Jamie's Random Musings

For once, Microsoft has been told that they can't take whatever they want, use it however they want, and stomp the life out of whatever individuals or small companies happen to get in their way.

As reported on a number of sites, including CNNMoney and Datamation, a U.S. federal appeals court upheld a patent infringement ruling against Microsoft in a case concerning "custom XML" handling.

Of course, Microsoft immediately tried to pooh-pooh the whole thing with statements about removing "this little-used feature", and they will reach into their petty cash drawer to pay the $290 million judgement. But to me, at least, this is a nice Christmas flash of hope.

jw

I have mentioned before that I use a number of Bluetooth peripherals with my portable computers. This is one of those things where, the more I use it the more I like it. I've now gotten to the point where I feel like if you have a laptop/notebook/netbook computer and you aren't using Bluetooth with it, you're at least missing out on some things, and you're probably going to unnecessary trouble and/or expense. With the latest Linux distributions, Bluetooth is really easy to set up and use, and it works very well for a variety of peripherals. I currently use the following:

- Mouse: this is the obvious place to start. If you have a portable computer with built-in Bluetooth, you can save a USB port by using a Bluetooth mouse. Particularly on netbook systems, where there aren't a lot of USB ports, this can be a big advantage. But even on larger notebooks and laptops, if you make a lot of use of USB ports, you might be happy to recover one by using a Bluetooth mouse.

- Mobile Phone: This is another common use. The majority of mobile phones available today include Bluetooth support. While it is very commonly used to connect a headset, it can also be used to transfer files (such as pictures and videos) to your computer.

- Headset: This is a less-commonly used option, but if you frequently use audio in/out, for example with VoIP or video chat, or playing music and videos that you don't want to disturb those around you with, a Bluetooth headset can be a great option. The one I use is a simple mono-earpiece/microphone unit, which can also be used with a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone.

- Printer: In all honesty, this was the one which surprised (and pleased) me the most. I didn't bother to try this for a long time, probably because I had previously tried to use Infrared connection with my Canon BJC 50/55/70/80 printers, and while that worked, it was so slow that you could pretty much watch the grass growing while you were waiting for the printing to finish. When I got a new HP h470 printer a few months ago, it came with a Bluetooth dongle, so I gave it a try. It is wonderful - it's SO nice to just put the printer on a shelf somewhere around my desk, and just turn it on and print when I need to, without worrying about cables. Of course, it is every bit as good when I am traveling, and I have one less cable to pack, and I don't have to worry about finding enough space on the hotel room desk for both the computer and printer.

The first question, of course, is does your portable system have Bluetooth support? One simple way to answer that, if you are running Linux, is to look for a Bluetooth icon on the Panel (taskbar). If you see one there, you should be in business - but even if you don't, it doesn't mean you don't have it. If you are running a KDE desktop, try going to Menu/Internet/kbluetooth (KDE Bluetooth). When you select that, it will start a configuration dialog, and then put the Bluetooth icon in the Panel. If you are running an Xfce desktop, look for the Bluetooth icon in the Panels, and if it is not there check the packages and configuration. All I had to do on my Xubuntu system, for example, was add the gnome-bluetooth package, and then it worked perfectly.

If your portable system doesn't have Bluetooth built-in, you can get a Bluetooth USB "Dongle" to add it. I am using a variety of these, from Trust, Belkin and others, and they have all worked without problem on every version of Linux I have tried. For convenience, look for the "nano" or "pico" dongle form, rather than the older and much larger "thumb" form. For functionality and compatibility, make sure the dongle is at least Bluetooth 2.0 compatible.

Once you have Bluetooth running on your computer, you are ready to start using Bluetooth peripheral devices. There are a few configuration options, which you can find by right-clicking the Bluetooth icon and choosing "Preferences", but the default settings are correct and appropriate for the vast majority of cases. When you want to use a Bluetooth device, you have to connect (pair) it with your computer the first time. It will then reconnect after shutdown, reboot, power cycles and whatever else. If you are using a Gnome desktop (most Debian/Ubuntu systems), just click the Bluetooth icon and choose "Setup new device". If you are using KDE, right-click the Bluetooth icon and choose "Device Manager", then click "New". Both of these will bring up a Bluetooth Device Setup window. Then you need to initiate "pairing" from your Bluetooth device; if it is a mouse, there is generally a "connect" button on it somewhere (usually on the bottom); headphones usually only have one or two buttons and an LED, so you have to press and hold a button until the LED starts to blink; mobile phones have a Bluetooth menu with something like "search for a connection"; printers will generally start searching for a connection as soon as they are turned on. Once your peripheral device starts broadcasting for "pairing" (lots of analogies to singles bars here which I will let pass...), it should take only a few seconds for it to show up in the Bluetooth setup window. It will usually show up in two stages; first, the MAC address shows up (something like 01:23:45:67:8A:BC), then a few seconds later a description of the device will replace the MAC address (something like "Logitech m555b mouse"). Select the device, and click "Next".

Now comes the only slightly tricky part of getting a device connected - the PIN code. Most mice (all of the ones I have tried) do not require a PIN code, so they will just connect. Mobile phones will usually give you a code on their display, and tell you to enter it on the computer. Headsets and printers usually have a PIN of "0000". If none of these works, you will have to go to the documentation for the peripheral device, and see what it says about PIN codes. The New Device setup window contains buttons for "just connect" (no PIN code), "PIN 0000", and "enter PIN", so any of the above situations is pretty straightforward.

Once a Bluetooth device is connected, you have to figure out how to use it (duh). For a mouse, there is nothing to figure out - it just works- instant gratification! - usually in parallel to the touchpad or whatever pointing device you were previously using. For a headset, you need to go to Audio Setup and select it as the Input and/or Output device, according to your hardware and needs. I was surprised at how easy this was, and how well it worked, by the way. For a mobile phone, you can then use the connection from either end; on the phone, you can go to a picture, video or whatever, and choose "send via Bluetooth" (there are WAY too many different phones and phone manufacturers for me to try to describe the steps for this in detail). The computer will then ask if you want to accept a file from the phone. On the computer, click the Bluetooth icon and then Browse the mobile phone. The phone memory will look like a disk (or multiple disks if you have a separate memory card), and you can drag-and-drop files from the phone to the computer.

Printers can be a bit more tricky, because the procedure depends on the specific distribution you are using, and even on what version of a distribution you have. The best news is that with the latest Ubuntu (9.10, Karmic Koala), it is pretty much a no-brainer. Go to System/Administration/Printing, and click New. It will search for a printer, and in addition to USB and network printers, it now also searches for Bluetooth printers. A box will come up with the printer description, you can confirm that the driver it chooses is correct, and you're ready to print! I was amazed, impressed and very pleased the first time I saw this. With older Ubuntu/Debian and many other distributions, there are couple more steps required. The printer search does not look for Bluetooth, so you will have to wait for that to finish, then click "Other", which brings up the "Device URI" input. Open a terminal window, and type hcitool search. It should find your Bluetooth printer, and in the information about it you will see the MAC address. Enter that address, without the colons, in the "Device URI" box, like this:

bluetooth://012345678ABC

That should then get you into the New Printer setup dialog, where you can confirm the driver selection, and print a test page.

If you are using a KDE desktop, you need to go to the Control Center, select Configure Printing and Scanning, and use the same procedure described above to enter the printer MAC address.

Once you have successfully connected a Bluetooth printer, the definition and connection are preserved across shutdowns, reboots, and printer power cycles. As I said, I have my printer on a shelf behind my desk at home, and I only turn it on when I actually need to use it. As soon as I turn it on, and it finishes its power-up dance, it is connected and ready to use.

So, there you have it. A rather long description for what is really a rather easy process. As I said at the beginning, if you have Bluetooth and aren't using it, you are missing out on some convenience and functionality that you would probably like. it's not hard, especially if you start out like I did, and just get a Bluetooth mouse. You can have it connected in less than a minute, and the confirmation that your system has Bluetooth, and it works, is a good feeling. The experience you gain from doing that can be used for the next step, which might be connecting your mobile phone, and transferring pictures. Then you're really on your way!

Good luck,

jw 21/12/2009

During the past week I was able to look at a few more candidates in the Personal Financial Management area, and to gain some experience with the one that I have decided to use for now. Please keep in mind that what I am presenting here is intended only to give you an idea of what is available, with a very brief overview of each package, and give you a link that you can follow if you want to investigage further or try one of them yourself.

One thing that became clear to me while doing this is that easy availability and ease of installation in the popular Linux distributions is crucial for the success of application packages. My choice of packages to investigate was based on a very simple criteria - they were present in the Linux Mint Software Manager (with one exception, noted below). If such packages are in included in whatever software/package management utility is in your preferred Linux distribution, the chances of even knowing that it exists are reduced, not to mention the hurdles of finding, downloading and installing it.

HomeBank: This looks like a very interesting (if somewhat odd) program. It seems to have a very long history, as their web page mentions "more than 14 years of user experience", including an Amiga version for which there is still an "import Amiga data" function. When you start it for the first time, the best description I can think of for the main screen is "Spartan". A blank window with a menu bar. This is quite a contrast to programs like Quicken, which insist on starting with a barrage of propoganda, publicity, hints, tips, and a "Wizard" to help you set up your accounts and import your data. It takes just a little investigation to figure out how to create an account. Once you get that done, you can start to add some transactions, and you are on your way. HomeBank seems to have all of the usual features and capabilities - Categories to group and track your income and expenses, descriptions and tags to help you identify and later search for transactions, graphs and reports to help you analyze your financial state. It doesn't fit my personal taste and preferences, because I find it to be a bit tedious in a lot of small ways. It always seemed to start with that blank window, and I had to tell it to open a "wallet". Getting to my accounts overview, or to an account register, required a couple more steps after opening the wallet. Creating a transaction was also a couple more steps, and when I finally got there, rather than the typical "Deposit/Withdrawal" or "Credit/Debit" scheme, it uses +/- on each transaction. This is part of what I mean about the "European" feel to the program, that seems to be very typical here, perhaps even more so in France, where HomeBank originates. Even worse, the default seems to be "+", which makes every new transaction a deposit by default! If only that were really the case - but unfortunately, most of my transactions are debits or withdrawals, so I ended up having to remember to click +/- almost every time. The bottom line, though, is that it seemed to work very well for the testing that I did, and it seemed to be very complete. If it suits your needs and style, it could be a good choice.

Grisbi: The only thing I can say about this program was that it crashed on me. Repeatedly, and at various different places. I tried to import a QIF file, and it crashed. I tried to change the currency on an account, and it crashed. I tried something else (I don't even remember what at this point), and it crashed, so I gave up.

Skrooge: This one was the exception to the selection rule I mentioned above. It is not in the Linux Mint Software Manager, but there was a comment posted to my first article on this subject suggesting that I try it. As I appreciate those who take the time to read my blog, and I'm happy to get suggestions for things I haven't found on my own, I decided to have a look. What I learned was I have already forgotten what a big advantage it is for a packed to be included in a Linux distribution, or at least accessible in some way through the distribution. Skrooge is a KDE application, and is now distributed through KDE-Apps.org. However, what it tells you there is that the best way to get it is with or through your Linux distribution, and if that fails of course you can compile it from source. I looked at several of the distributions I use, and didn't find it in their repositories or software managers. I finally went to the openSuSE Build Service, and of course found multiple listing for it there. That always confuses me a bit - which version should I take? - and it was worse than usual this time because there were versions that just said KDE, others said KDE 4.3, and others didn't mention the version. I tried one-click installing the KDE version, and after a good bit of thrashing around it told me that it wanted to install 47 additional packages. No thanks! I'm just trying to get a simple look at a program here. I tried to one-click the KDE 4.3 version, and it eventually came to the same place - not too surprising, I suppose. At that point, I decided that I had learned my lesson. For this kind of application package, and for the average user, having it included in the distribution repositories, so it can be selected and installed very easily, is absolutely crucial. I think Skrooge might be a very good program, and I'm sure that some people have put a lot of hard work into it. But for this kind of package, in today's environment, if it can't be installed quickly and easily, I don't think it is going to gain much accpetance.

So, that's all the alternatives I'm going to be looking at for now. For my own use, I have decided to continue with KMyMoney. I have been using it, entering my accounts, current transactions, scheduled transactions and the lot. The choice between it and GnuCash was actually not easy, I felt that the two of them were about equal overall. I chose KMyMoney because I thought the user interface was a bit simpler, and it seemed to fit the way I work a bit better. But it was really small things like the way it uses Categories rather than making everything into an "Account" (which is mostly a matter of semantics, but it is the way I think of it, too), the way new transactions are entered, and the way scheduled transactions can be selected and entered manually. It certainly wasn't 100% in KMyMoney's favor, though. I particularly liked the way GnuCash uses tabs for pages in the main window, and it seems much more powerful in the way it handles scheduled transactions. Also, KMyMoney is in principle a KDE application, which means that if you are using Gnome (as with the standard Ubuntu distribution), or some other desktop manager, not only is the user interface going to look different from your other programs, but when you install KMyMoney it is also going to install a lot of KDE-related libraries and such. This was not a problem for me, because I installed it through the Linux Mint Software Manager, but I think it might be more trouble in other distributions, and some users might object to KDE-ness of it, or to the amount of additional stuff it installs. In the end, I'm pretty sure I would be happy using either one of these. In fact, I am going to keep GnuCash installed, and I have been keeping the accounts more or less up to date, although with larger batches entered less often, so that I have a reference and comparison and in case I find some significant problem with KMyMoney as I get deeper into it.

jw 13/12/2009

One of the few things which still require me to use Windows is my personal financial management program - I have been a Quicken user for a very long time. I used to be very conscientious about entering my transactions more or less daily into Quicken, but as I boot Windows less and less frequently, it has now gotten down to somewhere between weekly and monthly. Add to that the fact that a new year is approaching, which can be a good time (or a good excuse) to start with a new financial program, and the fact that I am tired of trying to figure out each year what new versions of Quicken have appeared and/or disappeared (Basic, Deluxe, Super-Duper Deluxe, with extra vitamins and minerals, automatic psychic detection of transfers, or whatever).

This seems like a good time to reconsider the alternatives available for Linux, so I spent some time looking at a few of the possibilities. What follows here is a "first impression" summary of the four programs I installed and tried. All that I have tried to do so far is transfer the data from Quicken, and then do enough basic set up to be able to get a feel for how the program will work, what it will look like, and how it will handle come common transactions.

A quick word about obtaining and installing these programs. Depending on what distribution of Linux you are using, you will find some or all of these programs in the "Software Manager", "Package Manager", or "Add/Remove Software". If you don't find the particular program you are looking for, you can usually go to the web page for that particular package (I have tried to include links when I can, and when I remember), and get it from there. I did all of this testing on Linux Mint, because all four of these packages are in the Mint Software Manager. The average time to download, install and start one of them was about two minutes. It doesn't get any easier than that.

- GnuCash: I started with this one because it is probably the oldest and best known of the group. It is certainly the one that I have known about for the longest. This was the only one which "sensibly" imported the QIF files I had exported from Quicken - by that I mean, after importing I ended up with something that looked reasonable and familiar, and seemed to have the correct balances for my bank accounts. The main window is "tabbed", initially with an Accounts overview. When you double-click an account, a new tab opens with the transaction details for that account. It has nice, obvious icons for various kinds of account and transaction operations. It has scheduled transactions, account reconciling, multiple-split transactions, and much more. Of course, beyond simply tracking your account balances, what you want one of these programs to do is provide you with reports, and preferably graphs and charts, of your finances. GnuCash has an extensive list of pre-defined reports for cash flow, income and expenses, asset and liability management, and much more. It also has a number of bar charts and pie charts, and a "custom report" capability that I have not had time to investigate yet. The only thing that bothered me about GnuCash is that it is a classic, and strict, double-entry accounting system. Every Quicken "category" became an "account" in GnuCash, so the account overview window is very cluttered, and my actual bank accounts are just mixed in with all the rest. Once I had opened tabs for each bank account, this was not so much of a problem, but I think it will always be an irritant, and it might have other effects that I haven't noticed yet.

- KMyMoney: This is probably the best known alternative to GnuCash, and their web page claims that it is "the BEST Personal Finance Manager for FREE Users, full stop". They might be right about that, it definitely looks very good. Although it is developed with and for KDE, and I use the Gnome desktop with Linux Mint, it installed with no problem. When I imported the QIF files from Quicken, it gave me a lecture about how bad, confusing, unreliable and otherwise objectionable QIF files are. I suppose that is true, and is evidenced by the fact that Quicken themselves gave up on QIF files several years ago. KMyMoney did manage to import the files anyway, and the data seemed to be all there, but it was not as familiar or obvious as it had been when I imported it into GnuCash. In the long run, I might just decide that it is better to make a clean break, and start fresh with one of these new programs, and just keep an old copy of Quicken with the data in it for future reference when necessary. KMyMoney seems to be specifically designed to be easy to use for those changing from Quicken or M$Money, and it will probably succeed in that. The user interface is clear and simple, with large icons for Home, Accound Ledgers, Account List, Scheduled Transactions, and so on. Categories are handled in much the same way as in Quicken, rather than being converted into accounts as in GnuCash. Scheduled transactions are easy to set up - easier than in Quicken, in my opinion - and easy to process either on schedule or early, which was something that I didn't see how to do in GnuCash. Typical things like reconciling accounts, searching for transactions, and transferring between accounts were all obviously there and easy to use. It looks like reports and graphs are where KMyMoney really shines, though. There is a very extensive set of reports, graphs and pie charts, organized into groups for Income and Expenses, Cash Flow, Investments, and lots more. I don't have enough data loaded yet to really look closely at these, but they certainly appear to be very good.

Both of these programs include some sort of "online banking" capability. I have not looked at either of them, mostly because I have never dealt with that kind of thing before, so I wouldn't know what I was doing anyway.

In addition to these two major programs, I have also looked at least briefly at two others, HomeBank and Grisbi. However, I have not had much time for either of them yet, and I don't want to do them a disservice by writing a preliminary review based on far too much information. So I will follow up with information on these two later this week.

These are certainly not the only programs of this type available for Linux. If you are already running Linux, take a look in the software management utilities, and you are likely to find several to choose from. The point is, if personal financial management software is one of the things that has been keeping you with Windows, then it is likely that you will find that you have one less reason now.

jw 7/12/2009

The final release of Linux Mint 8 (Helena) came out over the weekend. You can read the What's New document for the highlights, the Release Notes for a more complete description of the new release, or the complete User's Guide (PDF) for complete information about Linux Mint.

This release is derived from Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala), with a lot of significant fixes and enhancements, much nicer graphics (real relief for those who are getting tired of Ubuntu's orange/brown/dirt color schemes), and lots of pre-installed packages (for the applications most users commonly want or need). It is important to note that a good part of Linux Mint could be reproduced by a moderately experienced user installing Ubuntu and then adding the appropriate packages from Synaptic or whatever software repository or services - but that is exactly one of the major advantages of Linux Mint, you install it, and you have a system that includes many/most/all of the most popular packages. On the other hand, Linux Mint has come under some criticism because they include a lot of non-FOSS packages. They have attempted to respond to this by offering a "Universal Edition", which they describe as follows:

This edition aims to provide the same features as the Main Edition without including proprietary software, patented technologies or support for restricted formats.

Besides these generally available pre-installed packages, Linux Mint includes a number of Mint-utilities to make system administration, backup, software management and such easier.

The standard desktop layout has only a single panel at the bottom of the screen, rather than two panels as with Ubuntu, and there is a single main menu, rather than the three Applications/Places/System menus, which have been grouped into the single menu window, and a "Favorites" view has been added, similar to what openSuSE has for example. This turns out to be a big win in ease of use, especially if you take just a little time to customize the Favorites section to match you own typical use. You can remove items from Favorites by right-clicking on them, and add items by finding them in "All applications", and right-clicking on them.

Until now, if I were preparing a computer for someone else, who wanted to get the maximum functionality and usability out of it, I would always install Linux Mint. However, for my own use I would still load Ubuntu, partly because of the inevitable delay between the release of each new Ubuntu version and Linux Mint catching up to it, and partly because Mint includes some things that I don't generally need. This time, though, the Mint release has followed quite quickly behind the Ubuntu release, and I find that the more I look at and work with Mint, the more I like it. Add to that the fact that I start loading the Ubuntu Alpha/Beta/RC releases quite early in the cycle, which results in my having two different versions of Ubuntu at once, and I think what I will start doing is keeping Mint instead of the "current" Ubuntu.

So far I have only installed Linux Mint 8 on my two HP 2133 Mini-Notes - but they are probably two of the most difficult systems. I will add a short note here once I have it installed on all of the other systems, with notes and comments as necessary.

By the way, I have already confirmed that Linux Mint 8 does not have the irritating 60-second delay on Logout/Reboot/Shutdown (Hooray!).

jw