Removing multiple spaces in OpenOffice/LibreOffice

I recently received several documents that contained multiple (and irregular) numbers of spaces between each word.  When I asked the original author about this, they said that they typed out the document and that they struggle with the gap a space produces being too small.  As I was meant to extract the information out of these documents and use it in a report and create a spreadsheet out of these I wanted to get rid of the multiple spaces so that I wouldn't have to re-type the whole thing. 

Microsoft office offers several ways to do this, however many of them do not work with OpenOffice or LibreOffice.  This is such a simple problem, but there are not many solutions to this shown online.

A simple fix is to use the Find & Replace tool (Ctrl + H or edit > Find & Replace from the top menu).  This will bring up a window (shown below).  In the Search for field enter [:space:]+ (be sure to include the symbols) and then in the Replace With field put in a space.  Click on the + symbol beside Other Options and select Regular expressions ( a tick should appear in the box beside it.

 Click on Replace All and your document should now be sorted, all of the multiple spaces will be replaced by a single space.

I recently received several documents that contained multiple (and irregular) numbers of spaces between each word.  When I asked the original author about this, they said that they typed out the document and that they struggle with the gap a space produces being too small.  As I was meant to extract the information out of these documents and use it in a report and create a spreadsheet out of these I wanted to get rid of the multiple spaces so that I wouldn't have to re-type the whole thing. 

Microsoft office offers several ways to do this, however many of them do not work with OpenOffice or LibreOffice.  This is such a simple problem, but there are not many solutions to this shown online.

A simple fix is to use the Find & Replace tool (Ctrl + H or edit > Find & Replace from the top menu).  This will bring up a window (shown below).  In the Search for field enter [:space:]+ (be sure to include the symbols) and then in the Replace With field put in a space.  Click on the + symbol beside Other Options and select Regular expressions ( a tick should appear in the box beside it.

 Click on Replace All and your document should now be sorted, all of the multiple spaces will be replaced by a single space.

Removing multiple spaces in OpenOffice/LibreOffice

Setting up a Raspberry Pi as a home server

A lot of people have spoken about the potential uses for a Raspberry Pi, however a lot of these are often very specific to be of use to anybody other than the project creator (using it as part of a home made weather balloon system for example).  When I purchased my Raspberry Pi it was for a specific purpose; the old PC that I used as a home server had given up the ghost and I needed a replacement.  The Raspberry Pi seemed like the ideal answer as it was small and used a lot less electricity (a big plus for a piece of equipment that is going to be on 24/7).

Before we start there are a few things you will need:

• A Raspberry Pi
• A computer with internet access 
• Raspian linux distro
• An SD Card (4GB minimum)
• An SD Card reader/slot on your computer
• External USB hard drive (this will need to be large if you plan to have video and music files on it, I recommend about 2TB minimum)
• Micro USB charger (my old one from a previous Android phone did the job)
• A wired USB keyboard
• An ethernet cable
• An HDMI cable
• A monitor/TV with an HDMI connection

1. Firstly we are going to need to install Raspian onto the SD card, for full instructions on how to do this I recommend reading this how to guide. However I kept it simple and used the command line on my Linux system.

Firstly we need to extract the file out of the Zip archive.  Navigate to the place where the downloaded file is and enter the command:
unzip {thefilename}

As these change every time a new version is released the command will alter depending on the image that has been downloaded.

2. Now to get the image onto the SD card.  I needed to use the bs=1M option in the command as the install failed twice with bs=4M, it stated that it would take 'considerably' longer, but the whole process was still fairly quick:
dd bs=1M if={location of raspian.img file} of={location of SD card}

If your not sure what the location of the SD card is then make sure it is removed from the computer and in the command line type:
df -h

Then insert (and mount) the SD card and retype the command:
df -h

There will be an additional item on the list:

In the example above the location of the card is /dev/sdc, we ignore the number as this refers to the partition.

3. Once the process has been complete, unmount the SD card and insert it into the Raspberry Pi.  Connect your keyboard and external hard drive via the USB ports and then connect the Pi to your router and TV before finally giving it power.

4. When you first power up the Raspberry Pi you are asked for some initial settings:

Firstly we'll want to expand_rootfs, this means that we'll be able to use the entire SD card if we ever need to.

We need to know the password, so the next thing we'll do is change the password, to do this simply select change_pass and enter in your new password.

configure_keyboard, change_local and change_timezone allow the user to set the keyboard layout, the location and the local time zone (these are all UK by default).

As this is a server we won't have it connected to a monitor for the majority of
it's life so make sure that we do not start the graphical desktop on boot, boot_behaviour changes this setting.   Although this may look nicer, the Raspberry Pi has limited power and we want this to focus on sharing our files over a server, not looking pretty.

5. To allow us to share our files over a network we will install Samba:  
sudo apt-get install samba

6. To find UUID and the file system of the drive, enter:
sudo blkid

This will give an output similar to the one below:

We can ignore the line that has the TYPE="fat32" as this is the SD Card, take a note of the other line, you need the UUID and the Type, the labels aren't important at this point (depending on the formatting some drives may not have a label)

7.  We need to mount this drive automatically whenever the Raspberry Pi is switched on. Firstly, we'll need to create a location to mount the external hard drive, we can do this by using the command:
sudo mkdir /media/external

Now we need to edit the fstab to tell the Raspberry Pi to automount the external drive every time it is switched on
sudo nano /etc/fstab

Insert the following line at the bottom of the page:
UUID="{the UUID you noted down in step 6}"     /media/external    
{type noted in step 6}     auto,user,rw      0     0

The above should all be on one line, pressing the key to create a gap between each piece of information.

8. Now we need to set up which folders are going to be shared.  I'll assume that we are going to make the whole of the external drive available over the network
nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

at the bottom of the page add the following, note that you can call this anything you wish, just exchange the word external but you must include []
[external]
path = /media/external
available= yes
browsable = yes
public = yes
writable = yes

It's worth noting before we continue that I've set the option writable - yes, this means that you can add to or remove the contents of the external drive over the network.  If you are not comfortable having this option then simply change it to writable = no. Now save and exit (ctrl + X), make sure that you answer 'yes' to save your changes. 

9. We will now set the Raspberry Pi to log in automatically on startup, if the user Pi isn't logged in then all of things we've just set up will not work. Type:
sudo nano /etc/inittab

navigate down to the line:
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty --noclear 38400 tty1 

and add --autologin pi after getty to make the line:
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty --autologin pi --noclear 38400 tty1

save and exit (ctrl + X) make sure that you answer 'yes' to save it.

10. We're going to need one more piece of information before we finish.  I've had trouble in the past browsing Samba share folders using assigned names rather than IP addresses.  So to find the IP address of the Raspberry Pi type
ifconfig eth0

You'll be given a an output similar to what is shown below:

The part that is circled in orange (inet addr) in the above image is what you need to note down.  We'll need this to test the share drive later on.

11. We can try it out our system and auto-login by using the command
sudo reboot

Assuming that everything goes well, your system should be up and running.

Lets try this out on a different computer or device.

Load up your chosen file manager, most have location bar at the top (similar to the address bar on a browser).  Enter the following in the location bar: smb://{your Raspberry Pi's IP address from step 10}

You should now be able to access the files on the external hard drive connected to your Raspberry Pi.

Congratulations you've now set up your home server.

A lot of people have spoken about the potential uses for a Raspberry Pi, however a lot of these are often very specific to be of use to anybody other than the project creator (using it as part of a home made weather balloon system for example).  When I purchased my Raspberry Pi it was for a specific purpose; the old PC that I used as a home server had given up the ghost and I needed a replacement.  The Raspberry Pi seemed like the ideal answer as it was small and used a lot less electricity (a big plus for a piece of equipment that is going to be on 24/7).

Before we start there are a few things you will need:

• A Raspberry Pi
• A computer with internet access 
• Raspian linux distro
• An SD Card (4GB minimum)
• An SD Card reader/slot on your computer
• External USB hard drive (this will need to be large if you plan to have video and music files on it, I recommend about 2TB minimum)
• Micro USB charger (my old one from a previous Android phone did the job)
• A wired USB keyboard
• An ethernet cable
• An HDMI cable
• A monitor/TV with an HDMI connection

1. Firstly we are going to need to install Raspian onto the SD card, for full instructions on how to do this I recommend reading this how to guide. However I kept it simple and used the command line on my Linux system.

Firstly we need to extract the file out of the Zip archive.  Navigate to the place where the downloaded file is and enter the command:
unzip {thefilename}

As these change every time a new version is released the command will alter depending on the image that has been downloaded.

2. Now to get the image onto the SD card.  I needed to use the bs=1M option in the command as the install failed twice with bs=4M, it stated that it would take 'considerably' longer, but the whole process was still fairly quick:
dd bs=1M if={location of raspian.img file} of={location of SD card}

If your not sure what the location of the SD card is then make sure it is removed from the computer and in the command line type:
df -h

Then insert (and mount) the SD card and retype the command:
df -h

There will be an additional item on the list:

In the example above the location of the card is /dev/sdc, we ignore the number as this refers to the partition.

3. Once the process has been complete, unmount the SD card and insert it into the Raspberry Pi.  Connect your keyboard and external hard drive via the USB ports and then connect the Pi to your router and TV before finally giving it power.

4. When you first power up the Raspberry Pi you are asked for some initial settings:

Firstly we'll want to expand_rootfs, this means that we'll be able to use the entire SD card if we ever need to.

We need to know the password, so the next thing we'll do is change the password, to do this simply select change_pass and enter in your new password.

configure_keyboard, change_local and change_timezone allow the user to set the keyboard layout, the location and the local time zone (these are all UK by default).

As this is a server we won't have it connected to a monitor for the majority of
it's life so make sure that we do not start the graphical desktop on boot, boot_behaviour changes this setting.   Although this may look nicer, the Raspberry Pi has limited power and we want this to focus on sharing our files over a server, not looking pretty.

5. To allow us to share our files over a network we will install Samba:  
sudo apt-get install samba

6. To find UUID and the file system of the drive, enter:
sudo blkid

This will give an output similar to the one below:

We can ignore the line that has the TYPE="fat32" as this is the SD Card, take a note of the other line, you need the UUID and the Type, the labels aren't important at this point (depending on the formatting some drives may not have a label)

7.  We need to mount this drive automatically whenever the Raspberry Pi is switched on. Firstly, we'll need to create a location to mount the external hard drive, we can do this by using the command:
sudo mkdir /media/external

Now we need to edit the fstab to tell the Raspberry Pi to automount the external drive every time it is switched on
sudo nano /etc/fstab

Insert the following line at the bottom of the page:
UUID="{the UUID you noted down in step 6}"     /media/external    
{type noted in step 6}     auto,user,rw      0     0

The above should all be on one line, pressing the key to create a gap between each piece of information.

8. Now we need to set up which folders are going to be shared.  I'll assume that we are going to make the whole of the external drive available over the network
nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

at the bottom of the page add the following, note that you can call this anything you wish, just exchange the word external but you must include []
[external]
path = /media/external
available= yes
browsable = yes
public = yes
writable = yes

It's worth noting before we continue that I've set the option writable - yes, this means that you can add to or remove the contents of the external drive over the network.  If you are not comfortable having this option then simply change it to writable = no. Now save and exit (ctrl + X), make sure that you answer 'yes' to save your changes. 

9. We will now set the Raspberry Pi to log in automatically on startup, if the user Pi isn't logged in then all of things we've just set up will not work. Type:
sudo nano /etc/inittab

navigate down to the line:
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty --noclear 38400 tty1 

and add --autologin pi after getty to make the line:
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty --autologin pi --noclear 38400 tty1

save and exit (ctrl + X) make sure that you answer 'yes' to save it.

10. We're going to need one more piece of information before we finish.  I've had trouble in the past browsing Samba share folders using assigned names rather than IP addresses.  So to find the IP address of the Raspberry Pi type
ifconfig eth0

You'll be given a an output similar to what is shown below:

The part that is circled in orange (inet addr) in the above image is what you need to note down.  We'll need this to test the share drive later on.

11. We can try it out our system and auto-login by using the command
sudo reboot

Assuming that everything goes well, your system should be up and running.

Lets try this out on a different computer or device.

Load up your chosen file manager, most have location bar at the top (similar to the address bar on a browser).  Enter the following in the location bar: smb://{your Raspberry Pi's IP address from step 10}

You should now be able to access the files on the external hard drive connected to your Raspberry Pi.

Congratulations you've now set up your home server.

Setting up a Raspberry Pi as a home server

Installing Linux on Acer XC600

I was recently given an Acer XC600 machine with the instructions "Install a Linux system on this machine, I hate windows 8 and have already deleted it."

Whenever I'm given a challenge like that I am always quite happy to introduce somebody to Linux, but I didn't quite realise what a challenge it would be.

The main problem is that a lot of new computers are being sold with secure boot and it is enabled by default.  The official line from microsoft is that it is to stop any malware loading up at the time of boot and make your system more secure.  However after wrestling with this system for more than a week, I am not convinced.

There is a specific order which you must switch secure boot off otherwise it will not work, the annoying part is that it will let you boot up the liveCD and install the system, but upon restart the system will never load, giving a device error message.

Here are the steps, I seriously hope that this helps and avoids the huge amount of time I wasted on this relatively simple task.

1. Upon switching the computer on hit the delete key, this will take you into the bios

2. Go to security and change secure boot to "Disabled"

3. On the boot option, make sure CSM is "Enabled"

4. In advanced, go to "integrated peripherals" and change the SATA option to IDE (regardless of the actual hardware in the machine)

5. Save and exit bios

You will now be able to install a Linux distro from a CD, DVD or pen drive as before on the Acer XC600.

Free your PC to install Linux

I was recently given an Acer XC600 machine with the instructions "Install a Linux system on this machine, I hate windows 8 and have already deleted it."

Whenever I'm given a challenge like that I am always quite happy to introduce somebody to Linux, but I didn't quite realise what a challenge it would be.

The main problem is that a lot of new computers are being sold with secure boot and it is enabled by default.  The official line from microsoft is that it is to stop any malware loading up at the time of boot and make your system more secure.  However after wrestling with this system for more than a week, I am not convinced.

There is a specific order which you must switch secure boot off otherwise it will not work, the annoying part is that it will let you boot up the liveCD and install the system, but upon restart the system will never load, giving a device error message.

Here are the steps, I seriously hope that this helps and avoids the huge amount of time I wasted on this relatively simple task.

1. Upon switching the computer on hit the delete key, this will take you into the bios

2. Go to security and change secure boot to "Disabled"

3. On the boot option, make sure CSM is "Enabled"

4. In advanced, go to "integrated peripherals" and change the SATA option to IDE (regardless of the actual hardware in the machine)

5. Save and exit bios

You will now be able to install a Linux distro from a CD, DVD or pen drive as before on the Acer XC600.

Free your PC to install Linux

Installing Linux on Acer XC600

Updated: cross posting from Diaspora to identi.ca

Diaspora is widely described as the open source version of facebook and google+, however it is disappointing that, using your Diaspora settings, you can link with facebook, twitter and tumblr but not identi.ca. But there is a workaround.

In the spirit of this blog, I always try to keep everything open source, I'm going to link the accounts using brdcst.it a free, open source project by Michele Azzolari or @macno on identi.ca. Whilst brdcst.it is a free service; you need an invite, simply send an email to brdcst@brdcst.it

Once you have received your invitation log in to your new account at brdcst.it We'll do the destination first, trust me it's easier. I'll now break this into steps to make it easier to follow.

Before we can setup brdcst.it properly, we need the feed for your Diaspora posts.

1. On Diaspora, when you are about to make a post, you should see a text box similar to the one shown below:

 


Click on the spanner icon.

2. This will open up a new floating window, click on RSS, this will open up a new page. Take a note of the web page address.

In this example my address is https://joindiaspora/public/kevie.atom
*the recent rss feeds have .atom at the end

3. Go to the brdcst.it website.

4. On the welcome screen you'll see the number of feeds and destinations you currently have setup. Click on Add/Edit beside destinations, this will lead you to a new screen.

5. Click on Add new destination

6. Click on Identica

7. This will take you to identi.ca, log in (if necessary) and the site will display the message:


Click on Allow

8. Now go back to brdcst.it, this time click on Add/Edit beside feeds

9. In the first box add the address of your Diaspora feed that we noted in step 2. In the second box give this setup a name (I have imaginatively called it 'diaspora')



10. Now it's time to choose what you wish to export, for text only enter %s, if you want a link to be posted then add %u (you don't actually need this as it will be added automatically if your post exceeds the 140 character identi.ca limit)



11. On the next screen, put a tick beside your identi.ca username and click on Save


12. Now log out of brdcst.it and your done, your posts from Diaspora will be updated on your identi.ca timeline.

Please note that when you post on Diaspora you must change from All Aspects to Public, only Public posts will be sent to identi.ca

Diaspora is widely described as the open source version of facebook and google+, however it is disappointing that, using your Diaspora settings, you can link with facebook, twitter and tumblr but not identi.ca. But there is a workaround.

In the spirit of this blog, I always try to keep everything open source, I'm going to link the accounts using brdcst.it a free, open source project by Michele Azzolari or @macno on identi.ca. Whilst brdcst.it is a free service; you need an invite, simply send an email to brdcst@brdcst.it

Once you have received your invitation log in to your new account at brdcst.it We'll do the destination first, trust me it's easier. I'll now break this into steps to make it easier to follow.

Before we can setup brdcst.it properly, we need the feed for your Diaspora posts.

1. On Diaspora, when you are about to make a post, you should see a text box similar to the one shown below:

 


Click on the spanner icon.

2. This will open up a new floating window, click on RSS, this will open up a new page. Take a note of the web page address.

In this example my address is https://joindiaspora/public/kevie.atom
*the recent rss feeds have .atom at the end

3. Go to the brdcst.it website.

4. On the welcome screen you'll see the number of feeds and destinations you currently have setup. Click on Add/Edit beside destinations, this will lead you to a new screen.

5. Click on Add new destination

6. Click on Identica

7. This will take you to identi.ca, log in (if necessary) and the site will display the message:


Click on Allow

8. Now go back to brdcst.it, this time click on Add/Edit beside feeds

9. In the first box add the address of your Diaspora feed that we noted in step 2. In the second box give this setup a name (I have imaginatively called it 'diaspora')



10. Now it's time to choose what you wish to export, for text only enter %s, if you want a link to be posted then add %u (you don't actually need this as it will be added automatically if your post exceeds the 140 character identi.ca limit)



11. On the next screen, put a tick beside your identi.ca username and click on Save


12. Now log out of brdcst.it and your done, your posts from Diaspora will be updated on your identi.ca timeline.

Please note that when you post on Diaspora you must change from All Aspects to Public, only Public posts will be sent to identi.ca

Updated: cross posting from Diaspora to identi.ca

Tizen 1.0 "Larkspur" is released.

Tizen, the Linux based mobile operating system that is replacing the short lived Meego project, is now out of beta and has announced it first full release codenamed "Larkspur".

In contrast to Mozilla's Boot2Gecko, which aims to use all of it's features on a cloud through a browser interface, Tizen adopts the more traditional format of the applications running natively on the mobile device.

The platform looks like it has been setup to meet the needs of the majority of users, with compatibility for various audio (both MP3 & Ogg Vorbis) and video files.  A full list of all the features of the new release can be seen here.

Tizen's graphics are a window system built upon X11, this includes support for OpenGL and indicates that it has the potential for both 2D and 3D graphics.  Web support appears to be embedded in the new code with full support for HTML5.

The official announcement from Tizen also stated " There are also a number of back-end changes, designed to improve stability and scalability of the infrastructure."

All of the pieces are there to make a decent cake, but developers are still being sought in order to put some icing on.  The SDK is available for download, however at the present time the supported operating systems are limited to Windows XP & 7, Ubuntu 10.04-11.10 and only the 32 bit versions. SDK release notes, along with a wiki, bugtracker, IRC (#tizen at irc.freenode.net) and guide to help you developing your first Tizen application are currently in place in order to aid developers and testers.

Tizen, the Linux based mobile operating system that is replacing the short lived Meego project, is now out of beta and has announced it first full release codenamed "Larkspur".

In contrast to Mozilla's Boot2Gecko, which aims to use all of it's features on a cloud through a browser interface, Tizen adopts the more traditional format of the applications running natively on the mobile device.

The platform looks like it has been setup to meet the needs of the majority of users, with compatibility for various audio (both MP3 & Ogg Vorbis) and video files.  A full list of all the features of the new release can be seen here.

Tizen's graphics are a window system built upon X11, this includes support for OpenGL and indicates that it has the potential for both 2D and 3D graphics.  Web support appears to be embedded in the new code with full support for HTML5.

The official announcement from Tizen also stated " There are also a number of back-end changes, designed to improve stability and scalability of the infrastructure."

All of the pieces are there to make a decent cake, but developers are still being sought in order to put some icing on.  The SDK is available for download, however at the present time the supported operating systems are limited to Windows XP & 7, Ubuntu 10.04-11.10 and only the 32 bit versions. SDK release notes, along with a wiki, bugtracker, IRC (#tizen at irc.freenode.net) and guide to help you developing your first Tizen application are currently in place in order to aid developers and testers.

Tizen 1.0 "Larkspur" is released.

Early Tizen Screenshots Leaked

Tizen, the open source platform that has been created to replace the short lived Meego, has had some initial screenshots leaked. These are reportedly originating from a Samsung I9500 device and it is also expected that the earliest appearance of these could be next month (February 2012) at the Mobile World Conference 2012 in Barcelona, which runs for four days starting on the 27th of the month.



From early signs the user interface looks promising, it is clean and tidy and I suspect owes quite a lot to the Android setup. Given that this is one of the most popular and fastest growing smartphone operating systems then why not borrow some of it’s features.



However, despite how impressive the user interface, how well it may run or how truly open it is; technical superiority will count for nothing unless the community gets behind it. Developers need to be actively making and maintaining apps as well as some major manufactures supporting and shipping the Tizen operating system on devices. If this is limited to simply the technology experts and hackers then sadly Tizen will follow the path of Meego which it replaced. Currently Intel and Samsung are backing the project, but until it is released on a device we won’t know the public will take to the new operating system.



I for one will be very pleased to see another device, especially one that stays true to it’s word and remains mostly open source; something which can’t be said of Android. However the sad truth is that ‘Average Joe’ on the street doesn’t care about openness, but simply about performance, looks and what new apps they can get. By the time this is available to the general public (as much as it grates against me to say this) Tizen will need to have apps ready and polished for all the major social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, G+), email clients, shopping, games, navigation and the variety that is widely available in the Android and Apple stores.



I really hope that Tizen can gain enough ground to be around for a long time, but as so many have come and gone before, it may end up being another short lived adventure.

Tizen, the open source platform that has been created to replace the short lived Meego, has had some initial screenshots leaked. These are reportedly originating from a Samsung I9500 device and it is also expected that the earliest appearance of these could be next month (February 2012) at the Mobile World Conference 2012 in Barcelona, which runs for four days starting on the 27th of the month.



From early signs the user interface looks promising, it is clean and tidy and I suspect owes quite a lot to the Android setup. Given that this is one of the most popular and fastest growing smartphone operating systems then why not borrow some of it’s features.



However, despite how impressive the user interface, how well it may run or how truly open it is; technical superiority will count for nothing unless the community gets behind it. Developers need to be actively making and maintaining apps as well as some major manufactures supporting and shipping the Tizen operating system on devices. If this is limited to simply the technology experts and hackers then sadly Tizen will follow the path of Meego which it replaced. Currently Intel and Samsung are backing the project, but until it is released on a device we won’t know the public will take to the new operating system.



I for one will be very pleased to see another device, especially one that stays true to it’s word and remains mostly open source; something which can’t be said of Android. However the sad truth is that ‘Average Joe’ on the street doesn’t care about openness, but simply about performance, looks and what new apps they can get. By the time this is available to the general public (as much as it grates against me to say this) Tizen will need to have apps ready and polished for all the major social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, G+), email clients, shopping, games, navigation and the variety that is widely available in the Android and Apple stores.



I really hope that Tizen can gain enough ground to be around for a long time, but as so many have come and gone before, it may end up being another short lived adventure.

Early Tizen Screenshots Leaked

Putting Browsers to the test with Acid3 and Peacekeeper

During episode 5 of TuxJam I reviewed a browser called SRWare Iron. This is a fork of the Chromium browser (an open-source community version of Google Chrome) with a few tweaks under the hood.

I put three different browsers to the test using two online tools: Acid3 and Peacekeeper. The three browsers in question were:

1. SRWare Iron
2. Firefox 9.0a1
3. Seamonkey 2.3.3

From the Acid3 test, all the browsers performed very well:

SRWare Iron


Firefox


Seamonkey


However, it is during the second test using the Peacekeeper resource that SRWare Iron really separated itself from the other two. A brief look at the overall points:

Then we can break these down into more detailed reports of how the browsers final score was achieved.






From these findings on the Peacekeeper website, it appears that SRWare Iron performs doubly well compared to Firefox and Seamonkey. Whilst I did find it was a fast browser, I didn't notice that much difference between the three. However all of these browsers noticeably outperform Internet Explorer which I have to use day to day in my place of work. I do not wish to install it and run it using WINE to perform a fair test.

During episode 5 of TuxJam I reviewed a browser called SRWare Iron. This is a fork of the Chromium browser (an open-source community version of Google Chrome) with a few tweaks under the hood.

I put three different browsers to the test using two online tools: Acid3 and Peacekeeper. The three browsers in question were:

1. SRWare Iron
2. Firefox 9.0a1
3. Seamonkey 2.3.3

From the Acid3 test, all the browsers performed very well:

SRWare Iron


Firefox


Seamonkey


However, it is during the second test using the Peacekeeper resource that SRWare Iron really separated itself from the other two. A brief look at the overall points:

Then we can break these down into more detailed reports of how the browsers final score was achieved.






From these findings on the Peacekeeper website, it appears that SRWare Iron performs doubly well compared to Firefox and Seamonkey. Whilst I did find it was a fast browser, I didn't notice that much difference between the three. However all of these browsers noticeably outperform Internet Explorer which I have to use day to day in my place of work. I do not wish to install it and run it using WINE to perform a fair test.

Putting Browsers to the test with Acid3 and Peacekeeper

Using WeeChat with Freenode (the basics)

I recently tested out WeeChat which is a very fast and lightweight IRC client that is used in the command line.

I must say that I was extremely impressed with the program, but not with the documentation. The quick start wasn't of much help and the user guide was way too heavy and detailed, going into things that were far beyond what I was needing for internet chat.

I'm assuming that the user has already installed the program, if not check the repos or visit http://www.weechat.org for installation details.

Start the program:

weechat-curses

Set your username (dont forget to include the quotation marks"):

/set irc.server.freenode.username "{enter your username here}"

Set your real name (optional):

/set irc.server.freenode.realname "{enter your name here}"

Connect to Freenode:

/connect freenode

However if you would like to connect to Freenode by default every time you start up WeeChat:

/set irc.server.freenode.autoconect on

If you've registered your username (highly recommended so that nobody can pretend to be you) then you will need to prove you own the username by supplying the password:

/msg nickserv identify {your password}

Identify your username automatically every time you log on:

/set irc.server.freenode.command "/msg nickserv identify {your password}"

Join a channel (don't forget the hash # tag):

/join #{channel name}

Automatically join a channel (or channels) every time you log onto freenode:

/set irc.server.freenode.autojoin "#{channel 1},#{channel 2}"

These channels will open up side by side, one does not replace the other. However as this is a command line tool there are no tabs to click on for different chats. The next few commands give some examples of navigation, they all produce the same outcome using slightly different techniques, try these and decide on the ones you are happiest with.

Move to the next channel:

/buffer +1

Move to the previous channel:

/buffer -1

If you remember the channel name:

/buffer #{channel name}

All of the channels you join are assigned a number (the channels start at 3, 1 is the Freenode front page) To jump straight to the channel:

/buffer {channel number}

All of the above /buffer commands all essentially allow the user to navigate through the active chatroom channels, decide which one works best for you.

Should a user send you a private message, you are able to navigate using the above commands, it behaves just like another channel. When a user sends a message, their username will appear at the bottom of the screen, above the text entry box.

Any messages that mention your username during the chat, their username will change to a yellow text with a purple background. This makes it easier to keep track of a conversation in a busy chatroom.

Send a user a private message:

/msg {username} {your message goes here}

A condensed version of this post is available for download in odt format here, this is ideal if you wish to print these off and can also be easily edited.

This isn't even close to all of the commands and tools available to the end user, however it should be enough to allow the user to perform most of the basic required functions for an internet chat on the Freenode network.

If there are any tasks or command that you feel this guide is missing then please leave a comment below.

I recently tested out WeeChat which is a very fast and lightweight IRC client that is used in the command line.

I must say that I was extremely impressed with the program, but not with the documentation. The quick start wasn't of much help and the user guide was way too heavy and detailed, going into things that were far beyond what I was needing for internet chat.

I'm assuming that the user has already installed the program, if not check the repos or visit http://www.weechat.org for installation details.

Start the program:

weechat-curses

Set your username (dont forget to include the quotation marks"):

/set irc.server.freenode.username "{enter your username here}"

Set your real name (optional):

/set irc.server.freenode.realname "{enter your name here}"

Connect to Freenode:

/connect freenode

However if you would like to connect to Freenode by default every time you start up WeeChat:

/set irc.server.freenode.autoconect on

If you've registered your username (highly recommended so that nobody can pretend to be you) then you will need to prove you own the username by supplying the password:

/msg nickserv identify {your password}

Identify your username automatically every time you log on:

/set irc.server.freenode.command "/msg nickserv identify {your password}"

Join a channel (don't forget the hash # tag):

/join #{channel name}

Automatically join a channel (or channels) every time you log onto freenode:

/set irc.server.freenode.autojoin "#{channel 1},#{channel 2}"

These channels will open up side by side, one does not replace the other. However as this is a command line tool there are no tabs to click on for different chats. The next few commands give some examples of navigation, they all produce the same outcome using slightly different techniques, try these and decide on the ones you are happiest with.

Move to the next channel:

/buffer +1

Move to the previous channel:

/buffer -1

If you remember the channel name:

/buffer #{channel name}

All of the channels you join are assigned a number (the channels start at 3, 1 is the Freenode front page) To jump straight to the channel:

/buffer {channel number}

All of the above /buffer commands all essentially allow the user to navigate through the active chatroom channels, decide which one works best for you.

Should a user send you a private message, you are able to navigate using the above commands, it behaves just like another channel. When a user sends a message, their username will appear at the bottom of the screen, above the text entry box.

Any messages that mention your username during the chat, their username will change to a yellow text with a purple background. This makes it easier to keep track of a conversation in a busy chatroom.

Send a user a private message:

/msg {username} {your message goes here}

A condensed version of this post is available for download in odt format here, this is ideal if you wish to print these off and can also be easily edited.

This isn't even close to all of the commands and tools available to the end user, however it should be enough to allow the user to perform most of the basic required functions for an internet chat on the Freenode network.

If there are any tasks or command that you feel this guide is missing then please leave a comment below.

Using WeeChat with Freenode (the basics)

Barrage - the life of a defence turret

Are you old enough to remember the days when the Westwood released the game Dune 2 (one of the first real time strategy war games on the market)? Then a few years later the genre went from cult status to instant classic due to the popular Command and Conquer series. We built up our bases and always included several strategically placed defence towers. If you ever wanted to know what life was like as a defence tower in the first Command and Conquer game then Barrage is the game for you.

The graphics are taken directly from the original of the C&C series games, with the vehicles, tanks and soldiers all members of the GDI (Global Defence Initiative) along with a familiar dessert landscape. They move around smoothly and are accompanied by some nice sound effects of guns firing and bombs exploding, however I feel that background music would have been a nice addition.

The sprites move vertically up and down the screen, some of the tanks change their pace slightly, but overall they remain mostly at the same speed. The game is contained within a three minute timeframe: kill as many of the enemy as you can within the allotted time. Any of the enemy units that cross the screen safely will result in points being deducted. The game is controlled using the mouse; simply move about the screen to target; left click shoots rockets; right click reloads and middle click fire grenades (useful on soldiers only).



Although the sprites do not move that quickly, the sheer number of them will have the user requiring quick reflexes and a sharp eye along with a wee bit of anticipation depending on the enemy unit being aimed at.

Overall this is fun, but without the ability to move the game soon becomes repetitive. Also there is no way of increasing your allotted time: 3 minutes and that's it. The main reason for returning to the game is to beat your top score. There are no extra missions (as far as I can see) and given this game is dated 2003-2010 then it's probably unlikely they will be added, however I will update the post if this happens.

There are some good ideas in here and the game is fun for a few minutes, however it soon becomes repetitive and the lack of progression hurts this games longevity.

Are you old enough to remember the days when the Westwood released the game Dune 2 (one of the first real time strategy war games on the market)? Then a few years later the genre went from cult status to instant classic due to the popular Command and Conquer series. We built up our bases and always included several strategically placed defence towers. If you ever wanted to know what life was like as a defence tower in the first Command and Conquer game then Barrage is the game for you.

The graphics are taken directly from the original of the C&C series games, with the vehicles, tanks and soldiers all members of the GDI (Global Defence Initiative) along with a familiar dessert landscape. They move around smoothly and are accompanied by some nice sound effects of guns firing and bombs exploding, however I feel that background music would have been a nice addition.

The sprites move vertically up and down the screen, some of the tanks change their pace slightly, but overall they remain mostly at the same speed. The game is contained within a three minute timeframe: kill as many of the enemy as you can within the allotted time. Any of the enemy units that cross the screen safely will result in points being deducted. The game is controlled using the mouse; simply move about the screen to target; left click shoots rockets; right click reloads and middle click fire grenades (useful on soldiers only).



Although the sprites do not move that quickly, the sheer number of them will have the user requiring quick reflexes and a sharp eye along with a wee bit of anticipation depending on the enemy unit being aimed at.

Overall this is fun, but without the ability to move the game soon becomes repetitive. Also there is no way of increasing your allotted time: 3 minutes and that's it. The main reason for returning to the game is to beat your top score. There are no extra missions (as far as I can see) and given this game is dated 2003-2010 then it's probably unlikely they will be added, however I will update the post if this happens.

There are some good ideas in here and the game is fun for a few minutes, however it soon becomes repetitive and the lack of progression hurts this games longevity.

Barrage - the life of a defence turret

Recent project and contributing

Although I have not had many graphical projects recently, I did complete a piece of work for Marie Axelsson (@maloki on identi.ca) for her blog site.

I actually enjoyed this task as I was able to communicate with the end user directly through Instant Messaging, this made changes etc to the project a lot easier and feedback was considerably quicker than normal.

The final design that we settled on was:


This can be seen implemented on her blog here

The design was a combination of her interests and likes, the idea was supposed to resemble passing from the real world (with the earth and stars) into the virtual world (emblems and binary digits).

As always the image was created using open source software, both Inkscape and the GIMP were used in the creation of this image.

My reasoning for displaying my projects is not simply to "toot my own trumpet" but to promote open source software and also to show that most of us can contribute to open source. I can't code, I'm useless in that aspect, however I am able to produce graphical items. OK then, maybe graphics isn't your forte either, however you can still take the time to test a project and provide feedback or bug descriptions. Everybody can contribute to open source, regardless of their supposed "lack of computer skills". Even simply installing an application, using it for a week and then sending the creator or team an email sharing your thoughts, it doesn't have to be technical, just describe the problem you've encountered or features you think may be handy. Also explain that your not a coder, communication is the key. So many projects are struggling for contributors, any help offered will be greatly appreciated by the community. The number of Linux desktops and applications is testament to how well a community can work together.

Although I have not had many graphical projects recently, I did complete a piece of work for Marie Axelsson (@maloki on identi.ca) for her blog site.

I actually enjoyed this task as I was able to communicate with the end user directly through Instant Messaging, this made changes etc to the project a lot easier and feedback was considerably quicker than normal.

The final design that we settled on was:


This can be seen implemented on her blog here

The design was a combination of her interests and likes, the idea was supposed to resemble passing from the real world (with the earth and stars) into the virtual world (emblems and binary digits).

As always the image was created using open source software, both Inkscape and the GIMP were used in the creation of this image.

My reasoning for displaying my projects is not simply to "toot my own trumpet" but to promote open source software and also to show that most of us can contribute to open source. I can't code, I'm useless in that aspect, however I am able to produce graphical items. OK then, maybe graphics isn't your forte either, however you can still take the time to test a project and provide feedback or bug descriptions. Everybody can contribute to open source, regardless of their supposed "lack of computer skills". Even simply installing an application, using it for a week and then sending the creator or team an email sharing your thoughts, it doesn't have to be technical, just describe the problem you've encountered or features you think may be handy. Also explain that your not a coder, communication is the key. So many projects are struggling for contributors, any help offered will be greatly appreciated by the community. The number of Linux desktops and applications is testament to how well a community can work together.

Recent project and contributing

Pogo music player

Having recently volunteered to do a bit of graphics work for a project called Pogo, I thought I should investigate this application a bit more and even give it a trial run. I have to confess, at the time the email came in requesting help with a logo I accepted the challenge without even knowing what the application did.

After briefly reading through the email and several brief conversations between the creator Jendrik Seipp and myself, I took a look at the website, which to my disappointment was simply a launchpad page. So the first thing that struck my mind was that this was, primarily, an Ubuntu project. The choices for download are a *.deb file or the source data in a *.tar.gz file. As I have Crunchbang installed on my system anyway I opted for the deb file simply to make life easier.


The install went smoothly and very quickly I had the Pogo music player (0.4 at the time of writing this) up and running:


The user interface is very simple; a window split into two screens. The left screen is a tree view of your files, this can be navigated quite easily for any music that is in your home folder. However for files that are on a separate partition, you will need to go all the way back to / and manually find the mount point of the drive (usually /mnt or /media depending on your distro). The partition must be mounted already as there is no way to mount it from Pogo.

The right screen is your playlist, to add a music file you can either double click on it in the left screen or drag it into the right screen using the mouse and holding the left button. The responsiveness of Pogo is very good indeed, it is lightning fast and the files play without any delay. Whilst playing, a progress bar appears at the top, which can be dragged to get the position in the file you want, handy for longer podcasts. Also the cover of the album appears in the bottom right of the window.

True to Ubuntu style, whenever a new track starts a notification pops up in the top right of your desktop just under the system tray (again this is depending on your desktop environment, but this is the case in XFCE). These, thankfully, can be turned off with a single click in preferences.


A search function is also included to allow you to look out your favourite bands or songs quickly, however all it kept giving me was a "no tracks found" message. Take a look at the screenshot below, look at the search, now compare the result with the tracks that are currently playing:


There are a few major omissions that I simply couldn't live without with regards to my media player:

1. The lack of a shuffle option (this apparently is set to be included in the next release)
2. The ability to add all the files from a folder, instead of selecting the files and moving them over to the playlist screen.
3. The ability to stream from the internet

This isn't aiming to be VLC. It is a fast and simple music player and, if I'm being honest, it plays files and uses up hardly any resources in the process. The notifications that can't be interacted with are very much in line with the current Ubuntu trend. I feel that this project is best suited to low spec machines and (very early stage) newbie users, those like your older relations who only want to play a few files. Pogo adopts a 'keep it simple' philosophy, the lack of options and buttons make it incredibly easy to use. I'll keep an eye on this project, but I won't be uninstalling VLC quite yet. A bit too basic for my needs at the present time.

Having recently volunteered to do a bit of graphics work for a project called Pogo, I thought I should investigate this application a bit more and even give it a trial run. I have to confess, at the time the email came in requesting help with a logo I accepted the challenge without even knowing what the application did.

After briefly reading through the email and several brief conversations between the creator Jendrik Seipp and myself, I took a look at the website, which to my disappointment was simply a launchpad page. So the first thing that struck my mind was that this was, primarily, an Ubuntu project. The choices for download are a *.deb file or the source data in a *.tar.gz file. As I have Crunchbang installed on my system anyway I opted for the deb file simply to make life easier.


The install went smoothly and very quickly I had the Pogo music player (0.4 at the time of writing this) up and running:


The user interface is very simple; a window split into two screens. The left screen is a tree view of your files, this can be navigated quite easily for any music that is in your home folder. However for files that are on a separate partition, you will need to go all the way back to / and manually find the mount point of the drive (usually /mnt or /media depending on your distro). The partition must be mounted already as there is no way to mount it from Pogo.

The right screen is your playlist, to add a music file you can either double click on it in the left screen or drag it into the right screen using the mouse and holding the left button. The responsiveness of Pogo is very good indeed, it is lightning fast and the files play without any delay. Whilst playing, a progress bar appears at the top, which can be dragged to get the position in the file you want, handy for longer podcasts. Also the cover of the album appears in the bottom right of the window.

True to Ubuntu style, whenever a new track starts a notification pops up in the top right of your desktop just under the system tray (again this is depending on your desktop environment, but this is the case in XFCE). These, thankfully, can be turned off with a single click in preferences.


A search function is also included to allow you to look out your favourite bands or songs quickly, however all it kept giving me was a "no tracks found" message. Take a look at the screenshot below, look at the search, now compare the result with the tracks that are currently playing:


There are a few major omissions that I simply couldn't live without with regards to my media player:

1. The lack of a shuffle option (this apparently is set to be included in the next release)
2. The ability to add all the files from a folder, instead of selecting the files and moving them over to the playlist screen.
3. The ability to stream from the internet

This isn't aiming to be VLC. It is a fast and simple music player and, if I'm being honest, it plays files and uses up hardly any resources in the process. The notifications that can't be interacted with are very much in line with the current Ubuntu trend. I feel that this project is best suited to low spec machines and (very early stage) newbie users, those like your older relations who only want to play a few files. Pogo adopts a 'keep it simple' philosophy, the lack of options and buttons make it incredibly easy to use. I'll keep an eye on this project, but I won't be uninstalling VLC quite yet. A bit too basic for my needs at the present time.

Pogo music player

Crunchbang Statler R20110207 Review

Following my trial and review of Crunchbang Linux Statler Alpha 1 quite some time ago I recently decided to give the latest release R20110207 a try. Again, having little to no experience with openbox, I opted for the XFCE 64 bit version of the distro, all the versions are available here http://crunchbanglinux.org/downloads/statler/20110207/ . For those of you that may have tried Crunchbang in the past, the one main change within the distro is that it is now Debian based instead of Ubuntu based. People have different opinions on this, but for the majority of users the main thing you will notice is the software available in the repos is different, especially if your only previous experience is the Ubuntu software centre. But then again, if your a relative newbie then I'm not convinced that this is the correct for you. For the new users venturing out of Ubuntu for the first time then I would probably recommend gaining experience with Linux Mint, Simply Mepis, Mandriva or Pardus. A potentially unstable system is great for learning and experience, but not so convenient for inexperienced users as an everyday system.



The first thing that you notice about Crunchbang is the speed: it's fast. This distro is one of the quickest implementations of the XFCE desktop I have come across. The desktop, by default now comes with a taskbar along the bottom, the workspace switcher is implemented in a much neater fashion, in the traditional way beside the newly added system tray. The Conky widget displays system information and some useful keyboard short-cuts is positioned in the upper right area of the screen. Whilst this may be useful to some users, I really would like there to be a quick way of disabling it.

The menu can be accessed via a right click on any part of the desktop, a new feature is a quicklaunch toolbar on the left hand side of the screen. This is hidden by default but appears when the user moves the mouse over to the left edge of the sceen. This can be easily modified to suit the users taste.

For such a nimble distro Crunchbang comes with a large variety of pre installed programs:
GIMP (photo editing)
Viewnoir (image viewer)
Hey Buddy (microblogging client)
xchat IRC (Chat client)
Chromium (web browser)
Abiword (word processor)
Gnumeric (spreadsheets)
VLC (media player)
Thunar (file manager)
Synaptic (software centre)

Whilst everybody has their own personal preference, this distro comes with a minimalist approach, but is highly usable out of the box.

Despite the inclusion of the Synaptic Software Centre, I've found that I have installed all my apps from the command line, Crunchbang opts for apt-get, I personally prefer aptitude, but this can be easily installed from either a Synaptic or using apt-get.

The overall system feels a lot more polished this time around. Philip Newborough (@corenominal on identi.ca) has done a really good job of tweaking this distro and having it run very smoothly. I've been using it for a month now and have not run into too many problems.

The biggest concern for the average user is the lack of pulseaudio. Most people may think 'who cares' but pulseaudio is needed to run Skype. I have had some problems trying to setup Skype on Crunchbang, but if I'm being truthful I haven't spent much time on it.

Being Debian based, there is a huge commitment to pushing free software. Getting MP3 and other non free media types to work isn't simply a matter of clicking 'ubuntu restricted extras' from the software centre. For those who are having problems with this I recently produced a guide here. But at the end of the day Crunchbang isn't design for the newbie. It will require a bit of knowledge to get everything setup to the way the end user likes.

It's a great starting point if you want to build your own Debian based distro, or is especially good at running older hardware. An improvement under the hood and smoother running has lead this to become my joint day to day distro, probably one of the main reasons I haven't fixed some of the pulseaudio issues is that I've already setup Skype on my Gentoo distro. If you haven't tried Crunchbang before or if it's been a while, then I recommend that you give this superfast, Debian based distro a go. It won't be to everybody's taste, but if your interested in creating your own distro and don't feel ready for Arch or Gentoo yet, then this may be a very good starting point.

Following my trial and review of Crunchbang Linux Statler Alpha 1 quite some time ago I recently decided to give the latest release R20110207 a try. Again, having little to no experience with openbox, I opted for the XFCE 64 bit version of the distro, all the versions are available here http://crunchbanglinux.org/downloads/statler/20110207/ . For those of you that may have tried Crunchbang in the past, the one main change within the distro is that it is now Debian based instead of Ubuntu based. People have different opinions on this, but for the majority of users the main thing you will notice is the software available in the repos is different, especially if your only previous experience is the Ubuntu software centre. But then again, if your a relative newbie then I'm not convinced that this is the correct for you. For the new users venturing out of Ubuntu for the first time then I would probably recommend gaining experience with Linux Mint, Simply Mepis, Mandriva or Pardus. A potentially unstable system is great for learning and experience, but not so convenient for inexperienced users as an everyday system.



The first thing that you notice about Crunchbang is the speed: it's fast. This distro is one of the quickest implementations of the XFCE desktop I have come across. The desktop, by default now comes with a taskbar along the bottom, the workspace switcher is implemented in a much neater fashion, in the traditional way beside the newly added system tray. The Conky widget displays system information and some useful keyboard short-cuts is positioned in the upper right area of the screen. Whilst this may be useful to some users, I really would like there to be a quick way of disabling it.

The menu can be accessed via a right click on any part of the desktop, a new feature is a quicklaunch toolbar on the left hand side of the screen. This is hidden by default but appears when the user moves the mouse over to the left edge of the sceen. This can be easily modified to suit the users taste.

For such a nimble distro Crunchbang comes with a large variety of pre installed programs:
GIMP (photo editing)
Viewnoir (image viewer)
Hey Buddy (microblogging client)
xchat IRC (Chat client)
Chromium (web browser)
Abiword (word processor)
Gnumeric (spreadsheets)
VLC (media player)
Thunar (file manager)
Synaptic (software centre)

Whilst everybody has their own personal preference, this distro comes with a minimalist approach, but is highly usable out of the box.

Despite the inclusion of the Synaptic Software Centre, I've found that I have installed all my apps from the command line, Crunchbang opts for apt-get, I personally prefer aptitude, but this can be easily installed from either a Synaptic or using apt-get.

The overall system feels a lot more polished this time around. Philip Newborough (@corenominal on identi.ca) has done a really good job of tweaking this distro and having it run very smoothly. I've been using it for a month now and have not run into too many problems.

The biggest concern for the average user is the lack of pulseaudio. Most people may think 'who cares' but pulseaudio is needed to run Skype. I have had some problems trying to setup Skype on Crunchbang, but if I'm being truthful I haven't spent much time on it.

Being Debian based, there is a huge commitment to pushing free software. Getting MP3 and other non free media types to work isn't simply a matter of clicking 'ubuntu restricted extras' from the software centre. For those who are having problems with this I recently produced a guide here. But at the end of the day Crunchbang isn't design for the newbie. It will require a bit of knowledge to get everything setup to the way the end user likes.

It's a great starting point if you want to build your own Debian based distro, or is especially good at running older hardware. An improvement under the hood and smoother running has lead this to become my joint day to day distro, probably one of the main reasons I haven't fixed some of the pulseaudio issues is that I've already setup Skype on my Gentoo distro. If you haven't tried Crunchbang before or if it's been a while, then I recommend that you give this superfast, Debian based distro a go. It won't be to everybody's taste, but if your interested in creating your own distro and don't feel ready for Arch or Gentoo yet, then this may be a very good starting point.

Crunchbang Statler R20110207 Review

NoS-LUG Shirts Update

A while back I spoke about the North of Scotland Linux User Group printing a t-shirt with a view to wearing it at an upcoming open source event such as Oggcamp. Well after a lengthy wait the t-shirts are now available online at Zazzle.co.uk in the UK or Zazzle.com for international orders. Two t-shirts have been created, although these can be customised to any colour the buyer wishes, the default colouring is light blue and navy blue (shown below). A NoS-LUG coffee mug is also available. These items can be viewed here at the store, hopefully there shall be more items to follow.
















Please leave any feedback of the items in the comment boxes below.

A while back I spoke about the North of Scotland Linux User Group printing a t-shirt with a view to wearing it at an upcoming open source event such as Oggcamp. Well after a lengthy wait the t-shirts are now available online at Zazzle.co.uk in the UK or Zazzle.com for international orders. Two t-shirts have been created, although these can be customised to any colour the buyer wishes, the default colouring is light blue and navy blue (shown below). A NoS-LUG coffee mug is also available. These items can be viewed here at the store, hopefully there shall be more items to follow.
















Please leave any feedback of the items in the comment boxes below.

NoS-LUG Shirts Update

Exporting Diaspora posts to identi.ca

With the recent release of the open source social site Diaspora, a flock of us from identi.ca have gladly accepted invitations. Most Linux users are more than happy to pilot software at an early stage.

On the initial setup, as a lover of open source, I felt let down by the 'open source equivalent of Facebook.' After confirming email addresses and some basic information, the setup wizard asks if you would like to connect to other sites. To my horror the options are 1) Facebook 2) Twitter 3) must be identi.ca, right? Well that's the problem there's only two options, but never fear fellow denters there is a simple way to overcome this problem.

In the spirit of this blog, I always try to keep everything open source, I'm going to link the accounts using brdcst.it a free, open source project by Michele Azzolari or @macno on identi.ca. Whilst brdcst.it is a free service; you need an invite, ask @macno on identi.ca who, for those who don't know him, is very obliging and helpful.

Once you have received your invitation log in to your new account at brdcst.it We'll do the destination first, trust me it's easier. I'll now break this into steps to make it easier to follow.

Before we can setup brdcst.it properly, we need the feed for your Diaspora posts.

1. On Diaspora, when you are about to make a post, you should see a text box similar to the one shown below:








Click on the orange RSS icon.

2. This will take you to a new page showing all your posts, take a note of the address:

















In this example my address is https://joindiaspora/public/kevie
*if there is .atom at the end of the address then leave it off

3. Go to the brdcst.it website.

4. On the welcome screen you'll see the number of feeds and destinations you currently have setup. Click on Add/Edit beside destinations, this will lead you to a new screen.

5. Click on Add new destination

6. Click on Identica

7. This will take you to identi.ca, log in (if necessary) and the site will display the message:








Click on Allow

8. Now go back to brdcst.it, this time click on Add/Edit beside feeds

9. In the first box add the address of your Diaspora feed that we noted in step 2. In the second box give this setup a name (I have imaginatively called it 'diaspora')























10. Now it's time to choose what you wish to export, for text only enter %t, if you want a link to be posted then add %u (only needed if your posts exceed the 140 character identi.ca limit)





















11. On the next screen, put a tick beside your identi.ca username and click on Save





















12. Now log out of brdcst.it and your done, your posts from Diaspora will be updated on your identi.ca timeline.

Please note that when you post on Diaspora you must tick the box make public for it to be posted to identi.ca

With the recent release of the open source social site Diaspora, a flock of us from identi.ca have gladly accepted invitations. Most Linux users are more than happy to pilot software at an early stage.

On the initial setup, as a lover of open source, I felt let down by the 'open source equivalent of Facebook.' After confirming email addresses and some basic information, the setup wizard asks if you would like to connect to other sites. To my horror the options are 1) Facebook 2) Twitter 3) must be identi.ca, right? Well that's the problem there's only two options, but never fear fellow denters there is a simple way to overcome this problem.

In the spirit of this blog, I always try to keep everything open source, I'm going to link the accounts using brdcst.it a free, open source project by Michele Azzolari or @macno on identi.ca. Whilst brdcst.it is a free service; you need an invite, ask @macno on identi.ca who, for those who don't know him, is very obliging and helpful.

Once you have received your invitation log in to your new account at brdcst.it We'll do the destination first, trust me it's easier. I'll now break this into steps to make it easier to follow.

Before we can setup brdcst.it properly, we need the feed for your Diaspora posts.

1. On Diaspora, when you are about to make a post, you should see a text box similar to the one shown below:








Click on the orange RSS icon.

2. This will take you to a new page showing all your posts, take a note of the address:

















In this example my address is https://joindiaspora/public/kevie
*if there is .atom at the end of the address then leave it off

3. Go to the brdcst.it website.

4. On the welcome screen you'll see the number of feeds and destinations you currently have setup. Click on Add/Edit beside destinations, this will lead you to a new screen.

5. Click on Add new destination

6. Click on Identica

7. This will take you to identi.ca, log in (if necessary) and the site will display the message:








Click on Allow

8. Now go back to brdcst.it, this time click on Add/Edit beside feeds

9. In the first box add the address of your Diaspora feed that we noted in step 2. In the second box give this setup a name (I have imaginatively called it 'diaspora')























10. Now it's time to choose what you wish to export, for text only enter %t, if you want a link to be posted then add %u (only needed if your posts exceed the 140 character identi.ca limit)





















11. On the next screen, put a tick beside your identi.ca username and click on Save





















12. Now log out of brdcst.it and your done, your posts from Diaspora will be updated on your identi.ca timeline.

Please note that when you post on Diaspora you must tick the box make public for it to be posted to identi.ca

Exporting Diaspora posts to identi.ca

Removing Facebok & Twitter from the Nexus One

*This guide will not work with Android 2.2.1, Universal Androot is not compatible with 2.2.1 due to root restrictions

**If you are not confident with using the terminal please do not do this, I am not responsible for any damage to the phone

A lot of posts have been written on various forums about removing some of the default apps that come supplied with the Nexus One phone. Two that particularly grate on me is the automatic inclusion of Facebook and Twitter apps, I do not have an account with either and neither do I want one.

Given that Android is based on a Linux kernel then it should all be about freedom, so removing these was high on my list of priorities when I received the phone. As Android is based on Linux then you can use the same commands that most Linux users use on a day to day basis in the terminal.

First of all, from your Nexus One, select Settings > Applications and make sure that there is a tick beside Unknown Sources. This allows us to use software other than the apps in the market, very useful for trying beta packages that are not yet in the marketplace (Fennec etc).

We now need root privileges. Most ways of rooting your phone affect the bootloader and the mobile companies claim that this nullifies your warranty. I am using Universal Androot which can be downloaded here or by scanning the barcode below, this grants root privileges to applications, not your bootloader, so a factory reset should wipe this out.














Install the the app, make sure the Android version is set to 2.0~2.2 and click Go Root. The next screen should give you the message: Woot! Your device is rooted!

Now go to the marketplace and download a terminal, I used the Android Terminal Emulator; it does the job and it's free, but feel free to choose any you wish.

Open the terminal and type:

su

An Android head with crossed bones below it will appear asking if you wish to grant this application Superuser permissions, select Yes. At this point I had to restart the terminal app, but this may not be the case for all of you.

Now type, pressing return at the end of each line:

mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system

cd /system/app
ls

At this point you will get a list of all the pre-installed packages, they will all have .apk extensions. Take a note of the exact names of the package files you wish to remove. Please be careful not to remove apps that are necessary to the basic function of your phone. We will rename these instead of deleting them, this means that we can retrieve them later if we wish. In my example I will be removing the Facebook and Twitter apps:

mv Facebook.apk Facebook.bak
mv Twitter.apk Twitter.bak
mount -o ro,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system

sync

Now exit the terminal and reboot your Nexus One and the unwanted apps will be gone.

*This guide will not work with Android 2.2.1, Universal Androot is not compatible with 2.2.1 due to root restrictions

**If you are not confident with using the terminal please do not do this, I am not responsible for any damage to the phone

A lot of posts have been written on various forums about removing some of the default apps that come supplied with the Nexus One phone. Two that particularly grate on me is the automatic inclusion of Facebook and Twitter apps, I do not have an account with either and neither do I want one.

Given that Android is based on a Linux kernel then it should all be about freedom, so removing these was high on my list of priorities when I received the phone. As Android is based on Linux then you can use the same commands that most Linux users use on a day to day basis in the terminal.

First of all, from your Nexus One, select Settings > Applications and make sure that there is a tick beside Unknown Sources. This allows us to use software other than the apps in the market, very useful for trying beta packages that are not yet in the marketplace (Fennec etc).

We now need root privileges. Most ways of rooting your phone affect the bootloader and the mobile companies claim that this nullifies your warranty. I am using Universal Androot which can be downloaded here or by scanning the barcode below, this grants root privileges to applications, not your bootloader, so a factory reset should wipe this out.














Install the the app, make sure the Android version is set to 2.0~2.2 and click Go Root. The next screen should give you the message: Woot! Your device is rooted!

Now go to the marketplace and download a terminal, I used the Android Terminal Emulator; it does the job and it's free, but feel free to choose any you wish.

Open the terminal and type:

su

An Android head with crossed bones below it will appear asking if you wish to grant this application Superuser permissions, select Yes. At this point I had to restart the terminal app, but this may not be the case for all of you.

Now type, pressing return at the end of each line:

mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system

cd /system/app
ls

At this point you will get a list of all the pre-installed packages, they will all have .apk extensions. Take a note of the exact names of the package files you wish to remove. Please be careful not to remove apps that are necessary to the basic function of your phone. We will rename these instead of deleting them, this means that we can retrieve them later if we wish. In my example I will be removing the Facebook and Twitter apps:

mv Facebook.apk Facebook.bak
mv Twitter.apk Twitter.bak
mount -o ro,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system

sync

Now exit the terminal and reboot your Nexus One and the unwanted apps will be gone.

Removing Facebok & Twitter from the Nexus One

Fedora 14 - a preview

With the release of one of my favourite Linux distros imminent I decided to try out Fedora 14 beta release candidate for a sneak preview. The one thing I will say is that Fedora have concentrated on speed, this distro is fast, a quick install and boot up times. The usual slick blue design is there, but as with 13 I do think they may have stripped the core system back a bit too much, I felt that selection of applications upon installing a bit limited.

Firefox, Pino, Shotwell and Rhythmbox are all very useful but no word processing or graphics packages at all??? Stability, as Fedora releases love to be cutting edge, may be a bit of an issue. I tested this on two laptops (HP & Lenovo), both with similar specs 2GHz processor, 2GB ram, both capable of running the 64bit versions. The only major setup difference was that I used the entire hard drive on the HP, but only a partition on the Lenovo. The HP worked perfectly from the install, this could quite easily have been the final version. However the same install disk produced a very different outcome on the Lenovo. Almost nothing worked as it should; nautilus kept crashing, I couldn't get the wireless working properly and I couldn't burn a CD or DVD. The software started up but then hung for a while before crashing. I thought to myself this could be an error during installation but sadly on a re-install I was greeted with the same problems. This appeared to be more like an alpha edition than a release candidate.

Anyway we shall wait and see what the final release will bring, I hope that if these bugs are not sorted then Fedora will push the date back rather than releasing an unstable system.

With the release of one of my favourite Linux distros imminent I decided to try out Fedora 14 beta release candidate for a sneak preview. The one thing I will say is that Fedora have concentrated on speed, this distro is fast, a quick install and boot up times. The usual slick blue design is there, but as with 13 I do think they may have stripped the core system back a bit too much, I felt that selection of applications upon installing a bit limited.

Firefox, Pino, Shotwell and Rhythmbox are all very useful but no word processing or graphics packages at all??? Stability, as Fedora releases love to be cutting edge, may be a bit of an issue. I tested this on two laptops (HP & Lenovo), both with similar specs 2GHz processor, 2GB ram, both capable of running the 64bit versions. The only major setup difference was that I used the entire hard drive on the HP, but only a partition on the Lenovo. The HP worked perfectly from the install, this could quite easily have been the final version. However the same install disk produced a very different outcome on the Lenovo. Almost nothing worked as it should; nautilus kept crashing, I couldn't get the wireless working properly and I couldn't burn a CD or DVD. The software started up but then hung for a while before crashing. I thought to myself this could be an error during installation but sadly on a re-install I was greeted with the same problems. This appeared to be more like an alpha edition than a release candidate.

Anyway we shall wait and see what the final release will bring, I hope that if these bugs are not sorted then Fedora will push the date back rather than releasing an unstable system.

Fedora 14 - a preview

Well done Alun Parry

This is a bit outdated now, however I feel that it is still worth a mention. It only came to my attention after Dan Lynch mentioned it during a recent episode of Rathole Radio.

Shortly before Ogg Camp earlier this year Alun Parry announced that he was releasing his latest Album; We Can Make the World Stop, in ogg format. I was pleased when I heard that another artists was adding ogg to their file formats when releasing new media.

However what I did not expect was that Alun released these as free downloads, this is an album that he sells on the net including on his website and on Amazon. Not only has he made this available for free in ogg format, he has also given his permission to distribute the album with others.

I hope that he continues to release future albums in ogg form, however I want to see him make a living so charging people for ogg albums is not unreasonable. Pay the money and get the media in a free and open file format, a world without DRM wouldn't that be lovely.

The album is available to download in ogg format here. Have a listen, pass the link on, promote the ogg music format.

This is a bit outdated now, however I feel that it is still worth a mention. It only came to my attention after Dan Lynch mentioned it during a recent episode of Rathole Radio.

Shortly before Ogg Camp earlier this year Alun Parry announced that he was releasing his latest Album; We Can Make the World Stop, in ogg format. I was pleased when I heard that another artists was adding ogg to their file formats when releasing new media.

However what I did not expect was that Alun released these as free downloads, this is an album that he sells on the net including on his website and on Amazon. Not only has he made this available for free in ogg format, he has also given his permission to distribute the album with others.

I hope that he continues to release future albums in ogg form, however I want to see him make a living so charging people for ogg albums is not unreasonable. Pay the money and get the media in a free and open file format, a world without DRM wouldn't that be lovely.

The album is available to download in ogg format here. Have a listen, pass the link on, promote the ogg music format.

Well done Alun Parry