Does it reminds you of any application?

Be careful as the code can be considered still in the alpha-stage, where memory leaks are bound to happen alongside with occasional buggy browsing experience.

It requires Android 2.0 and was only tested on Motorola Droid and Nexus One. The application must also be installed on the device’s internal memory (not on SD card).

I’ve uploaded Windows XP driver for Winbond W89C35 as it can enable the use of Winbond USB wifi dongle (VID:0416 PID:0035) under Ubuntu Lucid Lynx.

Follow the step-by-step instruction as outlined in the Ubuntu Wiki page, in order to use the driver with ndiswrapper.

p/s: I’ve uploaded this driver because I find a lot of websites out there that offers fake Winbond W89C35 drivers.

p/s 2: Of course I would recommend the rest of the users out there to buy a more Linux-friendly USB wifi dongle, such as from TP-Link
, D-Link, Netgear or TRENDnet which I found to be very portable across operating systems.

I think it is still not too late to congratulate Piju @ 9W2PJU for his appointment as a new Ubuntu-Members status. Piju is an active member of Ubuntu community and has a blog that promotes ham radio application on Ubuntu operating system. He is also one of Ubuntu-Ham developer, and contributes translations effort to Squid HTTP proxy project.

Malaysia is proud of you, piju!!

Yes you read it right, our beloved futuristic themed cartoon is back! After months thinking it was gone for good, Futurama did return yet again for the sixth season, this time on Comedy Central network. Have fun, guys…

via HowtoGeek

Retrieved from The Daily WTF

After a couple of hours googling, I found several websites which list correct settings for Philips 190s.

What you need to do is to create (or edit) the “/etc/X11/xorg.conf” file as root and modifies the “Monitor” and “Screen” section details inside the xorg.conf files. Here is the example of my xorg.conf Philips 190S settings

After that, save the file and restart X server.

A word of caution: Changing xorg.conf is risky. I only tested this solution on my computer which runs on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) and Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) operating system. Be warned, your mileage may vary.

Reference:
1 – my xorg.conf for Philips 190S config

How to restart X server?
To obtain the same effect, Ubuntu has decided to change the key-combo to RightAlt-PrintScr-K. But this time, the key must be pressed in the respective order.

How to enables the original Ctrl-ALT-Bkspace key-combo?
Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) Release Notes contains information on how to enables the original keycombo back in the operating system.

1 – Ubuntu (GNOME Desktop)

• Select “System”->”Preferences”->”Keyboard”
• Select the “Layouts” tab and click on the “Layout Options” button.
• Select “Key sequence to kill the X server” and enable “Control + Alt + Backspace”.

1 – Kubuntu (KDE Desktop)

• # Click on the Application launcher and select “System Settings”
• #Click on “Regional & Language”.
• # Select “Keyboard Layout”.
• # Click on “Enable keyboard layouts” (in the Layout tab).
• # Select the “Advanced” tab. Then select “Key sequence to kill the X server” and enable “Control + Alt + Backspace”.

Hope that will help you!

Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Release Party details:

• Date: 22nd May 2010
• Time: 8pm – 10pm
• Venue: Fly Bar, B.G 20 8 Avenue, Jln Sg Jernih 8/1, Seksyen 8, 46050 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Questions and Contributions
Any party who would like to contribute towards this community meeting may contact:

Khairul Aizat KAmarudzzaman
Position in Ubuntu-my : Ubuntu-my Team Leader
E-mail : fenris@ubuntu.com or mohdfenris@gmail.com

Firstly, go to the Gnome desktop and click on the “System menu”. Then go to “Preferences” and select “Keyboard Shortcuts”. Then look for “Show Panel Menu” under “Action” column and click the shortcut column. Press the “Windows Key”. Close the dialog and you’re done. Here’s the screenshot of the dialog for your reference.

Extra Added Touch?
For an extra added touch, you can replace the “Windows” logo on the “Windows Key” with the Ubuntu ones. System76 offers free Ubuntu logo stickers to be used on the “Windows Logo” key, and the good news is you can order it for free! (the bad news is, it only available to few selected countries only)

Happy hacking!

Been quite some time since I updated this blog. Here’s what happened to me since the last update:

• Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) has been released
• I’ve presented paper on Mobile Travel Guide and Location Aware App in Informatics 2009.
• My Wordpress Blog site has been hit by spammers/injectors, spent roughly one week to clean the mess up. Wordpress sucks, updating it doesn’t help either
• My server overloads for the 17th times last month, probably a sign that i’ve to upgrade my server
• And yes, I’m still alive, though i’ve less and less time to blog interesting things now. Wonder why? Burnout?

So what about you?

Distro Release Countdown Widget

• Ubuntu
• Fedora

Both are provided from their respective official website, so you don’t need to worry about its accuracy. For the curious, here’s the sample of the countdown graphics

Here’s an easy way to (kinda) solve that problem, you can convert Microsoft Office 2007 files online, using Google Docs.

The steps are easy, you need to login into your Google Docs account, then upload the Office 2007 files. After that, you can choose the “Download file as” option to convert the file to your favorite document format (typically OpenDocument or older *.doc Microsoft Office word document).

Bear in mind that the conversion is not 100% perfect and there will be parts of document that won’t look exactly as the original ones.

1. Official website
2. Mirror 1 (softpedia)
3. Mirror 1 (4shared)
4. Mirror 1 (softronic)

uSbuntu works on Windows XP as well as Vista operating system and can work with any USB drive with 1GB or more space. The creator of uSbuntu has stated that the project would be evolved to support other Linux distribution too under the name LiLi (Linux USB Live Creator) which can be downloaded from LinuxLiveUSB.com

Original strip : Mostly Harmful - I will not fix your computer

vrms can be installed using Synaptic Package Manager :

To execute it, just type "vrms" in the terminal, here's an example of vrms output for my system :

1. mypapit@mypapit-desktop:~$ vrms
2.           Non-free packages installed on mypapit-desktop
3.  
4. bsdgames-nonfree          rogue, the classic dungeon exploration game
5.   Reason: No commercial use
6. fglrx-modaliases          Identifiers supported by the ATI graphics driver
7. latex2html                LaTeX to HTML translator
8. linux-generic             Complete Generic Linux kernel
9. linux-restricted-modules- Non-free Linux 2.6.28 modules helper script
10. linux-restricted-modules- Restricted Linux modules for generic kernels
11. nvidia-173-modaliases     Modaliases for the NVIDIA binary X.Org driver
12. nvidia-180-modaliases     Modaliases for the NVIDIA binary X.Org driver
13. nvidia-71-modaliases      Modaliases for the NVIDIA binary X.Org driver
14. nvidia-96-modaliases      Modaliases for the NVIDIA binary X.Org driver
15. rar                       Archiver for .rar files
16. sun-java6-bin             Sun Java(TM) Runtime Environment (JRE) 6 (architecture
17. sun-java6-demo            Sun Java(TM) Development Kit (JDK) 6 demos and example
18. sun-java6-jdk             Sun Java(TM) Development Kit (JDK) 6
19. sun-java6-jre             Sun Java(TM) Runtime Environment (JRE) 6 (architecture
20. sun-java6-plugin          The Java(TM) Plug-in, Java SE 6
21. tangerine-icon-theme      Tangerine Icon theme
22.  
23.            Contrib packages installed on mypapit-desktop
24.  
25. jetty                     Java servlet engine and webserver
26. nvidia-common             Find obsolete NVIDIA drivers
27. openttd                   reimplementation of Transport Tycoon Deluxe with enhan
28.  
29.   17 non-free packages, 1.1% of 1601 installed packages.
30.   3 contrib packages, 0.2% of 1601 installed packages.

So if you prefer a completely free (as in freedom!) operating system, you can use install gNewsense instead of Ubuntu.

This guide assumes you use Huawei E160* or E220 series 3G modem.

First, plug-in the 3G modem to USB connector. After a while, a dialog will appear :

Press next, you will see a list of local broadband service provider. Select "Celcom".

The dialog will close after you click "Forward". However for Celcom Broadband Prepaid to work, you need to change the APN to "celcom3g", and PIN to "1234"

To do that, you need to right click on the network connection icon, and select "Edit Connections":

Then change the APN value to "celcom3g" and set the PIN to "1234".

Sending SMS to subscribe Celcom Prepaid Broadband
Users of Celcom Broadband Prepaid would know that they need to send SMS containing the message "Broadband Daily" or "Broadband Weekly" to 28882 to activate their internet subscription.

In order to do that in Ubuntu GNU/Linux, you need to install 'gammu' package from Synaptic Package Manager. 'gammu' allows you to send SMS using your Huawei 3G Modem, and it works sweetly with Celcom Broadband Prepaid.

Using 'gedit' or your favorite text editor, create ~/.gammurc config file containing these information :

1. [gammu]
2. port = /dev/ttyUSB0
3. model =
4. connection = at19200
5. synchronizetime = yes
6. logfile = gammu.log
7. logformat = textall
8. use_locking =
9. gammuloc =

To send SMS, you need to open the terminal application and type "gammu sendsms text 28882", it should look like this :

1. $ gammu sendsms text 28882
2. Enter message text and press ^D:
3. Broadband weekly 
4. If you want break, press Ctrl+C...
5. Sending SMS 1/1....waiting for network answer..OK, message reference=33

Note: "Broadband weekly" for subscribing Celcom Broadband Prepaid at RM20/week.

Then send another SMS, execute "gammu sendsms text 28882" :

1. $ gammu sendsms text 28882
2. Enter message text and press ^D:
3. Broadband Yes 
4. If you want break, press Ctrl+C...
5. Sending SMS 1/1....waiting for network answer..OK, message reference=33

Send "Broadband Yes", to confirm your subscription. You can then enjoy the Celcom Broadband Prepaid right from your Ubuntu Desktop ! No need to depend on Microsoft Windows based "Mobile Partner" or Vodafone striped-down application to connect to the internet!

To read sms from your Celcom Broadband Prepaid SIM card, type "gammu getsms folder 1 15" and you will see a list of SMS received in your SIM card inbox memory.

1. $ gammu getsms folder 1 10
2. Location 1, folder "Inbox", SIM memory, Inbox folder
3. SMS message
4. SMSC number          : "+60193900000"
5. Sent                 : Sun 05 Jul 2009 06:48:50 PM  +0800
6. Coding               : Default GSM alphabet (no compression)
7. Remote number        : "28882"
8. Status               : Read
9.  
10. Enjoy 24hrs of unlimited usage @ only RM6. To confirm yr subscription, type Broadband Yes & send to 28882. RM6 will be charged to yr account upon confirmation.
11.  
12. Location 2, folder "Inbox", SIM memory, Inbox folder
13. SMS message
14. SMSC number          : "+60193900000"
15. Sent                 : Sat 19 Sep 2009 04:01:24 PM  +0800
16. Coding               : Default GSM alphabet (no compression)
17. Remote number        : "28882"
18. Status               : UnRead
19.  
20. Enjoy 7days of unlimited usage @ only RM20.To confirm yr subscription, type Broadband Yes & send to 28882.RM20 will be charged to yr account upon confirmation.

Happy surfing !

First edit the /etc/hosts files using your favorite text editor :

sudo gedit /etc/hosts


Then, paste the list of ads/malware servers in the 'hosts' file. You can get the list from [someonewhocares.org] or by searching through Google.

Close the file, and Save. The change will take effect immediately after that. One of the side-effect from this modfication is that your web surfing experience would be significantly faster because your browser does not have to wait for the annoying advertisement to load.

MultiGet is easy to user, and from my observation, it's interface closely resemble Flashget download manager from Microsoft Windows platform. The differences is, that MultiGet runs natively on Linux, and it supports multiple operating system too.

MultiGet has a simple, friendly user interface that is easy to use. Best of all, it supports batch task downloading.

MultiGet Screenshot

MultiGet is available from Ubuntu universe respository

Here's a sample PyGTK application that embeds a web-browser as well as a "Back" button for demonstration purpose :

PyGTK + browser Screenshot

1. #!/usr/bin/python
2. #
3. # demo by mypapit (info@mypapit.net) - Sept 2009
4. # http://blog.mypapit.net/
5. #
6. import pygtk
7. pygtk.require('2.0')
8. import gtk
9. import gtkmozembed
10.  
11. class PyMoz:
12.  
13.     def delete_event(self,widget,data=None):
14.         print("Exit")
15.         return False
16.  
17.     def destroy(self,widget,data=None):
18.         gtk.main_quit()
19.  
20.     def button_clicked(self,widget,data):
21.         data.go_back()
22.  
23.     def __init__(self):
24.         #init mozembed
25.         self.moz = gtkmozembed.MozEmbed()
26.         #create a Vertical Box Container to whole the browser
27.         #and the "Back Button"
28.         box = gtk.VBox(False,0)
29.        
30.         #create a basic GTK+ window
31.         win = gtk.Window()
32.         win.add(box)
33.        
34.         #create and connect "Back" button, to add functionality
35.         self.button = gtk.Button("Back")
36.         self.button.connect("clicked",self.button_clicked,self.moz)
37.  
38.         #include both back button and the browser in the vertical box
39.         #and the GTK+ window
40.         box.pack_start(self.button,False,False,0)
41.         box.pack_start(self.moz,True,True,0)
42.  
43.         #load the URL
44.         self.moz.load_url('http://blog.mypapit.net/')      
45.        
46.         #set the window title
47.         title=self.moz.get_title()   
48.         win.set_title("browser demo")
49.        
50.         #show all the stuffs on screen
51.         win.show_all()
52.        
53.         #connect the delete_event and destroy event to make sure
54.         #the app quits when the window is closed
55.         win.connect("delete_event",self.delete_event)
56.         win.connect("destroy",self.destroy)
57.        
58. if __name__ == "__main__":
59.     PyMoz()
60.     gtk.main()

Download demo source code : pymoz.py

I'm still using Ubuntu in my daily work if you are curious (Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.04 for netbook) and Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope for my Intel Core 2 Duo Desktop PC. Besides writing those research papers, I've use what left of my time to learn PyGTK to enable me to code RAD app for GNU/Linux desktop environment.

I found out the references around the internet regarding PyGTK is very helpful to aid me in understanding the GTK+ bindings in python, which is not much different from its C counterpart.

Now that I've some time to spare until Hari Raya, I'll try to use that time wisely to fill up this blog with a couple more of fresh new posts. So, keep reading!

Funny music video, a parody on technology that we used to have back in the 80's

From : linuxsologist's site

The good news is, users can download the latest Pidgin release (2.5.7) in order to keep connected with Yahoo Messenger.

For Ubuntu users, Pidgin 2.5.7 is available for download from the Click-and-Run GetDeb.net portal. Just select Pidgin package, and choose to open it with gdebi.

Hopefully you can solve the Pidgin login problem through this post.

Disabling Touchpad

• Go to the Ubuntu Netbook Remix main screen
• Select 'Preference', then 'Mouse'

Untick the touchpad checkbox. The touchpad would be disabled until you you change the option back.

Lately, it seems that some people are having trouble connecting pidgin to Yahoo Messenger services. The problem seems to be associated with the Yahoo server itself.

Solving the Yahoo Messenger problem
A temporary solution for this problem is to change the Pidgin YM server setting.

Go to Accounts->Select your YM screen name->Edit Account->Advance.

Then change the original value of "scs.msg.yahoo.com" to any of these ip address:
66.163.181.183, 66.163.181.166 , 66.163.181.169, 66.163.181.170, 66.163.181.172, 66.163.181.171, 66.163.181.181, 66.163.181.182

As shown on the screenshot :

Note that this is only a temporary solution and you should only use this as the last resort.

Actually the problem does not lie with Ubuntu or any operating system in particular, rather the problem is related to 32bit operating system which only can address maximum of 2³² bytes of memory.

Some might argue that 32-bit should be enough to address 4GB RAM, but in reality some of those memory location are reserved for computer and application operation that only a fraction of it are addressable when you installed 4GB RAM on a 32bit operating system. Thus you would see that your computer would only have around 3.5 GB only.

The solution?

There are two solutions to remedy this problem :
i) Install a 64-bit (Ubuntu) operating system
ii) Compile/Install kernel with PAE features enabled

The (i) solution is obvious, just install a 64bit edition of Ubuntu to your computer, and your problem will be automatically solved! The downside is, you probably does not want to use a 64bit edition of Ubuntu yet for some obscure reason (the evil binary only drivers and blobs)

The (ii) solution requires you to install a kernel with Physical Address Extension (PAE) support enabled.

For you information, Ubuntu comes with pre-compiled linux kernel that has PAE enabled. What you need to do is to apt-get these 3 packages "linux-headers-server, linux-image-server and linux-server" and reboot your computer. This will enable you operating system to recognize the extra RAM installed inside your computer.

p/s : The best solution is to get a system that does not depend on binary blogs (hardware drivers, etc) and move to 64-bit operating system in order to enjoy the full potential of your computer.

The Asus EeePC 1000h dimension is roughly the size of an A4 paper. If you happened to have an A4 paper in front of you, then you'll get the idea of how big Asus EeePC 1000h is. Its 10 inch widescreen monitor offers a compact yet comfortable view for portable operation.

The keys on the keyboard is roughly 92% the size of an average laptop keyboard. This is larger than its predecessor Asus Eeepc 1000 and 901. Most importantly, the 1000h also comes with 160GB hard disk (with a modest 5,400 rpm) as opposed to 4-8GB of Solid State Drive (SSD) like its predecessor, allowing you to store more files on the netbook.

EeePC 1000h battery life
One of the thing that I admire most about Asus EeePC is its battery life which was advertised as it could last up to 7 hours. My personal test reveals that EeePC 1000h could last about 5 hours when running with active WiFi connection, which I consider as more than enough for my use.

Pre-Installed Software
The stock EeePC 1000h comes with Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3 and preinstalled with StarOffice 8.0 which is not compatible with the latest Microsoft OpenXML document format. The EeePC also comes with various 'crapware' including EeePC Storage and EeePC panel (for enabling/disabling various features of the netbook)

Additional built-in hardware
Besides from the standard WiFi feature, The Asus EeePC 1000h also comes with :

• Bluetooth
• Webcam
• Microphone
• VGA-out port
• RJ45 LAN port
• Card Reader
• 3 USB 2.0 ports
• 1 GB RAM, upgradeable to 2 GB

As many other netbook, the Asus EeePC does not come with CD/DVD drive, something that haven't bothered me because Ubuntu can be installed using the standard USB flash drive

Compatibility with Ubuntu
The netbook is compatible with Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR), which can be installed with this simple instruction using a typical USB disk drive.

Here's a video of Asus EeePC 1000h netbook with Ubuntu Netbook Remix in action.

My Conclusion
Given the current price of (around) RM1,600 and its features, I'd say the Asus EeePC 1000h is a bargain. Its greatest feature is it portability where you can carry it around without much trouble when you are traveling on a holiday or working outside the office.

Powered by Intel Atom 1.6GHz CPU, the Asus 1000h netbook gives out a surprisingly adequate performance for users to work on their project while they are outstation.

However, one point need to be stressed out : netbooks are built with portability in mind rather than performance, so you are advised to consider your requirements before deciding to get Eeepc.

Get ASUS Eee PC 1000HE 10-inch netbook now !

For the time being, you can only follow this blog with Friend Connect, but in the future I will expand the functionality to include video posting, commenting and post rating to make it more interesting. You can start by following my blog on the Google Friend Connect bar at the bottom of my blog, you can use either your Google account username or OpenID account to sign in with Friend Connect

Missing features from early release of Linux & Mac Google Chrome are :

• Can’t view Youtube videos
• Missing TIFF support
• Loads of memory leaks
• Does not have bookmark manager
• No Java plugin support
• No printing
• Problem with rendering certain websites
• Occasional crashes and freeze up
• and many more…

So if you are just an average user, do not download this release just yet! Instead, wait for a few months for a much more (?) BETA release to be available.

The developer channel release was made in order to elicit responses and bug reports from users to prepare for a more stable BETA release.

[Google's original announcement]

Websites that provide OpenID identity are called OpenID providers. There are many OpenID providers, and one of it is Launchpad. Launchpad users can use their Launchpad account URL as OpenID URL in order to access OpenID-supported websites or services.

For example :
[https:]

The general form of Launchpad OpenID URL is: https://launchpad.net/~your_user_name.

Where I can use OpenID for authentication?

You can use your Launchpad URL for authentication at websites or services that feature OpenID logo. Examples of such services is Blogger comment form, Sourceforge and Facebook.

How to use Launchpad account as OpenID provider?
On website that supports OpenID, enter your Launchpad account url : https://launchpad.net/~your_user_name, replace your_user_name to your own username. Then, you will be directed to your launchpad account, enter your password and you will be automatically authenticated for the current service.

Screenshot example :

The favorable side-effect of using your Launchpad account as OpenID is that you can indirectly promote (and probably brag) about your contribution (aka karma) towards Ubuntu.

MSC Malaysia Open Source Conference is an international forum for sharing and exchanging ideas and thoughts on the advancements, business opportunities and the development of open source application development. The conference is organized into 3 tracks (Business, Developers and Community) which feature speakers from their respective fields.

Among the prominent speakers will be featured on MSC OSConf :

• Chris DiBona
• Anthony Baxter
• Wai Kit Lau
• Dinesh Nair
• Redhuan D. Oon
• Gen Kanai

More importantly I will also present a paper (titled: Mobile application development using Open Source Software) at the conference, my talk is featured on day 4 in the Developers Track.

Please refer to MSCOSConf main website and the microsite for more information on how to participate in the conference.

The current official members in our local community (Ubuntu-my) as follows :

1. BuffaloSoldier
2. fenris
3. GunbladeIV
4. linuxmalaysia
5. nbliang
6. zarul

Hopefully with this appointment, our community will continue to flourish with activities that would benefit free and open source users as a whole.

What’s the advantage of being an official Ubuntu members?

• An @ubuntu.com email alias that forwards to your real email address
• An ubuntu/member/your_nick hostname IRC cloak on Freenode.
• The right to print business cards with the Ubuntu logo – The business cards can be found at the BusinessCards page, you will need to take care of the printing yourself.
• Syndication on Planet Ubuntu of your Ubuntu blog or the Ubuntu category posts in your blog, if you have one. Follow the registration instructions on PlanetUbuntu to add your blog!
• An Ubuntu Member title at the Ubuntu Forums. See this post for more information.
• A subscription to Linux Weekly News – see this page for instructions on how to apply.
• Ability to join the Official Ubuntu Members group on LinkedIn.

For more information please refer to Ubuntu Membership wiki page

The first culprit would be twitter, because ever since I started to hook up with it, I’ve beginning to post updates less frequently than I usually do, until it reaches a point that I stopped posting updates altogether, even though there are loads event that are worthy for me to blog with.

Maybe I’ve lost my passion of updating blogs with my daily hacking activities, or may I simply haven’t got the hang around of updating my blog while juggling with my new work, updating tweets and working on my research projects. Whatever the reason is, it is my intention to keep my post coming out fresh despite having to adjust to my new environment, and for that to happen I need to discipline myself to post regular updates on my blog.

Twitter is nice to use, as it requires less effort to post updates about my activities and make it easy for me to keep updated with my friends, but it greatest advantage seems to have taken a toll on my blog and I’ve nothing to blame but myself :p

That was Malaysian map taken over Google Earth, notice the cloud covering almost 70% of the Malaysian region? its been raining all over Malaysia! woohoo!

• First, go to the directory that you want to share, for example ~/Desktop
• Then run this command "python -m SimpleHTTPServer"
• You may access the folder from a remote computer using any webrowser using the url - http://192.168.1.20:8000, change the ip address accordingly

You may find this technique offers limited options to share files, but its a real time saver!

But as WiPresenter is only compatible with Microsoft Windows operating system, I’m forced to use keyboard or mouse-clicks to control my presentations when I’m using Ubuntu Linux operating system. This is a drawback as I could perform the task easily thru my phone when I’m on Windows XP.

EnterBluepad, an application which enables your mobile phone to act as a Bluetooth controller. Bluepad consists of two applications, a server and a client. The server application sits on your operating system, monitoring for incoming Bluetooth connection. The client application requires a JavaME compatible mobile phone with JSR-82 (Bluetooth) feature.

The installation is straightforward for both client and server side application, the only thing to remember is to activate bluetooth on mobile phone before starting the client application. After that, you can start OpenOffice Impress and use the the phone to remotely control the presentation.

• UPC-A (the most common barcode in the US)
• EAN-13 (the most common barcode in Europe)
• JAN (the barcode used in Japan, basically EAN-13 with the country code for Japan)
• ISBN-13 (the barcode used in books after 2007, basically EAN-13 with a superscript)
• ISBN-10 (the barcode used in books before 2007, basically EAN-13 with a different superscript)

Here’s how to install the extension :

• First go to OpenOffice.org extensions website, then search for the barcode extension
• Download the extension - barcode.oxt
• Then start OpenOffice.org, go to Tools and select Extension Manager
• When a dialog appears, click on Add, then find and select barcode.oxt, the extension will be installed on your OpenOffice.o

rg

• To test the extension, start OpenOffice.org Draw, go to Insert, and selects Barcode, you can choose any of the barcode type to generate inside OpenOffice.org, type in the barcode value and it will be displayed on the page, with no extra effort!

It seems somehow the Google Malware Warning fucked up and labels all the search result as “may harm your computer”. Funny thing is, Google labels its own website as potentially spreading malware.

Google Calendar site is spreading malware?

This incident has showed me how reliant to Google i’ve become, which made me wonder what would happen if suddenly somebody might take advantage of our dependency to Google, and do nasty things to us and to our data? By the way, Google already know what you do, who you are, and where you live.

Update: This event has been slashdotted, MAKE Magazine blog also covered the story.

Update 2: Google somehow have fixed the issue at 11:22 pm MYT (GMT +8). Let’s see what they would say about this strange phenomenon.

Update 3: Thanks to Manley, it seems Google has not fixed the issue, but rather disabled the Malware warning on its search result.

Final Update : Google issued a statement in their official blog as well as StopBadware.org

I wonder why, as my hometown is present in all previous releases of the Weather Applet. Seems now I can’t monitor the weather condition of my hometown (Alor Setar) anymore from my desktop :(

This bugs me as I use it occasionally to monitor weather conditions and to make decision on my ham radio activities.

Is your hometown / place listed on the Weather Applet?

Since most pro-blogger suggested WP-Supercache, I might as well take their advice and install it. Hopefully this would improve the server load during the spike (which I suspect contributed by ill-behave webbots/crawler) as well as loading time for my blog.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed

Funny, although filled with repetitive puns (plus some amateurish acting), it is much better than some of the hour long tv series that i’ve been watching for the rest of the week. Why cant anybody create a tv series as good as this anymore?

You can download My Wife, The Ghost from Channel 101:NY website.

p/s: This is not an actual 1960s tv series. Also available from Youtube.com

How can I contribute to Ubuntu-my ?

• Join the translation team, start translating
• Become Masters of the Universe - Motu
• Participate in local Ubuntu-my activities (subscribe to Ubuntu-my Mailinglist)
• Take part in the Ubuntu Community Forum, or the LoCo Forum
• Help produce professional documentation
• Submit Ubuntu bug report to Launchpad
• and many more…

been there, done that. nothing special :p

Get twitter-cmdline.

A Windows alternative is also available at : Twitter Windows Command Line Client.

Alternatively you can try a cURL hack to post your update to twitter from command line.

btw my twitter id is ‘mypapit’. Happy twittering.

Here’s how to export mysql DB to SQL file using command-line utility :
mysqldump –user=username –password=1234 –databases your_database –opt –quote-names –complete-insert > example.sql

Here’s how to import the SQL back into mysql database :
mysql –user=username –password=1234 –databases your_database –host=mysql_server host

Don’t forget to add your ip address to the list of allowable host on the remote MySQL server!

• First, download the “Send To” nautilus script from : [www.gdr-exiles.com].
• Copy the Send To file to ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts, make it executable. chmod a+x.

Finally you can test it by selecting a file on your desktop and clicking the Send To option, you’ll be presented with a dialog similar to this.

Now you can easily copy files between your GNOME Desktop to your portable USB drive.

• Workshop Outline
• Workshop Manual

Hope it would be useful to you!

The best thing about these stickers is that they are available locally, and thus much more cheaper and is faster to obtain.

Interested? You can forward your order to :

Name : Mohd Fahmi
Maybank : 164799012134
CIMB : 14081271592525
E-mel : editor[a]jomlinux.com

The price for the stickers as follows :

• 1 set (4 pieces) - RM 2.50
• 3 set (12 pieces) - RM 4.50
• 5 set (20 pieces) - RM 6.80
• Delivery : FREE!

Don’t forget to fill in the Order Form after you’ve made payment.

The first batch of these stickers has been shipped out! Order now!

Read the original post from melayubuntu

I use Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) to introduce Linux to the audience, and they were surprised to discover that it is easy to install GNU/Linux operating system on their laptop (thanks to Wubi), let alone using it.

As for the training manual, I use a subset of GNU FDL LPI 101 study guide manual which I found useful during the course of the workshop.

All in all, this event has renewed my faith in FOSS adoption in Malaysia as I saw people happily using GNU/Linux and free software during and after the workshop, without breaking a sweat.

First you need to locate the Apache 2 "access.log" file. By default in Ubuntu, this file is located in "/var/logs/apache2" directory.

Then you need to run this command to find out which IP address accesses your website the most in a short time.

1. tail -10000 access.log| awk '{print $1}' | sort | uniq -c |sort -n

The output of the command should contain a list of IP addresses along with the number of hits it made in the last 10,000 access of your website

1. 47 117.58.252.98
2.      81 202.124.242.186
3.      84 202.124.245.26
4.     182 194.164.101.217
5.     220 208.101.22.146
6.     225 72.167.131.144
7.    3946 93.135.xxx.xxx

From here you can easily locate the offending ip address and proceed to block it from accessing your website further using .htaccess file or other blocking method.

Here is an example to block certain ip address from accessing your website using .htaccess file

1. <limit GET HEAD POST>
2.  order deny,allow
3.  deny from  93.135.xxx.xxx
4. </limit>

Save .htaccess file in the root directory of your web server (example /var/www), and the ip address wont be available to access your site again.

Hope that would help you!

I'm given roughly one month to prepare training material for an in-organization Linux training workshop in my workplace. Target audience are mostly from non-IT background who wished to know more about GNU/Linux based operating system.

I was given freedom to choose any Linux distro that I see fit for the workshop and for that matter I choose Ubuntu as it has an ultra friendly Wubi Installer that would simplify the installation exercise during the training session.

Other than that, i'm still struggling with the materials to be included during the one day (8 hours) workshop aside from Ubuntu installation.

Suggestions from Ubuntu'ers are welcomed as I'm pretty swamped with other work while working on this workshop.

Fortunately sites like The Linux Laptop Wiki, Ubuntu Linux Hardware Support and Mandriva Hardware Database provides a good starting point to find out about your laptop hardware compatibility with Linux.

As for my personal experience, I find out most hardware incompatibility ranges from unsupported 56k softmodem driver to unsupported hard-disk controller which i consider as the worse case scenario.

So please bear this in mind that not all laptop are 100% compatible with Linux. Do ask around, and check for its compatibility status before you finally made a decision to purchase a new laptop.

Can't help but thinking that its way faster than Hardy Heron, definitely a recommended upgrade.

• The new Network Manager 0.7 (which supports 3G broadband connection)
• Support guest login support
• Encrypted private directory support (via encryptfs)

The only thing that might need a little bit polishing is Cruft Remover tool, which happily classify important files as unneeded files to be deleted (which is dangerous).

but the sad part was....

I don't know if this is a coincidence or otherwise, but my 7 years old Pentium 4 1.8 GHz died shortly before Intrepid Ibex release. I'm now left with an aged laptop and unreliable wifi internet access at my current workplace to surf the internet.

Bottom line - I might need a new PC.

There's nothing much in there as the blog is still.... well new, but one of the quote from the blog that caught my attention was

Why? Because I've always noticed that my own projects get so much better if others are involved, even if it's just as a user...

Visit Linus' Blog

However changing Google Chrome's user agent might not be as straight forward as it has no obvious way to alter it through the browser's interface.

Fortunately, Digital Inspiration website has written a guide on how to change Google Chrome user-agent string, you can refer directly to their article - How to Change User Agent String in Google Chrome Browser

Ubuntu Mobile is a specialized Ubuntu distribution which intended to run on UMPC powered by Intel Atom processor. From what I read, current release of Ubuntu Mobile still does not have wifi support for Asus EeePC, a netbook which for me I think nice to have.

You can find more about it at the Ubuntu Mobile Official Website or download the image at [people.ubuntu.com]

You got to see it for yourself, http://telescopictext.com/

Dreamhost has made available 5 promo codes that gives you special offer on their already generous hosting plans, which includes :

• Disk Storage up to 500GB
• Monthly Bandwidth at 5TB
• Secured Shell access (SSH)
• Unlimited Domain host
• PHP5, Python, Perl, Ruby On Rail support
• Custom DNS configuration
• CVS, SVN Repository and WebDav support
• User management control, you can add user in your own hosting accout, each user can accesss their own shell!
• and other exciting features…!

Oh they have a Dreamhost Wiki page too
The Promo codes gives you :

• Four (4) times the normal disk and bandwidth!
• If you choose their five-year plan, you’ll get $150 off!
• If you choose their ten-year plan, you’ll get $200 off!

Here’s the list of Promo Codes (to be entered in “Promo Code” field when you sign up) :

636483915637
514918435181
204341432012
459119241428
055333272979

Alternatively, you may choose to enter “KIROSTUDIO” promo code, to get USD 70.40 discount on their web host offerring!

All promo codes except “KIROSTUDIO” expires on 15 October 2008, so hurry up!

What really caught my attention since the last few days I was away-from-keyboard is the startup time of Mozilla Firefox 3.0 browser on my 7 years old pc (Pentium 4 1.8 GHz) running Ubuntu 7.10, it was noticeably slow, giving me the impression it's bloated. Was it only me? or does anybody else notice it too?

Currently I use Epiphany to write this post...

Among mitter features are :

• clean interface: simple and easy to use
• supports docking on systray
• nicely integrated with GNOME desktop
• has console client

Bonus for Ubuntu users : mitter is also available from GetDeb.net one-click-install portal

What are you waiting for? catch me on twitter (id: mypapit)

Oh well, I guest I’ve to reexport all my local bookmark to delicious once I get back home for syncronization purposes.

Luckily I found a post from Deepblue Spaces: Install Ubuntu 8.04 from Hard Disk that contains step-by-step to start Ubuntu installer from the official Ubuntu ISO.

• It involves downloading the Official Ubuntu ISO from http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu
• Extracting /casper/vmlinuz and /casper/initrd.gz from the ISO file.
• And modifying /grub/menu.lst file to include the boot the cd image.

For more information, please refer to the original tutorial : Deepblue Spaces: Install Ubuntu from Hard Disk.

This trick is particularly handy when you are installing Ubuntu from a computer with buggy BIOS or where CD-ROM is not readily available

As of this writing, the translated Malay strings in Ubuntu (Intrepid Ibex) is about 19%, and thus we need more aspiring users who are bilingual to help us translate Ubuntu (or Linux-base operating system in general). So in the near future, we can have Linux distro in our own national language.

How can I help to localized Ubuntu?

• Easy! you can start by registering an account with Launchpad.net
• While still logged into Launchpad.net. join the Ubuntu-Translators group
• Go to Launchpad Translations website, select the latest Ubuntu distributions.
• Select Malay language, and then pick any project that you wish translate into Malay (ms).
• Tips: To ensure faster translation, set the filter in “Translating” option to “untranslated items” as shown in the photo below.

  

What I can get by translating Ubuntu?

What are you waiting for? Come and translate Ubuntu!

Those who are still using Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) are advised to upgrade their distribution to later releases as it approaches end-of-life support, this October.

What is end-of-life ?
End of life means that the time where a product is no longer supported by its vendor. In case of Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn), it will no longer receive security updates and patches. Normally this would not cause problem to desktop computer, but if you are advised to patch your system as regularly as you can if you are connected to the internet to prevent malicious user from accessing your pc.

Curious about how long other Ubuntu releases are being supported? you can refer here : Ubuntu Releases and end of life date

I’m sure you can find a lot of great reviews floating around the internet about the latest lightweight browser, so I will not waste your time by rehashing those information here.

What actually caught my attention is the “Create Application Shortcut” found in Chrome, a functionality similar to Mozilla Prism which I’ve reviewed a while back in my blog. This would enable users to create Desktop shortcuts of their favorite Web Application without relying to external application like Prism anymore, everything can be done neatly within a single interface.

With Chrome, Javascript execution (read: ajax’ed website) felt a lot more faster while using much less memory, it looks like this new browser is going to give Mozilla a run for its money.

p/s: Eagerly waiting for Chrome to be available on GNU/Linux platforms.

Read Googlebooks Chrome Comic for more insight about Google Chrome

For the curious minds, my favorite twitter client are twim (Apache License 2.0) and twobile

But rest assured, I’ll begin to make time again as I’ve already on the final phase of the research project. Be sure to remind me every now and then to write stuff around here!

The Ubuntu project has released Hardy Heron 8.04.1, as the release number implies, it is a bugfix release which contains all the security updates and bug fixes for the last 2 months since the first release of 8.04. The release can be downloaded from Ubunty Hardy download page in the form of ISO files.

Current users need not to download the new CD as they are most likely have all the security patches applied via the built-in Automatic Update feature in Ubuntu.

As a bonus, the CD also includes the production release of Mozilla Firefox 3.0 compared to 3.0 Beta in 8.04.

The shirt is decorated with art based from the latest Ubuntu Hardy Heron wallpaper making it nice to be worn on LUG or Ubuntu meetups.

The downside is probably that once Intrepid Ibex comes out, the shirt would be the thing of yesterday, but rest assured as you can still wear it for other activities due to the generic nature of its design.

As for me, I would consider one if the shirt is available on the local market

• First, make sure you downloaded odf-converter tool and copy it to appropriate folder.
• Convert the files(s) using this command line :
  odfconverter /I filename.pptx
  and the tool will perform the conversion effortlessly.
• You can use this command to convert multiple files :
  odfconverter /BATCH-DOCX /I c:newfiles

  replace /BATCH-DOCX with /BATCH-PPTX, /BATCH-XLSX, /BATCH-ODF, /BATCH-ODP if necessary.

Odfconverter also supports converting Open Document files (ODF, ODP, ODT) to OpenXML files (PPTX,DOCX,XLSX) making it a handy tool to use.

Why odfconverter?
Odfconverter is a (relatively) small and compact standalone tool for converting Office 2007 files to their OpenDocument counterpart. The convenient batch mode conversion makes it attractive tool to use when converting multiple files between the two formats.

The only downside with this converter is that it does not convert mathematical formula pretty well compared to other features.

[Source OOOninja]