Watch DVDs in Ubuntu Linux

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I’ve recently run into a startling number of people that think you can’t play DVDs in Linux. I’m sure this idea came about because it is true that you can’t play DVDs in Linux by default, but you can install software that gives you the capability, and it’s amazingly easy. I found 4 easy steps on dreamingisdigital.com that walked me through it with no problems. The original article can be found here.

Step 1. Open a Terminal Window
Step 2. Type sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras
Step 3. Type sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh
Step 4. Insert DVD and enjoy.

I understand that some people are a little squeamish about the command line. There’s nothing wrong with that, so I’ve taken the liberty of writing a very small shell script to walk through all four steps for you (well, other than putting the disk in the drive). You can download it here:  css_installer

If you have any questions about this process, or concerns about what I’m doing with my script, please feel free to let me know. If you don’t, I hope you enjoy watching your DVDs in Linux!

It’s all Linux’s Fault!!

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I just got done reading Day 3 of Tony Bradley’s 30 Days with Ubuntu Linux. Day 3 and he’s already kinda pissed me off.

Day 1 wasn’t even a day with Linux. It was his announcement that he was going to be doing it. If you’re going to be doing 30 days with Ubuntu Linux, at least really do 30 days.

Day 2 he installed the OS. A process that takes all of a half an hour. On top of that, he used wubi. Now, wubi is all find and dandy if you’re planning on going back to Windows regularly, but if you’re actually going to be using Linux for 29 days, it’s worth your time to do a native installation. Of course, if your plan to start off with is to half-ass your way through “29 Days of Ubuntu Linux” and go straight back to Windows anyway, then you’re fine with wubi.

Day 3 he goes straight to iTunes. This is something that every person critical of Linux will do at one point or another. Let’s get this straight, iTunes is a proprietary application written by a company that doesn’t write Linux software.

The author states, “If Linux wants to be taken seriously as an alternative desktop for the masses–not just Linux gurus–then things have to just work without requiring so much effort.”

This is after he had it installed and mostly working, despite the fact that there is no Linux version of he software.

Really?

So much effort?

You just installed an application on an OS that it’s not written for. Can you do that in Windows without emulation? Nope. Score one for Linux.

Further, the fact that iTunes doesn’t have a Linux version is not the fault of Linux. It’s the fault of Apple, who chose not to write a version for Linux. The people who have worked long and hard to make Linux everything it is today can want to be taken seriously all they want, but it doesn’t make Apple write software for their platform.

The same goes for Microsoft Office.

Linux doesn’t run Microsoft Office. Why? It’s not because Linux is in any way lacking. It’s because Microsoft doesn’t sell a Linux version. If there’s someone to blame for that, it’s Microsoft.

Blaming the platform because a particular company (and a company that competes with Linux btw) has chosen not to write software for it is flat out stupid.

This kind of thing frustrates me to no end.

Why?

Let me tell you how the rest of the 29 days are going to go.

He’ll play around, toy with things, and in the end, he’ll point out all the things that don’t work (which he knew they wouldn’t when he went in) like running applications that aren’t even native to the operating system, as a fault of the OS, and say with a gentle sigh that Linux just isn’t ready for the mainstream yet. That really seems to be the intent of this 29 days anyway.

Why don’t we just skip to the end Tony?

 

iPhone 3Gs – The Worst Phone I’ve Ever Owned

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Soon I will be celebrating the anniversary of one of the worst technology mistakes I’ve ever made. First, some back story.

My first son was born in July of 2008. At the time, I was using a an LG V. For a gadget guy, I actually haven’t own that many cell phones. I’d had the V for several years,and it was a nice, sturdy phone for me. Both my wife and I work, so unfortunately, we had to put my son into Daycare instead of keeping him at home.

Here’s where the problem came in. I didn’t like the fact that any time I was away from my desk (like when I was in one of my many meetings), I couldn’t be reached if I was needed by my Daycare. The building I worked in allowed for virtually no Verizon signal inside the building. Even just a couple feet from the window, and signal dropped to zero. The same was true for every other cellular network I looked into, with one exception. AT&T. We didn’t want to switch to AT&T, so we toughed things out for almost a year before it was just too much. So, after talking to my wife, we decided to switch from Verizon to AT&T so that I’d be reachable inside of the building.

So, since we were switching networks anyway, we decided to splurge, and get smartphones. Really, at the time on AT&T’s network, the only choices were iPhone or Blackberry. I really didn’t want a Blackberry, so even though I’ve never been a big fan of Apple, I sucked it up and we each got an iPhone. The 3Gs had just been released, so we picked up the most current model.

For a couple months, everything was fine. Then it happened. My wife got a job offer out of state, and we decided to take it. Our new city (as it happens, Phoenix, AZ) didn’t have the greatest AT&T reception. There were many “dead spots” in areas where we frequented. Even in our home we sometimes barely get any 3G bars. I realize that this isn’t the fault of the phone, but the network, but it’s here for context.

One morning, we were heading out to work, my wife grabs her phone, and it won’t turn on. Plugged in, unplugged, we get nothing. We take the time and go to the Apple Store, and talk to one of the “Geniuses” there. He plays around with the phone for about 30 minutes, and gets nowhere with it. Apple graciously replaces the phone for us since we hadn’t even bought it a year ago. Unfortunately, with the new phone, none of her apps transferred to the new phone. Any pictures were unrecoverable (couldn’t even crack open the phone and change out the battery), so we lost a good number of pictures and videos of our now almost 2 year old son. We were not pleased with this.

Not long after that, I started noticing my phone behaving oddly. The phone would turn off claiming the battery was dead when the meter still was reporting over 10% charge. When I say that the phone “turned off”, I mean that the screen just blacks out. No warning. Apps were crashing left and right, and the phone was virtually unusable. Again, we took it to the “Genius” bar. The “Geniuses” played around with the phone for a little while, and then reported to me that the reason the phone was doing that was that there was a bug in the OS software that was telling me there was charge when there wasn’t. He suggested that I completely reinstall the OS.

Under the mistaken impression that these “Geniuses” might actually know what the heck they’re talking about, I followed my orders. I reinstalled the OS from scratch, completely rebuilding my phone. No change to the behavior of the phone. Still crashes apps, still dies before the battery meter makes it even close to zero.

We take it back to the Apple Store. The “Geniuses” tell me that the bug that caused the problem in the first place is still present in the current version of the OS, and that the next version of the OS will resolve the problem for me. All I need to do is wait for the next release.

Still, for some reason, thinking that they might have some semblance of a clue, I wait. Next version comes, and it doesn’t solve the problem. I rebuild the OS from scratch again, and it still doesn’t help.

At this point, I’ve given up on the “Geniuses”. They know what Apple tells them. I can’t use the word “Genius” without heaping derision on it when referring to Apple’s employees.

The phone is getting worse. The phone dies with 30% or 40% of the battery still supposedly charged. Apps barely run on the stupid thing any more, and many of the ones that I actually liked fail to load at all.

With about six months left in my AT&T contract, the phone has begun shutting down with 90% charge still apparently available. I bite the bullet and buy a Case-Mate battery extender. This thing is really the only thing that keeps phone working. It fools the phone into thinking that it’s plugged in. The Case-Mate battery only gives me about 3 hours charge, but right now, the battery in the phone is giving me less than 15 minutes. I have to keep the phone plugged in virtually all day, and when I can’t keep it plugged in, I turn on the Case-Mate so at least the phone thinks it’s plugged in.

Now, with under a month to go until this AT&T contract expires, I will be running (not walking) to the nearest Verizon store to replace this nightmare of a device as quickly as I can. I will replace this spotty network, and I will replace this disaster of a phone. I can honestly say that the iPhone was the worse tech purchase I’ve ever made, and the only thing it excelled at was making me miss my LG.

To the people that tell me constantly that the iPhone is “Magical” or “Revolutionary”, I tell you that you can take this phone. The sooner the better as far as I’m concerned.

The countdown has begun.

There is an ending to my pain, and if I have my way, I will never own another Apple product again.

Linux: It Just Works

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Recently, a friend of mine and I were discussing his phone and his desire to buy the iPhone 5 to replace his Android phone. Personally, think moving from an Android to an iPhone is a mistake, but that’s not really the point of this particular posting.

During the course of the conversation, the phrase came up “It just works.” I’ve heard this phrase countless times over the years to describe one OS or another, and it’s always seemed weird to me.

For something to “just work”, the task that you’re trying to perform has to be within the subset of tasks the device is inherently capable of. For example, if I were to want to browse the web, in today’s day and age, pretty much any computer or smart phone I picked up would “just work”. They all come with built in web browsers and networking capability. So the claim “it just works” could apply to any of them. A secondary, counter example would be, if I were to want to dig a hole in my back yard. Now, short of using the case as some sort of digging device, none of those devices could claim to “just work”.

What this really boils down to is this: Whether a device “just works” or not is subjective to a particular persons needs.

For me (and I’d go so far as to claim most people), what I need in a computer is simple.

  1. I need a word processor. This doesn’t have to be Microsoft Word, or Lotus something or other. To often, people get tied up in names. I’d be willing to bet that Open Office or LibreOffice can perform most if not all tasks required of an average user.
  2. I need a spread sheet. Again, it doesn’t  have to be a particular brand name, and again, Open Office or LibreOffice more than meet the needs of the majority.
  3. I need access to the Web. Linux supports Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and other web browsers. All are capable of browsing the vast majority of the web.
  4. I need to view graphics. I have a digital camera and two kids. I want to see video and images of those kids on my computer. Linux more than covers these bases, and does so with ease and style. No issues there.

So, when it really comes down to it, Linux does all the things that the average person requires from their OS. On top of those things, it’s easy to use, stable, and close enough to being virus free that it makes the Mac look like a cesspool of infection.

Based on those facts, I think it’s safe to say it.

Linux:  It just works.

My First Week (and change) with a Natty Netbook

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Pretty much immediately after the release of the newest Ubuntu (Natty Narwhal), I downloaded it and replaced my existing version of Ubuntu (Maverick Meerkat) on my Netbook.

There’s been a lot of discussion regarding whether Unity was a good choice or a very bad thing since it appeared on Meerkat. I’m not going to pretend to resolve that issue, but I will say that I don’t mind it on my Netbook. It was present in Meerkat, and it’s present in Narwhal. I can say that it’s greatly improved since Meerkat, and if you didn’t like it there, you should probably give it another shot before passing judgement.

The OS speed improvement for me was drastic and obvious in Unity as well as in the rest of the OS. Applications seemed to fire open where they were poky to say the least before.

The Operating System improvements are nice as well. Upgraded software versions, and changes to the media player are welcome.

There are some things that I would like to see some improvement on as well.

First of all, Unity doesn’t let you move the bar. While the screen size of your average Netbook definitely loans itself to having the bar on the side, it would be nice to have the ability to move it on my Desktop, and I might just want to have it on the right instead of the left? Maybe?

The other thing that I’ve been trying to do is change the wallpaper on my login screen. Seems like it should be a pretty straight forward and easy thing to do right? But no, I’ve tried every utility I can find, copied files here there and everywhere. Nothing works. If anybody reading this can give me a heads up as to how this is accomplished, I would gladly take that advice.

Ballmer’s Really REALLY Afraid

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In an article by Bloomberg today, it was revealed that Microsoft is forking over more than $1,000,000,000 to Nokia to have them make Windows 7 phones. That’s 9 zeros there folks. Despite the fact that Microsoft has handed over (or is in the process of handing over) an extremely large sum of money, it doesn’t seem to be reversing their fortunes any.

Steve Ballmer must be very afraid of Google and the Android platform. VERY.

Pwn2Own 2011 is coming! Place your bets…

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The Pwn2Own 2011 contest is right around the corner. It’s going to be March 9th, 10th, and 11th. It looks like Linux will be not participating again this year with the exception of Android. Maybe that’s because it’s a foregone conclusion that it won’t be Pwned. Who knows.

Android is in the mix this year in the mobile category. Here’s the contenders:

  • Dell Venue Pro running Windows 7
  • iPhone 4 running iOS
  • Blackberry Torch 9800 running Blackberry 6 OS
  • Nexus S running Android

My predictions are they will fall in this order:

  1. iPhone 4.
  2. Dell Venue Pro
  3. Blackberry.
  4. Android.

I really was torn about 3 and 4 (but 1 and 2 were easy). Blackberry has been shown to be fairly security aware. I guess time will tell.

What are your predictions?

Regarding Android Malware

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I’ve been reading a lot recently about 21 applications in the Android Market that contained malware, a potential timer, and other miscellaneous bad things. While I’ll agree that this is a very bad thing, I think it’s more of a failing of the Android Market than the device itself.

As phones are becoming more and more like full blown computers, it stands to reason that if the user of the phone installs an application (app)  and gives it the permissions it asks for, it’s going to be able to do what ever it wants. This is a given. The fact that this kind of thing is possible to me is a t estimate of the power of the platform. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I’d argue the inverse. The same thing is possible in any computer Operating System.

Where the real failing is here is the fact that these applications were available for download from the Android Market. I don’t advocate Google installing rules like Apple where developers survive at Apple’s whim, but I do think that some checks should be put into place to verify the quality and authenticity of the apps being distributed by the Market. Google is putting it’s name and the Android name on this market, and applications that come from the Market should be at the very minimum authenticated.

It should be noted that installing more stringent checks on the Market won’t prevent this type of thing entirely, as Android isn’t the iOS, and applications don’t have to go through Google to be installed (this is a GOOD thing). Because of that, it will always be important to verify that the apps you’re installing on your phone are trustworthy, but at least make the apps that are being distributed by the Market trustworthy.

Linux and the Command Line

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In this day and age, pretty much anything in Linux can be done from the GUI. That being said, the command line holds such tremendous power that it really shouldn’t be ignored. If you’re not familiar with the Linux command line, and you have a Linux box that you can use, I’d highly recommend familiarizing yourself with it. Here’s some basic commands that I use almost every day. Keep in mind, some of the syntax may vary depending on distribution.

ls: ls is one of the most basic and important commands. It can give you a list of files in a specified directory, or the current one if you don’t specify. More or less information can be requested using flags. For example, I use “ls -alrt” almost constantly. This command and flags will show you all the files in a directory (even the hidden ones) in long listing format. Not only that, but it puts them in reverse order by modification time. In short, it puts the most recently modified files at the bottom. Very handy.

cd: cd is another of the most basic commands you’ll run at the Linux command line. It will change the current working directory to a specified directory, or if no directory is specified, take you to your home folder. Adding a dash to the end (cd -) will take you to your previous location, which can come in very handy if you’re moving around a lot, or if the path to that location is extremely long. It can also be used in conjunction with another command, which can be endlessly useful. For example, “cd /home/mike && runcommand.t”, which will take you to the directory /home/mike and execute the “runcommand.t” file, and then return you to the previous location.

cat: cat is useful in and of itself, but it doesn’t start to really shine until you add it to other commands. cat dumps the contents of a specified file out to standard out (your terminal) for your viewing. If the file is to large, then things can be a little overwhelming, but that’s really where other commands can come into play. grep and awk (which we’re getting to) are two of the more useful, but others that you’d never expect can be valuable. For example, using the command “time cat”, will start a stopwatch that will stop when ctrl-d is pressed.

find: This command does pretty much what you’d expect it to do. If you’re looking for a file, type of file, or basically anything in the file system, find can find it for you. This command is one that I’ve seen vary a lot over time and distribution, but it’s usefulness is hard to question. The one problem that I have with this command is that it searches the entire file tree you specify, so if you give it /, it will search any and every path you have permissions to, which can take a great deal of time. That is where locate really shines, so it may be a better choice if you’re not sure at least on a general location. I’m not going to go into examples for find, just because it’s such a powerful command, I couldn’t do it justice in a single paragraph.

locate: Searches a database of files on your computer to make finding files quicker. locate can be very handy, but it’s not always installed on a system, so it’s not as universal as the actual “find” command. A command (updatedb) has to be run to update the file location database, so files that are new to the system won’t be found until if you run the locate command without the updatedb command.

grep: If you’re looking for a pattern of some kind in a file, grep is the tool for the job. It can be used on it’s own to find a pattern in a single or multiple files, or it can be an amazingly handy tool to pipe output from other commands to. Using the grep command by itself, you can get things like “grep -n mike *”, which would go through all the files in the current directory and find the name mike in all of them. It will print out on the page every time it finds a match, and the file name, and the line number. Very handy. Also, the command can be used like “ls -alrt|grep mike”, which will give you a list of all the files in the current directory that have “mike” anywhere in their information (which could be in more places than just the file name).

awk: awk is kind of an interesting command, and one that’s hard to really get to know. It, like grep, is an excellent pattern matching command, but I’ve never used awk straight from the command line like I do with grep. awk can be used to find multiple different patterns in a single command. One example would be “awk ‘/string1/ || /string2/’ filename”. This would find any lines that contained either string1, or string2 in the file filename. Very cool if you spend a lot of time parsing information from text files.

wget: wget is a command that I use endlessly. I’m not sure it should be included here as a “command” in Linux since it’s really a stand-alone application, but it’s usefulness is so great that I feel like I have to include it. wget can be used to grab files from the Internet or Intranet in almost any way you want to do it. If there’s not a book on all the ways that wget can be used, there should be. My usual use is updating WordPress themes or plugins since I’ve never set it up to do automatic updates, but it can be used for downloading pretty much any kind of file as long as you’ve got the path to that file.

There really is so many more useful commands that I haven’t even touched on, I feel like I’m not giving the command line it’s due. I know that I could literally type for hours here going over the multitude of possibilities and uses for all these command line tools, so I’m not feeling super super guilty. Some I didn’t even touch on also so much functionality, it’s really kind of embarrassing to not mention them. sed, sort, touch, etc. This doesn’t even mention other applications, like ssh or ftp, which can be used to further extend the functionality of the command line.

If you’ve always been afraid of the command line, or you’ve never even tried to use it, now’s your chance. Fire it up and give it a shot. You’ll be glad you did.