S U N D R U . N E T

For any folks interested in or looking to buy an Ultrabook.
Heres my review for a Toshiba PZ835 after about a month of use.

Foreword : Being a Software Engr, am particular about laptops I buy.
Am not a sponsored blogger or any other crap and have no association with Toshiba or partners or blah blah blah.
Pros :
* 2.4 pounds and 0.6″ thick, you can almost use it a like an ipad.
* Backlit keyboard, you dont know what you are missing if you dont have it.
* Ultra fast boot time ~ 10seconds
* Resume from sleep ~ 2 seconds
* SSD Standard on all model – Sweeet !
* Core i3 works for me browsing, office, visio and little bit of VS studio, eclipse use
* Big pro – Dual boot with Ubuntu 11.10 – Everything Works on ubuntu ! Compositing, acceleration, short keys, power suspend, resume, wifi , Even the VPN stuff.
* Got it on a super deal on Bestbuy online.
* fullest selection of ports of any Ultrabook. 2 USB 2.0, RJ45 jack, 1 USB 3.0, VGA and HDMI

Cons :
* The Intel WIFI Link 1000 BGN – resume from sleep takes 1.5 mins Annoying but could live with it. Cold boot connects super fast but from sleep is the issue.
Issue being tracked here : Toshiba Support Forum
* The Toshiba face recognition login looks like a last minute add on and feels unfinished.
* Theres a Toshiba app called “Toshiba value add package” , i usually uninstall crappy junk on new installs but above is needed for screen dim bright to work .

I think religion exists to shield us from feeling helpless and insignificant in the universe . So in way its a support system of some kind, helps block folks from asking too many questions.
Some like to take it on faith, some like to go by rigid rules, some go questioning eveything. In the end whatever floats your boat and keeps you happy I guess.

Folks gonna hate me for posting this again A quote from the movie Crocodile Dundee “Well, you see, Aborigines don’t own the land.They belong to it. It’s like their mother. The land owns them. See those rocks? Been standing there for 600 million years. Still be there when you and I are gone. So arguing over who owns them is like two fleas arguing over who owns the dog they live on.”.

I think this is pretty much the same for religion give it a another 100 odd years we probably have a few hundred new religions and a few which die unsuited to the times, kind of a human parody over time.

Some Life Saving Linux snippets to get job done ..

Every now and then you need a few snippets of code to get something done in linux which drives you crazy ..
Following is my collection of life saving snippets :

##To convert MP3 to WAV :

##Do Recursive Dos2UnIX :

##Command to batch resize Photos from Digital camera

##Recursively change text in files :

Getting HP DV2000T Laptop to work with sound on linux Conexant 5047 codec/ Intel 82801G
Decided to post this after pulling my hair out getting the sound card on my laptop (a HP DV2000t) to work. Hope this makes it easier for whoever is trying to get sound working on a DV2000t or similiar laptop according to the info on alsa-devel following laptops should work HP DV1000/2000/3000 with Conexant CXT5047 and HP DV6000 series with Conexant CXT5045

First : Thanks to the folks at alsa-devel and Tobin Davis
If you would like to test / contribute pl contact Tobin on the Alsa Devel newsgroup.

The following instructions are for SuSE 10.1 running 2.6.16.21-0.25-smp #1 kernel , it should be similiar for other distros.

1. Download the latest alsa-driver as of this writing is alsa-driver-1.0.14rc1
you can get it here
ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/driver/alsa-driver-1.0.14rc1.tar.bz2

Check nothing blew up with dmesg -c

Remove all audio modules

Now Remove all modules

now load new module

Adjust sound volume thru alsa mixer

Test the sound with a plain .wav file, give a reboot if for any reason no sound comes thru , its not required but you never know.

Also some know issues : When headphones are plugged , laptop speakers dont mute.
============New Patch Released 01/30/2007 T.Davis Alsa-Users List ==========
!!Backup your current drivers with following command !!
tar -zcvf original-drivers.tgz /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/sound

Now, get the latest release, apply the patch, and build.

Stop all audio applications and remove all audio drivers (lsmod |fgrep
snd). Reload the new driver with “modprobe snd-hda-intel” , look at the dmesg output and test out
the sound. Use alsamixer to report any mixer issues (easier to debug than
kmix, gmix, whatever-gui-mixer). If nothing works, or one function
doesn’t work, try reloading the driver with “model=test” as a parameter.
This should enable everything.
If you have issues Email with the info below to alsa-devel and alsa-users.
Please include the system make/model, the
subsystem line from “lspci -s 0:1b -vn” (Ex: Subsystem: 103c:30b2), and
the output from “cat /proc/asound/card0/codec#0″.