Author: Dr. Bill

Finally! 3D acceleration on Linux! What with Steam now supporting Linux (in Beta) this is a timely addition! Yay! Go, Open Source!

Open Source Linux driver supports 3D acceleration with all GeForce GPUs

“The Nouveau driver in the current Linux 3.8 development branch has recently acquired everything that’s necessary to support the 3D acceleration features of any GeForce graphics hardware. Together with a current version of libdrm and the Nouveau 3D driver in Mesa 3D 9.0, this allows Linux applications to use 3D acceleration even with the most recent GeForce graphics cards.

The Nouveau drivers in stable Linux kernel versions already support the acceleration features of all GeForce chips; however, with some current mid-range and high-end cards, the features could previously only be used after making manual adjustments. This is due to acceleration only being available with the firmware from NVIDIA’s proprietary graphics driver for the GF119 Fermi graphics core (for example used in GeForce GT 520, 520M, 520MX and 610M cards) that is part of the NVC0 family. The same applies for Kepler chips in the NVE0 family (for example used in GeForce GTX 670, 670M, 680, 680M, 690 cards). This firmware can’t simply be obtained from the driver archive or downloaded from the internet; instead, prospective users must install the NVIDIA drivers and then laboriously extract the firmware when initialising the graphics hardware. However, just before New Year’s Eve (and therefore after the completion of the main development phase of Linux 3.8), Linus Torvalds integrated various modifications that were mainly written by Red Hat employee Ben Skeggs and which enable the Nouveau driver itself to supply a firmware for the mentioned graphics chips (1, 2). For other GeForce graphics cores, the driver has offered all the necessary components for some time.

The latest modifications should allow the Nouveau driver to support the acceleration features of any current GeForce chip. The open source Linux drivers from AMD and Intel can also use the 3D capabilities of almost any graphics chip. This means that, ultimately, the open source drivers used in popular Linux distributions now support 3D acceleration with almost all of the graphics chips that are currently available in the PC market. The only current, commercially relevant exception is the graphics cores in AMD’s Southern Islands generation, which are used in the latest mid-range to high-end Radeon HD 7750 to 7970 models; open source drivers for these cores are currently being developed in co-operation with AMD developers. Additionally, only rudimentary open source drivers are available for the PowerVR graphics cores that are used in some of the chipsets of Intel’s Atom products.

The developers of the Nouveau driver don’t receive any support from NVIDIA and use reverse engineering techniques to obtain the information they need to program their driver. Despite their latest milestone, NVIDIA’s proprietary graphics driver will continue to be the preferable choice for many areas of use, as the Nouveau driver only offers rudimentary or no support for various important features. For example, decent fan control support is still in preparation and will initially only cover older GeForce chips; as a consequence, GeForce cards that don’t regulate their fans themselves are rather noisy when operated with the Nouveau driver. Furthermore, the driver can’t switch between the various graphics chip and memory speeds with many current cards and often causes the graphics hardware to run at the slowest operating speed – the 3D performance that is achievable this way is usually sufficient for 3D composited desktops such as Unity or the Gnome shell but stays well behind what NVIDIA’s proprietary driver can tickle out of the same graphics hardware.”

I was jazzed about the Raspberry PI, now, this is looking pretty good! I mean, come on! This looks like it is the size of a typical power “brick!” I could think of plenty o’ stuff to do with this!

Meet CuBox Pro: A 2GB open-source computer that could fit in your pocket

“An Israeli startup has created a new version of a tiny computer dubbed the CuBox. The CuBox Pro measures two cubic inches and weighs just 3.2 ounces. It has double the amount of memory compared to an earlier version.

The open-source mini computer from SolidRun has two gigabytes of main memory (or DDR3 random access memory) and an 800-megahertz dual-issue ARM PJ4 processor. The processor uses the ARMv7 chip design and processes code in 32-bit chunks.

The computer can display full high-definition video, running at 1080p and using just three watts of power. The CuBox Pro is suited for high-memory, multimedia, and mobile apps. It could function as a home media center, thin client, XBMC console, or even a simple, tiny desktop computer. The CuBox Pro sells for $159, while the earlier 1-gigabyte CuBox sells for $139.

‘We are proud to add the CuBox Pro to our product line,’ says Kossay Omary, chief executive of SolidRun. ‘We believe many of our customers will benefit from the extra memory size, regardless of what application they use their CuBox Pro for. Our customers will also notice that the power consumption of the new design is not impacted at all, which was a very important target for us.’

The CuBox Pro has no fan and uses a Marvell Armada 510 SoC (system on a chip) processor. It has an infra-red receiver, gigabit ethernet port, two USB 2.0 ports and a micro-SD slot. It supports Linux-based software such as Ubuntu, Debian, GeeXbox and openelec.tv as well as the Google Android operating system.

‘What a thrill this year has been. … The market acceptance of the CuBox development platform and miniature computer exceeded all our forecasts,’ says SolidRun chief technology officer Rabeeh Khoury. ‘Sometimes it was even challenging to catch up with the demand. There was so much work and investment on the software and application development side as well. The use cases for our CuBox are endless, so we feel so blessed to have the support of an active community of very talented people engaged in almost all we do.’

SolidRun expects to start shipping the CuBox Pro before the end of January.”

Techpodcasts Network LIVE coverage of CES (the Consumer Electronics Show) will begin on Monday, January 7, 2013! Todd Cochrane, Jeffery Powers, and TPN’ers will be there to keep us up to date on the happenings at CES! And, you will be able to watch it all here, on the Dr. Bill.TV site! Just click on the “TPN CES” link in the button bar on the Home Page, or, click on the CES Coverage advert on the right column of the web site!

Wow! It’s official! We’re official! We are in the Roku Channel store! Hooray!

Simply go to www.roku.com – click on the “Channels” tab – then fill in “Search Channels” with “Dr. Bill Bailey.NET.”

Or, you can simply enter the Roku code “DrBillTV” in your Roku account! Zowie! I am jazzed!

BY THE WAY! Please take a moment to “five star” us in your Roku account! This helps us get more listeners and aids us in our quest to spread the geeky goodness of the Dr. Bill.TV show to the masses!

And now for Dr. Bill’s public service for the holidays, “How to fix your computer!” We all know that it happens during the holidays! No matter how much you plan to take time off, kick back, and relax, you soon find that your parents, or your best friend, or someone else that you know, says, “Hey, you’ve got some time off, can you fix my computer? I’ve managed to hose it up with all kinds of viruses, and malware again because I’ve been surfing all over the web and going to places that I shouldn’t go, and clicking on things that I shouldn’t click on. I know you told me, time and time again, NOT to click on those little monkeys that go across the screen, and yet I do it every time! I’m really stupid! However, I’m your friend… won’t you fix my computer!?” To which, you either sigh, and say, “Okay, bring it over and I’ll fix it for you.” Or, you point to your T-shirt that reads, “No! I will not fix your computer!” Which, by the way, you can buy from ThinkGeek.com! Just sayin’. But, most of the time we go ahead and fix the computer because, yes, we’re geeks, but we’re also friends, and family, and generally nice guys!

So, what’s the best way to fix said computer? Well, in the case of a repeat offender, the best thing to do is install Linux Mint, and be done with it! That way they can’t mess it up again, it won’t get infected, and if you don’t give them the root password, they can’t even install more junk! Yeah, I know, this is an unlikely scenario, because a lot of times they say that they absolutely, positively, must have Windows Solitaire… and though you assure them that there is a version of Solitaire that runs on Linux, they just HAVE to have the Windows version, or whatever the software that they’ve grown accustomed to, or addicted to, is! Never mind that Linux has any number…. tens of thousands…. hundreds of thousands… of software packages available! In fact, freely available, for download but, NO! They have to have Windows! Sigh.

So, let’s look at some things we can do, starting from the fairly simple and moving up the ladder, in order to fix your friend’s computer. Microsoft actually has a tool that you may have seen as it downloaded and was updated occasionally on your computer called the Malicious Software Removal Tool. You can access this tool by going to the console prompt of the machine, by going to “Start” then “Run” and inter the command “MRT”. Follow the prompts, and this simple Microsoft utility will uninstall some malware and is pretty straightforward.

If you’re looking for a more thorough purging of malware on a system, I would next move on to Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, however; be sure to download it ONLY from their website, which is located at www.Malwarebytes.org. Install this, update the malware signature file, and run it using the deeper search mode and you’ll be amazed at what it will find!

Another program that I keep in my “fix-it” arsenal is CCleaner. CCleaner is a free product of Piriform Software, and is used to thoroughly clean the machine’s Internet cache, as well as it’s registry, and also has tools for uninstalling software that can be accessed from it’s simple menu system. I install it on pretty much any computer that I build, just to keep it clean.

Now, when you clean the computer, or reinstall the operating system, and put all their data back, which of course you saved! (I know you did!) Then, you are ready to hand it back to them, and say, “Welcome to your new, fast, clean computer! Please don’t muck it up again!” But alas, you know they will! So, go ahead and install something that will allow you to access their computer from a remote location, because you know that they will call having found something that isn’t installed that they needed, or to ask you how to click on icon. (I kid you not, it has happened to me!} There are a lot of tools for remote access; many are paid software services, like Citrix Go-To-Assist, or the paid version of LogMeIn. However, for your purposes, the free version of LogMeIn is probably fine. Lately, I have been installing TeamViewer, which to me, seems to give you a better experience when you take over a computer and work with it, it even allows you to hear the sound coming from their computer. It is available for free, non-commercial use, at www.teamviewer.com.

Also, if they are truly creatures of habit and believe that the Internet can only be accessed from the “Big Blue E,” meaning, of course, Microsoft Internet Explorer, then I have a real neat trick for you! We all know, of course, that Internet Explorer is the least secure browser available to you today, and it practically guarantees re-infection of their computer! And, we also realize that Google Chrome is the safest browser! It will cut down on their infections dramatically! Therefore, we need them to use Google Chrome! It will insure us longer times between pesky rebuilds of their system! If you can’t talk them into using it intentionally, then the next best thing to do is to trick them into using it, so… how do we do that?

Simply install Google Chrome, then right-click on the Google Chrome icon, go to “Properties”, go to “Change icon” and set the icon to be the Internet Explorer icon! You’ll find this icon available in the file: C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll … so, select this file, and locate and choose the Internet Explorer icon. Now, when they “click on the Internet” they’ll actually be running Google Chrome! Tricky, huh? And, no, I am NOT kidding with this suggestion!

And of course, if they are really incorrigible, then you may want to lock their system down completely! A good way to do this is to use a commercial product called “Deep Freeze” from Faronics Software. Their website is www.faronics.com and the Standard Edition, one year license is $35.50. This product will lock down their system, so that every time they reboot, they will be back at the clean build that you provided for them! Whatever junk, or malware, or even legitimate software, that they have installed will simply “disappear!” And, they’ll be back after the reboot to the point at which you left them! This is pretty harsh, but if you value your time, and your sanity, this may be the way to go!

Or, there’s always that T-shirt from Think Geek!

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This video is the TechCrunch “Disrupt” Conference, where Bitcasa founder, Tony Gauda, discussed what Bitcasa is, and how it works. I set this up over the holidays… and, it IS “da bomb!” You won’t understand how much you need this until you try it!

And, by the way, there are clients for: All Windows (including a new Windows 8 app), Linux, Android, (iOS [Apple, iPhone, iPad] is coming soon!) As the video says, the founder, Tony Gauda has a Linux laptop, personally, so you KNOW it works great on Linux!

Infinite Hard Drive
Keep every file you have ever owned in Bitcasa. Ditch the external hard drives, and store your files in your Bitcasa Infinite Drive to free up space on your computer and phone. Never run out of space again.

Access Anywhere
Everything you save in Bitcasa is available on any computer, phone, or tablet. Your music collection, photo albums, movies and videos, documents and files, are available anytime, anyplace.

Keep Your Data Safe
Bitcasa encrypts everything before you upload, safely ensuring only you can access it. We keep at least three copies of everything you store in Bitcasa in data centers 1,000 times more reliable than your PC. You can also rollback to previous versions and recover deleted files.

Share With Anyone
Whether sending hundreds of photos to your friends, an entire portfolio of work to a client, or your baby’s first steps to Grandma, Bitcasa makes sending any file or folder — no matter how large — instant and easy.

Easy to Use
Download the Bitcasa Infinite Drive, and use it just like any external hard drive. You’ll never have to worry about lugging USB cables and large hard drives around to access your stuff – now everything can be accessed from anywhere!

Keep Your Computer Synced
You can also elect to “mirror” all your computers to your Bitcasa Infinite Drive. Your files are automatically and continuously backed up and available anywhere. Everything is still available offline, and your changes will sync up when you are back online.

It is FREE for now, and then sometime next year, it will be $10.00 per month. Try it NOW!

BitCasa – The Infinite Hard Drive