Motorola DROID

Got the Motorola DROID a bit ago and am loving it! My life is organized once again.

Came with Android 1.6 installed but shortly after, I woke up to the update notice for 2.1 and updated immediately with no problems.

So far my most used apps are Google Listen, Calendar Pad and GDocs. My most wanted app I plan on making my first coding project is a hook into Google Tasks.

This really is a small, portable computer you can carry in your hand. Having contacts, calendar, web, podcasts and notes at your fingertips is too convenient. Automatic Syncing to the web is something I've missed since I had the Sidekick II and III.

Upcoming posts will be app lists and specifics on why I like them and how I use them.

SD Card Format from command line

Weird thing today, my SD card dropped from 2GB to 1GB. It's a mini in an SD adapter that I use this in my Palm Treo 700P for pics and docs storage.

I was able to read the files in ubuntu but the phone would not acknowledge the card at all. I copied the files into a backup folder on the laptop and proceeded to check it out.

Lifesaving post at: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1243539

df -k [or h if you prefer] showed the drive mounted on /dev/sde1. Unmounted and attempted to run with 'sudo mkdosfs -F 32 /dev/sde1' which left the card unchanged and still not showing in the phone.

Last entry in the post shows a format command 'sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sde1 bs=512' which did the trick! Ran the format, removed card but re-inserting card didn't do anything so I put it in the Treo and it threw an error.

Apparently this was the kick it needed because I put it back in the laptop and sweet, 2GB card was mounted! I copied my backed up folders onto the card and worked fine this time when I put it in the Treo

Ubuntu 9.04 on my work laptop

I am officially NOT a MAC guy! It broke so many times, work took it back, thankfully! I will say I miss one thing, the touchpad was incredible, but that's about all I liked about it...

I was given a Dell Latitude E6500 to work on and the hardware was totally linux compatible. Local linux guru partitioned 10GB out for linux for me to play with after he loaded the Windows image. :>

I installed the new Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope. There were no issues with the install and the boot manager, I assume GRUB(?), works just fine letting me boot into Windows for work and Ubuntu for play. And you have NO idea how nice it is to have wifi finally work out-of-the-box with linux! This is the first non-Broadcom chip laptop I've had and I will never get another product with Broadcom in it...ever!

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= Software
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Can't remember if I installed from browser or downloaded install, but I got FLASH plugin for Firefox installed and am keeping up with my subscriptions on youtube.com again. Had to do the backspace trick for Firefox I wrote about here.

Open Office (www.openoffice.org) came pre-installed and opens files off my thumbdrive with no problem.

Truecrypt now has a GUI for linux! The install was a little weird since it was a run file instead of a dpkg install... Download tarball from http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads. I had to gunzip, then tar xvf which leaves a script file. Run this file with "sudo ./truecrypt-6.2-ubuntu-x86" and it will open a GUI install, sweet! Followed the prompts and Trucrypt was install and available in Applications -> Other menu.

KeePassX on linux. This one was a little more complicated. Download .deb file from a mirror then go to http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=357601 for dependencies fix.

1. cd to downloaded keepassx_0.3.4-1_i386.deb
2. Install dependencies: "sudo aptitude install libc6 libgcc1 libqt4-core libqt4-gui libstdc++6 libx11-6 libxtst6"
3. sudo dpkg -i ~/Desktop/keepassx_0.3.4-1_i386.deb
   

I was able to open the .kdb from thumbdrive I've been using on Windows without any problems.

That's it for now. Next I'm going to lookup how to move programs around in the Applications menu.

Messenger bag to hold the HP mini-note 2133 and accessories

Saw a laptop accessory messenger bag on geeks.com for $30. Looked like a good size for the mini, external optical drive when I get one and anything else I want to bring along.

Worked out perfect and it has metal clasps! (NEVER get plastic clasps! They break quick!)



http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=B-XBR-LAP-K2

Tips -N- Tricks: The laptop cooler is GREAT as a lap pad and keeps the very hot running HP mini a lot cooler...

Replacement mini-note 2133 is here

I chose not to return the mini to thinkgeek.com for a full refund with the promise from HP technical support that they would send a replacement upgrade for my defective machine. Well, after almost a month it's finally here and I love it!! The old mini definitely had defective hardware as the new laptop's wifi hooked right up to the network.

The 24-48 hours shipping turned into almost a month but it was worth the wait. I called and raised a little stink about not seeing the replacement for almost a month and got a call back from a different tech. He said they weren't getting the 1.6Ghz machines with Suse for another week. Being way behind and in a hurry to g3et caught up on side work, I asked if he could just ship me one with Windows Vista and I would install Suse from the CD. He agreed and said it would ship the next day and he'd send a restore CD for Vista just because.

It arrived!!! I opened the box to find a shiny new laptop with Windows Vista, power cord and 6-cell battery! No CDs or manuals though so I called the original tech and got the Vista restore CD sent. I boxed up the old laptop and shipped it back. Working laptop in hand... Awesome!

HP 2133 mini on the way!!

Ordered a new HP 2133 mini from thinkgeek.com! Right size, right configuration, right price!!!

I have wanted a UMPC forever now but the price point has been high compared to just getting an inexpensive laptop. I've been waiting for a small portable device with a full OS, not just an icon interface and it is finally out... Been watching the hp mini-note 2133 for a while now and love the small form factor and (almost) full keyboard. My bro may get the EEE 900 so maybe we'll have a head-to-head comparo soon. :>

Spent a couple hours reading the reviews so I won't repeat it all here. I'll link a couple of the big ones below. Only thing missing is a CD/DVD drive but I can't remember the last time I put a disk in my current laptop so that wasn't a big deal breaker. Plus I'm running on a 30GB HD right now and the 2133 is coming with a 120GB!! I can finally have one main HD and just set some scripts up to run rsync to the external USB drive for backup. Immediate add-ons will be external USB CD/DVD drive and 6-cell battery.

Follow the link to see full config. High points are:

1. SLED 10 OS
2. 120GB HD, 1GB RAM
3. 1280X768 on 8.9in screen
   
4. 92% full size keyboard
5. integrated web cam and speakers
   
6. Did I mention Linux OS!?!?!? ;>

Review Links I used, as promised:

• Found first real comparisons in gizmodo feed
• First review I read was at cnet.com
  
• Good bunch of info on notebookreview.com
• Another review I stumbled on at laptopmag.com
• And of course, I coulda got free shipping from hp.com but keepin up my geek cred buying it at thinkgeek
  

Unboxing to follow...

Hard drive prep

Got all my data backed up and removed unused programs. Then I ran defrag for good measure. Ended up with 10GB free space and 0% fragmentation!

Downloaded GParted http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ and burned the .iso. Rebooted to the CD and deallocated 8GB for the linux partition.

I'll have about 20GB for windows and 8GB for linux. When the wireless is working and everyday stuff all works in linux, I'll wipe Windows and reallocate the space for linux.

Laptop and hardware

I have about a 3 year old Dell Inspiron 5100 with: 1.6Ghz, 512MB, 30GB HD, internal 802.11g wifi, etc... It came with Windows XP and all the usual bloatware. I have all but 4GB filled depending on how many podcasts I have downloaded at any particular time.

I also have a 300GB NAS drive for backing up and an 80GB usb drive for data storage. Also burn DVDs of the NAS data every now and again.

As soon as I get all my data onto the usb drive, Windows will be but a ghostly image in VM... :>