My life's journey

Hiren's boot cd using unetbootin (missing boot options)

2012-04-02T12:40:00.002+02:00

If you try to use unetbootin to copy Hiren's bootcd on a usb flash drive and you boot using the flash disk, you'll notice that some options are missing, especially the "mini windows xp" boot option.

To overcome this problem you have to copy the file "HBCD/isolinux.cfg" to the main folder and replace the file "syslinux.cfg"

Then everything will work as expected.

Bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/unetbootin/+bug/971403

Now you can read xps files in ubuntu!

2012-03-05T18:32:00.001+01:00

About
OpenXPS or XPS stands for XML Paper Specification. It is based on XML and it's a new electronic paper format originally developed by Microsoft and it serves as a PDF alternative. XPS files are usually created using "Microsoft XPS Document Writer" in Windows environments. It is now standardized as an open standard document format.

Quoting Wikipedia:
An XPS file is in fact a Unicoded ZIP archive using the Open Packaging Conventions, containing the files which make up the document. These include an XML markup file for each page, text, embedded fonts, raster images, 2D vector graphics, as well as the digital rights management information. The contents of an XPS file can be examined simply by opening it in an application which supports ZIP files.

The OpenXPS document format specification supports features such as color gradients, transparencies, CMYK color spaces, printer calibration, multiple-ink systems and print schemas.

Evince already supports xps, but it has to be compiled with that option enabled. In order for evince (the program that allows you to read pdf document files) to read xps files, libgxps is required first.

Status update
..for libgxps in Debian (we'll see about Ubuntu afterwards):

We are very close to a release in Debian.
We have a willing debian developer to sponsor it.
It's now maintained by debian-gnome team: http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/pkg-gnome/packages/unstable/libgxps/
Package release was blocked by a libarchive bug: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=662603 (now fixed)

There's a PPA!
After much frustration, I have created a PPA for evince with xps: https://launchpad.net/~medigeek/+archive/evince-xps/

Note: The evince version in Ubuntu 11.10 oneiric ocelot doesn't work with xps (segmentation fault when opening the file) and there are several packages to be backported. I've decided not to backport it. It works in Ubuntu 12.04 precise pangolin.
If you need to read an xps file, package libgxps-utils provides enough conversion tools, e.g. command:

xpstopdf myfile.xps

Libreoffice recent documents - History manager extension

2012-03-02T14:17:00.001+01:00

This solution works for Windows operating systems as well as Linux distributions (It's actually system independent)
If you need to clear or define how many items the recent documents list bears, you can install this easy-to-use extension/addon/plugin: History manager for Libreoffice/Openoffice

- Click "Get it" and download the .oxt file.
- Open Libreoffice writer, menu > Tools > Extension manager > press Add and open the .oxt file you've downloaded.
- Close Libreoffice and re-open it. Go to menu Tools > Add-ons > History manager

How to set default apps (aka how to use xdg-mime)

2012-02-28T16:19:00.001+01:00

How to set default apps in Chromium / Chrome / Firefox / Ubuntu Linux

Situation: You hate the default app that opens when you double click a file or when you open it with chromium browser and you want to change it.

a) In Unity (and probably Gnome 3 Shell), some default apps can be changed through gnome-control-center: System settings > System info > Default applications

b) You can also right-click on a file > select Properties > Open with. See what applications/programs are listed there. You can also add them and set them as default.

c) If none of the above work, you can use xdg-utils (xdg-mime) to set a default application for a specific Mime Type

First, you have to figure out what text string to use as a "mime type". An easy way to find it is to look into the default application's desktop file.

Example: Chromium opens magnet links and bittorrent files with transmission-gtk by default. The .desktop files are usually in folder /usr/share/applications/. We use "cat" command to look into the file /usr/share/applications/transmission-gtk (a line that starts with "MimeType"):

$ cat /usr/share/applications/transmission-gtk.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Transmission
[...]
Exec=transmission-gtk %U
Icon=transmission
Terminal=false
TryExec=transmission-gtk
Type=Application
MimeType=application/x-bittorrent;x-scheme-handler/magnet;
Categories=Network;FileTransfer;P2P;GTK;

Bingo! x-scheme-handler/magnet and application/x-bittorrent are the mime types we're after.

How to use xdg-mime command? Simple: xdg-mime default myapp.desktop mymimetype

..where we substitute myapp.desktop and mymimetype with the values from above.

Following the example above, we want magnet links and bittorrent files to open with Deluge (deluge-gtk) application. First you have to install the deluge-gtk package (otherwise the .desktop file won't exist). Then you have to execute:

xdg-mime default deluge.desktop x-scheme-handler/magnet
xdg-mime default deluge.desktop application/x-bittorrent
grep -i deluge ~/.local/share/applications/*

The last command (grep) should return "application/x-bittorrent=deluge.desktop" and the other mime type for magnet. Otherwise, something went wrong (maybe the desktop file didn't exist?).

And that's about it! Close and open chromium-browser again (or logout/login).

For the sake of documentation, the files that have to do with mime types and default apps are:

~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list
~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list
~/.local/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache
/usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache
/usr/share/applications/mimeapps.list
/usr/share/applications/defaults.list

Error creating XPS file

2012-02-28T11:40:00.001+01:00

Error creating XPS file: Source _rels/.rels not found in archive

If you see the above error when trying to use xpstopng, xpstopdf, xpsto* tools provided by libgxps, then you probably suffer from this bug:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=670895

In short, the problem lies with libarchive versions prior to 3.x and zip files created by windows.
Solution?
a) Just update to 3.x or newer and you'll be good to go.
b) As a workaround, you can recreate the zip file:

unzip lorem-ipsum-and-image.xps -d temp/
cd temp/
zip ../newfile.xps *
cd ..

You now have a working copy of your XPS document.

How to install 1385:5f01 Netgear WPN111 (ar5523 driver)

2012-02-11T16:56:00.003+01:00

Bus 002 Device 004: ID 1385:5f01 Netgear, Inc WPN111 (no firmware)

If you have the above device or a usb wifi dongle that requires ar5523 driver, you can try the commands and packages I've documented in order to make it work.

The weird thing with this device is that the firmware adds +1 to its ID. If you look at the code (SVN repository), you'll see that it's registered as "1385:5f00".

How to install the device driver
1. Install this package, depending on the version of ubuntu you may have:

12.04 (precise pangolin): https://launchpad.net/~medigeek/+archive/experimental/+files/ar5523-source_0%7Eslh.12%7Eppap1_all.deb
11.10 (oneiric ocelot): https://launchpad.net/~medigeek/+archive/experimental/+files/ar5523-source_0%7Eslh.12%7Eppao1_all.deb
11.04 (natty narwhal): https://launchpad.net/~medigeek/+archive/experimental/+files/ar5523-source_0%7Eslh.12%7Eppan1_all.deb

2. Execute the following commands, copy-paste them one by one:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -f install
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-generic module-assistant
sudo m-a a-i ar5523-source
wget http://verein.lst.de/~hch/ar5523.tgz
tar xvf ar5523.tgz ar5523/uath-ar5523.bin --strip 1
sudo mv uath-ar5523.bin /lib/firmware

3. Restart your computer and replug your usb dongle. Hopefully it works. :)

Source(s):

Ubuntu Server Guide στα ελληνικά

2012-01-27T13:46:00.001+01:00

Μετά από παρότρυνση ενός μέλους του ubuntu-gr στην ταχυδρομική λίστα (ubuntu-gr mailing list) και με λίγη βοήθεια από τον Σίμο, καταφέραμε να δημιουργήσουμε τον οδηγό "Ubuntu server guide" ως PDF στα ελληνικά.

Φυσικά, η μετάφραση ήδη υπάρχει ως HTML: http://help.ubuntu-gr.org/10.04/serverguide/el/

Το πρόβλημα φαίνεται να ήταν με τη δημιουργία PDF αρχείου. Εμφάνιζε "####" χαρακτήρες αντί τους ελληνικούς.

Το serverguide διασπάστηκε πριν λίγο καιρό από το ubuntu-docs και δημιουργήθηκε καινούργιο project: https://launchpad.net/serverguide
Aπό εκεί βρήκα τις πιο πρόσφατες μεταφράσεις:

https://translations.launchpad.net/serverguide/

https://translations.launchpad.net/serverguide/oneiric/+pots/serverguide/el/+details

Τώρα, πώς μεταφράζουμε τον οδηγό και πώς δημιουργούμε το pdf; Εκτελούμε τις εξής εντολές:

sudo apt-get install xsltproc bzr fop gnome-doc-utils docbook-xsl libservlet2.5-java
bzr branch lp:serverguide
cd serverguide
mkdir po

Μετά πάτε στο https://translations.launchpad.net/serverguide/oneiric/+pots/serverguide/el/+export
Ζητάτε το αρχείο ως .po (PO format). Θα σταλεί στο email.

Μετονομάζετε το αρχείο ως el.po
Μεταφέρετε το el.po στο φάκελο po/

Patch-άρετε το bzr tree:

wget http://people.ubuntu.com/~medigeek/serverguide_el/bzrpatch.diff -O bzrpatch.diff
bzr patch bzrpatch.diff

Για να δημιουργήσετε html:

make serverguide LN=el

Για να δημιουργήσετε pdf:

make serverguide-pdf LN=el

Το pdf στα ελληνικά με Ubuntu fonts: http://people.ubuntu.com/~medigeek/serverguide_el/pdf/serverguide.pdf

Το πρόβλημα με τα fonts αναφέρθηκε ως σφάλμα:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/serverguide/+bug/922251

Windows says "network cable unplugged", but works in ubuntu

2010-07-07T16:13:00.000+02:00

..and I'm back on the Net! I'm going to travel to Guatemala soon, first time Atlantic-crosser and eager to do so! I won't be able to write for about 2 months, unless I find a good safe spot to write.
    Now to the main course. This was one of the worst problems I have ever faced in my life: "Network cable unplugged" but isn't. If you want the solution, scroll down to the last paragraph.

    I was cleaning up the appartment yesterday, and the PC was switched off during the day. I have a dual boot set up with Ubuntu as the main operating system. "It's been ages I didn't boot to Windows", I said to myself -- so the first thing I did was to boot up to Windows and try to check for some updates.
    Waiting for Windows 7 to boot up, I went out, bought some beverages from a store nearby and came back -- and no, it's not *that* slow, but why not take advantage of the waiting time? Anyway, when I came back I saw the tray network icon with a yellow triangle over it. "Hum, now what?". The error was: "Network cable unplugged". But the cable was plugged!
    These were the steps I took and none of them were faulty or broken: Router was working fine, all the LED lights showed that Internet was connected. Also the LED light for LAN network was green for the computer. I though of booting to Ubuntu.
    In Ubuntu, everything worked as expected. "Maybe it was a one-time error?" I mumbled while rebooting back to Windows. Nope -- the error "Network cable unplugged" remained.
    I used another cable, didn't work again. Another one, nada. "It can't be!!", I said, "Εvery cable is problematic?!". I booted to Ubuntu looking/googling for answers. After a couple of hours "researching" to figure out a solution, I decided to drop it. Since Ubuntu worked, why would I care?
    But it was eating me up inside. The day after (today) I tried another google search, pissed off about the whole thing. And I found the answer. It wasn't the cable, nor the router, nor the driver, it was Windows, simply and stereotypically.

1.) Shut dowm your PC.
2.) Unplug the power cord.
3.) If you have a laptop, remove the battery as well.
4.) Walk away from the problem for at least 30 minutes.
5.) When you return, reconnect battery and power cord.
5.) Start as usual.
6.) If this solves the problem, take 20 minutes and post this to all of those message boards that you didn't find the solution to.

Here's what I did:

- Shut down my PC.

- Switched off the router.

- Unplugged the ethernet cable.

- Switched off the extension cord. Unplugged the power cord.

- While it was unplugged, I pressed the power button once.

- I went to my neighbour and had a lovely 20-minute chat.

- Came back, connected the power cord and powered it on.

- Switched on the router.

- Plugged the ethernet cable.

That's it. As simple as it may be, it might save you from buying a new network ethernet card. :)

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://wayback.archive.org/web/*/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://wayback.archive.org/web/*/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://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://wayback.archive.org/web/*/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://wayback.archive.org/web/*/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/