I just finished basic configuration of Ubuntu 8.04 Beta (Hardy Heron) on my laptop – AND IT’S AWESOME!! My laptop is a Toshiba Satellite P105-S6024, and I’ve been having no end of problems getting the audio to work in conjunction with the ACPI. Turns out the Toshiba provided ACPI code for the BIOS isn’t all that great under GNU/Linux, and in order to fix the problem you’ve got to either recompile the kernel (which was the direction I had finally decided to take this weekend), or if you could get it to work, there’s a way to add the code to the initrid.

I had read this morning that there was a new Ubuntu release and, as I was having problems with Debian and was about to reinstall Ubuntu 7.10, so I decided to give it a try. Well, it’s a Beta, but I’m not going to hold that against it! Compiz is installted by default (but just subtley enough you don’t know it till you’re seeing the tell tail fades and such), Firefox 3 Beta 4, wireless support includes WPA (which it has had built-in since the 7.10 release), improved dual screen support for laptops, hell – I didn’t even have to install 915resolution to setup my Intel display to 1440×900! I still had to install Amorok and vlc manually, but that’s cake compared to recompiling a kernel.

1. So far so good, performance is a bit sluggish (especially with the extra visual enhancements enabled), but I’m thoroughly tickled pink by the feature set and compatibility! THANK YOU UBUNTU COMMUNITY!!

Link:

Ubuntu Test Releases

The Navy’s latest Class of Destroyer, the Zumwalt Class, once on shaky ground, has finally had its contract awarded. There will be two ships of this class built simultaneously, one in Maine by General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works the other by Northrup Grumman’s Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi. What makes this class of ship so unique, aside from it’s Animesque name, is all the high-tech goodness that will be pumped into it. From it’s stealth hull which, purportedly, reduces radar signature more than 50x over current hull designs, to its Advanced Gun Systems, to its automated cargo handling system, to its use of the LynxOS RTOS as a systems OS this ship has many seemingly incredible advances.

Maybe too incredible, many concerns over the design (especially the hull which is said to be unstable during high seas) have made this class of Naval vessel controversial to say the least. With the USS Iowa (BB-61) being stricken from the Naval Register in 2006, no more battle ships exist in the US fleet, which means there are no ships with the capacity for truly frightening naval surface fire support. That’s one of the roles the Zumwalt class should address, but even that is role is in doubt.

Still, have a look at the specs, pretty impressive…

Images courtesy of Wikipedia, the US Navy and the Public Domain (link, link)

Ever want a command prompt in a folder and didn’t want to install the Command Prompt Here power tool from Microsoft? Well you’re in luck cause there’s an easy way to add a right click menu item that opens a command prompt for the folder you’re clicking on (lots of good information in that link).

Go to:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shell\

Add a new key called “cmd” and set it’s default value at”Command Prompt Here”. Then to “cmd” add a new key called “command” and change it’s default value to “cmd.exe /k pushd %L”. Do the same for:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shell

In other words add the “cmd” and set it’s default value, then add “command” to that and set it’s default value as above. Or you can download this reg file (CAUTION! Event though I use this myself, editing your registry may be really bad. Like no more using your computer bad. DON’T ADD THIS UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING!!):

MyCommandPromptHere reg file

In order to remove these entries, you can manually delete these keys, or you can right a reg file that looks like this:

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shell\cmd]

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shell\cmd]

Neat eh? To remove registry keys, just create a plain text file, paste in the registry entry you want to remove, add a minus sign in front of the key and inside the bracket, and save the plan text file with a “.reg” extension. Run the file and presto, no more entry. Almost scary how easy that is…

I’ve included the above code already in the 7z file with the MyCommandPromptHere.reg as well, and you can find out a little more about modifying registry entries here. Enjoy!!