So lately I’ve been using this awesome IRC client called Weechat! It’s minimal, yet highly configurable. It’s got me addicted to it! Weechat + Screen is the best combo! Anyway, a groundbreaking new version has been released today. And if you’re on an equally awesome distro (Arch), then you should have it ready in your repository 🙂
We use IBM’s Lotus Sametime as our IM client at work. And i like to be signed in all the time even on my Arch machine at home. Pidgin does support sametime protocol, but through an external library called meanwhile. Although most popular distributions have meanwhile in their main repos, Arch does not. It has the meanwhile library in AUR. And due to this, the pidgin in Arch has meanwhile support disabled. But even so, the latest stable meanwhile library (1.0.2) has a nasty bug which does not report the correct online status of buddies. Most online buddies are shown as being offline. The problem has been fixed in the SVN version, but unfortunately ALL distributions carry the buggy version of meanwhile. It took me around 5-6 months to get to the root cause of this bug, and yes, i have managed to fix it in Arch. I’m providing here a compiled version of the fixed meanwhile library (64 bit). I’m also providing a complete tutorial on how to compile pidgin with meanwhile support on Arch. ...
So.. A few days back, Kernel 2.6.28 was released. And amongst the many new features, the thing that attracted me most was stable EXT4 support. For those of you who dont know, EXT4 is the successor to the most widely used linux filesystem, EXT3. EXT4 boasts of being a hell lot faster than EXT3, and ofcourse with added features. Archlinux just released Kernel 2.6.28 into it’s [core] repo a few days back, and since then im in a dillema whether i should switch to EXT4, or be content with my current filesystem, JFS. Switching to EXT4 means that I will have to re-install Arch, once the new installer CD with EXT4 support comes in (which should be soon). And configuring Arch _exactly_ the same way as it is right now will be almost impossible! I mean with all the small tweaks and configuration changes i’ve done over one year now! Will be a HUGE task! And nowdays, i really dont have time to mess with something that’s working absolutely the way i want it to work. ...
Well, i know its kinda old news, but still im pretty excited that Adobe has released an alpha version of a native 64 bit Flash plugin for Linux! The best part is that Linux is the first platform that gets the alpha version, though Adobe says that it will ship the final version for Linux, Mac and Windows together. Thankyou Adobe for showering some of your love to us Linux users 😀 ...
Hmm.. So i’ve been out of the blogging scene for quite sometime now. Mostly, i’ve been busy with work, and yeah, i’ve been spending all my free time watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S, just like Nidhi 🙂 Now that i’m finished with all 10 seasons, i think ill get some time to post here 🙂 So lets see.. What all is new.. On the linux front, i’ve migrated from Ubuntu to Arch Linux, which according to me, is the BEST distro out there! I love the fact how everything “just works” and how i have the latest software all the time. The best part is that its a rolling release, meaning no more waiting for updates or adding third party repos for new stuff. I evaluated Debian and Gentoo, before moving to Arch. Debian always had some or the other problem. It wasnt just stable enough for me. And Gentoo on the other hand was too time consuming and crude. Arch is gonna stay on my PC for a long, long time! 🙂 ...
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 🙂 ...
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? 😉 ...
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. ...
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. ...
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. ...