GeekMadness » Ubuntu

Removing Kernels
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April 17, 2009 / Tutorials and Guides, Ubuntu

No, I’m not talking about corn-in-a-cup.

<a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/"><img src="http://www.ubuntu.com/files/countdown/904/countdown-9.04-1/00.png" alt="Ubuntu 9.04 - on desktops, netbooks, servers and in the cloud" width="180" height="150" border="0" /></a>Add the countdown for your site

Last night, I upgraded my laptop to Intrepid Ibex, just about a week before the newest version of Ubuntu, Jaunty Jackelope, comes out. Go figure. But before I could perform the upgrade, I was warned that my 7gig root partition on my small 40gig hard drive needed a few more free space. So I was wondering where that free space went; it couldn’t be because I installed the XFCE window manager (which I removed anyway). From Tombuntu, I learned that I could free up more space by removing old unused kernels.

How much free space? I freed 757megs by removing 6 old unused kernels!

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Top 5 Everyday Things You Miss From Another OS
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March 9, 2009 / Lifestyle, Mac, Operating Systems, Ubuntu, Windows

I used to be an MS user, ever since the days of DOS. And naturally, there are things that I miss in Windows. On the other hand, having used Ubuntu at home exclusively for the past couple of years, there are always things I miss when I sit down in front of my office PC (a fact I am slowly changing by virtualizing my workspace).

So today, I’ll be telling you not only the top 5 things I miss in Windows, but also the top 5 things I miss in GNU/Linux.

DISCLAIMER: Many of you will disagree. Some of you will give suggestions. These are my own experiences, based on what I use my computers for. You’re daily activity and workflow will differ from mine.

THINGS I MISS IN WINDOWS

1. See Your IP Address Quickly Without Opening A Terminal

See Your Connection Details With The Support Tab

In Windows XP, you double-click the LAN icon in the system tray (you have to set the “Display Icon in System Tray When Connected” in the connection properties, but you only have to do this once) and the local area connection dialog pops-up. If you go to the Support tab, you can find your connection’s information including IP address and subnet there.

2. Middle-click scroll

Yes, the middle-mouse button doesn’t scroll your browser or application in Ubuntu. I’ll tell you why later. While it is possible to set this in Linux, (heck, practically ANYTHING can be set somehow), there is no fancy GUI way to do it so it’s definitely not for the lesser-experienced. The middle-mouse button is useful for those lazy days when you’re surfing the web and just don’t want to scroll that mouse wheel.
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Confessions of A ‘Nix Printer Noob
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January 26, 2009 / Operating Systems, Ubuntu

I will have to admit. Ever since I graduated college and got my job around 4 years ago, I somehow didn’t need to print stuff at home as much. Not that I print house stuff at the office, ahem, but without school reports to submit, there just isn’t that much stuff to print. And I stopped printing photos as well. It was too much of a hassle buying photo paper from the always crowded CD-R king, printing them, cutting them, blah blah blah.

Installing A Printer In Linux

I was a Windows (power) user until a few months after I got my current job. So for the first time in years, I find a place to put my old HP Deskjet 3845 and plug it into my computer running the latest Ubuntu, 8.10 Intrepid Ibex. It was too quiet, kinda spooky, except for the little icon on the taskbar that looked like a printer. I dunno, I must’ve been too long in the Windows world. When you plug in your printer, there are no pesky popups, no dialags asking for driver CDs, not even a dialog telling you “Hey, I’m a install a printer, dawg. Hit the Next button. And after I install it, you gonna have to click on Finish. ayt?”

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Introducing Miro
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September 12, 2008 / Mac, Miro, Tutorials and Guides, Ubuntu, Windows

In line with our celebration of our new wordpress server, here is the second post for the day. In this post, we discuss a video player I’ve been using for over a year, but seems that not enough people are using it. It’s not just any video player. It’s Miro.

Miro Video Player

I know a lot of people who love watching videos at YouTube. And among them, there are also plenty who like downloading their favorite videos. The problem though is that YouTube doesn’t freely provide this service. Instead they have to rely on Firefox extensions, download websites (which are either full of ads, possibly virus-laden, or just plain dubious), and other such hacks.

That was how I found Miro. I’ve been using Miro for about a year now, and it has improved over the past year in terms of both usability and stability. But Miro is more than just another YouTube downloader. Advertised as an Internet TV player, it does what it says and does it well.

Downloading YouTube Videos

Downloading Videos

With Miro’s integrated video search feature, you can search videos from YouTube, Daily Motion, Veoh, and other video websites without starting your browser. You then just choose your search results and Miro will start downloading them into your library. I find this feature really nice, especially when downloading a long or large video, when I want to show something to some friends, or when I’m just too busy to watch them immediately. WIth the video in my library, I can load it up anytime at my convenience, whether I’m on the train or relaxing after cooking/eating dinner.

Internet TV with Miro

Viewing The Contents of a Channel

Miro comes with a few default channels and lets you add more channels. There are plenty of channels to choose from the integrated Miro Guide, which offers you some of its recommendations or you can search for a particular interest. Miro uses the open RSS standard for its channels, so it’s compatible with practically all feeds on the internet, including iTunes podcasts.

The beauty of using channels is that you can set it to auto-download New content or All content to download even old videos you haven’t seen yet. For example, I am subscribed to the WebbAlert channel, which offers an almost-daily 5-minute round-up of what’s new on the Internet and computing in general. When I get home and turn on my computer and Miro, it will automatically download new episode(s) if any, for my viewing pleasure, at my own leisure. It’s like turning on your TV to your favorite daily program, only you’re not bound by stiff schedules.

More Cool Features

Video Playback

Miro’s core functionalities are wonderfully complemented by the options that Miro’s intellgent engineers came up with.

Afraid you’ll run out of disk space? That shouldn’t be a problem when using Miro. You can easily set Miro to make sure to leave a gigabyte or two. And if space is a problem, the expire feature comes in very handy. Some people unfamiliar with this concept might be wary at first, but trust me, you’re not going to be watching last week’s podcast episodes anyway. YouTube videos also expire in the default 6 days, but you can choose to keep a video indefinitely by clicking on the “keep” button. Of course, there’s also a “delete” button, in case you downloaded a loser video or this week’s podcast episode just sucks.

Each channel also displays the number of unwatched videos you have, which conveniently turns into a play button when you move your mouse over it, giving you instant access to unwatched content. There’s also a “New” item in the sidebar. Just like the channels, it displays the number of unwatched videos across all your channels and clicking it plays it. By default Miro is set to play all videos consecutively in a section (be it a channel, New, or your library), but if you prefer watching one at a time (like me), you can turn it off in the options.

Miro is available for GNU/Linux, Mac, as well as Windows. Download it now from http://www.getmiro.com

While you’re downloading Miro, click on over here to read more about how Miro does what it does. And if you’re interested in making your own videos or channels for Miro, http://makeinternettv.org is a good resource for information.

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Setup for the Modern Virtual Workspace
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August 14, 2008 / Operating Systems, Tools, Tutorials and Guides, Ubuntu, Windows

Breaking Barriers

Do you tire of reformatting your computer so that it can be set up with the prescribed environment determined by your superior or client? How about the hassle of making sure that there is a backup copy of your past project? Is quality assurance testing a pain because you have to reset your environment over and over again?

Well I did tire of that hassle. And I also tired of having to run my computer on a specific OS, just because that was what the task prescribed. So I went out and used a few proven tools to remedy the situation, which will be what this guide will be all about.

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Playing Warcraft III and DOTA in Linux
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June 24, 2008 / Games, Tutorials and Guides, Ubuntu, Wine

$Don\'t Celebrate Yet$ Are you one of those people who would almost like to switch over to Ubuntu but just couldn’t because you don’t quite like great open source games such as Glest, Sauerbraten and Tremulous? In today’s post, here’s one more reason for you to do so: Now you can play Warcraft III, Frozen Throne, and also Defense of the Ancients, or more commonly known as DOTA! Ok, so that’s 3 reasons…but since DOTA is just a custom map for Frozen Throne maybe 2 and a half…anyway…let’s get started. Read the rest of this entry »
To The (Open) Movies
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June 16, 2008 / Lifestyle, Tools, Ubuntu

It’s now been over 2 weeks since Project Peach’s Big Buck Bunny opened in theaters last May 30, or at least in home theaters. So if you haven’t seen it yet, now would be a good time to head on over to the Big Buck Bunny website and download a copy. If you’re still downloading pirated movies, here’s a breath of fresh air: this short movie is given to you completely free of charge.

Big Buck Bunny is the story of a large, but kind rabbit who is bullied by three naughty rodents. Finally, Big Buck Bunny decides to fight back, and…well you’ll have to see it for yourself. The visuals are breath-taking, from the tall grass blowing in the wind, to the stream reflecting off sunlight, to the cute and cuddly creatures. Read the rest of this entry »
Can Your’s Do This?
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April 29, 2008 / Ubuntu

Can your file manager do this?

This is only one of the cool additions to Hardy Heron, the latest version of Ubuntu to come out.

Other new features include Firefox 3 beta, modified in Hardy for stability, better hardware support, upgraded versions of all applications, Transmission BitTorrent client, and a nifty new wallpaper!

You can now also try Ubuntu inside Windows like a regular application. No need to partition, and no harm to your system. Give it a try!

For more details, check out the Ubuntu website.

Update: The new File Operations manager now also offers the “merge” feature when overwriting folders. In Windows, if you choose to overwrite a folder, it will blindly overwrite all of its contents as well. With merge, you will have the option of confirming which files inside the folder will be overwritten. Cool!

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Say Hello To Koji
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March 10, 2008 / Lifestyle, Operating Systems, Tech Stuff, Tools, Ubuntu, Windows

I saw a Kohjinsha SH6KP10A for only Y40K in Nipponbashi! I have seen the Kohjinsha quite a few times before, but never really paid attention because it was a local brand and was as expensive as a more powerful, albeit larger laptop. So coming home, I decided to do a little forward research on the Kohjinsha, specifically on Linux support. It only had an Intel A100 600Mhz processor (for reasons unknown to me, it’s faster than my 2.4Ghz main laptop), although it did have an Intel 945 GPU, which was perfect for 3D in Linux. If this thing could run a Vista, it would be quite fast when running Ubuntu. I compared the price vs. feature set with other UMPCs. TheSamsung Q1 was another favorite of Ubuntu users, but as it did not have a real keyboard (I need to be able to work on it; the optional keyboard attachment made it not so ultra-mobile, yuck). Searching the Ubuntu Forums yielded few, but very promising and helpful results. Checking them out, I found a few owners of Kohjinshas getting Gutsy on their UMPCs.

It was only 40K yen if you were going to get a Yahoo!BB subscription with it. But at 60K, it was still a bargain, since it was only 6mos used and at half the price of a new one. And I got myself one last weekend.

Taking it home, what was my first impression? First of all, it was preloaded with Vista, and instead of a recovery disc it had a 4GB recovery partition. I had to test all the hardware first to see if everything was A-Ok. Touch screen worked, webcam worked, the controls beside the screen (a lot of ‘em: D-pad, track pointer, launcher, shutter, rotation, enter, brightnes. scroll keys. left and right mouse buttons), webcam, TV tuner, bluetooth and WiFi, all working perfectly. And you had no less than 3 ways to control your pointer: via the touch pad, the thumb pointer, and touch screen. As for text input, well you had the physical keyboard when you really need the typing speed, or you can use the touch screen.

While it still had Vista, I decided to do a quick speed comparison test. Nothing fancy, just a quick test to see which OS would allow me to work more before I had to get off the train at the station. In short, boot times.

Here are the results:

Windows Vista Home Basic Startup time:
1:10.03 – Time to welcome screen
1:49.83 – Time to desktop display
4:06.85 – Time to finish loading everything

Ubuntu Gutsy LiveCD startup time:
0:22.21 – Time to LiveCD menu
3:02.19 – Time to opening tune
4:26.33 – Time to finish loading everything

Vista was able to boot in just a little over 4 minutes (about the time it takes for a train to get to the next station) and 20 seconds faster than Ubuntu. That’s swell, until you consider the fact that IT WAS A LIVECD! For those not in the know, a LiveCD basically allows you to run an OS without installing on your computer. That’s right, that 4 minute Vista on my fast hard drive barely beat Ubuntu running off a CD drive! Hey, I wanted a fair fight, so I had to handicap Ubuntu..<snicker>

Alright, so what are the real comparison figures for Ubuntu and Vista when both are installed in the hard disk?
Ubuntu Gutsy LiveCD startup time:
1:01.44 – Time to Login Screen
1:10.41 – Time to opening tune
1:35.58 – Time to desktop display
1:39.49 – Time to finish loading everything

You could argue that the Vista desktop already appears at about 1:50, but you just can’t do anything with it yet for another 30 seconds, where you can *technically* do something e.g. click a button/menu, just don’t expect your computer to respond well.

So Vista was out and Ubuntu was in, and without needing to install any drivers at all, the CF and SD card reader, controls beside the screen, the webcam, 3D card, sound, and most everything worked out-of-the-box and without my intervention. And from the info in the Ubuntu Forums thread I had found earlier, I was able to get Koji up to speed.

So right now, I can type away on the train(where I wrote most of this post’s content yesterday on the train to Kyoto). Heck, I could do away with the typing altogether and just scribble away with Cellwriter.

I don’t really need to say this but I’m one very, very proud Ubuntu-powered Kohjinsha owner!

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Ubuntu From A Beginner’s Perspective
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February 27, 2008 / Operating Systems, Ubuntu

Stop what you’re doing and watch these! I found these series of Ubuntu videos on the ‘net titled First Impressions, Office Functionality, and Multimedia Support, and it’s unique because of who made them. John Bradbury is a, quote, “long-time Windows user and a Windows System Administrator” who is “pretty comfortable with all things Microsoft”, and so he’s out of his element as he reviews Ubuntu.

And it actually works in favor of Ubuntu as you watch how a completely newcomer to Ubuntu figure his way through the interface without getting really got lost and ask such questions like “why is the ‘Shutdown’ button located in the ‘Start’ menu?”

The Multimedia Support video actually highlights improved codec handling, one of the features introduced in Feisty. Well, I’ll let you watch the video for yourselves to get a clearer picture.

You have to watch these.

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