IT Lure

Distro Hoppin`: Blender-boot 1 Suzanne Beta 2

2012-05-08T12:01:00.000+03:00

Distros, distros, distros... Glue a bunch of software together, add your favorite themes, name it "Frank OS" and that's it, you've got your own operating system. Obviously, I'm joking, I know it's quite a lot of effort that needs to be put into such a project. But, from a really high-up birds-eye view, they all can seem a bit... similar. Most of them are general purpose distros, aiming to please

Distro Hoppin`: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin"

2012-04-30T15:41:00.000+03:00

Ooooh yes, it's that time of the year again, folks. It's time for the world to partition hard drives, create new virtual boxes, burn hundreds of CDs, format USB sticks and pillage every Windows OS they pass by. I've always loved the .04 Ubuntu releases more, not necessarily because they were better, but because they came with the spring, and I tend to like things more when it's warm outside.

Google Drive Is Finally Here to Kick Some Dropbox Butt

2012-04-24T21:56:00.001+03:00

Well, not as drastically as some expected, but it's still enough to get Dropbox worried. So, 5 GB free with the possibility to upgrade to 25 GB for $2.49 a month! Yep, not even 3 dollars. Oh, and that's not all. Hear this: 100 GBs for only $4.99!! Dropbox offers the same amount of storage for $19.99! Ouch! For starters, the Google Drive client is NOT available on Linux (I'm not 100% sure...

I'm a Star

2012-04-12T08:16:00.001+03:00

Here's the link to my first (of many *wink wink*) ever interview. The great Dmitry aka DarkDuck apparently ran out of cool people to interview and decided to get one from me. Heh. To the staaaars! Thank you, Dmitry! I shall not forget you when I'm famous!

A Quick & Dirty Mobile Remote Video Surveillance Solution

2012-03-29T11:57:00.000+03:00

So you want to be able to watch your baby/cat/dog/house from your smartphone but don't have the time or the patience to setup a webcam server? The answer is TeamViewer, world's favorite remote support app. Install it on your Linux machine (I run it on the Ubuntu 12.04 beta), install it on your Android/iPhone (I set it up on a Samsung Galaxy Mini), open up Cheese or your favorite webcam viewer

Ubuntu for Android is Here to Kill Your Bulky Tower PC

2012-02-21T22:44:00.000+02:00

O, this is good, folks, this is so damn good. Canonical just unveiled their latest project and it´s nothing short of revolutionary. In these wonderful days in which technology is continuously and rapidly evolving, people are being spoiled with anything from super-fast broadband connections, crystal clear video chats across oceans, huge LCD screens, cheap but oh-so-powerful digital cameras, and,

Distro Hoppin`: Linux Mint 12 KDE

2012-02-09T12:06:00.000+02:00

Oh, dear Open Source Lord, how time has passed. As I was reading the release announcement of the new Linux Mint KDE, I didn't even consider creating a distro hoppin` episode, thinking I just recently did one on it. I went looking through the archives and, there it was, Linux Mint 7 KDE, written on... August 5th 200...9! And it's now 2012! Wowey. So here I am, in front of a new Kate document (

YouTube Now Seamlessly Switches from Low to High Video Resolutions

2012-02-04T11:17:00.000+02:00

Ah, how annoying it was to fullscreen a YouTube video as it automatically switched to a higher resolution, resulting in a hefty amount of extra buffering... No more of that, as I noticed today. Bringing a video to full screen does change the quality, but it doesn't do it instantly, thus allowing the viewer to continue watching without interruptions. Once the hi-res buffering is complete in

Udacity - Learn IT from the Best... for Free

2012-02-03T16:45:00.001+02:00

I've always placed programmers at pretty much the same level as Superman, Batman, Captain Planet, etc. As fascinating as the science/art of programming is and has been for me, I never seemed to be able to activate those regions of the brain necessary to be a part of it. Sadly. But, never say never, as a fat cartoon mouse once taught me; come February 20th, I shall develop a brand new

Distro Hoppin`: Netrunner 4.0 Dryland

2012-01-05T11:13:00.000+02:00

2012!!!!!!! I hope you had a wonderful “yay-we-are-one-year-older-where-the-hell-did-2011-go celebration” and wish you an exciting 2012. If you're more like me and would rather have an uneventful 2012, you can switch, no problem; my wish store is sufficiently flexible. Today, in the very first week of January 2012, I am happy to report that I found out who runs the Internet. It's

Air HID: More than a Tool for the Lazy

2011-12-27T09:51:00.000+02:00

You know why I love holidays? I can be a full-time lazy person for at least one day. So, while I was lazying around in bed, I realized I had to go to the computer and answer some videogame installation prompt. Now, that interfered with my peaking laziness. Hmm, I thought to myself, I have an Android phone, there MUST be some application that allows me to control the computer from afar. I mean,

Mini Bathroom Entertainment Center

2011-12-16T08:53:00.000+02:00

Yep.

Distro Hoppin`: Semplice 2.0 Beta 1.1

2011-12-09T17:21:00.001+02:00

THIS IS A GNU/LINUX DISTRIBUTION THAT IS STILL IN DEVELOPMENT. ONLY TEST ON NON-PRODUCTION MACHINES. Good day, people who visit my site! It is with great pleasure that I invite you to yet another pleasant reading break. The theme? As always, my latest visit into the open source awesomeness that is GNU/Linux. I discovered Semplice while reading Distrowatch's Weekly and I was drawn by its

Distro Hoppin`: Fedora 16

2011-11-29T23:49:00.001+02:00

Good day, everybody!!! Gloomy autumn days are heavily upon us with winter approaching quickly and temperatures dropping like crazy. I often looked up to the bird kind and felt a bit jealous of how they carelessly leave everything behind once summer is gone and leave to warmer places. Plus, they can fly!! Well, at least we've got our GPUs and monitors to keep us cosy during these awful, cold days

Latest Y!M Update Brings Voice & Video Chat to My Galaxy Mini

2011-11-19T12:45:00.001+02:00

Up until today, trying to download and install the Yahoo Messenger Voice & Video plugin was an impossible mission on my Samsung Galaxy Mini from Orange, even though my device seemed compatible with the requirements. I was starting to believe my Mini was simply underpowered and the 600 MhZ processor was unable to handle video calling. But, when I woke up this morning, a Yahoo Messenger update was

Quick Tip: Getting Rid of Hard-to-Reach Dust on Your Phone

2011-10-11T11:28:00.000+03:00

I've had the Samsung Galaxy Mini for about 6 months now and I've been enjoying the hell out of it. I used to be quite the phone abuser in the past, but I decided to change that the moment I put my hands on my first smartphone. I bought a quality screen protector film and a silicon case to protect the rest of my phone. Even so, a lot of dust and tiny pocket lint can get between the very small gap

Quick Tip: Make GNOME Shell the Default UI in Ubuntu 11.10

2011-10-08T11:33:00.003+03:00

For me, there's really no question about it; if I had only two choices: GNOME 3 or Unity, I would choose the first in a blink of an eye. The thing is, I also really like Ubuntu. Installing GNOME 3 on top of Ubuntu is easy as pie and using it is as simple as logout, choose GNOME from the "cogwheel" and log back in. Unfortunately, the otherwise awesome LightDM (display manager) will not remember

Fedora Spotted on Secret Service Files @ Nat Geo

2011-10-07T13:45:00.000+03:00

Heh, I always get giddy when I see Linux on TV. This time, Fedora's appearance inside a Virtual Machine on a Secret Service owned Mac desktop is not so unexpected. Why? Because we're talking about the division that handles electronic fraud. Update: Here's a "real" installation of Fedora in the same episode: And yes, that is XChat. What's really funny is that the show is apparently

GNOME 3.x Revisted

2011-10-03T00:08:00.002+03:00

The last time I tried both of GNOME 3's official ISOs, things didn't go as planned. But the recently released 3.2 version deserved another chance, seeing its apparent slew of new features. I downloaded the 946 MBs of data, burnt it and booted from it. This time around, the live environment loaded up pretty quickly and with, I'm happy to report, 0 errors or hiccups. Yay! The "revolutionized"

Linux Mint Debian Edition 201109 Is Ready to Roll

2011-09-17T10:43:00.000+03:00

Good day, everybody! What better way to start my morning other than announcing a new release of Linux Mint Debian! Last time I tried it, there was only a GNOME version available, but now Xfce is here to party as well. If you're already running LMDE, don't bother getting the new ISO, as that's where the beauty of rolling releases stand: you already have the updates included in this image.

Bugs `n` Glitches: mintMenu

2011-09-13T10:41:00.000+03:00

Since Linux Mint introduced the awesome mintMenu, I remember it suffering from the same glitch demonstrated in the video below. Yes, this is the latest release. Does it happen to you too? If you have any other weird e-happenings captured on camera, I would love to post them here. Leave a link pointing to the "evidence" in the comments or drop me a line (check the bottom of the sidebar for

Distro Hoppin`: A Quick Look at Lubuntu 11.10 Beta 1

2011-09-06T13:43:00.002+03:00

While Mandriva decided to simplify their offering by keeping only the KDE version alive in the latest release, the Ubuntu family has officialy grown yet again. LXDE - Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment - is here to rescue old computers through Lubuntu. My aging Evo n800c Compaq laptop was craving for some attention and what better way to make its wish come true other than starring it in a

Quick Tip: Smooth Compiz Desktop Zooming

2011-07-27T11:02:00.000+03:00

Visually impaired or not, full desktop zooming is always a great feature to have, and the Compiz plugin that allows you to do that had always been one of my favorites. A couple of years ago, when I first tried it, I was impressed by its speed and smoothness, especially on my then 7-year old machine. Sadly, for I think two Ubuntu releases, it became really choppy which badly affected the overall

Cool Projects: Novacut Collaborative Video Editor

2011-07-26T16:38:00.001+03:00

I am not going to retype what Novacut is all about, as it is much better explained by the developers themselves. What I am going to say -and I believe it needs no explanation- is that Linux needs a professional video editor. Will Novacut provide what we've been waiting for? That I do not know, but I sure hope so. The amount of work, money and passion put into this project is tremendous and,

Annonymous Caught on Camera

2011-07-23T23:01:00.000+03:00

Ha! I've never seen/heard anything related to Anonymous in my little Romanian town so I was pretty surprised when I came across this: Expect them! :D