Penguin Central

Saluton, kaj bonvenon homoj :D

In other words, welcome to the site. I know that I haven't been updating the blog as often as I should, and I haven't released a Penguin Central since Christmas. I am currently working on FCP #2. I am unsure of when the show will be ready for release, but I am hoping it will come out soon.

On other news, the upcoming Hardy release is only 7 days away. I must admit, I am not as hyped up as I was for the Gutsy release; but the upgrade should prove to be an excellent release.

Hope to see you around soon

Ĝis la revido!

For this blog post I decided that I would share my top 5 favourite FOSS applications. I am constantly using different operating systems, so the more that the program is cross-platform, the better it is for me. These programs do different things, but they have managed to help me accomplish many of my day-to-day computing tasks.

1. Firefox - I've been using Firefox since version 1 and I refuse to use any other browser, period. Tabbed browsing (at the time a feature that I hadn't really heard about) has allowed me to keep multiple web pages open within the one browser. Extensions have enabled me to keep track of my internet usage, emails among other things. And because it's a cross-platform app, it is the same whether if I am using Windows, Mac and Linux (which I use all three rather regularly).
2. Pidgin - This program is a fantastic IM application. Because it supports multiple protocols, instead of using Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk etc. all I need is Pidgin. The great thing about Pidgin is that it focuses on the chatting. I don't need all the useless features in their "official client software". For example Windows Live Messenger has webcam functionality, voice functionality, on-line gaming, all crap that I can get elsewhere. There are Windows and Linux versions of this program, but on the mac I prefer to use Adium.
3. OpenOffice - If this office suite didn't exist, I'd probably still have to drown myself in the bloatware that is Microsoft Office 2007 and pay for it. I'm a big user of Google Docs, but when I need an offline office suite to perform more intermediate tasks, this is when I pull it out. For example I was using impress to make cue cards for a talk that I needed to do. I also used writer to make a document with columns. My Office needs are fairly basic, and OpenOffice just does the job for me. And because OpenOffice is able to work with Microsoft Office files to a certain degree, I am able to co-exist in the Windows-Centric environment which I am forced to live in every day. This is yet another cross-platform app. The Windows and Linux versions are quite good, but OpenOffice still has a long way to go on the mac.
4. Audacity - This is my audio editor of choice when I make my podcasts; it works really well. There is a bit of a learning curve, but once you know how to use it for the task at hand, it becomes a very versatile editor. What is great about Audacity is the open-source codec support. Ogg Vorbis and FLAC (not available with the mac stable version) support is fantastic; and if I so desire I can install mp3 support. I have used Audacity on Windows, Mac and Linux; it just works which is what I like about it.
5. irssi/screen/ssh - Ok, I have combined the three programs for the purpose of this article, but the combination of this is actually really cool. irssi is my favourite IRC client hands down. It is a terminal based program, but it does away with the clunky interfaces that many IRC Clients carry. With screen I can keep the irssi program going on a remote server so I never have to re-connect. And with ssh I access the remote server which i have irssi and screen hosted on. The fantastic thing about this is that no matter where you go (except when the internet access is behind a proxy where you need a username and password to access the internet, PuTTY doesn't support it) and no matter what operating system you use, you can just log into your remote server and access irc. If that isn't cool, then I don't know what is.

So these are my top 5 favourite FOSS applications. In my life I need to use Windows, Mac and Linux; so it helps when you have access to these top-quality open source cross-platform applications.

Also, if you are interested, I am accepting applications for those who are interested in helping to edit the podcast. Knowlege of Audacity is helpful. If you are interested please email me at podcast@fullcirclemagazine.org.

And we'll be having a podcast IRC meeting on Good Friday 12pm AEDST (01:00:00 a.m. Friday March 21, 2008) in #fullcirclemagazine on irc.freenode.net. Recommended IRC clients include mIRC for windows, Colloquy for mac, xchat-gnome for linux and irssi for connecting using a terminal/ssh. Meeting agenda can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuMagazine/FullCirclePodcast/MeetingAgenda. Feel free to add points for discussion into the agenda. See you there! :)

It's Intrepid Ibex. At least this time there won't be any foul jokes based on the name (isn't that right Melissa Draper?).

With Hardy now past feature-freeze it's time to start to plan
features that are being lined up for inclusion after Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
is released in April.

During the 8.10 cycle we will be venturing into interesting new
territory, and we'll need the rugged adventurousness of a mountain
goat to navigate tricky terrain. Our desktop offering will once
again be a focal point as we re-engineer the user interaction model
so that Ubuntu works as well on a high-end workstation as it does on
a feisty little subnotebook. We'll also be reaching new peaks of
performance - aiming to make the mobile desktop as productive as
possible.

You can read the rest of the announcement at
the Ubuntu Mailing List

This is a blog post from my old blog which I decided to repost because it contains very valuable information for Bigpond Subscribers. Remember that multiverse isn't covered by Bigpond. Here's to unmetered Ubuntu updates!

Hello everyone. I got an email from a Les Gray describing a way for Ubuntu users who use Bigpond to download off their repository which by the way is Unmetered except for the multiverse repository which Bigpond doesn’t have. Essentially, Unmetered means downloading off of their websites will not count as part of how much you have used.

You can also download full Linux ISOs, podcasts, WinFOSS, MacFOSS and other stuff at their file library which can be found here. Be warned, if you are not a Bigpond Customer, you won’t be able to download the files, only browse.

Instructions:

You can switch to the Bigpond mirror manually, by editing the
file /etc/apt/sources.list (Synaptic and similar programs read this file
when you use them). Steps are as follows -

1. Back up your existing sources.list file by opening up a terminal and
running this command:

sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.bak

2. From the same terminal run:

gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

You now have the file open in your text editor.

3. Edit all the applicable sections to use the Bigpond server. For
example, where you have -

deb http://au.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-security main restricted

change it to -

deb http://mirror.gamearena.com.au/ubuntu gutsy-security main restricted

4. Do this for all Ubuntu repositories you use except multiverse, which
for some reason is not mirrored by Bigpond. If you use the multiverse
repository just leave it’s line(s) as it is.

5. Save and exit, then run -

sudo aptitude update

and you’re all done. Synaptic etc. will be updated the next time you run
it.

You can use my sources.list file as a guide -

# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade
to
# newer versions of the distribution.

deb http://mirror.gamearena.com.au/ubuntu/ gutsy main restricted

## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb http://mirror.gamearena.com.au/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates main restricted

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the
Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as
to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## universe WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
security
## team.
deb http://mirror.gamearena.com.au/ubuntu/ gutsy universe
deb http://mirror.gamearena.com.au/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates universe

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the
Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as
to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb http://mirror.pacific.net.au/ubuntu/ gutsy multiverse
deb http://mirror.pacific.net.au/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the
‘backports’
## repository.
## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it
includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful
features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any
review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
# deb http://mirror.pacific.net.au/ubuntu/ gutsy-backports main
restricted universe multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical’s
## ‘partner’ repository. This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is
## offered by Canonical and the respective vendors as a service to
Ubuntu
## users.
# deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu gutsy partner

deb http://mirror.gamearena.com.au/ubuntu gutsy-security main restricted
deb http://mirror.gamearena.com.au/ubuntu gutsy-security universe
deb http://mirror.pacific.net.au/ubuntu gutsy-security multiverse

## Medibuntu - Ubuntu 7.10 “gutsy gibbon”
## Please report any bug on https://bugs.launchpad.net/medibuntu/
# deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ gutsy free non-free

HTH

I recently acquired VMWare Fusion which so far I have installed Kubuntu Gutsy, gOS 2 Rocket Beta, and Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha 3. I have also installed VMWare Tools on Kubuntu. I have enjoyed using KDE3 surprisingly, aside from the fact that firefox looks like it came out of Windows 95.

So I have decided to install KDE4 on it. This is after reading a review that Ron and Robert from Full Circle Magazine wrote for Issue #9. Check it out at http://fullcirclemagazine.org. This post is Part 1 of a Three Part Series on my KDE 4 experiences. The first part goes over the installation of KDE 4 on a Kubuntu Gutsy Computer.

Installation

Installation is fairly simple, but you need to do some crunching in the terminal. The instructions can be found at http://kubuntu.org/announcements/kde-4.0.php

You need to:

*Remove any previous KDE4 packages. I obviously don't have any, but if you do, all you need to run is apt-get remove kdelibs5 kde4base-data kde4libs-data

*Run sudo kate /etc/apt/sources.list. You can use any text editor that you like, but all you need to do is append deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-members-kde4/ubuntu gutsy main to the end of the text file. Save it and close it.

*Run sudo apt-get update.

*Run sudo apt-get install kde4-core. Type y at every prompt and let apt run. You will download about 100MB of KDE 4 files. Go get a cup of coffee because it will take some time for it to complete.

*Once it is done, you should be able to see KDE4 apps in your KDE3 Kicker. You can also log out, select KDE4 as your session by clicking on the context menu picture on the login screen, selecting Session and Choosing KDE4. Then type your username and password and you should log into a KDE4 session.

Congratulations, you have installed KDE4. You can also go back into KDE 3 if you so desire. It will take some time for KDE4 to be fully integrated into Kubuntu, but if you have the patience and are comfortable with using the terminal, then you can get your hands on it sooner than later.

This is a blog post from James Savage, one of our admins. His blog is currently down, and so he has asked me to post this for him on our site. Enjoy!

With all the negative publicity the iPhone has gotten for being, well, a phone (specifically a phone on AT&T) you would think Apple would be pushing the iPod Touch as a great alternative for those who want an iPhone, without the phone. But in reality they have been doing little good work. The iPod Touch is really a sub-standard iPhone. It not only lacks phone capabliites but also many apps and a microphone/speaker.

Focusing on the lack of apps... You may have noticed that Apple actually did start including these forgoten apps. But what about all the iPod Touches sold before this update. Did they get free apps from Apple. Of course not! But for another $20.00 US Apple will be glad to help you out. But the real question is, why not include them in the first place. The iPod Touch is WiFi, so these apps will work. In some ways this makes the iPod Touch seem less of an intened product, and more of an afterthought or sideproject.

Comparison of the iPhone (first) and iPod Touch (second). Notice how different the home screens look.

And why can't I have a microphone in my iPod Touch? Is it to stop me from doing voice recordings? No. More likely it is to stop me from getting a free phone via VoIP services like skype. Thanks for the care Apple, I would hate to have to crack all my devices to make them uniquie! This is my one major gripe with Apple. You buy no only that computer or that OS X, you buy their look. No seperate orders. Now, not that OS X or iPhone look bad. But I like to customize things. And what do I get, changeable background image. No Apple never saves themselves here. But luckily many others do.

iTouch/Phone with sumerboard

sumerboard along with many other great apps help make iPhone iPod Touch gap a lot smaller. With everything from a BSD subsystem (think UNIX shell) to random games like tic-tac-toe it is once again 3rd parties who make either device useable. Now with the soon to be open iPhone/Touch and SDK, I can only hope Apple doesn't keep anything back from iPod Touch anymore. I don't have one (though I have used one, so these statements don't come out of thin air) I really want one. So Apple, remember the iPhone's little brother next time.

*** No I am not an Apple hater, quite the opposite actually.

Hi, I am pleased to announce that my new blog is fully operational. So feel free to check it out, it can be accessed by clicking on the Blog button.

The blog is also being syndicated at the Planet Ubuntu-Au Website. Again, clicking on the Planet Ubuntu-Au button will take you to that site, but you will leave the Penguin Central site.

The Podcast and About sections of the site aren't finished yet, so please bear with me.

You can also hang out at the Penguin Central IRC Channel. You can access it at #penguincentral on irc.freenode.net. We recommend the use of mIRC for Windows, Colloquy for mac, XChat/XChat-Gnome for Linux and irssi for those who have access to SSH servers or are terminal nuts.

Thank you for our patience.

This year's Apple Keynote at Macworld saw the release of many products, services, and updates. I quite liked the Time Capsule NAS, the updates to the iPod Touch, and the AppleTV. If the iTunes Movies service was here, I wouldn't use it unless they struck a deal with my ISP to ensure that my purchases are unmetred.

And then Apple release their Macbook Air. Yes it looks amazing, with the specs to suit it (Almost). But there are a few things that made me look elsewhere.

I am searching for a laptop. I find sometimes it is more convenient to surf the internet away from my desk. I own a 20in iMac which has served me well over the last month. What gets me is the price. It starts at AUD2499. Excluding AppleCare my 20in iMac costed less than the base Macbook Air, it comes with Firewire, a bigger screen, Ethernet, a DVD Burner, a bigger hard drive, a faster processor and more USB 2.0 ports. I could even consider the standard Macbook as a more cost effective option. And what I don't get is why for another AUD1839 you get a slightly faster processor and a smaller albeit apparently faster solid state drive. I may as well get a Macbook Pro.

I am not the biggest fan of the exclusion of a SuperDrive in the Air. I do prefer to have access to one when on the road, but Apple have workarounds. These include a USD99 external SuperDrive (more money???) and Remote Disc, a function that allows you to use the drive on another Mac or PC on the Air. Apparently you can also boot discs this way, but what happens if you are away from that computer? Unless you have an external drive at your disposal, or have the SuperDrive, you're out of luck. And also, because the Air has only ONE USB 2.0 port, unless you have a USB Hub which you can use, you can't have your flash drive and your external SuperDrive plugged in at the same time. Yet again we are at the mercy of 'Dear Leader' and his crew...

But there are some positives to the Macbook Air, which include the form factor. The laptop is incredibly thin, yet it packs in a 13in display, the dual core processor and everything else in between. Like all other Apple products, they are well designed and look amazing. The inclusion of 802.11n is a good thing to see, and the portability of the laptop can come in handy for those who travel a lot.

There are other laptops in the rapidly emerging sub-notebook category, and most notably the Sony VAIO laptop which was referenced in the Apple Keynote and the ASUS eee. Let's focus on the latter. The laptop is really small and inexpensive. The OS of choice is a customised version of Xandros Linux which is based on Debian Linux. The battery life is good, and you can almost take it anywhere. With the price, it is great for a kid's first computer, or someone who wants Linux on the go (I do! I do!). I have my criticisms of the eee. First off, the low screen resolution makes it harder to view websites that are designed for 1024x768 screens. A bigger screen would be nice, even though it would increase the size and weight of the eee. Also, the GUI of the customised Xandros distribution installation is designed for the beginner at heart, and I am no beginner; although it can prove useful for the computer illiterates out there.

I also think that the storage offered is quite small, considering that 65% of it is used for the Operating System itself. You can use USB flash drives, but it doesn't help a lot. You can install other Linux distro's on it, but it requires you to put the installer on a bootable USB flash drive. You can use the eeeXubuntu distribution, which requires you to boot a CD onto a normal computer, and it copies the installer onto a USB drive, which you can plug into your eee. This version of Xubuntu includes fixes specific to the eee which proved a problem to those who tried to install Ubuntu onto their eee.

In conclusion, Apple really should release a slightly lower spec Air. The base model is way over powered for a sub-notebook computer. I will hold on and wait for something else to come on the market before I commit to one.

Matthew Rossi.

Yes, you read right, Microsoft will be represented at the next SLUG meeting. More info can be found in the following mailing list email:

Hi everyone,

We've confirmed that Microsoft will be visiting SLUG on Friday 25 January.

The announcement is at http://www.slug.org.au/node/89

I have put up a FAQ list at http://wiki.slug.org.au/microsoftquestions/faq

If you can't make it to the meeting, please post your questions at
http://wiki.slug.org.au/microsoftquestions (you'll need to create an account
at http://www.slug.org.au/user). Posting questions solely to the list doesn't
mean that they will be picked up, and chances are they'll just get lost in
the flood of mail.

We need volunteers for the following:

* people to help us set up beforehand (before 18:30) and pack up afterwards
(after 20:30)
* someone to operate the camera to record the event
* people to monitor the mailing list discussions and post any questions they
find there on the wiki
* someone to edit, organise and collate the questions on the wiki so that they
may be asked at the meeting

If you're able to help, contact the SLUG committee at [committee at slug dot
org dot au].

Welcome to our brand new podcast site! With the help of Justin Gerace and James Savage, we have set up this wonderful site which is to become the new home of The Penguin Central Podcast and my new blog. Keep posted for more updates!

Matt.