Ubuntu Touch goes native

"Pre-release test images of Ubuntu Touch now launch an Ubuntu system directly, with the Android userland environment, used to run Android applications under Ubuntu Touch, running in an LXC Linux container within Ubuntu.

This inverts the situation in previous pre-release versions of the operating system for the smartphone and tablet market." - The H

This is good news for us tablet users who have been foaming at the mouth for a true Linux and/or Ubuntu experience.

Especially for us hackers/tweakers, as intomobile stated.

I personally am looking forward to some of this touch technology Canonical is working on funneling back into the desktop/laptop pc version.

Especially if they could release a much lighter option for unity.

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KDE rocks again!

Many years ago I was a strict KDE fan. I loved how functional it was.
That was in the KDE 2 and 3 days.

Then KDE got more and more buggy and slow, and I moved to Gnome 2 and all it's glory.

As I wrote in the preceding article about K3B, KDE apps in a non KDE environment used to be a very buggy and slow proposition.

When K3B didn't act slow and buggy, I started to wonder if KDE itself had gotten better.

Out of curiosity, I installed the bare minimum KDE package available for Ubuntu (kdebase-workspace) and kmixer (package name kmix) to try the environment out again.

I was pleasantly surprised at a rock solid and fast (in comparison to gnome 3 and unity) desktop environment.

I have to say now that KDE is my number 2 desktop environment choice. I still think nothing holds a candle to XFCE, in my opinion.

The few tweaks I made where setting up nm-applet as a startup app under the system settings, (otherwise I had no network manager visible) and changing the desktop theme to "oxygen" so it was easier to read the kde bottom bar.

I added kmixer (kmix) to the apps I installed because I had no volume control on the desktop without it.

I also could not stand the extra zero in the 12 hour clock, so I changed the format under system settings > locale > country/region & language > date & time tab > time format: pH:MM:SS AMPM.

The small p in pH:MM:SS AMPM does the trick.

This is my result:

Click picture to enlarge

I have no way of demonstrating the speed to you, but the base kde packages needed aren't very big, so if you are feeling adventurous give it a try.

I do want to mention that when installing the kdebase-workspace package, it will ask you if you want to use lightdm (ubuntu's default desktop manager) or the kde alternative. I stayed with lightdm and so far have had no issues.

If your Linux distribution does not have an easy way of installing KDE, or if you would just like more information, you can check out http://kde.org or the irc.freenode.org #kde irc channel.

If you don't have an IRC client, or you don't know how to use IRC, I have made a special browser link to the channel here: Freenode's KDE IRC Webchat

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K3B - The CD Kreator

I was having problems making ISO CD's the other day. After trying Brasero and XFBurn, I researched why I kept on making error CD's.

I hate making "frisbees" as much as the next person. (For those of you that don't know, the term "frisbee" is used to denote a CD or DVD that is useless because of damage or some other error.)

When I saw on the forum to use K3B, I hesitated because I have had problems in the past with KDE apps not running decent in a non KDE environment. (I use XFCE.)

I have to say though that I found K3B to be the ticket. It turns out that my ISO files where damaged, and Brasero and XFBurn had failed to warn me of this.

K3B though immediately pointed out that the MD5 Hash values where off. This means that while the file was reporting to be 733 megabytes, in fact it was only 712 megabytes, meaning the download had failed, and the file was damaged and unusable.

I re-downloaded the file, and K3B handled the burning smoothly and quickly.

I am now a K3B user, and burn all my ISO files to disc with it.

If you give it a try, I think you will be pleasantly surprised at it's functionality and professional design.

You can get K3B on Ubuntu by using the "Ubuntu Software Center" or by typing "sudo apt-get install K3B" in a terminal window.

For more information and other download/installation options, see http://www.k3b.org/

*KDE and XFCE are both desktop environments available for use in Linux.

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Watchtower Library text is all squares with Wine

If you are a Linux user like myself, and you use Wine to run the Watchtower Library, then you may get boxes instead of text.

This can be easily solved, and since I get this question a lot, I thought I would post my solution here.

Start the Watchtower Library, and look for an option to the top left that says "Library". Click Library, and then choose "Properties" as shown in the picture below:

(You can click on the picture to make it larger) 

Once you choose Properties, you will get a box that looks like this:

                                      (You can click on this picture as well to make it larger)

Change the text option under "Item" to another type of text. Then hit the OK button on the bottom of the properties box.

If the squares went away, you have successfully solved this problem.

If not, you will have to repeat these steps and make another text choice in the "Item" section.

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Thank you Trumpet Winsock

In the days of my 386, running windows 3.11 for workgroups, I was an avid BBS'er and internet dial up fan.

One of the unsung heroes of the day, and a piece of software I had long since forgotten about was Trumpet Winsock.

Most machines back then didn't have the software installed to properly run a connection to the internet.

Trumpet Winsock solved this.

With Windows 3.11 for Workgroups, the Netscape browser (a prettied up version of Mozilla) and Trumpet Winsock, I was in business.

Man, it feels strange waxing poetic about the internet. In so many ways the internet still feels brand new. The truth is if it was a person, it would be about 34 (possibly older)...

*For more info on the "World Wide Web" or the Internet, as we call it today, check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web

The unsung hero of Trumpet Winsock is Peter Tattam. He created Trumpet Winsock. Trumpet Winsock was meant to be a shareware software title that would be purchased by the user if he/she found it useful.

But, like myself, most people gave him nothing. The truth is without his Trumpet Winsock, the internet would most likely not be in existence today. If nothing else, it can be argued that the internet would not be as widely used or as developed as it is today without Trumpet Winsock.

"What you probably didn't know is that the author of Trumpet Winsock — Peter Tattam from Tasmania, Australia — didn't see much money for his efforts. Millions of copies were distributed by ISPs and on magazine covers, but only a fraction of those copies were ever paid for.

Peter’s little program enabled millions of people to get online for the first time ever, right when the web was in its infancy. It made ISPs possible for the vast majority of users running Windows. In short, Peter is an unsung hero of the web revolution." -from http://thanksfortrumpetwinsock.com/

If you would like to thank Peter for his program, you can express your thanks and/or donate money to him here: http://thanksfortrumpetwinsock.com/

Thinking back, there was a lot of shareware software I used and never payed for. as the author of http://thanksfortrumpetwinsock.com/, Jacques Chester, wrote "At the time I didn't have two 50c coins to rub together."

So I want to take the time to say to all of you who wrote wonderful, useful, and far to often not paid for donation-ware and shareware, Thank you.

Back then I also did not have two 50 cent pieces to rub together. If money would have been no problem, I would have paid my share.

I have been much much better about this since then, and I would hope that this is true of everyone else who was in the financial situation I was in back then.

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Die.net, a collection of projects

When I first found this site, it was researching what the word tabernacle meant. I now know it means "a temporary lodging" thanks to Die.net.

I then saw that Die.net houses a lot of Linux information, which is also very useful.

Die.net's header reads: "Online since 1996, die.net hosts the collective 'net projects of a few dozen friends in the U.S."

But what strikes me is Die.net's purpose. To collect friends' Internet projects together in one place. Whose friends? I wonder...

The only information I could dig up was from a whois search of Die.net.
I found out that some person named Aaron Hopkins, from Los Angeles CA owns the .net.

I wish I had more backstory, that's half the fun of finding quirky little websites on the net.

Besides the interesting mystery though, there are a lot of interesting and useful tools on this website.

As I mentioned earlier, there is a plethora of useful Linux info on here.

I also found a guide to Python, A trace hop utility and a moon phase program, just to name a few of the quirky things hosted on this website. (Like a yarn store...)

I love finding these quirky little web pages that are tucked into the corner of the web. I suggest you give Die.net a look over.

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Windows Really Good Edition

While rummaging through the internet, I found this quirky website: http://www.deanliou.com/WinRG/WinRG2.htm

If you miss the days of Win 95, 98, ME or 2000 then you should give this a try.

If you do not miss how buggy these versions of windows were, then don't.

I got a chuckle from it myself.

Here are a few sneak peeks into the madness of Windows RG:

Click to enlarge

Personally the second image here is my favorite. I couldn't stand that paperclip. So buggy and intrusive.

Sorry this is such a short stub of a an article, but digging up information on the creators or any other info about it has been unfruitful.

-Denny

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