Updating cycle today.

While my day to day computers update themselves, some of my machines are off most of the time, so I turn them on from time to time and update the operating systems. I may try to update my Trinity Indimixx OS today on Remembrance the low energy use desktop PC I built from parts in fall 2008.

HP6840 printer works well with Kubuntu 10.04 Linux

I was able to get the HP 6840 printer working fine with my Kubuntu laptop. I installed a few extra HP softwares from the regular software update. It printed just fine. I did this test for Computers for Communities (C4C) ( Ottawa Chapter). the printer was donated to C4C.

Office 2010 studies from For Dummies books.

There is too much to know to claim to be a smart computer programmer, computer scientist or computer user. That's an explanation for why I accept the For Dummies series of books as helpful. I am studying from these books Office 2010, Perl and UML2. I admit I got furthest with the Perl book so far, and with the ULM2 book I have gotten nowhere. I did though start to read this past week Office 2010 For Dummies and also Excel 2010 For Dummies. I will be paid to use these applications at work in the future, so I study these to improve my work skills and efficiency. These are though not my main knowledge sphere, my main knowledge sphere is as a procedural programmer at present in the SAS language.

I gave away the Dell Mini 9 to a young person.

I gave away the Dell Mini 9 with Kubuntu installed. I also installed many games on this netbook. I had some trouble with the Network Manager application. It got turned off and I could not restart it. This young person will probably have no support to keep this netbook updated.

It is difficult to keep all my computers up to date.

I probably have too many computers now. I did repair the Macbook top, keyboard and track pad with a used UK version of these. It works but I have lost the front power light and wake up sound. I had promised to give this laptop away and can now do this once everything is backed up. I had planned to save up for a Macbook Pro but now prefer Linux computers. I have changed the operating system on my newish Vostro 1015 laptop to Kubuntu from Ubuntu and have the wireless working and have it working with my new Epson all-in-one printer, thanks to the useful information on the Ubuntu forums about this Epson 610 printer. I keep my XP 64 bit desktop updated. I keep the Debian updated on it and am in the process of upgrading it to Debian 5. I need to update the Trinity OS on it and have some instructions on how to update that to the Ubuntu base 10.4 OS for Trinity. I am considering giving away my netbook to a young girl in the family. I will install Kubuntu first on the netbook and wipe out the other OS on it, so I should back it up today. I will need to buy the parents in the family a book to help them maintain the netbook. Besides my Vostro 1015 laptop, I also am using a new Dell Studio 17 inch laptop running Windows 7. I also have my sub laptop, an Alienware M11X which is fully paid for now. It runs Windows 7 and Debian 5.

I bought an Epson Workforce 610 all-in-one printer

I just purchased a new all-in-one printer. Here is the link to the downloads page: Epson Workforce 610 all-in-one printer

Backing up Macbook for non use.

The first Macbook I have owned is four years old and is an original model bought about 2 weeks after the Macbook model first went on sale in June 2006. The "N" key is now not useable. I tried to fix this by buying a replacement "N" key but bought the wrong model's key. I then tried to fix this by buying a replacement keyboard only to find out after taking the Macbook apart that the keyboard is fused with the top of the laptop and instead I needed to buy a replacement top including keyboard. This would be about 60$ plus shipping on ebay and I can not afford it right now.

This means I will not use the Macbook until the top can be replaced. So I am backing it up and preparing to move my work to my new Dell Studio laptop. I am archiving Mac Mail right now and have also copied the Desktop folder and am starting to copy the Mail and Mail Download folders which are in the User's Library folder. The archive though will produce mbox folders which can be imported into Linux e-mail clients/softwares. I am also copying the Documents folder. If I have time I will copy the whole Library folder to backup.

The first back up I am doing is to my Linksys network drive which is very slow. As I do this I then copy the files from the Linksys drive to my Dell Studio, so I will have access to all my Macbook documents. After this I will back everything up to a portable USB drive.

I will also have to psychologically get out of the habit of using the Macbook..

The Dell Vostro with Ubuntu won't play my Stargate SG1 DVD's

The Movie Player application in Ubuntu won't play my Stargate SG1 disk. I had to watch it with Windows Media Player on the Dell Studio 17.

My computers are working fine.

All my computers are working fine. The Macbook and eMac have none functioning disk burners so I need to burn disks on the Remembrance desktop or the Dell Studio laptop.

I reinstalled Ubuntu 10.04 on the Vostro and it is working fine now.

I was able in under 24 hours to download a copy of Ubuntu 10.04, burn it to disk and last night reinstall the OS on the Vostro.

The Dell Vostro 15 now won't boot into the desktop only a terminal window.

It seems I have failed to upgrade to Ubuntu 10.04. A Dell Linux support technician recommended reinstalling from a 10.04 disk which I am making now.

Looking for more RAM for my new Vostro 15 with Ubuntu Linux

I will start looking for more RAM for this Vostro 15 inch laptop. I spent the first day with this laptop upgrading the OS to Ubuntu 10.04. It came new from Dell with Ubuntu 8.04 for 349$. I messed up the Evolution e-mail by trying to load a back up Evolution file without uncompressing the file first. At least the wireless is working and that could have been a big headache. I did get Thunderbird e-mail software working yesterday. Ideally I would like to get Evolution working again or e-macs. This laptop takes PC2 DDR2 800 SODIMM RAM and has 1 GB RAM now. I will need to access the RAM and most probably want two 2 GB RAM sticks to bring this laptop up to its 4 GB maximum.

Book review being worked on for local SAS user group.

I am working on a book review for a local SAS user group. I will give the presentation June 9 in the morning at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. The review covers the book ODS: the Basics by Lauren E. Haworth. So far the book has proved useful to me at work.

I have ordered a second monitor.

I was able to borrow money to order a second monitor. Again I bought as G series Green monitor from Dell and again on sale.

Success with Evolution e-mail client and Sympatico Internet Service

I used SSL encryption for receiving e-mail and "password" as the encryption type. For sending e-mail I used TLS encryption and "login" as the authentication type. It works. Therefore good bye 4 year old Macbook for e-mail. I actually used the "check for supported types" button and the other choices in both cases were crossed out after the check. I think, if you start with the above choices and use the "check for supported types" button you will then get "the check for supported types" button to work. I think, if you have different types selected, the "check for supported types" button will not work.

the challenge to get Thunderbird e-mail software working with Sympatico Internet.

I want to get Thuderbird working with my ISP who won't support me setting it up.

I did get the Dell Studio 17 inch wide screen laptop.

This new laptop is now running Debian 5 on one of its two hard drives. I am typing this in Iceweasel the Debian version of Firefox. I have used the Mix Tab, and Tree Tab Style add ons for Firefox as I do these days. I am also trying out History Tab another Firefox add on. I have just spent about two hours blogging and social networking with Iceweasel and had no issues. Next, I have to test an e-mail software. Then I can prepare to give away my old Macbook.

The laptop has a 17 inch widescreen LED screen. It has an Intel i7 processor. The laptop has two 320 GB hard drives allowing a clean install of Debian 5 on its own drive. So far I have not been able to get Grub working in either Ubuntu or Kubuntu on either my Dell Alienware M11X or this Dell Studio. It may be that both are running Windows 7. Debian seems to install and allow dual booting with no problem.

I decided not to buy the Dell Studio 17 laptop.

I already have a fair amount of debit with Dell so decided not to buy on credit the Dell Studio 17 laptop.

I may be buying a Dell 17" Studio laptop.

I am waiting for the loan approval for the purchase of a Dell Studio laptop with 17 inch screen. I will install Kubuntu on this laptop and it may become my main machine.

I installed Kubuntu 9.10 on my Dell Mini 9.

I used a software from sourceforge recommended by Ubuntu to create a bootable USB drive with the downloaded Kubuntu iso operating system disk. I now have three operating systems each using just under 20 GB installed on my Dell Mini 9 netbook.