Peng’s links for Monday, 20 October

We’re just 10 days away from the release of Ubuntu Intrepid and I’m seeing some great reports from people who are trying the betas. I do have an update on the possibility of a thread about upgrading to Intrepid’s kernel while staying in Hardy but first let me share a few pages that I think you’ll enjoy.

• Steve Pearce: “sound-juice” Changes in Intrepid Ibex. There are a number of changes in the Sound Juicer cd ripper that’s included with Ubuntu Intrepid, and one of the biggest changes is that it now prefers to use .oga rather than the generic .ogg. While I appreciate the specification of Ogg Vorbis (.oga for audio) or Ogg Theora (.ogv for video) some apps are having some issues with it. Steve looks at the issue and lists media players that have problems with the .oga extension.
• Nick Ali: Ubuntu Halloween Pumpkin and US Store. Nick’s found a new Halloween pumpkin decorated for our favorite Linux distro, plus he has news that some of us have been waiting for: Canonical has opened up an Ubuntu Store in the US! Now we won’t have to pay overseas shipping for our Ubuntu gear. They don’t have the Hardy tee that Nanci and I loved so much earlier this year, but hopefully they’ll have tees for Intrepid. Of course I have to see about getting either their messenger bag or backpack, although their backpack is still north of $100. Is it just me or is that a ton of money to spend on a backpack?
• Updated Link: Nick Ali: apt-get wife. Too bad I didn’t know about this twenty or so years ago, but I wouldn’t have known what apt-get is, let alone Bugzilla. Now I still laugh my arse off at it.
• Steven Rose: Sound Juicer missing in Intrepid… It looks like Sound Juicer may not be on the LiveCD for Ubuntu Intrepid. It’s probably due to space constraints, the same reason why the Java for OpenOffice.org isn’t on the LiveCD either. Since I use the DVD iso I don’t have an easy way to confirm whether it’s there or not.
• Debian Package of the Day: memstat: Identify what is using up virtual memory. I’ve long wanted a program like this. Right now I’ve been using the System Monitor to try to see what’s sucking up RAM and CPU cycles, but this app makes it even easier! It’s in Ubuntu’s repos so there’s little excuse for not installing it NOW. Trust me, you’ll be glad you have it.
• Caspar Clemens Mierau: Your mom runs Ubuntu? Join the team? She doesn’t yet? Help her. And join the Team! My mom’s still back in ‘Nawlins, and I doubt she’s moved to Ubuntu, but if your mom runs it or might if you’d help nudge her along there’s a new Ubuntu Team you should join.
• Cnet’s Digital Media: Move over pinochle, Web stimulates aging brains. There really is a benefit for doing more web searching as you get older according to a UCLA study. So fire up your favorite search engine, it’s time for your daily mental calisthenics.
• Onkar Shinde: Rufscript – A nice handwriting font. I’m a bit of a font fiend, and it’s really hard to find a nice handwriting font. After seeing Rufscript I had to install it. It’s one of the best handwriting fonts I’ve ever seen, and the next time I need one I know exactly which font I’ll try first.

The last two times Ubuntu got ready for an update I was able to report on a thread over at the Ubuntu Forums about moving to the new version’s kernel without doing a full upgrade, thanks to the efforts of UF member walkerk. He hadn’t written a thread for moving to Intrepid’s kernel while staying in Ubuntu Hardy so I asked him about it a few weeks ago. Alas, it turns out his plate has been too full to allow him to do it sooner, and today I got a private message from him that pretty much kills it for this time around.

It’s a little late at this point w/ Intrepid coming out. I guess there will be some people that choose not to upgrade so perhaps I’ll create the thread…

Let me first test it on one of my machines…

While it did end up working on his own machine it is pretty close to Intrepid’s release, and just starting a thread like that will create large demands on his time and energy that simply can’t be supported this time around. So it looks like if you want to check out Intrepid’s kernel you’ll need to either snag a disc image and burn it so you can check it out for yourself or simply wait for it to be officially released next Thursday.