My life's journey

Indefinitely offline

2009-10-04T09:53:00.001+02:00

In case anyone is wondering what happened to me, I have some real life issues to sort out. I will have some basic internet access and email, but nothing fancy.
Hopefully I will be back online within a year or so. Until then! :-)
If you liked any of my posts or projects or backports so far, the donation link on the right-side menu is a good way to express your gratitude. Cheers!

How to enable man pages search in Google

2009-09-01T08:00:00.020+02:00

I was messing around with Google this morning, when I realised that you can actually "subscribe" yourself to a custom search for linux manpages. You have to be logged in of course. :-)

I say "subscribed" in quotes, because it's not really a subscription, but rather a pointless (my opinion) feature. The only good thing about it is the icon that you notice directly what you want to search, giving a simple explanation of what the command does - in other words, the title of the manpage.

The steps are quite easy! You go to http://www.google.com/search?q=man+nmap and press the "Sign in" link on the top right corner. You log in with your Google account, then you are redirected back to the Google search page.

Afterwards, you go to Settings ⟶ Search settings.

Next, scroll down to "Subscribed Links" and click on the Subscribe button next to the "Unix Manpages". Click "Save preferences" and you're redirected back to the "man nmap" search. The search result is listed third here, so the result might be different than yours.

Finally, let me justify why I consider this pointless. If you use Firefox, you can easily integrate a quick search keyword with your favourite operating system's manpages website. Not all of them have this feature/website, but Debian and Ubuntu have it!
- Head on to http://manpages.debian.net.
- Select Man -> All sections -> Debian Sid.
- Right-click in the white text box next to "Man Page or Keyword Search".
- Select "Add a keyword for this search".
- Name: Manpages, Keyword: man
- Click Save.
- Head to your location bar text box and type in "man nmap".

Voila! Have fun keyword-ing!

Blogger and Firefox - How to save your password

2009-08-24T12:57:00.000+02:00

Some websites don't allow you to save your password in Firefox built-in password manager, for example Yahoo and Blogger. Really irritating!

One beautiful day (my irony tends to build up under 35 degrees Celsius), I noticed that the Blogger page actually redirects you to a Google account sign in. Therefore, I've come up with this little link that will allow you to save your password and take you back to Blogger:

https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=blogger&continue=http://www.blogger.com/

Someone might make a good use of it. I also hope someone will find a way or fix the yahoo login page. Enjoy!

P.S. Make sure you install Secure Login add-on - it's a really handy application that allows one-click installs!

Swine/Avian flu comeback?

2009-08-20T21:32:00.002+02:00

We've seen the avian/bird flu to "fly away" from the media attention, as soon as a new wave of infection, called swine flu, popped out. There exist 3 main "types" (genus / species) of influenza virus - A, B and C. Their "subtypes" (serotypes / strains) are really easy to merge with each other and create a whole new subtype, which isn't covered by a vaccine. If you still didn't understand it, imagine crossing a black cow with a white cow and ending up getting a black cow with white spots (or vise versa) - that's a rather simplistic comparison!

Now, CDC and the pharmaceutical companies (and subsequently the doctors that cooperate with them) warn about the widespread influenza virus infection. They expect the same or similar strains that have appeared so far. To some of you, this might look like "a big game" played by medicament-related companies. I have no idea what's going in the background and in the behind-closed-doors meetings, but one thing is sure: You have to be prepared.

Note for employers: this really concerns you, if you don't want to have insufficient personnel unexpectedly!
CDC has a well-written article about how should businesses and employers be prepared for the winter: http://www.flu.gov/plan/workplaceplanning/guidance.html

It may statistically be a pandemic crisis, but if people and public areas are well-prepared there's nothing to be afraid of. Quite honestly, I doubt anyone of you reading this post will face any serious symptoms. Surely pre-schools, schools and libraries can provide better hygiene control, teaching children how to wash their hands properly is a great way to start. Secondly, liquid hand sanitizers should be available in some rooms. Moreover, it should be possible to "recycle" the air in the premises, providing a fresh set every now and then; for instance, leaving a window open for a couple of minutes while on break.

Sneezing, coughing and even talking might expel liquid (droplets) along with some particles (droplets nuclei). One of the best ways to trigger attention while warning other people is to show why sneezing and coughing are bad, and some pictures of the actual moment are a good way to start:
- http://pileofphotos.com/view/188/People-sneezing
- http://www.immediart.com/catalog/popup_image.php?pID=434

It's common sense that some people will get sick during the winter. That doesn't mean that they all will catch the bird or the swine flu. Babies should of course be taken care of and checked by a paediatrician, whereas adults and teenagers should also take precautional measures.

The easiest pathways for a micro-organism to enter our body is through the mouth, the eyes or the nose. The droplets from sneezing and coughing are really contagious. Therefore, "nose-picking", "eye-rubbing", "thumb-sucking" etc. should be avoided at all times; or at least until you get your hands cleaned! :-)

Also note that one of the first symptoms is almost always a sudden fever, followed by a runny nose/sore throat/higher fever after 8-12 hours; they might not all be expressed and might be in a different sequence!

There is one thing though in this whole bird/swine flu story that drives me nuts. The western capitalistic countries seem to be in a non-infective bubble. Many people in the least developed or developing countries don't have the adequate medical equipment nor the vaccines to combat and prevent the virus from spreading. Because of this, people might die, and only a few of us care. The media simply draw attention to what happens in the "western civilization", avoiding to show deaths that happen in other places of the world, where - under famine and food shortage - pathogenic micro-organisms spread wildly and only some of us provide help.

If the flu was just a marketing trick to cause mass hysteria and sell out their vaccine merchandise, I have a brutal comment for such companies, but then again I prefer not to express my opinion.

Finally, I recommend taking the "Flu I.Q." test, it's a fun way of being informed about general information and facts regarding the influenza virus:

Workaround: brasero - slow speeds while burning

2009-08-19T19:42:00.007+02:00

Brasero is a cd/dvd writing application for the Gnome desktop manager. Its advantages are ease of use, a lot of burning options and support for plugins!

Currently in Ubuntu 9.04, if you try to burn a disc, you might notice that:

Everything goes well until about 50%.
Afterwards, it continues, but the report does not show anything (empty progress bar).
The speed is less than 2x, from 600 KiB/s to 800KiB/s, but the burning keeps going.
Somewhere in the end, brasero shows progress again, but starts from 0%!!
Burn was successful.

Note: You should consider that this might not always be your issue with slow speeds. For example, maybe your drive is not working well, or maybe your power supply unit (PSU) does not have enough "W" to supply all your hardware with adequate power.

The bug information is extensively reported here:
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=582261

One of the developers detected and corrected the problem, which seems that it was using the wrong plugin ("wodim" instead of "growisofs"). Since Ubuntu's binary package brasero has wodim as a dependency, it might cause problems if you try to remove wodim.

There is a workaround though that seems to do the trick:

Don't forget to install the package for growisofs: dvd+rw-tools

1. Tell brasero to use growisof:
- Press Alt+F2, and execute this command:

gconf-editor

- Head to apps ⟶ brasero ⟶ config ⟶ priority.
- Change the number "0" next to wodim-burn to "-1" in order to disable it.
- Change the number "0" next to growisofs-burn to "1" in order to set a higher priority.

2. Instead of using "Max" in speed burning options, set it manually at a high speed - e.g. choose 16x for a DVD or 52x for a CD.

That's it!

Credits go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/brasero/+bug/370999/comments/15
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/brasero/+bug/370999/comments/16

People are practically showing off where they got their songs on last.fm

2009-07-24T09:37:00.000+02:00

I just stumbled upon the famous http://last.fm/ website - really great website that tracks down your audio preferences. Useful to show off your stats and music to your friends.
It's unfortunate that many people practically show off the origin of their (illegally downloaded?) songs, take a look: http://www.last.fm/search?m=all&q=www.

Makes you think again before posting your audio along with your personal information... ;)

Nikola Tesla: the forgotten wizard

2009-07-10T11:15:00.000+02:00

To Nikola Tesla, a great Serbian-American who has given the basis of most electrical/radiological machines we use daily in our era. He provided the basis for an uplift of the way we live and work. Thank you, Nikola and happy anniversary.

belimantil.info hacked

2009-04-24T10:19:00.007+02:00

About 2 days ago, I saw this on belimantil.info:

Astounded my first thought was "What the hell?!". I was looking for a revision text one of my colleagues wrote, and fortunately it was available on another site. medforum2 (a forum created by medical students for general talk, exams and medicine-related discussion) was hosted on that domain, I thought of visiting and saw one of my colleagues complaining about the same thing.

Today I re-visited the site, only to find that it wasn't working! Naturally, my techie side kicked in several minutes afterwards, and I started looking into whether it was their fault (probably) or the web administration (why not?). So the whois command revealed the nameserver, I decided to visit oklopsrbija.com, their hosting provider.

Poštovani klijenti,

 Prekjuce je izvrsen napad velike grupe palestinskih hakera koji su "u borbi protiv Izraelaca" uspeli da zaobidju sve zastite na serveru i ishakuju sve naloge. Juce je ceo dan bila rekonstrukcija fajlova i pojacanje zastite.
 Nocas je uglavnom proradilo sve. Otezan je jos pristup cPanelu. Klijenti kojima je hakovanjem ostecena indeks stranica a nemaju backup tog fajla, neka ostave ticket sa subjectiom: "backup index fajla" i uradice se parcijalni restore podataka za te klijente, pocevsi od petka ujutru, i samo za klijente koji zatraze restore indeks fajla. U nemogucnosti smo da uradimo full restore svih podataka posto je vecina sajtova, pogotovu foruma, vec online i pregazili bi tim full restore njihove sveze podatke.Probijanje zastite nije nista novo na internetu, postala je nazalost svakodnevnica, igrom slucaja smo prekjuce odabrani mi.
 Ako hakeri mogu da provale u NASA ili Pentagon servere, sto ne bi i kod nas. I nismo prvi a na zalost ni poslednji domaci provajder koji je imao komplet ishakovan server.Takodje vas molimo da pratite dalja obavestenja logovanjem na vas oklopov nalog i pregledanje sekcije "Obavestenja".
S poštovanjem,
Vojin Petrović
direktor Oklop Srbija

In short, they are claiming that "Security breaking is nothing new on the internet, it has become an everyday event unfortunately, by chance we were chosen the day before yesterday" and "If hackers can break into NASA or Pentagon servers, why wouldn't they break into ours?". If understood them correctly, they're claiming it's not their fault they're not secure. Not even a single "We are sorry for not being careful" or "We'll take extra security steps to provide you with a safer hosting in the future" sentence. What an arrogance! I guess they should scratch the word on their website title, "Pouzdan" (=Reliable).

P.S. I hope this doesn't happen to me :)

Unable to connect server irc.ubuntu.com port 6667

2009-04-16T17:31:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I received a message like one of the following:

Unable to connect server irc.ubuntu.com port 6667 [Name or service not known]
Could not resolve irc.ubuntu.com/6667: Name or service not known
Connection to 192.168.1.1#53(192.168.1.1) for irc.ubuntu.com failed: connection refused.

If the same has happened to you, I suggest using chat.freenode.net for a better IRC experience. :)

P.S. I know, I know - long time no blog.

Millions for beating / Not a penny for students - Reason? This is Serbia.

2009-02-22T18:17:00.002+01:00

The Serbian government decided to pay the amount of a million dollars ($ 1,000,000) for a "student" (basketball player more likely), in exchange for his freedom. Namely, Miladin Kovačević is charged severely for injuring US colleague, Bryan Steinhauer. The newpaper that reported this, Borba, was charged for revealing "Governmental secrets" - the news was investigated and proven correct.

Meanwhile, students in Serbia are outraged, because there was a change in the law for students of higher education
Here's the pdf announcement for the Medical Faculty of the University of Belgrade:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/12733383/Uslovi-Za-Upis-2009-2010-medicinski-fakulter-u-beogradu-izmena-statuta
http://www.med.bg.ac.rs/?init=news&nid=2963&sid=5

Until now, students in Serbia were allowed to continue being on "budget" status, meaning they could study free of charge, even if they had repeated an academic year. Things changed and after this announcement, whether it is the first time you repeated the academic year or whether it's your second or third, it doesn't matter - the minute you repeat the year, you are automatically sent to , without the possibility to go back to on budget free studying.

Such acts as the one above and the event with Miladin Kovačević, really raise eyebrows, not only among students, but the whole working community of Serbia is opposed to this.
The next step the Government of Serbia is about to take, is to block ALL students and keep the ones that are regarded as the "best" - *ahem* no comment. Here's a news article about it:
http://www.24sata.rs/vesti.php?id=45826

Apparently, giving out millions for unknown (and classified as "top secret"!) purposes is more important than funding students (not basketball players), willing to learn and work.

And this is Serbia - a country where politicians promise and spend everything on unnecessary trips, on expensive cars and 101 suits; where politicians act like children in the Serbian Parliament, instead of teaming up together to resolve an issue; where politicians beat each other up; where politicians accuse fellow politicians for syphilis (or whatever it was), and the latter go and spend government budget on (many) unnecessary blood check-ups, just to prove them wrong; finally, this is a country that pays 1 million dollars and marks the situation as highly classified to free a guy that has beaten up one of his colleagues.

Independent Kosovo - the "thank you" of several world countries to Serbia

2009-02-18T08:00:00.004+01:00

Regard this as a "my opinion" post before spraying ethnicism over it.
The day of independence of Kosovo and Metohija (17th February) is a day that every Serbian will remember, definitely more if they have lived the terrifying moments when the sirens go wild, when everyone tries to save - or better yet grab - whatever possible while the NATO began dreadful bombing over cities, military and general infrastructure buildings as well as civilians.

I will not argue the fact that both sides suffered, but in the end, no-one respected to see both sides, just what the CNN and all other western propaganda showed.

I would like to list several good links to show you my point of view:
1) What Serbia did for the world? I'll take you back several decades - Heroic actions of the Serbian people during World War II:
http://web.archive.org/www.byzantinesacredart.com/blog/2006/11/heroic-serbia-wwii.html

2) What happened after WWII, how it reached to demographic changes which favoured Albanian ethnics and imperialistic ideas of a "Great Albania"?
A Czech TV documentary answers most of these questions (mostly one-sided stories, but do see the video):
- http://www.apatin-city.com/4um/index.php?topic=4964.0
- http://serbblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/brave-czechs-brave-film-stolen-kosovo.html
Note: They're not my uploads. Look for "Stolen Kosovo video english" in Google if this isn't available.

Amongst others, you will see:
- French Foreign minister Bernard Kushner, Hashim Tachi, NATO officers and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
- Madeleine Albright exchanging how-do-you-do's.
- Havier Solana disturbingly nodding to a woman that was forced away from her home.
- Atrocities.

http://web.archive.org/www.byzantinesacredart.com/blog/2007/03/nato-aggression-anniversary.html

3) The thank you for Serbia's heroism during WWII? NATO bombing and proclaiming Serbians as vicious murderers.

Kofi Annan endorsed NATO bombing in former Yugoslavia:
http://link.history.com/services/link/bcpid1681730307/bclid1729287264/bctid1601261895
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/un/timeline/timeline5b.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1999/03/99/kosovo_strikes/318104.stm

It is indeed tragic that diplomacy has failed, but there are times when the use of force may be legitimate in the pursuit of peace," Annan notes, but emphasizes the Security Council should have been consulted.

(For the "diplomacy has failed" argument, see "More links" below)

4) NATO's "oops" bombings, accidentally targetting not only foreign embassies, but civilians as well: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/340966.stm
See (2) if you think you can handle watching the holocausts (the bus over the bridge, the village).

An article quoting an eye-witness at the bazaar market in Niš NATO bombed:
http://web.archive.org/www.haroldpinter.org/home/florence.html

5) The final outcome?
- Billions of dollars in damages.
- Cultural damages, including churches:
http://www.international.icomos.org/risk/world_report/2000/yugos_2000.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7249034.stm
- Blood-lust and monuments of historic importance destroyed:
http://web.archive.org/www.nato-tribunal.de/varvarin/photo_documentation.htm

More links:
Albright's "Take it or leave it" plan - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo1jJkIfWbc
Albright & Kosovo - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1999/03/99/kosovo_strikes/315053.stm

NATO bombings operation:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Allied_Force
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Bombardment_in_the_Kosovo_War
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legitimacy_of_NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/nato_targets/default.stm

"Humanitarian" military intervention:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanitarian_intervention
- http://www.fpif.org/briefs/vol5/v5n01hmi.html
- http://www.usip.org/pubs/peaceworks/pwks45.pdf

Other:
- http://web.archive.org/www.cpa.org.au/garchive/960yug.htm
- http://www.unmikonline.org/DPI/PressRelease.nsf/0/BA2CB1DFE04FAFD5C12571790054E673/$FILE/pr1555.pdf
- http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/yugoslavia/military_situation.html
- http://www.againstbombing.org/WPworldreaction.htm

As a final note, I'd like to quote this site:

Certainly the atrocious crimes of the Serbs against Kosovars should not be tolerated, but any child knows two wrongs do not make a right. The rule of law also needs to be made universal by democratic processes. Individuals must be held accountable for actions that violate the rights of others. But to use the blunt instruments of war to punish whole nations and peoples for the crimes of their leaders and supporters tends to escalate the violence and the crimes.

Last, but not least, I would like to personally condemn the single-sided independence of Kosovo, the illegal approval and the ignorance of several international laws. The other thing I would like, is simply that Ms Madeleine Albright and Havier Solana apprehend the Serbian language and try to live in the Kosovo they've so desired to create by force - without their bodyguards and escorts that is, to see just how things actually are, behind the cameras, and during the terrifying nights of raids and attacks towards the few remaining serbians in Kosovo & Metohija.

How to change default locale (Ubuntu GNOME)

2008-12-29T23:16:00.014+01:00

I have always been a fan of English as my main language while using the computer or computer-related terminology. Recently I've stumbled upon the screenlets package (see picture or install debian package).
The only problem is that using United States' default date is shown as Month/Date/Year (i.e. 29/12/2008), which is rather unattractive (hey - my eyes, my brain, my opinion, my choice!).
After many unsuccessful tries of various commands, I've come up with a rather graphical-based solution to use the locale I preferred. Obviously, the best choice for me would be en_GB (Great Britain/United Kingdom), since I wanted to stick with English, but use the date format Date/Month/Year.
1. System > Admnistration > Language Support
Or you can simply run the command: gnome-language-selector
2. Type in your password if asked to do so. (Make sure you're the adminsitrator, it might involve installing extra packages)
3. Install your language of preference.
4. Choose the language of your choice again as the "Default language".
5. Press "Apply" and click "OK".
6. Log out (System > Log out).
7. While viewing the Login screen, click "Options" (lower left corner in Ubuntu), then "Set Language" and select "System Default". It will ask you to restart the login screen (press "Yes").
8. When the login screen is restarted, you will be using the language of your preference with the appropriate locale! :) You should be able to check this out when you run the following command in Terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal):
locale


LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

Now, if you notice any problems:
1. Execute these commands in terminal:

sudo -s

echo 'PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games"' > /etc/environment

2. Reboot your computer.
3. Run the gnome language selector again, choose "English (United States)" (or whatever was the default language). Press Apply and OK. Run it once more and set it again to the language you want it to be ("English (United Kingdom)"), press Apply and OK.
4. Follow the steps 6, 7 and 8 above.
You ought to be able to have the default language and locale you selected!

A second language - and a third one!

2008-12-19T23:00:00.000+01:00

One and a half year ago I wanted to comment an article about a second language. Sometimes people are having hard time learning new things, and it's not just their fault, it could be literally an anomaly in the brain structure or it could be related to the level of complication of the language someone chose to learn.
To a personal background level, I believe I used to be a polyglot, a linguist if you will. I loved to learn new languages, I started English as a second language at the age of 9 (I think), all thanks to my wish to understand how to interact with the computer and read foreign literature. From there, I followed English until the GCE O'Level certificate. In the meantime, I began French for fun, having nothing to do during long summer days. The intensive 5-hour lessons proved to be a really attractive language and I continued learning for 3 consecutive years (during July/August). Then came preparation for the medical schools, which put a stop to all my other activities. Perhaps it was my teen-hormone years or my own free will that did not pursuit my love for new languages. Nevertheless, I've learned basic Latin and still continue to perfect my knowledge in Serbian language during my medical school years - I guess I still have a crave for languages deep down under the wish for wearing a white robe. :)
No hard feelings to anyone, but I've recently compared the Serbian language to the German. Not that I know much about the German language, but I've noticed that in German there is the possibility to mix multiple words into one. Really cool once you get to know the basics of the language, but sometimes it is really hard for new learners. Basically, the grammar and the word pronounciation can be a reason for a person to pull back and not wanting to express themselves in that language. For example, Serbians from what I know have a hard time using "th" or "th"(d) - i.e. in the words "theatre" or "the" respectively - in English, which I think is one of the reasons they prefer not to use English at all.

The fascinating thing as a child is that you can learn more stuff than an adult person, the so called "Tabula Rasa" thesis. My opinion is that gifted polyglots (people that speak a lot of languages) should nurture their languages by daily or weekly translating/reading text of headlines, otherwise the wealth of words and phrases of a language they might once perfectly knew will definitely decrease by time without giving it adequate practice. And it doesn't stop there, listening should adopt your hearing ability in order to rapidly process verbal requests or to better interact with other people. Remember, a dialogue needs "two to tango", so it might be better to find a partner for it. Exchanging opinions about your primary language for a secondary one through "The mixxer project" may prove really helpful. I haven't tried it yet, but some of the readers may have better solutions for this. I suppose that you'll have to make remarks about the difference in slang and normal language, so.. be very careful!
Learning languages can be compared to other learning possibilities, such as playing the piano or the guitar or even writing code in various programming languages. There's a time when you might mix up words or phrases, but the brain learns to eventually adopt while multi-processing such requests - almost similar to other mechanical functions, like driving, eating a burger, talking to the phone and switching gears at the same time (not that I recommend it).
To sum up, comparing time required, ability to learn and grace of use, as a child you'd have better results in learning a language, provided you often practice. And do practice, because in later years it will definitely prove worthy!

non-ASCII characters in usernames

2008-11-24T03:58:00.005+01:00

Ever wanted a user name that is localised to the language you want, with your original name or surname and not only using Latin characters? Well, today I made a beautiful discovery!

Although a lot of people claim it is not possible yet for GNU/Linux to understand characters other than ASCII, I've found that it can concerning user names - using the useradd command (not adduser).

The actual problem seems to be a standard the unix commands have to follow:
http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/basedefs/xbd_chap03.html

But it looks like the useradd accepts arbitrary usernames, which is cool! So I've tried my name in Greek:

sudo useradd -m Σάββας

Then adding a password:

sudo passwd Σάββας

And that is all that is required!! Maybe some programs aren't ready yet, but so far I've tried: terminal, console, firefox, rhythmbox, totem player. None of them returned any errors nor did they crash.

timekpr - Keep control of your computer usage

2008-10-26T14:11:00.004+01:00

A rather new project, really reaaally really useful for parents and administrators that wish to limit their user accounts to a certain amount of login access duration or to limit accounts by defining access hours. Either way, it's a must have application, which I'm *ahem* actively co-developing! :)

The project page can be found at LaunchPad, the code is hosted at LaunchPad too! We have also set up a new blog for it at blogspot: http://timekpr.blogspot.com. There's a voting poll at the blog site, you might be interested to "give your click" to provide us with an orientation as to which new toys should timekpr focus on. ;)

I'm hosting a mini-page regarding the Debian packages, built with Ubuntu in mind: http://savvas.radevic.com/timekpr
(until I find some time to learn to cope with uploading packages to a personal package archive ["PPA"] at Launchpad)

Google - 403 Forbidden - "We're sorry"

2008-10-15T15:15:00.004+02:00

If you got the "We're sorry" webpage I believe you came to the right place.. I have noticed this error myself :(

Error

We're sorry...
... but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now.
We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software.
If you're continually receiving this error, you may be able to resolve the problem by deleting your Google cookie and revisiting Google. For browser-specific instructions, please consult your browser's online support center.
If your entire network is affected, more information is available in the Google Web Search Help Center.
We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we'll see you again on Google.

At first I thought that they blacklisted Serbian IP addresses (that would be really spicy!). They may suggest some mumbo-jumbo procedure in Google FAQ, but that didn't do the trick.

The solution was rather easy, I went to http://www.google.com/sorry typed in some characters and voila - redirected to Google web search :)

Openoffice 3.0 final.. finally!

2008-10-13T14:46:00.005+02:00

Today I noticed that the new version 3.0 of OpenOffice.org will be out, the open source/free desktop office bundle (that I adore). As osalt.com describes it:

OpenOffice provides a great alternative to existing commercial office suites. It comes with word processor (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), presentation (Impress), drawing and graphing tool (Draw), tool for creating equations and formulae (Math) and finally a database tool which also build reports and forms (Base). All components are multi-platform and multilingual. Development is sponsored by Sun Microsystems.

So I have two events to celebrate today, this and my birthday! :)

Click on the following links to see:
- the release announcement:
www.openoffice.org/news/index.html
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A//www.openoffice.org/news/index.html

- the new features:
http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/3.0/
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A//www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/3.0/

I've enclosed google cache links as an alternative, for some reason the openoffice.org site replies with '403 Forbidden' error.

Update:

You can obtain the openoffice suite from torrents or mirrors such as:
torrents: http://borft.student.utwente.nl/~adrian/bt.php
mirrorservice: http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/down ... ble/3.0.0/
Filehippo (windows executable): http://www.filehippo.com/download_openoffice/

Firefox: "Secure connection Failed"

2008-09-29T12:40:00.003+02:00

Visiting websites with secure connection enabled can sometimes lead to problems in Firefox. Websites just link their https certificate to whatever sub-domain they want or they redirect to another website without registering it properly. Mozilla Firefox 3 detects that "glitch" and adds an extra protection layer by stating the following error:

Page load error
Secure connection Failed

*site* uses an invalid security certificate
The certificate is only valid for *another site*
(Error code: ssl_error_bad_cert_domain)

There's an easy way to resolve this, if you click on "Or you can add an exception" → "Add exception" → "Get certificate" → Read the reason it was invalid and if you're OK with the reason → "Confirm security exception".

How to install Folding@home in Ubuntu using origami

2008-09-23T02:08:00.023+02:00

This is a quick "how to" tutorial in order to provide some of your CPU time for a good cause, which is called Folding@home. As they explain it at the F@h website:

Folding@home is a distributed computing project -- people from throughout the world download and run software to band together to make one of the largest supercomputers in the world. Every computer takes the project closer to our goals. Folding@home uses novel computational methods coupled to distributed computing, to simulate problems millions of times more challenging than previously achieved.

There are other projects out there, like BOINC. In that case, I suggest to install boinc-manager (menu Applications → Add/Remove) and check out Rosetta.

Now let's get down to business. You need to pick a name, which can be anything you like, as long as it's not taken - you can also pick a team, but that's optional. You do not need a password for a username, but you need one in order to create your own team.
Tip #1: A person is called a "Donor" in F@h.

Next is the application. Ubuntu is based on GNU/Linux, and the (good? :P) people of Stanford have created a console client. Despite the fact that we are left without a graphical interface, we can still get the client program and use it.

It's time to visit our good ol' friend, the Terminal (or Konsole for KDE users). Once you start terminal (menu Applications → Accessories → Terminal) we will install the origami package:

sudo apt-get install origami

Tip #2: Type in your password and press enter if you are asked to do so

The following step is to download and install the f@h client program.
The origami manual has several examples:

origami install -u Joe -t 45104
This example will install the Folding @ Home client to the local
machine, reporting data as the Joe user as part of the 45104
(TeamUbuntu) Team.

origami install -u Joe -t 45104 -c1
This example will install the Folding @ home client to the local
machine, reporting data as the Joe user as part of the 45104
(TeamUbuntu) Team, using the i386 Folding @ Home client and
toggling the cron option to auto-stop between the hours of 8:00am
and 5:00pm.

origami install -u Joe -t 45104 -p amd64
This example will install the Folding @ home client to the local
machine, reporting data as the Joe user as part of the 45104
(TeamUbuntu) Team, using the amd64 Folding @ Home client and
toggling the cron option to auto-stop between the hours of 8:00am
and 5:00pm.

Tip: If you are on your own and don't have a team, I urge you to join TeamUbuntu ( 45104 ) or UbuntuForums ( 45399 ).

Tip #3: Don't know whether you have a 32-bit or 64-bit operating system (OS)? If you're not sure, execute this:

uname -m

It shows whether you have 32-bit (x86/i386) or 64-bit (x86_64/amd64) OS. 64-bit users will want to fully use their processors, so they need to use the -p amd64 argument.

In short, the recommended command for 32-bit is:

sudo origami install -u YourName -t 45104 -c1

..and for 64-bit is:

sudo origami install -u YourName -t 45104 -c1

Tip #4: origami installs a crontab if you use -c1 in its own system user 'origami'. If you want to edit the hours it starts/stops (after you install it), execute: sudo crontab -u origami -e

Once your f@h client is installed, you have finished the installation! You can see how your folding process goes:

sudo origami status

Tip #5: Your origami configuration files are found in the /var/lib/origami/ folder. For example, my current CPU #1 configuration file is /var/lib/origami/foldingathome/CPU1/client.cfg

Tip #6: You can give a small boost to your folding process by making it use really low CPU instead of running when it's just idle. Execute:

sudo origami

Wait for it to stop, then run your text editor to edit the configuration file:

gksu gedit /var/lib/origami/foldingathome/CPU1/client.cfg

Add the following at the bottom of the file:

[core]
priority=96

Save and close your text editor, and restart origami:

sudo origami start

Enjoy folding proteins folks! :) You'll actually be helping out various medical fields, such as Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease researching.

Finally, take a look at these sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_distributed_computing_projects
http://www.gridrepublic.org/
http://game.bakerlab.org/portal/

Free rice!

2008-09-13T18:09:00.002+02:00

Do pay a visit at http://www.freerice.com - It's an amazing concept where the sponsors will donate 20 grains of rice for each right answer you provide! If you can't give financially, give by testing your knowledge.
There are various subjects to choose for answering! I took 10 minutes of my free time and summed 3000 grains of rice :)

Ranting developer

2008-09-12T02:15:00.000+02:00

I recently stumbled upon an old thread about linux users searching for someone to create an autoit-like application for linux. Starting from this post the ranting begins, it's really fun, I went through the whole 5 pages laughing :)
Sometimes people don't understand "No", that's why developers head to the aggressive "Let me say it again: No you idiot!"

Nevertheless, if you're looking to automatize some of your basic daily work, you should be looking to learn bash scripting or even an advanced programming language such as perl or python - if you're still looking for something that handles windows and gui interface, try gambas or python-dogtail (or here).

The sign language

2008-09-06T16:59:00.005+02:00

I was watching a video clip the other day, Edo Maajka - To Što Se Traži (YouTube). I was astonished by the fact that the rap song was actually interpreted correctly using the same fluidity as if it was spoken.
People are always in need to communicate with someone in case something happens to them. And here kick in the various languages. Since programming languages aren't something that could actually help me communicate with another human being, I've been always fond of the sign language and I thought that the least I could do is to start learning simple phrases, such as "Are you OK?" or "Do you feel pain?".
The really intriguing part is that this kind of language is very plain, yet so complicated - combining orientation and movement of parts of your body (hands or arms), facial expressions or even hand shapes to fluidly express yourself. It's almost like learning how to grammatically speak right. It is also pretty cool to be able to understand what is someone trying to explain to you.
The bad thing is that, as spoken language, each region has its own established "jargon", it takes time to adapt to several expressions, depending on the region you're living in. Also, most regions or countries have their own sign language, which can get pretty messy if you, for example, try learning the sign language in english and head to live in Japan.
Despite the above fact, it can be useful for communication with babies, like this video shows a mother communicating with her 1-year-old daughter - it's really amazing, kind of makes me wonder what are the limitations of teaching a child at such young age!
Searching around using Google, I was able to get some information that might be a good starting place for anyone having the desire to learn this language. The best resource that I can recommend is the American Sign Language (ASL) Browser. Do try it out!

Keeping your Ubuntu clean

2008-09-01T23:34:00.043+02:00

GNU/Linux is said to be one of the most stable operating systems in the market, which is why a lot of people prefer it as their server solution. But as a desktop, Linux and especially Ubuntu with GNOME, can get easily oversized without the proper care and before you know it, you end up with 1% free disk size of your root (or "/") partition; and taking up stress-relieve medicaments just doesn't seem right...

Here's a list of things I tend to do when such crisis strikes:

Clear your Recent documents using the menu Places → Recent Documents → Clear Recent Documents
If you use chat (IRC or Instant messaging), clear your log files.
The following list contains client applications and their default folder log location:
I strongly recommend closing your applications before removing any log files!!

irssi $HOME/irclogs

xchat $HOME/.xchat2/xchatlogs/

pidgin $HOME/.purple/logs/
After constantly installing and removing software, some leftover information might be just clogging your disk space for no apparent reason. The apt-based package management has two commands when you remove packages: remove and purge. The difference is that purge actually deletes the configuration files that are deliberately left there when you used remove, in case you want to install it again.
a) But which packages have their configuration files left over? Run Terminal (head to menu Applications → Accessories → Terminal) and execute the following command:
```
dpkg -l | grep -i '^rc' | tr -s ' ' | cut -d ' ' -f 2
```
Another way to find these out it to head to System → Administration → Synaptic Package Manager → Click "Status" (lower left corner) → Select "Not Installed (residual config)"
Now in the package list, right-click on the package that you wish to completely remove (aka purge) and select "Mark for Complete Removal". Then you press "Apply" and let it flow.
Tip: Press SHIFT+A to select them all.

b) Leftover package dependencies that were installed with your applications might still be around. You can clear them all out by executing the following in terminal:
```
sudo apt-get autoremove --purge
```
c) Ubuntu packages are cached in the folder /var/cache/apt/archives/, which can also get clogged up by numerous packages that are either updated or not used anymore. You can solve that by executing in terminal:
```
sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get update
```
If you really want to clear all the packages archived:
```
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get update
```
d) To remove obsolete packages go to System → Administration → Synaptic Package Manager → Click "Status" → Installed (local or obsolete) → Mark the packages you wished to be completely removed (or preferably removed).
Warning: These section includes packages that have been manually installed by third-party packages (not from ubuntu repositories), if you need them, don't remove them!
A lot of linux kernel versions in your GRUB boot menu? Time to get rid of them! Use step 3(d), and mark packages that begin with linux- for complete removal
Warning: These section includes packages that have been manually installed by third-party packages (not from ubuntu repositories), if you need them, don't remove them!
Clear the temporary files created with gedit - to do this, you have to search for them.
Go to menu Places → Search → Click "Select more options".
Now select "Show hidden and backup files" and click "Add".
Also add the "Name matches regular expression". Next to this last one you will type ~$, which will find all filenames that end with "~" character and most of them are temporarily created by gedit (gnome's text editor). Press "Find".
Now you can select the files you want to delete and right-click → Move to trash.

Warning: Some files are temporary application files that are deleted when you end the application. It might be best not to mess around a lot with this one.

Update:
6. Clear your temporary flash-related cached files found in .macromedia folder by executing this command in terminal:

rm -rf $HOME/.macromedia/

(thanks Simon!)

Social life and recreational drugs: Smoking

2008-09-01T16:44:00.021+02:00

As modern humans, or homo sapiens sapiens, we have evolved greatly in a lot of areas - from creating ways of verbal and signal communication to the rapid development of economy, trading and science, as well as technology. While this exponential progression was successful so far, something has gone wrong the past century. In this errata belongs the use of recreational drugs.
Drugs of this kind haven't been banned yet and people have a free choice of using them or not (most countries have an age-limit). Tobacco smoking, alcohol and caffeine are now three of the most powerful profit-making industries of the 21st century.

Smoking

By the mid-17th century, most major civilizations had been introduced to tobacco and recreational smoking; We should probably forgive the past generations for using them in neglect of the consequences of this type of drug use, but nowadays a lot of studies have shown the nasty effects of these indelicate habits, is there really a reason to use them? I'm surely not referring to medical patients which have a couple of years to live and seek to live it pain-free and pass away peacefully.
Despite the way tobacco is taken, smoked, snuffed or chewed, the effects in a human being are devastating after prolonged usage, lung cancer and cardiovascular disease have boosted over the years and despite these facts, tobacco consumption is still increasing.
In the false belief that nicotine "calms down", humans intake large amounts of this drug in small dosage. This brilliant way of taking up poison without even realizing it has enormous negative effects just after several years of constant smoking. You first start small; either as a need for relaxation, a window out of dullness or to become accepted in the "cool" or audacious sect of a social group. You continue the uptake in normal dosages every now and then. But, just like the body adapts to high or low temperatures in a number of days or your nose to an awful smell in a matter of 5 minutes, the same exact way your body becomes accustomed to tobacco as a normal intake.
Taking it down slowly, you may think you can control it, but you find yourself in need to "relax" after an attempt to break the habit for several days. A parasite of your own free will has taken over your wallet, your pocket money, and your years to live. People cannot understand this and keep taking nicotine.
A lot of people believe that smoking can calm you or provide you with extra alertness and concentration (increase of a substance called acetylcholine), that it can drop the level of anxiety (due to the release of beta-endorphins), that you can afterwards endure large psychological stress, which is not always true. As mentioned earlier, after several years of using tobacco, you become a slave to a regular dosage that tends to increase day by day, while you grow up and face the world's problems. Arousal? Probably the first couple of years. But what could happen in several years later is to reach a state of sexual disfunction (genital haemodynamic disruption).
Finally, most people don't understand the cost of the cigarettes, since they dosage is small and for. An accustomed male or female might smoke one pack of cigarettes per day. Multiply the cost of the pack by 30 for a month. Suppose they cost 3 €, you would save 60 or 90 € per month for this nasty habit, which could be used for two nights at a lovely appartment outside town.

All in all, the "great" or "pleasing" effects of nicotine only apply for a short timeline usage, longterm usage comes with great negative effects and therefore problems, may these be financial or health related. Your body doesn't need to relax every day, your body is a temple made of hard stone and marble, that can re-enstate itself back to normal after a good sleep of just one hour. Outdoor activity can prove much helpful to decrease anxiety, since you stress out yourself in exercise - this way you get a sexy body, ladies/men to want you and keep it healthy. I dare you to compare that to a "sitting-eating-mcdonalds-and-smoking" syndrome that an obese person's lifestyle might include.

Recreational drugs of such sort can be controlled by seeking professional/medical help - don't let yourself reach a stage where you need such help.

To be continued...

Movie codec information - the gspot alternative

2008-09-01T15:27:00.005+02:00

To be clear, no, I'm not talking about the ladies' G spot :) But if you're looking for GSpot Codec Information Appliance alternative tool for GNU/Linux, you're definetely looking for a tool like themonospot!

The monospot is written in C sharp (C#) using the MONO Framework and GTK#, licensed under GNU GPL, and it's a tool to extract information about various movie formats and reveals valuable information such as:

Video codec used
Frame size
Average video bitrate
File size
Total time
Frame rate
Total frames
Info data
Packet Bitstream
User data (in MOVI chunk)
Audio codec used
Average audio bitrate
Audio channels

This could definitely help you dig out the codec used for a specific movie you're trying to view. There various packages available for download, among them Ubuntu, Opensuse, Fedora, Windows and many more!

irssi	$HOME/irclogs
xchat	$HOME/.xchat2/xchatlogs/
pidgin	$HOME/.purple/logs/