Linux
Hackbook Air
Feb 5th
Alright so I bought myself a new toy, a little handy netbook. It is a bit nicer to carry a 10-inch machine, instead of a 17 inch laptop around. In the shop they wanted to sell me all kinds of crap, for example Norton 360 anti-virus. When I said I didn’t need it, he asked me 3 times if I was sure about that (like Windows asks you about 3 times for everything). I didn’t tell him that I didn’t plan on keeping Windows on the machine, I didn’t want to confuse him.
It’s an Atom chip clocked at 1.6 GHz, 160 GB drive, 1 GB RAM. It has 3 USB ports, VGA out, SD Expansion, multiple card readers, built-in webcam, audio out, microphone in, and built-in microphone, and a glossy 10.1 inch wide screen display. RAM and hard drive are replaceable. Battery lasts for about 4-7 hours, depending on what you do.
Before XP Starter Edition could even boot, I prepared a bootable USB stick with the full Ubuntu 9.10 live CD, then deleted all partitions and put Ubuntu on. I could have gone for the Netbook Remix, but I wanted the full user interface. Quickly transferred my theme data from my primary machine, installed Global Menu Bar and Cairo-Dock, and boom!
Adium message styles in Pidgin (Ubuntu Karmic)
Jan 7th
I always liked Adium on OS X a lot, it’s the Mac fork of the famous Pidgin, a multi-protocol messaging client. I really LOVE Pidgin – but one thing was always missing – the fancy look. But finally, it can be helped!
Here’s what to do. These steps are for Ubuntu 9.10 only.
1. Open up a terminal, and type (or paste):
sudo apt-get install pidgin-dev libpurple-dev
2. Next, add the WebKit repository, as Adium styles require WebKit on the Mac. You have to open up the Software Sources tool under System/Administration/Software Sources. There, click on “Other Software”, then “Add…”, and paste this line:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/webkit-team/ppa/ubuntu jaunty maindeb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/webkit-team/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
The content will reload as new software just became available.
3. Back to the terminal, and paste:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install libwebkit-dev
This will install required development files for WebKit.
4. Next, download THIS FILE, save it to a location of your choice.
5. In a terminal, do
bzip2 -d /path/to/pidgin-webkit.tar.bz2
to extract the file.
6. In the extracted folder there are two folders which we need to copy into your libpurple folder. This is how to do it:
cp /path/to/pidgin-webkit-folder/message_styles ~/.purple && cp /path/to/pidgin-webkit-folder/plugins ~/.purple
Close Pidgin entirely and open it again. Go to Tools / Plugins, and behold your new entry!
You can now go, to use themes of AdiumXtras.com. Beware – some themes will not work, most of them will however.
To install a new theme, download any one of your choice, extract the zip, and in the folder you will find another folder named “NameOfStyle.AdiumMessageStyle”. You need to copy this to
~/.purple/message_styles
Once you have it in there, again go to Tools / Plugins / WebKit, then select “Configure plugin”. There you will then see a list… In my example I installed iChadium, a iChat emulating message style:
As you can see you can select any sub-style you want.
Once done, behold your all-new shiny Adium on Ubuntu!
This is not Leopard
Dec 30th
So I updated to Ubuntu 9.10 and decided to do some desktop pimping again, because I am not necessarily the greatest fan of the standard GNOME interface. So all you really need is a good looking Leopard GTK theme (there are some), good Metacity theme (again, there are some), Cairo Dock, and Global Menu Bar.
Boom!
Looking for a new music player? Try Exaile
Jul 27th
Songbird is pretty nice alright. It’s built on Mozilla’s code to create the Firefox of music. However, it is not native, not to Linux anyways, which causes problems. So I was looking for another music player that would have the same or similar functionality… and I found one.
The name is Exaile (probably pronounced “exhale”, only with a silent “h”).
The player is based on the GTK framework and comes with quite a few things out of the box. For example you have support for MTP devices (like phones that need a rather special synchronization mode), iPod support (don’t know if iPod touch too), amongst others. There’s last.fm support, ShoutCast support, as well as notifications if you’re on Linux. Pretty cool eh? It however lacks a music store, but oh well.
No Cover Flow, but still a pretty awesome player
If you want you can create plug-ins for the player, extending its functionality. One of the plugins that you can install out of the box is support for shared iTunes libraries, so you can listen to your friend’s music.
A pretty cool player, it now has replaced Songbird for me. Try it out, I think you’ll like it.
Ubuntu users perform a
sudo apt-get install exaile
in the console, or use the package manager to get it.
Exaile
Type: Music player and manager
License: Open Source
Platform: Linux
Arch: x86
Web: Exaile | Music Player
Microsoft Patches Linux
Jul 24th
What? o_O
Press release of Microsoft of July 20.
REDMOND, Wash., July 20, 2009 — Today, in a break from the ordinary, Microsoft released 20,000 lines of device driver code to the Linux community. The code, which includes three Linux device drivers, has been submitted to the Linux kernel community for inclusion in the Linux tree. The drivers will be available to the Linux community and customers alike, and will enhance the performance of the Linux operating system when virtualized on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V or Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V.
So what exactly is happening? Is hell freezing over? Is Chuck Norris no longer awesome? Calm down. The answer to all of this is no.
Microsoft apparently has seen issues when virtualizing Linux on their Windows Server systems that have the Hyper-V feature, a technology that enables Windows to run multiple virtual machines on one computer. In order to smooth the operation of Linux systems on Hyper-V, Microsoft is giving these kernel drivers to the community for inclusion into the Linux Kernel.
Ultimately, it is up to the distributions to include it or not. Currently the code is submitted to the people of govern the Kernel.
Linus Torvalds, the maker of Linux, comments:
“Oh, I’m a big believer in “technology over politics”. I don’t care who it comes from, as long as there are solid reasons for the code, and as long as we don’t have to worry about licensing etc issues.
In fact, to some degree, I’d be more likely to include it because it’s from a new member of the community rather than less (again, I’d like to point out that drivers are special. They don’t impact other things, so they get merged much more easily than some core changes).
I may make jokes about Microsoft at times, but at the same time, I think the Microsoft hatred is a disease. I believe in open development, and that very much involves not just making the source open, but also not shutting other people and companies out.
There are ‘extremists’ in the free software world, but that’s one major reason why I don’t call what I do ‘free software’ any more. I don’t want to be associated with the people for whom it’s about exclusion and hatred.”
So there you have it. If Microsoft ends up in open source, you gotta admit that there’s something to it – if you don’t use this kind of software.
It is a very interesting move of them. Let’s see where this one is headed.
LinuxMag: Microsoft patches Linux; Linus responds
One More Thing
Mar 24th
Over the last few weeks things have happened that made me think. My life has changed a bit and I wanna keep riding the wave of change. Well looks like as if this wave with me riding it is headed toward the Mac world. You see the thing is I like Macs. Nice machines eh? But right now… I don’t feel the thrill anymore. What? The Mac person has no fun with Macs? Waitaminute!!
I mean, don’t get me wrong… Macs are fun. The software is nice and cool, sexy and smooth. Aqua definitely has its advantages, the object-oriented framework Cocoa certainly makes for rapid application development. You see the thing where it comes down to me right now is the “Plays well with others” part. I think there’s a slight problem here.
As you know, in an earlier post I described that I made the switch to Linux and no longer use OS X. That in itself is not the problem… The problem is that apparently Macs don’t play that well with Linux. Ever tried to run Linux on the current generation MacBook? Well good luck… restarting won’t work (doesn’t matter which Linux) and the machine gets much hotter than normal. So… no.
Anyways… since I have too much of Mac and computer hardware anyways, I gonna start selling shit. And that also includes my Mac gear. It’s time for something else. Time to walk down the open road with cheaper hardware.
I’ll keep watching the Keynotes (no longer Stevenotes, mind you! Philnotes maybe?). And I’ll still probably be amazed with what Apple came up with again, and go oooh and aaah like the people in the keynote in Moscone West. I am not an angry user or something, I just decided for me it’s time to leave this thing as an active member of the Mac community.
So yeah… that’s all I wanted to say today. The only thing that remains with me of Apple will be an iPod nano 4th gen. You know, Shake To Shuffle and shit. I have to say that is pretty amazing =D
Time to walk the open road.
Can someone tell me why I didn’t use Kubuntu before?
Feb 19th
Right, so I have been playing around with Kubuntu, my new main desktop system, for like 2 days. There has been a bit of trickery and tweakery going on, like for example you have to tell ALSA that you are on a MacBook Pro Revision 3 in order to make the headphone jack work. Well I like to fiddle around with stuff, and I think I finally got my setup working and start to feel comfortable.
Here are just a few screens of the built-in functionality of Ubuntu – this is not Compiz – but it works just like it (I don’t necessarily need the Cube to be honest). There are some features I have grown attached to – I am so glad they are not missing. Others however are from Mac OS X. Like this one in my first screenshot.
Why has Cover Flow not been implemented as task switcher in OS X?
You can obviously have more than 4, but 4 Spaces kinda do the trick for me.
They call it Expose… thanks for porting that too.
Stay iTuned. On Windows, Linux, Mac.
Thing was with iTunes that I copied the entire collection of mine to an external drive as it was, then installed WINE and iTunes 8.0.2 – and then copied my collection over to my Music folder in /home, as it was, and BOOM! iTunes recognized all of it, including settings, ratings, and does even support Genius. I was genuinely surprised… WINE really has come a long way. And yes, iTunes wobbles just like the other windows do. Bujaka!
Ubuntu’ed
Feb 18th
This is the end, my only friend: me, the Mac die-hard, no longer uses Mac OS X. LOLWUT? Yeah, it’s true. After having closely followed the development on the open road for a while, I have seen that there are in fact superior applications out there. For free. I always had an eye on Ubuntu, I think it’s one of the best Linuxes around (what’s the plural of Linux? Linii? Linae? Linuxes?).
After having seen the programs listed on the page for Mac switchers, I came to the conclusion that it is time at last, to adopt Tux full-time. So I backed up all my data to another drive, and started installing Kubuntu, as I don’t really like GNOME which ships with Ubuntu. 8.10 Intrepid Ibex is the version I got obviously.
The default appearance of KDE 4’s Plasma, its new desktop engine
Install was smooth, no issues whatsoever. BUT: there is a problem when it comes to booting an Intel iMac which no longer has Mac OS X installed. You see the Mac Bootloader is ‘blessed’ during the install of Apple’s system, which means it is certified and readable by EFI – which is the equivalent to the BIOS in all Macintoshes. However, most of the time an Ubuntu is not installed on a Mac – and this proposes an interesting problem.
The machine will not boot when it doesn’t have a blessed bootloader on either the MBR of the drive, or on one of the partitions. That results in a big folder icon with a question mark, telling you it has nothing to work with. However if you boot with the Kubuntu CD, and choose ‘Boot from first hard drive’, it will work.
Obviously I don’t wanna boot with the CD all the time, so what’s there to do? Well I remembered this tool called ‘rEFIt’ for OS X, which lets you boot as many systems as you want on a Mac. So I checked if there is something like this available for Ubuntu, and of course, there is – in the Universe tree.
So what you have to do if you want to use a Mac without OS X and Ubuntu instead, is this:
1) Install Ubuntu or Kubuntu (or Edubuntu, or Xubuntu) – whatever you are fancy
2) Use the entire drive, wipe OS X
3) After the install, re-insert the CD and choose ‘boot from first hard drive’ in the boot menu
4) Log in, open a web browser, and go here:
rEFIt for Intrepid Ibex 8.10
http://packages.ubuntu.com/intrepid/i386/refit/download – and choose a location near you.
This will download a .deb file at the location you choose.5) Open a file browser, navigate to the .deb file, open it – the package installer will come up and you will have to enter your administrative password
6) Once installed, open a terminal and enter this command:
#> sudo /sbin/gptsync /dev/sda
It will also ask you for your administrative password. Also, it will tell you that the bootloader needs to be updated – CONFIRM THIS!! Your non-Apple bootloader is now in fact ‘blessed’ and will let the Mac ’see’ the install in EFI.
7) Reboot and remove the CD. The machine will boot normally at this stage
I write this down so that if anyone ever runs into this, here is the solution. Note that this is for the 32-bit version – there is no rEFIt tool for Ubuntu in 64-bit yet!!!
Now you can go ahead and install anything you like or want. Compiz for example and so on. Or proprietary drivers (helps for Compiz =D).
Kinda cool eh?
NVIDIA starts ad campaign with Compiz Cube
Dec 17th
You know usually I don’t give much about ads on website. Usually. But this one interested me. It loaded and then said “Spin the cube!”. Which I tried. The ad obviously praises the new NVIDIA chips which are now also built into new Macs (and I think MacBooks).
However what impressed me the most was that it appears to be a compositing algorithm in Flash – and compositing is something I only know best from Compiz Fusion, for Linux.
Fortunately I was able to create a screen grab.
As you spin the cube, you can clearly see items hovering above the surface and being re-rendered as you spin the cube – so far widely used in Compiz’s signature virtual desktop cube.
A original Compiz Cube in action – also with elements (windows) floating above the surface.
I found copying the Compiz Cube in Flash impressive!
Pimp My MythTV: Now with YouTube support
Aug 10th
So this weekend I was kinda bored and was thinking about something productive I can do so I wouldn’t be sitting at home, alone, lonely, and dying from boredom. Well of course some geeky stuff comes to my mind. I was thinking that it would be cool if MythTV, my PVR solution of choice, would have YouTube support. According to MythTVNews, there was no way up until then for YouTube to be integrated. The plugin Mythbrowser doesn’t do Flash, neither can any MythTV software play FLV files.
However, MythTV does provide convenient options to change that, like use a different browser. And suddenly we are in business here.
So… what exactly did I do? Basically I created a two web pages – one is standard HTML using an external Javascript as help, and a PHP file which connects to the API of YouTube. In this case I started off with the Featured list (which is the last 25 videos that have been featured. Ah yes, thanks IBM).
The main page contains div elements which house the information, such as the big image, title and description. The selector image is a simple Photoshop of about 5 minutes, and is controlled by the up and down keys on the keyboard. The script in the back checks where we are, and if the bottom or top is hit, it acts accordingly (probably a real cheesy approach to do that). The list itself on the right side is done with the PHP page and displayed in a borderless iframe element, which in turn is controlled by the Javascript.
I could have taken simple screenshots, but you might not believe me. So I took some photos of my MythTV UI as it is right now, and how the YouTube UI looks like.
Again: The YouTube thing is web-based and not a direct part of MythTV… but it was the only way I think this could be achieved.
The theme in MythTV is called “Pear-ody” and you can get it here.
If you’re interested, I have put up the piece of work for download if you like, so you can extend it or beef it up. GET IT HERE.
Now for the photos!
My MythTV once loaded
YouTube is now available for ya pleasure dude
Featured only – for now
Here at last. YouTube from MythTV. The AppleTV way.
A video playing from my written UI. It works alright…
As a comparison: this is the original YouTube UI as it is on AppleTV machines right now. I think I’m close.