June 21, 2009

Computador brasileiro com Linux

Li esta semana na Linux Magazine uma notícia muito boa: a Microboard está oferecendo um notebook com uma ótima configuração e com Linux.

Segundo a própria Microboard, a configuração do computador é:

  • Processador Intel Core 2 Duo T6400
  • 4GB de memória DDR2
  • Tela de 14,1" com resolução máxima de 1280x800
  • HD de 320GB
  • Saída HDMI
  • Bluetooth
  • Webcam de 1,3 megapixels
O computador pode ser encontrado em lojas como Wal-Mart e Saraiva por R$1999,00.

O Linux que vem instalado no mesmo também chama a atenção: é o Ubuntu 8.04. Isto é muito interessante e tende a facilitar muito a experiência do usuário, já que o Ubuntu é reconhecidamente uma distribuição com foco em usabilidade.

É uma pena que eu tenha comprado um notebook recentemente, mas tenho certeza que a Microboard estará na lista de possíveis fabricantes na minha próxima compra.

May 27, 2009

What you pay for is really what you need?

It has been a long time since I am using Linux and this has changed a lot my habbits. One of them is the habbit of using low performance computers.
I am not a gamer and this has helped me to have this habit so, why do I need a high performance computer if I work with simple software?

That is a question really difficult to understand and, specially, to accept. The first step to understand it is to realize what do "simple software" means. Simple software are commom programs that do not need a great amount of RAM and that can run smoothly with a low performance processor. In these days, netbooks are the best example of low performance computers and softwares like Office Suites, simple games, internet browsing, chat.



With that explained, let's change the question: "Why do I need a computer with a 4 core processor, 4 GB of RAM and a video card with 512 MB of RAM to play solitaire?"
Maybe your solitaire game have really nice 3D effects, but that is not the case for 99% of the users.
So, why do everyone need that? Because they always need to run the last version of Windows. And I cannot imagine how it can run on a computer with a 1GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM if in my notebook described here it is already slow.

Thus people is buying computers that is more than two times the price of the computer they really need just because they need to run something that was supposed to be "invisible". However it seems to have some choices in the market solving this problem and most of them are netbooks. They come with a low performance hardware that is capable to run all these software with a version of Windows that is not the most recent or the last version of Linux.

So, think about that. If you already have a computer that solve your problem, remember about the Earth and do not buy another one. But if you are going to buy a new one, think if you really need what you are paying for.

May 23, 2009

Ad-free blog


By using this icon on my website I am stating:
  1. That I am opposed to the use of corporate advertising on blogs.
  2. That I feel the use of corporate advertising on blogs devalues the medium.
  3. That I do not accept money in return for advertising space on my blog.

May 22, 2009

La vente de matériel d'informatique au Brésil

Aujourd'hui j'ai lu dans le site web d'Info Exame une nouvelle très intéressante à tous les brésiliens.

De façon très rapide, elle dit que l'Asus va fabriquer et commercialiser les produits de pointe au Brésil. Mais pour mieux comprendre ça, il faut connaître um peu l'histoire du marché d'ordinateurs et produits electronique au Brésil.

Le Brésil utilise toujours un système de protéction à l'industrie de technologie très fort. Chaque produit importé doit payer des taxes qui devient son prix 2 fois le prix ici en France. Ça existe même aujourd'hui, mais pour les ordinateurs il n'est plus vrai. Le gouvernement a créé une loi il y a 3 ans qui a supprimé une gros partie des impots d'importation de manière qu'ajourd'hui, nous pouvons acheter les ordinateurs en payant la même chose que les français. Mais, quel est le problème? Les entreprises croient toujours que le marché brésilien n'a pas besoin d'ordinateurs, portables avec la même configuration que les européens. Une façon de reflechir très bizarre.

Aujourd'hui, ici en France, même les portables plus simples, comme lequel que j'utilise, ont un processeur double core et 2Go de mémoire. Au Brésil, pour le même prix il est possible de trouver un ordinateur avec un core et 1Go, mais nous exécutons les mêmes logiciels que les européens! Le résultat est: les gens qui cherchent un ordinateur plus puissant doivent acheter dans les magazins spécifiques, comme Waz, Hardplus, Oficina dos Bits et plusieurs autres qui vous devez acheter chaque partie de l'ordinateur de façon separée. Mais seulement les utilisateurs qui maitrisent l'informatique peuvent faire ça.
Voici les exemples (R$ est le Real, la monnaie brésilienne):
Machine avec 1 core(?) en France - 400,00 € = R$1200,00

Machine double core en France - 500€ = R$1500
Machine double core au Brésil avec sac à dos Targus d'une companie brésilienne - R$1500,00 = 500€ (dans ce cas là, il faut suprimmer le sac à dos qui normalement coût R$100 = 33€)

C'est dommage. Malheureusment, je n'ai pas trouvé un portable avec un core au Brésil, à l'exception des portables ECS qui sont très loin de la realité du marché. Ces portables sont moins chér que les autres, mais avec une configuration très insufisant. L'intention de confundire les clients est claire!
De toute façon, je n'avait pas la chance aujourd'hui. Je crois pas que le marché a changé beaucoup en 1 mois seulement. =p

En retournant: quand Asus dit qu'elle va vendre des produits de pointe, les même qui sont vendus ici en Europe, il est claire pour moi qui ça va vite changer la différence qui reste encore entre les produits des deux lieux.
Maintenant, il faut attendre un peu pour savoir si un jour nous pouvons avoir les lancements des téléphones portables comme iPhone, G1 et plusieurs autres au même temps qu'ici en France.

May 2, 2009

Qt 4.5.1 doesn't render KDE4 well

Problems with KDE4 and Qt 4.5.1??

Try cleaning your KDE cache:
~/.kde/cache-*/plasma*
~/.kde/cache-*/kpc/plasma*

From: http://rdieter.livejournal.com/13559.html

April 30, 2009

Another pandemic virus

While people is worried about the swine flu, I've read the following text from Slashdot:
"Recently, the Conficker/Downadup worm infected several hundred machines and critical medical equipment in an undisclosed number of US hospitals. The attacks were not widespread; however, Marcus Sachs, director of the SANS Internet Storm Center, told CNET News that it raises the awareness of what we would do if there were millions of computers infected in hospitals or in critical infrastructure locations. It's not clear how the devices (including heart monitors, MRI machines and PCs) got infected. Infected computers were running Windows NT and Windows 2000 in a local area network (LAN) that wasn't supposed to be Internet accessible, but the LAN was connected to one with direct Internet access. A patch was released by Microsoft last October by November that fixes the problem, but the computers infected were reportedly too old to be patched."
What should we think about this? Design decision failure?

This remind me something: system designers really need to rethink the way they usually work. Specially embedded designers.
And I'm not talking about software freedom. I'm not talking about Linux usage.
I'm talking about opening your mind when making decisions. People that I've already discussed about this just ignored different systems that aren't supported by their "designers heroes".

Adapting a distro for noobs

Manish has posted a nice article about how a distro and a community should word focused on noob users.


I recommend this: http://manishtech.wordpress.com/2009/04/24/a-dream-distro-from-a-n00bs-perspective/trackback/