Third Laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad P14s

My previous laptop was an ASUS UX331UN, and I wrote a post when I got it 6 years ago reviewing it [LINK]. It served me well, so I figured for a while that when it came time to replace it, I would most likely get another ASUS laptop. Over most of this year, I noticed progressively more often when using that laptop that it would make an odd whirring sound, and that would be especially noticeable when it would be shutting down. This motivated me to start considering to get a new laptop. More recently, the recent US presidential election result forced the issue for me, as I was concerned that the president-elect, once inaugurated, would impose heavy tariffs on many different countries that would significantly impede global supply chains that are essential for the manufacturing of electronic goods, including laptops. Thus, I thought carefully about and made the decision to buy a new laptop. Follow the jump to see more.

Ongoing problems connecting a Canon CanoScan 4400F scanner to Linux Mint

This post is about the experiences I've had connecting a Canon CanoScan 4400F scanner to various computers, primarily focusing on my current laptop which, as of the time of first writing this post, ran Linux Mint 19 "Tara" MATE along with Microsoft Windows 10. For context, I am hoping to scan some of my personal & work notebooks for personal archival. I figured that this scanner, which I've had for a long time, does a good job at rendering images, even though it is quite old & slow, so I should continue using it for as long as it continues to work.

I used to use this scanner regularly with my previous laptop, which is an ASUS U30Jc and, when I last ran it regularly, ran Linux Mint 18.3 "Sylvia" along with Microsoft Windows 7; initially when I connected the scanner to the old laptop (a few years ago), it didn't work with Linux Mint out-of-the-box, so I decided to do all scans in Microsoft Windows and then transfer files between partitions later. I stopped using that laptop approximately 2 years ago, and since then until the beginning of this month, it just sat in a box gathering dust. At the beginning of this month, desirous of using this scanner again for the aforementioned purposes, I brought out the old laptop & scanner, but found out that in the intervening 2 years, the damage to the laptop's screen & hinge had worsened, the battery had completely died due to no charging in that time, and the laptop (on either OS) would randomly overheat & shut off. At this point, I now believe that old laptop should be junked.

My current laptop is an ASUS ZenBook UX331UN. I didn't think the scanner would work with it, because it uses USB 1.1, and I remember having trouble getting this laptop to read an older USB device. Just for the heck of it, I decided to connect the scanner to see what happens. Just as with my old laptop, in Linux Mint, the Simple Scan application didn't find any connected scanners. However, I had the idea to run the command "sudo simple-scan" from the terminal. That showed that the scanner was in fact being recognized, so this was probably a permission problem; I also realized that the earlier problem with another old USB device was specific to that device and not a general issue with this laptop reading any older USB device. That said, when I tried to scan a document, I got a window showing the error "Failed to scan: Unable to connect to scanner". Follow the jump to see more.

Second Laptop: ASUS ZenBook UX331UN

I was hoping that a post from when I got my first laptop, an ASUS U30JC, would provide a template for how to review my new, second laptop. Sadly, that post was from over 8 years ago, when this blog was just a year old, I had not yet started college, and my writing was much worse. With that in mind, I now provide a review of my new laptop; this review will be by no means a thorough review of hardware, but will be more of a summary of my experiences installing Linux on it and using it for around a month.

A few months ago, I noticed that part of the plastic frame around the screen of my old laptop, along with the hinge below it, had partially detached. A little over a month ago, that detachment had become much more noticeable, to the point of becoming a liability for me: the laptop would no longer close properly (without me risking breaking it altogether), so I would not be able to take it anywhere outside. Up until that point, I had experienced no major hardware issues with that laptop, and only minor issues such as the optical drive occasionally being unresponsive; I could tell that it was struggling a little more with newer software, but on the whole, it was performing quite well, so while I had from time to time over the last couple of years been looking casually into replacing it, this sudden development forced the issue. Given my disability, I wanted something a bit more lightweight, because my old laptop was 4.5 pounds, which was a bit heavy for me; that said, I still wanted something that would offer a reasonable amount of computational power, and while I didn't anticipate requiring a high-performance graphics card for gaming as I am not a serious gamer, I figured there may be some casual games as well as the possibility of getting into GPU programming for my work for which I may want a reasonable dedicated graphics card. Luckily, I found the ASUS ZenBook UX331UN, which seemed on paper to fit the bill on all counts, and I found only a few left in stock online for a reasonable price (just over $1000), so I went ahead and bought one. Follow the jump to read more.

Featured Comments: Week of 2011 June 19

There were two posts this past week that got a handful of comments, so I'll try to repost a few from each.

2011 June 20: Linux and My Computers' Hardware

An anonymous reader said, "DELL Latitude E6400 with Linux Mint 11 (64bit). Everything works flawlessly on the E6400. Touchpad, audio, sleep, hibernate, wireless, wired, microphone, audio volume buttons. Just like it was made for this laptop. The only thing I really do not like on the E6400 is the LAME Intel graphics hardware. I would pick ATI/AMD or NVidia graphics hardware over Intel graphics hardware any day--twice on Sunday. I also recently had Ubuntu Linux 10.04 LTS 64 bit desktop on the E6400 and had no problems at all. I moved to Mint 11 because I really like the work they did to bring in the visual elements and general usability. The Mint Gnome menu arrangements and color schemes are much easier on my eyes and brain and I like that it is ready-to-go upon install without modifications/additions. I highly recommend Mint 11!"

Review: Porteus 1.0

An anonymous reader (seeming to either be the lead developer or someone close to the development of Porteus) said, "Thanks for the review! I'd like to add that the installer uses SYSLINUX tools and a preset configuration file, which allows users to boot into KDE or LXDE without logging in via the CLI (though text mode is available as well from the boot menu). The boot parameters also allow users to boot with persistent changes and/or a copy2ram function. Skype didn't work on 64-bit because you were using a 32-bit binary on a 64-bit system, and Porteus is not a multilib environment. We do have a package manager included (it's further down in the system menu, 'Porteus Package Manager' or 'PPM'. This is still in beta and we're still working on populating it with modules. If you'd like Skype for 64-bit and it's not in the repo, let us know in the 'module requests' section of our forum, and someone can whip one up for you :). Thanks again, and I'm glad you liked it!!"
Commenter Barnaby had this to say: "Further to the 32 bit Skype on a 64 bit system which obviously did not work, I think the idea is for people to create their own modules from other formats with the easy to use Modules tool. Automated conversion into modules is one of the greatest strengths of Slax and now Porteus."
Another anonymous reader had this gripe: "I tried Porteus. I liked most of it, but I hated the primitive way of 'persistence' or saving config setups. You have to hack config files to specify some 'save.dat' file. In 2011, why not just make persistence auto like Ubuntu, et al, do??? Also, I wanted to auto boot with lxde and copy2ram but again, this is very complicated. I do not want to type boot cheatcodes every time I use the distro. Maybe there is a hack to do this. BTW, Puppy has a friendly way of using a 'pesistence' save file ...no editing of config/boot files."
Yet another anonymous commenter said, "I agree with the negative comment about the the office suite selection. However, it was choosen because of its compactness. Would abiword and gnumeric be some better options?
For those who would like to have the openoffice suite on porteus instead of the koffice suite (the latter being Porteus standard because it is lighter, so to respect the small size of the distribution), openoffice is installed rather fast in cli mode, see post 6 of KSA_ARAB: https://porteus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=58 Installing packages could be a very fast process once you catch it. Different possibilities are available, amongst other Porteus package manager. It is also a very good idea to install porteus hdd, also called the (Slackware) frugal install (some kind of poor man's intall), instead of running it usb or cd. A few hdd procedures are available on the Porteus forum."

Thanks to all those who commented on this past week's posts. Unlike this past week, where I did have two reviews planned, I don't have anything planned for this coming week, but again, I'm sure I'll be able to think of something to write about. Remember, if you like what I write, please continue subscribing to, commenting on, and sharing these posts!

2011 June 20: Linux and My Computers' Hardware

A couple things (which will be mentioned later in this post) prompted me to write this, so here it is. This is an overview of the two computers on which I have installed and used Linux regularly and things related to regular Linux usage on those computers.

First Computer (Past)

Sony VAIO desktop with Intel Pentium 4/HT processor at 2.8 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB hard drive, integrated ATI Radeon 9200 graphics card with available 1920 by 1200 resolution (used 1280 by 1024), integrated sound card, used in conjunction with a 21 inch Nokia CRT 4:3 monitor, Sony speakers, keyboard, and mouse, and Logitech QuickCam Communicate STX webcam

Second Computer (Current)

ASUS U30Jc laptop with Intel Core i3-370M processor at 2.4 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB hard drive, integrated Intel GMA 4500HD graphics card with available discrete NVidia GeFore 310M (512 MB graphics memory) graphics card with 1366 by 768 resolution, integrated sound card and speakers, integrated keyboard, integrated webcam and mic, used in conjunction with Microsoft USB mouse

Follow the jump to see the rest.

Adafruit Bears Fruit for Microsoft

Several days ago, open-source hardware company Adafruit offered a "bounty" of $3000 for the first person to hack Microsoft's Kinect (formerly Project Natal) device. For those of you who don't know, Kinect was originally just an add-on hardware accessory for the Microsoft XBOX 360 allowing for motion sensing of one's full body (as opposed to using an external device, like the Wiimote in Nintendo's Wii). However, companies like Adafruit saw the additional value in a product like this, and Adafruit offered a cash prize for whoever could first release an open-source driver (not necessary for Linux per se) for the Kinect. (Someone did win and receive the cash prize already.) Since then, dozens of new and interesting uses for the Kinect have come up, including being able to manipulate pictures and videos using just your arms (sci-fi style) and being able to make a movie of you using a lightsaber in real time by having the Kinect track the motion of you swinging around a long stick. The possibilities are virtually endless.
More interesting, however, is Microsoft's response to all this. First, they angrily condemned this cash prize offer saying they don't condone such modifications; furthermore, they seemed to vaguely threaten legal action against Adafruit and/or the skilled hacker. Later, once the prize had been claimed, however, Microsoft backed down from the legal threats, probably because even they knew they wouldn't stand a chance in court. Now, after all this, a Microsoft engineer has admitted that the Kinect was designed to be easy to hack for exactly these sorts of purposes.
So my question is, why wasn't Microsoft open and up-front about this from the start? Unlike Bart Simpson and Nelson Muntz, they don't have a "bad-boy" reputation to protect. If they had been open about this from the start, people who were cowered into submission and inaction by Microsoft's threats would have otherwise tried their hands at the Kinect, leading to more competition and possibly even higher-quality drivers (and even more possibilities). It looks like Microsoft is admitting that it needs to look like a bully even if it really isn't at times; why?

Featured Comments: Week of 2010 September 19

There were a few posts that garnered comments this week, so I will list them all.

Whose LXDE Is It Anyway?

Anonymous reader 1, referring to my example of KDE as a tightly-integrated DE, counters, "Funny the components you mentioned as integral part of KDE (Nepomuk, Akonadi, and Strigi) can be run in any DE (like LXDE) as well."
Anonymous reader 2 counters this by saying, "To use Nepomuk, Akonadi, and Strigi you'd need to have some kde libraries : x11-libs/qt-qt3support. This probably means you have kde installed and lxde."
As anonymous reader 3 points out, "If someone really wants, it's possible to even run a KDE main component (like Konqueror) in a Gnome desktop (say Ubuntu), provided the necessary infrastructure (in this case, among others, kdebase) is provided. That, of course, defeats the idea of economy and the practical results desktop integration brings."
Finally, anonymous reader 4 explains, "Besides, I don't see that lack of identity as a problem, and something rarely mentioned: the main advantage of OB (and LXDE) is not really lightweightness,but customizability. No other DE is even a match in that respect (except maybe some tilling WMs, but those generaly require you to know some programing language)."

Microsoft's Hardware is Good Stuff

An anonymous reader corrects my description of Microsoft and its hardware: "That's cuz they don't make it, they contract for it."

Review: ArchBang 2010.09 "apeiro"

An anonymous reader asks, "Why are the pics not thumbnails so I can view larger?" I'm still working on it.

Microsoft's Hardware is Good Stuff

Readers of this blog know that I have many beefs with Microsoft, primarily over software and their overzealous patent protection/bullying of other organizations. However, please do not extrapolate my issues with Microsoft to the realm of hardware. I will say it loud and clear: Microsoft makes good-quality hardware.
I know a few people that use Microsoft webcams for video calling on the computer; the quality is certainly as good as (and in many cases better than) the quality of either my integrated laptop webcam or my Logitech QuickCam Communicate STX.
About 10 years ago, one of my relatives and one of my friends went outside of our house to the street across from ours, which was filled with construction workers building new houses on that street. They found, in the construction dirt, a Microsoft ball mouse. They brought it home, cleaned it a little bit, and started using it. It still works (and is being used) today.
Today, I was working in my college's library. I usually work at a computer that has a Dell mouse and keyboard. The Dell keyboards' keys are usually sticky to the point of near-uselessness, and the mouse surface is similarly sticky. Today, however, I used a computer with a Microsoft mouse and keyboard (which seemed to be as old as the other Dell mice and keyboards). Using the mouse seemed like using it on a cloud (no pun intended), and pressing the keyboard keys yielded a fluidity in the key motions that I have never seen before. (Even the Apple iMac's keyboard's (as there is an iMac in that workstation as well) keys aren't as fluid, and iMac keyboards are renowned for their smooth operation, long life, and quietness.)
So make no mistake: while I don't agree with (to put it mildly) Microsoft's software, policies, and stance on patents, I love Microsoft hardware. I think it's ironic that its hardware is this good, considering that it puts its software on other companies' hardware.
(UPDATE: An anonymous reader has pointed out (something that I remember hearing before but slipped my mind when writing this) that Microsoft tends to contract its hardware manufacturing to another company. In any case, that company makes good hardware!)