Blogs

Ubuntu Hardy ships with Pidgin v2.4.1 and Firefox 3.0 Beta5, while the latest Pidgin is v2.4.2 and the latest Firefox is 3.0 RC1. Here are two repositories that would always contain the latest versions of Pidgin and Firefox. Just type “gksu gedit /etc/apt/sources.list” into the terminal, and add the following to the end of the file. For Pidgin: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/pidgin-developers/ubuntu hardy main For Firefox: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/mozillateam/ubuntu hardy main After adding the lines, just type “sudo apt-get update” and then “sudo apt-get dist-upgrade” in the terminal (apt will give a warning about unauthenticated packages, but its safe to ignore the warning and type “y”). After doing this, you should have the latest versions of both Pidgin and Firefox 🙂 ...

Calling all campers! BarCamp Delhi 4 is just around the corner! Considering how much fun i had last time, ill definitely be present in this one! From the BarCampDelhi4 Wiki, BarCamp Delhi is proposed to be a camp where we get together and discuss/rant/brain-storm/share opinions/information/wisdom about anything. Be it Web Technologies, trends, Mobile Internet, Hacking, Blogging, Vlogs, Social Media etc. that interests us. The details of the event are: Date: 17th May 2008 (Saturday). ...

Well, i just heard that Ubuntu is trying to rename all the top level directories! The proposed directory structure is: /bin /system/executables /boot /system/boot /dev /system/devices /etc /system/config /lib /system/libraries /home /users /media /storage /mnt /storage /proc /system/processes /root /users/Administrator /sbin /system/executables/admin /tmp /system/temporary /usr /system/applications Well, that’s just plain stupid if you ask me.. It will create unnecessary confusion and difference between various linux distributions! I think Ubuntu should strive to be “User Friendly” not “Idiot Friendly”. We dont want another case of the Windows do we? 😉 ...

Well.. Not exactly *new*, its about a month old now 🙂 I still have my old pc, and have set up a LAN 🙂 Here’s the configuration: Processor: Core2Quad Q6600 @2.4Ghz Motherboard: MSI P35 Platinum GFX Card: MSI 8600 GT (512MB) RAM: Patriot 2x1GB DDR2 800 Mhz (matched pairs) HDD: Western Digital 400GB HDD (16MB buffer) SMPS: Cooler Master Real Power 550W Cabinet: Cooler Master Elite Screen: Viewsonic VX922 (19″) DVD Writer: Samsung SH-S203D ...

Hmm.. I’ve been out of the blogging scene for quote sometime now! Didn’t really get the time, or anything worthwhile to post. Well anyway, what better way to come back, then to list out the top 10 reasons to use linux! 😀  If you’re a Linux enthusiast like me, you’ve probably tried to convert a few people over to Linux from another operating system. Even though you succeed many times, there are always a few ‘geniuses’ out there who need some real persuading to switch over to Linux. ...

I discovered this when i tried to set my status message to “Benazir Bhutto killed..” it just didn’t reflect. Then i tried Pidgin’s default away message “I’m not here right now” didn’t work.. But surprisingly “I’m not here right away” works.. Harsh confirmed the behavior. Seems as if yahoo is blocking some words such as “now” and “Bhutto” in various combinations in a sentence (“now” and “Bhutto” do work as status messages). At first i though it was a problem with pidgin. But then Ankur confirmed that these words were not working with even the windows yahoo messenger client! I really don’t know what yahoo is trying to achieve but its really irritating 😐 ...

Here is a repository i use on my gutsy install which always contains the latest builds of Pidgin and Rhythmbox. So no more hunting for debs or compiling sources 😀 Steps to add the repository: 1. Open Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal) 2. Type “gksu gedit /etc/apt/sources.list” 3. Go to the end of the file and add the following onto a new line: ## Latest Pidgin/Rhythmbox deb http://www.telemail.fi/mlind/ubuntu gutsy main 4. Save the file and close Gedit. ...

So.. I had wanted to attend un-conferences since a long time now, but didn’t really get to know the events on time, or the events were outside of Delhi/NCR. So this even was the perfect opportunity for me to explore! The even was held at the Noida Sector 59 office of Impetus Software, which was quite close to my own office, so i kinda knew the area a bit. The event was scheduled to start at 9:30 AM. I, along with Deepak, Prateek and Apoorv reached the venue around 9:15 AM. We did all the registration formalities, and then proceeded to the conference room. We were one of the first few people to arrive there. The first “known” person we met there was Amit. He greeted us with his usual smile (dunno whether he recognized me and Apoorv or not though 😛 ). Then we met this really friendly guy named Ankit, who had come with his baby daughter, who was later declared as the youngest attendee of the BarCamp 😀 ...

Heh, no its not a booze party 😛 From the BarCamp wiki: BarCamp Delhi is proposed to be a camp where we get together and discuss/rant/brain-storm/share opinions about about Web technologies & trends, Mobile Internet, Hacking, Blogging, Vlogs, Social Media, … everything about the Technology that interests us. As said before, “It’s about geekery and having a focal point for great ideas.” This would actually be the first time i’d be attending a BarCamp. Got to know about BarCamp last year through Amit of Uzanto, but missed it last year. Anyway, im surely attending it this time. Expecting to meet a lot of like minded people geeks 😛 I urge all people who can make it to the event, to register at the BarCampDelhi3 wiki page. As for those who would have to miss it, dont worry, many people would be live blogging the event. Ill also try and blog a bit about it, otherwise ill surely link you to the people who do blog about it in detail 🙂 ...

Adobe has released a shining new version of Flash Player for linux. This is a big release fixing a lot of stability issues and also adding a truck load of features! Changelog: New audio/video options H.264/HE-AAC codec support Flash Player 9 Update 3 includes H.264 video and High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio codec support that opens up a broad ecosystem and selection of standards-based video — up to HD quality — that developers can leverage in their applications. Supporting a subset of MPEG-4 Part 12 (container) and Part 10 (H.264), including baseline, main and high profiles, Flash Player can play back existing MP4, M4A, MOV, MP4V, 3GP and 3G2 content. Improved Performance Multi-core support Speed the rendering of vectors, bitmaps, filters and video, including true 1080p video, with new multi-core support that takes advantage of up to 4 CPUs. Hardware scaling Improve the performance and quality of full-screen video through the use of hardware scaling. Multi-threaded video decoding The VP6 video codec now runs in a separate thread on multi-core systems, enabling true 1080p video. In addition, the responsiveness and decode blockiness of the VP6 codec is improved with this change. Image scaling A new algorithm for scaling bitmap images enhances the quality and rendering performance of downscaled images. Flash Player cache The Flash Player cache enables common components, such as the Flex Framework, to be cached locally and then used by any SWF from any domain. Use of the Flash Player cache can significantly reduce SWF file sizes and speed application download times. Flash Media Server buffering The stream buffer is maintained while a stream is paused. Universal Reach Full screen mode for Linux Full screen mode with hardware scaling is now supported in Linux. Accessibility support for the plugin Flash Player 9 update 3 adds support for Microsoft’s Active Accessibility (MSAA) API to the plugin, enabling consistent support across plugin-based and Internet Explorer browsers. Mac Os X Leopard support Flash Player 9 update 3 now supports the Mac OS X Leopard operating system. Fixed in this version: On Linux, modal dialogs displayed by Flash Player stay in front of browser windows but do not prevent interaction with the browser as they should. (191331) On Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 7 Protected Mode may prompt users with security warnings when attempting to view Flash content after installing the Flash Player 9 (9.0.45.0) ActiveX control. Security warnings may also appear for users who choose to install the Google Toolbar from the Flash Player Download Center on adobe.com as part of the player installation process. This was fixed in an Internet Explorer update in June 2007. On certain SUSE 9.2 installations using the standalone player only, trying to Open a browser from the standalone player with SeaMonkey open will cause the player to hang. (193383) On Linux, networking operations in the standalone player are currently slow. (193158) On Linux, when the mouse is hovering over Flash content, keyboard input is not sent to the browser. (194265) Full-screen mode is not supported in the Opera Browser on Macintosh systems. (189140) Full-screen mode is now supported on Linux. Invoking document.write(..) method of JavaScript using ExternalInterface or FSCommand hangs Safari on next page load. This issue has been reported to Apple. (167996) The Mozilla Plugin Finder Service will not install Flash Player 9.0.20.0 on Intel-based Macs using double-byte language modes. Users may either install from the Adobe Player Download Center or use the Plugin Finder Service in non-double-byte language modes. (180719) The plugin version of Flash Player does not fire flash.events.Event.RENDER when wmode is set as transparent. (198515) Full-screen can be used when wmode is set (202290) Passing large amounts of XML through External Interface is significantly faster (206828) ExternalInterface now works with HTML objects that contain dots within the object name (199614) Here is the list of security updates. ...