What Is Battery Calibration and When Should You Do it?

Now, when it comes to rechargeable batteries there are a lot of variations. But one thing that is universally true for all the rechargeable batteries is that, from the day they're manufactured ... they start to lose their ability to hold the charge. Although the rate is small (depending on the type) but even without you having to do a Calibration (more later), still at the end they'll all gonna lose their ability to hold the "charge" nonetheless which is defined either by their "life/years" or recharging cycles (which also changes according to the battery type). 


Calibration and Memory Effect

Nickel-cadmium or commonly known as NiCd is one of the oldest rechargeable batteries invented around 1899 by Waldemar Jungner (Swedish). There was single main disadvantage that NiCd had from the beginning. Let me give you an example.

Few variations of NiCd batteries...

With a NiCd battery, say that you usually let it discharge about 20-25% and then do a full (100%) charge, then as the time goes on NiCd cells will "forget" about the remaining 20-25% capacity that it can hold thus resulting a charge hold of 70-75% (as per this example, otherwise the numbers will change) of it's full capacity. This "loss" of the battery's "memory" is called Memory Effect.  

So in another words, as the time goes on NiCd (and its other variations) loses its ability to measure or caliber it's charge-holding capability thus requiring us to do a manual battery Calibration!, to help the dumb battery to get its "memory" back :P.

But remember, the above phenomenon does not occur due to the fact of excessive battery discharging but it comes into its existence due to the fact of not charging it to its full capacity.

A little about Lithium-ion Batteries

Lithium-ion or Li-ion batteries are the current most popular types of rechargeable batteries used by electronic gadget manufactures. Unlike with NiCd, Li-ion does not have the notorious "Memory Effect". They are more efficient, smaller in size, low cost, ... they have their advantages.

Li-ion battery (from Nokia in this example)

But...

Even though they don't have the memory effect issue, still they have a phenomenon called SOC mismatch.

Li-Ion batteries require a Battery Management System to prevent operation outside each cell's Safe Operating Area (over-charge, under-charge, safe temperature range) and to balance cells to eliminate SOC mismatches, significantly improving battery efficiency and increasing overall capacity.[86] As the number of cells and load currents increase, the potential for mismatch also increases.[87] There are two kinds of mismatch in the pack: state-of-charge (SOC) and capacity/energy ("C/E") mismatch. Though SOC is more common, each problem limits pack capacity (mA·h) to the capacity of the weakest cell. Source: Wikipedia. 

Although we don't need to go into much details... but interestingly SOC or Safe Operation Area, etc results in a very similar effect that the NiCd's Memory Effect has, which is : making Li-ion batteries losing their ability to caliber or judge the real charge they can hold!.

So although the never, popular Li-ion does not have the bad Memory Effect, yet, over time when not properly used, they can have those above mentioned "cell mismatches" which ultimately resulting a calibrating confusion, seems happen concerning the electronic battery management "brain" inside the batteries.

I think this is why Apple recommends doing battery calibration even after including Li-ion batteries (iPhone/iPod... they use Li-ion in all their products as far as I know, but read your manual just to make sure) in their products, so are HP I hear.

For Li-ion Batteries, there could be various reasons for getting "confused" like this, but as most know, "heavy" heat is certainly one of the main reasons. For instance, if you use you Laptop as a desktop (which actually happened to me which leads to this little "finding" :P) for weeks without taking it anywhere but powered directly through an AC output, then it is advised by experts to remove the battery which will of course make you lose your data if power cut occurs.

Here's Apple's "explanation" concerning the matter...

Lithium-ion polymer batteries pack in a higher power density than nickel-based batteries. This gives you a longer battery life in a lighter package, as lithium is the lightest metal. You can also recharge a lithium-ion polymer battery whenever convenient, without the full charge or discharge cycle necessary to keep nickel-based batteries at peak performance. (Over time, crystals build up in nickel-based batteries and prevent you from charging them completely, necessitating an inconvenient full discharge.) Source: Apple/Batteries.

Another one...

Power loss through Protection Circuit

Besides common aging, a Li-ion battery can also fail because of undercharge. This occurs if a Li-ion pack is stored in a discharged condition. Self-discharge gradually lowers the voltage of the already discharged battery and the protection circuit cuts off between 2.20 and 2.90V/cell. Some chargers and battery analyzers (including those from Cadex) provide a wake-up feature, or “boost,” to re-energize and recharge these seemingly dead Li-ion batteries.  Source: batteryuniversity.

How do I know when to do it?

Well if your battery meter in your operating system or in Mobile phone in that case, tends to give skeptic "remaining times" that are highly unlikely, although as said before all batteries lose their charge holding ability over time. Then it is time for you to do a battery calibration.

Some manufactures even recommend doing this per 30-40 day-cycles.

How to do it?

Usually in your Laptop BIOS you'll find an "option" which lets you discharge your battery. But I don't know if all the manufactures do this. So is that case the best things to do is to...

1. Make sure your battery is charged at least 93% or above of its full capacity before proceeding.

2. Now remove your AC adapter and let your Laptop run using the battery.

As most know, when your battery reaches its critical levels Windows, Mac OS, GNU/Linux, etc gives you warnings and if you don't do anything about it, then the BIOS automatically puts your operating system to sleep or stand-by mode. So wait until your battery is so drained which forces your OS to put itself to sleep mode.

3. Immediately after your PC/Laptop goes to sleep mode, then plug in your AC adapter (not before, but after the "sleeping" occurs) and charge it it to its full extent = 100% which is important.

Now you're done calibrating your battery!. Although if your Laptop or a mobile phone (especially) can last for hours depending on your battery. In that case you could "get busy" with your Laptop or mobile phone which resulting a faster battery "eating" (I usually watch a HD video... run several memory eating apps, etc).

Or you can search Google for a dedicated software that runs on top of your OS which makes sure to keep your Laptop/PC real busy :). For finding one, you can use Keywords like "battery calibrating software for Windows" (just replace the Red text with your operating system such as Mac OSX, GNU/Linux/android, etc). Good luck.

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

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?

How to Make the Ubuntu Unity Desktop run Faster?

Unlike in the past, these days almost all the GNU/Linux distributions that pack both Gnome (GTK written) and the Qt/KDE require us to have at least 512MB of RAM by default. Although with the introduction of the Gnome 3, distributions like Fedora 16 for instance now requires you to have about 640MB of RAM or else it even refuse to get installed as well.

This "RAM" jump is actually due to the fact of using much more GPU for drawing the GUI by these desktop. Although it's certainly not the only reason since the Kernel and other applications in general get more heavier as well. Anyhow concerning Ubuntu, with the introduction of the Unity desktop module which uses the Compiz compositing manager by default thus it needs more resources than usual.

So in an attempt to make the Unity desktop run faster disabling the Compiz completely is the mots sensible thing but unfortunately we cannot do that since Unity 3D is a plug-in for Compiz.

But there are few things that we can do. For instance...

*. Use the Unity 2D (Qt written) desktop interface instead -

Update: Starting with 11.10 version, now Ubuntu ships the Unity 2D by default, so you don't have to install it manually anymore.

I know it doesn't sound appealing and when considering the fact that the 2D version does not have all the features of the default 3D GUI ... but this is the single most important thing if you're really concerned about reducing system resources.

*. Get rid of unnecessary start-up applications -

By default Ubuntu (including the Gnome Classic desktop) loads few apps during the start-up process of the desktop that are not required to some users.

So click on the icon next to your user name in the Unity panel and from the menu choose: "System Settings" -> "Personal" -> "Startup Applications" as shown in the below screeshots.

1

2

3

This should bring you a new window that lets you enable/disable start-up applications as shown above. But remember, you should not disable all of these apps since some are necessary to let your desktop function properly.

I've written about this in the past concerning the Gnome desktop ... but it still applies to the Unity as well. So go ahead and read that post if you need more information.

But for most of us, things like Bluetooth manager, Evolution alarm notify, Gnome login-sound, personal file sharing (if you don't have any networked environment), Print queue applet (if you don't use a printer at all), Remote desktop, Ubuntu One and Visual assistance are few of the apps that can be disabled safely. But I humbly advice you to read that post.

*. Install Preload -

This is actually an excellent utility that runs in the background as a system service and act very similar to the Microsoft app pre-fetch. What this does is simple. Say that you usually use 10 main apps. But from that 10, there are 3 applications that are the most prominent.

Lets say that the parts of the applications are scattered all over your HDD which makes them loading a time consuming task for the OS. What the "Preload" does is simple, it makes an index of those most used 3 apps thus accessing them in the future is made easy for the GNU/Linux operating system since now it doesn't have to look all over the HDD... it just reads the index and finds their locations faster than ever which result in a faster application loading times!.

This of course is a very simple analogy and I'm pretty sure the actual scenario is much more complicated.

You can install preload in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by using the below command.

sudo apt-get install preload

Not just for Unity desktop actually, this will help to decrease loading times of any app under GNU/Linux in General. You don't have to tweak or anything, after installing it'll run in the background and will take care of everything automatically for you.

But remember "preload" also loads portions of your mostly used apps during the system boot-up process which could result in a slightly slower booting times (what! :/) but this for most of us will be almost unnoticeable + when considering the enhanced app loading times, in my experience this is more than forgivable :D.

*. "Lower" your Compiz Effects -

Compiz... weird by default ;-)...

Although if you have a powerful GPU then having Compiz with a lot of cool effects enabled by default may not be a big deal. But if you care about making Unity as speedy as possible then you may want to do some manual editing and lower some of the Compiz effects which require significant amount of GPU power. As said this alone should speed-up things quite significantly.

*. Create a Swap partition -

I'm pretty sure you've already done this and have a dedicated partition for your Swap space. But I'm a bit of a freak (bit of a ?, really? :P) and I don't like having partition after partition in my HDD because it gives me headaches.

So I don't have separate swap partition. As a result every time I install Ubuntu Linux I tell the setup wizard to install it without a swap partition. Now this is fine as long as you have 3GB or more RAM on your PC/Laptop (ahh to be rich ;-) ).

But I'm pretty sure many of us don't have that amount of RAM thus even if you have like 1GB and like me don't have a separate swap partition and use Ubuntu without a one, thet seriously create one!.

This is a highly recommended procedure and the only reason that I skip this while installing is that we cannot create a virtual swap space using the installation wizard. But after the installation is completed you can easily add a virtual swap space in Ubuntu which is again, highly recommended + it'll help heavily to make your entire operating system more stable as well.

*. Clean your apt-get Cache -

apt-get is one of the most powerful command-line apps out there that lets you do almost anything under the sun when it comes to dealing with application installations, uninstallations, downloads, etc.

Before installing the applications, apt-get cache them in your HDD (a backup of the downloaded packages). Now one certainly don't need this cache (unless you want to re-install the packages without re-downloading them) + if forgotten for a while then the cache folder can get really big (talking about Gigabytes here). So it's always best to clear this cache.

Don't worry, clearing the cache won't remove the installed apps... so no worries dudes :D. To do this open your GNU/Linux Terminal and enter the below command.

sudo apt-get clean

Make sure to do this from time to time.

*. Remove packages that are no-longer necessary -

This is another big headache for the GNU/Linux users. This is caused by "dependencies". As the name suggest, say that you were installing a package called "A". But to install it Ubuntu may say that it has to download 10 other small packages, these are the "dependencies".

So after installing "A" and after playing with it for a while  (not talking about ex-girlfriends here :/) you got bored and decided to remove it.

But what could happen most likely is that although the app "A" will be removed but the other 10 apps (called dependencies) may not all be removed due to various reasons.

But again using our excellent apt-get, we can safely remove, unwanted dependencies using a single command. This will again help you to cleanup your HDD space + app registry entries which makes your operating system a pain in the *$s to use.

So again open your Terminal and enter the below commands.

sudo apt-get autoremove

*. Clean your Gconf registry entries -

Just like MS Windows Registry, GNU/Linux also has its own way of storing app related information which vary depending on the desktop environment. Unity and Gnome classic use a such "app-registry" called "Gconf configuration system".

So the more apps that you install and remove, as the time goes, some of their "portions" may be left inside of this registry entries thus slowing down your desktop or the OS in general.

Luckily we have an excellent tool called Gconf-Cleaner, a GUI that automatically scans this database and remove these app entries. So within seconds it can remove tens of hundred of registry entries in Unity which should help to enhance the speed.

So use that app and do a bit of a software registry/database cleaning in Ubuntu. Although other than not letting me backup my current database before cleaning ... I did not encounter any issues with it... but use it at your own risk.

*. Update your Web Browser - 

This is another critical thing. These days most of us spend our time with a web browser rather than any other application. But in general all these web browser do consume a lot of system resources (RAM especially). There could be many reasons. One is that it has to!.

Say that you've opened like 20 tabs.. oh well then, you should be willing to sacrifice some system resources mate! :D. But a web browser could also be using unnecessary amount of system resource due to a software bug.

So keeping an updated web browser will not only make it a secure one but also should help to fix those memory leaks which helps you to preserve the system resources as well. 

*. Try to avoid using Ubuntu Software Center -

Although we're being warned by Canonical that with the upcoming Ubuntu 11.10 version there won't be the "synaptic" (the GUI front-end for the apt-get command-line tool) installed by default. But you should be able to install it via their repositories in the future nonetheless.

The point is... as I've said before, the reason I said to avoid USC is not because it uses a lot of RAM but most of the time it requires a lot of CPU usage which make the Ubuntu OS in general a bit unstable (for instance, if you have both Firefox and USC opened at the same time, you're asking for trouble).

"Oi!, at least I'm pretty!" ... yeah right :P

This is because USC heavily depends on using a lot of online source to fetch those pretty icons and other details of packages, user reviews, screenshots, etc (so it's more like a web browser actually) thus it needs a lot of CPU usage when comparing with Synaptic.

So I'm not saying you to not to use it (I know you won't :P) but try not to keep it open for a longer periods at least. But if you have a fast processor and RAM, etc... then this may not be a big deal but unnecessary usage of system could easily drain your Laptop's batter life on the darker side as well :).

*. Remove unnecessary applets -

Since the Unity panel is the application menu bar Canonical's decision not to let users add applets like with Gnome classic panels makes sense. But as a workaround the geeks have come up with another type of applets that runs in your notification area.

Unlike with the old panel applets, these applets do consume a bit more memory since to display at the notification area these applets have to be loaded into the memory where the "old fashioned" applets are just shortcut-icons and require a very little of your RAM, in comparison of course. 

So if you have installed third party applets that you no longer use, then uninstall them or removing the currently running ones should help.

*. Try to limit your Workspace Usage -

Workspace are like virtual desktops in GNU/Linux. The more you use them (more than 1 I mean) the more system resource you're gonna be needing. + With Compiz enabled, every time you click on your "workspace icon" in the Unity application launcher, it uses fancy effects which again needs a bit of a your system resource in general.

So try to limit them to a singe workspace if you can. But because of the way Unity desktop is designed ("doing a single task at once", according to Mark Shuttleworth's own words) for dealing with multiple apps you may have to use the workspace switcher a bit often, but as said, this also needs more system resource in general. So try to limit that.

*. Make Thunar the default file management utility -

By default Unity (both 3D and 2D) use Nautilus as the file management utility. Although Nautilus is already highly simplified still if you're looking for a more lighter version (loads fast, etc) then I highly recommend Thunar which is the Xfce desktop's file manager.

First install Thunar and then follow these official Ubuntu steps to replace Nautilus completely. I personally like Thunar a lot because unlike with Nautilus, newer versions of Thunar even displays a drop-list of information (size, created date, type) for files that you move your mouse hover. This is not possible with Gnome Nautilus since they think that implementing such thing means complexity and scare away the user >:(. 

And also with Thunar you can even edit Tags of audio files directly from the properties window which is also not possible with Nautilus!. If you want multimedia file (both audio and video) thumbnail generating in Thunar, then install the Parole multimedia player as well.

These area actually a handful of things that I could think of helping make Ubuntu Unity desktop runs a bit faster but if you have suggestions and "complaints" :P, then please throw some comments.

What is Ubuntu Minimal Install?

One of the great things about GNU/Linux is the flexibility. Unlike with MS Windows or even Mac OSX in that case where we have only a single desktop ... but with GNU/Linux there are a lot desktop environments available which can be chosen according to your preference.

For instance, say that you have an "old" Laptop or a PC (by today's geeky standards :D) but at the moment you're more than happy with its performance and would like to use it for few years more. But the only problem is that you'd also like to install the latest Kernel and few of the popular applications. Then your best option is to go for a GNU/Linux distribution that comes with a light-weight desktop.

But when you install a light-weight then it comes with a lot other applications that you might never use (like Gimp or Inkscape, etc) which takes away your valuable HDD space. So wouldn't it be nice if you could install a minimal desktop (rather than the bunch of the "standard" packages that comes with it) and then install the only needed GUI applications?? makes sense right?.

That's exactly what the Ubuntu Minimal Install is all about. It lets you install a minimal/basic command-line environment and from there you can do things like install a desktop and few needed applications, etc.

How to do it?

By default Ubuntu basically gives us two options.

1. From the Alternative CD - This is different from the standard LiveCD since it has a non-graphical installer (like with the older versions of Ubuntu) and lets you install a GUI desktop or skip a desktop and install a command-line only environment.

First get the Alternative CD (about 693MB, since it also has a desktop packages) and once you set-up the BIOS to boot from using your Alternative Ubuntu CD, from the main menu you get just choose "install a command-line system" and after the installation is finished you can start installing a desktop and applications from the command-line. Ubuntu has an excellent help page which explains everything.

2. OR use the Ubuntu Minimal CD - This is another alternative to the above method because by default the download size of the CD itself is about 19-20 MB! and has no GUI packages whatsoever. So just download the CD and then as above you can start installing applications by using the command-line (apt-get) OR you the built in text-based "taskel" utility to install packages that you need.

Or you can follow the instructions from the above Alternative CD help page (just skip to "Adding Repositories" section on that page).

To summarize things, after installing the command-line system make sure to install ...

*. Xorg system (the most basic need for GUI environment).

*. A light-weight desktop (Lxde is better than Xfce since Xfce is not really that light in resources as it used to be).

*. A GUI log-in manager (xdm is really fast).

*. The needed apps such as - Web browser, multimedia player a word processor, etc.

That should do it.

Linux : Fedora 16 Might Switch to Btrfs File System

The filesystem is one of the most important aspects of all operating systems. It's also a highly sensitive "portion" thus if you don't have a UPS (uninterrupted power supply) connected to your PC, then after a sudden power breakdown, the entire operating system can be unbootable due to a damaged/corrupted filesystem.

I remember not that long ago (well at least around 7-8 years ago) where the file systems were still evolving in GNU/Linux, I had a computer that I used to dual boot with RedHat Linux and Windows XP. I remember that those days the "technology" wasn't that impressive with GNU/Linux filesystems (I think it was Ext2 FS), the filesystem had to be manually checked within a certain period.

In comparison with the MS XP superior NTFS which really didn't require much checking (other than a crash, again not always necessary, certainly no "periodic" checks like with Ext2) and way better than the old FAT32/16 and even when you do a manual filesystem check, when comparing with the Ext2/3 checking "time-frame"... NTFS was at least 3 or 4 times faster!.

Some "issues" still exist to this day even after all those improvements over the years such as, say that I was copying a file from a one partition to the other (within the same HDD), and tried to open a program, then GNU/Linux still has tendency to slowdown the computer where NTFS would do something similar, much faster.

Also, when entering to a folder where lots of files are stored (say "/bin" where you have 2000 files for instance) then again with  NTFS with the same amount of files, still it can load the folder and show you the content with impressively faster times than GNU/Linux, most of the time.

This is not to undermine the hard work of the developers in anyway and I'm really grateful for what they've done for us. For that again, I'm very very grateful. So thank you, so far. Steady wins the race they say :D. 

Anyway, apart from that, concerning other improvements, days are passed and now there are a lot of other filesystems for GNU/Linux unlike with MS Windows platform. Not all of them are good nor are recommended for everyone since some FS are designed to be used for Severs, etc not for the desktop users.

The rest assured, the Ext4 filesystem has become the preferred choice among many Linux developers because it's pretty fast, efficient, can handle larger filesystems (up to 1 Exabyte)... journal check summing (which helps to "recover" file systems after a crash, etc) are just a few to name.
 
But as said before, there always room for improvements. For instance, because of the low power consumption which results in a longer battery life, in mobile/portable devices such as Tablet PCs, etc the standard Hard drive disks are now replaced by the SSD (Solid State Drive). But Ext4 is not optimized for those type of devices.

This is where the never (well it's been there for sometime now) GNU/GPL licensed filesystems like Btrfs comes into the action. Because according to the Ext4's original developer, Theodore To, who has said that ...

"...ext4 is a stop-gap and that Btrfs is the way forward..."  Source:- Wikipedia

But, Btrfs is still at its beta stage and according to its Wikipage, right now it doesn't even has a fsck (file checking) utility either, which is quite daunting and you should not use it on an unstable computer (where power failure is a typical thing... no UPS... yikes) but the rest assured it does brings new and refurnished features such as ...

Gaining some speed mate! ;-)...

*. Efficient at storing small files.

*. Better de-fragmentation.

*. Excellent backup support.

*. Writable/read-only snapshots.

*. Checksum (both data and meta data) - Meaning faster disk check times and less "space" for filesystem corruption, etc. 

*. Better incremental backup ability.

*. Faster OS loading times since it efficient. 

*. Offline filesystem check and planned Online filesystem check are just a very few to mention.

But as anyone can see, this is not certainly recommended for normal users like you and me to use... but with Fedora/RedHat adaptation (if it happens) and it's not even sure that they'll be able to get it into Fedora 16 but if not with 16 then at least 17 is acceptable :) and if this interest from Fedora about Btrfs might help to speed up the process thus giving the user the ability to "taste" a faster and a more secure filesystem in GNU/Linux in the near future without a doubt!.

Wipe - Secure File Delete Application for GNU/Linux

Not just in GNU/Linux but in any operating system, just because you deleted the files from the hard disk drive doesn't mean that they're actually deleted. Because anyone with a simple utility (like, a "bad" hacker for instance :/) can recover those deleted files with ease.

So when it comes to securely deleting your files or wiping an entire hard disk drive, it's pretty useful to have a dedicated application for that purpose. In that sense "Wipe" is an open-source application that is designed to use with the GNU/Linux operating system.


Why should I delete my files using "this method"?

Well, if you're the only person who have access to your PC/Laptop and doesn't have an Internet connection live all the time, then the need is somewhat less yet, lets say that you're selling your old computer and have sensitive information on the HDD (which are not even encrypted, etc) then it is advised to perform a proper/secure date erasing method which will wipe out the possibility of letting a third party have access to your sensitive data.

Remember, "Wipe" is a command line utility (if you know any GUI front-ends, please let me know :)). So you'll have to use the command line a bit... but it's pretty easy and heck, it might even teach you little about the GNU/Linux command line on the bright side :). 

So, I assume that you use Ubuntu for this tutorial. Let's install Wipe in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal first. Enter the below command in your GNU/Linux Terminal.

sudo apt-get install wipe

This is very small application and should install within seconds. Using "Wipe" to delete a file or a folder is pretty simple. Say that I have a file called "2.mp3" in my Home folder, then I open the Terminal window and enter the below command.

wipe 2.mp3

It'll also ask for the conformation which is pretty useful since we can say "NO" if we miss-typed something (yikes!).

The "r" attribute is necessary while deleting directories (folders), So if I wanted to delete a folder named "temp", then I'd use the below command.

wipe -r temp

The basic principle for any secure data deletion utility is simple actually. It just "fills up" with random data (raw-data, unreadable, useless stuff...) to the hard disk sectors which are occupied by the file or the folder that you want to delete securely.

Usually these utilities do this several times (just in case :P) and "Wipe", by default do this "31" times!, and because of that, even if you have a slightly larger file (say 5MB or more) then it'll take some time.

So to speed up things a bit by using the "q" attribute if you we like, which would reduce the passes to "4". For instance,

wipe -q 2.mp3

If you want more than 1 attribute to be present, then use the proper attribute "symbol", one after the other. For instance, if I wanted deleted a folder named "temp", using less overwrite then I'd type...

wipe -rq temp

If you have any questions, then as always with when learning GNU/Linux command line, read its manual launched by using the below command.

man wipe

Good luck.  

How To Permanently Delete Your Facebook Account?

Unless something pretty bad happened... if you even said to someone that "I want to remove my Facebook account", it's considered as being a bit weird (just kidding). Anyhow, whatever your reasons are, if you want to know how to permanently delete your Facebook account once and for all, then this is how you do it.

Now remember if you only want to disable your account temporarily, then this is not how you do it. And after you've submit this request to Facebook team there's no turning back!.

1. First log-in to your account and from the right upper corner (as shown in below screenshot) choose: "Account" -> "Help Center".

2. Then from the "Help Center" window, into the search box at the middle, search for the below phrase.

How do I permanently delete my account?

3. Now you'll be taken into the Facebook Faq page and at the top will be the above phrase, simply click on it and scroll down until you find that which says "submit your request here", as shown below screenshot.

Now all you gotta do is think again if you really wanna do it... and if so, then simply click on that link and when asked confirm it by clicking on "Submit" button from the next window.

That's it. Now your Facebook account is officially deleted. Good for you :).

Install Boot-Repair in Ubuntu 11.04 (Reinstalling GRUB in Ubuntu Made Easy!)

The Boot loader is one of the most important aspects/programs of all operating systems. Whether its GNU/Linux, MS Window or Mac OS, etc it must be present!. And it is also a very fragile one as well. That's why having a recovery disk is also very important otherwise, say you're a bit new to all these "stuff", then you might easily end up losing data on your hard disk drive for instance.

Anyhow, there are primarily two main boot loaders can be seen in computers, one type is called the primary boot loader which represents a small piece of code/instructions that lets you computer to boot or load the most primary software contents without problems (that are closely related to the actual hardware, such as sending display signals to the Monitor screen or checking your RAM for errors for instance). This is usually stored in a ROM (read only memory) or EEPROM chip. The best example for such a Boot loader is the BIOS on your computer's motherboard.

Although the functions of a primary boot loader can be quite limited because those ROM chips usually have smaller capacity + since every operating system has a way of its own doing things, it's almost impossible to add all the details into the ROM. Even if we put our OS boot information into it, yet it can be quite hard to update it whenever the OS developers want since updating a BIOS chip has is "risks".

As an answer to all these issues they came up with another kind of boot loaders that run after the BIOS|primary boot loader is executed called secondary boot loaders. They're usually stored in your HDD/USB, etc, a place called MBR (master boot record). Now, these type of boot loaders are OS specific (not always true because they do have the ability to boot into other OS boot loaders. Multi OS boot for instance) and are behind the perfect execution of your operating system into your RAM.

Although there are several types... yet in GNU/Linux there are primarily two main BL can be identified. One is called Lilo and the other is called GRUB. GRUB is the primary one (if I'm not mistaken) these days which is an official part of the GNU project as well.

There can be many occasions a boot loader can be "corrupted"... say due to a virus attack or while trying to install/reinstall a boot loader or can occur after using a disk repair app in GNU/Linux (yes, it's possible) . When it comes to GRUB, in GNU/Linux you can install/reinstall GRUB loader without any GUI, even if your GNU/Linux PC Laptop is un-bootable, as long as you have the Live CD, etc you can use a command called "grub-install".

But then again, when you have an excellent grub installer GUI, why the heck u wanna do that! :). Sorry to drag you along with all these "related" details (just kinda felt like writing em)... if you want to easily control your GRUB boot loader in Ubuntu, then there is an excellent, GTK written GUI called "Boot-Repair".

This "window" is not available for those of us who use the original, official Ubuntu LiveCD... thus once installed and run we should be prompted by the below one instead...

Main features...

*. Recover or Repair your Grub code in MBR when you can't even boot your OS.

*. Repair it within the OS (you know, even if you removed your boot loader, as long as you don't reboot your PC, you're gonna be fine, for a while :P)

*. Reinstall the loader.

*. Change the location of the GRUB installation (you know, installing it into an another HDD, etc).

*. Restore the original boot sector.

You can install the magnificent :D Boot-Repair in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, 12.04 Precise Pangolin, 10.10 and 10.04 by entering the below command in your Terminal.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install boot-repair

How the heck can I use it if I can't boot into my Ubuntu desktop Gayan!, you... nutcase?

Well my friend, use your Live CD or Live USB... boot into your desktop using those media and simply instal the Boot-Repair using the same command. Or I think you should be able to run it in the "/usr/bin" directory if no internet connection is available. In that sense, we can actually create a Linux recovery disk/LiveCD by using this app that should help to access/recover our data without even losing a single byte! :D. Good luck.

Oh, I should be thankful to this awesome Ubuntu forum thread for this app news as well :).

Update: You can get more information from this official Boot-Repair Ubuntu Help page too. Thanks "Yann" (the developer) for the update :).

How to Add Shutdown/Hibernate Menus in Gnome 3 (for Fedora Core 15)

Gnome developers haven't forgot to include the "Shutdown" button/option from their desktop menu (accessed through the right-side corner in your desktop as anyone knows)... in fact in the name of better control over your GNU/Linux PC-Laptop desktop, they've decided to remove it!.

So, by default when you click on that corner we only have the ability to log-out of the system or suspend it, no hibernate or Shutdown functions are available. Although you can press the "Alt" key on your keyboard while accessing that menu which should change the "suspend" menu to "shutdown" (finally) but still, as far as I know you can't get that "hibernate" option.

This is typical Gnome behavior... although they do "explain" it by saying its their "job" to let users have the ability to control their desktop at its best, yet in truth...

Here's an important quote from one of the most prestigious software developers called, Joel...

"To make people happy, you have to let them feel like they are in control of their environment. To do this, you need to correctly interpret their actions..." Via: Joel on software.

Now I may sound like an arrogant assho*$ but I'm not (okay, I do have a little pride me self as well :P). In fact, if you read that post you'll be amazed by the depths that Joel takes you which is hell of an article/insights.

But at the end (you'll understand this if you read it) nobody gives a damn about yours or mine's "freedom". But at the end, we are all driven by this primary need to control others using our own "means", even if it's visible in the most subtlest sense, one way or the other.

Okay, enough of this shit, let me get back to the topic (that actually rhymed :P)

So, if you're looking for a way to add both these functions into your Gnome3 or the shell (I'm using FC15 for this example), then we can use one of the plugins that comes as a part of the excellent Gnome shell extensions called "alternative status menu" which does exactly that.

Finally!...

You can easily install this alternative status menu shell extension in Fedora Core 15 by using the below command in your Terminal (note:- if you've already installed the Shell extension pack, then this should be automatically installed).

yum install gnome-shell-extensions-alternative-status-menu

That's it. Now you should have both Shutdown and Hibernate options in that menu. Enjoy (I know you will :P).

How To Extract ".deb" Packages in Fedora Core?

Have you ever wondered about the difference between automated installer (.exe file in Windows) and an archive?. The simple answer is, they're both actually archives!. Although there few more differences. For instance, in MS Windows whenever we install a software using a wizard (setup/installer) what it basically does is, it just extract the content into the predefined folder/path.

This is also what an archive does. But an installer goes further by adding registry entries (the "brain" of Windows OS) automatically which is something that an archive won't do. But still this resembles the close relationship between those two "extractors".

This is also true in GNU/Linux environment as well.

For instance, whenever you read a ".deb" (created by Debian team) or ".RPM" (created by RedHat team, not a "pure" archive as .deb, still it's kind of an archive) extensions using your archive manager in Gnome or Qt/KDE desktop, inside of these files you'll see a list of others files.

So, if you can manually put/extract these files using your archive manager to their defined locations, then it is the same thing as double clicking on them and installing.

Although not to say the truth that extracting a .deb or .rpm file with hundreds of other files in it... well it ain't fun for sure :P. So we should respect these extensions and worship... what the heck am I saying.. back to the story.

I'm better rpm!.... shut up deb! :)..

All I'm just saying is that (especially for the ones who are new to GNU/Linux... don't feel bad for yourselves, seriously, I'm not expert either!) since everybody knows that both .deb and .rpm are competing against each other, still, you should not think that extracting .deb files in GNU/Linux distributions that "love" RedHat "touch" such as Fedora Core will mean the end of your OS, you know crashing and stuff.

Since they're actually both archives (in a way), if you find a program that has been "packed" with the .deb extension, still, you can try reading it in a distribution that rely on the the .rpm format instead of .deb, you might even be able to run it (if you have it's dependencies installed, that is).

But in Fedora Core, by default, you cannot read .deb files. But fear not my friends, there is a separate program for that called ar. As said before .deb format actually is a pure archive format that uses "ar" as its "engine".

So all we gotta do to extract .deb files in GNU/Linux distributions that uses .rpm by default is to install our little "ar" friend. "ar" actually come as a part of the GNU Binutils package (a pack which contains few programmer's tool)

In Fedora Core 15 or latter versions, open your Terminal and enter the below command to install "binutils".

su -c "yum install binutils"

So, whenever you download a .deb package in FC, etc open your Terminal and use the below command to extract the content.

ar p mypackage.deb data.tar.gz | tar zx 

Then you can begin the painful process of manually copying the content to its location/s :). Hope this helped.

How To Setup K-Lite Media Player to Automatically Download Subtitles?

If you want to install almost all of known multimedia codecs in MS Windows via a single application, then I don't think there are that many who can beat K-lite codec pack!. Unlike many other codecs... K-Lite developers make sure to frequently update their codecs and release new versions frequently.

Not just for playback (decoding) actually, say that you also wanted to have their (both audio and video) encoders such as MP3, Vorbis, Xvid, Divx, etc then again K-lite is pretty darn good!. Although it does not have any GUI front-ends for encoding MP3, etc (it only installs the libraries of codecs that can be used to encode files)... still you don't have to search here and there for few dozens of codecs since K-Lite installs them by default.

Anyhow, back to the story. It even has a player of its own called Media player classic. Although this refers to the MS Windows which was used to be the "default" player around Win 2000 I think (they still ship it though) but K-Lite MPC is actually as nothing to do with MS, they've just create a player of their own (which uses the MPLayer as the engine) and is released under the GNU/GPL license, it just looks like MPC, that's all :).

Anyhow lets say that you have purchased a DVD and have Ripped it so it'd fit into a CD, which is legal :) (say 700MB in size) then wouldn't it be nice if you could let MPC automatically search and download the proper subtitle when you watch it??.

Well, you can easily search for its subtitle by from the main menu : "File" -> "Subtitle database" -> "Search". This will take you directly to Google and automatically enters the name of the file that you're playing as well.

But there is another option in MPC that's disable by default (see below screenshot), which can be used to automatically search an online subtitle database (won't open any web browser unlike with the above method) within the player itself, all you have to do is just put a "check" mark on the appropriate subtitle and it'll be automatically loaded into the movie which is totally awesome than the above method.

Sorry about the black screen , the "overlay Output" won't allow me to take image/screenshots :/

So how can we "enable" it?. 

Simple, just open the MPC (media player classic) and from the menu choose : "View" -> "Options"

.... and from the window you get after that, from your left go to: "Output".

Now as you can see below, by default, MPC uses the "Overlay Mixer". If we want to enable subtitle downloading in K-Lite/MPC then we have to choose either "VMR-7 (renderless)**" or "VMR-9 (renderless)**".

Note : I don't use Win 7 or Vista, but I think in those OSs you'll see few more options, but in all cases if you choose one of those above mentioned Output methods, it should just work in all MS Windows operating systems. 

So, simply click on one of those output options. For this example I choose "VMR-7 (renderless)**". Now click "OK" button and also close the MPC (it has to be restarted to enable the new video render).

Double click on the MPC again, play a movie that you have now you should be able to download the subtitle in MPC! (see below screenshot).

Once you click on "Download" button, you'll be greeted with a small window showing you available subtitles (different languages, etc). Select your language and then click on "Download & Open" button. That's it (depending on your film's FPC... some of these subtitles may not show subs at the proper timing, in that case, from the list, select something else).

Another thing, you have to rename the movie that you're playing to its true name because if the file name only has a portion of your Movie or something else (number, etc), then MPC will have troubles finding the subtitle, since it's your movie file name is what it uses to search for the subtitle online. Good luck.

Note: in some countries it's illegal to download ripped movies (unless they come from a vendor who has the privileges from the original creators) but if you have a legally purchased a DVD/Blueray disk, etc, then fear not, you can Rip it and make a backup, nonetheless.

Wanna Know How To Create an Off-line Multimedia Codec Pack Of Your Own in Ubuntu!

I've said this before but will say it again for the sake of completion of this article :P. I do have my problems with Ubuntu/Canonical concerning many things, but from a newbie point of view, Ubuntu does make it really easy to setup proprietary software installations in comparison with many other distributions such as Fedora Core for instance.

Although, I personally don't like Ubuntu much these days... it threatens a part of my "identity", yet if you like it nonetheless, and looking for a way to create an off-line codecs pack of your own... then this article is for you.

I did post about a codecs pack, concerning Ubuntu 10.10, but it won't work under Ubuntu 11.04. I tried to find one of Natty Narwhal but... still... nothing, nada. So I thought, *$ck it, gonna create something of me own :P.

Apt-Get....

This is one of the most advanced/robust package handling utilities available for GNU/Linux, which was invented by the Debian team if I'm not mistaken. Although other distributions have few of their own ones such as the "yum" package manager in FC, but even in the early days of "yum", apt-get was so much, impressively superior because it has been there for a long time.

With apt-get, we can install/upgrade/delete... we can do almost anything with it concerning software installations under Ubuntu/Debian or any distro that comes with it. So, for this I'll be using this well knows apt-get geeky tool :).

Enough talking, lets gets busy.

When we use apt-get to install software in your GNU/Linux PC/Laptop, by default it saves a copy of the downloaded software in its directory which is called "apt-get cache".

Because of this cache folder then say that for some reason you removed a software called "A"... but later you wanted to re-install it again, then apt-get will not re-download it again (unless there are updates/new versions, etc), it would just use that saved cache.

So, that's basically what we're gonna do. We'll simply install all the multimedia codecs in Ubuntu (should work on any Ubuntu version from 9.10 and onwards), and then we'll copy those cached .deb packages to our own folder.

Then in the same PC or any other PC/Laptop that runs Ubuntu (it must run the same Ubuntu version as the one you created this codec pack), we just have to give the package manager the path to our cached folder with all those codecs and it'll install them all without the need of an Internet connection!.

Pretty simple, right? :).

Especial Note:- For this, please use your Ubuntu Live CD, because once you install software in Ubuntu, some of the dependencies may not be downloaded which are required for this codec pack. 

So boot using your Live CD into a PC where an Internet connection is available. And make sure not to install any other software prior to logging into your Live CD's Desktop.

Or an PC/Laptop with newly install Ubuntu OS will be the perfect "situation" since, if you don't have enough RAM, etc while using the Live CD, it could be a bit troublesome.

Lets do it!.

1. First we have to clear the current database of apt-get. Although this won't be necessary since this is will be our first software installation using the Live CD, but lets do it, just in case :)

So open your Terminal and issue the below command.

sudo apt-get clean

2. Now enter the below command in your Terminal again to install a full list of codecs (including adobe flash, etc).

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

3. Although this codec pack has almost everything, except it won't have the abiliy to read encrypted dvds. So lets download that as well. To do that, open your Terminal and issue the below commands.

sudo apt-get install libdvdread4

4. Once the downloading is complete go to apt-get's cache location as shown below.

/var/cache/apt/archives

Now press "Ctrl" + "A" keys on your keyboard to select everything on that folder, except for the folder called "partial" and a file called "lock".

5. Then copy and paste all these packages to a desired location. Lets say you created a folder called "multimedia codecs" in your Desktop for this example. Then paste the copied content into that folder.

6. Now copy that folder to anywhere you want, a CD or a USB drive, etc.

7. From now on, whenever you want to install these codecs in another Ubuntu installed PC, simply open your Terminal in that PC and enter the below command.

sudo synaptic

8. This will open a GUI package manager for apt-get (called Synaptic).

Once opened, from the menu chose: "File" -> "Add downloaded packages" (see below screenshot)... then simply open the folder that contains the multimedia codecs and click "open"... then Synaptic will ask to conform the installation. So follow your on screen instructions.

9. And also make sure to open a Terminal afterward and enter the below command as well.

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

Ahhh... man I'm tired :). So, that's how you create an off-line codec pack in Ubuntu.

Remember, always use a Live CD or a freshly installed Ubuntu OS and for this method. Also make sure that PC (you're gonna install these codecs) Ubuntu version matches the version of that Live CD you used to create it in the first place. For instance, if you used the latest Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, then you should only use this on 11.04 Natty Narwhal.

And since it's bloody hard to remember things :P, you can create a text file within the "Multimedia codecs" folder and paste that above command into it ("sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh") since it's necessary to enter that command every time you install this codecs in a PC/Laptop for the first time.

Good luck guys and gals :).

Does Skype Keep Aborting After Logging in (Under GNU/Linux)?

Although I don't use Skype at all yet there have been a bit of a discussion especially concerning Skype 2.2.0.25 keep crashing (although many refer to its as a crash, it seems what really happens is that it simply being aborted within the console) under GNU/Linux, MS Windows and even on Mac OSX as well.

Even Skype developers themselves quoted concerning the issue by saying...

"A small number of you may have had problems signing in to Skype. This predominantly affects people using Skype for Windows. We have identified the problem and will issue a fix in the next few hours."  

Source: Skype (read this for instructions on how to fix it under all the operating systems, until they officially fix it).

So in GNU/Linux this is what seems to be happening. Once you log-in to their VOIP servers using your user name and password... then within like 5-6 seconds Skype automatically log-out/exist it self automatically!. For some, a re-installation seems to be the answer but for most it will not fix it.

What the Skype! :)...

But luckily, there is a way to fix this which I saw when reading this ask Ubuntu post. So, until the developers fix this annoying bug, if you use Ubuntu or any other GNU/Linux distribution and experiencing this "tragic" :) issue, then this is how you can fix it.

Open your Terminal and enter the below command.

rm ~/.Skype/shared.xml

Now re-login to your online Skype VOIP account... if everything went well, it should be fixed. 

1. Okay, for the sake of completion :)... under MS Windows, simply delete the below file.

c:\Documents and Settings\*user*\Application Data\Skype\shared.xml

2. In Mac OSX, use the below command.

rm ~/Library/Application\ Support/Skype/shared.xml

How To add Minimize/Maximize/Restore Buttons in Gnome3 (Shell)?

This is a major headache for most GNU/Linux users. With the introduction of Gnome3, the developers for some reason have decided not to include the "standard" Maximize/Minimize and Restore buttons. Although you can still maximize by dragging the opened windows to the upper corner in your Gnome shell which can be quite easy to perform if you have a GNU/Linux Tablet PC or "something" that has a touch screen.

But for us the "mouse users" :), still this can be quite annoying and time consuming as well. Canonical also did something similar not that long ago with Ubuntu which can also be fixed, luckily. With Gnome3 again luckily or the developers may have thought it'd be a good idea to give the users the ability to change those buttons (thanks dudes, I guess :/ ), by using the Gnome configuration editor (which "acts" as the desktop settings manager using which we can set individual application settings in Gnome - including the older versions) we can easily fix this.

1. So, if you want to know how to add Minimize/Maximize/Restore buttons in Gnome3 or Shell (I'm using Fedora Core 15) then first we have to install the Gconf-editor using the "yum" app manager. So, open your Terminal in FC15 and enter the below command first.

sudo yum install gconf-editor

2. Once the installation is complete, open "Run" applications window (or use the "ALT" + "F2" keyboard shortcut) and enter the following command =  gconf-editor

3. Now you should be greeted with a settings windows. From that, go to: desktop -> gnome-> shell- > windows

From your right side options double click on "buttons_layouts". Erase it's current text (which should be = :close ) and enter the below code instead.

:minimize,maximize,close

4. That's it!. If you want to have all the buttons to your left side (like with Ubuntu) then enter the below text instead the above one.

close,maximize,minimize:menu

Looking good Homey :)

Enjoy!.

What Is the Lowest (best) Possible Bitrate for a Speech Audio Track?

MP3 format was a hit, when it first introduced (still is). It compressed the audio CD tracks so well, that even dudes like me with slower internet connections could easily download a lot of em within a shorter period of time :). Although it's just not the only reason for its "such" popularity, because other than 14-16 track/song per a CD in an Audio CD... with MP3, you could insert hundreds of tracks in CD with the same capacity (geez, we didn't know that Gayan :) ). 

But MP3 is certainly not the best of its kind. Just because it's popular, it doesn't mean it's the best. In fact, did you know that the GNU licensed Vorbis codes is more efficient than the MP3 for a given a bitrate!. However, in my experience, Vorbis can take slightly longer periods to convert a track than the MP3. In that sense, they're both head to head. 

And on the other hand, MP3 is supported by almost all the players while Vorbis (or commonly known as Ogg which is not the real name, Ogg is the container format) isn't that "popular". Anyhow, let me come back to the topic.

Let's rock this speech :)...

Both MP3 and Vorbis are lossy codecs. Meaning that, once the encoding is done, it irreversible!. So, after encoding, the first thing that you did was deleting the original file and then realized that the encoded track sucks so much that it makes you puke... then my friend, no one can help you :). So, don't delete your original track before you listen to the encoded track and happy with its quality.

What is the lowest possible value/bit-rate that can be achieved for a speech audio track using MP3?

The higher the quality of your original vocal/speech track the lower the bit-rate that you can achieve. And remember, I'm talking about an audio track that contains a only a vocal track (a speech made by someone). And if you apply these below values to a song/music-track... it'll suck, big time!.

*. Bit-rate = 32

I can't give you how to change your bitrate since from app to app the GUI differs ... so you'll have to figure that out.

*. Also make sure to change the channels from 2 Stereo to 1 Mono.

This is again important because with such low bitrates sometimes the "stereo" effect might hurt rather than it helps. So by cutting it out and going for the Mono will come in handy while removing some of that background noises in my experience. However, I've seen in very few occasions... by having Stereo "on" helped... but most of the time you'll be better off without it. 

*. Change the audio sample rate from 44khz (44100Hz) to 22khz (22000Hz).

Sample rate is : the number of audio samples per second that are used to "create" the output sound.

So the lower it is the lower the quality it will be. However, 44khz is usually the standard for 2 channel stereo, therefore, when you change from Stereo to Mono (as said above), then by also reducing the sample rate to 22khz can also help to minimize the file size since 44khz is pretty much unnecessary since we don't have 2 channel stereo anymore.

If your source is not that high in quality, then try going for slightly higher bit-rates such as 48-64, etc, experiment.

So by doing those above mentioned changes, again if you have a high quality source file, not only you can get a much smaller file afterward, but it'd still be able to give you a nice output with minimal distractions as well. Good luck ;).

Introducing the Chromeflow, Steadyflow Extension for Your Chromium Web Browser

Although, all the major web browsers have excellent features when it comes to web browsing but they all seem to overlook the importance of a powerful built in download manager. If that's the case and you're a Chrome/Chromium web browser fan, then you could try the newly introduced extension (which uses the Steadyflow as the "engine") called Chromeflow.

But I haven't tried it since I don't use Chrome/Chromium, but when looking at the screenshot below and I use the Seadyflow... remember you may not be getting a much better download manager than the one that your web browser comes by default, most probably.

As can be guessed, it's available as an add-on (with the ".crx" extension) for the Chrome browser. For downloading and installing, please visit this official launchpad page.