Relacing OpenJDK with Oracle/Sun Java SDK as default java

According to some sources, Sun/Oracle JDK or JRE is slightly faster than OpenJDK.  To install the SunJDK without removing the OpenJDK is as follow:

1. Download the SDK from here
2. Install the SDK.  For example: sudo rpm -Uvih <sdk rpmfile> or sudo sh ./<sdk bin file>
3. Once it is installed, copy-paste the following script and execute it

#!/bin/sh

for FP in /usr/java/default/bin/* ; do
    NAME=${FP##*/}
    echo installing $NAME
    sudo alternatives --install /usr/bin/${NAME} ${NAME} /usr/java/default/bin/${NAME} 20000
    alternatives --display "${NAME}" | grep "${NAME}"
done

New Nook v.s. Amazon Kindle

Today I went to Barnes & Noble store and attracted with a Nook display. Coincidentally, I was also carrying my Kindle with me, so now I have a chance to compare it visually. First of all, the overall physical size of the new Nook is smaller than Kindle, because it has got rid of physical keyboard. Instead, a visual keyboard would be displayed whenever needed. As you might have known, this new Nook is now equipped with touch screen and I guess it is capacitive touch screen as it is very responsive. The screen area is actually about the same as Kindle's screen.

For the resolution, Kindle is tad better. This is based on my visual check by starring at each screen very closely (I got to remove my glasses to get better visual). Letters on Kindle are darker and smoother (but not much better), but Nook screen is whiter. Screen refresh rate (refresh between page) is faster on the Nook. Page buttons are located the same as Kindle (page-up and page-down are on left and right edge of the body). For the weight, I guess Kindle is slightly lighter on my hand, but it's hard to make a correct and accurate judgment without put them on scale.

Something interesting is the power life. Nook is apparently is the winner, at least according to the sales person. It can last up to 2 months with Wi-Fi turned off, while on Kindle is about a month. Price wise, Kindle is a bit cheaper, especially if we're OK with ads-supplied screen-saver version of it. On Amazon website, the ads-supported version is $114 (with no sales tax if we buy from California, and no shipping cost), while the Nook is $139 + sales tax. The web browser on Nook is better.

For the collection of books available, Amazon seems has little bit more selection, but B&N is catching up quickly too. A feature that's not available on Kindle is "Rent" and "Read in store", and this would make Nook very appealing for some users who want to borrow a book from friend or just want to read a book in B&N store (although not all e-books can be read or rented). I hope Amazon will match it with the similar offering. Nook is also EPUB-compatible reader, while Amazon's Kindle uses a proprietary format (Mobile-pocket-based MOBI format with DRM added). While many books can be converted with a tool such as Calibre (EPUB to MOBI and vice versa), others are nonconvertible.

Internally, they both are based on Linux, although Nook is Android-base. No surprise the Nook is faster because it uses more recent hardware, while Kindle has been a year old in the market. I think Amazon is preparing a next gen one. Just wait and see a couple of months as rumors say the will introduce the new one. The rumor also says Kindle might have a touch screen too (some people in the internet forum wish Amazon not to arm it with a touch screen. I don't understand what's the reason behind it yet).

Overall, I guess they tie in many comparisons. Only our preferences can tell which one to buy. If I haven't had Kindle, I might buy this new Nook because it's cute (very portable and almost fit in my shirt pocket) and has some features not available on Kindle.

=-=-=-=-=
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Fedora 15 & GNOME 3 Crash.

Some PCs have issues when installed with Fedora 15 and GNOME 3 as its desktop manager.  On my Compaq Presario R3000 labptop, I was unable to login due to crash in subsystem (gnome-shell).  When I tried to login, it display a message something like "unrecovered ...".

The problem is that GNOME3 is not stable enough to be run on some machines/video cards with 3D (perhaps Nouveau driver unable to execute 100% of the required GNOME3 features?).  Some people in the Internet said that by executing the following command it should fix the issue, but not in my case:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.session session-name gnome-fallback

After googling around, I found a good solution:

sudo rpm --nodeps -e gnome-shell

This has fixed my GNOME problem.  I could now login to the fallback mode (GNOME2-like)

PlayList format and translation

Sandisk Sansa mp3 player may have playlists of mp3 files.  These files are stored in \PLAYLIST.
The format of playlist is actullay in UTF-16LE.  In order to translate it to an ASCII (UTF-8) format, we can use a command line tool in Unix/Linux (available in Cygwin for Windows too).

Here's an example how to convert a playlist to a text format:


bash-3.2$ iconv -f UTF-16LE -t UTF-8 playlist.pla
PLP PLAYLIST
VERSION 1.20


HARP, MUSIC\James Blunt\All The Lost Souls\10_-_i_can't_hear_the_music_-_all_the_lost_souls.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\James Blunt\All The Lost Souls\09_-_annie_-_all_the_lost_souls.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\James Blunt\All The Lost Souls\04_-_same_mistake_-_all_the_lost_souls.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\James Blunt\All The Lost Souls\01_-_1973_-_all_the_lost_souls.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\Queen\Queen - Greatest Hits Cd1\01_-_bohemian_rhapsody_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\Queen\Queen - Greatest Hits Cd1\05_-_bicycle_race_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\Queen\Queen - Greatest Hits Cd1\16_-_we_will_rock_you_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\Queen\Queen - Greatest Hits Cd1\17_-_we_are_the_champions_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\Queen\Queen - Greatest Hits Cd2\07_-_it's_a_hard_life_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\Queen\Queen - Greatest Hits Cd2\11_-_the_miracle_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\Queen\Queen - Greatest Hits Cd2\15_-_friends_will_be_friends_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\Queen\Queen - Greatest Hits Cd2\16_-_the_show_must_go_on_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\Eric Clapton\Unplugged\07_-_layla_-_unplugged.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\Rihanna\Good Girl Gone Bad\{1]03_-_don't_stop_the_music_-_good_girl_gone_bad.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\OneRepublic\Dreaming Out Loud\{1]03_-_stop_and_stare_-_dreaming_out_loud.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\Colbie Caillat\Coco\{1]07_-_realize_-_coco.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\Timbaland\Shock Value\{1]16_-_apologize_(feat._one_republic)_-_shock_value.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\Ennio Morricone\Kill Bill Vol.2\03_-_il_tramanto_-_kill_bill_vol.2.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\Charlie Feathers\Kill Bill Vol.2\04_-_cant_hardly_stand_it_-_kill_bill_vol.2.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\Lole Y Manuel\Kill Bill Vol.2\05_-_tu_mira_(edit)_-_kill_bill_vol.2.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\Luis Bacalov\Kill Bill Vol.2\06_-_summertime_killer_-_kill_bill_vol.2.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\Alan Reeves Phil Steele And P\Kill Bill Vol.2\07_-_the_chase_-_kill_bill_vol.2.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\Ennio Morricone\Kill Bill Vol.2\09_-_l_arena_-_kill_bill_vol.2.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\Malcolm Mclaren\Kill Bill Vol.2\12_-_about_her_-_kill_bill_vol.2.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\Chingon\Kill Bill Vol.2\14_-_malaguena_salerosa_-_kill_bill_vol.2.mp3
HARP, MUSIC\Meiko Kaji\Kill Bill Vol.2\15_-_urami_bushi_-_kill_bill_vol.2.mp3
bash-3.2$


To create a playlist, we just reverse the format and redirect the output to a file (with extension pla) and then copy the generated file to Sansa's PLAYLIST folder.  Just to remember, the path of each file is relative to MUSIC folder.

Script to find latitude and longitude

The following script utilize Yahoo geocode API to find longitude and langitude of any location.


#!/bin/sh


converter="http://api.maps.yahoo.com/ajax/geocode?appid=onestep&qt=1&id=m&qs="


addr="$(echo $1 | sed 's/ /+/g')"
values="$(curl -s $converter$addr | cut -d\" -f13,15 |sed 's/[^0-9\.\,\-]//g; s/,$//')"


lat1=$(echo $values | cut -d, -f1)
long1=$(echo $values | cut -d, -f2)


echo "Lat=$lat1"
echo "Long=$long1"




(Save the above script to file and chmod to be executable).
For example:



>latlong 1465 mcdowell blvd, petaluma ca 94954
Lat=-33.869629
Long=151.206955

>latlong jakarta, indonesia

Lat=-6.17144

Long=106.82782

iMac v.s. AsusTek All-in-One PC

AsusTek All-in-One PC:
 
Price: $1,719.26 at 2020pc.com (free shipping + no tax)

General
Type	Personal computer
Product Form Factor	All-in-one
Built-in Devices	Touch screen
Width	22.9 in
Depth	2 in
Height	19.5 in
Weight	28.7 lbs
Color	Black
Bundled with	3D glasses
Processor
Type	Intel Core i7 740QM / 1.73 GHz
Multi-Core Technology	Quad-Core
64-bit Computing	Yes
Installed Qty	1
Max Supported Qty	1
Mainboard
Chipset Type	Mobile Intel HM55 Express
RAM
Installed Size	8 GB / 8 GB (max)
Technology	DDR3 SDRAM
Memory Speed	1333 MHz
Form Factor	SO DIMM 204-pin
Configuration Features	4 x 2 GB
Storage Controller
Type	1 x Serial ATA - integrated
Controller Interface Type	Serial ATA-300
Storage
Hard Drive	1 x 1 TB - standard - Serial ATA-300 - 7200 rpm
Optical Storage
Type	DVD-Writer / BD-ROM
Card Reader
Type	Card reader
Supported Flash Memory Cards	SD Memory Card, SDXC Memory Card
Monitor
Monitor Type	LCD display - 3D Ready - TFT active matrix - Multi-Touch
Diagonal Size	23.6"
Max Resolution	1920 x 1080 ( Full HD )
Widescreen Display	Yes
Image Aspect Ratio	16:9
Graphics Controller
Type	Plug-in card
Graphics Processor / Vendor	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M
Video Memory	1.5 GB
Digital Video Standard	High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)
Multimedia Functionality
TV Tuner Type	Digital TV
Digital TV Reception	ATSC
Audio Output
Type	Sound card
Sound Output Mode	Stereo
Camera
Form Factor	Integrated
Sensor Resolution	1.3 Megapixel
Input Device
Type	Mouse, keyboard
Keyboard
Connectivity	Wireless
Mouse
Connectivity	Wireless
Audio Input
Type	Microphone
Networking
Networking	Network adapter
Wireless LAN Supported	Yes
Data Link Protocol	Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n, Bluetooth 3.0
Compliant Standards	IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n, Bluetooth 3.0
Expansion / Connectivity
Expansion Bays Total (Free)	Internal - 3.5"
Expansion Slots Total (Free)	1 ( 0 ) x processor 4 ( 0 ) x memory - SO DIMM 204-pin
Interfaces	4 x Hi-Speed USB - 4 pin USB Type A 1 x network - Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T - RJ-45 2 x SuperSpeed USB - 9 pin USB Type A 1 x microphone - input - mini-phone 3.5 mm 1 x headphones - output - mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm 1 x display / video - VGA input - 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15) 1 x audio / video - HDMI - 19 pin HDMI Type A 1 x display / video - TV-in
Miscellaneous
Included Accessories	Remote control
Features	ASUS Super Hybrid Engine, ASUS SonicMaster
Power
Device Type	Power adapter
Power Provided	230 Watt
Operating System / Software
OS Provided	Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition
Microsoft Office Preloaded	Includes a pre-loaded image of select Microsoft Office 2010 suites. Purchase an Office 2010 Product Key Card or disc to activate preloaded software on this PC.
Environmental Standards
ENERGY STAR Qualified	Yes
Manufacturer Warranty
Service & Support	1 year warranty
Service & Support Details	Limited warranty - 1 year
Universal Product Identifiers
Brand	ASUSTeK COMPUTER
Part Number	ET2400XVT-B011E
GTIN	00610839324255

Advantage: USB-3

21.5-inch iMac

• $1,899.00 at Apple Store/online (free shipping, but there's sales tax)
• $100 discount for students

21.5-inch iMac

• Ships: 1-3 business days
• Part number: Z0M5

Configuration

• 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
• 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB
• 1TB Serial ATA Drive
• AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512MB GDDR5

• Apple Magic Mouse
• Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) & User's Guide
• Accessory Kit

Advantage: Thunderbolt connection (10 Gbps)

At the end, almost-apple-to-apple comparison (for students) is: 1799+167.11% (CA sales tax) - 1719.25 = 1966.11 - about $250 difference (that's more than the cost for 2 TB USB-3.0 external Hard Drive )