Archive for the ‘Fun Gyaan’ Category
Ubuntu 9.04 on Dell XPS M1530!!!
May 10th, 2009
I’ve installed Ubuntu 9.04 on my XPS M1530 (both 64 and 32 bit) and it worked, beautifully, right out of the box. I recommend every Dell XPS M1530 user to use Ubuntu 9.04 as everything works right out of the box.
The install time was insanely fast and easy. The boot time now is pretty less, around 25 seconds. I got the fingerprint reader to work, find it really useful that typing the password again and again (I’ll post how to make it to work really soon), the webcam worked great using Cheese (in the repository). The 64bit tended to drain the battery a bit too fast–understandable. I ended up reinstalling and going back to 32bit as there were a few applications which were needed and weren’t yet ported over to 64bit.
I used envy to get my Nvidia 8600GT to work. The best thing I find about Ubuntu 9.04 on Dell XPS M1530 is that there is no more need to tweak the mouse pad, the camera or anything else! 
Tags: Dell XPS, Linux, Ubuntu
Posted in Fun Gyaan | Comments (13)
Windows 7!!!
May 10th, 2009
The first question that strikes me is What is Windows 7?
Windows 7 (formerly codenamed Blackcomb and Vienna) is slated as the next release of Microsoft Windows. Unlike its predecessor, Windows 7 is intended to be an incremental upgrade with the goal of being fully compatible with existing device drivers, applications, and hardware. Presentations given by the company in 2008 have focused on multi-touch support, a redesigned Windows Shell with a new taskbar, a home networking system called HomeGroup, and performance improvements. Some applications that have been included with prior releases of Microsoft Windows, most notably Windows Mail, Windows Movie Maker, and Windows Photo Gallery, are no longer included with the operating system, they are instead offered separately as part of the Windows Live Essentials suite.
What does this mean to the general user? Well, probably the biggest fault in Vista was that it was released under the flag of “Vista Ready”. In the end, this wound up being a huge PR flop for Microsoft as many of the products being pushed weren’t ready or were ready with limited quality. Now Apple and the Linux world have both taken full advantage of this slip-up and have truly profited by it. So this could be a very big step, not only in terms of quality but market share. Ultimately though, MS has such stronghold on the market that it’s hard to imaging that there was any sort of a real dent made by either Apple or Linux. Will Apple and Linux take over? I don’t think so, not any time soon at least.
Review
When I heard that Windows 7 beta was “out in the wild”, I had to try it. Since I had no intentions of messing up my laptop with an install gone wrong, I created a new Virtual Machine (VM) to install it in. The “machine” I’ve installed it on has a 10GB “dynamic disk” (which starts small and grows as is needed), and is limited to 512MB of RAM. Apparently Win7 is supposed to run on Vista’s requirements, which state 512MB, a 1GHz processor, and 15GB HD for the Home basic version, and it seems to do pretty well.
A couple of other things I noticed: During the install, and even starting up normally, the VM experiences several “window resets”. I notice this because I run Compiz with the desktop cube plugin, and I normally have the VM loading on a side face of the cube, whenever it changes the “screen”, the window pops up on the active cube face. This happened several times during the install process (it even rebooted about halfway through, and finished the install from the files copied to the hard disk), and I believe it happens three times during bootup, though putting it into fullscreen mode keeps it from popping between cube faces.
Windows networking, for some reason or other, wouldn’t connect with \\vboxsvr (used for virtualbox shared folders). Audio does not work in the VM — I was unable to even “add new hardware” so as to install the driver form the Additions disc, as Windows insists on trying to auto-detect any new hardware. I especially like the new photo-realistic device icons, and the overhaul of the way Windows handles and ejects USB storage devices.
Overall and so far, it seems pretty nice, gives a signal that Microsoft has spent a lot of effort with Windows 7 on delivering a solid operating system.
Is Windows 7 enough to kill Linux on the desktop?
For the past three years I have been a Linux fan-boy using Ubuntu most of the time and Windows XP/Vista when I needed to play games. But my experience with Windows 7 was pretty good. If I am right Windows 7, would result in the move away from Voleware to Linux and OSX being stopped in in its tracks.
Personally, though, I am sticking to Linux.
Tags: Apple, Linux, Ubuntu, Virutalbox, Windows, Windows 7
Posted in Fun Gyaan | Comments (1)
Conky – a light weight system monitor for Linux Systems!!! May 9th, 2009
Conky is a free software system monitor for the X Window System. Not only monitoring system, with a little bit of scripting, it can be useful to know your new mails, weather info etc. Conky is highly configurable and is able to monitor many system variables including the status of the CPU, memory, swap space, disk storage, temperatures, processes, network interfaces, battery power, system messages, e-mail inboxes, Arch Linux updates, many popular music players, and much more. Unlike system monitors that use high-level widget toolkits to render their information, Conky is drawn directly in an X window. But this flexibility comes at a price: all Conky’s settings are stored in the .conkyrc file, which you have to create and tweak manually. The good news is that once you understand the inner workings of the .conkyrc file, you can easily create powerful Conky configuration profiles.
Note: Each time you edit your .conkyrc file you would need to restart conky. That is done by typing the following commands in the terminal “killall conky” to kill conky and “conky&” to start it again.
To install Conky on Ubuntu type in the terminal :
$ sudo apt-get install conky
Now download the following .conkyrc file, if you want your Conky to look like mine :
1. After downloading save it as .conkyrc in your home folder.
2. Now, make a directory scripts in your home directory. Download these scripts, extract and copy them inside the directory you just created.
3. Download all these fonts, extract and copy them inside .fonts directory in your home directory. If you don’t have the .fonts directory, you need to create it. You might need to have administrative privileges to create this directory.
4. Open .conkyrc file. Look for this line:
${execpi 300 python ~/scripts/gmail_parser.py yourgmailusername yourgmailpassword 3}
Replace yourgmailusernamewith your username and yourgmailpassword with Gmail password. You might also need to install python-feedparser if your mail does not show up.
$ sudo apt-get install python-feedparser
5. To monitor your hard disk and CPU temperature install lm-sensors and hddtemp
$sudo apt-get install hddtemp
$sudo apt-get install lm-sensors
6. Now try and run conky by executing conky& in terminal, if everything is correct you would be able to see conky on your desktop.
If you need more info :
1. More variables for conky
2. Settings variables for conky
3. More Conky scripts can be found here.
Tags: Conky, FOSS, Linux, Ubuntu
Posted in Fun Gyaan, Techi Gyaan | Comments (3)
Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Review!!! May 8th, 2009
Ubuntu is an open source operating system with the intention of supplying an up-to-date, stable operating system for the normal computer user. In addition to stability Ubuntu try to target ease of use and installation. Ubuntu can be used on almost anything including Desktops, Business PC’s, Notebooks and many others that are able to support x86 CPU or ARM CPUs, this has only been adapted in the 9.04 version.
In terms of ease of use, Ubuntu outshines Vista without a doubt. But it is arguably limited when it comes to software. Most applications written for Windows have not been ported with Linux, and therefore you may not be able to get your favourite programs running on Ubuntu. However, I don’t think this is much of a problem, as there is a whole world of open source out there, which sometimes provide even better functionality.
Jaunty is very good. Its the first version of a linux distribution that I’d pretty much recommend to anyone to try (with only a few minor issues..). It has made vast improvements over Hardy from a year ago. Its stable, snappy, and quite a number of annoyances that I experienced before have been fixed or minimised.
The new features
Ubuntu 9.04 uses GNOME 2.26.1 and Linux Kernel 2.26.28.
These 2 combined, creates a very nice interface.
All things that didn’t work for me in 8.10 or had to find a way to get them to work now works in 9.04 right from the start, like Wireless Internet and Bluetooth.
One feature that annoys me is that if you are logged in as Root through the command “sudo su”, you are forced to type in the password of any Super User account, or Root.
The feature I like the most is the new volume panel applet. Many of my Windows friends now want it on there OS.
In other facts, if you change the background, it shows a fading effect, which is very nice, through.
The default theme is the same old brown ‘Human’ theme. Ubuntu never does seem to work on it’s visuals very much. But there was surprise. Last time, Ubuntu introduced the DarkRoom theme. Now, in addition, there are two themes called ‘Dust’ and ‘Dust-Sand’. Dust is the closest Ubuntu has yet come to making a real, professional, working interface. It looks very nice, and the styling is easy on the eyes. All that disappointed me was that it had no wallpapers or icon-sets to complement the theme. Even the new dark theme New Wave looks nice.
Inside the upper layer
First thing that strikes you is that there is the unified notification system. I really enjoyed the fact that all applications can now channel their notifications into a single uniform message. No more mess! Email notifications, messenger messages, system notifications etc are all there. All in all, this is one of the most welcome changes, and it really helps those users that are used to putting lots of applications in their traybar.
Boot times have gone down, takes around 25 seconds to boot, this is lot lesser than earlier versions of Linux. The only full distro that boots faster for me is Dreamlinux. Though I hardly ever shut down my laptop, many people do.
To my surprise, the stability issues have disappeared if by magic. Here, the stability was no issue at all. I pushed the system as much as I can but the Jackalope held on. Impressive indeed.
Conclusion
To be honest, this is probably the least ground-breaking release of Ubuntu so far. My only complaint with this release is that it gave me very little to write about. Very few earthbreaking features, but rock solid stability. The netbook remix of Ubuntu 9.04, however, offers significant improvements over previous releases, and is worth a try if you use a netbook. Having said all this, Ubuntu is still miles ahead of any other desktop version of Linux, and this release does have some significant server platform developments. Personally, I think Ubuntu is on the same level as Windows and OS X. We’ll just have to wait and see where Ubuntu goes from now on.
Note: Ubuntu 8.10 onwards (9.04 too) has an IPV6 bug. This disallows users with static IPs from connecting to the internet, and some users have trouble disabling this behavior.
Here’s a very useful page about what do after installing the standard Ubuntu 9.04: Eva’s useful guide to Ubuntu 9.04
I’ll post a review of Ubuntu 9.04 on a Dell XPS M1530 in the near future..
Cheers… 
Tags: FOSS, Linux, Ubuntu
Posted in Fun Gyaan | Comments (0)
I Tweet, Therefore I Am!!! March 12th, 2009
About a month ago, i joined the land of Twitteronia, where millions spend time just editing a single line(”what you are currently doing?”) in 140 characters or less. Initially I was skeptical of all this twittering, but now, I “get it.” After about a week of twittering, I was hooked. I’m now connected to my friends and a few celebrities (Lance Armstrong is my favorite ). These days its like a regular routine to tweet whenever i can and tweet whatever is possible…
I ran across an article at Times Online, that really disappointed me. The article specifically referenced clinical psychologist Oliver James, who stated
“Twittering stems from a lack of identity. It’s a constant update of who you are, what you are, where you are. Nobody would Twitter if they had a strong sense of identity.”
Don’t these people get it, it’s not about Lack of identity. If this is true then there are millions of Twitterers who apparently need psychological help. I believe that Twitter is more than what Oliver James says, its about getting connect to others, brainstorm and share ideas, there are many more advantages/reasons why we all tweet. I know that whoever Tweets gets this fact somehow or the other. I feel that we don’t Tweet because we have a lack of identity, we use Tweet because we individually have a strong identity and want to connect and learn from other Twitterers around the world. I personally feel twitter is far better than other social networking sites like Orkut, Myspace and all..
Tags: twitter
Posted in Assorted Gyaan, Fun Gyaan | Comments (0)
Set Twitter Tweet as status message in Pidgin!!! March 8th, 2009
While browsing the net you would have heard about Twitter. Twitter is basically another name for micro blogging. In twitter you just have to sign up, then update a single line(“what you are currently doing?”) whenever you can. Its just so simple, no fuss about making a profile or writing down about the movies you like and blah blah…
A lot of us also use different instant messaging clients on a day to day basis. Pidgin is one of these clients that runs on a number of platforms, including Windows, Linux, and other UNIX operating systems. The advantage of using pidgin is that instead of running GTalk, Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger separately, you can have everything-in-one.
Now Pidigin allows us to set a status message and that is exactly what we do in twitter. So here’s what we can do.. update twitter status alone and then get Pidgin to retrieve and set the tweet as the IM status automatically.. This can be done with a help of a code found at Google Codes.
To do this follow the steps below. (I am taking it that you have already got Pidgin installed on your system.)
1. Firstly we need to install Perl. Most Linux distros come with Perl preinstalled. Windows users, download and install Perl from here.
2. Take a Command Prompt/Terminal and enter: perl -MCPAN -e shell (Linux users, would have to add a sudo before this). In the CPAN prompt that you got now, enter install XML::XPath and hit enter. This will download and install the Xpath module from Internet.
3. Now launch Pidgin. Go to Help -> About and scroll to the bottom of the page. You should see a line : Perl: Enabled.
4. Download twitter.pl from http://code.google.com/p/pidgin-twitterstatus/downloads/list and put it into your Pidgin plugins folder. Usually the plugins folder is C:\Program Files\pidgin\plugins for Windows users and ~/.purple/plugins for Linux users.
5. Now restart Pidgin and go to Tools -> Plugins. There will be a new plugin named Twitter Status Feed. Enable it and click on Configure Plugin. Enter your twitter user name in the dialog box that pops up.
6. Now in the drop down box where we select our status choose Twitter.
Note : sometimes in Linux copying the twitter.pl in “~/.purple/plugins” may not work. If you have root privilege then copy the script in “/usr/lib/purple-2/“.
Please leave comments if you face problems.
Tags: Linux, Perl, Pidgin, script, Softwares, twitter, Ubuntu, Windows
Posted in Fun Gyaan, Techi Gyaan | Comments (0)
Installing Adobe Air and its applications on Ubuntu 8.10!!! February 22nd, 2009
Adobe AIR Environment is one of the hottest new technology around, it allows us to easily create cross platform Internet rich applications and widget that are Internet ready.
To install Adobe AIR on Ubuntu 8.10 follow these steps..
Open Terminal window from (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal ) and issue the following command in the terminal window.
wget http://airdownload.adobe.com/air/lin/download/1.5/AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
Now :
chmod +x AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
After That :
./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
After the above command you will get a installation dialog box like this follow the instructions to install Adobe Air.
After installation is over you will find a menu item (Applications -> Other ->Adobe Air Application Installer ) which allows one to easily install Adobe Air applications.
Some interesting Adobe AIR applications are :
ReadAIR
ReadAIR is an rss reader. But it lacks keyboard shortcuts.
You can download ReadAIR from here : http://readair.googlecode.com/files/ReadAir.0.3.air
You can install the downloaded the (.air) package using (Applications-> Other -> Adobe AIR Application Installer).
RichFLV
RichFLV is a video editor for flv files , some of its features are :
* Read flv Metadata
* read/edit/modify/delete cuepoints
* cut flvs
* convert the sound of the flv to mp3
* convert flv to swf
RichFLV is still in early stage of development and is an alpha release.
Download and Install RichFLV from here : http://www.richapps.de/files/richflv/RichFLV.air
RoadFinder
RoadFinder combines Yahoo! Maps and Google Maps into a single application. It allows one to easily look up address using its intiuative interface. RoadFinder allows you to search maps for physical directions anywhere in the world. It also allows you to view satellite images.
Download and install RoadFinder from : http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/air/linux/samples/1/RoadFinder.air
Spaz
Spaz is an Open source Twitter client and features an extremely user friendly interface. Some of the important features of Spaz are :
* Built-in global search powered by Summize
* Short URL creation tool with support for multiple services (is.gd, bit.ly, snurl.com, and more)
* In-line short URL decoding
* Markdown syntax support
* Multiple themes and support for user-created themes
* User-defined CSS overrides
* Event sounds using the Tokyo Train Station soundset by Dominik Dimaano
* Directory listings of users you’re following, and your followers.
Download and Install Spaz using this link : http://funkatron.com/apps/spaz/AIR/SpazAIR.air
TweetDeck
TweetDeck is also an Open source Twitter client, i find it better than Spaz..
Download and Install TweetDeck using this link :
http://www.tweetdeck.com/
I hope you enjoy AIR an its applications.. If you face problems please comment…
Tags: Adobe, Adobe AIR, Softwares, twitter, Ubuntu
Posted in Fun Gyaan, Techi Gyaan | Comments (5)
A blog for Foodie's!!! February 22nd, 2009
If your a foodie like me.. theres a blog of my cousins Anjali Dubey . Go through it you might find some nice mouthwatering dishes.. 
Tags: Food
Posted in Assorted Gyaan, Fun Gyaan | Comments (0)
Experience of freed.in!!! February 21st, 2009
Freed.in is an event thats held at JNU where people who are interested in FOSS come from various walks of life. The aim of this event is to motivate people to move over to FOSS by having talks from people from ILUGD, other local FOSS communities and other FOSS developers. This time discussions and talks were held on OSDD, GNU/Linux Clusters, WikiEducator and Django. This was the first time that i attended an event like this.. and its a experience that i would not forget. It was a day two day event held on 20th and 21st of February . The unique inauguration ceremony, freed.in has never had a chief guest other than members of the community. The best thing about this year was that it was arranged without any sponsors. Students from our college took part in the event acting as volunteers. I was a volunteer as well as a speaker at freed.in. I represented a group of students from our college, our talk was on “Learning through Open Source: Our experience with GNU/Linux-based clustering” which is the project we are currently doing at my college. Getting to know so many people from the world of FOSS was really nice. I’ll attend it every year now on.. would try to attend foss.in too this time.
You can have a look at the pictures at Flickr
Tags: FOSS, foss.in, freed.in, Linux
Posted in Assorted Gyaan, Fun Gyaan | Comments (0)
Tricks for Ubuntu!!! February 13th, 2009
Here are some great Ubuntu secrets…
Open the terminal and type:
1. apt-get moo
2. aptitude help
3. aptitude moo
4. aptitude -v moo
5. aptitude -vv moo
6. aptitude -vvv moo
7. aptitude -vvvv moo
8. aptitude -vvvvv moo
9. aptitude -vvvvvv moo
Enjoy the responses..
Try this : Press alt+f2 under GNOME, and type in free the fish in the application and see what happens.
Also try this : Press alt+f2 and then type in gegls from outer space and enjoy the game of space invaders but with an exception – the game is played with cows !!!!
Tags: Ubuntu
Posted in Fun Gyaan | Comments (0)