linux mint debian

automate android

2012-01-27T18:21:00.000-08:00

Automate your android with the free software Llama.

Llama will read from phone masts where you are and then streamline your life whilst saving your time and your battery.

When I'm home but asleep Llama mutes my phone and makes sure the alarm is at full volume.

When I wake up Llama sets all my volumes and makes sure that my email and messages are up to date.

When I leave home Llama turns off my wifi and Bluetooth and lowers my data use.

When I arrive at work Llama connects to wifi, sets volumes to reasonable levels and makes sure my email and messages are up to date.

I didn't do a thing but all I would have wanted done was done by Llama. It can do so much beyond these basics too.

It's free but so good I donated to the author.

Cinnamon on Fedora 16

2012-01-05T00:41:00.001-08:00

Follow this link if you'd like to try Cinnamon on Fedora 16 - Cinnamon is yet another great piece of work emerging from the Linux Mint Project who, like many, miss the functionality of Gnome 2 but see Gnome 3 as the most viable long term project. So we have Cinnamon, a way to make the sleek Gnome 3 into a functional and productive desktop like Gnome 2 was.

ice cream sandwich go launcher swype

2011-12-18T12:02:00.000-08:00

Since getting the latest Google release of Android "Ice Cream Sandwich" I've removed so much 3rd party software that I no longer need. Gingerbread was very nice but I always felt I needed a lot of cosmetic and additional enhancements to make it great.

GO Launcher, Swype, various widgets, and various UI tweaks.

ICS is now great all on its own. After installation I removed tons of old apps so that my system is ICS only. Clean and light.

Make Linux Mint 12 Lisa perfect in one step

2011-12-10T14:46:00.001-08:00

From the Mint 12 Tips and Tricks page

First, disable the bottom panel:

From the menu, launch the "Advanced Settings" tool
Select "Shell Extensions"
Find "Bottom Panel Extension" and disable it

Then, restart Gnome Shell, for the menu and window list to reload:

Press "Alt F2"
Type "r" and press "Enter"

I believe this should be the default setup, it makes the UI perfect and gives old Gnome 2 users what they want, gives you a full but improved Gnome 3 and a cleaner look as we'd expect from Mint

File Transfers Linux to Android

2011-11-19T15:57:00.001-08:00

This requires a whole readjustment in your mind set and nothing is as simple as you'd expect.

Android for now is not ... Oh, stop me in my tracks. (I'll leave this info here in case you are as dumb as me :) I just updated the device and this is now easier than I'd first thought!

I'd bought a device with Honeycomb and blindly not even notices that it was 3 versions old. 3.0 and not 3.2. Now that I am up to date the whole process is a little like I'd imagined.

Download Androzip from the Android Market. This is one of many file explorers available for Android but it has 2 great features. It can Zip and Unzip and it can go into the top level of your devices file hierarchy. Where Android and most programs don't want you looking outside of the user area of the file system Androzip will let you go anywhere.

Due to this browsing power you can go up to the root level and then into the USB devices so that anything you connect to such as a USB stick or drive is now there ripe for the plunder. Use the straightforward copy features in Androzip and copy all your stuff to your Android device.

Linux Mint 12 Lisa VS Fedora 16 Verne

2011-11-12T21:27:00.000-08:00

Clem and Linux Mint have made a very grand effort in bringing Gnome3 to a wide market:

Those unwilling to change - Who can choose MATE to make their computer seem like it has Gnome2.
Those who want to try Gnome3 - Who can turn off a number of Shell Extensions to make Mint Lisa be more like default Gnome 3.
Those somewhere in the middle - For these people Mint is just the way they need it.

When Mint loads up it is Gnome3 but with a host of Shell Extensions added. You can use Gnome Tweak Tool (renamed by Mint as Advanced Settings) to turn these extensions on and off. These extensions give Mint a nearly familiar Mint Menu and many other tweaks so that the user does not feel so out of place in the alien land of Gnome3.

I'm not digging it though.

I was going to switch back to Mint for this release. I love their polish, Update Manager and just the whole presentation of the Distro. I love how thigs like MP3, Flash and way more work from first boot and there is normally very little to do after installing Mint - it is Linux's version of "It just works".

My gripes though are that after turing off much of what Clem and co put so much work into, I result in a slightly broken looking Gnome3. I turn off all that stuff that gives the menu and this and that and I even turn off the extension that hides the Universal Access Settings - I mean why turn off something that is there to help users with imparemments be that to their sight, hearing or whatever their needs?

I use this setting to go: 'Universal Access Settings > Text Size > Small' as this makes the whole thing look far more appealing. The default setup is too BIG, the fonts are like a childs book and things like the top bar take too much space with the Large or Normal settings.

In Mint though, doing this breaks the theme. I can only assume that some CSS has been edited, and not in the standard way, resulting in a theme rendering that breaks under user interaction. The CSS was very well scripted by the original author who considered all modular tweaks such as simple ones like adjusting font size.

The result, as I said, is a broken looking Mint and a broken looking Gnome3, which is a pitty as I looked forward to returning to Mint.

Mint will however work great for other people - Many many I'd wager. Ths distro is set to be huuuge in the world of Linux this year.

Fedora 16.

Fedora has won me over since version 15. I loved the simple take on Gnome3 and I'm able to do all I want, simply. Fedora though is nearly paralized at first boot by their insistance to be totally Open Source. No Flash, no MP3, no... lots of stuff.

Fortunately there is a way that a fresh Fedora 16 instalation can be given all the bionic addons it needs in a few minutes and then you're set - A great and fully finctional, fast and stable Linux Distro that will last.

The trick is this. Install Fedora 16 and then open a terminal - paste this:

su -c 'yum -y --nogpgcheck install http://dnmouse.org/autoplus-1.2-5.noarch.rpm'

Now run:

autoplus

and add all of those wonderful bits that the default instalation was missing.

Oh, and then go to your software manager and install Faenza icons - they just make the whole thing look a lot nicer. (Install gnome-tweak-tool to be able to choose the icons after instaling them).

Job done, no need for Mint (which is a pity) and I just hope Mint gets polished up nicely for their next big release.

In the mean time they are still doing a way better job than Ubuntu and are sure to be Distro #1 for some time to come.

Android gum drop bridge level five

2011-10-09T03:52:00.000-07:00

Make a ramp and jump!

TouchPal Curve great swiping text entry on Android

2011-09-09T21:35:00.000-07:00

TouchPal Curve is out and it is free until October 31st 2011. Get it now and updates will be free for life.

This form of text entry is an excellent innovation for touch screen phones making typing fast and fluid. No tap tap tapping, just swipe your finger over the letters you want and the word is formed for you, release and do the next word and it even puts in a space for you, so easy.

The competing technologies are discussed in a previous post by me but this one by TouchPal is my favourite now. Easy to install from the market (unlike Swype) and great to use. One key feature that TouchPal has over rivals is excellent prediction meaning you only need swipe part of long words before the software does the work for you.

new arch bang September 2011new arch bang September 2011

2011-09-07T03:22:00.000-07:00

I would think that all Linux users who love Arch Linux and Openbox would know about Archbang Linux.

The new release of arch bang is with us now and it is another fine piece of work from the creator. As Arch is a rolling distribution there is no real need to reinstall but for those who choose to or for those who instal the distribution for the first time they'll see some nice touches. Arch is rock solid and fast, Openbox is rock solid and fast and the little bits of polish from the inclusion of adeskbar to the well chosen key board commands to the neat and inclusive menus make arch bang an ideal start point for anyone looking for a lightning fast and solid Linux experience.

bunny shooter 5 star review free updates scam

2011-09-03T14:17:00.000-07:00

The Android game Bunny Shooter repeatedly asks the user for a 5 star review in return for free updates. This is a scam.

A game can not "know" that you gave a 5 star review so what the developers are doing is saying that 'if the game is popular they will give updates' - This is nothing new most developers update games anyway.

The way this has been carried out in this game is wrong and has produced hundreds of misleading 5 star reviews for a 3-4 star game. The game itself clones the Angry Birds idea, has good game play, but is graphically and overall weaker than Angry Birds. The game commonly force closes on many devices and it would not surprise me to find that the game abuses security privileges.

Sad the developers are using this tactic as if it continues then reviews will mean nothing anymore.

Cube of Atlantis Android Complete Cheat Sheet [game spoiler]

2011-08-27T01:11:00.000-07:00

Don't read this if you want to solve the puzzle yourself!

Level 1 In the Beginning
Hit the numbers on the Cube in order 1,2,3,4,5,6

Level 2 Sort Of
Hit the numbers on the Cube in order 1,2,3,4,5,6

Level 3 Count Me In
Hit 1 once, hit 2 twice, hit 3 thrice, ... and so on until you hit 6 six times

Level 4 Nebula
Quickly check which way to spin for 5 and 6 then hit 1,2,3,4,5,6 in order
1-4 are easy as you can roll the Cube around 1,2,3,4.
5 and 6 it will be dark so that is why you check at the beginning for their positions.

Level 5 Stay with Me
Hit number 1 repeatedly as fast as you like

Level 6 Rainbow
Hit any coloured number until it goes black/off
Do this in any order, just turn them all off

Level 7 Wild Energy
When you see 1, hit it, when you see 2, hit it, get all the way to 6 without hitting the wrong one.

Level 8 Foreign Language
The symbols relate to colours. Moon Black/Off, Sun Yellow, Fire Red, Grass Green, Water Blue
Look at the symbols, in order left to right and find a matching colour on the cube, hit it.

Level 9 Glue
Press and hold 1 until it goes blue, Press and hold 2 until it goes blue, then 3,4,5,6

Level 10 Dripping Faucet
As a symbol enters the screen quickly turn 1 to that colour, as the next symbol enters quickly change 2 to that colour... etc until 6

Level 11 Tonal
Hit all the numbers until you know the sound
Play the sounds in order of scale

Level 12 Dance Steps
Symbols can appear in 6 different places. A top row of 1,2,3 and a bottom row of 4,5,6
When a Symbol appears work out its position, for example Sun in position 3 - then turn Number 3 on the Cube to yellow. Do for all 6 positions then wait a second.

Level 13 ADdendum
Look at the "Advert" at the bottom of the screen. See how the Cube is displayed in one colour.
Quickly change all numbers to the same colour as in the advert. Repeat until you win.

Level 14 Glancing Blow
In any order. Move the one you want to activate to the right hand side of the screen and hit it. When active move another to the right hand side and hit it - until all 6 are active.

Level 15 Rats and Cheese
Tease the Cube to let you see all sides, Something like 6,5,4,3,4,1,4,2 ...

Level 16 Unanimous
As the Symbols at the top change they occasionally all line up to one symbol.
When this happens the bar in the top middle changes to one of the Foreign Language shapes, Sun, Moon, Grass, Fire, Water.
When this happens you quickly change all the sides of the Cube to that colour.

Level 17 Forbidden
Don't touch it, just wait

Level 18 Influence
There is no quick fix for this. Rotate the Cube so you can see 3 sides and tap them until you've forced them all to be one colour. Do this for the other 3 and hope that all 6 go the same colour without messing up.

Level 19 Alternate
One Symbol means 1 and one Symbol means 2.
Change one and two to be the colour of the Foreign Language Symbol.
Now change 3 to be the same colour as 1, then 4 to be the same as 2. Then with 5 and 6.
Basically making the Odd numbers one colour and the Even the other Alternative.

Level 20 Resting place
The numbers 1-5 represent a place on the screen.
Tap a number and the Cube moves to that position on the screen.
You need to hit the numbers in order so the Cube draws a X
4,2,3,5,1

Well done you solved the mystery.... by cheating

Android TouchPal and Swype swiping keyboard text entry - Great!

2011-08-26T18:23:00.000-07:00

You can type pretty fast on your touchscreen phone but how much quicker would it be if you did not need to remove your finger from the screen? - That's Swype!

It's like writing, not typing! Click for Updated Info

And how much faster again if you only need write less than half of the word? - That's TouchPal!

Note though that searching for and installing TouchPal now will give you an old TouchPal with no swiping action at all.

For now the only active Swiping keyboard project that is live and fully working is Swype. You need to visit their site and follow installation instructions. For the TouchPal project as it is in Beta Testing at the moment you need to register with them via Twitter or Facebook.

TouchPal looks to be much better than Swype as it has a very powerful prediction engine. I'd hope to have something this great replace even my computer keyboard as it is speedy, intuitive and slick to use. Swype is the original, more polished for the moment, fully working and where you need to go to get started in the world of swipe typing.

Typing with a swipe is like learning to write joined up writing instead of carefully printing each letter like a primary school child. It is organic and fast.

ADDENDUM
Sorry I had no idea about SlideIT (not free) which is a very popular and excellent swipe input keyboard. Try that too.

Block all ads when surfing the web

2011-08-26T17:41:00.000-07:00

The most effective way to block all web based adverts without using any software at all is to depend on the hosts file in the unix/linux system.

No Adblockers needed
No additional software
No/minimal updating required
No browser extensions
Free

1) Get hold of a good list of known Ad servers such as this excellent one

2) Edit your hosts file using root e.g. gksu gedit /etc/hosts

3) Paste the list in beneath the existing data and save

Cube of Atlantis Android Foreign language

2011-08-26T15:43:00.000-07:00

In the Android puzzle game The Cube of Atlantis you'll need to learn the Foreign language to unlock quite a number of the lower levels.

How to complete all 20 levels in the Demo

The language begins by being colour based so the Sun shaped one refers to Yellow, the Water one is Blue, the Moon shape is Black, and the Grass and Fire are a little similar but Grass is Green and Fire is Red.

That key lets you work out quite a number of the lower levels.

The tips and level names are very good guides too, for example the Forbidden level - are you going to even touch the cube?

In the ADdendum Ad based level, you'd better pay attention to the colours in the Ads

The one referring to music, you'd better get your notes in order.. and so on...

Read tips on all levels for the Cube of Atlantis Demo

Coloured terminal text so you know you're working as root

2011-08-19T19:58:00.000-07:00

I have needed to search for this a few times so for my benefit and perhaps for others here is how to have your normal user working with green text in terminal and when you switch to work as root the text is red... Just to avoid those dangerous situations when you forget a terminal is logged in as root.

Open your user bash rc ~/.bashrc and add the line

PS1='\[\e[0;32m\]\u\[\e[m\] \[\e[1;34m\]\w\[\e[m\] \[\e[1;32m\]\$\[\e[m\] \[\e[1;32m\]'

Open your root bash rc /root/.bashrc and add the line

PS1='\[\e[0;31m\]\u\[\e[m\] \[\e[1;34m\]\w\[\e[m\] \[\e[0;31m\]\$ \[\e[m\]\[\e[0;31m\]'

As user

Entering root

Job done

Ultimate android resource management, speed boost and battery saver

2011-08-13T20:44:00.000-07:00

Coming from Windows as many people are to Android they may well be draw to products that offer to save resources, close running applications and so on.

In Linux, which is what Android is running on, this is simply a waste of your time and even damaging to the system. Likely even to slow things down.

Linux by default looks at what it is asked to run and decides if it needs to. It will cache all which is pointless to unused memory and will not waste CPU cycles on it. Not wasting CPU by default is where Linux shines over Windows but also the idea of caching to memory and memory management are very smart.

A cached program or service can be launched very quickly but if your "optimizer" program has killed that service it must now be launched fresh, which is much slower than from cache. If Linux finds it needs extra memory it will smartly, again by default, find the least used thing in cache and free that space for the program which needs it.

Linux is smart software, naturally and by default, doing what memory managers attempt to do for Windows. Don't be fooled into installing these things on Android.

Shutdown Gnome-Shell

2011-08-05T17:07:00.001-07:00

I found this by accident when I started using Gnome-Shell as I still had some of my Macintosh mentality in me, that is to extend a mouse click using the ALT key.

In Gnome Shell when you look for the Shutdown and Restart options you seem to only have the option to Log out.

Press the ALT key while doing this though and you'll see the options you expect.

There is a Gnome Shell extension which has Shutdown and Restart displayed in the menu at all times but if you do find yourself in the situation where you can't find Shutdown, just press ALT while looking at the System Menu and there it is.

Google is what you want to be

2011-07-29T04:41:00.000-07:00

You're anti Big Corporations, you support freedom, you want computing to be fun and useful, you want software to be well written, efficient, open and safe... You almost definitely think GNU Linux is awesome... you've probably tried to convert your Mum or Dad, Sister or Wife to Linux... .......

The only thing able to stand up to the awe and might of Microsoft, is Google.

You can search the web however you like but if you want to find what you want.. Google.

The only thing to stand against the iPhone is Android.

Google maps is exactly what you'd have dreamt the future to be, but here it is, free.

Google though are an evil, money driven, marketing agency who never delete anything, harvest all they can and know more about you than your Mum does.

Hmmm

When the DotCom boom came then the ideal URL was the dreamers dream, then after Google it was not so much the URL as the keywords and with time it was to be the rank, the quality of the information as voted for by incoming links.

The site seen by its peers as offering the best quality information for a given thing became the top of the tree. and so Google became untouchable in their ability to offer the best results and in a way that could only improve the more people who took to it.

Wow.

We can't help but love and slightly hate this. We don't want a Big brother society but here is a Big Brother we go to repeatedly with love, respect and a knowledge that we won't be let down.

Google are incredible, just what you'd be except you were a lifetime too late and a bit less good at puns.

They give us Android for free, Google maps, search and much more, they will blow us away with new innovations in popular releases and Lab releases as they now have the best brains working for them and they have a dream that we all share as well as the momentum to reach the heights the dream envisions.

Still, you can't help looking to alternatives. Where can I find a search engine that gives me just what I want but does not map me? Where do I find a gMail equivalent that does not monitor me? .... Oh, they don't exist as the reason Google's services do offer you just what you need is that they do know you better than your Mum does it is precisely by their mapping and bubbling of you that they do serve you just the results you wanted and just slightly before you press .

Fedora Gnome Shell vs Ubuntu Unity a brief comparison

2011-07-23T22:24:00.000-07:00

After holding out for so long for Gnome-Shell to come to light I went to Ubuntu and their Unity project. If you had seen how I had previously been shaping my Arch Openbox experience then you'd see why I really liked what I saw in Unity. Unity was a very nice, minimal, dynamic experience - a bold and mighty win for Ubuntu.

Then though I remembered Gnome-Shell and the reason I'd been looking for it. I got it installed on Ubuntu and, wow, it was great. It was not though a fully polished product so I got to looking for a dedicated Gnome-Shell setup - I found Fedora 15.

Fedora 15 and Gnome-Shell has been now after some considerable testing my favourite Linux experience by far. Slick, modern, so nice to use ... Fedora and Gnome-Shell is the current king of Desktop Linux.

World 3 Ezone Diversion 2 stars, Missing Stars

2011-07-22T22:45:00.001-07:00

The amazing Free Android (and iPhone Free Demo) game seems to be missing 2 stars from world 3.

Levels 3-5 "You'll need a regenerating shield powerup to defeat this mini-boss" and 3-6 "Sometimes things are harder than you think" have stars that are impossible to find or maybe are not even there.

Watch this video and you'll see that in the first example level played (World 3 level 6) (but shown there as world 1 level 18) there is a star just before the first one you'll find when you play.

*Note: This bug is fixed in the new update - All 3 stars are available in both 3-5 and 3-6! *

You'll be used to needing to drop down a hole to grab your first/2nd(depending on Level Generation) star but watch when the demo is played... there is a star right at the bottom of the hole and what for you is the 1st or 2nd star in that world is star number 2 or 3 for the demo game.

andorid carbon fiber wallpaper

2011-06-12T21:14:00.000-07:00

Use this 960x800 carbon fiber wallpaper on your Android device for a carbon fiber desktop and stylish white meche underneath the dock at the bottom of the screen.

Automatic Login Gnome Shell Ubuntu

2011-06-01T05:40:00.001-07:00

For now the Automatic Login for Gnome Shell in Ubuntu is not working properly and I think it only works correctly in SUSE and Fedora. There is a fix in Ubuntu though, at least partial.

Go to the menu at top right and choose "My Account" then "Unlock"

Change the Password option to "None"

At least now after booting your machine all you have to do is click your user name to log-in, password not required. OK this is not automatic but is a good half-way fix until the true fix is implemented.

~

NOTE: In the strange case that this messes up your sudo or account password then open a terminal and enter "passwd yourlusername"

Best Gnome Shell experience?

2011-05-30T02:44:00.000-07:00

I'm just reporting in from a live Fedora Gnome Shell session, that, THIS ROCKS...

I'm itching to click the install button but just have to do some backups first, then I'm a go!

UPDATE: change of plan I instaled Gnome Shell in Ubuntu Natty with the command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3 && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade && sudo apt-get install gnome-shell && sudo apt-get remove gnome-accessibility-themes && sudo apt-get install gnome-themes-standard

woo hooooooooo

Remove Skype icon from Ubuntu tray panel

2011-05-19T03:46:00.000-07:00

Skype misbehaves a little by appearing as a system tray icon in what is now the notification area and it also displays all wrong by, for example, sometimes appearing as a small pixel and not the full icon. Adding to this the fact that the Unity launcher will load multiple instances of Skype rather than jump to an existing open session means that I for one wanted to remove Skype from the Ubuntu notification area.

To remove Skype from the tray or at least not have it show there this is one method.

1) install dconf-editor
2) run dconf-editor
3) navigate to: Desktop > Unity > Panel and highlight the panel option.
4) In the pane on the right you'll see a string of items which are allowed to display in the Notification Area as if it were a System Tray, Skype is one of them, so carefully remove it making sure you don't mess up the formatting of 'item','etc','etc'

Also to stop mounted devices showing in the Unity Launcher

Under Desktop > Unity Devices > Device Options > Never This does not allow mounted devices to appear in the Launcher.

For lovers of Classic Gnome

2011-05-14T21:46:00.000-07:00

For lovers of the Classic Gnome interface* and for a finely polished, great looking and feature packed computing experience then Clem (Linux Mint chief) is back with a beautiful and classical looking Linux Mint release, Linux Mint 11, Katya.

*Of course default Mint is not precisely "Classic Gnome" as it uses the great Mint Menu but this can be easily changed to the Gnome one if desired.