Shevin

Debugging Under Linux

2009-07-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

in these hard days in Iran college term finished, being stuck at home, nothing better to do than working programming projects .
last night I didn't sleep because the program that I wrote was giving me strange crushes and I was pulling out my hairs .

I found this great great tool to debugg programs in linux called gdb .

let me show you few examples of how it works .
after installing it .
- go to your program's source code directory .
- type this in terminal

gdb

- now run your binary file to debugg

run name_of_your_binaryfile

it will give detailed errors of what happend

- there is another thing called Backtrace (a report of the active stack frames instantiated by the execution of a program )
after "run" you can type :

backtrace

-you can also do : breakpoint , which makes your program stop at certain points
for example you want a report to be given to you in the function1. you type :

b function1

-the last thing I teach you is, file
you can import another binary file to examine using :

file NAMEOFFILE

have fun with GDB .

[kubuntu] How to restore KDE panel, widgets just like fresh install

2009-01-08T02:13:00.000-08:00

if you messed up the panels and widgets on your Kubuntu , and you wish you could have just like a fresh install panel and widgets here is what to do :
open a konsole :

kquitapp plasma

rm ~/.kde4/share/config/plasma-appletsr

and in the end :

plasma &

Enjoy !

the truth about 64bit ubuntu !

2009-01-07T04:16:00.000-08:00

Being a loyal linux user since 2005 , I have tried everything , and I have been using 64bit Hardy Heron since its release but I couldn't get a Free 64bit CD of the Ubuntu 8.10 .
Canonical Company (the sponsor of ubuntu) doesnt' ship Free 64bit Ubuntu CDs anymore , in the past you could choose which architecture you want (32bit or 64-AMD) .
and nobody talked about it , neither Canonical nor ubuntu guys in the forums noticed that .

so I did a little research about it.

in university our professors tell us that a 64bit CPU is twice faster than a 32bit CPU just when you run a 64bit operation system on it.

but is 64bit ubuntu faster than 32 bit ubuntu ?

the 64bit Ubuntu is a simple re-compile of the 32bit source code and there is no optimization to take advantages of the 64bit circuits in your CPU , and I found out not only it is not faster but it is slightly "slower" than 32bit ubuntu . (Source)

64bit Ubuntu also has problems with Nvidia/ATI driver ,it used to have problem with Flash (not anymore) and compiz is buggy in 64bit ubuntu .

the only advantage of a 64bit ubuntu is for those who have more than 4GB RAM . (a 32bit CPU can not address more than 2^32= 4GB of a RAM) and those who need to work with files bigger than 3.2 GB (thats the biggest file size you can have in 32 bit environment)

therefore I am gonna install a fresh 32bit Kubuntu and forget about the 64bit until Ubuntu developers make a real-64 bit version (with optimized compile codes) .

by the way it would be better if Canonical was honest and would make an announcement about their not shipping 64bit version anymore instead of being quite and hoping nobody would notice it.

P.S : I made a topic in ubuntu forums, you can follow it .

check your internet speed in Real-time (Ubuntu)

2008-10-08T05:05:00.000-07:00

Most internet providers promise a speed , but they hardly keep their promise ، sometimes the speed is good for the first days but it sucks after that .

there are websites like Speedtest.net which tell you your internet speed in one minute , but you cant visit them 10 times a day , to check your internet speed ,you need to see in realtime.

Netspeed is a GNOME-applet that shows how much traffic occurs on a specified network device ( ethernet ,Lan network, dial up modem or even a sat card ) and you can see in realtime, what is going on with your internet download and upload speed .

I simply love it !
you can install it in three clicks :

1- Go to synaptic package manager and install it . (make sure universe repository is enabled)
2- Right click on your panel (at top) and choose "add to panel"
3- Find "network monitor" in the list and add it to your panel.

Quick tips :
- "Netspeed" can monitor many devices, make sure it shows the speed of the device which you want.
right click on the applet , then "preferences" , and choose your network device , eth0 , dial up or whatever...

- You can move its position on the panel . (right click on the applet , choose "Move")

The Most Delicious Addon Mods for phpBB 3.x

2008-09-27T03:55:00.000-07:00

phpBB 2.x used to have hundreds of delicious mods for doing anything but since arrival of phpBB 3.x I see no TOP MODS for phpBB in the blogs or social bookmarking site, but it doesn't mean phpBB no longer have good addon MODs .

here are the most delicious mods for phpBB3 which I discovered , I tried to choose among the stable and easy to install ones .

Prime Quick Buddies

Adds icons for quickly adding a user to your friends or foes list.
Download it here

phpBB portal
Have a front page for your forum which includes statistics and recent posts and most poster users of the day and more .
download it here .

SEO MOD
Gives your forum static URL's , excellent mod for getting more search engine traffic.
download here

Th23 Domain

allows you to use phpBB across multiple domains (the same forum is accessible via different domains). It allows you to specify sitename and cookie domain according to each domain you use with your board.
dowanload it here .

Integrate with Wordpress
the same login system for both , download latest version here

Thank post Mod
it allows users to thank a user on a post ,
the current version is 0.4 the developers are writing the 0.5 version and recommend you to wait until the 0.5 version (but it worth the wait) . here is the project page .

Points system (HelpMod) v1.0.0

a good alternative for Thank Post mod .
check out the the screenshots on the forum

Today's Posts 0.2.0

it is like the one in the "ubuntuforums.org" it adds a "todays posts" to the top of the forum, you can see a demo here .
Download it here

Full Syndication Suite (RSS/ATOM)
This MOD adds a full syndication suite to your board.
You can syndicate posts and topics for certain forums, categories, topics or the entire board as well as your own PM folders .
download it here .

PM spy
this one is a mischief one, which lets you spy on your user's private messages .
sometimes it is good for trapping the spammers, advertisers , and hackers .
download it here .

if you want to discover more Mods by yourself, you can check out MODs in Development page on phpBB forums.

+ if you think this post is useful ,please don't hesitate to buy me a beer or place your ad on my blog . (my email is in the sidebar)

identify your monitor in ubuntu and save your eyes !

2008-09-07T04:54:00.000-07:00

I have been using Kubuntu for a while and now I am back to Ubuntu . after a few days I realized my eyes hurt much and I wondered why .

by looking at the :

/etc/X11/xorg.conf

I found out that Ubuntu has not identified my monitor and it uses a generic plug and play driver.
and therefore the "Refresh Rate" of the monitor is lowered to 50 Hz . my monitor can produce 70 Hz in 1024*768 resolution .

in Kubuntu you can choose your monitory in system setting but in ubuntu it is a hidden setting .
to choose your monitor model and set the "refresh rate" in ubuntu this in terminal : (you need to restart after that)

gksu displayconfig-gtk

mind that each monitor can produce different refresh rate for different screen resolution, for your eye comfort I recommend you to choose a screen resolution which has at least 70 Hz refresh rate . for my monitor it is available in 1024*768 , and now my eyes doesn't ache anymore.

I am back to the game

2008-08-30T17:02:00.000-07:00

Hey guys as you may know I stopped writing tutorials and stuff for linux because they had stopped fast internet in my region and without a decent internet it is painfull to try all the programs .

now I have the ADSL internet back and I am back to the linux world, this time I changed my team to Kubuntu , I have got a few article which will be published soon .

I am kind of happy .
by the way here is a nlinux blog I discovered , enjoy !

Yahoo , You are a dirty thief.

2008-08-23T06:33:00.001-07:00

I had purchased two .INFO domains names at Yahoo Business last year, as they were so cheap at that time ($1 per each) then I found out they will charge me $35 for renewal of each domain . (which would be $70) and I could buy fifty .info domains in Goddady with that amount of money .

and the thing is, the $35 price was set in 1 July and they didn't inform each buyer that would charge $35 for renewal. (thats kind of cheating because nobody expects the price to be raised from $2 to $35)

so I immediately canceled my domains in yahoo and transferred one of them to Godaddy.com and I paid the transfer fee and it was done successfully.

today I found out my bank account is empty of my money and my balance is -$46 ,
the evil yahoo charged my account even though I had canceled the stupid domain names .

I tried to contact Yahoo Help and ask why , they have no way for you to email them . all they have is a "Frequently Asked Questions" and a non-toll-free Support Phone number , as you know I don't live in America , so it coasted me like $20 to call them, and all I got was "Please wait ..." and some "Stupid music" and nobody answered me .

all I can do is to shout on my blog, shame on you Yahoo . you are a dirty thief .
and I am gonna make a Anti Yahoo Logo and put it on my blog's side bar.

P.S 1 : Yogesh was also cheated by Yahoo domains .

Online Compile Tool for Linux

2008-07-10T05:07:00.000-07:00

nowadays thanks to Ahamadi nejad's government I no longer have ADSL internet, and I am stuck to Dial up internet and back to dial up modems.

to be honest linux really sucks in supporting dial up modems, I had a Zoltrix modem and I had struggled for years to make it work and it never happened .

well an evil website is selling the restricted drivers for lots of money (I hate that guy who sells the driver)

I bought another modem (a D-link ), after lots of compiling drivers , I connected to intenret but my pc crushed every 5 minutes .

so I bought 'another' modem (a Motorola) and it is not working either, whatever...

while having no internet on Linux , I had to use windows to download drivers ,
and it is a pain in the a** to swtich to ubuntu to compile drivers because each driver has much dependencies which I have to donwload from internet which means I have to switch to windows like 10 times for each compile .

now I am thinking I wish there was an online website , which they already installed all dependencies (like Libc, gc++, ... and everything) and people could upload their source and get the compiled version for their own machine and their own distro .

wouldn't it be great ?

I wish someone does it , if someone is gonna do it, please mention it was my idea ;)

There is somethign about Google which I dislike

2008-04-24T10:53:00.001-07:00

I have been one of the google's fans since ever,
and it is intresting that whatever else which I have liked, Google bought them eventualy (blogger, youtube, orkut...) . I use almost all google services .

before google makes its united login system, we used to had diffrent logins for diffrent services.
one email for Google Adsense
one email for orkut
one for Blogger ( I had two blogger account one for personal and one for group blogs)
for security reasons I didnt use the same email for my adsense and blogger acount .

but now it is a few years which goole makes united login system and it is very painfull for me , because I have to keep on logining in and out .

for exmaple I wanna check my google adsense, I login m1@gmail.com
then I wanna post in blogger I should loging to m2@gmail.com
then I wanna check my email so I have to login to m3@gmail.com
then I wanna see my iGoogle page , I have to change back to m5@gmail.com

now imagine I wanna check my email and post into blogger at the same time...gosh it is painfull , it is really painfull and sometimes I miss my infromation -compsing email or post-

I just wish there was a tool or something which would let me login to all my google accounts at the same time . (without being forced to log out from one )
or I wish there was a tool which you could integrate your google stuff into one account .

and you know peopel change their email address every 2-3 years because of spam or security or ... so it is not my exceptional problem , I am sure much peopel have diffrent logins for Gmail and Blogger and Adsesne .

well I hope that Google guys will listen me and do something about it.

BTW I was away from this blog for like a century , it is because I moved my house to another place and I have to use dail up internet and it is pain in the a** . so I had lost my motivation to post .

# P.S :
Alex Chitu recommends using this greasemonkey script which replaces "Sign Out" link on Google pages with a select box of accounts.

# P.S2:
I like to know what Philipp Lenssen says about this .

Agave - a must have tool for ubuntu web designers

2007-07-01T19:49:00.000-07:00

In these days I am doing my exams and also working on several serious articles for ubuntu (so be in touch !) but I have come up with a quick update, a necessary color tool for web designers under ubuntu.

Have you ever seen a nicely colored web page, and wondered about the web designer? Whether or not he sat down and thought about what colors would correlate and create harmony?

Agave is a great color scheme generator for your web pages programs or even your house's room, there you choose a color and it gives you all colors in harmony with it and you can ask it to give you brighter or darker set of same color.

Generate Random Color - Get Inspiration

It is so useful, sometimes you are out of idea, and need some inspiration, so just generate random set of colors (with ctr+R) until you feel you like it , you can 'bookmark' the color schemes to your 'favourites' .

Get the Code
After choosing your color, you can get the RGB CODE to use in html just by right clicking on the color and copying it. (no web designer memorizes color codes)

More :

as you see you can choose colors from
Gnome colors (Be in harmony with gnome's default colors)

Web-safe colors (some colors appear differently on different browsers, they are not web safe colors . )

Install it by this command :

sudo apt-get install agave

Is it visitor's right to block writer's ads?

2007-06-18T13:16:00.000-07:00

here is my chat with a friend :

Shewdiz: I had 500 visitors and NO click on my ads...
Shewdiz: :(
Peter: I don't even see your ads
Shewdiz: really ?
Peter: adblock plus removes them all
Shewdiz: u shouldn't use that extention
Peter: why ?
Shewdiz: f** you ppl.
Peter: swear once more and I block you, ok?
Shewdiz: I work hard and I deserve something ! I need money.
Peter: I don't, but I don't like being insulted for nothing
Shewdiz: poor writers make articles so you see their advertises
and u are cheating
by using Ad Block
Peter: cheating?
Shewdiz: yeah, its like fucking a girl without loving her
I wish I could write a script which ppl who are using adblock extention cant enter my blog
they should go to hell, I really wish they go to hell, they are using my blog and they don't even feel like seeing a pice of small ads on my blog . I need money I work hard I desreve !
Peter: you are not very likely to get sympathies if you insult people
Shewdiz: ok :(
Shewdiz: I should go and die. you are right !

What do you think, do you think it is user's right to block a poor writer's advertisement who is working so hard to run his life ? does seeing a piece of small ad on the corner of his article hurt you that much ?

I as the writer of this blog, tell you people, if you don't like to see advertise on my blog, you should not come to my blog, if you are using AdBlock Extention and read my articles, then I think you are entering my house without my permission . Actualy you are having sex with my daughter without loving her .

I am gonna make a logo and put it on top of my blog "if you have Adblock you should get the hell out of here"

I really like to know what is your opinion on this matter , is it readers right to block writer's ads?

+ I wish those who made AdBlock Extention suffer from hunger and have no house to live, and no food to eat, Amen !

UPDATE : EVOLUTION IN MY THINKING

ok guys I want to let you know about how I think now.as you know I am a human and humans think and their thinking changes . thanks for all who commented and told me their opinions, everybody without exception disagreed with me, some people behaved me so bad (sent me nasty comments !)

I think I am gonna stop thinking about making money out of ads
I am gonna find better ways, as I have said before, I am writing some great articles for ubuntu, I hope they help me become known in the ubuntu world .

Today I learnt something, and I write it down here so I never forget it,

Do not fight people, even if you are right, people are always stronger, you have to get along with people.

Sometimes I am wrong but I can convince people to be with me and I win !
Sometimes I am right and I stand against people (who are wrong) and I loose !

that's a sad fact that I have to learn. thank you for all your comments. I will be more understanding in the future. Thank you for reading my blog. Please suggest ideas for future posts.

All ubuntu's torrent clients (overview)

2007-06-15T04:12:00.000-07:00

Friend's Note :
650-393 has a very easy preparation manual but the real exams are much more complex and should not be taken before PMI-001. It is better if the student is done with his 70-284 as well as 640-801.

As you know torrents are a common way of sharing and downloading stuff, In this article you will read about my experience on all available torrent clients for Ubuntu including screenshots, I also introduce a web-based one :

BitTorando (simple stable one)
Azureus (a java based one)
Ktorrent (KDE's torrent client)
Deluge (Gnome's Ktorrent)
Torrent Flux (a web-based torrent client)
Tribler (for video torrents)
Other Clients
Give me a gift

Digg it

BitTornado

if you dont use torrent that much and you dont download multiple torrents, then I recommend BitTornado, which is an enhaced version of the default Bitorrent ,
it is simple small stable program which does the job without using much cpu/memroy and crushing.

Only annoying things is ,it doesn't go to tray on hitting close, but you can force it to go to tray using AllTray.

you can install it using synaptic package manager

Azureus

Azureus is full featured Java Based torrent client,
it is so known and probably most recommended by communities but I do NOT recommend it at all. because, it is extremly slow and it uses a lots of your CPU and memory. Azerus is slow on both windows and ubuntu, because it uses Java .

as I don't recommend Azureus, then "no screenshot for Azereus !"
You can install it using Automatix

Ktorrent

Ktorrent does "everything" that a torrent client can do .
It has a good looking appearance.
It has a tray icon. (goes to tray on hitting close botton)
and you can start or stop torrents in the tray (as you see bellow) .
You can preview downloading files .
You can choose selected files inside a torrent to be downloaded first or not to be downloaded (I love this feature).

Ktorrent is a way faster than Azerues, but still uses a feelable amount of cpu and memory, and it is because it is a KDE program (not a native gnome) if you want a full featured torrent, I recommend Ktorrent.

Deluge

It intends to be Ktorrent for Gnome (using GTK+ and Paython).
It loads so fast (beats Ktorrent in cpu/memory usage)
It is is not beautiful . (it is ugly)
It has a tray icon, but there is not much you can do with the tray icon (like start/stop torrents in tray icon.)
You can choose selected files inside a torrent not to be downloaded , but unlike Ktorrent you can not choose them to be downloaded first .
It doesnt have built in preview feature.

Deluge guys are doing a great job, because I really care about the speed of the programs and the amount of cpu/memory they use .
Deluge is under developing, I will be checking every new version, I hope soon it can be as good as Ktorrent. (I hope they read my blog and add the features I listed)

+ You can install it using Synaptic package manager .
+ Here is Deluge's website.

TorrentFlux a web based one!

This one is another kind of torrent cilents, it is PHP based cilent,
means you can intall it on your hosting server, and download torrents using your hosting's fast internet, It is usefull for me , because I have slow internet, I download the torrents to my hosting using torrent flux, I believe there are many other usages of a web based torrent client which u can discover .

here is how it looks in browser :

It is open source.
You can limit upload speed.
You can see the download speed,free space and other information.
You can select specific files not to be downloaded.
You can close your browser and it continues downloading.
You can control your torrents anywhere you have internet (home, work, cell phone...)
The downloaded torrents are available for public .
It has built-in search .

+ You can also install it on your own machine but you have to install LAMPP (apacheserver/PHP/mysql). Soft pedia has a article about how to install TorrentFlux on your own machine

+ Here is TorrentFlux website.

Tribler

This one is for Video geeks, it combines youtube and torrents and has some features for viewing torrents vidoes in a comfortable way .it is not easy to install on ubuntu, and it didn't click to me, but you may like it.
Here is their website .

Others
there are other torrent clients, which are installable from source which you can give them a try too (a bit work) , Transmission, qBittorent

After all, I tell you, it is up to you what to choose, (according to your needs choose one of the above clients) but I myself use Ktorrent.

+ I have spent many days testing all those programs and days to write this article with screenshots, and nobody pays me for blogging for ubuntu, in these days I need money so much, so if you liked this article, plz give me a small gift, the donate button is in the right side bar :)

+ I am writing so many GREAT GREAT GREAT articles for ubuntu, they will come soon (not very soon, after my university exams, but I am sure you will love them)

Tech Tags: ubuntu torrent bittorent torrent+client Deluge Ktorrent Azerues flux tribler Transmission qBittorent rtorrent

Swamped with life troubles

2007-05-28T04:32:00.000-07:00

Life is getting harder ...you know what ?
You get things when you don't need it anymore, I need a good camera, a new computer a laptop and a car now... not when I am 55 years old.

well I have managed not to fall , I play music in the opposite rhythm of life and I get new ideas everyday and I am working on them .
increasing number of people are reading my articles, three of my articles are getting so popular over internet .

the bad thing about being a Linux writer is , Linux users are professional and they are addicted to not to pay a single cent for anything and they don't click on ads , for example , I had 2 clicks out of 15,000 visitors in the 10 days and ofcourse no donation.
I have had several websites , and I can tell you if I had the same number of Windows readers , I could make at least $30 a day .

life is getting hard , but I have decided to fight ... I am a Kurd, I will keep on fighting , and I will continue waving open source flag on my ship .

Coming Soon :

I have written some updates and revision for my previous articles.
I have taken new photos for my photoblog
I am designing a logo for my blog and I am improving the template
I have written some posts in Kurdish and Persian

but I am swamped with math exams and life shits, I will publish them on the site as soon as I get ride of my exams.

By The Way : My Project For Ubuntu
I am working on a project for Ubuntu, the project involves posting CDs to ubuntu users , if somebody wanna help me in any way he/she can, please contact me .

I need :

To burn many CDs (500 CDs at first and thousands later) with printed cover and good looking case.
Somebody in America or Europe, with free time to post the CDs to people .
A native English speaker to correct our english grammar mistakes in the project site and CD .
A decent hosting server (at least 500 GB bandwith)
professional ubuntu users with much experience
Sponsor and somebody to back the project .

I am gonna start the project 40 days later. I know you are curious about the project, but I will explain more later (when I find somebody to help me)

if you are interested and wanna help , please contact me (my email is on the sidebar)

Norton Commander clone for Ubuntu -text mode file manager-

2007-05-25T06:22:00.000-07:00

if you find it usefull please Digg it here .

If you remember the old days of MS-DOS, you would miss Norton Commander file manager. The two blue columns where you'd select files on one side and copy them to the next side, only by pressing F5, no typing any commands !

and guess what! I've found Norton Commander for Ubuntu, it's called Midnight Commander. You may ask why would I use Midnight Commander while we have other grpahical file managers (i.e. Nautilus and Konqueror). Midnight Commander is a semi-graphical file manager, which means it runs under a Terminal window in "text mode" and we all know I am in love with text-mode programs like Image magic for editing images in text mode.

Things which are better about text-mode programs are:

They're so much faster than programs in grpahical mode
You can run it in SSH based terminal . (for example I connect to my webhosting server using SSH and I manage my files without typing commands)
They look professional ! (Actualy they are)

Midnight Commander is a text-mode program which rids you of the need to type commands in linux and makes life more comfortable. I love Midnight Commander. I highly recommend this software!

In Ubuntu, you can install it using the Synaptic Package MAnager (search for Midnight Commander) for other linux distributions you can download it from their site . To run it, simply type mc in terminal.

to end, I'd like to share some tips that will be helpful for using this software:

How to Copy or Move: as you see in my screenshot , it has two sides, choose your file in left side and then go to right side by pressing Tab and then choose the destination and then press F5 your filel will be copied ! (for moving you press F6.)

How to select many files: you can mark multiple files (or folders) using "insert" key , when you mark a file using "insert" it becomes yellow .
then you can do something to all of them (copy all of them, move all of them ,...)

to select all , press * key . (all of them will become yellow)
to unselect simply press insert key again and it will become white again.

How to zip and unzip the beautiful thing about MC is , you can compress uncompress files so easily . (I always forget zip related commands)
for example select the files you want to zip and then press F2 and in the menu choose compress ...you can do everything with MC , including CHMOD (permissions)

MC is mouse friendly you can use mouse too (but you don't have to), for example you can click on the right side, instead of pressing tab or you can click on "File" in the menu at the top
(aah I remember DOS days again, at those times I had to run the Mouse program before NC to enable mouse mode . I have such a Nostalgic feeling about MS DOS right now, somebody give me a hug please !)

Share thunderbird and firefox data files between ubuntu and windows

2007-05-20T13:12:00.000-07:00

if you find this article usefull please digg it , and reddit.

You have both windows and ubuntu on your computer (dual boot) and you would like to share data files (emails , bookmarks , extentions, ) of firefox and thunderbird email cilent between ubuntu and windows... then you need to read this tutorial !

First Step : choose the Data Files (profile) you want to use:
if you already have two different profiles (data files) in use in both linux and windows , you will have to sacrifice one, you can not have a combination .
I mean you have to choose weather you want Windows to use your current datas in linux or you want Linux to use your current data (email , bookmark , ,extension ,log...) on windows .

it depends on you ! for me ,most of my data files are in linux , so I make windows to use my profile in linux .

Second Step: choose a place to store shared datas !
we need a a place (a partition) which both operation systems can see it and can write to it .
I suggest a FAT32 partition .
(well you can choose a linux partition too but you have to install some extra programs to make windows see your linux partitions) so let say we choose a FAT32 partition , the partition should be mounted in linux with read write permission.

I go to that partition and make a folder named Sync
I create a folder named Firefox another named Thunderbird
in linux it would be

Third move the profiles to the new place :

now we should copy our current profiles to the new location (profile of the operation system which we chose in First Step) in my case, I chose to save linux datas and make windows to use them .

for copying thunderbird datas , open a the file manager and point it to

/home/username/.mozilla-thunderbird/Profiles

(replace the with your own username)

then there should be a folder like xxxxxxxx.default
move that folder to the Thunderbid folder which you created in second step.

for copying firefox data files do the same, open file manager and point it to :

/home/username/.mozilla/firefox/

(again replace with your own username )
there should be a folder like xxxxxsomething.default
move that folder to Firefox folder which we created in our New Place in Second Step.

ok now go to the next Fourth Step !
for those who want to make linux to use their windows data (unlike me) you do similar things you you find the profile folder and move it to the new place which was mentioned in Second Step.
the profile folders under windows can be found in :

C: / Documents and Settings/user/Application Data/Thunderbird/Profiles/xxxxxxxx.default

C: / Documents and Settings/user/Application Data/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/xxxxxxxx.default

Fourth Step : the final step !

now we have to go to Both operation systems and make thunderbird and firefox to use the new location of the profile

means we should make new profiles in both operation systems
first in ubuntu
for thunderbird :
run this command :

mozilla-thunderbird -profilemanager

click create profile
the new profiler is normally named default user
click next
click choose a folder
and point it to the folder you made in second step !

and the old profile name was default (not default user), you better delete the old profile in the menu.

now it is windows turn !
run this command in Run:

thunderbird.exe -profilemanager

and then do the same things which u did above in ubuntu (create a new profile and point it and then re run it and delete the old profile)

Thats all we did it ! (yep it was easy)

For firefox you do the same thing above,
go to ubuntu , and open the profile manager using this command:

firefox -profilemanager

and then like in thunderbird create a new profile and point it to the folder which we made in second step and delete the old profile)

then go to windows
run the profile manager using this command :

firefox.exe -profilemanager

and do the same things.

A Friend's Note :
Many professionals claim that the preparation schedules of 350-001 and VCP-310 was very difficult. The actual test in comparison was a piece of cake. As a result they did not prepare effectively for 642-901. They failed in even easy tests like 220-601, realizing the importance of vigorous preparation.

thats all folks !
the great thing about this hack is, you wont loose your bookmarks and extensions , even if you loose your operation systems ...(they are all stored in a safe partition !)
you can do some other interesting things , like you can put your bookmarks in a Shared Network and make all the network use the same profile !

in the future I am gonna make tutorial for other programs (like giam and ...but I am just too busy I am swampled with life troubles and school exams)

How to install extra fonts in Ubuntu ?

2007-05-16T09:50:00.000-07:00

A Friend's Note :
650-393 has a very easy preparation manual but the real exams are much more complex and should not be taken before PMI-001. It is better if the student is done with his 70-284 as well as 640-801.

yesterday I found bunch of charming free fonts ( including Harry Potter, Batman , Lord of the rings Movies fonts ) .

I needed to install those fonts to use in my banners , here is how I installed it in my ubuntu .
first download the fonts you like and extract the zip files , and move all the ttf files into a folder in your desktop for example "dlfonts"

now we need to make a directory inside our system font to copy our own fonts into .

sudo mkdir /usr/share/fonts/truetype/myownfonts

and then go to directory which you have copied your fonts

cd Desktop
cd dlfonts

and now copy the TTF files to myfonts directory

cp *.* /usr/share/fonts/truetype/myownfonts

(now delete the "dlfonts" directory in your Desktop we no longer need it)

you need to refresh your Ubuntu font cache:

sudo fc-cache -f -v

here are some other Font Related tutorials for ubuntu :

How to enable smooth fonts by ubuntuguide.org
How to install microsoft fonts in ubuntu by ubuntu blog

The Mafia Inside Digg.com

2007-05-13T02:01:00.000-07:00

I have spent many hours sitting on my chair infront of monitor designing my blog and I have spent much hours on each of my articles for ubuntu and they are the result months of testing and experience , and I am enjoying it but ...

but there is something which makes me upset , whenever I submit my articles to Digg.com they get a few diggs but in less than one hour they get deleted .
I dont know who does it (I believe a Mafia inside digg is deleting my posts) the interesting part is , just after a day or sometimes a few hours ,somebody re-writes my article (most of the times they just copy/paste it) and in a few hours they make it to the front page of digg !

I believe digg has come to an era which is collapsing like every regime in the world which keeps things secret from peopel !
leaders of digg.com kept on making digg more complex every day and made hiden rules for user ranking without letting people know about their algorithm until this resulted a Mafia inside the digg.com , which is misusing its power to make money on others .(yep digg is pro open source but it is not open source itself !)

the digg.com's website design has also become so heavy and full of complex java scripts ...I personally prefer visitng reddit.com which is neat , slight and simple and more intresting than digg.com

It was nice which I saw my articles been translated in other languages but it was sad that for the source they had linked to the Mr.Thief's blog !
I emailed the Mr.Thief and asked him to link to my article as the source, and he replied "do whatever you want" well he is right ! I can do nothing, he has so much influence inside digg and he kicks my ass in the digg !

I bet they are making hundreds out of my articles , but take a look at my earning on google adsense, (2 clicks in a week and less 60 cents !)

Page impressions Clicks Page CTR Page eCPM [?] Earnings
shevin 4,255 2 0.09% $0.29 $0.65

I have written several great articles for ubuntu waiting to be published , but I am too disappointed to publish them , the Mafia inside digg will delete my post and will copy/paste my article in their own related sites and digg it !

Good job Mafia in Digg.com , good job with disappointing me !

I used to be a fan of digg.com but I think I am gonna boycott it until they become open source and tell people about their ranking algorithm and their hidden rules and crack down on mafia groups !

there are several grouping inside digg which makes digg less attractive than before, those gorups don't vote for what is useful or interesting, they vote for what is to their benefit !
I feel digg is more like a propaganda playground rather than a real source of information !

may be it is not Digg.com's fault and digg is functioning just like real societies , may be it is just human nature which sucks , in the past it was prophet's duty to guide societies but in this era , who would guide on-line societies to not steal and to not care just about yourself ?

Digg reminds me of ancient history , where empires and governments began really good then by time they misused power and forgot their ideology and at the end they collapsed !

+ These people agree with me :

Wuby : Install ubuntu in windows without touching your partitions

2007-05-11T01:40:00.000-07:00

when I recommend Ubuntu to my friends, they immediately ask me :
-do I have to modify my partitions ?
-I like Linux but I just don't like this partitioning stuff...
-Can I have dual boot for Windows and Linux without messing my bootloader ?

and I used to recommend them to use Live CD , which is a good recommendation but just for one time testing, and for those who want permanent Ubuntu but still not ready to modify partitions I have a better solution :

Wubi , installs Ubuntu as it is one of Windows' programs , and it doesn't need you make new partition , and it is very easy to Un-Install (simple like any other windows program)
and another thing to mention, it won't change your boot loader so you wont face Boot Menu Problems .

reading their web site , I made my own F.A.Q for Wubi :

Would Wubi function just like ubuntu ? yes you will have 100% Reall Ubuntu (not using virtual machine or stuff ), but for accessing files on hard disk it wont be not as fast as normal installation of Ubuntu , because you are gonna use a windows partition format (NTFS or FAT32 ) instead of a native partition format for Linux ! EX2 or Ext3)

So .. How Much Space Do I need ? I would say you would need at lest 3 GB free space on your windows partition .

How big is Wubi to download ?
Wubi itself is 9 MB , but after you run it, it will download Ubuntu's iso (about 600MB)

I have already downloaded Ubuntu , do I have to download it again ?
if you have already downloaded the Ubuntu's Alternate ISO, you can put it in the folder of Wubi and you will skip the downloading section (good for computers without internet)
but mind that it must be Alternate Version of the CD (not Live CD)
After installation where to run ubuntu ?
just restart your PC and choose ubuntu in the menu !

How I can uninstall the ubuntu ? this is the intresting part ! You can uninstall it like any other applications. In windows .
you go to the control panel and select "Add or Remove Programs", then select Wubi and uninstall it.

I myself am gonna use Wubi to install other kinds of Ubuntu (you know there are Kubuntu and Xubuntu which I wanna give them a try too and un-install after trying them but , but for you I recommend Ubuntu not other ones )

so if you wanna try Ubuntu go ahead and download Wubi and test it easily and safely !

There is no man in this city..

2007-05-07T15:06:00.000-07:00

(I took this photo with my cell phone , too bad I lost my other camera , I could take it much better than this ... )

In this city , taxi , bus , subway , street , school , hospital , everywhere you see a crowd ! and a heavy traffic .
I was walking into the subway , and listening to a Kurdish song by Hesen Derzî , I was walking slowly and looking at people and smiling to them .

the music and and the voice of Hesen Derzî was so mysterious , it was like he was singing from another world and sending his music to our world ... and a part of the poem really touched my heart :

Kesî têda nîe em şare bêto

which means there is nobody in this city ...
yep , the poem really touched my heart , I was looking at the crowd who were pushing each other in the subway , but I felt there was nobody in the city...

Actually , my feeling is not something new , I am saying what Diogenes (Greek philosopher) had said thousands of years ago.
one day Diogenes was searching in the city with a light in his hand (during the day) , people asked him , "what are you searching for ? "
and he answered "I am searching for a man ! there is no real man in this city ."

Rumi the Persian also repeated Diogenes' story :

دی شیخ با چرا غ همی گشت گرد شهر

کز دیو و دد ملولم و انسانم آرزوست

(which means , the Sheykh was searching around the city with a light in hand, saying "I am sick of Div and Evils , I want Human ")

It is interesting that Rumi had known Diogenes at that time , because in the year 2007 , with internet and all these things , I hardly knew who Diogen was but Rumi knew him , hundreds years ago , I wonder what his source of information was .

so yep . the population of Tehran is 15 million but believe me for me there is nobody in this city !

Boot ubuntu to RAM !

2007-05-06T18:03:00.000-07:00

oh god, I have really become like Shewdiz and Shevin (two characters in my story which dont sleep in the nights) I cant sleep in the night too , I have to find a way to make myself sleep , you know I have things to do at the day (school , work stuff...) I have too much Math and Electric Shit matterial to study ... :(

by the way in these days I am writing a short story named "the forgotten story of the giant ship and the small island !" I will publish it on my blog soon .

ok let go to Ubuntu now! today I found a great article "How to boot ubuntu to ram"
it is great you can customize your ubuntu and make it boot to Ram , I have been waiting to do this for a long time , and the article also teaches you how to customize a Live CD ! (making your own Ubuntu Live CD )

Another news, the new Gaim is out , you can download it here (for Feisty Ubuntu)
although Gaim is no longer Gaim (they have changed their name to "pidgin", because AOL was gonna sue them) but I dont like their new name , so for me they are still Gaim .

in the new version ,they have changed the colors , and they have removed some features , I should say I don't like this Pidgin at all , I like neither the new name nor the new theme !

btw here is a cool site full of nice wallpapers for linux !

Gpaint a simple fast photo editor for ubuntu !

2007-05-05T18:07:00.000-07:00

You know what , you are tired and angry and need to edit a photo fast and loading the heavy GIMP would make you more tired and bitchy and you would start cursing your computer ... (he he)

Sometimes you just need simple program for photo editing , GIMP is a great photo editor but it is too heavy and too much feature for doing a a small editing , we need something slight and fast in Ubuntu which would load in 1 second and wouldnt take much screen in our desktop .

Gpaint is what we are looking for, it pretty looks like Microsoft windows paint !

How to add watermark to 300 photos in 150 seconds ?

2007-05-03T15:11:00.000-07:00

F.O.T.U (Focused on the Unfocused) is the name of my photoblog

I started that photoblog several years ago. Unfortunately, I had to stop it.
recently I decided to publish it again. After testing several photoblog systems, I finally chose PixelPost. (I used to use FolderBlog which is also great but too simple for me)
I liked PixelPost, I edited its default template, but before uploading my photos I needed to resize them and add my watermark to each photo .

I resized all my photos and I added my watermark to all of them in a few seconds
not with Photoshop nor with Gimp ,it would take many hours and a lot of energy using a graphical photo editor, this is one of the situations which a console based program is necessary , I mass edited all my photos using "Image Magic" in a few seconds !

in Ubuntu install Image Magic using :

sudo apt-get install imagemagick

(they have both Windows and Linux version)

then I copied all my photos into a folder on the desktop like "myphotos" then :

cd Desktop

cd myphotos

then I resized all my photos by this command:

mogrify -resize 65% *.jpg

depending on the number of your photos it would take sometime , for me it took a few seconds

you could resize the photo by giving the exact width and height too like this

mogrify -resize 256x256 *.jpg

and then I added my photoblog's name (Focused On The Unfocused) in white color with a black shadow and 22 font size to the bottom of all of my photos using this command :

mogrify -font /usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefonts/Arial_Black.ttf pointsize 22 -verbose -draw "gravity south fill black text 0,33 'Focused On The Unfocused' fill white text 1,32 'Focused On The Unfocused' " *.jpg

Note that you should give the program the address to font file on your system , (I have marked it in green) in ubuntu fonts are normally in /usr/share/fonts/truetype/
(in windows they are in c:\windows\fonts\)

to find out the exact Arial font's address on my Ubuntu system I used this command :

locate Arial*.*

ok we are done ! :)

I add another text to all my jpg photos in the folder ;

Text is "WWW.FOTU.SHEVIN.INFO"
Smaller font size (15)
Another font type (Purisa)
Orange Color
On the the top Left Corner

here is the command (follow the colour equivalents to learn the command format )

mogrify -font /usr/share/fonts/truetype/thai/Purisa.ttf -pointsize 15 -verbose -draw "fill black text 5,23 'WWW.FOTU.SHEVIN.INFO' fill orange text 6,24 'WWW.FOTU.SHEVIN.INFO' " *.jpg

Mass editing photos saves your time and more important you get the same look on all of the photos , there are many other things than resizing and watermakring which you can do using ImageMagic you can study the commands on their website .

After doing all this stuff , it was was lovely when people visited my F.O.T.U and admired my photos .

Piling told me :

in fact you have your own style , your pictures are dreamy, mysterious, a bit melancholic. like you in fact !

too bad I don't have a camera any more to take more photos... (if you are Bill Gates or somebody ,you are welcome to buy me a camera . wink)

today I also added some things to this blog's template (I am still working on my blog template)

Tech Tags: watermark edit+photot+by+command image+magic mass+edit+photos console+based+program mass+watermark add+watermark+to+all+my+pictures imagemagic how+do+I+add+a+watermark+to+myphotos add+watermark+to+many+photos install+image+magic mogrify+add+text mass+resizer+ubuntu embed+watermark+linux+command ubuntu feisty Linux

Your mind is like a donkey !

2007-05-01T13:04:00.000-07:00

Dr. to Raymond (2nd Season , 5th Episode ):

Your mind is like a donkey. You can only throw so many bags on its back before it lies down and won't get up ! So you gotta leave that stress, and do things that relax you.

I love this "Everybody Loves Raymond" TV show ,
Somedays which I have too much stress, I watch a couple of its episodes , and it relaxes me before my donkey lies down ! (I download them in mininova )

by the way they have stuff for your desktop theme on their website
in my Ubuntu , I have set their background wallpaper , and I use their Icons for some of my Icon-less programs and when I shut down , Franks says "Thank you come again !" its cute !

Ubuntu users, to use icons ,extract the theme you downloaded , and open a terminal , and go to the directory and then enter this command :

sudo cp *.ico /usr/share/pixmaps/

and then right click on the program (or application launcher) that you want to use the icon , and click on properties and choose the icon .

and for using Frank's voice for shut down, in Main Menu go to , System / Preferences / Sound / (then go to Sound tab and change the Log out sound to the Frank's wav file)

+ I don't consider this a tutorial ! (it is too easy thing to be called a tutorial)
my point of posting this was just sharing my happiness with those who also like both "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "Ubuntu" . (wink and have fun)

Force programs to minimize in tray on hitting close button

2007-04-30T01:21:00.000-07:00

I always wished to force some programs to be minimized in tray when I hit close button (instead of being closed), for example Rhythmbox ,BitTorrent ,SSH terminal, RealPlayer , Thunderbird , it was painful you were listening to a music and you had to have big Rhythmbox on your screen and on your panel , (I used to move it to another desktop but still I had to switch to another desktop if I needed it) or sometimes you hit close button on a bitTorrent program and it would be closed....

I found a program named , AllTray , (I wonder why digg users never introduced it to people) , after installing this program you can put the programs you want in tray , by running AllTray and then clicking on the window of the program you to minimize to tray, so after that when you hit the close button , it will be minimized to tray , instead of being closed !

In Ubuntu (Fesity Fawn) you can install this program using Synaptic package manager , for other Distros you can download it here

Enjoy too !

+ Update : just a tip on using this program , do not put all your programs in tray , putting a program in tray means , you want that program to be in the Resident Memory (Ram) and you want it to be ready all the time ! (so do not put unnecessary programs in tray or it will take your ram and your computer speed)

+Update2: another tip, to make a program to be loaded by AllTray on default, you can do this :
for example for Thunderbird , go to System / Preferences / Main Menu / Choose Internet in left column / (then right click on Thunderbird Mail and change the properties
change the command :

mozilla-thunderbird

alltray mozilla-thunderbird

you can play with it and do some other things , like you can add that above command to System/ Preferences / Seasons (so it run thunderbird in automaticly at startup using AllTray)

alltray itself has some options which you can use them to see the full list of options type this :

alltray --help

+For poor Windows users , I found a similar program for them so they have some fun too (wink) it is not as cool as AllTray but still....