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Online Privacy

2013-04-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to soapbox here what is right or wrong and Im not claiming to be an expert on online privacy. What I am doing is giving you some food for thought and maybe some actionable ideas you can implement as you see fit. What I'm writing here are things I do for myself for my own privacy.

BETTER PASSWORDS

I admit for many years using the simplest of passwords.... "dogxyz" or "dog 1234". This was totally out of laziness. With hundreds of websites out there Ive purchased from, joined, or what have you I used basic passwords. Every time a site would get hacked or compromised, I would then have to change all my passwords across the board. It was time consuming. There had to be something easier.

There are many many methods to come up with secure passwords... I'll just mention one of them here.

I like to use a basic random password that only has minor changes in it. These changes are associated with the individual website you're accessing.

For example, start with your "core code". It could be whatever you want. Memorize this core code. It will never change.

Heres an example of a core code... GLD@ss1

Then pick a "variable code" which could be the 1st and 4th characters of the website you are on. If you are on Newegg.com your variable code would be "ne"

Now combine your core code and variable code by putting it together however you would like. My example would be: nGLD@ss1e

My password for a site like washingtonpost.com would then be: wGLD@ss1h

A bit tricky at first but this sort of technique becomes easy to use and memorize. Pick your own codes, length of codes, arrange them in whatever order you want. The passwords appear random to an outsider so if one account were to ever get hacked its going to be difficult to use it elsewhere.

ONLINE ANONYMITY

Online anonymity is possible. If you are concerned and need to make some banking transactions or perform some other incognito tasks you might want to check out this liveCD called Tails which uses Debian and TOR.

https://tails.boum.org/index.en.html

With Tails you can use the internet anonymously, it leaves no trace and uses state-of-the-art cryptographic tools.

An easier solution that I use is to go through a VPN (virtual private network). There are many of them foundonline, but two I could recommend.

VPN Reactor has a free VPN service. Its fairly quick, but it logs out every 30 minutes...

https://www.vpnreactor.com/default.aspx

A better VPN (in my opinion) is CryptoHippie. CryptoHippie has been around for several years now and has established itself as a reputable service. Its servers are under contract in several continents and uses multiple hops for all of your data. It also uses disappearing encryption keys, traffic crowding, erased IP addresses, and more. They have a great tutorial for Ubuntu users also.

For a one week free trial you can sign up on this link I found...

http://www.cryptohippie.com/expatworld.php

The moment you log onto the VPN no one knows who you are, where you are, or what you are saying. You may think its taking things too far by using a VPN but consider this. Lets say you are traveling in the FSU (former soviet union), or in Columbia, or heck even in Italy and need to check your online bank info. With all of the hackers out there, which would you feel more comfortable using... a naked wi-fi connection or one that you could go on with your secure VPN tunnel? You can even use Skype video or instant messaging through a VPN.

CryptoHippie costs money, but I feel its well worth it at $275 a year (or about 75 cents a day). Along with the VPN service they have encrypted email thats easy to set up.

OFFSHORE EMAIL

Lets face it. All of your email is being read now. Everything. From the photo of the mole on your butt, the recipe you sent granny, to the purchase of gold you just made now that gold prices dropped. Its all being recorded and profiles being made on everyone. There is no harm in keeping your Gmail account to talk to granny, but when communicating with a foreign lawyer or broker, or sharing information with a business partner outside of the US, using an e-mail account based outside the US makes a lot of sense these days.

JumpShip is an email provider that has its parent company in Hong Kong, servers in Switzerland, DNS from Canada, TLD in Colombia and security certs in Israel. Talk about reducing risk. If you or your business is ever investigated you will be glad your correspondence is all offshore. Getting a divorce? Buying land overseas? Hey, whatever. Its none of my business and its none of anyone elses business either.

https://www.jumpshipservices.co/jumpmail/

I get absolutely no compensation from the companies listed above. They are services I use and am comfortable recommending.

There are free options to companies like JumpShip such as using the Enigmail add-on in Thunderbird which offers OpenPGP encryption. (Yeah, OK. I will cover how to set this all up in another article.) For now, refer to Enigmails page here:

http://www.enigmail.net/documentation/quickstart.php

That it for now. The coffee has worn itself off! Look for another article later in the week.

Protecting Your Online Privacy

2013-04-12T10:29:00.002-07:00

Protecting your privacy in todays digital age is important and one that many people just outright fail to put into consideration. My journey with privacy began several years back (Ubuntu 6.10 to be exact)... it was the end of 2006 and I made the decision to switch my operating system to Ubuntu.

There were so many reports of Microsoft spying on users, I had felt it was time to do something.

Ive not been a fan of Google for a while now either. Some headlines from them would include Google getting a Pentagon contract with the NGA, Google developing eavesdropping software (2006), Google selling data to US Intelligence agencies (2008), Google works with NSA on their network (2010), Google working with CIA to fund a startup called "Recorded Future" to monitor websites, blogs, facebook pages and twitter accounts (2010).

But Google & Microsoft are only one part of the concern. Recent news articles have cities, states and countries using drones to monitor people, Facebook tracking and targeting you, and even the IRS saying they dont need warrants to read your emails.

We are only at the cusp of this. Its going to get much worse.

One of the first steps you can do is change the search engine you use. This is super easy to do. Many people I know love using Duck Duck Go because it has a ton of extra search features. I wont go into it here so go to their site and learn more. DDG does not collect or share your personal info. Read their privacy page to learn more on why you should care about this.

https://duckduckgo.com/

One thing I dont like about Google is it creates a profile about you. A sort of bubble. It filters out the bad stuff you dont agree with and promotes stuff it knows you already like (based on your searches, facebook likes, etc). So when you search on Google you really get a filtered view of the world.

My favorite search engine is StartPage. I admit to being hooked on Google searches... almost like a drug. StartPage scrapes Google for its results so they will be similar to that of Google, minus the Google filtering I mentioned above. StartPage DOES NOT record your IP address or track your searches!

https://startpage.com/

When typing in searches, make sure to always use HTTPS to encrypt your info so at least your ISP cant record what you do.

Whichever search engine you consider using, make sure to make it your default search engine right now and start using it. There should be instructions on both pages above on how to add their search engine to your list and make it your default engine.

Next step I would recommend is to block and randomize your web browsing. There are several Firefox add-ons you can consider. Im using three add-ons right now.

The first one is by Mozilla called "Collusion" to see how your "web" of websites sharing data grows rapidly as you view websites...

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/collusion/

After installing Collusion there should be a little red icon at the bottom right of Firefox which you can click onto and get a graphical view of whos sharing YOUR data with whom. In fact, the image at the top of this article shows about an hour of web browsing on my computer and how sites are sharing all of your data with one another. Scary isnt it?

So the next two add-ons I use which helps prevent tracking is DoNotTrackMe and TrackMeNot....

DoNotTrackMe
http://www.abine.com/dntdetail.php

* DoNotTrackMe attempts to block sites from sharing data with each other. As an example, ive blocked over 4,400 sites from tracking/sharing my data this morning alone.

TrackMeNot
http://cs.nyu.edu/trackmenot/

* TrackMeNot silently throws out fake search queries which help websites from creating profiles about you. In the last half hour TMN has done a Google search on "plant food" a Bing search on "frozen food" and a Yahoo search on "where is waldo".

There are several more browser add-ons and ideas in the link here... http://fixtracking.com/

It goes without saying you should not be using Google Chrome if privacy matters at all to you. Make the switch to Firefox. True, FF is slightly slower on older computers, but the security is worth it.

Stick around for my continued series next week about protecting your privacy and talking about the endgame... were this all might lead. While its not directly Ubuntu related, privacy is important to many people in this world of growing surveillance. I will be getting into it in detail. How to change your SSN, how to register your car in another name, everything both online and offline.

If you have cool web privacy recommendations like those above, please post them. Its our human connection with one another that can be our biggest ally (or worst enemy).

Geary Email App

2013-04-05T05:38:00.000-07:00

Geary is a modern email client for the Linux desktop. Its a fresh approach to email. Whats with that new compose box in Gmail? No more screwy updates like that.

With Geary you will go "advertisement free" and fit right into YOUR email like a comfortable leather sofa. Its YOUR email after all, not Gmails or Yahoos. Its time to take control over email again.

Geary is incredibly easy to use. You type in your email address and password and your Inbox appears. Geary organizes your email as conversations, not as threaded trees of who-replied-to-whom. It's a snap to blast out a quick reply to a friend and then archive the conversation for later.

In using Geary email app the first thing I notice is no clutter. Im not confused by flashing ads, promotions, google bar, chat box, etc. The icons are clearly defined and preferences kept to a minimum.

Geary is still in early development and you'll notice some limitations, but they are hard workers and trying to do a lot with a little. Thats why they set up a crowdfunding campaign. Developing software, writing code.... its no easy task. If a clean, modern, lightweight, open source & BEAUTIFUL email app is something you are interested in using consider donating to the campaign.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/geary-a-beautiful-modern-open-source-email-client

The newest version of Geary is easy to install. Copy & paste this code into a terminal...

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:yorba/ppa; sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install geary

The newest version of Geary 0.3 was released on March 19, 2013.

Default Ubuntu Wallpapers

2013-04-04T16:12:00.000-07:00

Before launching into the future of Ubuntu, lets take a look back down memory lane at all of the default Ubuntu wallpapers. Each image is clickable to view and download. You can also right click and save the button containing a ZIP of all of the images at the end of the article.

4.10 Warty Warthog ----------- 5.04 Hoary Hedgehog

5.10 Breezy Badger --------------- 6.06 Dapper Drake

6.10 Edgy Eft ------------ 7.04 Feisty Fawn

7.10 Gutsy Gibbon ------------ 8.04 Hardy Heron

8.10 Intrepid Ibex ------------ 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

9.04 Jaunty Jackalope ------------ 9.10 Karmic Koala

10.04 Lucid Lynx ------------ 10.10 Maverick Meerkat

11.04 Natty Narwhal ------------ 11.04 Natty Narwhal

11.10 Oneiric Ocelot ------------ 12.04 Precise Pangolin

12.10 Quantal Quetzal ------------ 13.04 Raring Ringtail

(15mb file)

Hotot Twitter Client

2013-04-04T06:12:00.000-07:00

Hotot is a desktop client for Twitter (and Identica) and is open source and multi-platform. Run it on Ubuntu linux, Windows, Mac and Chrome. If you are getting tired of having 30+ tabs open in your web browser for various web based apps, something like Hotot might be just the app you're looking for.

We've done a few other Twitter client reviews in the past, but new ones come around which really trump the older ones. For example Hotot is much lighter than Gwibber. Hotot also has a nicer GUI (although thats opinion, but it is very nice). And who doesnt like the fact you can have multiple Twitter accounts stored in Hotot? Ive got my blog account, my personal account & my business account.

While our example above only shows one column, you do have the ability to stretch Hotot and view 2 or 3 columns at once. There are a ton of other features too. Four themes are available including "New Hope", "Classic", "Iron Heart" and "Bare". The default is "New Hope", which you see above. You can also build your own themes.

OK, I wont bore you. lets get right down to it...

multi platform
nice GUI
four themes
real time updating
multi columns
notifications
image service integration
threaded conversations
preview images & videos
extension support

There is even an indicator applet with all of the basics...

To install the newest version of Hotot on your system, input this command into a terminal...

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:hotot-team; sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install hotot

This should add the repository, update the rep list and install Hotot on your system.

Thank You to All

2013-04-02T18:04:00.002-07:00

Making a website, researching the apps, writing the articles and posting content all takes time. We try to be a bit different then the other Ubuntu big guys out there. Different apps, different angles, etc. We know its impossible to reach their heights, but we hope we have carved out a nice group of friends here.

We would like to let you know we have added a donation button on the right side in case you are ever inclined to send a donation our way. Think of it as Ubuntu linux friends sharing a beer or having a pizza together. If anything, its good karma!

And please dont forget to check out our sponsors who have provided software, online storage space, clothing, and more which keeps us out of trouble :)

Donations can be sent clicking the bitcoin graphic and copying our bitcoin address and pasting it in your bitcoin wallet or app to send to us. Its pretty easy if you are all set up for sending & receiving bitcoins, if not stay tuned for our article tomorrow.

If you have an Android or iPhone Bitcoin app you can also scan my QR code to send a donation.

We thank you from the bottom of our hearts and we'll continue the love for Ubuntu and linux!

Kingsoft Office Suite

2013-03-28T03:58:00.001-07:00

There is a new office suite available for linux users. If you cant get used to Libre Office or Open Office, there is a Chinese developed office suite from Kingsoft. Its worth a look, especially if you are just coming over from Windows.

Ive downloaded several MS Word documents from Microsofts Templates website (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/) and Libre Office just cannot handle most of them. There are some great designs out there too for free. Certificates, brochures, etc. Even the Excel spreadsheets are nice to use with clean looking invoices, balance sheets, and even a finance portfolio. All of which Libre Office doesnt know what to do with. In comes Kingsoft and using those Microsoft templates becomes a joy to use. There are Writer, Spreadsheet and Presentation programs in the suite.

Ive noticed the Office Suite by Kingsoft is quick to load up and responsive. Even if you dont make this your #1 office suite, its nice to have around for that odd document or spreadsheet that LibreOffice and OO cant open. Since Im not a pro at using office products very much, I cant comment too much on usability, although I do see one glaring omission so far. The lack of a Mail Merge feature, which I think is pretty important for any company.

To install Kingsoft Office Suite, first download the .deb file from the terminal.

The file on the companies website is painfully slow and took well over 4 hours to download. The file size is approx 150mb, but the connection speed from USA to China is like a turtle crawl.

wget -c wdl.cache.ijinshan.com/wps/download/Linux/unstable/wps-office_8.1.0.3724~b1p2_i386.deb

As a service to all of our visitors, I uploaded the file to my server. It only takes a minute or two to download with a 15Mbps connection. Here is our link...

wget -c www.iloveubuntu.com/files/wps-office_8.1.0.3724~b1p2_i386.deb

We'll update the link above whenever there is a new version. After you download the DEB file from either site, run this command in the terminal:

sudo dpkg -i wps-office_8.1.0.3724~b1p2_i386.deb

This will install the software, although since it was developed in China, Chinese is the default language. To fix this and put it into English go ahead and run the following code in a terminal window:

cd /opt/kingsoft/wps-office/office6/2052

and this one too...

sudo rm qt.qm wps.qm wpp.qm et.qm

Thats all there is to it and hope it "suites" your needs!

GIMP Magazine Issue 3

2013-03-06T15:53:00.001-08:00

The newest issue of GIMP Magazine has arrived! Its a very nice issue with great photography tips, a very in depth GIMP vs. Photoshop comparison. View it or download it in many different ways...

http://gimpmagazine.org/issue3/

A New Humble Bundle

2013-03-06T10:08:00.000-08:00

One of the great ways to purchase games for Ubuntu is with the Humble Bundle. This is a "Pay What You Want" setup. YOU name the price for the pack of games. Just got a bonus check? Pay $100. Just got a divorce judgement against you? Pay $10.

The beauty of all of this is the games are DRM free. Meaning it will work great on Linux, Android, Windows, and Mac.

The new Humble Bundle includes six interesting games with Beat Hazard Ultra looking pretty nice. If you pay more than the average you'll unlock two extra games.

These game bundles are simply awesome. Check it out!

http://www.humblebundle.com/

GIMP Magazine Issue 2

2013-02-20T14:30:00.002-08:00

I use GIMP from time to time. I can say I am decent with it. It took me a while to go from being a long time Adobe Photoshop user to a regular GIMP user, but I did make the switch and happy I did. Most of what I do is not as artistic as I would like. Its all basic stuff for website like this.

If you want to be inspired and get some ideas of what artists are doing with this free software, head over to the GIMP Magazine website. Issue #2 is linked below and issue 3 comes out next month already. So amazed at what people are capable of!

it can be viewed a number of ways too. Download as a PDF, view it online with Issuu, buy a printed version, and even watch a 30 minute walk through of every page! AWESOME.

http://gimpmagazine.org/issue2/

Ubuntu on Tablets

2013-02-19T09:20:00.000-08:00

Ubuntu on tablets was announced today. This is really groundbreaking to see the Ubuntu Desktop, the Ubuntu TV, the Ubuntu Phone and now the Ubuntu Tablet all come together.

The new Ubuntu Tablet has these key features...

* Different screen sizes and resolution

* Welcome screen with secure accounts as well as a guest account

* Voice control

* Apps will have built in sharing

Ubuntu Tablet is clean and stylish and will also feature the "Side Stage" which gives you total control of the tablet from the 4 sides.

RIGHT SIDE: your running phone apps

LEFT SIDE: your favorite apps

TOP: settings & system services

BOTTOM: in app settings

You can watch the 5 minute introduction video and learn more about the Ubuntu tablet here...

http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/tablet

PyChing Does I Ching

2013-02-16T09:15:00.002-08:00

In continuation with our articles about fortune telling apps out there for linux and Ubuntu, pyChing is a program which allows you to 'consult' the I Ching.

The I Ching is an ancient Chinese book of wisdom, which, apart from being read as a book, has also traditionally been consulted as an oracle. pyChing allows you to perform an I Ching 'reading' using the coin oracle, and then look up a brief interpretation from the I Ching. Some further introductory material on the I Ching itself is also available from within the program.

pyChing has some great benefits which include saving/restoring of readings for use within pyChing, configurable colors, nifty coin animations, readings may also be saved as text for subsequent printing, information on the hexagrams cast are available within the program.

pyChing is copyrighted, freely available software published under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

In older versions of Ubuntu and Debian based systems, you could install pyChing direct from the terminal. Not anymore. You will have to download the DEB file below and run it to install pyChing. When I get a moment or two, I'll put it up on my server as well so there is a backup in case the link below ever goes offline.

http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/p/pyching/pyching_1.2.2-5_all.deb

For further information on pyChing head over to the official site...

http://pyching.sourceforge.net/

STEAM 4 LINUX - SAVE BIG!

2013-02-14T16:42:00.001-08:00

Valve, the makers of STEAM for Linux, are running an AWESOME promotion right now until the morning of February 21st, 2013. If there is a game you have been eyeing, you really dont want to let this deal run out!

For the next week, you have the opportunity to buy STEAM games that run on Linux for UP TO 80% OFF! I havent been much of a game player the past couple of years but this deal I could not pass up and purchased a few games I was interested in.

I highly recommend checking out the link below to see what might pique your interest!

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/linux_release/

jTarot Fortune for Ubuntu

2013-02-14T13:43:00.003-08:00

While there really is no Tarot application in Ubuntu, or linux for that matter, there is however a very well crafted java application available which runs smoothly on Ubuntu.

jTarot is a tarot personal advisor. jTarot will do a "reading" for you when you need advice. A reading displays a number of cards and then describes what these cards mean. You take the reading and apply the meanings of the cards to your situation.

The app is very straight forward, especially if you know a hint about the Tarot deck. It gives you a ton of options. From several different deck styles, 35 spread layouts, four different advisors (or interpretations), and more. Just type in your question, pick the card spread and you will then be presented with a grid of cards face down where you will select the cards you desire.

You can download the jTarot.jar file from the link below. Once downloaded, make sure to right click the file and set the permissions to executable. The app works fine with both the OpenJDK and with Oracles Java. Launching the app is with either a double click or right click and launching it with Java.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/jtarot/

Full Circle Issue 69

2013-01-25T16:34:00.000-08:00

This months issue covers these great topics...

* Ubuntu News.
* How-To : Programming in Python, LibreOffice, and Ubuntu Gnome 2 Style.
* Graphics : Blender, and Inkscape.
* Review: Sony Google TV, Google Music

plus: Q&A, Command & Conquer, Linux Labs, Ask The New Guy, My Story, and so much more!

http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-69/

Wuala File Sync

2013-01-25T09:53:00.000-08:00

Cloud storage has been all the rage for a while now. Ubuntu One offers 5GB of free storage. It works beautifully on newer versions of Ubuntu like 12.04 and 12.10, but not so well on older versions forcing me to look for an alternative.

Cloud storage apps like Dropbox and and SpiderOak work well and have Ubuntu clients, but only offer 2GB of free space. Google Drive offers 5GB of storage yet oddly it has no linux client. It can be made to work with a 3rd party app, but not so simple to get going. Ubuntu One and Dropbox are probably the easiest choices for Ubuntu users who want an absolutely hassle free "just works" client where you dont need a lot of storage space.

In comes Wuala with a full 5GB of free space. Wuala is a secure storage space that allows for storing, syncing, sharing and publishing and works everywhere... Linux, Windows, Mac, and on mobile devices.

Wuala works great on all versions of Ubuntu and has a simple indicator app for the panel (as with all images in our articles, click the image above to see it larger). From the image you can see the Waula client in the left box which gives you a huge array of preferences and the ability to see the upload % of all your files. The right box in the photo above shows Waula "drive" in Nautilus. The panel applet shows if there are any file transfers going on and mousing over the indicator shows the up/down speeds. You can also pause syncing from the indicator.

Waula can be added to your startup apps so it works more like U1 or Dropbox (which autostart on login). Go to your "startup applications > add" and then for the app name type in "wuala" and for command also type in "wuala".

You can get Wuala for free here (I get some extra storage if you try it out)...

http://www.wuala.com/

Ubuntu Phone OS

2013-01-02T10:32:00.001-08:00

In what is the biggest computer news so far in 2013, Ubuntu announced the Ubuntu Phone OS adding a significant step to Ubuntu history.

The new Ubuntu OS will feature a voice controlled HUD to launch apps.

Canonical suggested a major cell phone manufacturer will ship Ubuntu for Android this year, and in 2014 the Ubuntu OS will be available. Ubuntu Phone OS is built from the ground up, making it different than Ubuntu for Android.

Th good news, the Ubuntu Phone OS will be downloadable and can be used for specific smart phone devices.

Developers will have access within a week or two for developing apps.

We are excited about this news and have been waiting a while already for more information. Will you be downloading or purchasing an Ubuntu Phone OS powered device?

More photos and information on Ubuntu's website...

http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/phone/design

Report Netflix App Bugs on Launchpad

2012-12-06T13:57:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: Erich Hoover (the author of the Netflix Desktop App) has been graciously answering everyones questions & problems and solving any hiccups that might arise from their particular installations.

Erich is continuing to work on updates based on any install or playback problems found in the comments of our PPA article and incorporating them in new versions of the software. If your problems are not fixed by updates, the best place to report bugs is directly to the Netflix Desktop Launchpad page located here:

https://launchpad.net/netflix-desktop

...and file a bug or monitor one that has been already reported.

To install the Netflix Desktop app on Ubuntu continue to use the PPA directions found here:

http://www.iheartubuntu.com/2012/11/ppa-for-netflix-desktop-app.html

MORE NETFLIX DESKTOP APP HELP...

Remember, the Netflix Desktop App was developed for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS or newer. If you are running an older version of Ubuntu you will need to upgrade if you want to run the Netflix app.

If you have install problems or playback problems, many times rebooting your system after install or removing the profile folder and relaunching the app fixes many issues. First give a reboot a try. If that doesnt help, try and remove the folder by opening a terminal and type:

rm -Rf ~/.netflix-desktop

Stuck on the Microsoft Fonts issue? Try this command in the terminal...

sudo apt-get install --reinstall ttf-mscorefonts-installer

Problems with video & audio sync during playback? Try this command in the terminal...

pulseaudio -k

Ive noticed on older computers, there just may not be much you can do to help the choppy video problems. One thing Ive done that has helped is to switch desktop environments. The Unity desktop on Ubuntu is a resource hog and switching to GNOME3 or Xubuntu could be an easy solution for you. You would still be using Ubuntu, just a different desktop experience.

It would also be beneficial to browse through some of the comments on our I Heart Ubuntu link above for common solutions to problems not yet implemented in the app itself.

If you continue to have problem and want to remove the app, paste this into a terminal window...

sudo apt-get remove netflix-desktop

Good Luck! Dont forget to file bugs on the Launchpad page! Its far easier to monitor problems there as opposed to 450+ comments :)

Whats Next On YOUR List

2012-11-20T09:46:00.001-08:00

For most it sounds like Netflix is working fine for people on Ubuntu and a few other GNU/Linux platforms. If you continue to have any problems, make sure to read through the comments on the Netflix Desktop PPA article for tips on solving your particular problems. We'll also be posting some common errors and fixes in an upcoming article later this week to help make it easier to solve these issues.

Looking into the future, lets ask this question to the community....

What other apps do you want working as native as possible on Ubuntu? What apps are you *dreaming* about so you can dump Microsoft products once and for all? Is it a game? Is it a productivity application? A finance or accounting app?

Go for it. List your TOP FIVE apps in the comments below.

PyTrainer Sport Training App

2012-11-19T13:12:00.000-08:00

Pytrainer is a tool to log all your sport excursions coming from GPS devices. Pytrainer supports GPS track files and displays it in graphs and maps (you can also manually input basic data too if you have no GPS device). We would love to hear from you if you are an avid PyTrainer user!There is no better way to get into shape then to track your own progress, whether its a walk, bike ride, a jog, a 5k runor heck, even a marathon.

As many biking and excursion lovers know, there was no way to analyze data produced by GPS devices without either booting Windows or using Sport Tracks from Wine. Pytrainer provides Ubuntu users with a professional, fully-featured GPS data analyzer for Linux platforms. Pytrainer was originally designed for biking and it has been recently extended to any type of free sport, giving the user the chance to review its tracks, analyze speed and pace and read graphs about the last performance.

Pytrainer is coded in Python, which lets the software run on many different platforms, and for its graphic interface it makes use of pygtk libraries, giving full integration with GNOME GUI.

Pytrainer also offers a calendar, where the user can check previous excursions, together with a multi-tab interface offering graphs of velocity, height and also a full integration with maps.

Pytrainer is a wonderful software, a very good clone of SportTracks that still lacks of some of the feature of its popular and commercial counterpart. It offers the basic features we need to analyze our excursions and enjoy the use of our GPS devices. Pytrainer supports ForeRunner series of GPS devices and any other device able to produce reports in GPX format.

Pytrainer comes under GPL license and can be modified and redistributed by the user. Such a license is extremely convenient for those willing to add new features to the software.

Pytrainer can be installed from the Ubuntu Software Center or from the terminal, typing "sudo apt-get install pytrainer"

PPA for Netflix Desktop App

2012-11-18T07:47:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, developer and programmer extraordinaire Erich Hoover and I spent several hours working out all of the Netflix Desktop kinks. Most users will have no problems with installation now.

Here is how to install the Netflix Desktop App on Ubuntu. Open a terminal and run these commands:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ehoover/compholio

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install netflix-desktop

Once installed, go up to the top left of your screen and open your Unity dash and search for Netflix and run the app. It will load up everything needed on the first run. After logging into your Netflix account and selecting a video to play, Silverlight should ask you to enable DRM content. Please enable. Netflix movies should work fine now :) Congrats!

The Netflix app starts in full screen mode. You can exit out of the app completely by pressing ALT+F4. You can also press F11 to exit out of full screen mode.

If you have any questions please post them in the comments and we'll try our best to answer them.

Erich Hoover recommends donating to WINE Development Fund...

http://www.winehq.org/donate/

You can also "thank" Erich for his hard work by donating to his ChipIn...

http://netflixonlinux.chipin.com/netflix-works-on-ubuntu

* as a total side note, this was the 400th article for iheartubuntu.com. Yay! :)

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NOTE #1
If you had previously tried to install the Netflix Desktop App via our terminal commands from the earlier post, we recommend running the line below in a terminal to clear out any unexpected errors BEFORE trying to install the Netflix Desktop app via the PPA method...

rm -Rf ~/.wine-browser

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NOTE #2
We have tested the PPA on several systems now. From my personal experience, it works great on an older 32bit laptop with Ubuntu 12.04 with only 1GB memory and a 1.86ghz single core processor. The Ubuntu 12.10 - 64 bit installation was nice and smooth and works great too. Ive even tested this out on an Acer InspireOne with an Atom processor and managed to get it working. See note 3 below on that.

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NOTE #3
For users who have been upgrading Ubuntu over the years from previous versions, you could still be using the older EXT3 file system. Your Netflix-Desktop app installation should detect your filesystem and WARN you of changes that you need to make manually. If you dont make the changes, trying to play a video could give you a blank app screen or end up with a netflix error code of "N8156-6022".

This is a rare situation. Newer Ubuntu users using EXT4 shouldnt see this problem at all.

On some systems it's necessary to add a special mounting flag to gain extended attribute support, to do that you'll want to edit your fstab to add support for the extended filesystem attributes.

WARNING! You could screw up your system if you dont do this properly! You have been warned!

Edit the fstab file as root:

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

...and modify the line with your primary EXT3 file system. On that line where it says "errors=remount-ro" make the addition of ",user_xattr" so the result should look something like this:

UUID=94f7fc1e-fa27-4b24-99f3-4b461665a4a4       /       ext3    errors=remount-ro,user_xattr       0       1       # /dev/sda1

So that part of the line with you file system should go from this:

/       ext3    errors=remount-ro       0       1

to this...

/       ext3    errors=remount-ro,user_xattr       0       1

After you've made that simple change, save the file and exit out of it. Now in the terminal just remount your main filesystem:

sudo mount -o remount /

If you receive any errors about remounting, go back into your fstab and make sure you added the ,user_xattr correctly.

Now remove the old Netflix Desktop profile:
rm -Rf ~/.wine-browser

Start up the Netflix Desktop App and you should be good to go!

UPDATE on Netflix

2012-11-16T15:33:00.001-08:00

INSTRUCTIONS TO INSTALL THE NETFLIX DESKTOP APP VIA PPA ARE IN THE LINK FOR EASY INSTALLATION...

http://www.iheartubuntu.com/2012/11/ppa-for-netflix-desktop-app.html

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The news of Netflix on Ubuntu is now circling the world. Erich Hoover is uploading new packages to the server and we're testing out the PPA for this on several systems (32 & 64 bit). We are making sure the install will go smoothly for everyone. We'll let you know as soon as the PPA is up and running successfully.

Until then, click the image above to enlarge so you can see how the app will work and behave. It will have a nice Netflix icon that you can dock on your Unity launcher. The Netflix app itself looks and behaves like any other native app. You can maximize and even do F11 for full screen which works nicely.

Stay tuned here for the latest on the PPA. Thanks & have a great weekend!

* P.S. A lot of people are complaining that this uses WINE, but once the PPA is available, you wont be touching WINE at all. You'll load the PPA and install the app and it will just work. As an end user of the app, WINE wont bother you and you'll have hours of enjoyment ahead!

Netflix on Ubuntu Is Here

2012-11-15T17:20:00.004-08:00

THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW ARE OBSOLETE!
USE THE PPA IN THE LINK FOR EASY INSTALLATION.

http://www.iheartubuntu.com/2012/11/ppa-for-netflix-desktop-app.html

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BREAKING NEWS! Netflix on Ubuntu linux works! And it works great too! A winner has been found! Back in March of this year I Heart Ubuntu put out a call to get Netflix on Ubuntu working. Somehow. Legally. Without the need to install a virtual OS and have to boot into it. Something as native as possible.

The solution? Get Firefox and Microsoft Silverlight working in WINE. Its not as easy as it sounds. A custom built version of WINE is necessary to add in several patches to get everything working properly. It currently works on 32 bit versions of Ubuntu (tested so far on 12.10). 64 bit compiling is tricky so its best to wait for the PPA coming very soon.

Want to try getting Netflix on Ubuntu working yourself? Ready to go??

There is a PPA coming out soon to make installation much easier. If you are not comfortable with compiling software in linux, I recommend waiting for the PPA.

* This build is not compatible with "vanilla" Wine, so installing this custom package will uninstall any existing Wine installation you have. Back up your current WINE folder to be safe.

** Please read through the instructions first before attempting. Reread if you experience any problems.

NETFLIX ON UBUNTU INSTRUCTIONS

(1) Downloading the latest Wine code
Download the latest Wine source code and compile it yourself. Open a terminal window and run these commands one line at a time...

sudo apt-get install git
git clone git://source.winehq.org/git/wine.git ~/wine-git
cd ~/wine-git

(2) Patching
The remaining fixes are relatively simple. Keeping your terminal window open, run these commands one line at a time and patch them in like so:

wget -O part1.patch http://source.winehq.org/patches/data/91645 && patch -p1 < part1.patch
wget -O part2.patch http://source.winehq.org/patches/data/91646 && patch -p1 < part2.patch
wget -O part3.patch http://source.winehq.org/patches/data/91647 && patch -p1 < part3.patch
wget -O part4.patch http://source.winehq.org/patches/data/91648 && patch -p1 < part4.patch
wget -O part5.patch http://source.winehq.org/patches/data/91649 && patch -p1 < part5.patch

(3) Compiling
Wine has a fairly standard compilation and install procedure, but it takes a long time. Older computers might take up to two hours, newer computers? Definitely quicker! With your terminal still open, run this command...

./configure && make && sudo make install

If you get a "configure: error: FreeType development files not found. Fonts will not be built" message you can fix this by installing those files by running:

sudo apt-get install libfreetype6-dev

Then go ahead and and run the compile commands again:

./configure && make && sudo make install

(4) Installing Firefox and Silverlight
The version of Firefox doesn't matter so much and currently Silverlight 5 doesnt work yet, so you have to use Silverlight 4:

wget -O Firefox-14.0.1.exe http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-14.0.1-funnelcake13&os=win&lang=en-US; wine Firefox-14.0.1.exe /S

wget -O Silverlight-4.exe http://silverlight.dlservice.microsoft.com/download/6/A/1/6A13C54D-3F35-4082-977A-27F30ECE0F34/10329.00/runtime/Silverlight.exe; wine Silverlight-4.exe /q

(5) Launch Firefox and go to Netflix
At this point everything should "just work", though the first time you pull up a movie it'll make you click "Enable" to enable the DRM component. Just go to the Netflix website, sign in with your credentials, and play something:

wine "C:\\Program Files\\Mozilla Firefox\\firefox.exe" http://netflix.com/

That should do it! Did it work for you?? I personally had problems with step #4, so I manually downloaded both Firefox and Silverlight and ran the EXE files by right clicking them and installing. All worked great after that.

Firefox:
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all.html

Silverlight:
http://www.oldapps.com/silverlight.php?old_silverlight=11?download

If you ran into trouble beyond what was mentioned above while trying to compile WINE then you may want to try installing all the dependencies for WINE through the repositories. You can do this by running this command in a terminal...

sudo apt-get build-dep wine

The man who solved this is Erich Hoover, a computer programmer extraordinaire (to say the least). He asks that you donate to the WINE Development Fund...

http://www.winehq.org/donate/

Please consider donating directly to him via ChipIn.

He is also developing a simple to install Netflix App for Ubuntu using a PPA to make everything much easier (as well as installation for 64 bit Ubuntu).

We will update this article as soon as the PPA is available. Until then you will have to compile WINE yourself using the above instructions to get Netflix working.

RescueTime Productivity App

2012-10-23T22:32:00.000-07:00

rescuetime.com

Have you ever wondered if you are managing your time well? There is an awesome new app and website that helps you find inefficiencies in your day, get better at self managing, and make measurable changes that impact your productivity level.

So what got me interested in managing my time better? For one, successful people are masters at time management. They dont sit on Facebook all day, they dont browse the Home Shopping Network or download videos all day long. Their days are filled with productive efforts. We all have the same amount of time in a day. We can choose to waste time, spend time or invest time. How valuable is YOUR time?

I began my quest by searching for an Ubuntu app that could handle time management. There really is not much out there besides basic task and to-do list apps like Nitro, Wunderlist, Tasque and so on. I came across a similar question over on Ask Ubuntu...

http://askubuntu.com/questions/202841/slap-me-when-i-stop-working/

Digging around more I came across Rescue Time. An app that monitors your internet usage. Its a free app that has an installable DEB file for Ubuntu users and RPM file for Fedora users. It works in conjunction with a Firefox add-on and/or a Chrome app. The basic Rescue Time app is free and powerful enough to monitor yourself pretty well. It can track my Thunderbird email usage, whether or not im playing a game (not productive), using Skype for a business call (productive) and more. There is even an Android / iPhone app available! Texting too much? You'll find out soon enough.

There is a paid version of the app which allows for more tracking capabilities. For $6 a month you'll have a lot more power such as the ability to BLOCK distracting websites (like Facebook, Google+, Youtube, etc), get alert messages if you've been doing distracting things, see how much time you spend on editing particular documents, and even track offline data such as meetings and phone calls.

For the next week Im sticking with the free version, but I do see how powerful it is to pay for the upgrade. I sometimes need help keeping myself away from social media and for the price its worth getting alerts or even blocking the sites.

Click the image at the top of my article to see how detailed this really is. Around 3pm I was on a shopping site looking for a gift for my wife. I think I spent a good 30 minutes buying her something. Fun? Yes! Productive? Not at all.

If you are at all serious about the time you waste and will never regain, consider Rescue Time as a way to track your productivity levels. We all need some help once in a while!

rescuetime.com

For some interesting side reading, this is where I first read about Rescue Time...

Why I Hired A Girl On Craigslist to Slap Me In The Face — And How It Quadrupled My Productivity
http://hackthesystem.com/blog/why-i-hired-a-girl-on-craigslist-to-slap-me-in-the-face-and-why-it-quadrupled-my-productivity/

Creating Your First Ubuntu App

2012-10-09T04:30:00.000-07:00

This is a great tutorial on how to create you first Ubuntu application. The tutorial shows how to create a simple web browser by generating a project, setting up your user interface, writing the code, and creating an Ubuntu package.

If you are a beginner, this is the tutorial for you! Be sure to ask any questions at:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/ask?tags=application-development