Windows or Linux

I was browsing through my stats on Blogger.com and realised that the majority of viewers are browsing this blog post using a windows machine.

The shares are heavily for Windows with >70% of visitors on Windows machines, and only 11% on a Linux machine.

So I had a thought of whether some of links to my old posts were still hanging around somewhere - during the times when I was mainly on Windows. Or whether some of the visitors are considering move from Windows to Linux.

If you are a Windows user considering a move to Linux, then my advice to you is to - Do It. My experience with the shift to Linux has been gradual - over 10 years in fact. I was using linux in the Wild  West days where everything had to compiled and you had to work out some cryptic dependency. For some of these reasons I would often give up and move back to Windows - where everything for the most part just worked.

Some of the most trivial things in Linux was pain staking effort - for example sound and graphics. The distributions that are out these days are nothing like what you may have experienced in the past. In my last effort I was trying to get Parallels or VMware to work, but no matter what I did I kept on getting an error. I remember posting on their official forum for help and I didn't hear anything from them. So I ditched Linux and went back to Windows.

I still feel that although there is a lot of effort put into providing distributions, to applications etc... some of which seems a little less polished than Windows or a proprietary software - I guess there's more money in getting it to be polished. But, if you look past the vanilla install and see the potential then you would be in for a treat.

I also feel that the MacBook Pro with OSX helped me get over Windows -  for the sheer fact that OSX was feature less than Windows  yet just as polished as Windows - when I say feature less what I mean is the applications that are available etc... please don't send me hate mail. Secondly, Google with Google docs and Google Mail was also partly responsible to help me get off Windows.

For most of the software that is available in Windows there will be equally or better software available in Linux - the best part is that most Linux software are free. If you would like to see a list of equivalent software check out this link : http://www.linuxlinks.com/article/20070701111340544/Equivalents.html, granted that it is a little old but you get the jist ?

However, there are some software that I cannot be without. For example - I'm a .NET programmer living in a world of shame Linux, I need my VisualStudio goodness. I'm also an armature photographer, so I like Photoshop - although there is GIMP but I feel more comfortable in Adobes proprietary goodness. When I have a need for Windows, I launch up VirtualBox and run a Virtual Machine instance of Windows (instead of the other way round - most of the time).

Either way, thanks for visiting and I hope you are getting something out of my posts.

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Using RDP in Linux and Remmina RDP client for Linux

The Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is widely used in Microsoft Windows, originally it was introduced as Terminal Services. Essentially it allows you to control a computer remotely (i.e via another computer), you can almost do anything via RDP. When I first switched from Windows to Linux, I had found that this feature was greatly missing from Linux's array and features.

My initial questions about RDP was met with VNC as the solution. If anyone has tried VNC you may notice that it is considerably slow-er than RDP. Not only that, but the person in front of the computer that you are controlling will see exactly what you are doing. When you are at home, this is not a problem, but RDP definately offers a better package.

Recently I was advised to use xRDP,  it is RDP for X. To get xrdp its a simple process, all you have to do is punch in the following command:

sudo apt-get install xrdp

Once this is installed, all you have to do is fire-up your RDP client. This will work with the Windows RDP client on Mac and Windows. If your other client is a linux machine, then try Remmina. It's a fantastic client - but it's the first one that I've tried.

To install Remmina, again whip out your Terminal window and punch the following command:

sudo apt-get install remmina

Once you have installed remmina launch it the same way that you would normally launch an application in Linux, you will be greeted with the following screen:

Adding Hosts
The first thing you are going to have to do is add a host, to do this click on the Page icon with a green plus symbol. This is the second icon on the toolbar in the above image.

From here you are able to set the details to connect to the RDP server, I'm not going to cover all the options instead I'll cover the options that you will need to set to get you started:

1. Name - This is name of the computer that you want to connect to, this does not need to be the actual name that has been assigned to the host computer. You can choose any name that would best describe the computer and differentiate it from the others (if you plan on having multiple hosts). In my case I've set it as Secondary Computer.
2. Group - Leave this as it is - empty.
3. Protocol - Select RDP - Remote Desktop Protocol this should have already been selected for you.
4. Server - Enter the IP address of the computer, this can be an internal IP address if the computer is on the local network, or an external IP address. In my case the server is on the internal network so I've entered 192.168.1.4. 
5. User name - Enter the username that you wish to log onto your host computer. In my case I've entered myusername for demonstration purposes. 
6. Password - Enter the password for the username
7. Domain - Leave blank if required, or enter a Domain. 
8. Resolution - Either select Use client resolution or if you want to set the resolution select Custom and then select the appropriate resolution from the drop-down. In my case I've opted to use the client's resolution. 
9. Colour Depth - Select the appropriate colour depth. This is an important selection, if you select the default option of 256 colours (8bpp) and your default background is Hi-Res then you will start to see some funky colours and it is generally unworkable. I've chosen True Colour (32 bpp) to allow my hi-res wallpaper/background to be displayed. If you are on a slower connection or if you are connecting to an external machine outside of your network you may need to reduce the number of colours. 

Once you have populated the fields, you can click on Save to save your changes. You should see your entry :

You may need to repeat the above steps if you have multiple hosts. 

Editing a host

If you realise that you have entered the incorrect information, simply edit the host details by:

1. Select the host and then clicking on the pencil icon on the toolbar, or
2. Right click on the host and select Edit from the context menu

Connecting to your Host

Once you have your hosts set up, to connect to a host you can either:

1. Double click on a host
2. Select the host and click on the first icon in the toolbar - I'm not sure what the icon looks like. 
3. Right click on the host and choose Connect from the context menu

When you connect to a host the first window that will appear will let you know that it is attempting to connect :

Then, once it is connected it will go through a loading procedure that is visible to you:

Once this is loaded, the connection log window will either automatically disappear or simply click on OK.

Thanks

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SAMBA: Unable to Mount

I was working on my HTPC today and I was trying to transfer files to it. After re-installing everything due to the 3TB debacle, I realised that I hadn't set up anything for connecting to it and sharing files. So my initial thought was to get FTP up and running, after while I thought to myself that I need to get SAMBA up and running.

I quickly whipped up Google to get some instructions on how to do this, since I was terrible at remembering how to do this - I have battle scars of the early days of samba as well.

The tutorial that I was going through took me through the process of setting up samba via a terminal window, which was great because I was able to Telnet into the machine to set everything up. Before long I started to run into some problems. So I quickly got an rdp session going to try and work things out graphically...

After about an hour I had a persistent problem of my desktop computer failing to connect :

This message "Unable to mount location" followed by "Failed to mount Windows share" kept on haunting me for that full hour...

Then I was looking up info on page 10 or 11 of a google search result, that's right I was in the deapths of a google search results - and I found a gem of an advice in a forum : check the permissions.

So I did, and my permission for the directory that I was sharing was drwx------... so I quickly whiped out my terminal in the rdp session and punched out:
sudo chmod 755 myDirectory

and then bam! all good. I can now connect to the Samba Share!!!

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Linux Download Manager

I've been asked this a couple of times in IRC channels as to whether there is a download manager for linux... and the answer is usually a "yeah ofcourse, this is linux". The download manager that I use is Uget, and it works pretty well for my purposes which is fairly basic (download, pause, resume). I remember that when I was on the Windows and Mac, I had to purchase this type of software, however, on Linux it's FREE. Love it.

To install it, and like with most packages, open up a terminal session and type in:

 sudo apt-get install uget 

And, that's it.

I'll add some screenshots later.

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3TB vs 2TB

When you are looking to get your next harddrive, you might be in a possition where you have a decision in front of you on whether to purchase a 3TB harddrive or a 2TB harddrive. Often this may look attractive to you, the current prices of a 3TB harddrive are so low that it looks a whole lot more value for a 3TB harddrive than a 2TB harddrive.

I had rececently purchased a 3TB harddrive due to the value for money that it presented. The added extra 1TB and the lack of available sata ports on my motherboard fealt like a no-brainer. However, soon after installing the harddrive I slowly found that there were a number of hurdles that I had to cross.

First was my OS, after reading a number of posts online I found out that you really need a 64bit OS to support it. If you have one of the legacy OS such Win XP you can kiss that extra 1TB goodbye, it simply is not supported. But then again why are you still on Win XP ?

For me, this wasn't really a major problem. I was happy to quickly wipe my installation (because of the way that I had installed my OS - within a separate partition. Also, because I was using Linux, all I had to do was download and install the 64bit OS. However, I thought to myself what would someone with Windows do ? Some of the Windows install, especially the OEM versions, specfically only allow a 32bit install. This would mean that you either need to purchase an upgrade or a whole new version from MS - that extra 1TB is already starting to look not attractive.

Secondly, you need to make sure that you format it correctly. The legacy, I can all it legacy now, partition table format will need to be GPT. I had a whole lot of fun trying to figure this out - don't make the same mistakes as I did and check out my previous post.

Third, peripheral support. I have a number of harddrive enclosures and docks situated around the house. I use a harddrive dock next to my HTPC, the main purpose of this new HD was to use it with the HTPC. I found out the hard way that my dock did not support a 3TB harddrive since the dock had a firmware built in and it was 32bit. This has now led me to purchase a new dock.

Finally, this has not happened to me yet but it is theory - if you want to use the HD with another computer you need to make sure that it all meets the gotcha's mentioned in this post. This is something that you are going to have to remember and not take it for granted that it will just work.

There you go, the value of the extra 1TB looks like it is great value for money. However, you need to make sure that you are ready for it. I would suggest that you look at this post and review your decision carefully before you purchase that 3TB.

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Largest Folder in Linux

There are times when you are suddenly surprised when you start running out of diskspace. When this occurs, sometimes you might know what is taking up all your precious space, and sometimes you don't.

If you don't really have an understanding what is taking up all your space, then what you really want to do is get a view, starting from the root and showing which folders are taking up the space.

 There's a great little program that will do just that. To install it, whip out a terminal window and type in :

sudo apt-get install ncdu 

and then once it is installed type in ncdu. Depending on where you execute the command it will take list the folders and files from that location. If you want to start it from the root folder simply pass in an argument of the root path i.e ncdu /.


A word of warning when you pass this through with the root path, if you have external drives and other harddrives mounted in /mnt or /media the ncdu will take the mounted harddrives into consideration.

The difference between my previous post (du -hs /mypath/) is that ncdu will outline the files and folders and list their sizes, it also adds interactivity by allowing you to drill into folders. So in an example where you start looking at the entire filesystem from the root path, you can see the larger directories. From there you can enter the directory or your choice, and then see the sizes of the sub-directory. This feature is handy when you don't know where to start (start at the top).
There 

 

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Getting the size of a folder

Getting the size of a folder is as simple as executing du -hs /myPath/

The h is to make the output legible, that is it will display a 100M as 100M and not in bytes.

The s is to make the output in a summarised format, if this is not included you'll get a listing of all the files and their size.

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Checking freespace from a terminal

If you ever need to check your disk's usage, free space etc... you can execute a terminal command df. This gives you information in a very raw format. Often this is adequate to check the capacity and what's left by using the % information.

However, a better way to look a disk capacity and free space is using discuss. Discuss isn't normally included in your standard build of Ubuntu, so in order to install it fire up the following command:

sudo apt-get install discuss

Once you have done that type in discuss in a terminal window and voila!

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Using Screen in Ubuntu

This morning I was advised that in order to execute extensive shell scripts, and especially via telnet, I should look into using screen.

When I first tried the command screen in Ubuntu I found that it didn't work, I was notified by bash that I should sudo apt-get install screen. So, after I installed it as bash suggested, I re-executed the command screen and a GNU lic agreement was displayed. Then I was placed back on to a command prompt, almost exactly the same command prompt as what I was on before... so what next ?

I decided to do a bit of research into screen, from what I was advised that it is a essential tool that should be used my most people but in reality it is overlooked. So if it is so important why is there a lack of understanding of screen?

Well here is what I found out: When you are using a terminal window or if you are using telnet, you are assigned a session. Within the session you can execute all the commands that you need as long as the session is still active. If the session is terminated then your commands exit. So how does your session terminate ? well if you close down your terminal (accidently or not) or if you close your telnet session (accidently, forced, or via another method).

So, if you are working on a complex build and it is taking a long time you are forced to keep the session open until the build completes. A complex build is problematic with a temperamental telnet session. Here is where screen comes in to the rescue.

Screen detaches your session, and hence allowing your program to continue to execute even when the terminal has been closed or your telnet has been closed. You can regain the session easily by re-establishing a terminal window or telnet session and re-executing screen.

Sounds handy huh?

Starting Screen
To start screen you can:

1. Enter the command screen
2. Enter the command screen -S <sessionname> where the <session name> is any name to describe the session. For example screen -S 1 and screen -S mySession are valid ways of describing the sessions. This comes in handy if you want to open multiple sessions, having a meaningful name means you can open the right session when you want it. 

Getting Back to Your Prompt

To exit the session you need to a key combination :

CTRL + A and then CTRL + D

To try this first execute screen, then execute a command that you would notice that you have only executed in screen such ls -a or pwd  etc... then try CTRL + A and then CTRL + D or CTRL + A +D

Did you notice how you were returned back to your original command prompt ? 

Getting Back to Your Screen Session

To restart your previous screen session you can:

1. Enter the command screen -r if you started screen without a session name then just use this command. 
2. Enter the command with a session name screen -r <session name> where <session name> is the name of the session that you started previously. For example screen -r 1 or screen -s mySession.

Starting Another Screen Session Within A Session

If you want to start another screen session within a session, you don't need to CTRL + A CTRL + D and start another session with screen -S myNewSession. You can simply execute the following key combination:

CTRL + A and then CTRL + C

How To Navigate Between the Sessions

When you are working with multiple sessions you will want to navigate between the sessions. To do this you can do the following:

1. Next window : CTRL + A and then CTRL + N
2. Previous window : CTRL + A and then CTRL + P
3. Selecting from a list of windows : CTRL + A and then CTRL + "
4. The last session that was viewed : CTRL + A and then CTRL + A

That's all the basics of Screen, there are plenty of other great commands. Let me know if you want a guide on the other commands. 

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Partitioning and Formatting a 3TB Harddrive as NTFS within Ubuntu

I bought a new harddrive since the old one was running out of space, its a Western Digital 3TB Green Harddrive. All my previous harddrives were 2TB or less, this is the first time I've tried a 2TB and I had to do a bit of research to make sure that the harddrive would work under linux and it can support a 3TB harddrive.

The first and important step is the consideration of partition and file system. Since this is a large harddrive, and since I have a number of computers with all different flavors of OSs - most importantly the Windows machines. I've decided to apply a single ntfs partition.

first steps first, I need partition tool such as gparted and some ntfs tools. To get these apt-get them and get them installed:

sudo apt-get install gparted
sudo apt-get install ntfsprogs

Now that these are installed, open up Gparted from the application launcher.

Once you open Gparted it will automatically show you /dev/sda, since this is most likely not your prefered device to format select the correct device from the top right hand corner, in my case it's /dev/sde

Since this is an empty new harddrive the entire block is in the shade of grey and it states that it is unallocated. Before you get stuck into creating partitions, you first need a partition table. To create a partition table click on Device > Create Partition Table.

You will be prompted to select a partition table type, it states that the default is MS-DOS partition, however, this has a limitation of 2TB partitions - since a 32bit field length is being used and with 512 byte sectors this equates to 2TB. In order to get to the something higher than 2TB we need to select GPT as our partition table type, to do this click on the arrow next to Advanced this will reveal a drop down, from there select GPT. To learn more about GPT click here. Click Apply to continue.

After you click apply you might start to hear your harddrive spin up, the partition table should take less than a second to create. After which your devices are rescanned and you will be left back on /dev/sde or your selected device, except the the red icon will no longer be there under Partition.

Now you would need to create one or more partitions, to do this right click on the grey block (where it sez unallocated) and click on New within the context menu.

You'll be presented with a box where you can select :

• Free space preceeding (MiB): This is the start, since I'm creating it from scratch the lowest I can go is 1 
• New size (MiB): The size of the partition, since I'm creating one big partition this will be the maximum for my 3TB which is 2861587
• Free space following (MiB): This is the end of the partition, since I'm taking up all the space it will be 0 for me
• Align to: You can slect MiB which is easier to comprehend, or Cylinder, or none
• Create as: You can create the partition as a Primary Partition, Logical Partition or an Extended Partition
• File system: Here is where you can set it to NTFS, there are a number of options and since this post is about NTFS I'll only cover that option
• Label: Here you can enter a label for your new partition like "myNewPart" or what ever will describe the partition for you. 

Once you have entered everything the way you want click on Add to continue. The following options are what I had selected:

Once you have clicked on Add, you'll be dropped back on to the main screen of Gparted.

At this stage it's not too late to back out, if you want to back out click on the orangy-red back button just under the Parition menu. Otherwise if you are comfortable to continue click on the green tick that's under the Help menu.

Since this is a risky operation, make sure that you have any data backed up when you are playing around with partitions and formatting. Once you have completed all the tasks its very difficult to back out. You'll be presented with a final confirmation asking whether to proceed or not.

If you are uncomfortable to proceed click on cancel and back out now! Otherwise, click on Apply to continue.

This will then cycle through for a little while:

Once it is done you'll be given a success message, click on Close to continue:

All done.

Now since I'm a skeptic  at times I normally test it to make sure that it works. So mount up the drive via Nautilus and create a text file to see if it works.

Now it's done.

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New Layout - Experiment

I'm completely new to the world of Blogger, and I thought that it was about time to ditch the standard template for something that is a little more appealing. I first thought that I could create my own template, but for the time being I'm trialling out some pre-made templates (why re-create the wheel if you don't have to, right?).

So in the mean time you will see changes on the site, sometimes it might work and sometimes it wont. But for most part I hope it works.

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Movie-Renamer Installation

I've been hunting around for a method to get my movies working with XBMC. On Windows I was using a program called Movie Companion, and it was a good little program that did what I wanted it do. Specfically:

1. It downloaded the movie information 
2. Downloaded Posters
3. Downloaded Fan Art
4. Created the required .nfo files for XBMC

What it didn't do was create update movie filenames etc... but I could live with that. 

Since moving across to linux, I've been in desperate need to be able to do what I could do with Movie Companion. I've looked on forums and various other areas and most of the information pointed to Ember, however, Ember seems to have gone down some time ago and hasn't come back up yet. 

I thought that I may have need to create my own program to do what Movie Companion did on Windows, however, my background is Microsoft Frameworks and I didn't have a clue on how to get started in linux. 

Somehow I managed to stumble upon Movie-Renamer, and unlike what the name states it does more than just rename the movie. 

Installation

To install Movie Renamer you will need to download the java file from their website at http://movie-renamer.fr/. You will need Java installed on your ubuntu installation before you can execute this, check out my post on how to install java for some instructions. 

Once you have downloaded the jar file, in my case it was Movie Renamer_Installer-1.3.0_Alpha.jar follow these instructions:

1. Open up a file explorer, usually Nautilus and locate the file. Often, unless you have changed this, it would be in ~/Downloads

2. Right click on the file, and you will notice that  there is an option "Open with Oracle Java 7 Runtime", if you don't have this option then it means that you don't have Java installed on your machine - see my previous post on instructions on how to do this. If you do see it then click on this option to launch the installer. 

3. Select your language, the program supports English and French, and click OK

4. Click Next on the home screen/splash screen or what ever you like to call this screen, then go through the GNU License information and click Next

 

5. Select the installation path, leave it as it is if you want the default to apply

If the path does not exist, in my case it didn't, then you will prompted to create the directory. Click OK if you wish to do so. 

6. Select the packages that you require, at this stage you get the Sources if you wish otherwise the default option of Movie Renamer is the only one that is required. Click Next to continue.

8. Then it will go through the process of installing the files, this should be really quick - it was less than a second on my machine. Click Next to continue. 

9. Next screen is quite wierd, and it is obvious that this was initially intended for Windows since it refers to the Start Menu and creating shortcuts. I've just continued (Next) to see what will eventuate. 

And then that's it, click Done:

To open the program, go to the top right if you are using gnome and search for "Movie" and it will bring up Movie Renamer. 

Now that it's installed, I'll have a play with it and post a separate post on using the program. 

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Installing Java 7 on Ubuntu

I found myself wanting to run a Java applet on Ubuntu, within Windows this was pre-installed and I didn't have to worry about anything.

However, since my install of Java did not exist I had to hunt around on how to install Java, the following steps are what I used:

1. Add a PPA to your repository list

sudo apt-get-repository ppa:webupd8team/java

2. Check that your system is updated

sudo apt-get update

3. Execute the installation

sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-installer

When the installation starts you will be prompted, within the terminal, to accept the license agreement. Once you have accepted the license agreement, the installation will continue and it will take less than a minute to download everything and install Java on your machine.

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Cloud Storage for the Consumers

Much of yesterday was used up trying to look for a set of files, due to a recent hard drive malfunction I no longer know what I have and what has been lost.

After searching through my stack of hard drives  low and behold the files were located in the second last hard drive  That was lucky because the last hard drive was a IDE harddrive, and I don't think I have a suitable enclosure for it. 

But, this event got me thinking about the types of medium that is suitable for storage. One of the consequences of going digital is that we will be more prone to loosing information if it is stored incorrectly. Take for example, prior to digital cameras most people had their photos developed in a studio and they had a hard copy of the picture. These formats generally degraded over time, however, the benefit was that some of the information would still be legible - in the case of a picture you may still be able to make out what is being represented in the picture. 

Now, with the digital age and with digitising everything - some of the key benefits of course are that you have less clutter, and the quality wouldn't be expected to degrade over time. However, the key aspect is really time. 

Over time, with technology, everything tends to become outdated. I remember having tape drives holding vast amounts of information. For the general consumers were CDs, and then DVDs, then blue ray disks. The life expectancy of a DVD or CD's are 30 years, and Blueray discs are expected to be much greater of up to 150 years. Both of these haven't been tested in the wild yet to confirm whether or not this is the case. However, if you take blueRays as an exmaple - if you have stored media on a blueray disc there is no guarantee that in another 150 years you will have anything that will be capable of reading the media. In a consumers' sense, they wont have these types of machines available as they keep upgrading their technology. 

Now, in my case, I was thinking that I need a mechanism to :

1. store my information safely for a long time (maybe not for 150 years) but long enough based on the information
2. Be able to search for the information easily and efficiently
3. Be able to be accessed anywhere and any time 

After considering these as my requirements, physical media wouldn't be capable of meeting requirements 2 and 3. So the only item that I can think of that can meet these requirements was going to be personal cloud storage. 

There are so many companies offering free and paid services, they normally provide some sort of web interface to manage your files, or even multiple applications for your devices. In my case, they tend to meet each of the requirements very well. 

A couple of considerations to make when you pick a cloud storage provider : 

1. Check out how long they have been around - assess the risk of them shutting up shop and taking all the information with them. 
2. Check out whether they will breaking any laws - there were many people who used MegaUpload as  method of cloud storage. However, MegaUpload and MegaVideo were also participating in infringements which at the end brought down the company. All the users to date haven't been able to obtain their files. 
3. Consider using multiple hosts - have one as your backup to minimise the risk of #1 and #2. 
4. Make sure you understand the companies interest in providing you with free storage - Remember nothing is free in life. 

So right now, I'm using both drive.google.com and also UbuntuOne. I'll do a review on these soon, however, for the mean time I hope this has helped with your storage needs. 

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RawTherapee

Well as part of my search to get myself on to linux (Ubuntu 12.04), a lot of my work has been involved in replacing applications that I generally use in Windows with a Linux equivalent.

I've recently found myself having to process on batch Raw files (NEF) files, and I've come across this really great application that helps you to process RAW files and convert them to JPEG (jpg) - the application's name is called RawTherapee.

To get it on ubuntu simply execute the following command in a terminal :

sudo apt-get install rawtherapee

Once you have it, and if you're using gnome then move your mouse to the top right to where it states Activities. Then in the Search Term type in rawtherapee and the program should come up.

Using RawTherapee

When you first start with rawTherapee you be placed in the FileBrowser tab, from here select the folder in which you have placed your raw files. Once you have opened up the directory, or selected the directory you should see the files in large thumbs opening up in the middle section.

Simply select the files that you want to convert to a jpg, then while the images are selected right click on the images and select send to processing queue.

Then click on the Batch Queue tab, you should see the images to process in the bottom section. Select the directory or the template folder (the default is %p1/converted/%f this just means that it will use the path of the file and place the processed files in a directory called converted). Review the file format section, and once you are happy with everything click on the Start Processing button, found on the left hand side.

You should see the files slowly being removed from the processing queue section as each file is processed. If you navigate to the folder of the 'converted' directory you should see the converted files being written.

Hope this helps with your photography with Linux. 

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Seeing RAW files within Nautils

One of the most frustrating things that I have found whilst working with linux as the core operating system, well ubuntu/gnome etc... is that my NEF files are not displayed as a thumbnail.

While opening the NEF file is easy enough, I wanted a way to quickly search/browse my images and view the contents.

After a little digging up, I found that this can be easily accomplished by following these steps.

Install ufraw from the repos using aptget:

sudo apt-get install ufraw 

Next, you will need to create a file called raw.thumbnailer in /usr/share/thumbnailers. If you do ls /usr/share/thumbnailers/ you'll notice that a this file doesn't exist. To create this file simply execute :

sudo gedit /usr/share/thumbnailers/raw.thumbnailer

Once the file is open in gedit then copy and paste the following:


[Thumbnailer Entry]
Exec=/usr/bin/ufraw-batch --embedded-image --out-type=png --size=%s %u --overwrite --silent --output=%o
MimeType=image/x-3fr;image/x-adobe-dng;image/x-arw;image/x-bay;image/x-canon-cr2;image/x-canon-crw;image/x-cap;image/x-cr2;image/x-crw;image/x-dcr;image/x-dcraw;image/x-dcs;image/x-dng;image/x-drf;image/x-eip;image/x-erf;image/x-fff;image/x-fuji-raf;image/x-iiq;image/x-k25;image/x-kdc;image/x-mef;image/x-minolta-mrw;image/x-mos;image/x-mrw;image/x-nef;image/x-nikon-nef;image/x-nrw;image/x-olympus-orf;image/x-orf;image/x-panasonic-raw;image/x-pef;image/x-pentax-pef;image/x-ptx;image/x-pxn;image/x-r3d;image/x-raf;image/x-raw;image/x-rw2;image/x-rwl;image/x-rwz;image/x-sigma-x3f;image/x-sony-arw;image/x-sony-sr2;image/x-sony-srf;image/x-sr2;image/x-srf;image/x-x3f;


Then save the file (File > Save), and then close the gedit. At this point you can check nautilus to see if the raws have a thumbnail image. If it doesn't then execute the following command in terminal:

nautilus -q

Then open a new nautilus window and check the raw files and hopefully you'll be jumping for joy.

I hope this works, I had to go through several forum posts to work out what was wrong. I also installed gnome-raw-thumbnailer (sudo apt-get install gnome-raw-thumbnailer) before installing ufraw. But then in another post it stated that gnome-raw-thumbnailer is no longer required. If you have any problems then please try installing gnome-raw-thumbnailer. Futhermore, I also installed gconf-editor (sudo apt-get install gconf-editor) .

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JqueryUI 1.9.0

Whoa JqueryUI 1.9.0 is out... What a great effort by the team to release the JqueryUI 1.9.0, unfortunately this release has fealt like it has taken a long time to be released. 

Some of the key changes are: 

• Spinner Widget : While there has been a number of Spinner Widgets that have been available for a while with Jquery via separate plugins, this is coming directly from the jquery team. This is one control/widget that I have had my eyes on for a while, mainly because of the standard functionality that it provides. The demos are available here.
• Menu Widget: This essentially adds a drop down style control. Not much to write about this widget, I'm not sure that I would end up using this widget. 
• ToolTip Widget: Another nice addition to the toolset for JqueryUI. However, the current set of functionality is limited in certain areas, especially custom content, when compared to existing plugins that have already been available. 
• As well as API redesign for the Accordion, and Tabs widgets. 

The key control that I have been wanting with 1.9 has been the Spinner Control/Widget, and I've been waiting and holding my breadth for a long time for this release. 

The next control/widget that I'm waiting on is the grid control/widget, unfortunately this doesn't look like it will be available till v2 or 2.1 based on the roadMap. There are a still a number of grid controls available via thirdparty developers. 

Along with v1.9.0, the jqueryUI.com site design/layout has been updated. However, jquery.com is still in the existing format and the plugin page is still under-development and you need to use http://archive.plugins.jquery.com/ to get to it. 

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Ubuntu 12.10

Coming out shortly is Ubuntu 12.10, currently it is available to be downloaded using the http://releases.ubuntu.com as Beta 2. 

I've been trialling ubuntu 12.10 for the past couple of weeks using the live method, and my desktop is Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. 

Some of the improvements or changes in 12.10 are: 

• Linux Kernel is 3.5.4 
• Python 3.2, it doesn't ship with v2 but this can be easily installed
• A CD Image is no longer supported, those who want to try out Ubuntu 12.10 will need to either use a USB or a DVD
• Update Manager has been renamed to Software Updater
• The Dash now includes commercial results via the Shopping Lens, Canonical will get a kick back from you shopping which supports future Ubuntu releases
• Includes WebApps within the Launcher, specifically Amazon and Ubuntu One Music Store
• LibreOffice is shipped with version 3.6.1 and is integrated into the HUD

So should you upgrade to 12.10 when it is released, especially considering the Long Time Support (LTS) ? 

So my current version Ubuntu on the desktop is 12.04 LTS, and my preferred desktop at this stage is Gnome 3+. Based on the changes that are available in the Ubuntu 12.10 Beta 1/2, most of the change updates can be updated manually to bring you in line with 12.10 (i.e Python and LibreOffice). 

There's been some noticeable enhancements for Unity which makes it a little more usable, specifically the ability to move icons from the launcher etc... 

For now, my thoughts are that I can do without the upgrade. 

Amazon baked into the Dash

The Dash search results will also include a search on Amazon, this is a simplifies the search results for those who enjoy online shopping. Canonical will gain a kick back, not sure what the amount is, this of course will help Canonical support future versions of Ubuntu. 

Personally, it's very rare that I use Amazon for shopping. I do some times use the feedback and user reviews of products from Amazon to get understanding of the products based on real life user feedback. However, since I'm in Australia and most things contain shipping costs and I cannot take advantage of some of the free shipping offers from Amazon I normally tend to use other websites to purchase products. 

These commercial searches and activated by default and you can be turned it off within the System Settings, which is not a complex change. 

I read an Article on Business Insider not long ago about Google's immediate Threats, and I can understand why Google would be worried. The article basically states that Google generally obtains its revenue from searches, and offers links to products these attribute to about 20% of its revenue. When users don't use google to search for products and use alternative methods, then this eats into the 20% of its revenue. 

There's a short video on Business Insider that also summarises the article. 

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webplatform.org

A new site/community has opened up to promote open standards and a place for web developers. Essentially it is a resource site where web developers can obtain information on best practises for HTML5, CSS, Javascript, Accessability, and more.

This is a positive move from a number of organisations to bring together their knowledge and also to assist in promoting the internet and web development overall. Whilst the site and the community looks like it is still in it's infancy, it contains a number of articles as well as tutorials. 

Looking at the documentation that is currently there, it looks as though it is pitched new comers to the web such as students and other professionals who have basic knowledge of the internet. The articles and the information stored within webplatform.org is based on a wiki format (think of wikipedia) where everyone, or anyone can edit the information. The idea behind this is to be open, and allow people to update the content to keep it updated and relevant for the audience. 

My initial view on the site is that, like most tutorial/article sites, is that it is really verbose (think of large amounts of text). Take for example the page "how does the internet work" (http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/concepts/internet_and_web/how_does_the_internet_work), the information could have been improved for users (especially those who are new to this type of topic) by using diagrams, presentations, and videos. 

However, this looks like it is only the start of the site and there appears to be more to come. I'm certainly excited by the fact that there is a central repository to get information about web technology, and I'd encourage anyone and everyone to participate. 

There are a couple of anomalies with the site, namely it uses custom registration without proper identity management (i.e facebook, windows live, openID, etc...), and the registration page also doesn't use the best practises around CAPTCHA (although they are very annoying). Upon registration, I was also advised that the source couldn't be determined and recommended for me to enable cookies - after simply re-populating the fields and resubmitting the form it worked. 

There is also a forums sections in the form of stackoverflow (www.stackoverflow.com), which at the moment contains questions about the site rather than anything real about web platforms.

There are a number of backers behind this initiative such as W3C, Google, Microsoft, and facebook just to name a few.

Anyway, here's promo vid of webplatform.org:

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Whoa.. back on here again...

Ok, so the last time I took a long break I ended up going for a long time. Well I've had to shutdown the other site and have decided to come back here. Why, two reasons :

• Decided to move to Ubuntu for my desktop/server
• Accidentally deleted the partition with the blog database

So I lasted for about 1 year and a bit on blogEngine with Asp.NET running on IIS. However, the one thing that I wanted to get up and running (i.e image gallery) didn't end up happening. So I'm still in the lookout for an image gallery that I can integrate into a blog of somesort. 

Drop me a line if you know of one, or if you know if blogger can do it. 

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