Selamat Hari Raya ‘Idil Adha 1435

Jabbal Nur, di puncaknya pada bahagian belakang, sebelah kiri, terletaknya Gua Hira

Saya ucapkan kepada sekalian muslimin dan muslimat, “Selamat Hari Raya ‘Idil Adha.”  Kepada sekalian mereka-mereka yang sedang mergerjakan ibadah haji pada tahun ini, saya doakan semoga mereka mendapat haji yang mabrur.  Bagi mereka-mereka yang menjalan ibadah korban, saya doakan agar korbannya di terima Allah Subhanahu Wata’ala.  Amin.

Gua Hira, tempat Nabi Muhammad s.a.w. pertama kali menerima wahyu iaitu Surah Al ‘Alaq

Wabillahi taufik wal hidayah, assalamu ‘alaikum warahmatullahi ta’ala wabarakahtuh.

From Ubuntu Studio to Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon

Linux Mint Cinnamon desktop overlapping Ubuntu Studio desktop

After installing a second monitor on the Ubuntu Studio, the panel or taskbar, as they called it in Windows, loses its transparency setting. It is one of those minor quirks in Linux that you can live with but still I decide to give a check on others. I opt to install Linux Mint Xfce edition since it has the same Xfce desktop environment that by now I am a little familiar with. It seems to be working fine with all the panels transparency in working order.

I proceed to install all the application programs that I require without a hitch until I begin to set the icc profiles for the monitors and printers. That is where I get the first hindrance. Linux Mint Xfce does not have a program to install the profiles for the devices mentioned. Obviously the next step is to install the program for the profile loader, gnome colour manager in this case. It goes along smoothly with no problem at all except that the program is nowhere to be found and I am not able to execute it even in command line. Maybe it is not compatible with the desktop but even the KDE version gives the same result. I am not very familiar with Linux and to save time I ditch it and look for a distro that have a colour manager program by default. I find 3 to start with, they are Ubuntu 14.04, Linux Mint 17 KDE and Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon editions.

The Colour program in MInt Cinnamon to set the icc profiles

Since I am an old-school computer user who prefer the taskbar/panel right down below the screen with the necessary information on it, I skip on Ubuntu and Linux Mint KDE is given the boot, no pun intended. It’s great, very customisable, only to be given away by its menu, it is not to my liking. I am now left with Linux Mint Cinnamon and wow, no wonder it is the most popular distro right now in the Linux world.

Linux Mint Cinnamon desktop and menu

Now with all the printers installed, dual monitors up and running, profiles and the necessary programs loaded, the computer is now ready at last. One thing that is missing is the network monitor though.  The KDE and Xfce desktop environments have it.  This is to make sure that the computer is not leaking to the net without your knowledge.  I just hope that it won’t be long that someone patch up the KDE or Xfce version into a desklet as they termed it in Cinnamon.

The Battle Of Super Telezoom

Sigma & Tamron 150-600mm Super Telezooms

Sigma has just announced it’s new, not one but two, super telezooms, the 150-600mm F/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports and the 150-600mm F/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary .  It has been expected that Sigma will come out with a version to rival the Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD, and now we know it come with a little surprise.  The sports version is the bigger brother, heavier, more elements and a huge filter size of 105mm but the contemporary version is packaged quite similar to the one offered by Tamron, except that the weight is yet to be announced.  We will see what will the pricing be.

With vertical stabilsation, panning is very easy. Shot with Sigma 150-500mm DG APO OS HSM

What I like about the Sigmas is that they have vertical stabilisation which makes panning a piece of cake, while the Tamron ones doesn’t.  At least that is what I saw from the pics of the big brother here plus all zoom range lock and focus limiter.  No doubt comparison will be made between the Sigmas and the lone Tamron and I am waiting for it.

Cloning: Reimage Fails To Load

I have not been keeping myself abreast on the development of the low-level side of the PC, namely the firmware and hard disk partitioning until I find myself facing a wall.  Why?  Because not many sites cover this topic.  If they ever did, then I probably would have missed it or I could have brushed it aside because it is of little concern.  The PC has reached its peak growth so there is not much to write about.  Naturally and gradually articles on smart phones and others appear to fill in the void.  As for my complacency, it is intentional.  I have learnt not to know fully well details of something which will become obsolete in a few years, just enough on the superficial level.

Enough said, now back to the topic.  My recently assembled PC fails to load Ubuntu Studio after reimage.  The program that I used for both processes, cloning and reimaging, is non other than Clonezilla.  Upon rebooting, Grub just could not proceed to load the OS and it duly ends to a prompt.  If I remember it well, I think it says something about missing config file.  I reinstall Ubuntu Studio and repeat the whole process again and the result is still the same.

UEFI bios interface and surprisingly now in GUI

My first stop in troubleshooting journey is clonezilla.org.  Here I come to know about EFI which later become UEFI, which gives birth to GPT or GUID Partition Table.  The purpose of their creation is to cater for the needs of future architecture, namely the 64-bit processor architecture.  That is to expand the limitations posed by prior solution.  After some quick readings, I come to the conclusion that the probability lies in the MBR size in the GPT partitioned hard disk that causes the problem and I am using an old version of Clonezilla.  I then proceed to download the latest stable version of Clonezilla, the Ubuntu-based 64-bit version and problem solved.

Linux: From Toe Testing To Flat Footing

UbuntuStudio Desktop

I had tried Linux once in a while as time went by and I had seen the improvements made over the years. Still, I wasn’t ready to have a system based on it. Last few weeks I spent trying out a few of the Linux distros to check if it was time for me to have a permanent installation instead of just install and delete. I was in need of another computer and I wanted to know if the time had came for me to have a Linux box permanently.

After some searching, reading, downloading, burnt a few cds and trying, I must say that now Linux is practically more than ready for the masses. It works right after installation though you still need to install the printer driver which is easy if supported and the proprietary graphics card driver instead of the default driver, if you want the real deal (initially this needs some sweating though).

Graphics card and printers installed

There are still some loose ends to be tackled but they are not of great concern. Things like installing application programs and hardware drivers especially graphics cards and printers if they are not in the repositories at hand (the default distro repositories right after installation) which are still quite technical. Thus I hope in the near future, the Linux developers communities could make the installation/removing process of application programs and hardware drivers unified and simple, whatever the variant of the Linux OS that is used. These will entice the application developers and hardware manufacturers to produce products that will also target the Linux OS platform.

I decided to settle for UbuntuStudio because it had groups of programs for audio production, video production, graphic design, photography and publishing. The decision was not hard to make as the new pc was primarily intended for photography post processing.

Application programs

Installation was straight forward and fast (without internet connection). At the reboot, it was done, unlike Windows 7 installation that has to go through 3 reboots to get it done. But what is more important is the feeling I get in using it, I must say that it is a pleasure. The booting up process, shutting down process and opening and closing of application programs (same programs used in Windows 7) are fast compared to Windows 7. I am so satisfied that I am now shifting my body weight slightly over to this foot standing on the Linux OS.