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As you may already know, I recently took the plunge into Gnome world when I chose to leave Kubuntu Intrepid (KDE) in favor of Ubuntu Intrepid (Gnome) on my Laptop.  So far, I only encountered a few quirks and one of them is Adobe Flash not having sound in Firefox.  5 minutes of searching on Google took me to “HOWTO: PulseAudio Fixes & System-Wide Equalizer Support“.  I followed the guide and sound now magically works in Flash.

Thought that many Ubuntu Intrepid users are having the same problem so I wrote this post in an effort to make it easier for them to find the fix.

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I was using Kubuntu since Feisty days and I have to say that I’m happy with it. However, I’ve been having problems with Kubuntu Intrepid’s KDE4 interface recently that I decided to give plain old Ubuntu which uses Gnome a try. I downloaded the Ubuntu LiveCD ISO last night, installed it on a USB stick using UNetBootin and gave it a try. I was quite happy with the results so I decided to move over to it and leave my old friend Kubuntu behind.

Gnome is an entirely different thing from KDE so comparing the two will be like comparing apples with oranges. They have different ways of achieving the same results which means I have to make some habit adjustments. It’ll probably give me a week to get used to the new way of doing things with Gnome.

Will I stay with Gnome? Yes. Will I replace KDE with Gnome on my other computers? Maybe not yet because the family is already used to KDE and I don’t want them to keep on bugging me asking what to do. Maybe next year.

P.S. I Love GnomeDo which is way better than KDE’s Katapult.

Just got the news from a a Twitter friend about a teacher in Austin who threatened to have the organizer of the HeliOS Project investigated by the police when she saw one of her students showcasing the ability of a Linux-powered laptop and handing out Linux disks.

“Mr. Starks, I am sure you strongly believe in what you are doing but I cannot either support your efforts or allow them to happen in my classroom. At this point, I am not sure what you are doing is legal. No software is free and spreading that misconception is harmful,” she says.

But that ain’t the worst part yet because she also said this, “This is a world where Windows runs on virtually every computer, and putting on a carnival show for an operating system is not helping these children at all.“

Obviously this teacher doesn’t know what Linux is and most probably has not heard of the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).  Truly a misinformed teacher she is!

Read the full story here.

The United States government is phasing out Analog TV this coming February 17, 2009 and will be switching over to Digital TV or DTV.  As a result, all those who are using analog TVs will no longer be able to watch anything on their television sets.  While this may be a drawback for many, there are also benefits to it.

The DTV Website F.A.Q. states:

An important benefit of the switch to all-digital broadcasting is that it will free up parts of the valuable broadcast spectrum for public safety communications (such as police, fire departments, and rescue squads). Also, some of the spectrum will be auctioned to companies that will be able to provide consumers with more advanced wireless services (such as wireless broadband)

The move from analog to digital have more benefits than one may think.  One such benefit is to be able to watch different programs on a single channel via a process called multicasting.  Multicasting allows you to watch one program at channel 7-1, another program at channel 7-2 and so on.

Now, on to the part that sucks…  If you still wish to enjoy watching TV after Feb 17, 2009 then you need to either have a Digital TV or a Digital-to-Analog Converter Box.  A Digital-to-Analog converter will allow you to receive Digital TV broadcasts without having to replace your existing TV set and it’s cheaper.  Products such as the Zinwell ZAT-970A Digital Converter Box can be bought for as low as $19.95 if you have a coupon.

You can also give Internet TV a try which allows you watch TV right on your computer or laptop.

All-in-all, I think the move to Digital TV is a good idea.  It’s a better technology and it allows other technologies to make good use of the freed broadcast spectrum.

I’ve been talking to friends about how the waves can be tapped for electrical power here in the Philippines. I was telling them that the up and down motion of the waves can be used to drive a piston which would then drive a generator. The idea isn’t new, I’ve heard of it before but I was just wondering why it’s not being used in the country.

Now, the world’s first wave farm is up and running in Portugal. The Philippines could have done it if budget was allocated to it.

It’s free energy and is definitely eco-friendly. The Agucadoura which consists of three wave energy converters just like the one above currently produces a total of 2.25MW of electricity. Need more power? Just add more wave energy converters. I think I should build one of these when I get a house by the beach.

Art can be everywhere and in this case of nanotechnology demonstration, on nanotubes. Some guy in a white suit decided to etch the face of Barack Obama on a canvass so small you’ll need an electron microscope to see. Check it out below.

Microscopic faces of Barack Obama made using nanotechnology, and imaged using a scanning electron microscope. Each face consists of millions of vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes, grown by a high temperature chemical reaction. Credit: John Hart/University of Michigan

I noticed that many people added the iPhone to their wish list ever since it came out and those who managed to buy it have somewhat been infected by the “I Love Apple” syndrome wherein they just keep on saying how great the iPhone is. Ask them about the problems and they say, “Well, the problems are just minor.”

A few days ago, I was having in the mall with my two daughters. On our way home, we stopped by a cellphone shop selling Samsung’s i900 Omnia. The salesman immediately compared the Omnia with the iPhone pointing out all of iPhone’s flaws and pitching the “advantages” of the Omnia. Well, I have to say that the Omnia does look much better and much more usable than the iPhone and also a bit cheaper. Nonetheless, the “iPhone virus” seems to still linger in my mind until today…

When a fellow blogger - Marhgil Macuha - twittered about this:

Well, that says it. I definitely won’t buy an iPhone. Even if the iPhone has a bigger screen and more colors than the Omnia, I’d still go for the Samsung i900 Omnia

Yep, for this particular case, Linux is actually not an operating system at all. Instead, it’s the name of Christian Nielsen’s baby. The baby was born (or released) last August 24 and is pretty much stable. Questions raised by Linux.com are:

1. Will Richard Stallman insist that the baby be called GNU/Linux?
2. Does a baby named Linux go to sleep and wake up without problems?
3. How often does he outgrow his footwear and require a reboot?

I wish to add the following questions:

1. Will he be using CUPS when he starts to write?
2. Would he prefer NFS over Samba when it comes to sharing stuff?
3. Will desktop will he be using when he starts to go to work? KDE, Gnome, XFCE, or something else?

Oh well, I think the name’s cool. Here’s a photo of the cute baby.

Cool, eh?

Care to ride a computer-driven helicopter that can perform aerobatic stunts? Well, that won’t be available yet but some geeks managed to developer computer software that takes note of how an RC helicopter is flown and learns from that. After “learning”, the computer then flies the helicopter and does what it has learned on its own. Take note that it’s not auto-pilot. it’s AI pilot.

The computer doesn’t just copy what the human controlling the RC helicopter did. It actually learns how to fly and do stunts. If you don’t believe me then watch this video and see for yourself.

First they taught rat-brains to fly an airplane then made smarter robots with the same technology. I thought that rat brains is the way to go but computer geeks and AI technology seem to be catching up.

I think the pieces of the AI puzzle are starting to make sense and we might see better artificial intelligence sooner than we expected.

Not even NASA is spared from computer virus infection. In fact, not even the International Space Station which is orbiting hundreds of miles above the earth was spared. A low risk virus identified as W32.Gammima.AG was detected on some of the laptop computers aboard the ISS last July 25.

Symantec describes W32.Gammima.AG as a Windows-based worm which spreads by copying itself onto removable media and capable of stealing passwords for online games. It is classified as a very low risk virus on Symantec’s website.

Though the virus poses no threat to the space station, NASA is still serious in finding out how the virus managed to fly itself up into space. If a low-risk virus can do it, then there are many reasons to believe that a high-risk one can also make it up there.