I spent about $210 getting a new 19" monitor to run on my Linux box. The monitor I got is a Benq FP93G series monitor. I have so far tested the monitor using output both from my laptop and the desktop computer to find that I have mixed feelings about thus monitor-- the images don't come out as crisp as the images on my monitor... it maybe due to the fact that the surface isn't glossy.
The other problem that has been plaguing me recently is that I have yet to find a good way to turn off sub-pixel interpolation of characters on all the software on my Ubuntu Linux installation. Simply put, sub-pixel interpolation attemptes to smooth the display text to make them look rounder and smoother than what your average monitor might be able to show by shading some pixels gray instead of just using white or black to draw a character.
Unfortunately for me (or fortunately for me) is that I have very sharp eyes and when I look at sub-pixel interpolated characters, it actually gives me eye strain and sometimes a headache... as I am facing right now. I much prefer the screen on my laptop compared to the flat panel screen I am working off of at the moment.
I have already tried hooking the monitor up to my laptop (which runs windows, and I have sub-pixel interpolation disabled) and the text I read from the laptop is much clearer to me (though I still prefer reading text directly from the laptop instead of the monitor). I think sub-pixel interpolation might be good for monitors with a glossy surface since the pixels may do a better job of blending through a glossy surface. Unfortunately for me, the monitor I have is just a standard monitor without a glossy surface... as I used to be able to work on a monitor without glossy surfaces.
I am quite annoyed that things turned out the way they did and will be looking for a way to work around this problem as I cannot stand blurry text.
I have tried watching videos on my monitor and found no problem at all with the display quality. It's only a problem when I have to look at high contrast images.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
I type this from my Linux box
Back in my university days, I managed to salvage a 1 GHz computer from the dumpster. The PC box already had 512 MB ram and a video card. A few more weeks of checking out the dumpster later, I managed to find other scrapped computers to salvage a sound card, a network card and a 12 GB HD and I would have a fully working computer... which I ended up donating to a friend of mine that didn't have a computer at the time.
Well right before leaving university, he didn't need the computer anymore and I bought it with me to my new home where I bought a new 19" LCD to go with the system an installed Ubuntu (a very easy to setup Linux distribution) on the computer. The desktop looks something like this:
My Desktop while getting some music going.
The distribution comes complete with Open Office which is a suite complete with a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation preparation programs. All of this comes free with the operating system and can be easily installed into other systems as well. Linux comes complete with programming tools, program editors with the option to add a whole slew of software for free.
The desktop side of Linux is becoming very attractive, especially for those with good video cards to go with their computer (though most of it is just eye candy... it's also very pleasing eye candy). The desktop is managed by a piece of software developed from the Compiz Fusion project, which was a project to develop an incredibly beautiful/slick desktop environment. Check out the following link for a video demonstration. It just goes to say that you done necessarily need Windows for a decent working environment. The best part of it all is that all of this software, and more comes for free and all the code on how to write these programs are publicly available should you be interested in doing some programming of your own.
Windows and the together already costs atleast $200 or more, then throw in any other software that you might be interested in and you are probably looking at $1000 more in costs for installed software on the computer. If you want an image editor, programming environment, HTTP server or anything, all of this can be had for for free just by downloading the software you want from an online software repository. Simple as that and you'd be saving yourself $1200+ in software that easy.
Though, I think the biggest hang up of using Linux is that there might be one piece of software that might not be available on Linux. Well fear not, there exists a piece of software that can interpret Windows programs and have it run on a Linux OS. That piece of software is other wise known as "wine." All one needs to do is install it and have it run the program of your choice. Simple as that.
I do have to admit that I am still a little uncertain of gaming on a Linux box with the standard titles out there, but I have heard from some people that many usual Windows games are playable through the Wine emulator software (and I heard that it runs fast enough that there isn't any significant slowdown of the game).
Most likely, I will be upgrading this computer later on (or rather rebuilding the whole thing) with much slicker hardware to take play around with the Linux OS. So far, I am quite impressed.
Well right before leaving university, he didn't need the computer anymore and I bought it with me to my new home where I bought a new 19" LCD to go with the system an installed Ubuntu (a very easy to setup Linux distribution) on the computer. The desktop looks something like this:
My Desktop while getting some music going.
The distribution comes complete with Open Office which is a suite complete with a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation preparation programs. All of this comes free with the operating system and can be easily installed into other systems as well. Linux comes complete with programming tools, program editors with the option to add a whole slew of software for free.
The desktop side of Linux is becoming very attractive, especially for those with good video cards to go with their computer (though most of it is just eye candy... it's also very pleasing eye candy). The desktop is managed by a piece of software developed from the Compiz Fusion project, which was a project to develop an incredibly beautiful/slick desktop environment. Check out the following link for a video demonstration. It just goes to say that you done necessarily need Windows for a decent working environment. The best part of it all is that all of this software, and more comes for free and all the code on how to write these programs are publicly available should you be interested in doing some programming of your own.
Windows and the together already costs atleast $200 or more, then throw in any other software that you might be interested in and you are probably looking at $1000 more in costs for installed software on the computer. If you want an image editor, programming environment, HTTP server or anything, all of this can be had for for free just by downloading the software you want from an online software repository. Simple as that and you'd be saving yourself $1200+ in software that easy.
Though, I think the biggest hang up of using Linux is that there might be one piece of software that might not be available on Linux. Well fear not, there exists a piece of software that can interpret Windows programs and have it run on a Linux OS. That piece of software is other wise known as "wine." All one needs to do is install it and have it run the program of your choice. Simple as that.
I do have to admit that I am still a little uncertain of gaming on a Linux box with the standard titles out there, but I have heard from some people that many usual Windows games are playable through the Wine emulator software (and I heard that it runs fast enough that there isn't any significant slowdown of the game).
Most likely, I will be upgrading this computer later on (or rather rebuilding the whole thing) with much slicker hardware to take play around with the Linux OS. So far, I am quite impressed.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
The importance of a good keyboarding posture
It has nearly been about 3 years since the last time I really worked on a desktop computer. It wasn't until a while back where I recovered a desktop computer from the dumpster at the University garbage disposal area that I decided to build myself a Linux box running the Ubuntu distribution of Linux to give it a try.
I like the idea of free software which is just as good or even better than commercial applications that is out there right now. Spreadsheets? Word processing and etc? There's open office. Need to do programming but don't want to shell out for the expensive Microsoft IDE? Linux has several nice options all available for free. You just can't beat that and I have also decided to try and learn more about the Linux OS and play around with what they've got here.
A long while back, I got used to working on a laptop keyboard. I still remember getting wrist cramps the first time working on the laptop just because I wasn't used to working on a laptop keyboard, though I don't have a problem with it now. The problem is getting back to the traditional keyboard. I bought a really cheap one a while back that doesn't support my wrists and found that almost after 30 minutes of typing, I was getting some mild cramping. There is just absolutely no way that I want to develop wrist problems in the future so I've opted for a better keyboard and changed my typing posture actually, my wrists don't rest on the table below or on the keyboard and I find this the most comfortable typing position.
Suffice to say that most of our activities revolve around using a computer and it would be simply crippling (in more ways than one) should we not be able to use a computer due to wrist injuries.
I like the idea of free software which is just as good or even better than commercial applications that is out there right now. Spreadsheets? Word processing and etc? There's open office. Need to do programming but don't want to shell out for the expensive Microsoft IDE? Linux has several nice options all available for free. You just can't beat that and I have also decided to try and learn more about the Linux OS and play around with what they've got here.
A long while back, I got used to working on a laptop keyboard. I still remember getting wrist cramps the first time working on the laptop just because I wasn't used to working on a laptop keyboard, though I don't have a problem with it now. The problem is getting back to the traditional keyboard. I bought a really cheap one a while back that doesn't support my wrists and found that almost after 30 minutes of typing, I was getting some mild cramping. There is just absolutely no way that I want to develop wrist problems in the future so I've opted for a better keyboard and changed my typing posture actually, my wrists don't rest on the table below or on the keyboard and I find this the most comfortable typing position.
Suffice to say that most of our activities revolve around using a computer and it would be simply crippling (in more ways than one) should we not be able to use a computer due to wrist injuries.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Finally, Internet
Been a while since the last post. Not having internet in the room does tend to slow things down, but finally, that has changed.
Internet in Japan is vastly superior to what I used to work on in Canada. Most apartments are now equipped with fiber-optic connections (usually shared) allowing me to go up to about 800 kB/sec (I am talking about kilobytes here!) on peak (when I am really pushing it) or easily to 200 kB/sec on a few downloads. I used to share a connection with my roommates when I shared an apartment and it would only cost each of us $15/month ($45/month total).
Since relocating to the company dorm, I have opted for a shared internet connection going for about $15/month. This time, it being shared with about 100 other people, I think. I decided not to bother with a dedicated connection to my room since I don't have any plans on using my connection that heavily and large downloads can be completed with the computer running while at work.
The cell phone carriers in Japan are working on putting together full coverage of high speed internet to the cell phones here. We are looking at about 250kB/sec on bandwidth... though the packet charges are going to be insane if people really start downloading hoards of material onto their cell phones. Phone carriers here offer a $15/month unlimited packet service to the cell phones in addition to the basic package plan. If I had it my way, I'd opt or the cheapest cell phone package and see if I can hack Skype onto a cell phone to make phone calls over the net. I predict that full-blown high speed internet to mobile devices will eventually be available to hand-held devices in the near future.
Work so far, has been quite good. I have lots of freedom to do whatever kind of work want and the organizational structure for my research team is very flat, making getting access to superiors very easy (especially for Japan). I have so far been supplied with a brand-new Sony laptop since my first day in the company. I have a few thoughts about working in large corporations but I will leave those for later.
Time to enjoy the internet!
Internet in Japan is vastly superior to what I used to work on in Canada. Most apartments are now equipped with fiber-optic connections (usually shared) allowing me to go up to about 800 kB/sec (I am talking about kilobytes here!) on peak (when I am really pushing it) or easily to 200 kB/sec on a few downloads. I used to share a connection with my roommates when I shared an apartment and it would only cost each of us $15/month ($45/month total).
Since relocating to the company dorm, I have opted for a shared internet connection going for about $15/month. This time, it being shared with about 100 other people, I think. I decided not to bother with a dedicated connection to my room since I don't have any plans on using my connection that heavily and large downloads can be completed with the computer running while at work.
The cell phone carriers in Japan are working on putting together full coverage of high speed internet to the cell phones here. We are looking at about 250kB/sec on bandwidth... though the packet charges are going to be insane if people really start downloading hoards of material onto their cell phones. Phone carriers here offer a $15/month unlimited packet service to the cell phones in addition to the basic package plan. If I had it my way, I'd opt or the cheapest cell phone package and see if I can hack Skype onto a cell phone to make phone calls over the net. I predict that full-blown high speed internet to mobile devices will eventually be available to hand-held devices in the near future.
Work so far, has been quite good. I have lots of freedom to do whatever kind of work want and the organizational structure for my research team is very flat, making getting access to superiors very easy (especially for Japan). I have so far been supplied with a brand-new Sony laptop since my first day in the company. I have a few thoughts about working in large corporations but I will leave those for later.
Time to enjoy the internet!
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