F9 to the Rescue!

An Eee PC user that often tinker with his computer would know how invaluable the F9 key is in restoring the Eee PC to its factory default. By pressing the F9 key while booting up, one can wipe out everything in the Eee PC and return it to its factory fresh condition.

I often used the F9 key to restore my Eee PC each time I bork my system but today I found another use for it. Last night, I spent a lot of time reading using the built-in ebook reader of the Eee PC. When I realized that it was time to sleep, I promptly turned off my Eee but it got sort of stuck in the shutdown window. So I forced it to turn off by performing a long-press of the power button.

This morning, I turned on my Eee PC but it just boots up to a black screen! Thinking that the system simply "slept", I pressed the power button to wake it up but upon pressing it, the Eee shuts down immediately. I tried to start my system twice and the same thing happened! Thinking that I messed up my Eee, I thought of wiping out my system and starting again fresh. But instead of restoring my Eee to factory default, I decided to use the option to check the disks.

After a few seconds of checking, my Eee restarted normally! This saved me a lot of time tweaking and reinstalling my apps. So there, if you think you messed up your configuration, don't wipe out your system just yet, maybe a simple disk check can breathe new life into your Eee -- saving you time in reinstalling and re-tweaking.

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Kindle Schmindle! I Prefer Comix!

My fellow PhilMUGger vicicasas has converted his Eee into his very own Kindle ebook reader. His picture of the Kindle-ized Eee was even featured at Gizmodo. I have a Treo 650 and I love reading my eBooks from there so although I do have a couple of eBooks on my Eee, only to keep on returning to my Treo 650 for my eBook fix.

However, another good friend of mine, reverseenginner of PeeePCeee has another idea: turn the Eee PC into a comicbook reader. I followed his tip on reading comicbooks from the Eee and I think that the Eee makes the best comicbook reader using a Linux program called "comix".

But instead of the "Killing Joke", I'm currently reading Iron Man: Inevitable. Cool huh?

Flyback: Time Machine for the Eee?

One of the "killer" features of the newest OS X (Leopard) is a feature called "Time Machine". In a nutshell, Time Machine is an automated backup facility of OS X that does the dirty job of creating backup in the background and on the fly. Theoretically, a Mac user who accidentally deletes a file can "go back in time" to recover his lost data. Time machine does its work quietly and efficiently while freeing the Mac user from worrying about doing his backups.

Enter Flyback. The princible behind Flyback is the same, set and forget backup scheme that works unobtrusively in the background. Flyback requires some Python files as dependencies but theoretically, once it is set up, your Linux system will have a consistent backup running in the background.

I have yet to try installing Flyback on my Eee and once I do, I'll surely document it both as a personal reference and as a service to my fellow Eee users.

Heads Up: Money Manager Buddi Updated... Again!

My favorite money manager on my Eee PC has released yet another update. The most current version now is Buddi-1.1.1.1.

I downloaded and installed this newest version and the program seems more responsive than its predecessor... but still not as responsive as the pre-3.x.x.x versions. It is, however still compatible with the plugins I installed for version 3.1.1.0 so no problems on that front.

Here's how I did the upgrade:

• When I fired up Buddi, it prompted me that there is an update available, so I clicked on the button that says download update.
• Using File Manager, I navigated to where the file "Buddi-1.1.1.1.deb was saved and pressed Ctrl-Alt-T to open the
  console where the file was saved.
  
• I issued the command "sudo dpkg -i Buddi-1.1.1.1.deb
• I tested if the upgrade was successful by typing in "buddi" from the console.
• When Buddi ran, I clicked on Help --> About Buddi and made sure that the version reported is already 3.1.1.1.1.

That's it!

If you are not using Buddi yet but want to try it on your Eee, you can download it for free here.

Hots-Eee-ncing Treo 650 with the Eee!

Last Saturday, I decided to re-animate my Treo 650. My Treo was in a coma for almost a year because its speakers has inexplicably lost its "voice". I decided *not* to have it serviced through the official Palm service at Singapore because refurbishing it was simply too expensive. Anyway, thanks to a post at PhilMUG regarding a "dead" Tungsten X which was eventually revived, I was able to track down the stall that did the repairs and the technician at the stall was able to replace my Treo 650's speakers for only Php 800 (around US$20).

Armed with my revived Treo 650, I remembered seeing "Palm Pilot Tool" in my Eee's Advanced Mode menu. So here is what I did to HotSync my Treo 650 with my Eee.

• Start the Palm Pilot Tool (Applications --> Utilities --> Palm Pilot Tool)
• Select "Wizard" and let the wizard detect your PDA's user name and port
• Once the wizard has done running (it took me a couple of tries to successfully complete this step so be patient), it should display your user name on your PDA.
• Once its all done, run HotSync again by pressing the hotsync button on your PDA.
• Your PDA's data will now be viewable on the Eee through the Palm Pilot Tool.

That's basically it! I tweaked the Palm Pilot Tool to "dump" my Treo's data on my Eee's built-in Addressbook and Organizer.

Oh and one more thing... this my problem of importing/synchronizing the addressbook and calendar between my Mac and my Eee PC! (take note Adel)

Erratum: Activating the Eee PC's Advanced Mode

My post on activating the Advanced Mode for the Eee PC has an error. I was not able to type the commands completely so people who followed my instructions may not have successfully activated their advanced desktop. So here's a clearer instruction:

• from the Easy Mode desktop press "ctrl-alt-t" to open the terminal
• at the terminal window, type "sudo apt-get update" at the user prompt and wait for the user prompt to return
• then type "sudo apt-get install ksmserver kicker" and the installation process should start
• once the process is done (you'll know because the user prompt at the terminal will return, close the terminal and restart your Eee. After the restart, you'll still see the usual Easy Mode screen.
• to go to advanced mode, press the power button (or click on the round red button beside the smiley face in your task bar) and you'll see an additional option "Full Desktop" -- click it and your Eee will restart its window manager to the Advanced Mode.

The error in the original post was I forgot to include the word "install" in the 3rd step. Thanks the the eagle-eyed ivan for the heads-up.

MyPasswordSafe: Password Manager for Eee

When my favorite online banking site changed their password authentication scheme to accommodate web browsers other than Microsoft's (in)famous Internet Explorer, it prompted me (and I assume other users) to change their passwords. I dutifully changed mine but after a few days, I stupidly forgot my new password! So I had to go to my bank to apply for a new password and now I had to find a way to remember this newer new password.

Thankfully, I stumbled upon a thread at the EeeUser Forums that discussed password managers. They were discussing KeePassX but when I attempted to install it, I always end up with a "segmentation fault" error. Exasperated, I opted to do my own research on the matter and after browsing my Eee's Synaptic Package Manager, I came up with a nifty program called "MyPasswordSafe".



Installing MyPasswordSafe is as straightforward as marking it for installation under Synaptic -- as long as the additional Debian repository is included in it -- and then clicking on the "Apply" button on the menu. If you prefer to use the CLI, here's how it's done:

• Open a new Terminal window
• At the prompt, type in "sudo apt-get install mypasswordsafe"

And that's it!

MyPasswordSafe will be installed at /usr/bin so to run it, open a Terminal window and type in "/usr/bin/MyPasswordSafe". If, like me, you find it useful, you can add it to your advanced mode menu by using the Menu Editor (Application --> System --> Menu Editor). For help an how-to on using MyPasswordSafe, refer to http://www.semanticgap.com/myps/.

FEBE: Restore FireFox Settings After an Eee PC Reinstall

Since I got my Eee PC a couple of weeks ago, I had to restore it to factory defaults several times because I had this compulsion to almost constantly install/uninstall apps that causes it to crap out. Restoring to factory defaults is really easy but the hard part is to restore my settings, especially the customizations I made for FireFox. Following the lead from a post at EeePH, I downloaded and installed FEBE to create a backup of my FireFox settings.

Installation and configuration of FEBE is a no-brainer and even the most novice user should be able to do it, Now I have one less headache should I happen to bork my Xandros install.

EeeTip of The Moment: Stuck in Eee PC's Xandros? Here's a Website For You

The Ultimate Linux Newbie Guide :: Linux without the technobabble!

I know that a lot of new Eee PC users are having a hard time adjusting to the new software environment that comes with the Eee PC.  Well, until they get the courage to tinker with their Eee and setup Windows, here's a website that can provide a lot of help  through those d'uh moments -- the Ultimate Linux Newbie Guide!

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