Software

Its always nice to see and deal with other people using Unix-based operating systems. If a student comes to me for help with a software problem, although I'll try to help no matter what OS, I am much more interested in spending time with them if they are using a Unix-based OS (Ubuntu, MacOS, etc). This is mainly because that is what I know best. Of recent, more students have Ubuntu installed, either as dual-boot or in a virtual machine, on their personal laptops. And they are starting to learn that the Windows GUI way is not the only way. I am encouraging the further exploration of Linux in my networking lab (ITS332) where 90% of the tasks are completed on the command line in Ubuntu (the other 10% using Wireshark in Ubuntu). In other courses, although I don't require the students to use any specific operating system, I demonstrate how easy it is to complete networking tasks in Unix-based OSes, such as measure the throughput of TCP in a network with varying packet loss rates (three command line operations using iperf and tc).

One of the local Unix gurus at SIIT is Yoichi. As well as doing his research, he has been active in labs and teaching introductory computing to SIIT/Thammasat students. He has started to blog about some of the simple, yet very powerful things that can be done via the command line in Ubuntu. Yoichi and other teaching assistants and graduate students are spreading the word in SIIT that Windows is not the only operating system available. And their efforts are starting to show as more students are coming to me for help on a network or programming assignment with their laptop booted into Ubuntu.

Since returning from a holiday in Australia in April not much has been happening other than work. However over the past semester I finally made the switch to Ubuntu on all my computers.

In fact I have been running Ubuntu on all my computers since moving to Thailand. Both my home PC and work PC were running dual boot Windows XP and Ubuntu Desktop, and my home Pentium III web server Ubuntu Server. I was using Windows for most of my work. However when my own server PC died I shifted to running Ubuntu full-time on my main home PC (acting as my web server and everyday PC), and a month ago I deleted the Windows partition (but have XP installed under VirtualBox). At work I haven't got around to deleting XP, but I only use it a few hours per week.

Ubuntu supports almost everything I need for my everyday computing activities at work and home: browsing, office applications, graphics, watching movies, occasional basic games. Of course it also perfect for hosting my web and email server. The only things I've been needing Windows for are: running some Windows-only simulation software, opening/editing old documents in MS Office (most of my old lecture slides were developed in Powerpoint - OpenOffice Presentation doesn't always handle the animations and fonts), and accessing web sites of selected financial institutions (IE only). Now all new work documents are created in OpenOffice. Slowly I am converting old documents, especially teaching material, to OpenOffice formats. It is a nice feeling knowing that eventually my 1000's of pages of teaching material will soon be in open formats, no longer dependent on closed, commercial applications and operating systems.

As Wan has been getting used to Ubuntu on my home PC, when she recently got her new Samsung NC10 netbook I immediately installed Ubuntu Desktop 9.04, overwriting the Windows XP Home install. So now its Ubuntu at multiple PCs at work, Ubuntu at home and Ubuntu on the road.

Here are some of my recommendations and personal preferences for maintaining a BibTeX file for a bibliography to be used with LaTeX.

General

Paper titles do not need capital letters for the first letter of all words. Example:

title="This is the Title of a Paper on the {ABC} Protocol",

BibTeX will typically convert all but the first letter to lowercase ("This is the title of a paper on the ABC protocol"); this is ok. However you should force uppercase for acronymns or names using the braces. You should avoid using formats like (let the BibTeX style deal with the case):

title="{This is the Title of a Paper on the ABC Protocol}",

Wow, that was close! I decided to delete an old fat32 partition that I used to share data between linux (first Fedora, now Ubuntu) and Windows on my dual boot PC. Since Ubuntu supports NTFS partitions, I hardly ever used it. I used Partition Manager Professional in Windows to delete the partition. No worries.

However, I also decided to resize my /boot partition under Ubuntu. When I recently upgraded to Ubuntu 8.04, the process was stalled several times because I didn't have enough space on the /boot partition (initially 100Mb). This was very annoying because I had to move some files from /boot and restart the entire Ubuntu upgrade (several minutes wasted each time). So I used Partition Manager to also increase the /boot partition to 200MB. No worries.

When you right-click on a folder in Ubuntu Linux you are given an option to Create Document. Initially no templates are installed. To install a template simply create blank document in the ~/Templates directory and it will appear in the right-click menu.

Online PC and software retailer in Thailand.

Linux desktop management system

ns2 is a popular, free package for simulating computer networks and protocols, e.g. TCP, satellite links, ad hoc networks, routing protocols.

1. Download the following packages from the ns2 website and extract them into your working directory. For example in my case /home/sgordon/ns2 is my install directory, therefore all the .tar.gz files are saved in this directory and apply tar xzvf filename.tar.gz on each:
   

Here you can find a brief description of my PC in Bangkok, my Web Server in Bangkok and the computer setup I used to have in Adelaide. You can also find some notes to some installation and configuration issues using Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora) and other software (e.g. NS2).

PC in Bangkok

A couple of days after I arrived in Bangkok and got my room I purchased the following PC which also acts as my TV and sound system. Total price: 38000 Baht (approx $AU1350).