When I first started playing with iGoogle, it was just that playing. It was fun to add pieces of news, and the few blogs I really stay in touch with. Sure the calendar was nice, and a quick glance at my email was cool too. Still, it didn't really grab my attention. Well, that's changed.
It all started when I bumped into a LaTeX formula creator online. That's the subject of another whole post, but basically it's an online math formula creator. Anyway, it was useful and so I bookmarked it. Then I noticed a small icon that said "click me and I'll appear in your iGoogle page". "OK", I thought, "Why not?". And just like that my iGoogle page now has a math formula app on it. That made me think, "What else it out there?". WOW! There are all kinds of things out there and they work!
So now, I don't just have a home page, I have a mobile desktop/computer where ever I go. On any computer on any modern OS, I type "google.com/ig" and I have applications, calendar, email, news, to do .... it just goes on.
This is so cool I can't help thinking this is just the beginning. If Google Docs can get just a bit better like Zoho.com, soon I will need nothing else. Just a machine with an internet connection. So ... how long with this cost nothing?
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
VirtualBox and Wine
There are times when you just need a Windows app. Thankfully those times are becoming more rare, but until they're gone there are two good solutions to this problem.
First is VirtualBox. If you have the RAM and a legal copy of M$ XP this is a great way to go. The latest version is much better than earlier versions and with it's seamless window mode you can pretend you don't even have XP installed. It's compatibility is great. All but DirectX works exactly as it should. No need to purchase parrallels or VMware, this opensource app does what it says.
Link: http://www.virtualbox.org/
The downside of VirtualBox is you have to run all of Windows inside of your linux machine and then run the app you want. This means giving up a major amount of RAM and some system CPU cycles just to get your app. Mostly I do not mind, but if it's on my notebook and all I want is to run my Teacher Marks program this is an unnecessary pain. Enter WINE
WINE is an opensource project that has written the Windows APIs from scratch on their own. This means you can install Windows apps without having Windows installed. This is great in theory but not yet in practice. I find myself editing by hand just too many times. Perhaps when this hits 2.0 it will be usable by the average joe.
Link: http://www.winehq.org/
If you have the cash, then you could look at codeweavers crossover office. That is what wine should be like. Easily install most windows programs. All from nice friendly wizard driven installs. No hacking, no command line. I wish they had a version that was pay as you go. Maybe $5.00 a program or something. At $100.00 it's simply out of my league (price at the local store, looks like only $70.00 online). Still, OpenOffice 3 isn't out so if you must have M$ Office 2007 installed, this works very well. A bit weird running windows stuff straight in Linux though :)
Link: http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxlinux/
First is VirtualBox. If you have the RAM and a legal copy of M$ XP this is a great way to go. The latest version is much better than earlier versions and with it's seamless window mode you can pretend you don't even have XP installed. It's compatibility is great. All but DirectX works exactly as it should. No need to purchase parrallels or VMware, this opensource app does what it says.
Link: http://www.virtualbox.org/
The downside of VirtualBox is you have to run all of Windows inside of your linux machine and then run the app you want. This means giving up a major amount of RAM and some system CPU cycles just to get your app. Mostly I do not mind, but if it's on my notebook and all I want is to run my Teacher Marks program this is an unnecessary pain. Enter WINE
WINE is an opensource project that has written the Windows APIs from scratch on their own. This means you can install Windows apps without having Windows installed. This is great in theory but not yet in practice. I find myself editing by hand just too many times. Perhaps when this hits 2.0 it will be usable by the average joe.
Link: http://www.winehq.org/
If you have the cash, then you could look at codeweavers crossover office. That is what wine should be like. Easily install most windows programs. All from nice friendly wizard driven installs. No hacking, no command line. I wish they had a version that was pay as you go. Maybe $5.00 a program or something. At $100.00 it's simply out of my league (price at the local store, looks like only $70.00 online). Still, OpenOffice 3 isn't out so if you must have M$ Office 2007 installed, this works very well. A bit weird running windows stuff straight in Linux though :)
Link: http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxlinux/
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Quickest Way to Twinview with Ubuntu Heron
There are far too many poor ways to get X config to see two monitors. I know, because I've tried and forgotten them all. Linux has always been very bad at detecting video cards and changing desktop resolutions. Sure, I know all the reasons why, and I know how to manual edit my xorg.conf file. However, I should not have too. OSX and Windows have been making this easy enough for my elderly parents to do, why can't linux.
Well, I first must admin, Ubunut and other modern distros have come a long way on this front. I recently did an install of 8.04 and everything was pretty good out of the box. Next, I could choose the proprietary driver without problems either. All good. Except I have two monitors and I could not find a control panel anywhere to enable this. Hmm, guess linux is not quite there yet. Still, a quick search on the next brings up some help. Unfortunately nearly all of it is to edit the xorg.conf file by hand. I'm done with that. I used to do that. Now, if that is really where I have to go, then I'll pay M$ or Apple and not use Linux. Yes it's that important.
Anyway, I did find this great site: http://www.albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html
Here it helps you install one simple package called EnvyNG. Then, once installed you can install better proprietary drivers. Enable twinview and enjoy. All without text editing. Now why hasn't someone made this part of Ubuntu?
Well, I first must admin, Ubunut and other modern distros have come a long way on this front. I recently did an install of 8.04 and everything was pretty good out of the box. Next, I could choose the proprietary driver without problems either. All good. Except I have two monitors and I could not find a control panel anywhere to enable this. Hmm, guess linux is not quite there yet. Still, a quick search on the next brings up some help. Unfortunately nearly all of it is to edit the xorg.conf file by hand. I'm done with that. I used to do that. Now, if that is really where I have to go, then I'll pay M$ or Apple and not use Linux. Yes it's that important.
Anyway, I did find this great site: http://www.albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html
Here it helps you install one simple package called EnvyNG. Then, once installed you can install better proprietary drivers. Enable twinview and enjoy. All without text editing. Now why hasn't someone made this part of Ubuntu?
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