Treading On Water, An Important Life Saving Technique! (Swimming)

Let me start with a little story (a true one). For a long time I thought I could swim. I mean seriously, for a long time I was fooled by the fake confidence that I had about the very popular swimming Technique called "Freestyle". I used to think, I had figured it out all.

The thing was, once you started swimming in freestyle, you could just go forward and as long as you do the strokes, your body ... it would just float.

It's never too late to learn ...

Out of my fear, I never gave myself the chance to stop in the middle of the deep water (no pools dude... I'm talking about rivers... I'm a wild one me-self :P) and see what happens. This gave me the foolish assumption that I could float on water all the time thus will always be able to save my life if something bad happened that put me into a River or something ;-).

Anyway, one day I went for swimming, to a nearby River with few of my friends. There was a boat and you know, we just took it :) and went to the middle of the River. Now these weren't rainy days, so the current wasn't that strong yet, the water was deep enough to drown even a taller person, easily. Two of the dudes were expert swimmers (mariners actually). So they jumped out of the boat and started swimming.

Being a human being I observed this "phenomenon" in a way which gave me the notion of suddenly out of nowhere, they started "appearing" so much superior to me :P. So out of my my frustration, without thinking twice I too jumped in and "joined" them. Now I had no fear of the water because I really believed I could swim, until I hit the water that was.

As soon as I hit the water, I started my "freestyle" (the only thing I knew, partially, yuk) and after like 20-30 seconds I felt tired and though I'd stop for a moment and would "float" a little. And then as soon as I stopped "my freestyle", just a like a rock that fell on water, suddenly I was, drowning.

Then naturally I tried to start my "freestyle", but because I didn't actually knew even how to do that properly + because of the position of the body (vertical, ready to be drowned, wasn't funny actually, one of the most scared moments of my life) I couldn't do it, I simply couldn't get my body in a horizontal position so I could do my "freestyle" thing..

Luckily one of my friends were near me and at the third time I went down and came up, he grabbed me (I was actually a bit nearer to the boat as well) and helped me grab the boat. Forget about my fears... I felt so humiliated (oh we men are wretched creatures) but I couldn't do anything about it... heck, it was my fault who gotten into this "situation" because I wanted to prove that I was "something especial"... in a way, I was glad actually because this helped me learn a lesson otherwise I could easily end up trying to prove myself over others always for the rest of my life... a human life ... totally wasted, it would've been.

Little guys and gals ... they "just know" how to swim!. How come "growing up" destroys our intuitive senses?? 

And I'll always be grateful for my buddy who saved me too. Anyhow, what I'm trying to say is that, just because you think you know how to swim... you simply may not. You can easily misguided by your pride as being confident and trust me you certainly don't want to end up like me to find out that you actually were wrong!.

So treading on water or the technique/s that can be used to help us float on water is a must learned lesson for everyone, because you never know what's coming next (not always true, but most of the time it is).

So please watch the below videos that I found on Youtube, sometime ago after the "incident". And remember, do not start "practicing" them in deep water. Find a pool that simply don't have the depth to drown you and practice in it first.

1. 



2. The Eggbeater Kick (below video).

This seems to be a very popular technique + in comparison with other techniques... this makes it easier to folat on water and doesn't need you to use your hands at all either.




Here's a closer look at the "Eggbeater Kick"... with slow motion.



If you could have an expert around, it's the best possible way. But still I think for most of us, we can learn how to float on water easily by using this technique, even without the help of a professional... and follow the advice of these trainers carefully. 

Not just treading on water, also learn about other swimming techniques that takes you forward such as "Freestyle" or Breaststroke, etc... because who wants to "float" on water without being able to reach ashore, especially under strong currents.

Also have a look at this swimsmooth.com web site where you'll find not just human beings but 3D graphical illustrations that shows advanced information about how you should move your arms, legs, etc... very informative.

As mentioned before, at first never use these techniques nor "try" them in deep water until you're confident about it. If you can find a swimming training school near you, then it is the best possible way. Be safe, and good luck.

Read More

How to Install GNOME Activity Journal 0.6 in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal!

GNOME Activity Journal is an automated log creator based on user activities in GNU/Linux environments. So as with a the conventional system log, activity journal lets you view your past "activities". Do I really need one?.

GAJ in action...

It depends, for instance say that your wife asked you ..."Man what the heck were you doing with your computer around 2pm yesterday?, no lies!" :P. And being a brain-damaged geek you couldn't possibly remember what you were doing at that time, wouldn't it be nice if you could remember it (only things that you were doing using the PC of course).

If you had GAJ installed, then all you had to do was open it and simply navigate around "history" and Gnome Activity Journal would have an entry about the thing that you were doing at that time!. Savvy!.

Even if you have cleared the cache of your Web browser, etc still GAJ will have an entry, in this case, concerning your web browser's activities. 

Importantly GAJ uses a technology called Zeitgeist, which actually is a software layer (framework) that has the ability to collect and "read" activities based of users thus makes "predictions" about what programs they like the most or what they could be doing as soon as they logged into the desktop at the starting of their day, etc.

Gnome activity journal runs on top of Zeitgeist technology, then store the data and even intelligently categorize them such as ...

*. Data type.

*. Date/Time.

*. Name/Source.

*. Location of use (GPS).

*. Bookmark your favorite "activities".

*. Search... are among few of the main feature.

If you haven't used this type of a Journal in a while, then it would take few minutes to get used to it. But being a Gnome app, it has a simple GUI and quite easy to get used to nonetheless.

If you use the Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal you can easily install Gnome activity journal 0.6 by entering the below command (using a PPA channel). Enjoy!.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:zeitgeist/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install zeitgeist gnome-activity-journal

Do not run GAJ as the root user because it raises security concern since it uses Zeitgeist (if someone breaks into your system then they can easily see your history, etc). 

Read More

SliTaz, Another Fast Loading Lightweight GNU/Linux Distribution!

SliTaz is so light in size and system resources... say that you burned the 30MB of the full OS into a CD and created a live CD... then when running you can even eject that CD still SliTaz is so small it'll still run within your RAM!. Impressed??.

Don't get fooled by the 30MB of size, it does come with a graphical environment called OpenBox + several other programs such as...

*. Midori - Fast loading web browser written in GTK+.

*. TazPkg - A graphical package manager similar to the Debian's Apt-Get. Easy to use and installs software within the GUI such as Adobe flash, proprietary codecs, etc with ease.

Package manager...

*. Comes with an audio player (including encoding capability as well).

*. Boot from USB sticks... support.

*. Chat/Mail client.

*. After installed, takes about 100MB of disk space.

*. PDF viewer.

*. mPaint - A paint application.

*. CD/DVD burning applications.... are just a few to mention (seriously... for that 30MB... these guys have included a LOT of packages).

So, if you're looking for a fast loading, light in your PC's resources type GNU/Linux distribution then why not give a try for SliTaz!. After all, it's just 30MB ;-).

Read More

Will Your Graphic Card Let You Run Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Smoothly?

I always had troubles with Ubuntu (started around 10.04 I think) with my ATI GPU, which is an old one actually - Raedon Express 200m. But the same VGA or the Laptop, had no problems whatsoever with Fedora or Debian in general. This was due to the fact that Ubuntu heavily depends on a OpenGL widow render manager called Compiz. 

Is it that important?...

If you don't know what the heck that means, then Compiz is the one behind all these fancy effects that you get in Ubuntu, you know things like transparency window borders, various effects such as minimizing effect/fading effects and other various "fancy" VGA related 3D effects.

Here's the "thing"...

All the VGA cards that are manufactured by ATI and Nvidia are closed sourced ones (although Intel seems to approach a bit open minded). Meaning that if you want to get the best 3D effects then you have currently have two options.

1. Use the proprietary drivers (which usually come with major GNU/Linux distros... but with Ubuntu, you can easily install then via the "Software Center". So it's easily fixable in Ubuntu.

OR...

2. You can use the free and true GNU VGA drivers that are written by developers by figuring out the hardware and how it works all by themselves called reverse engineering. Both ATI and Nvidia refuse to give away how their GPU (graphic processor in VGA cards) work... thus the GNU developers have to figure it out all by themselves.

Not to say the truth that even though most of the time they "just" work, but... the never the graphic card is the more time it's gonna take for these poor developers to figure out how it work :(. Although, impressively, some of these drivers actually work better than the original drivers written by the vendors them selves!. But they could be buggy under heavy/complex usage such as with Compiz window manger.

So most of the time you'll be better off with the official drivers. But if you use something other than Ubuntu the installation might be a bit difficult.


Back to the story...

Weird things that you can do with Compiz ;-)...

There are certain hardware which Compiz does not work or tends to be very buggy :(. But according to Compiz, Canonical no longer uses the original code written by Compiz developers, they've created a lot of bug fixes and have added better compability of Compiz with Ubuntu by changing the code. So this buggy driver list of original Compiz utility may not be applicable with the Ubuntu due to those changes.

But you should still consider about your VGA card and its compability with Compiz before running Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal since the Unity desktop now runs as a plugin on top of Compiz!. So a buggy VGA driver can do some serious annoyance for the PC + most importantly for the users as well.

If you own a Laptop or a Desktop PC directly from HP, Dell or other manufactures... then you can read this official Ubuntu certified hardware list first. Although the 11.04 version is not there, but if your hardware is there, you're good to go.

Secondly you can read this Compiz hardware page which addresses few of the known problems that can occur with certain Nvidia, ATI, Intel... graphic cards and how to resolve them. Again remember, some of these "issues" may not be applicable with Ubuntu, yet it's well worth the read.

Finally, after or to prior to the Ubuntu 11.04 Natty installation, if you're having problems or questions, you can ask them from this ask Ubuntu community maintained web site. Before posting your question, try searching it first. Who knows... maybe it's already been answered (oh you lucky geek :P).

"One of the best 2D/3D graphic "creators"... competing with Microsoft's DirectX..."

As mentioned before, in Ubuntu, using the "Software Center" or the "property hardware drivers" wizard, most of the time you should be able to install the official GPU drivers.

In that case, simply open the "Software Center" and enter Ati or Nvidia and do a search. Then follow the instructions on the screen. Also try to read few of recommendations/feedback given by others as well (usually appears below the "description" section).   

Good luck.

Read More

Ext2Read, Read All Your "Ext2/3/4" GNU/Linux File Systems in Microsoft Windows!

Microsoft will never include the ability for their operating system to read GNU/Linux partitions by default. It's amazing what few years can bring. I remember, not that long ago, around 2004-2005, how hard it was to find something that can read "Ext" file systems in Microsoft windows.

Although a certain partition manager did come with a one but you had to pay a big price for the software.

Anyhow, if you dual boot with Microsoft Windows a GNU/Linux distribution that has a partition created using the "Ext/2/3 or the never 4" version, then Ext2Read is one of the totally free application that lets you read these GNU/Linux file systems under windows!.

You can even read LVM2 volumes as well. Not just copying/ files... but it supports mass folder copy.. etc too. But it can only read these file systems... it's not that it can't but I think the developers are a bit scared of letting you "Write" while on Widows since you can do some serious damage to the partition by doing so.

Still, if you want to copy a document or a folder that was in the "Home" folder, etc... then Ext2Read is very handy nonetheless. Get it from this official Ex2Read page. No need to install, just extract the .zip file and simply run the ".exe" file.

Read More

Acer Might Introduce a Chrome OS Based Netkbook in the Near Future!

Few days ago Sony introduced their first sets of Android Honeycomb based Tablet PCs called S1 and S2. Now it's rumored that Acer in the near future might come up with a sleek looking Netbook that's powered by the Google's Chrome OS!.

Although no one could predict that how we would "define" the ultimate, all purpose operating system of the future... but one way or the other... Google has two of 'em (Android or Chrome, smart move eh :D ).

Upcoming Acer Netbook called ZGB!...

Although this won't be the first official netbook to carry Chrome OS since it was in 2010 (around December) when Google first introduced a netbook called Cr-48 which was only shipped for 60,000 testers via Chrome OS Pilot program but the rumored Acer netbook is not a prototype nor just another testing device... it's gonna be a real laptop that we, as normal users are going to be able to purchase!.

Although it's not clear about all the hardware details at the moment (obviously).

Anyhow it's codenamed "ZGB", powered by an Atom processor (Intel), 1366x768 HD display resolution, the screen size could vary between 10in to 12 inches, a HDMI port that uses an encoder chip from Crontel, etc are the hardware details that were reported by a recent post at trustedreviews.

It's dated around mid 2011... so we should hear "something" from Acer in the very near future. So until then, hold your breath... 'cause Chrome OS is coming!.

Read More

Install Skype in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty!

By default Ubuntu does not come with Skype (obviously... it's not even an open-source app). But since VOIP is fast becoming a part of our lives... having Skype installed feels like a must these days, no matter what operating system that you use.

So after installing the newly introduced Ubuntu Natty Narwhal... you can easily install Skype by using two methods. By using the Software center or the Terminal. But since it's supported by Ubuntu repositories... just use your Software center, it's more easier.

From the top left corner, on the panel, search for "ubuntu software center". Launch the app. Now within the "software center", search for "Skype" and simply follow the instructions.

Click on the "Install" button and follow the instructions on the screen...

Read More

Install VLC Media Player in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal!

Well, I don't think anyone would want an introduction to VLC media player. Although I'd still prefer MPLayer or SMPlayer back-end yet VLC is one of the most popular + fully featured multimedia players that is widely in use nonetheless. One good thing about it is that, once installed, VLC plays almost all the codecs known to mankind :P and lets you do things such as ...

*. Enhance video and audios with various filters.

*. Add/Change brightness/hue... easily.

*. Powerful built-in Equalizer.

*. Heck... it even has the ability to encode videos/audios as well.

*. Web casting support.

*. Play online video channels.

*. Build albums and manage playlists easily... are just a very few of its main features to name.

So, let's cut the cra* and let me humble tell you how to install VLC player in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal. Now there are two ways that you can do this. First is using the "Software Center" which lets you do this graphically. In that case, from the top left corner, in the search box on the panel, just enter the following name - "ubuntu software center".

After the software center is open, just search for "vlc" and simply follow the instructions on the screen.

But if that looks like a bit of a work :P, then you can easily install VLC in Ubuntu by issuing the below command in your Terminal.

sudo apt-get install vlc vlc-plugin-pulse mozilla-plugin-vlc

That's it. Enjoy!. 

Read More

Wanna Install virtualbox 4 on ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal?

Virtualization gives you the ability to run several operating systems on top of each other. For instance, GNU/Linux cannot be run on Microsoft windows as a program. But with a Virtualization software you can actually run not just GNU/Linux but any other OS independent of the operating system that the virtualization utility is installed.

The power of Virtualization..., Ubuntu running in Windows 7

Just like that with Virtualbox, developed by GmbH (the developer of Avira antivirus) now owned by Sun Microsystems, it can be used on not just in GNU/Linux but in Windows and Mac OSX, Solaris, etc. With the help of Virtualbox 4 you can easily run Windows 7 or XP in GNU/Linux as well.

Although not just for home users, through virtualization large companies/Business have a lot of benefits in general where you can allow the users to run several desktops on top of each other without having to buy PC after PC or without having to do a dual boot, etc thus it saves both cost and time.

Anyhow, if you have installed the Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal and want to know how to install Virtualbox 4, then please follow the below steps.

1. First issue the below command.

gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

2. Now add the below text to the opened file (just paste it).

deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian natty contrib

Remember to save the file before closing.

3. Enter the below command.

wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

4. Use these commands next.

sudo apt-get update
Install virtualbox 

5. Now let's update to the version 4x by using the next command.

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.0

6. You may also want to install the dkms packages via the below command.

sudo apt-get install dkms

That's it. Now you should have the Virtualbox 4x installed in Ubuntu 11.04. 

Read More

Install Torrent Search 0.9.2.1 in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

If you haven't heard, torrent search is a small application that lets you search for torrent files in various tracker web sites. It integrate with Gnome desktop thus makes it easy for the users to search for a torrent file in few tracker sites from a single GUI.

So what's actually the benefit here?

Well, unlike many other file "sharing" protocols, bit-torrent uses a protocols which requires to know the others having the same file as the one you're trying to download which are called "peers" (the users). Now the more updated database of "peers" you have the better speeds you'll achieve easily.

As mentioned earlier, tracker/s are web sites which finds these "peers" using various techniques thus help your bit-torrent application to easily update the "peer" list. So the more you're able to get information from several "Tracker" web site for the same torrent, again means better download speeds, etc.

Now you can do this manually by entering the tracker web site address to your Web browser and go from one site to the next OR can get the help of a software that lets you do it in its GUI as with Torrent Search 0.9.2.1. As said this is a Gnome desktop app so up until now it didn't support Ubuntu Unity desktop. But with this release now it can also be used in Unity desktop without any problems whatsoever!.

Installing Torrent Search in Ubuntu Natty Narwhal (11.04) is pretty easy. First get the .deb package from here (the package is supported for Debian too), double click on it once the download is complete and follow the instructions on your screen. Once installed, you can access it via:

Application -> Internet -> Torrent Search. 

Enjoy!.

Read More

Here Comes the Lubuntu 11.04!, Yep It's also Out Out!

If you don't know much about Lubuntu, then it is another derivative of Ubuntu that's designed for PC users with low-end hardware. It's not an official Ubuntu project and not more than two years of age, yet, the OS is already widely used by users with OLD PCs (no need to feel bad, I do have a very old Laptop, no can't even discuss the hardware with you :P).

Lubuntu 11.04, looks very promising...

Anyway, recently they announced a new theme (which looks awesome btw) that gives a much better professional touch to the OS in general and the new 11.04 version comes with few main applications that are again aimed at low-end computers such as:

*. Abi-Word - An old word processor written in GTK+. Loads faster than OpenOffice or LibreOffice and lets you do almost anything that other word processors let you do.

*. Chromium - Again, both Chromium and Chrome are well known for loading fast. So it's not a surprise that they've chosen the Chromium over Firefox4.

*. Pidgin - This is actually one of the best messaging clients available for GNU/Linux that supports almost all the major chat-protocols. Extremely popular.

*. Audacious - The default music player. Easy to use, loads fast and written in GTK+ and supports album management, album art downloading, last.fm integration, etc...

*. Sylpheed - The mailing client, has a reputation of being faster than most others.

These are few of the main packages... and if you want to give a try at Lubuntu 11.04, then first try this Torrent link first or can use this direct download link if you like. And while as Lubuntu team has been saying in their web site that, they're hoping that someday Canonical will consider supporting them "officially"..., simultaneously with this launch... Mark Shuttleworth has said something very intersting that's gonna thrill the Lubuntu fans without a doubt...

“The fact that you are now 100% in the archive, and using PPA’s and other tools effectively, makes it possible for us to consider recognising Lubuntu as an official part of the [Ubuntu] project. “

It seems that the Lubuntu, if they keep their current hardworking style... they're gonna have a much brighter future without a doubt. Congrats dudes (and dudes), well done :).

Read More

Kubuntu 11.04 is Released!

Simultaneous to the Ubuntu Natty Narwhal (11.04) release which brings the long waited... talked Unity desktop... the official KDE version of Ubuntu called Kubuntu has also released their 11.04 version as well. Unlike many other previous versions... this does bring some important new features according to their release log.

*. Comes with the KDE 4.6 version which brings the Kwin manager (default window handler for KDE).

According to the Kubuntu team, KWin now needs less resources but performs faster than previous versions!. Other benefits include better VGA driver integration, new power management GUI (very impressive and looks gorgeous!) + few improvements to the Dolphin as well (KDE's file manager).

*. File sharing made easy because of Samba!.

Sharing a file or a folder across a network has never been this easy according to Kubuntu team!. Just right click on the file/folder in Dolphin file manager and go to "Properties" and simply, share!.

Samba ... Samba ... Samba....

*. Better printer configuration.

Including few bug fixes... the new printer configuration now ingrates better with a lot of printers.

*. OwnCloud.

This is a cloud based storage that are hosted directly at KDE servers. Now as a Kubuntu user, you can easily access and manage your OwnCloud easily.

*. Switched to Phonon Gstreamer back-end.

It's a bit sad actually. KDE is certainly not second to no one and from certain aspects... it's way ahead of Gnome too. But for some reason (well, they say it's due to better compatibility with Ubuntu) they've decided to use the Gstreamer (the developers of Gstreamer won't say it's a Gnome project... but they seem to prefer Gnome :) ) as the multimedia framework.

Although the new Phonon... which is the KDE's own impressive multimedia framework, again due to compatibility, Kubuntu will be using Gstreamer via a Phonon back-end. Let's hope that next time they'll give us a full "KDE-lized" desktop.

Anyhow, these are few of the main features of Kubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal according to their official release announcement and all the details such as how to download it are also in that page. So follow the link and read it. And if you're upgrading from 10.10 version... then please read this official instruction page before proceeding. Good luck.

Read More

Notebook Hardware Control (NHC), Powerful ACPI Manager for your PC!

Windows Vista and 7 do come with advanced ACPI options when comparing with windows XP. For instance, if you have a never CPU (AMD or Intel) with Vista or 7 you can easily set-up different speed settings (if your CPU support that) and other hardware power related settings ... especially for Laptops which can help to get a longer battery life which is very handy.

Main GUI... (use it at your own risk)

But with Windows XP, the OS is so old that even if you have a CPU which was introduced around 2005-2007... with XP, setting advanced options, most of the time are not possible. In that case if you're looking for a fully featured ACPI manager that lets you control not just CPU but other things like...

*. CPU speed/Voltage settings.

*. Hard drive speed settings (which can help to get a noticeable amount of battery life).

*. Various battery related options/settings and readings (how many percentage it has, etc).

*. ATI GPU (VGA cards) related speed settings that can enhance battery life.

*. CPU/HDD temperature monitoring.

*. Easy to use GUI +, you can set it to display live data about your PC on the desktop as well.

These are among the main features of NHC - Notebook hardware control.

Unfortunately this is only for Microsoft windows users... cannot be run in GNU/Linux. Even if you have Windows Vista or 7 still I think this is a more powerful tool than what those OS allow their users to change (safely). It comes with main two versions, free and a professional one.

Before downloading, I advice you to read this FAQ first and then proceed to this downloading page.

Read More

Wanna Know Ubuntu Unity's Keyboard Shortcuts with Ease!

One of the key differences that we'll see not just in Ubuntu but all the major operating systems in the future is their support for touch screens and less emphasis on the mouse (I may be wrong on that one but that's my conclusion after seeing some of the "features" offered by may OS developers).

Anyhow, when concerning its GUI and behavior... with a help of a keyboard, you certainly can speed up launching apps to doing your daily activities with it without a doubt. So in that sense, below is a picture that you can use as a wallpaper which has all the main keyboard shortcuts that can be used with Unity desktop.

So unlike trying to keep everything in memory by looking at a text file, etc... this beautiful wallpaper does make things more easier + won't make your gorgeous desktop any uglier either :P. Just download it and set as a wallpaper. Enjoy!.

Read More

Chromium 11 Is Released, PPA (Stable) Channel is ready for Natty Narwhal!

Chromium has released the version 11 few hours ago and according to Ubuntu developer Fabien, the official packages for the recently released Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal should be available within the next few (2-3) days.

But if you can't wait for the official release for the Chromium 11 for Ubuntu... then the packages are already in this Stable Chromium PPA channel. If you subscribe to this channel, you'll receive the updates when the official channel for Chromium 11 is released automatically.

Before you're using the "Stable PPA"...

The developers advice you to completely remove the current daily added stable PPA channel (if it's something other than this PPA) and downgrade Chromium using this PPA (you can read more information from the above link).

The Chromium 11 also bring few major features such as the ability to completely remove adobe flash videos cache from your web browser easily via the usual "clear browsing data" command + many more bug fixes as well.

Read More

Install Kdenlive 0.8 in Kubuntu

Kdenlive is one of the best video editors for GNU/Linux. Although being a KDE project, it is written in Qt. So unless you want to have something that's written in GTK+, this I must say again, is one of the best of its kind.

Like two days ago they updated it to the latest version which is now the 0.8... this does bring a lot of changes according to their official announcement page.

Main features in general...

*. Few GUI improvements.

*. Add/Remove multiple audio and video tracks.

*. Cut/Paste/Delete...

*. Crop, change bit-rate, etc.

*. Various effects.

*. Import from DV/DVD or single files, etc.

*. Any codec supported by FFmpeg, Kdenlive supports (means: almost all the known codecs are supported).

Although these are very few to name and I'm not an expert on video editors, so I don't understand most of those "features" on their home page either :P.

Anyhow, in Kubuntu 11.04, 10.10 and 10.04 you can easily install the Kdenlive 0.8 by issuing the below command.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:sunab/kdenlive-release
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kdenlive

Read More

A Little Piece of Advice when Downloading Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

OK, today I was busy (had to service my dad's car) and Canonical had no choice but to release Ubuntu without my presence :P. And when I finally came home... damn.. it was released. Anyhow, I "could be" writing a review of Ubuntu but if you haven't tried it when it was already in beta stage and want seriously to give a try now since it's officially released then first...

...you might want to read the excellent review written by Andrew from Webupd8 (including a video). Although as said before Andrew won't be giving all the details of every new feature since most have been using it for a while but ... it's well worth a read/"view" though.


Before downloading...

Ahh finally!...

I have nothing to hide, I'm a bit scarred by Canonical these days and usually I'd just go ahead and download it. But this time I'm gonna do it slowly.

Anyway, not just Ubuntu, usually any famous distribution, within the first days of their release sometimes (especially if you have a very fast internet connection) you may not be able to achieve the best possible downloading speeds due to the massive "traffic" these servers get.

And on the other hand, usually what happens next is that, while downloading if you got disconnected or something happened to your download, even though the software says the server supports "resume" capability.. yet most of the time (happened to be with Ubuntu, Fedora and Debian, recently that is) when you try to "resume" the server simply refuse to do that!.

So unless you have a very fast internet connection that usually takes about 4-5 minutes to download a 700MB CD image.. I highly advice you to try the official Ubuntu 11.04 torrent channel first. It may take a few seconds for the Bittorrent manager to get into the full throttle.. but the advantage here is that you'll always be able to "resume" your download no matter what! (more than handy if you have bit slower internet connection).

And you can use the Cloud computing feature that Canonical has been sneaking around :P in the recent times (very smart move though), which basically lets you to try Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal without having to download (click the link). This is only available for 55 minutes.

Although there is no official document telling what the hardware requirements other than Canonical saying...

"Ubuntu 11.04 is built to take advantage of the very latest technologies, but it should work on a most desktops, laptops and netbooks too..."

But I did write a post about the requirements of Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal from the bits and pieces that I "collected"(more than welcome to correct me if the hardware requirements of that post aren't that accurate).

Note: - But remember, unless you have a reasonably faster internet connection... don't judge the "speed" of Ubuntu based on this cloud test run. It's not fair for the hard work of the developers. And lastly, congratulations Canonical for this amazing achievement. Finally, something of your own, and thank you for making it free too :). 

Read More

Install Backlite DVD Video Backup Tool in Ubuntu

If you're looking for an easy to use DVD video backup tool that can be used in GNU/Linux then you might be interested in a utility called Backlite, which in fact is the "lighter" version of the k9copy actually. It's written in Qt and has the ability to backup both single layer and dual layer DVDs as well.

Main features...

*. Make ISO image files of your DVDs.

*. Add/Remove or skip copying subtitles or certain audio/video track before copying.

*. If you have k3b installed (if you use KDE then it comes by default) then Backlite also has the ability to burn the extracted data to DVD too.

*. With the help of Mencoder (MPlayer's excellent encoder!) it can convert the DVDs into MPEG-4 format as well...

These are just a few of its main features to name. Anyhow, if you use Ubuntu 11.04/10.10 or 10.04... you can easily install Backlite using the below command (using a third party PPA channel).

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ferramroberto/k9copy
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install backlite

Read More

S1 and S2, Meet the Sony's First Android Honeycomb Tablets!

Wow!, that's what came to my mind when I saw Sony's latest Android Honeycomb tablets for the first time (yep... only saw the pictures, not for real). Even before going into the details when looking at the below pictures.. seriously I'm excited!.

S1 (to the Left), S2 (to the right)

A little about "Honeycomb"...

Honeycomb's "approach" to Tablets...

Now, not that long ago when Android was getting some serious market share in the smart phone industry, it was obvious that the next generation of a "phone" should be something that looks like a phone but let you do things that a Tablet PC is capable of doing. But the apparent disadvantage that Google had was that Android was not designed especially for Tablets.

So although you could run Android OS (version 2.0 and below) on Tablet PC's still, it was not quiet capable of giving the optimum usability for the users (such as the applications and the OS was designed for smaller smart phone type devices... so some portion of the screen while on Tablet PCs were "wasted", etc). But then Google decided to seriously work on a "version" that is especially designed for Tablets which they later called the Android Honeycomb.

This gave the Tablet PC manufacturers the ideal opportunity to install a Tablet PC optimized OS with their products thus resulting a much better user experience which was followed by the Samsung (if I'm not mistaken). Anyhow, the latest in the "list" is Sony with the introduction of S1 and S2.

The S1 comes with a 9.4" looking touch sensitive screen while the S2 takes a bit of a different approach by giving 5.5" dual screens with 1024x480 resolution. They both use the Tegra 2 SoC, both certified for PlayStation, Wi-Fi and 3G/4G "compatible" - don't know what that means and fully supports DLNA framework as well (a photo sharing protocol)... these are the main hardware details that I'm aware of.

Below is the official presentation by Mr. Kunimasa Suzuki, Sony's deputy president....

Read More

Few Tips To Enhance Your Android Phone's Battery Life!

Thanks to the Google powered Android OS... mobile phone manufactures that use Android as their OS are getting more and more popular as a result, without a doubt in the near future, they'll start dominating in all sorts of ways like Tablet PC (oh they already are :D) markets, etc.

Anyhow, these days we're seeing android smart phones that come with dual processors!... which is tempting but...

Some of these smart phones are actually faster than some of our PC as well (OK I'm taking about mine here). But the point is that, no matter how powerful your phone is but if the battery is not capable of giving you a longer batty life... then it just destroys the whole purpose, isn't it? So, let's have a look at few things that you can do to improve the battery life of you android smart phone.

What are the apps that sucks your battery the most - If you navigate to: Settings > About Phone > Battery > Battery Use..... with the help of this feature you can easily figure out those battery suckers more easily.

1. As obvious as it is... the Screen comes first. 

So as a tip, you can override the automatic brightness of your screen by going over to: Settings > Display > Brightness and remove the check of "Automatic Brightness". Now, try manually setting a value about 10-15% for a start. And also there is a built in widget that lets you easily activate/inactivate these settings via a single click.

So enable that widget - press and hold on an empty section of your screen, choose Widgets, and pick the Power Control option.

You can also change the screen timeout settings from 60 seconds to 15-20 seconds as well (Settings -> Display) as well.

3. Turn of your...

*. 3G - another big batter eater.

*. WiFi - Unlike many 3G connections Wi-Fi is not that widely used (well not always true but in comparison). So if you don't use it that much, then, turn that sucker off too.

*. Bluetooth - If you don't use headsets or other Bluetooth related things that often you can turn off it completely or can set it to stand-by mode.

*. Disable GPS (not everyone gets trapped in jungles :D ).

3. Change the "update intervals" of apps

Applications such as Gmail and Twitter client for Android, Facebok, etc are continuously checking for new updates which can again easily wear down your valuable battery. So set their update intervals to about 30 mins or 1 hours, or to longer periods in general which would help to calm them down a bit :).

4. If you have animations that runs in the background, etc.. disable them.

5. Don't let it get too "hot" - Yep, the battery wears out (can do some damages too) easily if it gets too hot. So let it get too hot.

6. Have you tried wiping out your battery status?

Only an illustration... the menu could differ from phone to phone...

Don't do this often, but once in a while you should wipe out your battery status too. For instance, there is a file called "battery-status" that stores information about your battery. But from time to time (especially if you did an OS update, etc) it has to be "refreshed", there are certain precautions that you have to do prior to do that. In that case I humbly advice you to read this lifehacker post. Good luck.

Read More

Install Feedindicator in Ubuntu, Access Feeds via the Notification Area

Reading websites using their Feeds is a huge time saver. I mean, say that you have 20-30 sites and want to read the latest updates, then traditionally one would have to go from site to site, browsing from bookmark to bookmark... oh it sucks :). But Feed-readers came to the rescue by letting you read thousands of web sites via a single application. 

The Feedindicator (Version 1.02) is a feed notifier that runs in your notification area which when configured, automatically "notifies" you whenever a new feed is received.

Configuration windows...

Main features...

*. Add/Remove feeds easily (GUI).

*. Change when it should update the database (time-frame).

*. Can set-up to run automatically on system start-up.

*. Mark read/unread feeds.

*. Change the number of items showed per feed, etc.

If you use Ubuntu you can easily install Feedindicator by downloading the .deb package from here. After the downloading is completed, simply double click on it to install. Enjoy!.

Read More

Wanna Go to the San Francisco "Natty Party"??

Since almost everyone (including Obama and Mr. Gaddafi) is aware of the fact that tomorrow is a really big day for Canonical because it's the day (28th April, 2011) that they're going to release the next major Ubuntu OS, 11.04 version called Natty Narwhal.

Not Beer... Bear :)

If you're near San Francisco then few Ubuntu enthusiastic are gathering a little celebrating party simultaneous to the Natty's release. Below are the full details (extracted from Elizabeth Krumbach's public journal)...

Date: Thursday, April 28th
Time: 7:30 – 9:30 PM
Location: Thirsty Bear Brewing Company, 661 Howard Street, San Francisco 94105 (Map)
RSVP/LoCo Directory: http://loco.ubuntu.com/events/team/920/detail/
("RSVP not required, but helps us get some idea of attendance")

Now I gotta worn you... don't drink too much :P, kidding... actually there won't be any alcohol related activities of any kind (shit.. lost a bunch of dudes and dudeees already didn't I....) so there is no age limit. I think it's a great opportunity to get together and talk face to face about what others think of Canonical and recent "buzz" about Gnome and stuff.

I won't be able to attend to this because I have go and make sure that... OK I'm kidding... I'm from a fare far away country :(. Anyway, it's a restaurant with off-street parking, so if you really wanna enjoy with "real" Ubuntu geeks... then why not give it a try. Here's the full announcement.

*. If any of you able to attend to this meeting would you be kind enough to drop me a short post about what happened and stuff (a guest post) so I could post it. OK, thanks. 

Read More

Grsync, Sync Two Directories Easily in GNU/Linux

Grsync is a very powerful application that you can you to easily backup your data in GNU/Linux (actually it's also available for Windows as well). It's written GTK+ but does not need any Gnome libraries to run either. Although not the most professional looking app but still, for its purpose, it's pretty good nonetheless.

From syncing local directories to network drives... Grsync is a pretty handy tool to have around!.

Main features...

*. Supports backup simulations.

*. Log file support.

*. Clean and easy to use interface.

*. Import-export settings to a file.

*. Supported protocols - Rsync, Rdiff, SFTP, SSH.

*. Encryption support.

*. And as mentioned before you can make backups of both local and remote storage.

If you use Ubuntu you can easily install Grsync by issuing the below command.

sudo apt-get install grsync

That's it.

Read More

Few Known Risks of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a big thing these days. And it seems apparent that having a "cloud" integrated business module is something that is inevitable at the end. Although cloud is not something new actually... for a long time most of the activities that we've been doing in the internet are actually a lesser version of a "cloud", in a way.

Definition Of Cloud Computing (in me own words :D)...

The process of managing data (accessing and processing) online using remote computers/servers on the internet.

So in this sense, even something that is as small as an e-mail account is actually a derivative of a cloud. For instance, when making e-mails, we sometimes use attachments that are stored in your local HDD and upload them to the online mail service and edit them within their servers + all those typing etc are also a way of processing data online, right?... so we've been doing this for a long time. Anyway...

The risks....

Shi*... I knew it!.

1. Who's in control of your data? 

For instance, some may even be surprised to know that when you use a cloud computing service, your data, not only they're stored different locations but those locations can be "as far as" different countries.

So, there could be occasions such as the restrictions that apply to your data within your country (who can access the data etc) may no longer be valid as long as your "cloud" is stored in another country!. So, always ask questions about the liability of your data concerning these types of security issues. 

2. How good is your Cloud Service provider's security?

On a cloud, even the data is stored within a single country, a given data is always (not necessarily always, but usually it is) on the "move" from one location to the other. So if the service provider has a weaker security levels this gives people like bad hackers (there are certainly good ones too :D )the ability to steam your data while on the move. So take extra precautions about the levels of the security of your service provider and how reliable they are.

3. Third-party access?

Sometimes when you join a cloud (especially those free ones) although the provider won't tell you much about it ... some third parties can access certain amount of data about you or your data (such as with a certain Amazon program). Always make sure your personal information + data stored in the cloud storage are only accessible by you.

4. Wanna get yourself locked?

Say due to a hacker attack concerning your account in the cloud ... as a security precaution the service provider may decide to lock your account ... even as long as for few days!. Not to say the impact of this on your business. So ask about them in such as situation what are the safety precautions or how fast they can "unlock" your data??, etc.

5. Bandwidth of the service provider?

This is another major concern. With a cloud storage or computing in general, involves a lot of bandwidth, a lot of it. So it's a must that the service provider has a guarantee that they'll always have the ability to give you a full throttle of data-bandwidth no matter what!. For instance, what's the use of a cloud even if you have the fastest internet connection but the service provider cannot match with you or their servers are usually "busy" :(.

Although cloud computing does has its benefits but if you're not careful while choosing a service provider, those benefits won't necessarily flow at your direction. Hope this was helpful. If interested, Wikipedia has a long, a painfully long article on the subject :P.

I personally would do anything to keep my "cloud needs" at a minimum, but that's just me.

Read More

Plank, A Very Simple Yet an Elegant Dock for GNU/Linux

A "dock" that lets you keep your running programs or application shortcuts are very popular these days. Although it was Apple who introduced it first with their earlier versions of Mac OS... but since Gnome does praise Apple's way of designing UI... having a "dock" is a must these days it seems, especially for the Gnome Geeks :P.

Anyhow, the Plank dock is created by the Docky Core Team thus it inherits a bit of this and that from docky as well. It is written using a new programming language called Vala (created by Gnome developers) which has a reputation of being able to create software that use less memory requirements.

Although you won't get a lot of features with Plank but you can add/remove apps or shortcuts and make it automatically hide when not needed, etc nonetheless. Once installed you should be able to access it via: Applications -> Accessories -> Dock Plank.

In Ubuntu 10.10 and 11.04 you can install Plank by issuing the below command.

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ricotz/docky
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install plank

Read More

Install GMailWatcher in Ubuntu, Easily Read Your G-mails in GNU/Linux

GMailWatcher is a simple yet a very useful application which lets you read e-mails that are fetched from your current G-mail account. It runs in the notification area and lets you know when new mails arrive automatically. A cool thing about it is that whenever a new message arrives it shows a preview of your inbox as well.

For extra security you can integrate it with Gnome-Keyring password manager. It also supports audio notifications and lets you set intervals for downloading/checking new mails + the GMailWatcher fully supports multiple g-mail accounts as well.

So if you use Ubuntu 11.04 you can easily install GmailWatcher using the below command.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:loneowais/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gmailwatcher gmailwatcher-themes-extra

Easily configure via notification menu...

This is developed by Owais Lone. Anyhow, you can easily add extra themes to it by adding simple CSS/HTML codes which can be acquired from this launchpad page if you'd like.

Read More

How to Install Basenji 0.8 in Ubuntu, A Powerful Media Indexing Tool for GNU/Linux!

Say that, you have a lot of CD/DVD or USB devices that you would like to create an index of, so you could easily search through that index even when the media/s are not mounted ... then that's what the Basenji does. When you insert a media such as CD/DVD, Network drives or even USB drives, etc Basenji lets you easily make a complete database of those devices (including thumbnail previews!).

It's not just for GNU/Linux and also available for Microsoft Windows as well.

Main features...

*. Written GTK+.

*. Easy to use (simple) interface.

*. Supports CD/DVD/USB and network drives.

*. Audio CD support.

*. MP3 metadata extraction (you know automatic fetching of title, author, album, etc).

*. Thumbnails support (for videos/pictures, etc).

*. Automatic drive scanning demon support...

So as an Ubuntu user you can install Basenji 0.8 by using the official PPA channel. Open your Terminal and enter the below command (supports Ubuntu 10.04, 10.10 and the Natty Narwhal - 11.04).

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pulb/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install basenji

As said the automatic drive scanning demon has to be installed separately, to do that use the below command.

sudo apt-get install volumedb-tools

This is a cross-platform software tool which you can get from the Basenji home page.

Read More

Install Nautilus Facebook Uploader in Ubuntu 10.10/11.04

Facebook is becoming an important part of most of our lives. And as a GNU/Linux user, don't you think it would be nice to have the ability to upload your pictures, video directly from the Nautilus file manager to Facebook??. If so, you should try the Nautilus Facebook Uploader.

Main features...

*. Upload videos/pictures.

*. Upload to any album in your FB account.

*. Post directly to the wall.

*. Schedule uploads.

If you use Ubuntu 10.10, 11.04, the installation is pretty easy actually. All you gotta do is go and get the .deb package from here. And simply double click on it to install. That's it. The credit goes to the gnome-look.org developer (if you're using any other GNU/Linux distributions please get the source-code the developer page). 

Read More

Drakfire Caffe GTK3, A "Coffee" Looking Theme for Gnome3/Shell

Drakfire Caffe GTK3 is another shell theme for all you Gnome3 geeks out there!. Although personally I'm not much of a fan of these type of colors in themes but then I guess just because I don't like doesn't mean there won't be others, right?.

If that's the case and if you're looking for another Gnome3/Shell theme that uses a lot of dark brown type colors (or Yellow... seriously I'm a bad artist... can't even say what color it is :P) then you'd love the Darkfire Cafe.

To be honest guys, I haven't used this at all but when reading through some of the comments in the author page someone said, the colors make it really easy to work on a darker environment. So that might come in handy.... :(.

Anyway, ff you want to install then get the zipped pack from here. And visit this deviantart author page for installing instructions. Enjoy!.

Note - If you're using Gnome 3 in Ubuntu then you can install a tool called Gnome tweak tool which lets you easily configure themes and some of their advanced options in Gnome3. So to install Gnome Tweak tool simply insert the below command in your Terminal.

sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool

Read More

A Computer Repair Man's Rant

Computers in general are volatile systems. One minute they're crunching data by the gigabyte the next they've run across a script error and will be shut down immediately. Of course all computers are not built the same. Some larger companies, HP, Dell, Acer, Gateway, Sony, to name a few, offer great support in terms of drivers and help information. They protect their reputation by building the systems that last longer. Alas there will always be a market for cheaper goods. Enter the clones, and after market China products. Don't get me wrong, I'm lovin' the great price, it's the price you have to pay later down the line that will kill you.
Recently a customer from Rialto Ca brought a computer to my office that was constantly restarting. It didn't have a prayer. At first Windows would load and run for a half an hour then restart. Hours Later it began restarting every five seconds. I did suspect it may be the power supply. Switched it out, no difference. Exchanged the board and bingo! No restart. The damaged board was an ECS 'elite groups'. Funny cause I had that same brand mobo a  few years ago with about the same problem.

Now for my rant. The customer brought a second computer to my office and figured I could work with the extra parts. The board was a Soyo Dragon 2. The computer flashes a screen displaying Soyo.com when beginning to  boot. I looked it up the site is non-existant. So much for finding the drivers there. The crazy part about these two computers was that I was able to pull the SATA HDD out of the ECS and run the pre-existing copy of Windows in the Dragon 2! It actually started accidentally as I was about to load Windows XP from CD. The only problem was of course it needed the different drivers. In cases like these I google it, and check the forums and cnet download.com. It took some time. Conclusion- spend a few extra bucks and avoid custom boards. You'll save you're self a lot of hassle down the line. Once you have the right network driver working you're golden. From there it's a breeze. Windows updates, Anti-virus loaded. Having the internet is really the only reason they want their computer fixed in the first place right!?

Read More