Moving To Ubuntu: Part two

After running the Ubuntu Live CD, to check the compatibility of my PC hardware (see part one), the next step is to clean up my XP installation to free up as much hard disk space as possible. I will be dual booting for the time being, mainly because I need to access my work PC via remote access. This is through a Cisco VPN, which is Windows only. Also, it doesn't hurt to have a backup system, as who knows whether everything will work OK.

I uninstalled most of the software on the XP installation, save for Firefox, Thunderbird, the Cisco VPN software, and a few other programs that I have paid for. I moved all my data onto an external USB hard drive. After deleting all the original files, I then ran the XP disk defragmenter.

This takes quite a few goes to properly defragment - there may be thrid party tools that do a better job, but as I was trying to clean the disk up, I didn't want to install anything else. After the deragmentation is complete, make sure you view the report - this can show up a number of files that have been left behind by programs that have been uninstalled. As an example, I uninstalled Google Earth, but the report in the defragger showed a 400MB Google Earth Cache file that it could not move. These type of files can be manually deleted, but of course you will have to defrag again afterwards.

Something else that will leave lots of unmovable files is the XP System Restore. You may want to delete all previous restore points except for the latest. After doing this, another 6GB of space was reclaimed on my drive. To delete all previous restore points, select the More Options tab on the Disk Clean Up utility, and press the button at the bottom to delete all except the latest restore.

After performing these steps, there should be a sufficiently clean hard drive to install Ubuntu. As long as the defragger shows everything as far over to the left hand side of the drive as possible, then it is time to run the install. It doesn't matter if there are a few small gaps shown in the defragger, so long as there are no large spaces you won't be wasting too much space.

The only thing left to do before running the install is to export my mail from Thunderbird. The Ubuntu Migration Assistant will import bookmarks and some other files, but I don't think it imports mail. Once that is done, it is time for the install...

Moving to Ubuntu: Part one

As I have decided to move to Ubuntu, the first step in this process is to check whether my current hardware is compatible. Handily, Ubuntu provide an easy way to achieve this - the installation CD doubles up as a 'live' CD. This means you can boot your PC from the CD, and it will run Ubuntu without installing it. Of course, running from the CD is nowhere near as fast as running from an installed system, but it is a great way to try it out and check if your hardware is compatible, and also if you like the Ubuntu way of working.

So, last night I booted from the Ubuntu CD, and very quickly the system booted into Ubuntu. My PC is 2-3 years old, so I wasn't entirely sure whether everything would work. But I'm relieved to say that not only did it work, it was no slower than my normal XP installation.

I even switched on the desktop effects, expecting to find my ultra cheap graphics card either wasn't supported, or couldn't handle it, but, again, it worked like a dream.

So, now that little test is out of the way I need to clean up my XP installation (remove all but the absolutely essential software to reclaim as much disk space as I can), and back up my data to an external drive. I've already got a list of applications I currently use, and what their equivalents will be in Ubuntu, and so far I haven't found any gaps.

This may sound incredibly 'geeky', but after trying out Ubuntu, I can't wait to install it and get it up and running properly.

Kroenke buying more Arsenal shares

Arsenal received notification yesterday that Stanley Kroenke now owns 12.19% of the club's shares.

There have been a number of small trades in the last week or so, with another small chunk of 50 or so shares changing hands today, driving the share price up, hitting £7,000 a share.

If the Arsenal board are as resolutely against a takeover as they say, then they need to start buying up some of these small chunks so that they have a majority share holding. Since David Dein's departure, they now own about 45% between them.

Cole's pathetic book sales

After that former Arsenal left back released his crappy book, it was obvious from looking at the bestseller charts on Amazon and other places that it was selling badly. I never saw it get higher than about 150 in the Amazon best seller list.

In a recent edition of Private Eye, they published the actual sales figures - 8983. Frankly I'm surprised it even sold as many as that. While it's great news that it sold sod all, unfortunately it makes little difference to Cole and his bank balance. He was reportedly given an advance of £250,000, so regardless of sales he is quids in.

Hopefully, it will discourage other publishers from giving vast sums of money for crappy self serving books.

Bye Bye Windows

I have made a big decision - I am going to move my main desktop PC over to Ubuntu from Windows XP. Why am I going to do this?

Quite frankly, I have had enough of Windows. An organisation the size of Microsoft ought to be able to through enough resources at an OS to make it extremely robust and stable. Instead, I find things that just stop working, have to spend too long applying various anti virus and firewall patches, and constantly patch Windows itself.

I recently finished re-installing a friends XP machine that had been crippled with a virus that had wrecked the networking side of things, including internet connectivity. They had a Packard Bell computer, but lo and behold they had lost the XP CD that came with the machine. We tried different XP discs that we were able to get hold of, but none worked with their serial number printed on the label on the PC. Fortunately, another friend had a spare license from their Microsoft Action Pack subscription, so we were able to use that to rebuild their machine. This took more evenings than I care to count, trying all the different discs and serial numbers.

Now I find that my PC is going to need re-installing. The sound has stopped working, and no matter what codecs or drivers I install, nothing works. I have tried re-extracting the required Windows dlls but no luck. So the only thing I can see left to try is a re-install. But, lo and behold, I seem to have lost my XP CD as well! Despite being able to find every worthless bloody driver CD I have ever had, the time I need the important one, I can't find it.

So, I'm not going to bother. I have no intention of ever going to Vista - the prices Microsoft charge in the UK are way over the top for a system that seems focused on stopping you doing more things than it allows you to do. I recently installed Ubuntu on my music server to run Slimserver, and I like the look of that, so I have decided to kiss goodbye to Microsoft and their unreliable, insecure software, and say hello to Ubuntu Feisty Fawn. Who knows, perhaps it will be no more reliable than XP, but at least I will no longer have the worry about losing license keys or discs or worrying about how many times I can install it without breaching the license.

Ebay Account hacked

This week I received an e-mail from Ebay, informing me that my account password had been compromised and that they had therefore reset the password and locked down my account. The e-mail went on to say that this must have been as a result of me falling for a phishing scam, and giving my password to some third party.

Sorry guys, but I HAVE NOT given out my password. I have a bit more sense than to fall for some phishing scam, and have seen plenty of examples in my time. Indeed, I was highly suspicious of the Ebay e-mail, until I realised it contained no links. It was only after trying to log in to my account and finding it was locked that I realised it was genuine.

It seems a cynical ploy by Ebay to try and blame account holders for the problem, obviuosly to try and cover up their well known security problems. My password being compromised can only be as a result of Ebay being hacked, and after seeing this article on The Register, perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. While they may get away with passing off this old baloney about phishing scams to the average user, it is clear they have an ongoing security problem.

The alarming thing is that it appears to have been ongoing for some time, with Ebay either unwilling or unable to do anything about it.

Stanley Kroenke owns 11.26% of Arsenal

According to a statement released by the Plus Markets group this morning, Kroenke holds 11.26% of Arsenal shares. 9.9% were obtained from ITV. According to the Statement, his company KSE holds 9.99%, with the remainder held by JP Morgan, of whom Kroenke is the indirect holder.

The full statement can be read here.

What a difference vinyl can make

One of my favorite bands is Depeche Mode. While I think their last album, Playing The Angel, is one of their best since Songs Of Faith And Devotion, I have always stuggled to listen to it. If that doesn't make sense then I'll explain.

My first impression when I bought the CD was 'Bloody hell, that's loud.' Despite repeated listening I'd always struggle to get to the end of the album - I found it very tiring to listen to, and would usuallly turn it off two thirds of the way through. I could never quite figure out why.

Then I found two web pages that describe the problem. Both pages describe how the album has been ruined by over compression, in a bid to make the album appear as loud as possible. Take a look at the diagrams included in the links, and you will see how over compressed the album is.

What I find most amazing is the band letting the album be released like that. After spending a good few months recording and mixing the songs, I would have thought they would immediately notice how the CD mastering had ruined all their hard work.

Fed up with the CD, I resorted to downloading a FLAC rip of the vinyl version of the album - what a difference! It is now possible to hear the detail in the songs - as vinyl cannot cope with the extreme levels used on CDs, it has been mastered at a much more sensible level without all the compression.

I don't normally download music torrents, but I made an exception in this case - after having paid for an unlistenable CD, I don't feel I am ripping anyone off by downloading another copy of the same album.

EMI remove DRM

Following yesterdays announcement from EMI that they are to remove DRM from their entire digital download catalogue, and initially make the DRM free versions available on iTunes (at a higher bit rate, and at a higher price), a few questions remain.

1. Apple will continue to sell the DRM, low quality versions as they do now. What is the logic in implementing DRM on low bitrate files? Numerous sites offer unprotected sound samples in lower bit rates, the whole point being that the sound quality isn't good enough to bother copying it.

2. I hope that the following statement means some sites will soon start offering officially sanctioned lossless downloads:

EMI expects that consumers will be able to purchase higher quality DRM-free downloads from a variety of digital music stores within the coming weeks, with each retailer choosing whether to sell downloads in AAC, WMA, MP3 or other unprotected formats of their choice.

3. Why won't Apple make the files available in MP3 format? While it is not the best format around, it is the widest used - there are plenty of players out there that do not support AAC. I guess we will have to wait and see who else will carry the DRM free files.

4. Can we now expect Apple to remove the DRM on the Independent music they carry, that is available elsewhere without DRM?

While this is a good first move, we will need to see how things pan out over the next few months, and what other record labels, if any, follow EMI's lead. Personally, I feel the price rise is a bit much, even though I accept that bandwidth costs will increase with the bigger file sizes of the higher bit rate downloads - in the UK, the existing iTunes offering is overpriced for what it offers.