existence trainer

check out mp3splt . Its not in the Jaunty repos, but it is in Karmic!

Here are some tools that Ubuntu, or Linux generally, seems to lack: A good WYSIWYG html editor. Up until about a year ago, I was pretty satisfied with quanta plus. Since then I have become increasingly disappointed with it, mainly because no one seems to be porting it to Qt4, or developing it substantially. What had such great potential seems to be languishing. KompoZer crashes a lot - I'm waiting for the new version to come out (still in alpha), but I'm less than certain it will be better (and NVU is dead). Bluefish - although its not a WYSIWYG editor, I still think it could be good if they'd ever release a new version that updates a lot of antiquated crap in there (like not knowing how to open a browser easily) Decent blogging software Mainly I use scribefire (I'm using it now) - its ok - but it only offers the simplest options for blogging. If I want any type of formating that goes beyond a bullet point, I've got to know my html (which it visually formats in a ve...

I'm beginning to get frustrated with certain aspects of the Ubuntu development cycle, and in this post I'm going to try my best to spell out my complaint and what I think should be done about it. My Complaint First, let me say that I'm a huge Ubuntu fan. Since Gutsy (when I first started using Ubuntu) each of the iterations of Ubuntu has made large, important strides to becoming a preeminent OS. Many of the things that annoyed me about the desktop experience have been have been fixed or minimized, and with the release of Jaunty I've had very few complaints about things not doing what I want/expect them to, very few crashes, and less annoyances than at any other time using a linux based OS. As I've written before, Jaunty is the first time a Linux vendor has released a distribution that I'd pretty much recommend to anyone. As you can see, I'm a very happy user. So my complaint then isn't about the great work being done on Ubuntu, its rather an end-user com...

Jaunty is very good. Its the first version of a linux distribution that I'd pretty much recommend to anyone to try (with only a few minor caveats about possible hardware issues and the fact that Linux users still can't watch netflix). It has made vast improvements over Hardy from a year ago. Its stable, snappy, and quite a number of annoyances that I onced experienced have been fixed or minimized. Below I go through these in more detail. Now, though I want to focus on what I hope for the next version of Ubuntu (codenamed "Karmic Koala"). Cloud computing is the wave of the future, so I'm very happy this development cycle is making this a focus. But I'm doubtful they will go far enough to really make a lot of difference for most people. What people want now is to be able to sync up there data with various computers they possess and with online services they rely on. To this effect: Evolution needs to sync seamlessly with Google calander, email, and contacts. Evo...

Here are the posts where I've provided tutorials on how to get things working on either Linux in general or Ubuntu in particular: Accessing your Ubuntu Box from Anywhere My fstab Here are some quick troubleshooting tips I've encountered when using Ubuntu or the software on it: Import Openoffice Spreadsheet into a Writer Table Download Streaming Media on Linux Useful Intrepid Repos TOR Configuration in Ubuntu and Firefox Restore and Backup Virtualbox VDI files

Over the past couple of weeks, I have experience a larger number of stubborn problems on my Ubuntu Intrepid machine. Here are just a couple of the problems I've been experiencing: A number of annoying Firefox problems. Two in particular: (1) When I'm downloading files, sometimes firefox will tell me that its got just a few more seconds to download when in fact it has finished downloading. This is annoying because it leaves *.part files all over the place. (2) When I shut down firefox, it has become more frequent that it doesn't fully shut down, and instead I have to go into the system monitor to kill it manually. VLC stopped working for me on *.mp4 and *.wmv files. In fact the only sorts of videos it seems to play consistently are *.mpeg files. And yes, I have all the codecs installed (so fuck off). I have to use mplayer instead. When I insert my flash drive into the USB port, it no longer automatically mounts it. Instead I have to go to Places->Computer and double click...

The tip can be found here . Basically, here is what you do: Create a new Writer Table with the number of columns and rows you need In Calc, select and copy the range of cells you want to import into Writer In Writer, use Paste Special below or above the Writer table (not in the table, yet). For 'Selection', choose either "Formatted text [RTF]" or "HTML (HyperText Markup Language)". This creates a temporary table. Select and copy the contents of the newly created (but badly formatted) temporary table. Paste the contents of the temporary table into the original table you created in the first step. Delete the temporary table.

Back in April, when I was using Hardy, I wrote this about what I'd like to see in future versions of Ubuntu. Now that Intrepid is out, its time to re-evalute the list to see what made it and what didn't A GUI wrapper for utf: YES. Its called gutf. That said, I still haven't figured out how to set up internet connection sharing with it :( Until then, I'll stick with Firestareter Two-way synchronization between evolution and Google calander: YES (at least partial). In Hardy there was one-way synchronization. In Intrepid, although its somewhat hidden, its there. My Impression - not ready for prime time. For better or worse, cloud computing is going to be a big part of the way we do things. Google, of all companies, will be front and center in this. Advanced Desktop settings already pre-installed (or some simplified version of it). NO. This still confuses me - if you are going to make compiz a default part of the Desktop out of the box, then why not have a configuration to...

If you are interested in Debian (esp. because Lenny was just released - yay), but don't want to install it on your system, let me introduce you to the Debian Live website. Here you can download live cds of this most venerable of distributions.

I've been keeping a close watch on the development of Songbird , a fantastically innovative cross-platform audio player in the spirit of itunes (though it looks like it might exceed itunes in the near future). Recently version 1.0 was released, and so I thought I'd briefly review it here, as well as provide some nifty little tips that make the experience all the more enjoyable (especially for Ubuntu users). First thing, songbird is not yet in the Ubuntu repositories (hopefully this will change for the Jaunty release) - so there are two main ways to install it: Download the tarball package, extract it where you want, and symlink to it in your .bashrc (this is they way I did it). Download the Songbird deb package from getdeb: here . Once installed, there are a couple of addons that I add immediately: LyricMaster - Fetch lyrics and save them back to the file MediaFlow - Like itunes album art preview. Normally, though, I have this disabled because mashtape is much more functional...

Producing a shinny new updated Windows XP disk is easy if you have (or at least know about) the right tools. Assuming you have a XP service pack 2 installation cd (or iso), you can do any of the following if you like: slipstream sp3 into it incorporate hotfikes incorporate, say, SATA drivers - if you want to be able to install in on many (if not most) new computers. incorporate programs like: Firefox, VLC, WP11, IE7, etc. If you want to integrate Windows Media Player 11, do this before following the instructions below. If you want to integrate drivers from DriverPacks , again, do this before using nLite. First, make sure you have Net Framework 2.0 installed, and then get a copy of nLite and install it. Then copy the entire content of your WinXP CD in some local folder (e.g., C:\XP). Note: nLite will do copy it for you if you point it to the CD. If you want to slipstream sp3 into the disk, download it from here . Get all the programs you want to include in your new XP disc. You can ...

A great tutorial can be found here . From the article: In case you are wondering, Dropbox is an online storage site that allows you to back up and sync your files right from your desktop. It comes with a desktop application that you can install in your OS and backing up files is just a simple drag and drop to the Dropbox folder in your hard drive. Any files added/removed from the folder will be automatically sync with the online server as long as you are connected to the Internet.

Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex Alpha5 Virtualbox 2.0 OpenOffice.org 3.0 RC1 Mozilla Firefox 3.1 Alpha 2 Not a bad week!

If you use Firefox, but occasionally need to pretend your browser is IE, Safari, or even the Iphone browser, you can using User Agent Switcher and the user-agents provided here by Brent Strange (thanks!). The import file includes the following spoofs: Internet Explorer MSIE 8 (Win Vista) MSIE 8 (Win XP) MSIE 7 (Win Vista) MSIE 7 (Win XP) MSIE 7 (Win Storage Server) MSIE 6 (Win XP) MSIE 5.5 (Win 2000) MSIE 5.5 (Win ME) MSIE 5.0 (Win 95) MSIE 4.01 (Win 95) MSIE 4.0 (Win NT) FireFox FireFox 2.0.12 (Win Vista) FireFox 2.0 (Win XP) FireFox 1.5.0.6 (Fedora Core 5/Linux) FireFox 1.5.0.4 (Debian Linux) FireFox 1.5.0.3 (Mac OSX) FireFox 1.5.0.1 (Win Vista) FireFox 1.5 (Win XP) FireFox 1.4 (Win XP) FireFox 1.0.7 (Win XP) FireFox 1.0.6 (Win XP) FireFox 1.0.5 (SlackWare/Linux) FireFox 1.0.4 (FreeBSD) FireFox 1.0 (Win XP) FireFox 0.9.3 (Win XP) Opera Opera 9.1 (Win XP) Opera 8.0 (Win 2000) Opera 7.6 (Server 2003) Opera 7.51 (Win XP) Opera 7.5 (Win XP) Opera 7.5 (Win ME) Opera 4 Opera 3 Opera 2 Op...

Meet Emily - Amazing Lifelike Animation Technorati Tags: technology , software

I'm an information whore - I want to be able to access huge amounts of data either when I'm online or when I'm offline. So getting a copy of the whole Wikipedia has been a pet project of mine for a while. I've searched the web and here is what I've found (Note - I don't have an ipod or an iphone, so even though there are options for getting a version of wikipedia on these, they wouldn't do me any good): Tomeraider - This was my first discovery of a nice offline build of Wikipedia. Unfortunately it is not free, so unless you don't mind forking over the dough (about $30 last time I checked) I would look elsewhere (also doesn't work on linux). Moulin - For about a year now I've been keeping my eye on this project which looks very promising. The main problem, though, is that it doesn't offer an English version of Wikipedia yet - though your in luck if you read Arabic! Build your own on Linux - Recently I made the full switch to Linux (and I ha...

I've been on the hunt for a while now for a decent cross-platform PIM application. As of yet I've not found one. Of the ones I've tried, the below either come close or are worthy of consideration - even though none of them have exactly all of the features I want. 10 Ideal Features I'd like to Have in My PIM calender / schedule items daily diary decent address book with ability to tag, add pictures, etc to-do lists with reminders notes allows for attachments cross-platform portable allows for encryption of data freeware, but preferably open-source 5 Applications I've Tried Thunderbird with the Lightning Extension / Sunbird With the release of 0.7 of the Lightning/Sunbird this is one step closer to being what I want it to be. There is definite improvement. Unfortunately, though, it lacks features 2, 3 (this has continued to suck over the years), 9, and I'm not sure about 5 and 6. Chandler I got really excited when I found out about this project... but then I tried...

If you use Firefox and haven't yet checked out the many add-ons that you can install into it, then I'd highly recommend trying (at least some of) the following. They really improve my browsing experience: Adblock Plus with Adblock Filterset.G Updater - Now you don't have to constantly be bombarded with ads when browsing around. Highly recommended! (Question: I feel bad for those sites that use ads in a responsible non-intrusive way. I guess I wish there was a version that would white-list those sites, because hey - we all need to earn money. Any suggestions?) Always Remember Password - If you use Yahoo email, then you know that they have disabled the ability for Firefox to save the password in the password manager causing you to have to type it every time. Well, now you don't. CacheViewer - Exactly what the title suggests. Its a bit rough around the edges, but at least it gives the ability to view your cache. del.icio.us Bookmarks - I've yet to be entirely sat...

I regularly hunt for new and better open source software to meet my various computer needs. Often I come across a really exciting project that is in the works, but that's still in the early stages of development. Sometimes a project looks so promising that I find myself continuously checking back with it to see if there is any recent news or updates. Below I'll listed the top 10 open source projects I'm most excited about (listed alphabetically). Let me know if there are any other open source projects still in the early stages of development that look very promising! Beryl - This might mainly be a bunch of eye candy, but its great eye candy. If you haven't seen some of the great video clips on YouTube, you're in for a treat. [*nix] Chandler - I've been looking for a decent open source cross-platform Personal Information Manager for a while, but I've yet to find one I'm pleased with. This one looks like its got some great potential for all your organ...