Merry Ubuntu 12.10 Christmas

Had a old PC where I could not get windows re-installed on. It complained about the pci.sys and I could not go around it. The windows 8 installation I had on it was only beta so I needed a new approach... Have had Linux dists before but they seemed to require a whole lot to get the hardware to work. But I thought I should get it a try. Since I have played with Raspberry Pi I was familar with Debian so I tried it. But it failed to also install. Then I thought that maybe Ubuntu would be worth to try. It's based on Debian though so I was not too confident that it would work. But see and behold! It was very easy.
I downloaded this to a windows machine:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/unetbootin/
Created a memory stick with the help of the application. Ubuntu is faaaaaar down in the list. Then I booted on the stick and after a restart it was completly installed, with USB, WiFi, Bluetooth ready and available!

Two small tips. Always when looking for data on google about Ubuntu it's worth to add also the release eg. Terminal Ubuntu 12.10. There is so big difference between the versions. So how do you open the Terminal in Ubuntu 12.10? Ctrl+Alt+T was the answer. Maybe in Ubuntu 12.11 there will be a desktop app for it. It's Christmas time so I can always wish for it.

They state that Ubuntu is for human beings and I start to feel that all the discussions about Linux on the desktops is maybe old... Linux is in the laptops!


http://skyisgrey.org/blog/ubuntu-desktop-course.html

Philips Hue meets Vera

http://www.meethue.com/en-US/getstarted Philip's Hue is a remote controlled lamp and a small bridge that you can connect your (i)Phone to.For 190'ish euro you get 3 lights a the control box that you connect to the router. There is plug in development to be able to connect all this to your Vera. Limitation from the box is only 50 lights and since they are not native Z-wave you need to live with another box for now. There is other post that shows that there might still be hope for native z-wave led's some time...
http://868mhz.blogspot.fi/2012/11/greenwave-ipv6-led.html
http://868mhz.blogspot.fi/2012/09/insteon-led-lights.html
http://868mhz.blogspot.fi/2012/01/screw-in-led-light-bulb.html

The z-wave screw in light module seems to not be selling that good anymore since I see it more and more seldom. But I like the idea but the design was a bit bulky...

Vera2 vs Vera3

I just hooked up a Vera3 that I will use for the cottage. Installation was very easy, maybe due to the experience with the Vera2. Did I notice any differences? Maybe the Vera3 is sightly quicker, but everything else is very much the same. I think the Vera3 is a bit up the price range since a Vera lite would do for the needs I have. But it's good to be able to grow also since I have no clue what I need to hook up in the future :-).

Motorized Curtains

There is some ways of handling the issue of closing and open the curtains. But this company seems to be doing it in a very elegant way that could easily fit the nicest environment. 
http://www.forestgroup.nl/products/Shuttle.html
I have no clue about their prices but if I get the time and need I might hook my curtains up to a old DC screw driver.