Tag: ubuntu

Gemini First Use – But Not Last

I’ve watched the Gemini button at the end of the Google search box for a few weeks ? Months?, but I’ve never tried it until today. Today I had a problem installing Java on Linux and I let Gemini help.

Background

A while ago I wrote a Java program to display artwork in the form of LibreOffice Impress files. The Showrunner program takes a list of Impress files and displays them one after the other and starts the first one after the last one. It is written in Java so that it’s easy to use on Windows or Linux.

I just got a new Mini system [5″ x 5″ x 3″] system. Basically a folded up laptop with 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD and it came with Windows 11 Pro – Yuck. So my first task was to install Linux Mint 22.3.

Installing Linux Mint 22.3 went without a hitch. But to use ShowRunner I needed to install Java. I tried to just install it. And that looked like it worked, but didn’t when I tried to run the program.

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More Nonsense – Obsolete Webcams

So, from a few years ago I have a couple of Logitech Webcams. I’d report the model number but they leave that off the device. On a little tag on the cord one says M/N V-U0016 and the other one says M/N-U0023. Embossed into the body of the webcams – which look identical – it says they support a microphone, auto focus and 720p. They are missing a shutter to block the camera which all new models have, but a piece of black tape solves that problem if you care. These webcams are perfectly great for Discord or Zoom calls. Here’s one web cam taking a portrait of the other in Discord, running on Linux Mint 22.2.

You might argue that it is not sharp but for a discord or zoom call its just great. I’ll not show my face here, but it was perfectly reasonable for 720p. Sure the new ones are 1080 or 4k, but who cares? If you really need that, then you don’t care about saving this old webcam.

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Linux Mint Muddy Text

Linux Mint 21.2 Sharp Text

I use Linux Mint in Virtual Box virtual machines on Windows Hosts. I’ve been using Linux Mint 21.2 on a Windows 10 machine for some months now and it’s all fine.

After the nightmare struggle with disabling the Hyper-V on Windows 11 to get the performance back, I’m now running both LM21 and LM22 on Windows 11.

Notice the following examples of text in the windows:

Notice how sharp this text is. My monitor size is QHD [2560×1440]. I use Nvidia GPUs. This first example is on Windows 11 host with a Linux Mint 21.2 client on VirtualBox 7.1, no guest extensions [or not recently anyway]. GPU is a Nvidia RTX 3060. This text looks the same sharpness on Windows 10 host with earlier VirtualBox releases. It looks great.

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