There is an interesting article on the Register that discussed that about 35% of the hardware that was shipped capable of running Windows Vista being downgraded by the vendor or end user to Windows XP (hardware pool above 3000 units).  My question is what about users or vendors that switched over to Linux?  That is what I did to my HP TX1320 lappy.  It came Vista certified and I ran Vista for a good four months.  But I too could not stand how slow it was and the lack of any great visual appeal.  Ubuntu came to the rescue and I have not looked back.  Well that is a lie, I still have the Vista partition.  I just have no need to boot into that OS.

I do hope Windows 7 will be a success.  I have been a supporter of MS and hope they will finally produce a product without bloat.  Till then, this former Windows Admin is ecstatic what an operating system can do minus Microsoft.

Worst-ahem-BestBuy has started to sell my favorite distro, and what I am using right now, Ubuntu for $20. To be clear, this is the same distro that can be downloaded for free. It is odd to see something like this during this day and age with the wide availability of broadband access. I mean 15 years ago, this would make a lot of sense as dial-ups were too slow to download the distro from the web. Should we scoff at those who spend money on something that is technically and legally free? Continue reading

Wow, it took the ditching of Vista and Sony to get better ebook support for my PRS-500. When I got my Sony Reader, I was hoping to take all my PDFs with me and enjoy them on a great little device. Sadly the Reader does a horrible job rendering PDFs in their native format. After about a month trying out all the pdf converters, I finally gave up hope and my poor Reader gathered dust as I moved on to a new tablet PC. Continue reading

Ok, I got Adobe Flash Player to work with my webcam using the Flashcam wrapper. Follow the directions at the website and soon you too can have your mug for everyone to see!

tx1320 Microdia part 2 - Flash works! “}

Well it seems that the linux-uvc drivers are working as advertised and Adobe player support is just not in the cards. It seems, as far as I can tell, Adobe Flash does not support V4L2. The UVC drivers only work with V4L2. I guess if I need to record a seesmic session, I will need to boot into my Vista partition.

My Optoma HD72 is up and running minus the bright mode. It seems the bulb ballast is outside the tolerance for the projector to run it at full capacity. I still need to get a new bulb but I can hold that off for a bit as running the pj in low mode is not that noticeable. Blu-Ray movies are back!!!

On the gaming front, I have yet to get MGS 4 but intend to when I get a little spending money for myself. On purchasing PS3 games, I notice that Target throws at the end of the isle sales, a couple of games at astoundingly low prices. They are buried but so far I have picked up Ninja Gaiden Sigma, and Fight Night 3 for $14.95 respectively and they were new. I am not sure if this is company-wide but the local stores around here have them with the red stickers. It is interesting to see that a week later, those games return to the main display back at the regular sales price of $29.95. Keep an eye out when you are walking around the electronic department section of Target.