My Geek Opinions - A Geek's Guide to Technology

MuPDF, a lightweight, opensource pdf reader for android

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 05:14:00 +0000

MuPDF is a distraction free lightweight pdf reader for android (including support for other operating systems as well). Apart from viewing pdfs, it can also read XPS, CBZ and unprotected epub documents.

The android app is strictly minimal, both in appearance and usability. Android users can read documents, search for texts, there's a button to enable hyperlink highlighting (& opening), document index navigator, left & right taps to the screen opens the previous & next pages, a middle tap takes you to a fullscreen view by hiding top and the bottom toolbar (here you have a page scroller & a page number display and that's about it.

There is no darkmode support, you can't change document background or text colors. It is what it is, I personally like it, but you have been warned. MuPDF PlayStore

Can't Upload Images to the 'new Blogger' Interface? [Fix]

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Thu, 21 May 2020 10:13:00 +0000

I love the look and feel of the 'new Blogger' interface. It looks modern and polished. While I was admiring its clean looks and functionality, soon I noticed however, that I cannot upload images to my blog posts from my local hard disk. Whenever I tried it simply gave me 'docs.google.com refused to connect' error.

Since things were working quite well in the classic blogger user interface, I was forced to switch back to it. Soon however, I somewhat accidentally found the solution thanks to the Brave web browser. You see, like a month or so ago I switched from years from using Google Chrome to Brave (it's amazing! It's slightly lean, fast and secure in many ways compared to Chrome). And Brave comes preinstalled something called 'Shields'. As the name suggests, it 'shields' your identity by filtering certain cookies.

This is a good thing as it block online advertisements and denies access to sites that requests certain details about your browsing history etc for instance. However, sometimes you have to manually intervene, otherwise it could break things up, like in this example. The fix in Brave is very simple.

Switch to 'new Blogger' user interface and once you're inside the post editor click, click on the small lion face icon at the end of the address bar of the Brave browser. Then from the popup, simply turn off 'Shields UP for this site' by clicking on it, as shown below (in the illustration, Shields is still enabled).

That's pretty much it. From then on you should be able to freely upload your image as illustrated below.

What about other web browser users?

If you use Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome or any other web browser and are faced with the same issue, then it's most likely that you have either manually installed or the browser came with a cookies filter. Locate that plugin/extension and turn the filtering off once you're inside your post editor. That should work, unless it's due to something else.

Why the Classic Blogger UI works?

That's because the classical user interface works its magic by staying within Blogger.com domain. But the new Blogger UI requires access to docs.google.com, which is outside of Blogger.com. That's what causing the issue because that's how cookie filters work (they shield the user by trying to limit the browser's access to the very domain the user is visiting, in each tab).

How to Remove Unused Packages & Save Space in Ubuntu/Kubuntu?

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Thu, 21 May 2020 05:21:00 +0000

Whenever you install an application in your Linux distribution (say in Kubuntu 20.04) the package manager usually installs other packages with it as they are required to run your application. These packages are called 'dependencies'.

However, when you remove that application there is no guarantee that those packages too will be completely gotten rid of. Over time, these unused packages can occupy your hard disk space if not attended. These days disk space is quite valuable if you have your operating system installed on a smaller but fast SSD, for instance.

The package manager apt used in Kubuntu/Ubuntu does have a built in function that addresses that very issue. It's called 'autoremove'. So once every while you should run this command to remove your installed but unused packages not only to save disk space but also to clean up the system. apt however will notify you of such remaining packages whenever you use it. But if you don't use it that often, then you will have to manually run the command to see if there are such unused packages that are occupying your disk drive's space (as you can see from the screenshot, I have a few packages occupying 390MB space of my SSD already).

To do that open up a terminal ('Konsole' in Kubuntu) window and enter the below command:

sudo apt autoremove

Then follow the instructions on your screen to get rid of them.

How to Install Audacity 2.3.3 in Kubuntu 20.04?

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Thu, 21 May 2020 04:49:00 +0000

Audacity is a versatile audio editor & recorder that's completely free to use. You can use it in Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and Linux. A few days ago, Audacity announced their latest release, 2.4.0, but due to a serious bug (that has the potential to corrupt your audio files), it's being paused.

Until the bug is fixed, users are advised to revert back to 2.3.3. So if you have already installed the latest version, then first you have to remove it, update your package database and then reinstall the version 2.3.3.

Note: Audacity has this nasty habit of associating itself as the default application for opening certain audio formats (such as MP3). There is no way around it, so you'll have to manually set the previous application for those file types.

Enter the below command to remove the 2.4.0 version:

sudo apt remove audacity

Enter the next command to update your package database:

sudo apt update

Then use the below command to install Audacity 2.3.3:

sudo apt install audacity

That's it.

How to Manually run file system checks [fsck] in Linux?

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Tue, 19 May 2020 14:52:00 +0000

The ability to manually check for file system errors is an important function in any operating system, especially these days where the widespread use of external hard disk drivers is quite common.

The basic knowledge of knowing how to manually run a file system check in Linux, for instance, is very useful, because sometimes users physically remove USB storage devices just after the file manager has finished copying something. That can sometimes result in data loss. There's no need to dive into the complex details, but, operating systems do take a slight delay before they actually finish coping the data, even if your file manager says otherwise.

Such accidents are rare with non-removable storage devices, but with removable devices it can occur. Running the file system check does not guarantee the recovery of such data (because that's not its job), however, it'll at least give you a cleaned up file system, one that is less prone to file system corruptions that could occur in the future. Unlike in Microsoft Windows, Linux does not let you manually run file system checks from the file manager. Therefore, you either have to have installed an application manually (they do not usually come preinstalled) or you can always use the command-line to run the file system command that comes Linux.

Even if you are a new user, the procedure is quite simple and it is threefold. First you have to identify the partition(s). Make sure they are unmounted. In the third and final step, execute the command.

1. Identifying the partitions:

Whether they are mounted or unmounted, as long as the devices that hold these partitions are attached to the computer, you can use the fdisk command in Linux to get a list of all the available partitions. For this operation however, you will need administrative ('sudo') privileges. So you simply execute the fdisk command with administrative privileges in the terminal.

Open your terminal and enter the below command:

sudo fdisk -l
The l option guides the fdisk to print you a list of all the available partitions. So have a close look at the output you get and identify the hardware & the partition(s) that you want to manually check for errors. Here I'm trying to figure out the partition path|name of my USB disk drive which contains a single ext4 file system and it is labelled as 'My Passport...' and the path of its single partition is in this instance is /dev/sdc1 which is actually the information we're after.

Once you identify yours, then again with administrative privileges, execute the Linux's file system command (called 'fsck'). Here, below is the appropriate command for me:

sudo fsck /dev/sdc1

2. Making sure they are unmounted

If your partition is already mounted, then the fsck command will simply abort its operation for safety reasons (you do not want to check for errors inside an active|mounted file system).

In such instances, first you'll have to unmount the partition(s). For that, you can use the below command. Make sure to replace /dev/sdc1 accordingly:

sudo umount /dev/sdc1

3. A successful run

If it is already unmounted it'll run and let you know what it finds. As you can see below, it actually did find few minor errors (totally unintentional) and fixed them.

If you want a detailed output of its operation, then you should use the -v option which stands for verbose. Below is the same command as above, however, this time, it'll print out more details:

sudo fsck -v /dev/sdc1

Once it's finished its operation, you can either remove or mount the file system and carry on with your work. fcsk is however, not a magical tool. There are things it can fix and things it simply cannot and as mentioned, it is not a data recovery tool. Its function is to try to fix the file system by looking at it as a 'whole' rather than recover files by treating them individually, keep that in mind.

How to Make KDE Panel Transparent?

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Tue, 19 May 2020 09:53:00 +0000

KDE desktop takes quite an individualistic approach in its user interface design. As a result, even if some feature or a setting is not available by default, you may be able to make that customization indirectly. It is also the case when it comes to enabling transparent mode in the Taskbar panel in Plasma desktop. If you're looking for a way to make that happen, then this guide is for you.

What we're going to do is to first open the 'System Settings' window. From there we'll access KDE Window Manager settings and add a new entry so that you can make your taskbar panel(s) transparent.

1. So first press Alt + Space keys to open Krunner application launcher and type 'System Settings' into its search box. This will open up the System Settings window, as shown below.

2. Then from the left hand corner, navigate to: Window Management --> Window Rules.

3. Under Windows Rules window, from the right hand corner, click on the 'New' button. This will open another settings window. In that window under 'Description' type 'Panel Opacity' and towards its bottom section under 'Window types' select 'Dock (panel)'.

4. Now, from the tabs at the top of the settings window screen, choose 'Appearance & Fixes'.

5. Then enable 'Active opacity' and 'Inactive opacity' settings and change their status from 'Do not affect' to 'Force' and set the desired opacity levels.

Once done, click the 'Ok' button and then click the Apply button at the bottom of the next screen's to finish things. If done correctly, it should be immediately applied, if not re-log into the desktop. That's pretty much it.

What Is Battery Calibration and When Should You Do it?

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 03:29:00 +0000

Now, when it comes to rechargeable batteries there are a lot of variations. But one thing that is universally true for all the rechargeable batteries is that, from the day they're manufactured ... they start to lose their ability to hold the charge. Although the rate is small (depending on the type) but even without you having to do a Calibration (more later), still at the end they'll all gonna lose their ability to hold the "charge" nonetheless which is defined either by their "life/years" or recharging cycles (which also changes according to the battery type).

Calibration and Memory Effect

Nickel-cadmium or commonly known as NiCd is one of the oldest rechargeable batteries invented around 1899 by Waldemar Jungner (Swedish). There was single main disadvantage that NiCd had from the beginning. Let me give you an example.

Few variations of NiCd batteries...

With a NiCd battery, say that you usually let it discharge about 20-25% and then do a full (100%) charge, then as the time goes on NiCd cells will "forget" about the remaining 20-25% capacity that it can hold thus resulting a charge hold of 70-75% (as per this example, otherwise the numbers will change) of it's full capacity. This "loss" of the battery's "memory" is called Memory Effect.

So in another words, as the time goes on NiCd (and its other variations) loses its ability to measure or caliber it's charge-holding capability thus requiring us to do a manual battery Calibration!, to help the dumb battery to get its "memory" back :P.

But remember, the above phenomenon does not occur due to the fact of excessive battery discharging but it comes into its existence due to the fact of not charging it to its full capacity.

A little about Lithium-ion Batteries

Lithium-ion or Li-ion batteries are the current most popular types of rechargeable batteries used by electronic gadget manufactures. Unlike with NiCd, Li-ion does not have the notorious "Memory Effect". They are more efficient, smaller in size, low cost, ... they have their advantages.

Li-ion battery (from Nokia in this example)

But...

Even though they don't have the memory effect issue, still they have a phenomenon called SOC mismatch.

Li-Ion batteries require a Battery Management System to prevent operation outside each cell's Safe Operating Area (over-charge, under-charge, safe temperature range) and to balance cells to eliminate SOC mismatches, significantly improving battery efficiency and increasing overall capacity.[86] As the number of cells and load currents increase, the potential for mismatch also increases.[87] There are two kinds of mismatch in the pack: state-of-charge (SOC) and capacity/energy ("C/E") mismatch. Though SOC is more common, each problem limits pack capacity (mA·h) to the capacity of the weakest cell. Source: Wikipedia.

Although we don't need to go into much details... but interestingly SOC or Safe Operation Area, etc results in a very similar effect that the NiCd's Memory Effect has, which is : making Li-ion batteries losing their ability to caliber or judge the real charge they can hold!.

So although the never, popular Li-ion does not have the bad Memory Effect, yet, over time when not properly used, they can have those above mentioned "cell mismatches" which ultimately resulting a calibrating confusion, seems happen concerning the electronic battery management "brain" inside the batteries.

I think this is why Apple recommends doing battery calibration even after including Li-ion batteries (iPhone/iPod... they use Li-ion in all their products as far as I know, but read your manual just to make sure) in their products, so are HP I hear.

For Li-ion Batteries, there could be various reasons for getting "confused" like this, but as most know, "heavy" heat is certainly one of the main reasons. For instance, if you use you Laptop as a desktop (which actually happened to me which leads to this little "finding" :P) for weeks without taking it anywhere but powered directly through an AC output, then it is advised by experts to remove the battery which will of course make you lose your data if power cut occurs.

Here's Apple's "explanation" concerning the matter...

Lithium-ion polymer batteries pack in a higher power density than nickel-based batteries. This gives you a longer battery life in a lighter package, as lithium is the lightest metal. You can also recharge a lithium-ion polymer battery whenever convenient, without the full charge or discharge cycle necessary to keep nickel-based batteries at peak performance. (Over time, crystals build up in nickel-based batteries and prevent you from charging them completely, necessitating an inconvenient full discharge.) Source: Apple/Batteries.

Another one...

Power loss through Protection Circuit

Besides common aging, a Li-ion battery can also fail because of undercharge. This occurs if a Li-ion pack is stored in a discharged condition. Self-discharge gradually lowers the voltage of the already discharged battery and the protection circuit cuts off between 2.20 and 2.90V/cell. Some chargers and battery analyzers (including those from Cadex) provide a wake-up feature, or “boost,” to re-energize and recharge these seemingly dead Li-ion batteries. Source: batteryuniversity.

How do I know when to do it?

Well if your battery meter in your operating system or in Mobile phone in that case, tends to give skeptic "remaining times" that are highly unlikely, although as said before all batteries lose their charge holding ability over time. Then it is time for you to do a battery calibration.

Some manufactures even recommend doing this per 30-40 day-cycles.

How to do it?

Usually in your Laptop BIOS you'll find an "option" which lets you discharge your battery. But I don't know if all the manufactures do this. So is that case the best things to do is to...

1. Make sure your battery is charged at least 93% or above of its full capacity before proceeding.

2. Now remove your AC adapter and let your Laptop run using the battery.

As most know, when your battery reaches its critical levels Windows, Mac OS, GNU/Linux, etc gives you warnings and if you don't do anything about it, then the BIOS automatically puts your operating system to sleep or stand-by mode. So wait until your battery is so drained which forces your OS to put itself to sleep mode.

3. Immediately after your PC/Laptop goes to sleep mode, then plug in your AC adapter (not before, but after the "sleeping" occurs) and charge it it to its full extent = 100% which is important.

Now you're done calibrating your battery!. Although if your Laptop or a mobile phone (especially) can last for hours depending on your battery. In that case you could "get busy" with your Laptop or mobile phone which resulting a faster battery "eating" (I usually watch a HD video... run several memory eating apps, etc).

Or you can search Google for a dedicated software that runs on top of your OS which makes sure to keep your Laptop/PC real busy :). For finding one, you can use Keywords like "battery calibrating software for Windows" (just replace the Red text with your operating system such as Mac OSX, GNU/Linux/android, etc). Good luck.

Remote Desktop Access Comes to Google Chrome!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 11:03:00 +0000

If you have a reasonably faster internet connection then using free & popular tools such as the TeamViwer for instance, you can easily establish a remote desktop connection that has a lot of uses. This is a feature that's being largely used by both professionals (remote help desk providers) and users all around the world which helps to access a remote location with as low cost as possible :).

Anyhow, the latest news is that, Google has released an extension for their Chrome web browser which basically enables the users start a remote desktop connection for free!. The extension is currently at its beta stage and is about 19MB in size (it was introduced like 2 days ago ="Oct 7, 2011", and used to be about 17MB in size but have added 2MB already, seems like they've done some "heavy" bug fixes already).

It's a cross-platform "thing" (obviously). So as long as you have installed Google Chrome web browser on MS Windows, Mac OSX, GNU/Linux or any platform the browser is installable, you should be able to start a remote desktop connection. The extension uses the Google G-Talk web API thus will ask you for your Google account access + at this point there seems to be no audio support but both video and text message sending is enabled by default.

As with other applications the remote desktop connection is implemented by using a access code (12 digits), encrypted. For instance, you can either generate a code for your computer and provide it to the user who wants to access your PC remotely or request their code and start the connection by yourself.

Either way, the code set-up is needed only once but if the connection got disconnected for some reason, then you'll have to enter a new code for security reasons. Since the basic foundation of Chrome OS is actually the web browser itself thus this will also be seamlessly implemented in the Chrome OS too.

So, if you want to do more than web browsing the Google Chrome and want to start both a nerdy or professional remote desktop connection for free then why not try this Chrome extension!.

Once installed you can access it by simply opening a new window and then under the sub heading "Apps" click on its icon as shown with below screenshot and can even access few of its settings window (creating a shortcut, etc) too.

You can also read this official help page for more information.

HTML5 Based Text Editor for Ubuntu Linux - GWrite!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 06:04:00 +0000

The world wide web loses its meaning and purpose if the "contents" is only readable by either humans or computers. Thus the purpose of HTML (which is the basic framework of web pages) is to make the contents readable for both computers and humans since computers are still our slaves who's purpose is to search and structure the data so we can access them as efficient as possible (poor buggers :D).

Since its introduction, HTML has undergone 5 major "updates" and the recently introduced HTML5 is the newest version that brings a lot of changes (such as advanced multimedia support, etc).

Anyhow as said before, HTML is actually a way of representing data thus by using it as the framework, we can build pretty awesome (meaning powerful and features rich :P) applications with somewhat minimal of efforts (since we already have the basic layout from HTML for rendering the data, etc).

A quick picture not to make you bored with my little rambling :)...

For instance, the standard text format (.txt) cannot handle images or anything other than text. That's why we have word processors that have both the container format + a framework of their own for inserting/deleting pictures, links or other advanced things which the basic text format is unable to "understand".

But what if we could build a universal format that understand all these things, images, text, links, graphs, videos, audio, tables, etc ... well a web page such an app, isn't it? it can display these things by default. Why?, because it uses HTML as the "engine". So since HTML is an open "language" anyone can easily use its framework and build an advanced text editor (as with this case) or anything that's supported by the HTML protocol (sort of) with ease and that's what GWrite is all about!.

I'm sorry it took this long ... but I got all excited ;-).

Anyhow let me give you some of its features first...

*. Based on the HTML5 mark-up language and the UI is written in GTK+ toolkit.

*. Very simple window yet has a lot of features. *. Even supports "MS Doc" word processor container format!.

*. Insert text and make them: Bold, Italic,Underline, Change font size, Highlight text, etc.

*. As said before, unlike with a "traditional" text editor, you can insert pictures, tables (not the ones with chair and stuff :P), URL (links), HTML codes, LaTeX math expressions, etc.

*. View the text source in pure HTML or the usual humanly read version (without the codes, etc).

*. Add styles such as: Different headings, Bulleted/Numbered lists, Div tags, Block quotes, etc.

*. Undo & Redo.

*. Find and replace.

*. Word counting support.

These are among few of its main features to mention. Although it won't show any file other than in HTML or MS Doc by default but you can easily open text or other files by changing the attributes to "All files" in the open file window.

You can install GWrite in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 (may even support 11.10, didn't check though) by simply entering the below command in your terminal window.

sudo apt-get install gwrite

So, if you're looking for an opensource, HTML5 based rich text editor (with excellent features I might add) that can be used in Ubuntu or GNU/Linux in general, then GWrite is a bloody excellent utility without a doubt!. Enjoy.

How to install Fluxbox Window Manager in Ubuntu ?

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 04:43:00 +0000

Fluxbox is a super fast window manager written in C++ that is being used as the GUI "creator" by many desktop environments. And just like with OpenBox (another WM) which is used in LXDE, Fluxbox is also extremely resource friendly thus it's especially being used in those "small GNU/Linux distributions" (you know small in size and resources, etc) nowadays more than ever as well.

Although the last time I tried it (bit of a long time ago actually), well it was really stable and fast but it did feel somewhat "sluggish" when it comes to minimizing or maximizing windows (with few delays just as with Openbox).

But if you want to give a try at this resource friendly window manager in Ubuntu, then the installation is pretty simple actually since it's in the official repositories. You can install Fluxbox in Ubuntu 11.04, 11.10, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command.

sudo apt-get install fluxbox

But as a Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal user, if you want to use the latest builds of Fluxbox window manager, then you can certainly make some use out of the dedicated PPA channel (thanks to Paul).

But remember, it includes the "Nightly Builds", so the packages may not be the most stable ones out there thus should only be used for testing purposes or if you want to get the latest updates of Fluxbox (and other related packages) but okay with the fact that it might drift you towards a bit of an unstable system (yikes).

To add it to Natty and install the latest builds you can use the below commands. As usual, open your terminal and enter the below commands.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fluxbox-maintainers/nightly
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install fluxbox

Then log-out and on the GDM log-in screen, just choose "fluxbox" under session. That should do the trick. But remember, this fluxbox WM only supports Gnome and KDE desktops + it will not support Unity or Gnome Shell interfaces since they're build using entirely different, a bit advanced compositing WM such as Compiz and Mutter.

But don't hope to get the same level of features with fluxbox as with Gnome or KDE for instance because at the end you'll be disappointed!.

And while using the "Fluxbox" desktop session, if you launch apps such as Nautilus file manager, then you'd run into trouble because Nautilus will try to replace the desktop management instead of fluxbox!.

But as a quick solution, we can disable Nautilus for dealing with your desktop. To do that, open the terminal window and enter the below command.

gconf-editor

Then from the window that you get, go to: "apps" -> "nautilus" -> "preferences".

Now to your right-side scroll down until you see a setting called "show desktop" (as with below screenshot). Remove the check mark and it should solve your problem.

This will also disable desktop icons, etc in Gnome classic and Unity too. So, unless you're gonna be using Fluxbox as your primary somewhat desktop... then this could be a headache :)...

But as said... although it's quite fast, still, fluxbox window manager is certainly not for everyone. There I warned you! :P.

Cross Platform YouTube Music Player - MusicTube!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 09:31:00 +0000

For the good or worse, by using online video sharing services such as the extremely popular YouTube for instance, we can watch or listen to thousands or millions of songs without having to pay a penny :). Although I don't use it that often (because I have a limited-bandwidth internet connection, damn!) but if you use it quite often then would it be nice if we could have a dedicated application that lets us listen/search & manage all the music files on YouTube from our desktop with ease?.

In that case, I'm pretty sure there are quite a few already but I came across this one called "MusicTube" and it's awesome!. It's a cross-platform application written in the Qt GUI toolkit and supports MS Windows, Mac OSX and Ubuntu at the moment.

Although it's not fully Open-Source + not entirely free either (you'll have to buy it after the trial period) ... but it's a pretty cool utility which could be worth trying, for some.

Main features...

*. As said, the UI is designed using the Qt toolkit and looks quite simple and easy to use. Although I'm using the Windows version rather than the Ubuntu one because it gave me a dependency error (concerning Qt of course) while trying to install it in Ubuntu 11.04.

*. Search (with automatic suggestions) and manage playlists (with Shuffle or Repeat functions).

*. Display album art, artist name, etc.

*. Even supports video!.

*. Although it's still kinda really new (somewhat in a beta stage) but still things like the seek bar, etc worked really well (with speed I might add).

*. Automatic Lyrics support.

*. Change volume levels.

*. Copy the currently playing file's link.

*. Only play "Live" performance or switch to "Cover" mode which only plays the remixed ones.

*. Shows different versions of the same song.

Well, that's about it for the features. Although it would've been nice if there was a feature to download the files (perhaps it's in the premium version). But other than that, I'm really impressed with its performance concerning the fact that it's relatively new and all that.

Anyhow, if interested, you can get it from this official MusicTube page. It's supposed to work in Ubuntu 10.04 and up but as said before, it gave me errors while trying to install it under 11.04 Natty Narwhal. Other than that, if you want to keep listening to millions of songs (both video and audio) all the time for free (well, you gotta pay for the app) by using the YouTube online video sharing service ... then MusicTube is a pretty cool tool, me thinks :D. Enjoy!

Free Hard Drive Eraser - KillDisk!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 05:39:00 +0000

Whether you use Windows or GNU/Linux or most other similar tools for erasing your hard disk drive (not just formatting but deleted the partitions, etc) hoping that the "sensitive" data on the drive will be wiped securely... but as most knows, by using the "right" utility, it is possible to recover most of those data, if not all.

Or if you use a USB storage device such as an external hard drive or a pen drive, then having the ability to easily wipe out data without giving any chances of recovery becomes crucial. There are many software utilities available for that nowadays but some only run in the OS itself thus if you want to wipe a HDD, USB, etc that doesn't have an OS then you'd have to go through a bit of a hassle (unless you wanna manually attach that drive to your computer).

In that case, if you're looking for a free software application (has a separate professional version but the free one is more than enough for most of our needs) that runs inside MS Windows + also lets you boot into a boot-able environment of its own (where an operating system is not present, etc) ... then KillDisk is an excellent utility.

Main features...

*. Platform Independent file system eraser : Whether you have MS Windows, GNU/Linux, free BSD or Mac OSX , etc file systems... it doesn't matter to KillDisk it'll treat them all the same :).

*. Supports IDE / ATA / SATA / SCSI hard disk drives (including USB and SSD drives).

*. Erase data on both used and free space. If you only want to erase the free space then use the "Wipe" button. To completely erase the drive/partition, etc use the "Kill" feature.

*. Advanced scan methods for NTFS and FAT file systems.

*. Easily create a boot-able environment (a "DOS" type environment) using media such as: HDD, USB, Floppy, CD/DVD.

*. Wipes out deleted MFT and ROOT system records.

*. The free version supports only single-pass zero method which is pretty decent for most.

But for the best secured deletion ... you'd wanna consider purchasing the Professional version which includes few advanced features such as: user defined methods (including random numbers, characters, passes, etc) and few other Army and Government approved secure deletion algorithms, etc.

*. Erases both file system data and even boot sectors! (so always think twice before using :D).

These are just a few of its main features to mention. Although I only used it under Windows but as mentioned, it comes with a GUI tool that lets you easily create a boot-able disk drive. It however did not detect my GNU/Linux partition as a Ext4 file system but it can delete data nonetheless!.

And also remember, if you have a dual-boot environment with GNU/Linux and only want to wipe the GNU/Linux partition/s, then first make sure to remove the GRUB boot-loader. Otherwise you might not be able to boot-into MS Windows afterward (as long as you have the Windows installation CD/DVD ... this should be fixable most of the time, but just keep that in mind anyway).

So, if you're looking for a free, platform independent disk drive eraser that suits both individual and professional needs then KillDisk is certainly a pretty powerful application. But please be aware that if you want the best possible results then perhaps you might wanna purchase the "Professional" version + after using it, you will not be able to recover data ... so use it with caution. Good luck.

Get it from this KillDisk Home page.

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Gets the Official Code Name!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 03:36:00 +0000

As most knows, with almost all the other GNU/Linux distributions (or other major software projects in general), Ubuntu also assign a code name every time they release a new version of their operating system. The current version number is 11.04 has the code name of "Natty Narwhal" and the upcoming 11.10 is called "oneiric ocelot".

I'm not a marketer thus have very little knowledge about how or why code names are used... but I guess it has something to do with branding. Anyhow, few hours ago, Mark Shuttleworth announced (the founder of Ubuntu OS) the official name for the upcoming 12.04 which will be released in 2012 April (if everything goes according to plan) and it'll be called, Precise Pangolin!.

As always, Mark had something interesting to say about the name (or the creature behind the name actually)...

"Now, I’ve recently spent a few hours tracking a pangolin through the Kalahari. I can vouch for their precision – there wasn’t an ant hill in the valley that he missed. Their scales are a wonder of detail and quite the fashion statement. I can also vouch for their toughness; pangolin’s regularly survive encounters with lions..."

Anyway, the 12.04 release has another importance also since it's the "Long Term Support" (a.k.a LTS) which is for those who just can't stand for having to update their OS once every 6 months. So, once every 2 years a LTS version is released which carries no particular differences in packages but will be supported by Ubuntu (updates, bug fixes, etc) up to 3 years for the desktop edition and 5 years for the Ubuntu Sever Edition.

And in somewhat a recent interview, Mark said that they "might" replace Firefox with Google Chrome which could have happened with the 12.04 version but since it's the LTS version ... it won't. But it could be something that'll take place in the 12.10, perhaps.

Anyhow if you're wondering about the official code name for the upcoming Ubuntu 12.04 (both LTS and the standard versions)... then it's Precise Pangolin and it's all about surviving the "lion"!.

How to Split or Merge Files Easily in Ubuntu?

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:30:00 +0000

Almost all the popular file compression tools (archive managers) have the ability to split files and then merge them later, which is also the case with Ubuntu. Thanks to the default archive manager (called File-Roller), you can split any file by using it as long as you're using a compression format that supports file splitting (.rar for instance).

But the problem of using A compression container format to split files and store them has a bit of a known risk. I think most would agree that (at least in my experience) some of these split files have a tendency to be corrupted, which is a common "headache" concerning file downloading. For instance, have you ever encountered a "CRC error" while trying to re-merge a file that was split and stored in the .rar compression format?? (errrrrrrrrrr :D).

So, to avoid or minimize these sort of difficulties we need to have a dedicated, specially designed file splitter. Although under MS Windows there a lot of free tools (HJSplit is pretty famous) available so is with GNU/Linux too!.

It's ridiculously awesome! :D...

If you'd like to play with your command-line a little bit then there are few dozens available but if you want something with a GUI "attached" to it :)... that can be used under Ubuntu Linux, then Gnome Split is a utility worth trying. It's written in Java and uses the GTK + toolkit thus integrates really well with Unity as well.

Main features...

*. Split and Merge any file.

*. 2 Times faster than the previous version according its the developers.

*. Even includes a "Wizard" for both splitting or merging.

*. Change file split using size or raw values, location, etc.

*. Use generic algorithms or different methods.

*. MD5 integrity checking.

*. Shows progress with speed, etc.

*. E-mail files afterward.

*. Enable/Disable notifications & few more settings can be accessed via the "Preferences" window.

You can install Gnome Split in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, 10.10 and 10.04 easily by using its PPA channel. To do that, as usual, open your terminal window and enter the below commands.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome-split-team/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gnome-split

So, if you want to avoid most of those merging errors + looking for a extremely easy to use, features rich, fast file splitter/jointer (PDF, .PST, multimedia files or anything!) that can be used in Ubuntu (or GNU/Linux in general), then Gnome Split is certainly one of the best out there without a doubt!.

Best, Opensource Multimedia Player Frontend for Windows: MPlayer-WW

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 11:55:00 +0000

When it comes to software multimedia players there are millions out there but in all my honesty, the fully open-sourced, MPLayer is one of the best!. Not just playing video/audio files but it even has one of the most extremely powerful encoder which is being used as an "engine" for some of the most popular encoding tools as well.

Ironically, the default GUI of MPLayer (for both GNU/Linux and MS Windows) is a joke (no disrespect intended for the developers :D). It doesn't even resembles a fraction of the true power/features of the MPLayer command-line version. Because of this reason, developers all around the world has created GUI front-ends that uses the original mplayer command-line as the "engine", according to this official "related projects" page at MPlayer's web site, you'll find a hell lot of it :).

Anyhow, in the past I've used several of those GUI under both GNU/Linux and MS Windows. But SMPlayer and KMplayer are the ones that I like the most (if you know even better ones... please share! :D). Recently I came across a new front-end that uses the Mplayer called, MPlayerWW and I gotta say even after using it for a very short period... it really impressed me.

This MPlayer WW does carry around MPlayer characteristics such as fast loading times and decodes multimedia files quite efficiently (meaning low CPU usage while playing, without loosing the quality of course) and the GUI is beautifully designed that stays really simple (skin-able) yet it gives a huge list of additional features that can be really useful in times too.

Even the OpenGL rendering worked really well with my old ATI card ...

Few main features...

*. MPlayer uses the ffmpeg library (including many others) thus can decode almost all the known multimedia formats: MPEG 1/2/4, H.264/263, Xvid, Divx, AAC, MP3, Theora, OGG Vorbis, Flac, OGM, Blu-Ray, etc.

*. Open DVD/CD or even HD TV via the main menu.

*. Supports both Direct 3D (without breaking the Window Aero interface, etc) and OpenGL rendering outputs.

*. Manually assign shortcut keys.

*. Built in Playlist (not the most subtly embedded one ... my only complain).

*. Change video settings such as: Hue, Brightness or Contract with built in GUI tools.

*. Equalizer.

*. Enable/Disable file association.

*. Change subtitle fonts, adjust delays, optimized DVD subs or download ones online, etc.

*. Gain/Boost audio levels.

*. Change audio/video delays (another highly useful feature for a this kind of application, no more voices before talking :P).

*. Add several (both audio and video related) filters for enhancing such as: Denoise, Deinterlace, DSP effects, re-sampling, rotate, scaling, etc.

*. Comes with MediaInfo built into it, so you can get advanced media info such as: bitrate, resolution, author, encoding library, etc.

These are just a fraction of the features that you can access via its "Preferences" section. Nothing is perfect, so I shouldn't brag that much :/ ... but I have a WMV file (WM formats in general are usually resource "hogs" and are not optimized codes in my experience) that takes a lot of my CPU cycles of my old Laptop.

I played with MPlayer-WW and not only it decoded the file, but it did it noticeably lesser amount of CPU usage thanks the internal optimized codec library (I think) and it was impressive. Other things such as the progress-bar "sensitivity" is really good too. As mentioned above, it supports Skins (comes with few of its own) thus you can easily change the look-n-feel.

And when you're bored with it... just change the "skin" ;-)...

The player however seems to be at beta stage currently so doesn't seems to have an installation wizard. So you just gotta de-compress the archive file and simply drag-n-drop the icon to create a shortcut + because of this, you can easily copy it into something like a USB storage device and use it as a extremely powerful portable media player as well.

So, if you're searching for one of the best GUIs for the open-source, free MPLayer multimedia rendering engine which doesn't need any third-party codec and plays almost all the known popular formats + can also be used as a portable application, then I humbly advice you to give a try at it!.

Get it from this MPlayer-WW home page. Enjoy!.

Individual Web-Page Zooming Extension for Google Chrome - AutoZoom

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 05:50:00 +0000

Google Chrome is a fast loading (both start-up times and web pages) & highly simplified web browser based on the open-source Chromium browser. It is also one of the most criticized for "tracking" user data in somewhat secret ways, so may not be the most secure web browser out their either. But the rest assured most people just love it!.

Simplicity is not bad but it'll only do good when implemented in a more sensual way. For instance, if you use a computer like a Netbook for instance, then you wanna get the most of out its already small screen and in comparison with most other web browsers, Chrome gives you a lot of "space" by default which is one of the reason why Netbook users love it some much, I think.

But there are few things that are pre-defined in Google Chrome for the good or for the bad. One in particular (which happens to be one of the most important features of all for some users) is the web-page "Zooming" feature. Now, by default we can easily zoom in or out web pages with ease in Chrome. But we cannot manually define the zoom levels, other than the values already embedded into it.

"120" comes after "100"... no in-between values errrrrrrr....

For instance, the next zoom level after the default 100% value in Google Chrome is 120%. This might work with some sites but there could be some that does not look good at 120% zoom levels. What if you wanted to zoom the web page about 110% or 105% ... by default you cannot do this with Chrome :/.

But luckily we have like millions of free add-ons that expands the capabilities of Google Chrome thus I'm pretty sure there are many but I came across this one called, "AutoZoom".

Main features...

*. What I like about it most is that, unlike with a previous extension that I used, this extension saves settings per web-page. For instance, if you set a zoom level in Google.com to 110%, then it will only be applied to Google.com.

*. Set zoom levels universally: If you use this option, then the zooming levels will be applied to all the web-pages.

*. Or you can manually define any zoom level! (ahh finally :D).

Well, that's about it actually. If you're annoyed by this "behavior" from Google Chrome, then you can try it via this AutoZoom web page.

OpenSource Audio Encoder for Windows - winLAME

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 03:35:00 +0000

As most knows, if all you need is to rip a CD into either MP3 or WMA format in Windows, then you don't need any dedicated app since Windows media player is more than capable of doing that. But if you want to convert few additional file types such as MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, OGG into other multimedia formats with ease and looking for a completely free, open-source application, then winLAME (named after the famous Lame encoder, I think) is a pretty cool one.

It has a Wizard type interface which literally guide you through the whole process ... so it's quite the newbie friendly app :). It uses few of the free plug-ins to expand its converting ability thus you can use it as an easy AAC to MP3 encoder as well. .

Main features...

*. As said supports both encoding and decoding of various audio formats (both lossy and lossless) such as: MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Flac, AAC, WMA, aiff, voc and many more!.

*. Also supports converting/ripping audio CDs from the interface + online CD data fetching (album name, year, Genre, etc).

*. You can easily set encoding option for more than a single file thus if you have a bit of a "list" of files needs to be converted using the same audio quality settings... this is certainly handy.

*. Change quality based settings with ease with the sliders or manually assign the Bitrate according to your preference.

*. Automatically delete (can be disabled) the source file afterwards ... are its main features to mention.

I tested it with a MP3 file to OGG... and I gotta say that in the past OGG was slightly slower than MP3 when it came to converting (although OGG has always the better quality in comparison with MP3 at the same Bitrate) but with winLAME it certainly encoded the file really fast!. It also comes with pre-CPU optimized libraries that supports AMD 3D now and other Intel based multimedia settings, etc.

So, if you're looking for a free & open-source (GNU/GPL licensed) audio converter/encoder for MS Windows (supports 98 up-to Win 7), then winLAME is an excellent little utility that's worth trying.

Get it from this winLAME home page.

Boost System Performance (RAM specifically) in Ubuntu using zRam!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 07:57:00 +0000

I gotta admit that apart from all the criticism, MS Windows Kernel is pretty good at managing memory and system resources. Although the GNU/Linux Kernel is certainly one of the most robust & highly secured ones out there, but sometimes I do feel a bit "sluggish" performance while the Memory gets filled and when it's time to move the data between SWAP (virtual memory, a file, stored on or as a partition in GNU/Linux) to the RAM or vice versa when comparing with the Windows Kernel.

What the heck is "SWAP"?

If you're a bit new to all this hype :)... then SWAP is the temporary storage location that holds programs and other whatnots just before they're loaded into your actual/physical RAM for execution.

Anyhow, apparently there are few solutions for enhancing the performance and one in particular called zRam (successor of a project known as "Compcache", link below) that's integrated into the GNU/Linux Kernel. But the integration is "unofficial" meaning that, it's not included in the Kernel by default (unless the developers manually put it there).

Image via: Compcache (the original project)...

Concerning the Ubuntu users, Ubuntu also does not come it integrated by default but thanks to one of the core developers of the Elementary OS, Sergey Davidoff, not only he has made a PPA which makes the installation a breeze but also has made optimisations of is own which enhances the performance a bit more too!.

In his own words...

"... the result on my desktop with a quad-core CPU and 2Gb of RAM was fantastic:instead of freezing after running out of RAM, the system worked like nothing happened... got almost the same results on a 6-year-old laptop with Pentium M and 1Gb of RAM!...

I've improved the script to automatically adapt to the amount of memory in the system and automatically scale across several CPUs or CPU cores, packaged it in..."

You can install the zRam memory performance optimizer in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot and 11.04 Natty Narwhal by using the below commands.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:shnatsel/zram

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install zramswap-enabler

Now I used it for very short period thus cannot say much about its performance (it's still in my system, I'm gonna keep it this time :D), so I let you decide that. But after considering Sergey and few others who've used it... it seems worth installing!.

But I'm just wondering whether this could have a somewhat negative effect on computers with lower-end processors (such as Netbooks for instance) since the idea here is to compress some of the data on the RAM and store it within the RAM itself which requires some decent amount of your CPU cycles.

So I'm just wondering it could result in a somewhat, shortened battery life, perhaps. But then again while reading the original "Compache" developers' page, he says...

"Market is now getting flooded with these "lightweight laptops". These are memory constrained but have CPU enough to drive on compressed memory"

So then perhaps after all, it may not has a huge effect on your CPU, unless it's really slow :D. But later if you wanted to remove it... then just open the terminal window and enter the below command to completely un-install it.

sudo apt-get remove zramswap-enabler

Enjoy!.

Wanna Add an Awesome Looking Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot Count-Down Banner?

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 05:51:00 +0000

Ya all Ubuntu Linux geeks, are you excited or what! :D. It's like 11 days left for the official Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot release which brings some new features (the Kernel 3.0, Gnome 3 support + some other major changes, etc). So, out of the excitement, perhaps you could be thinking of adding a count-down banner on your website, just to show-off? ;-).

The default banner looks OK... but for a change would you like to add a third-party created awesome looking banner which includes the Wall-e robotic dude!. As you can see below, Wall-e has promised to keep holding the banner until Ubuntu 11.10 is released :D.

How can I add it?

Simple. You just gotta copy and paste the HTML code to your web site (on blogger it's pretty easy, just add a new HTML/Java code widget and paste it in and save your changes) the steps will differ according to your hosting platform.

Currently there are 6 types of banners and the codes can be obtained from this j_baer's blog (all credits goes to him for this beautiful banner, thank dude).

Free ISO Burning Software - ImgBurn

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 05:23:00 +0000

Burning an ISO disk image (whether it's a CD or DVD) in GNU/Linux is pretty easy + you don't even have to install a dedicated utility since it can be done using the command-line. But to do the same in MS Windows, well, you gotta have to install one separately.

I'm pretty sure there are dozens of them out there. But if you're searching for one of the best & free, disk image burning software (not just ISO container) that also supports Blu-ray disk images!, then ImgBurn is a pretty impressive one. It supports burning almost all the popular disk image formats, comes with a highly simplified user interface and has few other advanced features that are quite useful as well.

Main features...

*. Images formats supported - BIN, CCD, CDI, CUE, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, ISO, MDS, NRG and PDI.

*. Both writing the images to disk formats (CD/DVD and Blu-Ray) and creating images from disks are also supported.

*. Create a disk image from folders with advanced options such as: creating boot-able flags, various file system related settings, create video disk image of DVD, HD-DVD and BD video, add author labels, etc.

*. DMA Reseting: Although not everyone will be using this but for the advanced users, this is a handy feature. If you get errors (CRC related) while copying for instance, then you can try re-setting the DMA (direct memory access) settings on the optical drive which "could" solve some of those issues.

*. Run in read or write test mode (emulation).

*. Automatic file splitting.

*. Enable/Disable disk data verifying after burning.

*. View data as a graph.

*. Run in a separate mode called disk layout editor (very similar to Nero Burning Rom) which makes adding/editing the image contents pretty darn easy.

*. Change between few disk accessing drivers (another thing only a bit more advanced users should use).

*. Automatic association of disk image extensions.

These are just a fraction of features to mention. And if you want more additional control, then you'll get a HUGE list of options under the "Settings" window which shows the true power of ImgBurn. I've been using it for a longtime now and it's pretty amazing the amount of new options are added to the "Settings" section over time.

The "Settings" window just scares the hell out of me sometimes :P...

It also displays a "log" output (which you can disable) that displays some useful information such as errors while copying or create disk images, etc that can be used to debug error. So, if you're searching for one of the best (not just ISO) disk image burning software utilities for MS Windows then ImgBurn is a serious app without a doubt!.

Although it's only for Windows OS but according to the developer, it should work under GNU/Linux thanks to Wine software emulator as well. You can get it from this ImgBurn home page. Enjoy!.

Free & OpenSource CD/DVD Burning Software - InfraRecorder

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 12:32:00 +0000

Starting with Windows XP ... it's true that Windows in general comes with a basic built in CD/DVD/Blu-ray burning utility. But if you want a dedicated optical disk burner with some decent amount of features that also happens to be free and opensource :), then InfraRecorder (only for MS Windows) is a pretty cool application that I've been using from time to time.

Although when comparing with professional burning suits such as Nero for instance, InfraRecorder is nowhere near that quality but for everyday CD/DVD burning needs... this free tool can certainly live up to most of our needs.

Main features...

*. The GUI is pretty simple and is a bit similar to the one that you see with most other utilities... as shown below.

"Welcome Screen"...

*. Create Data/Audio/DVD-Video or create disk images + burning images.

*. Session import support (sometimes necessary while burning multi-session disks).

*. Close and Erase CD/DVD-RW.

*. Create disk copies on-the-fly.

*. The burning window is also extremely similar to the "Nero Burning Rom". Adding/removing files is pretty easy.

*. Change few advanced settings such as: Change buffer size, associate with disk image extensions, enable/disable windows explorer context menu, etc.

*. Create Boot-able disks and change ISO format settings, UDF file system related settings and add publisher name, Volume set, Date of Burning, etc.

*. Get advanced disk information (not always used but can come in handy sometimes)... are among the main features.

And since the recent versions of Nero uses a huge amount of system resources, it certainly ain't the most fastest around the corner these days. But InfraRecorder on the other hand is a fast loading, extremely resources friendly application that you can safely run even in your "old" computer as well.

Anyhow, if you're looking for a simple & fast loading Open-Source CD/DVD burning application software (which won't be able to replace Nero suite by any means but...) to run under Windows, then InfraRecorder is a pretty decent app.

If interested, you can get it from this InfraRecorder home page.

New 14 Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot Wallpapers Available for Download!

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 09:40:00 +0000

Every time Ubuntu releases a new version of their GNU/Linux distribution, they also make sure to include few brand new wallpapers where other GNU/Linux vendors just include one or two "official" wallpapers.

If you're a graphics designer and want to show-off your talent with Ubuntu, well there's a certain protocol that has to be followed before you can send your "baby" :D to Ubuntu art-work team for consideration.

Anyhow, since we're like 12-11 days away from the official launch of Ubuntu 11.10, the latest news is that 14 brand-new wallpapers just appeared in the Launch-pad page. Although they may not be the official wallpapers pack... but still most of them would make it to the "official" disk images, I think (cannot remember the whole procedure :D).

Awesome!...

Although I have a very looooooooow talent for drawings and stuff but I gotta say, some of these new wallpapers looks absolutely beautiful! (including the official 11.10 wallpapers, which looks almost like the one with 11.04 btw).

If interested (heck ya you are! :D), you can get the package from this Launch-pad page. Enjoy!.

A Portable Search Tool for Windows: Dropout

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 04:46:00 +0000

Index is the single most important thing for any search engine. The more faster and efficient it is ... the better the results are (obviously). Starting with Windows Vista, the Microsoft operating system uses an advanced index that gives you extremely faster search results when comparing with the latter versions such as 98 or XP for instance.

But still, to achieve this relatively "faster" performance, first Windows has to create a data-base (index) of your attached drives and that can take sometime. What if you have a big USB drive (12-20GB) filled with a lot of files that's always on the move. Then if you plug it in a new computer then searching can be quite frustrating since there's no index for Windows OS thus it will take sometime for it to analyze the files and give you your results.

Even more, sometime there could be file types that the Windows built in search utility don't understand. In that case it simply cannot deal with them thus even if has an index of your portable USB drive, still you won't be able to search for those files (for instance, unless a dedicated plug-in is installed, Windows index won't be able to search within the content of a PDF document).

In that case if you're looking for a portable "desktop search" type application that is really fast, creates the index a hell lot faster (even lets you search when an index is being created) + has the ability to deal with a lot of different file types ... then Droupout is an excellent solution.

Main features...

*. Portable (just copy the .exe file to the root directory and it'll scan all the files within that directory automatically).

*. Ability to use advanced search expressions such as "AND", "OR", etc.

*. Refresh the index.

*. Exclude certain files.

*. Auto-complete using your previous search history.

*. Open files or their containing directory... are few of the main features.

I tested it with my USB drive that contained files around 190 which is not huge but Dropout indexed it within few seconds!. So, if you're looking for a completely free, portable search tool that can be used in MS Windows... then why not give a try for the Dropout!.

Google Search Engine for Programmers: Google Code Search

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 04:13:00 +0000

If you're a computer programmer then a general purpose search engine can still be quite useful if all you want is to find tutorials, community based forums, etc. But let's say that you have few specific needs such as debugging or trying to find codes, etc then you need a special search engine that "understands" your needs.

In that case (I'm pretty most have heard about it but if you're a programmer newbie...) Google code search is still one of the best online tools since it's index is completely different from the traditional "version" and designed for the purpose of helping programmers to find what they're looking for, with ease.

So, unlike with a traditional Google search engine the "code search" allows you to...

*. Specify packages using their names (such as only search for codes in GNU/Linux Kernel for instance).

*. Use languages defined by you (C/C++, C#, Java, Pascal, Python, etc).

*. Search using "Class" attributes.

* . Search with with certain platforms such as Android or Chromium, etc.

*. Search in Functions or only codes that are available in a certain license.

So, the next time you want to search for a publicly available programming code, why not give a try for Google Code Search! :).

Cross-Platform Collaborative (real-time) Text Editor: Gobby

noreply@blogger.com (Gayan) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 07:28:00 +0000

Collaborative file (text file in this case) editing is a pretty common thing these days because computer networks or Cloud computing in general is becoming a "major thing" these days.

So basically if you're a part of a network and looking for a way to edit a document (in simple text format) with multiple users without having to lock it... then Gobby is a cross-platform ready, free application that can do, just that!.

Although don't hope it to be an advanced or a fully featured text editor since it's purpose is to let you create a basic document that can be proof-read later. It's designed using the GTK+ toolkit yet integrates with GNU/Linux, MS Windows and Mac OSX platforms quite well too.

Main features...

*. Comes with a simple UI.

*. Connect/Disconnect with other networks using different ports, user authentications, create a session or simply open your previously used session.

*. As said it's a basic text editor but lets you do things like: Find and replace text, go to lines, enable/disable automated indention, change font related settings (size, bold, etc) ...

... although most of these feature will have to be accessed via the "Preferences" window using the menu which is not the most efficient way to do that and could be the only complaint here (or perhaps it's more oriented around computer programmers).

*. You can start a text file from scratch or can open an existing one.

*. Syntax highlighting for various programming languages: C/C++, Java, HTML, XML, Perl, Prolog, etc.

*. Text wrapping.

*. Automatic recognition of various programming language related file extensions.

*. Send live messages.

*. Show/Hide connected users or document lists... are among its main features to mention.

You can install Gobby in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install gobby

Anyhow, if you're looking for a free text editor that supports collaborative editing + can be used on Ubuntu (GNU/Linux in general) and other OS platforms, but can cope with the fact that perhaps it's more of A programmer friendly (concerning the fact that font changing, etc type usual settings are hard to access) one, then Gobby is a pretty simple yet an effective opensource "solution" nonetheless.