irrelevancy

I love desktop effects. Particularly when they’re done well. As a geek, I’ve been into plenty of movies where they show overdone or slightly ridiculous user interfaces. They were obviously not made with usability in mind as it was just for show.

Linux applications are not new to movies and television. The KDE desktop can be seen in the show ’24′ as well as ‘Heroes’. I think I remember an interview with Dean Haglund who said that the PC’s used Linux for the show ‘The Lone Gunmen’ (maybe X-Files as well?). And why not? It’s free and ultimately modifiable. I eagerly await the reaction to using Compiz in entertainment mediums.

I read lots of comments about how desktop effects provide nothing useful. Nonsense. There’s many features that are useful to the disabled or can increase productivity. Sure, there’s lots of stuff that is just visual pleasure, but what’s wrong with that? You don’t buy the same color clothes all the time. You don’t have the default wallpaper set on your desktop. Some features may not make using your PC more productive, but certainly more enjoyable. What a boring place this would be if we were all alike.

For *Ubuntu users at least, you can hook into Treviño’s Ubuntu Repository. It looks like the current development version is built and uploaded every couple days. Looks better every update.

I’ve been using Kubuntu, the KDE variant of Ubuntu, since Dapper (6.06). While I prefer KDE as my desktop environment, I still feel like a second-class citizen as Ubuntu focuses on the GNOME desktop.

I installed Kubuntu on the notebook at first, then adding different environments. I thought GNOME ran a bit sluggish as there were services running that were specific to KDE and not needed. So I repartitioned the hard drive to make room for another install. Ubuntu ran much smoother, but still takes about as much resources as with KDE. I liked the little advancements in GNOME, like the Disk Usage Analyzer and the Battery Monitor.

Ubuntu’s Disk Usage Analyzer – Click for larger version

The DUA is slick and very useful. KDE’s file manager, Konqueror, has a similar feature with it’s File Size View.

Ubuntu’s Battery Monitor / Power History graph – Click for larger version

I previously wondered why the battery life for this notebook was so horrendous. Like I said, I’m always plugged in, so it’s not a big deal to me, but if I ever did need to take it out quickly I’d like it to last long enough to do whatever I need to do.

Turns out the battery is just on it’s way out, only able to reach 21% capacity. Quickly dies in about a half hour and takes about an hour and half to fully recharge. Also found this info under /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/:

kh@midori:/proc/acpi/battery/BAT0$ cat *
alarm:                   92 mAh
present:                 yes
design capacity:         4300 mAh
last full capacity:      922 mAh
battery technology:      rechargeable
design voltage:          14800 mV
design capacity warning: 92 mAh
design capacity low:     27 mAh
capacity granularity 1:  5 mAh
capacity granularity 2:  5 mAh
model number:            DELL 000W1
serial number:           951
battery type:            LION
OEM info:                Sanyo
present:                 yes
capacity state:          ok
charging state:          charged
present rate:            unknown
remaining capacity:      4300 mAh
present voltage:         16570 mV

Because of a design flaw in the Inspiron 1100 and similar models, I thought maybe there were also problems with a buildup of gunk around the fans and processor, causing excess heat and loss of CPU efficacy. Since I couldn’t find a temperature applet and was poking around /proc/ anyway, I found the thermal information in /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM/:

kh@midori:/proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM$ cat temperature ; cat trip_points
temperature:             53 C
critical (S5):           78 C

I tried to install the CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor applet, but I was warned it wouldn’t work correctly (I wouldn’t be able to actually scale down the processor). I wasn’t surprised as this notebook uses a Celeron meant for a desktop.

But I found this under /proc/acpi/processor/CPU0/:

kh@midori:/proc/acpi/processor/CPU0$ cat throttling
state count:             8
active state:            T0
states:
   *T0:                  00%
    T1:                  12%
    T2:                  25%
    T3:                  37%
    T4:                  50%
    T5:                  62%
    T6:                  75%
    T7:                  87%

You can (as root) change the active state by issuing something like: `echo 5 > /proc/acpi/processor/CPU0/throttling`.

I also tried out the NetworkManager for the first time since getting the D-Link WNA-2330 wireless card. Again, not impressed. I was connected to the wireless network here, but after about 5 minutes or so it would just unexpectedly disconnect. I realize it’s only at version 0.1 or whatever, but it doesn’t seem to me that it’s ready for prime-time. Still easier to just set it up at the command line and not have an applet taking up resources. I imagine for those it does work and those who roam around to a lot of different networks it’s a great addition. I guess it looks slick, that’s about all I can say.