My Geek Opinions - A Geek's Guide to Technology

Following an Obsession: Announcing "HecticGeek.com" (My New Wordpress Site! :D)

2011-10-11T18:43:00.001+05:30

This very site that you're reading is about 10-11 months old. So in comparison with other web sites on the internet, this is like a newborn baby :). This site currently has like 800 + articles, all written by me. This gets reasonable amount of traffic and as you know I use Google Adsense on the site which makes a very little $$.

But after all these months a thought came to my mind which was repelled previously by my survival instincts. It was about the idea of ownership. Now as many knows, all the content on this site, although I created them (some inspired by others work of course) but still the content is hosted on Google owned Blogger about which I have no issues.

But in reality... I don't have any authority over the content of the site. So I just wanted something of my own. Although the idea of ownership is a bit of an anomaly itself because as many knows .... okay you know what, let's forget about those "philosophical" questions and let me come straight to the point.

In simple terms, if you think what I write is "okay" ... then I humbly present you my own brand new site (which was acquired through the very little money made by this little blog, for that I'm grateful) called The Hectic Geek !!! :D.

I won't forward this site's content over there thus I'll have to start from scratch, all over again :/. It's a painful process if you have been blogging and know about traffic growth, etc. But I'd like to start anew.

Right now the new site looks like shi* (although this blog is no different either :D). I'm really new to wordpress platform so gotta learn few things here and there (to tell you the truth, I don't even know how to change sidebar in WP :/).

The site has like 3 articles that I wrote today (2011/10/11) ... other than that nothing much to say actually. But that doesn't mean that I'll be leaving this blog forever. Although I won't be writing new content here but I will always come and look for comments and do my best to give answers nonetheless.

I don't have thousands of subscribers (about 39 according to Google) but if you're one of those geeks that come and read this site, somewhat frequently... then you know where to find me :).

Remote Desktop Access Comes to Google Chrome!

2011-10-09T16:33:00.000+05:30

If you have a reasonably faster internet connection then using free & popular tools such as the TeamViwer for instance, you can easily establish a remote desktop connection that has a lot of uses. This is a feature that's being largely used by both professionals (remote help desk providers) and users all around the world which helps to access a remote location with as low cost as possible :).

Anyhow, the latest news is that, Google has released an extension for their Chrome web browser which basically enables the users start a remote desktop connection for free!. The extension is currently at its beta stage and is about 19MB in size (it was introduced like 2 days ago and used to be about 17MB in size but have added 2MB already, seems like they've done some "heavy" bug fixes already).

It's a cross-platform "thing" (obviously). So as long as you have installed Google Chrome web browser on MS Windows, Mac OSX, GNU/Linux or any platform the browser is installable, you should be able to start a remote desktop connection. The extension uses the Google G-Talk web API thus will ask you for your Google account access + at this point there seems to be no audio support but both video and text message sending is enabled by default.

As with other applications the remote desktop connection is implemented by using a access code (12 digits), encrypted. For instance, you can either generate a code for your computer and provide it to the user who wants to access your PC remotely or request their code and start the connection by yourself.

Either way, the code set-up is needed only once but if the connection got disconnected for some reason, then you'll have to enter a new code for security reasons. Since the basic foundation of Chrome OS is actually the web browser itself thus this will also be seamlessly implemented in the Chrome OS too.

So, if you want to do more than web browsing the Google Chrome and want to start both a nerdy or professional remote desktop connection for free then why not try this Chrome extension!.

Once installed you can access it by simply opening a new window and then under the sub heading "Apps" click on its icon as shown with below screenshot and can even access few of its settings window (creating a shortcut, etc) too.

You can also read this official help page for more information.

HTML5 Based Text Editor for Ubuntu Linux - GWrite!

2011-10-08T11:34:00.002+05:30

The world wide web loses its meaning and purpose if the "contents" is only readable by either humans or computers. Thus the purpose of HTML (which is the basic framework of web pages) is to make the contents readable for both computers and humans since computers are still our slaves who's purpose is to search and structure the data so we can access them as efficient as possible (poor buggers :D).

Since its introduction, HTML has undergone 5 major "updates" and the recently introduced HTML5 is the newest version that brings a lot of changes (such as advanced multimedia support, etc).

Anyhow as said before, HTML is actually a way of representing data thus by using it as the framework, we can build pretty awesome (meaning powerful and features rich :P) applications with somewhat minimal of efforts (since we already have the basic layout from HTML for rendering the data, etc).

A quick picture not to make you bored with my little rambling :)...

For instance, the standard text format (.txt) cannot handle images or anything other than text. That's why we have word processors that have both the container format + a framework of their own for inserting/deleting pictures, links or other advanced things which the basic text format is unable to "understand".

But what if we could build a universal format that understand all these things, images, text, links, graphs, videos, audio, tables, etc ... well a web page such an app, isn't it? it can display these things by default. Why?, because it uses HTML as the "engine". So since HTML is an open "language" anyone can easily use its framework and build an advanced text editor (as with this case) or anything that's supported by the HTML protocol (sort of) with ease and that's what GWrite is all about!.

I'm sorry it took this long ... but I got all excited ;-).

Anyhow let me give you some of its features first...

*. Based on the HTML5 mark-up language and the UI is written in GTK+ toolkit.

*. Very simple window yet has a lot of features. *. Even supports "MS Doc" word processor container format!.

*. Insert text and make them: Bold, Italic,Underline, Change font size, Highlight text, etc.

*. As said before, unlike with a "traditional" text editor, you can insert pictures, tables (not the ones with chair and stuff :P), URL (links), HTML codes, LaTeX math expressions, etc.

*. View the text source in pure HTML or the usual humanly read version (without the codes, etc).

*. Add styles such as: Different headings, Bulleted/Numbered lists, Div tags, Block quotes, etc.

*. Undo & Redo.

*. Find and replace.

*. Word counting support.

These are among few of its main features to mention. Although it won't show any file other than in HTML or MS Doc by default but you can easily open text or other files by changing the attributes to "All files" in the open file window.

You can install GWrite in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 (may even support 11.10, didn't check though) by simply entering the below command in your terminal window.

sudo apt-get install gwrite

So, if you're looking for an opensource, HTML5 based rich text editor (with excellent features I might add) that can be used in Ubuntu or GNU/Linux in general, then GWrite is a bloody excellent utility without a doubt!. Enjoy.

How to install Fluxbox Window Manager in Ubuntu ?

2011-10-08T10:13:00.001+05:30

Fluxbox is a super fast window manager written in C++ that is being used as the GUI "creator" by many desktop environments. And just like with OpenBox (another WM) which is used in LXDE, Fluxbox is also extremely resource friendly thus it's especially being used in those "small GNU/Linux distributions" (you know small in size and resources, etc) nowadays more than ever as well.

Although the last time I tried it (bit of a long time ago actually), well it was really stable and fast but it did feel somewhat "sluggish" when it comes to minimizing or maximizing windows (with few delays just as with Openbox).

But if you want to give a try at this resource friendly window manager in Ubuntu, then the installation is pretty simple actually since it's in the official repositories. You can install Fluxbox in Ubuntu 11.04, 11.10, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command.

sudo apt-get install fluxbox

But as a Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal user, if you want to use the latest builds of Fluxbox window manager, then you can certainly make some use out of the dedicated PPA channel (thanks to Paul).

But remember, it includes the "Nightly Builds", so the packages may not be the most stable ones out there thus should only be used for testing purposes or if you want to get the latest updates of Fluxbox (and other related packages) but okay with the fact that it might drift you towards a bit of an unstable system (yikes).

To add it to Natty and install the latest builds you can use the below commands. As usual, open your terminal and enter the below commands.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fluxbox-maintainers/nightly
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install fluxbox

Then log-out and on the GDM log-in screen, just choose "fluxbox" under session. That should do the trick. But remember, this fluxbox WM only supports Gnome and KDE desktops + it will not support Unity or Gnome Shell interfaces since they're build using entirely different, a bit advanced compositing WM such as Compiz and Mutter.

But don't hope to get the same level of features with fluxbox as with Gnome or KDE for instance because at the end you'll be disappointed!.

And while using the "Fluxbox" desktop session, if you launch apps such as Nautilus file manager, then you'd run into trouble because Nautilus will try to replace the desktop management instead of fluxbox!.

But as a quick solution, we can disable Nautilus for dealing with your desktop. To do that, open the terminal window and enter the below command.

gconf-editor

Then from the window that you get, go to: "apps" -> "nautilus" -> "preferences".

Now to your right-side scroll down until you see a setting called "show desktop" (as with below screenshot). Remove the check mark and it should solve your problem.

This will also disable desktop icons, etc in Gnome classic and Unity too. So, unless you're gonna be using Fluxbox as your primary somewhat desktop... then this could be a headache :)...

But as said... although it's quite fast, still, fluxbox window manager is certainly not for everyone. There I warned you! :P.

Cross Platform YouTube Music Player - MusicTube!

2011-10-07T15:01:00.004+05:30

For the good or worse, by using online video sharing services such as the extremely popular YouTube for instance, we can watch or listen to thousands or millions of songs without having to pay a penny :). Although I don't use it that often (because I have a limited-bandwidth internet connection, damn!) but if you use it quite often then would it be nice if we could have a dedicated application that lets us listen/search & manage all the music files on YouTube from our desktop with ease?.

In that case, I'm pretty sure there are quite a few already but I came across this one called "MusicTube" and it's awesome!. It's a cross-platform application written in the Qt GUI toolkit and supports MS Windows, Mac OSX and Ubuntu at the moment.

Although it's not fully Open-Source + not entirely free either (you'll have to buy it after the trial period) ... but it's a pretty cool utility which could be worth trying, for some.

Main features...

*. As said, the UI is designed using the Qt toolkit and looks quite simple and easy to use. Although I'm using the Windows version rather than the Ubuntu one because it gave me a dependency error (concerning Qt of course) while trying to install it in Ubuntu 11.04.

*. Search (with automatic suggestions) and manage playlists (with Shuffle or Repeat functions).

*. Display album art, artist name, etc.

*. Even supports video!.

*. Although it's still kinda really new (somewhat in a beta stage) but still things like the seek bar, etc worked really well (with speed I might add).

*. Automatic Lyrics support.

*. Change volume levels.

*. Copy the currently playing file's link.

*. Only play "Live" performance or switch to "Cover" mode which only plays the remixed ones.

*. Shows different versions of the same song.

Well, that's about it for the features. Although it would've been nice if there was a feature to download the files (perhaps it's in the premium version). But other than that, I'm really impressed with its performance concerning the fact that it's relatively new and all that.

Anyhow, if interested, you can get it from this official MusicTube page. It's supposed to work in Ubuntu 10.04 and up but as said before, it gave me errors while trying to install it under 11.04 Natty Narwhal. Other than that, if you want to keep listening to millions of songs (both video and audio) all the time for free (well, you gotta pay for the app) by using the YouTube online video sharing service ... then MusicTube is a pretty cool tool, me thinks :D. Enjoy!

Free Hard Drive Eraser - KillDisk!

2011-10-06T11:09:00.000+05:30

Whether you use Windows or GNU/Linux or most other similar tools for erasing your hard disk drive (not just formatting but deleted the partitions, etc) hoping that the "sensitive" data on the drive will be wiped securely... but as most knows, by using the "right" utility, it is possible to recover most of those data, if not all.

Or if you use a USB storage device such as an external hard drive or a pen drive, then having the ability to easily wipe out data without giving any chances of recovery becomes crucial. There are many software utilities available for that nowadays but some only run in the OS itself thus if you want to wipe a HDD, USB, etc that doesn't have an OS then you'd have to go through a bit of a hassle (unless you wanna manually attach that drive to your computer).

In that case, if you're looking for a free software application (has a separate professional version but the free one is more than enough for most of our needs) that runs inside MS Windows + also lets you boot into a boot-able environment of its own (where an operating system is not present, etc) ... then KillDisk is an excellent utility.

Main features...

*. Platform Independent file system eraser : Whether you have MS Windows, GNU/Linux, free BSD or Mac OSX , etc file systems... it doesn't matter to KillDisk it'll treat them all the same :).

*. Supports IDE / ATA / SATA / SCSI hard disk drives (including USB and SSD drives).

*. Erase data on both used and free space. If you only want to erase the free space then use the "Wipe" button. To completely erase the drive/partition, etc use the "Kill" feature.

*. Advanced scan methods for NTFS and FAT file systems.

*. Easily create a boot-able environment (a "DOS" type environment) using media such as: HDD, USB, Floppy, CD/DVD.

*. Wipes out deleted MFT and ROOT system records.

*. The free version supports only single-pass zero method which is pretty decent for most.

But for the best secured deletion ... you'd wanna consider purchasing the Professional version which includes few advanced features such as: user defined methods (including random numbers, characters, passes, etc) and few other Army and Government approved secure deletion algorithms, etc.

*. Erases both file system data and even boot sectors! (so always think twice before using :D).

These are just a few of its main features to mention. Although I only used it under Windows but as mentioned, it comes with a GUI tool that lets you easily create a boot-able disk drive. It however did not detect my GNU/Linux partition as a Ext4 file system but it can delete data nonetheless!.

And also remember, if you have a dual-boot environment with GNU/Linux and only want to wipe the GNU/Linux partition/s, then first make sure to remove the GRUB boot-loader. Otherwise you might not be able to boot-into MS Windows afterward (as long as you have the Windows installation CD/DVD ... this should be fixable most of the time, but just keep that in mind anyway).

So, if you're looking for a free, platform independent disk drive eraser that suits both individual and professional needs then KillDisk is certainly a pretty powerful application. But please be aware that if you want the best possible results then perhaps you might wanna purchase the "Professional" version + after using it, you will not be able to recover data ... so use it with caution. Good luck.

Get it from this KillDisk Home page.

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Gets the Official Code Name!

2011-10-06T09:06:00.000+05:30

As most knows, with almost all the other GNU/Linux distributions (or other major software projects in general), Ubuntu also assign a code name every time they release a new version of their operating system. The current version number is 11.04 has the code name of "Natty Narwhal" and the upcoming 11.10 is called "oneiric ocelot".

I'm not a marketer thus have very little knowledge about how or why code names are used... but I guess it has something to do with branding. Anyhow, few hours ago, Mark Shuttleworth announced (the founder of Ubuntu OS) the official name for the upcoming 12.04 which will be released in 2012 April (if everything goes according to plan) and it'll be called, Precise Pangolin!.

As always, Mark had something interesting to say about the name (or the creature behind the name actually)...

"Now, I’ve recently spent a few hours tracking a pangolin through the Kalahari. I can vouch for their precision – there wasn’t an ant hill in the valley that he missed. Their scales are a wonder of detail and quite the fashion statement. I can also vouch for their toughness; pangolin’s regularly survive encounters with lions..."

Anyway, the 12.04 release has another importance also since it's the "Long Term Support" (a.k.a LTS) which is for those who just can't stand for having to update their OS once every 6 months. So, once every 2 years a LTS version is released which carries no particular differences in packages but will be supported by Ubuntu (updates, bug fixes, etc) up to 3 years for the desktop edition and 5 years for the Ubuntu Sever Edition.

And in somewhat a recent interview, Mark said that they "might" replace Firefox with Google Chrome which could have happened with the 12.04 version but since it's the LTS version ... it won't. But it could be something that'll take place in the 12.10, perhaps.

Anyhow if you're wondering about the official code name for the upcoming Ubuntu 12.04 (both LTS and the standard versions)... then it's Precise Pangolin and it's all about surviving the "lion"!.

How to Split or Merge Files Easily in Ubuntu?

2011-10-05T10:00:00.005+05:30

Almost all the popular file compression tools (archive managers) have the ability to split files and then merge them later, which is also the case with Ubuntu. Thanks to the default archive manager (called File-Roller), you can split any file by using it as long as you're using a compression format that supports file splitting (.rar for instance).

But the problem of using A compression container format to split files and store them has a bit of a known risk. I think most would agree that (at least in my experience) some of these split files have a tendency to be corrupted, which is a common "headache" concerning file downloading. For instance, have you ever encountered a "CRC error" while trying to re-merge a file that was split and stored in the .rar compression format?? (errrrrrrrrrr :D).

So, to avoid or minimize these sort of difficulties we need to have a dedicated, specially designed file splitter. Although under MS Windows there a lot of free tools (HJSplit is pretty famous) available so is with GNU/Linux too!.

It's ridiculously awesome! :D...

If you'd like to play with your command-line a little bit then there are few dozens available but if you want something with a GUI "attached" to it :)... that can be used under Ubuntu Linux, then Gnome Split is a utility worth trying. It's written in Java and uses the GTK + toolkit thus integrates really well with Unity as well.

Main features...

*. Split and Merge any file.

*. 2 Times faster than the previous version according its the developers.

*. Even includes a "Wizard" for both splitting or merging.

*. Change file split using size or raw values, location, etc.

*. Use generic algorithms or different methods.

*. MD5 integrity checking.

*. Shows progress with speed, etc.

*. E-mail files afterward.

*. Enable/Disable notifications & few more settings can be accessed via the "Preferences" window.

You can install Gnome Split in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, 10.10 and 10.04 easily by using its PPA channel. To do that, as usual, open your terminal window and enter the below commands.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome-split-team/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gnome-split

So, if you want to avoid most of those merging errors + looking for a extremely easy to use, features rich, fast file splitter/jointer (PDF, .PST, multimedia files or anything!) that can be used in Ubuntu (or GNU/Linux in general), then Gnome Split is certainly one of the best out there without a doubt!.

Best, Opensource Multimedia Player Frontend for Windows: MPlayer-WW

2011-10-04T17:25:00.001+05:30

When it comes to software multimedia players there are millions out there but in all my honesty, the fully open-sourced, MPLayer is one of the best!. Not just playing video/audio files but it even has one of the most extremely powerful encoder which is being used as an "engine" for some of the most popular encoding tools as well.

Ironically, the default GUI of MPLayer (for both GNU/Linux and MS Windows) is a joke (no disrespect intended for the developers :D). It doesn't even resembles a fraction of the true power/features of the MPLayer command-line version. Because of this reason, developers all around the world has created GUI front-ends that uses the original mplayer command-line as the "engine", according to this official "related projects" page at MPlayer's web site, you'll find a hell lot of it :).

Anyhow, in the past I've used several of those GUI under both GNU/Linux and MS Windows. But SMPlayer and KMplayer are the ones that I like the most (if you know even better ones... please share! :D). Recently I came across a new front-end that uses the Mplayer called, MPlayerWW and I gotta say even after using it for a very short period... it really impressed me.

This MPlayer WW does carry around MPlayer characteristics such as fast loading times and decodes multimedia files quite efficiently (meaning low CPU usage while playing, without loosing the quality of course) and the GUI is beautifully designed that stays really simple (skin-able) yet it gives a huge list of additional features that can be really useful in times too.

Even the OpenGL rendering worked really well with my old ATI card ...

Few main features...

*. MPlayer uses the ffmpeg library (including many others) thus can decode almost all the known multimedia formats: MPEG 1/2/4, H.264/263, Xvid, Divx, AAC, MP3, Theora, OGG Vorbis, Flac, OGM, Blu-Ray, etc.

*. Open DVD/CD or even HD TV via the main menu.

*. Supports both Direct 3D (without breaking the Window Aero interface, etc) and OpenGL rendering outputs.

*. Manually assign shortcut keys.

*. Built in Playlist (not the most subtly embedded one ... my only complain).

*. Change video settings such as: Hue, Brightness or Contract with built in GUI tools.

*. Equalizer.

*. Enable/Disable file association.

*. Change subtitle fonts, adjust delays, optimized DVD subs or download ones online, etc.

*. Gain/Boost audio levels.

*. Change audio/video delays (another highly useful feature for a this kind of application, no more voices before talking :P).

*. Add several (both audio and video related) filters for enhancing such as: Denoise, Deinterlace, DSP effects, re-sampling, rotate, scaling, etc.

*. Comes with MediaInfo built into it, so you can get advanced media info such as: bitrate, resolution, author, encoding library, etc.

These are just a fraction of the features that you can access via its "Preferences" section. Nothing is perfect, so I shouldn't brag that much :/ ... but I have a WMV file (WM formats in general are usually resource "hogs" and are not optimized codes in my experience) that takes a lot of my CPU cycles of my old Laptop.

I played with MPlayer-WW and not only it decoded the file, but it did it noticeably lesser amount of CPU usage thanks the internal optimized codec library (I think) and it was impressive. Other things such as the progress-bar "sensitivity" is really good too. As mentioned above, it supports Skins (comes with few of its own) thus you can easily change the look-n-feel.

And when you're bored with it... just change the "skin" ;-)...

The player however seems to be at beta stage currently so doesn't seems to have an installation wizard. So you just gotta de-compress the archive file and simply drag-n-drop the icon to create a shortcut + because of this, you can easily copy it into something like a USB storage device and use it as a extremely powerful portable media player as well.

So, if you're searching for one of the best GUIs for the open-source, free MPLayer multimedia rendering engine which doesn't need any third-party codec and plays almost all the known popular formats + can also be used as a portable application, then I humbly advice you to give a try at it!.

Get it from this MPlayer-WW home page. Enjoy!.

Individual Web-Page Zooming Extension for Google Chrome - AutoZoom

2011-10-04T11:20:00.000+05:30

Google Chrome is a fast loading (both start-up times and web pages) & highly simplified web browser based on the open-source Chromium browser. It is also one of the most criticized for "tracking" user data in somewhat secret ways, so may not be the most secure web browser out their either. But the rest assured most people just love it!.

Simplicity is not bad but it'll only do good when implemented in a more sensual way. For instance, if you use a computer like a Netbook for instance, then you wanna get the most of out its already small screen and in comparison with most other web browsers, Chrome gives you a lot of "space" by default which is one of the reason why Netbook users love it some much, I think.

But there are few things that are pre-defined in Google Chrome for the good or for the bad. One in particular (which happens to be one of the most important features of all for some users) is the web-page "Zooming" feature. Now, by default we can easily zoom in or out web pages with ease in Chrome. But we cannot manually define the zoom levels, other than the values already embedded into it.

"120" comes after "100"... no in-between values errrrrrrr....

For instance, the next zoom level after the default 100% value in Google Chrome is 120%. This might work with some sites but there could be some that does not look good at 120% zoom levels. What if you wanted to zoom the web page about 110% or 105% ... by default you cannot do this with Chrome :/.

But luckily we have like millions of free add-ons that expands the capabilities of Google Chrome thus I'm pretty sure there are many but I came across this one called, "AutoZoom".

Main features...

*. What I like about it most is that, unlike with a previous extension that I used, this extension saves settings per web-page. For instance, if you set a zoom level in Google.com to 110%, then it will only be applied to Google.com.

*. Set zoom levels universally: If you use this option, then the zooming levels will be applied to all the web-pages.

*. Or you can manually define any zoom level! (ahh finally :D).

Well, that's about it actually. If you're annoyed by this "behavior" from Google Chrome, then you can try it via this AutoZoom web page.

OpenSource Audio Encoder for Windows - winLAME

2011-10-04T09:05:00.000+05:30

As most knows, if all you need is to rip a CD into either MP3 or WMA format in Windows, then you don't need any dedicated app since Windows media player is more than capable of doing that. But if you want to convert few additional file types such as MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, OGG into other multimedia formats with ease and looking for a completely free, open-source application, then winLAME (named after the famous Lame encoder, I think) is a pretty cool one.

It has a Wizard type interface which literally guide you through the whole process ... so it's quite the newbie friendly app :). It uses few of the free plug-ins to expand its converting ability thus you can use it as an easy AAC to MP3 encoder as well. .

Main features...

*. As said supports both encoding and decoding of various audio formats (both lossy and lossless) such as: MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Flac, AAC, WMA, aiff, voc and many more!.

*. Also supports converting/ripping audio CDs from the interface + online CD data fetching (album name, year, Genre, etc).

*. You can easily set encoding option for more than a single file thus if you have a bit of a "list" of files needs to be converted using the same audio quality settings... this is certainly handy.

*. Change quality based settings with ease with the sliders or manually assign the Bitrate according to your preference.

*. Automatically delete (can be disabled) the source file afterwards ... are its main features to mention.

I tested it with a MP3 file to OGG... and I gotta say that in the past OGG was slightly slower than MP3 when it came to converting (although OGG has always the better quality in comparison with MP3 at the same Bitrate) but with winLAME it certainly encoded the file really fast!. It also comes with pre-CPU optimized libraries that supports AMD 3D now and other Intel based multimedia settings, etc.

So, if you're looking for a free & open-source (GNU/GPL licensed) audio converter/encoder for MS Windows (supports 98 up-to Win 7), then winLAME is an excellent little utility that's worth trying.

Get it from this winLAME home page.

Boost System Performance (RAM specifically) in Ubuntu using zRam!

2011-10-03T13:27:00.003+05:30

I gotta admit that apart from all the criticism, MS Windows Kernel is pretty good at managing memory and system resources. Although the GNU/Linux Kernel is certainly one of the most robust & highly secured ones out there, but sometimes I do feel a bit "sluggish" performance while the Memory gets filled and when it's time to move the data between SWAP (virtual memory, a file, stored on or as a partition in GNU/Linux) to the RAM or vice versa when comparing with the Windows Kernel.

What the heck is "SWAP"?

If you're a bit new to all this hype :)... then SWAP is the temporary storage location that holds programs and other whatnots just before they're loaded into your actual/physical RAM for execution.

Anyhow, apparently there are few solutions for enhancing the performance and one in particular called zRam (successor of a project known as "Compcache", link below) that's integrated into the GNU/Linux Kernel. But the integration is "unofficial" meaning that, it's not included in the Kernel by default (unless the developers manually put it there).

Image via: Compcache (the original project)...

Concerning the Ubuntu users, Ubuntu also does not come it integrated by default but thanks to one of the core developers of the Elementary OS, Sergey Davidoff, not only he has made a PPA which makes the installation a breeze but also has made optimisations of is own which enhances the performance a bit more too!.

In his own words...

"... the result on my desktop with a quad-core CPU and 2Gb of RAM was fantastic:instead of freezing after running out of RAM, the system worked like nothing happened... got almost the same results on a 6-year-old laptop with Pentium M and 1Gb of RAM!...

I've improved the script to automatically adapt to the amount of memory in the system and automatically scale across several CPUs or CPU cores, packaged it in..."

You can install the zRam memory performance optimizer in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot and 11.04 Natty Narwhal by using the below commands.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:shnatsel/zram

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install zramswap-enabler

Now I used it for very short period thus cannot say much about its performance (it's still in my system, I'm gonna keep it this time :D), so I let you decide that. But after considering Sergey and few others who've used it... it seems worth installing!.

But I'm just wondering whether this could have a somewhat negative effect on computers with lower-end processors (such as Netbooks for instance) since the idea here is to compress some of the data on the RAM and store it within the RAM itself which requires some decent amount of your CPU cycles.

So I'm just wondering it could result in a somewhat, shortened battery life, perhaps. But then again while reading the original "Compache" developers' page, he says...

"Market is now getting flooded with these "lightweight laptops". These are memory constrained but have CPU enough to drive on compressed memory"

So then perhaps after all, it may not has a huge effect on your CPU, unless it's really slow :D. But later if you wanted to remove it... then just open the terminal window and enter the below command to completely un-install it.

sudo apt-get remove zramswap-enabler

Enjoy!.

Wanna Add an Awesome Looking Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot Count-Down Banner?

2011-10-03T11:21:00.000+05:30

Ya all Ubuntu Linux geeks, are you excited or what! :D. It's like 11 days left for the official Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot release which brings some new features (the Kernel 3.0, Gnome 3 support + some other major changes, etc). So, out of the excitement, perhaps you could be thinking of adding a count-down banner on your website, just to show-off? ;-).

The default banner looks OK... but for a change would you like to add a third-party created awesome looking banner which includes the Wall-e robotic dude!. As you can see below, Wall-e has promised to keep holding the banner until Ubuntu 11.10 is released :D.

How can I add it?

Simple. You just gotta copy and paste the HTML code to your web site (on blogger it's pretty easy, just add a new HTML/Java code widget and paste it in and save your changes) the steps will differ according to your hosting platform.

Currently there are 6 types of banners and the codes can be obtained from this j_baer's blog (all credits goes to him for this beautiful banner, thank dude).

Free ISO Burning Software - ImgBurn

2011-10-03T10:53:00.000+05:30

Burning an ISO disk image (whether it's a CD or DVD) in GNU/Linux is pretty easy + you don't even have to install a dedicated utility since it can be done using the command-line. But to do the same in MS Windows, well, you gotta have to install one separately.

I'm pretty sure there are dozens of them out there. But if you're searching for one of the best & free, disk image burning software (not just ISO container) that also supports Blu-ray disk images!, then ImgBurn is a pretty impressive one. It supports burning almost all the popular disk image formats, comes with a highly simplified user interface and has few other advanced features that are quite useful as well.

Main features...

*. Images formats supported - BIN, CCD, CDI, CUE, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, ISO, MDS, NRG and PDI.

*. Both writing the images to disk formats (CD/DVD and Blu-Ray) and creating images from disks are also supported.

*. Create a disk image from folders with advanced options such as: creating boot-able flags, various file system related settings, create video disk image of DVD, HD-DVD and BD video, add author labels, etc.

*. DMA Reseting: Although not everyone will be using this but for the advanced users, this is a handy feature. If you get errors (CRC related) while copying for instance, then you can try re-setting the DMA (direct memory access) settings on the optical drive which "could" solve some of those issues.

*. Run in read or write test mode (emulation).

*. Automatic file splitting.

*. Enable/Disable disk data verifying after burning.

*. View data as a graph.

*. Run in a separate mode called disk layout editor (very similar to Nero Burning Rom) which makes adding/editing the image contents pretty darn easy.

*. Change between few disk accessing drivers (another thing only a bit more advanced users should use).

*. Automatic association of disk image extensions.

These are just a fraction of features to mention. And if you want more additional control, then you'll get a HUGE list of options under the "Settings" window which shows the true power of ImgBurn. I've been using it for a longtime now and it's pretty amazing the amount of new options are added to the "Settings" section over time.

The "Settings" window just scares the hell out of me sometimes :P...

It also displays a "log" output (which you can disable) that displays some useful information such as errors while copying or create disk images, etc that can be used to debug error. So, if you're searching for one of the best (not just ISO) disk image burning software utilities for MS Windows then ImgBurn is a serious app without a doubt!.

Although it's only for Windows OS but according to the developer, it should work under GNU/Linux thanks to Wine software emulator as well. You can get it from this ImgBurn home page. Enjoy!.

Free & OpenSource CD/DVD Burning Software - InfraRecorder

2011-10-01T18:02:00.001+05:30

Starting with Windows XP ... it's true that Windows in general comes with a basic built in CD/DVD/Blu-ray burning utility. But if you want a dedicated optical disk burner with some decent amount of features that also happens to be free and opensource :), then InfraRecorder (only for MS Windows) is a pretty cool application that I've been using from time to time.

Although when comparing with professional burning suits such as Nero for instance, InfraRecorder is nowhere near that quality but for everyday CD/DVD burning needs... this free tool can certainly live up to most of our needs.

Main features...

*. The GUI is pretty simple and is a bit similar to the one that you see with most other utilities... as shown below.

"Welcome Screen"...

*. Create Data/Audio/DVD-Video or create disk images + burning images.

*. Session import support (sometimes necessary while burning multi-session disks).

*. Close and Erase CD/DVD-RW.

*. Create disk copies on-the-fly.

*. The burning window is also extremely similar to the "Nero Burning Rom". Adding/removing files is pretty easy.

*. Change few advanced settings such as: Change buffer size, associate with disk image extensions, enable/disable windows explorer context menu, etc.

*. Create Boot-able disks and change ISO format settings, UDF file system related settings and add publisher name, Volume set, Date of Burning, etc.

*. Get advanced disk information (not always used but can come in handy sometimes)... are among the main features.

And since the recent versions of Nero uses a huge amount of system resources, it certainly ain't the most fastest around the corner these days. But InfraRecorder on the other hand is a fast loading, extremely resources friendly application that you can safely run even in your "old" computer as well.

Anyhow, if you're looking for a simple & fast loading Open-Source CD/DVD burning application software (which won't be able to replace Nero suite by any means but...) to run under Windows, then InfraRecorder is a pretty decent app.

If interested, you can get it from this InfraRecorder home page.

New 14 Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot Wallpapers Available for Download!

2011-10-01T15:10:00.004+05:30

Every time Ubuntu releases a new version of their GNU/Linux distribution, they also make sure to include few brand new wallpapers where other GNU/Linux vendors just include one or two "official" wallpapers.

If you're a graphics designer and want to show-off your talent with Ubuntu, well there's a certain protocol that has to be followed before you can send your "baby" :D to Ubuntu art-work team for consideration.

Anyhow, since we're like 12-11 days away from the official launch of Ubuntu 11.10, the latest news is that 14 brand-new wallpapers just appeared in the Launch-pad page. Although they may not be the official wallpapers pack... but still most of them would make it to the "official" disk images, I think (cannot remember the whole procedure :D).

Awesome!...

Although I have a very looooooooow talent for drawings and stuff but I gotta say, some of these new wallpapers looks absolutely beautiful! (including the official 11.10 wallpapers, which looks almost like the one with 11.04 btw).

If interested (heck ya you are! :D), you can get the package from this Launch-pad page. Enjoy!.

A Portable Search Tool for Windows: Dropout

2011-10-01T10:16:00.000+05:30

Index is the single most important thing for any search engine. The more faster and efficient it is ... the better the results are (obviously). Starting with Windows Vista, the Microsoft operating system uses an advanced index that gives you extremely faster search results when comparing with the latter versions such as 98 or XP for instance.

But still, to achieve this relatively "faster" performance, first Windows has to create a data-base (index) of your attached drives and that can take sometime. What if you have a big USB drive (12-20GB) filled with a lot of files that's always on the move. Then if you plug it in a new computer then searching can be quite frustrating since there's no index for Windows OS thus it will take sometime for it to analyze the files and give you your results.

Even more, sometime there could be file types that the Windows built in search utility don't understand. In that case it simply cannot deal with them thus even if has an index of your portable USB drive, still you won't be able to search for those files (for instance, unless a dedicated plug-in is installed, Windows index won't be able to search within the content of a PDF document).

In that case if you're looking for a portable "desktop search" type application that is really fast, creates the index a hell lot faster (even lets you search when an index is being created) + has the ability to deal with a lot of different file types ... then Droupout is an excellent solution.

Main features...

*. Portable (just copy the .exe file to the root directory and it'll scan all the files within that directory automatically).

*. Ability to use advanced search expressions such as "AND", "OR", etc.

*. Refresh the index.

*. Exclude certain files.

*. Auto-complete using your previous search history.

*. Open files or their containing directory... are few of the main features.

I tested it with my USB drive that contained files around 190 which is not huge but Dropout indexed it within few seconds!. So, if you're looking for a completely free, portable search tool that can be used in MS Windows... then why not give a try for the Dropout!.

Google Search Engine for Programmers: Google Code Search

2011-10-01T09:43:00.000+05:30

If you're a computer programmer then a general purpose search engine can still be quite useful if all you want is to find tutorials, community based forums, etc. But let's say that you have few specific needs such as debugging or trying to find codes, etc then you need a special search engine that "understands" your needs.

In that case (I'm pretty most have heard about it but if you're a programmer newbie...) Google code search is still one of the best online tools since it's index is completely different from the traditional "version" and designed for the purpose of helping programmers to find what they're looking for, with ease.

So, unlike with a traditional Google search engine the "code search" allows you to...

*. Specify packages using their names (such as only search for codes in GNU/Linux Kernel for instance).

*. Use languages defined by you (C/C++, C#, Java, Pascal, Python, etc).

*. Search using "Class" attributes.

* . Search with with certain platforms such as Android or Chromium, etc.

*. Search in Functions or only codes that are available in a certain license.

So, the next time you want to search for a publicly available programming code, why not give a try for Google Code Search! :).

Cross-Platform Collaborative (real-time) Text Editor: Gobby

2011-09-30T12:58:00.005+05:30

Collaborative file (text file in this case) editing is a pretty common thing these days because computer networks or Cloud computing in general is becoming a "major thing" these days.

So basically if you're a part of a network and looking for a way to edit a document (in simple text format) with multiple users without having to lock it... then Gobby is a cross-platform ready, free application that can do, just that!.

Although don't hope it to be an advanced or a fully featured text editor since it's purpose is to let you create a basic document that can be proof-read later. It's designed using the GTK+ toolkit yet integrates with GNU/Linux, MS Windows and Mac OSX platforms quite well too.

Main features...

*. Comes with a simple UI.

*. Connect/Disconnect with other networks using different ports, user authentications, create a session or simply open your previously used session.

*. As said it's a basic text editor but lets you do things like: Find and replace text, go to lines, enable/disable automated indention, change font related settings (size, bold, etc) ...

... although most of these feature will have to be accessed via the "Preferences" window using the menu which is not the most efficient way to do that and could be the only complaint here (or perhaps it's more oriented around computer programmers).

*. You can start a text file from scratch or can open an existing one.

*. Syntax highlighting for various programming languages: C/C++, Java, HTML, XML, Perl, Prolog, etc.

*. Text wrapping.

*. Automatic recognition of various programming language related file extensions.

*. Send live messages.

*. Show/Hide connected users or document lists... are among its main features to mention.

You can install Gobby in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install gobby

Anyhow, if you're looking for a free text editor that supports collaborative editing + can be used on Ubuntu (GNU/Linux in general) and other OS platforms, but can cope with the fact that perhaps it's more of A programmer friendly (concerning the fact that font changing, etc type usual settings are hard to access) one, then Gobby is a pretty simple yet an effective opensource "solution" nonetheless.

Ubuntu One for Windows (Cloud App Client) is Released!

2011-09-30T10:51:00.006+05:30

"Ubuntu One" is the brand name for the cloud computing (storage specific) model of the Ubuntu Linux operating system. Although the Ubuntu Cloud model is an open one unlike with other models such as iClould or MS Windows Cloud version which are proprietary in nature.

I don't know much about the business oriented cloud... but I'm against the idea of the personal cloud "module", because something doesn't feel right man :). Anyhow, whether it's necessary or not, it doesn't matter because it's at our doorsteps. And if you use Ubuntu as your primary OS then you're aware that it comes highly integrated with the Ubuntu One account which easily lets you manage your data in the Ubuntu Cloud.

It's here! ...

But since the idea of the cloud storage is to let you access your data wherever you are, no matter what platform that you're using, then as a cloud storage service provider you must have a cross-platform ready cloud model.

As a result of this, Ubuntu One has already released it's desktop front-end to other platforms such as Android and iPhone recently but the MS Windows version was still in beta. But today, Ubuntu One team announced that the Ubuntu One for MS Windows is officially available to download!.

So if you don't like to pay for anything, then Ubuntu One will give you about 5GB of Cloud space for free! (a free sign-up is necessary first). And as long as you're using any device that's powered by a the MS Windows platform and have this app installed, you'll be able sync/access your data with ease.

You can create new folders, manage music, delete files, upload/download files, etc using this utility. It's about 22.3MB in size and if interested, you can get it from this official Ubuntu One for Windows page.

Ubuntu Font Family Version 0.80 (with "Mono" at last!) is Released

2011-09-30T09:41:00.000+05:30

Ubuntu font family is a completely free, open font sets that are release under the Ubuntu font license. Although it's not that long ago they were released thus some of the standard sets such as the the "Mono" fonts were at the beta stage previously. But today the Ubuntu Font Page made it official that with the latest 0.80 version, now the "Mono" version is also included!.

If you're a webmaster then you can easily "install" these fonts thanks to the Google web-fonts API. These fonts are inspired by the Sans-Serif fonts and comes pre-optimized for desktops and mobile device screens especially according to Canonical.

Although personally, at smaller sizes I find it a bit difficult to read (could be a personal thing :D) and in general I'm not quite fond of the overall "square-y" type physical attribute which again I find it a bit hard to read (in comparison with the beautiful Arial font for instance.

Anyhow, if you're looking for a completely free fonts with minimal of restrictions (if none at all) then why not visit this Ubuntu Fonts page and download it!.

Simple Personal Information Manager (PIM) for Ubuntu: Vazaar!

2011-09-29T10:05:00.002+05:30

If you live "around" your computer all day long :D and also quite busy already, then having a simple yet an effective personal information manager software (you know all the features & also the ability to backup your PIM data, etc) is pretty handy. Although the Gnome desktop used to come with a one of its but it was "let go of" long ago thus if you use Ubuntu Linux and looking for a simple PIM software, then Vazaar is an excellent application.

Remember, the last time it was updated was around 2010 and the current version is only for Ubuntu 10.04 (but does work in 11.04 anyhow), so it seems that the project seems a bit outdated.

But as said, if you're looking for a simple utility that lets you easily manage your daily tasks... then Vazaar is an Open-Source PIM suite that can meet most of your needs nonetheless.

Main features...

*. As said, has a simple GUI that runs in the notification area, easy to getting used to.

*. Add notes.

*. Add diary/Journal entries.

*. Bookmaking and tags support (makes it easy to search and find).

*. A welcome window that gives you a quick sneak-peak into things.

*. Annotate notes/diary entries and other resources.

*. Open or Edit your resource with appropriate programs. For instance, you can simply right-click on a note and open it in your default text editor for advanced editing.

*. Add resources (easily "attach" files/folders to your entries).

*. Plugins and Tag managers.

*. Delete entries.

*. Create collections and link your entries to them.

*. Uses MySQL and SQLite for database handling.

*. Backup your PIM data (both import and export support actually).

*. Semi Automated data base updating by analyzing your PC meta-data, clipboard, etc.

This is no magic since almost all PIM suits supports these features but just to mention: Both "Mplayer..." & "Vazaar..." entries were added by the suite after analyzing my clip-board memory data which will also add entries to tags as well...

*. Switch between full-screen mode and a windowed mode... which are among the main features to mention.

You can install Vazaar PIM in Ubuntu 10.04, 10.10 and 11.04 Natty Narwhal (not sure whether it'll work under 11.10 though) by first downloading the .deb package from this Vazaar downloading page.

And then simply double click on it which should open it in your Ubuntu Software Center. Just follow the on-screen instructions. The rest is automated.

As a final note, if you're looking for a simple yet a powerful personal information manager with reasonable amount of features + the ability to backup your PIM data with ease (in the somewhat universal database formats that makes the sharing is also pretty easy), then Vazaar is most certainly an excellent little utility without a doubt. Enjoy!.

How to Install Firefox 7 in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat & 10.04?

2011-09-28T15:08:00.002+05:30

The fully Open-sourced & highly secured web browser, Mozilla Firefox just got a hell lot faster!. This "was" one of the things that Firefox had for a long time, the somewhat "excessive" memory consumption when comparing with other rivals such as Google Chrome for instance.

Although that's not to say Chrome is superior than FF by a huge margin since it also uses reasonable amount of your RAM, but somehow Chrome manages to stay relatively faster while rendering web pages (it uses the WebKit for page rendering which is known for being "light-weight") and other GUI aspects. Also it's worth mentioning that Google Chrome has a pretty simplified interface which should also be helpful to stay resource friendly.

Anyhow, yesterday Mozilla announced the availability of Firefox version 7 and according to them and my first few hours of using it... it does feel faster!. It's said that it may use 20% to 50% times lesser memory while running (including startup times, multiple tab openings, etc) when compared with the predecessors, mainly due to a feature called MemShrink, developed by Mozilla foundation.

Firefox 7 in Ubuntu 11.04...

And if you use MS Windows, then the new Firefox 7 will be using the Direct2D API, assuming that you have a reasonably powerful GPU, this should also help to balance some CPU power over the GPU resulting an efficient + stable web browsing experience.

This however does not fasten-up the web page loading times but only addresses the local resource management of the web browser itself.

Main features...

*. As said before the biggest change is the enhanced memory management (20% to 50% reduce).

*. Better HTML5 rendering and hardware acceleration support.

*. Web page load speed testing support for developers.

*. Opt-in performance report sending to Mozilla to help building an even better browser in the future.

*. With the start of Firefox6, the browser started to highlight the top-level domain URL. And with the version 7.0, the 'http://' URL prefix is now hidden by default (inspired from Chrome :D).

*. Update Web-Socket protocol (the protocol that controls the communication between your PC and the Web-Site that you're trying to load), meaning enhanced security while browsing web pages.

*. Few other CSS improvements and bug fixes are few among the main features to mention (there are no major GUI changes as far as I can see).

Anyhow, if you use Ubuntu, then:

You can install Firefox 7.0 in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat and 10.04 Lucid Lynx thanks to the stable PPA channel. To do that, simply open your Terminal window and enter the below commands.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install firefox

That should do it. Although not necessary ... but since "things" can happen, just make sure to backup your data such as Bookmars, etc. Just in case.

If you use Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, then FF7 is already in the official repositories (not sure if it's available for the 11.10 beta users at this moment though) thus you should've received the automatic updates.

But if you had disabled the automatic updates, then you won't receive "the update". In that case, put the below command into the terminal which should do the trick.

sudo apt-get install firefox

So, it's true that the Google Chrome is still quite impressive and got me a little worried about Firefox for sometime now.

But when seeing the performance jump, although it may still not be huge (since 50% decrease won't happen to all), yet Firefox 7 is one of the most secured web browsers, although not be the most fastest (yet!), but it's certainly getting there :). Enjoy!.

How to Edit Compiz Settings in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot?

2011-09-27T12:28:00.002+05:30

Compiz is an advanced 3D Graphics rendering manager + is one of the first to add the 3D compositing feature to the X-Windows GUI library. After sometime a bit of a rival came called Berryl (a fork of Compiz) but later it was merged back into it thus Compiz the current dominator. But that could change since Gnome Shell uses a one of its own 3D render called Mutter.

Anyhow, you can find a decent amount of GUI tools to edit Compiz settings but for some reason most of the GUI tool can drag you into a bit of a unstable system. And I think the reason is that when you change a setting or two using them, those 1 or 2 settings applies some certain amount of "child" settings inside them which means a lot of changes concerning the 3D rendering engine which leads to the unstable OS, perhaps.

Ubuntu Linux made some serious adaptations of Compiz with the introduction of their Unity desktop module and as almost all knows it has two versions.

Unity 3D: The default version which uses the 3D rendering by default to create a beautiful looking windows, resizing or minimizing effects, etc.

Compiz is useful, somewhat :)...

Unity 2D: This is the non-3D version thus does non rely on Compiz.

Anyhow, the thing is, with Ubuntu 11.04 it was pretty easy to edit advanced settings of Compiz thanks to the Gconf-editor. But since Ubuntu 11.10 uses a lot of Gnome 3/Shell apps + Gnome Shell is migrating from Gconf-editor (a Gnome desktop configuration database editor GUI) to a new tool called Dconf-editor...

... The problems is that, while I was writing this post, Ubuntu is at its Beta 2 stage and I don't know whether things would change when they release it official (don't think so)... neither "Gconf" nor "Dconf" is installed by default in Ubuntu 11.10!.

Enough talking, let's do it!

1. So if you want to edit Compiz settings then you gotta first install Gconf-editor manually in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot (Dconf is pretty new still and won't even include any settings concerning Compiz). To do that use the below command.

sudo apt-get install gconf-editor

2. Now, press "Alt" + "F2" keys and put the below command into the search box and hit enter.

gconf-editor

3. This should open a window similar to the below.

Ahh, the good & "old" friend...

Now, since it's not install by default, the first time I ran it it did not let me choose anything (looked like "stuck", errrrrr). But I waited like 15-20 seconds and things worked as expected. I guess it just need time to "import" the settings to its database. A re-boot could be the best solution.

Anyhow, from your left go to: "apps" -> "compiz-1".

That's it. Under "compiz-" -> "plugins", you'll find all of those "hidden" Compiz OpenGL 3D rendering settings such as: animation, blur, composite, cube effects, decor, ezoom, etc.

They're all there! ...

If you messed up things (story of my life! :P) as usual, then open your terminal and enter the below command to restore the values to their original settings.

gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /apps/compiz-1

And if you want to load the desktop with Unity's default settings (user profiles, launcher preferences, etc) then use the below command for that.

unity --reset

You can also use the below command which gives a short introduction to "Unity-Shell", etc (the command-line manual actually).

man unity

Also remember, since OpenGL 3D graphics rendering means deeper hardware integration thus always make sure that you have the up-to-date GPU drivers installed to get the best out of your system. Good luck.

How to Access Advanced Power Options in Windows 7?

2011-09-27T10:09:00.000+05:30

Although the sole purpose of using MS Windows 7 in a powerful desktop PC is all about gaming :P... thus accessing advanced power settings makes little sense to most. But, if you use a portable device, say something like an Ultraportable Laptop or a Netbook, etc then configuring few advanced power settings concerning Windows 7 can come in handy.

When it comes to desktop UI designs it maybe true that you can learn a lot of from Apple Mac but the Gnome desktop developers can also learn a great deal from Microsoft. For instance, in Windows 7 (including Vista) Microsoft has done an excellent job of creating a pretty simple power related configuration window which is really good for the newbies since it doesn't "touch" a lot of advanced settings.

But unlike with the GNU/Linux default desktop, the Gnome, if you'd rather like to have some additional control over the computer then you easily do so in Windows 7. Most of the average users like me know how to do this. But for those who don't ... this is how you access that additional configuration settings that lets you change a big list of advanced settings concerning the ACPI of your PC.

1. First click on the Batter or the Charger icon on your notification area and from the window choose "More power options" as shown in the below screenshot.

2. Then from the next window that you get, choose the "Power plan" that you want these settings to be applied and click on the Link next to it that says "Change plan settings" which should bring a new window similar to the below one.

3. From the next window that you get, look for the bottom section and click on that says "Change advanced power settings" as with below picture.

Once you click on this link you should be reveled by a new window that lets you configure a lot of advanced power settings concerning your hardware through the ACPI (advanced configuration and power interface, a standard) and using this you can change some big number of settings such as:

Note: If you click on the "Change settings that are..." (marked in Red) link, then it'll only display the settings that are not available in the default/simple configuration window...

*. Manually change the Hard-Disk turning off time.

*. Pause the desktop background slide-show.

*. Change whether the Wireless adapter should give you the maximum performance or maximum power efficiency.

*. Enable/disable wake timers, change auto hibernate time or enable the Hybrid sleep mode (turned on by default for Desktops), etc.

*. PCI Express cards related settings.

*. Change Advanced Processor related settings such as: Cooling policy, Minimum processor state or Maximum processor usage limiter (which can have a significant effect on your battery life if you know how to balance things a bit :D), etc.

*. Display related settings.

*. Multimedia related settings such as : Enable/Disable media sharing, switch between performance and low power mode while playing videos.

*. Internet Explorer related Javascrpt timer setting.

*. GPU related settings.

My personal favorite is few of the settings that this window allows you concerning the battery. For instance, if you're trying to calibrate your battery then sometimes it's important to let it completely drain itself (0% or somewhere near). But by default, Windows will put your Laptop into Sleep mode when it reaches a certain point in its battery life (default is 7%) which is called "Reserve battery level".

But if you forcefully disabled it then when the battery reaches about 5%, Windows WILL put your computer into Hibernate mode which in this case (we're trying to calibrate the battery, remember? :D) is not what we want since we'd like our battery to die to its absolute zero or close. So in that case, you can use this window to re-configure and completely disable that default action which is very handy in my experience.

But once you're done with the calibration make sure to set things in their default values since these power modes do help to recover your PC from failures. Also remember except for some (such as the mentioned "Better critical..." settings) most of these settings are automatically adjusted when you change settings in the "Power Plans' window. But this configuration window gives a lot of advanced options that are sometimes necessary to get the most out of your PC nonetheless. Good luck.

Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot (beta 2) Review

2011-09-25T12:55:00.005+05:30

Well, it's been quite a while since Ubuntu Developers started to roll-out the upcoming Ubuntu 11.10 Oneric Orcelot and few days ago they released the beta 2 version. Now, I've never used the 11.10 because it was too new and wasn't that much production ready, so to speak.

But after hearing the Beta 2 is out now we have like few weeks left and another RC left before the official launch of 11.10, I thought the Beta version 2 should be much closer to the official release of the long awaited 11.10 thus it's about time that I'd try to come up with a review.

So remember, all the feature that I'm gonna talk about are the changes from the current 11.04 Natty release thus if you've used 11.10 since the beginning you may already experienced these features (so don't blame me dudes! :D).

The desktop is identically the same, except the "right-click" now is even simplified (the "Create new Launcher", which is useful as hell for some, is removed)...

Gnome 3 (also known as Shell) has a lot to do with Unity, still!

As most knows, Unity carries some fundamental difference the way desktop UI designs, etc. But it still uses a lot of Gnome's applications thus most of the differences that we see in individual applications such as in "System Settings", user management, etc are due to the changes in the Unity's implementation of the Gnome 3 applications.

Let's begin with some of the changes in the Unity interface changes...

*. "Dash" icon: Except for a single major change, the application launcher is almost the same as in 11.04 version and still it lacks some serious customization abilities.

Anyhow, the most noticeable change is the "Dash" icon, which is now sits on top of the launcher which used to be on the left edge of the screen.

As many others, I also think this is a good move since it helps to make the most out of the screen since if you use something like a small screen device, say a netbook, then every pixel counts!.

And when you click on the "Dash" icon then on the left-edge we're greeted with a a "close/maximize" buttons (the minimize is disable which makes sense). So now you can easily close the window by using your mouse thanks to this without the need of the "Esc" button.

*. Buttons on the "exact left-edge": Thanks to the little movement of the "Dash" icon, now buttons are arranged on the very left-edge on the screen previously they used to just after the "Dash" icon. This helps to give a more sensible location + until you maximize a window you'll see a the name of the app/window (or whatever that you're using) on the left-edge (as with below screnshot).

Note the "Text Edi" to the left where the "Dash" icon used to be...

Also when you use an application in full screen mode the buttons are hidden by default a and are only visible when you move the mouse pointer over to the top panel. This helps to give a much more cleaner and uncluttered look. So in general, I personally like what's gone with the "Dash" and the "Buttons".

*. The new "Alt-tab" UI: This is another beautiful looking "window switching" utility which was implemented sometime ago. But for some reason, while I was using it, if I had already an un-minimized window on my desktop screen then the "Alt-tab" display behind it which is not helpful at all since to serve its purpose it should always be on top of everything.

Other than that it looks beautiful and worked nicely.

*. New appearance Window: The appearance window section has also gone through some major changes and I gotta say it looks more polished and professional.

Arranging or adding images is really easy too but the themes have been reduced to four. The standard Ambiance theme + the Radiance version is there as the default ones and two version of the "High contrast" themes ... that's about it for themes.

This makes sense in a way and I guess having one or two themes by default helps the "branding" of Ubuntu but as long as you have a working internet connection around you... installing a new one is pretty darn easy nonetheless.

The Ambiance theme also has gone through few changes it seems. The tittle bar has lost somewhat its "3d-ness" as you can see with the below screenshot when comparing with the 11.04 version.

Perhaps the middle strip is a bit too "thick/sharp"...

*. Nautilus: The default file manager is Nautilus 3.1 that's also shared between Gnome Shell and Unity and the "Path-bar" is now black and looks ugly (at least for my taste). I don't know whether its the "arrow" or the squared version of the selected path on the "path-bar" or the new look-n-feel in the sidebar, but Nautilus looked really weird :D.

"Something is wrong with me... help!" :P...

I think that it's the side-bar color that jeopardize things here since it doesn't go well withe the Black title and Pathbar ... so if they can do something about that + add a bit of a 3D separator to the side-bar... well I think it could solve some of the issues (any ideas??).

*. All new Ubuntu Software Center: This is another major decision by Canonical to drop the Synaptic graphical package manager and replace it with the Ubuntu Software Center.

Now in the past USC was painfully slow and did require reasonable amount of system resource while installing applications, etc. But the 'new" one feels a bit faster and has gone through some major changes, at first I didn't even recognize her! (kidding).

Although the "Our star apps" takes a huge space out of that window which is waste since as long as I was using it didn't do anything other than displaying that "message". The only good thing about is that you can access all the "starred" apps by clicking on it. Other than that... that's A waste.

Users: Um, what exactly is your purpose again? | USC Star-apps Logo: "Well I'm here for... oh you know, I mean I do that... that, but ..."

Anyhow, when compared with the current USC in 11.04 the "Installed/Get/History" buttons are moved to the top and the categories are to your left and in the middle sit the "starred" apps. A quick reminder, if you want "Synaptic" back (heck you do :P) then simply search "Synaptic" and simply follow the on screen instructions to install it (ahh finally :D).

Other that the UI changes the performance is also improved but not by a huge margin, while I was using it. And I don't think they can make it as fast as Synaptic because USC is designed for achieving different goals (Mark did mention about "different ways of monetizing Ubuntu", nothing wrong with that anyway). But there's still room for improvement but for a start, this is not bad.

The preferences window and the menu are almost the same and nothing major to report there.

"ahh the same old me..."

*. System Settings: This is another area that has gone through some changes and it feels like you're inside Apple Mac OSX Lion :D. I actually liked the "old" interface in 11.04 but in a way this new window lets you access things much more faster.

And as said, most of the individual application changes inside the System Settings, such as Keyboard layout changing or user management is due to the Gnome 3 changes thus has nothing to do with Ubuntu.

The new "Screenshot tool" does something cool (highly relative :D). Now whenever you take a screenshot, it'll output a camera shutter sound + will "white" the heck out of your screen too :).

Ehh... what was that all about! :D...

And as many knows, Ubuntu 11.10 comes with a backup software by default called DejaDup which you can access via the System settings which will be appreciated by many for its simplicity and usability.

Other minor changes includes such as: the default image viewer is the one comes with Gnome desktop thus if you wan to crop, etc then you'll have to use the Shotwell (which is also installed by default).

LibreOffice still comes without the "indicator menu" support. If they can't find a work-around that... it could be a bit disappointing when 11.10 comes out.

Oh one more small thing, the Terminal window now has a small White strip around it (as in the below screenshot) which looks awesome!. Since this is still one of the most widely used utilities in GNU/Linux... I think most would love it.

The "System Settings" menu has also received few new options. Now you can use it to configure network printers, add a web-cam software (which will take you to installing the Cheese web cam utility in USC), access display settings (another useful update) and startup applications and can configure attached devices directly from the menu as well.

The Shutdown menu is also changed quite a little which now lets you reboot as well.

How was the performance??

Well, I didn't measure the seconds but things were noticeably faster (startup/boot, etc) and the new LightDM theme also loads fast (looks good too). If you use AMD fusion chips, then 11.10 comes with the latest builds of the Kernel 3.0 which brigs enhanced support for these never chips (including ARM). I'm also quite pleased with the open-source ATI/AMD GPU driver which worked really well under Compiz without any issues whatsoever + it detected my monitor this time correctly.

As always, if you want the best performance, then I highly suggest that you install the proprietary driver.

But I'm not entirely happy with the ACPI since the Fan on my netbook kept running in a decent speed (even while I wasn't doing anything at all) but I cannot blame this on Ubuntu since it could be some issue with the Kernel and most probably is related to my hardware specifications.

To be honest I've been one of these that criticized the Unity desktop for sometime but after using it for sometime + when looking at the changes in the 11.10, although they aren't that "huge", but from a users perspective these small changes do make a difference and I actually love the Unity desktop.

But as with Gnome Shell, Unity has its issues and some absolutely hate it (which is totally understandable, but for me personally it only needed just a little getting used to).

But if you're an average computer user or someone who's new to GNU/Linux and still learning about Ubuntu and other stuff from scratch and looking for a professional looking GNU/Linux distribution that's slightly faster than the predecessors + which is user friendly too: then I gotta say that I was a bit wrong about the Unity interface and even though it's still at its beta stage, yet, I think Ubuntu 11.10 looks really good.

So if you can't even wait till its out officially... then other than installing it in commercial environment I think it's really stable (although Nautilus 3.1 crashed ones, yikes!) enough that you can give it a try, safely :). Good luck.

Ubuntu Tweak 0.6 (beta) Review

2011-09-24T14:36:00.001+05:30

To be honest, just like with most others who've been using GNU/Linux for some time now, I had it quite rough with GNU/Linux. I started with RedHat Linux and had to figure out how to compile and install applications, didn't have a broadband Internet connection thus I manually downloaded the source code from else where and after or while doing the "./configure", bugger used to give me "dependency" errors about which I had no clue what the heck was that all about at that time, etc. So learning GNU/Linux wasn't the most enjoyable task.

But in a way I'm glad that it happened that way. Because I love computers and it taught me a lot. But most of my friends who didn't (still don't :D) care about OS and whether it's free or not... they just wanted to something to watch a movie and play few games thus no one made their peace with GNU/Linux :. So from their point of view, having the ability to customize the OS "here and there" easily does make a difference.

In that sense for all ya non-geeks who's leaning Ubuntu Linux from scratch and if already a bit frustrated with the Gnome (Unity included) desktops' lack of customization features and thinking how nice it would be if there's a utility not necessarily lets you access a huge list of options but gives you the ability to sneak-peak into some useful tweaks... then Ubuntu Tweak is certainly one of the best!.

The last time I tried it was about few months ago. And few days ago the developer announced the availability of the Ubuntu Tweak 0.6 Beta which brings a lot of new changes (specially concerning the UI). And after using it for a while it really impressed me and I thought that I should brag about a bit :P.

*. As said before if you've used it in the past then you'd remember the options were located to the left side of the screen and the "sub options" were located on the right side. But with the 0.6 beta version the "tabs" have been moved into the top center of the UI and their options are reveled right under them which is pretty cool implementation in my opinion.

*. Overview Tab: This is sort of the "welcome screen" and give you an overview of your Ubuntu computer. Things like your basic hardware details, OS version, tips such as how much you could gain by removing the cache files, whether your system is up to date or not, etc.

*. Tweaks Tab: This contains some additional tweaks per few popular individual application that you can edit manually using the Gconf-editor. But since the UT has implemented things more graphically... if you want to edit things like

1. Log-in settings: Enable/disable play sound at log-in, Disable user list in GDM, change screen logo and background.

2. Change Session settings: Such as disabling, reboot, shutdown, log-out buttons and changing the window manager/file manager + Panel settings.

3. Few Gnome desktop related settings: Change the desktop menu icon, enable panel animations, disable "history" list, etc.

4. Nautilus file manager settings: Show advanced permissions on file/folder properties, display location entry instead of path-bar and few thumbnail related tweaks.

5. Few Metacity Related settings: Run Metacity as the compositing manager, enable/disable transparency, change the button layout and location, etc.

And few other Compiz, security, power manager and few "workarounds" are also there.

*. Admins Tab: You can use this tab to access few administrative options such as taking "desktop" backups (very useful), edit default folder location/layout, repository source editor, file mime-editor but the "shortcut commands" doesn't work at this moment (guess it's still under development).

*. Janitor: Although Ubuntu has a Janitor app of its own which is know to cause problems after using (errrrr :D) but Ubuntu Tweak lets you things like: Clean the Nautilus Thumbnail cache, remove PPA from the synaptic list and remove apt-get cache (+ few other cache related settings).

And if you want more tweaks then you can easily install them using the "Preferences" window too. On the main window to the right-side UT also displays a list of your recently used tweaks as well.

You can install Ubuntu Tweak 0.6 (beta) in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal and 11.10 by using its testing PPA channel. To do that, use the below commands in your Terminal window.

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/next
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

I tested it on Ubuntu 11.04 and worked without any issues. But the 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot support at the moment is not as good as with 11.04 according to the developers. Anyhow, just remember, Ubuntu Tweak is still at its beta stage thus I don't recommend anyone to use it in their "serious computer" :).

But if you wanna give a try at this excellent, all in one type Ubuntu Customizer, then even though the UT 0.6 is still at its beta stage if you want to access few additional tweaks of individual apps and the OS core files, then it looks awesome (say goodbye to learning Linux, just kidding! :D).

Free Cross-Platform Hardware Monitor: "Open Hardware Monitor"

2011-09-24T10:44:00.003+05:30

When it comes to finding a bit of an advanced piece of software that lets you monitor your hardware with details such as Temperatures and CPU Clock speeds, etc... well, both MS Windows and GNU/Linux do have their fair share without a doubt :).

For instance thanks to the advanced hardware integration support in GNU/Linux kernel (Windows is certainly not second to anything) if you're looking for a dedicated app to run under Ubuntu, then Psensor is something worth trying.

But if you're searching for a cross-platform hardware monitor that runs in both GNU/Linux and MS Windows, then Open Hardware Monitor is a pretty cool application. Although it's still in its beta stages, yet I just downloaded it and installed in Windows 7 and already is quite impressed with it.

Main features...

Note that some of the "sensors' are missing in my PC, since it's still in beta, I totally forgive OHM though :D ... (more below)

*. CPU Clock speeds (bus speed, cores and core speeds) and temperatures.

*. CPU load.

*. GPU core voltages.

*. GPU core memory frequency, clock speed and temperatures.

*. Enable/Disable Plots.

*. GPU load: This is one of the main benefits that I love about these hardware monitors since still neither GNU/Linux nor MS Windows lets you see how much of your VGA cards' processor (or GPU) is being used. I used this to measure my Radeon HD 6250' performance while playing a 1080p video since Windows 7 only shows the CPU speed but in reality it's the GPU that plays the content. So a pretty handy feature but not everyone would use it though.

Also note that we still cannot change the date update intervals which is another important features that it's missing currently...

*. HDD temperatures.

*. Save reports to disk or upload and share.

*. 3D looking Widget: You can add selected hardware "models" to this widget (supports transparency) and drag it around your desktop, etc.

*. Shows up-to-date info such as temperatures in the notification area (once manually enabled of course).

These are the ones that were shown in my Acer Aspire One 722. But I think since OHM is still in beta stage and the hardware support might not be as widely spread as some of the commercial ones thus other things such as fan speeds, RAM related information, etc were "missing" in my PC (but OHM certainly do have those features listed in their home page's screnshoots).

So, it's certainly not the best out there. But then again remember it's still under active developments (in beta) thus we should give the developers sometime to add those hardware support.

Anyhow, as said, this is an opensource (GNU/GPL licensed actually) app that runs in both GNU/Linux and MS Windows (XP, Vista and 7, including both 32-bit and 64-bit versions). So if you're looking for a completely free yet pretty useful hardware monitor software but can cope with the fact that some functions may not be working properly but surely, the Open Hardware Monitor software utility is a project that's worth mentioning.

If interested, get it from this OHM home page.

How to Access Few "Advanced Preferences" Settings in Nautilus File Manager?

2011-09-23T13:34:00.001+05:30

Nautilus is the default file management utility in Gnome desktop environment (which is also shared by the Ubuntu Unity as well). Although Gnome had been folliwng a lot of Mac OSX type desktop design ideas for a long time now, thus it's a highly simplified desktop these days. Yet in the past it used to come with a hell lot of options or customizable abilities.

Luckily, for the advanced users ;-), we can access some of those "dropped" features via the built in Gnome desktop database configuration utility called Gconf Editor. So using this we can change few additional settings concerning Nautilus with ease which are otherwise, "hidden".

For instance, once right click-ed on a file/folder and accessed its properties, currently Nautilus does let us change the permissions with a pretty simplified window which is cool. But...

There's certainly nothing wrong with this... but I just happened to like the "old" window since it helps to speedup things a bit (adding permissions I meant :D)...

... if you want a little more control over the file and folder permissions window (including few more options such as set user and group IDS, sticky) and in comparison, this "advanced permissions" (it's not that advanced actually since the default one come with almost all the features, except for those mentioned "3" features) makes it easy to adjust the permissions in my experience.

But some of these preferences are already in the default "preferences" section in Nautilus but you can access few additional settings such as:

The "preferences' section of Nautilus in Gconf-editor's database...

*. Make Nautilus always display a "location entry" type bar rather than the default "Path bar".

*. Directory limit: Another useful feature (not for all the users though). For instance, let's say that you have a folder filled with thousands of files, etc.

Although Nautilus is more than capable of handling a "heavy weight" folders these days yet if you have some "massive folders" then you can manually assign a number that Nautilus will take into account while dealing with them. The default value is "-1" means "unlimited". As said, I just mentioned this but I don't think most of us would wanna change this anyhow.

*. Disable/Enable mount forward and back buttons.

*. Change how Nautilus search for files (whether using just the "text" you typed or properties).

*. Show Desktop: Just like with Gnome 3 (yikes! :D), if you disable this function, then Nautilus will disable your Desktop completely. Although nothing on your desktop will be lost (created folders and files) but your mouse right click or anything on the desktop will be hidden!.

These are just a few to mention. Anyhow, how can you access these "hidden" preferences in Nautilus using the Gconf-editor?

1. Pretty simple actually. First press the "Alt" + "F2" keys and put the below command into the box and press enter.

gconf-editor

Now from your left, go to: "Applications" -> "nautilus" -> "preferences".

This should openup a window similar to to the below one. Now to your right side you should see few options which you can use to access some of the ones that are hidden by default.

For instance, let's say that I wanted to enable the "Advanced Permissions" dialog in Nautilus. Then, from the "Preferences" section scroll-down until you see an option called "show_advanced_permissions" and make sure to put a "tick" on its box which should give you a slightly "advanced" file/folder permissions windows as with below screenshot.

That's about it. Use it with caution ;-)...

Best MP3 Tag Editor for Windows - "Mp3Tag"

2011-09-23T11:05:00.001+05:30

MP3 tag is actually a separate "container" (data holder) that helps to carry around data such as (concerning audio files in this instance) Title, Author, Track Number, Genre, Cover art, etc. In MS Windows you actually don't need a dedicated application if all you want is to edit the tag information of a MP3 file here and there since the OS has built in support for that (including WMA format) or even if you use Ubuntu Linux you can do the same using the Banshee player or something similar in nature.

But if you have a lot of audio files that need "mass editing" and looking for a free tag editor that a lot of additional audio formats, then Mp3Tag (Windows only) is an app that's worth trying. It supports all of the recent meta container versions starting from ID3 version 1.1 to 2.4 and has a simple yet a features rich window that makes the mass metadata editing a breeze.

Main features...

*. File formats supported: MP3, MP4 (i-Tunes), WMA, Ogg Vorbis (opensource competitor with the proprietary MP3), AAC, FLAC, APE, MPC, TTA are among the few.

*. Edit things such as: Artist Name, Title, Genre, Year, Cover-album art, Rename the actual file name, Change album-art cover genre, etc.

*. Add comments.

*. Add individual files or folder importing.

*. Export tag data and save to disk.

*. Arrange imported lists by Genre, Bitrate, Frequency, Album, etc.

*. Manage files once loaded using play-lists.

*. Case conversions (add/remove upper/lower characters).

*. Automatic tag data fetching via online sources such as: freedb, discogs, MusicBrainz, etc.

Once you've loaded your file/s to the main window, you'll see the extracted data of the tags to your left and by clicking on the appropriate field you'll be able to edit them with ease. As mentioned, you can use the online data fetching to fully automate the task (as long as you have proper file name or some tag data that denotes the actual audio file info such as Artist, Album, etc) as well.

Anyhow, if you're looking for a completely free (no ads, malware... nada, completely clean :D) mass audio tag editor that can be used in Windows XP/Vista and 7, then Mp3Tag is a pretty excellent one. If interested, you can get it from this page. Enjoy!.

Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot Beta 2 is Released!

2011-09-23T08:49:00.000+05:30

It's been like 2 or 2.5 weeks since Canonical released the Ubuntu 11.10 beta 1 and few hours ago they've released the last of the "testing versions", the 11.10 Beta 2!. This is the last of all "tests" and all that remains is the official release of the Oneiric Ocelot, scheduled at 13 October 2011 (man I'm so excited!, I can criticize, etc... a lot to write about :P).

With this release they've finally made it possible to fit it inside a standard CD (about 695MB for the 32-bit version) and more ARM architecture support has been added (via different disk images). Below are few of the new updates in the 11.10 Beta 2 version

*. Gnome 3 has been updated to the latest beta 3.1.9 which is on its way to the official Gnome Shell 3.2 released. A quick remainder for those of you who've been just woken up from your hibernation sleep ;-), remember, Gnome 3 is well supported in Ubuntu but it is not included in the default CD disk image. But you can install it via the online Ubuntu repositories nonetheless.

*. Includes the Kernel 3.0.4 version.

*. Comes with the Mozilla Firefox 7.0 beta 6.

*. And Thunderbird 7.0 beta 3.

*. Synaptic is removed (as most knows) but also the default video editor PiTiVi has also been removed.

*. LightDM with a new theme.

*. Banshee 2.2.0.

*. Shotwell 0.11.1.

These are the usual main apps to remind and as usual the Ubuntu Software Center is also updated with some bug fixes, etc as well. All the other official Ubuntu derivatives such as Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, etc have also released their Beta 2 version simultaneous to this release too.

As mentioned, from now, since the CD disk image fits into a 700MB CD, now you can download the beta 2 and use it as a LiveCD rather than the USB version with some of the previous "alpha and beta" versions.

If interested, you can get it from this official release page. Good luck.

Linux Live USB (Pendrive) Creator - Only for Windows

2011-09-22T17:56:00.003+05:30

Creating a "Pendrive Linux" version out of your standard ISO disk image is pretty darn easy these days and if all you want is to create a boot-able (+ portable) Ubuntu OS out of your USB Pendrive then Ubuntu comes with a one of its own. But that utility will only work with Ubuntu ISO disk images only.

If all you have is nothing but a MS Windows installed PC and since there's like hundreds of GNU/Linux distributions out there these days, let's also assume that you have no idea of what distribution that you're gonna be trying next ;-) and looking for a utility that lets you create a boot-able Pendrive Linux that supports a massive list of distros +, runs inside Windows, then LiLi (or LinuxLive) USB creator is one of the best that I've come across so far without a doubt.

Main features...

*. A fully opensource utility.

*. As said before supports a massive amounts of distributions such as: Ubuntu (from 8.10 upto the Upcoming 11.10 beta!), Fedora (up to 15 and including the "spins" that includes LXDE, XFCE, KDE, etc), Linux Mint, Cent OS, Chraka Linux, Android x86 project, Mandriva, OpenSUSE, Meego, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Vinux ... seriously guys, you could easily create a book out of the supported distro list!. Read more from this official page.

*. You can add ISO files directly from your HDD, create one on-the-fly using your optical drive or heck, if you have an internet connection, then you can let LiLi let you download one automatically!.

*. Supports both ISO and .IMG disk image extensions (although the IMG is still in beta).

*. You can either completely format your Pendrive or can leave the existing files and create the boot-able environment.

*. Built in virtualization support via VirtualBox: Basically this option lets you boot into the Linux live environment without rebooting your PC (to use feature you'll need a working Internet connection).

*. Also supports USB devices such as portable hard drives it seems (although I din't test that option since I don't have one :/).

Setting up a disk image is pretty simple and straight forward. All you gotta to do is choose/add your image file, then setup the "persistence" (this will be used as a virtual file system to store your file while using the Live USB key) and hit the "create" button. The rest is pretty much automatic.

All these awesome features + a beautiful interface, they all come for free!. Every time you launch it'll look for updates which you should not disable if you want LiLi to get the support for the most latest versions of GNU/Linux distributions.

Once the process completes, if you have enabled "Enable launching LinuxLive in Windows" option then you can try it directly inside Windows (remember, to run a virtual or a Host OS you should have some decent amount of system resources) or can just boot using the Pendrive.

If interested, you can get it from this LiLi USB Home page.

AMD Radeon's Proprietary Driver vs OpenSource Driver

2011-09-21T10:46:00.002+05:30

When it comes to creating a software driver which enables the proper communication between the actual hardware and the operating system, it's important that the programmers have the proper "knowledge" about the core foundation about the hardware.

This however does not consist (not necessarily) of how the chip or the hardware is designed into depths such as how close the transistors are aligned, what materials are being used to manufacture them, how the direct communication between transistors take place, etc. As far as I know, all the programmer needs to know to design a optimized software driver has nothing to be with the physical attributes but as long as they how to communicate with the BIOS of the hardware, that "maybe" enough.

That's because it's the BIOS that talks directly with its hardware and is sort of the gate keeper thus the job of the OS (or the driver in this instance) to speak with the BIOS and tell him the needs and the rest should be taken care of. So in that sense, the manufacture is, in a way, is somewhat "protected".

Hmm yeah, about that ...

As everyone would agree, Praise and Fame are two powerful substances that define most of our lives thus keeping "the" secret is a "must" in some situations otherwise you'll mean nothing to others. Because rather than revealing the truth, in a way, pretension has its power over us.

It helps to create a sense of a self, adds a "meaning" to ones life which ultimately motivates to "do something" with their lives. As Adam Smith had said: "In competition, individual ambition serves the common good.", a big equation that's trying to balance itself out, perhaps.

Image via: Deviantart...

However this is not a philosophy that I'm quite fond of yet the more I deal with the "world' the more apparent it is. In that sense I do have sympathy for me and others: such as the hardware manufactures in this instance.

Anyhow, let me come back to the story. Before and after AMD purchased ATI graphics the company refused to give advanced technical details into the hands of the software driver developers which would/should reveal some, not necessarily all but some of their secrets as mentioned in the 2nd paragraph.

This is also the case with other major GPU manufactures such as Nvidia and Intel (although Intel is a bit open but some of their GPU do have some "lacking" of serious documentations according to developers) who're also scared give certain information about their hardware "details". Anyhow concerning AMD, now we have main two versions of their GPU drivers.

One is the Proprietary driver (which was known as fglrx which was then re-named as "AMD Catalyst Linux") and the other is the opensource driver. They're both initiated and lead by AMD and today I was reading an interesting article on Phonoix concerning their performance comparison.

They've run some performance tests using the Phoronix Test Suite (a benchmark utility) below are few of the images containing the results (running games under GNU/Linux and used Ubuntu 11.04 and 8.04 versions).

Now I will not go into details since you can read it from this Phoronix page (including the hardware of the PC used and OS versions, etc) but to wrap things up Michael has concluded that in some tests (games) the opensource driver actually out performed the proprietary one!.

But in most situations it was the Proprietary one that won the "battle" at the end (Also worth mentioning that the GPU's being used are actually a bit older ones in today's standards).

This is a no surprise since it consists of both opensource and proprietary portions and the proprietary portions means deeper hardware integration + the proprietary section of the AMD seems to have a bit more man-power than the opensource section at the moment. So, if you're looking for the best possible 2D and 3D (OpenGL rendering, Compiz, I hate you! :P) acceleration under GNU/Linux then you should be better of with the secretive AMD Catalyst Linux driver ;-).

Interestingly though that usually the OpenSource driver is a bit slowish (running about 60-75% speed of the proprietary one) and in Michael's own words...

"It is worth noting that AMD is not looking to achieve the same level of performance with their open-source driver as what is found with Catalyst. The 80~90% performance of Catalyst that we are commonly seeing for this older hardware is in line with what AMD's John Bridgman and others have been after. Additional performance can be squeezed out of the open-source code, but it is a matter of whether such investment is worthwhile..."

So I think that as time goes assuming the GNU/Linux will not just grow in numbers but in a rate that forces AMD (including other vendors) invest more time and money into developing a better optimized opensource driver (also supposing we'll be seeing a lot of popular games re-designed into GNU/Linux too) which should resulting an optimized completely (let's hope, anyone wanna prove "Adam Smith" is wrong? :D) open-sourced driver, finally.

Although according to Richard Stallman OpenSource does not represents the true subtle meaning of the idea of freedom (yikes!) ... but hey!, it's better than nothing! (not all hope is lost for GNU/Linux nonetheless). What do you think?.

Free Cross-Platform DVD Authoring Software: Bombono

2011-09-20T18:53:00.000+05:30

Bombono is a cross-platform open source DVD authoring software that was originally written for the GNU/Linux platform according to its developer. I'll be using it under MS Windows 7 (just for a change :D) for this review. Although I can't really suggest it as a complete suite for DVD authoring for the true professionals but for everyday day simple DVD authoring ... Bombono is an excellent little tool.

Bombono is actually a collection of libraries and the GUI is written in the GTK+ toolkit and uses ffmpeg for encoding videos into the DVD MPEG format. From Muxing into the .Vob container format to importing files from HDD to directly from another DVD ... it is certainly a handy utility.

Main features...

*. Supports a huge list of multimedia containers & files types such as: .mkv, .avi, .mpg, wmv, xvid, divx, wmv/wma, .mp4, .ac3, .dts, etc thanks to the ffmpeg multimedia library.

*. Has a very simple GUI that's easy to understand.

*. Save projects.

*. Mux files.

*. Built in Bitrate calculator.

*. If you've imported a vob file then you can easily customize (copy/paste, etc) the chapters (you know the standard "Timeline video viewer").

*. Add subtitles manually.

*. Define what happens after a file is played ("End Action"), whether it should automatically forward to the next one or go to the menu, etc.

*. Change menu Font size and Bold/Italic (but I couldn't change their colors though).

*. Add a motion Menu and manual background audio playback.

*. Change menu background.

*. Change Subpicture colors such as Selected and Activated items colors.

*. Write as a DVD folder, as a disk image, burn directly to a disk or just render the video only.

*. Change between 3 standard DVD sizes: 1.3/4.3 and 7.9 GB.

*. Progress-bar (while authoring the video) and an advanced/detailed output ... are among the main features.

Other than crashing while trying to access its preferences window, Bombono worked quite nicely in my Windows 7 setup. Although since it cannot let you change the text colors (I searched everywhere dudes and couldn't find a way to do that, do you know how to do it!?) but when considered its features and usability it's really a great application for simple DVD authoring "jobs" but I don't think it'll be able to replace your more powerful professional (paid one most probably) utility though.

So as final verdict, it certainly has some room for improvements but if you have simple needs and looking for simple DVD authoring software, then why not give it a try!. Click here for Bombono home page.

How to Manage Mounted/Unmounted File Systems Easily in Ubuntu?

2011-09-20T16:04:00.003+05:30

I remember in the past how hard it was with GNU/Linux while trying to mount and un-mounting file systems (especially proprietary ones such as Fat32 and NTFS). The more experienced geeks ;-) like to use the command-line for that since all those disk mounting utilities are installed by default into the OS thus you don't have to manually install a GUI.

But, even if you're a bit "advanced" still by having a GUI tool that uses those command-line utilities makes the whole process a hell lot easier. Although these days GNU/Linux is so good that it just automatically mounts USB devices with ease but still if you're having some troubles with USB pendrive which arrogantly refuses to be mounted + needs to a little tweaking here and there (yikes!), then a utility like "MountManger" can come quite handy.

Main features...

*. As said, this uses the already built in command-line tools thus comes with a huge list of options/features.

A powerful "little" companion ;-)...

*. Supports the following file systems: ext4/3/2, ntfs, swap, fat, reiserfs, iso9660, udf, etc).

*. Mount and Unmount.

*. Change mount points.

*. Change mounting privileges of the users.

*. Manually set the supported file systems checked through Fsck utility ("0" means no check and 1 means manual scan for errors).

*. Enable/Disable mounted devices link (shortcut) creation, execute binaries, etc.

*. Specify encryption algorithms.

*. Change Umask, read/write features and a lot other advanced options.

*. Change file name encodings.

*. Heck, it can even mount disk images too! (ISO, NRG, MDF, BIN, etc).

*. As mentioned before, includes a USB mounting wizard that lets you easily mount any troublesome USB devices... are just fraction of its features to mention.

You can install MountManager in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install mountmanager

But please be very careful while accessing some of the advanced file system related settings and if you don't know what you're doing (to be honest, I don't even understand half of the options in it! :/), then please don't change anything. Although it does let you restore easily to the original settings, but still, think twice before stepping into the "unknown" ;-).

But other than that, if you want to do things like enable/disable read-write permissions or change mount points or even mounting disk image files which are considered as "usual needs" for GNU/Linux users these days, then yes, I do find Mount-Manager to be an extremely useful and powerful little utility (even though Ubuntu come with one but it lack the features of M-M) nonetheless.

Use it with caution!, and good luck.

Best Cross-Platform File & Archive Manager: PeaZip!

2011-09-19T18:32:00.000+05:30

Both MS Windows and GNU/Linux desktops do come with file and archive managers of their own. Specially concerning Windows (since GNU/Linux has some excellent built in tools) if you're looking for a free & OpenSource yet one of the best file archive managers then PeaZip is an extremely impressive one!.

This is not just an archive manager actually but is also a file manager as well. But since Windows Explorer is pretty darn good, PeaZip won't be able to impress much here. But it lets you securely delete, encrypt or split your files as easy as just right clicking on them!.

Main features...

*. Can handle all the OpenSource fire archive formats such as:

7z[18],7z-SFX, FreeArc's ARC/WRC[19], bzip2: bz2, tar.bz2, tbz, tb2, gzip: gz, tar.gz, tgz, PAQ8F/JD/L/O,[20] LPAQ, ZPAQ, QUAD/BALZ, tar and WinRar and WinZip formats. Interestingly PeaZip has a file archive format of its own called "PEA" with all the modern features.

More than an archive manager...

*. Split and Join.

*. Add passwords.

*. Encrypt.

*. Hash check.

*. Create self extracting archives.

*. Has a portable version thus you can just put it into your USB drive or HDD and take it anywhere (it won't touch the Registry of the OS while running which is a standard feature for portable apps, I think).

*. Run MS Windows built in system tools directly from its file explorer, such as: Disk Defrag, Disk cleanup, System benchmark, task manager, etc.

*. Create "keyfiles" using random secure algorithms.

*. Open Command-prompt inside any folder (while using PeaZip as the file manager).

*. Integrate its feature into the "Sent To" sub-menu are just a few to mention.

As said before, as a file manager, it's not as impressive as the default one in the Windows but as an archive manager, it is super excellent! ;-). It has few built in themes (one in particular for the Win 7 users too).

So, if you're looking for an archive manager that can deals with almost all the popular archive (including e-mail handling) formats and few additional ones such as securely deleting files/folders and want all those features in a singe application which should also be free and opensource (oh cooome on! :P), then PeaZip is the one to go for without a doubt. Get it from this PeaZip Home page.

KNOPPIX 6.7.1 Live CD/DVDs are Released!

2011-09-19T11:49:00.001+05:30

KNOPPIX (based on Debian) was one of these GNU/Linux distributions that came (still do!) as a "Live desktop environment optimized" one. When other vendors ship their distribution primarily as a desktop edition, KNOPPIX on the other hand has been releasing their OS as a primary Live CD "environment", thus if you're looking for a portable GNU/Linux distribution, then KNOPPIX is certainly one of the best.

What do you mean ?, isn't Ubuntu or others have Live CDs of their own?

True. But as said before, the hardware detection or configuration in general in those distributions aren't optimized in the live-cd mode that much, thus if you want to use those GNU/Linux distributions as your desktop and integrate/configure your hardware to their fullest extent, then you gotta install them and configure them later rather than once inside their Live CD/DVD versions.

But KNOPPIX comes pre-optimized to work as a completed Live CD desktop and has been around for few years now... thanks to the develper's experience + the pre-installed packages of propriety drivers, multimedia codecs, etc, it's a pretty cool and feels like a "completed" Live desktop environment in my experience.

Anyhow, two days ago they've released a new version of KNOPPIX (6.7.1) below are some of the new features...

*. Starting with the version 6.0 they've decided to ship LXDE (0.5.1-4) as the standard desktop instead of the Qt written KDE in the past. This also makes sense, since LXDE is a lot faster than KDE which should help to speed things up (especially if you use a CD drive where the output MB/S a bit slower when compared with others media).

*. Comes with the LibreOffice 3.4.3 instead of the OpenOffice.

*. Uses the "nouveau" (the reverse engineered version of the proprietary Nvidia driver released under GNU/GPL) including 2D and 3D rendering.

*. Firefox 6.0.2 is the default web browser. But if you happen to download the DVD version, then you'll find Chromium 13 as well.

*. ADRIANE updates: This is the visually impaired optimized package in KNOPPIX and with this released they've done few enhancements + better scanned text recognition and several cell phone models support, etc.

*. GIMP 2.6.10-1.

*. Comes with both MPlayer 2.1.0 rc4 and Gnome Mplayer versions.

*. FFmpeg multimedia library (0.7.1-4) so you'll be able to watch all the proprietary multimedia codecs.

*. Abi word: Only in the DVD.

*. Synaptic 0.70 package manager.

*. eViaCam: Another one available in the DVD which lets you control your mouse using your head motions (via a Webcam) and few other recovery utility, etc.

These are just a handful of updated packages to mention. You can get it from this KNOPPIX download page but if you find those FTP servers to be a bit slow, then as always, I humbly advice you to try this Torrent version (which is fully legal :P) instead. Good luck.

Multitrack Audio Editor/Recorder for Ubuntu: GNUSound

2011-09-19T09:52:00.000+05:30

If you have a lot of multitrack audio files that need a little editing and looking for a software application that lets you do it without getting in your way, then GNUSound is an excellent little utility.

Although we do have the more popular Audacity which is a very powerful audio recorder and editor itself, but if you're looking something similar in natures + comes recommended by the GNU dudes themselves ;-), then GNUSound is also a very competitive one without a doubt as well.

Main features...

*. Has the ability to load and edit audio file types such MP3, WAV, OGG Vorbis, FLAC, AAC etc. But unless you have installed Lame MP3 encoder for instance, then you won't be able to load and edit MP3 files using it.

So if you want the maximum usability out of it, then make sure you have installed appropriate audio package separately. You can get more info from here.

*. Cut/Copy/Delete/Paste using the time-line window section with ease.

*. You can even import audio track inside a lot other multimedia containers using the ffmpeg libraries installed as well.

*. Amplify, Bandpass, delay, fade, normalize, reverse playback, etc are just a few of the built in tools.

*. Play and Record audios.

*. Zoom in/out.

*. Lots of selection based features such as: left, right, nudge left/right, snap to grid, etc.

*. Playback and Record supported via Alsa, OSS, Jack or Dummy audio servers.

*. Change sample rate 8/16/32, audio channels, bitrate, recording buffer size, etc via the "Preferences" window.

*. Insert or delete individual tracks.

*. Save audio track in different formats and error recovery (say to due to the application crash, etc)... are the main features to mention.

You can install GNUSound in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install gnusound

It did crash once I was using it but other than that it was certainly quite robust and was resource friendly too.

So if you're looking for an easy to use, fast loading multitrack audio editor and a recorder for Ubuntu (it's designed for the Gnome desktop actually) that comes recommended by the GNU foundation, then GNUSound is certainly a simple yet a powerful utility which is also completely free! (including free as in freedom too :D).

How to Convert Word Documents to PDF & HTML in Ubuntu?

2011-09-18T19:16:00.000+05:30

When it comes to OpenSource office productivity suits the current dominator is the LibreOffice (which was "used to be": OpenOffice = so long friend :/). And as with other major office suits, you can also use both LibreOffice and OpenOffice to save (convert) your documents to other formats as well.

But say that you have a simple text or any other document file in Ubuntu, then if you want to create a PDF file out of that, then you have to first open LibreOffice which is gonna take few seconds and then you open it and click on the menu and choose "Save As", seriously, it ain't fun and time consuming if you do that sort of things, a lot I meant :D.

But luckily, a sensible little programmer has come up with an excellent little script called Batch Convert Documents that uses either LibreOffice or OpenOffice built in tools which lets us convert any word document (that's supported by those office suits) to PDF or HTML format as easy as right clicking on the sucker!.

Main features...

*. Supports both PDF and HTML conversations.

*. Not just the GTK+/Gnome version but also has a separate script for Qt/KDE geeks too.

*. A simple progress bar.

*. Automatic notify via the system notify protocol (both successful conversations and errors).

"I'm done!, I'm done!, I'm done!" ... errr you "notifications!" ;-)...

Well, that's about it for features. The installation is quite simple.

Although I only tested it in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, but as long as you're able to install its dependencies (don't panic!, more below :P) I think it should work in 10.10, 10.04 and even in 11.10 as well.

Installation...

As said, it has three dependencies which Ubuntu does not ship by default.

1. So before installing the Nautilus Script, let's install the dependencies. For that use the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install unoconv xclip libnotify-bin

2. Now download the script from here and extract its contents (say, to your "Home" folder for instance).

Now open your terminal and change your directory to that extracted folder ("batch-convert-documents-0.2-2" for the current version) and enter the below command.

sudo install -m 755 batch-convert-documents /usr/bin/

3. Now to finish up, use the below commands.

cd nautilus-scripts

cp -r Convert\ documents ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts

OR if you use the graphical version, just make sure Nautilus shows hidden files and then copy the content of the "Convert documents" (inside of the sub-folder of the extract directory) to "~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts" , manually.

I tested this script to convert ".doc" (older version of Microsoft word document format), ".odt" and a simple Text file to both PDF and HTML and they all worked without any errors!. Good luck.

Best Network Bandwidth Monitor for Windows: Networx

2011-09-16T15:26:00.001+05:30

I have an internet connection that has a monthly usage limit "attached" to it (errrrrrr). So whenever I browse the web, I used to log-into my ISP account and check for my daily/hourly data usage, which wasn't the most enjoyable thing in the world, to mention ;-).

Although both Windows Vista and 7 do come with an advanced system monitor their own yet most of the time they've failed to meet the requirements of "simple PC users" (like you and me ;-)). For instance, the built in utility of MS Windows fails to give me details such as monthly or daily data usage of my traffic, it cannot perform a speed test or it won't let you save your current bandwidth data to disk, etc either.

So in that sense, if you're looking for a simple, free but one of the best tools that display up-to-date information about your current network traffic/data usage, then Networx is a very impressive one without a doubt.

I'm not a network administrator but it also come with few additional features that can be quite useful to 'advanced dudes" like network administrators as well (more on that later).

This dedicated network bandwidth monitoring software comes with a very simple yet powerful GUI and lets you do things like...

*. Four built in bandwidth reports: Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Hourly.

*. "At a Glance": This is a nice little feature that lets you see a basic usage of daily, weekly and monthly within a single window.

*. Set Quota setting: By using this feature, you can easily set Networx to automatically notify your when you reach your daily usage limits (that are manually defined of course) or you can set up it to display a warning when you've reached a certain percentage of your daily/weekly/monthly data usage as well (pretty advanced stuff huh :P).

*. Dial-up Session: If you don't have a router that's always connected to the internet and uses a USB dongle instead, then you'd love this feature. This will display your data usage for your each session.

*. Custom: If all those daily/weekly/monthly, etc is not enough for your taste ;-) then you can manually define a time-frame and can view your date-usage by using the "Custom" section.

*. Multi user support.

*. A built in network speed meter.

*. Import/Export:

This is my favorite feature and the reason is simple. I use both MS Windows 7 and Ubuntu Linux in the same computer + uses the same internet connection. Now, Networx does not work in Ubuntu but since I do a lot of downloading (so I could write reviews for you geeks daily, lol) but as soon as I boot into MS Windows that data usage is not included in Networx (obviously).

So all I do is just remember the network usage in Ubuntu (using its system monitor) and then convert that amount into Kilobytes (using the calculator in Windows) and then I use the previously exported data usage of Networx in XML format and update the data-usage (manually) and restore the new updated XML settings file and Networx now displays the previously "missed" data usage under Ubuntu!. So it's really handy for someone like me :).

Although not super important, but you can access a lot of its options via the "Settings" section by using which you can change the Window opacity, make it display a very small graphs in your notification area, change graph colors, set what happens when you move your mouse over the Networx icon, etc are just a few to mention.

Networx has the ability to deal with simultaneous network connections + you can set it to ignore your LAN bandwidth monitoring as well. From visual alerts to shutting down the computer after a certain bandwidth limit is reach, disconnect your network connections and setting a master password ... it is certainly quite powerful.

Although most of the users may not use these features but Networx has few advanced features such as Ping and Trace Route, etc which can come quite handy for network administrators ...

Anyhow, if you have those above mentioned needs and looking for a dedicated network bandwidth monitor for which you don't have to pay any money whatsoever (it's completely free, no ads no spyware!) but can cope with the fact that it only works with MS Windows, then Networx is certainly an excellent utility without a doubt.

If you want to give it a try, then please visit this Networx home page for downloading or getting additional information. Good luck.

How to Edit the Contents of an ISO Disk Image in Ubuntu?

2011-09-16T10:53:00.000+05:30

As many knows already, you don't need any other application other than an archive manager if all you want is to view the contents (+ even changing the contents) of an ISO disk image file. But if you want more than that, such as mounting the content or changing it without loosing the boot-able core files (if any) then you will have to use a dedicate tool nonetheless.

And when concerning the contents of an ISO file that holds an operating system for instance then yes, you can still use an archive manager to add/delete files from it ... but if you do so, them most of the time after doing your changes, you'll have an un-bootable ISO disk image.

The reason is simple. An archive manager is simply an archive manager thus (most of the time) it won't be able to edit the content without destroying the "Boot Record" portion that includes all the information needed for making it boot-able.

In that case, if you happened to use Ubuntu ;-), then there's an excellent Utility called "ISO Master" that lets you do exactly that.

Welcome to the master of the "ISO", kiyahooooooooooooo! ;)

Main features...

*. Add/Edit/Rename and delete the contents of an ISO file.

*. Only supports the ISO disk image extension (although you can read other extensions such as NRG and MDF, more later).

*. Has the ability to view certain types of files such as HTML and Text related ones.

*. Extract the contents (since a disk image is a sort of an archive).

*. Save/Delete or manually change the Boot-record according to your own preferences... are it's main features.

You can install IsoMaster in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install isomaster

Remember if you want to view some of the contents of the disk image file, say a configuration file or a Text file for instance. Then if you use a desktop other than Xfce, then make sure to go to its "Options" window and change the "viewer" command to "gedit" if you use Gnome classic desktop or with whatever your preferred editors name.

By default it uses the Editor "mousepad" (Xfce's text editor). But I replaced with my own...

Another thing, ISO Master also supports reading ISO, NRG and MDF files as well. But it can only save files the .iso format only.

Anyhow, if you want to create a bootable ISO disk image (CD/DVD, etc) file using files in your HDD from scratch or modify the content of an existing disk image (without destroying its core-properties such as above mentioned boot-entries) then ISO Master is certainly one of the best without a doubt. It's also free and even supports MS Windows too (Windows version is not free though :/).

How to Test Disk Drive Performance (benchmarks) in Ubuntu?

2011-09-14T16:33:00.004+05:30

A while ago I was quite obsessed with testing hard disk performance. I purchased a HDD those days and it was a , let's called it "A" (I don't wanna create a prejudice since this manufacture has some great products) HDD. Interestingly, one of my friends had a Samsung HDD with the same hardware specifications (RPM, capacity ...) except, the Samsung HDD had like 256Kb or more physical Disk-cache in it.

Now to this day I don't know whether it was the small Cache difference caused it... but I did noticed a little boot time delay (with MS Windows actually). I tested those both HDD in my PC and Samsung always seems to be slightly faster.

Then, since MS Windows doesn't come with a hard drive performance test or a benchmark suite in other words, I used a free utility and it actually showed that the model "A" (they're both 80GB and IDE ones) was in fact a bit slower!.

Disk utility that comes with Ubuntu...

I went to the store and they replaced the HDD like 2-3 times but all those brand new "A" models were all a bit slower than the Samsung ones. Now as said I don't know whether the Cache on the drive that caused it... but it was clearly visible nonetheless.

So, all I'm just trying to say is that, if you brought a brand-new PC then testing your hard drive performance can come in handy because it lets you compare the drives actual performance with other ones (you can find results of other drives of manufactures online easily) thus you can even ask for a replacement.

Sorry to drag you along this long... but all I'm trying to say is that, having a benchmark suite can come quite handy sometimes sine it helps you to go beyond your doubts :). Anyhow, unlike with MS Windows, now if you use Ubuntu as your main OS, then did you know that even without installing any third party utility, Ubuntu has a built in tool that lets you test disk performance with ease?.

It's called Disk Utility and RedHat seems to be the developer so it might be a default app that comes with Gnome classic desktop.

Main features...

*. Test Hard disk performance.

Remember, you can only perform Write Speed tests with HDD without any file systems on them...

*. Not just HDD... you can even test your Optical Drive speed and even USB drives as well.

*. Displays other information such as File systems, partitions and their sizes, capacity, etc.

*. HDD Smart tests.

*. Format, Delete, Edit or Mount/Un-mount file systems.

You can launch this utility by pressing "Alt" + "F2" keys and put the below command and press enter (or go to: "System" -> "Administration" -> "Disk Utility" from your desktop menu as well)

palimpsest

Once the program is loaded, select your HDD or optical drive, etc from the list to your left and then click on the "Benchmark" button to start the tests.

But remember, it has a limitation (oh great timing Gayan! :D). That is, if your HDD is formated and has a partition table on it, then this disk test utility cannot do Write tests. It can only only perform read speed of your HDD.

It can run your HDD's Smart (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) tests too

Anyhow, even after having this limitation, still, the reason that I wrote about this utility was because, you don't have to manually install any software since it's built into Ubuntu to do a basic read-test (or the complete benchmark if you have a brand-new HDD).

But there are quite a few that we can use to do advanced benchmarks in Ubuntu and I'll write about few of 'em in the future. If you already know about them (I'm pretty sure most of you geeks know :P), you're more than welcome to share it with me dudes (+ ladies too ;-)).

Anyhow, if all you want to is just perform a basic HDD read test + access other informations such as Smart feature (which is a special function that displays "warnings" just before your HDD is about to fail so you may have enough time to backup/recover the data, etc) then you don't have to get a separate one because Ubuntu Linux comes with a one of its own and it is certainly a pretty handy utility as far as I'm concerned. Good luck.

Bodhi Linux 1.2.0 is Released! (Added support for ARM)

2011-09-13T13:15:00.000+05:30

Bodhi Linux is another distribution that's based on Ubuntu. Although it seems that they've done a lot of changes to the system... it seems like a completely different distribution to me ;-). Anyhow, Bodhi linux is not for everyone though, in a way.

The reason is simple. It uses the Enlightenment Window manager as the desktop "creator" which has a reputation of being extremely fast and low on system resource. But if you're looking for a modern desktop with fancy effects + with features that Major desktops such as Gnome/Qt-KDE or even the relatively new Unity desktop, etc offers, then you may not like it.

Okay, I take back that "not a modern desktop" part ;-)...

But the rest assured, if you're looking for complete desktop with extremely faster responsiveness, well in that case, Bodhi Linux can be extremely competitive. Unlike many other distributions, Bodhi also has a completely different UI design that's optimized for the touch sensitive devices as well.

And few months back, Jeff announced (the main dude behind it) that Bodhi will be having a completely different version for the ARM architecture related devices (if you aren't much of a tech geek, then ARM is a processor that's seen on a lot of touch screen based devices, even in Apple iPad!). Below is a video that he gave us back then.

So with this new released, which happened like few days ago now if you have an ARM based device, then you can download the ARM optimized Bodhi Linux version since now that platform it's officially supported.

Anyhow, let's have a look at some of the new package updates with this latest 1.2.0 release.

*. GNU/Linux Kernel version 3.0.0 (this is one of the reason behind the ARM architecture actually).

*. Midori 0.4.0: A fast loading web browser.

*. Firefox 6.0: No one needs an introduction to this one. Anyhow, for GNU/Linux, Mozilla announced that Firefox will not only be more secure but will me a bit faster on GNU/Linux thanks to some optimizations.

*. Chromium 13.0.

*. Opera 11.51.

*. Seven, totally awesome themes!.

*. Enlightenment SVN built (based on 09/06/11) are among the main core changes according to Jeff's announcement page.

You can find all the downloading links from this official link if interested.

How to Change the Display Screen's DPI/PPI Settings in Ubuntu?

2011-09-13T10:39:00.000+05:30

DPI or dots per inch also stands for the tern pixels per inch. As the names suggest, it's measure of how close your monitor's pixels are to one another. When comparing with the recent Windows 7 operating system that's optimized for 100 DPI display screens... GNU/Linux still uses the 95 DPI (is also the Windows Vista's default settings) and there might be occasions that this could come in handy.

Why this is important?

As said, not everyone gonna need it. But since most of the never Netbooks or display screens in general have very sharp DPI settings (because those pixels are fixed into a smaller screen size) thus things may look a little too small and if you've been used to seen big text and windows "thanks" to your previous old computer... then you can certainly try changing the DPI in Ubuntu (or any other OS in that instance) to try to make things look a bit bigger.

Accessing DPI settings in Ubuntu (or in Gnome classic desktop to be more accurate) is fairly simple. And I'm pretty sure almost all the Ubuntu (or Gnome geeks) know this... but if you're a bit new to Ubuntu and wondering ... then this is how you do it.

1. Just right click on your desktop and choose "Change Desktop Background".

2. Then click on the "Fonts" tab and under the sub heading "Rendering" click the "Details" button which should open-up a window similar to the below one.

3. By default Ubuntu or the Gnome classic desktop is optimized for the 96 pixels per inch but you can lower or increase the value to make things look more smaller or bigger.

But remember. the best possible (meaning sharp and clear windows, buttons, etc) setting for your OS is the default DPI that it comes with. And if you go below or beyond this "default" value that it's optimized for... then things may not look that sharp. But you can try lowering these values here and there ... you know experiment a little.

You can also use this window to optimized font rendering settings to enhance their readability as well.

Remember the "magic number" ;-)...

Since there's no "revert to defaults" button, 96 is the default dpi value. And remember, not all the applications work for these dpi settings and say that you have a third-party application installed that doesn't support a lot of dpi scaling then it might look (fonts, etc) a bit blurred, etc after changing the default dpi value. But luckily, we can always come back to the default settings.

How to Split Raster Images to a PDF file in Ubuntu Linux?

2011-09-12T17:43:00.000+05:30

If you Ubuntu Linux and want to print a poster using a raster image but the image that you have will have to be split into several "pieces" before printing (which you can "attach" later of course), then PosteRazor is an extremely simple yet a very useful tool built for that exact purpose.

It's an cross-platform opesource application thus not only in GNU/Linux but you can use it in MS Windows and Mac OSX as well. Once installed you'll have to load your image file and then follow its "5-step" process and then it'll split your raster image and create a PDF file by using which you can easily print your poster since each page in the PDF contains a "cut" of the original image.

Main features...

*. It's written in the FLTK tool-kit thus uses its own "theming" which doesn't integrate that well under Gnome nor Qt/KDE... but as soon as it gets the job done, who cares!.

*. Once loaded, it'll display information such as the raster image resolution, DPI, size and color type.

*. Supports a huge list of raster images such as: BMP, DDS, Dr. Halo, GIF, ICO, IFF, JBIG, JPEG/JIF, KOALA, LBM, Kodak PhotoCD, PCX, PBM, PGM, PNG, PPM, PhotoShop PSD, Sun RAS, TARGA, TIFF, WBMP, XBM, XPM.

*. A five step wizard type process is involved which lets you: Change the PDF pages size (A4, letter, Tabloid, etc), overlap settings, image splitting, etc.

Well, that's about it actually. When done all that, you can save the split raster image into a PDF which can be sent into printing later.

You can install PosteRazor in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install posterazor

That's it. Good luck.

Fast Loading Image Viewer for Ubuntu Linux: Mirage

2011-09-12T16:56:00.000+05:30

These days when it comes to image viewers, GNU/Linux has a whole bunch of very competitive ones + if you use Ubuntu, then it comes with an excellent, fully featured image viewer (and a simple editor included) called Shotwell which was so good that it replaced the previous contender F-Spot.

There's certainly nothing wrong with Shotwell... but if you're searching for something loads a bit faster but doesn't come with a lot of features (don't be fooled, it's quite powerful!) then Mirage is a pretty good one.

But before we go further along this road ;-), just remember, if you have a huge list of albums to manage, then this is not the one to go for.

Main features...

*. Uses the GTK+ toolkit that integrates flawlessly with the Ubuntu Unity, Gnome classic desktop and other GTK+ based ones such as LXDE & Xfce (heck, you can even use it under Qt/KDE as well). .

*. Supports a lot of file types (including both raster and vector graphics) such as: png, jpg, svg, xpm, gif, bmp, tiff and many others.

*. Zoom/Out, Flip and Rotate, Full screen and a small thumbnail window to the left, etc.

*. It may be a simple app yet you can do basic image editing such as : Cropping, Resizing and color changing too.

*. View image properties.

*. Save in different formats.

*. Take screenshots.

*. Rename, Delete pictures.

*. Image pre-loading (which helps to reduce the loading times).

*. Slide-show support.

*. Change between image scaling algorithms.

*. Change thumbnail size and background colors... man, so much for "simplicity" :P.

You can install Mirage in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install mirage

But remember, unlike with Shotwell or F-Shot, etc Mirage is not built to let you easily handle lots of image libraries (because that's not its purpose). Yet, all you want is a fast loading, pretty simple image viewer that has some useful features, then Mirage is a pretty good looking app nonetheless.

Need a Free Secure Password Generator? Use Wolfram|Alpha!

2011-09-12T12:52:00.002+05:30

I'm pretty sure most of you know about Wolfram|Alpha but for the those of you who don't, then it's an engine of knowledge. I know, now it sounds more confusing. So let me give you an example. Wolfram|Alpha is sort of a search engine, but it's rather more advanced and complicated one.

For instance if you type the word "secure password generator" in Google, then what Google basically does is, it tries to find an answer based on its "index" and match your query and tries to give you the best matching websites (based on various factors) that perhaps hold the answers to your question. So in a way, traditional search engines like Google, Bing, etc basically have a limitation. They can only point you towards the answer but cannot directly put together a one by themselves.

But if you search for the same term in Wolfram|Alpha, it won't necessarily point your towards some kind of a software product or a website, but it'll give you an online software (kinda) created by itself, using which you can create a secure password for free!.

The most special "Wolf..." ;-)...

How is that possible?

It's quite simple actually (although the real process is much more complicated). It was possible because, just like a traditional search engine, Wolfram|Alpha index web pages, it match your queries, etc but unlike other search engines, it goes further by reading all those information on the index and then trying to create a solution of its own!.

So as with this instance, it may have read all those information needed to create a powerful password using web source like Wikipedia (yikes!), etc and then like a human being (although it's far far away from "us") by based on the information that it had gathered, it'll create a secure password generator software of its own.

So in that sense, traditional search engines are like library index keepers who can only point your towards the books by using which you'll have to find the answer all by yourself. But Wolfram|Alpha is sort of like a professor whom when asked a question, he won't necessarily point you towards a book (out of pride, kidding! :P) but thanks to the knowledge that he already have, he'll give the direct answer to your question (I tried my best dudes).

Back to the topic...

Anyhow, did you know that by using this amazing knowledge power house, we can easily create a very powerful password online for free. Steps are pretty simple.

1. Search for a phrase like creating a strong password in Wolfram|Alpha first (or anything that implies the same thing).

2. This should open up a window similar to the below one. Now this is sort of an online password generating utility. So you can change additional settings like: password length, enable/disable numbers, upper/lower case letters, special characters, etc.

Wolfram|Alpha will even give you additional things like how long would it takes for an average computer to break the password, what Hash algorithms it used and "hints' that you can use to remember it, etc.

To be honest, I don't whether this is one of the best tools out there (remember, it also uses powerful Hash algorithms.. so it's really powerful) but for most of us if you don't want to buy a premium utility or don't wanna install a free software on your PC, etc and need something that'll always be accessible online for free, then heck, Wolfram|Alpha is certainly pretty handy. What do you think?

Advanced File Copy Utility for Windows: TeraCopy

2011-09-12T11:11:00.000+05:30

By default "Explorer" is the one behind all your file management (including managing the desktop, etc) in MS Windows operating system. Over the years it has evolved really well thus in comparing with the Windows 98-XP explorer, now we have a pretty simplified, efficient and robust file management utility for the MS Windows "lovers" ;-).

Anyhow, concerning the file copying starting with Windows Vista, Microsoft added few enhancements to the file copying dialog such as showing the current transfer speed for instance (not the most useful features of all but). Still if you usually deal with a lot of file copy/move activities daily then wouldn't it be nice if you could find a dedicated utility that gives you a lot of control-ability under those situations?.

For instance, lets say that you were moving a folder with thousands of image files within the same HDD and at the middle of this "activity" realized that you wanted something urgent (say, to open the web-browser and log-into Facebok, kidding) that would take reasonable amount of disk activity, then you either have to wait till Windows moves the files Or if you have to cancel it!.

But what if we could just "Pause" the file move temporarily and "Resume" it later!. So if you have those kind of special needs (you never know when you're gonna need one), in that sense, if you want an excellent, free utility (although they do have a paid version too), then I came across this one called TeraCopy few years ago and have been using it a lot lately, because it's awesome! :D.

Main features...

*. Copy/Move/Delete files.

*. Integrates into the Windows Explorer and "registers" it self as the default file copy/move handler.

*. Add files to a list: It's like a playlist. You can add any amount of files into the list and then later copy/move them all at once where with Windows you'll have to manually copy->paste each one (although most of the time you'll have to wait till one of few process are close otherwise it'll slow down the computer) ... but now you can just drag-n-drop into the TeraCopy window while it's busy copying others!.

*. Verify: Check for the integrity of your file by using their CRC (cyclic redundancy check, a file-integrity error handling method).

*. Shutdown: You can tell TeraCopy to automatically shutdown your PC after the file copying is over.

*. When set, it can also automatically un-mount/eject drives.

*. Skip copying files in the list (only for the paid version).

*. Enhanced error handling: If you have a file that's unreadable, then before giving up TeraCopy will try for few times + even if it fails to copy it it won't terminate the whole process thus continue with others as nothing happened :D.

*. Pause and Resume (as explained above, you can simply interrupt the copy/move activities any time you want and resume them later!).

These are just few of the main features. Another thing, when you copy or move a file in MS Windows, if the file didn't copy 100% (say an error occurred) then Windows will automatically delete the file. But TerCopy will make sure to keep the portion of the file.

Now this may not be always be helpful, but it can be pretty handy sometimes. Say that you copied a movie almost to its end (98%) but an error occurred towards the very end of the file, still by using TeraCopy, not only it'll keep that file but we should be able to watch it afterward (means the almost full movie since towards the end there's nothing but the boring "credits" ;-).

Anyhow, if interested, you can get it from TeraCopy home page and if you want few additional features, then you can get the full paid version as well. But for most of us, the free version is more than enough.

A Simple Screen Recorder for Ubuntu: Kazam

2011-09-11T16:45:00.000+05:30

Screen recording is a great way to reach your audience (especially if you're ugly like me and don't wanna share your "face" :D). For instance, let's say that I wanted to show-off the new features in the upcoming Ubuntu 11.10. Then rather than writing a painfully long article, I can create a simple screen-record of my entire desktop which would explain a lot, easily.

Although if you use Ubuntu, then yet it doesn't come with a one pre-installed (it probably never will since screen recorder is not something that not everyone will use) but I'm pretty sure there are a lot you can find.

But if you've been looking for a very simple screen recorder that does nothing else (you know, without advanced video editing, cropping, etc) then Kazam is an excellent little tool.

Main features...

*. It's written in the GTK+ tool kit and uses the ffmpeg multimedia library for the recordings.

*. You can record both video (from your Computer screen of course) + an audio channel if you wanna add a voice as well.

*. Once you push the "Record" button it'll start to record whatever is on your desktop screen and you can use it's icon that runs in the notification area to Pause or Stop the recording.

*. As said, it doesn't have a video editing function (other than a basic one, more below) but since Ubuntu come with a pretty good one called Pitivi, Kazam will ask you to whether you wanna edit the video using Pitivity or just save it to disk.

You can directly open the recorded video in PiTiVi...

*. Kazam also has a YouTube video uploader (including a basic editor) which you can use to easily upload your content to YouTube and VideoBin services.

*. Saves the recorded multimedia file in .MKV container format.

You can install Kazam in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the daily unstable PPA channel (the stable channels doesn't have packages for Ubuntu 11.04) + 11.10 is not yet added. Open your terminal window and enter the below commands.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:and471/kazam-daily-builds

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install kazam

So if you're searching for an easy to use, simple screen recorder for Ubuntu, then give a try to Kazam, it's pretty darn good!.

Free Cross-Platform Screenshot Tool: Screenie!

2011-09-11T15:27:00.002+05:30

Most of us honestly don't be needing these type of dedicated screenshot capturing tools because we can use the built in photo manager or a painting application that comes with your operating system to do that.

But if you deal with screenshots a lot (just like me :D) and wondering about how to create screenshots that are angled + 3D looking reflections which you usually see with commercial applications "branding", then Screenie is one of the best, free tools that you can use.

One of the best things about Screenie is that it's a cross-platform tool that's written using the Qt toolkit and not only in Ubuntu (or GNU/Linux) but you can even use it under MS Windows and Mac OSX too.

Main features...

*. Supports Left, Middle and Right angled pictures.

*. Change offset, angle and distance of each picture.

*. Change Reflection opacity/angle.

*. Manually define R/G/B colors.

I obviously don't have a taste but this is what you can do with it... :)

That's about it for features!. You can install Screenie in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal (might also work in 11.10, 10.10 and 10.04, not sure since I didn't test them) by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install screenie-qt

For the MS Windows users please visit the Screnie official home page. And big thanks to the developer Ariya (who's a very active Qt/KDE developer) for this excellent tool.

And I don't think anyone would need a tutorial on how to use it... but two things. Once opened, you have to drag the pictures to the Screenie window to load them + once you're done, just right click on it and you'll see the "saving" window.

But remember, Screenie is actually a basic screenshot composer rather than an advanced utility like Shutter, thus you cannot crop/resize your screenshots. So make sure to do those things before you drag-em-in to Screenie :).

So, if you've been looking for a simple, free and yet effective screenshot tool that can be used on different OS environments, then Screenie is certainly an excellent little application.

An Excellent XML Editor for Ubuntu: XML Copy Editor!

2011-09-10T18:59:00.000+05:30

When it comes to editing XML files under Ubuntu we can of course use the Gedit text editor. But if you deal with a lot of XML codes, then Gedit is not the kind of the app that's gonna fully satisfy you. Although we cannot blame Gedit since it's primary role is to act as a text editor but for the serious coders, it's just not enough.

In that case if you're looking for a dedicated, fully featured and powerful XML editor that can be used in Ubuntu Linux, then you should try the award winning utility called XML Copy Editor.

Main features...

*. Syntax highlighting.

*. Check for spellings and styles.

*. Show/Hide attributes.

*. Insert: Symbols, elements, entity, etc.

*. Wrap words, folding.

*. Enable/Disable element pane.

*. Find and replace.

*. Excellent dedicated "XML" printing (pretty-print): With, wrapped long lines and highlighted codes, etc.

*. Export the XML files to PDF.

*. Word count and enter commands.

*. Check for well-formedness.

*. Validation DTD, XML Schema, Relax NG, Schematron, etc... are just a few of its main features to mention.

You can install XML Copy Editor in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command.

sudo apt-get install xmlcopyeditor

That should do it.

Excellent Disk Defragmenter for Windows: Defraggler

2011-09-10T16:12:00.000+05:30

As almost everyone knows, disk fragmentation can be one of the mains reasons behind slowing down your operating system. There are many reasons of course, such as frequent software installations, immovable files or using a singe HUGE partition instead of a few, etc. Anyhow, as times goes on you "will" have to manually defrag the entire HDD.

I'm pretty sure there are many others, but if you've been searching for one of the best yet completely free HDD defrag utility for Microsoft Windows XP, Vista and 7 then Defraggler is one little app that's worth giving a try. It's true that MS Windows does come with one of her own (built into the OS) but there are both commercial and free dedicated utilities that lets you configure a lot of other options that the built-in Windows doesn't offer.

Let's have a look at some of the features of Defraggler

*. Defraggler lets you de-frag the entire HDD, partition or individual folders/files (something that MS Windows tool lacks).

*. Add Or remove files: this is again very useful since say that you have a folder filled with video files that are only there temporarily, then even if the content is fragmented, yet you can manually remove it from the list thus save some time.

*. Very user friendly window (including using colorized methods for indicating the fragmentation levels).

*. Boot-time Defrag support: If you want to achieve the best results concerning the MS Windows system partition, then this is the best method since Defraggler can move some of the locked system files, etc.

*. Change priority: You can either run it using lot of your HDD bandwidth or can defrag the HDD without slowing down it too much thus you can do something while doing it.

*. Free space defragmentation.

*. Check disk for errors.

*. Search and find files.

*. Quick defrag: This'll do a fast defragmentation (for the impatient geeks :D) but won't give the best possible results though.

*. Schedule support.

There are among the main features to mention. As said, this is only for MS Windows. If interested, you can download it from this Defraggler home page. As said, in my experience, this is one of the best HDD defrag utility that's also completely free!. Enjoy.

Comprehensive Disk Cleaner (file system) for Ubuntu: FSlint

2011-09-10T15:24:00.000+05:30

When comparing with the proprietary MS Windows file systems, the GNU/Linux file systems have their advantages and disadvantages. For instance, according to the experts, GNU/Linux ones, they don't need to be de-fragmented from time to time as with MS Windows, etc ... but I do feel that still, MS FS are better at loading folders filled with thousands of files or concerning the overall performance (at least in my experience).

But the point is, apart from all these differences, there are few things that are common to almost all the file systems thus you may need to manually configure and "fix" some of those issues (not always necessary though) which not only helps to keep a "healthy" file system but it also helps to free some disk space as well.

In that sense, if you've been searching for a dedicated utility that lets you manually search and find duplicate entries, broken links, empty folders, etc... from a singe GUI (+ an optional command-line interface too), then FSlint is an excellent little utility.

Main features...

*. Find and remove duplicate files/folders.

*. Search for Bad File names (doesn't mean they're corrupted or anything, but you know those naughty file names with non-standard UTF characters/names, etc).

*. Name clashes: find conflicting file/folder names.

*. Temporary files.

*. Bad symbolinks (invalid shortcuts).

*. Find files with missing user IDs.

*. Find empty folders.

*. Non stripped binaries & Redundant white-spaces (not entirely sure that the do to be honest).

You can install FSlint in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install fslint

But FSlint also has another very useful feature that shows installed packages and their HDD spaces thus you can even remove them/un-install directly using FSlint and it'll even calculate the dependencies and properly remove them.

My personally favorite feature...

You can also add/exclude paths. But if you want the maximum controllability then you'll have to run it as the root user but be careful and if you don't know what you're doing, then don't search for duplicate files in the OS core locations for instance (although some folder location are automatically excluded) since it can easily break your entire OS.

Also be careful while searching and removing (even inside your Home folder) duplicate files for instance, if you search within your "Home" folder, some of those ".xml" files may have the same name but they would most probably in different locations thus removing them is not a good thing to do.

But other than that, searching for duplicate files within your manually created folders, etc in Ubuntu (also supports few other distributions), FSlint is an excellent utility. But again, please use it with caution.

Portable PDF Viewer for MS Windows: Foxit Reader Portable

2011-09-10T11:05:00.001+05:30

If you travel a lot and have a USB pen-drive or any portable media with you and looking for a portable PDF reader for Microsoft Windows OS, then Foxit Reader Portable is an excellent choice. Although the original version of the Foxit reader does not have a portable edition thus this is a customized version by the Portable Apps dudes.

All you gotta do is just download the customized setup file and then use the built in installation wizard to extract the content to a folder. Now you can just copy this folder to any portable media that you have (say to a USB pen/HDD, etc or can use the setup wizard to do that automatically for you as well) and switch it to a different computer (only supports MS Windows) and simply launch the Foxit reader from there!.

Another benefit of having a portable reader such as this is, all the changes that you make to the application (preferences, etc) are saved within its extracted folder thus are also applied when you launch it in a different computer thus you don't have to make all the changes manually either.

Main features...

*. 9MB of downloading size (about 34MB when extracted).

*. Includes all the features of the original Foxit reader: Viewing PDF files, search/find text, add-comments, highlight text, tool-bars, etc... they're all there.

*. Launches without modifying any installed software and does not add any registry entries (other than the ones that MS Windows creates automatically).

*. Optimized for the USB drives.

If interested, you can get it from this downloading page and once the downloading completes, just follow the on screen instructions to extract it to a desired location. As soon as Foxit developers release a new version, the portable app developers also make sure to update their database thus make sure to visit their link to check for the updates too.

How to Run Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal (Unity) in Acer Aspire One 722 Netbook?

2011-09-09T22:50:00.001+05:30

Few days ago suddenly out of nowhere the Acer Aspire one 722 (BZ454 to be precise) fell into my hands :P. It came pre-loaded with MS Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit). But as soon as I got it, I just wanted to try Ubuntu Linux 11.04 in it (obviously). Since, it doesn't have an optical drive, I went with creating a Live Ubuntu USB disk but it did not work!.

Oh it boot the OS alright ... but after displaying the pretty Ubuntu logo, bugger just freezed!. I then search in few forums and realized that others are also having the same issue. I honestly don't know what really is the issue here... but for some reason it just freezes the whole screen.

I also had a bit similar issue with my now old Laptop while I was trying Ubuntu 11.04 using the LiveCD but was able to fix it by first not choosing to run Ubuntu as a live environment but went for the installation straight ahead.

Dudes, I really got in running! :D...

So, since the 722 also comes with a AMD Radeon GPU (which are a bit troublesome with Compiz) I tried the same thing with the Acer Aspire One 722 but when Ubiquity (Ubuntu's live Installer Wizard) was just about to launch itself, again, the Netbook just got stuck, again.

This time I saw the Wi-Fi card is turned on automatically thus I guessed that it might be the Wi-Fi detection problem which is pretty common with GNU/Linux these days.

Anyhow, just out of curiosity, I decided to give it a try, again, and this time, when the USB boot-menu was loaded, I pressed the "F6" button and chose "ACIP-Off" option. The system booted but when it arrived where previously freeze-d, this time I got an error message (except for the stuck-non-informative window as with previous occasions) saying that the installer cannot find a live file-system to operate.

Now, I'm not an expert on how GNU/Linux Live "environments" work. But when I was creating my Boot-able USB disk I choose the option that says "Discarded on shutdown, unless you save them elsewhere".

the second option is not selected by default... but I guess most of us just use it thus this is where I made my mistake (at lest I thin this is the reason)

So, I just thought re-creating a USB disk using the suggested/default settings called "Stored in extra reserved space" which I did and then, plug-in the USB disk and decided to go with the default Ubuntu 11.04 Live environment and guess what?, it worked!.

Just make sure that you've chosen this one (selected by default)...

Now I'm not entirely sure what's the real cause here, but I've tested this two times and after going for the default settings, now I can use Ubuntu 11.04 in their pretty Unity desktop interface (yep with Compiz running) even after considering the fact that the Acer Aspire One 722 comes with the AMD fusion (APU - Advanced Processing Unit) which is only fully supported in the Kernel 3.0+, but even after without having that Kernel version + the proprietary AMD/ATI drivers... the Aspire One 722 runs pretty decently without any crashing incidents :).

But to be honest, even after considering the power of the included AMD Radeon HD 6250 (256MB dedicated graphics memory, 280Ghz internal clock speed if I'm not mistaken) Unity does feel a little slow since the proprietary AMD/ATI drivers are significantly faster than the open-source drivers, you should install the proprietary drivers if you want the best possible performance out of that GPU.

And also, if you also have this Netbook, then it should be pretty interesting what the upcoming Ubuntu 11.10 could bring from a performance point of view because with 11.10, Canonical is shipping the Kernel 3.0 for the first-time which fully supports the AMD Fusion architecture by default.

Anyhow, the performance even while on the Live USB environment is really good (I'm even writing this post in it!) but it should be even better after installing in the HDD.

So, if you're having troubles with trying to run Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal in Acer Aspire One 722 Netbook, then while creating that USB disk, just try the default settings as shown in the third screenshot. Good luck.

Oh and one more thing, the 11.6 inch display has a a resolution of 1366x768 thus things could look a bit too small for some but thanks to the Ubuntu or the Gnome desktop's DPI settings, I think Ubuntu Linux looks + makes things slightly bigger than the original MS Windows 7 thus Ubuntu is certainly my preferred choice while using this Netbook.

Boot-Repair-tool for Ubuntu is Updated with Lots of New Features!

2011-09-08T10:40:00.003+05:30

Boot-Repair is a bloody excellent little utility that lets you recover your boot-loader configuration (GRUB actually) related settings which seems to be pretty common with MS Windows 7 and Ubuntu users since when you do updates in MS Windows and if the OS core files are updated, then sometimes Windows just update/over-write (errrr :D) MBR thus breaking GRUB boot-loader files, completely or partially.

Although when it was released few months ago some of the advanced options were not shown to the Ubuntu users but I don't know when it happened, but the author has released a new version/updated of Boot-Repair which brings a lot of very useful, advanced features such as ...

*. A simple welcome screen from which now we can choose either:

1. "Recommended Repair": If you choose this option, then you don't have to do anything the Boot-Repair will take care everything for you.

From checking the partition to removing your current installed/broken GRUB to re-installing it... everything is automatic (few minutes ago I successfully reinstalled my GRUB and everything went really well, hey I'm still here!).

2. "Create a Bootinfo Summery": This is another very useful feature. For instance, say that you have a partially installed GRUB, wait!, what the heck does that mean!?

Well lets just say that you have a GRUB menu without anything but a blank screen .... and you went to an online community of Ubuntu experts and the geeks out there asked you whether you could give them a "log-file" related to your current GRUB settings or something similar.

Then you can use this second option that will create a full summary about your GRUB boot-loader and in my case it took like 40-50 seconds. Boot-Repair even uploaded that log-file in the Ubuntu Paste-Bin service which makes sharing it a breeze!.

But if you want additional controllability, then simply click on the "Advanced" button which will let you do things like...

*. Reinstall the GRUB (with or without replacing MBR).

*. Show/Hide the boot-menu after few seconds (that you can define manually).

*. Repair File Systems.

*. Install the GRUB loader into a different location (other than your MBR which is the default location) such as on the Ubuntu 11.04 partition, USB drives, etc.

Don't worry if you don't see your MS Widows 7 or Vista here since it only shows the OS that you're currently running...

*. Add additional initial boot-functions such as ACPI on/off, disable APIC, ATI Readon GPU related settings, etc.

Watch out for Pride! :P...

*. Enable/disable ATA disk support.

*. Restore the original MBR (the one that came with MS Windows which was there before you install Ubuntu). This however will only be available if it's not deleted by the Ubuntu OS installer.

*. Manually edit the GRUB file using a text editor (ahh, the good-old-days :D).

You can install Boot Repair in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below three command in your Terminal window.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install boot-repair

After installing, you can run it by pressing "Alt" + "F2" keys and entering the below command.

boot-repair

Remember, I think before going into the advanced section, you should try the Recommended option that'll solve many known GRUB boot related problems with Ubuntu 11.04 and MS Windows 7/Vista, etc.

And lastly, please don't try to enable advanced Kernel settings (above mentioned ACPI, etc) unless you know what you're doing.

Update: You can also visit this new official Boot-Repair Ubuntu Wiki-page for more (thanks Yann for the update!).

How to Disable System Restore in Windows 7?

2011-09-08T08:25:00.001+05:30

System restore is a pretty useful feature which was implemented by Microsoft in their Windows operating system for restoring your whole system (OS) to a previous state (which is defined by application installations, etc as many knows). But I personally don't like this at all because it has drawbacks rather than useful ones (at least in my opinion).

First, it uses my valuable HDD space for which I cannot blame the OS. But most importantly, even after doing a system restoration, afterwards, you may not be able to uninstall applications (properly) as usual by using Control panel or uninstallers in the applications, etc. So in a way, even though it is certainly helpful (where you can restore your entire OS to a previous point without having to re-install it, etc) but I'd like to manually disable the System restore feature in MS Windows (7 in this case).

How to do that?

Pretty easy actually, just follow the on screen instructions.

1. First right-click on your "My Computer" icon and from the menu choose: "Properties".

2. From the next window, to your left, choose, "Advanced System Settings".

3. Now from the next window, choose the tab called "System Protection".

Once you click on that, you should see a window that shows you details such as current disk usage, the partitions that are being used, etc. Now choose a partition and under "Protection" if it says "On", then it means that Windows is using space on that drive for system restore feature.

4. Just click on a partition and simply click on the button called "Configure" and from the next window under "Restore Settings", choose "Turn off system protection".

5. Now click on the "Apply" button and then press "OK" to close the window.

If you have multiple partitions, then you'll have to manually disable them all using the same method. That's how you completely disable the "troublesome" (not always though :D) system restore feature in Microsoft Windows 7 (Vista instructions should also be similar).

Best Optical Disk Image Mounter for Ubuntu: FuriusISOMount!

2011-09-06T09:24:00.000+05:30

Making Optical disk image backups is a great way to backup your data (which can really fasten up the process, depending on the content type, etc as well). Although we can view the content of the disk image even without a dedicated mounting software as long as we have a decent archive manager installed but "virtually" mounting the optical disk image is the best way to view the content.

Now, few days ago I did write about an ISO image mounter for Ubuntu, which is really good actually. But it had an apparent disadvantage, that is, it only supports ISO images. But what if you had another type of disk image, say the proprietary Nero images (NRG)?, how can you mount them in Ubuntu?.

The answer is simple, just install this other, aWeSomE disk image mounter called Furius-ISO-Mount and the rest should be taken care of!.

Main features...

*. Supports multiple optical disk image types such as: ISO, IMG, BIN, MDF and NRG.

*. Mount as a FUSE (it's like a virtual file system within the main FS that lets users to "create"/mount virtual file systems without admin privileges) or Loop device.

*. Image checksum support (MD5 & SH1 algorithms supported): Heck, this tool even lets you check for errors.

*. Burn your disk images to actual optical disks (using either Brasero or Nautilus).

*. Drag-n-Drop support.

*. And unmount.

You can install furius-iso-mount in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install furiusisomount

Now, whenever you want to mount more than a singe optical disk image type that you backup earlier in Ubuntu, just launch "Furius" and mount the hell out of it! :D.

A File Type Editor for Ubuntu: assoGiate

2011-09-06T08:50:00.000+05:30

assoGiate is actually a file type editor for the Gnome desktop but since the Ubuntu Unity desktop still uses a lot of Gnome technologies (especially Nautilus as the file management utility), we can use it under Ubuntu for editing/adding new file types with ease nonetheless.

Anyhow, every time you install a new application (say in Gnome desktop) and if that newly installed utility comes with a file types of its own which is not presented in the OS, then it manually registers those file types thus these applications are rarely needed for the newbies But...

... assoGiate is intended for the system administrators who want to manually change the configuration of the file types in Gnome/Ubuntu (or in any GNU/Linux distribution that uses Gnome), but of course dudes (ladies included :D) like you and me also can use it to play around the system settings (yikes!) a little bit as well.

Main features...

*. Search for the default file-types.

*. Edit the already consisting ones.

*. Add a New file type with Categories, related types, file names (also known as "extensions"), XML elements and other advanced options such as changing priority values, etc are also included.

*. Switch between User and System database (system database is only "shown" if you run it with administrative privileges).

*. Remove existing types (only available in the administrative mode).

*. Import/export the database... are the main features to mention.

You can install assoGiate in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command.

sudo apt-get install assogiate

That's it, be safe ;-).

Advanced Multi Touch Gesture Recognizer for Ubuntu: Touchégg

2011-09-05T16:17:00.001+05:30

It was Apple who "invented" the idea (after they bought the company that really invented it) of Multi touch Gesture Recognizing feature first. Although it was first came out with the iPhone's touchscreen based, but later they integrated it to the Trackpads of their Laptops or Ultrabooks such as Mac Book Air which received a lot of positive feedback from users.

Anyhow, the Multi Touch gestures can be implemented on Trackpads or any similar devices by using main two methods.

1. Embedding it into the BIOS of the Trackpad: This I think is the best methods since we don't have to install any software to enabled the multi-gestures thus it's software/platform independent, somewhat (since the BIOS coded software should be familiar with the OS when it comes to resizing, zooming, etc. But there's is a standard for Multi-gestures thus Max OSX, Ubuntu 10.10 and after and MS Windows fully support it by default) + these hardware integrated devices tend to performs better than the software based ones.

2. Using a dedicated software: This is the only hope for us with a never Trackpads/touchscreens that support this feature but want more control over its functions, etc.

Anyhow if you use Ubuntu Linux and looking for a utility which enables you to do all those nerdy gesture stuff with more advanced features..., then Touchégg is something that's worth looking into.

Main features...

*. Manually add/define a huge list touch-gesture related functions such as: Maximizing, minimizing, show the desktop, horizontal/vertical scrolling, launch the execute a command window, close a window, hove a window, resize a window, etc.

*. Supports up to 5 fingers!. So nothing is wasted :D.

*. Tap and Pinch support.

*. Works with a lot of window managers such as Compiz, KWin, Metacity, etc.

*. Manually change the "Tap & Hold" time sensitivity.

That's basically about it when it comes to features.

Touchégg is actually a "portion" of a bigger project called egg Window manager (that supports multi-questers by default). You can install Touchégg in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 by first downloading the ".deb" packages from this download page.

But no matter what Ubuntu version that you use, you gotta install two separate files that include both the command-line core files + the GUI window. For instance, if you use 11.04 Natty, then

1. Get the command-line, "engine" from here first.

2. After the installation (just double click on the downloaded file and follow the on screen details), download the GUI from here and install it too.

After you've installed the both of the packages press "Alt" + "F2" keys on your keyboard and put the below command into the window and then you should be greeted with the configuration window by using which you can setup the multi-touch gestures for both the Trackpad or the touch-sensitive screen, etc with ease in Ubuntu!.

touchegg-gui

But remember, as said before, some older trackpads do not support the multi gesture recognition thus (as with my case) even if you install this, you won't be able to use the functions.

So in short, this application is only for those of you geeks, who already have a multi-gesture supported device but just lacks a dedicated software (one that gives you better control over actually, since Ubuntu does support it by default as far as I know) to do that for you under Ubuntu (or GNU/Linux in general)!.

Best YouTube Video Downloader Add-on: FastestTube!

2011-09-05T09:48:00.000+05:30

There are many online services that let you download YouTube videos these days. But every time you want to download a video, with most most of these services, you'll have to manually copy the Video URL on your Web Browser and then come to their web site and paste it. Although some do let you install their "service" as a tool-bar which makes things much more simpler... yet, having installed a lot of tool-bars can also be a quite a hassle too.

In that sense, FastestTube is an excellent YouTube video downloading add-on (completely free and without ads!) that runs in inside of your Web browser. Thus, it doesn't matter what operating system that you use, as long as you have a "popular" web browser installed whatever the OS that you use such as: GNU/Linux, MS Windows or Mac OSX, etc... FastestTube will work.

Main features...

*. Supports almost all the major web browsers such as : Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Chromium, Internet Explorer, Opera and Apple Safari.

*. You can choose between several downloading options such as different Resolutions (which also depends on the source Video file).

*. Just choose your file type/resolution and simply click on it. The rest is pretty simple.

After installing, whenever you play a YouTube video, you'll see a button called "Download" under the video player window. All you gotta do is just make click on it :). However, since nothing in this world is perfect (oh oh :D). In my opinion, FastestTube does have a weakness.

That is, by default it comes pre-integrated with a service called Adless-Lite which basically replaces (or at lest tries to) some of the online web site advertising services with Twitter, Bing, Google and Wikipedia. For instance, lets say that I search for "How to learn Ubuntu Linux" in Google, then if I have installed FastestTube, to my left side, this add-on will make sure to replace the Adsense ads with Twitter, Wikipedia, Bing search results for that given term as shown below.

Although this could mean something useful for the most people. But I think, sometimes this may slowdown the web site loading times since now we gotta wait till it fetches all those information to our loading web page (and we cannot disable this feature without disabling the whole FastestTube add-on).

Other than that, if you're searching for an easy way to download YouTube videos, then FastestTube is one of the best web browser addons that I've come up so far.

FastestTube Home Page.

Fast Loading PDF Reader for Ubuntu: ePDFView

2011-09-04T18:31:00.000+05:30

Ubuntu Linux (Unity desktop included) comes with a built in PDF viewer called Evince (more than a PDF viewer, a document viewer actually) which loads fast and does its job quite well.

But if you're looking for PDF reader that loads even faster (not by a huge margin, slightly faster) + that doesn't depend on Gnome desktop libraries as with Evince... then ePDFView a pretty good utility.

Main features...

*. A very basic/simple GUI (one of the reasons behind that speed, I guess).

*. Search for Text.

*. Switch between the Scroll or the Text selection modes (although while I used it, I couldn't select text at all. I was able to select the text but as soon as I let go of the left-mouse button, the text got unselected!).

*. Show/Hide the PDF index.

*. Send to Print.

*. Save as a Copy.

*. Rotate, zoom-in/out, Full screen, etc.

*. Tool-bar (which includes the above mentioned tools + next/previous page tools, etc).

*. Change the Web Browser that opens the URL links inside the PDF content.

That's about it for the features actually. So, don't hope for a shi* load of features since it's not the idea behind ePDFView. According to the developers, they just wanted create a fast loading, resources friendly PDF viewer that has very little dependencies.

You can install epdfview in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install epdfview

Again, this is certainly not the best but if you have a "thing" for speed ;-), then ePDFview deserves giving a try (except for that above mentioned Text related, bug which can make it pretty useless for some, especially if you want to copy the content to a separate text file).

PDF Split and Merge Utility for Ubuntu Linux: PDF Sam

2011-09-04T10:46:00.001+05:30

If you deal with a lot of PDF files under Ubuntu and all you want is nothing but to extract certain pages... then you don't need PDF Sam, PDFMod should do it for you. But if you want more control over your PDF documents (meaning both split and merging with advanced features) then PDF Sam is a pretty good utility.

PDF Sam is an open source application written in Java and needs the Java virtual environment to run. It comes with two versions (both open source). One version is completely free (the one that I'm using) but for the commercial version (they called it enhanced version), for that you'll have to pay some fee.

There's no "fee limits", even a single dollar will do it! OR you can download the enhanced versions's source code and compile it for free as well.

Not the best looking GUI... but it gets the job done!...

But the enhanced version has its own features such as the ability to encrypt or decrypt PDF files, add a front-page, etc. But for simple split/merger needs, the free version is more than enough.

Main features...

*. Split PDF files with following options (few to mention):

Split the source file into single pages, manually define the starting page, split after a certain pages (1/2/ any page numbers) or use bookmarks as split points, change the output file meta data (Acrobat 6/7/8 or use the source meta data), change the output file location, etc.

You can add more than one PDF file to the list.

*. Merge is pretty simple actually.

You just locate/add your files to the list and then change few settings such as the above mentioned meta-data version, destination (enable "PDF documents contain forms" option if needed) and hit the "Run" button.

*. Play alert sounds (don't think it worked in my Ubuntu 11.04 though).

*. Few languages supported.

Although default GUI is pretty darn ugly :D, I changed it using the "Settings" section (you'll have to re-start the app to apply the changes) and after that PDF Sam used the default GTK theme (an older version of the GTK actually) and it looked much nicer afterward.

You can install PDF Sam in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal (perhaps in 10.10 and 10.04) by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install pdfsam

That's it.

Ubuntu Gets a Remastered 5.1 Surround Log-in Sound!

2011-09-04T09:13:00.000+05:30

If you have installed a 5.1 Surround Sound system on your computer that happens to be running Ubuntu Linux instead of MS Windows :D, then wouldn't it be nice if you could make/add an awesome 5.1 surround log-in sound?.

I mean, of course you can find a 5.1 audio file but wouldn't it make everything so much better if we somehow find a re-mastered 5.1 version of the current official Ubuntu Log-in sound?. Well, thanks to Dustin Kirkland (an Ubuntu core developer and an active member of the Ubuntu Server development staff), we now actually have a re-mastered, official 5.1 surround sound for Ubuntu!.

"my life be like oooooh aaaaaaah, oooooooh " ;-)...

Although I don't have a 5.1 system thus I haven't tested it (because I can't! :/) but Dustin is kind enough to provide us with a PPA channel which makes the installation is A breeze!.

So, as a result, you can install the 5.1 log-in sound in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below commands.

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:kirkland/sound

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-sounds

Now, log-out of the system and re-login and if everything went well then you should hear it:

Starting off with the center speaker, going towards the front left and right channels then going into the back left/right speakers while the bongo rocking the hell out of your world using your Sub Woofer!. Enjoy!.

Ubuntu Forums Introduces a New User Permission Policy

2011-09-04T08:46:00.000+05:30

Anyone who're familiar with Ubuntu Linux knows about Ubuntu Forums. If you don't, then it's a pretty awesome community, filled with dudes and dudies who're sharing their knowledge and helping the Ubuntu newbies on solving various Ubuntu related issues (driver installations, troubleshooting, commands and new applications, etc).

To show you how big the community is, currently they have a registered user database of 1,427,121 users! (with 95,754 of active users). But managing the community is not that easy, especially considering the community expansion + not everyone who register at Ubuntu Forums have the same good intentions (yep, apparently there seems to be massive "SPAM campaigns" going on too :D, not funny though).

So as a result, Isabelle Duchatelle, one of the UF council members, in her personal blog yesterday announced that from now on, the newly registered users will not be able to change their profile information (such as links, etc) until they've posted at lest 50 posts. This actually makes sense and according to her own words in the UF announcement thread...

"... We will be taking away profile customization from users having less than 50 posts. We are quite sorry about that, but currently it takes at least one hour from 2-3 persons, each day, to clean profile spam. New users register only to fill the account with spam links, pics and things... we are quite tired of spending so much human resources on so little interesting tasks"

If you're a new UF users, then you don't have to worry about anything because as soon as you have 50 or more posts in UF, the system will automatically update your user permissions thus you'll be able to add/change your profile information. But since it's an automated task, which updates the database once an hour, Isabelle says that there could be small delays but you should see your permissions updated within 1 hour at max.

You can read more from this Official announcement thread in Ubuntu Forums.

A Professional Digital Painting Software for Ubuntu Linux: MyPaint!

2011-09-03T12:07:00.001+05:30

If you're looking for one of the best digital painting applications for Ubuntu, then there aren't that many which can beat GIMP for what it does. But if you're looking for a bit simpler yet a powerful and professional painting software that has a somewhat different characteristic to it (more later), then MyPaint is something that's totally worth giving a shot :).

According to the developer of MyPaint, it's designed for pressure sensitive Tablet PC type devices + puts a lot of "weight" on digital brush strokes, which makes it an excellent dedicated painting application rather than a usual image editor.

Welcome to the world of the "damaged bird!", ;-)... Original image by : Nicobou from deviantart.

Main features...

*. As mentioned above, it's all about brush-strokes with MyPaint and you get a hell lot of 'em by default such as:

Sponge, Pen, Charcoal, Marker, AirBrush, Spray, Dry Brush, Rounded, ink_blot, Erasers and Blur brushes (of different types) are just a fraction of the brushes that you'll get!.

*. If you want to create a brush of your own, then you can use the built in "Brush Editor" which basically lets you define a new one using changing "Opacity", "Hardness", "Speed filter", etc values.

*. Import a brush package with ease.

*. A basic image layer support (add/remove, change opacity, merge layers, add a background, etc).

*. Save images as: PNG, JPEG, Multiple PNG transparent and Open-Raster formats.

*. Unlimited canvas size thanks to the Raster image support.

*. Also available for MS Windows platform as well.

*. Edit pressure settings for Tablet or if you have a similar Touch sensitive gadget.

*. Change the colors of your brushes + pick colors from the color piker tool from your current image... are among the main features.

As said, the GUI is pretty simple and is not filled with options because MyPaint only emphasize on creating amazingly beautiful digital graphics rather than a fully featured image manipulator such as the GIMP, Pencil or Inkscape for instance.

Anyhow, you can install MyPaint in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10 and 10.10 by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install mypaint

Also remember to have a look at the excellent documentation of MyPaint which includes tutorials on how to use this amazing, digital painting software to create beautiful looking artwork in Ubuntu Linux. Enjoy!.

Best Ultrabooks Under $1000

2011-09-03T10:20:00.010+05:30

For years, Apple Mac Book Air has been dominating the "Ultrabook" market. Although some manufactures did try to compete but until recently... most of them didn't succeed that much (obviously). But in 2011 we first saw Asus boasting about their world's thinnest Ultrabook which was named UX21 (they have a cheap Netbook edition too!) that's even thinner than the Mac Book Air!. Anyhow, it seems that other manufacturers are also lining up with their own versions of "best Ultrabooks" and few of them are actually worth mentioning.

But remember, since these are quite powerful than Netbooks and you can watch full HD videos, decent gaming, excellent multi-application performance (although may not necessarily be powerful than some of the Laptops but) but the price is definitely above even the average Laptop because to "convert" a powerful Laptop into an ultra portable Netbook or an Ultrabook (without losing the performance factor), it costs $$, a lot.

Seriously Dude!, what's an Ultrabook?

Well, although some say Intel invented the "standard" but in truth, Apple was the one who came up with the design (not necessarily the product, more later). Anyhow, an Ultrabook is a computer that's powerful than a standard Netbook or most of the Laptops (since there are Latops that beat the Ultrabooks) that has a very slim + extra low weight factors but still retaining a cheap price tag (in relative terms).

In that sense, as said above, the recently introduced Apple Mac Book Air 11" is/maybe an Ultrabook... but others are just too expensive to be considered as Ultrabooks.

And also remember, even though they come with Intel Core i3/i5 or i7 processors yet they are not as fast as some of the Laptop or Desktop versions (because these Core i versions are low-voltage ones) thus these expensive Ultrabooks may not be as powerful as some of the Laptops either. But in comparison with the Atom and low-end AMD (C-30/C-50 and even the recently introduced E-350 APUs), they are really powerful nonetheless.

Update: Well, it's been a little while since I wrote this post and all of these products are actually available via various sources. But since I'm an Amazon affiliate I've included few links so could by them easily ;-)...

Asus UX21

Buy directly from Amazon!

~~Although this ain't released yet~~ but this is a serious looking Ultrabook from Asus.

*. 11.6 inch display with 1366 x 768 resolution.

*. Run the Intel Core i5 or i7 processor.

*. SSD drive for faster performance + efficient power management (+ enhanced battery life). Although as far as I know, Asus does not offer a SATA version over the SSD.

*. Thickness: 0.67 at max and just 0.12 at the most thinnest point!.

Acer Aspire S3

Buy directly from Amazon!

Acer, few hours ago officially announced this extremely ultra portable (Ultrabook, which could become one of the best so far) which comes with a price tag of €799 (launched in Europe) ~~but not sure when it'll hit the US~~.

*. 13.3 inch display with 1366 x 768 HD resolution.

*. We can choose either Intel i3/i5 or i7 low voltage processors.

*. Two USB ports.

*. HDMI port.

*. 2 in 1 card reader.

*. Just 0.51 inch at max point.

*. 240GB SSD or 320-500GB SATA drive. Even if you go for the SATA edition, the S3 will still come with an integrated SSD drive (for OS data cache, etc) for performance purposes.

Acer is actually one of my favorite manufactures because they produce cheaper versions when comparing with some others (Asus or Toshiba for instance) + most of their products makes it really easy to do upgrades + comes with lot of choices. In general, I just love their "customer-approach".

*. RAM: 4GB

*. Wi-Fi and a 1.3 MP front camera.

*. 7 Hours of battery life.

Toshiba Portege Z830

Buy directly from Amazon!

This is another Ultrabook from Toshiba and to begin with, not only the Z830 series is slim but it's even light weight (1.12kg) than the Mac Book Air too.

*. 13.3-inch magnesium-clad display with 1366 x 768 resolution.

*. Up to 6GB DDR3 memory supported.

*. 128SSD (no SATA version).

*. Intel Core i5/i7 processor.

*. ~~Although this ain't released~~... but according to beta testers, it seems to has an excellent chick-let keyboard (I'm with the old-school dudes here... although some "testers" just brag about the Chicklet keyboard... but in truth, they're not that efficient. But hey!, it's all about cutting out the cost right?).

*. 0.63 Inch thick at the max point.

*. One USB 3.0 and 2 USB 2.0 ports.

*. 1.3 MP camera.

Update: Although Ultrabooks should have a decent amount of battery life by definition, yet some won't give you more than 5 hours. If however you're looking for one of the best Ultrabooks with excellent battery life (over 7 hours under normal usage) then Portege Z830 is among the best!.

Lenovo U300s

Buy from Amazon!

Lenovo has a way of its own when it comes to designing really professional looking Laptops/Netbooks (without rounded edges, etc ;-)) and they have one of the best keyboards in the industry without a doubt as well. This Ultrabook called U300s has the following characteristics...

*. 13.3 Inch display with 1366 x 768 resolution.

*. We can choose either Core i5-2457M or Core i7-2677M.

*. Supports max memory about 4GB (DDR3).

*. Comes with a 256 SSD drive and again, unlike Acer... Lenovo also doesn't give any SATA options.

*. Weights about 2.9 lb.

*. 1 USB 2.0 port and another USB 3.0 port.

*. 1.3 MP front camera.

*. Wi-Fi.

*. 8 hours of battery life (according to the manufacture thus the actual batter life may differ in actual circumstances).

Although, for this one, you'll actually have to pay more than $1000 (starting price of $1200).

Other than being Slim, to consider as something excellent, an Ultrabook has to "pass" other things such as the overall heat, battery life, graphics performance (I don' think these Ultrabooks come with Nvidia or ATI dedicated graphics. So even though there's the Intel Low voltage CPU... still Games can run much better with dedicated GPUs nonetheless), etc.

But the rest assured, they do have their own "universal" benefits such as giving more than one USB ports (since Mac Book Air only has one), come pre-installed with MS Windows, marginally slimmer and weights less and better battery life. So if you have some money and looking for something that's more powerful, durably built + better looking :D, then Ultrabooks are the best "option" for you, it seems.

But for other geeks (talking about me here), well, they cost tooooooooooo much!.

How to Install Gnome-Paint in Ubuntu?

2011-09-02T17:42:00.000+05:30

Gnome-Paint is a simple and very basic painting application designed for the Gnome desktop which you can also use in Ubuntu Linux as well (obviously). But remember, this is not an advanced tool and some "must have" type features such as Text tool and the Zoom in-out tools are not completed yet thus you can't use them!.

But if you're looking for an application that you can use to draw "stuff" to kill some time :) and okay with not having the ability to add text (although you can use the pencil tool though) or Zoom them, then Gnome-Paint is a decent application. But as said before, please remember, this is not a professional painting application by any means.

Main features...

*. Since it's designed by Gnome geeks :D, it has a simple yet easy to use GUI (designed using the GTK+ toolkit).

*. To your left you'll see a list of tools such as: Crop, color picker, eraser and few types of selection tools. But you cannot use Text and the zoom tools, yet.

*. Undo/Redo.

*. Flip, rotate and load various types of images.

*. Invert colors.

*. Save in different formats... are the main features.

You can install Gnome-Paint in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install gnome-paint

Again remember, this is still under development and the overall application responsiveness was not bad but I did encounter few slowish type issues. For instance, after using a tool (say the eraser), it took a small (very small but noticeable) delay to "update" it on the image.

Not "everything" is fully implemented yet...

This however is not a professional software by any means... but if you're looking for something that lets you create basic drawings under Ubuntu or GNU/Linux in general, then Gnome-Paint is a decent application which really needs some developing to be considered as a fully featured one in my opinion.