Friday, September 26, 2008

Some Digital Storage Tips and Tricks!

Digital Storage...Hard Disk Drives, Flash Drives, CD/DVD+/- RWs, Media Cards (SD, xD, CF, ProDuo...), Flash Memory... and so on. These can go from 64MB to 1TB...in fact the smallest drive you can find right now is 256MB-512MB. Anyways, these devices are our friends when it comes to storing music, pictures, movies, and so on...

But "How can I get the most of my "friends" in Ubuntu?" you might ask. Well, I'll show some neat stuff you can do to get the most out of these devices.

- Remember back in Windows, when you had to defragment your drives every week or so...well now that you've seen the light you DON'T need to do that again ever! In fact, there's not even one defragmenting app in Linux, so bye-bye defrags! And why is this so good? Because you won't waste valuable time that can be used to surf the web and visiting this blog *wink-wink* in stupid defragmentation. So that's one tip for 'ya! Don't bother with defrags anymore, drives in Linux work smarter and a lot faster too! It's great!

- But what if you want to make, delete, resize or change a partition? "Break in the ton of useless and dangerous programs!...WRONG! There's a neat little app in Ubuntu called GParted (which can be easily found and installed in Synaptic and then accessed by going to System>Administration>Partition Editor) that'll cover ALL of you partition needs. **WARNING** This is a very powerful program, and can potentially harm your data if you don't know what you're doing. If you want to work with partitions you MUST backup everything that's important for you. If you resize or move a partition and there's an error in the drive the data can be damaged or lost, so make a backup first! Deleting and changing partition types means you'll delete everything on the partition or the drive, so be careful with this!
This program can also be found in LiveCD mode which is used exactly as the Ubuntu LiveCD, except it'll just have GParted running. You can download it here! The LiveCD is used when you want to delete your Home/Boot partition, or basically the partition Ubuntu is in. This is fairly useless sometimes because the Partitioner you use to install Ubuntu in the Ubuntu LiveCD is GParted...So it's basically a matter of choice.

-What if you want to COMPLETELY DELETE files? Well, you don't need to use any special apps or programs. basically there are lots and lots of programs that'll recover your data, and there's basically no way to totally destroy old data, but since you don't need to delete any files to oblivion you might want to stick to the easy stuff. So to avoid having your Trash folder full, you can simply press "Delete" when holding "Shift" and voila! The files will be deleted and will not go into the trash folder. This is usefull to get rid of files you know you'll never need again, and when this is done, the only way to retrieve the data is to use one of those flashy and expensive DataRecovery Programs. And this is also very useful to save up space.

- Always Unmount your drives! Go to Computer and select the drive, right-click it and press "Unmount Volume", or go to the desktop and look for the device shortcut. Avoid data loss this way!

- If you want to have complete compatibility with Ubuntu, you should format your drives to ext2, ext3, FAT16 or FAT32. EXT partitions are Linux-native and won't work with Windows, so if you have a dual-boot scenario or your drive is shared between Windows and Linux you might want to format it to FAT16/32. Avoid NTFS at all costs! It'll be buggy and very hard to handle with Linux apps. In my personal scenario, I use ext3 on my Hard Drives, and FAT32 on my Flash Drives. I want my Flash Drives to be as multi-platform as possible, while keeping my HDDs to my Ubuntu laptop. I had an external HDD formatted to NTFS and the speed rate of data transfers between my laptop and the HDD was never over 11 mb/s...now with the same drive formatted to Ext3 the speed rate tops the 19mb/s in most cases and most of the times is around 21mb/s...cool, huh?

Well, this were my HDD tricks! I hope you guys liked them! I'll post some more as they come to me! Happy weekend!


Read full post here!

Monday, September 22, 2008

Cool Programs You Might Need v2.0

Here's another list of somewhat common, but very useful programs!

gtk-recordmydesktop (Available in Synaptic) - Neat and tidy utility to record your desktop's activity. This is a great program to show off your Compiz effects to your friends!

VLC (Available in Synaptic) - Great, lightweight and almost perfect media player. I said almost perfect because somehow it reads almost any format on known to man and several known to monkeys! It's great and easy to use!

FFmpeg (Available in Synaptic) - **For best results add the Medibuntu repositories before trying to install ffmpeg. The instructions are pretty easy to follow** This is one of the most comprehensive video format converters found in Linux. This is a command-line tool!

WinFF (Found here!) - This is the Graphical User Interface for FFmpeg which make slife a whole lot easier!

Audacity (Available in Synaptic) - Great music editing program! It's a great option to make ringtones on Linux since most Windows-based ringtone-makers don't work on Wine.

That's it for today! Hope this helps someone!

Read full post here!

Open-Source Firmware For iPods!

Well, this has been debate that has been going on and on for years now. People like iPodLinux, but sadly the webpage has been taken down, it just gives and Apache error and never loads. So I was frustrated one night looking for another open-source firmware and I came across Rockbox. And man, is it a great firmware!

So I got to work almost instantly with the automatic installer/Rockbox Utility they provide on the site, but apparently it doesn't work for Ubuntu 8.04 and iPod Nano (which was the iPod I used for this experiment). So the instructions are pretty easy to follow, all you have to is go here and search for your mp3 player (yep not only iPods) and read the simple instructions. I do have to point out though that when you extract the .rockbox folder you MUST have "hidden folders" as viewable items (once you open up Nautilus and navigate to your mp3 player's root folder (where the rockbox folder should be extracted) press CTRL+H and you should see a .rockbox folder.) It's worth noting that if you fil to this step you'll never see the folder anywhere you extract it to. Also remember that folders that start with a "." are hidden by default, so if you want to see any hidden files or folders you have to enable the view of hidden folders.

Ok, now that you read the instructions and extracted the folder you're ready to go! I won't go into great detail on how to install it because the manual is pretty self-explanatory, so there's no need to reinvent the wheel. The only part of the manual that it's blurry is the fact that the extracted Rockbox folder is hidden and I already cleared that out.

I installed it on my 1st gen iPod Nano and it worked great! Not a problem in sight! In fact it sounds a whole lot better now, and the shuffle setting is a lot more shuffly...no more repeated songs over and over on the same playlist. And incredible as it may sound, the battery lasts longer than with the Apple Firmware. So it IS a good firmware =).

Note: There's still no support for newer iPod models or iPhones. For a list of current supported devices click here!

Enjoy!

Read full post here!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Pimp My Ubuntu!

Hey guys! I know that many of you are wanting to have custom wallpapers and themes on your newly discovered Ubuntu desktop. Well, I have great news for you! There's a great webpage called Gnome-Look.org which is one of the greatest places to find themes, wallpapers, GDM themes, Splash screens, desklets, icons, mouse cursors, sounds and everything else you might want to use for pimpin' out your Gnome desktop in Ubuntu!

Go check it out! It's a great place to find Gnome goodies! And the best part is that it's free! And it's updated very often! So you'll have new stuff almost every day!

Let me know what you think!
Read full post here!

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Fundamental Differences v2.0

As I promised, Fundamental Differences v2.0 is here! Ok now, I'll be talking a little bit about the less known differences between Ubuntu and Windows (any version in this case).

  • Free Professional Programs - Huh?! YES! Professional, as I stated on an earlier post, there are open-source programs that can deliver results as good as any $500-$2,000 program. People are scared of Open-Source , but as I said before, as long as you're careful about where you download your programs, Open-Source can be your friend! I call him OSsie ... LOL!
  • Frequent Bug Fixes And Updates- "Ha-Ha! Windows has Automatic Update!" So?...Ubuntu has UpdateManager which is responsible for automatically notifying you, downloading and installing ALL programs installed by/through Synaptic...TAKE THAT MICROSOFT! And the best part is that these updates and fixes are released almost daily!
  • Schedules Releases - "OMG Windows has new releases too!" ... Wrong! People that know computers have come to learn that Microsoft just puts new crap on their old crap. They keep adding "features" to the same OS we've known and hated since 1995 (Windows 3.1 and lower were kinda different programming-wise). Since Windows 95 we've been buying "new Windows" versions, which are everything but new. Vista added a bunch of new stupidities that ate half the RAM and VideoRAM in utter dumbness. Ubuntu has new releases and versions every six months. Granted it looks almost the same every new release...but the kernel is constantly being devloped and updated, unlike Windows.
  • Minimal System Requirements - Wanna see sparks and flames fly? Try to run Vista on a 500mhz processor with 64mb of RAM, it won't even let you start to install it. Ok, so people buy new PCs every year, but not everyone can. Some people only have older PCs which are enough for them. Ubuntu has a very low requirement to be ran in a desktop or laptop, and even the Recommended requirements are low in comparison with Vista's whopping 1.5Ghz processor, 1GB RAM, and 138mb video card "minimum requirements".
Ok I'm gonna end this post here before I start to hate Windows even more! ;-D!!!
Have fun reading! And I apologize if someone is offended by my sincerity about Windows-hatred!

Read full post here!

We're Almost There!

Yeah! Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex is near! Let me explain a little about the version numbers first.

Linux Ubuntu is scheduled to have a new release every six months. The first Ubuntu version was 4.10 in October 20, 2004...what does this mean?...

The first number means the year of the release, and the second number means the month of the release. And since Ubuntu is released every six months you won't see anything besides X.04 (meaning April) or X.10 (meaning October).

Ok! Now we know that Ubuntu 8.10 means the second release of the year 2008, or the October 2008 release! And I CAN'T WAIT!!! This new release promises to be one awesome improvement over 8.04! It has...........oh well, I'm gonna let the pro developers tell you the news about Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex! Looks cool, huh?

The greatest thing about Ubuntu is that unlike Windows, everytime it gets a new release/version, it's almost completely sure to say it will work better than the last version! Like XP to Vista upgrades, right?...WRONG! ;-)

Sometimes there are a few bugs and disturbances that might arise with a new release on certain computers, but it's never something impossible to overcome! So with a little reading and brain-power, as well as the necessary fixes the new release will work better than the last one!

Now, Intrepid Ibex looks awesome and all, but it's still in Alpha 5 state...so it's not stable nor recommended to be used on "non-developer" computers. If you want to use Ubuntu on the day-to-day basis wait for the final release, scheduled for October 30, 2008!

And if you're reading this and wondering what do you need to run Ubuntu, you'll find this System Requirements table very handy!


Desktops & Laptops
Servers
Required Recommended
Processor
300 MHz(x86) 700 MHz(x86) 300 MHz (x86)
Memory
64 MB 384 MB* 64 MB
Hard Drive Capacity
4 GB 8 GB 500 MB
Video Card
VGA @ 640x480 VGA @ 1024×768 VGA @ 640×480

*This table can be found in Wikipedia.
**Note: Although this table says "(x86)", 64-bit Ubuntu is also available. But I haven't used it yet.

Once you meet the minimum requirements you'll be good to go! But the "Recommended" System Requirements are even better of course! Keep in mind that Ubuntu might run ok, but some programs have their own System Requirements and might need more out of your computer.

So, we learned a few new things, haven't we? I bet you can't wait for October 30 either! I'm very excited about this new release and I hope for it to be the best so far!

Stay tuned!!!

Read full post here!

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Make your internet connection speed faster than a Porsche!

Well not really...but it'll be a lot faster! With this tweak you'll maximize your bandwidth and improve your web-browsing experience even when downloading files/torrents!

Simply open a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal) and type this in:

sudo gedit /etc/sysctl.conf

Now, the above command will open gedit Ubuntu's default text editor with a file. Scroll to the bottom of the file and paste this in:

# increase TCP max buffer size setable using setsockopt()
net.core.rmem_max = 16777216
net.core.wmem_max = 16777216
# increase Linux autotuning TCP buffer limits
# min, default, and max number of bytes to use
# set max to at least 4MB, or higher if you use very high BDP paths
net.ipv4.tcp_rmem = 4096 87380 16777216
net.ipv4.tcp_wmem = 4096 65536 16777216
# don't cache ssthresh from previous connection
net.ipv4.tcp_no_metrics_save = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_moderate_rcvbuf = 1
# recommended to increase this for 1000 BT or higher
net.core.netdev_max_backlog = 2500
# for 10 GigE, use this, uncomment below
# net.core.netdev_max_backlog = 30000
# Turn off timestamps if you're on a gigabit or very busy network
# Having it off is one less thing the IP stack needs to work on
#net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps = 0
# disable tcp selective acknowledgements.
net.ipv4.tcp_sack = 0
#enable window scaling
net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling = 1


It's important to paste it exactly as it is on the very bottom of the text file we opened. Now click on "Save" on the top toolbar, or press "Ctrl+S" and close gedit.

Now in a terminal type this in:

sudo sysctl -p

Now press enter and exit the terminal. This command applies the settings we added to the sysctl.conf file.

Now go to SpeedTest.net and check your internet speed. You can also try to download a healthy torrent or a file from any website and surf the web at the same time! You'll notice a very dramatic change in web-browsing speed! And if you don't and want to revert to your previous settings, just type this in a Terminal:

sudo gedit /etc/sysctl.conf

Remember this file? Now remove the lines you just added, hit "Save" or "CTRL+S" and exit. This should've successfully reverted your sysctl settings back to normal.

Hope this helped!

Note: Info taken from Ubuntu-Unleashed

Read full post here!

Put Your Ideas In The Blender!

Blender, a powerful and comprehensive 3D animation program, capable of delivering Pixar-looking animations. But don't believe me, check the Big Buck Bunny Open-Movie!

Blender is easily installed by Synaptic and it doesn't need any configurations to work. But you can customize the windows and toolbars to your liking!

Once you have Blender installed, you just need two basic elements...

1. Ideas mixed with imagination
2. Time

Now, if you need help on learning Blender just check this sites out!

Blender 3D Noob to Pro

Official Blender Wikimanual

Blender Model Repository


Now that you read through all the manuals and got some models to play with in Blender, just gather your ideas mixed with imagination and put them on top of the time (for reading the manuals and working in Blender) and mix lightly...once the mix is consistent and sticky throw it in the Blender and let your creativity fly like crazy!

Once you understand how to do Blender, you'll be making movies and animations just like the pros! So give it a try! It's fun! So come on and do the Blender with me!

Read full post here!

Cairo Dock's new version!

Hi guys! As you might remember, I made a post called "Who put the Mac in the Ubuntu?" in which I explained how to install Cairo Dock. Well, as of today, Cairo Dock is now available on the Ubuntu Repositories, so no Software Sources needed. Just open Synaptic and search for Cairo Dock! Remember to install the plugins too!

The new version (1.6.2) has a few new themes, and two new applets "Stack" and "Slider".

Stack is basically a port of MAC OS X's dock Stack feature. You can put files (songs, videos, pictures), URLs, text, etc for easy access. It stacks the files you drag&drop on it for easy and fast access!

Slider is basically a mini-photo-album in which you select a specific folder/directory with pictures on it and turn them into a slideshow in your dock!

This version has some under-the-hood fixes that make it run smoother and faster, besides it now supports themes submitted by people. As far as I know this feature is not yet fully implemented. I still haven't found where the user-submitted themes are.

Anyways, this is an absolute MUST-HAVE for any Ubuntuer! (or Ubunturero in spanish).

Feel free to leave your feedback here!

Note: You still need to install Compiz to let Cairo Dock be as pretty as possible, with 3D and transparencies!

Read full post here!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Cool Programs You Might Need!

This is important! I've always liked the huge library of programs available for Ubuntu, but they're so many that you can't test them all to see which ones are good. Well, I want to share my most-used programs list so you can have a head-start on the "Cool-Programs-Hunt"!

Rhythmbox (Preloaded in Ubuntu 8.04) - Great music player inspired by iTunes, but it's a whole lot more stable and easy to use. It has experimental iPod support, but it's buggy.

Firefox 3(Preloaded in Ubuntu 8.04.1) - One of the most powerful and customizable internet browsers on Earth. It has a great security system and it has hundreds of add-ons to make internet browsing safer and more enjoyable!

Zsnes (Found in Synaptic) - Great Super Nintendo Entertainment System emulator. You need to download the ROMs to play on it, and I won't be giving any romsites or ROMs...sorry.

SMC (Found in Synaptic) - Secret Maryo Chronicles, a great Mario Bros.-like game with a new twist!

cGmail (Found in Synaptic)- Great gMail checker and it has support for other protocols too.

Cairo-Dock (Found in Synaptic)- Great fully customizable and expandable dock. It has themes and applets to make it more appealing, helpful and powerful.

Deluge (Found in Synaptic)- Easy-to-use and powerful bittorrent client. It has an interface very similar to uTorrent.

Hydrogen (Found in Synaptic)- A very powerful and comprehensive drum-machine software. It has a drumkit manager which can be used to import new drumkit sounds. Very easy to use and it delivers almost-pro results.

OpenMovieEditor (Found in Synaptic) - An open-source movie editor capable of giving your homemade videos a Hollywood-like look. It features a ton of plugins for effects, transitions and titles.

gtkpod-aac (Found in Synaptic) - Complete yet simple iPod managing software. Supports (allegedly) all iPods.

Compiz (Found in Synaptic) - Probably the most complete compositing window manager for the X windowing system. You'll get lots of plugins for activating all sorts of cool effects on your desktop! Check it out!

Blender (Found in Synaptic) - A fast and powerful feature-rich 3D animation program capable of delivering Pixar-looking animations. Very comprehensive and complete. Takes a little time to get used to it though.

These were just a few of the cool programs Ubuntu has. As with the "Fundamental Differences" post, this post will have a series of continued posts. I hope to help as many people as possible!

Read full post here!

iPod + Ubuntu = LOVE!

So, many people think iTunes is the only place where you can manage your iPod...well...THEY'RE WRONG!!! In Windows there are lots of programs for iPod management, most of them being dangerous to use. But in Ubuntu there are tons of other programs, which could be dangerous for your iPod too...There are lots of music-playback programs that claim to have iPod management, most of them just let you play the songs on the iPod and not download or upload songs to and from you iPod.

Ok, in my case I tried Rhythmbox (Ubuntu Hardy's default music player) which I love, but it's iPod management is kinda sucky...and while surfing the Ubuntu Forums, I found a little program called "gtkpod-aac" which is awesome!!!

Some people might argument that it makes an iPod recognize songs as "other" files... Never happened to me, never had a problem. Obviously there's always a risk, but I've never had a problem with any of my iPods.

To install: Go to Synaptic Package Manager (System->Administration->Synaptic package manager), and search for "gtkpod-aac" select it, and hit "Apply" and wait for the program to install.

Once installed go to Applications->Sound & Video->gtkpod.

Once inside, connect your iPod and if everything is alright it will automatically recognize it! Almost everything related to download and upload of songs to and from the iPod is done by Drag&Drop, so it can't get any easier =)!

Since gtkpod has robust features I'm not going to explain everything it does...it'll take a lot of time. So if you need a manual for using and understanding gtkpod, just check the online ReadMe and you'll find all the info you might need.

If you have any specific questions, just post them below on the comments' section as always!

Note: I've tested this program with my 4GB 1st gen iPod nano and my beloved 160GB iPod Classic and both of them work great!!! Everything works smoothly, and there's no mess in playlists! I haven't tested any other iPod models.

Second Note: gtkpod can add music as well as videos to your iPod (if it's a video-capable iPod) but I haven't tested adding pictures...I believe that for pictures you'll need to use a different program. I'll check that out and update this post.

Read full post here!

Laptop care! (Electrical power tips)

Well, this is yet another general-help post. Doesn't really have anything with Ubuntu, but it's important to know a few things.

One very important to keep in mind when buying a laptop (and any other li-ion battery based device), is to:
Let it charge completely for a few hours before the first use! This varies from one device to another but most devices need 8-15 hours of charge the first time. Read your device's instructions for more information.

Also it's very important to: Let the laptop's battery cycle every once in a while. If you keep your laptop plugged into the electricity the battery will lose it's capacity and when you need the battery it might be damaged to the extent of not being able to keep the laptop on for more than 10 minutes. I've seen this happen a lot of times, and batteries are expensive. So take your laptop for a walk around the house once or twice a week. Also try to avoid leaving the laptop plugged in for long periods of inactivity, for example, all night long. If you finished your work at night unplug it and let the battery rest.

Most laptops, if not all of them, have a little box in the middle of the charger, most times one part of the charger plugs into it and it has another cable at the other end which goes connected to the laptop itself. Look at the screenshot for reference. (That's my Toshiba's charger).


This little box is a transformer (most the times) and it can get very VERY hot. So try to keep it where it gets some fresh air, and avoid putting it in closed areas or near heat-sources, like heaters, behind a monitor, near an engine, and so on.

And last but not least, avoid using your laptop (or any other device) in hot climates. In some countries a room's temperature can go as high as 115 F degrees...and that's suicide for any electronic device. If the laptop or device is forced to work under those temperatures the insides of it can melt, causing a whole mess of trouble. So try to keep it cool...know what I mean?... =)

Hope this was helpful! ;-)

Read full post here!

Control the Action!

Hey guys! I thought I'd share this because it's one of my favorite things in Ubuntu. Have you ever wanted to have a multimedia controller for your PC, but didn't have the cash? Most of these controllers cost around $100+...not a very friendly price.

Well, what would you say if I tell you, you can use you Wii Remote as multimedia remote and a mouse at the same time? I know a lot of people who have a Wii...and if you're one of them you can use your Wiimote safely! It won't suffer any changes whatsoever! So are you interested?...

I'm not gonna reinvent the wheel here... I'll just list the items you need.

1. A computer running Ubuntu 8.04
2. A Wiimote
3. A Bluetooth USB dongle (if your computer doesn't have integrated Bluetooth already)
4. An Infrared light source.
5. A few minutes to read and follow the instructions
6. A lot of patience if something goes wrong!

Well, "how can I do that?" you might ask... Please read the incredible guide Rhubarb made in the Ubuntu Forums! I said I wasn't going to reinvent the wheel. He made a great job putting that guide together...and it's pretty easy to follow! So go for it! The risk is almost null!

If you don't have a Wiimote, you can buy one for around $40...a lot cheaper than a multimedia remote...

So if you have any questions or suggestions just post them here on the comments section or on the Ubuntu Forums! (You'll need an account to post there though...but it's FREE!).

Hope this was helpful!

Read full post here!

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Who Put The Mac In The Ubuntu?

Ubuntu and Macintosh are very similar...both are UNIX based, and most Mac-features are found in one way or another inside Ubuntu. Obviously Macintosh is the leader in the media and graphic design area, and Ubuntu is slowly getting there.

I wanted to share with you guys how my desktop looks...

Yeah, probably your first impression was: "OMG! Wall-E! What's wrong with this guy?!"... Well, I loved Wall-E specially when I read it was made using Apple hardware and software. And besides it was a great movie, even if it was for kids, I enjoyed it a whole lot.

Ok back on topic, did you noticed my gnome-panel (on top) and my Cairo-Dock (on the bottom)?

If you're wondering where I got it from, well the answer is easy. Infra_Red_Dude, a member of SourceForge and Ubuntu Forums put together this awesome theme pack for Mac lovers living in Ubuntu...called Mac4Lin (Mac for Linux). This package is by far the most awesome and complete one I've come across.

A fair warning though. The newest version available for download is an RC (Release Candidate) and I haven't test it yet. I used the "0.4 version" and it was very easy to use following the instruction manual provided by Infra_Red_Dude, just took like 35-60 minutes to do everything from reading the instructions to accomplishing the final product.

This new version is supposed to have a script which will install everything by itself. I'm going to test this right now on another account on my laptop (just to keep my current settings) and then report back about how it works. But I know most people might want to wait for the final release.

Download Mac4Lin Here!


Cairo Dock is very easy to get too! Basically it's a fully-customizable dock which has a few different themes and icons to make it look cool! It looks a lot like the Mac OSX dock with the corect theme installed.

You'll need Compiz-Fusion in order for it to work. So go to Synaptic Manager (System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager) and search for Compiz, and install it. There's an alternate install for Compiz which include a whole lot of extra plugins and features (which I'm currently using) but it's a little unstable and it's installed from "git". Don't worry about this, the one on Synaptic is almost sure to work 100% if your video-card supports it, and it's a whole lot easier to install. I'm going to cover the "git" install in a later post ;-).

Ok now that you have compiz installed restart the computer and when it boots up open up a terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal and paste this line there:

wget -q http://repository.cairo-dock.org/ubuntu/cairo-dock.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -


Then go to System->Administration->Software Sources and then select the "Third-Party Software" tab. Click the "+Add" button on the bottom and enter these two lines:

deb http://repository.cairo-dock.org/ubuntu hardy cairo-dock

***If you're using the newest Ubuntu (8.04 Hardy Heron). If you're using Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) just change "Hardy" to "Gutsy".

Then, click on "Close" and then on "Reload". After that open up Synaptic Manager again and search for "cairo-dock" and select it and also it's very important to select the "cairo-dock-plug-ins' package, then hit on "Apply" and presto! Once installed go to Applications->System Tools->Cairo Dock.

If you want your dock to load at boot-up, I mean, at the same time as Gnome, or even simpler said everytime you restart your computer, just go to System->Preferences->Session and press "Add" then fill the fields as follows:

Name: Cairo Dock
Command: cairo-dock
Comment: Cookies!!!

Ok, I got carried away. Basically the most important field is "command" the other two can have anything you want to let you recognize the process easily. It's better to fill it as I did, easier to find in the Sessions list in case you want to edit or delete it. You can leave the "comment" field blank, or write whatever you want.

Hit Ok and restart the computer to test the dock. If it shows up when the computer boots up you're done! If it has a weird black square around it, it's probably because Compiz didn't load at start-up.

Go to System->Preferences->Sessions again and click "Add" and fill the fields as follows:

Name: Compiz
Command: compiz (or "compiz --replace" in some cases)
Description: Yay! 3D stuff!

Hope this post was as helpful and easy to follow as it could be. If anyone is stuck or didn't understand what I said, just leave a comment and I'll gladly help you out! ;-)!

UPDATE: THE PART OF THIS POST IN RED IS NO LONGER NECESSARY! CAIRO DOCK IS ALREADY ADDED TO THE UBUNTU REPOSITORIES!
Read full post here!

Got UPS?

No, I'm not talking about those huge brown vans with golden logos that are responsible for bringing packages to our houses. I'm talking about Uninterruptible Power Source. I always say that a well-taken-care-of computer, is a happy computer! And this is specially true in blackout-prone areas, like where I live.

If you suffer from power surges, spikes, or blackouts you're better off buying one of these UPS, also known as batteries. Most UPS claim to last 10, 15, 20...or more minutes, but that's not always necessarily true. As most people know, these numbers are based on voltage and wattage usage. Most UPS won't handle high-power-demand devices such as TVs, Laser Printers, big LCD or Plasma screens/monitors, or speaker systems. Such devices require too much power and the UPS/Battery might malfunction or even get internal damage due to the high power demand.

So for better performance and longer life of your computer, laptop or desktop, you might be interested in buying a UPS/Battery.

If you're interested in one, just post a comment and I'll post some links to specific sites that sell UPS.

This was a general-help post by the way! ;-)

Read full post here!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Let's Get This Party Started! (Installing Ubuntu)

Well, we have our Live CD running, we checked that everything worked and we made sure to write down all the needed "fixes" for our hardware to work correctly and smoothly. When we install Ubuntu all the changes we made during the Live CD run will be deleted, so make a list of needed modifications, downloads, fixes and everything else in between! There is a way to keep the changes you did during the Live CD run, but the information it's obsolete and kinda hard to understand for new Ubuntuers. So if you're lucky you won't have to do many changes after installation (again)

Here we go! Fasten your seatbelts! ...

- Double click the nice "Install" icon on your desktop!

- Here's the welcome screen, read it if you wish and hit "Forward".



- Choose your time zone. Hit "forward"



- Choose your country and keyboard layout. USA on both lists will do for most people. Hit "forward"



- Now our little friend "The Partitioner" will load.


- The Partitioner loaded, now select the second option if you want to delete Windows completely. If not select the third option (Manual) and then specify the partition sizes you want. It's important to note that you need a "Swap Area". Just do a little partition of around the same size as your RAM and choose from the dropdown list the "swap" option. If there are any errors, our little friend will let us know! It's easy to use this nice GUI.


- Now enter you name, and password (the password must be entered twice) and then the name you want for your computer. Hit "forward" (The names on the screenshot are examples only!)


- Now there'll be a summary of the settings you chose. Take a minute to review it and if everything is correct hit "Install".



- Now Ubuntu will get to work. In most computers (depending on it's performance) the installation process takes only around 15-30 minutes. So go to the kitchen for a glass of milk and some cookies, you're earned them!


- Once installed hit the "Reboot Now" button.



-When Ubuntu prompts you to remove the disc, do so. And then close the disc tray, if any, and hit "Enter"

- Once the computer restarts, if everything went correctly and smoothly, you should see the User Login screen (this screen can be customized greatly, more about this on a later post). Enter the username you set on the installation process and your password.



- And ta-da! Ubuntu will load and take you to the desktop you once knew and loved during the Live CD (but without the "Install" and "Examples" icons). Now take out your list of needed fixes and downloads and start working. You'll get a very warm and fuzzy feeling once you get everything working smoothly! Feel free to post any questions or requests on the comments' section of this post. I'll try my best to help! Remember, I can help you in spanish too!



NOTE: I took the screenshots from another website. It won't happen again :-)! From now on my posts will have original screenshots. It's kinda hard to grab screenshots while installing Ubuntu, that's why I googled them.

Read full post here!

Let's Get This Party Started! (Run a Live CD)

Well, let's try to install Ubuntu, shall we? It's worth noting that there are tons of Linux distributions, but I find that the most user-friendly and well-maintained one is Ubuntu. It's very versatile and very easy to install!

Let's divide this in a few steps, shall we?

First, go to the Download Ubuntu page select your desired download (Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition) and your type of computer...most computers have 32-bit processors...so choose the first option. Choose your location and hit the shiny green "Start Download" button!

Now go take a nap, watch a movie, play baseball with your kids, repair your car, or do whatever else you want, because the download might take a few hours depending on your Internet speed.

Ok, now that it's finished burn the .iso file to a disc. You'll need an ISO application for this. You could use NERO Burning ROM or whatever other program you want. For a better alternative download the free trial of PowerISO and burn the image (iso) to a CD.

Now that you have your freshly baked Live CD insert it on your PC's main CD drive and restart. Boot from the CD (by hitting F12 a few times as soon as the computer reloads the BIOS and choose to boot from CD-ROM device).


You'll see the above image...First select the "Check CD for Defects" option. This'll take a few minutes. If the test was successful just select the first option (Try Ubuntu without any changes to your computer) and let the disc run it's magic.


Once you see this glorious desktop...you're done! You've successfully ran a Live CD!!! Now take the time to play around with the different features it has! Open Programs, test hardware, go nuts! Remember it's free and it's yours! So change everything you want! Test it throughly!!!

If you feel you're ready to install it..........................wait for my next post, which will give you some cool tips on how to install Ubuntu smoothly!

Hope this post helped you guys!

Read full post here!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Fundamental Differences Between Ubuntu And Windows

Well, I've been using Ubuntu for a year or so, and I've been using it full-time since April. And I've come across many fundamental differences between Ubuntu and Windows XP/Vista. I used XP for more than 6 years and Vista for 9 months...and none of them really filled my expectations. Ubuntu did almost instantly! And I'm gonna do a little comparison here.

  • No viruses or spyware! A big difference between both OSes. Most people claim Windows has more programs and applications...sure it has! If you count the multiple and useless virus/malware scanners and removers!

  • Faster and more reliable! Ok, careful now. This is relative to the use you have for your computer. Ubuntu has an awesome fylesystem which doesn't need to be "defragmented" or "error checked" every week, like in Windows. Although it has a great filesystem, if you don't know how to install certain packages and binaries or if you don't know how to compile code...you'll end up with a mess in your computer, making it a lot slower. But don't worry, installing and compiling is not that hard. Uninstalling compiled programs it's a little harder, but it's not impossible either.

  • Totally free of charge and totally free to modify! Remember when I told you you can make Ubuntu look like XP, Vista or Mac?...Well actually you can make it look however you want! There are tons of themes, gadgets and apps for making Ubuntu your own personal playground. Think of it as decorating your room...you can do whatever you want because it's yours! You'll never have to pay a cent for downloading and using Ubuntu and almost all of it's programs. (There are some people selling programs for Linux-based systems though).

  • Aero?...pfff! Yeah right! Vista was launched as a "You Can Personalize It" OS....well...THEY'RE WRONG! Vista has a nice looking interface, with some "new" transparency effects...which only eat up like 25% out of a 2GB RAM (Aero and the needed OS processes only) without counting all the other programs you open up...So you'll end up wasting valuable memory on a crappy effect...Hence most people deactivate Aero completely. In Ubuntu you can install Compiz-Fusion which is the most comprehensive and cool collection of 3D desktop effects there is! And even with tons of effects in use it uses around 7-15mbs of RAM... wha..? YES it's very memory-friendly...allowing you to use your valuable RAM for useful things, while having tons of pimping effects in your desktop and taskbars...including that nifty cube everyone is talking about ;-)! And everything inside Ubuntu is customizable in one way or another!

  • Open-Source! Like I said it's free! But there's always someone who says "OMG but open-source it's dangerous! They can hack your system!" Well...THEY'RE...KINDA... WRONG! All you have to do is be very careful about where you download and install packages from. If you can use only the ones available on the repositories (repos for short) you won't have any problems! Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu's funds for maintenance and support) personally test all the programs in the repos to make sure they're safe and stable. That's why sometimes the repos have old versions of some programs, they test them first!

  • Free and Reliable Support! There are lots of people willing to help other people that make neat blogs about support, tips and tricks for Ubuntu (like me) and there's also lots of documentation and forums everywhere...FREE!!! Check the "Awesome Sites" list on the right of this blog. Hit the one that says "Ubuntu Forums" and there you'll find hundreds of threads and topics about help and support for almost everything "Ubuntu-related". But don't forget to come here too!

  • Satisfaction Guaranteed! What if you don't like it? That won't happen anyway, but Linux Ubuntu is so versatile that you can run it directly from the CD... That's called a Live CD and it let's you check if everything works before actually installing it on you computer! The best part is, that if you decide not to take the leap of faith from Windows to Ubuntu you can just restart your computer and remove the disc and Ubuntu is gone! No leftovers or trails left behind on your HD!
    Go on and try it!
Well this was part one of my "Fundamental Differences" series of posts. Hope you guys enjoyed it! And the best part is, that if you don't want to get rid of Windows completely (I did format my HDD and deleted Windows completely) you can make a double-boot or you can use VMWare or VisturalBox to run Windows inside of Ubuntu. (More about these programs in later posts).

Read full post here!

Running Windows programs on Ubuntu?

This is fairly easy. Some people might be afraid of doing such a thing, and if you can avoid it...by all means do so! Ubuntu has tons of great native programs that work better than Windows-based programs.

But if you really need to run a Windows program you can use Wine, but first check the program's compatibility here! Once the page loads look for the search box on the bottom of the left column of the page, and type in your program's name.

This will give you a few results. Most likely the first one will be the one relevant to your need. Click on the first link and it'll take you to Wine's AppDB (application database) and there you'll be able to check the program's current status. If it's shadowed with a greenish color and says "Garbage" don't mind installing it...it won't work.

I suggest you read all the relevant parts of the table in the AppDB before proceeding.

Ok, now let's say your program works. Simply go to the Synaptic Manager (System>Administration>Synaptic Package Manager), enter your password, and then search for "wine" (without quotes).

Hit "apply" and the manager will take care of the rest. Once installed it should be as easy as restarting your computer and then double-clicking the .exe file like on Windows, and the installer will launch.

Again, if you can avoid this...do so! But wine is a pretty nice program though.

Hope this helped!

Read full post here!

Introduction to Ubuntu Dawn!

Welcome to Ubuntu Dawn! The place to find information about Linux Ubuntu and the tips and tricks that don't come in the manual! I called this blog "Ubuntu Dawn" because once you install Linux Ubuntu you'll feel like you're on the verge of a new dawn...full of opportunities and new challenges!

This blog will be focusing on tips for getting the most out of your computer running Linux Ubuntu!

And since I know how hard it is to find good documentation for specific computers, I'll be making guides for Toshiba Satellite laptops and Dell Dimension 4600 desktops. I own both of these computers and I have them running smoothly. It was a very hard task, but i managed to make everything work correctly and smoothly, hence I'll be sharing my experiences with you guys for easing up the task of making your hardware function correctly.

Don't be afraid! It's easy, just a little time-consuming! And I'll be guiding you through the process! Besides if you need help in spanish (or more in depth help in english) just let me know and I'll do whatever is possibl to help!

So come on! Visit my blog, I'll be updating it regularly with guides for doing cool things! And I can make Ubuntu look like XP, Vista or Macintosh with the help of other blogs, sites and some packages that need to be downloaded. I'll link to the specific sites and post guides for using the correct elements and settings to make you computer more friendly!

Hope to see you around my blog often!
Read full post here!