This guy knows what he is talking about, follow his tutorials to become a real arch linux user!

I think I found a new interest this semester and it is networking. There is a new teacher in school and he is actually pretty cool cause he is teaching us how the networks are working under a usb bootable linux system he built from arch linux. All the time he is investing on this distribution is not paid and he is doing this only for the well of the education. There is still some bugs in Candide, but I think that with some encouragement and a lot of testing it will become a great pedagogic tool for the futur students. 

Maybe you should go take a look at his website to download and test it out! Candide Linux

I realized a couple of weeks ago that building my own linux from Arch linux was going to be an interesting project. I unfortunately only had a macbook pro back then and it is almost impossible to install arch on a partition without damaging my OS x partition. It is for those reasons that I bought a small Eee pc (1201N) to one of my friends at a low price. With this laptop I was finally ready to install the amazing OS that is linux. 

In the beginning I have been through the setup with one of my friends and I didn’t all of the installation process. It’s by searching on the internet that I realized that nothing can teach you more than the internet about subjects such as linux. I found a tutorial on youtube where a guy showed how to install Arch linux from nothing to gnome graphical interface. I didn’t followed his tutorial until the end because I wanted a light graphical interface.

I know this blog article isn’t really constructive but I just wanted to say how amazed I was by arch linux and i’m only at the beginning of my experience! For the moment I have a flushbox graphical interface with a basic Arch linux distribution.

For those who would like to get started with Arch linux, here is a couple of pages you will find interesting:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjTTl_9aUXc (Tutorial part1)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azySq-uBaB8 (Tutorial part2)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xF60AQu-K4 (Tutorial part3)
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Main_Page (ArchWiki)

Have a nice week,
Phil.

If you have a little bit of time to lose, go check out this google tools! Basically you just type in a word or a term and it will show you many interesting statistics about this search in the world. 

I knew that Google had an operating system, but I didn’t imagine that it was that simple. Basically from what I have read, the operating system is comparable to the chrome web browser. I think the idea is really interesting and will reform the way to see portable computers. Even if you are almost obligated to use a data plan with this kind of computers, I do believe that it is a huge step to the cloud computing. To make it brief cloud computing is a concept in which the simple task that is normally being runned on your computer will be runned on a distant server. So basically if you want to write a word document with your computer, you will have to use Google documents, if you want to listen to music you will use an app and etc. An interesting feature that makes me think of my wonderful mac is probably the Chrome Web Store. This store will allow the Chrome OS user to download and install some diverse applications to make the computer a little bit more useful.

Even if I think it is a really good idea and that it is really going to reform the current way to see things, I think that the product is not ready to be used by anyone. I do believe this, because data transfer plans are expensive and the product seems a little bit limited in term of tools. But I am still giving a high five at Google for being the first company to try to make the cloud computing work.

Phil.

The android phones are for now the only phones that have a native application for the Google+ platform. This might not be a huge advantage over the other phones, because Google is actually developing an application for the iPhone, but it is an advantage when you have a Nexus S. I might be wrong, but I personally believe that because the Nexus S is a phone produced by Google, all the applications are converging to their social network. I really think they will continue developing the platform in concert with the phone. For example, I took some pictures with my cellphone and when I arriver on my Google+ account, they suggested me to upload them on my page. It is fun, but I just can’t take any kind of pictures… 

Phil.

When I finally got rid of my old and crappy cellphone, I acquired an intelligent cellphone that had many interesting functions and applications. I discovered a QR code generator and since this time, I am in love with those little codes. The code is a two-dimensional code that was designed by Toyota to identify pieces. Everyone who has an intelligent phone with simple applications can read the quick response code. A lot of things can be shared with this pixelated graphic, such as: Contacts, URLs, phone numbers, calendar events, plain texts, sms and much more. I hope that those codes will eventually kill the usual way to read information. Who knows, maybe everyone’s contact card could be tattooed on their forearm in a couple of years!

Phil.

I just bought a Nexus S a month ago and I was stunned by a particular application: Google Goggles. This application is literally acting like a pair of eyes with a database. It was the first time I saw a small portable application that was able to make visual recognition and I felt powerful with this tool. Here is a small video that explains the functions of the Google Goggles: http://www.youtube.com/embed/Hhgfz0zPmH4 .

This application is always growing and that is what is interesting. Today Google goggles can recognize: Texts, landmarks, books, contacts information, artworks, wines and logos. It get’s interesting when the application take the information and compares it to the Google database. Like this, you can be directly redirected to the website of a logo you just scanned, or find the name of an artwork you just scanned. For example, I scanned the logo of a Sharpie pencil and got redirected straight to their website!

Briefly, I think it is an interesting app, but I haven’t found a real usage in the everyday life. It is pretty fun to play with and to impress friends, but not to achieve things. I still enjoy it and I like the fact that it is free!

Phil.

Don’t think I am going to talk about a consumable drug; I am going to talk about the great company named Apple. Apple has been founded in the seventies by the well-known Steve Jobs and his two co-founders. A lot of people are saying that buying an apple product is paying more because of the brand; I personally think they are wrong. I think they are wrong because, it is true that some of the Apple products are expensive, but obviously you pay for the quality over the logo.

First of all, I personally think that Apple is unique because it is offering products that are good looking. I do believe that it is impossible to find the smooth look of a Mac on a PC. The electronic devices are well designed and we clearly see that there is a research that has been made to make it as nice as possible. If you compare an iPad to a generic tablet computer, you will clearly see a difference in the appearance of the product. The operating system is full of usage to and that is bringing me to the second point.

Second of all, Apple products have functions that generic products don’t have. We can explain that by the fact that Apple developed some really good operating systems. I will take to support this argument the rivalry between the Mac computers and the good old PC. I will not hide my opinion, I have been using a Mac for about a year and I think it is the best computer I ever had. Briefly, the Mac OS X was based on a Unix system, which is a pretty good system full of utilities. Compared to a Unix-based system, Windows is limited in what you can do with it. The Mac OS X is still pretty well built, with a friendly user interface. But don’t think a Mac is limited because of this friendly user interface, there is still a terminal and you can do a lot of things with it!

Third of all, the Apple support is easy and trustable. Like I mentioned previously I have been using a Mac since a year and I didn’t have any problems yet, but there is something I like about apple. If I have a problem with my computer, I know where to go: To the apple store. When a regular computer part breaks you usually have to go to the place you bought it and sometimes they will just tell you that they can’t fix it and that you will have to send it to the company, etc. When something breaks with your mac, you just bring it at the Apple Store, and they fix it, or change it. You are not wasting time and they usually trust you.

Briefly, Apple products may be expensive sometimes, but you pay for the quality and the support. Apple products are beginning to get popular and I’m not surprised if they will eventually put down their main competitors.

Phil.