Stupid comics

Stupid Comics rounds up dozens of badly written, drawn and conceived comics from yesteryear.

Dapper Drake (or : a Debian user migrates to Ubuntu)

Today marks the official release of Ubuntu 6.06, the userfriendly version of Linux. I've been test-running the (upgraded) beta since last week on my laptop, and -albeit a bit slow on this Pentium III Celeron 1GHz- I must say it's quite polished.

I've been running Debian unstable since 2000, but since the sarge release, it has ever become more and more unstable, causing grief at every dist-upgrade. Breezy has been running in VMware, so I had some time getting used to it. What strikes me is the big difference in repository content. Things like xephem aren't included in the Ubuntu repo, not even in multiverse.

Time to download the x64 version and install it on my dekstop.

Marc Fri, 06/02/2006 - 18:28

I upgraded to Ubuntu 6 ("Dapper Drake") from Ubuntu 5 ("Breezy Badger", which I was already pleased with) and was pleasantly surprised to find that my system is much more responsive than with Breezy. Firefox seems especially snappier. I really like the new GNOME deskbar applet too.

Donald E. Knuth answers all questions

On October 5, 2001, at the Technische Universität München, Donald Knuth presented a lecture entitled "All Questions Answered". The lecture drew an audience of around 350 people, and this PDF contains the transcript,and is truely worth a read.
Originally trained as a mathematician, Donald Knuth is renowned for his research in computer science, especially the analysis of algorithms. He is a prolific author, with 160 entries in MathSciNet. Knuth is also the creator of the TEX and METAFONT languages for computer typesetting, which have revolutionized the preparation and distribution of technical documents in many fields, including mathematics.

Panasonic VS6

I seem to have dropped my current mobile once too often : the reception contained way too much interference to understand the one calling me. So I decided it was time to look out for a new mobile. I almost bought the Nokia 6101 as it contained an FM radio, but the counter guys at Vandenborre were so unfriendly I decided to shop elsewhere.

The same evening I stumbled onto this (Dutch) review of the Panasonic VS6 on newmobile.nl, and found it too good to be true : a clamshell phone with a 16 million color screen, a 2 megapixel camera and bluetooth support for a sub 200 Euro price was unbeatable in its category. Panasonic seems to be only available in the PhoneHouse, where they offered also a Bluetooth USB dongle for an outrageous price of 45 Euro, whereas you can find a 10 Euro specimen in every grocery shop.

The phone itself then : the screen just blows you away with its crispness and colour, and the pictures the 2mp camera takes are quite good of quality. The keypad layout could be a bit better (IMO only Nokia produces phones with nice large keypads), and the contact book can only store contacts attributes if you save them in the phone's memory instead of the SIM card, which is a bit sad.

I was a bit afraid for Bluetooth support under Debian, as gnome-bluetooth wasn't available in the default repository, but kdebluetooth is a nice solution also. Time to personalize the phone with some cool graphics and realtones !

DVB-T

Those of you reading this blog regularly know that I'm not an avid TV watcher. So two years ago I discarded my cable subscription, and chose for an antenna for a casual TV session. However, analogue antennas are quite susceptible for interference, which can be quite annoying. Belgian public television stations like Canvas or Een are some time now already available on DVB-T, which is digital broadcast, resulting in an excellent broadcast quality, even better than cable. In the surrounding countries (eg Germany) DVB-T is widespread and the offer of available TV channels is quite large.

Begin this week, I purchased a DVB-T setop box, and I must say : the difference with our old antenna is stunning. Only the stations Eén and Canvas are receivable by DVB-T, and I don't think this is going to change soon : other TV companies like VTM have financial interests in cable companies, which make DVB-T expansions in Belgium unlikely.

Peter Korsgaard Wed, 05/24/2006 - 13:32

What settopbox did you buy and how much did you pay?

wannes Wed, 05/24/2006 - 15:49

In reply to by Peter Korsgaard

I have a Konig box. Bought it a ear ago with a digital antenna (you don't really need one, but it helps to get a better result).

I paid 180 euro for it (a year ago).

It gives me: Een, Canvas/Ketnet/Sporza, and eight digital radio's (I dont receive the analog StuBru very good in my concrete flat).

kristof Wed, 05/24/2006 - 16:43

In reply to by Peter Korsgaard

I bought the Siemens Gigaset M340T at Snogard.de and paid around 72 Euro.