Matt Eskes4 CommentsUncategorized, ,

What’s New For Maverick Meerkat, The Next Release of Ubuntu

As many of you may know, the next release of Ubuntu, 10.10 (Code Named “Maverick Meerkat” is slated to be released on the 10th of October 2010. (For you math and/or Sci-Fi geeks, 10.10.10 translates to “42” which, as we all know from having seen/read “The Hitch Hiker’s Guide To the Galaxy”, is the answer to everything.) In this article, we’re going to go over what’s new in this release.

The Linux Kernel:

This release will feature a kernel based off version 2.6.35. As usual, it will contain bug fixes to both the core kernel as well as it’s modules. (for those not familiar with that term, they’re drivers) As well the introduction of new features. For all of you ATI users, the kernel now further supports the power saving profiles for these cards. For you Intel graphics users, myself being included, they didn’t forget about you guys either. The driver now includes everything needed to support the streaming of H.264 on the Iron lake CPU, which has graphics support built in. Also included, are the user-land tools to make all this happen. For those interested, please check out the Intel site at http://intellinuxgraphics.org/h264.html.

For any new File System support, the only thing I’ve really seen worth mentioning is that Btrfs now supports Direct I/O access, thus effectively bypassing the kernel cache which can be especially useful for those of you running databases that include integrated cache functions.

With regards to networking, the Atheros AR7010 and AR9271 chipsets are now officially supported by the kernel with the addition of the ath9k_htc driver.  Along with the addition of the ath9k_htc driver, additional improvements have been made to the  ath5k driver which will allow for better connection speeds and faster throughput in RF Noisy areas. Another addition for Intel is an experimental driver which will allow the kernel to directly control various aspects of Intel CPU control mechanisms which will help those who have a shoddy ACPI control interface in the BIOS.

Moving on to other enhancements of the kernel. Virtualization enhancements include one for the Linux KVM interface which will allow users to check up on a guest OS’s status from the host via the “perf” command. Other enhancements in this area are mainly improvements over existing technologies.

In the area of sound support, the ALSA sound drivers have not been neglected. ALSA now supports the ASI sound cards produced by AudioScience.

There have also been other additions to the kernel and the toolchain and related items this time around but for the sake  of time, I’m going to go head and end this part of the article here. Thanks to those of you who held with me for this long. And as always, thanks to the kernel.org team for doing such fine work.

GNOME

The plan for this release was to have finally migrated away from the 2.x line of GNOME to the new GNOME 3.0 desktop environment. However, due to issues out of the control of the Ubuntu developers, Gnome 3.0 will not be included with this release. The version of GNOME that will be included with Ubuntu 10.10 will 2.31.92, which, as I understand, will also be the final release of the GNOME 2.x line before retirement… That is if everything goes according to plan.

Say Goodbye to Firefox and F-Spot

Ubuntu 10.10 will no longer include the Mozilla Organization’s Firefox web browser by default though it will still available in the appropriate repository if you would like to install it afterward. The browser intended to replace Firefox will be chromium, which is the open source cousin to Google’s Chrome web browser. The reason stated for this change is that chromium is by far faster, thus further improving the overall speedy experience that 10.10 will surely be. Also out for this release is the F-Spot photo management software in favor for the Shotwell Photo Manager.

Even Faster Boot Time

As always, the Ubuntu development team is constantly seeking ways to increase the boot time speeds. With the addition of version 2.6.35 of the Linux Kernel and the usual improvements to upstart, that should turn out to be interesting. My personal system on which I’m writing this article currently has Ubuntu 10.10 installed and my boot time is around 9 seconds. Try to beat that, Windows.

In The End

While I’m sure I’ve forgotten some things for this article I can assure you that this release is going to turn out to be a good one. It is sure to meet or exceed the high expectations that Ubuntu often sets for themselves and the rest of the community. I would like to thank Andy and the team at Tech Talk Radio for allowing me to make this contribution and I most certainly look forward to future posts.

Andy TaylorLeave a commentPhotoshop,

Adobe announces Photoshop and Premiere Elements 9

ADOBE ANNOUNCES NEW VERSIONS OF ELEMENTS PROGRAMS 
Version 9 of Photoshop Elements and Premier Elements Offers Much!

Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements 9 BoxThe latest Adobe Photoshop Elements and Adobe Premiere Elements software deliver the same powerful features for PC users and Mac’s users in Version 9 announced and available today. The Consumer programs for the Digital Photo and Digital Video enthusiast make it easy to manage, create and share both media types to friends and family through social networking and personal storage at Photoshop.Com Read More on our Website at http://www.techtalkradio.com/articles/adobeelements.html

Andy Taylor1 Commentsoftware, TechtalkRadio, TTR Website

Free Email Programs

Had a Radio Listener Instant Message me today on Facebook wondering if I could recommend a Free Email program. She stated that she had previously used MSN but had been hacked into and got rid of the program. At the top of my mind, I recommended Gmail. The program comes from Google which offers a wide range of tools that you may or may not use from Google Voice, Talk to Picasa to email with Gmail just to name a few.

As soon as I had typed my suggestion for Gmail I received a response right back, “Can’t use that – friend had hers hacked..” I was beginning to see a pattern here. The thought came to mind about delivering a smart alec answer of “Maybe you should use the postal service” but then thought, she might come back with “somebody stole the mail out of the box!”

This of course for those of you looking for a free email program or using any type of service on the web brings the reminder to make sure your passwords are difficult to crack. Using words like password, dog, admin or pass are easily guessed and could open up your Email or any kind of program requiring a login to problems.

Another reminder is to not use the same password for multiple services. While this can be more difficult as more services require user names and passwords, this can help protect you in the case a system is compromised with personal information and associated passwords.  There are some programs and even hardware on the market to help not only create passwords that would be very difficult to crack but also store passwords for multiple sites. One of those companies is ID Vault found at http://www.idvault.com/ 

If you are looking for some ideas on how to create a viable password, a good rule of thumb is make the password more then 8 characters. There are some password cracking programs that can quickly uncover a password in less then an hour when the password is less then 5 characters. Using Lower and Upper Case along with punctuation and numbers is also a great way to make the password more difficult. Many will recommend using a favorite term or saying to help deliver a strong password. Maybe you enjoy eating at Five Guy Burgers (Plug Bell Please). How about taking the term “I Love Eating at 5 Guys Burgers!”  This could be translated to Ilea5GB! – We have upper Case, a Number and  Punctuation mark in the password.

It’s also good to remember safe computing as well. If you get email from unknown users asking you to click on something, do you really have to? Do you have to open a file from a known user that you haven’t talked with in awhile? Do you have a good anti-virus program? There are some free ones that are quite good on the market however, having the security of a program that is constantly testing and delivering solutions to its users with a paid subscription to updates will provide more protection again new viruses. Isn’t it worth the 30 or 40 bucks a year?

So please remember, in most cases – if your Email was hacked – there was probably a step here and there that was missed. Clicking a link, no protection on your system, using a public computer and not logging out or a system already infected with a keylogger or a password that can be guessed at or easily figured out. Also, don’t write your password under your keyboard or on a post it note attached to the monitor. Yes, I’ve seen that before.  For more information on Virus Protection take a look at http://www.symantec.com The Makers of the popular Norton Anti-Virus or http://www.eset.comthe makers of one of my favorites Eset Nod32.  More tips on Password Creation can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/protect/fraud/passwords/create.aspx

Andy TaylorLeave a commentTTR Website,

Tragic Story on the Death of Brian Wood

Yahoo Buzz and other Media Outlets are reporting on the tragic story of the Death of Game Designer Brian Wood. Brian was lead game designer at Relic.

Friday September 3rd, Brian and his Pregnant Wife Erin were on the way to the home they lived at in Washington. A driver coming in the opposite direction crossed into the lane Brian and Erin were in, rather then take this crash head on, Brian steered his vehicle to the right, taking the brunt of the collision which took his life but spared that of his Wife Erin and unborn child.

According to reports, the driver of the other vehicle may have been under the influence of drugs that were found in the vehicle at the time. Two passengers in her vehicle were also killed.

A Trust fund has been set up for the family at http://www.brianwoodmemorialtrust.com. The thoughts and prayers from us here at TechtalkRadio extend to Brians family and coworkers.

Read More at http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/gamers-lend-support-to-widow-of-heroic-developer/1410899

Read More at http://www.theprovince.com/news/final+only+thing+that+would+save/3487150/story.html#ixzz0zclxxzbB

The Brian Wood Memorial Trust http://www.brianwoodmemorialtrust.com

admin4 CommentsTTR Website,

TechtalkRadio Blog Authors

I’ve had quite a few of you expressing interest in writing for the TechtalkRadio Blog, If you are Interested – drop me a note, give me your shirt size and we’ll talk!  To register for the Blog for Comments or Writing – You will find the registration in the Top Right hand corner of the Page.

We’re looking for stories of your Computing, Installations, Cool Web Sites and Observations on Software, Hardware and The Net. We hope to have Post from Former TechtalkRadio Members and Guest and Cover Every Aspect of Consumer Electronics we can.

If you think nobody wants to read about Linux, think again! We can cover Linux, Mac,  PC and will probably have some post on Remote Computing coming soon. Gamers, Consoles and Mobile Apps are all Spoken here as well!

If you are a writer, a reader or industry person, Thanks for Stopping By!