Ubuntu on Dell Inspiron 6400

January 5, 2008 Db04 Comments

Crappy title I know, but it’s two-twentyfive a.m. indulge me…

So four days ago my girlfriend informed me that her laptop totally b0rked. Blue Screen of Death on boot.

Not having much chance to help from the phone, I instructed her to bring her laptop over to me to see what I could do. Now, this was a system that has been running WinXP for a while now and lately it had started giving some alarming problems, like Winamp crashing randomly or slowness on explorer etc. Now, the (cracked) AV had not reported anything and spyware scanning had not shown anything specific so I did not think to check in depth other than fix or workaround the issues as they cropped up.

I have no idea why the laptop BSODed but I put it down to either a slow AV update that allowed something nasty to pass through or just a random hdd fart that lost a system file or whatnot. Seeing as the windows installation was in Deutsch, there was not much I could see from the BSOD error other that it informed to run a chekdisk. Well, I did that and although it recovered some stuff, it did not really fix anything.

Unfortunately, as she didn’t have the recovery CDs for the laptop with her and I didn’t have any Windoze XP installation handy (well, to tell the truth, I did but it was not a good version) I considered installing Ubuntu. I was already preparing her that there was a high chance her OS would not be recovered so it wasn’t a complete surprise. Since I was always explaining her the virtues of the OS, I though that this might be the perfect chance to have her try it. Especially since she is neither a gamer nor uses the laptop for anything requiring professional apps. Fortunately she was not opposed to the idea. She just sighed and trusted in my capabilities to do what is best for her 😉

So I started the installation with Ubuntu 7.10. I chose that over Kubuntu mostly because I wanted to enjoy the 3D effects that come automatically with Ubuntu and because the support for it is more solid (just in case I’m not around to help). The initial installation went through perfectly, I created a 20G bpartition for the OS, 2 Gb swap (she has 1Gb of RAM) and the rest 70Gb as a /home separate partition which will preserve her settings in case a reinstallation is needed (a wise choice as it happened).

Once the system booted after the installation, I was greeted by a 1024×768 resolution which did not look right on the laptops LCD. I decided that the best thing to do would be to install the restricted drivers for the ATI card. That meant that I would have to connect to the net through my DSL connection and that meant a pppoe setup. Unfortunately, this is still something that lacks an easy user-friendly setup for the less technical users which I guess would not know how to deal with this at this point. Fortunately I knew the correct command to run on the terminal: pppoeconf
This took care of the internet connection so it allowed me to install the restricted drivers.

Their installation went through flawlessly and I was quite glad on that regard. A reboot however showed me that the resolution stayed the same and changing the display resolution from the System options was not possible. There was only the singe 1024×768 choice, which meant that I would have to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and enter the right resolution to use (1280×800) and then restart the X-Server to activate it. This is still something that really bothers me with Ubuntu. There is no easy way to change or add a resolution option for the system. If the setup fails to autodetect your monitor then you are only left with the option to edit the configuration file and this is something that a normal user will find intimidating to say the least.

Anyway, that settled, I wanted to activate the compiz eye-candy to impress her. Unfortunately, even though the System -> Preferences -> Appearance -> Visual Effects option is a major improvement over running terminal commands, the system just refused to activate them. I just received a generic error message that “The Composite extension is not available”. Not very helpful because even though I installed compiz with synaptic(I had the impression that it came with the basic setup but apparently I was wrong) this still kept popping up. An Ubuntu Forum search did not provide with much results but fortunately a google search did (in the Ubuntu forums no less). All I had to do was to install the xserver-xgl package and reboot. Compiz presto.

I then started setting up various other useful apps that I knew she would need. Amarok (yes, I’m planning to convert her), Azureus, Pidgin (Finally an excuse to quit the horrible, add-riddled ICQ client), Picard and K3b. The first problems I run to were when I tried to play videos with Totem. Although it is much better now that it automatically suggests and can download the appropriate packages, it is still annoying a bit and I am guessing a bit perplexing for a non-technical user who is certain to run into problems of missing repositories and open apt sessions. Same problem exists for mp3 which need to be installed for various programs like amarok, k3b and picard. In the last case especially, because it does not give any indication on what is missing (it just does not accept mp3s dragged) you have to install a package that is not even easy to find for me. It is named libpimp-mp3 (or something) and is needed for picard to handle them. Fortunately. once again the Ubuntu forums were to the rescue.

Finally, after all software was installed, I updated the installed stuff and started testing what worked and what not.

I used this page to see what I should be aware of. Unfortunately however it is quite outdated (I am planning to update it at some point) and I was not sure if various issues were fixed in later versions. Most importantly it notified me that sleep/hibernate does not work because of driver issues. The workaround did not seem to work as the system would just not startup again after the sleep mode was activated and only a cold boot worked. At this time I left this to be fixed later as it was getting quite late.

The last thing I did was to install the German language support and I was surprised on how easily it was done. System -> Administration -> Language support and install the German. Then set it up as the default and you’re done. I also set up a new user for me which would use the English language. I especially hated WinXP on that issue actually; without giving you an option to switch the language of the system it made it pretty much impossible to perform system administration.
Fortunately in Ubuntu, to switch the system language was as easy as changing an option at the login prompt (although it did take me a few seconds to find the correct one 😉 )

Next day, I visited my girlfriend at her place to check out how it was working. She informed me that picard would not work but other than that it seemed to be working OK. I started looking around to find how to make the hibernation work which eventually led me here. I followed the instruction to install the newest ATI driver and everything seemed to go through fine. I tested Sleep and hibernation and they were finally working.

Then I started looking on how to make the laptop media buttons work with Amarok’s global keys. Unfortunately, through the Gnome DE it always creates problems. My first idea was to disable any keyboard shortcuts for play/pause, next and forward from gnome’s “keyboard shortcuts” application but this was not enough. I tried verious combinations on amarok but for some reason nothing worked solidly. Fortunately my search eventually led me to use the “Keytouch” application which seemed to be perfect for this use.
I configured it and it seemed to work fine on my account but for some reason when I switched users and used the media handling buttons, instead of manipulating Amarok it opened a new Amarok process which lacked any window decorators and stayed always on top…strange.

Later in the afternoon, we decided to watch a movie and then I discovered that my 2D acceleration was absolutely horrid. Watching a movie fullscreen was pretty much impossible. After we watched the movie in window-mode I set out to find the solution. Unfortunately from me, the issue was related to the new ATI drivers as I found more than a few people complaining about the same issue. Some managed to solve it by inserting

Option		"XaaNoOffscreenPixmaps"

in their xorg.conf file and while it did help a bit, fullscreen videos were still unwatchable. The most unfortunate fact however was that there was nothing I could do about this. I couldn’t find a way to rollback the new ATI driver, and I couldn’t make it have a sufficient 2D acceleration. Finally after a few hours of searching I threw my hands up and just decided to reinstall the whole system and use Ubuntu’s restricted driver and leave the PC without hibernation function.

Since I didn’t have the CD at my girlfriend’s place I downloaded a new one (fortunately she did have a spare RW CD to use) and started the installation. Everything went through normally once again and the new environment was ready. I went through pretty much the same steps and a few more hours later it was done, eye candy and all.

So currently she’s been running the system for a whole week and it seems to be stable enough, although it does seem to lose some stability when a second user is logged in. Current issues I still have with the system are these:

When a second user is logged in, the stability of the system seems to drop. More than once time I had the system b0rk when I used the Alt-Ctrl-F# combination to switch between the users. No idea what is causing it.
The external HDD which was formatted as VFAT, seems to only work for the first user who logs into the system. Ubuntu’s automounter will then mount the drive and give only that user full rights while the rest won’t be able to even see the mount point. The odd thing is that my personal external HDD which is formatted as ext3 is mounted normally for all users so I assume this is something to do with the limited security of VFAT. Perhaps the developes felt that mounting these drives only for the current user (since the FS does not support rights) is the correct way to do it. Unfortunately I could not find a way to modify the automount options so I was forced to modify the fstab and add it there. I have not booted since I tried that so I’m hoping it will work.
Nautilus seems to freeze at random times. My girlfriend informed me of this while I was at my home and to her it seemed as if her HDD stopped working. The nautilus windows would not respond and new windows did not open. Fortunately I managed to guide her through the necessary steps to install kfrb (i.e. copy/paste the apt command in my IM windows 🙂 )and then I could use krdc to remote in. I noticed that nautilus was frozen with about 10 processes in the system sleeping so I killed everything and lo and behold, the file manager started responding again. No idea why this happened but since then this has happened again. She now knows how to resolve it by herself but it is still annoying. I am thinking of installing another file manager but I am not certain which. Doplhin seems like a good choice but I would rather have something that can be integrated with Gnome. Any ideas?
Amarok kept crashing after I set it up to handle the collection on the external drive. I managed to resolve it by having it manage only the stuff that is musicbrainz tagged and disabling the Replaygain script. I am not certain which was the issue (collection size or script) but I plan to activate it and see if the problem persists.
I still have not managed to make Keytouch work normally with two users connected. Currently it only works (I think) for the first user that activated it.
No Sleep & Hybernation functions. I am still waiting for newer ATI drivers.

This for now. Hopefully, another GNU/LINUX convert is in the making 🙂

Slow days

December 31, 2007 Db0

It’s been a while since I’ve posted hasn’t it. Fortunately it was not because of any dubious legal action against me (although I have taken steps to protect myself from any such actions from terrorizing estabilishments). I don’t really know why I have not been writing more this month but I guess I was simply not in the mood for it.

Various stuff have been going on then in December. Mostly I’ve been spending time with [tag]Viola[/tag] and helping her get her house in order (Fortunately that is over with). Other than that I’ve been using the rest of my free time reading for my upcoming Vista exam and playing The Witcher. This game is pretty much to blame to totally ignoring the blog in the last two weeks (as well as ignoring other unimportant stuff like, cleaning the house, exercising and bathing). It’s just hooked me.

It’s not so much that it’s revolutionary or unique or anything like that but it seem to have the correct combination of storyline and combat to keep my interest held. I especially liked how you seem to end up getting mixed up in politics and diplomacy without even wanting to. What really annoys me however and is also a reason why the game takes so long is the loading times. It is just horrible. Every time that enter a house or a small area, the loading time is quick enough, but as soon as I want to go out to the main part of the map it takes up to 30 seconds each time. It might not seem much but if you consider that it takes me about 10 seconds to go into a house and search for loot, and 35 secs to load the map, well, it starts to build up, especially if you consider that I have to enter a lot of houses for the various quests I take on.
I tried a defrag on both my main hdd and the game installation hdd but none worked so I guess I’m just stuck at this situation. Oh well, at least I can enjoy my new VGA 🙂

Other than that, I’ve spent the last few days configuring a laptop to play nice with Ubuntu and after some headaches I think I’ve managed to bring it up to a stable level, but I’m planning to write about this in a different post.

As for the Holidays, as always I did not bother to really get into the spirit of [tag]Giftmas[/tag]. I was happy that people decided to present me with gifts but I would appreciate it more if they felt like doing this outside of this celebration of consumerism. I was especially glad however that my sweet girlfriend gave me a gift she created herself. It consisted of a little booklet with a short comic story she drew herself (incredibly cute) and a gift of chocolate (along with a biscuit house). Great stuff 🙂

Now, new year is approaching fast and it just serves to remind me that the third decade of my life will not be long coming…

Randian courtesy

November 27, 2007 Db05 Comments

I start to realize what kind of behaviour Objectivists start to display when their positions are refuted. They ignore your arguments and then they stick labels (i.e. strawmen) at you which they can easily attack on generalizations (take note on how I’ve been branded a “moral subjectivist” which later serves as a suitable attack target). Hell, you might even get banned (on grounds of “low intellectual quality” or whatnot) which gives them and their troupe, ample space to proceed to the necessary slandering of your intelligence and arguments without the subject being able to respond at all. I’m willing to bet that my trackback from this post will be quite quickly removed from the comments so as to remove all antilogue from their intellectual inferior…

It is of course disheartening to see that Evanescent decided to join in the fun of badmouthing others where they cannot respond. Apparently my arguments have been soundly refuted and I’m in denial, even though others out there seem to not dissagree with me that much. Pity. I used to think that he was quite an intelligent and polite fella but his recent posts forces me to rethink my idea of him. :-/

I mean, Hell! Ergo is even prepared to take on the whole Atheosphere because our moral theories are in “utter dissaray”. Why? Well, because we don’t agree with him and can back it up with arguments of course. I’ll just leave this gem of intellectual elitism to speak for itself…

“Reading through some of their posts is like inflicting upon myself the cognitive equivalent of loud static noise.”

Ouch!

Well, at least now you know how an Objectivist of some stature among his peers, reacts to voices that don’t use their every breath praising him…

Meh. As for me, I do not mind how I’m branded by them. People who visit my site are free to read what I say and form their own opinion or me.
You’re free to argue with me all you want about any of my thoughts (just click on “Pondering Infinity” and pick one 😉 ) and I will attempt to defend my position if I can or change my mind if I don’t. But for FSM’s sake, if you’re going to argue with me, don’t just ignore the arguments that you cannot respond to.

PS: This is also an invitation to those Objectivists who can’t stand me “bringing down the standard of decorum and intellectual quality” in their property . You’re welcome to debate here instead and avoid the aforementioned unpleasant effect of my presence in your comments. You may even bring up my level, and I don’t mind the intellectual pretensiousness at all…
But please don’t ask me to read the arguments in your pages when you’re trying to make a point, and then prevent me from debating them…that’s just unfair.

Spam-b-gone

November 24, 2007 Db0

Finally I seem to have managed to find the correct combination of WP plugins to stop spam from even logging a comment. Initially I had only Akismet, which, although good, logged the spam comments only after they were enterred and as a result my Popularity Contest plugin was affected which forced me to manually recount comments in order to fix the values. Bad Behaviour helped considerably but spam comments still kept avoiding the filter and thus bogging down my count. The latest one I tried was bcSpamBlock which appears to work admirably along with my other two spam blockers. For 2 weeks now I have not had a single successful spam comment logged in Akismet.

Finally…

Objectivist kick

November 23, 2007 Db02 Comments

Well, that’s it then. It seems that the objectivist apologist cannot stand my inferior intellectual mediocricy anymore and decided to bar me from posting any longer. This is the last comment I made to his thread, which has since been deleted.

Yes Lord. We are unworthy…

I agree there is no point in continuing this as your arguments consist of either ignoring what I say, or first labeling me as something (in this case a moral subjectivist) and then bring the encyclopedic definition to personally attack me.

In this case, I am not a moral subjectivist as the encyclopedia defines it. I do not believe all moral theories are good. I do know that different kind of societies find different kind of moral theories correct. Thus morality is subjective.

I appreciate that you are trying to save me from embarrassing myself but seeing as your a shameless intellectual elitist who cannot accept being wrong (witness you ignoring everything you cannot refute), I have no fear of being embarrassed.

Oh, well. It seems that that’s that for the argumentative powers of the objectivist. Ergo seems to be acting no better than a theist to me. If you cannot argue against it, ignore it…

Και έτσι ξεκινάει το διάβασμα των MS Vista

November 16, 2007 Db01 Comment

Ναι ναι, ξέρω, ξεπούλημα, αλλά τι να κάνω, με αναγκάζουν απο τον χώρο εργασίας. Πραγματικά θα ήθελα πολύ περισσότερο να πάω για χαρτί Linux αλλά δυστυχώς δεν προβλέπεται. Η τράπεζα ζητάει να πάρω ένα χαρτί απο Windows οπότε ένα χαρτί απο Windows πρέπει να πάρω.

Φυσικά και δεν πρόκειται να τα εγκαταστήσω σε δευτερο partition, τουλάχιστον όχι εαν μπορώ να το αποφύγω αλλά αντιθέτως σκέφτομαι να τα βάλω σε ένα Virtual Machine.

Ξεκίνησα αρχικά δοκιμάζοντας τον VMware server (Ακόμα στην έκδοση 1 όταν δοκίμασα) αλλά διότι ακόμη δεν είχα κατεβάσει μια έκδοση εγκατάστασης χρησιμοποίησα το virtual machine που είχε φτιάξει για εξάσκηση ο team leader. Δυστυχώς για αυτό έπρεπε πρώτα να εγκαταστήσω το VMPlayer 2 διότι το VM χρειάζοταν τις έξτα δυνατότητες.

Παίζοντας λίγο με αυτή την εγκατάσταση και βλέπωντας τα Vista (Χωρίς το Aero) ανακάλυψα οτι χρειάζεται να τα κάνω εγκατάσταση ώστε να μπορέσω να προχωρήσω με το διάβασμα, το οποίο περιέχει μαθήματα εγκατάστασης (αυτής της πολύυυυ δύσκολης διεργασίας που). Το μάθημα περιορίζεται στο να σου λέει τα min requirements του συστήματως και να πατήσεις next μερικές φορές (με διάφορες σάλτσες περι έξτρα γλωσσών κλπ που το κάνουν να φαίνεται πιο βαρύ).

Κάπου εκεί αποφάσισα να χρησιμοποιήσω μια σπασμένη έκδωση για να τεστάρω την εγκατάσταση, και εκεί ξεκίνησαν τα γέλια…

Εγκατέστησα το VirtualBox (έτσι για να το δώ) και ξεκίνησα την εγκατάσταση του συστήματος. Απο την πρώτη στιγμή, καθώς το περιβάλλον εγκατάστασης ξεκινούσε, όλο το σύστημα έφαγε τρελό κολλημα. Μιλάμε σε φάση που να σταματάει η μουσική απο το Amarok, το ποντίκι και το πλήκτρολόγιο να μην ανταποκρίνονται κλπ. Είπα “Whatever” και άρχισα να διαβάζω το βιβλίο εκπαίδευσης για την θεωρία. Όταν μετά απο 1 σχεδόν ώρα δεν είδα βελτίωση άρχισα να ανησυχώ. Προσπάθησα να κλείσω την εγκατάσταση, ανάμεσα στις λίγες αναλαμπές λειτουργικότητας που είχε και τελικά τα κατάφερα (μετά απο αρκετή ώρα). Λέω, “δεν μπορεί, θα φταίει ο προβληματικός σκληρός στον οποίο βρίσκεται το image του DVD εγκατάστασης”. Οπότε κάνω μια αντιγραφή στον καινούργιο μου εξωτερικό και προσπαθώ ξανά…μία απο τα ίδια. Cancel πάλι και δοκιμάζω να αντιγράψω στο home directory το DVD image και εκεί είναι που κόλλησε το σύμπαν.
Δυστυχώς από εκεί δεν ξεκολούσε με τίποτα (δεν μπορούσα να σταματήσω την αντιγραφή, το “cancel” δεν ανταποκρινόταν) οπότε πήγα για επανεκ.

Ξεκινάει το boot στο Ubuntu και τρώει ένα ολιγόλεπτο κόλλημα στο οποίο κάτι χαριτομένα ata warnings φαινόντουσαν στην κονσόλα. “Ώπα!” λέω “Αυτό δεν είναι καλό”. Τεσπα μετά απο λίγο συνεχίζει το boot και φτάνω στο desktop. Πάω να κάνω κλικ εδώ…σταματάει το σύστημα να ανταποκρίνεται. Ξεκολάει πάλι μετά απο λίγο. Δοκιμάζω να κάνω κλικ απο εκέι…μία απο τα ίδια. Για να μην τα πολυλογώ, το σύστημα είχε αρχίσει να κολάει μετά απο την παραμικρή ενέργεια ή ακόμα και χωρίς (εμφανή) λόγο. Ειδικά όταν πας να γράψεις στο home directory, το οποίο είναι απλά ένα partition tου ίδιου εσωτερικού sata, πέφτει πολύ γέλιο. Και με “γέλιο” έννοω φυσικά “ξεριζώνω-τα-μαλλία-μου-ουρλιάζοντας-γιατί-μαμιέται-ο-Δίας”.

Μία γρήγορη έρευνα μου έδειξε μερικά μηνύματα που ακόμα δεν έχω καταφέρει να χρησιμοποιήσω αλλά πολύ φοβάμαι οτί ο σκλήρός μου έχει αρχίσει να τα παίζει.

Και εδώ βρίσκομαι αυτή τη στιγμή. Ακόμα δεν έχω καταφέρει να διαβάσω παραπάνω απο το πρώτο κεφάλαιο, το σύστημα μου δουλέβει με σύστημα “δεν γουστάρω μια”, Σταματώντας όποτε του καπνίσει για λίγα λεπτά, και εγώ τραβάω τα ~~αρχ~~ μαλλιά μου γιατίοι εξετάσεις γίνονται σε λιγότερο από ένα μήνα. Σκέφτομαι απλά να πάω να αγοράσω ένα νέο σκληρό αλλά αυτό προυποθέτει ότι τα προβλήματα μου προκείπτουν όντως από εκεί.

Γι’αυτο φίλοι Linux-άδες, έαν έχετε καμία συμβουλή να προσφέρετε, θα την εκτιμούσα αυτή τη στιγμη :-/

Ubuntu trend slowly overcomes XP

October 25, 2007 Db07 Comments

After noticing the Google Trends from a lifehacker post, I decided to check out how well Linux is faring against windows. Initially I compared Linux and Windows which gave a huge difference for windows. This is understandable since Linux is not the main environment but rather the core. I then decided to check the actual desktop that someone might use, and the result were interesting

Ubuntu vs XP vs Vista Google trend graph

It seems that Ubuntu is slowly overcoming Windows XP in search popularity and even though Vista is still ahead which I will attribute in part to the ridiculous hype it has received. Currently ubuntu is slighly over XP in search popularity but that could be a minor surge as what happened back when Feisty came out. However if you take in the continuous downward trend of XP it might stay that way now that Gutsy is out.

It is also quite interesting to note that Ubuntu is a much more popular word in European sites and/or in European languages. English based sites tend to talk more about windows but that’s understandable if you consider that Europe is pioneering in that space while the USA (read: Companies in USA) is fighting tooth and nail to prevent the spread and awareness of GNU/Linux.

Funny note: Notice how Vista has entries about it since before 2004. It just shows how far back news about it have been circulating.

Capitalism for Socialism through Collaboration in the spirit of Open Source

October 12, 2007 Db07 Comments

Μόλις διάβασα ένα πολύ ενδιαφέρον κομμάτι απο τον Σπύρο και μου φάνηκε delightfully περίεργο καθώς πρόσφατα είχα μια παρόμοια ιδέα. Είχα σκοπό να blog-άρω για αυτήν αλλά κλασσικά το ξέχασα. Ευτυχώς, το κείμενο του Σπύρου όμως μου έδωση την κινητήρια σπρωξιά για να το κάνω…

Αρχικά πιστεύω οτι πρέπει να διαβάσετε το κείμενο καθώς δίνει την αρχική ιδέα την οποία συμμερίζομαι και πάνω στην οποία θα βασίσω το παρακάτω.

…

Το διαβάσατε; Ωραία:

Πως μπορούμε να χρησιμοποιήσουμε την δύναμη της συνεργασίας για να ενδυναμώσουμε την κοινωνική και περιβαλλοντολογική αφύπνηση.

Το πρόβλημα που εμφανίζεται, όπως αναφέρεται στο άρθρο, είναι οτι η επιπτώσεις στο περιβάλλον και στην κοινωνία που επιφέρει μια (μεγάλο-)επιχείρηση δεν περνάνε στην κοινή γνώση, περνάνε σε αμελητέο βαθμό ή απλά ο κόσμος δεν ενδιαφέρεται για αυτό.
Είναι δυστυχώς μεγάλη κατάντια της σημερινής κοινωνίας (καθώς και το αποτέλεσμα της Μαϊμουδόσφαιρας) το γεγονώς οτί παρ’ότι μπορεί μια επιχείρηση να εκμεταλεύεται παιδάκια στην Ινδονησία για να φτιάξει φτηνά παπούτσια, παρ’ολ’αυτά οι καταναλωτές στην άλλη άκρη του κόσμου, ακόμα και εαν το ξέρουν θα τα αγοράσουν γιατί είναι φτηνότερα.

Φυσικά και δεν είναι όλοι οι ανθρώποι έτσι, όπως και με αρκετό peer-pressure η δράση αυτή μπορεί να αλλάξει – αλλά για να γίνει αυτό, πρέπει να υπάρξει μεγάλη και ευκολοπροσβάσιμη ενημέρωση στους καταναλωτές. Πρέπει να υπάρξει ένας τρόπος ο καταναλωτής με δύο κλικ του ποντικιού να μπορεί να βρεί, όχι μόνο τα χημικά ενώς προιόντως ή γενικές πληροφορίες για μια εταίριά αλλά και τα αποτελέσματα που έχει η πολιτική της εταιρίας αυτής στην κοινωνία και στο περιβάλλον.

Μου έκανε πραγματική εντύπωση, όταν η κοπέλα μου μου έδειξε ένα Γερμανικό περιοδικό το οποίο ασχολείται κυρίως με κριτικές προϊόντων με βάση, όχι μόνο το πόσο βλαβερά είναι για τον καταναλωτή, αλλά και για το περιβάλλον (Δεν ξέρω εαν υπάρχει και κάτι ανάλογο στην Ελλάδα). Αμέσως σκέφτηκα ότι η ιδέα αυτή είναι πραγματικά πολύ καλή αλλά καθώς και πολύ λίγη, για τους εξής λόγους.

Ένα περιοδικό έχει μια αναγνωσιμότητα που περιορίζεται λόγω του κόστους, της διάδοσης και τους χρόνου.
- Κάποιος που δεν έχει πολλά χρήματα μπορεί να μην θεωρήσει οτι το περιοδικό αξίζει τόν κόπο και να προτιμήσει να πάει στην φθηνώτερη λύση. Ειδικά εαν δεν έχει την ανάλογη γνώση για να ξέρει τι κερδίζει με μια τέτοια ενημέρωση
- Κάποιος που δεν έχει χρόνο, απλά δεν θα έχει χρόνο να αγοράσει το περιοδικό κάθε εβδομάδα/μήνα και να το διαβάσει για να ενημερωθει. Επίσης ακόμα και εάν έχεις κρατήσει τα προηγούμενα τέυχη αλλά δεν θυμάσαι κάποια κριτική, το να βρείς σε ποιό βρισκόταν είναι πολύ δύσκολο.
- Κάποιος μπορεί απλά να μην ξέρει για το εν λόγω περιοδικό η/και να μην έρχεται στην περιοχή του λόγο μικρών πωλήσεων
Κάθε τέτοιο περιοδικό πρέπει να βγάλει κέρδος ώστε να μπορεί να συνεχιστεί η αρκετά ακριβή διαδικασία της τύπωσης και διανομής. Αυτό σημαίνει ότι θα πρέπει να χρησιμοποιήσει διαφημήσεις ή χορηγούς, κάτι το οποίο μπορεί να ρίξει μία σκιά στην αντικειμενικότητά του
Η έρευνα που μπορεί να κάνει σε ένα προιόν περιορίζεται με τον χρόνο και τον αριθμό των συνεργατών που έχει. Άσχετα με το γεγονώς οτι δεν μπορεί πάντα κάποιος να ξέρει τα συμφέροντα των συντακτών, υπάρχουν απλά τόσα πολλά προϊόντα που είναι δύσκολο με πατροπαράδοτους τρόπους να κριθούν όλα.
Τέλος μια τέτοια προσπάθεια, απλά λόγω λογιστικών, δεν μπορεί να πάρει υπόψιν και κριτήρια όπως επιπτώσεις στην κοινωνία κλπ, πράγμα που μειώνει τα δεδομένα τα οποία ο καταναλωτής μπορεί να χρησιμοποιήσει για να πάρει μια απόφαση.

Η προηγούμενη εμπειρία μου με το ελεύθερο λογισμικό και την θεωρία του όπως και με άλλες παρόμοιες ιδέες μου έδωσε την ιδέα για το πως μια τέτοια ιδές μπορεί να υλοποιηθεί με την μέγιστη χρηστικότητα για τον καταναλωτή. Πρέπει να γίνει με ανοιχτή συνεργασία απο τους καταναλωτές για τους καταναλωτές με ένα τρόπο παρόμοιο της Βικιπέδιας. Αν μη τι άλλο, το άνοιχτό λογισμικό Mediawiki είναι το τέλειο μέσο για να βασιστεί το εγχείρημα.

Τα προτερήματα του να υπάρχει μια τέτοια διαδικτυακή βάση δεδομένων, αφιερομένη στον σκοπό αυτό, στην οποία οι ίδιοι οι καταναλωτες θα έχουν τον ρόλο του συντάκτη είναι σημαντικά.

Πληροφορίες για οποιοδήποτε προϊόν ή εταιρία μπορεί να βρεθεί μέσα σε μερικά δευτερόλεπτα. Όχι μόνο αυτό αλλά με αρκετούς συμμετάσχοντες, οι πληροφορίες αυτές θα βρίσκονται πάντα ανανεωμένες. Σε σχέση με τα περιοδικά συγκριτικά review απο περιοδικά, αυτό είναι μεγάλη βελτίωση.
Ο φόβος για την επίδραση συμφερώντων μικραίνει σημαντικά, ειδικά εαν οι συμμετάσχοντες είναι πολλοι. Με τις κατάλληλες δικλείδες ασφαλείας (πχ Πηγές, έλεγχος εκδόσεων σελίδας κλπ) η πιθανότητα κατάχρησης μικραίνουν δραματικά.
Δεν υπάρχει όριο στον αριθμό πληροφοριών που μπορεί να υπάρχει για κάθε θέμα. Υπάρχουν πολλά δεδομένα για ένα προϊόν; Κανένα πρόβλημα, όχι μόνο μπορούν να καταγραφούν όλα με ένα βολικά οργανωμένο τρόπο, αλλά μπορούν να υπάρχουν και οι κατάληλοι σύνδεσμοι για κάθε χημικό (πχ) που εξηγούν επακριβώς τι επιπτώσεις έχει στον άνθρωπο. Ανώνυμες καταγγελίες για μια εταιρία; Σε καινούργια σελίδα με προειδοποίηση. Συζήτηση με ανεκδοτικά γεγονότα; Έγινε. Συγκριτικά τεστ μεταξύ όλων των προϊόντων (αντι για των πιο γνωστών) όσα και αν είναι αυτά; Κανένα πρόβλημα.

Έχω σκεφτεί ότι εαν η αρχική ιδέα γίνει σωστά και αποκτήσει κύρως τότε μπορεί να επιφέρει μεγάλη αλλαγή. Αρχικά σκέφτηκα οτι το κάθε τι που γράφεται στην κεντρική σελίδα θα πρέπει να είναι βασισμένο σε κάποια επίσημη πηγή. Με λίγα λόγια θα χρειάζεται αυτός που το προσθέτει να αναφέρει που το βρήκε και πως μπορούν να το εξακριβώσουν οι υπόλοιποι αναγνώστες εαν χρειάζεται. Αυτό πιστεύω οτι θα είναι αρκετό για να καταλαγιάσει τις περισσότερες αντιρρήσεις επί αντικειμένικότητας.

Το πρόβλημα είναι ότι δεν μπορώ να το ξεκινήσω μόνος. Διόρθωση: Μπορώ αλλά δεν θα έχει νόημα να το κάνω εαν δεν υπάρξει η ανάλογη μάζα συμμετασχόντων για να το αξιοποιήσουν. Αυτό που θέλω να μάθω, ιδιαίτερα από αυτούς που σχολίασαν θετικά στο κείμενο του Σπύρου: Εαν το χτίσω, θα έρθετε;

The mutating genre meme music variant

October 11, 2007 Db0

I really wanted to take part in the The Pharyngula mutating genre meme but unfortunately I am not viable for the environment he has created (not enough data from the first two genres). Thus I decided to create a competing meme on music & computers, since I am a bit more knowledgeable in it and my known blogs are a bit more in that subject.

So, here are the rules: Read more “The mutating genre meme music variant”

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