Daily Bitekletas

Pictures are worth a thousand words… Some more screenshots for your enjoyment.

It’s been three days since I got my N800. I’m am still trying to find comfort when using this device for text entries (like this post). Screen keyboard is not my thing since I am used to Qwerty keyboard like what my Palm Treo 650 have.

Misconceptions. Like what other N800 users who blogged about their gadget, this device is NOT A PHONE. This is more like a laptop companion. N800 device as well as Nokia 770 are called Internet Tablet. The wireless capability is really good. It can detect WLAN accesss point better than my laptop.

Power Computing. I must say that this device is a complete powerful system. It is Linux under the hood courtesy of Debian, SSH client and server courtesy of Dropbear, VOIP functionality provided by Skype, IRC and instant messaging using Pidgin (GAIM), Wordpress client using MaemoWordPy, web browsing using Opera. FM tuning is an added bonus!

This is definitly handy and lightweight than carrying laptop. I’m keeping my faith on this device. Should I say, “If it’s Linux it must be fun!”?

I finally got my very own Nokia N800, brought from my sister direct from Amazon.com. So far, I’m loving it. The screen is crystal clear! Im currently figuring out how to upgrade the firmware to the latest version in order to get the latest feature enhancement like Skype and Flash 9 support. I’m loving it so far.

About The Device

Nokia N800 is an internet tablet that is powered by Linux. The geek in me thinks that if it’s Linux it must be good - to hack I sure hope to find this device useful. I’ve been tired of carrying my laptop so I’m settling on this not-so-little device to surf the web while drinking latte:) By the way, an on-going collaboration among N800 hackers are currently porting Linux applications to this device. Visit maemo.org for more info.

Now for picture-loving people.. here’s my device. Sorry about the quality of photos. This was taken using my Treo 650 camera. Quality is not that great.

More photos later on

I’ve been a Linux user for a years but still newbie at some simple stuff like keyboard shortcuts when interacting with the shell. Like some command line junkie, I always freak out every time the scroll lock is activated without me noticing it. I always love to kill my test scripts, however in some instances, instead of pressing Ctrl-C my index finger would hit the S key and that would cause my keyboard to lock. I always end up using Google to search for the key combination on for unlocking the keyboard.

To unlock, use Ctrl-Q. Don’t freak out, use Ctrl-Q key combination to unlock your keyboard.

For more keyboard shortcuts, head over to Pio’s Blog.

Linux, having less of a surface area, is what Windows Server 2008 will be promoting as one of the idea in it’s features set. Surface area is an IT term use to define the total resource footprint of an operating system. Surface area includes the amount of code, features, network resources like number of ports which could potentially break the system due to attacks.

Bill Laing, Microsoft Windows Server General Manager pointed out that “Having less surface area does reduce the servicing and amount of code running and exposed, so we have done a lot of work in 2008 to make the system more modular”. He also added that there are more than 30 components not installed by default which a huge change. For some IT managers, system administrators and technicians, having these components turned on by default will mean harder time for attackers in finding out a hole in the system. One more noteable feature according to Laing is a server core where it doesn’t have (and don’t need ) the graphical user interface in order to bring up the system.

I guess, what Microsoft is trying to do is to attract old/new Linux enthusiast AND mostl importantly small and medium enterprise to finally consider Windows Server for their IT operations need. This is another challenge for Linux which I personally think is not really that of a bigger deal. This kind of competition will benefit the most important part of the IT industry, no one else but the users. I just hope that Microsoft can come up with a better pricing scheme for their new products or else Linux will continue it’s rise to the enterprise and probably dominate in this field.

On OSnews.com discussion, Shanya Almafeta said “Speaking as a long time Windows customer, I can’t see how this would be good. Having 30 more components that aren’t included in the default build just means 30 more ways to break compatiblity, as well as 30 more things we might have to buy.” This is just one of the many reactions that will pop up as soon as Microsoft intensify their marketing effort for Windows 2008.

Sources:

• Windows Server 2008 Features Address Linux Challenge - eWeek.com
• OSnews.com discussion

Update: Changed some of the instances of “Windows 2008″ to “Windows Server 2008″.

Manuel Lemos of PHPClasses.org writes about his eight defensive programming best practices focusing on the context of PHP/web newsletter delivery system.

This is definitely worth everyone’s time. I highly recommend this for budding PHP developers as well as those with higher-level experience. By the way, you can vote for his post on digg.