欧州自転車レース追っかけ日記

Pointing devices (= gpointing-device-settings)

My MacBooks (MacBook Pro 2010 and MacBook Late 2009) had a touchpad (trackpad or whatever it is called) that was too sensitive to my fingers (or palms) and the cursor jumped around and did too much mischiefs that irritated me while my MacBooks were running Lubuntu. They (touchpad) were OK while running Mac OS X.

I used to use other kind of trackpad preference control utility before. It was huge. To use it, I had to download a set of libraries (some programs and files that this small control utility relied on). I do not remember the name but the fact that it required a huge amount of download was unforgettable.

Today, I searched for something like that and found this. It required a small amount of files to be downloaded. It worked perfectly and I am writing this without being annoyed by the unpredictable mischiefs made by the hypersensitivity of the touchpad when I killed the touchpad.



In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [gpointing-device-settings was the answer to my plight]の続きを読む

テーマ:Linux - ジャンル:コンピュータ

1. 2016/03/21(月) 00:22:23|
2. Linux
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Tomtom Western Europe app

I am writing this on my MacBook Late 2009 running Lubuntu 15.10. Linux is good.

Today I was puzzled when I saw a update notification on App Store app on my iPhone telling me that TomTom app has an update as I just had an update one or two weeks before.

A bug fix? This was the first thing that came to my mind. Usually updates arrive every 3 months or so. I clearly remembered that I just had updated the app. This must be an urgent bug fix version, so I guessed.

And guess what. I was wrong. It was another kind of update.

I don't know exactly what it is but I have to guess that TomTom is trying to integrate two apps together. TomTom Go Mobile and other multiple region versions. I had not known about this Go Mobile app before today but it seems that it is a limited functionality (limited map coverage/usage) version for those who don't use the app heavily or widely.

I have a full version of Western Europe app. I have the full map date on my iPhone and full functionality, of course. Why do I have to download the app (Go Mobile version?) to get the same functionality. Of course I don't have to pay but the updating is a bit of toil. Why?

I am also guessing that I can ignore this update notice and keep using the app that I have already had on my iPhone. In 3 months or so I will have to update the app again for the new map data and when I do it, the app will be this Go Mobile version with the latest map data. This is only my guess and nothing else. I could be dead wrong.


Capitalism

I am a bit philosophical about it. Creating a small company and invest my own money and 'hopefully' making money out of it makes me a capitalist. For the first time in my life I am a capitalist. I have been a member of capitalistic society all my life. I have always had doubts about capitalism although I have never dreamed of being a communist nor socialist.

It is an anecdote or maybe (part of) propaganda that Communism is a brainchild of a visionary who saw the suffering of those who were victims of capitalistic economical exploitation and sought out a solution to it.

Being a capitalist is not my dream job. Exploiting those who don't own does not make me feel good.


In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [TomTom Western Europe app on iOS got updated (and I was puzzled)]の続きを読む

1. 2016/03/15(火) 15:42:14|
2. iPad, iPhone and iPod touch
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I was driving my Ka on the highway in Luxembourg when I found something before me. A Volvo was just before me (a bit of congestion and we were on the connection ramp so we were driving slowly and tightly packed) and I followed this car for a while.

This Volvo had a license number from Germany. In Germany the first one, two or three letters are in alphabet followed by some alphabet letters and then numbers. It signifies or they signify the name of the place the car is registered. M means Munich, HH means Hamburg and so on.

When you see ads from German automakers in Europe, usually those cars' license plates reflect the manufacturers' headquarter address. A Mercedes will have a license plate beginning with S, which means it is registered in Stuttgart.

The license number started with SAB followed by a space. I was amused to see this mismatch. A Volvo having a license plate with SA(A)B, yet another Swedish auto manufacturer.

After coming home I checked it with an iPhone app (called License Plate, what else?). It kindly told me that the car was registered in Saarburg/Bezirk Trier area belonging to Rhineland-Palainate).

If you live in this area, would you not be tempted to buy a Saab just for fun?

If I lived in Karlsruhe, Germany, my Ford Ka would have a license plate starting with KA.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [I saw a Volvo and it amused me for a while]の続きを読む

1. 2016/03/12(土) 00:45:09|
2. Things European
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Lubuntu 15.10 on MSI M670 is running well and iBus + mozc is also running well.

And most importantly, the mysterious Wifi connection drop with the internal chip went away with this update (upgrade). Now the connection is very stable. What was the problem?

On MacBook Pro 2010 and MacBook Late 2009, Lubuntu 15.10 is also running well so far. MacBook Late 2009 can not reboot (it hangs with the final console messages) but otherwise I am happy with it.

Today I finally updated the map on my nüvi 2340 to the current 2016.30. The map version had been 2016.10 before this update. I guess the version 2016.40 comes out sometime this coming Spring and after that the version will become 2017.10.

It took me a whole day to update the map on the GPS device. If you have done the updating the map on the Garmin device, you will understand that lengthy process. You have to keep the PC or Mac (whichever you use) on for a whole day with the Garmin device attached on the USB Bus. That is why I did not update the map to 2016.20.



In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Lubuntu 15.10 and Garmin Map Update 2016.30]の続きを読む

1. 2016/03/08(火) 21:24:43|
2. Linux
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I found this article on wort.lu.

http://www.wort.lu/en/business/tax-income-luxembourg-set-for-a-huge-change-56daaa531bea9dff8fa73f3c

It is titled "Luxembourg set for a "huge change."

It is about the tax (specifically corporate tax) issues in Luxembourg.

I don't have anything to do with it except the possible fact that the trickling down money from those who profit from the tax system in Luxembourg might be reaching me by pure accident.

Luxembourg and Ireland are known (more like notorious) for their corporate tax practices. Apple have a huge holding company (or was it?) in Ireland to handle their huge corporate tax. Luxembourg's name appear everywhere in the news where those big corporations are accused of their tax practices.

Just a while ago there was a scheme invented by IKEA to transfer money between Luxembourg and Netherlands.

In the article they introduce the term "Letterbox companies." I think I had some ideas what they mean.

I once looked for an address of the Luxembourg office of a World Tour cycling team. It was a smallish building and there was no significant signs or anything. There could have been an office with people working there for the team but I suspect that it had only a letterbox and an empty room with a telephone which no one answers.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Don't hate us, hate the game!]の続きを読む

テーマ:Linux - ジャンル:コンピュータ

1. 2016/03/06(日) 15:59:18|
2. Info Luxembourg
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Lubuntu 15.10 on MSI M670

This notebook (MSI M670) is equipped with Sempron. Sempron seems to be a so-called K8 family (or architecture).

According to the Lubuntu documents, AMD K8 seems to be the one of the oldest CPUs that Lubuntu works on. K6 support is ended, so written in the document. Those K7 architecture CPUs have problem with the Flash player.

I am using the Chromium browser now to write this entry on the notebook above mentioned. I am watching the CPU load with 'Task Manager' as the notebook is a bit too sticky or lacking responsiveness. The CPU load is high. Why? Chromium is using too much of the CPU time.

When the web site has a lot of images and seemingly other unseen tricks, the responsiveness is unbearably low. This notebook is getting obsolete but it still works. I want to keep using it as long as it functions.

It also gets warm to hot when in use. The CPU cooling fan is humming almost all the time. It is a bit noisy. I know this CPU is a gas guzzler so to speak. It consumes too much electricity for sure.


Lubuntu 15.10 on MacBook Pro 2010 and MacBook Late 2009

While ago (when Lubuntu 15.10 was out) I downloaded the install image (lubuntu.....amd64.iso) and kept it.

I burned it on a DVD disk and tried to boot MacBook with it. MacBook did not recognize it. Oh my goodness!
I had totally forgotten that I had to convert the ***.iso image to Mac compatible ***.dmg image before burning it on the blank DVD media. So I re-burned the right image and tried it. It successfully booted.

Now one MacBook Pro 2010 and one MacBook Late 2009 have Lubuntu 15.10 on it.

MacBook Pro 2010 had a minor problem. The internal Wifi did not work. The right driver did not get installed. I knew that proprietary broadcom driver was needed. In the end I manually (through Package Manager) it and Internal Wifi chip started to function. I have an old external USB connection Wifi adapter for this kind of occasion. It helped.

For MacBook Late 2009 I had no problem at all. The internal Wifi chip worked out of the box.

Now I am trying to set up Japanese Input Method on them so that I can use (write) Japanese on them. So far I have failed. According to the official change logs, starting from 15.10, Lubuntu chose Fcitx as it default Input Method. OK, I understand. They decided to dump iBus.

I used to use mozc input method over iBus. There seems to be no official How-to documents anywhere but I successfully configured the system to write in Japanese. It was not too difficult.

This time, however, mozc over Fcitx puzzles me. Something is missing and I don't know what that is. I can further try and fail until I get it right.

The beauty of Debian based systems lies in Debian's excellent **.deb package system. This deb files contains dependency, conflict and other pieces of information among packages. In a perfect world, by installing mozc related packages, that 'something missing' packages should be installed automatically. This has not happened yet so far.

I always had to do something extra to make mozc work. There must be some missing dependency information there. But what?

Is it m17n (Multilingual related files)? Some iBus related files?

I am going to see what I installed on the MSI M670 (running Lubuntu 15.04) to make mozc work. Hopefully this will give me the ideas what to do.

10 minutes after writing the paragraphs above, I solved the puzzle and now I can write in Japanese. I blamed those who packed mozc files but I was totally wrong this time. I did not have to add any files. It was a small trick that I did not find.


In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [AMD Sempron (K8 family) is too slow?]の続きを読む

テーマ:Linux - ジャンル:コンピュータ

1. 2016/03/04(金) 21:12:28|
2. Linux
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It has been a while since I last used this MSI notebook (very old AMD Sempron equipped) that is on Lubuntu 15.04.

Two reasons:
1) For some unknown reason the WLAN chip (Ralink RT2561/RT61 rev B 802.11g, so the system says) is not functioning correctly since I upgraded to 15.04. The symptom is that the connection drops after certain time, not always the same but somewhat 3 to 5 minutes. It is irritating. I installed updates since them but the symptom never went away.

The workaround is feasible. I can plug USB connected WLAN adapter while killing the internal chip.

2) My MacBooks were working well.

Anyway, since Lubuntu 15.10 has bee out for some time now, I thought of upgrading. So I recharged it (although the is almost dead) and prepared for the upgrade.

The current version, 15.10, is not too different from 15.04 in terms of appearance. The implementation of LXQt has been on hold as it has not been as good as it should be.

This MSI notebook is old but still going strong.

I am not sure if the unknown connection drop comes from a hardware failure or software failure but I just hope it has been solved in 15.10 if the software is to blame.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ

[It has been a while since I used Lubuntu on MSI notebook]の続きを読む

1. 2016/03/01(火) 00:07:12|
2. Linux
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