[UPDATED] Peng’s links for Friday, 27 March

Updated to include note about the PHP version of the Ubuntu 9.04 [countdown. -Peng]

I tried to post some links yesterday but as soon as I hit the save button to lock in some tage and my text I was rewarded with a 100% blank post. Hopefully this post will last long enough to publish it.

• Pavel Rojtberg: Giving Google Earth a native look & feel. One of the biggest complaints about Google apps on Linux (other than some apps actually not being native Linux apps because they shove an extra installation of WINE down our throats) is how butt ugly they are. Pavel walks us through what we need to do to get them looking like the theme we have selected.
• Jonathan Carter: The correct way to file bugs in Ubuntu. Filing bugs is important when you help test new releases, but I found out yesterday I was doing it wrong because I went straight to Launchpad to file my bug. Jonathan lets us know not only how do to it properly but also why the way I was doing it is a bad idea.
• Steven Harms: Thank You. Steven writes a wonderful post to the people who help make Ubuntu Linux such a wonderful distribution. As for me, I’m just going to say, “What Steven wrote.”
• Tiago Vaz: Some cool audio stuff for Debian. Usually when people write about cool audio tools for GNU/Linux they’re referring to media player apps like Amarok, MPD and Totem. But Tiago has good news for musicians, especiallt guitar players, as he tells us about some virtual processing gear.
• Steve Langasek: Ubuntu 9.04 Beta released. I know this should probably get a post of it’s own, but I’m tight on time since I needed to reclaim yesterday’s links from Google Reader. The first beta release of Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackelope” is now available for downloading. I’ll snag it this weekend and post my thoughts about it.
• Nick Ali: Ubuntu 9.04 Countdown Banner. If you have your own blog or website you may want to snag the countdown banner to help countdown the says until Ubuntu 9.04 is released. Stefano Forenza also has the code on his site, as well as tips for people like Nanci and I who aren’t allowed to use any JavaScript on their blog. That was a pain in the rear the last two releases (Thanks, WP.com) and we’re glad the devs thought of us this time around. Updated 29 March: If you can’t use JavaScript grab the PHP code from Stefano’s post. It’s working fine on our blog!
• Daniel T. Chen: Lessons Learned at Jaunty Beta. Not everything went 100%smoothly with the alpha versions of Ubuntu 9.04, and Daniel clues us in on some of the things the dev team had to deal with.

That’s it for today. I may have some links to share tomorrow, but look for our report on how Jaunty behaves on our hardware this weekend. Until then, enjoy the weekend!

Peng’s links for Sunday, 22 Mar

As much as I tried to stay on top of my feeds this week I still end up with 25 items in my ToBlog folder. Luckily I’m going to cull out some of the older ones as well as a few things that aren’t so post-worthy at this point. But I have a great (OT) vid to share with y’all at the end.

• ArsTechnica: Get it done with GNOME Do 0.8. A very nice story on how much easier Gnome Do makes using GNOME-based GNU/Linux distros. Thanks to Peter Stuifzand over on the Do Google Group for letting me know about it.
• Jonathan Ernst: HP refunds 520$ for unused software. There was just now way I wasn’t going to share this story.
• Jon Beebe: Top 10 Reasons I’ll Never Use Ubuntu. Yes, it’s from a Linux guy, but it’s a great tongue-in-cheek list.
• Srinivasa Ragavan: Announcing ‘Anjal’- the new mail for netbooks. If you use a netbook you should definitely check out Anjal for your email client.
• Stefano Forenza: Chinese MID deploying Ubuntu by default. Speaking of netbooks, I may have to find a way to get one of these. Not only do they run my fav OS, but they’re pretty darned inexpensive as well.
• Stefano Forenze: New wallpapers for Jaunty. Don’t hold your breath. I’m liking how some of them look, although I know they won’t be everyone’s cup of espresso.
• Wouter Verhelst: Dealing with apt’s GPG signing stuff — the right way. If you use third party sources for installing and updating your GNU/Linux you know about adding GPG signing keys. Wouter has instructions for adding them in a way that doesn’t inject a security flaw, and that defeats the purpose of importing a GPG key in the first place.
• Jose Carlos Garcia Sogo: Is ext4 unsafe? The next update to Ubuntu will add support for ext4 partitions, and lately people have been talking about security concerns with ext4. Luckily Jose has info to set your mind at ease.
• Josselin Mouette: Which logo for the main GNOME menu in Debian? I could have skipped this post from Friday, but the “swirl foot” icons are so cute I may have to grab them for my own system.
• Isabelle Duchatelle: Ubuntuforums nuts and bolts. Isabelle has some very handy Ubuntu Forums links you may want to bookmark, as well as some rather nice numbers for what’s going on at UF)
• Tom Dryer: How-to Install Google Earth 5 on Ubuntu. The latest update for GE brings some really nice new features. Tom gives us a very quick and easy way to install this new version, as well as some troubleshooting info.
• Joe Barker: Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) – My Thoughts So far. Joe’s been playing with late alpha of Ubuntu 9.04 and is kind enough to let us know how it’s behaving on his system. Remember, no matter how well (or unwell) any software runs on a person’s system, Your Milage May Vary, simply because their hardware, software and particular configuration is bound to be different from yours. But so far Joe’s pretty happy with it, although I’m hearing that those of us on the Mac4Lin dev team are unhappy about yet more bloody changes to things that are affecting our software. Yet again. Grrr.
• Guillaume Desmottes: Good GNOME news. We’re just about to see a beta release of Ubuntu 9.04 and that means there is an update coming down the pike for GNOME. And as a matter of fact it came out on Wednesday. Guillaume has the best post that I’ve seen with info on what’s new in this update, next to the release notes, that is. Hell, just looking at the improvements for users makes me want to snag the beta for Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackelope” just so I can play with it sooner!
  

I had a few other links I was going to share with y’all, but I think that’s enough for a weekend. If you’re in need of a good laugh (and some of your NCAA brackets may be in the toilet by now from what I’m hearing), check out this vid. As much as I try not to laugh at what happens to the poor feline I just can’t help myself.

Peng’s links for Wednesday, 22 October

I do have some other links I want to share with y’all today.

• Ubuntu Productivity: Re: Switch to Ubuntu Linux not Apple Mac OS. A Kubuntu user asked why people are going from Windows to the Mac OS but not to Ubuntu, and the Ubuntu Productivity blogmaster brings the not so great news: Ubuntu, and Linux distros in general, simply have a way to go before they’re as ready for Windows users than OSX is right now. Case in point from my own experiences: My local library will let you download eBooks, but they require either Mobipocket or Adobe’s Digital Editions version of their Reader software. Adobe’s app is different from their Acrobat Reader software, and is a Windows based program that has been ported to the Mac but they haven’t released a Linux version yet. The Windows version can run under WINE, but I’ll be damned if I could find a way to get the sucker so I could try it with a little software vino. Bottom line? Too many firms simply haven’t started supporting Linux yet, and that’s not even counting the game developers.
• Frank Taylor/Google Earth Blog: Links: Planet Search, Interactive KML, FlightSim, iPhone GPS. First there was the Sky layer, now you can fly through Our Solar System. Plus a new goody for fans of FlightSim in Google Earth, which reminds me I wanted to check out the openGL version of YS Flight Simulator.
• Beyond the Forecast: Human Biometeorology. Mish Michaels over in the WBZ Weather Center wrote a great piece on why our body can let us know when weather changes are coming. There was a nice piece she did for the five o’clock news yesterday but I can’t find it online yet. Hopefully I’ll have an update for you with a link before too long.

Peng’s links for Wednesday, 13 August

Sorry about not posting yesterday. I did have links to post, but there were just too many RL details on my call sheet to be able to post.

• Tiago Faria: UbuntuWeblogs. Tiago’s added new sources to Planet Ubuntu Users (PUU), but he’s also looking for authors who write about Ubuntu or any of it’s derivatives to add to the Planet. (Full Disclosure: My Ubuntu-related posts are syndicated on PUU.)
• Derek Buranen: Flash 10 RC: at least it doesn’t crash? Adobe Flash 10 is even closer to getting officially released, and they finally seem to have fixed the fullscreen performance issues. I’m not entirely sure about that yet since I haven’t had a chance to grab the RC yet, but if someone can verify that for me I’d love to get your comment for others to see.
• Aaron Toponce: Dear Sprint. After reading Aaron’s open letter I’m really glad I have a cell phone with AT&T rather than Sprint.
• Fabrizio Balliano: 5 + 1 beautiful designs for Ubuntu 8.10 “Intrepid Ibex”. It looks like Ubuntu Intrepid is going to have some great new themes we can select from. I’m loving Personification and Wall-light. I’ve actually seen someone use that wallpaper on the August 2008 Desktop Screenshot Thread over on the Ubuntu Forums and I think I may have to add it to my wallpaper rotation once I get it.
• Frank Taylor/Google Earth Blog: 3D Driving Directions and Driving Simulator. If you’re running Windows you can now use Google Earth to get not only 3D driving directions but also a view with a 3D car. Linux and OSX compatible code for this is in the works and should hopefully be here soon. -ish.
• Aaron Toponce: Using GnuPGv2. Gnu Privacy Guard has been updated and it’s not only in the Ubuntu repos, Aaron has instructions for making it the default GPG tool for all the apps that may be on your computer. Info on what changed can be read in the release announcement.
• LinuxDevices.com: Motorola Linux phone ships in U.S. Woot! The Linux Mobile-compliant Moto U9 can now be purchased in the States! Now to find a cell phone company that has it in the greater Boston area.
• Kevin DuBois: Freewins Hardy Package for Compiz! Ok, with the ability to rotate your windows on any axis this is 100% eye candy. And I wish the hell I could use it on my Linux box, but I tried and the screen just sat there like a log’s bump.
• Daniel Holbach: Global Bug Jam – Retrospective. People in twelve nations and over 20 locations processed 834 bugs in Saturday’s Global Bug Jam. It may be under the goal of a thousand bugs, but it’s still a lot of bugs. Daniel also has links to reports from some of the participating groups. And I promise next time they have something like this I’ll try to blog it much sooner so more people have a chance to get it on their schedules.

Peng’s links for Friday, 8 August

I know I had promised you guys (and gals) a link to a follow-up to Scott Ritchie’s “WINE sucks” post yesterday, but as I write this the follow-up article has yet to be posted to his blog so I don’t have a link to give you. I was holding off yesterday’s blog post so I could include that, but I was also working on a docs project that I had been waiting for some information so I could work on it and it just came in yesterday morning. I think you guys are going to love the project when it comes out (and I don’t just mean my contribution to the docs), but unfortunately I have been asked by the project’s dev to not blog the project until it’s done so you’ll just have to be patient.

• Bastien Kennel: sudo !! This is actually the only link I had to post yesterday, but it’s an easy way to deal with forgetting to run a program with “sudo” (admin rights). I do this every now and then so I’ll have to make a note of this for the next time I need it.
• Frank George/Google Earth Blog: Google Launches 3D 2008 Olympic Games. The games of the 2008 Summer Olympics begin today in China and Google has 3D versions of the main venues for the Beijing Olympics. If you’re planning on following the Olympics, which NBC is making even easier to see more of this year, you’ll want all the goodies Google Earth has. (If you have your browser check with you about accepting cookies nbcolympics.com sets one cookie when you get there, but wants to modify it an inordinately large number of times before the page loads in. I thought you guys should know about that.)

Cuil follow-up

Nanci posted about the new Cuil search engine last month and I have to say that after first liking it I’m liking it less each time I use it. Too many times I go there to look for something but then have to go elsewhere to search because I simply can’t find what I’m looking for on Cuil. Case in point: I did a search for “NBC Beijing Olympics” as I was writing this post to get a link to NBC’s site for their coverage to the games and they gave me 3,908,736 results over ten pages and the first page had links to several NBC sites but not a single one for NBC’s Olympics coverage. Google, on the other hand, had it as the very first link after links to news coverage. If this keeps up much longer I’m going to simply remove the Open Search tool for Cuil from my Firefox. Some of Cuil’s search results give me great info, but too often I’m having to repeat a search on another engine just to find something simple.

Peng’s links for Tuesday, 5 August

• Jono Bacon: Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase is born! Ubuntu comes with a package called example-content that shows off some of the kinds of content you can use in Ubuntu. But why not update the content and really show off what free culture artists are doing?
• Frank Taylor/Google Earth Blog: New Street Views in Australia and Japan in Google Earth and Maps. Google has a bunch of new imagery for Street View in Australia, Japan, and 30 new US cities, including New Orleans. I’ll have to check out my old stomping grounds to see what the Big Easy is looking like almost 20 years after I moved to Boston as well as post-Katrina. The announcement of new Street View content suggests Easter egg-type surprises, and I have to wonder if this is part of what they have in mind. Or maybe it’s just an extra goody.
• Adventures in Switching to Linux: My favorite useful Compiz features. As sharks said when he posted a link to this article to the Ubuntu Forums, “it isn’t just about looking cool”. I love the Enhanced Zoom Desktop and use it pretty often, especially when sharing a picture or video with my roomies. I love the Shift Switcher and Expo, too. In fact I used Expo to create this picture of my desktop for the August 2008 Desktop Thread on the Ubuntu Forums.
• Barry Burbank/Beyond the Forecast: Perseid Meteor Shower. It’s that time of year again, and Barry has some info and a link for more info on the annual heavenly event.

Peng’s links for Moanday 21 July

That’s right, I said Moanday. The weekend sucked a bit, including introducing the top of my head to a doorway while tending to the smoke detector and it’s still a tad sore this morning. Plus this week is so packed with jam that I don’t see a totally free day until the weekend so I can’t promise quite daily links posts this week, although I’ll do what I can.

To start the week in Linux news…

• Ali Rayl: GStreamer now available in Mac and Windows nightlies! I usually don’t pay attention to Planet Mozilla posts about Songbird since I don’t use it but when I saw this headline I knew I had to share it with y’all. GStreamer, as penguin lovers know, is the very handy open source multimedia framework (set of codecs) that just about everything we play media in uses, from MPD and favorite media players to SecondLife and beyond. The fact that GStreamer is being used in Songbird nightly builds for the Mac and Windows platforms is a cause célèbre for open source advocates.
• TualatriX: Some responses of Ubuntu Tweak 0.3.4. The developer of Ubuntu Tweak has received a number of comments since the newest version came out, but I especially like his response to the “security problem.” If you wonder about people injecting malware into the Ubuntu PPA repositories you need to read his explanation why it’s so hard to do. I felt even safer as a Ubuntu user as soon as I read it.
• Justin Dugger: Ubuntu advantages. If you didn’t see this post on Planet Ubuntu, Justin mentions some of the advantages of Ubuntu, as well as Linux in general, including something specifically left from his list.
• Frank Taylor/Google Earth Blog: Live Hurricane Hunter Missions in Google Earth. If you’re in an area that has to deal with hurricanes you know about the Hurricane Hunters. There’s now a way to watch live hurricane reconnaissance missions or even check out recent missions.

There’s one other Ubuntu thing I want to blog but it deserves a post all of it’s own. But before I go write that one I want to pass a long one more link for lovers of words and good writing. The Dodgers beat the Diamondbacks last night to win the series and share first place (yet again), but as Tony Jackson of the LA Daily News points out it sure didn’t look like the boys in blue were going to win. Even if you hate the Dodgers or baseball in general if you appreciate a well turned phrase you’ll want to read the first three paragraphs.

Peng’s pics for Sunday, 13 July

Sorry about not posting for a couple of days. RealLife issues took more time than expected, plus I ended up pushing my bod further than expected so I’ve had to spend less time at the comp and more time in pain management. If this keeps up I’m going to have to do a sudo upgrade on my pain meds.

• Frank Taylor: New Google Earth 4.3 (beta) Available – Version 4.3.7284.3916. No new features, but a number of bug fixes. Either way if you like Google Earth and you love how GE 4.3 is progressing you’ll want to get the latest update. There’s also been an Imagery Update with a lot of new areas getting images, especially high resolution images.
• Barry Burbank/Beyond the Forecast: Dewpoint Discussion. As someone who grew up in the deep south I always heard relative humidity being talked about in the weather reports. Once I moved to Boston I started hearing about the dewpoint and had no clue what it was. WBZ’s Barry Burbank has a great blog post about the difference between relative humidity and dewpoint, as well as why the dewpoint is a better measure of how oppressive the weather is.
• Ross A Del Duca: WINE Whine WINE. An excellent post about WINE for those who wonder what the hell I’m talking about when I discuss WINE, as well as why I capitalize the whole word. If you have questions about running Windows apps in Linux, you definitely want to read Ross’ post.
• Dennis Kaarsemaker: Gnome 3.0. Yesterday Og Maciel had a nice little post about tabs within tabs, and Dennis gives us a sneak peak at something I expect is coming in GNOME 3.0. I had to post a comment on his blog asking for more info about his screenshot because I’d love to be able to use whatever it is he’s showing.
• Debian Package of the Day: email-reminder: Never forget a birthday or an anniversary again! This handy little program uses a small cronjob to send you an email reminding you of impending birthdays and anniversaries. I used to have this kind of thing on my PDA and I love the ability to have it on my desktop computer. It even has a simple GUI to add the events to remember.
• Christer Edwards: Please Insert 25 Cents To Login. I’m going to have to check out this Easter egg the next time I restart my comp, or at least log out once I finish blogging and checking it.
• I Can Has Cheezburger: Teh Ten Commandments of Ceiling Cat. I need to make this into a desktop wallpaper, and I bet every cat lover out there will laugh at how true it is.

There, that wasn’t so bad now, was it? I hope to get back to almost daily posts of one sort or another soon, although tomorrow looks crazy and I won’t be able to post much until at least noonish on Tuesday. I hope you guys (and gals) are having a nice weekend. Here’s hoping the week doesn’t get off to too horrid a start.

/me lifts his coffee cup for the toast

Peng’s links for Saturday, 5 July

It’s Saturday? I woke up this am and after the holiday yesterday (with the busses in town running on a Sunday schedule) I honestly had no clue what day it was. Sorry about not making a links post on Thursday. A roomie of mine had Achiles’ tendon surgery last week and he had to go for a follow up appointment Thursday. Unfortunately we finished a lot earlier than expected so we had to wait for The Ride to come get us. Unfortunately he wanted the fresh air and while there were no seats outside other than in the sun (I’ve had enough sunburn in my life, thank you) I wouldn’t leave him outside while I sat inside, so I ended up standing about an hour more than I should. Needless to say, I was in no shape for blogging last night, even with the maximum allowed dosage of pain meds. I apologize for some of these links now being a few days old.

I trust everyone had a great 4th of July. I’ll have another post soon for those who’s like to see the fireworks in Boston but either couldn’t get down there or didn’t see them on CBS last night.

• Mary Colvig: We’re official! The Firefox community has been certified as setting a new Guinness World Record for the “largest number of software downloads in 24 hours.” Asa Dotzler has answers to some of the questions people keep asking about the record.
• Markus Thielmann: Adobe updates Flash 10 Beta. a number of bugs got fixed in the newest Flash 10 Beta, including the pain in the arse windowless mode bug, and Markus has information on how to install it, complete with a PPA so Ubuntu users can get updates automatically.
• Eddie Martinez: Best Buy sucks at selling computers. Ok, now I know to never go to the Best Buy on W. Roosevelt in Chicago, especially if I want to buy a computer. I just hope the corporate office reads his post, because I seriously doubt it’s an isolated incident.
• Frank Taylor: Google Teleases Street View for Tour de France in Google Earth/Maps. It’s the time of year when people who otherwise don’t care about competitive cycling go out of their way to keep up with a bicycle race. Thanks to Google we can get an even better look at the course in the first time they’ve posted Street View images for a country other than the US. He also has a nice article on using Google Earth for tracking storms, a very handy thing to know now that the new hurricane season is upon us. Just remember to use it carefully, as the storm tracking layers are designed to be used one or two at a time, not all at once.
• Wladimire Palant: Blocking malicious sites with Adbock Plus. There’s yet another fantastic use for the software add-on that web site owners hate so much. And since there’s security issues on Flash that are being exploited this news is out none too soon.
• BBC News: It’s not the Gates, it’s the bars. Sichard Stallman has a nice article about the retirement of Bill gates. Thanks to Xkutzy on the Ubuntu Forums for pointing this out to me.
• Christer Edwards: Printing Diectly to PDF in Ubuntu 8.04. I have my default printer set to create PDF documents rather than having to worry about killing trees and buying toner, but Christer wrote a great HowTo so you can do the same. Now I won’t have to dig so hard when I have to find this info to set it up on another computer.
• Ken Gurnick: Ethier leads Dodgers to ‘lucky’ win. Nomar and Andru were back in the lineup for the Dodgers after spending some time on the DL, and Joe Torre had to call a team meeting after the game. Yes, they won 10-7 more thanks to some Giants errors, but it was a pretty messy win, But hey, the Dodgers are now just a half game out of first place! Woot! We have some great highlights to enjoy, too.
• Kevin Smith: Curious George, the Shadow of the Bat, and Other Stuff. “Silent Bob” has some great pictures from working with George Carlin, as well a link to a great Newsweek piece he wrote about his friend. As  well as a picture from his newest movie, due out on Halloween.

Sorry about stuffing so many links in this post. I have one more post that Nanci said I had to write and then I plan on taking the rest of the weekend off. It is supposed to be a three day weekend here in the colonies, after all. :p