schwuk.com

I’ve been um’ing and ah’ing about purchasing a new PDA for a while now. I’ve currently got a Palm Vx, I love Zaurus’es (Zaurii?) as toys, and will probably get a Pocket PC (Dell Axim X50v is the current favourite).

But, now there’s a new player…

Go ahead â?? move the Web! With the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet you can browse your favorite sites and catch up on your email â?? from right where you are. Whether you’re relaxing on the sofa or enjoying the moment at your favorite café, if you have broadband access over WI-FI the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet gives you instant wireless access to the Web. You can also stream files, tune in to Internet radio, News Reader, or play your favorite videos and music.

Here’s the biggy though – it’s running Linux.

Want one, want one now…

More Info

• Nokia Announces Linux-based Net Appliance
• Nokia unveils Linux based 770 Internet Tablet
• Nokia’s Web Tablet: We’re skeptical
• Nokia Releases Linux Internet Tablet Device
• Nokia enters consumer electronics

Developer Info

• Maemo is the development platform to create applications for the device
• Screenshots

A new LiveCD has just been released – mono::live 1.0. Based on Ubuntu Hoary, it includes everything you need to get a taste of Mono:

• Mono 1.1.7
• Various applications including F-Spot, Beagle, Tomboy and Muine
• ASP.NET demos
• MonoDevelop IDE

I downloaded it and gave it a quick whirl, and I’m very impressed. Here’s a few screengrabs:

I’ll be taking this along to my next LUG meeting.

I’ve been catching up on some of the emails and comments I received after I announced I was disappointed with myself and felt some issues need further comments.

Non-debian based distros

After some experimentation, I have discarded the others and returned to Ubuntu & Debian. SELinux is just too much hassle.

Finding software

I said:

Of course thereâ??s nothing like these repositories for Windows, but then again itâ??s so much easier to find things.

…and to a certain extent it is, but even though I installed XP a few weeks ago, I’m still adding software on almost a daily basis. After following my instructions for configuring Ubuntu I’ve had to do very little.

Also, mrben made the very good point that…

one thing that Linux is becoming very good at that Windows will always struggle to do, and that is allow a using to update the entire system (including all the software) in one foul swoop

I’m pretty sure he meant “fell swoop¹”, but it is valid nonetheless. Sure, you can use Windows Update for your OS, but it won’t provide the latest updates for all your apps.

Outlook

…is a pretty nice client, but I find I’m mainly using it for the calendar/contacts rather than mail. Now that I’ve finished the work I was doing, I’m not sure if I’ll stick with it.

Productivity

I’ve also discovered my perceived productivity increase under Windows is just plain wrong. The amount of time I’ve wasted on typing bash commands is the command prompt, or forgetting you actually have to copy text after you select it has shown me that my brain is now more aligned to the *NIX way of doing things.

Sure I’m faster using some applications, but on a whole I’m slower. Go figure…

Power Users

Ket made comments about how as “power users” we were more likely to stick with Windows. Apart from my disagreement with the phrase (see here for why – it’s all true), in my opinion being adept at keeping Windows running smoothly (something I can’t always do myself) means you have the ability to adapt to another platform more easily than a normal user. You may find the transition more difficult initially, but you get up to speed much more quickly.

Conclusion

Personally I choose Linux. Professionally I (currently) have to choose Windows. In the future…who knows.

¹ Just to head of discussion, go read this. It’s about two-thirds down.

Well I just got back from watching Revenge of the Sith, and I can safely say that I am happy.

Others can provide far better and/or in-depth reviews and commentary, but as a (pretty much) lifelong fan I am satisfied with the way that George has brought the two trilogies together. To me they will always be two trilogies (of which the first will always be the better one), and really only this latest film can be considered a true prequel. The other two – The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones – are just connected films to my mind. Apart from Attack of the Clones ‘explanation’ of the clone warriors, neither really add anything to the first trilogy. Revenge of the Sith on the other hand provides a good lead-in to A New Hope, and on leaving the cinema I wanted to go straight home and watch it (all three in fact).

Now we just need to wait for the numerous boxed sets to appear…

As part of re-enabling Mono I encountered a strange error when I was compiling mod_mono:

 apxs:Error: no config variable PREFIX

The solution (via Gonzalo) is to modify the Makefile slightly:

 $ sed -i -e 's/ -S PREFIX="$(prefix)"//' src/Makefile.in

Do this before you ./configure and everything then works.

I finally got around to re-enabling Mono on this server again, so my various samples¹ should work again.

¹ Except web services for some reason. They work on their own under XSP, but not when sharing space with the other samples.

I’ve spent the last day getting my head around Ajax, and in particular Ajax.NET.

You see I was writing a web application, and one form involved the user specifying a value which was stored within a database. I could have used a select (drop down list), but I could be dealing with potentially hundreds or even thousands of ‘correct’ values.

My solution?

Use Ajax to validate the value the user types without a postback, and do you know what? It works, but it works so well that it’s unimpressive.

Seems strange doesn’t it.

Such a neat piece of technology but because it works so seamlessly it can easily be taken for granted. Admittedly it’s fairly unobtrusive – it simply colours the value typed depending on its state (black = unchecked, green = valid, red = invalid) and it’s double-checked on postback, but from initial tests it makes the form much easier to use.

I’ve never really bothered with Javascript before – I figured it was too much hassle, plus there were all the cross browser issues to worry about – but now I can really see the power of Ajax, and it makes me wonder what else I can improve by using it. I can also see where it could cause problems, implementing features for features sake. Next on my list is to learn more about it (and Javascript in general) and in particular investigate the Prototype library.

In one of my work projects I’ve made heavy use of unit tests, and in particular the integration of TestDriven.NET and Visual Studio .NET.

I keep all my tests in a separate assembly, but I need to make use of varying connections strings. The most obvious solution was to use an configuration key in an app.config file attached to the test project, but the projects was set to output a library (DLL), and VS.NET doesn’t automatically handle app.config files for libraries.

Now I could just create the file in my output directory and have it work, but a) that’s not very neat and b) being the good SCM user I am I don’t store build artifacts in subversion.

After a bit of a google, the most obvious solution was to use a Post-build Event to copy and rename the file for me like VS.NET should.

Here’s my variation of the solution:

copy "$(ProjectDir)app.config" "$(TargetDir)$(TargetFileName).config"

In response for to my request on #lugradio for some non-mainstream music, I was pointed in the direction of Who Is Elmo Blatch and I’ve got to say I’m pretty pleased with the suggestion.

Anyone got any more for me?

After creating my last post, I decided it was a perfect candidate to be included in my backpack, so now it is.

That new distro smell