stuart test blog

I’ve been playing around with Ubuntu recently and have just discovered that if you insert an Ubuntu Live CD in a Windows machine (with Autoplay enabled), a browser window opens with a selection of Windows open source software. This functionality is taken from The Open CD, and you can read more about it on the Ubuntu Wiki. This quote is from the Ubuntu website:

The Ubuntu Live CD contains a small collection of open source applications for Windows.
Inserting the Live CD while running Windows brings up a browser with some information about each application and the option to install it. The browser uses technology and content from TheOpenCD project, with a custom Ubuntu skin. There is also a brief introduction to Ubuntu with screenshots.

I’ve added some more new features to this site! There is now a contact form which you can get to from the links on the left or at the top of the page.

I’ve also added a random photo block in the left column – clicking on the photo will take you to the page in the gallery.

I’ve changed the photo gallery from Simple Photo Gallery to Gallery2 from gallery.menalto.com using a plugin that is currently being developed at wpg2.ozgreg.com .

You can get to the gallery using the link in the top header menu, the link in the left hand column, or here: stuart.amanzi.co.nz/photo-gallery.

So far I’m really happy with the layout but please let me know if you see any problems or have any suggestions or improvements – leave comments below.

Playstation-3/
Sony has finally released details and photos of the new Playstation 3 at the E3 Expo 2005. By all accounts the machine is going to be super-powerful with a new 3.2GHz Cell processor from IBM based on a PowerPC chip core. The controllers are connected through Bluetooth and can last on a single charge for about 24 hours, you can also connect up to 7 through Bluetooth. You can also use wired controllers which connect through USB2, or you can connect to the PS3 through Wi-Fi and use your PSP as a controller too. The console also has three Gigabit ethernet ports on the back of it to hook up to the LAN.

Sony has also promised that the machine will be backward compatible with all of the older games – something that Microsoft is lacking with the Xbox 360 (they have said that only some of the highest selling games will be compatible!) The Playstation 3 will use the new Bluray disc format but will be compatible with all of the following formats: PlayStation CD-ROM, PlayStation 2 CD-ROM, CD-DA, CD-DA (ROM), CD-R, CD-RW, SACD, SACD Hybrid (CD layer), SACD HD, DualDisc, DualDisc (audio side), DualDisc (DVD side), PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM, PlayStation 3 DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, Blu-ray Disc, PlayStation 3 BD-ROM, BD-Video, BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE.

Photos have been released of the console and controllers and in my opinion it looks awesome. The controller looks a bit odd but seems like it will fit the hand easily. The console will be released in three colours – silver, black and white. The photos that have been released are in the photo gallery – this is my new WordPress-wrapped Gallery2 installation.

Release date is tentatively set for Spring 2006 (USA I think) but I can’t wait. Hopefully the price won’t be too high when it first comes out – but it will be a whole heap of computing power in a small package.

View Playstation 3 photos.

Hot off the press… WordPress 1.5.1 has been relased with some bug/security fixes as well as many other improvements. I’ve already upgraded and the only problem was that I experienced this bug: http://mosquito.wordpress.org/view.php?id=1323.

That apart it all looks good – you can read more in the following links:

• WordPress 1.5.1
• Upgrade from 1.5 to 1.5.1

My laptop has been slowly dying over the last few months – first the edge of the screen frame cracked and worsened to the point of having to prop the screen up against something solid when in use; then it got knocked off the dining room table and cracked the corner of the case – could have been a lot worse; now the hard drive has died and I’m reluctant to spend any more money on it getting it fixed.

The lack of hard drive hasn’t prevented me from using it thought. I’ve tried out bootable Linux live CD’s from Knoppix and Ubuntu to be able to browse the web from the lounge. Both are good but the Knoppix CD is by far the more powerful of the two. But then again, Knoppix are specialists in bootable CD’s whereas Ubuntu provide a live CD just to test out their distribution. One problem I had with both of them is that I couldn’t eject the CD after booting to be able to play a DVD. I was hoping that they would load the software into RAM instead of just constantly accessing the CD – with 64oMB of RAM in my laptop, I thought it would be able to run completely from memory. Maybe there’s a setting or another live CD that can do this but I haven’t found it yet. If I was going to run Linux on a desktop at home, I would probably go with Ubuntu for its ease of use and the huge amount of software available through the Debian repositry.

But the point of this post was just to mention that the reason why I haven’t posted much lately is that my laptop is busted and I don’t have anything else to work on home that doesn’t frustrate me by being too slow.

Found an interesting new Google feature that’s being tested at the moment. It’s called Google Suggest and it ‘auto-completes’ search phrases as you type them. If that doesn’t make sense, visit the website – http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&complete=1 – and test it yourself.

Here’s a screenshot of how it works:

More exciting news from the Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 camp – Microsoft have released a gui that taps into the new Access Based Enumeration (ABE) features in Service Pack 1. Novell admins will scoff at this as they have had this feature since the early days of Netware, but Windows admins will definitely be looking forward to further securing file shares by only allowing users to see what they have permission to see. This from the link below…

Windows Server 2003 Access-based Enumeration makes visible only those files or folders that the user has the rights to access. When Access-based Enumeration is enabled, Windows will not display files or folders that the user does not have the rights to access. This download provides a GUI and a CLI that enables this feature.

Link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=04A563D9-78D9-4342-A485-B030AC442084&displaylang=en

Microsoft have now posted an interesting knowledge base article detailing common server applications that work/don’t work with Service Pack 1 on Windows Server 2003. The Windows Application Experience test teams tested 127 server applications on computers that were running Windows Server 2003 with SP1.

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 application compatibility

I’ve created my first WordPress theme which is the one you’re looking at now. It’s still not 100% perfect as I’m still finding bits of code that I haven’t styled correctly, but I think it’s pretty good so far. Let me know what you think by commenting here…

I’ve also started to make use of the categories to sort out my posts a bit better – I imagine this will be an ongoing tweaking effort (much like the theme.)