[ubuntu] Nvidia Driver Random Freeze

After my recent update (7th Feb 2011), I have been facing issues with Ubuntu Lucid (10.04), where it randomly does one (or all) of the below:

• display goes ‘fuzzy’ or ‘freezes’,
• the mouse can still move for a while at least.
• mouse freeze
• keyboard does not respond

If i am patient enough, I can wait and everything should be fine in 30 seconds. Sometimes if i am lucky, i get to use my system for 5 minutes before the whole thing repeats itself. Irritating, isn’t it?

Well…. i do have low tolerance for this kind of issues, it is unacceptable in so many levels, right? Thus, i went around surfing the net for a solution, and i have tried the below but it does not help:

• update / upgrade everything that is possible
• reinstall the Nvidia drivers
• install the latest Nvidia driver
• change Nvidia driver & preferences
• upgrade to Ubuntu Maverick (10.10)
• modify codes related to the my USB keyboard and mouse
• disable display effects: smooth fonts, visual effects… etc

After many re-installations of Ubuntu Maverick and trying out settings above, I am finally convince that the whole shebang is due to the Nvidia drivers and Xorg incompatibility. In the end i just did the simplest thing possible: DISABLE THE NVIDIA DRIVER

• System > Administration > Additional Drivers (Restricted Drivers)
• Click on the activated Nvidia driver
• Click on the ‘remove’ button towards the right bottom

Yes, it will disable all the fancy visual effects, but i get a stable system that does not randomly hang for the last 24 hours. And it is  better for me this way, at least. That’s my take.

[youtube] StarCraft II – Secret Mission

There is a secret mission in StarCraft II. For any StarCraft fan, it is a must play, else you would not have completed StarCraft II! That’s my take.

[android] Motorola Droid Getting Android 2.2 (Froyo) Next Week

Verizon has dropped a note to Engadget with news that the Droid will be getting the Froyo (Android 2.2) treatment next week (as in 2nd August 2010). That is good news indeed!

If Motorola keeps to the schedule for Android 2.1, which Droid got their update 2 weeks earlier that Milestone, Motorola Milestone user like myself should see the Froyo update soon. If Motorola is committed to Android, and would like to keep their users happy and loyal, they better make sure there is a Froyo update for Milestone users. That’s my take.

[ Engadget ]

[youtube] StarCraft II – Ghost of the Past Trailer

[gadg3t] How Apple Should Fix the Antenna Issue on iPhone 4

Just don’t hold it by the antenna!

[ Flickr via Gizmodo ]

[android] Alarm Clock Not Going Off

I just got my first Android phone, Motorola Milestone, for a week and am having great fun with it! But the Alarm Clock keeps on bugging me as the Alarm Clock doesn’t ring at all, and I was using my trusty old Nokia phone as my alarm till today.

Finally i have time to do some research, and found out how sometimes too much control over your phone is bad (if not done properly). My problem was the Advanced Task Killer which I have installed onto my Milestone on day one itself, and I have been using it to kill off all the apps to save power & memory. Android allows us to so much control, that we sometimes forget that some of the apps still need to be run on the background, and Alarm Clock is one of them.

So, for those of you who face the same problem, and uses the Advanced Task Killer (or any other task killer), the fix is rather simple and should be valid for all alarm clock apps, not just the default ones. All you need is to do is include the Alarm Clock in the ignore list by performing the steps below:

• Open Alarm Clock
• Go back to home
• Open Advanced Task Killer
• Long press on Alarm Clock
• Click on Ignore to add Alarm Clock to the ignore list
• (you can manage the ignore list by going to the menu -> Setting -> ignore list)

Good luck, have fun, and let me know if this works for you!

[web] iTunes Accounts Hacked

A number of iTunes accounts has been hacked, with user reporting between $100 & $1400 being spent without their knowledge or consent.

The first hint that something was amiss over the weekend came when two developers noticed that 40 out of the top 50 slots in the iTunes books section were all released by the same dev—Thuat Nguyen, all of whose apps have since been pulled from the App Store—most without ratings or reviews, most purchased from hacked accounts.

From Gizmodo

The good news is that there are some user out there saying that iTunes Store acknowledges the issues and will reimburse your the money. The developer and the apps involved in such fraud has been removed from the App Store. This comes to prove that as Apple stuffs become more popular, hackers are also getting more interested! That’s my take.

[ Gizmodo ]