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Jan
23
I received an AOC Envision 20†LCD Monitor (TV) from Geeks.com to review. I was familiar with AOC from their excellent computer monitors, it only makes sense they would get into the television business. If you are looking for an affordable, quality set that serves a variety of uses, this might be for you.
The unit is attractive, with a basic, non-invasive design. Thin, as an LCD should be. As a geek, I liked all of the connectors/connections available. It is lightweight with a nice base. Overall it gave me a positive first impression. The unit is wall-mountable. You can adjust the viewing angle from the base. This is handy depending on where you will be using it. There are power, menu, channel, volume and source buttons handily located at the top of the screen.
The TV is listed as being EDTV ready. I had was unfamiliar with that term. Enhanced Definition Television (EDTV) is designed to be a mid-step between Standard Definition Television (SDTV) and High Definition Television (HDTV). EDTV is 480p (p= progressive scan). HDTV is 1080i or p. The benefit of the smaller size is that 480p gives excellent definition on a 20†screen, particularly for the price.
The choices for signal input are plentiful. You have basic co-axial cable, composite, S-video, component and VGA. Based on my research, composite would give me the best picture. I use AT&T’s U-verse service (a review is coming) and read rave reviews of their composite signal. Someone even claimed that they broadcast in HD, but cut the signal back to 480p to conserve bandwidth. I read claims that the composite output was just about as good as the HDMI output. I tried all of the connections and this is what I found:
- Co-axial input – Good picture, no problems here.
- Composite (Red, Yellow and White) – Looked good, no real difference from Co-ax.
- S-Video – A definite improvement, picture sharper and brighter
- Component (Red, Blue, Green) – Excellent picture, best of the bunch.
Thanks to the multiple outputs of the U-verse box, I was able to run the LCD tv and my SDTV side by side making a comparison simple. I drove myself crazy for a while adjusting the colors on both the SDTV and LCD. The on-screen menu makes immediate sense and has a pleasant layout. Once I got the sets to match, I’d feel that maybe it just needed a little tweaking here and there. An hour later, I felt comfortable that they were as close as they were going to be. The LCD picture was unarguably better. It was no comparison. Any text displayed on the screen was very sharp, as opposed to the sloppy rendering on SDTV. Franky, I was shocked at how poor the SDTV looked in comparison. Anything with a line looked a lot better on the LCD. Colors were richer. Blacks and whites looked truly black and white. The picture was outstanding.
The picture is meant to be viewed from some distance. I’ve read anywhere from three times the width of the screen to eight feet. Three times the width works well for me. Up close, the picture does look boxy and jagged. Viewed from the appropriate distance, it looked fantastic. I doubt you would be using it with your face right up to it anyway. This is not the case using the VGA connection, where you probably would be sitting close.
U-verse gives you the option to choose your definition. You can choose 4:3, widescreen, 720p or 1080p. It defaults to 4:3. When I chose widescreen, it didn’t give me a widescreen picture, but the resolution almost looked HD. I don’t know what the difference is in how AT&T puts out the signal, the widescreen is strikingly better. I’ve read that EDTV provides 80% of the definition of HDTV, and using the widescreen setting that proves true. It is amazing to look at. The standard 4:3 definition is still very, very good, and I found myself sticking to that.
The speakers were a surprise. U-verse offers surround sound through the box, I enabled it and was taken aback at the quality of the sound. I did not notice the change at first, but soon sound were coming from all areas of the room. This television somehow gives a 3-D sound that is very clear. It is impressive for a budget TV to sound this good. There is an audio out line if you wish to attach it to an existing speaker system.
I’m no gamer, so I didn’t have a console to plug in. Consoles output a 480p resolution, so this unit should work very well with your console of choice.
I hooked my Windows Vista box up to it, the picture looked great. Fonts were off slightly, I’m sure they just need tweaking for the screen. The 800 x 600 resolution, while not normally what I would use, actually works well at a comfortable distance. I started Miro, and bingo, I had a media center going for all intents and purposes. With my wireless mouse and keyboard, I was comfortably chilling and surfing. I tried Netflix’s new streaming service and was watching a movie instantly (almost). Look for a review of this service soon. It is nice to view the content available on the internet without being chained to a desk. It is also convenient to just plug into a VGA port without going through the typical hassle of connecting the tv to the computer.
The menu options for PC input are nice. You can adjust the red, green and blue levels. You can choose “cool†or “warmâ€. One particularly nice thing is that you can choose the source of Picture In Picture (PIP), so I can have live TV running in a little box while I am using the computer. It might be helpful if I were a sports fanatic, stock junkie or didn’t want to miss any of my “storiesâ€.
The remote is well designed. I’ve suffered through poorly designed remotes, where doing a basic task (like fast-forwarding) becomes at best a chore, at worst a nightmare when it does something you do not want it to do. It is trim and fits nicely in the hand. My only nit-pick with it is I wish more real estate was devoted to the volume buttons, since those are used the most. They are conveniently located where my thumb rests so I can’t complain too much about them. Switching to the PC has its own button. Choosing the input is directly across from that. The layout makes sense and is easy to get used to.
The smaller size of this unit is a selling point for me. The ability to effortlessly switch between the television and computer makes it useful. I could see it as a great addition to a kitchen. You could watch tv while you cook, jump online to get a recipe or check your email. The adjustability of the viewing angle enables you to easily have it face where you are. It works well in a bedroom. It would be perfect for a smaller dorm room or a kid’s playroom. If you don’t need HD but don’t want the enormity of a SDTV and don’t need a gigantic screen for the space, this unit is perfect.
Priced at $214.50, this is a no-brainer to recommend. The picture is outstanding. The variety of inputs is very nice. The VGA port is an excellent addition. The sound is fantastic. It is built well. The manual is actually helpful. I could find nothing to complain about. If you are looking for quality at an affordable price this unit will work very well for you.
Features/Specifications:
AOC A20E221 Envision Series 20-inch EDTV-Ready LCD TV
General Features:
Silver profile
20-inch TFT LCD display
Built-in 181 Channel NTSC TV Tuner
EDTV-Ready (480p)
800 x 600 resolution
4:3 aspect ratio
0.51 mm x 0.51 mm pixel pitch
500:1 contrast ratio
500 cd/m2 brightness
160°(H) /120° (V) viewing angle
16.7 million colors
16 ms response time
10-watt speakers
31.5 – 48 KHz horizontal frequency
56 – 756 Hz vertical frequency
PC input resolution 800 x 600 @ 60 Hz
NTSC color system
MTS/SAP sound system
V-chip and Closed Caption
Motion Adaptive De-interlacer
Adaptive 4H Y/C Comb Filter
3:2 Pull Down Recovery
Progressive Scan
On Screen Display (OSD) function
Wall mountable
Top Panel Controls:
Power
Menu
Source
Channel up
Channel down
Volume +
Volume -
Side Connectors:
L/R Audio line out, L/R AV1 in
Component in Y/Pb/Pr, L/R
L/R/Video AV2 in
S-Video, L/R RCA
Mini Headphone jack
Rear Connectors:
TV tuner
15-pin VGA
Mini Stereo jack
Power plug
Power Specifications:
100 – 240V, 50/60Hz, 1.5A
Unit Dimensions:
17.6 x 27.4 x 9.9-inches (H x W x D with stand, approximate)
15 x  27.4 x 3.7-inches (H x W x D without stand, approximate)
Regulatory Approvals:
FCC
cULus
Package Includes:
AOC A20E221 Envision Series 20-inch EDTV-Ready LCD TV
Manual
Stand
Power cord
Remote control w/twwo AAA batteries
Jan
8
Interview with Fused Network’s David McKendrick
Filed Under Hosting Providers, Interview | 3 Comments
Fused Network is the best webhost, period. When I have a problem, I hear back almost instantly. When my site was flooded, it went offline for four minutes, compared to two days with my previous host. I’ve reviewed them here. Fused’s David McKendrick is amazing work with. He serves as an inspiration. Of the many great things I can say about David and Fused, two jump right out. Fused Network has offered free web hosting for Open Source projects since 2005. Can you say that about your web host? They also recently ended a Holiday Giveway where 100% of proceeds from the month of December went to the charity of your choice. David agreed to be interviewed, after humbly telling me my readers would be more interested in hearing from a coder. I thought you would like to hear about someone that loves Open Source (sorry RMS–Free Software) and puts his money where his mouth is.
Interview with David McKendrick of Fused Network:
1. Fused Network has a generous offer to host open-source projects for
free. Can you tell me about the projects you currently host, and give
details on the offer?
Well, since our inception back in 2003 under an alternate brand name,
we’ve always been firm supporters of open source. Fused Network was
primarily initiated to help cover the costs of hosting a couple of
existing open source projects like e107 (http://www.e107.org), a content
management system that I’ve spent several years using personally.
Since starting the open source hosting program (which is less than
official) we’ve hosted the likes of e107, BitComet, mirrors for FreeCiv,
Lingua and a wide range of other projects. We’re always on the lookout
for new projects to host, it’s our way of giving back to the community.
Essentially the offer is for any open source project that requires web
hosting of any sort, we’re open to any arrangement of any capacity.
While most projects these days are satisfied with providers like
SourceForge, it never hurts to have alternatives just in case they want
a full-fledged site and a bit more control. Fused Network offers just
that along with very reliable connections, gorgeous performance and a
small vessel full of features.
2. What is the appeal of open-source to you?
Almost every aspect of open-source appeals to me in some form. There’s a
number of key features of the movement itself that really spark my
interest though. Primarily, the fact that it’s community driven is one
alluring quality. Not only is it powered by people from all different
walks of life but in a number of cases they’re developing selflessly for
the greater good. The end-users are equally as vibrant though: Open
source offers a wide range of benefits all the while being free in most
cases!
The second reason is the fact that it’s open. The ‘open’ aspect of it
allows there to be greater security (ironic, isn’t it?) in that masses
of people can audit the code, add & subtract from it and develop it to
fit their needs. If they need a specific feature they can add it in;
Likewise, if they don’t need a specific feature they can remove it to
lessen the bulk of the software itself.
That isn’t to say that closed-source or proprietary software doesn’t
have its’ own benefits as well but it’s simply not as selfless. There’s
a great deal of downsides to closed-source as well including lack of 3rd
party code auditing and in the end if a company goes under, the entire
project tends to cease. Anyone left holding a license is essentially
left holding a worthless piece of paper.
Open Source tends to alleviate a lot of those fears because projects can
continue on essentially forever.
In a nutshell, Open Source is freedom.
Freedom from obscene licensing fees, freedom from oppressive licensing
structures & with it comes the ability to contribute, use & spread
software freely.
3. What open-source software do you use the most? Do you have favorites?
One of the benefits of open source software is the ability to try
multiple projects. At any given moment I’ve got at least ten different
audio players, browsers & operating systems floating around on my pc and
laptop. I’m a kid in the candy store when it comes to options.
On the larger scale, there’s a wide range of ‘internet only’ open source
applications I’ve been utilizing as well. To merely say I’m addicted
would be a far cry from the truth.
These days, wordpress & e107 are my current favourites on the web. Both
projects have excellent leadership, development speeds and goals. While
each has an entirely different purpose, to me each are gorgeous in their
own respects.
Wordpress allows the easy dissemenation of information & e107 allows
communities to be effortlessly constructed. There’s a number of other
projects out there like Filebrowser, Vanilla & SMF that I also consider
works of art.
On my desktop, Ubuntu’s release of Linux is probably 3rd in line for my
love: It’s a feature-packed distribution that makes it very easy for
end-users to utilize the product. Aeons ago, I recall being reprimanded
for destroying our home computers with my horrible linux administration
skills. At the time, we were floating around on the slowest dial-up in
existence so I kept finding copies of redhat in the bargain bin at
walmart to supplement my needs.
These days, I’ve had everyone from my aging grandparents to family
members try out Linux. It’s impressive to watch them try it for the
first time & see just how easy it is for the end-user. They themselves
are surprised at the ease of use. Most find it easier to wrangle than
Windows!
Beyond the operating system itself, I’m a huge fan of XMMS, Audacity,
gnuCash, Ktoon, Songbird, Firefox & most of all the SWORD project. All
of the software I enjoy using fills a need in my life that never could
have been fulfilled in a closed source operating system: The licensing
fees alone would have bankrupted me long ago. There’s hundreds of other
projects that I could mention and use frequently but I’ll spare that for
another time.
4. Tell me the history of Fused Network.
Fused Network has been involved in the web hosting industry since
February 2006. Prior to 2006, I had operated a smaller web hosting
provider that merged with Fused Network. Since our inception, we’ve had
absolutely insane growth rates. Just this year, we’ve tripled our
clientbase and now host almost 1,000 domain names — a far cry from the
150 we hosted at the beginning of this year.
A large part of our success can be attributed directly to open source
projects. A great number of users from every project have signed up as
clients after hearing about us supporting their projects selflessly.
It’s great seeing the community rewarding those involved.
5. If you don’t mind, tell us about yourself.
How in depth one could go on about this question, I was born in the
woods & raised by wolves? Not quite, but close.
I’m just a regular ol’ joe, since about 2003 I’ve been involved in web
hosting, web development and online media.
After having spent a number of years handling support for web hosting
companies like HostGator, Hostingplex & several others I decided it was
time to launch a solid provider for a change. At the time while working
my full-time job, I had a small ‘hobby provider’ but there was always a
limit on how much time I could really devote to the project. In April of
this year, I went full-time with Fused Network and haven’t looked back
since.
Every day since our inception we’ve experienced explosive growth and
there’s always something different going on.
As far as myself — I’m fairly regular. I enjoy sailing, technology,
scuba diving & piloting small cessnas are on the top of the list of the
things I enjoy most though. I spent most of my childhood living in a
number of diverse areas like Florida, Costa Rica & Prince Edward Island.
In 2001 I returned to Canada for University and spent a couple of years
hacking away at an Economics degree at the lovely Carleton University in
our nation’s capital, Ottawa. It wasn’t for me, so I tried web hosting
instead: Less math that wasn’t directly related to cashing cheques.
The majority of my days are spent helping clients and exploring the big
city of Toronto while chowing down on more raw fish than any man should
intake.
6. What prompted the Holiday Giveaway Promotion?
Well, since our meager beginnings, Fused Network has always been
involved in charitable activities. I would consider myself a
philanthropist of sorts, and I’m always on a quest to help others no
matter how small or large the cause.
In Toronto and any large city we often see the needy strewn across
sidewalks & sleeping under stairwells. We’re reminded daily that there
are others out there that are not as blessed as we are — so that’s one
place these programs launch out of, pure need.
Spending 12 hours a day helping clients & generating revenue simply
isn’t enough, each of us has a responsibility to help those around us.
Since I can’t get out there as frequently as I would like to myself,
this program simply offers a way for myself and my clients to help in
whatever way we can, no matter where we’re at in life.
7. What do you find the most challenging in web hosting? The most
rewarding?
Technology is always a challenge. The beauty of it, is every day there’s
something new going on. That’s also a downside, though. The entire
industry seems like it changes on an almost daily basis — what users
might want today, will be entirely different tomorrow. Technology can be
fun on the other hand in that it’s quite exciting to work with something
or someone new, all of the time.
The most rewarding aspect is definitely the giant smiles & the thank
yous. Client satisfaction is what I got into the industry for and it’s
what has kept me here. Just recently, a new client from Germany
overnighted me a bundle of chocolate and a postcard telling me about her
city — the mere thought of having someone from halfway around the world
thank you from the bottom of their heart — ah, that’s what keeps me
going 
My clients are blessings.
Dec
10
 
One of the great things about Linux is how well it runs on older hardware. The combination of overcapacity in processors and the failure of the resource hog Vista has created a sweet spot. You can get a powerful processor that may be a generation or two back (but still overkill for daily usage) at a great price. You can also help the environment. I thought it would be interesting to review a system that may not be the latest and greatest, but still provided a big bang for the buck. Geeks.com has a great selection of desktop computers, and they provided a bare bones kit to review: Pentium 4 3.4GHz Bare bones Kit w/Foxconn MB 1GB DDR2 CD.
Update: The kit is now out of stock 
Here is a replacement link.
I’m sure most of you have built a computer before. If you haven’t, give it a try. This kit is an easy starting point. It comes with everything you need, sans a hard drive and video card. Included:
- Case
- ATX adapter cable
- Motherboard
- CPU
- DDR2 RAM
- Heat sink and fan
- CD-ROM drive
- Floppy drive
- Wireless keyboard & mouse
My initial impression was very positive. I was very impressed with the motherboard, FoxConn 925XE7AA-8EKRS2 Socket 775 ATX. I used to manage a computer store, and have sold countless motherboards. One of the biggest stumbling blocks to upgrading is a lot of times functionality is pulled from a board. I would find the perfect board but then hit the wall of only one IDE slot. There would be onboard video that you can’t disable. You would only have two slots for RAM. Inexpensive meant giving something up. Isn’t it better to go with a solid, older board with full functionality?
This Foxconn is a monster. It has three IDE slots, four serial ATA slots. Silicon Image 3114 RAID controller. No onboard video to waste resources. Three PCI slots, three PCI-E x1 slots and one PCI-E x16, so a fair amount of room to upgrade. It is a solid board. It comes with the most cables I have seen in a motherboard box. 3 IDE cables. 8 SATA data cables, 1 floppy cable, 4 2-port SATA power adapter cables, 1 4 port USB extension and 1 Firewire extension. This motherboard will hold up to 4 gigs of RAM. The included 1 gig of Kingston RAM is a nice touch.
Installation was simple and took about an hour. I put the processor and memory in, put in the I/O shield and attached the motherboard, connected all the cables. I dropped in the CD Rom and hard drive and connected them. I threw in a video card, Nvidia 8400 (not part of the kit), double checked everything and closed the case. It powered right up. I installed OpenSuse 10.3 to get it up and running.
This is a fast machine. So fast that it sometimes finishes a task before I even start it (kidding). If you run Linux, you will be more than happy with the performance. I have an Athlon64 system with 3 gigs of ram that occasionally runs Vista. The speed of Linux + this hardware blows it out of the water. That is like comparing apples to anvils (thanks Garry!), but helps illustrate my point. 1/3 the ram and a comparable processor running like greased lightning compared to Vista. If you miss spyware and viruses (viii?) I’m sure this machine would run XP well. OpenSuse 10.3 is very fast on this system.
The wireless mouse and keyboard (Kensington Wireless Mouse and Keyboard for Mac and PC) are very nice. I hadn’t used wireless before with Linux, I was pleasantly surprised to plug them in and have them work immediately. The mouse has some weight to it. It feels substantial, unlike the lightness of a cheap mouse. The keyboard is built well. It may not have the power and fury of the old IBM Model M, but the keys are responsive and it feels spacious. There are a lot of extra buttons that I don’t mess with too much. Surprisingly, the two scrolls on the keyboard worked right out of the box with OpenSuse. The other extra buttons all seem to work as well, this comes as a shock to me. I guess I need to get with the times.
The case is reasonable. It has six expansion slots and plenty of space inside. There is a front panel USB port, but no front panel audio. The 300W power supply is sufficient, but a bit on the lower side. The case has plenty of holes for good ventilation, but lacks any fans. Considering the price point, there is nothing to complain about here. Unfortunately mine got bumped around in shipping, but was still usable.
With the included CD Rom and Floppy, you can throw a nice workable system together easily. If you are upgrading, you will probably transfer your CD/DVD burner to this system along with your power supply. The great thing about this path is you could install the motherboard/processor into your existing system, build a computer for your kid/parents/grandma/aunt/weird cousin with the supplied case, CD Rom and floppy.
I can easily recommend this kit. I’m very happy with it. You simply cannot beat the power you get for this price. The components are quality. You aren’t getting some cheapo motherboard, you are getting a great older generation model. The excellent wireless mouse and keyboard are an asset. If you are running an older system and looking for an easy and inexpensive upgrade, this does the trick. If you want to build a system that and are unconcerned with running the latest and greatest, look here. I don’t want to look like a slappy here, but I have had no problem with this system and it has run nonstop for a week. If I had a complaint I’d be more than happy to let you know. You can’t beat the price at $189.
Full specs available on the product page, Click here.Even though the system is out of stock, you can be notified when it returns though the link.
I’m going to use this system to revisit Sabayon Linux. I’ve been itching to see how Sabayon is doing since my last review.
Finally, I’d like to give a shout out to the Metro Detroit Linux User’s Group, they reassured me that this hardware was very powerful for everyday desktop usage.
Mar
21
Review: Austrumi Linux
Filed Under Linux Distributions, Reviews | 7 Comments
Live CDs are great. If you are on the road an unable to access a Linux box, you just pop it in to the drive and away you go. You can use them as restore discs, play practical jokes and install a full operating system from them. One of the more interesting areas in Live CDs are the minimal (or business card) distributions. Designed for older machines, these can be a lifesaver if you are visiting your parents and using an old computer. Over the next week I will be reviewing them and decide which one is the best.
One of my favorites is Austrumi. It is under 50mb in size and surprisingly full featured. It will run with 128Mb of ram or less. When Distrowatch Weekly mentioned version 1.4.0 was out, I was interested in trying it again.
A big change in this release is the switch from enlightenment to Metacity + LXPanel. They have added a MySQL client and server (?!) and the bittorrent client Transmission. The kernel is 2.6.20.1. More details are available on the project’s home page.
So what do you get on a 50Mb Live Cd? Austrumi has made interesting choices.
* File Manager – emelFM2 and Midnight Commander
* Web Browser – Firefox 1.5
* Email – Web-Mail (Uebimiau)
* Graphics – GIMP, Inkscape, GQview and the Ghostview Postscript/PDF Viewer
* Audio/ Video – MPlayer, Sweep and SimpleCDR-X
* Development – Bluefish Editor, QEMU
* Games – Atomix, Ltris, Mines, GtkBalls, Icebreaker and XBoard
* Office – Abiword and Gnumeric Spreadsheet
* Accessories – Calculator, Terminal, Stardict and Partimage
* Networking – Transmission, DC++, Linphone, XChat and vqcc-gtk Chat Client
You get a good amount of programs for such a small distro. You also have the option to install to disc or install to USB.
I booted into Austrumi. You are given four choices at the boot prompt:
1. al nocache (don’t attempt to cache CD) for systems with less than 128Mb Ram
2. al union (read-write filesystem)
3. al text (run text mode)
4. al noddc (for old monitor)
I simply hit enter and booted with no problem. The default language is Latvian. I changed this by clicking the menu, then Istatiejumi (Apparently the Latvians use a lot of letters in their words) and choosing valodas to change language to English. This restarts the X server. This could be made easier. The look of Austrumi is striking. The Wallpaper chosen gives it a sophisticated look. This distribution has a reputation of being very fast. It lived up to its reputation for me.
I clicked Firefox and found out my internet connection was not set up. Clicking the Connection Manager icon in the upper right corner opened Netconfig (a connection dialog.) I chose DHCP and I was online in less than a minute. This couldn’t have been simpler. You can set up a printer via the Cups web interface. The selection of printing drivers is minimal, so you may need to download your own.
Austrumi is not without its problems. Web-Mail did not work for me, it gave me a blank Firefox browser window. Install to hard drive did not recognize a disc, so I was unable to test it. As I mentioned earlier, it would not hurt to make the language switch more intuitive. If I remember correctly, in past editions you just clicked a flag on the toolbar. One program didn’t make the translation to English, Ugunsvarti. It is a firewall/router program. The program runs in English, though. I couldn’t connect to MySQL. Install to USB was not working. This is listed as being fixed as of version 1.4.1.3, but as I mentioned below I was unable to download it.
The website is a bit lacking. There are mentions of newer versions (up to 1.4.1.3), but the link on the download page only lists version 1.4.0. You won’t find a lot of information on the site, mainly a link to Slackware, some screenshots and an outdated list of programs. The history page only goes up to version 1.2.0. There are no English forums, there is a Latvian forum. To be fair, most distros do not provide Latvian forums and this is a Latvian distribution.
One great feature is that you can remaster and create your own Live CD from within Austrumi. You are able to remove the Live CD and burn a new one. The screenshot shows all of the steps you take. It is remarkable to me that you are even able to test it using QEMU before burning. I give them a lot of credit here. This is cool.
If you load Austrumi into RAM when you boot (which is done automatically do unless you have less than 128Mb) you can eject the disc to burn CDs as well. The provided program, SimpleCDR-X, is a nice and simple CD burning program that I was previously unaware of. I also had not heard of the audio editor and player Sweep. It looks like a very interesting program, one deserving of its own article. (Note: The Sweep website mistakenly lists the last update as February 2006 instead of 2007.) MPlayer uses the old skin, which I hadn’t seen in years, and runs fine.
The games are simple and entertaining. This is Linux, and a 50Mb Live CD, so don’t expect the latest and greatest. What they lack in fancy graphics they make up for in challenge. Atomix is a game where you have to put molecules together and drive yourself crazy in the process. Icebreaker is similar to Kbounce, where you trap the bouncing penguins in increasingly smaller blocks of ice. Similar to what is going on right now in Antarctica. LTris is, you guessed it, a Tetris clone. If you are looking to waste a little time, Austrumi comes through.
Austrumi is good at what it does, which is provide you with a reasonably full featured Linux Distribution that will fit on a 50Mb business card and run on an old machine. I recommend it. The small size makes the download painless. If you are stuck using an older machine, Austrumi is a good way to go. It is not without its bugs, but overall I found it worked well for me. It could use a bit more polish and attention to detail. Overall, I give it a 7.5 out of 10. Next up: Puppy Linux.