Peng’s links for Wednesday, 17 June

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Hopefully these will be worth having to wait for.

• David Baucum: Resolving apt key signature problems in Ubuntu. David has some very handy info on adding third-party repositories that don’t include info on adding the key signature.
• Fabrizio Balliano: Ubuntu Desktop Course 8.04 available. Yes, we did just see Ubuntu 9.04 released back in April, but if you’re running Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Long-Term Support) than you may find this Ubuntu Desktop Course (for both students and instructors) a very handy resource.
• Paolo Sammicheli: Spreading Spread Ubuntu. A member of the Italian Ubuntu Local Community Team has created some very nice images for using in your work spreading the gospel of Ubuntu.
• Stefano Forenza: Ubuntu episode 2 is out ! Do you enjoy reading Manga? If so, you should check out the newest edition of the Manga zine about Ubuntu. He also has a link to more versions of  it, thanks to DoctorMo.
• Alan Pope: Easy Script To Get And Install PPA GPG Keys. Launchpad added the ability to use GPG keys for their Personal Package Archives (PPA’s), and Alan has a handy script to automate the process of getting the keys for PPA’a you’ve already added to your sources.list. And Martin Meredith took Alan’s script and may just have made it even better.
• Nathan Handler: A Few Ubuntu-related Bookmarks. If you don’t have these sites bookmarks you may want to add them to your collection.
• DesktopLinux.com: Linux 2.6.30 gets new filesystem. Linus Torvalds made the announcement and Eric Brown has some of the details for you.
• Christer Edwards: Printing Labels and Business Cards in Ubuntu. Why deal with VistaPrint and their “free” business cards with their advert on them? Christer’s Ubuntu Tutorials site has details on how to print not just business cards but labels as well. In this economy you can use all the savings you can get, and Christer’s tutorial will make your accountant smile even more than your saving bucks by using free and open source software will.
• Daily Ubuntu: Save Your Amazing Ideas With Basket. Totem Tomboy is okay for organizing info (thanks for the correction, Vadim), but sometimes it doesn’t quite do what you need it, especially if you’re a student. Mary may even help you in your college classes.
• Alberto Ruiz: Evince outreach the Windows platform. Everybody and their brother (and sister) needs some way to read PDF files, but Adobe Reader may be more than you need. Evince, the PDF reader that comes bundled in Ubuntu, is heading to Windows.
• Martin Owens: Ubuntu: No Demand or No Availability? DoctorMo talked to a Boston area computer shop. Would you believe he was told nobody wants Ubuntu? Yeah, I laughed when I read that, too. Martin has some info to keep in mind for the next time someone tells you something like that.
• Jordi Mas: gbrainy 1.11. I’m sure you’ve seen the adverts for the Nintendo DS “game” that helps your mind work better and faster. gbrainy (Jordi’s link used to go to the wrong place, but this link gets you where you’d like to go) is now available for many GNU/Linux distros, and there’s even an experimental way to get it for Windows!
• Danny Piccirillo: Replace Pidgin With Empathy in Karmic? Yes, the Ubuntu devs are planning on changing the IM client installed with Ubuntu as of version  9.10 “Karmic Koala”. I’m not thrilled with the news myself, because I’m really used to using Pidgin, plus the last time I looked at Empathy I was very much unimpressed. Danny’s got some details that you definitely should check out. Mohd Faizul Zulkipli has some additional info you should avail yourselves of as well.
• Stefano Forenza: Solang is a new photo manager. If you use F-Spot to manage your pictures you should look at Solang. You may like it better.
• David Thomas: I’ll be calling it GNU/Linux for now on. David recently realized how that we should be calling it GNU/Linux rather than simply saying Linux, as I learned some time back. (Sorry, I couldn’t track down the post where I made the switch in naming.) David not only makes the change, he also gives some good background on why, as well as some great info on free software (as in freedom).
• Christoph Langner: Nathive, the usable image editor. You may remember that I included a link about Nathive back in October, but Christoph has some great info on why it rocks for everyone who wants a nice, easy to use image editor. After all, sometimes the Gimp is just too damned complicated for some jobs.
• Stefano Forenza: Why the beef IS ready for the dinner table. One more link for Stefano for today, and I agree, a post that is obviously anti-beef needed a rebuttal. And I’m not just saying that because I’m a carnivore.

That’s all I have, except to point out that Mac4Lin 1.0 has gotten quite a bit of ink since it came out. There has been an update since infra_red_dude pushed out the release, so if you’ve gotten it and nioticed things weren’t quite right try the 1.0 file on the Mac4Lin download page. The date hasn’t been changed, but I’m assured that the file has, in fact, been updated.

Full Circle reaches a milestone

On Monday Full Circle, the independent Ubuntu Linux magazine, published their 20th issue. They’re marking their milestone by starting a brand new series on web development software for Linux users.

Of course that’s not all they have in their newest issue, and you’ll also find part four of their Programming in C series and a tutorial on backing up and syncing your music; a Command and Conquer article on using the Terminal; a book review of Ubuntu Kung Fu and a contest to win a copy of it; the top five backup solutions; a MOTU interview with Andrea Colangelo from Italy; as well as articles about making money with FOSS, Italians using open source software, Ubuntu Women, games, letters and more.

They also have a survey they’re asking everyone to take so they can get some feedback on how they can make Full Circle even better.

Get Full Circle Issue 18

The newest issue of the independent Ubuntu magazine Full Circle is now available! Of note (IMO) in this issue is another installment in the series on Package Management, Programming in C, using a secure network drive, and GIMP, as well as an opinion piece on How Many Distros Is Too Many?

Of course there’s also a nice HowTo on installing Ubuntu 8.10, an interview with MOTU Harald Sitter, a review of first-person shooter Urban terror, and a whole lot more.

Remember, Full Circle isn’t just for people who use Ubuntu and its derivative distros, it’s also for people who are considering trying them. A lot of people are intimidated by the mere thought of running Linux because they think everything is done via the Command Line Interface (CLI) but that’s not the truth anymore.

They’re also working on compiling some of their tutorial series into single PDF files that include each installment of the particular series. I don’t see that they’ve made them available yet, but you can keep a look out on the Full Circle website.

Peng’s links for Monday, 27 October

• Gerry Ilagan: VirtualBox 2.0.4 now available, support for Ubuntu 8.10 added. I wish I had seen this news before I started the upgrade to Intrepid. I would have checked it in VirtualBox before running the dist-upgrade. Now you have a choice that I didn’t have.
• Christer Edwards: A Better Integrated Forum. Christer has tweaked the Ubuntu Tutorials Forum and you should be able to use any existing site registration or even openID. It’s now even easier to get (and give) assistance with Christer’s tutorials.
• Christer Edwards: Five Tips to Prepare for Release Day! Are you ready for Intrepid’s official release on Thursday? Use Christer’s short list to make sure you are.
• Sayak Banerjee: Ubuntu’s Live USB Disk Creator. Have you ever used a USB drive for a portable Ubuntu installation? Have you ever wanted to? It’s even easier to set up thanks to the new USB start-up disk creator.
• Colin Eatson Watson: Totem BBC plugin. Yesterday I mentioned the BBC plugin for Totem when I was looking at my upgrade to Intrepid. Colin tells us why it came to be, and what they look to do to improve the plugin. And it’s all DRM-free, so you don’t have to worry about onerous licensing restrictions to how you can use the content.

There’s one more link I want to provide, but I wanted to set it apart from the other links a little. Codeweavers Crossover, the popular commercial program that brings Windows compatibility to both Linux and MacOS computers, launched a campaign to get President Bush to “make the most of his remaining days in office by accomplishing a major economic or political goal by January 20, 2009.” One of the goals was to get gas prices in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul down to $2.19 a gallon.

Two weeks ago that price was observed at a Twin Cities gas station, and Codeweavers has responded by giving their $40 software package to anyone tomorrow, whether they run Linux or MacOS on their computer.

For all of the details check out the press release and get ready to snag your copy of Codeweavers tomorrow, complete with tech support. If any of the other goals they set for President Bush are met they’ll have another free software giveaway.

Thanks to Mike Rushton of the Ubuntu Massachusetts LoCo (Local Community) Team for passing along the news in the form of a link to the story on the TUAW website.

Ubuntu Tutorials help you get ready for Intrepid

as of the day the post was written

Christer Edwards over at the Ubuntu Tutorials website has started doing a series of posts on getting you ready to upgrade or install Ubuntu Intrepid, especially since the Release Candidate is due out tomorrow.

Yesterday’s first installment looked at network upgrades, first checking to make sure your desktop system is as up to date as possible under Hardy and then starting the move to Ubuntu 8.10.

Today’s post hasn’t gone online as of this writing, but now’s the time to subscribe to Christer’s RSS or ATOM feed so you can get the updates automatically. Just remember, this gets you software currently undergoing development testing. While the big bugs should be squashed by now there’s no guarantee that you won’t have an issue. Before you apply any of the upgrades to Intrepid make sure you read the release notes so you can see if any of the known issues will apply to you, as well as any workarounds you may need to perform. The hair you save may come from your own head.

Full Circle 16 is a must read

Full Circle, the independent Ubuntu magazine that Nanci or I talk about every month has put out yet another issue that has things that even showed me some thing I wasn’t aware of. What all is in this issue? How about

• Command and Conquer: Create and move files
• HowTo’s: Create your own Ubuntu (make your own customized LiveCD), the final part of the series on creating your own server, part 5 on their tutorial on using the GiMP Image Editor, and using GNOME-Look.org to change everything from wallpapers to themes to splash screens and screensavers and more.
• My Story: Out with the old, in with the new
• My Opinion: Ubuntu and Kubuntu Themes
• MOTU Interview: Jamie Strandboge
• Ubuntu Women by Elizabeth Bevilacqua, someone I post links to from time to time
• Top 5 Twitter Clients
• and even more

Even if you don’t usually read Full Circle you’ll miss out on some good stuff if you don’t get this month’s issue.

Torley rolls out a new Tip of the Week, but not to the SL blog

I love Torley Linden’s Second Life Tip of the Week videos, but the devs are working on the site so he can’t post to it yet. Here’s Torley’s explanation of why it’s on his blog rather than on the SL blog.

If you’re wondering why this is on my personal blog instead of the official Second Life Blog and why you haven’t seen the KB Article of the Week lately either, it’s because Linden Lab is undergoing changes in communication policy and preparing for future improvements.

As much as that doesn’t seem to make sense, I can’t go into details now, and I would’ve let you know earlier were it not for events beyond my control. Please pardon me, I promise to share more if/when I can do so. In the meantime, if you have ideas for how I can better help you by making video tutorials broadly visible in places I’ve missed, let me know!

Awww! But this week’s video tip is a cool one, so I wanted to make sure you guys knew about it. This week’s video tip is about Custom Collision Sounds in SecondLife. That’s so cool I’m going to have to play with it one day.

In case you missed last week’s tip on reporting abuse, you should definitely check it out. I meant to blog it but RL got in the way.

Don’t forget, if you miss any of Torley’s tip videos you can see them again in the SL wiki, and you can always download high quality versions of the tips so you can always have them on your hard drive for the next time you want to refer to them.

Full Circle #15 teaches us new tricks

The good people at Full Circle Magazine, the independent Ubuntu magazine, have released issue number 15 with several new things, including something I wish I’d had last year.

Among the new content this month is

• Command and Conquer: The Ins and Outs of Directories
• HowTos: How to create a separate /home partition (I wished I had this when I did it myself last year); part 7 of their series on creating your own server; part 4 of their series on using GIMP; and working with GRUB, the bootloader that lets you select which operating system or kernel version you want to use.
• My Story: Ubuntu Saves the Day and From Mickey’s ABCs to Kubuntu
• A review of the HP Photosmart C3180 printer
• much more

My article about Mac4Lin 0.4 still isn’t included, but Full Circle editor Ronnie Tucker tells me “It very nearly was! ” It’s actually a good thing, because Mac4Lin 1.0 is getting so close to getting released that I asked him to hold my article back until I can get him a new version that reflects the version currently in development.

Even without my article this issue is packed with some great information, so go get your own copy today.

Peng’s links for Monday, 7 July

I think it was a good thing I took the weekend off after Saturday’s final post. Yesterday Comcast crashed so hard that we were without not just Interweb but also cable and phone all day long. Luckily we had some things saved on the DVR or else the three of us would have been bored out of our gourds. It finally came up after nine last night making Comcast offline for around a dozen hours, but I haven’t been able to see any reports on what went wrong. If anyone knows what happened to Comcast in the Malden area please post it in the comments.

• Alan Pope: Is that a Paul Smith shirt? Alan wore the tee that Nanci and I want and got a great response from one of the other parents at his daughter’s ballet school.
• Dante Díaz: How to Install Linux Media Center Edition step by step. Yes, Virginia, there is a Linux Media Center Edition, and Dante’s vid shows how to install it on a KDE-based distro. I suspect it will be similar on GNOME desktops.
• Bill Dwyre: Where have you gone, Ernie Banks? Do you remember baseball’s double headers? I don’t mean the ones caused by rainouts, but the ones that give fans the chance to see two games in a single day, usually around a holiday. Dwyre remembers them, and wonders why we don’t have them anymore, as do I.

I do have one other thing I want to blog about, but it deserves a post of it’s own. But before I close this post I have to pimp my new favorite place to get coffee in Boston. I love Starbucks, but I also like having a place closer to home to be able to get a cup of joe as I hop on the subway every day. I used to get my coffee from Mike’s Donuts in Forrest Hills Station but after three straight cups of coffee that weren’t what I ordered, as well as trying to talk with the owner but having to wait while they took care of customers I decided to find a new place to get my coffee. It’s too bad, too, because I’ve known the owner’s wife for over a decade but when I told her I’ve had problems with getting coffee the way I ordered it she didn’t even take the time to find out what was wrong.

I finally tried Java Jo’s, which is not just across the street from the station but also on the side of the station that bus drops me off to get on the subway. I found it was more like a Starbucks than a Dunkin’ Donuts (Mike’s takes your order, and hands you a supposedly ready to drink cup of brew), but I don’t mind putting my own cream and sugar in my coffee, especially when the cream is cool enough to make the coffee immediately drinkable, an issue that prompts me to ask for a little ice in my coffee from Mike’s although lately they don’t fill that part of my order well. Which is part of why I tried to speak to the owner in the first place. The owner likes ice in his coffee, and his wife, who runs the Forrest Hills store, respects a customer’s wishes in that respect. Alas, her employees don’t have the same idea of customer service that she has. I still get coffee at Mike’s on the weekend and on holidays, but only because Java Jo’s doesn’t open as early on weekends and I’m on the road pretty early seven days a week. After having to go without Java Jo’s coffee over the recent three-day weekend I really missed my proper cup of coffee as I got on the subway.

One thing that makes Java Jo’s even better is that their coffee, a rich, bolder coffee than Mike’s sells, is so good that I don’t have to run through Back Bay to hit Starbucks in the morning any more. And their food is delicious, too, so you may want to take advantage of their catering service for your office one day.

If you’re in the Forrest Hills/Franklin Park area of Boston and you’d like a good cup of coffee or some delicious food check Java Jo’s out. You’ll thank me for it.

Guide to customizing Ubuntu

Bill Goldberg, an Ubuntu user in Belgium, has written a Guide to customizing Ubuntu’s look and feel that really takes the time to explain how to do what experienced users call “simple tweaks” that in fact may not be so simple at all. Congrats to Bill for making it easy enough for new Ubuntu users to understand. He even shows how to add widgets and a dock, as well as some videos to help show what some of the things are. Some of his instructions are links to other sites, but he’s smart enough to not try to redo something that’s already done quite well.