a wanderer in transit

I got a Google Wave Sandbox account a little while back and started a small side project (which, as too many others did, fell wayside). Admittedly, it was rather confusing at the start and you really need to have a real-life network on the same platform for it to deliver on the value it promises.

If you haven’t lived under a rock in the last week, you would have heard about the opening up of Google Wave for limited preview. Those already on the Sandbox got invites, and I decided to pop in for a look. The preview instance feels definitely more stable compared to Sandbox. However, being logged on to both instances at the same time on Firefox 3.5, for some reason really slowed things down.

The word is that Wave runs best on Chrome, so I took the chance to check out Google Chrome on Ubuntu. Chrome is currently officially supported on Windows only but an early access version is available for Ubuntu (32/64-bit) and Debian (32-bit only). This version (my current installed build: 4.0.220.1) is a wee bit rough around the edges but generally worked well for me so far.

Wave, both Sandbox and Preview, felt snappier and more stable on Chrome. If not for the relative lack of extensions for Chrome (compared to Firefox), I would seriously consider switching browsers permanently. This is a seriously speedy browser.

Back to the Wave, if you want to give it spin and prepared for a little beta chaos, request for an invitation here.

Update: Found this nice short video on why you might want to use Wave.

On the very unfortunate demise of my Wii recently, I picked up a new one from the game shop as a replacement. Probably because of the weakening of the Korean won, the Korean Wii was (much) cheaper than the US Wii that my brother lugged home from the States when he was back for the holidays last year.

So now I’ve got a spanking new Wii, and my hackity fingers could not resist getting it to run Homebrew. Fun times. This guide worked very well for me. To the point and clear, and compatible with the latest 4.1U firmware.

Lots of whacky stuff on Homebrew. I am tempted to give Wii Linux just for kicks!

I also picked up a copy of Wii Sports Resort at the shop when I got the new Wii. Wow, MotionPlus does wonders for the controller’s sensitivity, but oh my, the constant calibration! In Sports Resort, before every match (note match, not game), you need to point the Wiimote forward towards the screen and press “A” to calibrate. Rather annoying to say the least. Grrr.

Update: The old guide was taken down, but fret not! There’s a new one up for 4.1 here.

After I upgraded the xorg drivers using this guide, I realised that suspend/hibernate stopped working. Argh. I am running Ubuntu on a laptop and I am one of those chronic “hibernaters”. It’s not the bootup that I can’t wait for, it’s the having to re-launch all the programs that I don’t quite fancy.

So I decided to give it another stab at reverting drivers. I don’t know what’s different, but for some reason, it worked this time. No 100% CPU scaling or overheating. Hmm. Oh well, at least it works now!

I have been wondering why my Ubuntu install was somewhat slower than I expected. After some digging around, I figured it was due to a regression bug in Jaunty’s new Intel graphics drivers.

I first tried reverting the Intel drivers and after the downgrade, graphics performance was really good and the whole desktop was very snappy. BUT, and a large one at that, I noticed that the CPU was permanently scaled up to 100% and the CPU temperatures climbed pretty quickly. The fan was definitely working overtime. It didn’t look good when it went from 60°C to 90°C in about 15 minutes. It almost broke my heart to rollback the changes, but I didn’t think it was worth the risk of a meltdown.

This guide to Jaunty Intel graphics performance worked better for me. For what it’s worth, mine is a “Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME” and I did not define the tiling option. It was not as snappy as reverting the drivers, but I am reasonably happy with the improvement.

A friend asked if he should give Ubuntu a spin as a desktop OS. I was a little hesitant because to be painfully honest, it was not the easiest thing in the world if you are starting from zero Linux experience. Because of work and personal interests, this is not my first dip into Linux and I grateful for the little knowledge I had.

I realised that it’s one thing to ssh into a Linux server to setup up stuff every now and then, it’s a very different game to have Linux as your full-blown daily desktop system. Despite a much improved GUI, you need (or are willing to acquire) a certain level of comfort with a command line interface because it is often faster to do certain things from the terminal. I was in terminal alot during the first 2 days of setup to edit configuration files or troubleshoot through the logs. Ubuntu does provide a GUI-based log viewer and text editor, and Synaptic works well for add/removing programs. Almost 80-90% of the help I have used online assumes that the user is comfortable in terminal and solutions were often provided in the form of terminal commands or configuration files to be edited.

All that said, my experience of the whole installation process was fairly smooth sailing. What a difference a decade makes. Back in ‘99, I literally sweat buckets trying to install Red Hat 6 on my then one and only family computer. I had chosen to upgrade the PC with an additional harddisk AND set the PC to dual boot Red Hat. Without enough money to get a replacement computer, I was worried sick that my dad would kill me if I were to accidentally destroy the PC. To his credit, Dad didn’t bat an eyelid when he saw me on the floor of his home office with the PC insides exposed and Red Hat materials strewn all over.

Fast forward back to today. Once I got configuration out of the way, it was a very pleasant surprise how little time it took for me to get fairly comfortable in Ubuntu as my main day-to-day home desktop OS. The experience is best described as… liberating. Shocking almost for this Windows user from the days of Windows 3.1.

I am still keeping my Windows installs because 90% of the day job requires that I stay on the Windows platform. Plus not all the software that I use actively are Linux-compatible or have comparable alternatives, and I am not quite willing to go with wine or the virtualization route unless I absolutely have to. Since no one is twisting my arm, Windows stays. For now at least.

So should you do it? Yeah, why not?