Ponderings of Lord Marius

A new Gig!

rbmarius — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:35:44 +0000

So I may be building a website for a friend pretty soon. Hmm, so many decisions. I realize this is a lame and small post considering I’ve had very little activity on here as of late

Guess Who’s Back

rbmarius — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 21:09:45 +0000

To make a long story short thing have become truly hectic for while which was why I stopped blogging, but something has now kind of pushed me to get back on the horse. Part of the reason is cause I slightly more free time than usual and other part maybe because I read blogs so often.

5 Day in Manhattan OS Media Playback

rbmarius — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 18:10:40 +0000

So this is for day 2 of my 5 days in Manhattan OS review, and so far things are going well. Haven’t had any major issues to report. Day 1 focused on the installation process and my first impressions. Today’s focus will be mainly on out of the box media playback since Manhattan OS claims to have a strong focus on making multimedia just work. Because I decided to go about this without adding anything extra and make decision based on what I feel like a new user would.

Video

Manhattan OS comes shipped in with Totem movie player as many Linux systems that employ gnome do, but the real kicker here is that it also comes with VLC a multi-platform media player that can usually play almost anything you throw at it without extra configuration, Hulu desktop which is a stand alone desktop app to access Hulu without having to open up a browser, and Moovida, a media center application with access to many plugin that makes it a very versatile media center. I’m impressed with this selection since I am fan of VLC, Moovida, and Hulu, and it’s nice not to have to go install these myself. The most important application out these three is VLC media player. With vlc media player the average user shouldn’t have any issues with their media files not playing. Also there is PiTiVi a video editor I haven’t used before, but I hear good things about it and it’s included by default in Ubuntu as well. Before we move on I will say while it’s nice to have hulu desktop automatically installed, is it really necessary to do so? I mean is it really something every user will use or want. Just some food for thought plus I’m not really sure on how many people use Hulu’s services.

Audio

In regards to audio we have Rhythmbox a staple on Ubuntu though I must say it looks really good with the default theme compared to how it normally looks. Mind you it isn’t a giant difference still kind of bland but it was enough that I noticed. In addition to that we have jokosher for audio editing, Gpodder for managing podcasts, and a basic recording program. Also vlc, totem, and moovida play audio files as well. Like Ubuntu audio works just fine, though you maybe pressed to find an audio player you like since Rythmbox may not be to your liking; however it still is a good media player in my opinion and lately I’ve been using it a lot more. Jokosher and gpodder I have not used before, but I hear good things and they get the job done. I like the fact a music editor is bundled with it.

Graphics

Next we have the realm of graphics which comes with Fspot a photo manager, GIMP a powerful image editor, Pinta a MS paint like program, a font editor, scanner app, and screenshot app. It’s nice to see GIMP added here since Ubuntu removed it as a default program. Their reasons being that GIMP was too much for the average user which I understand though not necessarily agree with. The font manager was an interesting one since well I never used it before. I took it for a spin and found it unintuitive. Since it wasn’t easy to tell what to do with it just by looking at it, but after using it my opinions changed. I now really like the inclusion of the font manager since it allowed me to easily install a font without using the terminal. I kind of feel like it belongs in the accessory category, but thats just me.

Final Verdict

Like Ubuntu, Manhattan OS handles many media formats well and even exceeds Ubuntu in use and easiness since it’s possible to play many formats out of the box. I especially commend the inclusion of GIMP, Moovidia, Pinta, the font manager, and especially VLC though still I think Hulu desktop isn’t needed as default install.

-Not feeling very well today so I may edit this and change things later since I’m not happy with this part of the review. If not the final whole review will have to be that much better.

5 Day in Manhattan OS Installation & First Impression

rbmarius — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 18:49:43 +0000

So far I have survived an entire day of using Manhattan OS and truthfully overall it was very enjoyable experience. This post will be detailing my experience installing Manhattan OS and my first impressions of it. As stated before Manhattan OS is derived from Ubuntu so it shares a similar installation process and hardware compatibility which are both great things. To start things off I downloaded the ISO image from their website, burnt to a disc, and proceeded to boot from. Of course I decided to run from the live disk to take a tour. I won’t get into that now since I will be explaining my first impressions of it later. Everything seemed to work well with my hardware so I proceeded to install onto the partition I had previously created. Earlier I said the installation process was similar to Ubuntu, well in fact it’s pretty much identical. Which is a good things since it’s derived from Ubuntu and being that installer is pretty simple to use there isn’t any point in changing what already works. The installation went flawlessly; however upon rebooting I hit a snag or two. One was that while booting it didn’t show the login gdm and instead just the terminal showed up and two the grub didn’t recognize my windows 7 partition. Luckily both were easy fixes and only took about 5 minutes with the first one I had to get the xorg.conf back to default setting which only took single command in the terminal. The second one was just as easy to fix and was even stated on the Manhattan OS website, all I had to do was type “sudo grub-update” into the terminal then bam I was able to boot up into both Manhattan OS and Windows 7 from the grub menu. I would like to note these two issues probably weren’t issues with Manhattan OS itself since both are ones that can happen to regular Ubuntu users as well. The strange thing is that despite both Ubuntu and Manhattan OS using grub2 I haven’t been able to fix that issue with my laptop which has both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.04 installed on it.

First Impression

After Manhattan OS, automatically located the drivers for my video card and I rebooted, I was greeted with what I think is an aesthetically pleasing desktop. Off the bat it employs plasma desktop and compiz which allows for a number of visual effects. The desktop environment(DE) is called Manhattan DE which is a combination of gnome and other things like AWN, Ubuntu social menu, and more. While being basically gnome with some add ons, I can’t detract that this combination does produce a rather nice and unique desktop environment especially since it employs plasma desktop which is normally something tied with KDE 4. Everything worked out of the box for me, it recognized all my hardware without any issues, recognized all the function keys on my keyboard , I was immediately able to watch flash videos, and as of yet I hadn’t needed to install anything further to it. So for basic computing usage Manhattan OS gets an A+ which is great for introducing those new to linux.

Speaking of which that brings us to the menus, which are extremely simple and straight forward. You click the Manhattan os M at the bottom of the menu and a little bubble come out give options for what type of application you are looking for such as accessories, games, internet, graphics, office, system, sound & video, and windows. All are straight forward, like the internet menu is the place where you can open you browser, skype, or torren app. Though you may be confused by the Windows menu at first but in realty it is just the dedicated menu for WINE and Playonlinux which both allow you to play certain windows programs and games on Linux. An interesting thing is that some of default application aren’t listed by their name, but by their basic function, for example GIMP is listed as image editor. While that is great for those new to Linux it is a slightly jarring at first for those experienced using Linux;however after five minutes I ignored it (Still the same great applications).

So far I only had one issue, and it revolves around the AWN dock. Before turning on the special effects when I opened the add widgets menu it sat perfectly on top of the dock. After turning it on it now proceed to place part of itself behind the dock which is rather annoying and I can’t seem to do anything about. In addition to that after turning the special effects on the dock decides to widen bit though if you mess with the panel setting a bit it goes back to normal on its own even if you weren’t messing with those settings. I plan on taking some screenshots, and reporting this to the developer.

*For my final review screenshots will be included to spice things up.

* Manhattan OS website

*A Manhattan OS review by Hitz

5 Days in Manhattan OS Introduction

rbmarius — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:50:48 +0000

http://www.manhattanos.com/about/

Today marks day 1 in my five days in manhattan os adventure(I thought it was an amusing title since I just returned from NYC yesterday). To clarify, for five straight days I will be utilizing the operating system Manhattan OS for most of my computing needs. In this series of posts I will be detailing, reviewing, appraising, and criticizing Manhattan OS. For those who are unaware Manhattan OS is a Linux distribution based off Gnome Ubuntu that states it’s purpose is to be “a simplistic, intuitive, up to date and easy to use Linux distribution”. Now I hope to find how true that is, I will be highlighting different areas such as; ease of install, default programs, appearance, and much more. The first post will deal with the installation process and my first impressions of everything. More updates will be coming soon and everything will be finalized by Monday July 12th which is when I’ll post up my complete review. These miniposts are just for productivity sake. Oh, and by the way, this my first post while using Manhattan OS beta 1.

If you can’t beat ‘em…kill ‘em! VoW #2

rbmarius — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 04:03:28 +0000

This week’s video of the week is an interesting since it’s actually a short series of videos called YouTube Assassin instead of a singular video. These videos are being produced by a youtuber known by the moniker joenationtv who has teamed up with some other well-known youtubers like Brittani Louise Taylor, ijustine, Shane Dawson, Tay Zondy, and many more. The premise of this series is that joenation decides to hire “Bob thunder” to kill high-profile YouTube users so he can get their subscribers. This ends up turning into an entertaining mix of action and comedy as we watch Bob thunder employ amusing tactics to get rid of popular youtubers. As an extra bonus these videos are in HD!

YouTube ASSASSIN Ep. 2 Brittani Taylor

YouTube ASSASSIN Ep. 3 iJustine

YouTube ASSASSIN Ep. 4 Tay Zonday

Video of the Week #1

rbmarius — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:40:37 +0000

The first ever video of the week prize on my blog has now been given to *Drum roll* BP Spills Coffee. Made by UCB Comedy who can be found here http://www.ucbcomedy.com . Note: Think of this as an early preview I will make this an official post this Saturday. Unfortunately I will have to postpone this since I’m out of town and posting from my phone

Discovery of a New Science

rbmarius — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 07:36:18 +0000

For most of my academic life my favorite subjects have been the natural sciences most particularly biology though I have enjoyed the social sciences as well especially cultural anthropology. In my college years my interest in the social science just exploded after taking Human Geography and Intro to Sociology. Because of that I even changed my major from Biology to Environmental Science which I see as a great blend of social sciences and natural sciences. However as of late my heart and mind has found a new lover that I could research and learn about till the wee hours of the night. Her name is Political science. It’s strange I have never before been interested in politics and government at all. Yet in a matter of weeks all that has changed, some of which is due to my Intro to Public policy class , my environmental science class, and also my own personal experience and issues with systems employed today. I’m genuinely disheartened at some of the things that go on in this world and even in my country the United States of America. For these reason I have been looking more into government types and systems, political parties, policy think tanks, etc etc. Overall it has been an eye-opening journey. I must suggest really take the time out to read up about our country and it’s politics, it’s our civic responsibility to be active participants.

Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

rbmarius — Sun, 02 May 2010 19:33:12 +0000

Free at last! From finals, teachers, Kellum hall, FSU, and most importantly organic chemistry though it is a temporary freedom since I’ll back in Tallahassee at FSU for summer classes. Anyways with summer on the way I’ll plan on customizing the looks of my blog, and blogging on a regular schedule. I have some ideas for a series of post with some kind of related theme, but of course since I haven’t fully worked them out I don’t what to reveal anything. Though I think I will do a Lord Marius’ favorite video of the week type shtick since I spend a good portion of my time on youtube. Another is that I want to make posts concerning my journey in relating with God though those will come up when they come up I guess.

Either way I’m excited for summer, currently back home in south Florida, but will be back in Tally town next weekend. Three things I’m looking forward too this summer; starting classes for my new major, summer bible study, and going to New York city. Anything you are excited for?

Hello world!

rbmarius — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 01:34:41 +0000

I suppose this is the best and most traditional way to start a blog with a post titled Hello World which in my experience was the first thing I learned how to program when I took C++ Programming class, and I’m not one to spit on tradition, especially traditions of the geeky variety. My name is Rodney Marius, I’m 20 years old, and currently senior at FSU university. I am Biology major right now, but over the summer I plan to switch to environmental studies. This blog I decided to start as outlet for my writing, life, and interests. My interests include Christianity, technology, soccer, languages, parasites, biology, and more that I’m probably. Interesting factoid I have taken three courses so far in Latin so I may try writing a post up in that (No worries I’ll leave a translation).