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KVM Guidance

By Richard A. Johnson on Published: January 9, 2008 at 10:03 pm

Howdy all, I am coming back at you with yet another question that I am hoping you all can answer. I am looking at purchasing a new KVM switch to update my old one. A couple of things I would like and actually prefer are:

Good Linux, Mac, and Windows support
USB support
Audio support
Good video support and wireless keyboard or mouse support, video is far more important here though, it isn’t major if I have to use a wired USB keyboard or mouse
I prefer a 4-port over a 2-port
Price…hopefully not to expensive. Under $100 USD if possible

THIS is the one I am currently looking at. It would fit nicely under an LCD and gives me pretty much everything I am looking for. If you know of one better than this one please do tell. I can actually get this one for about $70 brand new, $10 cheaper than Newegg. Now of course if there is a KVM manufacturer out there that would like to ship me one to review, I would be more than happy to do so, just email me at nixternal AT kubuntu DOT org :p Thanks everyone!

Bag'em and tag'em

By Richard A. Johnson on Published: January 4, 2008 at 8:39 pm

It is getting much closer now to the official release of KDE 4 and KDE’s very own Troy Unrau has put out a post titled Tagged!, where he details the tagging process being completed for KDE 4.

Please remember that 4.0.0 will have bugs, issues, the odd crash that results from a corner case that no developer has encountered as a use case before, and so forth. There will be frequent maintenance releases from the 4.0.x branch in the future that will rapidly shape up the 4.0.x line. In addition, some things, like major improvements to plasma, will likely only happen in trunk. Yeah, we know plasma doesn’t do as much as kicker, and you can’t create a new folder by right-clicking on the desktop… we aren’t done with 4.x though, so hold on to your panties for a few months and use KDE 3.5.x if that really bothers you.

I think quite a few of you already realize that this isn’t going to the glitz-and-glam release of what is to be known as KDE 4, but it is about as close as you will get to it until a later released of KDE 4.1 makes its way to us. My favorite quote concerning this is the following by Troy:

If you are the type of person that was bothered by Apache 2.0 not being as well tested as 1.x, and you weren’t the first to try using kernel 2.6.0 because your uptime was more important, please keep using KDE 3.5.8 for now. Bug and security fixes are still accepted against the 3.5.x branch, and a 3.5.9 release would not be unrealistic development in the future.

This is true, however I think you will be fine no matter your background playing around with Kubuntu’s LiveCDs as they start rolling out the door.

My computer is cool

By Richard A. Johnson on Published: January 2, 2008 at 5:39 pm

Well, following my previous post about my CPU cooler, I went out today and bought a Zalman CNPS9500 AT. It was regular $49.99 USD on sale for $39.99. I just finished installing it, with a bit of modding to the bracket that holds it to the mobo, and the temps are wonderful. The modding part I did was there are 2 tabs that stick out on 2 sides of the upper bracket, one of those tabs touched a capacitor which wouldn’t allow it to fit nicely, so I took my Dremel and buzzed that sucker off. Here are my temps, both before the Zalman and with the Zalman:

Old setup idle temp: 46°C
Old setup load temp: 78°C
Zalman idle temp: 30°C - 33°C
Zalman load temp: 39°C - 43°C

Much cooler than before, right now I am compiling some code, with -j2 to stress one core, and the temps are pretty much at 39°C, with -j4 then both cores are about 36°C. A heck of a lot better than that previous Mascool piece of garbage that cost about the same amount of money. Thanks to everyone who commented on the previous post.

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