Daniel Hardy

When I was growing up I remember seeing commercials by AT&T that showed all kinds of “future” technology like the smart fridge or the automated home.  The point of the commercial was that AT&T was the company that would enable you to enjoy this type of connectivity.

The one commercial that I remember being most impressed by showed two children selecting a movie from their TV.  Once the movie was selected it instantly started playing.  At the time (guessing 1996-8) there was nothing like this.  There was no Youtube or iTunes.  There was really no media streaming to speak of.  The average home was just starting to get online.

Fast-forward to present time and it appears AT&T’s commercial is now a reality.  Cox Communications recently launched an on demand service.  This is true on demand television. Simply pick out the show you wish to watch and hit play.  The show starts instantly.  From here you can fast-forward, rewind and even pause.

The system works pretty smooth overall.  This is not to say that there isn’t room for improvement.  There is no search functionality and the navigation is slow and ugly(8 bit).  Both of these could easily be resolved and may be related to my older cable box.  It would also be nice if the shows would remain available for an indefinite amount of time.  Currently they are available for a set period and after that they are replaced by newer programming.

Even with its short commings it is definetly worth a try.  If you are a Cox digital tv subscriber simply turn to channel 01 and enjoy.

“As a designer, your job doesn’t stop when you leave the studio at 5 p.m.  That’s why our environment is key - it provides constant input, a constant stream of ideas,” - Jae Min, Audi Chief Designer, Audi Magazine 02/08

This statment rings true for me.  While I may not be designing something as complex or complicated as an automobile, I certainly look for a constent stream of input and ideas.  This consent search allows me to find solutions to problems I have yet to encounter.  It also helps continuously refine ideas and views I have had about previously completed designs.

This weekend I decided it was time to try an upgrade to Hardy.  Usually I just back everything up and do a fresh install as it tends to be faster and have less problems.  But in the interest of checking out how the experience is improving I decided I would update my quad-core.

Overall it went better than expected.  The quad-core made quick work of the install, completing in about an hour and a half.  After the reboot there was a few problems to take care of.

First up is a known bug with 8xxx series Nvidia cards and Compiz.  Basically all the drop shadows are pink and/or yellow in color.  Needless to say this is a bit annoying.  To fix it simply create a new symlink by entering the following code into your terminal.

sudo ln -sf /usr/lib/nvidia/libwfb.so.xserver-xorg-core /usr/lib/xorg/modules/libwfb.so

After this all you need is to restart Xserver with CRTL+ALT+BACKSPACE. Of course make sure you have properly closed any open applications that might suffer data loss.

The other mildly annoying piece is the upgrade of Avant Window Manager (AWN). It appears that the version in the repository isn’t directly compatible with the plugins of yore and there is no plugins available from the repository. For now I have decided to live with out the plugins.

Besides these minor problems that where related to either 3rd party apps (AWN wasn’t in the repository in Gusty) or proprietary drivers (come on Nvidia, open it up! everyone is doing it) the install went very well.  With today’s announcement I think Hardy may be staying on the quad-core for a long time to come.