Posts Tagged ‘ubuntu’

getting rid of linux from my life

I tried and failed to shake the shackles of the Bill Gates empire. I had my laptop dual booting Ubuntu and Windows Vista. Today is struck me that I never really use my Ubuntu partition, prefering the flexibility of having all my apps in Vista.

Its not easy to dispose of an unloved linux/ubuntu partition. Simply formating the partition from Vista leads down a nasty path with GRUBB not found, Error 22. I know, I went there. I had to reload Linux onto the 20gb partition and start again.

Once there, I found a nifty little app on the net, EasyBCD. Using that, you can put Vista back in charge of the booting process, eliminating the GRUBB.

easybcd

Using the write MBR and reinstall vista bootloader, I was able to eliminate the GRUBB and put Vista back in charge. This had the effect of that familiar dual boot screen you get when you have two windows partitions sharing a computer, yet you can select Linux as well, with a few additional settings.

Once I put Vista back in charge, a reboot and yes, it was showing me the windows vista and linux partitions. Once in Vista, I deleted the linux partition and remove the linux entries from the EasyBCD, saved settings and rebooted.

Now my system reboots just like a factory vista install.

And whats the reason for all this extended nonsense? See my post tomorrow for more details.

Mobile Broadband & Twitter

Ok. Its been a wee while since my last post, but I thought this would be something worth blogging about. I haven’t ceased in my quest of geekdom, instead, I have been more involved in it than ever. And I can blame certain people, but they won’t be named here.

1. Twitter

Fantastic time waster. Brilliant. But I found out how really handy it can be today. I was having some trouble signing up to Vodafone Broadband Lite (more on that further down) and getting no where with customer services. So I twittered a tweet to @vodafoneNZ and the lovely man there asked me for a DM (Direct Message) with my mobile number and within 5 minutes, I was sorted. This is verses the 20 minutes I had ripping my hair out with their customer services desk the old fashioned way.

2. Dandy Warhols

Dear Vodafone, please change your hold music. They were a one hit wonder and 10 minutes of the same song, Bohemian Like You, is too much and drove me near suicidal. Thank you.

3. Vodafone Broadband Lite

I have noticed an increase in my mobile broadband data useage. I am lucky enough to have a nice Nokia 6121, while not the coolest phone, and lacking QWERTY sophistication, it does the few things I want. Lately I have noticed more and more, I rely on Mobile Broadband. Be it accessing my facebook page while I’m at the racetrack, using IRC while travelling to Hamilton (NOT while driving… ), or uploading funny photos to Flickr. Yes. I have become so internet addicted that I can get it all on my mobile.

Now until Vodafone brought along this nifty new plan of 100mb of Data for $10 a month, I was using their casual useage plan of $1 / Day, limited to 10mb. This was all good, but I rarely use 10mb a day, but I use my mobile interwebs most days a month, resulting in bills of around $20/month for mobile data. At least now I have the added bonus of not having to pay for expensive hotel data when on the road as well. Doubly awesome!

So from now until eternity, or whenever I buy a laptop with bluetooth, I will have to ensure I travel with my Nokia Data Cable!

4. Firefox

How I lived so long without this browser, I have no idea. I have a fantastic add on called ‘Yoono‘ which sits on the left hand side of my browser window and updates me with new tweets and facebook happenings like pokes and status changes. I can also use MSN Messenger on it, check and read my gmail and it also gives me my RSS feeds – something I was looking at useing to keep up with the play. I haven’t had a look at any other Firefox addons, but I will soon.

5. Ubuntu on the Acer Laptop

I took the plunge and gave Ubuntu its own 10gb partition on my Vista “powered” laptop. I put powered in quotes as running vista, it is a complete dog. Its very slow and painful and whilst I disable most of the pretty vista features, it was not designed for Vista. But just for booting up for an internet surf, quick internet check, Ubuntu serves me just fine. I’m still attached to MS Office tho. Read No. 6

6. Kudos to Warehouse Stationery

I got a flier in my local paper last week from the Papakura Warehouse Stationery. $49.00 to buy a copy of Microsoft Office Home & Student Edition. Limited to 15 copies only. So I was there before the store opened. I got one of those 15 copies and am now very chuffed to finally own a legit copy of Office. I will save up now to buy a legit copy of Outlook.

Curses!

Last night just after midnight, I turned my Compaq/Linux box off and headed to bed. This morning, keen to get back into using it, I went to boot it up – Boot Failure. But I installed it on the HDD, back to the drawing board. Will find an answer and do a work out on the Wii Fit while it installs or whatever.

Linux II

I know, two posts in one day, what are the chances. I thought now that I have installed Linux Mint on the Compaq, I would let everyone know so that no one comments telling me how. Like anyone reads this anyway, but it is installed, and I am installing downloaded updates as I type. I let these download while I embraced the Wii Fit for the first time today.

Here is my desktop screenshot to show you my progress. Nothing impressive, but yay!

My Linux Mint Desktop

My Linux Mint Desktop

From Freedom Came Elegance

So for my entire Christmas/New Years summer holiday, I have been immersing myself in most things geekdom. This blog being one of the many geeky things. I have learned a minuscule amount of information on VoIP, but will get 3Bit to explain to me in depth next time I visit.

Last night I couldn’t decide what I was going to do for my next attempt at geekdom. I had a black Compaq sitting around here, which was rescued from the bin at work. Redundant technology. Very, very redundant. So I installed a CD-RW in it – my trusty Sony one which I’ve had since 2002 and its never, ever let me down and pinched a HDD from slim.

After much frustration about not booting off a CD and how to make bootable CDs. I slept on the problem. At 5.46am it hit me. I hadn’t connected the IDE cable to the mobo. Simple but stooopid! So went to connect it and found a few bent pins on the mobo end of things. A pair of pliers soon fixed that. And I was away laughing.

I have installed Linux Mint on the Compaq. Its an Ubuntu based. Version 5. I just need to figure out now how to boot it up without my bootable CD. But at first impressions, I am very, very impressed with the whole system. I’ve always been a little scared of Linux since I first heard about it over 10 years ago and never really wanted to dip my toes in the water so to speak, but now that I have, I’m pleased.

I just need to figure out how to get it to boot up off the HDD instead of the CD now…. might not sleep on that problem, I might go shopping on it….


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