Author Archives: micko

Mageia 3

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I decided to replace a Raring Ubuntu install on my laptop with Mageia 3. I used the “dualarch” iso downloaded with bit torrent (transmission), ~700MB. I have crap bandwidth so the DVD was out of the question for me, plus I could set up the system the way I want.

The install went pretty smooth except for my wireless connection. The laptop is a Compaq CQ-60, Intel Cantiga graphics, Celeron T1600 (dual core) processor, I GB RAM, Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x / AR542x Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01). Note that the iso includes both X86_64 and i586 binaries and the installer decides itself which to install. In my case the 64 bit version was chosen.

What happened with wireless was a known issue on Mageia 2 and my particular wireless chipset. Unfortunately the Mageia devs haven’t got this fixed for 3. For some reason, at every boot, rfkill manages to hard block the wireless. Luckily I have Slackware64-current on this lappy so I pilfered the rfkill binary from that install and inserted into /usr/local/bin. Strangely enough no other distro exhibits this issue. If you use any other wireless chipset you should be fine as non-free firmware blobs are included.

mag3

Mageia 3 default desktop using openbox/lxpanel

I’m sure there is a work around for my case which I will employ.

The only browser included is Midori. That’s ok for finding your way around the web. But I prefer one of the big boys like Firefox or Chrome. I decided on Chrome and got the latest stable 64 bit version from the google servers. It was a simple matter of double clicking the file in my downloads directory once it had downloaded. Mageia automatically resolved all the dependencies and I was browsing G+ within minutes.

I tried out the GUI package manager. It seems ok, pretty much unchanged since the old Mandrake days. That’s good for familiarity, plus it’s a nice simple interface.

Still, I prefer the commandline version, urpmi. I proceed to install gimp, libreoffice, vlc, audacious and a few other small things.

With LXDE on the desktop, a nice and snappy experience is encountered, nothing flashy but it stays out of the way. Who sits there and looks at their desktop anyway? 99% of the time I’m either in a browser, text editor, terminal emulator or word processor.

I might keep this one for awhile. I didn’t like Ubuntu raring on this machine, too slow with Unity or Gnome 3. Probably LXDE would have been the go, but the Amazon stuff kind of turned me off. When I want Amazon to know my business I’ll go there myself. At least with Google, you can go to the Dashboard and delete everything, clear out all the tracking cookies and you are back to square 1. No such thing in Ubuntu/Amazon, even tracks your desktop search!

Water Filter Construction (Part 1)

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This is part of my uni course for the unit CUC106 – “Design and Innovation: Communication and Technology”.

Brief outline

I am in a group of 3, the others are Lenny from Darwin and David from Sunshine Coast and we are doing a study on a small rural village in Timor Leste named Codo, in the Lautem district. We were given a number of design areas to choose from that are in need of improvement in Timor Leste. We chose improvement of drinking water at a household level using concrete BioSand water filters.

David constructed a plywood form to cast the filter body and drove down to my place to pour the filter. The following is a pictorial account of the construction process.

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Here is an over view of the formwork

form

TJ next to the form, approx 1m tall

Here is a view of the pipe where the water travels though from the bottom

pipe inlet

pipe at bottom of filter (top of form as it is poured inverted)

..and where the filtered water comes out.

outlet

outlet pipe

We used a strong concrete mix of 1 part sand, 1 part gravel, 1 part cement.

dry mix

The dry sand mix

The cement..

cement

cement quantity

Gave it a dry mix..

dry mix

dry mix

added water and mixed

add water

add water

resulting mix.

mix

the mix

We then poured the concrete carefully into the form, poking and prodding to ensure even distribution and banging the form with a hammer to settle the concrete and exclude any air pockets, especially around the outlet pipe which protrudes from the bottom of the form (top of filter).

pouring

pouring the filter body

We did have a bit of a problem with the form failing, so we moved it outside, removed some concrete and repaired the damage. Hopefully we recovered!

We then finished it off to leave for a few days before stripping off the form.

floating

Finishing with a wood float

Part 1 is now completed.

Part 2 will be stripping and adding the filter sand and gravel, then testing.

 

Slacko-5.4.0.4 -final beta

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Hello folks,

Slacko is soon to enter RC for the -next version. Haven’t decided on a number yet but it looks like I might go with 5.5. Depends on when BarryK releases his next. If I’m before I’ll go 5.4.4. Anyway, only a number.. Grin

If you want to grab it and help out with testing visit the Slacko thread on the Puppy forum.

Have fun!