Technology Tales

A year in the making…

It was a year ago that I set this blog on the go. Then, I was exploring the possibilities offered by WordPress.com. After some months, I decided that I wanted to make my own decisions rather than have them, so I went independent in June. Between those dates, some big launches took my attention: Windows Vista, Office 2007 & CS3 come to mind. All the while, my experience of UNIX, Oracle and other such matters kept growing more and more. In the latter half of the year, I finally made the leap from Windows to Linux on the home computing front, a decision that taught me a lot and one that I don't regret. Other subjects featured from time to time as well; my musings on web development and blogging made their appearance too. 2007 was a packed year on the technology front, and 2008 is only just getting under way. There's a Vista laptop, and I am already picking up ideas for posts, though I am not going to force them out like I might have tried to do last year. 2008 may be a spot more leisurely, but I hope that it's just as interesting.

A second post today?

While I know what I said about a post every two days, something has entered my head that seems timely. Things seem to starting up for 2008 and my getting a swathe of post ideas is only one of them. Today, Sun has bought up MySQL, the database that stores these ruminations for posterity, and Oracle has finally got its hands on Bea, the people behind the Weblogic software with which I have had an indirect brush for a lot of 2007.

New version of SAS on the way

This is something of a newsflash posting, but this morning's issue of the SAS Tech Report newsletter has said at last when SAS 9.2 is expected to be released. Though SAS has been talking a bit about 9.2, dates were elusive and, to a point, they still are. Nevertheless, hearing the Q1 of this year is the time slot for the unveiling is better than knowing nothing at all. Am I alone in wondering if it is coming later than was planned?

Desktop.ini on the desktop?

Being an experienced computer, I set Windows Explorer to display hidden files when using a Windows PC. However, on my Vista-empowered laptop, that causes two desktop.ini files to appear on the desktop, one for all users and one for my user account. And displaying hidden files does not seem to be something that you can do on a folder by folder basis. With XP, this did not cause hidden files to appear on your desktop like this, so the behaviour could be seen as a step backwards. A spot of googling exposed me to some trite suggestions regarding re-hiding files again, but deleting them seems to be the only way out. Despite the dire warnings being issued, there didn't seem to be any untoward problems caused by my actions. For now, I'll see if they stay away, yet episodes like this do make me wonder if it is time for Microsoft to stop treating us like idiots and give us things that work the in which we want them to function. Well, I'm glad that Linux is the linchpin of my home computing world...

What? No DNG?

Since Google's Picasa is now available for Linux, I decided to give it a spin. The availability of downloadable DEB packages made installation a piece of cake. It has been ported using WINE, which means that the look and feel is very much of the Windows world. The functionality is similar too, which means that it can seek out image files on your PC. However, it didn't find any DNG files for me, a surprise when DNG could become the standard raw camera format for digital imaging. In contrast, the lack of support for proprietary formats like Canon's CRW might be understandable. Because I like to review the raw image files before committing to editing them, Picasa will not suffice for this purpose, leading me to stick with what I already use.

A new laptop

Having had it on my wish list for a few years, I finally succumbed to temptation and purchased a laptop in the PC World sale, a Toshiba Equium A200-1VO in fact. I reserved it on the web and popped into the nearest store a few hours later. However, while the reservation system worked, the collection did not go as smooth as I had hoped; it appears that the store where I went was not as well staffed as I would have liked, so I needed to wait before I was served. Finding the right part of the store was another issue. Nevertheless, service was efficient once the wait was over, and I left with the said laptop, a half-price copy of Norton 360 and a network cable.

The laptop comes with an Intel Pentium Dual-Core CPU, 2 GB of RAM and a 120 GB hard drive. The size of the hard drive may not set the world alight and neither, I suspect, will the Intel graphics adapter. Speaking of graphics, the glossy screen might not be to everyone's taste, but its 1280x800 maximum resolution is definitely respectable. Windows Vista Home Premium is the included operating system, and a 90-day trial of Norton Internet Security comes too; I'll wait for that to expire before adding in Norton 360. While I am not rushing to add software, the Home and Student version of Office 2007 has made its way on there.

As regards performance, the machine so far has done what I have asked of without any bother. Even so, battery life is far from extensive, with a maximum of ninety minutes. For long stints away from a power socket, an extra battery might be in order, and there is an offer show on the box in which the device came. That would add to the weight, though; at around 2.5 kg, it isn't something that I would go carrying on a weekend backpacking trip. Despite those limitations, it will get some enough use for me to see how things proceed from here.

java.net.MalformedURLException: unknown protocol: j

While I know that there are better things to call a blog post than to use part of an error message that I got from Saxonica's Saxon when I was converting XML files into PHP equivalents for the visitor information section of my main website, it is handy for anyone else needing to look up a solution when they encounter it. In my case, I use the open source Saxon-B rather than the commercial Saxon-SA, and it fulfils all of my needs. Version 8 and later (it has now reached 9.0.0.2) handle the XSLT 2.0 features that I need to make the transformations really clever.

Also, because Saxon is available as a jar file, it is cross-platform so long as you have Java on board. There are, however, some slight differences in behaviour. Now, I run the thing on Linux, where any Windows-style file locations are not recognised. When I had the file path in a DTD declaration starting with J:\, that was thought to be a protocol like file, http, https, ftp and so on because of the colon. Since there's no j protocol, Java gets confused, issuing the rather obscure error that titles this post. Otherwise, the migration of the Perl script that creates XSLT files and fires off the required XML to PHP transformations was a fairly straightforward exercise once file locations and shebang line were set right.

Succumbing to Temptation: Ubuntu Studio

Because the fancy artwork that comes with Ubuntu Studio does look appealing, I got lured into converting my vanilla Ubuntu 7.10 into something a bit more avant-garde. The theme's all very dark (you can have a peek here; file size is 1.1 MB) but it has a very appealing look, even if the merging of the application title bar and top desktop panel due to their having the same colour and texture is a little disconcerting. My momentary lapse of discipline also got me adding a whole array of audio, graphics and movie applications that I may never use; it's good to have them if I ever fancy a fiddle, but removal is not off the agenda either. The other thing that came with the package was an alternate kernel that looks as if it might be of the real time variety, at least if the "rt" in its package name is to be believed. The main reason for mentioning that is that VMware has ceased working, so I need to snag the correct kernel source code to get things going again. Let's hope that it's a successful venture...

Update: After a spot of poking, Synaptic offered up the required kernel header files and VMware was reinstated with only a modicum of effort. All's well that ends well.

iPod, identified

Plug in an iPod to a PC running Ubuntu, and it will recognise what it has got. That act mounts the player as a hard drive and fires up the Rhythmbox Music Player. The usual file transfer capabilities are available, and it does something that was thwarted partially by iTunes when I last tried it: transferring files from your iPod to your PC. Only music bought from the iTunes store can be copied from the player back to the PC. Unsurprisingly, you cannot update the iPod's firmware or anything like that. To do such things, you need the iTunes player and that means having either Windows or OS X. While I do wonder if it can't be that difficult to port the OS X version to Linux since they both share UNIX roots, it's over to the Windows VM for me on this one for now.

However, while VMware on Windows will happily pick up USB devices as they are connected so long as the VM is in focus, the behaviour on Linux seems to be different. As shown above, you have to go to the VM menu and potter down the chain (Removable Devices > USB Devices) to make the device of interest accessible. Dialogue boxes asking you if you wish to disconnect the device from the host operating system will appear, and the process may be unsubtle as you progress with it. In fact, Ubuntu was delivering warning messages about how its iPod connection got lost; it would have been wise to unmount the thing in the first place. Accessing USB devices like this opens up other possibilities: using Windows for scanning and for printing digital images.

Returning to the iPod story, Windows will see it once it has been made available and iTunes can access it accordingly. Then, you are free to update the gadget's firmware or manage the music stored on it if you prefer.

It isn’t all iTunes in the UK

The iTunes store was a breath of fresh air following an experience of several OD2 offerings; broken downloads were a regular nuisance, but that may have been down to my not having a broadband connection at the time. Its seamless mix of purchasing, downloading and playing impressed me so much that I used no other media player for my music in the days when I almost exclusively used Windows.

Now that I have jumped ship to Linux, having to fire up a Windows VM to hear my music is starting to feel a little over the top. The result is that I am keen to use DRM-free digital music when I can. Because I like to stay legal, it means that I would like to buy DRM-free files on the web. Here, iTunes leaves me down a little, since most of what they offer is locked down, and I have to burn a CD and extract from it to release music from its iTunes-only shackles.

So when I saw on an article on Tech.co.uk that made mention of 7Digital and that they purveyed unlocked music, my interest perked up. The file formats on offer are WMA, MP3 and AAC and there are high quality 320K variants of the latter two of these about too. Only the WMA files have any DRM associated with them. Previewing whole albums is a simple matter of clicking on a single button, a trick that iTunes would do well to learn. Payment using PayPal augments the usual credit card options and any purchases seem to be available for download more than once; pottering over to the My Locker part of your account provides you with access to your purchases, another of its trump cards over iTunes. Downloading is on a file by file basis, though, and it is here that I notice an area usually addressed by a player like iTunes: the ability to download whole albums at once and background directory creation. Not having to have player has one advantage, though: platform independence. Anyway, a spot of shell scripting would resolve any file management gaps. Overall, there's a lot to commend 7Digital, and I wouldn't be surprised if I were to return some time again. It might even usurp iTunes as my digital music store of choice...