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KINDLE REVIEW

With the Australian dollar currently worth more than the US dollar, now is the time to buy stuff from the U.S.

I have had an Amazon account for some time and have always been interested in their eBook reader, the Kindle, so I bought one.

The process is simple. First set up an Amazon Account. You need to give them a credit card number but Amazon is a reputable major US company and giving them your Credit Card details is as safe as these things can be. Far safer than handing your card over to say a waiter at a restaurant which is something we do regularly without thinking too much about it.

Amazon also owns Audible and the UK government is currently considering the proposed acquisition by Amazon of “The Book Depository”. Amazon and Audible have my Credit card details but I use PayPal for “The Book Depository”.

After the account is set up, log in and you can then buy a Kindle direct from Amazon if you wish. CARE!!! – If you want a wall charger make sure to get both on the same order to save on postage.

I selected the Wi-Fi only model without ads for $139. There is a cheaper option at $114 that has adds on the screen saver. A model is also available with 3G Wireless Internet access if you want to be able to buy books anywhere at any time. However, I have a Wi-Fi network at home and a Telstra Prepaid Mobile Wi-Fi router so I don’t need to pay extra for 3G. If you have an iPhone with Telstra (and other carriers I assume) you can set it up as a Wi-Fi router and connect your Kindle to the internet via iPhone.

After I ordered it, I was astounded when it turned up just a few days later. I don’t know how they did it but the package said that it was posted from 1850 Mercer Road, Lexington KY USA.

It is ready to go when you get it. Apart from charging it and inputting the WPA password to get on your home Wi-Fi network, there is nothing else to do as it is already registered to the Amazon Account from which it was ordered. You have full control over the device via your Amazon Account so you can change registration and account details if necessary.

It comes with a USB cable to charge from a computer but you do not need a computer to operate it. I purchased the wall charger (optional extra) so mine has never been hooked up to a computer.

Buying books could not be simpler. Providing you are on the internet via any 3G or Wi-Fi network, you go to the Kindle Store link on the Kindle, browse and select a book and click on buy and within seconds it downloads and you can start reading.

Alternatively, can also log into the Amazon site on a computer and buy Kindle books there and they will automatically download onto your Kindle. However, I have never used this option but I do sometimes browse on the computer but, after I have made a selection, I go back to the Kindle to buy it.

There are two important matters that need to be addressed.

FIRST – THE BAD NEWS – This is the lack of available books to Australian Account Holders. As is the case with Audible, there are thousands upon thousands of books available both old and new in the Kindle format until, that is, you log in with your Australian Account. This is not the fault of Amazon or Audible. It is however the fault of Australian Publishers. Yes, the exact same bright sparks who moan and groan and complain about falling sales and closing book shops apparently don’t seem to realise they have a growing number of people with money in their hands wanting to buy their product. But for reasons known only to them, they have decided that they don’t like the colour of our money or something. It beats me but because of this I have no sympathy at all for them. If my money is not good enough they can go to hell. I will now only buy from Audible and Kindle and, if not available from these sources, I will buy paper books from The Book Depository in the UK (or Amazon in the US but The Book Depository is cheaper and they only take about 2 to 3 weeks to get here).

SECOND – THE GOOD NEWS – In general you can have up to 6 devices (Kindle, iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone etc.) connected to one Amazon Account. (Sometimes it is less depending on individual publications. In this case you are told of the limit). This means that you only need to buy a book once for up to six devices to be able to share it.

This is always the first question I get asked about the Kindle. Most families buy one book and share it around various family members. The following is copied from the Amazon Web Site http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_kip_faq_num?nodeId=200298470&#howmany

How many Kindles can I use to access titles in my library?

Most books and other non-subscription items you purchase from the Kindle store may be simultaneously accessed for your personal use on up to six Kindles (or Kindle compatible devices, such as Kindle for iPhone) registered to your Amazon.com account. If the limit is less than six kindles for a specific title, you’ll see the message "Simultaneous Device usage: Up to X simultaneous devices, per publisher limits" on the detail page.

If you reach the device limit and wish to replace one of your current devices with a new one, you must first deregister and delete the content from the device you wish to replace before you can access the content in question from your new device. For device registration instructions, please see the Help page for the device you wish to register/deregister on the Kindle Support pages. There is no limit on the number of times a title can be downloaded to a registered device.

Subscription content can only be downloaded to one Kindle at a time and cannot be accessed from Kindle for iPhone.

Therefore if you want to share books, you have the option to buy more than one Kindle or if you have an iPad, iPhone, iPod touch etc. you can register these devices.

However you may want to seriously consider the multiple Kindle option as it is the perfect device on which to read books. The Kindle basically does one thing but it does that one thing faultlessly.

Here is a summary of my review:

· The Kindle behaves a lot like a paper book. You turn pages with back / forward buttons and use bookmarks. It is not backlit. Consequently, you need a light to read by, but by the same token this means that there is no trouble using it in bright sunlight – just like a book.

· Because of the technology it uses (no back light for the screen), the battery lasts for weeks if not months. You are given plenty of warning when the battery is getting low. To re-charge, either plug into a computer or the wall socket (with the optional extra cord). I have had mine for 2 months and I have only fully depleted the battery once but, even then, I ran an Audio Book through the speakers for days to run it down.

· Mine has 3 GB of memory so that it will hold thousands of books (depending on size). When (and if) you fill up your Kindle, you can delete content but it always remains available on your Amazon Account Archive to be downloaded again at any time (much like Audible).

· The Kindle weighs less than a book and you don’t have to hold it open like you do with a book.

· The prices of individual books vary but all are significantly less that paper books. To give you some idea, here a couple of examples – More Recent Books – Harry Bosch (Michael Connelly) novels – The Overlook (published 2007) $7.59 – – 9 Dragons Published 2009 $8.42 — Jack Reacher (Lee Child) “Worth Dying For” Published 2010 $9.12– Dan Brown “The Lost Symbol” $8.63

Older books can be really cheap but my 2 most recent purchases were:

Zero Day (Mark Russinovich) $11.99
The End of the Wasp Season (Denise Mina) $9-99

· Dictionary – There are any number of very handy features that the Kindle provides but one of the best is the Dictionary function. If you come across a word you don’t know, you just put the cursor before it and a definition appears at the bottom. In the book “The End of the Wasp Season” which is about a Scottish detective, the word “oxter” came up. I had no idea what it meant but with the Kindle Dictionary function I just scrolled the cursor down to the beginning of this word and the following definition appeared at the bottom of the page – “oxter” – Scottish – N English – A person’s Armpit”

· Find Function – When I wanted to find “oxter” in the book to write this blog, I used the Find / Search function and found it immediately. Try doing that with a paper book!

· One feature that I have found that I need is “Bookmarks.” Just like a paper book you can turn down the top corner of a page as a “bookmark” and you find this place again from the Menu / View Notes and Marks. When you leave your Kindle it remembers the last page that you were on but I have found that with my clumsy hands I frequently accidentally press the page back / forward buttons thus losing my place. So I have trained myself to add a bookmark (as I would have to do with a paper book).

· Print / page Size. It is fully adjustable and you can make the print bigger or smaller with plenty of settings that will satisfy all tastes including type size, words per line and whether you want it to be vertical or horizontal. There is also a “Text to Speech” function that I have not yet tried. (I tried it just now – It is typical Computer type speech – I’ll stick with Audible).

· The Kindle store has publications other than books. Newspapers, magazines etc. are available and every time I look the list grows longer. Magazines and Newspapers might be better on an iPad but at least this is an option. I have heard that in the U.S., text books are now being made available on Kindle and this seems to me to be a great idea. Not only should this make text books much cheaper, but it would also reduce the bulk of printed books that students need to carry around these days.

· There are plenty of other functions that I won’t go into here but, after you make a couple of purchases, Kindle makes suggestions for similar books you might like and you can download your Audible Audio Books and listen to them via the Kindle’s speakers (or headphones).

· Each Kindle comes with a private Kindle Email address that you can use to download your own content onto it via an attachment to an Email (that you send to your Kindle Email). Many formats are acceptable including Word Documents, PDF and JPG pictures and more. See http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200505520&#email

COMPLAINTS

I am genuine when I say this but I can’t think of anything to complain about (apart from the content issue for Australians but this is not the fault of Amazon / Kindle).

However I will mention a couple of things that you should be aware of:

1. Impulse buying – If ever there was a device designed to encourage impulse buying it is the Kindle. It is just so easy, quick and cheap to buy books. One of the books mentioned above (The End of the Wasp Season) was an impulse buy. I was listening to our local talk radio (4BC Brisbane) and every Friday they have a lady who reviews books. She highly recommended this one and I went to my Kindle and before I knew it I had clicked “Buy”. (Yes – It was a good book and I enjoyed it but I will have to exercise a bit of self-control in future).

2. Bookmarks – As mentioned above, I have had to train myself to always add a book mark to my last page as I have a terrible habit of accidently clicking the Forward / Back buttons when I put it down after I finish reading. I am trained now but when I first got it, I had to leaf back to find my place on many an occasion (just like when you lose your place on a regular book).

SUMMARY

I know a lot of people will baulk at paying for a Kindle but with the average cost of a Kindle book at about half of the retail price of a paperback book at the large chain stores like Big W or K Mart it would not take all that long to recover the purchase price.

The issue of available content for Australians cannot be overlooked but one would hope that Australian publishers will eventually wake up to the fact that they have a growing number of eBook readers with money to spend. Also remember that Big W and K Mart do have some limitations on the range they carry and if you are forced to go to a book store to find what you want then prices are higher again.

On the other hand a Kindle is better than a book. It is light and easy to use with heaps of handy functions. Buying books at any time day or night is cheap and simple (as long as you have an internet connection). Moreover, you can carry around thousands of books on a small light device.

For me it is a “no brainer”

Now I must get back to reading “Zero Day” (by Mark Russinovich). Although I am not sure that I ever should have started reading it. This is from the Amazon Description:-

The horror of cyberterrorism explodes on the page in Russinovich’s first novel. A plane over the Atlantic suddenly needs to reboot its computer to stay in the air, and the pilots barely avert disaster. A hospital network mixes up patient information, resulting in the death of several people. A law firm, which has lost all of its clients’ data and can’t get its system running again…,

“So what” – I hear you say – “It is just another work of fiction”.

Maybe – but look at who the author is – See Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Russinovich

If ever there was a bloke who knew what he was talking about it is him! I think I will sell all my computers and anything using a computer to operate (there goes my new car), stop flying in planes, going to hospitals and even shopping at Woolworths (their systems are fully computerised – my milk might get mixed up with the rat poison) and go and live in a tent in the bush somewhere.

UBUNTU – A REAL WORLD TEST

In a previous post “Re-Furbish – 1/10/09” I documented the refurbishment of an older computer on which I installed Ubuntu. By the time I was able to return this computer to its owners, Ubuntu had been updated to the latest version 9.10 (Karmic Koala).

The family have now been using this computer for about a month and I thought that it would be interesting to find out how they are coping with Ubuntu. The Ubuntu computer has been used mainly by the two teenage daughters both of whom can be regarded as generally proficient in technology including the use of computers.

Unfortunately the news is not all that good for Ubuntu. After one month, both daughters stated clearly that they would prefer to have Windows XP on the computer.

I am a little disappointed as I like Ubuntu and was hoping that it would get a better reception.

The daughters did not take into account that Ubuntu is free. To older people like me, the fact that Ubuntu is free and Windows costs an arm and a leg would be a significant factor when assessing the pros and cons of a product like a computer OS but it was not an issue in this assessment.

On the other hand, they did fully appreciate that Ubuntu is safe and virtually malware free and no anti-virus program is needed. But also it must be said that, in their world, they know that a fully patched copy of Windows is safe, unless you go looking for trouble, and there is a good free anti-virus program from Microsoft. Their only contact with viruses has been with computers belonging to their friends who have little/big brothers who use Limewire for “free” songs and surf for porn.

The girls are twins and I will refer to them as Twin L and Twin K. The school they attend uses computers running Windows OS and Microsoft Office. Extensive use is made of computers with both text books and homework work issued and completed on Thumb Drives. Students are expected to have home computers and to comply with Windows / MS Office standards.

When they first started using it they had to manually connect to their Wi-Fi network a few times but this issue is now OK. It connects automatically. Also (and this has happened to me) after an update either on Ubuntu or Windows, it stopped being able to print to a Vista attached printer. (This is a bloody annoyance to me also). However, apart from the printing issue, things generally are going OK.

With 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest their ratings and comments are:

TWIN L

Comment – She had no difficulty working out how to use Ubuntu.

Cons –

· She is used to Windows and would generally prefer to stay within the Windows world. She has had some formatting problems when opening larger Word (.doc) files particularly for textbooks. (I have advised on how to overcome this by the View / Zoom menu in Open Office). Further to this issue she does not like the default file formats for Open Office which require an extra step to save / open files in MS Office format.

Pros –

· She finds Ubuntu easy to use and is happy with web applications like Facebook / Myspace that are accessed the same as in Windows via Firefox. (The family uses Firefox as well as IE).

Rating 6 out of 10

TWIN K

Comment– Twin K is a little more positive. Like her sister she picked up how to use Ubuntu quickly and easily. She would use it permanently but for one great big deal breaker:

Cons –

· Deal Breaker -No iTunes

· Also the MSN Messenger substitutes are a little flaky.

Pros-

· Likes ease of use and safety and would be prepared to use it but for the iTunes issue

– Rating 7 out of 10

MY COMMENTS

I was hoping that they would really like it but I forget that most people use computers as a tool. They are comfortable with Windows and as their school and probably their future University and employers will use Windows, they probably see little point in using something different. Moreover, they are part of a generation that finds no difficulty with using technology and they could pick up a new OS without problems if and when the need arises. For example they would not need to be told how to use an iPhone.

Neither girl had any difficulty in using it. Rather, their complaints pertained to specific issues and I have to agree that the iTunes matter is significant. The things that would stop me from going fully to Ubuntu are the iTunes issue as well as the driver issue and lack of refinement on some of the programs (like the MSN Messenger substitute as pointed out by Twin K).

But I have to say that the biggest disappointment to me is that both girls want XP re-installed even though this is the third computer in the house. Their point is that it is just another tool and they have neither the inclination nor the patience to muck about with what they consider to be a second best choice.

Ah well – I tried!

NETGEAR WNDR3700 DUAL BAND WIRELESS-N GIGABIT ROUTER

NOTE – AN UPDATE AS AT Feb 2010

Recently I opened the router and completed a software update. I then put one of my Xbox 360s back on the 5GHZ band and the problems mentioned in my original post are no longer there. I get 4 out of 5 green bars on reception and, more importantly, the streaming from PC to Xbox 360 now works as well as it did on the 2.4 GHZ band.

Obviously the software update fixed whatever was originally causing the problems. Therefore I amend this post and remove any complaints about the 5GHZ band.

Also I re-tested the ReadyShare transfer rate by copying and pasting a 146MB video file.

When the external HDD was connected directly to the PC via USB2 the copy took 8/9 seconds. When connected via ReadyShare it took 3 minutes and 9 seconds.

My rating is 9 out of 10 and the only negative now (after the firmware is updated) is the slow ReadyShare transfer rate.

I decided, since it is Christmas, that I would upgrade my Home Wi-Fi network to the new 802.11N standard. While I was doing this, I also elected to buy a dual band router so that I could use the 5 GHz band for the Xbox 360s. I have two Xbox 360s and one is used mainly as a media extender to facilitate the viewing of recorded programs and other video on a TV set.

Everything that I have read suggests that the 5GHz band provides better performance for video transmissions.

Initially, I was looking at buying the latest (and expensive) D Link dual band router. Luckily, however, the technicians at my local computer business talked me into buying the Netgear WNDR3700 which is about half the price of the D Link. I am glad that they did.

Two new 802.11N Wi-Fi adaptors were also needed for the Xbox 360s and these are not cheap.

The Netgear WNDR 3700 was very easy to set up. I am running Windows 7 64 bit on my main computer and, as some people had complained on the internet that the install disk for the WNDR 3700 had problems with 64 bit Win7, I performed a manual install via a log on to 192.168.1.1.

I have nothing but praise for the clear and easy to use interface and I had it set up and running with log in passwords changed and WPA encryption applied in minutes. I did not try to use the set up disk so I can’t report on whether or not it works with Win 7 64 bit. However, the manual installation was so easy that I can’t see what extra benefit a disk could provide.

The router provides three separate networks – one in the 5 GHz band and two in the 2.4GHz band. The second 2.4GHz one is a “Guest Network” which came in very handy for me as my Wii will not connect when using WPA2 (AES). (I had the same problem with D Link so I guess it is something that needs to be fixed on the Wii.) I used WPA TKIP on the Guest network and the Wii connected without any further problems.

I have three devices that support 802.11N and 5 GHz – the 2 Xbox 360s and my Mac Book so I used 5GHz with them and everything else including my PS3 stayed on 802.11g with the Wii on the separate guest network.

However I have had a problem with this arrangement. The range of the 5 GHz frequency is very short and as the two Xbox 360s are at the opposite ends of the house (with the router in the middle) signal strength when running the X Box 360 Network Test varied from poor to average. This was very disappointing. When the signal is average the Xbox 360 Media Centre network test showed all green bars for receiving HD TV. On the other hand, when the signal strength dropped, this test performed badly. When actually viewing recorded HD TV stored on my computer via the Xbox 360s, there were drop outs and a slow response to the remote controller. It was worse than when using 802.11g. See note above.

I had also read that it was not wise to have a mixture of 802.11N and 802.11g devices together on the same 2.4GHz network as this slowed everything down to the 802.11g speed. Nevertheless, I put everything on this band and went back and did the tests with the X Box 360s again. This time the signal was a solid full strength and the Media Centre test was also solid full green bars whether or not I had 802.11g devices running at the same time.

Therefore, at least in my case, 802.11N (with some 802.11g devices) on a single 2.4 GHz band is all that I needed. Aren’t I glad that the Techs at the shop talked me out of the more expensive D Link as further reading on the subject suggests that 5GHz performance deteriorates rapidly over distance.

Despite this issue, I still like the WNDR 3700 and I guess that I will buy the WNDA 3100 USB Wi-Fi dual band adaptor so that I can use and get the benefit of the 5 GHz band on my second computer which is located much closer to the router than the 2 Xbox 360s. I walked around with my Mac Book (which is using 5GHz) and ~~this confirmed that the 5GHz signal strength does indeed fall off quickly with distance~~. See note above – The 5GHZ reception, while slightly less that the 2.4GHZ is now OK – at say 20 meters behind a wall, 2.4GHZ was 5 out of 5 bars and 5GHZ 4 out of 5 bars.

Of course, I can’t say whether or not another brand of router would perform any better, but I can say that 802.11N (backwards compatible to at least g) with a mixture of N & G devices on one 2.4GHz network is all that is needed.

Another important thing is that, if you do not turn off UPnP, Xbox live works flawlessly with this router.

~~Even though I am a little disappointed with the 5GHz performance~~ (See note above – 5GHZ is now OK), I am not sorry that I bought this router. ~~The shortcoming with 5GHz is made up for by the performance in the~~ 2.4GHZ band performs very well and 5GHZ is also good. In addition there are a number of functions that I really like. I will list a few of these:

· It is a Gigabit router

· It has an on/off switch. Many routers do not have this simple facility and you have to remove the power cord to turn them off

· There is also a button to turn the Wi-Fi on and off

· The control interface is easy to use and extensive. Unlike some other routers, doing things like port forwarding etc is made very easy.

· It checks for and installs updates automatically. (You can easily turn this off or on as desired.) It updated automatically the first time I used it without any input on my part. Updating other routers I have used has been something of a challenge.

· The LEDs on the front are easy to understand and let you know what the router is doing

· You can attach a USB drive to it that becomes available on your network

· It has something called WPS which is a function that works with WPS enabled devices to make it very easy to set up a secure network. I have not used this as I do not have any WPS enabled devices but it seems to me to be a good thing for people who have trouble with WPA passwords and the rigmarole in setting up a secure network.

· It has an easy to use back up function that makes it simple to re-set the router.

· There are many other things that I have not fully explored like WDS, QoS and traffic monitoring.

There is a good review here at CNET http://www.cnet.com.au/netgear-rangemax-dual-band-wireless-n-gigabit-router-wndr3700-339298270.htm

I note that CNET also found the 5GHz performance not so good and they also criticised the speed of data transfer rate of the “Ready Share USB Storage Access”.

~~I agree with their assessment about the 5GHz speed~~ (See note above)but I conducted my own test of the data transfer speed for a USB attached HDD.

I used a 372MB Video Podcast file on my computer’s HDD and an external USB HDD.

· First test is a transfer from Computer HDD to USB HDD when the USB HDD is attached directly to the computer – TIME 15 seconds

· Second with the USB HDD attached to my Belkin Network USB Hub – TIME 1 min 36 seconds

· Third with the USB HDD attached to the WNDR3700 Router. – TIME 3 minutes and 24 seconds

This confirms CNET’s tests and comments. CNET gives the WNDR3700 a rating 7.3 out of 10 and users give it 7.7 0ut of 10.

I would give it ~~8 out of 10~~. 9 out of 10

Pros – everything I have mentioned above

Cons – ~~The signal strength of the 5GHz Wi-Fi drops off quickly over relatively short distances but this is offset by excellent 2.4GHz performance~~. Data transfer rate of the “Ready Share USB Storage Access” is slow but I will not be using this feature and, in any case, I did not know it had this function before I bought it. I will continue to use my Belkin Network USB Hub which itself is a bit slow compared with a direct connection.

Summary

Excellent router with the only 2 1 negatives mentioned above. ~~If your Xbox 360 or similar 802.11 N 5GHz enabled device is within a reasonable range of the router~~ I would not hesitate to recommend it.

I note that the Netgear site has a “coming soon” WNR 3500L Gigabit model which appears to be the same as the WNDR3700 but without the 5GHz. However the specs for this one do not mention the “Multiple SSID” with a “Guest” network and, if this is the case, I would recommend getting the WNDR3700 just for this excellent feature even if you have no current use for the 5GHz band.

Furthermore, the cost of routers has dropped substantially. I paid AUD$235 which is not too bad considering I paid $150 for a DI624 four years ago. You can get it on line for around AUD$200 but I like to support my local blokes. They help me out a lot with free advice and general help.

Windows 7

I have had my brand new copy of Windows 7 for a couple of days now but was holding back on installing it as I wanted to finish with the old computer on which I was testing Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala). This computer will be going back to a Windows Vista home network and I need to make sure that all is well with file and printer sharing with Vista. I have been using my main computer for these tests.

Patience is not one of my virtues however. As I have Vista on my Mac Book I could see no reason to wait any longer so I went ahead with the Windows 7 installation.

Backing up for a clean install is not a big deal for me as I keep everything backed up on external drives and, in any case, all of my data is saved on separate internal hard drives. As a result, it was just a matter of copying my IE favourites and the .pst file for Outlook to another drive and I was good to go.

This is how long it took:

7:50 am booted to the Win 7 DVD

Including a quick format of the C drive I was finished the installation and was downloading the updates by 8:09 am – 19 minutes. There were not many updates and, even including a download of Windows Live Essentials (which is one of the updates), I was finished by 8:40am – 50 minutes all up.

The new “Libraries” feature of Win 7 makes attaching photos, music etc to the correct “Library” trivial. (Right Mouse \ Include in Library). This is far easier that re-locating the old My Documents etc folders and it means that you can save stuff anywhere and attach it to the appropriate library.

Everything just worked. All drivers came down from Windows Update except the driver for the scanner in my Canon MP610 ‘all in one” printer. A quick visit to the Canon site soon fixed this minor issue.

After I re-installed my copy of office the usual large volume of updates needed to be downloaded but, as there has been a recent Office Service Pack, even this did not take long. Setting up my somewhat complicated Outlook arrangements took the most time but I was smart and have “how to” instructions, so by about by 9.30am I was finished.

I was a little worried about the software program for my Logitech Harmony Remote. This program would not install on the pre-release versions of Windows 7 but , once again, there was no problem with the retail copy of Win 7.

My general impressions so far ( after 1 day) is that it seems to be faster (but I have just done a clean install and I had everything including the kitchen sink installed on Vista).

It looks “pretty” and works with a minimum of fuss. Many things particularly home network set up have been made much easier.

Windows Media Centre has been updated and I can now get an Electronic program guide for my area. There is also an FM radio section for TV Tuner cards that support this (mine does).

My Only complaint is that the free Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) was not an optional update. I went ahead and downloaded MSE so I forgot to see if it was offered in the “Action Centre” – The Action Centre” takes the place of “Security” Control Panel.

I will keep playing and report on major differences (with Vista) that I notice.

by 8:05 I was at the Desktop to change from Sydney to Brisbane time and the Device Manager showed no exceptions.

Windows Live Essentials was an Optional Update (and it is needed as you don’t get any of these programs as you did with Vista).

In summary – “Very Slick”.

Additional Ubuntu Notes

I keep forgetting to mention a firewall for Ubuntu. This is because I am behind a router and consequently a firewall is not essential. However, Ubuntu has a very good firewall called UFW that is installed but is disabled by default. The best way to configure it is to install a program called “Firestarter” from Add/Remove Programs.

I have also downloaded and installed the pre-release version of Ubuntu 9.10 “Karmic Koala”. The excellent news is that 9.10 has solved all of those annoying problems that I have had with my D-Link and Netgear Wi-Fi adaptors. The Netgear WG111works “out of the box” and the D-Link DWL G132 works after installing the windows drivers (both of the .inf files) via Ndiswrapper.

The only problem I am having with 9.10 is that I can’t connect to the printers on my Vista and Windows 7 machines. However, updates are coming through every day and I hope that this can be resolved. Both of my printers work well when connected directly.

UBUNTU 9.04 (JAUNTY JACKALOPE) – SET UP

Posted by whycal on October 6, 2009

Please refer to my post 1^st Oct 2009 “RE-FURBISH”. As I have just completed a full set up of Ubuntu, I have listed below details of what I do to get Ubuntu functional for my purposes. DISCLAIMER – This is what I do using my hardware / operating systems. There are no guarantees that it will work in other cases.

Also, I think it is only fair to retract some of the praise I was heaping on Ubuntu when comparing installation times with Vista. It is true that Ubuntu (including Open Office) can be fully installed and updated in about 30 minutes. Installing Vista and MS Office takes much longer but only because of the need to run Windows Update multiple times. The actual installation of Vista & Office takes about the same time as Ubuntu; it is those multi hundred MB Windows updates that make the difference.

But, and this is a big “but”, Vista is very functional at this point particularly if you throw in the easy download of Windows Live Essentials. In particular, Windows update now automatically provides the drivers needed for most, if not all, hardware devices. However, the same can’t be said about Ubuntu. Granted, Ubuntu can do all of the basics at this point but I find it necessary to carry on with a number of tweaks to get Ubuntu to an acceptable level of functionality.

When all of this is completed, Vista is very much the quicker of the two to set up. Whether you like Microsoft or not, no one can deny that they do a first class job in getting their products to work with an almost unlimited number of different systems and/or devices. There is value in paying for their software.

The following list contains the additional steps that I take with Ubuntu 9.04 to get it to a point where I think it is a viable alternative system. Sometimes the information on the internet is a little dated and, even though I have done this many times, I find myself wasting time by going down dead ends. Therefore I use this list to save time. Of course, it will all change when the next Ubuntu version “Karmic Koala” is released at the end of October 2009.

No 1 – GET CODECS FOR PLAYING VIDEO FILES.

My method for doing this is to have small video files in the formats you think you will need. Transfer them to your new Ubuntu machine and open and play them in the default program. I usually use .wmv , .mov & .avi. You will get a pop up asking you to download the appropriate “plug in”. Just follow the prompts – simple.

No 2 – GET FLASH PLAYER

Open Firefox and go to a site that has Flash Video like You Tube (I go to http://live.twit.tv/ ). You will be prompted to get adobe flash. Click to go to the Adobe site. In the drop down box called “Select Version to Download”, select “.deb for Ubuntu 8.04+” and then click “Agree and install now”. When the download window opens, it should show the default which is to open with “GDebi Package Installer (Default)” – Don’t change this – click OK and follow the instructions. Re-start Firefox and Flash video should work.

No 3 – MP3 FUNCTUALITY FOR AUDACITY

To enable export of audio files from Audacity as MP3, “Lame” needs to be installed. The first thing to do is to open “System / Administration / Software Sources” and enable everything under the Tabs “Ubuntu Software” and Third party Software”. On the Ubuntu Software tab there is a “Download From” drop down. The default is “Australian Servers” but I have had trouble with these servers so I change it to “Main Server”.

Now run the “Update Manager” (System / Administration / Update manager). You will find that these changes generate a large number of updates.

When the updates are finished, open “System / Administration / Synaptic Packet Manager” and install LAME from “Multimedia (Multiverse)”. Then from “Synaptic Packet Manager” select “ALL” and find and install – libmp3lame0

No 4 – RIP CDs AS MP3

Ensure “Multiverse” and “Universe” are installed in “Synaptic Packet Manager” (They should be from the above “Lame” installation).

Once again from “Synaptic Packet Manager / All” – find and install “Ubuntu Restricted Extras”

From “Applications” install the program “Audio CD Extractor (Sound Juicer)” using “Add/Remove Applications”.

Open “Audio CD Extractor” – Edit / Preferences / Format / Output Format / Edit and select “CD Quality, MP3 (mp3 type)”.

NOTE – Click on “Applications / Add / Remove” and install and use “Banshee” rather than “Rhythm Box” for a music player. I always un-install Rhythm Box” as it never seems to work properly for me.

Open “Banshee” and set the default for ripping to “MP3” by clicking on – Edit / Preferences / Audio CD / Edit and select “MP3 lame Encoder”.

I also use “Banshee” to rip CDs so I change the preferences to do this automatically when a CD is inserted. With MP3 functionality installed, Banshee can be used with MP3 players (but not iPods).

No 5 -BURNING AUDIO CDs

The best program for this task is Brasero (it comes installed by default). However, another word of warning; this program seems to hang forever at the “Normalise” phase. I don’t know if it ever finishes “normalising” as I have never had the patience to wait long enough. As a result, I suggest that this function be turned off by clicking on – Edit / Plugins – Un-tick “Normalise”.

No 6 – SKYPE

I follow the instructions on this site – http://beginlinux.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/installing-skype-on-ubuntu-904/ Everything works ok except the Video. I have not been able to resolve this issue but video works on “aMSN” (See below)

No 7 – MSN Messenger

Install “aMSN” from “Applications Add/ Remove” (Internet Section). “Emesene” is another choice. Both of these look and work like MSN messenger and “aMSN” picked up my contacts list from Messenger. Unlike Skype, the video works.

No 8 – WEB CAM

Web cams can be a problem due to the driver issue. It depends on what brand you own. Some of mine work (the Logitech ones) but another cheap brand does not.

No 9 – E MAIL

Web based Email programs like Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo Mail work fine via Firefox. However for POP mail (like Bigpond) I generally use the pre-installed Evolution mail. However, you can easily install Thunderbird (from the Firefox people) via “Applications / Add Remove” if you prefer.

Evolution Mail has fully functional “Calendar” and “Contacts” utilities including the ability to import contacts from other programs like Yahoo mail. When you first open Evolution mail, it walks you through the set up similar to Outlook or Windows Live Mail (desktop).

No – 10 Open Office

As long as the correct time zone was input during the installation, Open Office is fully set up with the correct language in Spell Check. Nevertheless, I always open the word processor and type in the American spelling of colour (color) just to make sure that it picks up the spelling error and Australian English is the default language in the spell checker. (It always is).

No 11 – Wi-Fi

This has been the most frustrating part of my experience with Ubuntu. To get USB Wi-Fi adaptors to work you need drivers. My D Link adaptor will not work “out of the box” and from what I have read there are few if any Linux drivers for these devices. The first thing to do is to install Ndiswrapper from “Applications / Add Remove” as it facilitates use of Windows Drivers for your particular device. Once installed, this program is accessed from System/ Administration – “Windows Wireless Drivers”. With my D Link DWL G132 adaptor, I have installed the .inf files from the Windows Driver folder (numerous versions) but it just won’t work with WPA. It works OK without any protection but I refuse to have Wi-Fi without WPA. On the other hand, the in-built Wi-Fi on my laptop worked without any drivers being installed. Obviously Ubuntu 9.04 comes with the software for the Wi-Fi chip used on this particular Asus laptop.

If your Wi-Fi will not work, there is no choice but to attach to the router via cable.

Netgear WG 111 Wireless USB Adaptor

After much weeping and tearing out of hair, I have been able to get a Netgear WG 111 V2 working. (This is the adaptor that is sent with the Bigpond Wi-Fi modem / router). This is what I did – go to “System / Administration / Synaptic Packet Manager / All” and look for and install “RTL8187 SE-Source”. Reboot. Then use Ndiswrapper to install the .inf file from the Windows drivers for “Realtek RTL8187 USB Wireless LAN (ME/2000/XP) 1.221″ – (RTL8187 is the chipset used in the Netgear WG111 V2). This is the link to get this driver:-

http://majorgeeks.com/Realtek_RTL8187_USB_Wireless_LAN_ME2000XP_d5165.html

Open the zip file and look for “netrtux.inf” under the Windows 98 folder and install it in Ndiswrapper. After much experimentation, I found that the drivers for Windows 98 worked the best. This driver only has WEP encryption but if you close the first pop up window requesting the WEP password, Ubuntu will pop another one that enables input of WPA passwords. So far (touch wood) it connects to my router.

I do have some problems however, particularly when I turn on the computer for the first time each day. The Wi-Fi won’t immediately connect. Instead it gets in a loop requesting and dropping the WPA password. To stop this, I open “System / Preferences / Network Connections / Wireless” and delete any Wireless connections. Then I go back to the Wireless Strength Meter Icon at the top right of the desktop and left mouse click on this icon then click again on any wireless connections. This disconnects the Wi-Fi and it will then automatically re-start and re-connect properly. Repeat this process if it does not work the first one or two times.

Update!! I have since discovered that the problem of not immediately connecting can be resolved. First obtain the MAC address of the Netgear Wi-Fi adaptor from System/ Administration/ Network Tools/ Devices / Network Device / Wireless Interface. Now configure your router to deliver a “Static IP” to this MAC address but leave the Ubuntu machine as DHCP. For reasons known only unto the gods, when I did this the Netgear WD111 connects first time every time. Choose and IP towards the top of the range allowed by the router to avoid IP clashes.

No 12 – PHOTOS / CAMERAS

Ubuntu works with many cameras. Just plug your camera in via USB and let it mount as a drive. Then look for the photos in the camera’s memory and copy to the HDD.

PICASA:–

The default program for correcting photos is Gimp (free version of Photoshop) which I find a bit hard to use. However Picasa can be obtained from Google here http://picasa.google.com/linux/thanks-deb.html

Download the installer and open it with the default “GDebi Package Installer”. After it installs, it works just like – well – Picasa; thank you Google for making it so easy to install.

No 13 PRINTERS – INCLUDING PRINTER ATTACHED TO A WINDOWS COMPUTER

Printing can be set up for a directly attached printer or, if your existing printer is attached to a Windows machine, Ubuntu can print over the network to this printer.

Directly attached printers are easy to set up. Plug the printer into the computer via USB and turn it on. Go to “System / Administration / Printing / New” and select your printer. In most cases it will automatically search for and install the drivers. If not, follow the “choose driver” procedure to get drivers as set out below with printers attached to a windows machine.

Attached to a Windows machine: Make sure that “Sharing” is turned on for this printer on your Windows machine. (Vista – Control Panel/ Right Mouse / Sharing). On the Ubuntu machine, click on “System / Administration / Printing / New / Printer / Network Printer / Windows Printer via Samba”. Click the “Browse” button next to SMB printer and this will activate a small window that should show your Windows Home Network name. Click on the drop down on your Windows Home Network name to expose the list of computers on your network. Select the computer that has the printer attached. This will bring up a “Log In” Window. With Vista make sure that you input the Administration Log In name next to “User Name”. (With XP most people are logged as Admin).Insert your Home Network name for Domain and the Windows Admin password.

The printer should now be listed – Click on the Printer then “OK” & “Forward”. Ubuntu will then search for the printer and hopefully find it. A new window called “Choose Driver” will appear. Select the brand and then the model to install the printer software. Mine is a Canon MP610 and it is listed along with hundreds of other models and makes. Click “Forward” and a new screen called “Describe Printer” appears. The printer can be re-named but, unless you have multiple printers, it can be left at the default name. Click “Apply” and you will be asked to print a test page. At this point Ubuntu will again ask for Authentication. Input the Windows Admin User name and password again and be sure to tick the “Remember” box. With a bit of luck the test page will print.

WARNING !! There is an annoying bug in Ubuntu when printing to a windows attached printer. Every time you print something to your windows printer, you will need to “Authenticate” as follows: – After you have clicked to print your document, go to “System / Administration / Printing” and right mouse on your windows attached printer and click “Display Print Queue”. This will bring up a window with a list of pending print jobs. You will notice that the Status of your print job is noted as “Held for Authentication”. It is necessary to right mouse on the relative entry and click “Authenticate”. Input your Windows Admin User Name and Password.

I was able to do all of this with the Windows Firewall set to Printer sharing. No doubt, anyone with one of the security suites (like Norton & McAfee etc) will be in for a whole world of firewall hurt but, as I will not allow programs like these within a hundred feet of any computer I own, I can’t help with this. As long as your home network is behind a router, it is quite safe to turn off firewalls while these things are being set up. – This comment also applies to Windows Network below.

No 14 – WINDOWS NETWORK

Notwithstanding Firewall issues, (I had no trouble with “File Sharing” turned on in my Windows Firewall), seeing the Vista shared drives and files from the Ubuntu machine is not difficult.

This is how – Click “Places / Network “and a window will come up showing “Windows Network”. Double click on the “Windows Network” icon and, if the windows firewall is being co-operative, an icon for your windows home network will appear. Double click again for the icon for your computer. Double click on this icon and a username and password screen will appear. By default it has the Ubuntu username and the generic Windows “Workgroup” inserted in the Domain space. You need to change this to the windows Admin user name and password with the name of your work group in the domain space. Click “Connect” and you will be able to see the Vista shared drives and public folder. Remember, when prompted to input username, domain and password, always use the Windows Admin Sign In and the name of your windows workgroup.

Going back the other way from Vista to Ubuntu is another issue entirely and I have not had the time to look at this in any great detail. I will leave this for another time.

Note with Windows 7 to get any network access to files on a Win 7 from a non Win 7 machine go into “Home Group” / “Advanced Sharing Settings” and turn off “Password Protected Sharing” and click “Use User accounts and passwords …” under “Home Group Connections”.

Vista– If you’re having trouble logging into other computers from Vista, go here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947232 and run the “Fix It” tab

No 15 – BURNING DATA CDs/ DVDs & BURNING A DVD TO PLAY IN A DVD PLAYER

When you insert a blank DVD (or CD) the default program is CD/DVD Creator (Applications / Accessories). There are a number of other CD DVD burning programs including “GnomeBaker CD/DVD Writer” and “Brasero” but these will not produce the files needed for a disk that will play in a DVD player.

If you want to burn a DVD that will play in a DVD player, go to “System / Administration / Synaptic Packet Manager” and install “DeVeDe”. Reboot so it appears in Applications / Sound & Video. Then use “Applications Add/Remove” to install “K3b”. Use “DeVeDe” to convert your video file to an .iso file (that contains the correct structure for use in a DVD palyer). Then use “K3b” to burn the .iso to a DVD. Click the “Burn DVD ISO Image” Box on the main menu.

Like any other system, if a burn fails, try another brand of blank disk.

No – 16 GOOGLE EARTH

Installing Google earth is not as straightforward as installing that other Google product Picasa (See No 12). Go to http://earth.google.com/intl/en/download-earth.html

Click “Agree and Download” and save it to your Desktop. The download is called “GoogleEarthLinux.bin”. Right Mouse on it and click “Open with other application”.

At the bottom of this menu is an entry called “Use Custom Command”. Click the little arrowhead to the right of this to reveal an input box and type in – sh – (just sh).

Click Open and, at first, a black Terminal type window will open. Do nothing with this window, instead wait a few seconds until a second window called “Google Earth Set Up” opens fully and then click “Start” and follow the prompts. When it is finished, click on “Quit” rather that “Start”. This will close this window then click inside the first black terminal window and just hit enter to close it. Google earth can now be found in Applications / Internet.

CONCLUSION

There a large number of programs available via Applications Add/Remove and Synaptic Packet Manager but it is a matter of trial and error to find one that will work with your set up. Believe me, I have “trialled and errored” for hours to get things working and something that works on one computer may not work on another.

Some of my friends question my sanity but it is good to learn about these things and, when you manage to get it working, it is good to know that Ubuntu is not only a fully functional alternative but is also free stable and safe.

After all of the above items have been completed, your Ubuntu machine should be able to do most of the things that a home user would want. However, there will always be issues with hardware drivers and it definitely takes more time, patience and effort than Vista to set it up to this point.

P.S. There are some excellent Ubuntu tutorial videos here http://www.butterscotch.com/search.html?srchfld=Ubuntu

Cheers for Open Office

Just a short post to let everyone know that the latest version of Open Office (the free alternative to MS Office) now comes with an Australian English dictionary pre-installed.

In the past, some work was required to find and install an Australian English Dictionary. Ubuntu comes with Australian English included within Open Office but I just noticed that it is now also included in the latest version (Open Office 3.1) that you can download from http://www.openoffice.org/.

Open Office can be a good alternative for many people and it runs on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 as well as Apple Mac OSX.

I have installed it on my computer running Windows 7 and my Mac Book. The process in each case was painless. It automatically picked up from my Windows 7 and Mac OSX installations that Australian English was to be the default dictionary.

Open Office Version 3.1 looks and works a lot like MS Office 2003 and comes with:

A word processor caller “Writer”
An Excel like program called “Calc”
A 3D graphics drawing program that can also be used as an alternative to Publisher called “Draw”
A Power Point alternative called “Impress”
A program for Mathematical equations called “Math”
A MS Access alternative called “Base”

If you have paid for the less expensive Home & Student version of Office 2007 that comes with only Word,Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, you could also install all or part of Open Office to get access to programs that work like the additional components included in the more expensive versions of Office.

I will now be using Open Office instead of iWorks on my Apple Mac Book . Open Office did a much better job of opening Microsoft Office documents than the corresponding applications in Apple iWorks.

Whereas Apple Numbers does not handle the Excel formatting, charts etc well at all, Open Office “Calc” did a very good job. I also note that Open Office can read and write to the new Office 2007 document format (.docx & .xlsx etc).

MORE ON UBUNTU

Now that I have Ubuntu on a computer that I use on a day to day basis, I wanted to see how practical it would be for an inexperienced person to use. In the past, I have mainly used it for Emails and internet browsing as well as playing around with it to see what hardware would or would not work. I have now taken some time to undertake a number of common tasks that most people would expect to be able to carry out on a computer.

The experience with Ubuntu can be described as generally good but, in addition to limitations with hardware driver support, there are some functions that are not easy or straightforward to implement.

First I will repeat its strong points. It is free, easy to install, stable and there are practically no issues with viruses. Ubuntu comes packed with free programs that function well for things like browsing the internet, emails, word processing, spreadsheets and your photos. You can do your internet banking with safety and access your MySpace and Facebook accounts as easily as on Windows or Mac. It now operates with a wide range of hardware including many common printers, scanners, web cams and wireless keyboards/mice and will run on an increasing number of laptops.

Ubuntu has a file system that is similar to the Mac but is set up so that Windows users also have little trouble getting used to it.

I almost forgot, it comes preloaded with a full complement of games as good as what you get with Windows. Furthermore, you have access to a wide variety of programs and, if one does not suit or work, you can install another.

I should also mention that networking has been greatly improved in the latest version. I had no difficulty at all getting on my Windows home network and accessing files in the public folder on my Vista computer.

These things are more than enough to make it ideal to run on a second computer particularly an older model. Ubuntu even has a light weight version called Xubuntu for use on very old computers with low processing power and small amounts of RAM.

However when you venture beyond these basic functions, you start to run into problems that may be difficult for people with limited computer skills to resolve.

As mentioned in my previous post, installing Skype does require some effort and my first attempt to print a label on a CD was not a success. To enable use of Wi-Fi adaptors it is necessary to install a program (Ndiswrapper) that enables use of Windows drivers. Even so, I have not been able to get a D-Link G132 USB Wi-Fi adaptor to work correctly with WPA encryption. My Dvico TV tuner card will not work properly. For some unknown reason it will only pick up a few of the available TV channels.

Initially, ripping a CD was not completely successful. I used the pre-installed ripping program and it worked well enough but, by default, the tracks are ripped to the open source music file .ogg. Most MP3 players including iPods and my old SanDisk M240 do not recognise .ogg files. It is possible to make adjustments to rip CDs as MP3. To do this, you need to install the MP3 package, after which it is easy to rip CDs as MP3s. I then found that extra steps were needed to load the MP3 files onto the SanDisk. The default media player program (Rhythmbox) did not Auto Sync like iTunes and it was necessary to mount the player as a USB storage device and copy and paste the songs. The MP3 files contained the track name but did not include Artist or Album details.

This was not an easy process so I used the “add remove program” function to install another Media player (Banshee Media Player) and it was far superior in performance. It recognised the SanDisk player and supported an Auto Sync function. It has smart playlists but these could not be loaded onto the MP3 player. Once again, the tracks did not include artist or album information and, if you use the “Sync” function, every song in your Music Folder is loaded onto the MP3 player. Therefore, while it is possible to use your MP3 player, it requires some work and most normal computer users would not bother. We have been too spoiled by iTunes and iPods.

Burning a CD also had a small problem. The default program (Brasero) would hang when “normalising” the sound levels but I was able to solve this issue by turning off this function in the Plug Ins. On the other hand it automatically generated an album cover that included a list of the tracks but no Album Art. You have to insert this yourself.

Importing video from a camera is another function that requires far more effort than on commercial operating systems. I don’t own a video camera but I shot a couple of short videos on my Kodak still camera. I could not find a program that would see and import the video and, once again, I had to mount the camera and copy and paste the video. I tried two video editing programs but neither was easy to use and I gave up after some time. Perhaps I’m dumb but I did not want to waste any more time and I suspect that most people would have a similar lack of patience.

People who know their way around computers will have a generally good experience with Ubuntu. A similar good experience would apply for everyone else but only for the basic functions I have mentioned. On the other hand, “normal” computer users would run into obstacles if they expected it to be as easy to use as Windows or Mac across all operations.

But hey it’s free and you can always re-install XP on that old computer if things don’t work out. (Although the act of re- installing XP will be a major pain in the rear compared to the first class experience of installing Ubuntu.)