Adventures in Linux: Chapter 2: Installing

Man, my Adventures in Linux series has had a slow start... I've actually had half this one completed in a file for months and never got round to finishing and posting. Until now! Of course, now I have a million other posts to do with stuff like printers, video and upgrading to 9.10. So expect those to be done by 2015... at which point I'll need a break to go to cafe 80's on my hoverboard!

So, (way back in the distant days of last June) I’m ready to try Linux. I visited the Ubuntu site and downloaded an installation disc image, burnt it to CD and powered off. I restart the machine, boot from the CD and prepare to begin the installation. Ubuntu will install itself onto a seperate partition to Windows.

Oh, wait, I don’t have partitions. In fact, I don’t know a lot about partitions. Or setting them up. Maybe there’s something in the installer that will do it for me?

Hurrah! There seems to be! Brilliant. So what are my choices?

I can either install over windows, but that would defeat the dual boot option. Or it will set itself up on a new partition. Lets go with that!

Right, I want my Linux partition to be large as I hopefully will end up using it more than windows. So I set the utility to half the disc, 100GB for Windows, 100GB for Linux. It warns me it’ll take a while, which seems fair to me. However, after about 45 minutes, it all crashes. Oh.

I try it again, this time I allow a smaller partition for testing purposes. Just 20GB for Linux. So it goes through fine and Ubuntu installs! Hurrah! Right time to see what works.

Hm, the screen resolutions not great, and I don’t seem to have option to change it to anything else. Interesting. So I better figure out how to install my wireless adaptor so I can search the web for a solution. Oh, it’s installed. Log into my wi-fi. Hurrah! That was easy!

I do a search on my monitor type in Ubuntu. It's an HP w1907v. My search quickly turns up this blog which has someone with a similar situation. Right, so apparently I have to modify my xorg.conf file. Ok, how do I get to that?

Turns out I need to use the terminal. So I start that and I quickly find out about the 'sudo' command, which I need to prefix my commands with. Ok, so 'sudo gedit/etc/X11/xorg.conf' seems to work. Asks for my password and then opens up the xorg.conf in a text editor. Ok, so far so simple. I make the advised changes, which to my relief are really straightforward. You make a new subsection in the file and instruct it with the resolutions. I do this, save the file and restart the machine.

On restart the screen resets itself a few times, and is still at a low res setting. I go to check what I've done, as I do this I get a window pop up asking if I want to activate some drivers for my graphics card. I do. I restart and now my screens fine! Hurrah!

For some time I assumed this was due to the xorg.conf alterations, but recently it occured to me that maybe it was activating the nvidia drivers for my graphics. I'm thinking the latter as on re-installs, I haven't modified the xorg.conf and once the drivers are on the screen resolution is fine.

Next time: Getting my IPod working

Top Ten TV of the Decade

With the end of a one decade and the start of another, I wondered if there was a blog I could do that would reflect on this last 10 years in an original, exciting and thought provoking way? Turned out there isn’t, so I put together a list of the best TV shows of the last 10 years in my humble opinion. I had started this in December, but Christmas distracted me and it wasn’t until @nathwilson set me the task of listing my top 5 episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation that I remembered to re-visit this. I also took the opportunity to turn it around to him as a question, and he was still able to put up a blog before I finished this one! Anyway, onto the list!

10 Heroes
I know, I know, it’s gone completely off the rails since series 2, but man, remember how good series 1 was? Remember? It was so new, fresh original and exciting and had everyone raving about it. For that one series of enjoyment, it scrapes in. I’m a generous man.

9 The IT Crowd
Computer geeks! I can't say enough good things about this show, it's brilliant! And scarily accurate, as someone who helps people with their computing, it's bizarre how ridiculous the queries are when someone can't use a compewter! Favourite moments would have to be when they present Jen with a little box with a light on, claiming it's the Internet, and disguising a fire with an old monitor housing to pass it off as a screensaver. Oh, and anything Moss says. Ever.

8 Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace
A comedy entry (that is an entry that is a comedy show, not an entry that I'm joking about), and a show that, the first time I watched it, made me laugh constantly from beginning to advert break and then through the end after adverts. A beautiful parody of cheaply produced horror and over inflated egos with an extra dose of silliness.

7 Being Human
This one just makes it in because it was only just in this decade. But it was absolutely brilliant. Like Doctor Who and Torchwood, it has a uniquely British charm and humour, but then get’s very dark and dramatic. It’s a skillful production that balances both as well as this show does, to sell you the idea of a vampire, werewolf and ghost sharing a house dramatically and build in humour at the daftness of the concept, it’s genius.

6 The Big Bang Theory
How can you not love this show? Enjoyed by nerds and non-nerds alike, for me and my nerdy ways it’s a view of what my life could be like as a sitcom. Also if I were American. And a physicist. Apart from those details it’s exactly the same! Oh, and not so many people fall for my classic pranks.

5 Torchwood
I like Torchwood. Obviously, as it’s in this list. I know that not everyone rated the first series, but hey, there are some classics out there that had absolutely appalling first series and went on to greatness. And there were some pretty good episodes there. A pterodactyl fighting a Cyberwoman? How is that not brilliant? Yeah, some episodes weren’t as good, but I think the end of the series paid off the characters failings from those shows. And then the second and third series just got better and better.

4 Dexter
Came in a bit late to this one, but I love it! It sounded ridiculous to me at first, how can they keep a story going about a serial killer? But they can, and they do it well. Having the killer target only killers and try to adhere to a code to turn his urges to some sort of use is the most fascinating part of it. TV where I root for the murderer is unusual but with Dexter you can make whole series of it.

3 Battlestar Galactica
Back in the 90’s I loved a little show called Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It was all the wonder of Star Trek but done a bit differently. One of the key writers on that, and Next Gen before it was Ron Moore. He then went on to re-make a 70’s series that I’d sporadically looked at, mainly for amusement and made the most kick-ass epic adventure.

2 Firefly
In some ways, its a good thing that Firefly was cancelled after only a season. That way I can look upon it as a near-perfect series, there was never a bad episode! That’s an awesome achievement in itself even for just a single 13 episode run actually. But there is no episode of this show that I couldn’t put on anytime and enjoy. Characters that are interesting and instantly likable, each with their own distinct development. Add to that a spaceship, some gunfights and the occaisional explosion and bam, brilliance in a 13 episode set.

1 Doctor Who
The show that’s had the most impact on me this decade. Easily. It’s just blown me away, from it’s return, which I was sceptical about. While the modern effects and better budgets and costumes are all very nice, the best thing is that the show’s stayed true to it’s original spirit. It’s retained it’s unique charm and humour and has stayed very British, which is especially nice when we have very little sci-fi here.

I really wrestle with putting 24 in, it had an excellent first three series, but I haven't enjoyed it as much from series four onwards. Series seven came close but then lost it. And if my logic of including Heroes based on early greatness get's it into the top ten, then how come not 24? It just comes down to my personal feelings then, I can watch bad Heroes much easier than I can watch bad 24.

Star Trek: Enterprise has a reverse effect, it started bad and then the last series got really good. I wanted to put it in, it was the main Star Trek of the decade. But I decided against it, even when it was at it's best, it wasn't any comparison to the first three Treks to me.

Finally, there's the shows from the last decade that I didn't watch and ought to! Based on what I've been hearing from people, I really should have watched:

Supernatural
The Wire
House
True Blood
Lost

I've started on House and The Wire! Though there's a new decade starting, what sort of TV are we going to have now? If I repeat this blog in 10 years, what shows will I be raving about then?

Probably still Doctor Who and Being Human!

Top 5 Next Generation Episodes

@nathwilson set me an interesting question the other day. When I say interesting, I am assuming the reader is a fan of Star Trek The Next Generation. If not, it’s less an interesting question, more a nerdy question. But hey, that’s still good! The question was what are my top 5 episodes of Next Generation? Ooh, that is an interesting question. 178 episodes made, and narrowing that down to the 5 very best? Well, that sounds like a blog post to me!

For the purposes of this list, we’re counting 2 part stories as one story. Redemption counts as 1 whole story, regardless of whether I would rank Part 1 as hugely better than Part 2. Or vice versa. Obviously this reduces the total of choices from 178 so it’s more like 168, but that’s still a large amount to choose 5 from. So I had to do some serious thinking. (Thinking, not drinking!)

On my first pass at this, I narrowed it down to ten episodes. That’s a good result for picking favourites out of one hundred but still twice what I need. So I know have to think about the best ones of this lot. Still, it means that I then have 5 more episodes for an ‘almost made it’ list.

The other thing to note is that when I pick my favourites of something, the results tend to vary on my mood. So it may well be that 3 months down the line I might have a different opinion on some episodes. With this in mind I’ve tried to think of episodes that I’ve been consistently able to watch over and over again as well as ones that have had a particular impact on me so hopefully this is the most consistent version of my list.

5: Conspiracy
I first got into Star Trek when BBC2 showed the first season of TNG. I instantly loved it, and at that young age didn’t have the same discerning nature as I do now. Looking back as an older man, I don’t enjoy that many of the first season episodes. But Conspiracy I always loved. It’s a proper high stakes kind of episode, with Starfleet being infiltrated and a starship destroyed early on. Then there’s an old admiral who can beat Worf up and it seems slowly that everyone is being taken over, even Riker! Then yay, Riker faked them out! Plus then they shoot a dude and he blows up! Brilliant!

4: Q Who
I knew I’d have a Q episode in here. Q is awesome. And of course, this episode introduces us to the Borg! I remember being properly freaked out by the Borg. Back in TNG days you see, the Borg where a really tough, damn near unbeatable villain. In later years they decided they were too tough and reduced themselves to a level that could be beaten often by Kathryn Janeway and an Intepid class starship. But don’t get me started there... This was the Borgs big debut and it was awesome. The scary cube ship, the way they just beamed onto Enterprise and ignored everyone, then became impervious to phasers, the casual dissection of a chunk of the saucer section, the self repairing ship, the Borg baby. Man, it was a hell of an episode and had a complete feeling of the Borg being unbeatable and there was no way out. And there wasn’t a way out. The crew weren’t able to pull a solution out at the last minute. Picard had to admit to Q he wasn’t ready for anything and Q pops them back to Federation space. And we all know then the Borg are coming... Brilliant!

3: The Pegasus
I always enjoy this episode. It starts nicely enough with the Captain Picard day bit, which is one of those little scenes I always enjoy because there’s no serious crisis yet, they’re just hanging out. Maybe that’s weird, but I do like those bits. Then the overall story is awesome. The idea of the secret experiments is cool, then the mutiny and the cover up make it all very mysterious and adds a layer to Starfleet that’s different to what we’ve seen before. And of course it gives Picard the opportunity to tell everyone off for breaking treaty’s and being underhanded, which is also brilliant as it involves Patrick Stewart talking. And it adds a very different layer to Riker, making him more than the guy who makes dramatic statements while putting his feet up on the furniture next to Data.

2: Chain of Command
Man, I can’t say enough good things about this episode. It has two of my favourite things about TNG in it. One is a good look at the way things work on a starship, in this case through the disruption that a new captain is causing when Jellico takes over. The other is Patrick Stewart talking! Seriously, the guy is brilliant. And not only that, he’s talking to David Warner! Two Shakespearean masters doing Star Trek scenes together? If that’s not a nerdgasm, you’re dead inside! Or not a nerd. And not just any talking, Picard’s being tortured. Actually tortured. This is a pretty dark and grim story. And it’s absolutely marvellous.

1: The Best of Both Worlds
Ah, the Borg again. Having spoken about Q Who I’ve kinda covered my feelings on the Borg, back when they were tough. This one differs slightly as this time the crew does have to solve the problem themselves. Oh, and the Borg got Picard and assimilated him. It’s an episode that’s just constantly exciting all the way through. It totally wins on ‘can watch over and over any time’ count. And when I was a kid and it was first on I had Borg based nightmares the whole week between part 1 and part 2.

For interest, the other 5 that didn't make it are, in no particular order:

Parallels
How can you not love Parellels? A Worf episode with a really good sci-fi concept, awesome humour, alternate visions of the Enterprise and crew and a regular character death? (Ok, an alternate regular character, but still)

Starship Mine
It's Die Hard on the Enterprise with Picard. Just so awesome. Sometimes Trek tries an episode that's a different style and this is one of those cases where it just pays off perfectly.

Gambit
The two parter where we find out at the start that Picard was killed off screen. No-one believes that, but we're not meant to! The fun is in the discovery of what has happened to him and this story is just that, fun! It's pretty much a romp, with space pirates, guys trying to infiltrate the pirates and always staying just the right side of ridiculous.

Relics
Scotty! It's just so awesome to see him! And such a awesome little tale of the engineer who's out of his time and can't keep up, but comes through in the end. Though it seems daft to send him off in a little shuttle at the end, he's surely going to get himself into trouble...

Tapestry
Q again, with a pretty deep tale about what happens if you did manage to undo the mistakes of your past. Marvellous for the concept and definitely for the Picard and Q exchanges.

I can't believe I didn't mention:
Well I only had so much room, but I did give thought to Unification, Yesterday's Enterprise, 11001001 and Captains Holiday. Also all excellent episodes but not quite in the ten.