Passing Thoughts!!

Wammu - Phone manager for Linux

2009-07-12T22:35:00.004+05:30

On windows, MyPhoneExplorer is a great phone manager esp. for Sony Ericsson's phones. I wanted to use it in Linux so I tried using it through wine using this guide ( actually a direct install also works now.) However, although the phone connected I could not sync any data. The app kept crashing. So I decided to find something native and found Wammu. ( Google sent me to AlternativeTo -- interesting site).

Wammu seems to have all the features of MyPhoneExplorer and is quite good. I especially liked the phone connect guide. The UI needs a bit of tweaking , but overall it seems to be quite a cool app. I had blogged about Multisync earlier and I think Wammu is better.

Ubuntu users can click here to install it. Its also available for Windows. You can find screens here. The list of supported phone is available here.

Creating a usb based installer for Windows

2009-06-18T23:38:00.005+05:30

After being used to using Liveusb for Ubuntu, I was looking for a similar solution for Windows. Not only are ubs installers faster than cd/dvd based ones but they are the only option for people with PCs whose cd drives are messed up and need to do this make the setups work :( .

Well, I finally got it to work following this easy to use guide. It does a very good , almost automatic job of creating a usb based setup.

Ubuntu 9.04 Beta :: Impressions

2009-04-06T02:41:00.002+05:30

The next Ubuntu release is quite close now. So how is the Jaunty Jackalope shaping up?

As far as the features go, this is what has been added since 8.10 --

Linux kernel 2.6.28
GNOME 2.26
X.Org server 1.6
New style for notifications and notification preferences
Boot performance
Ext4 filesystem support
And other stuff

A complete list along with download links can be found here.

The most noticeable among these I think is the boot performance. Ubutnu 9.04 still uses ext3 as default root but provides the option to use ext4. I decided to go for ext4. I dont know whether it is ext4 or the boot performance improvements, but startup and shutdown are noticeably faster than 8.10.

The new style for notifications and notification preferences is also a good addition, but it proves to be more of annoyance in certain cases ( pidgin and empathy). Moreover the options for enabling and disabling this aren't very well maintained. In pidgin you need to disable a plugin to get it to stop -- not good for the new user. Basically, this system needs to be polished a bit more.

As far as the performance goes, well this Phoronix article compares Fedora 11 beta and Ubuntu 9.04 beta (with ext3) and Ubuntu beats Fedora with ease ( atleast in the beta stage). So I am guessing performance is not much of an issue. I have now been using the beta for 5/6 days now and there has been no crash, lockup etc. So stability does not seem to be an issue either. Good.

However, there are a few annoyances that I noticed ::

Amarok 2

For some reason or the other Amarok 2 has been included as the default amorok version. This is not good. Amarok 2 might be _the_ player of the future but it still lacks many features that 1.4 had. As far as I am concerned this was a bad choice. But I guess installing an older version of amarok isnt much of a chore. A PPA for Amarok 1.4 for Jaunty can be found here.

pulseaudio

pulseaudio has been wreaking havok across all linux distros for some time now. It will eventually get much better. Jaunty has a much polished version of pulseaudio but it still needs to be worked on.

But I guess a software version and pulseaudio are the only real problems that I found with this beta. With the final release only about 2 weeks away, I think this is going to be another good and solied Ubuntu release.

PS :: The new GDM login screen is coool...Screenshots of the same and more can be found here.

PPA keys, PPAs, Pidgin Smileys and more..

2009-02-13T19:16:00.003+05:30

PPA keys and PPAs

Its been a long time since I wrote an article. In the mean time it seems that Launchpad decided to add OpenPGP keys to each PPA. Suddenly synaptic is giving me hell lotta errors. Well, to fix the problem just go to each ppa page and add the key in the Software Sources - > Authentication. A short howto can be found here.

Pidgin Smileys

Always wanted pidgin to have native smileys for each account?? Well, they have been around for a long time. Funny how I never posted them here. Well its just drag and drop and you will have all the smileys that you always loved. Check here for the tar.

Continuing with pidgin, if you want to add the song tracking feature for your account you can install the music tracker plugin. Go here for all the packages. A PPA for it is also available here.

Notes with Zim!

2008-11-24T22:14:00.004+05:30

I recently decided to get a bit more organized..(you have no idea how messy things had become..:D). One of the things that i did was to install a good note taking app..it's really handy u know- when i am browsing random stuff and i come across something interesting..or some thoughts that i wanted to put down in an as-they-come manner..i googled a bit and came across a few notable ones viz. BasKet (yeah..you guessed it right! it's 'K'de app), Zim, Tomboy.. BasKet was out of question for now.. i decided to try out the other two.

Tomboy looks decent. You have decent formatting capabilities, linking, a handy table of contents and some plugins to extend the functionality. But what is missing is the ability to embed images.This lead me to Zim.

Zim tries to bring wiki-style to the desktop.Which means you can can use wiki-style syntax [1] in your notes to full effect. It really is handy when you can use those underlines and TODOs..plus all the other things-formatting, links, plugins are there as well. Images can be embedded as well.There is a takeSnapshot plugin which i liked a lot! it directly embeds a snapshot in your note..very handy at times!

Snapshots are useful when i want some part of webpage and put some relevant notes alongwith it.

The install instructions [2] given on the site suffice. Some plugins need additional libraries, etc which is mentioned wherever applicable. The notes are stored as simple text file with .txt extensions. For now, i m finding Zim to be really good. Images, snapshot and wiki-syntax is where it scores over tomboy. Anyone with any better alternatives?

[1]more about wiki syntax here
[2] follow the install instructions from the website.

P.S. I am not good at writing technical posts. This is a feeble attempt after a long time! Hope you find the app useful!

Linux: utorrent and desktop integration

2008-11-07T19:50:00.011+05:30

After a bit of work with python I am back to good old bash scripting. Before I begin the actual post a few words about utorrent. This is the only windows based program that I am still to find a substiture for. I know there are lots of good torrent clients there for linux but each one of them has some feature missing ( rtorrent cant queue torrent individually, transmission does not proide advanced options) or problems ( deluge can delete pieces while rechecking) or are resource hogs (azureus because of the java backend) and so I am still using utorrent. As and when rtorrent will get the queing feature implemented I will shift to it. Till then enjoy using utorrent with full desktop integration.

Here I am providing a bash script to provide desktop integration features for utorrent. These include open torrent with utorrent on dbl click, direct open from firefox etc.

Before using the script make sure that all ur drives are recognized by wine and have paths associated with them. It should look something like this picture after you use auto detect through winecfg.

After ensuring this do the following.

$ sudo gedit /usr/bin/utorrent

Paste following in the file and save it.

#!/bin/bash
LANG=en_US.utf-8
LC_MESSAGES=en_US.utf-8
TORRENT_FILE="$1"

path=`winepath "$TORRENT_FILE"`
final=${path:31}
#where 31 is no. of characters in /home/chinmay/.wine/dosdevices/
#change that number accordingly
wine "C:\Program Files\uTorrent\uTorrent.exe" "$final

"

Change the owner of the file and make it executable.

$sudo chown username /usr/bin/utorrent
$chmod +x /usr/bin/utorrent

Our script is now ready to be used. For it to work with Firefox change the setting in Edit->Preferences->Applications and select this utorrent script for torrent files. Should look something like this when you are done.

Do the same for general desktop integration ie. open with custom application and select the bash script and we are done.

Enjoy using utorrent till rtorrent adds a few more features. Btw, those interested in rtorrent can check Aditya's and Vedang's blogs for a guide. Happy downloading. :)

Script to restart ADSL modem automatically

2008-11-07T03:22:00.011+05:30

These days a lot of ISPs are giving free hours or night unlimited packages. However it seems that for the free hour to apply one need to start a new session ( ie restart the router/modem ) after those happy hours begin( a few people have discovered this the hard way :P ). For some ISPs this is ok but for people with BSNL connections this can be a big pain considering the 0200 shift time. So, with the help (and motivation) of my friend Aditya, I am presenting here a python code for doing the same. It can be scheduled to be run at the desired time according to your plan.

The basic script should be downloaded from this article at ubuntuforums. The .py file alone will suffice.

Next, we will need to make a few modifications to the code to make sure that it runs with our modem / router.

Prerequistes :

For this code to run it necessary that you have the python-pexpect package installed. Ubuntu users click here for the installation.

The code uses telnet to connect to your modem and then send required commands. But to configure the code correctly we will need to make sure that the inputs we provide are the ones expected by the modem interface.

First of all go the modem interface page through your web browser. ( this is usually at 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.254). Provide the necessary login detials. ( defualts are usually username == admin and password ==admin ). Once you are on the config page navigate to the services page to make sure that telnet is enable. The page should appear similar to this. Enable the telnet interface for lan.

Now that we know that the telnet interface is enable time to access it to check the settings. Open a terminal and do the following::

$telnet 192.168.1.1 #where 192.168.1.1 is the address that we previously used

This should take u to the telnet interface of your modem. I am pasting my output here. See the input required and the changes made to the final code pasted below ::

$ telnet 192.168.1.1
Trying 192.168.1.1...
Connected to 192.168.1.1.
Escape character is '^]'.
BCM96338 ADSL Router
Login: admin                                  #Input required here
Password:                                     #Input
Note: If you have problem with Backspace key, please make sure you configure your terminal emulator settings. For instance, from HyperTerminal you would need to use File->Properties->Setting->Back Space key sends.


Main Menu

1.  ADSL Link State
2.  LAN
3.  WAN
4.  DNS Server
5.  Route Setup
6.  NAT
7.  Firewall
8.  Quality Of Service
9.  Management
10. Passwords
11. Reset to Default
12. Save and Reboot
13. Exit
-> 12                                              #Input


Save current configuration and reboot?  Confirm [1-yes,2-no] ==> 1 #Input

Now in the final code pasted next observe that the string passed to p.expect() must match exactly with the ones at the #Input lines. Except the final one. Here you can directly send 1. Final code is pasted next and changes according to my interface made bold. Unnecessary lines are commented.



#!/usr/bin/env python
#
# This script will ping to google.bg and if network is
# unreachable it will connect to the modem and reboot it.

import os
import commands
import pexpect


def adsl_reboot():
  p = pexpect.spawn('telnet 192.168.1.1')

    p.expect('Login: ')
  p.sendline('admin')    # Sending Username.

        p.expect('Password: ')
  p.sendline('admin')    # Sending Password.
#    print "loggedin",
    p.expect('-> ')
  p.sendline('12')    # Sending command to the shell.

#    p.expect('Save current configuration and reboot?  Confirm [1-yes,2-no] ==> ')
    p.sendline('1')

  os.system('zenity --notification --text="The modem has been rebooted."')
   # Show an icon in the notification area


result = commands.getoutput("ping -c 1 google.bg")
#if result.find("Unreachable") == -1:
#    result = True
#    print 'Connected!'
#else:
result = False
print 'Not connected! - Rebooting the modem.'

if result == False:
  adsl_reboot()


#
# This was my first script.
# Author: Boris Bolgradov
#
# Big thanks to: walkerk, days_of_ruin and Psykotik!
# From http://ubuntuforums.org

The reboot script works perfectly for my setup. For the scheduling part refer to this article on Aditya's blog.

DISCLAIMER :: This code has been written at a friends request. The author or rather modifier has no knowledge of python (other than that needed here). For any queries regarding the original script please ask the original author at ubuntuforums. For queries regarding python ask Aditya ( I am sure he will be more than happy to help.) As far as the actual modifications are concerned all questions are welcome.

Enjoy your free net time. :)

KDE 4 on Windows

2008-11-02T17:24:00.003+05:30

That ain't a typo.

Yes, this might come as a savior for Windows. KDE 4 on windows has been available for some time now but using it hasn't been a smooth ride. With KDE 4.1 out that seems to be set to change. Check out the following links for more info ::

I am gonna give this a try as soon as my practical exams end. Hopefully amarok 2 beta 2 (or higher) will be included by then. If anyone does install this in the coming fortnight please put up a review.

Reading Linux Partitions in Windows

2008-11-02T16:37:00.003+05:30

Using two operating systems can be a pain when you need to switch between them (largely due to the fact that your college uses outdated copyright software ) and most of your data is on one partition. Well, reading NTFS drives in Linux is now a given with ntfs-3g but the other way around is not quite well developed.

But there are tools available to read and write ext2/3 partitions from Windows. I had been using DiskInternal's Linux Reader for a long time now. However this is quite a half-baked tool. It does not allow you to mount the partition. You can browse it and whatever file you need has to be saved to your Windows partition.

I recently came across another tools described on Quiz_Master's blog. Follow this link for info on the same. It allows you to mount the partition and use it as any normal windows drive. Read and write are both supported. But if you, like myself, don't trust anything running in Windoze there is the option to turn off write support. This is a really good tool and I haven't had any probs with it so far.

Some interesting web pages

2008-10-26T20:04:00.002+05:30

I came across these while I was passing time today. They all seem like good reads. Enjoy.

Linux Haters -- Interesting read

Reference for Ubuntu Starters -- Just what it says. However its more about the terminal. :)

and the best one ::

Launchpad Bug no. 1 -- How the hell did I miss this??!!

Live USBs and GUIs

2008-10-20T02:39:00.001+05:30

Its beta time on the Ubuntu release schedule again and I am back to making a Live USB of the Intrepid beta. This time however, I decide to take a different approach than the one I usually take -- described here. So, how about making Live UBSs in an automated fashion?? Well thats what this post is all about ::

For Ubuntu users there are currently 2 options availabe ::

Live USB system creator ::

This is the one I originally intended to use. However when I found the second one I decided against it. However this one is a good tool in its own right. Key features include :

Detects available USB sticks (using HAL)
Partitions USB stick with 1 partition
Sets partition bootable
Writes MBR to USB stick
Formats partition FAT32
Installs bootloader (syslinux) to partition
Writes bootloader configuration file
Copies necessary files from running Live CD to USB stick
Sets language and keyboard of USB Live system to match running Live CD
Optionally: Downloads and integrates Adobe Flash Player (extra feature)
Optionally: Enables persistent home (Intrepid and later only; currently broken)

However, it is recommended that you use this when you are in the Live environment itself. This kinda makes the idea of this tool feel a bit awkward for me. I mean, I make live usbs to avoid burning CDs. If I have to burn CDs as it is, the whole point is lost. Anyways, Linux always has other options.

usb-creator::

This is the tool that I did end up using finally. It provided all the features that the first utility provided ( except the flash player one - however that can be done when u are in persistant mode) plus it gives you persistance and the option of making the live usb through an existing installation or from a live environment.

Plus it directly accepts a CD or an iso image as input. The live usb I created is working quite well so far. Btw, this tool is now officially included in Intrepid.

Fedora 10

And against my usual practices I am also mentioning the tool for Fedora. Looks like this is being actively developed as well. It also includes a Windows executable. For more info take a look here.

PS :: Looks like the post count just hit 50 -- half century. Time to celebrate :P

Brisingr :: My thoughts...

2008-10-06T16:55:00.004+05:30

For the uninitiated :: Wikipedia links :: Brisingr , Inheritance cycle.

I am gonna try and keep this as spoiler free as I can but there are no guarantees. Tread forward with caution.

Brisingr starts off exactly where Eldest left off; Eragon and Roran are out to save Katrina from the Raz'zac. You would think that a book that starts off on such a note is sure to be fast paced and full of action. After all Paolini did expand the trilogy into a cycle coz he couldn't squeeze the story in a single book. Alas, Brisingr dissappoints in this department and many others as well.

Brisingr is one big book ( 748 pages) and yet after the reading all those pages there is little that is added to the story line. The dragon rider story elements are so few that you will feel the book is a chronicle of Alagaesia and the story elements are just fillers. Paolini has gone to great lenghts in describing the customs of the Varden, the dwarves and many other species of the land however the story of Eragon is totally lost. I believe Paolini made a big mistake in Eldest by making Roran one of the primary characters ( he should have gone with something like Scouring of the Shire to include the people of Carvahall). His story in Brisingr takes up so many pages you start believing that he is the main hero. Then theres the clanmeet of the dwarves. Its a bore. I mean who the hell cares how beautiful Orik's wife looks??

The story elements that are there seem a bit rushed as compared to the other leisurely narratives. Plus those who wanted a big Murtagh and Eragon one on one are gonna be disappointed. There are hardly any revelations in the entire book that are surprising or real good. More info of Eragons inheritance is given ( altough it wont come as a surprise to most ). Eragon gets a new sword; this part I thought was well written. ( this might seems like a spoiler but reading the first few chapter of the book will make his need quite apparent. He needs a sword ) .

I think my biggest gripe about Brisingr is that I fail to understand the merit of Paolini's decision to expand this into a cycle. After reading Brisingr we are still where we were at the end of Eldest (skip the new few lines if u really want it to be spoiler free) ::

The war still continues.
Eragon is still as stupid as ever and he still can't beat Murtagh one on one.
He gets a new sword.
One important character dies. ( I didnt like the way this was handled.)
And the only one major info :: Now we know the source of Galbatorix's power.

Other than the last one I think Paolini has wasted a chance to weave a great story and make us really long for the last book.

I might be a little too against the book but for me it was a let down (especially after Eldest) .My advice for readers is that you borrow this. For new readers .. wait till the last book comes out and then decide whether its worth the jump. Till then there are other complete trilogies like the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud that are much better.

Happy reading.

auto-apt and apt-file

2008-09-29T18:19:00.006+05:30

In one of my previous articles I had described the APT option to install all the packages required for a particular source code to compile. This is sufficient when one is installing standard packages, however what about missing files in case of your own source code or some non-standard application?

Case in point:: Missing include files in a particular source code.

One of the easiest methods for doing this (other than installing all packages whose name starts with lib) is using another great APT utility called "auto-apt" and the other option is finding the file and installing the right package using "apt-file".

auto-apt works great out of the box but is a bit of an overkill. However a few annoying bugs like this (is this really a bug) make the use of this great utility a big pain. But as always there are ways around everything.

The problem described in the above bug revolves around the fact that apt-file is unable to downland Contents-arch.gz from the archives and make a database. To overcome this we can use the -c|--cache option of apt-file nad point it to the auto-apt database.

$sudo apt-file -c /var/cache/auto-apt/ search < pattern >

Another way around is to copy all the auto-apt database into apt-files default location.

/var/cache/auto-apt$ sudo cp * /var/cache/apt/apt-file/

Now you are free to use auto-apt or apt-file as you want.

Linux Kernel Compilation Guide for Ubuntu users

2008-09-29T17:06:00.002+05:30

I have been trying to compile the kernel for the past few days and get everything in order. Now that I have everything in order, I thought of putting up this post. I am basically putting up various links to guides that I used ( will save you a lot of searching).

Packages

You can use the vanilla kernel from kernel.org or install the linux-source package from the Ubuntu repository. I used the latter as it also has the Ubuntu specific patches.

For the compilation process this guide is the best.

ALSA

After compile you will find that the sound on your compiled kernel does not work and the nvidia ( or ATI ) drivers are also not detected. To make this right just follow the guides below::

For alsa drivers, install the alsa-source package extract the archive and then give the following commands as root.



# ./configure --with-kernel=dir #where dir = your kernel source directory

# make
# make install-modules

If for some reason this fails, check these pages.

ALSA wiki

Other guide

nVidia

Getting the nvidia drivers working in the compiled kernel was a royal pain for me. May be I was googling for the wrong things. Anyways, I finally found the answer. Just follow this guide and you will have the nvidia drivers installed and running on your compiled kernel just fine.

I was also able to get this guide for installing ATI drivers from source. Don't know if this works or not. If anyone does try it, please comment about its validity.

EDIT :: It looks like master_kernel at ubuntuforums thought that his thread was not enough. He has made a GUI app which follows the steps in the thread and does everything for you. All though I still prefer the CLI way I thought this was a good thing for very new users. Plus it installs the nvidia and ati drivers all by itself. Go here for more info.

A few screenshots follow::

Happy compiling.

HOW TO ASK QUESTIONS

2008-09-10T19:52:00.007+05:30

This is a sincere request to all the readers of my blog ::

Please read

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

before asking them on any forums, ircs and most important of all in personal emails.

When I was told about this article by my friend Vedang, I never thought I was gonna put this up here. This article is written by a Linux kernel hacker and totally applies to his class of people. They deserve such respect ( not me) . But seriously; how hard can it be to Google around for answers or even search the official forums ( or some blog posts :P ) . I mean things like "Help me...xyz is not working??!!" are insanely frustrating. Moreover, some effort on your side ( google results , forums posts tried ) will help people helping you to eliminate possible 'noob' solutions and get you a solution sooner. So please do read the above document before asking for help ( even your friends :) ).

Btw this is how Linux Developers must feel about 'noob' questions ::

For those who are totally uninitiated -- even this and this might be a useful read.

DISCLAIMER ::

This article is not written because of or targeted at any particular individual. Any resemblance to real events would be considered a mere coincidence. People are always there to help,just do ur homework first.

Ubuntu : A collection of Personal Package Archives

2008-09-10T00:47:00.002+05:30

Apt / Aptitude is one of the features of Ubuntu ( and of course Debian ) that I like the most. The package availability is the largest that I have seen and the install is also the easiest. Well, to make things easier for people launchpad.com provides PPA's - the best repositories to get the most up to date .deb packages for your Ubuntu setup. I have listed a few of these below for Ubuntu 8.04 with a very short description. Just add them in the Third Party Tab in Synaptic and all the packages are ready to install.

Avant Window Navigator - A dock for Linux

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/reacocard-awn/ubuntu hardy main #AWN repo

Transmission - The default torrent client in Ubuntu

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/bortis/ubuntu hardy main #Trasmission

Pidgin and Firefox PPA

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/pidgin-developers/ubuntu hardy main #Pidgin developers

Pulse audio fixes for Hardy. Do check this article before using this.

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/psyke83/ubuntu hardy main #pulseaudio fixes

Compiz PPA

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/compiz/ubuntu hardy main #Compiz

Guake - A great terminal app

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/misery/ubuntu hardy main #Guake

VLC nightlies repository ( the one on the Videolan site is no longer working :( )

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/mapopa/ubuntu hardy main #VLC temp

Smplayer- A great player for Linux which combines the power of mplayer and VLC

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/themono/ubuntu hardy main #Smplayer

Google Gadgets for Linux

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/googlegadgets/ubuntu hardy main #Google Gadgets

Ubuntu : Install all pacakges needed to build a source code

2008-09-07T17:29:00.001+05:30

Ubuntu users (or others who hate Ubuntu) always complain about dependency problems while building something from source. Well, there is a very easy way to solve all those library and other dependency problems. Just use the following ::

$sudo apt-get build-dep < source-package-name >

I have posted this directly from the APT HOWTO . Check it out for a better understanding of APT's power.

APT : Prioritize certain repositories

2008-09-07T17:06:00.000+05:30

This article explains how to prioritize certain package repository ( or source) over the other.

This can be accomplished using the apt-pinning feature. A typical use case is prioritizing local packages over remote ones or installing older package rather than the new ( unstable ) one in other repository.

Just create a file 'preferences' in the '/etc/apt/' directory.

$gksudo gedit /etc/apt/preferences

Then add the packages required ::


Package: *
Pin: origin *
Pin-Priority: 600

The default priority is 500, anything greater will be prioritized.

For eg, if you want to install package 'skype' from the 'medibuntu' repository add the following ::

Package: skype
Pin: origin packages.medibuntu.com
Pin-Priority: 600

More info can be found here.

Download all xkcd

2008-09-06T19:35:00.000+05:30

You can now download all xkcd comics in one go using the following bash script.

#!/bin/bash
for i in `seq 1 472`
do
 wget http://xkcd.com/$i/
 wget `grep http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/ index.html | head -1 | cut -d\" -f2`
 mv `grep http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/ index.html | head -1 | cut -d\/ -f5 | cut -d\" -f1` $(echo $(echo $i"_")`grep http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/ index.html | head -1 | cut -d\/ -f5 | cut -d\" -f1`)
 
   rm index.html
done

Made a few modifications to the earlier code so that the comics are named according the sequence that they were put up.

Make the file executable and execute as ::

$sh filename

Happy reading.

Finally...Google Talk's Talk in Linux!!!

2008-08-09T17:00:00.000+05:30

First off, special thanks to Aditya and Amod Jaltade ( these guys have been using this).

I have been trying to get Google Talk's Talk functionality to work in Linux for a long long time. I tried quite a lot of options. Started with Google Talk itself through wine. It never worked. Then I went on to experiment with Jabbin and Tapioca, both of which gave the same results. Finally, I ended up using GTalk with Windows on Virtual Box ( which is CRAZY!!!). The end result-- I stopped using the talk feature. Finally, after so many days, I get it to work. Empathy is the answer to all the questions. It works like a charm ( atleast the talk part does).
Empathy is a IM client for Telepathy which in its latest release (v 0.23.3) supports the talk feature. You can find a installation guide for Ubuntu here.

As i mentioned earlier, it does work like a charm. However the project is quite nascent and within in a few minutes of using it I found the following features that are missing:::

No sound notifications, even on phone calls ( this can be rather frustating)
No notifications for new mails.
Invisible functionality of Gmail still doesn't work ( I think this is a Jabber issue).
File transfer is till not implemented.

You can find more of these missing features here. Most of them are to be included till the Gnome 2.26 release.

Even with all these shortcomings, I am still satisfied with the Talk part ( there is a slight echo during talk-- but better than no talk at all). Until the next release, enjoy Talking .

xkcd -- You gotta read this!!

2008-07-25T19:56:00.000+05:30

xkcd is a webcomic created by Randall Munroe. Some of them that I really liked...

You can get more here.

Compiz Earth!!!

2008-07-10T02:25:00.001+05:30

Compiz 0.7.6 comes with new plugins that allow you do quite a lot. The best of the lot is getting the earth out of your desktop. Check below--

The official compiz post for the same can be found here.

And the video of the same thing

To install Compiz 0.7.6 just add the following repository

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/compiz/ubuntu hardy main

Enjoy.

Valve's SOURCE Engine coming to Linux!!!!

2008-05-21T01:05:00.000+05:30

I can't believe that I missed this. This is great news for all gamers especially those who love Valve's games. Now you will be able to natively play the games based on the Source Engine on Linux. Check here for more info.

Movie Reviews::Speed Racer, Iron Man and The Usual Suspects

2008-05-20T20:15:00.000+05:30

Its been some time since I watched movies in a theater. So after my practicals were over I decided to do some catching up. Watched Speed Racer, Iron Man and The Usual Suspects ( this one is old). Here's what I think about them.

Speed Racer

First up, Speed Racer. The Wachowski brothers are back with this movie. Speed Racer is quite a colourfull or as my friend Amod put it, a bit too colourful. The thing that makes this movie good ( or bad ) is that its a totally faithful adaptation of the cartoon series. So, if you loved the cartoon, you will definitely enjoy this movie. There are great races, great scenes where Spritle and Chim Chim are up to their usual mischief and then theres Racer X. The acting is good overall. However as I mentioned before, the film being true to its sources makes it a bit hard for the new comers to accept. I mean, a driver hurling a honey bee hive at another driver to win a race isnt exactly what people usually have in mind. Bottom line is, if you watched the cartoon, go and watch this. If you did not watch it, be ready to see the most outrageous races ever.

My Rating :: 3/5

Iron Man

Another superhero movie?? I would rather put is as another good movie which tell the story of a super hero. Iron Man does a very good job narrating the rise of one of the iconic character of the Marvel universe. I am gonna keep this short and just say -- Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man) and the infinite amount of "Maaaazzz" that his character displays is reason enough to go and watch this film ( and I didn't even mention the super cool special effects).

My Rating :: 3.5 / 5

Tip:: Stay behind after the credits to get a glimpse of what might be a possible sequel setup.

The Usual Suspects::

I wont say much here. Kevin Spacey rocks!!!

My Rating :: 4 /5

OpenSolaris 2008.05 released!!

2008-05-07T18:18:00.000+05:30

The much talked about Project Indiana from the OpenSolaris community is finally getting a stable release. The OpenSolaris 2008.05 was released on the 5th of May. You can get it here . There are a lot of changes in it from Indiana DP2. Hope I get to check it soon ( currently in exams ). You can check a review of the release here.

Supernatural, Project Interviews and Submissions.....

2008-04-17T19:49:00.000+05:30

Been a while since I wrote an article without Linux in it...so lets get started.

Supernatural

Another TV show that I have started watching and gotten addicted to. Its good. First season follows a one monster per day routine with "The Demon" story in the background. A good season. Like the final two episodes a lot.

Sam and Dean (R to L)...What a great team!! ( that sorta rhymes!! :-) )

The second season starts off on a sad note, but has been really good so far ( have watched 8 eps till now. ). The ratings for the second season finale on TV.com are really making me happy :D .

EDIT:::Finished watching the second season. This show totally rocks!! Totally recommended. I am off to watch the third season....

Project Interviews

For those wondering what I do when I am not watching TV serials and passing time doing nothing, I am pursuing a BE ( Comp Sci) . We had interviews for our final year project sponsorship by Dreamz group this past week. And I have only two words to describe it.....Great Experience. We were asked real good questions which made us use our Grey cells quite a lot. Had a great a time with my team mates Gaurav, Kushal and Amey. We are now through to the final round and hope that we get the final sponsorship.

There are a few things that I learnt during the process.

I need to sharpen my C skills a lot.
Need to get better at Data Structures.
Aaah....rather than doing this one by one...lets just say that I need to put in a lot more effort. ( :-D)
and...hopefully I enjoy reading those books.

Submissions ( X-( )

Ok. This is one thing about engineering that i absolutely hate. This semester it been a royal pain.I mean why is this even there???

Anyways I am through them now and hopefully will be through them the next two semesters as well.

I just realized...I have been writing too long...I am off to watch Supernatural again...

Ubuntu Hardy :: Final release close....

2008-04-17T19:27:00.000+05:30

As most of you might have noticed on the counter on the right, its just a week till Ubuntu 8.04 is released. So, is it going to be worth the wait??? Well I guess it pretty much is.

The beta was real good and I have been using it for a month now. Being a beta, it wasnt without problems. The major one being the wifi one. For all the people having Intel wifi cards in their laptops, do take a look here . My view on this.....this is a BIG problem. I was able to manage the connections using WICD. So, my suggestions...ditch Network Manager and go to WICD. I think you will like it.

Coming back to the final release, I hope this wifi prob is sorted out till then. I am also still waiting for the webcam drivers to be available for the HP 6130us. May be I am not looking in the right place for these but anyways its not working for me right now. I havent ran into any other major problems since I started working with the beta. Its been better than Gutsy and I am really waiting for 8.04...just a week now....

Ubuntu Hardy Heron Alpha 6 :: Impressions

2008-03-14T16:35:00.000+05:30

After waiting for a long time I finally decide to take a dive into Hardy Heron when it hit the Alpha 6 stage and I am glad I did. It's not only fast, but it also looks great.

The Default Hardy Heron Desktop....nice artwork eh???

I haven't installed Hardy Heron yet, but using the LiveUSB has been a good experience. Hardy Heron includes the following new features and my views about them.

A new look theme, desktop background....both are cool.
GNOME 2.21.92 with the new GNOME VFS. Its a faster and better GNOME. It also includes encryption.
Brasero as the default CD/DVD burner.
Transmission as the default Bittorrent client.
Firefox 3 beta 3 --- looks good, but a bit buggy...( its a beta :D )
Overall, the total package is a lot faster than any other Ubuntu version.
Another great addition is the inclusion of the Policy Kit. It asks for password only when needed. Nice feature.
And to add icing on the cake it includes an installer which can install Ubuntu directly from Win.
There are a few other changes, but you will need to use it to feel the change . :-)

Check the screenshots below.

The install through Windows

The revved up Internet menu

Brasero

FOX 3 with the chaged file copy look

The Policy Kit (check the unlock button)

For those wondering, Hardy Heron goes beta on March 20 and the final 8.04 release is scheduled for April 24. For a list of other includes in Alpha 6 check this link.

Ubuntu LiveUSB....It works

2008-02-10T12:31:00.001+05:30

I have been using the Ubuntu Live USB since I made it and I must say I am pretty impressed. It works and it works really well.

Things that work:

All settings remain persistent.
Apt packages installed are all persistent.
Compiz settings manager and Emerald can be installed and persist.
AptOnCD can still be used.
Even Samba works

As of now I have found just one thing that does not work. The fstab entries do not persist. So you are going to have to manually mount the local disks each time. But that isn't a problem. Actually I find it a boon considering that the local disks on each PC will be different. Haven't tried using the same USB on another PC, but I am guessing it wont be much of a problem. Anyways, it still is a great thing as a rescue system and even to use it regularly as an OS, which I have been doing ever since I got it to work.

Check out a few screen-shots below.

Fox, Anjuta and Compiz manager with Group and Tabs

The Cube Still Works

Belenix,Ubuntu and LiveUSBs

2008-02-10T01:54:00.000+05:30

A few days ago Vedang introduced me to Belenix, an OpenSolaris based OS. It had a few bugs regarding HDD installation and I was forced to use the LiveCD which as with all other LiveCDs was terribly slow. But then Anil Gulecha happened to Belenix. He's developed a script to generate a Live USB out of the LiveCD. The usb version of Belenix is blazing fast. I was very satisfied with the result (add to the fact that my cdroms been throwing out LiveCDs while the system is still running and you will see :D ).
Considering the positives of the Belenix LiveUSB, I have been looking for something similar for my favourite distro Ubuntu. I ended up with this link. Its got a complete step by step procedure to make your own Ubuntu LiveUSB. Whatever changes you make to the system remain i.e they are persistent, even the extra packages that you install. So now you can have your own LiveUSB with all the packages you need pre-installed.

PS:: I am writing this blog entry from the LiveUSB. You can use your installed system for the procedure, running from the LiveCD is not mandatory.

PPS:: If the cdrom keeps looking for the CD during boot (from the USB ), just eject it and the process will continue.

Joomla

2008-02-08T18:29:00.000+05:30

I am back meddling in cdk's blog.. hope you find the link interesting and useful.

Joomla! is an award-winning Content Management System (CMS) that will help you build websites and other powerful online applications. Best of all, Joomla! is an open source solution that is freely available to everybody.
check it out here

A Few Movies

2008-01-01T00:33:00.000+05:30

I have been watching quite a few movies these past few months. Just listing them along with my rating for each. Some of them are really good check them out. (Providing iMDb links for each) . The list is totally random.

John Rambo 3/5
Lord Of War 3.5/5
Taare Zameen Par 5/5 (My choice for "Movie of the Year")
I Am Legend 2.5/5
Fight Club (English) 4/5
Ratatouille 5/5
Se7en 4/5
Twelve Monkeys 3.5/5
Saving Private Ryan 3.5/5
Shoot 'Em Up 2/5
The Pursuit Of Happyness 4/5
Transformers 3.5/5
The Illusionist 3/5
The Bourne Ultimatum 4/5
TMNT 3/5
Rescue Dawn 3/5
A Few Good Men 3.5/5
American Gangster 3.5/5
3:10 To Yuma 4/5
The Simpsons Movie 3.5/5
Zodiac 3/5
Surfs Up 3/5
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 4/5
Jab We Met (Hindi) 3.5/5
Om Shanti Om (Hindi) 0.5/5 (that too for Akshay)
Dil Dosti Etc 2.5/5
Final Fantasy 7 : Advent Children 3.5/5

Enjoy. :-D

What to Watch when the Writers Go on Strike??

2007-12-27T01:07:00.003+05:30

As many of you may know, the WGA has been on strike for quite some time now. It has led to quite a few changes in the expected TV schedules and a few shows getting shorter seasons ( Heroes for example). But with the New Year coming up, there are a few options that open up as well.

Smallville

This great series continues its 7th season on the 31st of January. I think they still have a few episodes remaining before they stop. For more info check here: Kryptonsite.

Prison Break

Prison Break returns with the adventures of Micheal on the 14th of January.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Terminator fans rejoice. A dedicated series to the exploits of Sarah Connor after the events of T2 starts airing on the 13th of Jan. Check out a small teaser below.

More info here Terminatorsite.

Lost

More good news on the way. Lost returns with season 4 on the 31st of Jan. Check the trailer below.

Till the writers get what they deserve enjoy the above. :-D

REVIEW: I Am Legend

2007-12-27T00:00:00.000+05:30

I Am Legend starts off with a general man triumphs over cancer kind of press and news releases and then quickly takes you to a totally deserted New York city. OK, something went terribly wrong with the cure. However, something also went terribly wrong with the film.
The first half an hour is great. The evacuated ruins of New York, Will Smith hunting deer ( Yes! in NY) etc etc, you start believing that this can just get better. Unfortunately, besides Will Smith, who delivers a constant and good acting performance, pretty much every thing else just falls apart. The graphics used to render the 'Dark Seekers' are bad in comparison to those used to render NY. And moreover how come every human affected by the virus look so same?? I mean it looks like they made one model and then copy pasted them everywhere.
Besides the poor graphics in the later half of the film, the problem with 'I Am Legend' is that it leaves too many questions unanswered. Will Smith states

Six billion people on Earth when the infection hit. KV had a ninety-percent kill rate, that's five point four billion people dead. Crashed and bled out. Dead. Less than one-percent immunity. That left twelve million healthy people. The other five hundred and eighty-eight million turned into your dark seekers, and then they got hungry and they killed and fed on everybody. Everybody! Every *single* person that you or I has ever known is dead! Dead!

Ok. So if this is the case why the hell is he making that antidote??? The effort it took him to capture one dark seeker for test shows that its bloody impossible to cure the five hundred and eighty-eight million other. Then theres this whole he is totally immune thing. Well hes pretty lucky :D . And why are those dark seekers seeking him?? for dinner. You can only guess the answers to these questions as no concrete answers are given in the movies ( or may be I didn't get them) .

But even though I Am Legend has so many weaknesses, it has some great scenes that you will enjoy. Will Smith playing golf a top a fighter plane is some sight. The way his Dog acts is also very well done. But these scenes are very scarce and end too quickly. All said and done, it aint good but it aint trash. This movie is definitely not a Legend .Watch it for Will Smith and Samantha (the dog).

Rating ------------------------------------- 2.5/5

Linux system services list:explanations..

2007-12-16T21:14:00.000+05:30

A comprehensive list of Linux system services you might have on your computer. Each service is explained and there's a recommendation whether to enable or disable it. Also a quick tutorial on how to manage the services (enable/disable) on Fedora and Ubuntu systems
check it out here

Generate Awesome Photomosaics On Linux With Metapixel

2007-12-11T22:25:00.000+05:30

The person who brought us the wine guide for The Orange Box gives another great article. Its sort of a guide to create things like this -

This is called The Last Jedi Supper

Check it out here.

Gnome Do

2007-12-11T22:22:00.000+05:30

GNOME Do allows you to quickly search for many objects present in your GNOME desktop environment (applications, Evolution contacts, Firefox bookmarks, files, artists and albums in Rhythmbox, Pidgin buddies) and perform commonly used commands on those objects (Run, Open, Email, Chat, Play, etc.).

Exaile -music player for GTK+

2007-12-04T20:37:00.000+05:30

Exaile is a music player aiming to be similar to KDE's Amarok, but for GTK+ and written in Python.

check out here

Orange Box : Behind the Scenes

2007-12-03T12:00:00.000+05:30

REVIEW: HL2 : Episode 2 (Orange Box review part 2)

2007-12-02T23:55:00.000+05:30

Episode 2, the second episodic release in the trilogy of release was released by Valve in their much appreciated Orange Box. The first part of the Orange Box review contained the Portal review.

Now lets check out Episode 2.

GAMEPLAY::

Gordon Freeman is back and he is back with a bang. Episode 2 start with you and Alyx caught in the train wreck. Most of the time in episode 2 is spent in going to the secret hideout of the Resistance to deliver the package Alyx had retrieved in the Combine Citadel before it went kaboom. Its important and and the Combine are ready to do anything in their power to stop you from getting to the base. This includes, putting the deadly Combine Hunters, first of the few new foes in Episode 2 , hot on your trail. You will encounter your first combine hunter in one of the great and impacting parts of this game. The second new foe is the Antlion worker. What Valve has done is, they have basically taken all good elements from HL 2 and improved upon them in Episode 2. If if you had any gripes with Episode 1, they will all be addressed here.

Combine Hunters. These things are fast and furious!!

They game, unlike episode 1 which was restricted to City 17, takes place in much more varied locations. Theres a much more open environment to play out here. Vehicles make a return in Episode 2 (for better or worse) and you will be playing quite a lot of part of the second half of the game riding your fancy car. As far as weapons are concerned, all the previous ones return. There is a very good addition to your arsenal in the form of the Magnusson device which you will be using heavily in the last level.

Thats how the Magnusson device works. Simple eh??

As far as the story goes EP2 makes major strides in this department. The story is well scripted and the end leaves you wanting to play Episode 3 the very next moment. Some of the scripted events in the game are really great. The Dog vs Strider fight which was shown at the end of the trailer is very well done. Besides that the voice acting is as great as ever.

Alyx is a very useful side-kick

In terms of hours this game offer a little bit more than EP1 but still a lot less than standard shooter. But its episodic content, so you have to be satisfied.

GRAPHICS::

Episode 2, powered by the Source engine looks stunning as ever. Episode 2 takes place in a variety of environs and Source engine does a great job of rendering them all beautifully. The facial expressions of the characters and the lip-sync is the best I have ever seen.

Nature is so beautiful...

SOUND::
The sound effects and the soundtrack are top-notch and are supported by a very good act from the voice actors.

Dr. Magnusson...this guy just cant stop
boasting about his creations. (Check out Alyx's expression).

The only gripe I have with Episode 2 is that it ends too fast. I have added a few more screen shots below and a link to a very good Half-Life related site.

RATING:: 9/10................A Must-play game.

Check out this site - HALF-LIFE SAGA STORY GUIDE

The Dark Knight : The Joker is revealed

2007-12-02T18:56:00.000+05:30

All those who were waiting to see the face of fear can now catch a glimpse of Heath Ledger's Joker at Empireonline's page here. This seems to be the most faithful depiction of the Joker ever made on screen.

For more exciting news on the upcoming Batman movie : The Dark Knight, check Batman-on-film.

New contirbutor to the blog

2007-12-01T17:04:00.000+05:30

I am proud to announce that my friend Gaurav (codenamed stargazr) , has accepted my request to become a contributor on this blog. He has already put up a few very good and interesting articles.
Welcome mate. Keep up the good work.

Myths, Lies, and Truths about the Linux kernel

2007-12-01T13:01:00.000+05:30

Keynote talk at OLS 2006 here.

Linux and Gaming??

2007-12-01T12:58:00.000+05:30

Gaming sucks in linux? or does it really? take a look Linux games.

Most games found in the above list aren't top of the line bestsellers but various windows emulators like Wine and Cedega are there to handle these problems. Cedega's game compatibility list here gives a big list of games which can be made to work flawlessly on Linux. However, Cedega is not free, you need to pay a monthly fee for their service. But that's where Wine comes in handy.

For example, the latest games like Portal , Half-Life 2 : EP 2 can be made to work with Ubutnu easily. Just follow this guide.

Malicious commands on Ubuntu forums..

2007-12-01T12:47:00.000+05:30

"ATTENTION ALL USERS: Malicious Commands

I'd like to take a moment of your time to discuss a recent disturbing trend the staff has been noticing on the forums, and also take this as an opportunity to raise awareness of this situation through education.

We've recently had an increase in the number of dangerous commands being posted on the forums. Don't pretend you don't know what I mean -- commands that cause massive damage or disruption to the user's computer."

Read the above article at ubuntu forums

REVIEW : Portal (Orange Box review Part 1)

2007-12-01T02:53:00.000+05:30

Valve's released its expected Orange Box compilation on the 10 th of October. Its packs Half Life 2 (winner of more than 35 'Game of the Year' Awards), Half Life 2 - Episode 1, Half Life 2 - Episode 2, Team Fortress 2 and Portal into a single box. It is selling at at price of Rs. 999/- in India. Now for that price,I would recommend you to buy it even for the old games i.e HL2 and HL2:EP1. But do the new games hold any value??

In this two part review of the Orange Box, I will be reviewing Portal and HL2: EP2, the two new single player components by Valve. This one deals with Portal and the next one ( probably to be uploaded later in the day) will contain the HL2 : EP2 review.

A typical Portal level. Turrets, traps and the Portal Gun.

Portal is a sort of guided tour/puzzle solving platformer / gameplay innovation short game packed by Valve in the Orange Box. It basically revolves around solving puzzles in the current level to go on to the next. Sounds boring?? Well , you couldn't be more mistaken. Al tough Portal is a puzzle solving game, the concept itself sets it apart from anything you might have played till date.

Gameplay::
In Portal, the only weapon at your disposal is a Portal gun designed by Aperture Laboratories. The normal fire opens a exit portal and the alternate fire opens the entry portal. You can basically go from one place to another avoiding various death-traps using these portal paths. Portal being a puzzle oriented game, there are no enemies as such; there are however acid pools, turrets and various other problems blocking you from your exits. All this can be a little tedious to explain. A better option would be this video.

If you think that this being a puzzle solving game will have no story, you are again mistaken. Not only does it have a story, Valve has taken it to the next level by cross linking it with the Half Life 2 universe in EP2. So, in EP3 , we just might see Gordon Freeman wielding a Portal gun.
The total gameplay time for Portal is considerably small but there are advanced levels and other stuff to do once the game is done.

Recursive PORTALS!?!?!

Graphics::
Like all other games in the Orange Box, Portal is powered by the Source engine. Valve has made some changes to the engine but they don't reflect much in Portal. It is always a closed corridor indoor environment. The Source engine has done a very good job again and the Graphics are topnotch in this game as well. However there is not much variety in the graphics until the last 2 levels. The rendering of the of the Portals is some sight.

How can I be there, when I am actually here???!!

Sound::
There is not much variety here but the soundtrack is good. I would like to mention that the scripting for the dialogs by the tour guide is exceptional. Its very funny and strange and intriguing at times. The voice acting is also marvelously done.

A moving platform that goes under the wall..

I would recommend the Orange Box even if it had Portal alone. The innovativeness in this game is totally different than anything else in the gaming world.

Rating :: 9.5/10 ................................................A Must-play game.

REVIEW: Call Of Duty 4 Modern Warfare

2007-12-01T00:09:00.006+05:30

Infinity Ward's bestselling title Call of Duty is back. Surprisingly, Infinity Ward have dropped the usual and successful World War 2 scenario for this edition. Instead , this version ,as the name suggests, comes in a new Modern world and a modern style. The weapons are new the battles and wars are fictitious, but the overall feel of this edition of COD still remains great

Graphics:

The graphics, as COD 2, are again top notch. The smoke effects, the character models, the weapons, vehicles everything looks great.

WOW!! Night Vision!!

The engine does a very good job of bringing the modern world to life. Vegetation, which has a major part in the game also is beatifully and realistically done. Its not as good as Crysis, but its great. The video sequences are also very well done especially the weapons detailing and stuff.

Gameplay:

Shadows are done pretty well.

The basic gameplay remains similar to previous editions of COD i.e. sneak and shoot. You will be playing 2 characters for most part of the game; a US marine and a British marine. There is very good mission in which you take on the role of Capt. Price (YES :-D he's in this one as well) in a sort of a flashback sequence. Its a sniping part with a little bit of stealth involved. It remains by favorite mission of the game. the story is also great. The fictitious war is very well scripted.

The weapons are well designed. They handle and feel exactly the way they should. The best thing is the environment of the game. You will feel the intensity and the action of a real war.

Sound :

Sound is vitally important for a game like COD and it absolutely delivers. The general effect of bullet, vehicles and blast are very well done. The soundtrack also is very solid. The sound does its job of creating a very war like environment.

Once again Infinity Ward has delivered a good and solid playing experience with this edition of COD. The story is good, the gameplay is well done and the total time for game completion, though a little short wont leave you unsatisfied. Then again, theres always the multi player option for those inclined towards that arena. In all, another very good game.

Rating : 8/10 .......................................................Recommended.

2007-11-30T23:52:00.000+05:30

Just found this site - the How-To Geeks. Contains a lot of neat how-tos ( at least the titles look good. :D ).Didnt get time to look at more than 2,3 howtos but looks good. Its also got a separate section for Ubuntu :) which contains about 146 good howtos.

Enjoy.

Dial-up on Linux - Always look for the answer....

2007-11-30T23:42:00.000+05:30

Its been quite a while since I posted. Well, I am back now and back to Linux. The process of trying to work with Windows again was just too boring. The only problem I had with Linux was that I assumed that Linux and dial-up modems couldn't work together. As of yesterday midnight, those assumptions have been canned and thrown in to the far reaches of space :-D Since then I have found myself working continuously on my favourite OS with no complaints whatsoever.

Well the process in itself was rather simple. Ubuntu forums again came to the aid (they never fail ). So, how easy is it?? Just take a look at the following steps and you will realize -

1 . Linuxant provides modem drivers for the Conexant dial up modems, which incidently many of us in India use. So, visit Linuxant's webpage and just download the required drivers corresponding to your linux distro . They all come with install instructions follow them and your driver is installed.

If you have any problems check here.

2. Then just install Gnome-PPP application in Linux and configure the connection setting s as you would in Windows i.e the user name and password. Click connect and you are online.

Of course you will have to download the drivers from a computer connected to the internet :P . Thats not a big hassle at all as most of them are below 5 mb.(the one for ubuntu is 1.3 mb only....I love Ubuntu.. :) ). And for those who use the torrent network, a torrent providing drivers of nearly half a dozen distros can be found here.

Now, for the conclusion I would like to put up a few pros and cons of using dial-up in Linux.

Pros ::

1. The connection speed seems improved a bit. It does seem odd. Gtalk, ( using the web based gadget or desktop application ) which used to disconnect intermittently in Window has been working flawlessly in Linux( using the client or web based gadget).

2. Setup is insanely simple.

Cons ::

1. Now this is going to come as a shock for long time open source users-- "Linuxant drivers are NOT FREE". They do offer a free version but it limits the speed to 14.4 kbps ( or so they say... I have been using the free version and still I found the above improvements ).

Just a tip--- Check the torrent.

For those wondering why the title was "Always look for the answer...", well, I just realised that the only reason I was not able to connect was that I never wanted to :( . Always look for the answer, keep aside those assumptions and use open source. 8)

Happy Surfing.

-CDK

HALO 2 - Totally Playable on XP

2007-07-16T17:21:00.000+05:30

Master Chief returns, now on the PC. Is he restricted by the "Vista only" tag??? I don't think so. Halo 2 can be perfectly run on the Windows XP platform ( that would be a huge relief for those who are facing compatibility issues in Vista and are fans of the series.) The method is explained in full detail on this site. Its quite a simple process, however, whether its legitimate to run Halo 2 on XP??? I guess we will never know....For now enjoy Master Chief's return.

P.S :: Will post a review when I complete the game.

Linux Bash commands and DOS equivalents

2007-07-07T00:34:00.000+05:30

Linux newbies or people who don't use Linux do so mostly due to the fear of the terminal and bash commanding interface. Although almost all new linux distros are totally user friendly and implement great GUIs, there is sometimes a need to do a few things the old school way i.e. using the terminal. Most of the posts on forums also address problems using bash and terminal commands. The following site will provide a great deal of help to all newbies and reference to all regular linux users. It has all the usual DOS commands and their Linux counterparts plus a bit of extra stuff.
Check it out.

Linux/UNIX for DOS Users

Reinstall GRUB bootloader from LiveCD

2007-07-06T12:53:00.000+05:30

A major problem faced by multi-os users having Windows and Linux is that when one installs Windows again after linux the GRUB boot loader will be busted from the MBR. Installing linux again is a strenous process. A better option would be to use a Live CD.

Total credit for the following goes to catlett from Ubuntu forums.

If u hav a live cd ....eg Ubuntu....the following method will definitely work..

This will restore grub if you already had grub installed but lost it to a windows install or some other occurence that erased/changed your MBR so that grub no longer appears at start up or it returns an error.

(This how to is written for Ubuntu but should work on other systems. The only thing to take note of, when you see "sudo" that will mean to you that the following command should be entered at a root terminal.)

Boot into the live Ubuntu cd. This can be the live installer cd or the older live session Ubuntu cds.

When you get to the desktop open a terminal and enter. (I am going to give you the commands and then I will explain them later)

Code:

sudo grub

This will get you a "grub>" prompt (i.e. the grub shell). At grub>. enter these commands

Code:

find /boot/grub/stage1

This will return a location. If you have more than one, select the installation that you want to provide the grub files.
Next, THIS IS IMPORTANT, whatever was returned for the find command use it in the next line (you are still at grub>. when you enter the next 3 commands)

Code:

root (hd?,?)

Again use the value from the find command i.e. if find returned (hd0,1) then you would enter root (hd0,1)

Next enter the command to install grub to the mbr

Code:

setup (hd0)

Finally exit the grub shell
Code:

quit

That is it. Grub will be installed to the mbr.
When you reboot, you will have the grub menu at startup.

For more info go to

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=224351

Sync Sony Ericsson Mobiles with Linux

2007-07-06T12:46:00.002+05:30

Official software for syncing mobiles with linux is not available, however Multisync can be used with equal effectiveness.

Check the following link for the complete guide for syncing your mobile with Ubuntu. The guide is written for w700i but can be used for other mobiles as well.

Multisync guide

Thanks to Aetherius on ubuntu forums.

EDIT :: Or you can use Wammu -- seems better than multisync.

Softwares for Sony Ericsson moblies

2007-07-06T11:50:00.000+05:30

The Sony Ericsson brand of mobiles are are totally great. The only grudge I have about them is the PC suite. It does not live up to the standards set by the phone. But, this is where free software comes in . The following few softwares will allow you to get that bit extra from your great phone.

MyPhoneExplorer :

A total replacement to the official Sony Ericsson PC Suite, this provides great syncing capabilities along with horde of other notable features. The calender can be updated directly from the PC, messaging can be done from the PC and total backups can also be performed. The statistics provided by this software are also awesome...Check the screen shot of the calender view below.

Themes Creator:

This is a great utility for creating and editing themes for your mobile...Make it look as good as it can.

Both these softwares can be found on the Lasyk webpage. The site also contains lots of themes wallpapers and other stuff.

For more themes, firmware updates and other guides check Esato and eSeth.

For Java applications for your mobile phones check the site GetJar.

Complete Linux Installation Guides

2007-07-04T07:10:00.000+05:30

Refer the following sites for all sorts of linux guides..

Howtoforge

Ubuntu India

A complete installation guide for Ubuntu 7.04 can be found here. Its a very good guide with detailed pictures of each step along with post installation guides for software installation.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R - SOC : A Review

2007-07-01T00:46:00.001+05:30

S.T.A.L.K.E.R - Shadow of Chernobyl is a FPS from the stables of GSC gameworld pusblished by THQ. The game is placed in the 30 km area surrounding the Chernobyl NPP called the Zone. Another explosion occurs in the area in 2006 causing nuclear fallout resulting in the zone. The game starts with a little cutscene of a truck accident. Apparently our character is in that truck just manages to survive the blast, but now he suffers from amnesia (quite a common disorder among gaming and hollywood heroes :-D ).

GAMEPLAY :

As the amnesiac stalker (named "the marked one" ) the gameplay basically revolves around completing tasks assigned to us by guys around the zone, including traders, other stalkers and various factions. Completions of these tasks gains the player rewards and a few insight into his past and the answers to the questions regarding the zone. Besides the main storyline tasks there are various subtasks and missions which the player can choose to perform or to ignore depending upon his liking. As the game progresses the game goes deeper into the zone and its secrets. S.T.A.L.K.E.R, though basically a FPS , has a decent amount of RPG elements mixed in
it. Equipment changes and other stuff hav quite a lot of RPG touches. Although these are mostly well done they do tend to create a bit of frustation.

RPG ELEMENTS

Besides the player there are a horde of NPC characters in the game who are free to do whatever they want in the zone ( including trying to kill us). The players actions towards the NPC and the completion of various tasks has an effect on the games progress....which can lead it to seven different endings....so theres lot to be explored in the zone and lots of ways to do it. ( resulting in a lot of re playability).
The story and the presentation are also pretty strong and do not disappoint.

What the hell!!! My weapons jammed ??? ( Realism in S.T.A.L.K.E.R)

GRAPHICS:

Everything turning into an odd shade of black
and yellow!! Radiation looks dangerous.

Powering the graphics of stalker is the X-ray engine by GSC. The engine based on DX9, does an excellent job of rendering the zone. It provides for a detailed environment with believable radiation and psi effects. The strength of the engine shows in the detailed rendering of the complete day and night cycle through out the game together with stunning weather effects.

Detailed weather effects

SOUND :

Sound is a very important factor in stalker....it produces that immersing effect. The weapons, the ricochets and the general dialogs are very well done. However the failure of provision of subtitles for NPC conversations ( mostly in russian) is a letdown.

The sky is rendered quite beautifully

All in all S.T.A.L.K.E.R is a great game with a few negligible flaws which provides a very good FPS experience with a hell lot of re playability.

I would give it 8.5/10.....Highly recommended.

-CDK

Smallville getting better & better!!!

2007-06-26T00:59:00.000+05:30

Just finished watching the season 6 finale of Smallville and I must say, it was one of the best seasons of Smallville. The transformation of Lex, Phantom zone criminals, Lexana and the finale revealing of the next villain were extremely well done. Michael Rosenbaum continues to impress as Lex Luthor; another good season from him. Tom Welling and Allison Mack are as good as ever.
The Justice League in the first half of the season was also very well done. Green Arrow totally kicks Lex's a**.

Can't wait for the season 7 premier, especially with Martian Manhunter and Bizzarro on the lose.....

P.S: For those who dont know much about Smallville, the Smallville wiki is an excellent place to start.

Desktop feature

2007-06-26T00:39:00.000+05:30

For all those wondering how that was done to the Desktop, check the following sites...

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Feisty#Eye_Candy

http://wiki.beryl-project.org/index.php/Install/Ubuntu

http://www.beryl-project.org/

Of course you should have Linux for that. Ubuntu is good starting ground.

Check out ubuntu.com for more info.

Ubuntu + Beryl = SWEEET!!!

2007-06-26T00:20:00.000+05:30

Installed Beryl on Ubuntu again today.....results are totally sweet...
The one above shows the 3D desktop feature and the one below shows task switching circular style. All this added with window previews, special effects and you are in for an enjoyable desktop experience...

Back to HL: 2

2007-06-25T19:57:00.000+05:30

Its been two days since I started playing STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. Seems good. Lots of variations in gameplay. Graphics also top-notch; right up there with the likes of Half-Life 2. Hmm....is it really that good. Why not check it out? So, I pop my HL: 2 cd back in my ROM go through the strenuous STEAM verification and start it all again. The result??? Same as always....

HL: 2 just doesn't seem to have any competitor!!!

I might just post a review of both the games here....till then enjoy these review

Gamespot HL 2 review

IGN HL 2 review