Geek Toys
Archived Posts from this Category
iTouch
Posted by troycoon on 19 Oct 2009 | Tagged as: Geek Toys
I love my new iTouch. It is an awsome new toy. There are sweet apps and connectivity. I love it so much I think I will get an IPhone as soon as I am eligible for an upgrade on my cellphone contract.
The AMAZING Amazon-Kindle2
Posted by troycoon on 30 Mar 2009 | Tagged as: Computers, Geek Toys
I just received my Amazon Kindle2 and I already love it. In the week leading up to the much anticipated arrival I searched for cool tips and tricks . I was not disappointed. In addition to being the best book reader I have ever seen (better then my palm pilot) the kindle sports a wireless network that while slow lets you browse anywhere on the web, oh and did I mention it’s FREE. The Kindle2 also has an excellent battery life (less when the wireless is on) and the ability to send documents to it via e-mail. In addition to all of this sweetness Kindle2 can read not only the books on Amazon but text files and any Mobipocket book. This ability expands the number of books available into hundreds of thousands maybe even millions. Overall the kindle is a great purchase and addition to any geeks ToyChest
Ubuntu at last on the EEE 1000
Posted by troycoon on 17 Nov 2008 | Tagged as: Eee PC
It has been some time since I have had a functioning ubuntu laptop. I had an EEE 701 with ubuntu on it but I traded up to the 1000. I duel booted Xandros and WinXp for awhile, but now at last I have ubuntu.
I loaded the latest Ibex release and the array.org kernal, then I installed the eee control center and added CPU frequency scaling to the toolbar. This was a painless install and now I am so freaking happy. The performance is awesome and I have not run into any problems yet, and I’m getting about 6hrs of battery life. Not bad considering the lack of undervolting. If you want the complete step by step just drop me a line, but I think the information you need can be found on the array.org site.
Eee PC 901 – 1000 Dual Boot Xandros and Windows XP
Posted by troycoon on 06 Aug 2008 | Tagged as: Eee PC
Michael has put up a post on how to dual boot your 901 or 1000, so as a form of quality control I followed his instructions. He has the 901 and I have the 1000, which has a larger hard drive, so I wanted to try something different. I wanted to put the Xandros system partition on the 8GB SSD which is /dev/sda, and a 20GB~ish Xandros user partition on the 30GB SSD as /dev/sdb1 and an 8GB WinXP partition on the end of the drive as /dev/sdb2. Well it didn’t work. I used Michael’s instructions and successfully backed up my WinXP partition, but no matter what I tried, I could not get it to boot from /dev/sdb2. I tried rebuilding and reinstalling GRUB. I tried Super Grub Disk. I tried installing Ubuntu, which allowed me to see the Windows partition, but it still would not boot. I might add that Xandros would boot the whole time. So my solution: I moved Windows to the second hard drive with its Master Boot Record and expanded it to take up the entire drive, so when it boots I hit escape and boot from the second drive. It works, WOOT. I then reinstalled Xandros using the disk that came with my computer. The only thing you have to do to keep it from overwriting the second drive is when it says /dev/sdb1 is currently formatted …blah..blah JUST SAY NO. It will finish setting up Xandros just on the first drive and you are good to go. If anyone knows how I can get XP to boot from /dev/sdb2 I would be very happy to hear from you.
Ubuntu CPU Frequency Selector
Posted by michael.stahlman on 29 Jul 2008 | Tagged as: Eee PC, Ubuntu
Something I have been wanting recently in Ubuntu for laptops and specifically my Eee PC is the ability to control the CPU frequency easily. With Asus’s unwillingness to provide their “Super Hybrid Machine” for Ubuntu and the several times I can run applications that push the frequency to its limit, my Eee PC can get a little toasty in the lap. Many thanks go to The Ubuntu Labrador for the instructions.
The first step to be able to adjust the CPU frequency in Ubuntu is to add the “CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor” to a panel in Gnome. Do this by right-clicking in an open area on a panel and choosing “Add to panel.” Next, choose the monitor from the list. This will show the frequency your CPU is running at during that exact moment. If on an Eee PC with an Intel Atom processor, it will show 800MHz when idle and jump to 1.6GHz when running applications.
In order to enable manual control of the CPU frequency, a command must be executed to configure the applet. Start by opening a Terminal window and enter the following command:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure gnome-applets
This will show a text-based GUI informing that a component can be added to the CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor with the SUID bit set. Select “OK” and it will prompt you to confirm that you want to install the component. Select “Yes” and you should be returned to the terminal. Close the terminal and yoou should now have control by left-clicking on the monitor in the panel. You automatically receive varying frequencies and pre-defined modes of frequency management!
