Planet TLLTS

In my last post I mostly talked about the hardware side of the Archos 101. Today I’m going to talk about the software, primarily the custom version of Android that Archos has developed. For the most part it is stock Android. Unlike the Viewsonic gTablet which has a horrible customized version of Android, Archos has wisely chosen to keep it simple. As a Nexus One owner I was immediately comfortable using the Archos 101. Everything is pretty familiar. The biggest glaring omission is that the original Android marketplace is not installed by default. Instead Archos has installed the Appslib marketplace. This is pretty limiting as far as the applications you can install. My guess is that Archos only wants to make available applications they know will scale up to a bigger screen. This will hopefully go away as the upcoming Honeycomb release of Android will address the tablet experience directly. Not to fear, some of the great people over at the XDA Forums have created a package that will install the regular marketplace in under a minute. The tablet has shipped with Android 2.1 but upon connecting to the internet you will see a firmware upgrade is available that will bring you up to Android 2.2. As others have reported there were periodic lagginess when having multiple applications open at once. Someone recommended doing a factory wipe to alleviate the issue. I tried this and noticed the issue has disappeared. With the upgrade to Android 2.2 there’s even a CPU scaling option. By default Archos has the CPU set to 800 mhz even thought the processor is 1 ghz. They do this to improve battery life. I decided to increase this to the “overdrive” setting and haven’t noticed any negative effects on the battery life. Everything is pretty quick and responsive. So far I’m enjoying Android on such a large device. Ebook reading is an absolute joy with Aldiko and the Kindle applications. Comics purchased from Comixology look absolutely stunning in their Android application. The web browser is pretty nice and looks good in both landscape and portrait modes. While media playback is generally very good there is the annoyance of not being able to play mpeg2 video or AC-3 audio by default. Archos wants users to buy a codec pack for 15 Euros?! An easy work around to this is installing the Rockplayer application. It seems a bit petty that Archos wants to charge extra for the ability to play back commonly used codecs. Another glaring issue is that there’s no hardware specific version of flashplayer for Archos Android devices. You can install the default player from the marketplace but it’s not hardware accelerated. It’s usable but not optimal. Supposedly Archos is working with Adobe to get an official package released soon. Some day to day observations in my next post.

The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader" by C.S. Lewis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Now this book was adventure more to my liking: Sailing the high seas, exploring islands, and dragons! I was skeptical going in with regards to Eustace but Lewis handled him superbly. And then there was Reepicheep. He was definitely the standout character.

I enjoyed the pacing of this book and never once thought it slowed to my dislike. But I did find that too often their quest results were taken at face value without solid confirmation until later.

As I get more into these characters the ending always leaves me with a bit of tear in my eye. We shall see how the final 4 books fare.





View all my reviews

The Archos 101 Android based internet tablet is now available for $299 in the U.S.. I’ve had mine for about a week now and have some initial likes and dislikes. First I want to discuss the hardware. Can a sub $300 device compare well with an Apple i-Pad or Samsung Galaxy Tab? Surprisingly yes. Archos has been in the media player business for some time now and in general their devices are well thought out and ergonomic.

Hardware likes:

Device is not too heavy. It’s much lighter than similar sized devices

The screen is nice and bright and has a nice resolution

has a full sized usb port on it

has a mini hdmi connection to connect to an HDTV

internal 8GB storage, microSD slot for up to 32GB added storage

front facing camera for video chat

kickstand to stand up the tablet on your desktop. Brilliant. Why no one other tablet has one is pretty puzzling. Perfect for using it as a digital picture frame when not active

stereo speakers are nice and loud

Hardware dislikes:

the screen is an absolute fingerprint magnet. On a smaller device it’s not as noticeable. Any lcd screen cleaner should work nicely to fix that.

the front facing camera is not the greatest quality. It’s ok for video chat but not for taking pictures

some kind of trackball or pointer would of been nice. Will go into detail when I talk about software and day to day tasks

device is mostly plastic though it seems pretty sturdy. There is a metal border around the screen.

to charge the device it has to be initially turned on

For the price I think the Archos 101 measures up pretty favorably to other devices in this form factor. The Viewsonic gTablet is roughly $100 more expensive. In my next post I’ll get into my likes and dislikes regarding Archos’ Android implementation and how the software side of things stacks up.

Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book much more than The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. I suspect, though, that is because I saw the movie before reading the book; none-the-less; Prince Caspian was very enjoyable. What frustrated me the most in the first book was that they went from kids going through the wardrobe to full fledged warrior kings and queens in the span of days. That was explained a bit better in this book where Lewis remarked that the air of Narnia "changed them." Now it evolved them back to the prowess they had when the first left Narnia, and Aslan’s powers augmented their skills, which does not necessarily account for the whole rapid evolution in the first book, but I buy it.

This book seemed to have a bit more adventure in it. Between the tales of D.L.F of Prince Caspian and their trek to find him they fit a goodly amount of information about the history between their leaving and their return, the Tarmarines and all the goings on. One review I glanced at while reading this book said nothing happened in this story; yet I did not find that at all. A lot happened.

I wish there was more questing in these books. One criticism I have is that pretty much everything seems handed to the four protagonists with little effort on their part. They seem merely pawns moving forward more so than adventurers striving to hone or learn skills to achieve their goals. I have to keep reminding myself that these are books for children, fantasy, and not high fantasy.

The cast of supporting characters were a lot more enjoyable and personable in this book than the first. The cartel of warrior mice were just awesome.

I so look forward to starting book three now, that I do. I am very interested to see where it goes next.



View all my reviews

Nope, I am not talking about the curious little Madagascan primate, I am talking about the one from System 76!

It has been a while since I have done a review, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been working one up At this past years Ohio Linux Fest I got to rub elbows with Carl Richell from System 76 who promised me the opportunity to review one of their masterpieces. After some killer anticipation, the unit arrived on my doorstep and it turned out to be their Lemur Ultra Thin laptop.

This lappy has a GORGEOUS 13″ display, a core-i3 proc, and the all the assorted (and working) ports, wifi, ethernet, sound, SUSPEND, etc., that you would come to expect. I did say working didn’t I? That’s important because, as retailer of Linux computers, it’s important to make the distinction that there is NO guesswork as to whether or not Linux will run on perfectly on it. It does

System 76 was nice enough to let me demo this thing for a long time, so it’s safe to say that I tested this thing out really well. I used it extensively at home to do my normal web surfing, video watching and music playing. I also used it for work where it was my portal for a bunch of system administration work, rdesktop and ssh sessions galore, plenty of terminals open with configuration scripts and php programming, connected through every kind of free and paid wifi you can think of, not to mention my work vpn. And a lot of that was all at the same time! This system performed more than admirably. I even used it at a work conference where I did splunk installs and testing without issue.

I am not sure what kinds of proprietary things that System 76 provides in its own packages, however everything in Ubuntu, the Linux distribution that System 76 ships with by default, runs perfectly. Then again, so did Mint 10, the other Linux distribution I installed and tested with. This left me with, literally, nothing whatsoever that didn’t meet my personal satisfaction

This laptop is very light, perfectly functional, very good looking and stunningly well designed and put together. It feels to me like a MacBook Air with a warp drive, and at literally half the price. In short, this is the laptop that I want to carry around (did I mention it’s light too)? I am hoping that Mrs. LincolnClaus is reading this. It would look great under the tree this year! I would gladly get rid of most of the rest of my laptop entourage to be able to carry one of these.

Hey, anyone want to buy a pristine condition used netbook? Or two?

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

For so long I have been hesitant to read this book let alone the series. When growing up I was into high adventure, sword and sorcery, the likes of Robert E Howard’s Conan and the many novels surrounding the various Dungeons and Dragons realms (i.e.; Dragon Lance, Lankmar, Forgotten Realms). The title alone did little to appeal to me. I had understood the concept of the story loosely and later heard it had some religious undertones. While it may have been instrumental in defining the role playing game atmosphere I so loved, still it just did not appeal to me for some reason.

Now my wife on the other hand read the entire series and proclaimed they were good books. Needless to say we went to see the first movie when it came out and while it was entertaining I felt it was not stellar. It paled compared to the Lord of the Rings trilogy and again, just was not "high adventure" enough for me.

Well I finally decided to sit down an read this series and alike most any other book that has a movie made of it I must say the book is much better. I regret having seen the movie before reading the book (much as I did the first Harry Potter movie and book). Still for how pleasant this book was I must say that it was not stellar. I feel that is because between the publishing of the book and now much in the realm of fantasy has been told (not all mind you). That this story, while it remains classic, has been told in some parts in other works I have read in my life. I guess that is to say for me it was not novel, but I say must it? Is it fair to judge a work on this when said work has come before most of the works I have read in the past?

Regardless, the story flowed well, it was a very quick read and one I feel my daughters would enjoy. I look forward to reading the rest of the series to see where it goes before the I see the movies.

Let me rethink something here. One criticism I had about the movie was that the whole story seemed to go too fast. They pop into Narnia, meet the Beavers, run for their lives, meet Aslan, (some stuff I don’t want to reveal and spoil), and big war. Peter goes from kid on summer holiday to warrior king fighting in the thick of it in what, days? The book did little to dispel this discontent I had but for some reason I was far more forgiving than the way it was presented in the movie.

As for the movie, I must say it remained pretty true to the book I have to give them credit on that.

Well I now start the second book. For some reason though, I have a hankering for Turkish Delight.



View all my reviews

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

For so long I have been hesitant to read this book let alone the series. When growing up I was into high adventure, sword and sorcery, the likes of Robert E Howard’s Conan and the many novels surrounding the various Dungeons and Dragons realms (i.e.; Dragon Lance, Lankmar, Forgotten Realms). The title alone did little to appeal to me. I had understood the concept of the story loosely and later heard it had some religious undertones. While it may have been instrumental in defining the role playing game atmosphere I so loved, still it just did not appeal to me for some reason.

Now my wife on the other hand read the entire series and proclaimed they were good books. Needless to say we went to see the first movie when it came out and while it was entertaining I felt it was not stellar. It paled compared to the Lord of the Rings trilogy and again, just was not “high adventure” enough for me.

Well I finally decided to sit down an read this series and alike most any other book that has a movie made of it I must say the book is much better. I regret having seen the movie before reading the book (much as I did the first Harry Potter movie and book). Still for how pleasant this book was I must say that it was not stellar. I feel that is because between the publishing of the book and now much in the realm of fantasy has been told (not all mind you). That this story, while it remains classic, has been told in some parts in other works I have read in my life. I guess that is to say for me it was not novel, but I say must it? Is it fair to judge a work on this when said work has come before most of the works I have read in the past?

Regardless, the story flowed well, it was a very quick read and one I feel my daughters would enjoy. I look forward to reading the rest of the series to see where it goes before the I see the movies.

Let me rethink something here. One criticism I had about the movie was that the whole story seemed to go too fast. They pop into Narnia, meet the Beavers, run for their lives, meet Aslan, (some stuff I don’t want to reveal and spoil), and big war. Peter goes from kid on summer holiday to warrior king fighting in the thick of it in what, days? The book did little to dispel this discontent I had but for some reason I was far more forgiving than the way it was presented in the movie.

As for the movie, I must say it remained pretty true to the book I have to give them credit on that.

Well I now start the second book. For some reason though, I have a hankering for Turkish Delight.



View all my reviews

Freedom (TM) by Daniel Suarez

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I could not believe when CafeNinja told me that this sequal to Daemon was an even more additive page turner. But after the first chapter I was hooked! Freedom picks up a few months after Daemon and continues the fantastic story woven by Suarez. The pace never lets up and the character development is phenomenal. Over the course of these two books Suarez effectively had me change sides and opened my eyes to some real terrifying stuff that "could" be going on in our world today.

I strongly recommend this book to everyone, it’s a real eye opener and a though provoker. If you don’t come away from this book at the very least thinking, than your mind needs a serious wake-up crowbar taken to it.

As a person who appreciates gaming I must say the whole Darknet concept is right up my alley. I do not want to give away too much here but this society is very compelling and exciting. The technology used is not too far fetched so it could be doable in a few short years.

It is very tough to talk about this book without revealing spoilers to Freedom or Daemon. Suffice to say that you should put these two books on your must read list in the immediate future.

I purchased and read both books on the Kindle. The format for both was good. I did notice a glitch on one page in Freedom where it appeared that some text was lost. This was no crucial text and did not detract anything from the story.



View all my reviews

Today marks the end of my 5th full year of podoggcasting. 133 episodes over 260 weeks ain't too bad I reckon. I do wish I could have been a little more frequent these last couple of years; my dealings with the SouthEast LinuxFest have slowed me down somewhat to say the least.

Doing an oggcast is an excellent way to get involved in the community--and it's fun too. Heck, I didn't even know I was part of the community until after I started my oggcast. Oggcasting is easier than you think. If I can do a oggcast, anyone can. Here's an idea, why don't you do one? All you need is a microphone and some storage space. I bet you already have a microphone, and the internet archive already has the storage space, and you have just run out of excuses. "But I don't have enough to talk about" you whine say. Well that's one of the reasons why hacker public radio exists. You don't have to start your very own oggcast; you can just contribute to hacker public radio until you run out of stuff to say, or decide that you want to start you own.

I guess what I am saying is this: start a oggcast, it will change your life, make all your wildest dreams come true, and it will give me something else new to listen to; AND if you don't start a oggcast, I will be forced to continue doing mine. Thanks in advance for you oggcast contributions.

65 Below by Basil Sands

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was great! I enjoyed much more than Faithful Warrior (again, not a bad story) as it kept me riveted to the page. The pacing was great and the character development on target. What I enjoyed most about the characters though is that Marcus "Mojo" Johnson, the protagonist, appeared in parts of Faithful Warrior. So it was great to get to know this character in much more detail. I like that Sand’s universe is populated with characters that show up across his books almost like a comic book universe.

The plot, Korean and Albanian terrorists unearth a biological weapon and plan to unleash was horrifying too plausible. The parts of the story dealing with the virus really elicited a fear reaction in me so hats off to Mr. Sands for accomplishing what few authors have done to me in the past.

The romance aspect of the story was tastefully executed and did not drag the story down or did it feel at all out of place as it did in Faithful Warrior. The story of Mojo’s live and his relationships as told through the flashbacks weaved perfectly with the present storyline.

Again, what I did enjoy about this book and was echoed in FW was that the characters are highly trained individuals but they are not super human. They get battered and beaten pretty badly in the course of the adventures.

65 Below is a fantastic read, I highly recommend it. Kudos Sands, kudos!



View all my reviews