Casper's Life

Control Firefox memory consumption

Firefox has become a memory hog, it will do it best to use all the memory available, or so it seams. I sometimes see that Firefox uses more than 1GB Ram, which will grind my computer to halt, or make everything else very slow.

According to this, there is a simple way to make sure that Firefox doesn’t use too much memory.

• Use the configuration editor (url: about:config)
• Find ‘browser.cache.memory.enable’ and change it to ‘false’
• Add ‘browser.cache.memory.capacity’ as an integer, and set it to 4096

Restart Firefox, it should not behave itself.

technorati tags: Firefox

Posted in computers, software | 1 Comment »

MacHeist

One of the nice things about MacHeist is that you pay a small amount of money and you get a fair select of Software.

The last bundle (as they call it) included ‘MacJournal’ which I’m using to write this – I always like offline tools to online tools (not depending on an internet connection).

In general a MacHeist bundle is every from $19.95 to somewhat more, mostly you’ll end up with a selection of software which cost many times more than what you paid.

technorati tags: MacHeist

Posted in apple, software | No Comments »

Learning Python

I’ve been learning something new this week (which happens on a regular basic), but this time it was very official, I actually went to a training.

It was decided, that I had to learn Python, which is a programming language, and yet another of the scripting ones – we already have Perl, PHP, Ruby, and so forth, which meant that I actually was in some sort of pathetic way was looking forward to see what all this was about.

There is one thing which is annoying about Python, and it’s even worse that they have decided not to do something about it. They have not implemented a ‘switch’ statement, they have some obscure reason why;

It is too early to decide. I’d like to see at least one completed proposal for pre-computed values before deciding. In the mean time, Python is fine without a switch statement, and perhaps those who claim it would be a mistake to add one are right.

The whole thing is discussed here.

A switch statement is used to in a very simple way do a selection:

switch( variable )
   case 'a' : do something if variable is a
   case 'b' : do something if variable is b
   otherwise/else : do something if variable is neither a nor b
end switch


Instead they they have decided that ‘if’ is a lot better. The same as above just with ‘if’:


if variable == 'a' then
   do something if variable is a
else if variable == 'b' then
   do something if variable is b
else
   do something if variable is neither a nor b


Well it does not take long to see that using ‘if’ does work, but it will look like a mess, which is avoidable by using ‘switch’. Well until further notice there is no other option than to use ‘if’ – sadly enough.

But there are good things also, it have a tight integration to the OS, which means that the whole Std. C Library is there (more or less), and also lots of other things is available. On Linux for example there is integration to both KDE (QT) and Gnome (Gtk2), on OSX there is Coca, and Carbon, and an interface or ObjectiveC (PyObjC). The nice thing is that on OSX it’s available from Xcode (integrated development environment). I don’t know about Microsoft Windows, as I don’t have much interesting in dealing with Windows development these days (as I do this for fun).

Everything is an object, but due to the way namespace is dealt with, one end up doing strange things. For example, to use sqrt (square root), one would do;

import math
x = math.sqrt(9)

and not like in C/C++

#include <math.h>
....
x = sqrt(9)
...


Of cause there are ways to get around the namespace thing, but it’s slightly annoying.

But in general, it a usefull language, lots of things are using it; like Xen (hummm, yes). It’s easy to do prototyping in, and one could actually use it for application development, there are a enough libraries to make it possible. The designer tools on Linux can generate Python code, so nothing is stopping you from writing stuff in Python.

The best of luck….

technorati tags: programming language, python

Posted in computers, programming, software, technology | 2 Comments »

Google Reader

I’m using Google Reader for my rss feeds (that way I can read them everywhere), and now they (well been able to for a while), allow you to share things on a public page.

When you see items you would like other people to see (actually people can also subscribe to it) you can share the item (at the bottom of the reader item window), and it becomes available on your public page.

Also you can put a link to it on you page:

Kind of cool….

My shared page is here.

technorati tags: Google Reader

Posted in internet, software, technology | 2 Comments »

“Five crucial things the Linux community doesn’t understand about the average computer user”

I wrote “The end of the Mac road”???, as a response to Ian Betteridge, now it seams that things have happened in “choose your OS” world….

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes from ZDnet have written a comment to “why does people still use Windows” discussion.

First installment: Five crucial things the Linux community doesn’t understand about the average computer user, second installment and follow up: Three more things that the Linux community doesn’t get.

The sad thing is that he is mostly right, how do you convince anyone to change to something they do not know anything, and btw. cannot promise that it will work.

Over the years I’ve have many and quite intense discussions with both sides of the fence so to say (I can be quite good at playing the devil advocate).

And what I have found is that, for the common user it is most of the time it’s ease of use which is the main thing, and there after applications, most people do not mind OpenOffice>, FireFox, and Thunderbird, but they want their OS to work – that is with all the weird hardware addons they can buy in the local hardware store.

For the corporate user; it a different story all together, companies mostly rely on applications which are not available for any other OS than the one they use. Sometimes they can get around it and move the applications to a web based solution, but that is not always the case, and in some cases that does not even help, as some web applications require Microsoft Internet Explorer (version x.xx, and not y.yy, with Microsoft JVM, and not Sun JVM, and specifically not IBM JVM).

As Adrian points out, there is a huge thing which most advocates for OpenSource sometime forget; Support (not only the free variant), no one is willing to pay for support, that is the end user, corporations know that they need it, I know that for RedHat and Novell SuSE (SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) provide pay for support, and if one buys a box distribution for specifically for consumers there might be 90 days phone installation support, but it is not always the case (correct me if I’m wrong). And in most cases the support is based on installation only, not support for X usb device, or Y harddisk controler.

Then we are back at “what does Microsoft provide”, not much I’m afraid, but most hardware works with Microsoft (they probably sponsor hardware vendors), and “everyone knows Windows“, which means that if you buy into the Microsoft family you know that the next door neighbor probably will have a 15 year old kid who can help you for a small amount of money, or just for the kick of helping you out.

So what do we have left; we don’t want Microsoft Windows, and we cannot really get people to use GNU/Linux as it not ready for consumer use (I’m playing the devils advocate here), well there is Apple, they have a nifty thing called OSX (pronounced: OS 10), which is Unix, with a (in my eyes) cool graphical interface, it works, and in many cases it’s very stable. Yes there might be some issues with hardware addon’s and other things, but in general terms it works. As Adrian points out you pay for it, it’s not being sold separately so you’ll have to by the hardware from Apple for a fairly high price – read: you buy in to Apple, and stay there, well that is a truth with modifications, these days you can run Microsoft Windows on your Mac (and also Linux), so do as the Apple PC looks cool – a very expensive way to look cool, but we all have our faults.

Back to the question of GNU/Linux, well it have come a long way, someone pointed out to me the other week that Microsoft Windows 1.x wasn’t that workable either, and that it have come a long way – yes it have, and yes it does work in an environment where everyone plays by the rules, that is follow the standards, do not use any extensions which a specific to one OS only, then GNU/Linux will work just fine, and when ever the Graphic Card vendors get around to write drivers which are working, then things would be even better. But we do not live in a perfect world (wouldn’t that be nice), so we have to adapt. I use GNU/Linux on one desktop as I have applications which only run on that, and I use Microsoft Windows when I need Microsoft Internet Explorer, and mostly I use OSX as that is the common nominator where most of everything works (in some way, with a bit help), and because I still have a terminal which can do what I need.

I wrote this on my Macbook Pro, using Firefox, sitting on my balcony – how cool is that:-)

As I was reading Slashdot I saw a link to this article on LinuxWorld AU about driver support on GNU/Linux, and it seams that things a moving forward on that issue.

And I did not even get around to moan about stability, viruses, and what ever other nasty things are out there, and why it’s “GNU/Linux” and not “Linux”.

technorati tags: Ian Betteridge, OpenSource, OSX, Apple, GNU/Linux, Linux

Posted in apple, hardware, linux, os, osx, software | 2 Comments »

“The end of the Mac road”???

I was reading this entry on Ian Betteridge blog, where he talks about his switch from OSX to Gnu/Linux (Ubunto), not that I have any specfic issues with that.

But one thing which stands out was this sentence: “First up, let’s look at what this move is not: It’s not a protest against Apple, or a of criticism of Mac OS X or Apple hardware. Mac OS X is great: if you’re a non-technical user, and want everything to just work out of the box, it is almost certainly the the right choice for you.”

Wohhhh, most of the people I know who are using OSX are anything but non-technical, and yes he’s right it works, and it works out of the box, well isn’t that the reason why you would want something?? – I’m a geek (yes I finally did get around to admit to it), and I probably know more about Linux than any sane person should do, but that does not mean that I don’t want something which works (day in, day out). I’m also a great beleiver in OpenSource, as it most of the MacHeads I know (there is always someone who did not get the drift).

So lets settle the score;

Installation
OSX: 9
- still you need to know for a fact that your installation partition should be journaled

Linux: 7
- well if you have the right hardware, and have a recognized controler, and ….. – getting better, but there are a few things which needs to get sorted out

Upgrade (from a previous version of the OS)
OSX: 9
- put in the DVD boot, select what you want – not perfect, as your programs might have stopped working, but that does not happen very often

Linux: 5
- works as long as you did not blow of your right leg and install program or libraries from a diffrent source, and if it actually works you still need to spend time trying to get these programs to work again as your dependencies will have disapeared

Installation of Programs
OSX: 10
- download a DMG and do a drag and drop, how difficult can it be

Linux: 5
- I still cannot get around the fact that there is no common package format, even if you use RPM’s they are still only common to the specfic distribution

Connectivity
OSX: 10
- when ever I plug in an ethernet cabel it will stop using my wireless, if it finds a new wireless network when I travel (when it happens) it will ask me if I want to connect, never have to think about it, it just works

Linux: 6
- hummm, did you put your notebook to sleep, oh then you need to restart you network, oh you alread did that, have you tried to reboot, you did…. let me think about it…..

Sleep/Hibernation
OSX: 11
- press powerbutton, press ‘s’….. open lid, type in password

Linux: -1
- don’t try this a home, it might work, that is if you have supported hardware, and you did modfy that configuration file

Actually Linux is not as bad as it might come out here, there are excelent distributions OpenSUSE, Ubunto, etc. And one have to remember that Apple controls everything, which makes it easier for them to make sure that everything works.

But people you have to agree that Linux is not always something which just work, there are issues which needs to get fixed, and as a road user, these issues might not be something I am looking to solve everytime I want to do something as simple as read my email (or write my blog as I do now).

On the other hand, Linux on servers is a great thing, on the desktop where you want to change something on a regular basis, could get you into trouble, but servers run for years (my box have had the same version for the last 3 years, and an average uptime of 6 – 9 months), it simply works. Yes it might not be as easy as OSX Server or the equivilent from this ‘small’ company based in Seattle. But once you get your head around it, it’s actually not that difficult.

Oh, thing I kind of forgot, more or less all the programs I used to use on my Linux desktop works on OSX, the very few which don’t have been replaced with similar ones. On top of that I got access to a hugh amout of stuff which I did not have before like iTunes make updating my iPod a dream…. Yes I know that a real OpenSource believer does not have an iPod as it is a closed source gadget….

technorati tags: OSX, Linux, Ubunto, OpenSource

Posted in computers, linux, os, osx, software | 5 Comments »

Buggy QuickTime 7.1.5 update (update)

I commented on the QuickTime 7.1.5 update, and how it broke VLC (and maybe other things).

Well it turned out that part of the problem was partly 40cm from the keyboard – deleting the VLC settings (program is provided in the DMG), solved the problem with VLC. And last week Apple released an update for QuickTime.

It now looks like everything is working again….

technorati tags: QuickTime, VLC, Apple

Posted in apple, osx, software | No Comments »