers, and it applies to most of the Linux desktop in general. The problem, is the ongoing choice vs cohesion battle. We want competition for apps, and choice is always good; it means we end up with better quality software (well, sometimes, *ahem LIBREOFFICE-SLOW-STARTUP-TIMES*) and if not, we can change to another program. But, it ends up rather silly with Linux, because even though most of us accept multiple web browsers, email clients, word processors, even calculators and text editors, there has to be a line.

Sometimes this line is over-stepped, and we have multiple desktop environments, and shells within these environment (looking at you, Unity). This has got to the point where there is too much choice, and even distros which use the same package format use different package managers. Now, standardizing on these would be impossible (especially as the LSB have picked the wrong package format for a standard) so I propose a solution.

Have all the desktops, window managers, text editors, shells, compositors you want, but for packages have some single unified program to install them, so maybe the Ubuntu Software Center, or PackageKit, but it uses either Deb or RPM underneath. (Actually, maybe discount Ubuntu as it seems to be trying to become an open source Apple). Then, make a standard toolkit and theme format for dekstops (CSS and either QT or GTK). Now, all you need to do is to make an official Linux 2011, Linux 2012, where all the distros pool their resources into to create some super-uber desktop OS. All the normal Fedoras, *buntus, Debians, Gentoos and Crunchbangs happen underneath, but for newbies there is a proper 'official' standard to go to.

Have Gnome-shell, KWin with KDE4, Unity and Compiz, but make something that has a simple mode, an Advanced mode and can be used by anyone from Windows, through to OSX, through to Solaris or even FreeBSD

GIVE US SOMETHING TO INSTALL ON OUR PARENTS' LAPTOP AND THEY CAN USE STRAIGHT AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then Linux might be taken more seriously by manufacturers. And, give the user a default, but let them change it, let them choose Thunderbird or Postler over Evolution if they want, but make sure there is a default.

This little piggy went to the Market (and this piggy said "There's an app for that!")

Just been thinking about the Android Market and the App Store, and how they differ. I mean that the App Store only allows apps within very specific criteria, but the Market allows more variety of apps. However most people use the App Store because it's more recognized and because of the games on it. But there are bonuses for the market; the fact it allows more free apps and open source apps.

Also, as users of Cydia have found out, the iPhone uses Apt and the .deb packaging system for it's files. This is what major Linux distributions use and there might be a way of getting it to run on Android, therefore gaining access to the App Store... Provided you have an iTunes account. Or just dual-boot Android and iOS on an iPod or iPad.

Actually that's a good idea. A nice looking tablet in 4:3 format with App Store games and Android awesomeness.

"640k is enough for anybody" - Standards in web browsing and desktops

In years gone by the only way to get a stable browsing experience was to use Internet Explorer 4 on Windows an OS not even built for networking. Nowadays we have Firefox, Chrome and some element of cross-platform integration. But, there are still times when things don't work properly. Web Folders, or instance. Linux has support for WebDAV, but yet no amount or Naulitus, Firefox, or Command Line trickery can get a proper connection with my networked Web Folder from school. Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid. I have to use IE, or go on the HTML read-only view. Even a Mac can access some Web Folders, to some extent. Googel made a colution by imitating IE in Chrome (with an extension), but they don't actually imitate IE. It needs the browser installed, so it can run a n instance of it inside Chrome. And they then go and say the extension works with Linux.Er, no????

Another example is desktop ideas. Gnome now has 4 interfaces for its next version: Gnome Shell, Classic Gnome desktop, Unity 3D, and Unity 2D. It was bad enough with different desktops (Gnome, KDE, XFCE, ICceWM, etc) but now different shells within desktops? Utter madness. I say find something that the public can use and suits their ways of working, and if you don't like the desktop developers, customise it. People will change their desktop, but like something to work on. I had a single bottom panel, changed to a bottom panel with the dock on it, got rid of the panel, had 2 docks, and now have a top panel with Global menus, App Switcher (icons) and Window buttons. Madness. I don't mind different desktops and web browsers, that is what choice is for, but please, please, please, please PLEASE can we have some standards to join them together. :)

Notarant

Contrary to popular wishes, this is not another rant for our blog, but a status update. We are now broadening our site and have made a new domain where we will provide more, including a monthly podcast. The team has expanded, and now includes Cameron and Elliott, and drops Raf (for the main site anyway. Raf, you are still free to work on the blog)

LOADING BARS!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hate loading bars they don't always show the right info. and they annoy me for no good reason!!!

iOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

Soemthing that doesn't happen every day. This isn't a rant about Google, it's a rant about how little humour other people put in. They might make their products simpler to use, but they forget to lighten the mood. There are examples of people who do this well and those who don't LinuxFormat do this well which is why they're the most popular UK Linux magazine

"The first thing Tak did; he wrote himself" - Things I would change about Linux in general

(Quote from Terry Pratchett's book Thud)
Personally there are quite a few things that I would change, and this isn't much of a rant as I'm suggesting improvements other than just getting angry at the problems.
1. This OS is Anonymous.
People normally haven't' heard of Linux in any way, shape or form. They don't knew anything and as they haven't tried it don't want to change from Windows. We need to show them it, but not force it upon them as they will just say no.
2. Ubuntu=Linux.
People forget about the other Distributions or haven't heard about them. This means when Ubuntu does something they don't like, then they move away from Linux altogether.
3. Drivers
Why don't some things work? Yes I know that there are teams of people around the world who are making open source versions of the drivers, and that some companies do provide them or don;t bother, but when I plug my printer in, or connect an iPod, or use Wi-fi, I want it to work, at least when installed with no further messing around on some distros (as some are not willing to put in propriety code which is fine by me), if not on the Live disc. Many people have tried to use Mint on their laptop live and not been able to connect to their Wi-fi. I have also had this problem with our printer, an Epson Stylus DX6000. On our dual-boot box, Windows works fine with it, Ubuntu used to until we got rid of it, and so did Mint, but now Mint 9 has a big problem with it. After a while, the OS claims that the printer is not connected, and won't let you print until you turn both the printer and the computer off and reboot. But, on my PC, with mint 10, it has always worked perfectly, right from mint 6. Both Linuxes have to use the DX4850 driver as there isn't a native one, but the CUPS on Mint 9 (LTS) is broken now after an update.
4. The geek factor
Those who do know Linux, but haven't tried Ubuntu, know it as a platform for geeks, with flashing green text, and no graphical desktop, or broken messes of a desktop. But, what they don't realise, is that in 10 years, Linux has gone from being a pet OS to being capable for general desktop use. In most cases. There are still times when things mess up and it's either really tiny niggles, or something massive, like X not working. This is mainly because it is all done by volunteers in their spared time. It's a community effort and some people don't always understand that.
5. Desktop Themes and Title Bar Layout
Ubuntu is now famous for changing the Minimise, Maximise and Close buttons to the left, Mac OSX style. They have the freedom to do that, but maybe it would be best, for such a famous distro to put it as a non-default theme rather than the default. Also, some of the themes for distros aren't really that nice and are outdated. Ubuntu, Mint, Suse (KDE) have nice themes but some of the others really need to make their desktop more attractive and east-to-use. Minimalistic distros can keep their style as they look nice, but Kubuntu, Fedora, Debian could make their desktops nicer, even if it means adding it on as an optional extra.*

There's more, but I really can't be bothered to add it. The list isn't exhaustive. This post would be bigger than 1 page!

*Since I wrote this, Fedora has used the new Gnoem3 Desktop as their default and it looks swish. Yes, it means there is GNome2, Unity and GNome3, but it means that each distro has some difference, rather than the wallpaper and package manager (Package Managers...Why!)

The sound of silence... (The one without the rant)

For a while I haven't really been making any posts. This isn't because there are no more rants in the world, but is simply because I've been too busy and haven't been able to find things due to this. My last rant will be a rant about nothing to rant about (a sort of now I don;t have anything to rant about rant). But I will be back.

"Curses and Sweariness" - When technology doesn't work

(Bleak Expectations again)
I have had many problems with technology and most of them have been fixable or otherwise eliminated. But I did say most. There are some which really get me, the kind which are soo annoying and there seems no way to fix them. One of the most annoying was when I had connected my iPod to my Linux computer and had put on some images which I didn't want and couldn't get rid of them. I had to go into the iPod's folders and delete the images from there, but when I did, ti claimed a malformed file and wouldn't sync with iTunes or gtk iPod manager. Somehow it fixed itself on iTunes, but hasn't on iPod manager.

Another is that I have Conky set up to display my system information, part of it on the left, part of it on the right, but now it stops at half-way, flasing up the right half then it disappears. Why does this suddenly happen?/ Why can't technology just work. I;m a computer geek and even I have problems. How are people's mums going to manage??????????????? Everything nees to be compatible with each other and have easy helpful tips to fix things if they go wrong.

"Damn, blast, Hells Teeth and God's Elbow" - Button order on Android phones

(Today's title is another from Bleak Expectations. I have been listening to the comedy series a lot recently)

Best if i let it out straight away. I hate the fact that some companies put the buttons/ touch sensitive pad things in different orders on their Android phones. It looks wrong, is confusing and means people press the wrong button. As I have a non-android phone with the back button on the right-hand side (LG KC550) I naturally disagree with the back button on the left. Also as I'm left-handed I would have to change hands to press the back button if it was on the left. (This is quite a relaxed rant today - must be really tired) And as I'm an avid HTC supporter I insist on the home button on the left as it's then the first button you press so its like an iPhone where you press the home button as its the only button to press. Then, being more HTC it goes: Home,Menu,Back,Search. It goes in order. Mostly people just want to quit the application so they press home. Then theu might want to access the menu in an app so would press the menu button. Then back as it isn't much used unless on email or twitter - but there are widgets for that. And finally search as it's not used much. It just makes sense (HTC Sense!!!!) and is how every phne should be. Put those buttons in the right order, Smasung, Motorola, Sony (Erricson), Dell, HP, Casio.........etc.

And while you're at it, Google partner with HTC not Samsung as they have been following you ever since Android started to become a success away from Windows Mobile, and havemade many of your best Android phones whereas Samsung made their own phones with their own OSes but now support Android. Support HTC as they have the buttons in the RIGHT order!

Note toself: find out if it's HTC or htc and why when they say quietly brilliant on the startup it makes a noise