Hi!
22 days to go!
There’s now only 22 days to go before Lucid’s release, and the official countdown applets were just released. Show how impatient you are by displaying one of them on your website.
4 different styles are available right now, they are rendered using Javascript. There is also a static image if you can’t embed Javascript on your website.
Update: Even better for non-javascript websites!
Here’s an unofficial countdown rendered on a remote server:
Have a nice day!
Hi all!
Here is a tiny but extremely useful tip for Ubuntu, allowing you to retrieve the soundtrack of any YouTube video, using the youtube-dl and ffmpeg command-line tools.
Even if I wrote this for Ubuntu, the two software I use should be available to most Linux distributions.
As you know, downloading copyrighted material is illegal in most countries, take your responsibilities!
That being said, make sure you have the youtube-dl and ffmpeg packages installed, they can be easily downloaded from the Ubuntu Universe repositories. In order to encode a stream into mp3, you must also have the libavformat-unstripped-52 libraries installed.
The operation is very simple, only replace http… by the URL of the video in the following commands:
youtube-dl -o video.flv http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXXXXXXX ffmpeg -i video.flv -vn -ar 44100 -ac 2 -ab 192k -f mp3 soundtrack.mp3
That’s all, you should have a soundtrack.mp3 file in your home folder, do not forget to delete the video.flv file.
Thanks to R. Garcia for writing the youtube-dl python script, and to Ubuntu-fr.org for the ffmpeg usage.
Hello!
Used to browse the web using Google Chrome? Or maybe the latest version of Mozilla Firefox is still too slow for you? Let’s try Chromium, a lightweight browser with a streamlined interface.
Chrome or Chromium?The browser we’re going to install is actually Chromium, which is a free software whose Google Chrome is based on. Tu put things simply, Google takes Chromium source code, which is written by the community, adds it’s own logo and features, labels it Google Chrome and adds its own terms of use.
Note the absence of the link to Google Chrome Terms of Service in the Chromium about box.
My favorite method for getting Chromium is by using the Chromium Daily Build Team’s PPA. It allows you to fetch the very latest version of the software, which is updated at least once a day, so do not try that if you are working in a very stable environment.
In order to activate the PPA for your Ubuntu setup, just enter the following into a terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chromium-daily
You can then grab the latest version:
sudo apt-get install chromium-browser
A shortcut should have been created in your Applications menu (or K menu in KDE), if not, simply start it with the command-line:
chromium-browser
That’s all, enjoy your newly installed browser!
Hi!
I see around me that more and more people who used to browse the Internet with Mozilla Firefox are switching to Google Chrome. While Mozilla Firefox is not as much fast and simple to use as Chrome, it allows much more customization, which i am going to point out in this article.
Firefox 3.7 is much faster than 3.5, which is the one currently available on the Ubuntu’s official repositories, it is a sufficient reason to upgrade. However, if you are running a computer which needs extra-stable packages, stick to the current one.
If you want the latest version available, the best choice is obviously the Ubuntu Mozilla Daily Build Team’s Personal Package Archive (PPA), which contains builds for Firefox and Thunderbird generated at least once a day.
In order to get software from this PPA, just run the following command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa
Once you’ve updated the software sources, the following packages are available:
I personally have the firefox-3.7 installed, but as it is not compatible with all extensions, I sometimes use the previous version.
Mozilla Weave is little known, it is an addon which can sync all your Firefox-related information, including bookmarks, saved passwords, history and tabs.
Your data is encrypted with your own passphrase, then uploaded to a Weave server. The Mozilla one is available to all for free, but you can set up your own Weave server if you want.
It is an essential addon for me beacause I have to work indifferently with both my desktop and notebook computer. I wish it was compatible with my smartphone, too.
Mozilla Weave is very simple to use:
You probably already know about Firefox themes, but have you heard about Personas?
Personas is a Firefox addon directly created by Mozilla, which allows your browser to wear images as menu bar’s background.
Which strikes most is the ease of use: head to the Personas Webpage, click the Get Personas button, restart Firefox and hover one on the many skins available to get an instant preview!
Once you’ve made your choice, simply click the Wear It button to set this Personas as your default background, that’s so simple!
There’s plenty of them at Firefox Addons! I won’t describe them because their usefulness strongly depends on what you usually do with Firefox. However, I can tell that my 3 favorite ones are:
And you, what are your 3 favorite addons?
Hi!
So thrilled by the Ubuntu Lucid Lynx upcoming release that you couldn’t resist upgrading to the beta? Not getting enough of your Ubuntu daily dose? Thousands of Ubuntu users are contributing to this project everyday, in order to deliver us with hundreds of awesome features and gazillions of bugfixes twice a year! Lend them a hand and become part of the Community!
That’s a good question! Personally, I see contributing as a unique occasion to thank back the Ubuntu Community for all the great software they have given us, by helping them with their task. Moreover, by contributing to the Ubuntu project, not only you help creating software which is used by millions worldwide, but it is also a very interesting experience which shows you how free software are created, from the blueprint to end-user support, and it teaches a lot about project management.
But! I’m not a programmer, I am useless!
Nothing could be farther from truth! There is a ton of work to do which is not related to software development! This whole article aims at pointing out the different ways to contribute to the Ubuntu project without writing a single line of code.
And if you actually are a programmer, your source patches will be welcome!
ubuntuforums.org is very active and has many categories
Nothing is more appreciated by end-users than knowing that, even if it’s 3 AM, there will be someone who can help them with their computer problems, and that’s what makes Ubuntu so different. Therefore, if you are using Ubuntu everyday, your experience and knowledge are highly valuable to new users.
There is basically three places where you can give them some advice:
The English forum, with now more than 1 million users, is the main one and the most active. However, nearly each Local Community Teams (LoCo Teams) usually have a forum of their own, where you can contribute in your native language.
A lot of new users in need of assistance ask questions in those forums, and you can help them in the various forum sections, ranging from “Apple Users” to “Server Platforms”.
Answering user’s questions in Launchpad
Available here, the “Answers” section of Launchpad is also a great place for users to ask questions about applications, and for contributors to help. As Launchpad is not only used by Ubuntu, but also by other great software like Inkscape or Gwibber, for example, there’s always a place to share your knowledge.
Note: Launchpad is one of the core components of Ubuntu development, if you want to become a successful contributor, I highly suggest you to sign up there. To get started, an interesting tour of Launchpad is available.
If you’re the talkative type, head to the Ubuntu IRC channel of the Freenode network. The main support Ubuntu channels are #ubuntu, #kubuntu, and #xubuntu. Some LoCo teams also have their own IRC channels. For instance, the French one is #ubuntu-fr.
Editing the community documentation
The Ubuntu Documentation Wiki is open to anyone who wants to improve it. Want to write a 3-pages guide on a software or simply add a useful tip, do it now! read carefully the Wiki Contributor’s Guide which is full of wise advice, so you can produce the best documentation possible, and take a step in!
And if the User Documentation is not enough for you, and once you’ve made great contributions to this it, submit your suggestions to the Official Documentation Team, which is responsible for the help which ships with Ubuntu, and is also available at help.ubuntu.com.
Want even more? Maybe one day you will apply for the Official Documentation Team! This is the ultimate step in documentation participation, and it is therefore reserved to very experienced members.
Familiar with several languages? Then translating is an option. There are thousands Ubuntu applications awaiting you! That’s even more true because of the Lucid release as many features are being added, and therefore need to be translated, for example the slideshow which is shown during the installation, is eager to be available to non-English users.
All the translation processes concerning Ubuntu applications are managed in the Launchpad, so you can help translating the Ubuntu project itself, or any other application you love, the most popular ones are displayed on Launchpad’s first page.
Basically, users suggest translations for a string, their suggestions are reviewed by the responsible translation team, who approves the most accurate one. Finally the approved suggestion will be included in a further release.
Launchpad isn’t the only place where you can translate something useful. Indeed, wiki pages also need to be translated! If your Local Community wiki has less complete pages than the English one, go ahead and translate them yourself, but make sure no one is currently doing so!
If you want to help translating, I personally recommend you to read the translating guidelines and the language-specific glossary, which is invaluable for translating technical terms. Also, only translate applications you’re familiar with, it will be faster for you and the translations will be more accurate.
With new features comes new problems, and Ubuntu constantly gets new features….
When users report new bugs, they appear in the Bugs section in Launchpad, where contributors try to solve them. As a new contributor, the community don’t expect you to solve bugs by yourself, it’s the role of the Ubuntu Teams.
However, you can start with Bug Triage, which is the process of sorting and evaluating bugs so they can be solved as soon as possible.
Proper bug triage can’t be explained in this short article, but this community wiki page about bug triage will get you started. Remember, 5-A-Day keeps Ubuntu healthy!
One last thing before I let you go. The Ubuntu Code of Conduct, which I highly encourage you to read (and sign once you jumped into Launchpad) before contributing, states:
In other words, do NOT try to contribute alone, you must keep in mind that your work will impact millions of people, and therefore we must contribute as efficiently as possible, which means that we must work together: you can improve some wiki pages or submit plenty of good translations but please ask others before starting a large-scale project, otherwise it will fail or worsen other contributors’ efficiency.
And, even more important, Ubuntu contributors have already written guidelines and how-tos explaining the proper way to contribute, so please read them before making any contribution.
That being said, rest assured that, if it’s made intelligently, your contribution will be greatly appreciated!
There ends this article, I hope it gave you a good insight of how to contribute to Ubuntu, and encouraged you to do so. Helping the Ubuntu Community probably won’t make Lucid Lynx release sooner, but it will surely make you feel that April 29 is also your April 29!
Feel free to comment of to email me if you found any inaccuracy in this article.
Have a nice day, happy contributing!
Encoding data into two dimensional barcodes can be done directly with Ubuntu, as the default repositories provide tools which accept a text file as input and outputs a png datamatrix or QR Code.
Pause Hi-Tech in QR Code
Here is the iec16022 and qrencode command-line tools usage, in order to quickly encode bits of text into a 2D barcode.
sudo apt-get install iec16022 iec16022 -f PNG -i input.txt -o output.png mogrify -scale 300x300 output.png
sudo apt-get install qrencode cat input.txt | qrencode -s 10 -o output.png
Encoded in Datamatrix Code
Note: the -s 10 defines the size (in pixels) of a dot.
Creating datamatrix and QR codes with Linux has never been so easy!
Note that you can decode QR codes using the libdecodeqr-examples Ubuntu package which includes a C++ app along with its source code.
Hello!
As an engineering student, I sometimes have to write short reports or prepare a presentation, and keeping my schedule tightly organised is a priority. Here’s all the specific software I use nearly everyday, and that I found extremely useful. They are not installed in Kubuntu by default but can be easily retrieved and updated from the Ubuntu apt repositories.
FreeMind: Mindmaps made easy.
One of the best free mind-mapping software available, it’s unlikely that you will use all of its numerous features, but it remains very easy to use, and thanks to its easy-to-remember keyboard shortcuts, it allows to draw large maps very quickly.
Moreover, FreeMind exports your maps with a broad range of formats, from static PNG to dynamic JAVA applet or Flash animation.
To those unfamiliar with the concept of mind-mapping, it basically consists in hiearchically organizing your ideas, dealing with a certain subject. It’s very useful for note-taking and brainstorming. For more information, you can check out the wikipedia article.
FreeMind Installation:
sudo apt-get install freemind
Thunderbird 3.0's collapsed view is great for managing multiples accounts
I choosed to include this mail client in the list because most people I know usually read and write their emails using the web interface, which forces them to log in at least in two different places, as they often have one account for personal use and one they got from their university. It is an obvious waste of time, as desktop email clients can fetch all your mailboxes at once.
Have Thunderbird fetch them via IMAP and you are ready to work everywhere you go.
Moreover, thanks to Google contact and the Zimbra extension, you can even synchronize your local address book with the webmail seamlessely.
Installation: Version 3.1, which I highly recommend, is available in the Mozilla PPA.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install thunderbird-3.1
Sunbird: Multiweek View
My current calendar software, I’m not 100% happy with it because of its lack of responsiveness and rather crude interface, but it does its job, and effectively keeps my schedule organized all week-long. Have it download your classes hours and sync it to your personal Google agenda, and you’ve got everything in one place.
Mozilla Sunbird Installation:
sudo apt-get install sunbird
Drawing Diagrams with Inkscape
My favorite vector graphics editor, I do not draw with it but I find it extremely useful for drawing diagrams: draw the boxes, add the text, move things around, adapt the style, resize the canvas, save to SVG, export a copy to PNG, and insert it onto a webpage or a document, it’s extremely straightforward and easy to understand, even if you never used a graphics editor before.
Inkscape installation:
sudo apt-get install inkscape
Editing LaTeX code with Kile: Easy Sections management.
The standard KDE LaTeX editor. If you don’t know what LaTeX is about, I highly advise you to learn it because there is a 99% chance that you will need it someday.
Basically, it is a document preparation system that actively manages indexes, bibliography and does a wonderful job formatting mathematics, allowing you to design professionnal-grade documents. Whether you have to write a short article or hundred-page-long report, LaTeX is the best way to go. You can even use it to create efficient presentations lightning-fast, using the beamer extension.
Concerning Kile itself, I really appreciate its project-based file management, which allows to work easily with multiple files, bibliography entries and references.
Installation: Be careful! The LaTeX + Kile software eats up more than 500 MB of disk space, clearly not a great option for netbooks!
sudo apt-get install texlive texlive-science kile
That’s all for today, feel free to comment or to suggest a software I didn’t mention.
Pause Hi-Tech 