It's Amazing! Incredible!...

Slashdot brought this to my attention. Quite hilariously amazing.

Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon

After a long while, I finally decided to upgrade my linux installation to the latest Gutsy Gibbon -- touted as a big step forward with its ease of installation. Furthermore it is now possible to write to NTFS partitions and it is always great to have a backup OS especially in case Windows messes up. Popping in the live CD, and rebooting, I was greeted by the simple desktop from which I can play around with or install to hard drive.


Starting the install process, I was given an intuitive screen to choose my location.


Next I decided to manually choose which partition to install ubuntu on.


There is an interesting new feature that is able to import WinXP users profiles to your linux user.


Proprietary drivers where required, such as Nvidia and ATi card drivers, are automatically prompted to the user for download and installation. Another nice feature is that when playing proprietary codecs such as mp3, the player will prompt the user to automatically search for the required codec. After running a system update, I proceeded to grab the standard programs that I commonly use, like the tetex latex engine, video lan client, etc, using the Synaptic package manager. For those unfamiliar, linux distributions maintain software repositories (repos) from which you can grab common software from with a few clicks. Of course it is also possible to download them off a webpage and install them. Something that I had to do for adobe's flash-plugin for Firefox since the version in the repo was corrupted.

Everything works more or less okay with the exception that I had to edit some configurations for my sound card driver to get my line in to work. For the first time, I actually managed to receive tv on my tv tuner using tvtime. So I proceeded with the juicy part. Getting 3D desktop effects to work. This was now supposed to be as simple as flicking a switch in the Appearance configuration screen. Apparently, with all the advances in this area, using ATi cards still suck for 3D effects on linux. Firstly, I had to go through some steps to install the latest ATi drivers from AMD because at the time of Gutsy's release, ATi drivers did not support AIGLX (something used to render the effects). The 3D effects seem quite slow for my machine. Probably something to do with AIGLX (it was fast previously under Xgl) or not so good ATi drivers. Then, the other downside is that videos can only play in full screen mode. Again this is somewhat a regression from my previous Xgl enabled system. Nevertheless, the Compiz window manager does give some cool effects and if these issues can be tidied up, the desktop is clearly far superior to what Vista provides. Below we have a application switcher in action.


This auto-tiling feature to select the application you want is similar to what OS-X gives. You might notice Picasa. It works for linux but currently uploading to the web albums do not work on the stable version. That is only available on the latest beta 2.7 version of Picasa.


The wall allows you to drag windows from one desktop to another.


Finally, it is always nice to see your desktop raining.


Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon has come a long way since 6.06. But sadly, if 3D effects are desired with ATi cards, configuring these will probably turn off many. Otherwise, most things work nicely out of the box.

What is happenning to blogspot?

While typing my previous post I noticed something horrifying. After posting, my template's formatting is all messed up! Frantically trying to adjust it to the right size, I realised it was because somebody decided to add icons when you log in in a new column.


As seen above, the post has been pushed to below the side-bar. Why is the side-bar larger than usual? It is due to the icons you get when you log-in on the right in the red circle. Now they appear as a new column -- messing up your formatting. What this means is you cannot view your blog properly when you are logged in. The formatting will always be off. Really, can't they test something before going live...

One rant to rule them all and in the darkness bind them

I have been taking pictures of things that I found rantable for a few months now using my handphone. However being too busy or just plain lazy, I have only transferred them recently to disk. So I will just rant about everything in no particular order.

First up we have the Bleach car where Kurosaki Ichigo is on all sides. This is probably the only car I have seen so far with anime characters on it and I used to walk past it to get to the train station every morning. Somehow I have not seen it recently though.


Next, is how I finally found time a few months ago to go have my favourite Hainanese curry rice (yes the one that takes 3 days to cook its curry). The real good stuff is not just the curry, it is the amazing fried pork chop (green platter) as well.


On with the food theme, I finally had a chance to try ōtoro (the one in the center). Yes tuna belly sashimi that shio min (common folk) do not get to eat. It tastes great because of all the fats but not something which one can eat large quantities of. The fats get disgusting after three pieces.


And of course who can forget my favourite Ikura (salmon roe).


Talking about common food, Mac'donalds has shrunk. Whatever happened to all American fast food? Imagine the size of that Fillet 'O Fish box. It is a small box. What is worse is the burger only fills up two thirds of that small box as shown below.


Breakfast at Mac'donalds is no better. Below with have an Egg Mc'Muffin that is so tiny, it fits snugly on the top of the coffee cup! What a shame!


Taking a break from the food fare, here is a picture of how disgustingly long the queue for a bus can get sometimes. The queue extended out of the bus terminal, on to the pedestrian pavement outside. If this keeps up, there may come a time we have to take a bus to get from the end to the front of the queue.


Back to food, one of my favourites are those sausages. They come in all varieties and taste great. All they need to to be topped off with large quantities of Dunkel and Wiessbier.


Talking about beers, one of the only few UK ales available here is the Old Speckled Hen (left, the right is Strongbow cider). Definitely a bitter not to be missed if you see it around.


As one can see, it is apparent that most of my life is about F&B, food & beer that is. To end with the foods, we need dessert, hence the chocolate fondue with three types of chocolate at Max Brenner's.


Last but not least, Blogger's post editor sucks. What are the developers thinking? Why would anyone want to insert pictures at the start of the post instead of at the end of the post? If only they would change that so that life will be easier without ctrl-x and ctrl-v.

Red is Beautiful

Wow! I mean just look at that! Simply amazing! Unfortunately the red Guinness is a brand new product that is only available in the UK at the moment. I hope it succeeds and becomes popular so that it will be brought to where I am at.

Picture taken from The Sun.

Greece Day 7 to 8, Athens & Home - Lycabettus Hill

To view the first post in this series click here.
To view the previous related post click here.

01 Nov 2007 -- 02 Nov 2007

Woke up later than usual at 7am to have breakfast. After packing up and checking out of the conference hotel, I headed to the bus station next door with my friend to catch a coach back to Athens. The heavy traffic caused the journey to take about an hour longer than expected. However the bus ride was mostly uneventful and I fell asleep for the most part. Upon arrival at Kifissos Bus Station in Athens, I took bus 051 to Omonia Square and bought a trolley ticket.
The wait was a nightmare. After 1 hour, the trolley was nowhere to be seen. It seems that I was not the only frustrated person at the trolley stand waiting for an hour. Time was precious so I decided to make the journey back to my hotel with 4 thick conference proceedings in addition to my backpack on foot. The journey (blue line below) was difficult. Furthermore, having to walk through a wet market district and Ermou shopping district with the big load at noon when everyone was busy shopping made me look really out of place.

View Larger Map

Finally after a long 20 minute walk I arrived at my hotel in one piece and largely out of breath. To my delight, my room for the night was on the ground level. No more stairs to climb. After taking a shower and a breather, I headed to the place next door where I had my first meal in Greece for lunch. Then, I decided to visit Syntagma Square, the Parliament House, the Byzantine Art Museum, War Museum and lastly, Lycabettus Hill via the red route above.

Bread and a bit of wine


Deep fried codfish, the stuff of the right is full of garlic and something mashy but it tastes nice.


Some of the up-class hotels around Syntagma Square


Syntagma (Constitution) Square with the Parliament Building in the background.


Parliament House.


It is decorated with Greek drawings.


The pigeons were in session debating on state welfare


The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier


The tomb is right below the main building.


An Evzoni Guarding the tomb.


Pigeons still locked in heated debate.

Unfortunately after walking to the Byzantine Art Museum from the Parliament house, I discovered it was closed and so was the War Museum next door! Apparently they close at 2:30pm and 12:30pm and it was now 3pm. Disappointed I began to make my way to Lycabettus Hill. There is supposed to be some cable or train that I could take up the hill without walking.

What's this? I thought there would be no ascending of slopes before the base of the hill!


Looks like quite a bit of hill I have to climb before getting to the monastery at the top.


Uh-oh more stairs. The area at the base of the hill seems to be a rather up-class residential area.


Some shop I passed


Finally the Teleferik! Now I no longer have to walk.


I think it was 4.50 euro for a return trip.



Athens from the top of Lycabettus hill


Lycabettus Theatre on the other side of the hill


More of Athens


The Acropolis in a distance, unfortunately it is very hazy.


Temple of Olympian Zeus


There is actually a restaurant at the top and the last Teleferik downhill is sometime after 2am.


Church Bells in front of the Monastery


Backside of the monastery


Front side









The Christian Art on the inside.

Getting bored with the view and the monastery, I decided to make my way back to my hotel. Later at night, I met a friend from the conference and by chance we met another at one of the outdoor cafes in Plaka. He was a photo enthusiast and was carrying with him a digital SLR. So I brought him to take some night pictures of the Acropolis and the Temple of Zeus. The next morning I took a quick walk around to see if I can find the cheapest souvenir shop that I discovered a few days ago. Sadly, it was closed so I took some pictures of some monuments that I did not realise were monuments earlier. Then the time came for me to pack up and make my way once more to Syntagma Square to catch a bus to the airport for my trip home.

The Parthenon again


The Odeon of Herodes. It was a wet night.



The Choregic Monument of Lysikarates


Close-up of the top. It was to commemorate the 1st prize awarded by a theatre patron to one of his sponsored performances.


Some Graffiti


Plaka is so peaceful in the morning


Church of the Metamorphosis





Inside church


Then it was time to leave for the Airport.


"Here comes the wine! Here comes the wine!"


Curry rice and wine for lunch!


I caught up with time. Omelette for breakfast (and wine of course).

Thus ends my trip to Greece. It was a shame I had to rush back to catch up with my coursework. Otherwise I could have visited other off-city ancient sites such as Delphi and Mt. Olympus. That said, it was a nice place with loads to see and best of all it was easy to get around by myself. Definitely accessible without a guide.

Return to the first post and index of this series here.