Monthly Archives: May 2011

Ambiance Evolution Theme

Trying another theme for the brand new Ubuntu 11.04 now.  Ambiance Evolution looks very sharp. What with the bordeless windows. When I did the installation and started using it I was pleasantly  surprised with the look it gave Banshee, the default media player for Ubuntu 11.04.  Wow.

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Address Bar on Browsers

I am a full screen user myself. Having a single window glowing in front of me is less distracting. Chrome and Firefox both are hiding the address bar but how exactly they are going to implement this I don’t know. They moved the add-ons and preferences into a separate tab model. Just like history and bookmarks.

You Are Invited To Diaspora

Diaspora is a distributed social network that champions privacy and your power over the things you create and share with friends and only with your friends.

Diaspora is open source which means its code is accessible for perusal and inspection.

Why do we need another Facebook? Because if you came here looking for it, then I say there is a need for it.

This is Diaspora.

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Linux Rant (just this once)

Don’t click links from unknown sources in your email.
Don’t download anti-virus software you encountered while browsing something else.
Update the software you’re using.
Delete away software you’re not using.
I guess this is why I think Chrome OS is a good idea. The idea here is an operating system that’s kept in the cloud. Every time you boot into this OS it checks the system files. No rootkits right there. If Google wants to work a security patch, it’s done in the background. If you’ve been using it a while and suddenly you feel paranoid about the computer, all you have to do is re-boot and accept the ‘cloud’ version instead of your local OS.

Lately, a bunch of companies with business models anchored in the cloud got their security broken. There are a lot of security issues with cloud services. There are a lot of privacy issues with cloud services. Many of these services were not thought through very well. I don’t have the level of technical knowledge to judge these services initially and so I find myself using them and then finding out I’m in trouble. All I can do is follow the discussion and then look out for me. Learn from the mistakes and be the better user for it.

I came from Windows and so I know how users can end up not trusting their computers anymore. That is a very sad day. Luckily, I learned about Linux. I know about Apple but I have to buy a new hardware to get the Mac and it doesn’t feel right  that I have to pay for security and privacy when I already have pc’s. I mean it’s looking a lot like the Mafia and Al Capone if you know what I mean.

I now use Linux. I really like the culture that comes with embracing this operating system. Linux doesn’t hide its internals. It’s unapologetic about giving you text commands and keyboard shortcuts to use. These pushes you to be a more informed user and if you’re like me, seek help from the community. When you are in the minority, finding other Linux users in the thousands make you a lot more confident. Actually it’s the exchange of knowledge that made me a better computer user.

I think you should do Linux right.
Steep learning curve? Learning linux is fun.
Too many choices of linux distros? Since when is choice wrong.
My favorite application doesn’t work in Linux. Linux is not Windows. I thought I won’t be able to replace MS Office. I am now almost embarrassed to say that because I am typing this rant using LibreOffice.

Big deal for all graphics artists Plug in…

Big deal for all graphics artists. Plug in for GIMP and inkscape.

via Planet Ubuntu on 5/19/11


I’m please to announce that version 1.0 of the deviantArt stash plugins for Inkscape and Gimp are released.

It’s a Big Deal

This is a BIG deal my friends and I’m very excited because not only do we have this functionality, but we have it FIRST, before ANY proprietary software package. That’s right, the stash API was only announced last week and here I am giving you the keys to brand spanking new functionality right from within your favourite art creation applications!

We can do something with art that no other software can do today… send your artwork (with or without sources) directly to your deviantArt account… then once uploaded it can (at your option) open up the web browser so you can look at the artwork, send your friends a link or publish it further in your main galleries.

Where do I get it!?

You can get the goodness from the source tarball or from my ppa by following these steps:


sudo add-apt-repository ppa:doctormo/deviantart-plugins
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gimp-plugin-dastash inkscape-extension-dastash

Please report bugs in launchpad, if you would like to make these plugins available for other platforms, please do let me know. If you know someone who will sponsor these packages into Debian, also get in touch. Because this is the sort of functionality that should be available directly from the software center.

How do I use it?

Simply go into either Inkscape or Gimp…

Open up an XCF gimp file and from the Image menu, select ‘Publish to’ > ‘deviantArt Stash’:

Open up an SVG file and from the Extensions menu, select ‘Publish to’ > ‘deviantArt’:

A small window will appear, fill in the title and maybe a few keywords and press ok… If this is your first time uploading you will get a popup asking you to authenticate:

Log in and now wait as your image is saved as a png, and then the png and source files as sent to deivnatArt. Inkscape might give you a warning that the extension returns (saying you weren’t authenticated) you can safely ignore it. You should still get the webpage pop up in your web browser showing your your new devination:

With Thanks To

A big shout out to Gilles Dubuc and Mike Halpert from deviantArt who made sure that bugs were fixed and I was given help trying to fix some of the problems with OAuth. Thanks LGM for hosting an awesome event that allowed the project to happen.

If you have any questions or thoughts, please add a comment to this blog entry…

Freedom Riders: What Is A Hero?

Civil rights is a long struggle and most often involved challenging authority and facing violence. In 1961 the Supreme court of the US ruled that segregation in Federal facilities is unconstitutional. Groups advocating civil rights tested this ruling by riding in nonsegregated buses up to southern states like Mississippi and Alabama. These interstate buses were legally obliged to follow the supreme court ruling even in places where segregation was still practiced and enforced.

One iconic image of the freedom riders is that of Jim Zwerg.

Jimzwerg

from Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia.

Freedom riders knew or expected to be stopped or arrested for violating local laws.  What they did not count on was the degree of hate and violence waiting for them in bus stops and roads. The first freedom riders were to arrive in New Orleans May 17th but in May 14th in Birmingham, Alabama a mob attacked the freedom riders.

Freedom riders sat side by side with another person in the bus regardless of the color of their skin and ethnic background. The mob hated the white freedom riders the most and singled them out by beating them with baseball bats and iron pipes. Injured riders were denied medical treatment in local hospitals. Local police and authorities looked the other way and did not stop the violence.

An Old Skill Comes To The Fore

If you happen to be geek, there’s a lot to like about Unity. It invests heavily in keyboard shortcuts, a strategy that arguably makes window management more efficient than in any other desktop interface I’ve ever used — provided you learn the hotkeys.

From the VAR guy

Typing

I have been using Ubuntu 11.04 since early April before it was released as Final. It struck me that the developers made Unity specifically for ‘keyboard’ mode users. What I realized early on is that without typist skill and utilizing keyboard shortcuts I can’t make 11.04 work for me with efficiency. What other users are shaking their heads over is the fact that you have to make extra clicks just to get where you want to go. This is not happening to me mainly because I use and depend on the keyboard and the OS keyboard shortcuts since I began using Ubuntu. I am a great fan of keyboard shortcuts and I’ve been typing my way through my work and blogs the way they taught me in high school-all ten fingers on the keyboard.

Comment On Sen.John McCain’s Anti-Torture Speech

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The comment section of a Youtube post is such a wealth of conversation from pundits and the general section of the gallery.

The lie:

@bsphenom We received the first hint of a particular curier(sic) over 4 years ago by the ksm. If we didn’t have the start of that lead, it would never have been followed up on. Deny it all you need to, to make yourself feel better about your government and yourself. The majority of Americans know the truth/facts.

The truth:

@TheYoungTurdz Research that more. KSM actually LIED to us about the courier. KSM said the courier was now married to a tribal woman and living in Peshawar (tribal area). If anything, that led us in the wrong direction. That is probably why we were searching for caves, not in the suburbs of Islamabad near a military base. I actually used to support torture, but now I see I was wrong. These terrorists are TRAINED to evade torture. They know how to lie very well even under torture.

notes:
KSM=khaled sheik mohammed(tortured detainee)
Peshawar=province in Pakistan

The McCain Speech is here.

Senator John McCain ran for president against President Barack Obama.While he lost that presidential race, he continue to serve his country as senator of Arizona. His personal encounter with torture has given him a unique position in the debate about enhanced interrogation techniques.He may not have won the presidency but he certainly deserves it.

Reveal The System Settings In Ubuntu 11.04

I suggest you put the system setting icon in the Unity launcher for now at least. If you don’t mind the "HAL" icon there.

Control_icon_launcher

Hi, dave. 

Reaction: Republicans in Texas Senate approve guns on campus

There really is a disconnect among Americans when it comes to guns and crime. I thought that Columbine drove home the message about kids, guns and lots of guns. I hope that when students bring guns to school, that they need it for educational purposes because otherwise the only target to shoot are other students and their teachers.