More computer hardware today. Being annoyed with my old wired mini keyboard and cheap wired mouse, I bought a Logitech MK250 keyboard and mouse set.

Unfounded Opinion

I've always refrained from wireless peripherals as I had the opinion that perhaps they wouldn't play nice with Linux. I'm not sure if that's an opinion that has ever had any basis in truth, but I'd formed it at some point and never really looked further into it.

So, thanks to my increasing annoyance; over the last week I did some research on the types of wireless keyboards that were available and compatibility. I knew that Linux was Bluetooth friendly so thought that would be the best option. However, much of what connects via this common standard is designed to be small in order to accompany a laptop and is therefore not ideally suited to a desktop. Thinking I might as well give up, I took a further look at the proprietary 2.4GHz systems. Various sources said that Logitech was a promising brand, so that's where I focused my search.

Linux Compatible

I eventually settled on the MK250 set, and checking Amazon's customer reviews; found one that mentioned success with Ubuntu. Brilliant. Argos had a 20% off offer making it only a few pounds more than the online retailer, so off I trundled to the shops and came back a few hours ago with the new kit.

And I'm pleased to report that both the keyboard and mouse connected instantly without any problems whatsoever. I'm also pleased to note that every 'quick key' i.e., media and internet controls, works without fault. This is something I really wasn't expecting. I know that even with wired keyboards, sometimes these extra functions can be difficult in Linux operating systems.

The Keyboard

I terms of the keyboard itself, compared to the laptop-like mini keyboard, it's much more comfortable. A couple of feet raise it to a slight angle (although it's not dramatic). The keys are not overly clacky but make enough noise to satisfy that they've been pressed. There is an omission of any indicator lights i.e., caps-lock, num-lock, scroll-lock but I don't see that as a big issue. The layout of the document keys (home, end, insert, delete, page up, page down) is slightly unusual where they're laid out in a 2 column, 3 row format as opposed to the more usual 3 column, 2 row format. Presumably this is a space saving feature and will take a little getting used to. The quick keys I mentioned above are all placed as secondary options on the F1-F12 keys. A FN button enables them, so they're not as quick as some keyboards but handy none-the-less. The unit is powered by 2 supplied Duracell AAA batteries. Of course, I'm yet to discover how long they will last in real life.

The Mouse

The mouse is a simple affair. It's a standard 3-button scroll wheel laser mouse, where the wheel doubles as the middle button. The scroll is clicky and a little noisy but it works fine. It's powered by a single AA battery (again, supplied).

Conclusion

Although it's been mere hours since I first connected this set, so far I'm very happy with it. Losing two wires from my desktop makes it much tidier and not having to worry about snags when I want to move the peripherals back a bit is very nice indeed. With 100% Linux compatibility, I wish I'd looked into this earlier.

(Logitech MK250 set tested on Linux Mint 10 64 bit)

Update: 09 July 2011, 20:08
The mouse battery died about 15 minutes ago. That's 3.5 months on it's original single Duracell AA. Not bad going. The keyboard's still on it's original set.

The latest incarnation of Firefox was released this week. After seeminingly endless beta releases, Firefox 4 is now available for download.

I'd been using the open source version of Google Chrome, called Chromium, for most of my day-to-day web surfing; with Firefox 3.6 as a backup, and was fairly happy with that arrangement. Now that there's something newer, Firefox 4 is my primary browser and Chromium relegated to second place.

This new browser doesn't seem Earth shattering, but it's a nice refresh on an aging release. The layout has changed, with tabs appearing above the address bar as pioneered by Google's browser. This to me is much more logical so I'm glad to have that option.

Two other toolbars are visible by default. The navigation toolbar contains the familiar back and forward buttons, the address bar, search bar and home button which is now over on the right of the screen. Slightly unusual perhaps, but it made me think how little that home button is used, by me at least. The bookmark toolbar contains, as expected, standard and live bookmarks. I switched this toolbar off. I find it unnecessary clutter. From my point of view, I find bookmarks of little use on a day-to-day basis and so having them continuously on-screen is pointless. That's probably because I'm so used to the speed-dial screen of Chromium/Chrome.

My favourite new feature is the "Pin As App Tab" option when right-clicking on a tab. This option shrinks the selected tab down to just it's icon and puts it to the left of other regular tabs. These underlying site is then continuously checked and if it updates, the icon changes colour. This is a great way to keep easy access to things like webmail, Google Reader and any other regularly used sites. I'm using it as a replacement for the speed-dial which I'm used to, and the bookmark toolbar.

Other than that though, and the increased support for modern web standards such as HTML5 and CSS3 (both very important in their own right, but 'under-the-hood' improvements that end users probably will appreciate, but not necessarily notice); there's not too much different. It's a web browser that feels suitably fast and has the Firefox legacy of addons and updates. For those reasons, Firefox 4 will remain my browser of choice - at least until Chromium/Chrome offers something better!

(Firefox 4.0 was tested on Linux Mint on both a netbook at 1024x600 resolution, and a desktop at 1920x1080).

I picked up my first high resolution widescreen monitor today, a Dell U2311H 23" IPS TFT screen.

For what must be roughly 18 months - 2 years, I've been using a 15" 1024x768 TN TFT screen and over the past few months I've been getting increasingly annoyed with it's low resolution, making tasks such as photo editing, video editing and coding difficult. For this reason, I've decided to upgrade.

The new monitor is an IPS type. I'm not particularly familiar with the finer points of the different types of TFT screens, but I understand that this is particularly good in terms of colour reproduction making it ideal for photo editing. IPS has a slower response time than a TN screen but I'm not a big gamer so for me it's not an issue. The biggest drawback is the cost. IPS screens are significantly more expensive than their TN counterparts.

Saying that though, the cost of this screen wasn't too bad at around £250, particularly considering that for the 24" version, I would have had to pay nearly double that cost.

It's difficult to make an objective review of this screen since I think that regardless of what I chose, be it a TN screen or IPS; slightly larger or smaller, it would have been a significant improvement over the old monitor. I now have that running as a secondary screen and in a side-by-side comparison, the text is decidedly fuzzy and dull. This new monitor is pin sharp and bright.

I'm yet to do anything complicated with this screen like colour calibration (I've yet to find out how to do this) but using the out-of-the-box settings, I'm very happy. It's sharp, big and comfortable to use. I'm looking forward to getting a second one so I can retire the smaller screen entirely.

One nice feature of this monitor, and I know it's nothing unique, is the addition of a USB hub. It's amazing how such a small addition can make setting-up and using a computer so much better. I've got my keyboard and mouse connected to the two lower USB ports found where the other connectors are; and the remaining two side ports are perfect for plugging in memory sticks or peripheral cables.

Before purchasing, I did have some trouble finding out whether the U2311H was compatible with VESA stands and mounting equipment. Some websites made no mention of it, others said it was compatible but one company who stocks this screen explicitly stated, when asked in it's customer questions section, that it was not VESA compatible.

I can confirm that the Dell U2311H is, in fact, compatible with VESA mounts which is fortunate because I'd like one of those dual screen stands which bolts on to the desk. Much tidier than two stands. The company (who I've used before) with the incorrect information had this screen for about £30 cheaper, but they lost the sale because they couldn't get information correct.

The MicroSD card in my smartphone became corrupted today, and I feared that all data on it was lost.

Fortunately, I don't store critical data on the phone, but I did have a number of snaps which, whilst of nothing special, would have been nice to keep.

So I took about trying to find out how to get to the data, and it turned out to be very simple in my case. Only a few terminal commands were needed, as follows:

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

These instructions are written for use on Linux based computers (tried on Linux Mint 10) and may only apply in a very limited set of circumstances. I make no guarantees regarding likely successes. I do not accept liability for any damage to hardware, software or data loss.

Certain commands in the following guide can overwrite data and format storage devices. EXTREME CARE MUST BE TAKEN to ensure that all disk/partition references and destination paths are correct.

The Guide

1. First I had to create a folder on my computer, in a location with enough free space to contain data to the capacity of the card (8GB in this example).
2. Next, in I connected the MicroSD card to the computer via a card reader. The OS displayed a message about a bad superblock. I took a note of the partition reference (in this case '/dev/sdb1') and acknowledged the error.
   
   NOTE: If you do not get this error and wish to proceed, use 'sudo fdisk -l' (that's a lower case L) to identify the partition that is causing problems.
3. Opening up a terminal, the first command used copied bit-by-bit data from the card to an image file on the computer. This process can take some time, so be patient:
   

   sudo dd if=/dev/sdb1 of=/home/ben/mysd/sd.backup

   (replace '/home/ben/mysd/' with the path to the location created above)
4. Once the above command has finished, and assuming no errors; a new file will be present on the computer containing the data. It is not accessible yet.
5. Next, the card has to be re-formatted in an attempt to repair any faults:
   

   sudo mkdosfs -F 32 /dev/sdb1

   This formats the partition to FAT32, common to most memory cards.
   
   NOTE: BE ABSOLUTELY SURE ABOUT YOUR PARTITION REFERENCE ('/dev/sdb1' in this case). GETTING THIS WRONG COULD FORMAT YOUR ENTIRE COMPUTER AND WOULD BE A BAD THING!).
6. Again, assuming everything has gone smoothly, it's now time to attempt to restore data to the card, using the following command (which should be familiar this time). Just like before, this could take some time:
   

   sudo dd if=/home/ben/mysd/sd.backup of=/dev/sdb1

7. Once the above command finishes, and assuming no errors, data should be back on the card. It's now time to mount the device on the computer and attempt to access it.
8. First of all, create another new folder in your file system. Capacity isn't an issue this time as it will be used solely as the mount point. Using a different folder ensures that the backup file created earlier isn't affected by anything.
9. In the terminal, type the following command to mount the device to the new folder:
   

   sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /home/ben/sd

   (change '/home/ben/sd' to the path for the folder you created above).
10. By accessing the folder created above, either through the terminal or the GUI, you should now see the data.
11. Copy everything required to a safe location. DO NOT RELY ON THE CARD. IT HAS FAILED ONCE, IT MAY DO SO AGAIN!

The above guide has worked for me, and fortunately I managed to recover all but one photograph. I re-iterate the above disclaimer though, that this may not work in all cases and extreme care must be taken to ensure commands used are appropriate to your system.

My Data and Results

Although I did manage to recover data, when trying to use the card in my phone; it still reports as damaged. Either the card has truly 'had it', or my phone is causing problems.

I think I'll try a complete wipe of the card including the partition table and start it again from scratch.

Back in July I bought myself a netbook, and being a fan of the open source operating system I decided to install Ubuntu. All went well at the time, but I needed some extra software to make the wireless connection and brightness keys work. I found what I needed and all was fine.

This week however, I thought I'd try the latest version of Ubuntu Netbook Remix and so wiped the existing installation. After a brief test period, I decided I wasn't happy with the latest release and decided to revert to the earlier, Long Term Support, version. This is where I hit a snag ... where did I find that extra software?

After much hunting around the internet and my surfing history, I eventually found a forum post detailing what I needed to do. In order to save me from repeating this hunt; I have now copied the instructions to a text file on my server, saved a bookmark to the forum post and I am replicating the instructions here should anybody else find them useful.

As the forum post was only aimed at solving the brightness keys, I've re-written it slightly but full credit goes to Fred Ora at Ubuntu Forums for his post which is linked to this entry.

First Steps

Ubuntu Linux 10.04LTS does not support the Realtek 8192E wireless driver out-of-the-box, so connect the Samsung netbook via ethernet cable in order to obtain an internet connection.

Getting the Software

• Open up a terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal)
• Type (or copy) the following command to add a new software repository:
  

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:voria/ppa

• Type (or copy) the following command to update the software list:
  

  sudo apt-get update

• Install the required software with the following command:
  

  sudo apt-get install samsung-tools samsung-backlight samsung-wireless

• Restart the computer

Once the machine has restarted, a wireless connection should be possible. Further configuration is required for the brightness keys.

Configuring the Brightness Keys

1. Open up a terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal)
2. Type (or copy) the following code to edit a configuration file:
   

   sudo nano /lib/udev/rules.d/95-keyboard-force-release.rules

   (be careful not to change anything other than what is mentioned below)
3. Find the line containing the following text (use CTRL+W to search the file):
   

   ...*N130*|*N140*|...

4. Before the last asterisk and final quotes, type:
   

   |*N210*

   (or your particular Samsung model number)
5. Exit the text editor with CTRL+X, remembering to press Y when prompted to save.
6. Type (or copy) the following code to edit a configuration file:
   

   sudo nano /lib/udev/rules.d/95-keymap.rules

   (be careful not to change anything other than what is mentioned below)
7. Repeat steps 3-5, above
8. Restart the computer

Once the machine has restarted, everything should now be working. This has been tested successfully on a Samsung N210 running Ubuntu 10.04LTS and Linux Mint 9.