Maybe my viewpoint is a little biased, but I find using GNOME in Ubuntu is a little bit natural for my reflexes than to wade around with fancy Windows Vista's window manager. Plus, I hate to deal with hundreds of spyware/malware/worms/trojans/viruses combined threats everyday, it just eat away my productivity

Tags: windows, vista, windows xp, microsoft, ubuntu, funny, humor, comic, computers, computer

Refer to his post for more information : Backing Up Drive Images Over The Network

Tags: linux, backup, opensource, netcat, network, security, howto, guide, unix

What you need to do is download the OpenXML translator from GetDeb.net and install it in your Ubuntu Linux operating system.

Your OpenOffice.org application should be able to read documents files in *.docx format after this. Note that you need to restart your OpenOffice.org Writer if you can’t see the Microsoft Office 2007 OpenXML option under the Load/Save dialog.

Guide for other Linux distribution can be found here - How to open Microsoft OpenXML docx documents in OpenOffice

Tags: openoffice, openoffice.org, microsoft, openxml, open source, open standard, office, microsoft office, ubuntu, linux

Here’s how to setup a limited guest account for your Ubuntu Linux operating system. This guide assumes you are adding a guest account user for your children to play with.

How to Add a Limited User Account

1. From Desktop, go to System, Administration and select “Users and Groups”.

2. You will be shown with user settings dialog. Click “Add User” button

3. Fill in the new user details

How to connect to an FTP Server
Firstly, you should note that you do not need to install anything special in order to connect to ftp server from Ubuntu.

What you need to do is to is to select “Places” menu from Desktop, then select “Connect to Server…”

Then you will see a dialog prompting you to enter ftp connection details. For this exercise we will start off by connecting to a Public FTP Server which does not require user login or password.

I love it when people starts to post hacks around popular gadgets. Please refer to fsckin w/Linux article titled - How To Mount Your iPhone Filesystem On Ubuntu for more information.

Tags: iphone, ubuntu, debian, opensource, feisty fawn, feisty, gutsy, fuse

My first impression of this software itself makes me go wow, as the software is able to track known satellites path around the earth which includes GPS satellites, Weather Satellites, Iridium satellites, geostationary,military and satellites used for scientific purpose.

GPredict-ing GPS Satellites
To test the accuracy of GPredict, I whipped out a GPS-capable device which runs Garmin Que navigation software. The Garmin device has an informative screen which represent GPS satellites visible on the sky according to their PRN id.

Then I created a module on GPredict which tracks those satellites. The GPredict results seems to tally with the Garmin Que results! Moreover GPredict is able to tell GPS satellites that Garmin Que has missed on its initial sweeps, which then appears on the Que screen shortly after.

Predicting Satellite Pass
GPredict also able to tell when certain satellites will pass over a designated area, it also able to estimate the satellite visibility duration — a valueable information if you’re into satellite hunting or are using satellites to communicate.

GPredict Screenshot

GPredict Downloads
GPredict is licensed under the GNU General Public License and can be downloaded from its official website : Groundstation GPredict.

A Microsoft Windows port is available from GPredict Sourceforge project page.

GPredict is also available in the Debian and Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon / Feisty Fawn apt-get repository.

ps: You can also view the location of MEASAT-1, MEASAT-2 astro satellites, though it is rather pointless to track since both satellites are positioned in a geostationary orbit.

Tags: gps, satellites, linux, opensource, open source, feisty fawn, gutsy, ubuntu, debian, ham, hamradio, foss, gnu gpl

I dug around a little bit and found that Brother Industries, one of consumer printer and fax machine manufacturer seems to support Linux drivers by releasing GNU GPL drivers of its product.

Though I haven’t use any of Brother’s product, I heard many great reviews regarding its lasetjet printer (one of the review is from LiewCF about Brother HL-2070N which are sold in Malaysia).

This is a good news for an average computer user like me as it broadens my choice. I might consider getting Brothers laserjet too should I expand my businesses later (since HP Laser Printer cost a bomb to maintain).

Hardware vendors and manufacturers that releases free and open source drivers are not just doing the community a favor, they can have an advantage of attracting consumers to use their products regardless of their operating system choice.

Tags: printer, printers, opensource, gnu, gnu gpl, open source, laserjet, hp, officejet, linux

Looking at the damages, it seems far more simple to just backup stuffs in /home and start with a fresh Ubuntu Feisty Fawn reinstallation, and while i’m at that, maybe I should give a shot at Gutsy Gibbon Tribe 5 release.

Fortunately, backing up files in my Linux pc is as easy as tarring all the stuff inside /home and copying it to another storage media, and looks like I’m done with the copying part now. What left for me to do is to pop in the Ubuntu Feisty Fawn CD and reboot my pc to reinstall my operating system again.

If this were to happen on Windows XP, i think i’ll be looking at hours of browsing through my CD collections looking for various software installers and hardware drivers CD. phew….

This has reminded me to keep backups of my crucial works as a mistake like this can cause you efforts and months of works. Well it could been worse than this, like losing my sanity over crashed hard disk. Fortunately I’ve a policy of always making backups of my current documents once-in-a-month, well even that might not be enough, as disaster might caught you when you’re least prepared. Btw have you done your backup today?

Tags: feisty, ubuntu, feisty fawn, debian, maemo, nokia

HP Officejet All-in-One Under Ubuntu
Its all seems rather easy at the way I left off, the printer is fully functioning by just plugging it to my Ubuntu pc, the scanner works well without I having to do anything special, the phone is fully functioning (yeah it is included with the printer) and I am able to send and receive fax without a hitch, something that I cant do without installing 350MB of companion application (half of it was crapware) under WIndows Vista.

Everything worked, what left to do?
What left to do is figuring out how can I send fax directly from Ubuntu (or other Linux base operating system) using only digital files (*.txt, *.pdf, *.ps, *.jpeg), so I don’t have to print those files and fax them one by one anymore.

HP Linux Imaging and Printing project
Through googling, I found that Hewlett Packard (HP) has published open source software tool to deal with their printers. Free and Open Source drivers and printer-specific application directly from manufacturer, which is very cool!

Fortunately Ubuntu already installed HPLIP tools by default with CUPS in my machine. The next step that I should take is to run ‘hp-setup’ as root to configure my printer port and run the ‘hp-sendfax’ application to send the faxes.

Both of these tool requires python-qt3 package which is available from Ubuntu software repository.

Now I can fax my pdf documents directly without having to print them first, a huge saving over ink and paper cost.

Conclusion
If you are planning to get a new printer, then I would suggest you get a HP printer. Not only because HP printers are reliable, but they also comes with Free and Open Source drivers and applications for the Linux based operating system. Well that’s a good reason to get HP printers.

Please visit HPLIP project website for more information about HP printers support under Linux based operating system.

Tags: hp, hewlett packard, printer, linux, opensource, ubuntu, foss, drivers, hardware, scanner, officejet

The pipe is a collection of various planet Ubuntu feeds including planet Ubuntu, Ubuntu Women, Ubuntu Brasil, Ubuntu-fr, and Ubuntu-nl. All feeds published through the pipe are presented in English language so you don’t need to worry about language barrier here.

If you’re a kind of person who likes to read the rants and ramblings of the Ubuntu community, then I suggest you subscribe it here : Ubuntu solar system

Tags: ubuntu, debian, linux, open source, feeds, news

The objectives of Software Freedom Day are :

• to celebrate software freedom and the people behind it
• to foster a general understanding of software freedom, and encourage adoption of free software and open standards
• to promote constructive dialogue on responsibilities and rights in the information society
• to create more equal access to opportunities through the use of participatory technologies
• to be pragmatic, transparent, and responsible as an organisation
• to be inclusive of organizations and individuals that share our Vision

Let’s celebrate Software Freedom Day in Malaysia
The SFD is going to be celebrated in two locations in Malaysia; Kuala Lumpur Where it will be held in KL Central.

There will be a lot of activities tomorrow, including Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) demonstration, CD giveaways and FOSS advocacy. You can also have your USB drive loaded with Open Source software for free at the SFD local booth.

Come and celebrate Software Freedom Day with our local Malaysian Team there!

Tags: open source, sfd, software freedom day, opensource, foss, linux, ubuntu

Update : Problem solved, false alarm. death to the spam bots!!

Tags: spam, spams, wordpress, comments, spambot, blog, blogs, blogging

Though the use of docx files are HIGHLY DISCOURAGED, it is still important for us to be able to read document in this format in-case if somebody forwarded docx files to us.

Here are some easy steps to follow in order to enable OpenOffice.org to read OpenXML docx files :

• Download odf_filter.tar.bz2 file, and unzip it
• The archive contains 4 additional files, MOOXFilter_cpp.xcu, MOOXTypeDetection.xcu, OdfConverter and README.txt
• Follow instructions in README.txt and copy the 3 files into Openoffice installation directory as outlined below


sudo cp OdfConverter /usr/lib/openoffice/program/

After that, your Openoffice.org installation should be able to read/open Microsoft Office 2007 OpenXML docx file without any problems.

Drawbacks
This trick only works on Document (docx) files but not on Presentation (pptx) and Spreadsheet files (xslx).

Tags: docx, openxml, openoffice, feisty, feisty fawn, gutsy, gutsy gibbon, openoffice.org, microsoft, office, microsoft office

Written in python, Deluge-Torrent supports loads of feature comparable to Azureus, another popular bittorrent client use in Linux operating system.

Among the features supported by Deluge-Torrent are :

• DHT support
• uTorrent Peer Exchange
• Protocol Encryption
• UPnP and NAT-PMP
• Proxy support
• Support for Private Torrents
• Torrent creator
• RSS Broadcatcher
• Ability to minimize to system tray
• Network Activity Graph

The ability to access uTorrent Peer Exchange is a nice feature because Deluge can interact with thousands of utorrent users across the worlds and exchanging peer information effectively with them.

Screenshot

Resource-wise, Deluge-Torrent is more friendly in processor and memory consumptions compared to Azureus. Its clean and simple user interface makes it the easiest GUI Bittorrent client to use in Linux platform that supports protocol encryption.

Deluge-Torrent can be downloaded from its official website - http://deluge-torrent.org/, Ubuntu users can obtain Deluge-Torrent from the unofficial Ubuntu One-Click Installation portal - GetDeb.net.

Tags: utorrent, bittorrent, torrent, deluge, azureus, opensource, linux, ubuntu.debian

The ubuntu china community has come up with a simple but creative logo to represent their sizeable community for the Software Freedom Day event. Read more at Swimming Upstream and Beijing LUG website (chinese)

Tags: ubuntu, debian, community, linux, china, software freedom, software, open source, freedom, fsf

lanmap does this by putting network interface in promiscuous mode and representing the data its sees into a 2-d human-readable network graph. It has the advantage of identifying the network traffic being passed around the network along with the name and the operating system of the host which are represented on the graphical representation as well.

My House Local Area Network

Local Area Network from a Hotel that I stayed in

lanmap works under Linux, BSD, Windows and OS X operating systems. It requires libpcap library for capturing packets and graphviz visualization library to generate 2-d network graphs.

You can download lanmap from its official website. Lanmap is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2.0.

Tags: lanmap, network, nmap, ubuntu, ethernet, internet, ubuntu, linux, feisty

Unfortunately by default, Ubuntu only mounts NTFS volume as read-only, preventing users from transferring files between their Linux and Windows partitions.

How to mount writable NTFS partitions
However now you can easily mount writable NTFS partitions easily with ntfs-3g filesystem driver. Here’s how to do it under Ubuntu.

1. First from the Desktop, go to System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager. Search for ntfs-3g and install it. Close synaptic once it finished with installation.
2. The next step would involve editing /etc/fstab file to use ntfs-3g filesystem driver. From the Desktop, press ALT-F2, type “gksudo gedit /etc/fstab”
3. Find lines with ‘ntfs’ and replace it with ‘ntfs-3g’ and save the file
4. Remount all ntfs partitions to test the modification, the easiest way to do it is to reboot the computer and try copying file into ntfs partition using the default Gnome file browser (Nautilus). You’re done!

Tags: ntfs, filesystem, windows, opensource, linux, ubuntu, gutsy, feisty, feisty fawn, gutsy gibbon, open source