My Blog Is Moving

Hey all,

Just to let you know i am moving away from WordPress to add my blog to my site.

To keep following my blog just visit http://www.krismunro.co.uk/blog

Thanks see you there

iVerseComics iPhone App – Review

There are 2 big comic book apps out on the iPhone, you have Comixology and IverseComics. Both of these applications, are portals to digital comics. When you purchase a comic from within these applications, they stay within this application and not taking up your iPhone desktop space.

I started with comixology, but then found out that iVerse were releasing one. I decided to go with iVerse as I had several digital comics already purchased by them, and that they would at somepoint be merged into this single app.

The comics I had purchased were Farscape #1 and #2, Ghost Whisperer #1 to #5 and Atomic Robo #1 to #4.

The iVerseComics application is nicely designed, the main icon looks proffesional and when you run it its easy to use and navigate. There are several screen to choose from the main two that users will click are the store and the My Comics, this My Comics page is designed to look like a bookshelf where all the comics are displayed by there covers and you slide left and right to see them…once you find the one you like you can just click it to start reading or there is a list view if you dont like this view.

The viewer to read the comics is great, it makes reading the comic easy and displays each section of the page just right on screen.

To be honest I have never been a big comic fan, I had a few Spawn comics when I was younger but I thought I would try them again. I enjoyed the ones I had purchased and also the free ones that have come with iVerseComics and will continue to try the free ones and if I like them continue with that series.

Overall its a very well presented application, but there is room for some improvments :

*note : I didnt include bring in already purchased comic apps to the application as this feature is coming.

• Subscriptions : Like an issue and want to subscribe for it to purchase and download the comic, this would be very cool…dont know how hard it is to do but would be a nice feature.
• Zoom : Once or twice I have found myself trying to read small speach/text in a comic (tried both views) and wished that I could zoom in just a little to read it. A zoom feature would be nice.
• More Comics : Its not been out long and am sure there is lots of work behind the scenes to do this and talking to the publishers, but past 2 weeks only a handful of comics have been released each week.
• Grouping : on the My Comics view, it seperates a series…maybe some sort of grouping for that series where you click that and you see all the comics for that series.
• More Preview Images : When you click a comic you only get to see the coverart, seeing maybe 3 inside previews would be nice.

Two other things that would be cool, and am sure most fans of this application and comic would like are :

• Motion Comics : I sent a message to iVersecomics on Twitter about if they plan on doing motion comics, they said they would stick with static comics. I think maybe an IverseMotion application which featured on the motion comics would be cool….but since they said “just static” I cant see this happening but it would be a nice idea.
• Desktop Viewer : So you have download your comics to the iPhone but wouldnt it be cool, to have a nice desktop viewer that grabbed your comics and you could see them on a bigger screen. A desktop viewer would be cool…though to do this I feel you would need an IverseComics account system, so it tracks what comics you have downloaded etc.

As I said its a great application and I will continue to use it, as comics are slowly growing on me. If your a comic fan and have an iPhone do check it out.

www.iversecomic.com

Ubuntu 9.04 – First Impressions

I have been using Ubuntu since 5.10 as my main operating system, and recently upgraded from 8.10 to 9.04 and here are my thoughts.

I decided to be brave and do a full format and install 9.04 with ext4 as the file-system…was this wise? time will tell but the improvements I have seen have been great…will talk about them soon.

There is not a lot of new things that jump out, but here are the ones that have

1. Loading Speeds : With using ext4 my boot times are increased and its very noticeable, I have gone from say around 18 to 22 secs to now 10 to 15secs…so far not file system issues have popped up since its new.

2. Loading Screen : The new loading screen looks very smart and for me a lot nicer.

3. Log In Screen : This again is new and for me its nice but does have a server log-in look to it…but its nice.

4. Notifications : This is very nice and I do like it, but it does have 1 bug where the icon displayed is blurry…hopefully a fix will be out soon.

I have now been using it for one week and so far, I have not noticed anything different (apart from the 4 above points) which is good…you dont want a new learning experience every 6 months (How often Ubuntu release a new OS).

Overall I am very pleased with this version, most of the issues I have had with previous clean installs or upgrades seem to be solved.

I will review 9.04 again when I have played with it a lot more.

My Top 20 Firefox Extensions

I posted not that long ago a list of Firefox extensions I liked, well here is an updated list as I have found a lot more that are very useful and good.

Image Based Extensions :

1. BetterFlickr : Enhance Flickr with a compilation of useful Greasemonkey scripts.
2. Abduction : Ever wanted to take a screenshot of a website, but most of it is off the bottom of the screen? well this allows you to grab the entire website and save it as an image. 
3. Fotofox : This addon allows you to upload photos to several socialnetworks, including Flickr and Zooomr .
4. FacePAD : FacePAD, better known as the Facebook Photo Album Downloader will allow you to download your friends’ facebook albums en masse with the click of a button.

Google Based Extensions :

1. Gmail Notifier : Add several Gmail accounts and Gmail for domain accounts with this great email checker.
2. Better GReader : Preview web pages inline in Google Reader, collapse the header and sidebar for more reading area, add favicons to feed subscriptions and more with Better Greader.
3. Better GCal : Adds collapsible header and sidebar, event title text wrap, colored weekend days, week numbers, and skins to Google Calendar. 
4. Better GMail 2 : Add useful extra features to Gmail, like hierarchical labels, macros, file attachment icons, and more. 
5. WiseStamp : WiseStamp – Enhance your email signatures.
   Easily customize your signature, insert your IM & Social services (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter…)

Video Based Extensions :

1. Video DownloadHelper : This addon allows you to download most embeded media on most websites.
2. Better YouTube : A compilation of some of the best Greasemonkey user scripts for YouTube in one interface.

Other :
 

1. Greasemonkey : This is such a cool addon, once installed you can then add scripts to it which can give you more features on specific websites and allow you to do more when on specific website.  Lots of Greasemonkey scripts HERE
2. Web Developer : Do you create websites, then this addon is a great tool. It has soo many features…..too many to list so just install it and you wont regret it. 
3. Deepest Sender : I moved back to Firefox, after finding Flock starting to get a little slow on me. I loved its blogging tool and so far this is the closest I could find that I feel is just as good. 
4. Adblock Plus : Get rid of unwanted ads with this great addon. 
5. FEBE : FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension) allows you to quickly and easily backup your Firefox extensions and more.
6. SkipScreen : Skips unnecessary pages on sites like Rapidshare, Megaupload, zShare, Mediafire, and more. Try it out, or watch a demo at skipscreen.com
7. Tabs Open Relative : Tabs Open Relative makes all new tabs open to the right of the current tab, rather than at the far right of the tab bar.
8. Old Location Bar : akes Firefox 3’s location bar “AwesomeBar” look and act more like Firefox 2’s old location bar.
9. Nagios Checker : The statusbar indicator of the events from the network monitoring system Nagios.

 

My Top Firefox Addons

I have been a big fan of Firefox, and have used it well before version 1. The best features are the addons, and here are my favs :

Greasemonkey : This is such a cool addon, once installed you can then add scripts to it which can give you more features on specific websites and allow you to do more when on specific website.

I mostly use the Flickr scripts, to enhance my experience on the site and also a youtube one that adds a download link on the page

Lots of Greasemonkey scripts HERE

Video DownloadHelper : This addon allows you to download most embeded media on most websites.

Web Developer : Do you create websites, then this addon is a great tool. It has soo many features…..too many to list so just install it and you wont regret it.

Adbuction : Ever wanted to take a screenshot of a website, but most of it is off the bottom of the screen? well this allows you to grab the entire website and save it as an image.

Fotofox : This addon allows you to upload photos to several socialnetworks, including Flickr and Zooomr

Deepest Sender : I moved back to Firefox after finding Flock, starting to get a little slow on me. I loved its blogging tool and so far this is the closest I could find that I feel is just as good.

Adblock Plus : Get rid of unwanted ads with this great addon.

Gmail Notifier : Add several Gmail accounts and Gmail for domain accounts with this great email checker.

Hope this helps a few folk

Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) – Review

With Ubuntu 9.04 coming in April, I thought I would review 8.10.

I have been using Ubuntu since 5.10, but only from 6.04 as a main operating system. At first it was hard to get used to, as all I had ever used was Windows but it didn’t take long before I started to get a feel for it.

I upgraded from 8.04 to 8.10 in November, and here are my thoughts.

Firstly the upgrade went very smooth, downloaded..installed…cleaned up and rebooted.

Issue #1

After the reboot this is when I noticed my first issue, this issue happened at the splash screen. It got half way and paused for around 15 seconds then continued to load. This 15 second wait was very annoying.

I am sure I had this before, and a fix was released but so far one hasn’t. It seems to be looking for a wired connection, and at home I use WIFI so a CTRL+ALT+DEL when it pauses skips this check….but in turn means any wired connections I add to that session wont be seen and a reboot is needed or a restart of the module.

- Solution : For a quick fix used a wired connection or CTRL+ALT+DEL….no fix was issued.

Once the desktop had loaded everything looked just like 8.04, I noticed a few icons had changed a little and a few apps were more up to date. I had issues with Virtual Box before with the kernel changes…I checked it and it worked.

Next I checked to see if my webcam was finally recognised, nope and the modules were still looking for an older kernel. I opened Amarok and everything looked OK, then I tried to remove a song…error due to missing something.

Issue #2

I really liked Amarok and wish it had a Gnome version, but I didn’t mind installing the extra KDE files so I could use it. I searched for a while to see if there was a fix and didn’t find one, but during my searched I found people suggesting alternative. I decided to look for one and see if there was Gnome one that could replace my loved Amarok..

I finally found Exaile, it acts like Amarok 1…has plugins and few other features. I used it for 2 days and then removed Amarok, granted it does have a few things that could be improved but its does the trick for me.

I use this laptop at work, and this is where I found my third issue.

Issue #3

The network manager doesn’t seem to see a wired connection, I can surf the net etc but when you check the info in the GUI it says there’s none. Now this could be related to Issue 1, as I have found my WIFI to be a bit on and off at home….and that long wait at boot.

I looked for solutions but its a known bug (this shouldnt have made it to 8.10), so no fix just got to live with it. I hope this issue is fixed in 9.04 as personally I think the wait at boot and the GUI info is a serious bug.

Small bugs

• Trash : Still sometimes shows that its full when empty, and only a reboot fixes it.
• Still cant see Vista shares : A connect to server is the solution, but it would be nice to see the share appear on the network.
• Bluetooth : I would love to see the Bluetooth file sharing app built in to the Bluetooth Applet, to save me having to remember to open it. Not really a bug, but more a feature issue.
• Webcam : I would love for Ubuntu to be able to see my HP Pavilion6000 Webcam, these drivers need to be included with future releases.

Overall for me…I feel that 8.10 has only one advantage over 8.04, and that’s the more up to date apps. Apart from that there is a lot of “known bugs” that made it into 8.10 which should have been fixed before the release, I am looking forward to 9.04 and I hope they have fixed a lot of these issues.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Ubuntu 8.10 – Review (Part 1)

So 8.10 has been out for a while now, and I have tried to upgrade to it in the past and have failed. When upgrading in the past I have been hit with a black screen, or when playing SecondLife I only got 1 to 2 frame per second (YUKKY).

I decided to take the plunge again as I new that Nvidia have updated and fixed issues with the drivers, so I though lets give it a go. After downloading and installing it told me to restart, this is when I thought “please no black screen”…..the restart to a long time as the loading process screen froze at half way….this lasted for 20 seconds then continued giving me a total of 45 to 55 second boot time (1st issue).

I saw a desktop and at first glance all looked ok, I check I had wifi, nvidia drivers, bluetooth and sound so all seemed good to start with. I loaded SecondLife and WOW…in 8.04 i was getting 8 to 12fps…now with this i am getting 25 to 35fps woohoo.

Next issue i had was running SL and Skype…all worked fine and using Pulse as my sound I then tried Amarok…problem 2…..i couldnt delete files…bummer and no fix….so I decided to try the Banshee…that had volume control issues…tried Rhythmbox again that also had volume control issues…so tried my last hope Exaile….WOW just like Amarok and runs smoother so bye bye Amarok and hello Exaile

So far its been an ok 24hrs, the only issue is this startup halt…hmmm hope they bring a fix soon

More soon when I play with it more

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Flock 2.0 – Internet Browser Review

Flock The Social Internet Browser – www.flock.com

I have been using from since version 1.0 on Linux, under my Ubuntu operating system. I really like the fact that it has a really nice facebook sidebar, built in RSS feed reader and other small cool features.

It wasn’t until I started using Flock that I started to do more things, for example I created a wordpress blog and started blogging (http://kjhm.wordpress.com/) I also created a Flickr account and started to use the built in uploader to upload photos.

Flock 2.0 has now been released and here are my thoughts, to start with version 2 isnt really a full release for me as it feels more like a point something update. Granted they have added a few more small features like MySpace sidebar, and its based on Firefox 3 (yes there are a few more things added but these are the ones that stand out for me).

I will be moving over to Mac in March 2009, and I am starting to think that I might abandon Flock as its starting to feel a little slow for me now. Granted I like the whole socialness at my fingertips, but I can get Facebook, Flickr and Twitter desklets on the Mac to do the same….hmmm

Overall if your a social beaver then then I recomend you download this, I am sure just like me once you start using it you will start to try new social things.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

To Mac or not to Mac

I used to be a windows user up until about 2 years ago, then I started to use Ubuntu as my main operating system.

Over the past 2 years I have really enjoyed learning about Linux, and also watching how Ubuntu has improved. The applications I use are 99% Gnome and only 1 application KDE based (Amarok). The laptop I am using is an HP Pavilion DVP6000 and I am now finding its getting very warm, when trying to do a few tasks….so I am now looking for a replacement.

I have had my eye on a Sony Viao, as I purchased one so I could use iTunes and SAM Broadcaster. It runs vista and YUK its crap….but leaving that aside its a fantastic laptop.

I have also started to look at Mac Books, though I have never been a fan of the OS. I have been reading up on OSX and I really like the full intigration it has with the apps, the iPhone etc. This has got me thinking about possibly getting a Mac Book now.

I have looked and checked and 99% of the applications I use on Ubuntu, are already ported over to OSX which is great. I then noticed that the graphics card on the Mac Book are a little lower than the Viao i was looking at…so I checked out the Mac Book Pro which has at the time of posting this a 8600GT which is a nice card. The battery life on the Mac’s are really good about 4 to 5 hours, where with my HP its about 30/45mins under Ubuntu which is pants.

So now I am highly thinking about getting a MBP, but not yet probably early 2009 as I have heard they will be doing a refresh to include BluRay support and BluRay drive which will mean a more up to date laptop.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Amarok – Review

This is a little addition to my other Amarok review, I posted a long time ago.

I recently purchased an iPod Touch, and since then I have been more into making sure my music collection is correctly tagged and also has the correct artwork embedded or downloaded. Before I didn’t mind too much, but now that the Touch has cover flow it looks a lot better than blank covers.

I decided to look at how to embed images into mp3’s, as iTunes and sometimes Amarok didn’t get the correct artwork for my jpop/cpop albums. After searching loads I noticed Amarok had a script manager…I have used this application a lot but never ever opened the script manager…now I am glad I did.

The first script I installed was “EmbedCover”, I would google the album artwork..then attach it in the Cover manager and then Embed and BINGO now it will always have the correct artwork.

I have also started to look into playing music of a similar genre so, instead of jumping on to google I looked into the script manager. I saw “LastFM Genre Tagger” and bingo it works like a charm.

Slowly but shurly my collection is starting to get a lot more organised, the only remaining task is to make sure I have no doublers or the wrong cover is attached to the album….this I can do at a nice slow pace, but for now Embeding and genre is doing its thing

I cant wait till Ubuntu 8.10 so I can install Amarok 2, as Amarok 2 looks soooo nice

Blogged with the Flock Browser