Funny that it’s just now I realized I should add my site to Google analytics.

More posts soon.

Update: Can’t install analytics, it’s not allowed. damn.

I made a fresh install of Hardy Heron. I skipped Compiz, Emerald and AWN this time. I finally realized that some of this are still buggy, and are sometimes really annoying.

I decided to have my plain old Gnome and Metacity this time. No extra eye candies.

Now, I focus on productivity. I love my Gedit. I also love it when running with administrator privileges, so I made an appliction launcher sitting on my top panel with this command.

gksudo gedit

The gksudo command makes your gedit run with administrator privileges, it’s the pretty GUI box that darkens everything in the background and asks for your password.

Before gksudo, i ran my launcher with sudo, which keeps a bash terminal running on the background, it kinda eats up some screen real estate, so i decided to find a way to get rid of it.

I’m studying up on Python, it’s a great language. Guess what’s my best IDE for python.

Of course, Gedit!

There’s many tutorials online that teaches how to make your Gedit feel like a real IDE, nothing really comes close to a real IDE, but that’s actually the best part, ’cause we don’t want all of that bloat!

Here’s a tutorial I found to try to achieve a Python IDE:

Using Gedit as a Python IDE (instructables), this is actually good, but you may want to skip the python console on the bottom pane. When your script acts up, your gedit might crash too, you may want to see Better Python Console, it opens a new window and runs your script there. Neat.

I recommend the following plugins, which I myself, use everyday.

Auto Tab, learns your tabbing preferences and uses it when you Tab.

Better Python Console, an external python interpreter window.

External Tools, built in with Gedit.

File Browser Pane, built in with Gedit.

HTML Tidy, you’re a good person when you write good html. Shows you your HTML errors and will help you clean up bad mark up.

Indent Lines, built in with Gedit.

Insert Date/Time, built in with Gedit, good for Documentation.

Modelines, built in with Gedit, this is your usual beloved modelines.

Project Manager, organize your files into one project file.

Python Code Completion, really handy.

Python Outline, browse your code in GUI in the side pane, really good for big projects or large scripts.

Snippets, built in with Gedit.

Spell Checker, built in with Gedit, of course you’d hate a typo error.

Tag List, built in with Gedit, suggests commonly used tags or strings.

Word Completion, suggests words that are used in other files opened in other tabs or windows, really handy.

Oh, I almost forgot, here’s how to install these plugins.

Extract the files to:
/home/[yourname]/.gnome2/gedit/plugins/

if you want to install them for all users extract the files to:
/usr/lib/gedit-2/plugins/

That simple. Some other plugins, none in this post, will require you to install the plugin via a make or something else, don’t worry, those packages usually provide a step by step instruction, just NEVER IGNORE THE README file.

BEFORE YOU INSTALL any of these, update first, just to see what would not work with any of the updates.

compiz fusion came with the default installation of gutsy. so that is one less of a problem.

but compiz config settings manager is no longer installed, so we need to reinstall it.

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

of course we need handsome looking windows, so we install emerald.

sudo apt-get install emerald

we need to make some little configurations to make emerald work with compiz, open up compizconfig settings manager via alt+F2 then type ccsm. go to window decoration and enter emerald –replace in the command field.

after this you’ll need to restart to see the effect. you might also want to have a try icon for that, download the compiz fusion tray icon here, and install it by..

dpkg -i fusion-icon_1.0-1.0_i386.deb

i had to reinstall AWN, using this neat tutorial. I assure you that this would work smoothly with a fresh install of gutsy. and this is a howto install AWN Curves, you get a curved dock, a new feature for AWN.

i also needed my media players back, so..

sudo apt-get install vlc audacious

audacious is a winamp like audio player, it’s neat looking with a simple good equalizer.

mounting and writing to windows partitions and drives are no longer supported by default, but, it’s pretty easy to install this feature.

 sudo apt-get install ntfs-config

installin LAMP is another story, maybe in my next post.

but first you need imagemagick to get this to work, so:

sudo apt-get install imagemagick

and here’s the script:

 #!/bin/bash
for i in `ls *.jpg`;
do
convert $i -resize 800×600 $i
done

save this in a file in the same folder as your target images, then, make sure it is executable in Properties > Permissions, then run it in the terminal using ./filename

it will take some time to resize a hundred images, be patient.

note: the file extension is case sensitive, almost everything in linux is case-sensitive, well it actually should be.

hold down Alt and SysRq (print screen), then type in these letters REISUB. this will turn off your services, terminate all programs, and unmount your drives, then your machine will restart.

Fosswire said you should remember the keys as Raising Elephants Is So Utterly Boring.

alt+f2 then run gconf-editor.

go to

apps > nautilus > desktop 

on the right side look for this entry

trash_icon_visible

check the box. and you’re done. change trash_icon_name if you wish to.

1. remove/change the boot countdown
2. change the background theme
3. change the text color theme
4. change the default operating system
5. password protect your bootloader

you can do all of this with SUM, or startupmanager, found here.

you might also want to change your usplash screen, and show the loading dialog. the first one can also be done in SUM, for the latter, you need to manually edit your menu.lst file, so..

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

remember to backup.
then look for a line that looks like this..

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic root=UUID=ef286b15-9709-4448-92a6-ce70fe73a54b ro quiet splash vga=794

remove the quiet keyword, save it, then you’re done.

some notes: the format accepted for themes is only .xpm.gz. a good resource is gnome-look.org.

these two packages can be found in the default ubuntu software sources, so..

sudo apt-get update

then install the two said packages..

sudo apt-get install recordmydesktop gtk-recordmydesktop

the program only outputs in .ogg format, but, you can always convert with mencoder, which, btw, is also available in the default ubuntu repo, i learned this package from another pinoy ubuntu user in the forums.

Ubuntu Forums: Record your desktop with recordmydesktop. 

and so again..

sudo apt-get install mencoder

i think avidemux is a front for mencoder, but, i’m not gonna cover that now, cause avidemux also edits videos, i think it’s too bulky if your gonna user it for video conversion only. so to convert OGGs to AVIs using mencoder, here’s a tiny snippet.

mencoder -idx input.ogg -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -o output.avi

input.ogg is your source file, and output.avi is your desired the output file.
here’s a detailed guide on how to encode videos using mencoder.

Forlong’s Blog: The best way to install Compiz Fusion on Ubuntu Feisty

he also made a how to set up compiz fusion.

Forlong’s Blog: How to set up Compiz Fusion

and this is where i found out about this better installation, though i got burned a bit for posting another’s howto.

Ubuntu Forums: The best way to install Compiz Fusion on Ubuntu Feisty

clean interface- not too much toolbars and panels.
syntax highlighting-  show me which is which with just one look.
syntax check- this one is just to spice the program a bit, not necesarry.
macros- of course.
tabbed editing- another of course.

gPHPedit
it’s like gedit, with lesser stuff in it. has a more powerful syntax highlighter, specifically for HTML and PHP. got the cleanest interface i’ve found. got macros of course. and can check your code, not sure if this syntax check works properly, but i really don’t care much. got tabbed editing of course.

sudo apt-get install gphpedit 

Screem
well this is the next best thing, but it still kind of bulky for me. it’s got about 2 toolbars and a splitpanel, you can turn this stuff off if it’s too messy for you, like me. got macros. tabbed editing. it has an average syntax highlighter, very close to gedit, does not highlight two languages at once, like XHTML+PHP. i think it has ftp or live editing, something like that. i don’t remember seeing a syntax checker in there, but maybe it has. if you didn’t like gphpedit, then you’d want to try this.

sudo apt-get install screem 

i’m also trying VIM+Screen right now, it’s kind of hard to learn, but it surely has a fast workflow, so there, that’s also worth a try. i think it’s defaultly installed with ubuntu, otherwise…

sudo apt-get install vim screen