TheWatchWorks

I have been distro-hopping lately and have been trying-out various Linux Distros like: Ubuntu (and variants), Debian, Centos, Fedora, Mandriva, Mageia, openSUSE, Archlinux, Sabayon... and as a consumer, this is what I look for so that the Linux distribution would be perfect for me:

1) It should have sun-java (not openjdk or icedtea) because I use sites that require this like online banking sites, financial sites etc. The icedtea-plugin does not always work for these "secure" sites. If the Linux distro does not have this in its repositories or some 3rd-party repositories, then I cannot work with that. Recently, Ubuntu removed all their sun-java6 packages and therefore I had to go to this tutorial to be able to re-install it http://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/java

2) It should be able to make my printer work. This is a no-brainer.

3) It should have either transmission or deluge. I was surprised that Scientific Linux did not have this installed or available.

4) It should be able to play videos, dvds, cds etc.

5) For my laptop, the wifi should be working.

6) For my laptop, the fan should be working properly.

These are simple things that would make Linux usable for our daily lives.

Cheers!

I have successfully installed Scientific Linux 6.1 and have encountered some minor issues which needed to be overcome for it to be a consumer-friendly linux distribution. Here are what I have encountered which some other users may not find to be an issue:

1. There is no bittorent client in the given repositories. In short, I could not find Deluge or Transmission.

2. There is no sun-java6 jre or plugin. Although there is icedtea but as many consumers know, icedtea or openjdk does not work on many "secure" websites like for online banking or financial sites. There is a work-around for this though and a link is given in the forums on how to do this. But for linux newbies, they would not like to go through the hoops and loops just to get Java working.

3. So far, I have issues with my printer.

Aside from those minor issues, the distribution is very stable, fast and simple. And to add to all that, the community at http://scientificlinuxforum.org/ responds very fast to any queries thrown at them.

If you want a stable .rpm-based distro based on Red Had, then give Scientific Linux a try.

http://www.scientificlinux.org/

It is mind-boggling that these new phones that are about to be released to the public (or have been released in some countries) have irremovable batteries. Perfect example is the Nokia Lumia 800.

Having a cell phone wherein you cannot replace the battery just in case the battery dies or gets over-charged or just simply reached its expiry, is a big turn-off for most consumers. We want cell phones wherein we have the battery replaced or up-graded when needed. This simply shows that we want our cell phones to last.

I have just learned that the new HTC Radar also has a irremovable battery. What gives? Are these cell phone makers into the "all profits" mode by giving inferior products? I would rather go with the older HTC Mozart that has a replaceable battery than the HTC Radar at this point.

Phones that have irreplaceable batteries become "disposable" phones simply because when the battery dies or expires, then your phone dies.

It is as simple as this, would you buy a car with a battery that is irremovable, irreplaceable and has an expiry date?

Due to our recent low sales volume, we went below the quota required to retain Ebay's "Top-Rated Seller" status. In effect, despite our quality products and service, we have to increase our listings and sales to be able to re-gain our badge of being a Top-Rated Seller.

We have been busy lately preparing for a family-trip.

Last year, we went around China. This August 8, 2011 we will be leaving for Vancouver, Canada to sail aboard the Island Princess cruise ship for an Alaskan Cruise.

When the cruise stops at Anchorage, Alaska... we will fly-off to Kansas City to visit our relatives and then fly to New York City. After New York City, we will head to San Francisco where we will be flying-back to Manila.

If you send any emails, we might not receive them or reply to them unless we have access to free wi-fi.

Cheers!

Since Ebay is now going to charge seller's for their shipping fees (Final Value Fees will now include the shipping fees), it is expected that sellers shall now increase either their seller fees or their item prices to compensate on Ebay's moves.

Interesting articles can be found here:
http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2011/3/1300331288....

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/cab/abn/y11/m03/i17/s01

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y211/m03/abu0283/s03

http://cameradeals.1001noisycameras.com/2011/03/ebay-changes-fees-more-f...

To our friends in Japan, we are praying that everything is okay with you. The whole world is stunned by the power of the earthquake and the devastation it has caused. We also pray for your quick recovery. We know you are all strong.

If you are wondering as to how to track EMS packages on their way to GERMANY, you may follow the link found below:

http://www.dhl.de/en/paket/kundenservice.html

Please note that your tracking number will only appear on the website after 10 to 15 business days and most of the time, it will state "Received by Mr. xxxx" who appears to be the customs or duties inspector. Once it clears the inspector, they will either call the recipient or the recipient needs to call them to see if all is okay or if there are any duty fees required.

As we always state on all our listings, we are not responsible if the recipient gets charged for customs or duties.

Thank you!

We have noticed an inconsistent slowness in shipping via FEDEX, EMS, REGISTERED AIRMAIL possibly due to the tighter security checking in connection with the recent "terror" attempts via the dominant couriers.

Our apologies if our packages take longer than the usual time to reach you.

Thank you!

Shanghai, China

Beijing, China (The Great Wall and The Forbidden City)

To all our friends,

We will be going to China on July 16th upto August 1st. There will be no shipping-out available for anything. We have pre-posted some items for listing on Ebay starting on July 25th but we cannot ship these until August 1st.

As always, we will post our pictures here of our trip. We are going around China with the whole family.

Best regards,

TheWatchWorks Team

After distro-hopping from Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Linuxmint, sidux, OpenSuse, Debian and Fedora... I've finally decided to try-out the latest snapshot of Sabayon Linux.

I've heard and read lots of great things about Sabayon Linux and the one thing that attracted me to it was its "rolling-release" model (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_release) which removes the hassles of re-installing the system every six months or so. Another thing that was very crucial to me was its "out-of-the-box" functionality. I wanted something that simply worked from boot-up.

I've had Java-related issues with Fedora 13 (the last distro I used prior to Sabayon Linux). I kept of getting the "Start: applet not initialized" error message on some (not all) websites. But it was the important websites that were not functioning properly for me.

As for Ubuntu 10.04 (& family), I've had NVIDIA problems ... black blank screen or incorrect resolution or low-graphics mode problem. Although I love Ubuntu, I needed something to work perfectly. Linuxmint also had the same problems as with Ubuntu and I was surprised that Fedora 13 did not have the problems I encountered with Ubuntu but had other problems.

Anyway, I believe that there is no "perfect for everyone" Linux distro out there because Linux Distros are also hardware-dependent. Choose the best for your hardware.

For now, I have Ubuntu 10.04 on my desktop and Sabayon Linux 5.3 on my laptop because these are what works best for my hardware.

http://sabayonlinux.org/

Cheers!

After many NVIDIA issues with the latest Ubuntu 10.04 like having "low graphics mode only", blank black screen or garbled graphics... I decided to try-out the latest FEDORA 13 "Goddard". I installed the DVD version and not the LiveCD version because I wanted more applications out-of-the-box instead of having to download them one by one.

Anyway, I am very happy with FEDORA 13 Goddard and it does not have any of the issues which my laptop experienced with the Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx. I also understand that by using FEDORA, I had to add the www.rpmfusion.org repository to be able to install more applications. Since I am a patient person, I was able to install all the applications that I need for my daily use like Flashplayer, Java, SMPlayer etc. I also installed VLC Media Player but for some reason, it does not work. MPlayer also does not work since it is missing a codec. SMPlayer works perfectly though.

An issue though I noticed with FEDORA 13 is that the package manager is quite slow as compared to synaptic. It finds packages very slow (as compared to Ubuntu) and installing packages requires a few extra clicks. Again, a patient person will not mind this.

To get to the point, I have found what I am looking for: an out-of-the-box FEDORA "remix" which should have almost all needed applications already installed. I am currently downloading it right now and will add more feedback once I try it out. The introduction to this COMMUNITY FEDORA REMIX 13.1 "Lucky 13" can be found here: http://fcoremix.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/lucky-13/ Please check them out.

We will be slowly adding pictures from our recent trip to Tokyo, Japan.
@Tokyo DisneySea


@The Tokyo Imperial Palace East Gardens




@Akihabara