Skype still provide beta version for Linuxes. There are several packages for Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora. I downloaded the Fedora one, which is a 32-bit package (I use Fedora 16 64 bit). The latest version is 2.2.0.35 Beta.

I installed the package using yum (which I thought would resolve automatically the dependencies), and it went through without complaints. It didn’t download anything, so I assumed the necessary additional packages were already installed. But when I tried to start Skype it failed silently. To see what was the problem I ran it from the command line, and it turned out that it needed several files to run. I had to hunt the necessary packages (using yum provides command) and installed it one by one before Skype can start.

After initial difficulties, Skype runs without problems so far. It detects the video camera and works with PulseAudio (which caused problems in the past). Now let’s hope it will stay that way and Microsoft, the new Skype owner, do not abandon the Linux versions.

I decided to have a go and installed Joomla, partly because this was the software recommended to this particular acquaintance. The installation procedure looks easy. To prepare for installation, I created the necessary MySQL database via cpanel interface. Then I follow the instructions: upload the zipped installer, extract the package in the root folder, open a particular URL to begin installation. It was recommended to create a sample website, so I did it.

The result is a site with a content management system, but still without any content (other than sample articles and tutorials). I messed around with the configuration for a while, but then decided that I’ll just hand over the site to the owner and let him design his own website.

As planned I installed Fedora 16 (Verne) Alpha with KDE 4.7 on it, and quickly updated to latest version (still Beta as I write this post). As all Linux users can testify, hardware problems are the rule than exception. Good news first: graphics is no problem (it is Intel chip after all). Fedora detects and supports the media keys on the keyboard and it can be used to control media players like Clementine or Amarok. There are other keys that control wi-fi and screen brightness as well. They work out of the box.

The bad news are: (1) the power management is bad. It failed to suspend and hibernate, and I suspect it consumes too much power on battery. In fact KDE power management module estimates about 3 hour battery life, which is rather disappointing. (2) Fedora fails to detect the touchpad, and sees it as ordinary PS/2 mouse.

Fortunately there are various tweakings that can be applied to make the battery lasts longer. First is to utilise pm-utils. A good thread at Crunchbang Linux forum reveals how to create an appropriate script. Another riskier tweak is to fiddle with several power saving features in Linux kernel which are not usually enabled by default for stability reasons. I edited the file /etc/default/grub into this:


GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="quiet rhgb pcie_aspm=force i915.i915_enable_fbc=1 i915.i915_enable_rc6=1"


Next step is to update grub entry (on Fedora 16, which uses GRUB2, this means applying grub2-mkconfig and grub2-install commands consecutively). This tell the kernel to enable ASPM (active state power management) on PCI Express bus, framebuffer compression and rc6 power management feature on Intel integrated graphics processor. Enabling ASPM seems not to cause any problems here, but sometimes I experience screen corruption when framebuffer compression is activated. These settings may be enabled by default in future kernel updates, and these tweaks will be no longer necessary.

I successfully enable suspend, by following instructions from this blog post. Incidentally the author of the blog owns Asus K43E which seems similar to my laptop. Unfortunately I haven’t found a good way to enable Fedora to detect the touchpad correctly. The aforementioned blog post suggests to patch the kernel, which I am rather reluctant to do. So for now, I left it as it is.

Update (15 Nov 2011): the touchpad is succesfully detected with new Linux 3.1.1 kernel.

Google+ main paradigm is the usage of circles to manage your friends/following. Facebook has a near equivalent feature: lists, but it is optional and not mandatory. Facebook has just introduced new kind of list, “smart list”. Facebook create this kind of list automatically, based on the information we include in the profile. For example there are lists based on workplaces, schools and family.

Smart list is a win for Facebook: I like the idea of automation of list-making (or circle making). But I still prefer circles, which allows us to follow updates from other Google+ users without approval. Subscription feature on Facebook (also added recently) makes it is possible to view public updates from non-Friends, but I think circle concept is more elegant.

Price is still important for me when choosing new laptop. That rules out Macs (the cheaper ones are too expensive for me). Fortunately pretty capable portable computers are inexpensive nowadays, even if you count out netbooks. I will put US$ 700 as the highest limit, but my requirements (see below) suggest I can get even lower.

I also plan to stay with Linux (Fedora) for my operating system. That rules out laptops with NVIDIA graphics. (which also helps with the price). I am not very comfortable with AMD/ATI graphics either, and that means no Brazos/Llano processors. Pity, because they seem interesting and quite cheap. Fortunately new Sandy Bridge Intel HD Graphics is reported to be much better than their predecessors.

Mobile processors are also getting better these days. Mobile Pentiums which are positioned as value processors are now dual-core, 64-bit and support SpeedStep. Unfortunately the don’t support virtualisation technologies, so they are out. I need to test operating systems using virtualisation, and a processor which doesn’t support will be a pain. That means the minimum is the Core i3 line.

Battery life is important for laptops or any portable machines, and better battery life will be always preferred. I am not too bothered by this though: four hours will be adequate for me. I am not that mobile. For the same reason a 14-inch screen size will be perfect. Last but not least: warranty. I require 2-year warranty minimum.

I already have candidates. But if you, dear readers, have suggestions, feel free to chime in.

First, it looks like Facebook somewhat, but it isn’t Facebook. Like XKCD says. It has profiles, status updates, photo uploads and tagging, and messages. So it is similar to Facebook in many ways. But it is also fundamentally different.

The main difference is the relationship model. Google+ has asymmetrical model. You don’t friend people there.You don’t need to be anybody’s friend. You include them in your circles, and they don’t need to approve it. There are several predefined circles: family, friends, acquaintances, following. This breaks the friendship model that introduced by Friendster and continued by Facebook.

When you include people in your circle their public updates will appear on the status stream. If they choose to include you in their circles, additional updates may appear as well.

Actually Google+ is more similar to Twitter in this regard: you can follow someone but you cannot insist that he/she follow you back. Except you can write more than 140 characters on, photo sharing is included, and you have better view of discussions. So you can see Google+ as Twitter on steroids.

This asymmetrical treatment also solves the problem faced by any social network based on friendships. Perhaps you cannot follow your friends because they are not yet in Google+ (or Twitter), but you can just add interesting people that already there in your circles.

There are two more main features you can’t find on Facebook (or Twitter for that matter): Sparks and Hangout. Sparks is meant to be “a constant feed of things that you’re really into and share it with friends” but I also see this as a good way to compensate the lack of Google+ buttons for sharing links on websites (compared to Twitter and Facebook buttons that have already spread everywhere).

Due to lack of bandwidth I haven’t really try Google Hangout yet, but there are already lots of good words about it. It is said to threaten to displace Skype for videoconferencing. Because I don’t have Android phone, I can’t comment about the Google+ client for phones. There is web app for Google+, but I only can see the basic XHTML version from my Nokia E63. Is this a sign for me to buy a new phone?

So far so good. But there are some drawbacks. Online and digital calendars do not support Indonesian holidays by default, those red dates do not appear. You can subscribe to Indonesian holidays calendar provided by Google, but it seems unmaintained. Recently I find a good Indonesian holiday calendar on Mozilla site, made by Achmad Junanto. Of course it is meant be used with Mozilla Calendar applications, but you can also add it to Google Calendar, or any calendar application that supported ICS files such as Apple iCal or Kontact.

Sadly Mail for Exchange only sync one calendar, so I cannot see the holidays on the phone. I wonder whether this problem exists on other phones. Perfect PIM syncing seems still elusive in general, and I am still searching for good solution.

1. Androids were in force. Asus, Acer, Sony Ericsson, Huawei, and some other brands I am unable to remember. There were tablets and phones, all Android-powered. They all looked the same though.
2. Contrary to the reports overseas, netbooks are still hot. Every computer stand offered a lot of models. They largely sports Intel processors, but I find some Asus EeePCs use AMD Brazos processors launched last February. Anandtech discussed AMD Brazos a few times, and the review was favourable.
3. I don’t know why, but I am paying more attention to home network storages nowadays. But they are only practical if you have a lot of computers at home (I don’t). Sadly I found only one vendor showed up: Buffalo Technology. I have tried out QNAP home products before, and I think this kind of products are cool.

Update: Encyclopedia Dramatica no longer exists at the old URL. Encyclopediadramatica.ch serves and updates the old Encyclopedia Dramatica content.