Joyeux Noël

December 25th, 2010 Thomasso

like to say Joyeux Noël to my Christian friends, and all the other cultures that use the 25th of December to celebrate their respective holidays. I hope you all enjoy the holiday, and all the festivities that go along with it.

LOOKING BACK AT 1997

Although I did my celebrating days ago, today, I found, was a bit of a milestone for me. I was reading in my old journals and came upon this little tid-bit of my personal history. Actually this was quite a bit of a milestone to say the least?

On this week, way back in 1997, I was introduced to Linux for the very first time. Prior to that, I spent most of my time using a MAC, then onto Window$, but was never really savvy with the operating systems then. It was a two day computer science seminar that I took where I met up with some people who did a few lectures on new and cool software, software that we see today. The people that I met way back then  would then become almost world famous because they were the team that created Corel, the paint and photo software that competed with Microsoft’s products for the last decade. Corel was developed on Linux before it was sold as a multi-platform program. So later on that week in 1997 I took the CD home and on December 25, “1997,” I loaded my very first copy of Linux onto my PC.

Since that time, I have always had the OS on my PCs. It was in early 2003 that I completely switched all of my machines over to Linux because the cost of security and system failures was just too much. Now, I run one of the most stable and secure systems among my group of friends.

Since then, my development in Linux systems has put me in the forefront computer forensic software and development.  In my personal life, I am 100 percent Linux, using my personal favourite flavour called Ubuntu.

Unbelievable that that was back in 1997? How did we manage?

THE SANTA MYSTERY

Another question I like to pose to the kids out there is, “how does Santa get around so fast, from the North Pole, to everyone on the Earth”?

The best answer that I got so far is, “he has help…, lots of it, and they’re called Elves.”

Sure, but where does Santa keep them, and how do they get around all over the Earth? Apparently, that has a simple answer too. “They each get their own supper charged space, rocket powered, sled.”

One kid, who just made me laugh told me, “He just does, OK. It’s called magic, and you’re not supposed to know!”

So, there you go, the Santa Mystery.

Posted in Art, Events, General, Holiday, Linux, Photographs | Comments Off

Cartoons, Ads and Children

September 26th, 2010 Thomasso

It worries me when I see advertising geared towards children. Children are going to watch television, and the best you can do is monitor what they are watching, but then controlling content then becomes a tricky and laborious venture. The advertising companies are now playing hardball with your children. They are now inserting ads right into the content of the program itself becuase they know that almost everyone now has a PVR.

With the use of a PVR and some video editing software, editing out commercials is a snap.

Perhaps a correlation between the widespread use of PVRs, P2P downloading and sales of advertised goods could be made, but no one is certain with the economic meltdown that we are still experiencing. There are just too many variables to account for regarding the economic problems with businesses in North America. So, is it no wonder that now ads are popping up within the content of the programming—between the commercials. What is next?

Two years ago my friends up a SFU starting doing research on trying to measure the attention span of children through watching television. They found some early results, such as, commercials did play a significant part in how children interacted with their parents. They found that the control group, those who watched unedited television programming, were far more aggressive with their parents when it came time to obey daily activities such as bedtime and feeding times, than those who were put on a strict regiment of edited television content. Last year they were seeking approval from their ethics broad on going forward with the research, but I have not kept up with them since then. There data has still not being published, so I am assuming that they are still in the waiting process with the board.

As a side note, I heard them say that they were not sure as to whether it was the children, or the ad companies, that the ethics board was trying to protect? Universities and businesses really have a strange relationship.

Anyway, back to my point. I helped them set up a free, open source, video editing software that runs on Linux. The content is put onto a Linux box, then edited, and then put back onto the PVR hard drive. The pop-ads, as we call them, are just “pixiled” out with the latest, on the fly, editing software available. Smudging out the offending ads is really not that bad of a chore. We still cut or chop out the commercial, creating a bunch of smaller files, and then within each of smaller file we edit out the pop-up ads. To do a one hour program takes about ten minutes. If you have children, and you care about what they watch on television, then it is worthwhile precess.

I know, I am probably going to get a flood of emails on how to edit content on PVRs.  That is another topic for another day.

I am also keeping the name of the research and my friends anonymous until they get word back from the Ethics Board up at SFU. I hope they move forward with this. I am just so happy that I could be apart of it.

Posted in General, Linux, Social economics | Comments Off

TweetDeck on Ubuntu 10.04

September 12th, 2010 Thomasso

I used TweetDeck a while ago, but stopped when I had issues with Adobe-Air as there were some bugs and installation issues when they moved up to a newer version. Since then, 2008-2009, a lot has changed, and both the Ubuntu repository and Adobe have changed to accommodate the tweeting population of LINUX users. Of course, this is my opinion as there are still some who say it still has a long ways to go.

All I’m going to do is show you how easy it is now to stall both the Adobe-Air program and TweetDeck for Ubuntu 10.04, as compared to what it was like back in the of Hardy (Ubuntu 8.04). Oh those were the days. Running the program is another post for later on.

Step one:

You need Adobe-Air Application Loader on your system. This is now so super easy becuase it sits in the repository. Use the repository, as I heard from some of my friends that the downloaded version from Adobe has some bugs in it still.  Just go to Synaptic, type in Adobe, and you should see it there. Mark it for installation, and fifty percent of the work is done. System –> Administration –> Synaptic Package Manager.

Adobe-AIR Application Loader can be found in: Applications –> Accessories. You should not have to worry about it again becuase once it is loaded on your system it should recognise any AIR file when you double click on it.

Step Two:

Click Here for TweetDeck’s Website: http://www.tweetdeck.com/

With the Adobe-AIR Application Loader happily installed on your system, the next step is to get TweetDeck. Go to the TweetDeck website, click on “Desktop,” and you should be whisked of to the page that has the download button on it. Please refer to the image below.

For me the Install Button did not do anything. I think it has to do with LINUX does not like self extracting files from outside sources off the net. Which is a good thing becuase that is how you catch ninety percent of those viruses and other garbage that people like to shove onto your system. So you will have to download the TweekDeck file on to your system. In my case, the file was “TweetDeck_0_35.0.1.air” at the time of this entry.

Make note of were you down loaded the TweetDeck AIR file (Commonly found in $Home/Download, directory)  and you should be able to just double click on it to start the installation. If it does not start the self extraction, then try and make it an executable by right clicking on it and go to Properties, then click on the Permission Tab and choose “Execute.”

On my system TweetDeck is found in Applications –> Accessories –> TweetDeck.

Happy Tweeting!

This is what TweetDeck looks like in action. I will take some getting use to with multiple columns and some of the update/streaming features it has if you are only used to using the Twitter Web Site, or some of the single column programs like GTwitter and Twitux.

A BUG:

One problem I did encounter which seems to be a problem for other users too is I lost my menu and desktop tray icons. I chose not to put the icon on my Desktop, but I figure that must of also meant not choosing to put a Desktop Icon when I first set up DweetDeck. After the next boot-up I lost the menu link.To get it back that took a little working around. This is what I did:

• I first created a launcher right on my Desktop by right clicking and choosing “Create Launcher…”

• I left “Type” as “Application,” and filled in the Name and Comment as TweetDeck

• The “Command” I put in opt/TweetDeck/bin/TweetDeck

• For the TweetDeck Icon, click the icon link (Upper Left hand coroner of the Launcher Window) and follow this directory: opt/TweetDeck/share/icons   and choose the TweetDeck_128.png image as your icon.

This will create a icon on your Desktop. You can move it up into the Desktop Tray, and edit your menu and place it in there too. If you are not sure, write me a comment and I will add more details on how to do that.

Posted in Blog and Web Tech, General, Linux, Nifty Plug-ins, Photographs, Software | Comments Off

If This Becomes Fact, Linux Will Undoubtedly Become the Most Used OS On the Planet.

August 7th, 2010 Thomasso

Now this intrigues me, as I am a great fan of the Open Source community, and the thought of Linux becoming the most used OS on the Planet makes me want to say, “I told you so, LOL.” This all came from the news that India, the other super power, will build and supply its own version of the touch screen lap top for about $35.00 (OS New: July 26, 2010).

So why would I say Linux will be the most used OS on the planet? Because if you are going to build something like this and you want to keep the costs way down, you are not going to use propitiatory software. You are not going to use a foreign country, such as US, to commission your efforts and being trapped by non-winning contracts and agreements, inevitably keeping with the “Banana Republic” philosophy of Western business. To avoid the Banana Republic syndrome, you want to keep all manufacturing and operations domestic. The profitability of having One Billion new users on-line is huge. And if all that money and technological can stay domestic, then you have won—period .

This will help all people locally who will use the device in having a worth while experience. Also, having  an open source OS to connect with the world will most likely mean not having to worry about ad-ware and nag-screens bagging you for money every five seconds—the perfect tool for a struggling college student.

I hope that the Indian government can pull this off. One tiny part of me wants to see this project succeed so that I can say, Mac and Micro$oft are now only number Two and Three in the world.

Please Read: India Unveils ‘Laptop’ Costing $35

Posted in General, Linux, Social economics, Software | 1 Comment »

Getting Evolution Working With ShawMail Under Ubuntu 10.04

July 4th, 2010 Thomasso

This is a very bare-bones How-To guide for getting Shaw Mail to work with Evolution, the default email program that comes stock with Ubuntu. I am using Ubuntu 10.04, Lucid and Evolution 2.28.3 for this guide. I highly doubt that these settings are going to change that much between each version.

Before you begin you may need to find the long address of your server address with Shaw. This depends on what area you live in around Western Canada, and can be found at this link on the Shaw web site. Just find your city, and copy and paste it into the field as shown in this guide. Shaw Server Names.

If you are using the start-up wizard, or you are adding a new address, the steps are pretty much the same. Shaw uses the POP and SMTP for email. Evolution is just as basic as any other proprietary software is, so these steps should be easy follow.

Also, you should have your email account already set up with ShawMail through their online web mail support page, including your email name, password and address. Evolution will not do that for you; you can only set up what you have already with Shaw. If you have Evolution set up, say with another email account, then these settings can be found in Edit -> Preferences -> click, and highlight the email account that you want to edit, or start a new account, and choose Edit.

Step 1.

Your name is really what you want displayed by Evolution. This is not something that you have to have set-up with Shaw. However, your email address is critical, as that is what you should have set-up with Shaw.

Step 2.

Next, set up the POP settings, which is how you download your email from Shaw. Where you see the field called “Server,” that is where you will paste the long address from the link at the ShawMail web page. And for the User Name field, that is the first part of your email address before @shaw, in my example it is different from the Figure shown in Step #1.

Step 3.

This is optional. You can set this for however long each time Evolution checks for emails. You can even set up a wave file to go off when it downloads an email, alerting you that you just received an email.

Step 4.

Setting up the SMTP, for uploading emails that you are sending. Again, paste the long address that you got from the ShawMail Web Page. You need to check off the “Server Requires Authentication” check box, but you do not need to check off the “Remember Password,” unless you do not like typing in your password each time you start Evolution.

The User Name field under Authentication in this Figure is just the name of your account that you listed for Evolution, not ShawMail. This has nothing to do with what you entered with ShawMail, but this name should match what you have entered in “Account Information” field in Step #1.

And that should be it.

The most common mistake I see is when the incorrect information is written down from what was typed in on the Shaw Email Website during the creation of an email account. The user name, pass word and email address must be correct or you will not connect to the Shaw Server.

I really hope that this guide helps anyone out as I know getting good support from any ISP on Linux based operating systems is something less than perfect.

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Drawing Tablet meets MyPaint In the Freedom of Open Source

May 22nd, 2010 Thomasso

I finally had some time to sit down and dabble with some of the art and graphics programs I download from a few weeks ago after upgrading to Ubuntu 10.04. I called up MyPaint, and it shocked me as it opened up. I used this program a few years ago when it was very young in its development, but I never got back to it until now–and what a surprise!

MyPaint is loaded with some very cool brushes and FX tools that you can paint with. It works very well with my drawing tablet, and seems very stable.It is one of the best open source programs that I have seen that has some good oil brushes. I also like the many different canvases that you choose that are defaulted in the start-up menu.

There was one little downer that I found: the brushes seem to be listed in Spanish, or some other language. I can live with it, but if you want to create or manage your brushes, well, you may want to find a translator as it could hard to remember which is which, even with the icons to help you . But hey, it has very good icons for each type of brush. I do not think anyone would find it that difficult to navigate through the different options.

I will be trying this program out more often.

[youtube width="560" height="350"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QRa3sESIKc[/youtube]

This is one of the many time-laps video and tutorials from YouTube that you watch and get a feel for the program. It is amazing what you can do with a computer these days. Forget about buying paint and paper any more when you have it all–and no mess to clean upwards! It also seems to be for both LINUX and Window$.

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The Power of Gogh, and My Drawing Tablet

May 10th, 2010 Thomasso

I like simple, and sometimes there is such a thing as having too many bells and whistles when all you want is pure simple. Gogh does this for me. Gogh is a ridiculously simple, yet beautiful drawing/sketching program that just gives you the basics: pen, pencil, smudge, colour and an eraser. It works great with Ubuntu 10.04, and is quite stable.

There is a bit of a trick to starting after you uncompress it – you must either start it up in terminal (the Gogh executable file),e.g., “./gogh,” or simply right click on it and choose run, or create a short-cut, but the folder must stay somewhere in your home directory. You can download it from here: GOGH.

Both of these sketches took only seconds to make.  They are not perfect, but I like the feel of the program, so any mistake you can either erase yourself out of trouble, or hit the undo.

Posted in Art, Featured Software, General, Linux, Photographs | 4 Comments »

Work’n Hard – Just an Update

May 5th, 2010 Thomasso

The Official Announcement: Yes, I’m at work, but I’m on my break – honest.

Now for the post:

If you are sensing a little “ick” in my writing in this post, it is because I am typing it on a Microsoft Window$ Machine, believe it or not, with XP as its OS. I know, why? But most businesses I know are still running this garbage. What can you do, it is their call.

I think everyone is eager to know how I did on my French exam-right? Well, I passed the course, barely, and albeit with an academic pass, I somehow managed to do this on my final. So I did something right. I thought with such a dismal effort on my last mid-term that doom was to be the only outcome I would see on my transcript. This means that I must have gotten somewhere around 70 to 80 percent on that exam. Seriously, this is huge if that happened. We never get to see the exact mark for our finals, and we never know the exact percentage when we finish the course, just a letter grade and GPA. So you can only guess. Perhaps I should email the prof and just check if this wasn’t a mistake?

As for Statistics – Well, my favorite letter was given for that course: an “A.” This is also a pleasant surprise because that should be the course from hell, not French.

A Note to My Mother: Mom, the disk, instructions, and the Monitor are in the mail and are on their way. I know you will probably not be reading this until your computer is sorted out, but I will try and make contact with you over the rest of the week to see what I can do until you are back on-line. Hang in there!

DianeOUtLoud: I will email you very soon for upgrade instructions. Next week I’m back in classes, so we will need to book this soon.

OK, I’m leaving the desk-enclosure and going home.

Posted in Bitching about work, General, Homework and deadlines, Humour, Linux | 6 Comments »

Everything is Upgraded – Now the Desktop

May 1st, 2010 Thomasso

Well, everything seems to be in order now. I have finished the major upgrade, and did some tinkering with the bios settings on this machine (my work station) and I think it working at optimal performance.

There were a few little surprises, like the download centre. That caught me off guard when I clicked on that. I saw that you can add both free and non-free software to this now. Open source is open for business now I guess? Also, this version now comes stock with the movie editor called PiTiVi. And they get rid of a ton of useless screen savers, which I think is a good thing because they had way to many to being with from the last four or five versions.

I’m sure I will be spending the next while tweaking everything up. Heck, this the fun part, finding all the cool stuff and working with it.  I’m happy – something new to look at. So far nothing froze or died on me, so the software looks good.  My DVD player/Burner is slowly on the road to death as it reads disks like they might as well be pieces of sandpaper.

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The Upgrade – 4 hours of Waiting

May 1st, 2010 Thomasso

I started the upgrading last night. I have four machine that I wanted kept current so I started the downloading of 10.04 around 5:00pm Thursday, April 29, 2010, just as the release of the Lucid Lynx was let loose. Overall I am very happy with 10.04, but I quickly found out that some of my hardware is rapidly dying from old age.

The first problem was my DVD burner. I tried two different types of ISO files from off of the web, and both seemed to have scores of errors on them. I tried an install right from the boot/start up on my second file I downloaded, and it went through about 40 percent, then displayed a bad DVD medium error. The first DVD I burnt, it did not even work. This was frustrating, but then I realized that my DVD burner was so full of dust and dirt that I switched over to my laptop to burn with. I had to start the download all over again because I didn’t have anymore DVD+ to burn with, and my laptop only takes the DVD- type disks. So, I fired up Ktorrent, and grabbed the next available bit-torrent to burn just for the laptop. That took 5 hours to download because my wireless is topped out at somewhere 1MB/s.

My second problem was setting up my encryption. Ubuntu 10.04 gives you the option of encrypting your user accounts, so I jumped on that. The problem there was my hard-drive, a LO-1 TB SATA drive. With so much space, and such a demanding encryption algorithm, this took a lot more time to do than if I just ran the regular option of a simple password. I take security very seriously, and LINUX systems seem to do a better job than the commercial product I have used on the market. So I hunkered down and waited while the upgrade took place. Hey, the encryption works good. I tried to scan with my Window$ machine, and it could not  even see the partitions and content – just a big empty disk that read full.

The Fresh Install versus the Upgrade debate. I learned that installing fresh is way better than upgrading. This dates back to my WIN95 to WIN98 days. I learned that boot problems just get passed along to each new upgrade without actually getting fixed. Things like rouge programs and third party software are rarely fixed, or never at all, and they seem to have more problems after each consecutive upgrade. So fresh is always better in my book. Also, I have noticed that if you just upgrade, you never really get the full benefit of the latest release. Your old configuration files always linger around on your hard-drive from one upgrade to another.

Once I get my main workstation back to user happiness, I will post my experiences, probably tonight when I things calm down around here. This, and my flat tire with the nail in it, are all that is on my agenda for today, so type to you then!

Posted in Events, General, Linux, Software | 6 Comments »