Dapper Drake on Acer Travelmate 3002 WTCi

To install Ubuntu 5.04/5.10 on Acer Travelmate 3000 series laptop is definitely painful. I have a long article of how to patch kernel, modify DSDT, etc. to make ubuntu run on my Acer. I wonder whether it is worth the time to hack all these for most guys.

Now, Dapper Drake beta is coming, although its version now is 6.06, instead of 6.04 in the original plan, due to the 2 mths delay of final release. But I donnot need all these features causing the delay, so, I planned to use another weekend to struggle to install it on the Acer.

From its Web site, I was glad to find it provides an live installer like the on in Mepis, I then decided to test how lucky I am this time to pass the install using the live installer, and downloaded the live CD.

After 2 hours downloading, I bootup my Acer 3002 WTCi from the live CD, and at the first glance, I was so execited to find the laptop just run, without any modification, except the resolution is still 1024x768 by default. Does that mean I can save the weekend to prepare paiting my new house? Maybe, if I can install it to my harddisk.

So, I clicked the install icons on desktop, following its instruction then. You know how sad I was when the installer exited at step6 (totoally 7 steps) without any notice. I tried two more times, and failed both times. Regret I can only throw the live CD away and download the installer CD now. Due to the good experience based on live CD, I expected I do not need 2 days to install it.

I have just downloaded the text install CD from Web site, and now I am trying to install it. After reboot, the install CD also startup without any problem. The interface remains the same as previous ubuntu/kubuntu. Now the progress bar passed 50% just now. Hopefully, Dapper Drake can run smoothly on the Acer model.

Conclusion:
Based on experience so far, Dapper Drake is so good (bluetooth, wireless, and hot buttons work), except:
1. Live installer in live CD failed on Acer Travelmate 3002WTCi.
2. Resolution is 1024x768 by default, and need 915resolution's help
3. kcontrol crashed when I am doing hotkey setting.

I will try more, and record the problems, if I can find more.

Writely Invitation Available Now

In another post, I introduced some online writers. Today, I got invitation from writely finally.

Now, this is the 1st post I write using writely. From the toolbar, I can see it supports to post to blogger from writely. So, I first try to create some complicated format here, and publish to blogger to see effects.

1. A table:
this is 70% width table with size of 3x3

The 1st	how about it?	good
it is easy to set all format	i like it	do u?
	not bad, just like word

ok, seems table is easy to create and modify, then let's try to upload image:

2. image

I upload an image from my PC, very easy huh. Then I put it to the right part of this post.

I do not know where this image will be stored, if I publish this post to blogger. If writely can host the image, wow, I will love writely more. ;-)


3. font
Try some font effects here.
Bold, Italy and Underline
Good, so simple.

Now, let's try what fonts are supported by Writely.
FOnt1, Font1, Font2,

Ok, lots of fonts (about 15) are there. I only wonder what are the real effects in Web browser.

Let's publish the post now. Good luck to me and all writely users.
:D

I add the following comments in blogger, instead of writely.
1. writely hosts all pictures you uploaded. great
2. How to change corresponding HTML CSS style in writely is left to study
3. the HTML codes generated is ugly
4. if want to modify more, can only in blogger, I think

If you like the effect of easiness of writely, u can ask invitation from me now, if more invitations are left for my account. Good luck

How to add calendar to your blogger site in 4 steps

blogcat service is down now, do not try anymore! Before try to add calendar using blogcat, please register an account at blogcat. After getting an account from blogcat, there are 4 steps only to add a calendar with the following features:

1. Date is highlighted corresponding to all your blogger posts.
2. Update automatically when you browse a certain page.
3. Show post title when you move your mouse over the calendar date.
4. Load fast (compared with those javascript solution).

If you are interested in these features, try to follow the steps below:

1. Set blogger information

Select 'Blogger Configuration' in sidebar. Input your blogger ID and password, and then blogcat will ask you which blog you want to add calendar.

2. Fetch posts

Select 'Post List' in sidebar. Click 'Reload posts from Blogger!', then posts from blogger will be listed. In this screen, you can even assign a category for each post, and blogcat can generate a category list for you automatically.

3. Generate calendar

Select 'Build Calendar' in sidebar. Then there is a calendar generated corresponding to each month you logged.

4. Add codes to blogger template

Select 'Get Template Codes' in sidebar. Add the codes shown to your blogger template. That's all you need to do to add the calendar. After you create a new post in blogger, you can regenerate the calendar by browse: http://lizhao.net/blogcat/autobuildcal.php?u=USERNAME where USERNAME is your blogcat account name.

AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript And XML) and word processor

In a previous post, I mentioned Writely, which is bought by google. It is an online word processor. I feel so interesting what can Web do right now.
Actually, the important technique supporting writly is AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript And XML), and if you google AJAX, you will get bunch of results from google. I remember when i pursuing my master degree years ago, we can only exploit ActiveX, Corba to obtain similar results, with much higher complexity.
Now, AJAX is a hot techniques, and I found several online word processor online now:

1. Ajaxwrite
2. Zoho Writer
3. Writely

牛尾浓汤 Beef tail soup

Today, it is the first time I try to cook western food --- beef tail soup. It is as delicious as I expected, thus, record the recipe I used for future reference. Materials:

1. beef tail, 1 (I used about 600G) 牛尾
2. onion, 1 (I used 3 middle size onions)洋葱
3. carrot, 1 (I used about 180G)胡萝卜
4. Celery, 2 (I used one potato to replace it)芹菜
5. beef lard， 1spoon牛油
6. Bay Leaves, 1 piece香叶
7. tomato sauce, 2spoons番茄酱
8. fried flour. 2spoons.油炸粉
9. pea, salt, pepper.豌豆，盐，胡椒粉。

Ways:

1. clear beef tail
2. cut onion, carrot, celery to cubes, put them togther with beef tail into cold water to boil for 3 hours.
3. filter the soup, and then fish out tail, separate meat and bone.
4. saute bay leave, beef tail meat, beef lard, tomato sauce together
5. put fried tail meat, fried flour back to soup and boil again
6. add pea, salt, peepr

I also add some red wine. :-), Wow, it is really great, and if you feed a puppy, then you donnot need to wash your disks. :-D

RFID electronic door lock

I will move into my new home soon, which is the first flat we own. That is why the idea to DIY a RFID electronic door lock is attractive for me at the 1st glance.
But after reading all pages of the DIY instruction, I feel a bit frustrated, as I donnot know when will I be free to do all such work. Anyway, keep the link in the blog, maybe you are interested in it, or I will finally be free to do it. :-D

Post blog via email

I decided to be used to post blog posts via email from now on. Thus, I can post to several blogs at the same time.<br/>

One important benefit is I can post to MSN space, thus, most guys can read the blog.

Most popular pages

I wrote a page counter yesterday to count clicks to each page, the result is: http://blog.lizhao.net/2005/08/softwarerec-install-ubuntu-on-acer.html 65
http://blog.lizhao.net/2004/10/tips-about-blogger-archives-drop-down.html 11
http://blog.lizhao.net/2004/09/tips-categorize-blogger-posts.html 5
http://blog.lizhao.net/ 19 http://blog.lizhao.net/2004/10/another-blogger-tool-i-like-it.html 1
http://blog.lizhao.net/2006/03/googles-appetite_13.html 1
http://blog.lizhao.net/2005/01/c-implementation-of-ukkonens-suffix.html 2
http://blog.lizhao.net/2006/03/bloglendar-back_09.html 10
http://lizhao.net/ 16
http://blog.lizhao.net/2004/09/liferec-diary-cartoon-enjoy-it.html 1
http://www.lizhao.net/ 1
http://blog.lizhao.net/2004/12/blogger-chinese-version-of-how-to-add.html 1
http://blog.lizhao.net/2004/08/my-calendar_25.html 2
http://blog.lizhao.net/2006/03/problem-of-css-float-in-ie_09.html 2
http://blog.lizhao.net/2005/08/comparison-six-models-of-sonoma.html 1
I am astonished to find most clicks point to the same page. It is a trouble shoot article, recording what I met during install linux on a weird but hot laptop.
What matters a page is how much it can help other guys, at least in my site.

Google's appetite

Measure Map is a service like technorati; Writely is an online word processor. They are totally different from each other and have no relationship at all, right?

It is true a month ago, util Google bought both of them. And now, there is a tag appearing in both site:
"that's now part of Google."
Another common point shared by them is they are both in immigration process to Google system, and does not open registration now.
But they allow you to leave your email address to book a position when they open registration. Yes, this is what we met when gmail come.
What is the next one Google will take a fancy to?

Problem of CSS float in IE

IE defined a no standard CSS attribute word-wrap, when it is set to 'break-word', IE divids a long word if it is too long. If it is set to 'normal', the word won't be divided.
An example is list below:

testtesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttest

You can see the different render results in IE and firefox, firefox ignore this attribute and the whole word is in the same line. Both are OK for me.

The problem is, if IE does not divid the word, the right panel in my blogger pages will move down below the left panel, make them cannot appear in the same row. What a pity, and it is the reason of why many blogger's template layout will be corrupted in IE, if there is a long hyperlink (or dir name, or tag, etc.), where IE does not divid the word inside.

In my situation, I want the float left panel does not extend automatically with contents inside, and treat IE's method as a bug for me. But in certain situations, sb. may feel firefox's method is a bug, here is an example.

Fortunately, now, we can combine the word-wrap attribute and tips from http://www.positioniseverything.net/easyclearing.html to solve the problem you meet, although it cannot solve problem for all ppls. How to choose is up2u.

Bloglendar Back

The contents in this article are discarded, I implemented a full-featured Web service at BlogCat, please check out.


In a previous article, I introduced how to add calendar to blogger using javascript. However, it suffers from some javascript weaknesses.
I have implemented a php based calendar generator for blogger, which can produce calendar similar with the one in my blogger's right panel (see demo.
You can just try here:

Blogger ID:
Password:

Your username and password will not be stored. ;-) You can also use bloglendar/bloglendar as username/password to generate calendar for http://bloglendar.blogspot.com/

You can login blogger with username of bloglendar to post more, and return here to see effect. Blogger ID:
If you are interested in this calendar, just download the php scripts and install it on ur own server, and enjoy.
This is only a prototype blogger calendar, and I may be too busy to finish it. It is great if u can help.

Rabbits

My wife bought two rabbits, and play with them.

The MacMini's PC clone finally arrived at S'pore

Now, Aopen's Mini PC running PentiumM is sold at s$1400- in S'pore. From the pic from linuxdevices.com comparing MiniPC and MacMini from the rear panel, we can found more kinds of ports in the MiniPC, e.g., TV out. I like this improvement, although the the big button in MiniPC's front panel is so ugly. The problem is although there is TVout, but the lack of multi-channel audio port makes it difficult to be a media center with multi-channel sound system.
For that more Linux distributions support PC architecture than Mac, I prefer this small PC, if its interior is not too bad.

atspace and awardspace

These two sites (atspace.com, awardspace.com) are really great. atspace provides 50M space (without traffic limit) and 99.9+% time on. It promises to offer the free service without ads forever. Its configuration is easy and simple.
The only regret is the lack of php/cgi support, although they said they will add soon. That is why I change to awardspace. awardpace provides 200M (2G traffic limit p.m). With php support, I built message board, hyperlink management, and counter to awardspace. I think this may improve the web page loading speed, as the page does not need to load services from lots of web sites. The only regret is awardspace reserve the right to add ads to your web pages.
So, hope atspace support php support, and when awardspace push ads to my web pages, I can back to atspace. :-D

Yahoo! Mail: Bind multiple address to the same mailbox

When I began to use internet 10 years ago, Yahoo! is my second email sevice, although I seldom use it.
I found just now, Yahoo! now allows dot appearing in account name, and bind two email address to the same mailbox. So, I applied one for my existing one. Actually, I also found there is a backdoor to bind more email address to the same mailbox. ;-)

Bought my own domain name from yahoo

Yahoo! has even offer $1.99/a to register domain name. Is it dirty cheap?
Here is some comments from Yahoo!'s users, and many of them are extremly angry when they want to transfer their domain to other companies (especially when your domain name is .org, .us, etc. which use EPP authority code).

But this is not the reason why I did not grab the $1.99 offer at that time. The reason is Yahoo! put a wrong condition under the page to apply domain : the offer is only for those buying their hosting plan.
When I read from the above comments that this statement is wrong, and you can register without any hosting plan, I registered lizhao.net for 5 years.
I know I may meet some problems if I want to move, but who knows what the world will be like 5 years later?
Now, my blog is here: 李钊Li Zhao's Blog!

native support for wusb54g v4

Long long ago, I tried to install ubuntu on my wife's desktop, and at that time, there is no support for wusb54gv4 wireless usb card. After several months, ndiswrapper support it. And today, when I try to install ubuntu again (my wife is not in home), thanks ndiswrapper website, I found two native modules supporting wusb54gv4, one is serialmonkey, another is ralinktech. So far, serialmonkey's beta release needs 2.6.13+ kernel to compile, thus I prefer to ralinktech's version.
I just installed it 10 mins ago, and seems find.

My Old PPC is working now

In Last post I stated how to connect a old PPC with Linux. After I was success to do that, it is obviously that Linux use a generic driver to connect PDA USB port.
So, the problem is why there r so many different PDA Windows driver from different vendor? Maybe these driver are the same except for some vendor identification.
Base on this assumption, I downloaded a driver from toshiba, and then modify the WCEUSBSH.INF file come with it.
Then, when I plugin the PDA, and windows prompt to choose driver for it, I let windows install the driver based on the WCEUSBSH.INF . Lucky, my old PDA is working with windows now.
Cheers

How to sync Windows CE device with Linux

I have a evaluation PDA from vendor. It come long long ago, and now nobody can remember what is its manufactory, its model, etc. When I plug it to Windows XP, XP cannot find its driver.
I know the PDA is very old, but it is not dead. How to rescue it?
The answer is Linux.
To run the PDA, firstly, I must identify its usbid, by:
lsusb
lsusb returns:
Bus 002 Device 073: ID 0547:2720 Anchor Chips ...
Here, 0547 is manufactory name of the usb-usb chip used in the PDA, and 2720 is the product ID of the chip.
Get this info, we can start to connect the PDA to linux.
1.
make sure ipaq module is installed. IPAQ is a module that recognize Windows CE device via USB connection.
modprobe ipaq vendor=0x0547 product=0x2720
2.
remove usbnet before pluging the PDA
otherwise, usbnet module may take over the USB connection.
rmmod usbnet
3.
plugin the PDA, /dev/ttyUSB0 will be added by ipaq module
4.
use SynCE to connect the PDA.
a. config synce to use ttyUSB0
synce-serial-config ttyUSB0
b. start the connection
synce-serial-start
Now, you can use synce tools to use the PDA. e.g., synce-pls to list files on PDA. For more info, plz refer to SYNCE site

wow, how expensive my blog is

It is interesting to find this Web site, where my blog is tagged B$1xxxx. Who want to buy it? :D