Entries by Ruairi Fullam

At Switch, we generally focus on Microsoft technologies, for good or bad. It is the industry standard, but we're always enthusiastic about alternatives. Recently, I purchased an Acer Aspire One netbook for around £200. It has a built in 8GB SSD for storage, and is suited to run a Linux based operating system. It comes preloaded with the rather obscure Linpus Linux Lite, which is fine but rather constrained into a specific toolset suited to the device, and for users who are less inclined to tinker.

Of course, it's in our nature to tinker so with the new release of Ubuntu 9.04 and it's new "Netbook Remix", I figured this was the perfect opportunity to check out a mature alternative. Using the tools provided on Ubuntu's website, I formatted a USB memorystick and loaded on the Netbook Remix disk image, and booted from this on the Aspire One Netbook.

The install was very smooth indeed. With every iteration of Ubuntu, the usability gets a lot better, no doubt about it. The install did take a significant amount of time however, because the SSD disk is not a performance part - understandable considering the price of the Netbook. The image itself has to extract and configure all the component applications which took the bulk of the time.

Once installed however, Ubuntu presents itself with an amazing Netbook interface. One of the major enhancements is having a combined title bar and applications bar in one, saving precious screen space. A click of the Ubuntu logo in the top left hand corner brings up the full screen application launcher, with category groupings on the left, a large area for applications in the middle and access to folders and shutdown on the right. Other running applications are displayed, icon only next to the Ubuntu logo on the top left. The system tray/dock is on the right, and the running application with its relevant window controls take up the remaining space in the top middle. Particular attention has been put into transitions and fading effects which are tastefully done and do not feel redundant.

That said, if you prefer the classic Ubuntu setup, you can easily switch back and forth within a few clicks using the Preferences option.

The only delays are generally incurred by SSD disk access which can be slow, but getting used to this quirk doesn't take long. As a general rule, if the system is unresponsive and the SSD access light is on, you know that you will get control again within a few seconds, and once your application is loaded, you likely wont have that wait again, unless you're doing some heavy work - which is what the Netbook isn't designed for.

My only other gripe is that Wireless LAN doesn't work out of the box, which is midly disappointing considering the prevalance of the Acer Aspire One. As yet, being on a Wired LAN, I haven't invested time in fixing this but having a look at the Ubuntu wiki shows that it shouldn't be too difficult, so I will try that soon. As ever, Ubuntu's support is generally amazing - community fostering efforts from Jono Bacon have certainly given Ubuntu the well deserved friendly reputation it has.

For the moment, I can't see myself switching to any other operating system on this Netbook, I highly recommend anyone with a Netbook running Linux to consider this as an alternative, more evolved experience.

A hilarious video posted on YouTube caught our attention - The Poetic Prophet (AKA The SEO Rapper) defies the conventional stereotype of someone working in SEO; in fact, this Notorious B.I.G.-alike shatters perception with an excellently thought out video packed with advice on modern web design techniques ("Don't use bold, please use strong, if you use bold that's old and wrong!"), without the need to mention guns, girls or bling at all!

Design Coding by The Poetic Prophet (AKA The SEO Rapper):

Without even realising, you and the companies you work for are benefitting directly from free software. Free software is often misunderstood, as it is more than just receiving software without monetary cost.

Free software, by definition is software that grants you rights to modify and redistribute the software as long as you publish your modifications in kind. This method of distribution is behind the majority of infrastructure that powers the entire internet, and can be found in anything from Set Top boxes used to record television programs, to your wireless router at home sharing your internet bandwidth.

The Free Software Foundation works on protecting these freedoms granted to software developers. Often there are legal issues that entangle free software developers, ranging from Intellectual Property claims (often predatory and false!) and also targetting legal proceedings at people who try to modify free software without releasing their changes. They also sponsor some key projects, and provide online information on free software practices and also advise on predatory software practises like consumer-hostile digital rights management and anti-competitive measures taken by some proprietary software vendors.

Learn more about free software here, read the Free Software Definition:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

Join the Free Software Foundation: https://www.fsf.org/associate/support_freedom/join_fsf?referrer=6008

Some of you may have had D-Link routers in the past, known for their clunky silver / grey boxes, the aquamarine logo and awful looking administration interfaces. Luckily, they've had a visit from the taste brigade and managed to update all the shortcomings in their market approach. The boxes are now cheaper, smaller, and much better presented. I bought a DIR-100 Ethernet Broadband Router to see what it was about and I'm quite impressed! The new firmware has had its control panel redesigned in an attractive black and green theme, more facilities including Game Mode and QoS (Quality of Service) prioritising. It's much much better and snappier than its existing incarnations. Shipping versions currently have the 1.00 firmware - a 1.01 firmware has been released which addresses issues with Application Rules amongst other minor things. The box itself is a small black and silver number, well presented considering the cost (under £20 from ebuyer). For cable modems, this may potentially be the router to shift me from my favourite, the Netgear 624.

We are now registered with Technorati, and part of the so-called Blogosphere!

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Anti-Virus and Network Security are important to any computer user; but unfortunately the right choice in software can be a challenge. Today I had to endure a severe problem with Norton Internet Security 2007, which had rendered core Windows Networking software components laid to ruin - which was very frustrating for my customer. Luckily, Windows System Restore went some way to saving the day. 

System Restore lets you roll back your computer settings without affecting your documents, but it doesn't always run successfully. Periodic snapshots are taken and stored on a part of your hard drive. On the first three attempts, my customer was unsuccessful restoring the computer to recent snapshots, but by chance I tried an earlier snapshot from two weeks previous which had restored the networking components into a working state.

I then promptly uninstalled Norton Internet Security 2007 and replaced it with a trial version of AVG for the time being. I'm growing ever more sour of my experience with Norton, for one it is very heavy on any system, and secondly, it has an overly visible presence, distracting users only to inform them that it is there (example, a toolbar in Internet Explorer saying that YOU ARE SECURED, and periodic pop-ups saying STATUS GOOD).

So, credit still due to AVG, who write a great suite of products, all be it not the best looking - I've never had any trouble with it yet.

I'm Ruairi Fullam (call me "Rory", my name is Irish), and I've been an Exeter-based IT Consultant for over five years specialising in roughly the same areas as Kris does. I'm currently now based at the Switch Systems offices working alongside Kris as I anticipate in the near future to merge with Switch Systems to mutually increase the quality of service we both offer, which of course is of great benefit to both of our existing customer bases.

Well, Kris has taught me a number of interesting things that weren't immediately obvious to me, like realtime graphical network monitoring using TheDude, and learning the basics of physical network cabling.

Seeing the potential of this, I advised Kris that it would be great if we wall-mounted his new Thin Client terminal display on the wall between our two desks, so at a glance we can see the status of all our client networks and websites, and also see the identity of incoming callers (thanks to Kris' fantastic CRM integrated caller ID software).

So - for now I'm working through my current workload, but we have some great ideas for the future on how we push Switch Systems further and increase the brand value and market presence. Exciting times to come for sure!