The Catling Mindswipe

The VirtualBox Networking Primer Available now in paperback and Kindle Ebook format on Amazon. Here's another corker of an error in Oracle VirtualBox. First, you think your virtual machine is broken. Second you wonder how your storage tree got messed up. When you move Virtual machine files around, revert machine Snapshots and update attached strage, you can get something like this: Failed to open virtual machine located in /vm_data/machines/Quetzal-VM/Quetzal-VM.vbox. Cannot register the DVD image '/usr/share/virtualbox/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso' {20f4b244-eb29-4082-ac34-4acf6ccb4904} because a CD/DVD image '/usr/share/virtualbox/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso' with UUID {62ebaac7-ba6d-4d7d-876b-362642de4c1b} already exists.

Full Circle Magazine Issue 66 is available from the main site This month: * How-To : Use LaTeX, LibreOffice Part 18, and Do Quick Reinstalls. * Graphics : Kdenlive Part 3, and Inkscape Part 6. * Web Dev : CRUD Part 2 * Reviews – Nexus 7 tablet & Peppermint Three OS.

I know; too many version numbers in that post title. But that's the story. An interesting development; I had Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal working quite happily all the way through the Alpha and Beta releases in Oracle VirtualBox 4.1 and 4.2. I use the Oracle version rather than the one in the Ubuntu repos not because I love Oracle (I don't) but because it is updated more frequently and has USB support built in (the repo version lacks this). However with the official release of 12.10, I get an interesting result. My 12.10 guest boots into LightDM, I can log in, then I get a lovely blank desktop. No Unity -no top panel, no launcher. No alt-f2, no terminals. Nada.

A guest account allows anyone to use the computer without login credentials - no username or default password.  Ubuntu has a guest account enabled by default right through to the current release, 12.10. It has always struck me as a fundamentally insecure thing. Anyone I let on my machine as 'guest' usually has me standing at their shoulder or gets their own user account. Otherwise the guest account is available right there at the login menu screen, and despite it's reduced level of permissions, I think of it as an open book for crackers and browser-based exploits.

Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal was released on October the 18th and is now available for download . It is completely free to download and install and offers a fast, free, and secure alternative to Windows or OS X. If you are on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (which still has support for 5 years) you can upgrade to the new version. From the Unity Dash, fire up the Software Updater - or from a terminal, it's: update-manager -d To run the upgrade process, again, in the Terminal: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade It should display the following message: “New distribution release ’12.10′ is available”.

The Linux sound stack is a mind-bogglingly complex layering of ALSA and Pluse Audio and bits of legacy code all mangled by whatever combination of hardware you happen to have in your machine. We used to rant about it on the podcast all the time. But it's getting better. Capturing the output of your soundcard used to be a hit and miss affair, but I think I've got it down...

I took away an interesting snippet from a story on the OS News site last week, in which editor Thom Holwerda discussed the Kindle tablets . The Kindle Fire HD is ad-supported, but now Amazon allows you to permanently remove the advertisements from your Fire HD for a $15 fee . Amazon was clear at the launch that the Fire was not a profit centre of itself and was designed is to get you to buy stuff at Amazon. Not unlike the Apple store, iTunes and Google's Android Marketplace - now replicated by HTC, Samsung and Microsoft and, it seems, every other device maker.  Holwerda's complaint is that the iPad comes loaded with apps like News Stand, which can't be removed or even placed in a folder, and, "on top of that, makes it very annoying and cumbersome to buy content from other vendors than Apple." Amazon's persistent ads on the lock screen are much more intrusive. Microsoft's Xbox 360 has ads all over it, even for paid Xbox Live Gold subscribers.

Allison Morris from OnlineCollege.org put together a graphic which takes a closer look at the importance and popularity of coding: http://www.onlinecollege.org/Program-or-Be-Programmed , supporting the case for all of us to learn a little code.   Rise of Coding: Why We Should All Learn a Little Code Enthusiasm for learning programming languages is on the rise. And coding is no longer the domain of self-taught savants or formal C.S. students. Students of all ages and disciplines are recognizing the benefits of being more code fluent. Plenty of free, in-browser online tutorials have risen to meet this need. One site, Codecademy, had over 1 million users pledge 2012 as their “code year” and sign up for their free tutorials on Java, HTML and CSS for beginners.

I've rebuild the Dell laptop for my young lady to use as a desktop replacement; it is dual-booting Windows Vista and Ubuntu 12.10. Guess which one she wants? Unfortunately, installing Ubuntu second means it is the default choice at the top of the Grub2 boot menu. If you've tried to edit that Grub2 menu, you'll know what a tricky job it can be. If you haven't - don't. Unless you're a die-hard code-monkey and enjoy the challenge, there is an easier way to alter the order and content of that boo menu. Enter Grub Customizer - A graphical Grub2/BURG configuration application for Linux by Daniel Richter.

Surprise! Full Circle Magazine 65 get’s released early. It’s here, Full Circle Magazine #65 This month: Command and Conquer. How-To : Python – Part 37, LibreOffice Part 18, and Use Encryption. Graphics : Kdenlive Part 2, and Inkscape Part 5. Web Dev : CRUD Linux Lab Book Review – Ubuntu Made Easy. Closing Windows – Mapping A Network Drive. plus: Ask The New Guy, Ubuntu Games, My Desktop, My Opinion, My Story, and much much more! http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-65 now with ‘Send to Ubuntu One’ delivery!