Fedora 12 on new laptop

I finally managed to install Fedora 12 on my new laptop. It dual boots into Fedora 12 and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Laptop specs:
Toshiba Satellite A505-S6040
Intel i7 720QM
6GB RAM
Nvidia GT330M with 1GB VRAM

The main problems installing Fedora 12 were the installation itself, USB, wireless and video. Let's tackle one at a time.

The first problem is with installing. Video is a problem, so I had to choose the installation option to install with a basic video driver. The next problem was with USB, could't get it to work, so I ended up having to use the touchpad instead of a USB mouse. But that should see you through the installation from a DVD.

To solve the USB problem, after installing, I added the following to the kernel parameters (in /etc/grub/grub.conf):
acpi=noirq

For wireless, Fedora 12 doesn't support Realtek RTL8191 (the wireless for the laptop), so I downloaded the Linux driver from Realtek (as of today, the latest is the one for RTL8192SE). Then all I needed to do was to (as superuser) make and make install (after uncompressing the tarball). However, everytime you have a new kernel, you will need to redo this until kernel support for the RTL8191 is in place.

Last was Nvidia video. I followed the instructions here to install the proprietary drivers. But that was not enough. The system kept hanging. I searched the forums and found that I need to add the following line under the Device section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Option "UseEvents" "False"

There are some other good tips on installing Fedora 12 that you can find here.

So now I am back to being a Linux user!

By the way, these instructions should work for most Toshiba A505-S60XX especially since they share common hardware. Good luck!

Edit: For computers with Intel processors having more than 3GB of RAM, you will need to add "iommu=soft" to the kernel options to prevent X11 from hanging.

Happy Birthday Ren (one year old)

Happy birthday to baby Ren! One year old already! Time really flies...

Earth Hour 2010

This year's Earth Hour is on 27 Mar, at 8:30pm local time. I have written about it last year, and this year is no different. We didn't go out of the way to turn out the lights because it is something that we already do on a daily basis. The important thing is not to join the crowd in that one hour per year, but to make it a part of your life and practise it on a daily basis.

Turning out the lights but holding a concert seems to be contradictory... a concert does use up quite a bit of energy, with lights and sound. But I do know that the concert's aim is to gather attention, not save energy. Still, I just can't seem to accept using all that energy... but that's just me. Some would just enjoy the concert and not think too much about it.

JapanToday's report on Earth Hour

Flying business

Just a thought... there is a reason why business class is called business class. It is meant for people who are flying because of business. Because unlike flying for holidays, when you fly for business, you want to arrive fresh and ready to work (since you are being paid to travel, you need to be productive). So while business class is going to cost the company more, it maintains the image of the company (you arrive fresh and professional, rather than yawning away fighting jet lag) and in the end, is more productive since you are in the working mode (rather than the jet lag mode).

Saving money for the company is important, but there are some things that we shouldn't scrimp on.

On monogamy and polygamy

An article in The Straits Times published in the Review section on 18 Mar 10, titled "Blame the woman, spare the man" (read it here is you are not a subscriber of The Straits Times), caught my attention and set me thinking about societies that advocate monogamy and those that allowed polygamy.

We are humans, all the same species, yet why did we develop differently?

My own pet theory on this. Not backed up by research since I am not any authority on this and not getting any degrees out of it.

Maybe it is because of food? No one will deny that in general, men are stronger than women, and that men have generally been the ones who bring home the food. The amount of food than a man can produce thus determines the size of the family that he can feed.

In an agricultural society, the supply of food is steady (you reap what you sow) and thus a man is able to properly feed a certain family size based on the amount of food that he can produce. This steady supply of food means that he is able to maintain a sizeable family. He can thus feed more wives and more children.

In a hunter/gatherer society, the supply of food is not constant. A man may not be able to gather enough to feed a sizeable family, and thus it is best to keep the family size small and manageable. He keeps to one wife and has less children so that they don't starve.

In societies living under harsh conditions, men die off easily as they go about their business of getting food. It thus makes sense for a woman to have multiple sources of food, so that she maintains a supply of food to feed her children. We thus see the reverse in which a woman has many husbands.

Just my own thought on this, actual research may yield totally different conclusions.

Scribblings from the plane

Just some scribblings while flying around...

书上读来终难解
不如一睹万法清
------------------
东奔西跑不能挡
四处留情欲难拦

Zoo trip Mar 2010

We went to the zoo, first trip for the baby, though our last trip to the zoo was a year ago with his cousin. But unlike his cousin then, the baby still can't walk, so we pushed him along in his stroller and carried him around once in a while.

Got stopped in our tracks by a heavy downpour. But that didn't deter us from completing the trip to the zoo. Once the rain let up, we continued to press on. By then, the baby was a bit tired, and he ended up sleeping in his stroller.

Here's a shot of a black jaguar. Full black coat of fur, real cool!

On misunderstandings

Just a thought... was watching a Japanese drama (will be writing on that one in the near future) when this thing about misunderstandings came to me. Misunderstandings probably result from lack of communications. When two persons don't talk enough to each other, and only try to piece together little bits of information from here and there, that is when misunderstandings can grow. The solution is actually to sit down, and talk to each other to fill in the missing pieces. It is easy to get angry over misunderstandings, it is harder to find the strength to sit down and talk things through.

USA Trip Feb 10

Took a trip to the USA in February (San Diego to be exact), here are some pictures. It was a short trip for work, so I didn't go around much, even though San Diego is famous for Sea World, the zoo and Legoland.

Sunset over San Diego

Gaslamp Quarter at San Diego

Me and my cousin's son, Jayden. Taken when I visited them in Los Angeles, on transit during the flight home.

A trip down memory lane

On Chinese New Year's eve this year, I took a walk at the floral centre at Tampines Road, where my father used to have his shop (my uncle is running it now). It brings back memories of my younger days, when I would help out at the shop selling plants. Especially during the few weeks leading up to Chinese New Year, when we would be busy selling festive plants till late at night. It was usually the busiest on Chinese New Year's eve, where we would be selling plants till the wee hours, shouting "lelong lelong" as we cut the prices to clear stock. Besides selling plants, I would also help deliver them, sitting at the back of lorries as we whizzed through the roads at night delivering plants.

I haven't been doing this for many years now. Walking around and taking in the festive mood this year, I can't help but feel nostalgic about the memories of my younger days.

Sometimes, our roots run deep and hidden, that we ourselves may not be aware how deep they run.

Happy Year of the Tiger!

It is the Year of the Tiger. Here's wishing everyone a great tiger year ahead!

Same teachers but different outcomes

Sometimes I wonder, why is it that we have the same teachers, yet turn out so differently? I am not talking about the results we get in school, but rather the values passed on to us by our teachers. Is it because of family upbringing? Or the lack of it? The friends we mix with? Because in a way, they are our teachers too (peer learning). The different values we already have when we come under a teacher? Since it is rare that two persons come under the same teachers throughout their schooling years.

Is what we learn shaped/filtered by the values we already hold? Do we choose to learn what we want to learn (filtered by what we already know) rather than what the teacher seeks to impart?

Paintball

I never knew paintball can be so fun. And so tiring! It was just a short session, yet I was panting after each game (each of which probably didn't last beyond five minutes). Right now, my muscles are aching (from paintball, and the taiji practice after that). Plus the bruises from being hit...

Mamemaki 豆撒き

Today is Setsubun (節分), a traditional festival celebrated in Japan with mamemaki (豆撒き). It is celebrated with the throwing of beans, meant to drive away evil spirits while bringing in good luck.

We used to throw those beans at people... it can be quite painful. And really really messy. Makes for quite a bit of cleaning up after all the fun throwing beans at people. And even after that, every once in a while, while sweeping the floor, you come across beans hidden in some corner...

Memoranda

 

Came across this software called Memoranda (Wikipedia entry here) while looking for an open source software that I can use for an electronic diary. It is basically a personal information manager, with calendar and to-do list, yet also allowing you to take notes. So you can use the notes as a diary.

The installation is actually a Java program that you can run straight from the directory (after unzipping) without need for installation. For non-KDE users, you need to edit the shell script to disable the system tray function. For Windows users, there is a batch file that will help you execute the program.

What I like about this software is that it allows you to run it from a portable harddisk, which means you can bring your electronic diary with you. All you need to do is to unzip the program onto a portable drive, run it once, then find the ".memoranda" directory under your home directory, and copy it onto the portable drive. Then delete the ".memoranda" directory from your home directory, and instead create a symbolic link named ".memoranda" pointing to the directory on the portable drive.

Once you have done the above on one computer, the next time you use another computer, all you need to do is create shortcut in your home directory pointing to the directory on the portable drive, and you are ready to start the program.

One setback, though, is that the calendar is not interoperable with other formats such as iCal/vCal.