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I recently went looking for a good beginner’s resource for a budding Linux user, and came across Linux in Easy Steps by Mike McGrath. It’s an excellent primer for the new Linux user. Focused on the Ubuntu Linux distribution, Linux in Easy Steps covers installation, desktop configuration, and basic command line use in a slim volume with plenty of screenshots.

The ground covered makes an excellent prerequisite for more serious tomes on Linux systems. At the end of the book the reader should have managed to install Ubuntu and customise it to their liking, and have a general understanding of the Linux filesystem heirachy, the command line, and vi with which to embark on more complicated projects.

The pace is thorough without unnecessarily belabouring simple concepts. Preparing your system for Ubuntu is covered in reasonable depth, and the install process is detailed with step-by-step explanations. Once installed, the basics of desktop customisation are covered before moving on to a discussion of the Linux file structure and manipulating files in the graphical file browser.

OpenOffice is covered in some detail, and the last desktop-centric section rounds off with a look at working with internet and media applications, including how to get proprietary codecs.

Fully half of the book covers the shell and administration, and is a credible crash course in the basics of understanding the shell, manipulating text and files, and performing administration tasks. A command reference finishes the shell section wiith a clear, well formatted list of useful utilities.

Every section in this volume is colour-coded, making it easy to turn back to as a reference. Current Linux users who are shell savvy will find nothing here, but to the person holding an Ubuntu CD thinking ‘Now what?’ this may just be the book for you.

Working with as many systems as I do, I have to keep track of a pretty huge number of user accounts and passwords across many diverse environments. For a long time I used a GPG encrypted text file to store this information, but recently I went looking for a more structured solution. I found KeePassX, and promptly fell in love.

KeePassX is a password management application for Linux and OSX. It supports the same database format as KeePass Password Safe for Windows, providing a cross-platform solution for managing passwords securely. It’s database is protected using either AES or Twofish encryption with a 256 bit key, which provides adequate encryption for the majority of users.

The interface is extremely simple. Select ‘File -> New Database’, and then enter a password or passphrase. KeePassX has the option to also use a key file for authentication - allowing you to place a key on a USB stick to add a physical authentication token to your password for added security.

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Once your database is created, choose a name and location for it with File -> Save Database As. KeePassX sorts your passwords into groups that you define for easier organisation. To create a group, right-click in the group panel of the dialogue and select ‘Add New Group’ or select the ‘Add New Group’ option from the ‘Edit’ menu. Name your group, and then select it in the group pane and click either the small + symbol on the toolbar or ‘Edit -> Add New Entry’.

The ability to attach a file to an entry I find extremely useful to attach keys, seed files, or other tokens that are linked to this account. I also find the feature to generate passwords directly in the Entry dialogue extremely valuable, saving me from making transcription errors when I store or change a password.

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While KeePassX doesn’t natively support any kind of synchronisation, a service like dropbox would easily allow you to keep your password databases in sync between your Windows, Linux, and OSX machines. I use Subversion to make sure that my passwords are up-to-date on every machine I use them on. I also maintain separate databases with separate passphrases for home and work use, allowing me to only check-out the database I need on that particular host.

A feature I find surprisingly useful is that KeePassX will copy usernames/passwords to clipboard without the text being viewable. In an office environment where I often have a vendor or another consultant sitting by me assisting, being able to get at infrequently used passwords I haven’t memorised without showing them to all and sundry is a relief. KeePassX will clear the clipboard of secure information within a configurable time period, to minimise the risk of accidental pastes of root passwords into work IRC. Yes, $colleague, I’m looking at -you- =)

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For those using locked-down or shared Microsoft Windows workstations, KeePass Password Safe is available as a portable app from PortableApps.com.

EDIT: As people have pointed out in the comments, there are also mobile versions of KeePass - in fact I have the J2ME version on my Nokia S60 cell phone. Unfortunately my insanely long passphrase is almost impossible to type in even with qwerty on a phone so while it’s a great idea to have access to the database on my phone I find myself unable to really use it =)

The very day the EeePC 701 was available in stores in New Zealand, swept up in the internet hype, I bought one.

The hype was well deserved. The original Eee has been credited with turning the notebook market on it’s head. While the concept of the netbook has been tried before, this time, we were ready for it.

I had a lot of fun putting my EeePC through its paces for Linux Journal. I regularly tested its limitations, carrying it around for internet access and writing while out at cafes and travelling. It’s spent quite a few hours perched on racks in server rooms displaying build documentation or providing me internet access over HSDPA modem. I loved my EeePC, but I did find myself wishing Asus would market a premium model. I was willing to pay a little more to get a little more.

When the EeePC 900 was announced it felt like they were reading my mind.

The Linux version of the Eee900 has a 9” screen at 1024×600, a 1.3MP webcam and 1GB of memory as standard. It has two flash disks, one 4GB and a second 16GB. The second SSD is noticeably slower than the first, making it unsuitable for OS install but at least providing a lot more storage for your data. The touchpad has been tweaked, adding multitouch support and a larger surface area. The notebook itself is also slightly larger, the thickness and width remaining the same but the depth being increased by an inch or so.

Of course, the price tag has gone up, from $600 NZD for the 701 to $750 NZD for the 900. While some couldn’t justify the increased cost, to me it’s well worth it for a computer I can use more seriously. The display is certainly not overgenerous but has at least improved from downright frustrating to reasonable for many tasks. The aesthetics of the notebook are also vastly improved without the large black speakers either side of the panel.

It’s not all roses, however. The battery life is still a miserly 2 – 3 hours, and I find both models of Eee to get uncomfortably warm. I’m also less than pleased at Asus choosing to use a much slower SSD for the larger disk. The announced Eee901 should remedy all of the remaining issues stopping the Eee from being quite the most perfect computer I could envision, with 5 hours battery life, an Intel Atom CPU and the addition of bluetooth.

I’m very excited about where Asus is going with the EeePC line. I see the Eee900 and 901 not as competing for your upgrade dollars against the 701, but threatening $4000 ultraportables from the like of Sony and Fujitsu. They’re cute, they’re fun, they’re portable and the featureset is creeping closer and closer. All for a quarter of the price.

I’m unashamed about being on the netbook bandwagon. The 900 is the first thing I pick up in the morning and the last thing I put down at night. The EeePC has cemented itself a solid place in my heart by being easy to learn, work, and play – and even easier to love.

I decided to spice up my EeePC with a pretty decal:

It was very easy to apply and looks great. My Eee already draws a lot of comments when I take it out and about, I imagine I’ll attract more people interested in this itty bitty computer.

The decal is from GroovyLids

Sometimes I wonder - if I spent the time I usually spend browsing http://www.43folders.com/ and http://www.lifehack.org/ getting work done, would I have less need for productivity tips? ;)

Oh yes, and if anyone would like the rss feed of the tech-only posts that doesn’t include music, cats, or photography, the feed they should be using is

http://canllaith.org/?feed=rss2&cat=2

planetkde and linuxchix.org.nz already have the right feeds =)

I read a pretty neat article today from http://www.43folders.com/2004/11/18/hack-your-way-out-of-writers-block about how to get past writer’s block. A lot of the comments to the article are really excellent as well.

One of the tips in particular that really resonated with me was:

“Write crap - Accept that your first draft will suck, and just go with it. Finish something.”

That’s something I’ve struggled with for a long time, and for me at least it really is the key to being a productive writer. It’s far too easy to fall into the trap of wanting what I have to say to be absolutely perfectly formed in my head before I commit it to paper. I end up staring into space endlessly polishing sentences and lining up paragraphs, marching in lines all in my head, before I’ve even touched pen to paper.

It’s a productivity killer because the longer I polish something that doesn’t exist yet, the longer it’s going to take me to actually get started. When I started actually meeting deadlines at least most of the time was when I learned to do what I called ‘Just write’. I would go away from my computer and away from the internet with a pen and some paper and just go and get any old thing down. I could check my facts later, research content I wasn’t sure of when I got back to my laptop. The most important thing was to separate writing from researching, and just write some crap down.

I found it was a lot easier to get into a zone where I just wrote and it flowed if I used pen and paper and got away from the computer. In the interests of not having a million notebooks around the house and never being sure which one has which article in it I’m after, I’m trying very hard to digitise this process. To save me from myself I’m in the process of doing up an apple e-mate. No network connectivity, long battery life, sunlight readable screen and an absolutely fabulous keyboard. I’m hoping it will help me learn how to spark that creative process sitting at a keyboard, while still providing me with the distraction free environment that paper does.

These are by far the two most effective tools in my arsenal against writer’s block. Just write some crap, and turn off the darn internet.

Now ironically, I should stop procrastinating from working through the writer’s block on my latest assignment and go and just write some crap.

I finally decided to mod my macbook, and ordered a bit of pre-made cellophane from icolors.ca to replace the white apple logo on the back of the screen with a retro style apple logo.

(Yeah, I’m a filthy mac user at times.)

It was surprisingly easy to get into the mac - there’s two screws deep in the hinge that are awkward to get at, and then the back just pops off with the help of a credit card or similar thin tool. The clips holding the back of the screen on very easily disengage without any fear of breaking them. Well, not much anyway.

Once the back is off, it’s just a matter of carefully removing the white plastic that’s already covering the logo, cutting the cellophane to size and then fitting it to a recess the white plastic is covering. The white plastic can be carefully pressed back down again afterwards, with enough residual adhesive left to keep it there. At least, I hope so.

I love the end result, it was definitely worth spending 20 minutes fighting with the hinge screws. Now I’m keen to find ways to mod my non-apple laptop.

Monday I woke up when the sunlight and birdsong flooded through the window of my room at dawn. The campus grounds are simply beautiful, with green lawns, tall trees and lovely old buildings. The weather has been stunning, hot clear skies and a light cool breeze.

I fronted up to the registration desk on Monday morning to get my name tag and loot bag, and was amused to be asked whether I was here for the partners programme. Because obviously women at conferences are someone’s wife or girlfriend, naturally!

The loot bag is really quite nice this year - a nice large light-weight bag with a laptop sleeve and a lot of pockets, and some nice things inside:

I then ventured into the city in search of some ethernet cables and had some unintentional transport adventures. It turns out if you don’t have any coins, you can’t get a ticket on the tram. It also turns out that one gets on and off trams in the middle of the street, dodging cars to do so.

I finally tracked down Aaron who’d been MIA for 24 hours. We all went trooping off into the city in search of something vegetarian to eat and a store that sold alcohol. One thing I’ve noticed about Melbourne is that really great food and wine is really cheap here, and there’s a really large selection of great places to eat.

I hadn’t attended any talks on Monday - the miniconfs on the first day didn’t seem as interesting to me as those on the other days so I decided if I was going to go sightseeing and check out the city, Monday was the day to do it. So far LCA is a heck of a lot of fun, and seems to involve a lot of red wine.

In three days I fly to Melbourne to attend linux.conf.au. It’s the first one I’ve been to in a few years and I’m really quite excited about it.

There are LinuxChix, Gaming and Systems Administration miniconfs that I’m very keen to attend, as well as talks on security and networking. Of course I’ll have to attend Aaron Seigo’s talk on creating user interfaces with plasma, and catch up on various KDE gossip with him over a drink or nine.

I’m taking a decent camera & lens with me and my long-suffering KDE laptop so with any luck there should be a lot of blogging about the conference. There’s going to be internet access in the conference accommodation which should help - during the conference talks I’ve discovered I rarely have the time or concentration to actually write anything useful, and really rely on being able to go back to my room with some notes to write things up properly there.

I’m looking forward to being back in Australia for a week - the temperature looks to be getting as high as 35 degrees Celsius. I’m packing t-shirts, shorts and sandals - don’t let me down Australia!

If any other KDEers are going to be at LCA don’t hesitate to drop me a line if you want to catch up.