Marcel's Blog

Yesterday afternoon, I gave a talk at the University of Waterloo as part of their annual WatItIs technology conference. WatItIs is "WatITis is a one day conference for those involved in IT planning, support and decision making at the University of Waterloo." As such, it tends to cover a lot of ground, when it comes to the technology it explores. I attended talks on video conferencing by Koorus Bookan, and another by Ken Salem who gave an high-level introduction to cloud computing.

My particular talk was titled "Seeding the Clouds", a live demonstration of what's involved in deploying servers and operating systems in the cloud, and a strangely appropriate followup to Ken's talk. As part of that demonstration, I deployed an Ubuntu 8.10 64 bit system in Amazon's EC2 cloud, then logged in. I also created a machine under KVM using virt-manager on Salmar Consulting's servers. Finally, as a demonstration of a Web OS, I installed eyeOS, then had people create accounts and log in. Live. All in under 40 minutes. While I'm not much of a slide presentation guy (I prefer demonstrating things), I did prepare this somewhat lighthearted introduction to my talk if you're curious.

My sincere thanks to the University of Waterloo for making me feel welcome and for putting on a great conference. Special thanks to my good friend, Lawrence Folland, for helping me navigate my way through the campus maze. The GPS didn't help but you did. [ insert appropriate smiley here ]

A couple of weeks ago, I bought my five year old son an Acer Aspire One netbook. Not that he really needs a netbook, but it's another item in our ever-growing arsenal of tools designed to help him develop the skills he needs to develop. That's not really the story here. The story is that the Acer netbook came with Windows XP pre-installed. Since I primarily wanted to use the netbook as a learning tool, I installed gCompris, TuxPaint, TuxType, and OpenOffice. The latter is set to hide most menus, rulers, etc, and default to a 72 point font. At first I figured that since I wasn't going to be working with the netbook, that I would just leave XP on it and be done with it.

Except I do have to deal with it. I have to start it up, log him in, fire up the appropriate application, and so on. It took me a handful of times to discover how impossibly dreadful XP is on a netbook. It was unbearably slow, obtrusive, and definitely not designed for the device in question. The slowness was the part that practically drove me to drinking (more than usual, I mean). Do I need to point out that five year-olds don't have a lot of patience? Waiting 5 minutes while the system comes out of hibernation, lets you log in, reconnects to the network, and brings up a word processor is asking that five year-old to go find something else to do. I won't even go into the annnoying non-stop display of popups that plague Windows users worldwide. No, I refuse to mention it.

I shouldn't have to come clean on this, but I will. I'm not the world's biggest fan of Microsoft Windows (really?) but I recognize its position in business and on most of the world's desktop. But trust me. It doesn't belong on a netbook.

Read my complete post over at the Ubuntu User Website.

This morning, I filled up my car, as I often do, at the Shell station near my house. I use Shell not because I think they're a wonderful petroleum company (are there any?) but because it's the closest to my house. As I often do, as I fill up, my mind wanders to pretty much anything my eyes land on, including the advertising on the pump itself. Which got me to thinking, as I often do, about the mixed messages on that pump. Consider the following.

The industry has been trying to tell us that it cares about the environment and, because it cares, it adds up to as much as 10% ethanol to our fuel. If you believe the ethanol industry, ethanol is much better environmentally, and should be encouraged if, indeed, you are the sort of person who cares about the environment.

Consider this a Thanksgiving post. I know most of you are away eating, or arguing with family. Up here, in the Great White North, Thanksgiving was back in early October so I'm sort of working today. You might say I'm indulging in a different kind of bird. Just what kind of bird, however, was something I was very curious about.

Like many others, I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy of the new killer OS from Google. I wanted to try it out. Kick the tires. Take it for a spin. That sort of thing.

So I downloaded the VMware image on the site and saved it to my disk, then created a virtual machine inside VirtualBox using the VMDK image as the disk file. Then I booted it and started looking around. It took me about 20 seconds to figure out that the login was my GMail user name and password and I was off.

Read the complete post over at the Ubuntu User Website.

 After looking at this rather cool animation, I am sold. I think the earth should have rings, just like Saturn. As an astronomy buff from forever ago, I can tell you that while Jupiter is very cool in a backyard telescope (and took my breath away during the great comet crash of 1994), Saturn is a singular, and spectacular, jewel in the night sky.

Thanks to Lew Pitcher for pointing this one out to me.  Let me quote this observation from Lew: "Now, given that the moon has been both an inspiration for astronomy and a source of endless measurements, how would human science and history have gone if, instead of a Moon, we had Rings?  Interesting concept, isn't it?"

Indeed.

There's a provocatively titled article by Robert Strohmeyer over at PC World that professes "The Future of Linux is Google". It waxes prophetically about how Google will eventually dominate all that is Linux and Open Source, and that "it's time for the Linux world to rally". It starts off with a nod to Ubuntu, with the author telling us he used to believe Ubuntu (and Canonical) was destined to lead Linux into the mainstream. The reason I can't seem to get this one out of my mind is because of the whole rallying thing; the idea that Google is now Linux's great hope and that we should all rally behind Google. Forget about Ubuntu and the others. Google is where it's at, even if Chrome doesn't officially exist yet. Seemingly seconds after the article's publication, Chrome OS because available for download, as if fate were doffing its cap to Google's power. It's interesting reading and I do recommend that you check it out.

But let's be honest though. Without Linux, Google might not have grown into the powerhouse you see today. I'm not saying it wouldn't have been a successful company, just not as successful. It sure as hell wouldn't be as profitable as it is if its option was to hand out individual license payments to Microsoft for each and every server it deployed. For the sake of brevity, I won't even start on Linux's obvious superiority as a server OS when compared to Windows.

For the complete article on the Ubuntu User Website, click yon friendly link.

A few days have passed since the big exciting release of the Karmic Koala. Reviews are mixed with people claiming it's the greatest Ubuntu release of all time, and others saying it's an utter disappointment. That's to be expected, of course. People focus on different things and some people will find themselves running a trouble free release. Others will notice weird video problems, flickering screens, and application crashes. If you really must ask, my experience is mixed. All in all, I am feeling rather positive about where things are going.

An other issue that clouds my judgement somewhat is that I usually start running a new release in the late Alpha stages. I need to know where things are going and what people are working on. In fact, that's usually where I get most excited; thinking about all the cool stuff that's coming out. Consequently, I'm likely to load up the third or fourth alpha of the upcoming Languid Lemur, 10.04.

Throughout this, I'm always happy (and a little impressed) to note that the people directly involved in putting out a distribution like this are able to sit back, look at their work with a critical eye, and lay down the groundwork that will improve and build on what they've only just released. That's why I was excited to hear about Project Timelord on the Kubuntu site. Inspired by Doctor Who, the mysterious Time Lord who travels in his TARDIS, righting wrongs (strangely enough, by getting into trouble), the team is looking to improve Kubuntu on a few key fronts. These include translation and localization, bug tracking and squashing, quality management, Kubuntu specific tool development and integration, and my personal favorite, marketing.

Read the whole story on the Ubuntu User Website.

Today, I start with yet another online presence. I have a new blog over at Ubuntu-User.com, a companion site to the new Ubuntu User magazine by the fine people who bring you the slick, shiny LinuxPro Magazine. The second issue of the quarterly Ubuntu User magazine, in which another new column of mine appears, is on store shelves now. I'm very excited about this new blog, the Ubuntu User column, and I'm totally thrilled about my new monthly column which will be appearing in the pages of LinuxPro Magazine starting with the December issue.

Since this is day one of the new blog (which I call "Orbiting Planet *buntu*), here's an intro. To read the rest, click the Read More link at the end of this teaser. The first post is titled "U Done Me Right. U Done Me Wrong." Enjoy!

Ah, the first post of a new blog. It's opportunity. It's possibilities. It's the chance to create something new and exciting, or to totally fall flat on your face. I love the pressure. As I look around at this new place, I think I'm going to like it here. I'm excited by the shiny new glossy magazine that is Ubuntu User and I know you will be too.

So, what shall I talk about? Apparently, I can talk about pretty much anything. Given that this is post number one, I'm going to start with a quick overview of what you can expect here. I've been writing about, talking about, getting exciting about ( and a whole bunch more abouts) Linux, including other free and open source software offerings (aka FOSS) for years. I've given talks on Linux, done Linux training, spoken at Linux User Groups, done radio interviews and shows about Linux and FOSS, and I've done a number of television appearances talking about, uh huh, Linux and FOSS. You might say I'm a little passionate about it. What's more, I believe that Linux and FOSS are good for the world.

Click here to read more of this blog

Who's listening? Apparently not many.

This is a story about not paying attention, or choosing not to. I'll let the philosophers argue about which is worse. For the sake of this post, I just want to talk about the yellow ribbon campaign. You know the one. A soldier comes home from the war in Iraq or Afghanistan and people wrap yellow ribbons around the trees as a welcome. This morning I was chatting with a young lady, aged 25, who had no idea what the significance of the yellow ribbon was. If you, like her, don't know, then let me enlighten you. Then I'll tell you why it's nonsense.

Oh, and today, on April 14, 2009, CBC Radio reported that 21 year-old Trooper Karine Blais died in Afghanistan. She is the second Canadian female soldier to die in combat in Afghanistan. Ironically, yesterday, a local family dropped off yellow ribbons to all the houses in our neighborhood, asking us to tie those ribbons around our trees to welcome their son, 23, who is making it back.

About that song . . . It all started with a 1970s band called Tony Orlando and Dawn.

This past weekend, a friend dropped in with an interesting bottle of wine she picked up while driving through the Niagara wine region (thanks, Genine). The 2006 Pipe Down is a blend of 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Syrah, and 10% Petit Verdot, aged 16 months in French oak casks.

The Organized Crime Winery in Beamsville, Ontario, has such an interesting name, you must hear a little about its name and the origins thereof. It seems that in the early 1900s. there were two Mennonite congregations who fought over a rather liberal idea, to play music in the church. The liberal congregation acquired a small organ, an act that greatly irked the more conservative of these two congregations. The outrage was such that on night, the stricter, presumably more God-fearing group broke into the church belonging to those sinful, liberal-minded Mennonites, stole the organ, smashed it to bits, and threw the wreckage down an embankment into a stream below. Oh, the irony.

So, how was the wine? Pleasant. A little cherry and oakiness on the nose. It has a nice deep ruby colour, but it is nevertheless surprisingly light. That said, I would be more likely to recommend it with food than on its own though it is still a fairly nice drinking wine. Dry with a long finish. The cork has the words, "Thou Shalt Not Steal Music" written around its perimeter. You can visit the winery's Website by clicking here.