Sebastian Early Anthony Payne

I went to visit a local parish priest today (who's wife was an ex-teacher of mine some years ago). His six year old built-by-your-neighbor computer was acting up and he wanted me to take a look. It seemed no power was getting to the PS/2 or USB ports and I suggested that maybe the computer was dying and an investment in a new one would be a wise move. The hard disk was intact so the data will be retrieved at a later date with an external caddy. The question then comes - what does one suggest? My natural instinct was a Mac - simpler to use, less hassle and smaller form factor (be it a Mac Mini, MacBook or even a refurbished iBook). I was about to suggest one of these when I had a new thought, what about the Asus EeePC?

The parish computer is only required for basic tasks - internet browsing, webmail, research, occasional internet telephony and printing. The computer dying was unexpected so money was an issue too. The EeePC is suitable for all these tasks, with Firefox, Skype and OpenOffice.org included for all these functions as well as being available for only £219. A visit to our local Toys'R'Us was in order, which is coincidentally one of the worst shops I have ever been in - the staff are unhelpful and rude while the shop is large and unappealing to all ages. But the deed was done, we managed to pickup a 4G Surf model with webcam. The priest was amazed at the size, noise (lack of it) and weight of the machine, especially compared to the PC monsters surrounding it in the shop. Back home to see how it works out.

The initial setup was smooth with no issues and we were presented with the 'basic mode' of the EeePC. The 15" TFT from the old computer was then plugged in but nothing happened. I went into Settings tab, found the correct option and I told it to shut off the internal screen and run the external one at 1024 x 768 (and not the computer chosen 800 x 400) and voila, everything seemed fine! The Virgin Media cable modem went straight into the ethernet port and worked first time. The Logitech Keyboard/Mouse wireless set also worked first time. So far so good then! I showed him and his wife around Firefox and OpenOffice.org, with a touch of customisation in the toolbars area. Maybe Linux is better than I remembered. Then came the interesting part - the all-in-one Lexmark device.

Lexmark are not known for producing great products and they are certainly my least favorite manufacturer of printers, scanners and combination devices. They are cheaply made, the cartridges are expensive and they are tricky to get working on anything-but-Windows. His device (a 1180 if I remember correctly) wasn't available from the printer wizard on the EeePC. Some Googling mentioned building some stuff from a Lexmark source code which could be found on a random FTP server. Not something I like doing, especially since it may involve breaking a machine and I will not be around to fix. His older printer, an HP DeskJet of sorts worked fine with a USB connection. HP do great stuff that always just works for me, be it on Mac or Windows. Still, not the best solution as he still can't scan.

After pulling down some automatic updates from Asus, the machine requested a reboot. Quickly it restarted but when it came back on, the external display was only at 800 x 400. Bummer. All the memories of spending hours getting simple stuff worked flooded back from days of yore when I used Linux. It seemed that no matter how hard the distributors work, they can't seem to match the likes of Apple and Microsoft with their high levels of quality assurance in their products. I set the resolution manually (again) and tried another restart to see if it made any difference but it again jumped back. I then started to trail through the community-provided forums and wiki and stumbled on this note (describes how to add a script to boot). With a lot of fiddling around, I knocked together a script that would disable the internal monitor and set the external one to the correct size on boot. Finally - it worked, albeit with the priest looking perplexed at what had been done.

The end tale of this that Asus have created a great machine but as I expected, the Linux distribution needs more polishing. Imagine if I hadn't been there, how would he have setup the monitor or printer? If it was available in a Windows version, I would have immediately suggested that as both the monitor and printer would have not been an issue. I need to go back to drop off his data from the old PC and will see how he is getting on. A Windows install may still be needed if more problems have arisen. My advice to Asus - get a Windows version available soon and give the Linux some tender, loving care.

Postscript - I had intended to have some actual photos of the setup but didn't have time after spending all this time messing on with Linux.

After reading the front page of The Daily Telegraph today, which boldly proclaims

Barack Obama has told voters that he will become US President if he wins the Democratic Party's New Hampshire primary on Tuesday

Quite a interesting statement, considering most of the odds have been on Clinton until the Iowa primary this past Thursday. Sure, until now there has been no real proof (apart from opinion polls) on who is going win the nominations but it is important to remember that it is just one primary/caucus with more to come in the future. The previous Clinton did not win Iowa in 1992 and came second in New Hampshire, which started up his momentum and began the trail that led him to the Oval Office. Seems too early to be making statements such as these, does it not? The New Hampshire primary on 8th January is going to be very interested and we will see how well Obama does. Now, onto something tech related and slightly less political.

I was browsing through BarackObama.com, the official website of his presidential campaign and was thoroughly impressed. It's everything you would expect in 2008 for a site - clean, bright and plenty of ways to get interactive. He's on Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and YouTube to name a few. Beside his policies, a candidate who himself (or his campaign) see to have a grasp on technology is certainly one I would vote for. Let's say Gordon Brown announced an election tomorrow and prospective voters like myself went to either the Conservative or Labour party sites. Hmm, not very impressive. The Conservative's site are the better of two in my opinion - their design matches in with their traditional colour scheme with a modern flair and has plenty of information to offer. You couldn't call the Labour site bad but it doesn't strike as being modern and in touch with people. Is this the nature of the whole country or just those in power?

However when you get down to a personal level, it gets far worse. The official site of David Cameron, someone who is roughly equivalent to Obama. Both of them represent people (as an MP and Senator respectively) but neither are head of their countries yet, and may never be. His site design is obviously old and has gone without a refresh in several years. It even has a Java news box - how 1999! Comparing the two to me shows the different dynamics of Politics in the UK and US at the moment. The US is full of energy with some of the most interesting candidates in many years and the UK has a Prime Minister we did not vote for and so far, has little dynamic. Most people want an election but nothing seems to be happen. The photo of Obama's supporters (top of entry) really makes me wish I was in the states, working on a campaign. Something exciting in Politics that one can get involved with.

(Image Source - Barack Obama on Flickr)

Today, Radiohead finally saw sense and their latest album In Rainbows is now available on the iTunes Store. Various reasons have been passed around why none of their music was previously available online, the most common being that the band did not want their albums broken up into singles, ensuring you listen to the whole thing as a masterpiece (as well as avoiding the loss of the extra income). The reasoning behind the sudden change in direction is unknown and none of their other albums are available. Whether they will be available the future is unknown at this point.

Personally, I disagree with their point of view as other bands have put their put their concept albums onto iTunes without any fuss. Take Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd - one of the finest examples of a concept album ever produced that has been available on iTunes for a long time as well being iTunes Plus compatible. Sure you can buy Money or Time for 79p but would you want to? Each song segues into another so listening to just one doesn't give you the complete experience. The band created the album to flow and although Money was issued as a single, this wasn't the intended medium. Why do you think they played Speak To Me --> Breathe --> Breathe Reprise at Live 8? It's what they do best.

My opinion is that Radiohead should trust customers like Pink Floyd and countless others have done. Those who want a particular song can buy it but those who fully appreciate the music will buy the album. I haven't purchased the album but I did download a copy (through their scheme of 'pay-what-you-want') free to sample the album. I'm not a Radiohead fan and would not spend £7.99 on an album from them but wanted to see what the fuss was about. With my music critic hat on, In Rainbows is a fine album that ranks with the best of their work but it is certainly not my cup of tea.

This process works well, even if it is unknown how well the band did from it. From a consumer point of view, you get the sample the whole thing but if you want the real thing, you go and buy it. Their next steps of the band will be interesting - will their previous albums appear? Will they release future albums in a similar method? Who knows, but it's an interesting time to be an observer of the music industry.

(Source for this entry is TUAW.)

One of the joys of using Mac is that there are lots of developers harnessing Apple's tools to create some brilliant applications. Some are advanced with fancy graphics while others are simple and just do the job. The latter is the case with Image Tool by Jim McGowan - it does exactly what it says on the tin. Image Tool is a simple image manipulation tool that allows you to resize an image, convert it to another format or a mixture of both! I'm stuck on Photoshop CS2 (thanks to Adobe's still-too-expensive education pricing) so firing it up on an Intel Mac takes a fair amount of time, especially when all that is needed is a three second operation. This is where Image Tool comes into its own.

Firstly, the interface is as simple as you can get. You drag your original image into the box on the left (Source Image) panel of the screen and you are presented with you options. You can choose your output format from the drop down box and save the image out without any more adjustments. Or you may want to fiddle around with the size.

You can enter your width and height manually or use one of the pre-selected options to alter the size. Thankfully, it is a cleaver little application and will keep the proportions of the image. For example, entering 200 x 200 for the sample image would jump the width criteria (since it was the other field that was filled) to the correct size. You can then export the image to the clipboard, Desktop or whichever folder takes your fancy.

That's all there is to say about Image Tool. If you aren't luck enough to be on the Skitch VIP list, you can use Apple's Grab utility with Image Tool to make the task of screenshooting easier. I love Image Tool and it sits happily in the Applications folder on both my Macs and gets a fair amount of usage. Take a look, you will not be disappointed if this is something you have been looking for. Image Tool is donationware, no money is required to use but it is suggested you send Jim something through PayPal if you find it handy.