The little ‘object’ on the left has the most responsibility. The laptop may act as merely a relic, a host.

The title says it all. It is
Booting Linux on a Mac from an iPod”>yet another story which illustrates the versatility of GNU/Linux.

Think about this scenario for a moment: Using an iPod to boot Linux on a Mac. No, we’re not kidding. This is exactly what writer Dave Taylor describes in a new online article at LinuxJournal.com entitled “Yellow Dog Linux Installs Neatly on an iPod.”

What happens when every time you receive a product and it breaks, time after time? You lose confidence, right? Here is the story of a rather stubborn guy.

Apparently, Szarek has had not one faulty Xbox 360, not two, not even three. No, he’s had four, count ‘em, four malfunctioning Xboxes, and he’s pissed, especially since he read that the console’s maker, Microsoft, feels customers who complain about faulty Xboxes should take their gripes elsewhere.

Older item: Xbox 360 Off to a Slow Start in Japan

The affordability of Linux begins to show. Last year I was getting excited over a Linux laptop that was sold for under $500. This year, however, new barriers are being pushed. A few prime examples are listed below:

• $150 for a Linux desktop computer in China
• The $100 laptop for developing countires
• Linspire PC for $159 in the States
• In Britain, several shops sell an eSys unit for as little as 127 pounds. Nowadays, the cost keeps sliding. There are finally some laptops from eSys as well.

VER the past few years I have accumulated new workstations, which joined what would become ‘legacy hardware’. The neat thing is that modern workstations can collaborate with the older ones and greatly benefit from their existence, e.g. for backup purposes or the use as a remote terminal. The key step is that which involved delegating tasks to each workstation, depending on its available capacity.

Currently, I have three machines at work. Ubuntu Linux is my pride with an admirable uptime (09:57:27 up 148 days, 1:47, 5 users, load average: 0.04, 0.05, 0.01), but there is also a Windows box and a Mac, none of which I bother to switch on anymore. There is one more computer at the University (SuSE), one at home (SuSE), and a laptop that I recently handed over to my sister. If it counts, I still have a Pentium at home, but it runs Windows 98 and it is not even connected to a source of power. It simply lies in storage and occasionally brings back memories from my mid-teens.

Giving up on one of my jobs is something I decided to do last week. I will still be left with another job, as well as the full-time Ph.D., on which I must concentrate. Thesis composition should probably start within weeks.

This departure from the job will leave me with 3 machines less. A post on my resignation should come up soon, once all is confirmed. I am obliged to come in for my last afternoon of duty tomorrow. I am saddened to think that the better choice was to resign. But not doubt it was.

EDUCTION in the number of PC sales is expected for the year to come. As well as an economical study on the matter, one can find the the corresponding evidence in the media.

What does that all mean in terms of people’s software upgrade cycle, as opposed to the hardware cycle? Since the crushing majority of all computers are being sold with Windows pre-installed, this should be good news. Rather than hopping onto a new hardware beast, people could choose operating systems which are less resource-greedy. Ubuntu comes to mind as modest although KDE-based distributions like SuSE (even with some serious ‘eye candy’) should do.

Sales of PCs worldwide will grow at a slower pace in 2006 than in 2005, partly because the replacement cycle for desktop PCs has hit a peak, market researcher Gartner said last week.

[...]

Gartner also warned that worldwide PC shipment growth could fall below the current forecast of 10.7 percent if Microsoft doesn’t set a precise release date for its new Vista operating system and if end users shy away from adopting newly-introduced Intel technologies.

It has been claimed that only half of today’s computers can cope with Windows Vista. No new machines = No Vista, which is encouraging news for the Open Source community.

It is worth mentioning that several countries around the world, government divisions includes, have begun a migration to Linux. Open Source has been making the big headlines recently.

I occasionally re-think my arrangement of automated backups. Recent reading about somebody else’s backup method inspired me to take better care of backups (yet again). I used to have 40 GB mirrors in 3 separate sites, which seemed beyond sufficient. Nevertheless, last Tuesday I bought a 300GB external hard-drive. Unwrapped, connected to SuSE and voila! New drive appears on Desktop. Linux has become easier than ever before. Almost frustratingly easy as there is no challenge and rarely a need to install any software.

The only downside of this device is the noise level, which is resulted from rotation at 7200 RPM inside relatively small housing. This can become loud and persistent during overnight baskups. Since the noise bothers me, I suppose could rely on earplugs. The internal hard-drive on the actual box probably has greater noise levels than the new external unit. Usually, however, it is idle or asleep, so only noise from the fan is a true factor.

I never lethargically back up my hard-drives, but nightime appears to be a must for backups, owing to (to put negatively — due to) duration. Matters used to be worse if defragging hard-drives, back in the days when I had a Windows laptop in my apartment. It required some overnight maintenance jobs and fortunately no such issues exist with Linux. Backups, on the contrary, become larger and larger (thus taking longer to complete).

All in all, I have 300 vacant gigabytes to fill. But where will I ever find that much pr0n? I kid, I kid. [smile /]