We are a very bookish family. We live in a bushfire prone part of Australia and are often confronted with very real situations where we have to pack belongings and leave until the bushfire crises subsides. As a family we all agree that in the event of the worst case scenario, we would be most devastated to lose our shelves and shelves of books rather than jewelry, electronics or other keepsakes. There’s something about being surround by volumes, lazily browsing titles and handling most favorite books.

So my family was surprised I got a KOBO. It’s practically the antithesis of the what we collectively value. It’s a piece of technology, small and without character. However, I was fascinated with the small size, weight and ability to store a large volume of books in the device.

After buying the KOBO I quickly striped off the box and got down to business. I was impressed with the 100 or so books that came preloaded. Only after the purchase did I wonder if the device was compatible with my linux systems. The answer is yes and no. I plugged it in and the device was recognised by my Ubuntu system however the preloaded software on the KOBO was not linux compatible (familiar story for linux users). I surfed over to the KOBO website and was impressed with the selection of ebooks. I found the book I was looking for, Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson, and made my online purchase. This was when I realised that KOBO was not going to play nicely with linux. I could not download the ebook purchase.

I rebooted into windows and installed the preloaded software. Arg!. Another problem. The preloaded software was branded to the store (Angus & Robertson) the KOBO was purchased from and could not download or install my purchase from the KOBO site. It was also very apparent that the preloaded software was very limited and only managed purchases from the Angus & Robertson online store. After a little googling I installed Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) and was able to download Snow Crash from KOBO site and then install it on my KOBO. All seeming was well.

But, when adding ebooks to the KOBO from ADE, the front covers are lost as is the ability to change font size. This was important because the font was so small it made reading on the KOBO very tedoious. A little more google later, I learned how to hack into the Snow Crash epub file and delete the css sheet. Like magic, this allowed me to then change the font size on the KOBO for Snow Crash.

The preloaded software is annoying and basically useless. I contacted KOBO support and they were quick to reply but could not offer any real solutions except to say that in the coming weeks, the KOBO site will release their own KOBO software.

I have downloaded the ereader Calibre on linux and this does a great job of managing the books on my KOBO without having to boot into windows. It doesn’t manage to install books purchased online and copyright encrypted. I still have to use ADE to do this although I have managed to get ADE running under Wine on linux.

So what’s the verdict? I love it. It has rarely left my side in two weeks. I like being able to carry several books on the train, to work and around the house in one small tiny device. I like the fact that it is very simple and focuses on only being an ereader. I like the fact that it’s very small, light weight and easy to handle. It makes reading in bed with one hand very easy! The screen was designed specifically to read books from and works well in the sunshine and shade. It is not back-lit and is very easy on the eyes. Almost like a real book. It uses very little power. I’m almost finished with Snow Crash and have started a number of other titles and have recharged it only once.

I’m a convert and you’ll find the KOBO on my bookshelf.

July 2 2010 – UPDATE

Kobo have released a firmware (1.4) update that resolves the issues I mentioned with the font and covers. If you have a Kobo and have not upgraded the firmware, check out this post from Michael Tamblin, EVP of Content, Sales and Merchandising at Kobo discussing the firmware upgrade in detail. Kudos to Kobo for listening to customers and promptly responding. Let’s hope this sort of collaboration continues!

Here’s my latest Crunchbang Linux wallpaper. I wanted to stay true to the mostly black default theme as well as ensuring there’s good space on the right side of a lengthy Conky configuration. The file can be downloaded from the #!Crunchbang wiki site.

Over the past several months I have stuck to using Mint, Sabayon and Zenwalk. I’ve been tricking out my XCFE and Gnome window managers with 3D effects, the Avant Window Navigator – a flashy application launcher reminiscent of iMac, wobbly windows, and the rest of the bells and whistles. It was looking so whiz bang my wife asked me to install Linux on her computer!

Just last week, during one of my frequent passes through distrowatch.com, I discovered #!Crunchbang Linux. Crunchbang is an Ubuntu derivative that uses the Openbox window manager exclusively.

Openbox’s menu system has a method for using dynamic menus. This is done by accepting the output of a script and using that output as the source for a menu. Each time the user points the mouse at the sub-menu, the script is re-run and the menu is regenerated. This capability allows users and software developers more flexibility than the standard static menus found in most other window managers. For instance, two developers wrote a script in Python that lists a user’s new Gmail messages in a sub-menu. Openbox is light weight and does not impose a massive toll on the CPU. Upon install (standard Ubuntu install engine) I was immediately struck by the zen-like simpleness.

The desktop was uncluttered save for Conky, a system monitor that is drawn onto the desktop. Conky is highly configurable and is able to monitor many system variables including the status of the CPU, memory, swap space, disk storage, temperatures, processes, network interfaces, battery power, system messages, e-mail inboxes, many popular music players (MPD, XMMS2, BMPx, Audacious), and much more. Unlike system monitors that use high-level widget toolkits to render their information, Conky is drawn directly in an X window. This allows it to consume relatively fewer system resources when configured. I spent a evening learning, configuring and playing with Conky. The forum on the Crunchbang site was very helpful and provided other users Conky config files and many many examples.

So, I’m a week into my Crunchbang install and have not flipped over to one of my other distros. I really enjoy the simplicity, speed and unique linux feel to Openbox not to mention that everything just works and it pulls deb/ubuntu repositories.

crunchbang linux desktop

This is my Crunchbang desktop and it’s running Abiword, GIMP, PCMan file manager, GPictview image viewer and a terminal open. You can see where I have right clicked the desktop to access the application menu and have navigated down to the internet submenu.

Conky is displaying time, date, system info, MEM and CPU usage, top 5 processes, ethernet inbound and outbound traffic, current Melbourne weather details, my Gmail inbox and a few choice keyboard shortcuts.

I’d highly recommend this little distro to all. Looks like I’ll be staying faithful to Crunchbang … at least for a little while!

Here’s another GEEKY T-Shirt design. Wear it with PRIDE

Hit this link to purchase or get more info

Wallpaper for Zenwalk Linux. Download the full size version here.

Anyone who wants a non-Zenwalk version can hit the link associated with the image below and click the ‘all-sizes’ button to choose your resolution size for download. Enjoy.

Download the hi-res version (1500×1200 pixels)

This Zenwalk Linux image was based upon one of my photos from last Summer. This photo has been the most viewed and favorited on my DeviantArt account.

Here’s another Zenwalk Linux wallpaper. This one is based on my Nebula In My Backyard II image. The image featurres a photo off my balcony early one morning superimposed upon a Hubble Space Telepscope shot of the Orion Nebula. Download a hi-resolution version (1800×1200) here.

Zenwalk Fly Free Wallpaper Download (3848 x 2592 px – 4GB file)

So far, I love using Zenwalk Linux 5.0.  It’s a very nice lean linux distribution. I had the hankering to create a nice background for my Zenwalk box’s 20″ monitor. I started with a photo I took of some interesting clouds. To that, I added a photo of my youngest daughter jumping on the trampoline. I used the GIMP and also Wine running Photoshop CS2 to cut her away from the original background and blend in with the sky photo.

Above is a screen shot of my desktop using XFCE. Feel free to hit the link and download the large file. If you wish a smaller version, you can find it on my flickr account.

• Camera: Canon 400D
• Downloaded to Zenwalk with DigiKam
• Edited using the GIMP and Wine with Photoshop CS2

This poem is copyleft,
you are free to distribute it, and diffuse it
dismantle it, and abuse it
reproduce it, and improve it
and use it
for your own ends
and with your own ending

This is an open source poem
Entering the public domain
Here’s the source code,
the rest remains
for you to shape, stretch and bend
add a hash bang slash if you want
share it out amongst your friends

Because I didn’t write this poem, I molded it.
picked up the lines in cyberspace and refolded it
as I was surfing on over here, Steal This Poem v1.3
rescued leftover ideas
on their way to /dev/null.
Found screwed up fragments
and put them to use
as complementary tag bits.

Because, think about it
I can’t tell you anything truly new.
There can only be few more new ideas to be thought through.
So should we treat them as rare commodities, high value oddities?
Probe the arctic reserves and other sensitive ecologies
for new ideas buried deep beneath the permafrost?
hunt them out of the cultures till the cultures are lost?
then suffocate them with patent protection?
No! we should re use and recycle them
Pile our public spaces high with ideas beyond anyone’s imagining..

So I steal a riff here and a rhyme there,
a script here and a argument there
pass them on around the net,
roll the words, add a tweak
here go on…
now don’t you feel like a supreme geek?

This poem is indebted to Linus Torvalds, Eric S. Raymond, Stephen Hawking and Richard Stallman,
This poem is indebted to all the words I’ve read and the codes I’ve known
This poem is a composite of intellect, yours and mine.
This poem is RIPPED OFF! every single slash bash and line

Because intellectual property is theft
and piracy our only defense left against the thought police.
when no thought is new
its just rewired, refined, remastered and reproduced
The revolution will be plagiarized
The revolution will not happen if our ideas are corporatised.
So STEAL THIS POEM
Take it and use it
for your own ends
and with your own ending

This poem is copyleft,
All rights are reversed

Recently I went into a distro binge and downloaded all the most popular ISO’s. I obsessed with Distrowatch.com and saw fit to track down any that looked suitable for my old clapped out PIII 633 machine. I tried all the mini’s and even tried some of the bigger kitchen sink variety distros.

I was wanting something lean mean and not too bad on the eye. When all the smoke had cleared and the hard drive was feeling a bit flaccid, I chose to enter a relationship with Zenwalk 5.0. I know, I shouldn’t commit, I should have learned my lesson but, I just couldn’t help it.

The install was fairly standard and painless, not really worth much of a mention. I’d recommend that you download the live version first and give the distro a good test run. The live version is true to the actual install. One bummer was a lack of install to HDD on the live version.

First off, I liked the philosophy of Zenwalk – simplicity. A single package per task or issue. Following this simplicity was an easy package manager – netpkg when I needed or wanted something not included in the original install. They’ve thrown in a nice netpkg gui but I find that the CLI is much quicker and facilitates my lazy streak. It also is built on off a slackware platform and I have always been fond of slack and it’s speed. Zenwalk’s new you beaut HAL makes plug-n-play a breeze which is important now-a-days.

As a photographer I was initiially disappointed when I plugged in a digital camera and nothing happened. I was hoping HAL would kick in and allow me to browse or download my photos. Alas, a quick “netpkg digiKAM” fixed up that problem pretty quick and so now I’m good to go with the camera.

My verdict after the honeymoon?? It runs a little slower than what I think it should. I was expecting a slack derivative to still look beautiful the morning after but she does have a few bags under the eyes. Nevertheless, I still like her. She’s stable, good looking and easy to maintain. All in all … I’m still turned on and haven’t strayed once!

Before running off, I should mention that the documentation, wiki, support and forums for Zenwalk are very good. I noticed on some of the distros that there was little tolerance or responses to questions in forums … not so with Zenwalk. Good documentation and good support makes me very happy.

Here’s my screen shot of Zenwalk 5.0 with Gimp and a terminal on the desktop. I’m running the standard Xfce with the bottom panel removed. I like the right click access to apps and it leaves more area on my small old fashioned monitor. The wallpaper is one of the standards in the /usr/share/wallpaper/ directory.