The Catling Mindswipe

Review: Google Good to Know

2012-02-10T00:12:00.000Z

Good To Know is is Google's latest attempt to educate and inform the Internet-using public about privacy and on-line security. Specifically, Good To Know aims to inform users of the tools they can use to control how their data is used across Google's many services.

The question is, do we look on this as genuine public service content or as a thinly disguised Public Relations puff-piece with more spin than the Magic Roundabout? Is this act of proactive public reassurance just to pre-empt the kinds of privacy lawsuits Facebook is fighting?

You could that argue Google has done more to erode on-line privacy and security - with the exception of Facebook - than perhaps any other company in the web space. After the hideous gaffe of the failed Google Buzz social service, which less than two years ago exposed users' Gmail contacts without permission, then-CEO Eric Schmidt essentially told the world “privacy is dead, get over it.” Then the Google Street View cars unintentionally collected 600GB of users' browsing information from unprotected Wi-Fi networks.

We've said before on these pages, "if you're not paying for the product, then you are the product." Google's revenue model is predominantly advertising; it's not a charitable foundation. As Google has itself stated, "the more you use the web, the more money we make."

The business model relies on collecting user information to sell to advertisers and third parties. Helping users maintain their accounts securely, to avoid abuse and make sure that the valuable information they collect is accurate is largely in its' own interest.

Spot the conflict of interest when it comes to telling users how to maintain their privacy. The less information Google collects about users and their activities, the less valuable is that information to advertisers. Would it rather you share or be safe?

What's Good to Know?
Good to Know aims to educate the public about on-line privacy and security, in a collection of easy-reading, jargon-free pages with links to further resources.

Re-assuring phrases are pushed to the fore. The Your Data > Advertising page explains;
"Throughout this process we don’t store your name or keep any personal information about you. We just recognize the number stored in your browser, and show ads related to the interest categories associated with your cookie (so we’re recognizing your browser, not you)... We don’t show ads based on sensitive information or interests, like race, religion, sexual orientation, health, or sensitive financial categories."

Sounds good so far, but as various on-line investigators can testify, it only takes a handful of individual Google searches linked together to piece together a whole lot more than that.

Good To Know breaks down into four categories:

Stay Safe On-line
Your Data On The Web
Your Data on Google
Manage Your Data

Topics break down into further information and links to tools and policies. Some sections contain embedded video to explain various topics. It has to be said all of the video is in bite-sized chunks, no doubt to be advertising friendly and stand-alone. Some of it pre-dates Good to Know. There is a section describing Google's own Data Liberation Front, an internal team created with the intention of engineering the importing data and export of data from any Google service. The idea, under Google's ethical banner "don't be evil" allow users the freedom to come and go without fear of vendor lock-in as happens with so much personal and corporate data. From the Data Liberation Front website, you should be able to choose any service and find receive clear instructions on how to extract and erase your data from Google's servers.

The generic information about on-line security is sound but the conflict of interest bubbles just below the surface of the entire Good to Know campaign. The rest of the campaign is either directed at making users feel comfortable sharing information with Google, is is pushing its' own products and services without mentioning alternatives. For example Google Chrome is held up as the paragon of safe web browsers, with no mention of Firefox, Safari or newer versions of Internet Explorer. It's hardly an unbiased recommendation from the makers of Chrome, but is clearly exploiting people's immense trust in the brand name of Google.

The next issue is, Good to Know is already massive. How many casual users are going to get through this to the right section in which they're interested? Big, friendly grade-school cartoons help to dress down the marketing speak, but it's hard to ignore that all the text sounds like it was written by the same team that promotes Dolphin-friendly tuna products.

As a generic tool for education on Internet privacy, it is a good starting point. There's nothing strikingly original, but at least you have everything here in one place. Unfortunately in tone and content, it's hardly unbiased and you can't put aside the suspicion of ulterior motives. RC

Opinion: Google Plus Still Doesn't Get it

2012-02-09T18:37:00.001Z

Rant alert: Google+ naming policy remains the most unutterably dumb, un-safe, impractical and unworkable piece of junk Google ever came up with! The thing still insists on 'real names' but couldn't recognise a real name if you painted it on a missile and fired it at them. Lord knows what anyone outside the Anglo-speaking world does with this piece of junk.

There is an appeals process that doesn't resolve appeals. I think I know why. Advertisers.

Oh, does my choice of name make if difficult for you to sell me <stuff>, Google?

Better decide if you're a world-beating social network safe for the whole world to use including dissidents and the vulnerable, or a glorified vending machine.

Oh, I forgot. Since your IPO, you're a glorified vending machine.

How this many intelligent engineers and marketing people can still have their heads up their tail-pipes after running it this long in beta and live running escapes me.

And if anyone can get their head around the Venn Diagram of Circles in Google Plus, I'm willing to listen.

Hopeless. RC

How:to Rip DVDs with VLC

2012-02-08T00:08:00.000Z

If you don't have the VideoLan VLC media player, then you're missing out. It is the most versatile players and converters around; platform-agnostic, it runs on anything and comes with a stack of controls and features not usual in a media player...

...including a fantastic Convert/Save features which allows you to convert media between formats, including ripping DVD's. Note this may be illegal in some territories and we rely on your responsible behaviour.

I always start or end with VLC for media conversion. It's much more usable than command line tools such as Mencoder and ffmpeg.

For reliable results, make sure to run VLC versions 1.0 and up.

Ripping a DVD with VLC

Insert the DVD or mount an ISO-image you want to rip and start up VLC.
From the Media menu, select on Convert / Save.
Choose the Disc tab.
The default disc address probably isn't correct, so use the Browse control to point to the disc you want.
You can select the start position by selecting the title and only record a specific chapter on the DVD.
You should check the 'skip DVD Menus' option as you will not be able to use them in the ripped file.
Audio track and subtitle tracks should be set to default -1. Ripping with a default sub-title track can be simple or a whole tutorial by itself. I'll leave it for now.
Select Convert/Save again to move on.

The next Convert screen opens up the output options.

Select where you will want to select a location for the ripped file. You'll need an appropriate file extension suffixed to your chosen file name. Match this to your output format (next). If you don’t label it with a supported file extension it will default to .ps (Program Stream) file (a DVD formatted stream which may not match the actual output).
Under Settings, you need to choose that output format. There's a drop-list of standard formats is you use them un-altered. Otherwise you need to click the tools icon and work through the profile settings for the container (Encapsulation) Video, Audio and Subtitles.

This can be a bit of a minefield; if you don't know what these things mean, do a bit of research but come back to VLC. It's much more usable than command line tools such as Mencoder and ffmpeg.

The rule is, if in doubt, don't mess with the default settings. If you're confident, at least create a new profile and you can play around with settings all you want.

When you're ready to go, the Convert screen will take the source drive, destination file with appropriate extension and the profile. Hit Convert to start the process.

If your settings are good the disc will spin up and the rip begins; the play-position bar in the main VLC window will increment progress as it goes.
A successful rip will take a matter of minutes.
If you checked Display Output, this will slow things down.
If you are getting a rip in anything close to real-time (playing time) then your settings are probably wrong.
If the disc doesn't spin and there's no movement of the progress bar, then the rip isn't happening - you've chosen incompatible settings or disc location somewhere.
The process will slow down your system as the it uses a lot of resources.
You should be able to play the converted file with other media players assuming you have the right codec.
Depending on the conversion settings you may get lower quality compared to the original.
You can't increase quality over the original source no matter what settings you use.

With a bit of trial and error, you should be able to convert just about any standard commercial format to something playable on any media play. RC

How-to: Add Users to Groups in Ubuntu 11.10

2012-02-06T00:05:00.000Z

Amongst the mixed bag of fail in Ubuntu 11.10 is the lack of a proper user and group admin tool. We had one in 11.04, you could do anything with user and group permissions from a graphical interface. Easy.

Come 11.10, that goes away and all you can do is add or remove user accounts or change the account type (Standard or Administrator). Canonical: you upgraded something useful (nay, essential) out of existence!

How is this making Ubuntu easier to use and more desirable to the new users whom Mark Spaceshuttle is trying to attract in the millions? You just made a large number of us resort to a command line. Again. Back in the geek ghetto. How 'very Linux.' FAIL. Anyway, moving on...

Try setting up Virtualbox and Samba shares and see how far you get. If you want to add new or existing users to existing groups, it is impossible to do from the user account management dialog box.

Open a Terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T keyboard shortcut). The command to list all existing groups on your system is:

groupmod

but <PRESS TAB KEY 3 TIMES, not enter

robin@D6400:~$ groupmod
adm            disk           man            rtkit          tty
admin          fax            messagebus     sambashare     users
audio          floppy         mlocate        saned          utempter
avahi          fuse           netdev         sasl           utmp
avahi-autoipd games          news           scanner        uucp
backup         gnats          nogroup        shadow         vboxusers
bin            irc            nopasswdlogin src            vickip
bluetooth      kmem           operator       ssh            video
cdrom          libuuid        plugdev        ssl-cert       voice
colord         lightdm        proxy          staff          www-data
crontab        list           pulse          sudo
daemon         lp             pulse-access   sys
dialout        lpadmin        robin          syslog
dip            mail           root           tape

This is a list of the current groups on my system.

The command to add an existing user to an existing group follows the format:

sudo usermod -a -G GROUPNAME USERNAME

Replace <Groupname> with active group name and <Username> with an account name. For example:

sudo usermod -a -G samabashare robin

Being a command line, you don't get feedback. To verify success, run the command:

cat /etc/group

The username should appear on all groups the user is a member.

Perhaps Ubuntu 12.04 will restore the missing utility. Incidentally, there's an Xfce equivalent; for whatever reason, Canonical stripped it from the Unity 11.04 release. RC

How-to: Create New Virtual Disks in VirtualBox

2012-02-04T12:06:00.000Z

The whole process of creating virtual Hard drives in VirtualBox is much simpler than it used to be, aided by a step-through Wizard.

The only thing novice might want to know is the pro's and con's of some of the options.

Let's say I want to create a new virtual disk for my Mint-12 virtual machine.

Starting with version 4.0 of VirtualBox, to create new disk images, use the “Storage” page in a virtual machine’s settings dialog; disk images are now by default stored in each machine’s own folder unless you choose to keep them in anothe location. Remember you need to ensure there's enough space on your host (physical) disk to hold all the virtual disks at their full size. Unless you like to live dangerously.

In the main VirtualBox Window, highlight the machine in the inventory then select Settings.
In the Settings windows, select Storage.
In the Storage tree, you will have IDE or SATA disk controllers defined. It's up to you, IDE still works but SATA is a newer standard with additional performance and reliability built in.
Under the chosen controller, select the Add icon for hard disks (the cylinder not the CD.
VirtualBox gives you a confirmation box; select Create New Disk (otherwise you can go off to attach an existing virtual disk to this machine).

Now we're into the Virtual Disk Creation Wizard.

The first choice is the type of disk to create.
VDI is native to VirtualBox. It's my default to use as I don't currently use any other virtualisation software, so I don't need to share disks across packages.
VMDK and VHD are compatible with VM-Ware and some other virtualisation software, so choose these if you expect to move disks and data around (if you're creating virtual appliances, you know this stuff better than I do).
HDD is limited to the Parallels software.

Virtual Disk Storage details is where you determine the allocation type;

You can use the dynamically expanding storage, which only expands to fill space on your host disk as the guest machine needs it.
It's a virtual disk, so while the parameters are set in advance, VirtualBox doesn't need to nab all the space at the outset.
A fixed size disk might be another route if you want to ensure consistent performance and/or allocate the necessary space up front. There's no danger of running out of space on your host disk

Virtual Disk Size and Location

You can call your new disk anything you like and place it anywhere you like.
By default VirtualBox will place it in the folder with the Virtual machine, but you can have it anywhere on any physical host disk partition on your host machine.
Network attached drives need a high-performance, high-reliability network, else you get time-outs and data read-write errors.
Create your new hard disk with the desired size; you can specify anything from a few MB through the GB range up to 2 Terrabytes.

You get a Summary confirmation box before the final commit.

Review your settings, if you need to you can step forward and back through the Wizard changing settings until you are happy.

At the end, select the Create button and wait a couple of minutes or less for your brand new virtual disk to become available. RC

How to: Fallback to Gnome Panels on Ubuntu 11.10

2012-02-02T00:05:00.000Z

I'm still not getting on with Unity desktop in everyday use. Xfce has a few quirks and disadvantages. Kubuntu is a culture shift too far.

Sooo... let's drop back to the look and feel of Gnome 2! Panels and menus are fast and lightweight and do just what I need to do. They are also easy to achieve thanks to a couple of small package installs, which gives me the desktop shown.

Firstly, install the package ‘gnome-fallback-session’ from the Ubuntu Software Centre. This one package does the hard work.

Log out of your desktop back to the LightDM login manager and choose ‘GNOME Classic (No Effects)’ session from session drop-list - hit the cogwheel next to your user name to choose it before you log in.

This open a desktop with a classic 2-panel desktop, in a Gnome-2 'stylee'.

You can change the Panel backgrounds (or not) to suit yourself.

The critical change in operation is the ALT and right-click combination for making changes to panels. It's an accessibility-busting key plus mouse combination but thats what fallback has to work with. So:

Alt+Right click on the top panel,
choose ‘Properties’
select the ‘background’ tab
select background image and click the button
navigate to your ‘usr/share/themes/ folder and see what you've got that contains panel and .png;
for example: Ambiance/gtk-2.0/apps/img/panel.png’

Add Ubuntu indicators
There's a ppa by developer Jason Conti containing a compatible indicators applet; add it using the line ‘ppa:jconti/gnome3‘ under your Software Sources.

You may want to get the public key for this ppa now if you want Software Centre to install future updates for the packages from Jason's PPA. The best way is via the terminal. We'll cover this another time.

Update Software centre, then install ‘Indicator-applet-complete’.

Via the terminal you can alternatively install using:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jconti/gnome3
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indicator-applet indicator-applet-complete indicator-applet-session

(Note this pulls in dependent packages)

Alt+right-click on the top panel
Choose ‘Add Applets’
Add ‘Indicator Applet Complete’

Customise
To add, remove and move panel items is very easy, Gnome-2 style:
ALT+Right click on a panel or item to add, move or edit it

Fix for Compiz Compositing
By default, the GNOME Classic Session grates with Compiz compositing in Ubuntu 11.10, so the fix is to edit the gnome-classic.session configuration file. The fastest way is via the terminal:
gksu gedit /usr/share/gnome-session/sessions/gnome-classic.session

Amend the line:

RequiredProviders=windowmanager;notifications;

by removing notifications; from the end of the line:

RequiredProviders=windowmanager;

Save the file, log out and you can log back into Gnome Fallback using the ‘GNOME Classic’ option instead of ‘GNOME Classic (No effects)’. RC

How-to: Fix Untrusted Packages Error in Ubuntu 11.10

2012-01-30T00:12:00.000Z

If you've added PPA's (Personal Package Archives) to your software sources in Ubuntu, you may find you get an error when you try to run updates in the Update Manager.

‘Requires installation of untrusted packages’

This is typically owing to missing GPG keys for those PPA's so that Update Manager can't verify those updates. It will simply refure to install those updates. It is easy to fix.

Open a Terminal session and run the command:

sudo apt-get update

The PPA's that are being refused will show up having no public key:

...

Ign http://extras.ubuntu.com oneiric/main Translation-en

Ign http://archive.canonical.com oneiric/partner Translation-en

Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net oneiric/main Translation-en_GB

Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net oneiric/main Translation-en

Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net oneiric/main Translation-en_GB

Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net oneiric/main Translation-en

Fetched 632 B in 1s (430 B/s)

Reading package lists... Done

W: GPG error: http://ppa.launchpad.net oneiric Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 52A794126E3AB2D3

W: GPG error: http://ppa.launchpad.net oneiric Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 8771ADB0816950D8

Take note (perhaps copy and paste from the terminal using shift-control-C to copy) those 16-digit hexadecimal key numbers appearing after ‘NO_PUBKEY’.

To install the missing public keys, run the command for each missing key, replacing my example with your key value:

sudo apt-key adv --recv-key --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 52A794126E3AB2D3

You should get a result looking something like this:

robin@D6400:~$ sudo apt-key adv --recv-key --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 52A794126E3AB2D3

Executing: gpg --ignore-time-conflict --no-options --no-default-keyring --secret-keyring /tmp/tmp.xoyVBC269z --trustdb-name /etc/apt/trustdb.gpg --keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg --primary-keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg --recv-key --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 52A794126E3AB2D3

gpg: requesting key 6E3AB2D3 from hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.com

gpg: key 6E3AB2D3: public key "Launchpad Recent Notifications" imported

gpg: Total number processed: 1

gpg:               imported: 1  (RSA: 1)

You can then use the update command below to verify your software sources list, approving those PPA's for updates:

sudo apt-get update

Running Update Manager should now complete without this error. RC

Full Circle Magazine Issue 57 Out Now

2012-01-29T17:30:00.002Z

Full Circle Magazine Issue 57 is available from the main site

Full Circle – the independent magazine for the Ubuntu Linux community are proud to announce the release of our fifty-seventh issue.

This month:
* Command and Conquer.
* How-To : Try Enlightenment, LibreOffice – Part 11, Backup Strategy – Part 5, Encrypted USB Stick, and Varnish Web Cache.
* Linux Lab – Mana World Server.* Review – OpenArtist: 5th Incarnation
* I Think – SpiderOak Questionnaire.
* Closing Windows – Wireless Networking
plus: more Ubuntu Games, My Desktop (and another extra!), My Opinion, My Story, and much much more!

Google Currents edition: http://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAowvZtX/full_circle_magazine_57_lite

Review: Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin Alpha 1

2012-01-28T00:03:00.000Z

Alpha 1 is the first release in the 12.04, Precise Pangolin development cycle and includes a number of software updates that are ready for wider testing. The Alpha is still quite an image of 12.04, "so you should expect some bugs." No kidding.

The headline is... okay thus far.

I don't usually get involved with releases until Alpha 2 or a Beta, but since Popey and some other folks have given good account of it, I jumped in...

The Alpha is an awkward 705mb ISO disk image. Expect 750Mb for the final release as per Mark Spaceshuttle's arbitrary upper limit.

What's new in ubuntu 12.04 Alpha 1

Version 3.2.0-2.5 Ubuntu kernel, based on the recent 3.2-rc3 Linux kernel
Banshee is removed as the default media player andin favour of old favourite Rhythmbox
Vala rewritten Zeitgeist 0.9 alpha 1 has replaced the “old” Zeitgeist
Banshee, Tomboy and Gbrainy have been removed, eliminating the Mono (free implementation of Silverlight)
Nautilus has received tags that can be applied to any file or folder
Ubuntu Software Center now supports multiple screenshots in the applications details view, as well as the ability to filter comments by “Most helpful first” and “Newest first”
updated default applications: Firefox 9 BETA, Thunderbird 9 BETA, Ubuntu Software Center 5.1.2, Gedit 3.2.3, Gwibber 3.3.1, Onboard 0.96
There is no UbuntuOne Music Store yet, this still needs to be ported to GTK 3
Nautilus has improved in stability and allows you to add tags to your files which helps in improving search.

View from the Bridge
The Software centre came with a stutter - installing programs, with much flashing of a debconf window, but not updating it's main window on completion - I was getting a blank screen or a hang at the end of most installs, but that appears to be resolved with today's round of updates.

Likewise Update manager got in a tangle locking with Apt while performing a dist-upgrade on the same day of install. A socking 397Mb of updates came down the wire the first time around, 207Mb today. This is how volatile the release is.

Cosmetically, there's not a huge difference from 11.10; small points of finessing, but otherwise this is a standard Unity desktop.

Pre-releases of Precise Pangolin are not encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into intermittent, possibly frequent breakage. Recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs this is a vital step in the Open Source process of getting a Long-Term Support (LTS) release ready. We eagerly awit the Alpha 2 release on Feb. 13th. RC

You can download the ISO images for 12.04: Ubuntu Desktop, Server, ARM

Additional images are also available at:

http://uec-images.ubuntu.com/releases/precise/alpha-1/http://uec-images.ubuntu.com/releases/precise/alpha-1/ (Ubuntu Server Cloud and EC2)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/precise/alpha-1/ (Xubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/precise/alpha-1/ (Edubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/precise/alpha-1/ (Lubuntu)

Review: twitterfeed

2012-01-26T00:09:00.000Z

twitterfeed (always lower-case) is a utility that allows you to feed your content from a blog or website with an RSS feed to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Twitterfeed reads your RSS feeds for new posts and sends them to your social network accounts.

Using the existing infrastructure of RSS (Really Simple Syndication), you can share to multiple Twitter accounts or to a Twitter account and a Facebook page. You can customize the format of the posts in the ‘Advanced Settings’ of your feeds and track the performance through real-time stats. twitterfeed checks the format of the feed to make sure it parses correctly.

You can put in your Blog/Website URL and twitterfeed will automatically extract your RSS feed URL from your blog or website.The address/URL of the feed will vary, depending on the blogging platform used, sbut you can select from multiple formats of feeds, ‘RSS 2.0’ or ‘Atom format’ are the most likely to work with twitterfeed.

About twitterfeedThis free service came out of nowhere and aside from some smart branding, there's no About Us page. All you're told on the web-site is: "twitterfeed, Inc. is not affiliated with Twitter, Inc. and licenses the trademark "Twitter" from Twitter, Inc. twitterfeed's service is intended to augment, supplement or enhance the services provided by Twitter (...Facebook and LinkedIn...)"Do a little research, however and you find: "Twitterfeed, Inc. provides service that allows publishers to distribute RSS feeds and updates to twitter. The company is based in the London, United Kingdom. As of August 9, 2011, Twitterfeed, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Bitly, Inc." (Bloomberg Business Week listings).Also: "...founded by Mario Menti. Twitterfeed currently has no publicly disclosed revenue source." (Wiley and Sons)

Creating and Updating
Step through the guided set-up process and newly created feeds should start posting within an hour. In three steps, you create a feed, set the services to which it publishes, confirm and go. For each account to publish feeds, you have to sign in and authenticate, but his is no diffferent to plublicizing through Wordpress or Tumblr. You can set the update frequency (how often it checks the RSS) and other advanced settings.

Posting duplicate or old content is a cardinal sin, so twitterfeed includes a number of checks to try and never re-post items that have already been posted, for example the uniqueness of the links, GUID's, published date-timestamp of each post, so as not to post an item again.

'Keyword filtering' is an option to filter a feed using a keywords, so only posts that contain those keywords in either the 'title' and 'description' will be sent to your social network accounts. It doesn't filter on categories, links, or any other element of a feed item; for that you'd need more advanced filtering such as Yahoo! Pipes, but as long as that service provides output as RSS, so you could then use it in twitterfeed.

You can also use URL shorteners such as Bit.ly with Twitterfeed. In the 'Advanced Settings' panel, click on 'bitly settings'. In the fields provided, enter your bitly account login and API key (from your bitly account settings). You can click on ‘verify bitly account’ to check that the bitly API information is correct.

You can force twitterfeed to update posts using the ‘check now!’ link in the feed dashboard, Twitterfeed will do an immediate fetch of the feed, and post any new items.

Quirks
Posting to Facebook doesn't always post thumbnails and images; twitterfeed will only post a "proper" Wall post with image thumbnails when the default 'post title & description' settings is used in the advanced settings. For ‘title only’ or 'description only', you only get Facebook Status updates which don't contain any thumbnails.

Verdict
twitterfeed does what it does with a minimum of fuss. It's easy to use, easy to customise. It doesn't patronise the experts and there's enough in the help and the FAQ's page to resolve issues for the willing beginner. It makes certain assumptions of the user, but you're hardly likely to stumble on a service like this by accident, you'll have an idea of it's worth and what you want to achieve. Best of all, it's free. RC

Review: Inside Fortress Bill BBC Radio 4

2012-01-24T00:18:00.000Z

Inside Fortress Bill: BBC Radio4, 06 Jan 2012

"Katie Derham takes a unique inside look at the charitable foundation set up by Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates and evaluates its power, aims and global influence."

Despite the press release claim to take a 'warts and all' look at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, this low-key documentary was unsurprisingly wart-free. An editorial line was clearly taken not to upset the world's richest man, his foundation or any of his influential friends; for, as it was recounted in the show, there's nobody in government or the media anywhere who won't take a phone call from Bill Gates...

There are some NGO's in the aid sector who do not accept funding from the Gates Foundation, such as Medicine Sans Frontiers, concerned for the the immense political power and global influence that it now wields and unable to accept a private organisation setting the aid agenda on a global scale.

To recap, Bill Gates retired from the day-to-day running of Microsoft and set about distributing his fortune in 2008 through the fund, 'topped up' by $31 billion pledged over ten years from Warren Buffett. It is the world's largest grant-giving organisation, giving away up to $4billion a year. Gates' addressed the G20 summit in 2010.

What concerns some is the Foundation setting tightly focused objectives; improve American Education, eradicate malaria, TB and polio. The Foundation is run on business lines, like a corporation, yet is answerable only to the three trustees; the Gates couple and Gates' father.

As host, Katie Derham was barely in the show and it was hardly her most penetrating piece of journalism. Derham's portrait of Gates softened the former view of the ruthless businessman, monopolist and oligarch, and in conversation, Gates appeared genuinely affected by the privations he saw in the Third World.It did give some time to the critics who believe his corporate approach to charity distorts priorities, funnels research into narrow channels, allows Governments off the hook, and causes a brain drain in countries into which the Fund pours money beyond any form of accountability.

There was also a hint at the distrust of some of the Foundation's staff, with assorted accusations of arrogance, naivety and personal ambition.

The closing segments were left to Gates' father to draw the picture of a kindlier, more thoughtful Bill Gates, as if his place as one of the worlds' great philanthropists was never in doubt. It may be that Gates has a greater and longer-lasting impact then Carnegie, Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan put together. RC

Inside Fortress Bill: BBC Radio 4, 6 Jan 12
Producer: David Prest, A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4.
Broadcast: Fri, 6 Jan 12
Duration: 37 mins
Photo: copyright British Broadcasting Corporation, 2011

News: 25 Worst Passwords of 2011

2012-01-22T00:09:00.000Z

Courtesy of David Coursey at Forbes, not one but two lists of unforgivably lax passwords.If yours is on either of these lists, go change it immediately. It's probably the same pasword for most of your accounts on multiple sites, so stop being lazy and implement separate passwords for each.

Use a decent set of guidelines for password creation, like the ones we posted previously.

Even if your password is not on these lists, you're not off the hook.

Remember that straight words, phrases and alpha-numeric strings are no longer sufficient to resist dictionary attack or 'brute-force' (trying every character combination).Here are the two lists, the first compiled by SplashData:

password
123456
12345678
qwerty
abc123
monkey
1234567
letmein
trustno1
dragon
baseball
111111
iloveyou
master
sunshine
ashley
bailey
passw0rd
shadow
123123
654321
superman
qazwsx (look down your keyboard)
michael
football

This isn't much better than the list compiled in 2010, when Imperva looked at 32 million stolen passwords:

123456
12345
123456789
Password
iloveyou
princess
rockyou
1234567
12345678
abc123

If you're already following best practice, you may now laugh, before sharing this with family and friends. Look after each other out there. RC

How-to: Generate Good Passwords

2012-01-20T00:06:00.000Z

Everyone thinks their on-line passwords are uncrackable. The bad news is that most plain text, alpha-numeric passwords don't last more than a few minutes under a brute-force, 'dictionary' attack.

More complex passwords, including letter-number substitution, such as passw0rd (with the O replaced with zero) are so-called 'leet-speak' passwords. These are no longer secure either and are starting to show up in dictionary attacks.

So you have to get a bit more creative for 2012.

The rocket scientists over at NASA created a set of best password practices to help protect their data, they include:

It should contain at least eight characters
It should contain a mix of four different types of characters - upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers, and special characters such as !@#$%^&*,;" If there is only one letter or special character, it should not be either the first or last character in the password.
It should not be a name, a slang word, or any word in the dictionary.
It should not include any part of your name or your e-mail address.

The problem with following that advice is that you create passwords that are impossible to remember.There are a few workarounds to create password mnemnonics that are easier to recall.

Security guru Bruce Schneir suggests turning a sentence into a password. For example, "Now I lay me down to sleep" might become nilmDOWN2s, a 10-character password that defies dictionary attack, so a hacker needs to resort to brute-force.

Developer and podcaster Steve Gibson of GRC.com and Security Now podcast suggests lengthening and obscuring passwords with punctuation characters. For example inserting a string of , or . into your passwords breaks up any pattern of alpha-numerics, again defying dictionary attack, and lengthening the pass string so that brute-force attacks take significantly longer.

Try to use a different password on every service, but if you can't do that, at least develop a set of passwords that you use at different sites.

This will make you more secure on-line (so long as you don't keep your master password list somewhere on-line. If you need to write them down, then do; but keep the list somewhere secure and don't put more than a hint next to it - don't list the account names. RC

Full Circle Podcast Episode 28: A Year in Comedy

2012-01-19T02:12:00.002Z

The Full Circle Podcast Episode 28: A Year in Comedy is available now from the main site.

This episode contains fewer facts than usual.

It's a New Year. It's January. We're on something of a break, so that can only mean a cheap, and frankly brain-numbingly lazy, listen back to the year 2011. This could be the best, or worst idea we've ever had.

Our thanks to all our co-hosts, guests, correspondents and contributors.

Select brain to 'neutral', put your laughing trousers on stand-by and enjoy.

Full Circle Podcast is also a proud member of the Tech Podcasts Network.

File Sizes:

OGG 16.9Mb
MP3 12.5Mb

Runtime: 34mins 48seconds

Feeds for both MP3 and OGG:
RSS feed, MP3: http://fullcirclemagazine.org/category/podcast/feed
RSS feed, OGG: http://fullcirclemagazine.org/category/podcast/feed/atom

Help Stop SOPA/PIPA

2012-01-18T11:14:00.000Z

On Wednesday Jan. 18th thousands of sites will go dark to protest SOPA & PIPA, two US bills racing through Congress that threaten prosperity, online security, and freedom of expression.

We normally stay away from politics here, but these are two fundamentally illiberal pieces of legislation unworthy of the democratic world. We are joining the international outcry against the US bills Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), which seek to deploy online censorship and surveillance in the name of enforcing copyright, employing the same tools used by authoritarian regimes. If you are a US Citizen, take action now!

The Senate version of the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is called the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). SOPA has gotten more attention than PIPA because it was moving faster in the legislative process. But PIPA is just as dangerous, and now it is moving faster. Both bills aim to protect copyrighted works and intellectual property, but the provisions of both WILL lead to serious abuses, by policital and commercial interests, without achieving the objectives of these bills.

Both PROTECT IP / SOPA Act will ‘break’ the Internet as it presently functions.
PIPA would give the government new powers to block ALL (not just Americans’) access to websites that lobbying US corporations don’t like. The bill lets corporations and the US government censor entire websites by legally seizing the ENTIRE DOMAIN and cut sites off from advertising, payments and donations.

This legislation will stifle free speech and innovation. Even popular web services like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook will have to bow to US censorship or be closed down. The bill is scheduled for a test vote in the US Senate on Jan. 24th. Object now before silence falls. RC

How-to: Play Common Media Formats in Ubuntu

2012-01-18T00:18:00.000Z

Ubuntu is a region-neutral distribution by default. That means it comes unencumbered with certain media codecs which are illegal in certain territories owing to their popularity with piratical characters who use them for undesirable acts such as playing music and DVD's. Scandalous!

So any new install of Ubuntu will not be able to play MP3 files and DVD's without some remedial work on your part...

1. Install ‘Ubuntu Restricted Extras’ for additional codecs and plugins.
This is a marvellous meta-package now in the Ubuntu repositories by default (it wasn't always so). It's not illegal for the repositories to hold it for the legitimate use of users in those territories where it is legal to use them, so long as Canonical doesn't take responsibility for installing it by default and possibly falling foul of local laws.

This will install the audio mp3 (MPEG Layer 3) decoders required for playing your mp3 songs. Similarly you get the Adobe flash player for flash content such as YouTube Videos (until HTML 5 kills flash completely).

You can install the package ubuntu-restricted-extras through Software Center or using a terminal command:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

2. Install the library/packages for playing commerical (encrypted) DVD’s

Commercial DVD's are usually encrypted with CSS (Content Scramble System). You will need to install libdvdcss2, which a free software library for unscrambling DVD's. Like the codecs above, there are territorial legal restrictions on the use of this decoder, so you need to install it yourself.

You can install though the Software Center or the terminal command

sudo apt-get install libdvdread4

You will also need to run a bit of script to correctly register the decoder.

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

It is likely you will need to restart your machine to the changes to take effect. RC

How-to: Record Scenes from Media with VLC

2012-01-16T00:09:00.000Z

If you don't have the VideoLan VLC media player, then you're missing out. It is the most versatile players and converters around; platform-agnostic, it runs on anything and comes with a stack of controls and features not usual in a media player.

One of which is the ability to record what is playing in real-time.

You will need to make the Advanced Controls visible in the player window, by choosing View and selecting Advanced Controls.

This exposes the Record button along with Snapshot (for screen-shots of just the player window) and Looping.

Open a DVD or indeed any other type of stream or file. Click on the red record button to begin recording, hit it a second time to end the recording. While recording, the record button changes colour.

By default, the recorded video in MPEG format gets and stored in the Documents folder, in file names labeled as VLC Record with the date-time stamp. You can change the default folder by going to Tools, Preferences, then Inputs and Codecs; it's under Files, Record Directory or file name. you can browse to a storage location. This is important since you need a location with sufficient storage.

This is a useful way to extract specific scenes to standard MPEG, perhaps to use in a presentation or teaching aid without lugging a stack of DVD's around. You can use the MPEG to convert to other formats - perhaps even using VLC's conversion functions.

This isn't necessarily a great way of ripping DVD's, as you get a continous file with no structure or scene and chapter marks. Not that you want to, as ripping is illegal in most territories. However, for making portable some content you already have in other media, it's a useful function. RC

How-to: Closing Windows Part 2 (Guest Post)

2012-01-15T00:16:00.000Z

Guest post from Full Circle Magazine Issue 55. Written by: Ronnie Tucker (KDE), Jan Mussche (Gnome), Elizabeth Krumbach (XFCE), Mark Boyajian (LXDE), David Tigue (Unity)

Closing Windows Part 2
Control Panels
The one part of Windows that is used just as much as, if not more than, My Computer, is the Control Panel. The Control Panel is where you configure your Windows, and some hardware settings.
Control Panel
All *Buntu’s have their own version of Control Panel. In Ubuntu, it’s called Control Center, and in the 11.04 release, it is installed - but it does not show up in the menus. Either you start it from a terminal, or you have to add an entry in the menus.From a terminal (choose Applications > Accessories > Terminal):

In the terminal, type: gnome-control-center
Hint: After choosing Applications > Accessories, right-click Terminal and choose “Add this launcher to panel” to have it available at all times.

Adding an entry to the menus: Choose System > Preferences > Main Menu

In the left column, choose menu System Tools. On the right-hand side, you will see all the items in this menu.
Click button “New item”
for Name, you can fill in: “Control Center”
for Command, it will be “gnome-control-center”
and for Comment, you can use: “Control center for Gnome Desktop”

Only the Command field is important, the others are just texts to help you find it. Make sure to type entries without the quotes.

Click OK, and you will see a new item in the menu. Close this window.
Open menu Application > System Tools > Control Center.

In Unity, it’s located under the icon resembling a gear, in the top left-hand corner of your screen. Click on the gear, and navigate down to system settings. Once you click on system settings, a window will appear with all your ‘Control Panel’ type settings within it.

In Kubuntu, it’s called System Settings, and can be found under K > Applications > Settings > System Settings. It’s sometimes found at the top of K > Favorites too.

In Lubuntu, it’s called Lubuntu Control Center and it’s at Menu > System Tools; however, to keep Lubuntu as “light” as possible during the initial install, this application is not installed by default because all the system settings can be easily accessed from the menu system without the Control Center application.Fortunately, the excellent software installer/manager makes it easy to select and install the Control Center, which very nicely gives you access to all the primary system control in one place.

Xubuntu calls it Settings Manager, and it can be found via the main menu (the mouse icon) and under Settings.Needless to say, since each desktop flavour is different, the layout and settings available are different. One thing that’s similar among all desktops is that to configure anything you’ll be asked to enter your root (or administrator) password. This is to prevent unauthorised tweaking. Always keep your root password safe!

Device Manager
Another crucial part of Windows is its Device Manager. In here, you’ll see a list of all available hardware, and if it’s working or not. The Device Manager lets you select pieces of hardware, diagnose problems, and install new drivers, amongst other things.

Linux differs quite a bit here since it doesn’t use drivers as such, but, thankfully, Linux has superb hardware recognition. There are exceptions to the rule though.

Some hardware manufacturers are what Linux users call ‘proprietary’ - this means that they aren’t very open to sharing their documentation with developers, and that makes it very difficult for developers to get some hardware working in Linux. Like I say though, thankfully it’s becoming quite rare now.To see what hardware you have while using Ubuntu (Gnome), you have to install a program first. This can be done in a few ways, like everything in Linux:The Terminal way:

Choose Applications > Accessories > Terminal, or click the terminal icon in your panel
In the Terminal type:sudo aptget install gnome devicemanagerYou will be asked for your password. Type it and press Enter. (Password will not be shown on screen)

The Synaptic way:

Choose System > Administration > Synaptic, and type your password when asked
In the small search field on top, start typing: gnome-device-manager
When you type slowly, you will see the contents of the list change. The correct program will show up after having typed just a few characters.
Click with the right mouse button on the name of the program. A small box appears in which you select “Mark for Installation”.
Now click on the Apply icon in the Toolbar, and, in the summary window which pops up, click Apply again.

Hint: when installing software, tick the selection button to automatically close the window after the installationThe Software Center way:

Choose Application > Ubuntu Software Center
In the search field top-right, type: gnome-device-manager, and, again after a few characters, the program is found.
Click the name of the program and it is marked. On the far right, you see a button Install. Click it, and the program will be installed - after you type your password.

The Device-Manager shows up in menu Application > System Tools.

For Unity, like with most other versions, you have several ways to view this type of information. Here is one way - although not very intuitive - you get to it by clicking on the ‘Dash Home’ button andtyping ‘System’. You will notice an icon labeled ‘System Monitoring’, and one labeled ‘System Info’. They both give you some information that is similar, so feel free to explore both, but what you are looking for is the devices - so click on ‘System Monitoring’. Then click the ‘File Systems’ systems tab.

Here are a couple of other ways to see this type of information - but with more detailed info. Try this: in the ‘Dash Home’ type ‘Disk’. There you will see two more icons named ‘Disk Utility’ and ‘Disk Usage Analyzer’. They both can be very useful. Take some time now and open both of them and have a look around. Be careful, the ‘Disk Utility’ application gives you access to format the hard drive, and I’m willing to bet you don’t want to do that. ‘Disk Usage Analyzer’, on theother hand, won’t allow you to destroy the hard drive, but it will allow you to see exactly what is using up your hard drive’s precious space.

Kubuntu has KInfoCentre; it’s found at K > Applications > System > Info Centre.By default, Lubuntu uses the System Information utility which is at Menu > System Tools > System Profiler and Benchmark. As with the Control Center, you can easily install the gnome-device-manager - which will provide much of the same information as the System Information screen but organized differently and with greater detail.Once installed, it can be opened from Menu > System Tools > Device Manager.

Xubuntu also uses the gnome-device-manager which is installed as outlined above, and then shows up under Mouse > System > Device Manager.

Most Linux device manager equivalents are just displaying a list of what you have in your machine, they won’t let you tinker with the hardware. Hardware configuration is usually done in the equivalent of control panel (see above) - as Linux will want to see your root password before letting you configure anything. Entering your root/admin password all the time may seem annoying, but it keeps your hardware (and software) safe, secure, and stable! RT

Review: Speedtest.net

2012-01-14T00:05:00.000Z

Broadband Speed Test
Test your Internet connection bandwidth to locations around the world with this interactive broadband speed test: Speedtest.net

Are you getting the Internet performance you paid for? Using Speedtest.net, you can consistently verify if your Internet service provider is delivering the connection speed they promised. Mostly.

Many Internet Service Providers have signed up to provide realistic measures of the upstream and downstream speed you pay for. It also tests latency when measuring the ping-speed.

These Internet speed testing services have been around for years and Speedtest.net is one of the longest surviving, in large part because it is more reliable than most.

The free service available on the front-page provides a reasonable gauge of your Internet connection speed, which, according to the other benchmarks we've run, is usually accurate.

You have the option of pinging a number of international servers and measuring the response time for both upload and download. It is very easy to use with easily selected graphics and clear animated progress guides.

You can sign up for a free account to more easily track your Speedtest.net results from multiple computers. It will also enable you to create 'Speed Waves,' manage your test history, label and group your connections and reserve a unique Speedtest.net nickname should you feel the need to dive into the community of speed freaks and share your results.

As a browser based service, it does need Flash plugins to work, but it is cross-platform and cross-browser. There is now an Android app available for testing your smart-phone's data link.

It is useful to test relative to a particular location, so that you can analyse why sites from one particular region might load slowly.

It isn't guaranteed 100% accurate, but none of these are, so exercise caution before you get into disputes with your ISP. Note that time of day, the chosen server location and hence the traffic originating from the rest of the world will also affect the test results.

That said, a very useful free utility. RC

Twelve Things to Expect in Ubuntu 12.04

2012-01-12T00:18:00.000Z

We discussed this posted by jun auza on the Full Circle Podcast in December, wherein jun summarized plans by MarkShuttleworth for the Precise Pangolin, the Long-Term Support (LTS) release of Ubuntu 12.04.

Deeper Unityintegration is to be expected, but rumoured Wayland development sounds a little early for 12.04 to us. Shuttleworth wants this LTS ready for large-scaledeployments by April.

It's a good list of candidate features, summarized from the sessions at the last Ubuntu Developer Summit Conference, albeit qualified by many a might, possibly and probably. We won't know for sure what's in and whats out until the feature freeze and Beta release later in the schedule. RC

1. Kernel 3.2
Kernel version 3.2 will include improvements tothe VMWare graphics stack along with better support for open sourcegraphics drivers. BRTFS, the heavily talked-about filesystem willalso get a huge amount of features. The Samsung Exynos4 DRM driver... will bring impressive 3D graphics capabilities tosmartphones and other ARM devices. As with every kernel update, userscan expect some minor boosts in performance.

2. 64-bit by Default
If you download Ubuntu12.04 from the website, you'll be offered the 64-bit version ofUbuntu by default even if you're using a 32-bit device.

3. No more CDsSince Pangolin's ISO willbe 750 MB in size, it won't fit on your standard CDs. So, you'lleither have to burn a DVD or use a USB thumb drive to install theupdate.

4. Rhythmbox makes acomeback(??)
Unhappy with the poor ARMcompatibility and lack of maintenance, Ubuntu might be going back toRhythmbox as its default music player.

5. Way to Wayland
Developers, tinkerers andhackers can expect to get their hands on an experimental preview ofUbuntu using Wayland graphics server instead of X.Org.

6. So long Mono(hopefully) (maybe)
Tthe opensource implementation of Microsoft's .Net Framework probably won't bea part of Ubuntu anymore. With the possible removal of Banshee andTomboy, Ubuntu, much to therelief of FOSS enthusiasts, might finally become Mono-free.

7. Faster SoftwareCenter
As of now, USC starts up in 11 seconds in some hardware, soa faster software store will be a more-than-welcome change to Ubuntu.

8. Better Unity
Expect to see moreQuickLists and notification badges. Users will also be able to dragand drop lenses into the launcher. Besides, overlay scrollbarsmight get ported to other applications like Firefox, Thunderbird andpossibly Chrome.

9. LightDM gets morepersonal
LightDM... will get even better with proposed features like themewidgets, UbuntuOne integration, design improvements and LightDM will dynamically change its background to match thewallpaper the user has set up (???).

10. Better icons
Ubuntu 12.04 willpossibly see a new icon set as well as inclusion of revamped sets forapplications that still use small and poorly-designed icons.

11. Privacy
For users concerned withZeitgeist's privacy issues, Ubuntu 12.04 might include an ability toturn off indexing for specific folders.

12. GNOME 3.2
Ubuntu will besticking with... GNOME 3.2., that said, some3.4 applications might make their way into the LTS.

How-to: Manage Fonts With Gnome Font Manager

2012-01-10T00:18:00.000Z

Although there is a font viewer installed by default in Ubuntu, a font manager can be much more convenient for testing or previewing fonts.

Gnome Font Manager is worth a look; it's not a professional solution for managing fonts, for publishing or graphic design, but it is a simple application for the basic needs of most desktop users.

Gnome Font Manager (no surprise) designed to work under the Gnome software stack (Gnome Shell, Unity), but as long as you have the minimum Gnome libraries, it will work on other desktop environments including KDE, Xfce, LMDE

To install Gnome Font Manager on Ubuntu, there's the Terminal option:

sudo apt-get install font-manager

Or search for font-manager in the Software Center.

Gnome Font Manager will be installed and accessbile via the Unity dash, or whatever menuing system you have on your desktop, typically under Applications > Graphics > Font Manager.

What you get is the ability to install and unintsall fonts, preview available and installed fonts, enable and disable individual fonts and also search fonts by keyword. RC

Gnome Font-manager home page is at: code.google.com/p/font-manager

News: Ubuntu TV unveiled

2012-01-09T15:07:00.000Z

Canonical has taken the covers off Ubuntu TV, the latest technical product within the Ubuntu brand. Press coverage is synchronised across the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), selected news titles (PCPro among them) and on the Ubuntu website, under the following promise:

"TV for human beings. Everything you want in a TV. In a TV.

Easy integration of broadcast, on-line services and applications.
Modern broadcast TV experience – search , watch, record and play.
Millions of movies and TV shows streamed over the web on demand.
Shared-screen experience with iOS, Android and Ubuntu devices.

Experience beautiful simplicity. One interface, one device and one remote. And, of course, Ubuntu One. Everything from broadcast and web streaming to PVR and personal cloud."
There are various image galleries and a bit of video on YouTube, of course.

You can take a look at the full list of features and specifications at http://www.ubuntu.com/tv/features-and-specs.

This is the first public look as Ubuntu TV, which, as Mark Shuttleworth promised, aims to broaden the reach of the Ubuntu open-source operating system beyond the PC - Ubuntu on everything tablets; smart-phones and TVs.

Canonical is showing the first Ubuntu TV at CES in Las Vegas with an expectation of the first Ubuntu-powered television in shops by the end of this year. Tellingly, there are no announcements of partners or deals with any brand-name manufacturers in these announcements and Canonical CEO Jane Silber wouldn't name any in talks.

Movie streaming services will be supported as well as live television broadcasts.

"It's a simple viewing experience for online video, both your own and routed over the Internet," according to Silber.

Consumer electronics giant LG has publicly wobbled over the cash spent on Goggle TV in the last year, despite Google's renewed push on the product, recently adding LG to its' manufacturers' list. This is seen as a direct response to the rumours that just won't go away, of Apple lining up a dramatic next generation of Apple TV. Just how Canonical intends to sit between these two tectonic plates, neither of which has a track record of success - yet - appears to rest on confidence; that device manufacturers want an open, neutral platform from a supplier that doesn't profit its' own brand at their expense. We'll see that put to the test.

This also implies an (initial) giveaway for no licensing fees and some kind of agreement on joint marketing budgets - against two of the marketing giants of technology. Not forgetting Microsoft making noises about the Xbox on-line as a home entertainment centre.

A major issue is going to be deals for content; the market for TV and movie rentals is tough, with cable companies and studios in the US fighting back against on-line, it's difficult to see how a new entrant is going to make an impact when the walls are going up all around.

In the meanwhile, you can glory in the Ubuntu TV interface, which, as we discussed on the podcast, could well be the killer application for which Unity was destined. RC

How-to: Update Ubuntu's Font Cache

2012-01-08T00:18:00.000Z

Following on from a previous post, it's possible you may need to do some trouble-shooting after installing new fonts that either Linux can't see, or your applications such as Open Office can't see. This rather depends on where you put your newly installed fonts.

The easiest way to fresh the font-cache is typed in the terminal window:
sudo fc-cache -fv

But you only have to run fc-cache if you copy fonts into a common sub-folder in /usr/share/fonts/ which is a system-wide directory. It is not necessary for fonts placed in your personal user space, /home, in ~/.fonts.

You shouldn't have to restart the x-server (graphics session manager) to see the new fonts either, Linux is much more elegant these days.

You do still need to restart programs such as Open Office, GIMP and the like to see the new fonts. Those fonts copied to the .fonts folder are picked up by applications once they are restarted. RC

Peggy Noonan On Steve Jobs And Why Big Companies Die

2012-01-06T00:06:00.000Z

Peggy Noonan wrote on management in her Wall Street Journal column last year, raising an insightful paragraph from Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs: Job's theory about 'why decline happens' at great companies:

"The company does a great job, innovates and becomes a monopoly or close to it in some field, and then the quality of the product becomes less important. The company starts valuing the great salesman, because they’re the ones who can move the needle on revenues.” So salesmen are put in charge, and product engineers and designers feel demoted: Their efforts are no longer at the white-hot center of the company’s daily life.
The salesmen who led the companies were smart and eloquent, but “they didn’t know anything about the product.” In the end this can doom a great company, because what consumers want is good products.

According to Fforbes, it’s not just the salesmen: "it’s also the accountants and the money men who search the firm high and low to find new and ingenious ways to cut costs or even eliminate paying taxes.

In this mode, the firm is basically playing defense. Because it’s easier to milk the cash cow than to add new value, the firm not only stops playing offense: it even forgets how to play offense. The firm starts to die."

Fforbes points out that “milking the cash cow” used to go on for many decades; today, globalization and the rapidity of changing markets dramatically shortens the life expectancy of firms that are merely milking their cash cows.

And as every management guru from Tom Peters down will tell you time and again that it’s more difficult to add value than to cut costs. RC

Look through a Lens in Ubuntu Unity

2012-01-04T00:12:00.000Z

It's another item of new terminology that we're going to see more often in Unity: what is a Lens?

Our faithful guide to all things Unity, Jorge Castro, provides this definition:

"It is a graphical interface for a task, it is also linked in with the dash for search results. for example when clicking the application lens it shows the apps in a nice, slick interface , with other results for like app to download and most frequent apps."

There's a shorter answer
"Lenses are elements of the Unity Dash that provide a UI to search both the web and application data."

We've shown the illustration of the Music lens at the top of the post.

Still don't get it? Try taking a look at the example on the Ubuntu wiki and to get an idea what's already here or in development, the OMG boys posted on the subject earlier in the year.

There's already a stack of third party lenses you can install to enhance your Unity experience; check out the post on Ask Ubuntu for examples and installation instructions, but bear in mind these are third party developed and not from Canonical, so install at your own risk and expect the occasional glitch. RC

How-to: Explore the Unity Dash

2012-01-02T00:12:00.000Z

It's another shameless steal from Jorge Castro's The Power User's Guide to Unity, since there are links to all manner of useful Unity stuff over there (did I just use the words 'useful' and 'Unity' in the same sentence?! Gosh!)

One such is the link to the Ubuntu.com What's New look at the Unity Dash, with a rather splendid 8-point guide to finding your way around the Dash. RC

"When you click on the Ubuntu logo in the top-left corner of the launcher, the new dash will appear. It’s another simple way to get to your shortcuts and search for other applications and programs. So you can get fast access to your email, music, pictures and much more. And you can search by type of app or file with our new filters menu."

Click on the Ubuntu logo to get to your apps, programs and shortcuts.
Look for apps and programs by typing into the search box.
Filter results by app or file type.
Access your apps, emails, pictures, music and more, fast.
The launcher will be disabled when you’re in the dash.
Find apps by category, fast.
Superkey shortcut: Tap the superkey to reveal the dash.
Press escape on your keyboard at any time to leave the dash.

Full Circle Podcast Episode 27 You Can't Buy this Kind of Entertainment

2012-01-01T18:04:00.002Z

Full Circle Podcast Episode 27 You Cant Buy this Kind of Entertainment: available now from the main site.

It’s the final episode of the year: news, predictions, a Figgy pudding and a Pope’s Christmas message.

Full Circle Podcast is also a proud member of the Tech Podcasts Network.
File Sizes:

OGG 48.8Mb
MP3 35.1Mb

Runtime: 1hr 37mins 05seconds

Feeds for both MP3 and OGG:
RSS feed, MP3: http://fullcirclemagazine.org/category/podcast/feed
RSS feed, OGG: http://fullcirclemagazine.org/category/podcast/feed/atom

Your Hosts:

Robin Catling (blog at http://catlingmindswipe.blogspot.com/, @robincatling on Twitter)
Culture-vultures can also go to Everything Express at http://everythingexpress.wordpress.com/
Les Pounder (blog at http://lespounder.wordpress.com/ twitter @biglesp)
Dave Wilkins… is a cybernetic organism from the future (twitter @DavidAWilkins)
Alan Pope (blog at http://popey.com/blog/, twitter @popey)

Additional audio by Victoria Pritchard

How-to: The Duplicate Content Myth

2011-12-30T00:18:00.001Z

I came across a post earlier in the year by Panos over on Wordpress Blogger Tips exploding the myth about duplicate content, with particular reference to Wordpress.com serviced sites.

"Duplicate content means substantive blocks of material that exist more than once in the web – in other words, substantive blocks of material that can be accessed via more than one URL. For example, if you write a lengthy reply in someone else’s blog or in a forum, and then publish this reply as a post in your own blog (with or without changes), that’s duplicate content."

The myth in question, peddled by “SEO” (Search Engine Optimization) sites, being that duplicate content on their blog is a cardinal sin and the wrath of Google will fall upon them. Quoting the head of Wordpress Support: "I wouldn’t believe anything written on any SEO blog. Ever..."
Panos also checks Google's own guidance:

"Google wants to serve up unique results and does a great job of picking a version of your content to show if your site includes duplication. If you don’t want to worry about sorting through duplication on your site, you can let us worry about it instead."
Duplicate content doesn’t cause your site to be penalized. If duplicate pages are detected, one version will be returned in the search results to ensure variety for searchers.
In the majority of cases, having duplicate content does not have negative effects on your site’s presence in the Google index.
In the vast majority of cases, the worst thing that’ll befall webmasters is to see the “less desired” version of a page shown in our index.
Only when there are signals pointing to deliberate and malicious intent, occurrences of duplicate content might be considered a violation of the webmaster guidelines."
In the rare cases in which we perceive that duplicate content may be shown with intent to manipulate our rankings and deceive our users, we’ll also make appropriate adjustments in the indexing and ranking of the sites involved. However, we prefer to focus on filtering rather than ranking adjustments.

Part of the alarmist myth concerns the way that Wordpress handles Category pages. Wordpress Support again: "You are fine – it’s how all WP blogs work and Google likes the way we do it."

Technically your category and other index pages are duplicate content, because those URL's lead to the same content as the post URL's; but contrary to the myth, categorizing your posts intelligently can improve your standing. Google will simply fetch results for your content using one of the several possible ways, demoting the rest into the supplemental index so that the search shows up a page of different results, not the same article under ten different tags or URL's. The search engine knows it's the same article.

The same isn't always true of self-hosted blogs and other sites where customisation and the individual web master can mess with the SEO friendliness of the site. Wordpress.com blogs are as SEO effective because a) they've been at this a long time, standardising URL's and sitemaps in standard structures and b) the search engines know exactly how they work, with consitency and accuracy.

So long as you don’t systematically post the same articles in different sites, you don’t systematically re-publish older posts, and don’t systematically copy articles from other online sources, then the search engines don't get upset.

I'd go further in that it's the word 'systematic' that's key. My co-authors and I regularly syndicate content from our individual blogs onto Everything Express and it doesn't appear to do us any harm in the search engines. If it did, heavily syndicated freelance writers the world over would be in big trouble. If we set up a link wheel and copied content wholesale across dozens of sites, that would naturally downgrade our Search effectiveness (not to mention fragmenting the audience, the viewing stats being another indicator of rank for search purposes).

To quote Bobby McFerrin, "don't worry, be happy." RC

How-to: Disable Guest Login Ubuntu 11.10

2011-12-28T00:13:00.000Z

If you're sociable and you like having guests in your house, or indeed, logged onto your computer, skip over this. If you have a need to lock out casual visitors to your machine, then you'll want to ditch the guest login that came by default with Ubuntu 11.10.

'Guest' suddenly appeared with the LightDM login manager in 11.10 and I just want to take it out of the login list.

This is easy enough if you're using the default LightDM in Ubuntu 11.10. Edit the LightDM configuration file /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf, with root privilege:

sudo gedit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

In the section SeatDefaults and add the line 'allow-guest=false' in the manner of:

[SeatDefaults]
greeter-session=unity-greeter
user-session=ubuntu
allow-guest=false

Save the document. It needs a restart, or you can use a terminal command:

sudo restart lightdm

Which will return to your login screen where the guest acount is disabled. This will also effectively kill everything in your current session, so save and close anything else that's running first.

If you're using GDM (which was the default in previous Ubuntu releases), it's a package removal, you have to uninstall gdm-guest-session. RC

Full Circle Magazine Issue 56 Out Now

2011-12-27T10:37:00.000Z

Full Circle Magazine Issue #56 available now from the main site!

This month:

Command and Conquer.
How-To : Make 11.10 Look ‘Classic’, LibreOffice – Part 10, Backup Strategy – Part 4, Persistent USB Stick, and Connect To IRC.
Linux Lab – Xbox Media Centre.
Review – Puppy Linux.
I Think – Would you attend a monthly FCM meeting on IRC?
Closing Windows – Moving, copying & deleting files

plus: more Ubuntu Games, My Desktop (and an extra!), My Opinion, My Story, and much much more!

Review: Responsive Web Design - Ethan Marcotte

2011-12-26T00:10:00.000Z

"When Ethan Marcotte coined the term “responsive webdesign” he conjured up something special. The technologiesexisted already: fluid grids, flexible images, and media queries.But Ethan united these techniques under a single banner, andin so doing changed the way we think about web design."(Foreword, Jeremy Keith)

Anyone who's had anything to do with putting a web site together knows just how breakable the whole design thing is; browsers never present an identical layout and every web designer meets their Waterloo in Internet Explorer in it's many non-standards compliant versions. Add the variety of devices in wide-screen, narrow-screen and mobile, determined to break your pages all over again... One designer, Ethan Marcotte, rides to the rescue with this book.
"The web designers canvas is the browser window..." says Marcotte. All the terminology is inherited from print, but unlike a paper page, the web browser can dynamically resize every element on the page: "once they’re published online, our designs are immediately at the mercy of the people who view them - to their font settings, to the color of their display, to the shape and size of their browser window."

Where web design goes wrong is in the next stage:"So in the face of all that uncertainty, that flexibility, we begin by establishing constraints: we set our type in pixels, or create fixed-width layouts that assume a minimum screen resolution."

Which as any practitioner knows, is a route to failure.

"But web designers, facing a changing landscape of new devices and contexts, are now forced to overcome the constraints we’ve imposed on the web’s innate flexibility. We need to let go."

This is Marcotte's manifesto.

"We can embrace the flexibility inherent to the web, without surrendering the control we require as designers."

So what does it take to create a responsive design? Marcotte breaks it down into three core ingredients:

A flexible, grid-based layout,
Flexible images and media, and
Media queries, a module from the CSS3 specification.

Using these, he says, "we’ll have created a design that can adapt to the constraints of the browser window or device that renders it, creating a design that almost responds to the user’s needs."

I question the use of italics; the design almost responds?

Anyway, throughout the book, Marcotte illustrates his methods using an example website.The foundation of his method is a flexible grid layout plus flexible typography, for which he clearly sets out the basic math for the proper use of percentages over pixels to give perfectly proportioned results. There follows flexible columns, flexible padding and margins, flexible images, maximum widths and work rounds for older browsers. And Windows (quote: "windows hates us").

Acknowledging the research and techniques of those pioneer designers before translating them into responsive design solutions, Marcotte does an excellent job of communicating each of his solutions, moving on to tackle narrow tablet screens, e-readers and wide screens.

The most advanced solutions are reserved to solve the failings of media types, which the the W3C attacked using CSS3; the result is media queries, which Marcotte manages to explain in terms even I understood; "written as part of an @media declaration, (it) enables us to put queries directly inside a stylesheet." There's also a brief look at the use of JQuery and JavaScript.

In his conclusion, Marcotte emphasizes good practices for designing-in audience requirements for sites on various platforms - mobile first - using iterative, collaborative design and testing.

This is going to be the Bible for web-designers seeking the holy grail of liquid layout for some time. All the examples are supplemented by extensive acknowledgements and references for those needing more.You do need an appreciation of web page design and coding, layouts, style sheets and the chequered performance of various web browsers. We're not saying you can design the perfect page straight out of the book, but it just got a whole lot easier. RC

'Ethan Marcotte is a web designer & developer who cares deeply about beautiful design, elegant code, and the intersection of the two. Over the years, Ethan has enjoyed working with such clients as the Sundance Film Festival, Stanford University, New York Magazine, and The Today Show. He swears profusely on Twitter, and would like to be an unstoppable robot ninja when he grows up. Beep.'

Responsive Web Design is available from A Book Apart

Paperback $18.00 + shipping
ebook $9.00
Paperback & ebook bundle $23.00 + shipping
ISBN: 978-0-9844425-7-7
Paperback: 143 pages

Festive Cheer and Best Wishes

2011-12-25T20:16:00.000Z

…from the Catling Mindswipe.

It’s been a busy year, posting random stuff and we’ve enjoyed getting your comments.

Best wishes to all and hope you’ll be back with us in 2012. RC

How-to: Include a Twitter Widget on Your Web Site

2011-12-24T00:02:00.000Z

"Widgets let you display Twitter updates on your website or social network page.

Our widgets are compatible with any website and most social networks. Simply choose the one that matches where you would like to include it."

Most hosted sites and web development platforms now support Widgets for all manner of third-party sites, services and functions. Twitter is one of the most common, and one of the simplest and most reliable ways to include a Twitter feed on your site is to use the official Twitter Widget generator. You can find this on the Twitter site under Resources › Widgets.

This takes you to a very flexible and very neat on-line widget builder, which will allow you to configure a custom widget and give you the code to embed on your site. That is, the widget shell, for display; the code for pulling in the content is a Javascript call to code hosted on Twitter itself. Which makes life easy, so long as you have Javascript and third-party script-calls enabled.

This comes in two code flavours (for compatibility), the generic website/blog widget and the Facebook widget. Make your choice from Select Your Widget, and your are presented with the options for the type of content to include.

Profile Widget: Display your most recent Twitter updates on any webpage.So this isn't your profile, it's your actual Twitter stream.
Search Widget: Displays search results in real time! Ideal for live events, broadcastings, conferences, TV Shows, or even just keeping up with the news.So a generic feed from all around the Twitter-verse, not your stream.
Faves Widget: Show off your favorite tweets! Also in real time, this widget will pull in the tweets you've starred as favorites. It's great for moderation.Put another way, it's Top Tweets, other people's Tweets that you like,
List Widget: Put your favorite tweeps into a list! Then show 'em off in a widget. Also great for moderation.

Taking Profile Widget (actually a Twitter stream, not someone's profile) as an example, you can then walk through the content and styling options.

Settings is the Twitter username of the stream you want displayed.
Preferences contains more options specific to selecting and updating content.
Appearance is where you get to have fun with the look of it. It's important to blend in your widget with the colour scheme of your site, otherwise you'll get the default black, white and green colour scheme which will stick out like a cuckoo in the nest (unless your nest happens to be black white and green). You can change all the font colours, link colours, and background. It's worth getting the colour values from your site's style-sheet to make a precise match, unless you have a good eye. Bear in mind the Twitter logo at the bottom of the widget remains default white and can't be turned off
Dimensions allows you to set width and height for the widget according to the space into which you intend to place it.

As you update the widget options, you will see a real-time preview on the right, so you can fine-tune your widget.You can use the Test Settings button to update the preview on the right.

When you're done, you can select Finish and Grab Code, whereupon the centre panel displays the code to copy and paste into an HTML webpage. There's a button to insert directly into Blogger if that's your site (you have to be signed in).

You can always go back through the options and change it, regenerate this code, so long as the page is open, otherwise you have to start over anew.Once you have the widget code you can tweak most of the parameters in any text editor away from the page. If you want a different type of widget, you'll have to go back through the setup page.

As you can see from the Profile Widget code, below, the code is fairly simple and the entries correspond to the parameters selected in the online options.

Height, width and colours are self explanatory.
RRP is the number of Tweets to display
username is the name of the Twitter account to pull from.
Scrollbar, loop and live are true or false
Interval is the time interval between updates in milliseconds.

Remember to keep a backup copy of the original code and any versions you like enough to use on your live site, just in case you mess it up or want to revert to a previous widget. RC

<

script src="http://widgets.twimg.com/j/2/widget.js"></script>
 <script>
 new TWTR.Widget({
 version: 2,
 type: 'profile',
 rpp: 4,
 interval: 30000,
 width: 250,
 height: 300,
 theme: {
 shell: {
 background: '#ffffff',
 color: '#666666'
 },
 tweets: {
 background: '#ffffff',
 color: '#666666',
 links: '#3a87bb'
 }
 },
 features: {
 scrollbar: false,
 loop: false,
 live: false,
 behavior: 'all'
 }
 }).render().setUser('robincatling').start();
 </script

>

How-to: Test for Unity Support

2011-12-22T00:08:00.000Z

Unity 2-D or Unity 3-D? There's been a lot of fear uncertainty and doubt surrounding this one, even more people wondering if the Unity desktop is dramatically raising the minimum graphics hardware requirements?

The honest answer from Canonical is no; Unity tries to take advantage of features that have been specified or released many years ago. What they can't tell you is how many of those supported features you have in your ancient box under your desk.

Canonical has tested Unity on a variety of legacy hardware to identify the minimum specs required for Unity, making reasonable assumptions that newer hardware from AMD, Intel and NVidia will be more capable than the ones in the test rig. Tests are aimed at establishing system stability, as well as responsiveness and graphics rendering performance.

There is a standard test that you can run on any bit of kit (even running an Ubuntu Live CD, so you don't have to install first). In a terminal - yes, it's a good ol command line utility - run:

/usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p

Here's what I get on my trusty old piece of Dell/Ndivia junk:

robin@d6400:~$ /usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p
OpenGL vendor string:   NVIDIA Corporation
OpenGL renderer string: GeForce Go 7300/PCI/SSE2
OpenGL version string: 2.1.2 NVIDIA 280.13

Not software rendered:    yes
Not blacklisted:          no
GLX fbconfig:             yes
GLX texture from pixmap: yes
GL npot or rect textures: yes
GL vertex program:        yes
GL fragment program:      yes
GL vertex buffer object: yes
GL framebuffer object:    yes
GL version is 1.4+:       yes

Unity 3D supported:       no

Looks like it's Unity 2-D for me.

We're hoping that the Wayland graphics rendering engine will provide a simpler, more efficient and less layered response that will support a wider range of hardware. RC

How-to: Install Microsoft Windows Fonts in Ubuntu

2011-12-20T00:17:00.000Z

However many Open Source fonts you acquire, there's no getting away from the fact that a lot of documents and web pages are designed with the Microsoft Windows standard fonts and substitution can produce strange results - particularly when you start exchanging documents with MS-Office users.

Which is why 'Install Windows TTF fonts' always appears in those lists of "Ten things to do after installing/upgrading..."

In Ubuntu you can install Microsoft Windows fonts in several ways.

Selective Manual Copy
If you are dual-booting, or networked to a Windows install, you could copy the fonts directly from Windows.

Create a new folder in your Ubuntu Home folder and name it “Fonts“
Copy your Windows True Type font (TTF) files directly from Windows into the Fonts folder
You won't want all of them, just the common ones; Arial, Georgia, Times New Roman, Verdana, Wingdings, Webdings and the like.
Rename the folder “Fonts” to “.Fonts” to hide the folder; this is what Linux expects.
You can either re-start Ubuntu or refresh the font-cache using the terminal command:
sudo fc-cache -fv
You will certainly need to re-start Libre Office programs, browsers and anything else running while you did this to force a read-read of the font cache.

Alternatively, after you copy and paste the Windows True Type fonts (TTF) files from windows into that new “Fonts“ renamed to ".Fonts", then as long as you change your file manager's Show Hidden Files status to 'On', you can then double click each font file individually to open it in the Ubuntu font viewer. Click the 'install font' button bottom-right of the font viewer.

Terminal Method
There is a traditional command-line method for the die-hards which will install a whole bundle of common Windows fonts.

Open a terminal and use the command:
sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer
(to open terminal go to Applications->Accessories->Terminal)

Using Software Centre (or Synaptic Package Manager)
A quick search in Software Center (or Synaptic Package Manager) for the package ttf-mscorefonts should bring up ttf-mscorefonts-installer; choose Install (in Synaptic, select mark for installation then click on Apply.) RC

How-to: Firefox 8 Pop-up Blocker and Picasa

2011-12-18T00:05:00.000Z

Firefox 8 Not Guilty (solution at article end)

If you have the Firefox pop-up blocker turned on and add websites to the 'Exceptions' white-list, this should allow only those website to use pop-ups: not adverts and re-directs that you want to block, but pictures or functions that opens in a new window or tab. Pop-up blocker on is a useful tool as it prevents a lot of junk from getting thrown up on screen.

However, with the upgrade to Firefox 8, some users claim that the Google Picasa photo-sharing service is broken. Not so.

I suddenly found I couldn't upload any photos using the "Select photos from your computer" button in the Picasa web interface, it triggered Firefox's popup blocker bar. I already added picasaweb.google.com to the allowed popup sites in Firefox (using the Preferences button in the yellow popup blocker bar), but Firefox continued to block the page from opening the Select a File dialog window.

Now, the Linux version of Firefox 8 doesn't support the drag/drop of files right onto the web page - unlike Chromium - which takes out the alternate method.

Having used Firefox 8.0 for a few weeks, the problem suddenly appeared. While Firefox is far from perfect, I believe in this instance, Google is the culprit; it seems Google is rationalising it's code base across applications.

It looks like the Picasa uploader is using the code from Google Docs, hosted from the Doc's servers. This looks to Firefox like a site redirect pop-up, so it kills the page.

Try adding: docs.google.com to your Exceptions white-list. RC

In-place Upgrades a Bad Idea

2011-12-17T13:13:00.000Z

I don't think pulse Audio killed it. I don't think Mumble killed it. I don't think Xfce killed it. I don't even think Unity or the Generic PAE kernel killed it.

All I know is, when we tried for a podcast recording the other day, Ubuntu 11.10 on my Dell laptop just died. No dektop sessions. Nothing.

This is a machine on which I ran the in-place upgrade from 11.04 and things went swimmingly, as I reported at the time; two months down the road, it's all gone horribly wrong.

The Compaq is still running fine, although the hardware is well-worn Pentium-M from 2002 designed for Windows 2000. It can't do very much to begin with, so there's nothing much to break.

The Dell I keep pushing to do more, possibly a bad idea as the T7300 (Won't) Go graphics is a constant headache. The Intel internal sound rack isn't much better.

Only one thing for it; clear down and re-install, probably the thing I should have done in the beginning. One Dell Inspiron 6400 now running sweetly.

The conclusion? Software upgrades remain tricky beasts to wrangle. Linux, being open source and subject to all us cowboys, hackers, hobbyists and tinkerers, falls even more liable to incompatible libraries and conflicting settings than certain other - ahem - operating systems we could mention. We're not out of the woods yet, kids. RC

Image: Demolition of Woodward's building in Vancouver, Canada by Tannoy at en.wikipedia

Review: Linux Mint 12 Lisa De-railed

2011-12-16T00:06:00.000Z

I've stuck with Mint 12 since the review of the 12 Release Candidate that rolled over into the 12 Final release. Look down the history of this blog, you'll find favourable reviews of nearly every version since Mint 5.

However, several updates later and it's still badly broken in key user-facing and usability areas and poor old Lisa is looking like the donkey with three legs.

Bearing in minds we've all been selling Mint as the Linux distro for newcomers and Windows migrants, this is turning into the Black Parade.

Personal File sharing: comes up empty. You get a duff message about the required files not being installed (Samba not installed). But no clue as to what you should install. No links, no hints, nothing. FAIL.
Themes: broken, broken, broken, broken.
"This this may not appear as intended as the GTK+ theme 'Murrine' is not installed." Yes it is. I installed it myself. I've logged out. I've re-started. Software centre tells me its installed, yet no version of Appearance settings or background or Desktop settings work. Pick anything; Candido, Adwaita, Mint-X. Mint 12 claims they're all missing. On both my Mint installs on both machines. FAIL.
Movable launchers - try to find the User Account Admin app. Go on. Not there in MATE at all, there in Gnome Classic. Sometimes it's there in the Gnome Shell environment, depending on the success of the install. How can it move or disappear from the menus? FAIL.
MATE Menu: when it works, the menu has a vertical Favorites section, which is identical to the overlay sidebar, but easier to use. Except I've only seen it once across five installs across two machines. Then it disappeared. FAIL.
MATE Desktop: the inherent limitation of having no desktop icons or panel icons remains. You cannot launch your applications with a single mouse click. A minimum of two are needed. The panels cannot be edited. FAIL
The desktop may be right-clickable, but the context menu is limited to placing files and folders onto the desktop space or opening a terminal window. Slightly less than useful. FAIL
Mint Gnome Shell Extensions: MGSE helps, but the Gnome 3.0 interface still has glitches and runs as slow as frozen molasses.
MATE Search: the integrated search is less than useful, too. Most of the items you need cannot be found, as the search is so literal based on the exact name, partial similarity searches don't work, you have to nail the first word of the top-most menu category, otherwise you won't find it. Try searching for print. FAIL
Font chaos: if you open several applications side-by-side, you see random and different typefaces in each. Typography in the supposed MATE environment is ugly as sin even after you tweak the settings. FAIL
Printing: is you can locate the ugly printing menu, you have to unlock it before you can add printers, but it's another broken applet that doesn't work much of the time and there's no refresh button. FAIL

I don't know how much of this is Gnome 3 and how much is MSGE and how much is the underlying Ubuntu 11.10 code from upstream.

If you can get into a working application, things work fine and stable. It's just that launching programs or configuring the Mint 12 environment is such a dismal experience, it threatens to undo all the good work of the previous 11 releases.

Will it get fixed in 12, or do we have to wait six months for Mint 13? Can Clem and the Mint team fix things when they are dependent on upstream and third party libraries? I hope so. RC

How-to: Closing Windows (Guest Post)

2011-12-15T00:13:00.000Z

Guest post from Full Circle Magazine Issue 54. Written by: Ronnie Tucker (KDE), Jan Mussche (Gnome), Elizabeth Krumbach (XFCE), Mark Boyajian (LXDE), David Tigue (Unity)

In this new section of Full Circle, I’d like to show certain features of Windows (XP in this series of articles, as I feel it’s the most widely-used edition of Windows) for the sole purpose of showing beginners their *Buntu equivalent. I say *Buntu as I will not focus solely on Ubuntu - I will also include Kubuntu, Lubuntu, and Xubuntu, as they each have their own way of doing things due to each of them using their own desktop manager (Gnome/Unity, KDE, LXDE, and XFCE respectively).

Desktop
Windows XP has its familiar blue and green taskbar with a particular style and layout on each window that is opened. That is the Windows desktop. Each version of Ubuntu has its own desktop. Gnome (and Unity, the Ubuntu-only front-end to Gnome) has a different way of doing things compared with KDE (used in Kubuntu), but each version (or derivative) has the same underlying Ubuntu foundation. So, whether you install Kubuntu or Lubuntu, you’re still using a version of Ubuntu; it’s just that the desktop looks, feels, and works, differently. For each Windows feature that I discuss, I’ll attempt (with the help of my co-authors) to show how things are done using the four most popular desktops as mentioned in my introduction.

C:\ and My Documents
Every Windows user is familiar with the ‘My Computer’ icon. Double-clicking ‘My Computer’ on the Windows desktop/menu presents a window showing your storage devices such as C:\ and any USB media.

Kubuntu has a similar option in its menu. Clicking the K button in your bottom taskbar will give you a menu with tabs along the bottom. Clicking the ‘Computer’ tab will give you access to your storage devices, just like in Windows’ ‘My Computer’. As does Gnome - you simply click the menu Places in the upper panel, followed by the choice: Computer. Unity (which is still under heavy development as I write this) does it by clicking on the ‘Home Folder’ icon in the launcher on the left hand side of the screen.

The icon is an orange file folder with a house on it. Ubuntu will show the root of the hard drive on the left hand side, along with other storage devices and favorite folders. In the right hand side of the application, it will show the folders inside the currently logged-in users personal home directory.

Open the C:\, and you’ll get a list of folders including things like ‘My Documents’, ‘My Pictures’, and so on. Linux (which is what Ubuntu is based around) works quite differently in this respect. The Linux file system has a ‘root’ folder. Think of that as your C:\ and your Windows folder. In other words: don’t tinker with them! One folder in root is called ‘home’. This home folder is where each user gets their own personalised folder - which Ubuntu (Classic) Kubuntu will contain all their stuff. You could, in essence, think of your personal home folder as your own C:\ drive, but, like Windows, your home folder has a list of pre-made folders for documents, video, and so on. Again, like Windows, you’re free to create whatever folders you like in your home folder.

Clicking K > Computer > Home will give you the Kubuntu equivalent of the C:\ drive. For Gnome, you click on the menu Places again, this time followed by Home Folder, and in Unity it’s done in the same way as before - click on the ‘Home Folder’ icon in the launcher. Also you can search through your files and folders by clicking on the ‘Dash Home’ icon in the launcher. Once inside the ‘Dash’, click on the ‘Files and Folders’ lens. It is located at the bottom center of the ‘Dash’, and looks like a piece of paper with the top right hand corner folded over.

Lubuntu has no exact equivalent to the Windows “My Computer”. In Lubuntu, all access to storage devices (network and local devices) is done in the File Manager (called PCManFM). The File Manager, which is found by clicking the Lubuntu logo on the taskbar and selecting Accessories > File Manager, has two panes; all available local storage locations (drives and partitions) are displayed in the left pane above the horizontal divider.

For Xubuntu, you double-click on the the ‘Home’ icon on your desktop to gain access to your storage devices. its own equivalent of explorer. All equivalents to the My Computer the folder (or Home in *Buntu) are shown right.

Windows has a special folder called 'Program Files' and it's in here that most Windows applications are installed. Linux, again, works differently. It installs applications in either your home folder (so that only you can run the application), or in the root (so that several users can run it), but, either way, the application is installed to hidden/restricted folders. Don't worry about this for now as we'll get to installing applications in a later article; but suffice it to say that you shouldn't manually delete applications as, just like in Windows, it can cause instability.

Explorer
To open folders in Windows, you double click an icon, and a window appears. That window is called Explorer. Windows Explorer lets you look at your own computer and the files on it, just like Internet Explorer lets you look at your own computer and the files on it, , just like Internet Explorer lets you look at the Internet. Each Ubuntu desktop has its own equivalent of explorer.

Gnome has Nautilus. Clicking the Gnome icon in the taskbar, then System Tools > File Browser, will show you the Gnome (Ubuntu) equivalent of explorer, and it will, usually, open by default in your home directory. Unity does this by, once again, clicking on the ‘Home Folder’ in the launcher on the left side of your screen. You can go back to the root and explore there if you wish, but try and change anything and it will ask you for a password. This is to prevent accidental deletion of critical files. It’s also called the ‘root’ password. Think of it as being like the administrator password in Windows. Once it’s entered, you have ultimate access to the file system and could, in theory, wreak havoc. Kubuntu has its KDE equivalent of explorer calledDolphin; it’s found by clicking K > Computer > Home (or K > Favorites > File Manager) on the taskbar.

Lubuntu (using LXDE) has the File Manager, and it’s found by clicking the Lubuntu logo on the taskbar and selecting Accessories > File Manager. Xubuntu (XFCE) has a file manager called Thunar - which can be accessed by clicking on the Xubuntu mouse icon at the top left your your screen and going to Accessories > File Manager. Like Windows, you click the X icon in the corner of the window to close it - with the other two icons letting you maximise and minimise each window. With Unity, the buttons to Close, Maximize, and Minimize, are located on the top left of the window when it is not full-screen, but, once the window has been maximized, the buttons will be hidden in the main panel in the top left hand of the screen. You have to move your mouse pointer up to the panel for the buttons to reveal themselves.

We could devote an entire issue to the items within Explorer and the *Buntu equivalents, but have a look at the menu items in your desktop’s windows. Most of the items are quite self-explanatory, and I’m sure we’ll touch more upon them in future articles.Next issue, we’ll talk about the *Buntu equivalents for the ever familiar Control Panel and Device Manager. RT

News: Fix for Linux Mint MATE

2011-12-12T00:12:00.000Z

Thursday, December 1st, Clem released a fix for the MATE desktop enhancements, intending to fix the following issues:

100% CPU usage with certain themes
Panel disappearing with certain themes
Notification daemon freezing with certain themes

The MATE panel is the hybrid of Mint Menu with a sidebar launcher.

MATE has some compatibility issues between the Ubuntu version of GTK and MATE which affected the use of themes; Carbon, Mint-Z-Mate and Clearlooks are good, but most were problematic and made MATE both buggy and slow.

How to test the fix?
If you’re using MATE in Linux Mint 12 you can enable “Unstable packages (Romeo) in the Software Sources section of the Update Manager. Make sure to “Refresh” and sort the list of updates by version number. You should apply all updates having the version “2.24.6-0ubuntu5linuxmint1″, log out and log back in.

The unstable 'Romeo' repository isn’t often used, but if successful, the fix will be promoted to the main repositories.

Verdict
There are various reports of success in testing. I've applied the patches to bith the virtual machine and the Celeron tower. It didn't work. I've still got a very plain, crunky, windows-style start menu in the bottom right corner. It's not MATE, mate. RC

How-to: Use the Right Terms for Unity Elements

2011-12-10T00:15:00.000Z

So many people have been asking just what is the right terminology for Ubuntu Unity's UI elements, that Jorge Castro and Murat Gunes have jointly put together a post on Ask Ubuntu , which I'm happily going to paraphrase, since I don't know what to call stuff, either!

Here goes...

The bar at the top is called a "panel"
The Ubuntu logo at the top left corner has a name. It's called the "home button" though it's jokingly referred to as the BFB by developers, for "Big Freaking Button"
The left sidebar is NOT called a 'dock.' It's called the Launcher.
The coloured tiles in the Launcher with the icons on them are called "Launcher icons" or "Launcher items".
The purple tile is called the "workspace switcher"?
The full-screen fly-outs that appear when you click the home button (the Ubuntu logo or 'BFB', above), the 'Places tile' or the 'Apps tile', are ALL called a "dash"
"Dash" is the component name for the overlay that's used for Applications and Places. In context you can call the latter the Applications Dash and the Places Dash.

Other Terms

The menu is referred to as the Application Menu, not global menu. This is to distinguish it from the other global menu project.

Pinning Things Down
There seems to be no agreed single name for items kept on the launcher via the "Keep in launcher" function.

Developers will find code in the dbusmenu functionality is named "pinning_item."
There's no such thing as a "sticky" anywhere in the wiki or bug reports.
"Favorites" is used in the architecture document once and eslewhere ambiguously refers to "pinned" application items. So "Pinned" and "Favorites" are in use now.

If you take a look in the enlarged picture at the top of the post, you will see certain elements labelled according to this key:

Windows Title
Application Menu
Dash icon
Launcher icons
Workspace switcher
Launcher
Trash
Indicators

For further information, see the Unity Architecture document, and /Unity/Lenses on the wiki. RC

How-to: Configure Unity in Ubuntu 11.10

2011-12-08T00:15:00.000Z

You may be a little disappointed with this one, since it is really about how little you can configure, indeed, how little Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, want you to configure Unity.

You'll find various questions on this subject, most telling at Ask Ubuntu, a generally excellent knowledge-base, where a spokesperson for the Unity development team is uncharacteristically blunt:

"I understand that people want the freedom to tweak their desktops, but as soon as you use CompizConfig Settings Manager (CCSM), you have basically opted out of Unity's future. The bugs you report will not matter since you're not running the defaults, and any input you may have will be skewed by the customized user experience you've devised."

So there! Yah-boo sucks! If you want to change it, you're not part of the future. There is an attempt to be a little more conciliatory however:

"Making a new desktop is challenging, and we can't do it without you. That means filing bugs, proposing new use cases with mock ups, and of course: running the defaults throughout your day." – ppetraki, Nov 22 at 15:50

None of which actually answers the question, however. Well, you could try elsewhere on Ask Ubuntu:

"There are multiple valid answers for this question spanning over several versions of Ubuntu. For your convenience an index of each below:

11.10
11.04

If you're looking to configure Unity 2D, look here."
Most of the answers listed there involve the use of Compiz Config Settings Manager, or some elements of Ubuntu Tweak. What they don't do is open up many features of Unity's behaviour since, well, Canonical just doesn't trust you to mess with them. It's Open Source, Jim, but not as we know it. RC

How-to: Clone a Virtual Machine in VirtualBox

2011-12-06T00:13:00.000Z

"With Oracle VirtualBox 4.1 cloning a virtual machine is now available from the user interface making the process much simpler. In prior releases cloning avirtual machine was a multi step process in which you needed to use the command line utility VBoxManage clonehd to create a clone of the virtual device and then attach that new image to new virtual machine."

Cloning a virtual disk or machine in VirtualBox used to be a royal pain; achievable, but complex. You had to know the guest operating system and whether it was a 32-bit or 64- bit machine when creating the new virtual machine.

The new method for cloning a virtual machine is much simpler and less error prone. Cloning provides the opportunity to spawn new instances of existing virtual machines.

The latest version of VirtualBox (4.1.x) adds a Clone command which simplifies matters immensely for straightforward cloning (although fine-grain snapshot management will benefit from doing things by the old-fashioned, tedious manual methods).

Note: make sure to shut-down any virtual machine before you run any kind of cloning or copying!

To clone a virtual machine, right-click it in the main VirtualBox window and select 'Clone' from the context menu.

The new graphical tool in VirtualBox will present the cloning options:

choose a Full Clone which includes all virtual disk images as well as the configuration for the machine virtual hardware (memory, processor, networking, and so on), the operating system type, 32bit or 64bit arhictecture.
choose a Linked Clone to copy just the virtual machine hardware minus hard disk images; the virtual clone will point to the existing virtual disk images. You need to be careful with this and be sure you understand the implications of having two virtual machines attached to the same set of storage.

In the Clone a Virtual Machine dialog, enter the name for the new virtual machine.

Cloning will assign different machine id's and device id's in the contextof virtual disks, so that VirtualBox can keep its' inventory straight.

To copy a virtual disk on its own, you need a different utility; select File > Virtual Media Manager, right click a .vdi disk image in the list then select 'Copy'

Do not delete your original virtual machine or disk until you have tested the new clone for reliability. When you start the new (cloned) virtual machine or virtual disk, run precautionary disk checks (chkdsk or fsck) before starting any work on real data. RC

How-to: Adjust Virtual Disk Size using VBoxManage

2011-12-04T00:05:00.000Z

It's a common problem: you run VirtualBox, create a virtual machine, probably with a dynamic disk, at your best guess at an adequate disk size, run it for a while, then find you're running out of space.

You can easily expand the hard disk size VirtualBox using the command: VBoxManage modifyhd --resize.
The --resize option allows you to change the capacity of an existing image; this adjusts the logical size of a virtual disk without affecting the physical size. It works only for expanding the capacity of VDI and VHD virtual disk formats, and only dynamically allocated not fixed size disks. But this is a way to add more space to a virtual disk without needing to create a new image, attach and copy all the data across within a virtual machine.

This is a command-line application, so you need to open a Terminal session in in order to run the command and change directory to the path where your virtual disk is stored.

Two important notes:

Shutdown the running virtual machinebefore you mess with the disk!
Backup the existing disk image, or at least any volatile data, before you alter it!

The command you need follows this pattern:

VBoxManage modifyhd XP_newdisk.vdi --resize 10240

VBoxManage is the utility suite that comes with VirtualBox:
modifyhd is the command to resize the virtualdisk
XP_new.vdi is my example disk name; you'll need to change it to match your disk name and don't forget the .vdi suffix. Under Linux it's also case sensitive.
--resize 10240 Next is the desired new size for the virtual disk. That's two dashes before the word "resize" followed by a number in kilobytes; 10240 being equivalent to 10Gb.

Also remember that you'll need to increase the size of your guest partition on the disk, or create an additional partition in the new space. In this respect, you'll need to do the work with disk utilities appropriate to your guest operating system just as if it were a real PC with real spinning rust.

Note that .vmdk disks cannot be expanded by modifyhd commands. Try this command line and you'll get the error:

VBoxManage: error: Resize hard disk operation for this format is not implemented yet!

You can find the manual for Oracle VirtualBox, indexed by each topic on the website. VBoxManage is Chapter 8:
http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch08.html#vboxmanage-modifyvdi
where the full syntax of the command looks like this:

VBoxManage modifyhd         <uuid>|<filename>
                            [--type normal|writethrough|immutable|shareable|
                                    readonly|multiattach]
                            [--autoreset on|off]
                            [--compact]
                            [--resize <megabytes>|--resizebyte <bytes>]

The --compact option can be used to shrink disk images, that is, remove blocks of empty space (containing zeroes). This will shrink a dynamically allocated image by reducing the physical size of the image without affecting the logical size of the virtual disk.

However, free space in the guest system must first be zeroed. For Windows guests, you can use the sdelete tool provided by Microsoft; running sdelete -c in the guest will zero the free disk space. Under Linux, the zerofree utility supports ext2/ext3 filesystems to do the same. You can then compact (compress) the virtual disk image. RC

Review: Linux Mint 12

2011-12-02T00:12:00.000Z

It's that time already, as Clem and the team gear up to push the next version of Linux Mint through the gate, the rest of us wonder if Mint can maintain it's momentum in gaining a larger share of the Linux user base. Mint has built a reputation as the alternative to Ubuntu, variously catching the defectors from Ubuntu Unity and at times even overtaking Ubuntu in the distro download charts. Given the fact that Mint is dependent on the upstream efforts of Debian, Gnome and Ubuntu, this release is going to be far from plain sailing.

Linux Mint 12 is based on Gnome 3.0 atop the Ubuntu 11.10 base. More on that shortly. As usual, I've got Mint in two configurations; in a virtual machine on VirtualBox and on physical hardware in the shape of the old Celeron test box with 1Gb memory and GeForce 440MX graphics card.

The graphical installer is the current standard for Debian/Ubuntu 11.10 and in normal operation hides everything that’s going on. Not that peering under the covers helped when the thing crashed on me three times on the Celeron. I think it has trouble with the collection of USB adapters, cards, ports and two elderly wireless adapters, one of which is PCI and the other a USB dongle, both based on RaLink chip-sets... yes, I know, glutton for punishment.

Gnome 3.0 ups the specification for graphics adapters. Neither the VirtualBox Guest Additions adapter nor the old GeForce AGP card can deliver 3D. Gnome 3.0 with the Mint extensions just hangs part way into populating the desktop.

If you can get 3D running, Mint relies on MSG or GCSE's or some such; at least its not Gnome Shell or Unity. Actually, "MGSE" (Mint Gnome Shell Extensions) is a desktop layer on top of Gnome 3.0 that makes it possible for you to use Gnome 3.0 in a traditional way. You can disable all components within MGSE to get a pure Gnome 3.0 experience, or you can enable all of them to get a Gnome 3.0 desktop that is similar to what you’ve been using under 2.x. In the default configuration, you get Mint Menu but with a Gnome Shell/Unity style sidebar launcher panel within it. You can also access the Activities button to get the Gnome Shell panel launcher. That's three ways to launch programs. Two of which don't work for me on two different set-ups. This Gnome 3.0 with MSGE is already taking flak elsewhere as a 'Frankenstein' creation and 'as big a piece of *rap as Unity.' Harsh, chaps, truly harsh.

If you get the DVD edition or upgrade via the mint-meta-mate package (all 105Mb of it), you can get the MATE version of the faithful Mint Menu; it's a fork of Gnome 2 which preserves compatibility with Gnome 3. To quote the Mint team, "MATE is brand new, it's not completely stable yet, and it's missing a few parts... Eventually, MATE will be in every way identical to Gnome 2 and represent the future of traditional desktops within Linux." So far I've had it working once in six installs and even then MATE stopped working after a reboot, never to be seen again.

So MATE doesn't work on either of my test boxes. Instead of the Mint Menu with sidebar, all I get is a conventional Windows-style start menu. All the fonts render abysmally. Go into the Appearance controls, under themes, and almost everything delcares "this theme will not look as intended because the required GKT+ theme engine [name] is not installed." Even though all the referenced GTK+ theme engines ARE installed. It's a mess.The fall-back 'Gnome Classic' option provides a top panel with the application menu and notifiers with visible system tray icons, a bottom panel containing the window list and workspace switcher and retains the idea of a task-centric desktop, wherein you switch between windows, not applications. It's all locked-down, non-configurable a la Gnome Shell/Unity, with no way to add items, or customise the panels.

For the current menu set-up, which is fairly sparse and not always logical, Mint dumps most of the control-type programs (everything not in System Settings) into the 'Other' category. When I say sparse, there are many things missing, presumably because they've not been engineered for Gnome 3.0 yet or left off the CD release to make space for all the Gnome 3.0 tat; for example, there is a User account tool, but no facility to maintain group permissions, you have to drop into a terminal session. That'll go down well with the Mint user base.

Artistically, Linux Mint 12 uses a new theme called Mint-Z which is based on Mint-X and Zukitwo(??), the default background is the 3D Mint logo updated to version 12. The window controls and borders feature a frankly ugly look called Adwaito, which I can't wait to get rid of. Depending on whether I run Gnome, Gnome Classic 2D or MATE, the desktop rendering of fonts is as ugly as sin, which is a big step backward given that Mint always looked stunning.

Interestingly, for a distro in search of a business model, the default search engine is DuckDuckGo. Ethically, I like the look of this; it doesn't show different results depending on who's running the search, it doesn't track or record user information, and it's built on, and contributes, to Open Source software. It's one of a small number of search engines which will share revenue generated by Linux Mint users with the Mint team to provide funding. Although you can easily switch search engines in Linux Mint 12, thanks to the clear instructions, you might want to stick with those that fund the distro.

For now, web browsers browse, media plays, documents can be written and even the USB wireless connection on the Celeron works fine after a couple of hiccups; I'm running it in preference to the PCI wireless card because the aerial on that one is a piece of junk that can't pick up the attenuated signal in my building. I'm probably being unfair as even the thumping great Hawking antenna on my router barely penetrates the steel in my building.

And that, dear friends, is as far as we go with Mint 12 'Lisa'. The a stack of new and forked software isn't working properly, so while I could upgrade to the DVD version to pull in the full release, I'm not sure it's worth the bandwidth. This is a disruptive release, the whole thing a transitional step from Mint 11, in need of a lot of damage limitation. I hope they can get it fixed soon, I really do.

The Gnome Classic 2D desktop of Linux Mint 12 is stable and quicker than expected, but it can't compensate for the fact that the overall release is drowning in all that desktop re-engineering. RC

How-to: Get More Traffic to your Website

2011-11-30T00:18:00.000Z

When it comes to building an audience for a website or blog, there is no magic wand to wave, it all comes down to hard work and patience.

While you might get lucky occasionally and time a pertinent article now and then, relying on the odd Stumble or Digg or trending Tweet is not going to provide an audience that keeps coming back.

Let's assume you've followed the advice in Promoting Your Blog post, as applied to Blogger and delve a little deeper into building an audience.

Post to your online social networks: most website and blog platforms have plugins to cross-post automatically to social networks and micro-blogging sites. Use them. WordPress.com has thes Publicize feature, for which you can specify services to cross-post; automatically tell your Twitter followers and Facebook friends whenever you publish a new post.
Adjust Privacy settings so your content is visible to search engines.
Submitting to search engines only works if your privacy settings actually allow your site to be crawled and indexed by search engines such as Google and Bing. Also see tagging.
Email updates to your distribution list. Send out reminder emails for key updates, to a selected distribution group culled from your contacts. Don't email too often - you'll look like a spammer. Only email people with an interest in your subject matter. Your grandmother may not be into skate-boarding. Better still, encourage them to sign up for updates using a widget embedded on your site (Wordpress has the Follow Blog Widget).
Tag carefully with relevance. Tags are essential aids to Search Engines; create a small set of appropriate categories and tags. Don't go overboard. Too many tags are as bad as none at all. Don't go beyond 5 and 10 tags or the Search Engines will mark you down as a spammer. Fewer, well-chosen tags will indicate to the search engines your quality, rather than desperation.
Read and comment on other blogs. Be active, be seen with your site name in your signature.
Read and subscribe to sites covering similar topics to yours. Make intelligent comments on posts; more then simply fawning in agreement, never flame or insult and never cut and paste generic comments across sites.
Link to other blogs or sites. Further to being active is belong to a community. Linking to other sites organically will generate pingbacks and attract authors and readers from those sites along with search ranking. This is not the same as attempting to frig a link wheel.
Join collective sites. Some sites such as Technorati have a more collective, community focus. Joining and submitting your site feed can give you further visibility to their existing audience.
Let people know about specific posts. If you wirte a post with a specific person or organisation (that's not inflammatory), contact them to let them know. Nothing appeals to people's vanity or PR sense like being written about; they are just as likely to re-post or link back to you so that their members or followers can read about them. Use sparingly, don't turn into a stalker or spammer.
Post Frequently. We said before, blogs that have a frequent and regular schedule will develop an audience faster. Posts need not be long; in fact, the more frequent you post, shorter may be better. Your audience has a life, you know.
Pay for publicity. This is a difficult one. Web site like StumbleUpon can generate traffic from around $.05 per visit. 3,000 visits would cost you $150. Can you afford it and will that bring any revenue? Although you can pay certain sites for each thru-click they bring you, pay sites do not guarantee traffic to your site. Nor do they guarantee and proportion of repeat traffic. A stack of paid, one-off hits becomes expensive.
Have patience. Building an audience is a marathon not a sprint. If you have welathy backers for a commercial site good luck to you, arrive with a splash and spend while you can. Hopefully your brand will build before the money runs out. The rest of us have to build trust, relationships and communities and that takes time.
Temper your expectations. How big an audience is there for a site about African Rafia Weaving in the North-West? Your target audience may be very small; even if you become the foremost authority in a single specialist subject, the total audience will still be very small and limited to those specialists. Post on very common topics and you will only gain a slice of the available audience as readers move around looking for the few sites that suit them best of the many available.

Full Circle Magazine Issue 55 is Out Now

2011-11-28T00:05:00.000Z

Full Circle Magazine Issue 55 is out now!

This month:

Command and Conquer.
How-To : Program in Python – Part 29, LibreOffice – Part 9, Backup Strategy – Part 3, Audacity Basics, and Quick Home Server.
Linux Lab – VOIP at Home.
Review – BackTrack vs BackBox.
I Think – Did you update your current install or do a fresh install?
Closing Windows – Control Panel and Device Manager

plus: Ubuntu Women, Ubuntu Games, My Desktop, My Story, and much much more!

Coooooome and get it!

http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-55/

How-to: Add Floating Social Media Buttons to Blogger

2011-11-28T00:03:00.000Z

This may be leaping on a bandwagon, but I've been updating the blog and have added an extra layer of social media sharing. It seems everyone is using floating social buttons in the left side or right side of the page of every site or blog. I blame Mashable.

I've used a bit of common code to add a bar of social media buttons to Blogger. The bar is actually the bit that's fixed in place on screen while the rest of the page scrolls, but what's in a description?

The Social Media bar here includes Facebook Share, Twitter, Digg This and Google +1 (plus one) buttons with a live counters. It's all javascript, of course, with some cunning CSS that's fairly robust and cross-browser (I think!)

How to add it?

Login to your Blogger account.
Go to Layout
Select Add A Gadget anywhere in your layout - preferably somewhere non-critical for positioning in your layout. The Gadget won't show up in the page body, but don't count on unexpected mis-alignment of page elements; not all templates are equally well crafted.
In the Add A Gadget selection window, select HTML/Javascript as the gadget type.
Copy the code below and paste it into the content box.
Save the Gadget, save the layout.

Done. RC

<!-- floating page sharers Start -->

<style>

#pageshare {position:fixed; bottom:15%; margin-left:-71px; float:left; border-radius:5px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px;background-color:#fff;padding:0 0 2px 0;z-index:10;}

#pageshare .sbutton {float:left;clear:both;margin:5px 5px 0 5px;}

.fb_share_count_top {width:48px !important;}

.fb_share_count_top, .fb_share_count_inner {-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;}

.FBConnectButton_Small, .FBConnectButton_RTL_Small {width:49px !important; -moz-border-radius:3px;/*bs-fsmsb*/-webkit-border-radius:3px;}

.FBConnectButton_Small .FBConnectButton_Text {padding:2px 2px 3px !important;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;font-size:8px;}

</style>

<div id='pageshare' title="Get this from CatlingMindSwipe.blogspot.com">

<div class='sbutton' id='fb'>

<a name="fb_share" type="box_count" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php">Share</a><script src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect.php/js/FB.Share" type="text/javascript"></script>

</div>

<div class='sbutton' id='rt'>

<script src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js" type='text/javascript'></script>

</div>

<div class='sbutton' id='digg' style='margin-left:3px;width:48px'>

<script src='http://widgets.digg.com/buttons.js' type='text/javascript'></script>

<a class="DiggThisButton DiggMedium"></a>

</div>

<div class='sbutton' id='gplusone'>

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js"></script>

<g:plusone size="tall"></g:plusone>

</a></div>

<div style="clear: both;font-size: 9px;text-align:center;"><a href="http://CatlingMindSwipe.blogspot.com">Get this</a></div>

</div>

<!-- floating page sharers End -->

Review: Free eBook - Five Rules for Ubuntu Migration

2011-11-26T00:19:00.000Z

The latest free e-book from Canonical, distributor of the Ubuntu Linux operating system, hopes to persuade you that "times are changing on the enterprise desktop."

In the latest pith for the corporate market, Canonical hopes to pass on the rules for a successful Ubuntu migration. I give it a qualified three stars as a primer and agent provocateur for small as well as big business.

I'm not sure that the cover image of the cycle despatch rider (blowing his nose one-handed on the move??!) conjures up quite what Canonical is looking for, however artfully coloured and blurred; but it is the kind of corporate brochure-ware to which people in business are accustomed.

Decked out in cutesy icons and bright orange, the book looks a little too artfully designed to me. The orange gives me a headache. The initial pitch for free software is quickly and succinctly made, but I wish Canonical had come up with better case studies than French National Police Force and the Supreme Court of India.

However, wasting no time, the Desktop team outlines the five-point plan:

Plan the full scope of your project
Target the users who are ripe for easy migration
Identify cost-effective, open-source apps
Map the right management infrastructure
Pilot your project ready for launch

The guide hits it's stride with the targeting of particular user groups. It's a good case for Open-Source Linux distro's:"We’ve found Ubuntu to be ideally suited to these types of user:

NEW GRADUATE JOINERS the ‘Facebook generation’ have grown up with the browser and readily adapt to new apps and interfaces
EMPLOYEES USING MAINLY SAAS OR BROWSER-BASED APPS why pay for an OS license when all they use is a browser?
MOBILE WORKERS WHO NEED TO STAY PRODUCTIVE with Ubuntu, 3G and WiFi connectivity are simple to set up and easy to manage
CLERICAL STAFF USING MAINLY WORD PROCESSING, SPREADSHEETS, PRESENTATION SOFTWARE AND EMAIL Ubuntu comes with LibreOffice which has all the functionality of Microsoft Office - without the price tag."

Follwed by RULE THREE: FIND EQUIVALENT APPS, and outlining the best choices for general office software, this pretty much nails the case; Libre Office, Evolution, Evince. I have to admit they caught me out proposing Xara LX as the Adobe Illustrator replacement; I didn't even know a Linux version existed. Boy, it must be popular!

In this section, the advice includes "...look for a SaaS-based alternative" but at no point among the 7 or 8 uses do I see any explanation of the term in the book. That's quite an assumption they're making of the readership. It's 'Software as a Service' in case you're wondering.

Among the corporate management-speak in the back, is the sage advice, 'start with a small pilot' which is clearly where Canonical hopes to get its foot in the door and offer services - wrap with the contact details at the end.

The accompanying missive is up-beat: "...migrating to Ubuntu now could save your business millions – and put you on the right path for future success. Don’t miss this chance to see how it's done."

As a brochure, it's not quite there. The attempt to do something different falters with that colour scheme and icons. That said, it's as good as, containing less corporate *BS* than most of the glossy dumpster-fodder I usually endure. Press on, Canonical, next stop, world domination. RC

What Makes A Linux Desktop?

2011-11-24T00:09:00.000Z

I have been reminded that many readers coming here for the first time won't have a clue what Linux is, much less the difference between the many Linux 'distros' (releases), or the many Linux desktop environments.

Much as you think Windows looks different from the Apple OS-X desktop, wait til you see the variety of Linux desktops...

The advantage is that with a little knowledge, you can choose the desktop environment that suits you and your hardwae best; install it on a 'try-before-you-don't-buy' basis (they are all free software) and easily uninstall the desktop you don't like.

As has been said elsewhere, the choice of Linux desktop environment shouldn’t affect the stability and structure of your operating system. That is dependent on the underlying Linux distribution you are using.

Desktop #1: GNOME
Still the most popular desktop environment in the solid and workman-like Gnome 2.x release, the latest Gnome 3.0 with the radical Gnome Shell has dented credibility with the Gnome faithful.

In a standard two-panel configuration, Gnome 2.x gives menus and multiple workspaces; Gnome Shell is a bit more quirky in operation as well as demanding a chunky graphics card. There's a decent but uninspiring file manager in Nautilus. There's also a vast number of Gnome-compatibile applications written using the GTK2 and GTK3 development frameworks.

Desktop #2: KDE
KDE is the second most popular Linux desktop environment, despite the hiccup when KDE 4.0 was released in a disastrously buggy and unstable release. KDE 4.6 is back to it's best, featuring stunning graphics, anmated effects, 'Plasmoid' widgets as desktop addon's (Windows Metro live-tiles and then some). The Dolphin file manager is good and Rekonq, the KDE web browser, stunningly under-appreciated.

Thanks to it's large user and developer base, KDE is well-stocked with programs developed on the KDE framework; see a program name beginning with a capital K (and there are some bizarre 'K'-names), that'll be a KDE application. It's possible but problematic to mix GNOME and KDE application stacks.

Low-powered machines may struggle to run KDE, especially with the many desktop effects enabled.

Desktop #3: XFCE
XFCE is the “lightweight” alternative, as in it uses a slimmer software stack than the previous two. Lighter, smaller desktop stacks are available. However, XFCE scores highly for several reasons. It is a fully functioning desktop environment with low-memory usage, making it fast and responsive. It is easy on the eye without the full range of fancy effects and animations, making it a good substitute on lesser hardware.

You can set up a conventional two-panel-plus-menus desktop with a lot of flexibility. XFCE uses the same application framework as GNOME, so the full collection of GNOME applications will run seamlessly and it has a growing library of lightweight XFCE alternative programs. The Thunar file manager does all the basics very well. A lot of defectors from KDE 4.0, Gnome 3.0 and Unity (below) have switched to XFCE.

Desktop #4: Unity
Unity is the departure for the Ubuntu Linux distribution - currently the number one by number of users, Ubuntu's lead has dwindled lately, with unkind critics blaming the Unity interface. Based on GNOME foundations, the desktop itself has gone very Mac-like, with a dock on the left side and a custom dash.

Unity is as radical a departure from conventional GNOME 2.x as GNOME Shell; the developers Canonical are making a bold statement about usability and design, although this change and the increasingly corporate, locked-down design process has alienated some of Ubuntu faithful. If you haven't used computers much before, you shouldn't have a problem getting into Unity; switching from something else... it might slow you down.

Conclusion
There are still more Linux desktop environments you can try - LXDE, OpenBox, Fluxbox, Enlightenment and others - more or less like the big four, lighter, heavier or subtly different. RC

News Wire 22 Nov 2011

2011-11-22T20:43:00.001Z

Google Interface Designs: Welcome to Dullsville (Mashable)
Ubuntu Desktop Designers: ‘Unity Should Be Configurable’ (OMGUbuntu)
Top 10 reasons why Darth Vader was an amazing project manager. (Geekwire) It's stretching a point and I can't say we agree!
Google+ Brand Pages Are the “Wild West”– for Now (Mashable)

Review: Squeeze Archive Manager for Xfce

2011-11-18T00:16:00.000Z

To quote Squeeze developer Stephan Arts, "Squeeze is a modern and advanced archive manager for the Xfce Desktop Environment. Its' design adheres to the Xfce philosophy, which basically means Squeeze is designed to be both fast and easy to use."

Currently version 0.2.3 is the latest release of Squeeze. That's not a very advanced version number, reflecting the fact that Squeeze is indeed lightweight, and fast, at the cost of being functionally thin and undocumented.

There really isn't any user documentation. Or helpfiles. Engage brain, work it out yourself.

The good news is Squeeze isn't complicated, takes no time to work out; the menus will give you the key to the toolbar icons (all six of them; New, Open, Add, Extract, Delete, Cancel).

Create a new archive, Squeeze automatically creates .tar.gz type archive files. It doesn't appear to handle any other type.

The Add dialog for selecting files and folders for your archive is a two part process.

Select Files to add or Folders to add (only one object type at a type, please note) in the upper pane of the Squeeze window.
Add to the candidate list and you can mess around with this til you are ready.
Then in the lower Options pane (I still cant get any options to come up) you hit the plus-Add button by way of a commit action, only then does Squeeze go off and compress the archive.

That's really all there is to it. It doesn't strike me as any faster or slower than the equivalent File Roller archiving.

DependenciesSqueeze depends on the following components:

Gtk+
Thunar-vfs
libxfce4util
dbus-glib

Roadmap
There is a roadmap for upcoming version 0.3, but no delivery date:

Add a settings dialog (to reduce cluttering of the main window)
Custom Archive Action (to support special actions like integrity testing)
Password Support (Bug #3072)
Improve the User-Interface

Download
You can get Squeeze through the Xfce software archives, as part of the Xfce4 software stack (by default in Xubuntu) or through the Ubuntu repos. RC

How-to: Adjust Density in New Look Gmail

2011-11-16T00:16:00.000Z

"You are my density..."
(George McFly, Back to the Future)

A common complaint about the new look Gmail is that we can't find the Denssity control to adjust the screen 'density', that is the effective resolution - font size and the amount of white space - in folder views.

Just to confuse us all, you get TWO gear icons in the new look Gmail for controls; the main Settings for Gmail overall is the one in the top bar, top-most right corner.

There is a second Gear icon for Mail Folders settings to the right of the folder controls - beside to the item count (1-50 of 198 or whatever) and next/previous item controls. This is the one with the drop-down for Display Density

The Gmail help page isn't too clear; although the instructions are factually correct, it's easy to look in the wrong place! RC

"To adjust this limit, just follow these steps:

Click the gear icon at the top corner of your inbox .
Choose from Comfortable (least dense), Cozy, and Compact (densest)."

Making a Usable Unity Hybrid

2011-11-15T15:00:00.000Z

I am a well-known Unity sceptic. The Unity launcher gets too full too quickly, full of icons I can't always remember; then there's that weird concertina-slide effect to scroll down the launcher stack.

Removing any option for a conventional gnome panel and menu system remains a step backward; principally because the Unity Dash doesn't work for me. Try to run an application and you're either clicking on 'More' and scrolling through pages of icons, or you're trying to type the exact name of some executable hoping for a quick hit so that you can get on with some work. I still fail to see how this is a usability increase unless all you use are the same four things in the launcher?

Far from being a light-weight and convenient pass-through to real activity, I find Unity a hard obstacle. I've been playing with some options to get past Unity quicker.

Xfce4 Application Finder
I've been promoting the switch to the Xfce desktop since Ubuntu 11.10 came out and having the Xfce stack installed, I've found a useful Xfce utility that makes the Unity launcher and Dash largely redundant.

Open the Dash by clicking on the Ubuntu logo in the top of the launch bar. In search, type 'find.' Your default result should be the Xfce4 Application Finder. Run it and pin it to the Launcher by right-clicking its' icon and selecting 'Keep in Launcher.'

What you get with this little utility is a conventional categorised program menu with names and icons, and a quick search if you need it. Select a program from the right pane and hit launch. There! Done! If you tick the check-box, bottom-left, for "Close on Launch" the Application Finder closes itself each time. It doesn't have a maximise control, but if you stretch it to full screen and close it down it will remember it's display size for subsequent use.

Find Files
My second useful utility is the faithful Gnome Search Tool. With this you can search for any files in any or all locations. Open the Dash and Search for 'Search,' it will come up. You can also find it in the Xfce4 Application Finder under Search - "Search for Files."

You can pin both these in Unity's Launcher, but I've also created desktop short-cuts as per our previous article. This gives me a usable Desktop, with 11.10's standard features, including the global menu and notifications, without messing about in Unity Dash for too long. RC

Review: Steve Jobs - iChanged the World Channel 4 Documentary

2011-11-14T00:17:00.000Z

This documentary on Steve Jobs aired on the UK TV's Channel 4 last week (still available on the 4od streaming channel). An efficient whistle-stop tour of the man's career, it suffered from two principal shortcomings.

The first was the lack of Jobs himself. Clearly the makers were unable to secure the rights to much video material featuring jobs (or couldn't afford it from the rights holders given the topicality of former Time Magazine cover-boy Jobs death). Secondly there was little of a personal nature in it other than the broadest, most well-known comments already in the public domain. One suspects the programme-makers are still shy of the eager Apple legal team jumping on any perceived defamation.

So what we got was a tightly structured series of chapters from the early days in Palo Alto, the founding of Apple, the Sculley years, the Pixar years and the triumphant return as the saviour of the bankrupt Apple, each under a chapter heading such as "i-Innovated."

Amongst the heaped praise for Jobs' drive, magnetism and vision, a few dissenting voices laid out some of Jobs character faults, the school yard bully, the ego-centric credit-stealer. However, the programme failed to offer any character analysis of the Jobs paradox because there was nothing of his personal life and only the business context of John Sculley's painful ousting of Jobs from Apple, a betrayal which emotionally scarred him for the rest of his career, as others have made plain.

There was no attempt to paint Jobs as a saint, but as a Clifton's Notes for Jobs, every point was made effectively but briefly, each chapter a bullet-point presentation slide which I'm sure would play well in Keynote.

At its' conclusion, the show outlined the four areas in which Jobs proved a game-changer: the computer industry, movie industry, music industry and telecommunications industry. Whether you consider Jobs 'changed the world' or merely accelerated the progress of those industries toward predicted models of modernity, is up to you. iChanged the World is too good a title to pass on, so that was the reporting line it took. The producers decided not to patronise us the viewers and kept to a neutral, factual tone, for which we thank them and hope other factual TV programme makers will take note. RC

Full Circle Magazine Issue 54 Out Now

2011-11-12T14:15:00.001Z

We nearly forgot this month's issue of the Ubuntu and Open Source Magazine featuring regular contributors Catling and Smithie; Issue 54 of Full circle Magazine is available now from the main site.

This month:

Command and Conquer.
How-To :Program in Python – Part 28, FreeMind,Backup Strategy – Part 2,Apt-Cache NG,Ubuntu For Business & Education – Part 3.
Linux Lab – ZoneMinder CCTV – Part 3.
Review – Synergy.
I Think – What age do you think the average Linux user is?

NEW FEATURE! Closing Windows – My Computer and C:\ drive

plus: My Desktop, My Story, and much much more!

Opinion: Ubuntu on phones tablets TV’s and smart screens everywhere

2011-11-11T00:09:00.000Z

Immediately preceding the Ubuntu Developer Summit last month, Mark Spaceshuttle set forth Canonical's stall on the software platforms of the future.

"By 14.04 LTS Ubuntu will power tablets, phones, TVs and smart screens from the car to the office (to the) kitchen, and it will connect those devices cleanly and seamlessly to the desktop, the server and the cloud."

It's Ubuntu on everything, then. He goes on:

"Unity, the desktop interface in today’s Ubuntu 11.10, was designed with this specific vision in mind. While the interface for each form factor is shaped appropriately, Unity’s core elements are arranged in exactly the way we need to create coherence across all of those devices. This was the origin of the name Unity – a single core interface framework, that scales across all screens, and supports all toolkits."
Oh dear. I hope Mark doesn't mean the Unity Dash on every form factor. The interface of Ubuntu Netbook Remix was heading in the right direction, attractive and simple, until Unity somehow got *too clever by half.*

"Canonical and the Ubuntu community have established Ubuntu’s place in desktop, server and cloud deployments. We have also invested in the design and engineering of Unity, motivated by the belief that desktop interfaces would merge with mobile, touch interfaces into a seamless personal computing platform in the future."
Those words merge and seamless always worry me. Merge always means compromised and I've yet to see anything even remotely approaching seamless.

"A constantly changing world: The way we access the Internet, connect to our friends, listen to music, watch films and go about our daily lives is rapidly evolving. We now use a diverse set of devices with an array of operating systems, which have a range of connectivity. Few people are exclusively loyal to a single technology provider."
'So come and buy something from us, please'

Shuttleworth quotes supporting stats from Paul Maritz at 2011 VM World Keynote:
“Three years ago over 95 percent of the devices connected to the Internet were personal computers. Three years from now that number will probably be less than 20 percent. More than 80 percent of the devices connected to the Internet will not be Windows-based personal computers.”

'The personal computer is dead.'

"Make no mistake – just as the world is changing for manufacturers so is it changing for Linux distributions. Today, 70% of people in Egypt access the Internet solely via the phone. Even in the US that figure is a startling 25%."

'The personal computer is really dead. Really. It's all over. Start the car. Michael Dell is outside on the street selling shoelaces from a tray.'

"Ubuntu will thrive in this new reality... We are determined to bring more free software to more people around the world, and building that future hand in hand with device manufacturers is the best way to do it. There is no winner in place yet. This opportunity remains wide open, but only to products that deliver excellent experiences for users, across a full range of device categories."
'Canonical will do you a better deal on software for your i-Smug clone than Redmond. Really, Mr Factory-man, we love you long time.'

And before we leave, here comes the sales message:

"Ubuntu One and the software centre... Ubuntu’s personal cloud and *app centre* services are appropriate for all these environments."
It's a bold piece of corporate marketing and despite my snarky comments and cynicism, I wish Mark and Canonical all the best in the attempt to penetrate these emerging markets. Any entity that isn't Microsoft or Apple is welcome competition to keep the rest honest.

I await with interest what version of Unity I'm invited to run on my phone, my fridge and my TV, although thinking about it, I'll be astonished if Canonical gets anything onto those platforms without an awful lot of lawsuits and/or licensing agreements. RC

Full Circle Podcast Episode 26 Blame it on the Ferrets

2011-11-10T16:37:00.001Z

Full Circle Podcast Episode 26 Blame it on the Ferrets is available from the main site.

In this episode, UDs, Public Speaking and Barcamp Blackpool.

Full Circle Podcast is also a proud member of the Tech Podcasts Network.

File Sizes:
* OGG 27.8Mb
* MP3 20.4Mb
Runtime: 1hr 00mins 03seconds

Feeds for both MP3 and OGG:
RSS feed, MP3: http://fullcirclemagazine.org/category/podcast/feed
RSS feed, OGG: http://fullcirclemagazine.org/category/podcast/feed/atom

Despite a whole bag of Skype fail, Ubuntu USB fail and microphone fail, we're lighting up like fireworks!

Your Hosts:

Robin Catling (blog at http://catlingmindswipe.blogspot.com/, @robincatling on Twitter)Culture-vultures can also go to Everything Express as http://everythingexpress.wordpress.com/

Les Pounder (blog at http://lespounder.wordpress.com/ twitter @biglesp)

Dave Wilkins... is lost in Antiquity (twitter @DavidAWilkins)

Additional audio by Victoria Pritchard

Show Notes
01:13 | WELCOME and INTRO:

03:09 | Since Last TimeLes

Attended a successful Barcamp Blackpool: Barcamp Blackpool audio sessions will begin appearing soon.A side-project emerged from Barcamp: The Flying Handbag podcast DOWNLOAD MP3 from Danlynch.orgRunning time: 50mins (ish). Parental Advisory! Contains strong language.
Geek up Blackpool – fourth Monday of every month.
Ubuntu LUG BlackpoolLatest wheeze is a DEC Alpha revitalised on Gentoo Linux
Event: Replay Expo, retro games expo, 5 Nov Norbreck Castle Hotel BlkpoolMix of old and new including MS Kinnect, Nintendo Wii.

Robin

Upgrades to all Ubuntu machines to 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot (clean and upgrades)
RANT ALERT: why has 11.10 broken USB printers in 64-bit and extended kernels?!?!And my USB microphone!
Switched to Xfce desktop (added to Ubuntu, not by running Xubuntu; it's just my choice of software stack).
RANT ALERT: why is Unity still so difficult?

19:48 | REVIEW of FULL CIRCLE MAGAZINE #54

Robn - Closing Windows by Ronnie p.26 (despite the typo with sub-heading, we know). Finding the Linux equivalents of Windows features for the migrants.
Les - Review of Synergy on p32. - keyboard and mouse server sharingAlso - Review by Hans Vandeveire of Mind mapping software- FreeMind on p.14

25.26 | NEWS

Ubuntu on tablets. Coming Soon: Ubuntu For Mobiles, Tablets: Canonical will focus on its longer-term goal of expanding to all computing platforms, including mobile phones, tablet devices and also smart TVs
(thanks for link Roland Tarver)

Also on Mark Shuttleworth's blog Here Be Dragons: Ubuntu on phones, tablets, TV’s and smart screens everywhere.
Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS-P) News - see excellent coverage by attendees on Planet Ubuntu
Starting with the Summit beginning USD-P in Orlando Day 1 (Elizabeth Krumbach)
Ubuntu UDS-P Orlando - Mark Shuttleworth's Keynote session, a bit low-key, if anything.
Ubuntu Developer Summit - Designing and Creating Ubuntu Experiences
UDS-P, Banshee is to be dropped for Rhythmbox in 12.04 (via Julien Lavergne). Maybe.
Hack to the Future Feb 11 2012 Preston, free tickets, full day 10-5.30. Real computing for kids.Prime-mover is friend of the show Alan O'Donahoe (blog at teachcomputing.wordpress.com, @teknoteacher on twitter, email: alan (at) odonahoe.com)

13:41 | GUEST: Interview - Philippa Hammond - Reading from the Script

Following the Workshop at the Critical Incident Unconference over the Summer.Pippa's site is Speaking Well in Public

44:20 | GUEST: Interview - Gemma Cameron - Barcamp Blackpool 2011

Discussing the highlights of the Barcamp Blackpool Unconference last month.
- Picks of the non-techie talks
- Lally on British sign language.
- Alex a comedic history of error messages. Including a live Sinclair Spectrum.
- The Physics Busker with vortex simulator and rockets on the prom.
- 8-bit Nintendo hammer bead patterns producing badges.

Barcamp 2011 is not over; talks, blog posts, audio will be going up soon.

The planning for 2012 begins!(Gemma is @ruby_gem on twitter)

57:06 | FEEDBACK

57:38 | OUTRO AND WRAP

How-to: Change Xfce Window Controls

2011-11-10T00:09:00.000Z

If you do choose Xfce as your Linux desktop environment, you may find the window controls not quite as you'd like them. Fortunately the lightweight desktops Xfce and LXDE both feature the ability to arrange buttons and controls as you wish.

Going to Application -> Settings -> Settings Manager -> Windows Manager, there's an area in the middle of the panel where you can drag and drop or hide window controls to create your ideal button layout.

You will need to check the themes you're using, as some themes allow for customization of the windows buttons, while others don't. You can install more Xfce4 themes from either the Software Center (Ubuntu and Mint users)/Synaptic Package Manager or you can go to direct to http://xfce-look.org/ and browse the galleries of eye-candy. RC

Review: Ubuntu Developer Summit - Designing and Creating Ubuntu Experiences

2011-11-09T00:09:00.000Z

Presenting the notes from the Community track at UDS-P, this was the first of a series of 3 sessions:
- "Designing and creating Ubuntu Experiences"
- "Meet with the Ubuntu Desktop Designers"
- "Community Participation in User Experience"

The difficulty of not being in the is that the notes come across as a bit trite, with some marvelous examples of "statin' the bleedin' obvious" (Monty Python). I'm thinking particularly of "... define roles for design, implementation, testing, integration and documentation."

I'd hope, this being 2011 and Open Source notwithstanding, we've all got this by now and this is merely a stake in the ground for every team to formalise a structure and not leave all the 'dull' jobs to a the one volunteer willing to be ground down as the general dog's body.

If I'm interpreting correctly, the emphasis on thinking wider than Unity as the user experience is welcome news; considering the excellent modular framework that is Linux, building those connections between available components really must be the way to go. Looking forward to the examples and proofs-of-concept promised at the end. RC

Session Notes:

design != Unity only (as in launcher, dash, lenses)
think broader, envision user-experiences that go beyond the shell/unity
(e.g. how to stream your music to your TV)
focus on personal experiences (not on shell, middle-ware, kernel), this is where design needs to happen, the end-user does not care about OS-components, but rather home-entertainment, personal media (music, photos, movies), security/privacy
potential focus-areas are content, services, applications, hardware, peripherals ... that makes up home-entertainment
delivering a "user-experience" very often means connecting the dots, because there are already many building-blocks in Ubuntu's repositories
wrap a nice experience around the knowledge of how to connect these dots (e.g. playing music via remote speakers)
designing a good user-experience requires very high-bandwidth communication (talking face-to-face if possible, gather in front of whiteboards...), smaller teams of people will have an easier time to achieve this
form a team to work a specific user-experience story
... define roles for design, implementation, testing, integration and documentation
... also create a culture of standardizing on processes to pass information between these roles to make this consistent, reproducible and scalable
Canonical should share their own experience in key-areas to help formulate processes that can be applied to small task-teams in order to help them create an efficient high-bandwidth work-group
define one experience for this cycle (stream music via remote speakers) as a role-model example for creating and test-driving the needed skill-set/processes.

11.10 USB Printer Fail in Kernel

2011-11-08T00:09:00.001Z

This is the kind of nonsense I thought we'd left behind around version 7.10. Did nobody regression test final 11.10 with some USB printers? There's whole printer families this kernel doesn't work with, now we're all back grubbing around (no pun intended) at command lines trying to get printers to work!!

We spend years evangelising about Linux only to get another Canonical ball-drop on hardware, setting back the cause yet again, just as we think we can get out of the ghetto of minority operating systems.

Everyone do your duty, get on Launchpad, raise those bugs and get this sorted. RC

[UPDATE: it appears to be my PAE kernel extensions and those on 64-bit having this problem. I just plugged the printer into the old Compaq Evo on 32-bit, meaning to run the Live-CD to print, got distracted and found it prints straight out of 11.10!]

Bug report: HP Laser Jet 1320 USB fails to print on 11.10

    Ubuntu
    “cups” package
    Bugs
    Bug #883093

Reported by Robin Catling a moment ago
Thank you! Bug #883093 created.
0 out of 4 heat flames
This bug affects you Edit
Affects     Status     Importance     Assigned to     Milestone     cups (Ubuntu)     
New   Undecided      Unassigned
    
Also affects project  Also affects distribution

Bug Description

HP Laser Jet 1320 on USB cable connection fails to print from 11.10. Printer previously working in all versions back to 7.04.

Removed and re-added printer. Removed, re-booted and re-added. Fails to print.
Removed default hplip, downloaded and installed hplip-3.11.10 from HP. Fails to print.
Printer is detected but 11.10 fails to pass any jobs across USB interface.
CUPS PDF output unaffected.
Printing via 11.04 Live CD works as normal!!

Output of each step of https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingPrintingProblems below:
##
lsmod | grep usb

tail -f /var/log/syslog

Oct 28 14:17:19 d6400 kernel: [16883.872060] usb 4-1: new full speed USB device number 3 using uhci_hcd
Oct 28 14:17:20 d6400 mtp-probe: checking bus 4, device 3: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb4/4-1"
Oct 28 14:17:20 d6400 mtp-probe: bus: 4, device: 3 was not an MTP device
Oct 28 14:17:20 d6400 udev-configure-printer: add /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb4/4-1/4-1:1.0
Oct 28 14:17:20 d6400 udev-configure-printer: device devpath is /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb4/4-1
Oct 28 14:17:20 d6400 udev-configure-printer: Device vendor/product is 03F0:1D17
Oct 28 14:17:20 d6400 udev-configure-printer: MFG:Hewlett-Packard MDL:hp LaserJet 1320 series SERN:- serial:00CNHW628HMQ
Oct 28 14:17:21 d6400 udev-configure-printer: no corresponding CUPS device found
Oct 28 14:17:21 d6400 kernel: [16885.272259] usb 4-1: usbfs: process 7543 (usb) did not claim interface 1 before use

##
lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 003: ID 03f0:1d17 Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 1320

##
ls -l /dev/usb/lp* /dev/bus/usb/*/*
ls: cannot access /dev/usb/lp*: No such file or directory
crw-rw-r-- 1 root root 189, 0 2011-10-26 23:02 /dev/bus/usb/001/001
crw-rw-r-- 1 root root 189, 128 2011-10-26 23:02 /dev/bus/usb/002/001
crw-rw-r-- 1 root root 189, 256 2011-10-26 23:02 /dev/bus/usb/003/001
crw-rw-r-- 1 root root 189, 384 2011-10-26 23:02 /dev/bus/usb/004/001
crw-rw-r--+ 1 root lp 189, 386 2011-10-28 14:17 /dev/bus/usb/004/003
crw-rw-r-- 1 root root 189, 512 2011-10-26 23:02 /dev/bus/usb/005/001

##

sudo usb_printerid /dev/usb/lp0

Error: No such file or directory: can't open '/dev/usb/lp0'
robin@d6400:~$ sudo usb_printerid /dev/usb/lp1
Error: No such file or directory: can't open '/dev/usb/lp1'

##

hp-info -i

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.11.10)
Device Information Utility ver. 5.2

Using device: hp:/usb/hp_LaserJet_1320_series?serial=00CNHW628HMQ

hp:/usb/hp_LaserJet_1320_series?serial=00CNHW628HMQ

Device Parameters (dynamic data):
  Parameter Value(s)
  ---------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------
   cups-printers ['hp_LaserJet_1320', 'hp_LaserJet_1320_NEW']
  cups-uri hp:/usb/hp_LaserJet_1320_series?serial=00CNHW628HMQ
  dev-file
  device-state 1
  device-uri hp:/usb/hp_LaserJet_1320_series?serial=00CNHW628HMQ
  deviceid MFG:Hewlett-Packard;CMD:PJL,MLC,BIDI-ECP,PCL,POSTSCRIPT,PC
##

hp-makeuri 004:003

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.11.10)
Device URI Creation Utility ver. 5.0

CUPS URI: hp:/usb/hp_LaserJet_1320_series?serial=00CNHW628HMQ

Done.

##

lpinfo -v
network lpd
network ipp
network http
file cups-pdf:/

How-to: replace Banshee with Rhythmbox on Ubuntu 11.10

2011-11-06T00:09:00.001Z

I tried. I did try. Truth is Banshee media player and I never did get on. Banshee's searching and sorting never got into my head, simple though it is. I liked Banshee's left pane listing of all media sources, really I did. It's just everything on the right got piled up and was never customisable the way I wanted. I guess I never got over my 'ex': Rhythmbox.

Following UDS-P, it seems mono-dependent Banshee is out and Rhythmbox is back in for Unbuntu 12.04! So I'm going home; Banshee is out, Rhythmbox is back in...

Start in Software Centre. Filter by Installed button, top-centre.
Open Sound and Video category, click Banshee. Click Remove.
The option box will offer up the Banshee plug-ins for sacrifice. You may as well take them all out.

That's Banshee out. If you did a clean install of 11.10, Rhythmbox needs to be installed. If you upgraded, Rhythmbox should still be sitting unloved in a dark corner awaiting a return to the spotlight!

Install Rhythmbox

Back in the main Software Center window, lift the filter by selecting All Software.
Enter Rhythmbox in the search box top right.
Select it from the top of the list, in the info window click install on the right. Authenticate to install and watch it go!
From the bottom of the info window, select Add to Launcher if that's what you want.

Yes, you can still run apt-get install rhythmbox in a terminal if that floats your boat.

To set Rhythmbox as your default audio player
There is no more “Preferred Applications” in Ubuntu Oneiric. These settings are built into System Info managed by System Settings(Gnome Control Center). Kinda...

In Unity or Gnome-shell, you should be able to click on your User Account menu at the top-right corner and choose System Settings to launch gnome-control-center.

Then scroll down and click on System Info, navigate to the Default Applications tab and then you change the default apps from the drop-down lists.

Except it doesn't work.

Forget System Info - I'm not sure why it doesn't work as advertised, it just doesn't. You need to set defaults on the files themselves, once per file type.

You can do the old, reliable, manual way from your file manager.

Right-click an example of your audio file type 9.mp3, ogg, .mp2, whatever), select Properties, Open With...
The current default will likely be Movie Player since you took away Banshee.
Rhythmbox comes up as Recommended. Select it, then select Set as Default button in bottom right.
Alternatively, you could accelerate the process by editing your media apps list:gedit ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list
In the [Default Applications] section change all the audio lines to rhythmbox.desktop, for example, .flac files;audio/flac=rhythmbox.desktop

And Go Rhythmbox! RC

Opinion: User Testing of Unity Yields Surprising Results?

2011-11-05T00:09:00.000Z

Fresh from the Unbuntu Developer Summit UDS-P, just closed:

"Every 3 months Canonical conduct ‘benchmark testing’ of Unity, to ensure that the design decisions being made are improving user experience and not hampering.

In a UDS session presenting the results of recent testing, some surprising results emerged – and most of it countering the negative perception many assume Unity has in the eyes of the target mind."

I'll leave you to go through the detailed results, however, specific features criticised (sorry, "perceived negatively", of course there's nothing actually wrong) include:

pin to launcher
arrow indicators for running apps in the launcher
“Dash” display (the one with 8 icons on)
Applications Available to Install

Where's the surprise when all the things that confused or annoyed people were diagnosed as the things that would confuse or annoy people in the 11.04 Alphas before Unity appeared in the wild? More evidence that Unity was a half-arsed and unfinished product when it escaped.

I understand several of those features will be 'retired' or changed in 12.10.

Net result: "average Joe user," with some technical competance, finds it usable. What about Mark's 120 squillion new users by tea-time? Clearly that's why Unity will be changing. Not that it was ever wrong.

Hubris. RC

Every 3 months Canonical conduct ‘benchmark testing’ of Unity, to ensure that the design decisions being made are improving user experience and not hampering.

In a UDS session presenting the results of recent testing, some surprising results emerged – and most of it countering the negative perception many assume Unity has in the eyes of the target mind.

Although a small number of testers are used in the qualitative testing, they are selected very specifically to best demonstrate the target audience of Ubuntu. They are a mix of Windows and Mac users who spend at least 10 hours a week on a computer. They tend to know how to download music, attach peripherals and other fault sedate computing affair.

Perhaps this is one caveat in the data accrued thus far: the focus has been with “Joe Consumer” representatives and not those more advanced or all ready familiar with Linux.

But still.
‘First time usage’

Although this write up of the results will be by no means as exhaustive as that Canonical will present in time, it’s based solely on the information presented at the UDS session, it makes for some interesting and insightful examples of how Unity looks in the eyes of non-Ubuntu users.
Since 2010

Charline Poirier, Canonical’s user testing genius, began the session by highlighting many of the issues users found in the last batch of Unity testing back in 2010.

Back then users had issues changing their wallpaper, viewing documents side by side; managing workspaces; finding an overview of their system; deleting documents.. etc

The results of 2011 see most, if not all, of the above issues solved. In particular testers found the addition of ‘System Settings’ to the Unity launcher to be a massive boon – and to think I scoffed at this change myself.

Overall testers find Unity ‘very usable’, with positive first impressions on the ‘clean and sober’ interface. They love the look at feel, particularly the transparency; the launcher is well received, as are the new handling of workspaces.

And before you think they’re just being polite the overall perception of Ubuntu has changed in just one year. Where before testers didn’t find Ubuntu ‘a bad product’, they did concede that you’d need ‘motivation’ to switch.

And now? Most testers expressed a desire to ‘give it a try’, calling it an ‘interesting OS’.

That’s not a bad turn-around.
Specific features
The Launcher

The Launcher made finding applications easy. All testers were able to launch Firefox when asked. Likewise they were able to launch the System Settings application.

Users were less sure of how to initiate the application spread, and when asked to ‘Pin’ an open application to Launcher most expected it to be auto-pinned as the icon was already there.

A quick poke around after realising the icon goes when the app closes resulted in most finding the ‘Pin to Launcher’ option.

Despite the handy arrows on the left-hand side of launchers indicating running applications some testers never noticed them. Interestingly, the number of users who could tell how many apps were running was higher in 2010.
The Dash

The Dash received a less warm welcome.

The first issue is that, despite the contentious move of the BFB from the top panel to the Launcher, users still seem unaware of how to open the Dash.

But when it is shown to them its relevance is questioned. “What’s the difference between the dash and the launcher?” one tester asked. And they have a point…

Dash

The good news is that the main “Dash” display (the one with 8 icons on) is to be retired for Precise, although the search bar will remain.

Most users relied on Nautilus for file browser, rather than using Unity’s dedicated File Lens.

Filters were hard to find, although liked once highlighted to them (although the usefulness of the ‘star rating’ filter was questioned).
‘Apps available for download’

One aspect of the Dash that drew particular ire was the ‘Applications Available for Download’ pane that appears in the ‘Application lens’.

Applications Available to Install

Testers found it intrusive; “If I wanted to download an application I would use the Ubuntu Software Centre” was the general gist given.

Users tend to view the Dash as theirs, and resent suggestions appear on ‘their’ apps page.
Workspaces

Workspaces were classed as intuitive, although users wanted a way to add more. Precise will see the addition of such a workspace editor.
Ubuntu Software Centre

Confusion remained on how to launch an application once installed, with many assuming it could be launched from within the USC itself.

Plans are afoot in the Precise cycle for a slick ‘add to launcher’ animation a la Apple’s Mac Store > Launchpad – so I’d expect this issue to lessen in later testing.
More to come

Further in-depth analysis on the results will be available when the entire report is made available later this month.

But, in the mean time, the session gave a fantastic oversight into the amount of effort, commitment and money Canonical put into user-testing Unity. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but, based on the results of this recent research, it’s proving to be an attractive and intuitive option for the “average user”.

Review: New Look Gmail

2011-11-04T11:06:00.000Z

If you have seen the visual makeover already launched in Google Docs and Google Reader then Googlemail's (Gmail) announcement of the new look won't come as a big surprise.

A revised, less cluttered layout, new colour schemes, new themes, labelling and threading, it all adds up to the biggest change to Gmail in some time.

Designed for a cleaner look, with less 'chrome' (bye-bye borders and controls) the whole thing seems to have been Mac-ified, monochromed and mostly grey. Whilst it's fairly bland, it's also a bit 2007, Web 2.0-Generic.

What isn't so good is that most functional buttons are now icons with no description (mouse-hover for the tool-tips), but occupying the same amount of space. The universal language of icons is neither universal nor intuitive, so this is a step backward.

You can put the colour back in using the new themes, featuring hi-res imagery ("HD Themes" using imagery taken from iStockphoto) - most of which seems designed to make the text more difficult to read .

What's changed
Taking Google's list:

Options at the top
Using labels, chat, and gadgets
Reading your messages - new views and threading
Search and filters - now including Twitter search
Settings - collected and simplified
Contacts

What this moves toward is a simpler, cleaner, less cluttered look, which has only to be applauded. Gmail to me always looked like an explosion in a fuzzy-felt toy factory, littered with Google Buzz panels, various contact's statuses and a lot of lines. Since Google killed Buzz, that chunk of screen real-estate lay comatose, so something had to change.

What this means in reality is an interface that looks a lot more conventional, like webmail clients the world over. Yes, it is a lot more fluid, or, whats the new buzzword, 'responsive'? When you resize the browser window, Gmail automatically adjusts to the new browser size.

"You are my density"
Loading up the new Gmail on a big display you notice how much (wasted) space there is. You can change this easily from the settings by selecting between Comfortable (default), Cozy, or Compact views. Power users who deal with a lot of mail every day will most likely prefer Compact as will Tablet users whose space is at a premium. I have to say I don't notice much difference between them, hey-ho...

An immediate feature of the updated inbox is that the navigation panels on the left side – including labels and chat – remain fixed in place as you scroll.

Your correspondents' Profile pictures appear down the left of their messages, a feature which Google says makes it "easier to keep track of who said what." It's a blunt instrument and you don't seem able to resize profile pics yet, so you lose a lot of screen space. Otherwise there are several elements that used to appear along the sides or top of a conversation thread which are now represented by small grey icons, or rolled into dropdown menus. I'm not sure if the change in visual cues is a help or hindrance.

The net result? Gmail now feels blocky, awkward and unfinished, like a wireframe mockup. Individual items, even in Compact layout, feel large and clunky like Duplo bricks.

The cult of Mac, the whole 'less-is-more' approach, has driven Gmail to become soul-less, bland and unintuitive, all the text labels for controls have gone, but that's OK since most of the controls have gone as well.

Yes, I'm sure we will all get used to it, imperfect as it remains, because we got used to the old version, which had a lot wrong with it, bit as usual, two wrongs don't make a right. You've got a couple of weeks in which to stay with the old interface, but Google says that this option will be removed soon.

Given that Search is the first pillar of Google, no surprise then that Gmail search has been revamped, to include more fields and sources such as Twitter. This actually works, although the layout in certain resolutions is less than optimal.

The standardised interface for Settings is invoked with the now-ubiquitous gear control, wrapping everything neatly - or not - in one place. The control to change the number of messages displayed per page which should be in the top bar, is now hidden among the myriad options in Settings.

To make matters worse, the product marketing which should have come with this, to sell us on the new features and explain why they're so much better, has been replaced by a video by an alleged designer (part-timing as a kids' TV presenter) and some fluffy marketing spiel evidently not read by anyone outside Google's marketing department:

"Focus: With the design changes in the coming weeks and months, we’re bringing forward the stuff that matters to you and getting all the other clutter out of your way." Just appalling.

"Elasticity: The new design will soon allow you to seamlessly transition from your desktop computer to your mobile phone to your tablet, while keeping a consistent visual experience. We aim to bring you this flexibility without sacrificing style or usefulness." How about - 'we'll make the layout the same on all devices'?

"Effortlessness: Our design philosophy is to combine power with simplicity. We want to keep our look simple and clean. But behind the seemingly simple design, the changes use new technologies to make sure you have all the power of the web behind you." That's just pure, meaningless, marketing *BS*.

This doesn't feel like a joined up project so much as a camel - a horse designed by committee. I'm confident the engineering is sound but the impression to the end-user is not pleasant. I'm yet to be convinced it's an improvement over the old interface (which I never liked either), but things move on and hopefully this is an interim release which will be improved betimes. RC

News: Banshee Out, Rhythmbox Back In - UDS-P

2011-11-03T00:02:00.000Z

If you're following the Ubuntu Developer Summit, UDS-P, you may have heard that Banshee is to be dropped for Rhythmbox in 12.04. Yay! Good news. And after all that fuss over which media player to include as default in 11.10!

Glad to see that RB won through in the end, hopefully this ends the uncertainty over ongoing development.

I’m going to remove Banshee and the mono stack right away.

Thanks for the news from attendee and Linux Mint mainstay Julien Lavergne. Enjoy the remainder of UDS. RC

UDS-P Default Apps Discussion

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/desktop-p-default-apps http://summit.ubuntu.com/uds-p/meeting/19442/desktop-p-default-apps/

This is the usual session to discuss applications by default. Many topics discussed :

Inclusion of Boot-repair in the Live-CD : probably yes if there is no stopper.
Inclusion of FreeRDP : to be check with security.
Video editor : No (not needed by default)
Rhythmbox / Banshee : This subject was a bit of surprise for me, I didn’t expect such discussion will happen. However, the 2 applications have problems :

Banshee : Problem on ARM (doesn’t work), no GTK3 support, and removing Banshee will remove Mono from the CD (good for the space) and probably from main (which make Security team happy, not having to maintain Mono stack for 5 years)
RB : UbuntuOne store needs to be updated, Music lens needs to be updated, it needs a release from upstream.
A quick vote on usage of both applications in the room makes approximately a 50 / 50 result (maybe a bit more for RB).

Conclusion, RB will probably be back on the CD, if no problem is raised by the other teams not present during the session. The decision was not easy, but IMO it makes sense in the context of an LTS. And, well, Banshee will still be available in the archive, will at least the same level of integration than in 11.10. JL

How-to: Additional Drivers in Ubuntu 11.10

2011-11-02T00:09:00.000Z

So, the wireless failed to work after the clean-install of Ubuntu 11.10 on the net-book. Consulting the forums, I struggled to get the firmware installed; that is, failed. Then I stepped back with the brainwave: run the Additional Drivers search first!

This pulled up the appropriate Broadcom drivers without having to my having to manually tease out firmware. All working again inside 2 minutes.

Note to self - go for the simple, out-of-the-box solutions first, before you go for hard labour.

Why the installer missed the wireless anyway I don't understand - it works from boot using the 11.10 Live CD!?!? RC

How-to: Create a Desktop Shortcut on Ubuntu 11.10

2011-10-30T00:06:00.000+01:00

Thanks to the changes effected by the Unity interface, adding a desktop shortcut is no longer easy. The old right-click on the desktop, selecting "Create Launcher" no longer works.

You can create a custom launcher on the desktop, either via the terminal or the run line invoked by Alt-f2

gnome-desktop-item-edit --create-new ~/Desktop

The New Launcher window opens for you to create the launcher commands. The new shortcut will now appear on your desktop as soo as you save it. RC

(Original tip found on the Upbuntu site)

News: The Flying Handbag Podcast

2011-10-29T00:02:00.000+01:00

Not to be confused with the Flying Handbag bar, this is a one-off podcast recording from Barcamp Blackpool of October 15th 2011.

An impromptu round-table discussion (minus actual table) featuring Dan Lynch of Linux Outlaws, Pete Cannon of Dick Turpin Roadshow fame, our good friend Les Pounder of Blackpool LUG, Dan Westley, Tony Hughes and Michael 'Heeed'.

Elegantly situated on the stairs by the gents toilets in Blackpool Pleasure Beach Casino this is a rambling and fun conversation on Open Source software between 6 opinionated blokes, with some additional comedy value added by the really loud hand dryer noise coming from the toilets.

DOWNLOAD MP3 from Danlynch.org
Running time: 50mins (ish)

The panel:

Les Pounder
Peter Cannon
Dan Westley (Our Microsoft spy)
Tony Hughes
Heeed (Michael)
Dan Lynch

Contains swearing and adult humour from the start. You have been warned.

How-to: Add Places as Quicklists in Unity

2011-10-28T00:09:00.000+01:00

Quicklists in various desktop environments can be controversial features. Are they a cheat or a compromise of standards and usability, or a useful ergonomic aid?

Disappointingly, quick-lists are not included as a feature in Ubuntu 11.10. However, you can add your profile's Places as quicklists.

First, copy the current 'Home Folder' launcher file to your home directory. The quickest and easiest way is through the command line - in a Terminal, (Unity Shortcut Ctrl+Alt+T) you can copy-paste the following:

cp /usr/share/applications/nautilus-home.desktop ~/.local/share/applications

The file needs amending using a text editor, for example Gedit:

gedit ~/.local/share/applications/nautilus-home.desktop

You can safely replace the contents of the file with the text below:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Home Folder
Comment=Open your personal folder
TryExec=nautilus
Exec=nautilus --no-desktop
Icon=user-home
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=true
Type=Application
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Core;
OnlyShowIn=GNOME;Unity;
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=nautilus
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=general
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=nautilus
X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=Videos;Documents;Music;Pictures;Downloads

[Videos Shortcut Group]
Name=Videos
Exec=nautilus Videos
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Documents Shortcut Group]
Name=Documents
Exec=nautilus Documents
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Music Shortcut Group]
Name=Music
Exec=nautilus Music
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Pictures Shortcut Group]
Name=Pictures
Exec=nautilus Pictures
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Downloads Shortcut Group]
Name=Downloads
Exec=nautilus Downloads
TargetEnvironment=Unity

Save the file.

Restart Unity. Opening a terminal to run:

unity --replace

is unsafe in my 11.10 ubstances as Unity tends to hang so badly you can't even restart the machine properly, so I log out and log back in to restart Unity.

This loads Places as a quick-list to the Unity Dash. RC

How-to: Change Icon Theme Ubuntu 11.10

2011-10-26T00:06:00.000+01:00

In yet another frankly dumb-ass move, Canonical stripped out the controls in Ubuntu 11.10 to allow you to change icon sets independently of your desktop theme. Yet more ability to customize your system taken away. WHY???!!!

It's not like this is something that is going to break your system (unlike the utterly stupid inclusion of system janitor by default - good riddance to that one).

So the among the first things you'll want to do is restore some lost functionality now that Appearance Properties have been dropped in Ubuntu 11.10 and the System Settings doesn't support a change the icon theme.

The Gnome Tweak-UI Tool is still an option except for dependencies on some Gnome Shell-related libraries which makes things messier than they should be.

I'm trying Dconf-editor (formerly gconf-editor) as a tool to adjust Ubuntu configuration settings, although I'm still asking why I need an extra utility to perform a simple task such as changing an icon theme!!

Install Dconf-editor
Search on Dconf-editor in Software Center or revert to the command line using:

sudo apt-get install dconf-tools

Change the icon theme in Dconf-editor

Launch dconf-editor from a command line, search in the Dash or using the alt-f2 run line.
Select org, Gnome, Desktop, Interface
Enter the name of your desired icon theme into the value field "icon-theme." Type carefully and remember this is case-sensitive.
If you don't know the exact name of your icon theme, go to /usr/share/icons where you can copy the Folder names for installed icon sets.

In Conclusion
Given this is an ad-hoc evolution of an administrator tool, it's not exactly mine of information or user friendliness, but then Dconf-editor wasn't designed as an end-user tool. Although in the right pane below each group of values, you get a description of how it applies, even then you have to know the name of the icon set to edit in.

Just the need to do this to achieve a basic task prompts me to quote my podcast pal Dave Wilkins, "this is madness!" RC

How-to: Run Xfce on Ubuntu 11.10 Final

2011-10-24T00:06:00.000+01:00

Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment which is designed to be responsive and consume fewer system resources than say, Gnome with Unity, or KDE. It's also a useful substitute for Unity now that Gnome panel has been removed in 11.10.

I am now running it on the regular Ubuntu 11.10 Unity release; that's not Xubuntu, but the regular 11.10 with the usual Ubuntu applications stack, with Xfce4 on top. I now have the choice of Unity or Xfce. Guess which I'm using for my everyday environment?

Xfce 4.8 is the current stable version, available since Jan 2011. You can install it either from the ubuntu Software Center, the command line (apt-get install xfce4) or Synaptic Package Manager and it works not only for ubuntu but also for other Linux distros such as Linux Mint and Fedora.Downloading and installing the Xfce4 meta-package from the official Ubuntu repository, which you can do through Software Centre, Synaptic or the Aptitude command line with a simple search on Xfce4, takes a few minutes. You might also want to pull in the 'extras' packages,

xfce-goodies containing more artwork and a stack of utilities
xfprint4 which is the printer GUI for xcfe

If you want the highlights and a list of components, check the previous post when we tried this in the 11.10 Beta release. I've set mine up to mimic a conventional Gnome-like desktop experience without the frustrations of the current version of Unity.

Choosing the Xfce Session
From the Light DM login screen, select Xfce as your session using the dropdown list triggered by the cog icon.

Configuring Xfce
If you haven't already run the application to install Restricted Drivers, do so in order to pull in the best version of graphics drivers you can find. Then adjust the display settings through Settings, Display. Get the right resolution, but if in doubt over refresh frequencies, don't mess with them.

AppearanceThere are controls for setting just about everything in the Xfce desktop, although not all in the one place. Going to Settings, Appearance, you can work through the tabs of controls. Style sets window border styles, Icons selects icons. Under fonts, you will definitely need Enable anti-aliasing checked.Next, play around with the Hinting and Sub-pixel order option as you get different results depending on your lcd panel.Slightly confusing is that if you go Settings, Window Manager, the first tab has another Style selector which changes the desktop theme. You can also change the Window Controls (Button) order.

From then on, you can play around with the Xfce panel. Right clicking brings up the Panel Context menu, from which you can add, delete and configure panels including adding launchers and menus to get the working desktop you want. RC

How-to: Promote Your Blog

2011-10-20T00:09:00.000+01:00

Not our most original post, this is largely a lift of Blogger's advice on promoting your Blogspot site.

Not unique to Blogger, you can apply this advice to most platforms, even if the specific tools vary.

'Set your blog to Send Pings. When this setting is activated, your blog will be included in various "recently updated" lists on the web as well as other blog-related services.'
Install Email This Post... people will be able to forward your posts to friends... it enables others to publicize your blog for you.
Turn on Post Pages. By publishing every post as its very own web page, you ensure that your entries are way more link-able and more attractive to search engines.
Turn on your site feed. When people subscribe to your site feed in their newsreaders, they're very likely going to read your post.
Add your blog to Blogger's listings. When you add your blog to our listings it shows up in Nextblog, Recently Updated, and other places. It's like opting-in to traffic.
Write quality content and do it well. If your "style" is bad writing, worse grammar, no punctuation, and an ugly design, that might be okay for a niche crowd. But the idea here is to achieve mass appeal, so fix yourself up a bit.
Publish regular updates. Simple: the more you blog, the more traffic you'll get.
Think of your audience. A good way to build an audience is to speak to one in particular. When you keep your audience in mind, your writing gains focus. Focus goes a long way toward repeat visitors.
Keep search engines in mind. There are a few things you can do to make your blog more search engine friendly. Use post titles and post page archiving. This will automatically give each of your post pages an intelligent name based on the title of your post. Also, try to be descriptive when you blog. A well crafted post about something very specific can end up very near the top results of a search.
Keep your posts and paragraphs short. Strive for succinct posts that pump pertinent new information into the blogosphere and move on. Keep it short and sweet so visitors can pop in, read up, and click on.
Put your blog URL in your email signature. Think of how many forwarded emails you've seen in your day, and just imagine the possibilities.
Sumbit your address to blog search sites and directories. People look for blog content at Technorati every day, are you on their list? You should be. Submit your blog's url to Technorati, Daypop, Blogdex, Popdex, and any other site of that ilk you come across.
Link to other blogs. Links are the currency of the blogosphere and it takes money to make money so start linking.
Install a blogroll. It's a very simple yet effective social networking scheme and it has the same result as a simple link if not stronger: traffic!
Be an active commenter. This is in the same vein as linking. Most comment systems also provide a way for you to leave a link back to your blog which begs a visit at the very least.
Enable Following on your blog. Following a is a great way to keep your friends updated on the latest activity on your blog.

It's all sage advice which applies to many blogging platforms not just Blogger.

With the exception of the irritating Blogger Nav-Bar (edited out) which works entirely to Blogger's benefit, I have gone along with most of it. RC

Opinion: Google Plus Identity Fail

2011-10-18T00:06:00.000+01:00

Now that Google Plus is out of Beta on public release, I'm expecting another wave of dissent over the whole user name debacle. If there isn't one there should be, since Google's policy on this is assinine, naive, dangerous and plain dumb.

If you go to the answers document about profile naming, you will find the feedback form at the bottom. Take the time to send them appropriate abuse over this. I did.

What Google+ information were you looking for?
Looking for some sensible naming policy and not this bone-headed nonsense you're using right now. Are you living in the real world web with the rest of us? Or has the too much of totalitarian China rubbed off on you? RC

Thanks! Your feedback will help us improve our Help Center.

Not surprisingly, my feedback didn't elicit any response. RC

Full text of the policy below:

Your name and Google+ Profiles
Google+ makes connecting with people on the web more like connecting with people in the real world. Because of this, it’s important to use your common name so that the people you want to connect with can find you. Your common name is the name your friends, family or co-workers usually call you. For example, if your legal name is Charles Jones Jr. but you normally use Chuck Jones or Junior Jones, any of these would be acceptable.

If you are unable to complete the Google+ sign-up flow, or your profile was suspended for a name-related issue, review our guidelines below.

Use your full first and last name in a single language.
If you use your full name, you'll be able to connect with people you know and help them find you. Names that consist primarily of initials or those that include indications of membership in professional, educational, societal or religious entities, such as "Dr.", "Rev." or “JD” are not allowed in the first or last name fields. Names that include more than one language script aren’t allowed either.

Violation examples: Doctor Stan Livingston, Bill Smithwick DDS, Rev. Jim Copley, 蔡玉娴 Archer, S. P.

Put nicknames or pseudonyms in the Other Names field.
If you’re referred to by more than one name, only use the one that commonly identifies you, and place the rest in the “Other names” or “Nickname” section of your profile.

Violation examples: Timothy “TK” King, Jonathan Richards (JonnyBoy), PunkRockerSF

Avoid unusual characters in your name.
When you create your profile, our system will check the name you submitted for unusual characters. For example, numbers, symbols, and obscure punctuation are not supported.

Violation Example: John246 , ★★Shelley★★, J@SON W@T$ON, ‘Rachel Smith/

Your profile and name must represent one individual.
Google+ does not support profiles for couples or groups of people. Additionally, you cannot create a profile for a non-person entity such as a pet or business.

Violation examples: Jones Family, Jeremy & Mel Mason, Vegas the Dog, Brooklyn Bagels, Northern California Conservation Society

Don't use the name of another individual.
Impersonation is a serious issue. Pretending to be someone else could cause your profile to be deleted. If someone is pretending to be you, go to their profile and click Report this profile.

Name Changes
Please note that if you change your name, you won’t be able to change it again for 30 days.

Names Appeals
If you've followed these guidelines but your name still isn’t being accepted by our system, please follow the on-screen instructions to submit your name for review. The typical review process takes a few days. You may also want to review our Content Policy.

Submission of certain corroborating information such as trademark or DBA ("doing business as") designations may be supportive (but not sufficient) information to perform the review.

Google+ Profile Suspension and Other Google Services
If your profile is suspended, you will not be able to make full use of Google services that require an active profile such as Google+, Buzz, Reader and Picasa. This will not prevent you from using other Google services, like Gmail. Your profile can be restored by editing your name and submitting an appeal that will be reviewed by our team, as directed by on-screen instructions.

We understand that your identity on Google+ is important to you, and our Name Policy may not be for everyone at this time. We’d hate to see you go, but if you choose to leave, make a copy of your Google+ data first. Then click here to leave Google+.

Send Feedback
Thank you for offering your feedback on Google+. Understanding your experiences and opinions helps Google make this product better for you and other users.

How satisfied are you with your overall Google+ experience?
* Extremely dissatisfied*

How satisfied are you with your Google+ Help visit today?
* Extremely dissatisfied *

Why did you visit Google+ Help today?
I wanted to learn the basics
I know the basics but wanted to learn more
I came to fix a problem
* Other *

Did you find the information you were looking for?
* No *
*I found some, but not all, of the information I was looking for.*

What Google+ information were you looking for?
* Looking for some sensbile naming policy and not this bone-headed nonsense you're using right now. Are you living in the real world web with the rest of us? Or has the too much of totalitarian China rubbed off on you? RC *

Thanks! Your feedback will help us improve our Help Center.

How-to: Add WordPress Custom Forms

2011-10-16T00:09:00.000+01:00

Wordpress.com has sharing buttons for every social network under the sun, plus you can make your own for anything not covered. Other kinds of interactivity are limited by the free hosting option and the lack of customisable plug-ins. For those you need the self-hosting option of Wordpress.org.

However, you can dress up a custom contact form in order to collect reader information and have it emailed to you. It's a surprisingly powerful feature that actually works.

By adding a custom contact form, you can enable your your readers not only to submit feedback on blog-posts, but supply other, more specific data in order to respond to specific questions, expressions of interest in your services and so on.All feedback is automatically scanned for spam (the standard Akizmet service), and legitimate feedback will be emailed to you.In the Post Editor, select the right-most icon in the Upload/Insert toolbar, tipped "Add a Custom Form." This will open a standard form in the Form Editor.

Adding More Fields
Click the blue Add a New Field link at the bottom. You have a choice of text box (single line), text area (big text box), radio buttons, checkbox, or dropdown selection field. For these last three, you get a further form definition area on the right to specify your range of values.Once added, you can re-sequence the vertical order of the fields. This is a one-column, fixed format form, so don't expect any fancy styling.

Viewing Feedback within WordPress
Wordpress stores the feedback entered in the form until you delete it. You can read your feedback at any time by clicking the "Feedbacks" link in the main Admin menu. BE AWARE this isn't the most secure way of storing personal details. Take care not only what you ask for, but of the personal data some readers spontaneously volunteer; delete and store off-line if in doubt. You are your own Data Protection Registrar in this - don't wait for a bureaucrat with a warrant to draw your attention to a personal data breach!

Email Notifications
Notifications are automatically sent to the default address used by the Wordpress account of the author of the post. Change the Custom Form notification address if you need to redirect.You can modify where your feedback is sent and the subject line.

Preview
Wordpress inserts an interpreted code block into the post body. You will have to use the Preview window to see how your post looks with the form embedded and refresh the preview as you change it.

Reusable Forms
A custom form applies to a single post. However, the code block inserted into the post body, can be copied and pasted into any post (note I've inserted * into each form field tag so they display in this post as text!):

[*contact-form subject="Workshop bookings" to="robin.catling@mymail.me"] [*contact-field label="Name" type="name" required="true" /] [*contact-field label="Email" type="email" required="true" /] [*contact-field label="Your phone number" type="text" required="true" /] [*contact-field label="Select Workshop Date" type="select" required="true" options="Wed 19 October with lunch,Thurs 20 October morning,Wed 26 October with lunch,Thurs 27 October morning,Wed 02 November with lunch,Thurs 03 November morning" /] [*contact-field label="Comments and any special requirements" type="textarea" /] [/contact-form*]

This makes it easy to clone a custom form from post to post. Just check your radio, checkbox and drop-list values are valid for each post! RC

Ubuntu 11.10: Release the Ocelot!

2011-10-15T00:09:00.000+01:00

The latest version of Ubuntu, 11.10 codenamed Oneiric Ocelot, was released on October 13.

What's new?
You can see the list of new features on the official Ubuntu website, or take the snazzy visual tour. You can download directly from the Ubuntu Download page.

You can follow the same upgrade process as normal. Simply upgrade from the Update Manager and your settings, files and bookmarks will stay the same.

The Unity launcher and dash are distinctive features in this release; defaulting to Unity 3-D with a fallback to Unity 2-D. There is no Gnome desktop installed in this version. You can of course, opt to go Kubuntu (KDE) or Xubuntu (Xfce).

Will it work with my hardware?
Among the FAQ's, this is answered with: "Ubuntu 11.10 is built to take advantage of the very latest technologies, but it should work on a most desktops, laptops and netbooks too." Although this fails to point out the need for a 3-D hardware accelerated video card for Unity 3-D. RC

Review: Dynamic Views in Blogger

2011-10-14T00:02:00.000+01:00

Last month Google’s Blogger (Blogspot) platform released a revamped template portfolio for blogs hosted on their platform. Called 'Dynamic Views' the idea is a set of easy-to-apply web 2.0 templates to keep the vast number of blogs from becoming stale.

There are many hundred thousands of blogs; huge numbers look the same or very similar, since they use the same free templates (Bloggers' own or common third-party designs). Dynamic Views aims to provide an instant make-over with some snappy effects thrown in. But do they work?

The Dynamic Views for Blogger are built in AJAX, HTML 5 and custom-CSS. The highly visually-tuned and minimalist layouts are supposed to inspire users to read your blog or website 'in a unique way that makes it more interesting and more engaging.' The development team also indicated on the official blog that the sites should load 40% faster than traditional templates.

I gave the seven new templates an instant road-test by suffixing my own blog URL with the Dynamic Views sub-domain, for example /view/sidebar
(catlingmindswipe.blogspot.com/view/sidebar). This enables Dynamic Views without having to change template from the Layout Designer. Which is just as well.

All seven Views offer clean, minimalist layouts with a twist. Some of the Dynamic Views offer the reader a different way of interacting with the content. HOWEVER...

If you've gone to the trouble of working up a widget-rich layout, this is likely to give you a coronary. Views such as Flipcard just throws every post on screen as a postage-stamp sized thumbnail without any room for titles, captions or straplines. This may be fine for a photo blog but anything else just looks like a broken-down video-wall in a CCTV control-room.

Snapshot is a slight improvement with captions. Mosaic is similar but with bigger thumbnails and mouse-over invoked title text.

Timeslide has summary text sliding up and down on mouse-over all over the place, but like, nearly all of them removes vital date-time stamp and author information from the main page.

Common to all is that individual post pages pop-up, slide out, down and around, yet the layout when you get there is minimalist but fairly abysmal. The Magazine view is a little more conventional, but so stripped down, it's a shock to the eyballs.

The net effect, then, is an horrific car crash, a triumph, to use my most common cliché, of style over substance. Dynamic Views are very glossy, very slick and almost unusable by any serious long-term blogger in my opinion:

The Dynamic Views templates remove all control over the appearances of your widgets and post body.
Most widgets get replaced or deleted. Any remaining widgets stop working or are misaligned. Your sidebars and columns are effectively wiped out, because technically you don’t have a sidebar column any more. Links, banners, blog-rolls, profiles - all gone.
The sponsor area and subscription area disappears.
Your ads will also disappear
Also, you are not able to specify the order of posts displayed.
Customization is minimal at present and only achievable if you are capable of diving into the open elements of your template and changing code. Most of this is over-ridden by the Dynamic View templates. You can for example, just about change the color background is you can poke the CSS code in the right place.
Code lag: the Google team promote the Dynamic Views templates as loading around 40% faster than traditional templates but I don’t see it. I'm staring at the 'spinning gears' logo far too often; clicking on a individual post which loads the lightbox frame presents a noticeable lag.
No preview mode. If you switch to Dynamic Views, there is no preview available in the post editor. The Preview button is greyed out and disabled.
The dynamic views reportedly have no SEO value and do not support Adsense at the moment.

Verdict
An interesting first release of a technically challenging product. I just don't think it's finished - not nearly enough for the majority on Blogger to consider using it.

If you are running a personal diary or non-commercial blog then give it a try for a bit of extra impact. Professional bloggers should avoid it like the plague right now. RC

How-to: Name or Label a Disk Partition

2011-10-12T00:03:00.000+01:00

Various Linux file managers make a poor job of identifying mounted drives and partitions in the file system or on the desktop. Or do they?

For example the Nautilus file manager shows the root directory as File System for your system partition. Other partitions or volumes maybe shown using the reported gigabyte size, 32GB Filesystem.

This is usually because the Linux utility, distribution or user failed to label them. Most Linux installers will happily go ahead and create partitions unnamed and unlabelled, leaving users to do it themselves. Which we mostly don't.

Disk Utility is one of the common tools installed by default in the leading Linux distributions. This is a power tool that also provides the capability to do simple things like labelling partitions. Use with caution as it will allow you to delete and format partitions.

If you don't have it, Disk Utility is easily installed through Software Center, Software manager, Synaptic and the like by searching on "gnome-disk-utility"

Your package manager will typically create a short cut in the menus under Applications, Administration, Disk Utility.

The left pane shows storage devices; select one and the upper right displays the partitions while the bottom right provides the properties info and options to change them.

In the Volumes section, select a partition you want to label
Select "Edit Filesystem Label"
In the Label box, enter a name, Shared Data then select Apply
You will be asked for authorisation to run under root privileges

Your file manager should now show the partition label, Shared Data, instead of nnGB Filesystem. It may take a re-mount or refresh for the new label to be displayed.

Quirks
Sometimes Disk Utility cannot provide the "Edit Filesystem Label" option for mounted volumes and partitions. External drives may be safe to us "Unmount Volume" and carry on. For your regular system and data drives, the best way to use Disk Utility for labelling and renaming is by booting from a Linux Live CD. If you select "Unmount Volume" on your system partitions your can render your session inoperable .

Don't be tempted to mess with the other options in Disk Utility unless you know how to use them; other advanced features such as format, edit or delete partition with can delete data on your disk. RC

How-to: Unity Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts

2011-10-10T00:02:00.000+01:00

The latest Ubuntu Unity interface is like Marmite, people either love it or hate it. Change is of course one of the most basic reasons to dislike it. The general lack of intuitive operation is another. Yes you can clatter about on the keys and mess with the mouse and 'discover' what it does. Or you can piggy-back off the thriving sub-industry of documented Unity Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts to help you.

There are lots of pages and blog posts popping up describing Unity keyboard and mouse shortcuts, the weightiest being that on Ask Ubuntu.

We'll not re-print the list here, it's one click, go read it.

There's also a thriving industry in cheatsheets, as desktop wallpapers and printable documents, in multiple languages and colour schemes. I like Octavian Damiean's Unity Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts Wallpaper (Ask Ubuntu again) and the PDF cheat sheet by Brousch.

Search around some more you will find German and Spanish versions and who knows how many more. RC

Event: Barcamp Blackpool Oct 15th

2011-10-09T00:18:00.000+01:00

Barcamp Blackpool: A free ‘unconference’ with no scheduled speakers.

Attendees arrive on the day armed with talks and decide which ones they want to go along to! The talks can be on anything, from android application development to learning the British Sign Language to Electronic Organs played by BBC Micros! But don’t worry, you don’t have to do a talk to participate! The event is paid for by lovely sponsors.

* When: Saturday 15th October 2011
* Where: Blackpool Pleasure Beach (inside the white Casino Building)
* Twitter: @bcblackpool
* Tags: #bcblackpool
* Google Group: http://groups.google.co.uk/group/bcblackpool

Review: You are not a Gadget by Jaron Lanier

2011-10-08T00:08:00.000+01:00

“The words in this book are written for people, not computers.
I want to say: You have to be somebody before you can share yourself.“

Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist, composer, visual artist, and author as well as roving academic for Microsoft Corporation the University of California at Berkeley. Lanier is associated with research into “virtual reality,” a term he coined whilst developing VR in the late 1980s.

Lanier describes this 2010 book as a manifesto: “my belief that cybernetic totalism will ultimately be bad for spirituality, morality, and business.”

In the book, Lanier dissects the current state of technology, in particular the World Wide Web – “petty designs sometimes called web 2.0. This ideology promotes radical freedom on the surface of the web, but that freedom, ironically, is more for machines than people.”

In his critique, the web embodies flexibility and inflexibility of design, thinking, philosophy, both liberating and constraining. Under chapter headings such as: The Most Important Thing About a Technology Is How It Changes People, Lanier asks “…if I am blogging, twittering, and wikiing a lot, how does that change who I am?” or “If the ‘hive mind’ is my audience, who am I?”

This is a book full of eloquent and indeed elegant argument, for example:
“Emphasizing the crowd means de-emphasizing individual humans in the design of society, and when you ask people not to be people, they revert to bad mob-like behaviors. This leads not only to empowered trolls, but to a generally unfriendly and unconstructive online world.”

And:

“Finance was transformed by computing clouds. Success in finance became increasingly about manipulating the cloud at the expense of sound financial principles.”

Never one to shy away from expressing an opinion, Lanier is forthright on every one of the 390-plus pages:

“There are proposals to transform the conduct of science along similar lines. Scientists would then understand less of what they do.”

Contemporary culture is demolished in repeated attacks:

“Pop culture has entered into a nostalgic malaise. Online culture is dominated by trivial mashups of the culture that existed before the onset of mashups, and by fandom responding to the dwindling outposts of centralized mass media. It is a culture of reaction without action.”

If I dare not use the word polymath, Lanier is a well rounded thinker:

“Spirituality is committing suicide. Consciousness is attempting to will itself out of existence.”

Now, this book is undeniably well argued and well written, for the most part thoroughly entertaining, but you can’t describe Lanier as Everyman. Sometimes he can’t resist complex literary construction and flashy demonstrations of his vocabulary:

“So, in this book, I have spun a long tale of belief in the opposites of computationalism, the noosphere, the Singularity, web 2.0, the long tail, and all the rest. I hope the volume of my contrarianism will foster an alternative mental environment, where the exciting opportunity to start creating a new digital humanism can begin.”

At his best, Lanier debunks a lot of popular myths and misconceptions, such as:

“‘Information wants to be free.’ I say that information doesn’t deserve to be free.”

Or:

“…the Turing test cuts both ways. You can’t tell if a machine has gotten smarter or if you’ve just lowered your own standards of intelligence to such a degree that the machine seems smart.”

He also likes to coin catchy chapter headings such as Empathy Inflation and Metaphysical Ambiguity, whilst still condemning the “…lack of intellectual modesty in the computer science community.”

This is a book full of pithy metaphors and quotable lines. In the section, America in Dreamland, he asks “…will our central tollbooth on all smart things sink under its own weight into an ocean of global connections? Even if we can win at the game, not many Americans will be employed keeping our yacht afloat, because it looks as though India will continue to get better at running help desks.”

Part of his ‘manifesto’ contains an exploration of cultural values, value systems and something he coins ‘digital socialism’ – what is left when paid jobs disappear because neither manual labour nor creativity are paid resources – one replaced by self governing machines the other by the free availability of created works. So that “…if all of us are to earn a living when the machines get good, we will have to agree that it is worth paying for one another’s elevated cultural and creative expressions.”

We get yet more coining of future solutions, Lanier just can’t help himself. There’s Telegigging – music by telepresence, Songles – dongles for commercial songs and Formal Financial Expression – enforceable, regulated trading contracts devoid of the ambiguity of human language.

To his credit, Lanier acknowledges his many contradictions and that his manifesto is not easily implemented; “…web 2.0 designs strongly favor flatness in cultural expression. But I believe that flatness, as applied to human affairs, leads to blandness and meaninglessness.” Lanier is disappointed that even movements such as Open Source aren’t open enough, radical enough or creative enough.
Realising (or prompted by his editor) how intellectually dense is some of this stuff, Lanier is helpful enough to box some of his pithy aphorisms for priority consideration:

“Freedom is moot if you waste it. If the internet is really destined to be no more than an ancillary medium, which I would view as a profound defeat, then it at least ought to do whatever it can not to bite the hand that feeds it—that is, it shouldn’t starve the commercial media industries.”

Of course, he saves some of his most damning criticism til near the end, for all those Internet Start-ups, “…rooms full of MIT PhD engineers not seeking cancer cures or sources of safe drinking water for the underdeveloped world, but schemes to send little digital pictures of teddy bears and dragons between adult members of social networks. At the end of the road of the pursuit of technological sophistication appears to lie a playhouse in which humankind regresses to nursery school.”

It’s not an original thought, go read Huxley’s Brave New World or watch Wall-E. What is more original are Lanier’s closing observations, but I’ll leave you to discover how Lanier links virtual reality, morphing and cephalopods. It’s worth staying to the end. RC

Book: You are not a gadget by Jaron Lanier
eISBN: 978-0-307-59314-6
Copyright © 2010 by Jaron Lanier
Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf
http://www.aaknopf.com/

Full Circle Podcast Episode 25: The Podcast as a Rolling Release

2011-10-07T02:35:00.001+01:00

Full Circle Podcast Episode 25: The Podcast as a Rolling Release is available from the main site.

In this episode, Floss UK Un-conference and Programming in Schools.

Full Circle Podcast is also a proud member of the Tech Podcasts Network.

File Sizes:

OGG 35.8Mb
MP3 26.2Mb

Runtime: 1hr 18mins 57seconds

Feeds for both MP3 and OGG:
RSS feed, MP3: http://fullcirclemagazine.org/category/podcast/feed
RSS feed, OGG: http://fullcirclemagazine.org/category/podcast/feed/atom

We're back with something approaching a regular show.Your Hosts:

Robin Catling (blog at http://catlingmindswipe.blogspot.com/, @robincatling on Twitter)
Les Pounder (blog at http://lespounder.wordpress.com/ twitter @lespounder)
Dave Wilkins (twitter @DavidAWilkins)

Additional audio by Victoria Pritchard

Show Notes

01:30 | WELCOME and INTRO:03:10 | Since Last Time

Les - now convenes Geek up Blackpool – fourth Monday of every month.Is also organising Barcamp Blackpool:A free ‘unconference’ with no scheduled speakers. Attendees arrive on the day armed with talks and decide which ones they want to go along to! The talks can be on anything, from android application development to learning the British Sign Language to Electronic Organs played by BBC Micros! But don’t worry, you don’t have to do a talk to participate! The event is paid for by lovely sponsors.
* When: Saturday 15th October 2011
* Where: Blackpool Pleasure Beach (inside the white Casino Building)
* Twitter: @bcblackpool
* Tags: #bcblackpool
* Google Group: http://groups.google.co.uk/group/bcblackpool
Dave: graduation from Reading, moved to Oxford University; introducing people to Ubuntu.
Robin: Putting Xfce atop the Ubuntu 11.10 Beta.

09:56 | REVIEW of FULL CIRCLE MAGAZINE #52

Dave: Elmer Perry's Libre Office - Part 7 on mailmerge p. 16
Les, Robin: Ed Hewitt's review of the Samsung Chromebook p. 41

13.41 | GUEST: Martin Houston for Floss UK Unconference
* When: Saturday 8th October, 9:30am – 5pm.
* Where: Manchester Conference Centre, Sackville Street
* This is the second FLOSS UK Unconference, and is being held in collaboration with local FLOSS groups.
* Accommodation is available for anyone who wishes to stay overnight

21.52 | NEWS

Facebook changes - what a mess! Privacy is a maze as usual. Plenty of comment out there (Dave's post on G+ for one)
* Facebook’s New FeaturesMight Not Be as Private as You Think (Mashable)
* Facebook Changes in a Nutshell [COMIC]
* Logging Out Of Facebook Is Not Enough (G-Hacks)
Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet launched... running Android 2.3. (BBC)
Samsung to pay Microsoft royalties over Android (BBC)
Teachers need more training in ICT (The Register)
Firefox killing Java (the Register)
Tizen the latest mobile linux (H-Online)
Libre office 1st birthday (H-Online)
Virtual monkeys write Shakespeare for the Douglas Adams fans. Bad news - they’re cheating! (BBC)

44.20 | GUEST: Alan O'Donohoe on Programming in SchoolsProgramming and Open Source in EducationAlan O'Donahoe (blog at teachcomputing.wordpress.com, @teknoteacher on twitter, email: alan (at) odonahoe.com)

It all started with a talk at Barcamp Media City, Salford. A fictional talk made reality?
The fictitious BBC Code Lab (#bbccodelab blew up on Twitter)
Code Lab – place for a well trusted institution to play a part in modern IT. Vision and concept for schools IT this decade.
Cast your mind back over the BBC Micro project supported through schools and colleges to encourage the uptake of technology.
Computing at Schools (supported by Microsoft, Google, CPHC, BCS).* The Computing at School Working Group (CAS) is a grass roots organisation that aims to promote the teaching of Computing at school. CAS is a collaborative partner with the BCS through the BCS Academy of Computing, and has formal support from other industry partners.
Codemanship – Practitioner Partner Exchange as documented by Jason Gorman.
Programming in Scratch. Building-block programming.
* Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web.
* As young people create and share Scratch projects, they learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.
Python is being taught for Computing GCSE.

1.11:06 | FEEDBACK

1.21:57: | OUTRO AND WRAP
Midi version of Beny Hill TV theme based on "Yakety Sax" by Boots Randolph.

How-to: Xfce on Ubuntu 11.10 Beta

2011-10-06T00:02:00.001+01:00

My failure to get on with the Ubuntu Unity interface is well documented. Meanwhile, D-day is getting closer: Ubuntu 11.10 drops on Oct. 13th and the 11.10 release contains no 'fallback' to Gnome or any other desktop.

I am now running plan B: the Xfce desktop environment sitting on top of the 11.10 Beta release. So far it looks promising...

What I have set up is not the official Xubuntu release, but rather the regular 11.10 Unity release with Xfce4 added to it. This means the regular Ubuntu applications stack and not the Xfce lightweight alternate stack - I'm just swapping Unity for Xfce, with the ability to switch sessions between them.

About Xfce

To quote from the Xfce project page:
"Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for UNIX-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and low on system resources, while still being visually appealing and user friendly.

It consists of a number of components that provide the full functionality one can expect of a modern desktop environment. They are packaged separately and you can pick among the available packages to create the optimal personal working environment."

Downloading and installing the Xfce4 meta-package from the Ubuntu repository takes a few minutes to pull in a number of core components:

Window Manager: manages the placement of windows on the screen, provides window decorations and manages workspaces or virtual desktops.
Desktop Manager: sets the background image and provides a root window menu, desktop icons or minimized icons and a windows list.
Main menu and panels: switch between opened windows, launch applications, switch workspaces and menu plugins to browse applications or directories.

Among the Xfce desktop features are:

a replacement file manager, Thunar, working better than ever and now has expanded functionality; a serious rival to Nautilus.
improved panels which are now easier to use.
a settings manager to makes all of the settings easy to find and configure.
an application finder tool to helps locate applications installed on your computer.

What this gives me is a very conventional Gnome-like desktop experience without the frustrations of the current version of Unity. RC

How to upgrade Dell Mini 10v memory

2011-10-04T00:02:00.000+01:00

Further to our previous article on How-to: Upgrade your own Gadgets, James Rintamaki (jRin.net) shows you how to upgrade the memory in the Dell Mini 10v netbook from 1GB to 2GB.

I've followed his process with a little modification to perform just this upgrade.

The memory is mounted on the underside of the main-board and there is no access hatch in the case. This means you have to fully dismantle the entire laptop to access the single memory slot.

There is a full set of printable instructions and a 10-minute YouTube video for you to sing along to.

James confesses that doing this on carpet is a bad idea. I also think he's mistaken in pulling cables out by the cables themselves - I'd use the narrow-nose pliers to grip the plastic connectors.

Otherwise it's a solid tear-down for this specific model.

You can obtain the memory from a couple of suppliers on Amazon; I went for the most reputable Crucial memory for the Dell, since I don't want to be taking it apart again. RC

Full Circle Magazine issue 53 Out Now

2011-10-03T01:25:00.001+01:00

Full Circle issue 53 is available from the main site!

This month:

Command and Conquer.
How-To : Program in Python – Part 27, LibreOffice – Part 8, Backup Strategy – Part 1, GRAMPS – Part 2, and Ubuntu For Business & Education – Part 2.
Linux Lab – ZoneMinder CCTV – Part 2.
Review – Linux Mint 11.
I Think – With the rise of internet email, do we still need an email client installed by default?

plus: Ubuntu Games, My Story, and much much more! RC

How-to: Upgrade your own Gadgets

2011-10-02T00:02:00.001+01:00

Laptops, notebooks, netbooks, tablets and net-tops all fall into a class of gadget that is difficult to upgrade. The small size of the chassis and internal components, combined with the black arts of factory-assembling units that small often means that you get little or no opportunity to upgrade components such as memory, processors and disk drives.

That's not to say it's impossible. As we proved in the memory and disk upgrade of the JVC-mini, it can be done...

First thing to do is check your user guide or a service manual (you can find a good many of these on the Internet) for upgrade options and component parts before you go shopping. Don't necessarily believe the manufacturer who says it can't be done - they're in the business of protecting service warranties and paid upgrades, after all.

Going ahead, if you're lucky you will have access hatches in the case to get to disk and memory slots. If not, it can be a painful process of semi- or full dismantling. Memory and disk are often mounted to the underside of the main board in these devices.

Home Upgrade Essentials
Here's what you will need:

time, patience,
a clean, flat, well-lit working environment with lipped edges so parts can't roll onto the floor (a dinner tray will do for the latter)
a considered disregard for the manufacturers warranty. Home-hacking will usually invalidate any remaining warranty. If in doubt, leave things until this expires.
the right tools:
* a set of electronics screw-drivers in a variety of lengths and head sizes, both flat and cross-head
* narrow-nose pliers to grip the edges of cable connectors
(and pick out the screws you dropped inside the case)
* really narrow-nose pliers
* surgical tape (to temporarily pin back cables and the like)
* craft knife (when you need a really fine edge to lift stickers and labels)
* an anti-static wrist strat to earth yourself against electro-static discharge when handling memory modules and other sensitive components
And, of course, the right components - that is, compatible in specification, physical size and mount points - to fit in your gizmo. I trust you've ordered the correct parts on the basis of the original manufacturer's specifications, cross-referenced to third-party suppliers' sites by make and model*
a light-touch and a steady hand
good eyes and/or good spectacles. A watch-makers magnifying glass might do as a substitute.

*Here's a revelation, you seldom need to order expensive OEM parts from the device manufacturer. Very few electronics components are unique to individual devices; if you can find un-branded third-party substitutes, you can save a fortune. Google and Amazon are your friends in this.

Disassembly Tips

If you can find a video or set of instructions online for your device, refer to them; forewarned is forearmed, even if you decide to do it your way. Forums, blogs and YouTube are good resources
Don't take other people's 'teardown' videos as gospel. Consider each step on merit

Specific DO's

Do wear an anti-static wrist-strap to earth yourself. Domestic carpets are a nightmare for building up electro-static charge. Don't spark-out your components.
Do mark the positions of all your screws on a clean sheet of paper - then punch the screws into it as a template. Not all 'identical' screws will fit back into any old thread on reassembly. Cross-threading is a real risk. Minimise it. This also means the screws won't roll away and get mixed up.

Specific DON'Ts

Don't pull any cables out by the cable strands - use the narrow-nose pliers to grip the plastic end connectors
Don't push tools into, or scrape them across the components or circuit boards.
Don't use excessive force. The components aren't rated for it, there's no need for it. Everything is a moderate push-fit, clipped or screwed together. Generally if it won't come apart yet, you missed something earlier in the tear-down. RC

Image: Spanner And Hammer by Anna Cervova

Re-start Linux X-Server without Rebooting

2011-09-30T00:02:00.000+01:00

In normal operation, the Ctrl+Alt+Delete key combination brings up a menu to shut down, restart, suspend or hibernate your machine. Then there are the times when the X-Server, that software stack that handles the windowing graphics display breaks down and things appear to freeze, the mouse cursor won't move and Ctrl+Alt+Delete doesn't respond either.

There are alternatives; the shortcut keys Alt+PrintScreen+K also quits X-windows to go out to the log-in screen without a reboot.

The Ctrl+Alt+Backspace key combination does the same, but that is often disabled in some Linux distributions. It is easily enabled:

Go to System > Preferences > Keyboard.
Select the 'Layouts' tab then the 'Options' button.
Select “Key sequence to kill the X server” and enable “Control + Alt + Backspace”.

All this does is get you out to a point where you can re-start the X-server, it's up to you to diagnose how the lock-up occurred in the first place. RC

How-to: Linux XKill Terminates Programs

2011-09-28T12:40:00.000+01:00

Xkill is an installed component of the X11 Utilities package present in many Linux distributions including Ubuntu and Linux Mint.

It's a tool for terminating badly behaved X clients or unresponsive programs which just stop. Sometimes the only thing to do is kill them!

You can run it in several ways.

1. From a Terminal session, on the command line use
xkill

which returns the message

Select the window whose client you wish to kill with button 1....

Your mouse pointer will turn into an X. Click on an application window with the X for Xkill to, well, kill it.

2. Create a keyboard shortcut key to launch xkill

Go to Gnome Menu > Applications > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts.

Click the Add button to create a custom shortcut.

Enter xkill as both the Name and Command line, then click the Apply button.

Your xkill shortcut will show up in the list as a Disabled shortcut. Click once on this Disabled row in the Keyboard Shortcuts window; the Disabled status will change to New shortcut.

Press a new short-key combination, for example, Ctrl+Shift+X, which willthen be activated as the keyboard shortcut to invoke xkill.

Click the Close button.

If you activate xkill accidentally, you can right-click to cancel it; the mouse pointer should change from an X back to your standard shape.

3. If you are using Gnome Panel, right-click on a blank area of the panel, select Add to Panel.

Search for 'Force Close' or 'Force Quit' (the xkill equivalent name in the Graphical interface) to add the icon.

A borderless window pops up wih the following message:

Click on a Windows to force the application to quit. To cancel press the escape key <ESC>

Xkill is ready to use. Press the key combination to turn the cursor to an X-sign, drop the X-sign onto the application to close and left-click once. It will terminate the unresponsive program. Note you will lose any unsaved data in that application.

To cancel a force-quit, right-click. RC

Review: Barefoot into Cyberspace by Becky Hogge

2011-09-26T00:08:00.000+01:00

Barefoot into Cyberspace - Adventures in Search of Techno Utopiaby Becky Hogge

Can we keep the Internet an open, democratic and free tool for the betterment of mankind? Barefoot into Cyberspace tackles this question. Written by a recent guest of ours on the Full Circle Podcast, Becky Hogge is a journalist and former director of the Open Rights Group. In it, Hogge seeks out the radical hackers opposing the old institutions gathering to control the Internet.

Documenting a personal journey into 'hack-tivism,' Hogge begins and ends at the Chaos Computer Club's annual conferences in 2009 and 2010, in the company of four recurring guides; Stewart Brand, Cory Doctorow (author, blogger and copyleft campaigner), Phil Booth of No2ID and Rop Gonggrijp, co-founder of the Dutch ISP XS4ALL. Along the way, Hogge interviews Wikileaks' Julian Assange and Global Voices founder Ethan Zuckerman.

Touching the issues of copyright versus copyleft, personal privacy, the surveillance society, freedom of information, censorship and the commercial takeover of the Internet, this is a study of individualists against institutions, questioning how we might oppose the vested interests of moneyed entities with largely amoral agendas.

You also get the slightly anti-climactic story of how Hogge declined to join Wiki-leaks, albeit in recognition of the commitment it takes to be that kind of activist. This running series of encounters highlights the one weakness of a book that never quite ties together all its themes into one coherent narrative, but you could argue that's how life is, amplified by the disjointing effect of technology and the rapid pace of change.

If you want a grand Donal MacIntyre-style expose of dark deeds, conspiracy theory and armed insurrection - this won't be the book for you. It's altogether gentler than that. Enjoy the retrospective of the “hacker” movement and origins of the 1970′s counter-culture; communes seeking freedom, peace and love, through the early examples of Brand, Stallman, Lessig and the pioneers of the hacker movement, which, remember, is about more than just getting free stuff.

Rop Gonggrijp gets all the best lines - well, they are his lines:
“I think most of what were fighting still today in the world is incompetence. Most of what we’re fighting is stupidity, and maybe a little bit of opportunism. There is also the ominous, control-seeking large corporate interests."

The cover illustration invokes Alice on the threshold of Wonderland, which chimes with the book's sub-title Adventures in Search of Techno Utopia. Hogge writes with the small, quiet voice of an Everyman, certainly no innocent, but in the spirit of the hacktivists, struggling to navigate foggy and potentially dangerous roads to the neon Utopia we are still promised. Gonggrijp again:

"We come in peace. We’re not called Chaos Computer Club because we cause chaos. If anything, a lot of our collective work has actually prevented chaos by pointing out that maybe we should lay some decent virtual foundations before we build any more virtual skyscrapers."

Barefoot into Cyberspace is available as a download and as a paperback on Amazon. RC
Barefoot into Cyberspace: Adventures in search of techno-Utopiaby Becky Hoggeillustrated by Christopher ScallyISBN 978-1-906110-50-5 (print) | 978-1-906110-51-2 (Kindle)