The operating system itself is Linux based. Bout 256Mb big I believe. And is stored on an on-board chip, unless of course you happen to have Express Gate SSD which comes on a 512mb – 768mb flash add in. The OS lets you boot up into the Internet, Skype, Instant Messenger, Photo Viewer and depending on which motherboard you have you get music playback to.

The main reason I’m reviewing V1.4.4 (Asus P5QL-E version) is because it was gob-smackingly wonderful. The 300mb file (which Asus let me have a 20Kbp/s, cheers for that) intrigued me as usually the new update were pushing 70 – 100Mb. So I downloaded it and expected to see no visual improvement so I didn’t rush to restart my PC to have a gander. But after I finally did I was gob-smacked, the new layout is not far off vista’s cleanness, and is much better layed out than the previous versions. I’ve also noticed a slight improvement in load times, Firefox (splashtop browser as its called) loaded a lot faster than it used to as did the photo viewer but I was a bit disappointed to see the messenger side of things a bit worse off, Skype taking slightly longer to sign in as the messenger program (which does like to throw up contacts missing errors every now and then).

But overall I have to say the new major update has made me think of not bothering to boot into vista as I don’t really need to now unless I want to play a game. The only thing stopping me from doing this is the lack of music and video playback (oh and maybe a torrent app) but because I payed £63 for this motherboard I’m not expecting the best, I suppose you get what you pay for. Most of Asus new motherboards which display the Ai lifestyle sticker or which have the P43 chipsets (and upwards) include it now, apart from the gaming series motherboards, which is a shame as it’s a fantastic feature.

All in all Asus have shown real initiative in making the time to put this in. This is mostly aimed at people who are in a rush and don’t wish to wait a long time for XP/Vista to boot just so they can read their emails or make last minute plans over Skype/MSN. One thing that I am a little disappointed about is that at the moment there is no version for PC’s running the Windows 7 Beta/RC even though its in its very early stages most companies have seemed to make at least some effort in porting drivers over to it and Asus should to as it seems to be the “Leader in hardware”

For those interested I’ve taken some pictures of Express Gate.

Hope you enjoyed my review and stay tuned for the next one.

A little note, if you want to install this onto windows 7 then put the installer into compatibility mode for Vista SP2.

Also you may like to know that MSI have made something similar called WINKI, stupid name I know but if it’s like Express Gate then you’d put up with it.

Have you spotted any additional features that are missing? Please post any feedback below.

Valuable tips to making your Ubuntu experience the best it can be!

Having already made a review on the newly released Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope, I would like to express a number of basic Ubuntu tips, which many of you may have heard of before but for the sake of the Ubuntu beginners, bear with me! These tips and tricks which I am going to explain will work practically on most Ubuntu distro’s, but not on all of them.

Right, let’s start. Also, before I commence, if you have any other tips and tricks that would be useful to newcomers, feel free to leave it in the comments below!

Alter the colour of your Ubuntu

In order to change the colour of your Ubuntu, use the following command:

sudo apt-get install gnome-color-chooser

In future you can then discover the colours, under System >> Preferences.

How to convert Ext2/Ext3 file system to Ext4 (in 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope)

- Make sure you have Ubuntu 9.04 installed so that you have an Ext3 file-system.

- Back-up all of your valued data.

- To convert the partition, reboot from the real CD, and run this code:

sudo bash
tune2fs -O extents,uninit_bg,dir_index /dev/sda1
e2fsck -pf /dev/sda1

In this case, the partiton you need to convert is /dev/sda1.

- Next, you must change Ext3 to Ext4 quite simply like below,

# /dev/sda1
UUID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  /           ext3
relatime,errors=remount-ro 0          1

Change this code to:

# /dev/sda1
UUID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  /           ext4
relatime,errors=remount-ro 0          1

No doubt you can tell that all that has changed is Ext3 and Ext4! You now MUST save the changes.

If you are upgrading from ext2 to ext4, when converting the partition use this code instead:

sudo bashtune2fs -O extents,uninit_bg,dir_index,has_journal /dev/sda1
e2fsck -pf /dev/sda1

That should be it for most people, all you need to restart your computer and voila, you are now running from an Ext 4 file system. However, if you come across the dreaded error 13 when restarting, it might be because it did not like one of the updates. This might help though,

sudo bashmount /dev/sda1 /mnt
grub-install /dev/sda --root-directory=/mnt --recheck

You have now successfully completed the conversion!

Finding valuable system information

To find useful system information:

Applications>> System Tools >> System Monitor

Or

sudo apt-get install sysinfo

How to download YouTube videos, and then convert them from .flv to .avi

sudo apt-get install youtube-dl ffmpeg

- Then use this code to download the video,

youtube-dl -o example.flv "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQyZLehrIUw"

- To convert the video to .avi format

ffmpeg -i example.flv example.avi

Just to let you know, you should edit the name of the video and video link. Mine is just an example, however it is a good video on one of the Britain’s Got Talent shows exposing the new hit wonder, DJ Talent. =)

How to kill processes rapidly

Many users tend to use the conventional kill, ps|aux or killall commands like

sudo killall firefox

However, there is a much better command that is a lot quicker and responsive, PKILL. If PKill searches for “Firefox”, it will amazingly find any process related to Firefox and dispose of it straight away. In addition to PKILL, pstree is a similar command that puts all the processes in a tree-like order, systematized by whoever is the program owner.

Initiate OpenOffice even more briskly

OpenOffice matches Ubuntu perfectly, a cost-free program with great features. Though, it also has the tendency to open very slowly in comparison to other programs; this really does agitate users. To make OpenOffice open faster, all you need to do is go to Start-up manager, well that is what it is called in version 9.04, and in other distro’s it is normally named the Sessions program.

System >> Preferences >> Startup Applications in order to find the program.

Then, add a new entry and in the command field, put in

openoffice -nodefault -nologo

The only thing that required now is to restart your system. It is now cached, so when the Gnome desktop begins, OpenOffice will also start, as it is basically moving it to a start up program and therefore making it start up super-fast.

Again, feel free to share new, valuable tips in the comment box below, as well as feedback on the tips and tricks I have composed.

"The time is right for 3D content to move onto the Web," says Associate Product Manager, Henry Bridge

Google, who recently announced their impressive turnover, on Tuesday unveiled an interesting piece of software, O3D to bring accelerated 3D graphics to browsers, though it seems not to be the first time a company has tried to make one of these 3D web applications utulizing the advantages of the PC games played nowadays. The last one was in the 1990s, whow were called Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML), but it did not work out.

What is O3D?

O3D is a plug-in for web browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari that is enabled to work with Windows, Mac and astonishingly, Linux. However, analysts say that in the future Google ideally, would like to be in the position where the application is built in to the web browser giving a program that allows developers to use Web-based JavaScript programs on a graphics card, perfect solution for extreme gamers!

This is such a good step forward that even rival web browser giants, Mozilla want to get in on the act in their effort to build a 3D Web interface, though the two companies are offering different strategies to the revolutionary idea.

Engineering Director Matt Papakipos, also made his comments,

“OpenGL tends to be a lot of code to write, even for something simple, but OpenGL gives you a lot of control.Ours is at a higher level. It takes fewer function calls, so it’s easier to get stuff on the screen.”

“Ultimately, there’s going to be at least two.” Suggesting there will be two pieces of technology right now, SVG and Canvas.

For the gaming world, Papakipos also added:

“If you look at how we use 3D hardware, 20 years ago, it was CAD (computer-aided design). Today, it’s for playing games.We can push it to the wall. There’s not really any difference between native performance and our performance.”

This will be a good step forward for the web industry, as we are in the recession, everyone has been hit hard, but it is how far you can keep going forward with determination and drive which Google are demonstrating with this optimistic view of the 3D industry.

Many People always wanted Ubuntu. Ubuntu has many things like Open Office which can edit Microsoft office documents and Desktop effects like wobbling effects and a lot more! This Tutorial is going to teach you how to install linux on your computer. More specifically how to install Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, or Mythbuntu on your Windows based computer.

Requirements:

Memory 256 MB memory

Hard disk Space 5 GB

Operating System Windows 98, 2000, XP, Vista

There is an easy way of installing Ubuntu rather than installing it by a process known as dual booting you can install Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, or even Mythbuntu on your Windows based computer which includes Windows 98, 2000, XP, and Vista. Before installing Ubuntu you’re gonna have to create a new Hard Disk drive partition. Follow these below steps to install Ubuntu or others like Xubuntu.
1. Download Wubi from http://www.wubi-installer.org

2. Make a new partition. For more info on how to make a new partition click here.

3. Open the wubi installer and select the New partition u made Under installation Drive

4. Select the desktop environment you want and the language you want and finally enter the password twice then click on Install.

After clicking on install wubi will download the Desktop Environment you’ve selected and it will ask you to restart after its done.

After you restart your computer you’ll have to select the operating system you want to login to. Also known as dual booting.