Shevin

What happened to "ALT+BACKSPACE" in Ubuntu ? How to restart Xorg ?

2012-01-15T12:56:00.000-08:00

We all know old friend alt+backspace which forced the XORG to be restarted when the computer screen was frozen .
and also the other old friend CTRL+ALT+DELETE , which is also disabled .

What happened to Alt+Backspace in Ubuntu 11.10 ? (How to restart the X in ubuntu)
in pervious versions of Ubuntu (and other Gnome-based linuxes) , whenever the X crashed (the graphical window system manager) we would hit Alt+Backspace and the X would be restarted .

However , in the new versions of ubuntu, alt+backspace doesn't work anymore and it been replaced by Alt+Printscreen+K
which is better . why ? because ALT+Printscreent+K combination could be caught by Kernel when the whole X is totaly gone, (remember those times that Alt-backspace wouldn't work ? it was because it was totaly gone , but now Alt Print Screen would be sent to Kernel which is better idea)

Another explaintion of this change is, nowadays lots of applications use ALT+something as short cut and it would lead to restart the X by accident and possible data loss .

What happened to CTRL+ALT+DELETE , How to call System Monitor or Kill a process or Log out in Ubuntu 11.10?
The CTRL+ALT+DELETE has been replaced by "CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE" .
which it simply calls system monitor , so you could see the Ram usage and also the processes and kill them or End them or Map their memory usage .

How to handle space in file name in any Linux terminal

2012-01-14T10:07:00.000-08:00

Today I wanted to mount My Passport External Hard disk and it reminded me of how I used to be nevrous whenever I wanted to do any operation (copy/move/delete...) on any file or folder with blank Space character in its name in the terminal , (we dont have this problem in graphical file managers)

Lets learn once forever , how to treat it here is the simple rule :

Whenever you see the space in the name you just replace it with "\ " without Qouation Marks .
for example this will NOT work in terminal

cd /media/My Passport

because it has an space in it , to make it work I add "\ " for each space but the following will work

cd /media/My\ Passport

and it works , I promise .

How to install Python 2.7 in Ubuntu 11.10

2012-01-10T13:27:00.001-08:00

I am taking Crypyology this quarter with Professor Schaefer and he uses python in the class , I installed Python 2.7 on ubuntu 11.10 64bit , installing it is easy as other apps , just the step 3 is a bit different.

1- Download the Python 2.7 source code and Extract it do the Desktop

2- Do the things that we do for all other compiles

cd Desktop
cd Python-2.7
./configure
make

3- This is the important part it is altinstall not install !

sudo make altinstall

4- Test it

medya@medya:~/Desktop$ python
Python 2.7.2+ (default, Oct 4 2011, 20:06:09)
[GCC 4.6.1] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> print "hi shevin"
hi shevin
>>>

The uncertain future of Skype (R.I.P) and the rise of Google Voice

2011-08-11T21:21:00.000-07:00

The logo of Skype R.I.P

Skype was a blast and still is a world wide known brand for video-calls , cheap long distant calls , but how about the future ?

My prediction is , Skype will defently loose lots and lots of its customers to Google voice .

Why ? because Microsoft has recently bought it and appearantly they have stopped working on the Linux version of Skype . ( surprise ! )

The last Skype version for Linux was published many years ago -feel like centuries ago- and it works but it lacks lots of window's features and it does have few bugs .

For instance , since I upgraded to their latest version , I no longer see my own picture when I am in a video-2-video call , and it is pretty annoying to keep imagining what other person is seeing . is the camera showing your head or is it showing your other parts of body ?

I predict that Skype will loose a lot to Google voice because, nowadays there are lots of tablets and mobile phones using Android and other kinds of Linux and they are gonna choose Google voice !

And also Google voice offers Free calls to both landline and mobiles in USA . (isn't that such generous offer ? ) you could simply buy a plan with cheap internet and pay nothing for your minute calls . not mentioning that internet over mobile gets cheaper and cheaper .

Google Voice also offers free US land-line number for you , so you can manager all your incoming phone calls in a very smart way , and you can choose your landline number , and you can even choose your name characters .

Also offering answering machine with the speech recognation ability to convert the message to text for you . so you wont even have to listen to the messges but Search for the specfic texts among many of the . isnt that amazing ?

I think the Big Microsoft will kill Little Skype , just like how the story goes in mice and men ! (the story really reflects what I am trying to say )

How to program an AVR Microcontroler in Ubuntu linux !

2010-11-25T07:20:00.000-08:00

In windows , CodeVision which costs $300 is used to program AVR Microcontrollers,

but how to do it in Ubuntu for free ?

First of all we need to have a USB AVR Dragon tool.

What is AVR Dragon ?
It is a cheap tool which connects our microcontroler to a PC via USB. The AVR Dragon can program all AVRs via JTAG, HVP or ICSP.

Then we need to install two applications gcc-avr and avrdude .

to install both enter this in terminal :

sudo apt-get install gcc-avr & avrdude

What does gcc-avr do ? as you know , you can not compile a code for AVR by PC compilers , therefore we need gcc-avr which is a cross C compiler for avr.

What does Avr-dude do ? after we made machine code by gcc-avr we need an application to load the files to our microcontorler using Dragon is the program that

now that we installed both , go to the folder that your code is there and enter :

avr-gcc -g -Os -mmcu=atmega8 -c flash.c

this produces an object file called flash.o which then needs to be linked , it is obvious that if your avr is atmega16 or 32, you replace atmega8 with your avr model.

avr-gcc -g -mmcu=atmega8 -o flash.elf flash.o

now we produced a binary file called flash.elf, which is a GNU executable file. we need to change it bit more and grab some bits out of it to make the hex file

avr-objcopy -j .text -j .data -O ihex flash.elf flash.hex

congratulation now have a hex file which is suitable for putting onto the atmega8 !

now we need to hook up our AVR dragon circut and connect it to our PC , if you never hooked up a AVR dragon circuit , it can be tricky at first , read the manuals carefuly.

after connecting the AVR Dragon to USB port of the computer run this in the code folder :

sudo avrdude -p m8 -c dragon_isp -P usb -e -U flash:w:flash.hex

Thats it ! we are done .

Avrdude has many options, to learn all the options

avrdude --help

p.s : if you get errors , don't freak out , you probably need to change the speed options .

When Nautilus is wrong , the confusion of GiB and GB !

2010-06-03T08:08:00.000-07:00

Today I tried to burn a folder on my computer , which Nautilus said it is 4.5 GB and strangely it wouldn't fit on a 4.7 GB blank DVD-R !

Using another file manger , I found out my actual folder size is 4.5 GiB which is equal to 4.83 GB , and I was convinced that it wouldn't fit on a 4.7 GB blank DVD .

it seems that Nautilus the File manager of Ubuntu doesn't care about difference of GB and GiB .

so whats the difference of GB , and GiB ?

Giga in math means 1 billion . we all know digital world is binary , and computers work by binary numbers, while the humans use decimal numbers.

GB =Decimal Giga Byte = one billion bytes

GiB=Binary Giga Byte = 2^20 billion bytes

The capacity of storage devices [for i.e blank dvd , or hard disk] are measured in Decimal GB .

probably because it is meant to be read by a humans .

for instance , you buy a 300 GB hard disk which literally means 300 hundred billion bytes . [but for the binary world of computers it is actually 2^20*300= 279 GiB]

therefore a 4.7 GB DVD-ROM is actualy 4.3772 GiB for a computer .

IEC Standard :

"MiB [Meby Byte] GiB (Geby Byte) is a standard that was defined by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in December 1998 to solve the confusion of Decimal and Binary Giga Byte." (src : wikipedia)

Nautilus is not following the IEC Standard but KDE applications are already using IEC standard . Hi5 to KDE fans ;)

I submitted a Bug in Launchpad .

+ P.S :Here is online convertor to calculate GiB and GB .

[MD5SUM] Check downloaded ISO 's integrity

2010-04-30T06:20:00.000-07:00

I never thought I would ever be have to use this command till today .

Today I downloaded Ubuntu 10.04 Alternate CD from linuxtracker.org and it was acting weird , I checked many things finally I tried to check if the ISO that I downloaded is corrupted or not .

to check if an ISO image CD is downloded correctly you can check it this way .

you can mount the ISO or burn it ,
to mount it without burning use this command : (ofcuorse you gotta relace 'youriso')

sudo mount -o loop youriso.iso /media/cdrom0

Then go to the root folder of CD , there should be a file like md5sum.txt or something like that
in terminal shoot his :

md5sum -c md5sum.txt

it will tell you if the folders and files are the same size as the original .

in my case it showed that some files failed and the CD was corrupted .

[Wget] [Tip] force to resume partially-downloaded file

2010-02-16T09:09:00.000-08:00

it is funny, in iran there tons of sites that are blocked by government, and there are tens of forigen sites that block iranians to use their site.poor iranians have to use all diffrent kind of proxies and work-arrounds to get through reall internet. one of these sites is Sun, which doesnt let iranians to download virtualbox, and I want it so bad !

Today I used wget [an excellent terminal based download manager] to download the newest version of virtualbox , but as sun doesnt let iranians to download their Virtualbox, it stopped in 90% and I kept re-dowloading and the same thing happend.

Wget normally Automaticly resumes the partial downloaded file.
but in this case Sun websites gives a Random File Name each time you download it . [add some kind of ID]

to force wget to resme a download file in another name , I did this :

wget -O virtualbox-3.1_3.1.4-57640_Ubuntu_karmic_i386.deb -c http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/3.1.4/virtualbox-3.1_3.1.4-57640_Ubuntu_karmic_i386.deb

the -O forces the download file name in Output.
the -c forces wget to continue partial download

[Virtualbox][Tip] : Disable super key in the Guest Windows

2010-02-10T08:08:00.000-08:00

I am gonna write series of small tips for using virtualbox for now on , so don't forget to add me to your rss reader .

here is my todays small little tip :

In linux there are lots of compiz effects that use the super key on the keyboard , such as "enhacned zoom desktop" effect of compiz. and the same key shows the start menu in all windows operation systems .

if you have windows as guest on your linux host, using virtualbox, I think you will feel more comfortable to disable windows start menu showing up by pressing Super key.
because whenever you want to zoom on your desktop, you wont see windows start menu showing up .

to disable super key in windows, you need to download this reg file and run it . [it affects the windows registry]

to re-enable your windows start menu using super key , download this registry file and run it.

you need to restart your windows to take effect.

UML generators for Ubuntu

2010-01-28T04:17:00.000-08:00

This semster I had a sweet course in university named , Software Engineering 2 , with Professor Ostadzade.

in ubuntu I found some great softwares which can ease usage of UML . I introduce them for you:

Umbrello

Umbrello UML Modeller is a Unified Modelling Language diagram programme for Linux (KDE), Windows and MacOS .

the most exciting thing that I liekd about Umbrello is their Manual Handbook, which they explain all the cool things you can do with Umbrello .

as I read in the handbook, you can Import and Export Codes,
it means you can give a C++ Code to Umbrello and it will draw all the diagrams ! (class , state, squeience ,...)

BOUML

this is simple application, which at first you have to configure everything, like your browser, your editor , ... (it doesn't automaticly recognise your default applications)

you can define Classes, objects, their state and operations nd then generate their C++ or JAVA code .you can even generate diagrams for it
it is very fast and doesn't require much memory to manage several thousands of classes,

Dia Diagram Editor

this is another simple aplliciation which doesn't do much but it is a good Drawing application,

it has all the UML arrows and figures , if you want to draw a UML diagram by yourself , then it can give you a good hand !

Nessecary Tools for Booting Issues on ubuntu and windows , Bootloader, Grub , MBR

2010-01-22T02:05:00.000-08:00

Sorry guys that I dont update that much, I am stuck with my university in Iran, it is funny I fail my courses with bad scores and those guys who dont know a thing about comptuer get best scores okay enough nagging let read my newest article !

Having Windows Xp, Windows Vista, Windows Seven , ubuntu 8.04 and ubuntu 9.10 on two hard disks , has made me an expertise in facing all kind of problem with Dual booting (I guess I should say Quad booting) .

I had written an article about grub three years ago and I still receive emails saying "Thank you that saved my ass".

here I want to introduce some links and applications to save more asses ;)

Warning : these list items are not steps , don't do them blindly one after another, these are seprate solutions for seprate problems .

First of all Grub 2 Tutorial on the forum is a great reference for all !
if you deleted one of your partitions and the partition table became invalid then try
TestDisk
it is always a good idea to see a list of your partitions in ubuntu (you can always boot from an Ubuntu live CD)
sudo fdisk -l
in the results you can see the bootable partition is marked with a * and you an see their official name (the name that computer knows them by)
for i.e :
/dev/sdb2 * 5043 9562 36306900 7 HPFS/NTFS
that tells me sdb2 (the second partion of my B hard disk is bootable and its filesystem is NTFS) and its address is /dev/sdb2
if you deleted your Windows bootloader . (in my case I deleted the first partition of windows hard disk) and windows MBR was gone, you can restore it using an Ubuntu live CD
sudo apt-get install lilo
sudo lilo -M /dev/sda mbr

Replace sda with your hard disk ,for i.e if want to restore the windows MBR of your second hard disk it would be :
sudo lilo -M /dev/sdb mbr
Partition Magic 8.1 Bootable CD is available on torrents , you can search and download if it is legal in your country . (I can't give you a direct link but you can search in Torrentz )
Gparted Live CD is an open source clone of Partition magic .
in gparted you can , right click on the partition you want then click on "Manage Flags" then you can make a partition bootable by marking the boot flag.
SystemRescueCD is a great linux Live CD , that does tons of things , from partion-ing to cloning and repairing more !
there are Russian windows live CDs that are useful , find them on torrentz at your own legal risk (becareful they are fake virus ones too)
to make your grub menu beautiful , you can always try Start up Manager
for ubuntu
for windows vista and windows 7 , you can out the instalation CD in and choose repair my compuer, to get back windows bootloader (yes that would destroy your linux bootloader)

Debugging Under Linux

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

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

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

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

gdb

- now run your binary file to debugg

run name_of_your_binaryfile

it will give detailed errors of what happend

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

backtrace

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

b function1

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

file NAMEOFFILE

have fun with GDB .

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

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

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

kquitapp plasma

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

and in the end :

plasma &

Enjoy !

the truth about 64bit ubuntu !

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

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

so I did a little research about it.

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

but is 64bit ubuntu faster than 32 bit ubuntu ?

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

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

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

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

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

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

check your internet speed in Real-time (Ubuntu)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Most Delicious Addon Mods for phpBB 3.x

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

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

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

Prime Quick Buddies

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

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

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

Th23 Domain

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

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

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

Points system (HelpMod) v1.0.0

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

Today's Posts 0.2.0

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

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

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

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

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

identify your monitor in ubuntu and save your eyes !

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

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

by looking at the :

/etc/X11/xorg.conf

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

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

gksu displayconfig-gtk

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

I am back to the game

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

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

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

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

Yahoo , You are a dirty thief.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Online Compile Tool for Linux

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

wouldn't it be great ?

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

There is somethign about Google which I dislike

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Agave - a must have tool for ubuntu web designers

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

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

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

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

Generate Random Color - Get Inspiration

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

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

More :

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

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

Install it by this command :

sudo apt-get install agave

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

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

here is my chat with a friend :

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

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

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

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

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

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

UPDATE : EVOLUTION IN MY THINKING

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

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

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

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

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

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

All ubuntu's torrent clients (overview)

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

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

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

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

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BitTornado

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

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

you can install it using synaptic package manager

Azureus

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

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

Ktorrent

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

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

Deluge

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

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

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

TorrentFlux a web based one!

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

here is how it looks in browser :

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

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

+ Here is TorrentFlux website.

Tribler

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

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

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

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

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

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

Norton Commander clone for Ubuntu -text mode file manager-

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

if you find it usefull please Digg it here .

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

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

Things which are better about text-mode programs are:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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