Techs Palace

Threaded Commenting In Blogger; No More Disqus Needed

2012-01-12T13:30:00.001+05:30

Blogger has rolled out threaded commenting. That means we'll no longer need third party system like Disqus. Though it doesn't have all the feature of services like Disqus, having ability to reply to comments serves the ultimate purpose.

To get this make sure that you have following setting in blogger:

Settings

Posts and Comments
"Embedded" in "Comment Location" drop down

Settings

Other
"Full" in "Allow Blog Feed" drop down.

Happy Blogging.

Google Plus Available for Google Apps User

2011-10-28T18:02:00.000+05:30

From today, Google+ is available to Google Apps user as well. Better late than never.

Before you can use Google Plus, your domain administrator must enable it for your domain. If you are a domain administrator login to the domain panel and go to Organization & Users -> Services.

In there search for Google+ and enable it and save.

Now all the users in that domain can use Google+.

Block Ads Using Host File In Ubuntu

2011-10-26T10:16:00.001+05:30

The easy way to block ads or any other malware, pornography site and so on is by using the host file.

Whenever you open any web site the domain (or FQDN) has to be converted to IP. For that it uses DNS server. But before using DNS it checks if there is an entry in the host file. So we'll put all the domain name of the adserver with wrong IP address so that they can't function.

For eg: if we put Google.com as 127.0.0.1, our browser will try to find google.com in the IP address 127.0.0.1 which turns out to be our own computer and there isn't any Google's webserver in our computer. So it won't work.

But filling the entry for all the ad servers manually is tedious task. This is where sites like http://hosts-file.net/ comes into play. From this website we can download the host file that contents entry for ads, malware, torrent, pornography or subset of any.

So if we want to block only ads lets download the host file for blocking ads by clicking here or visiting the download page and downloading ad_servers.asp file.

After downloading open that file. Entry beginning with "#" are comments. We need to add entry for our computer in that file. You can look at the contents of your existing host file by running the following command in terminal:

cat /etc/hosts

There you'll see one entry for your computer. For eg: 127.0.0.1 my-laptop
Make a same entry in the file you downloaded.
Now again in terminal backup your existing host file. After that replace the original host file with the downloaded one.

sudo cp /etc/hosts{,.orig}
sudo cp ~/Downloads/downloaded_host_file /etc/hosts

Now restart the browser and if you open any website containing ads you'll see a website not found error page in the ad placeholder.

If you don't like to see the error message use some ad blocking extension for browser like adblock plus for Chrome and adblock plus for Firefox.

You may ask why I didn't use ad blocking extension directly as it is enough to achieve the objective. Well, I chose to use host file to block ads instead of extensions because of following reasons:

Host file ensures that the ad doesn't gets loaded instead of just hiding it.
I found that extensions like adblocking has to regex search each URL of the webpage with its huge data of blacklist and decreases the performance on my computer.

If you want to revert the changes just backup the ad blocking host file and restore the original file by running the following command in terminal. And yes you may want to disable/uninstall the ad blocking extensions.

sudo cp /etc/hosts{,.ad}
sudo cp /etc/hosts{.orig,}

Increase Free Space On HTC Desire Android Phones

2011-10-20T19:08:00.001+05:30

Are you running out of free space on phones like HTC Desire and variants? It only has about 150MB of free space and after official Gingerbread 2.3.3 update the free space has decreased.

Its really frustrating seeing all those apps with 20MB+ size eating up valuable space on Android phones. Even with App2SD I had very very difficult time maintaining free space. Installing apps like Facebook, Google Plus, Google Reader would eat up all the space.

Today I used link2sd to increase free space on my Android phone and now I've more than 1GB of free space for installing apps. I've been installed so so many apps now.

link2sd can move your application apk, dex and lib files to second partition of your SD card and creates a symlink where necessary. Even when you mount your SD card in computer the apps in SD card will work as only the first partition will be mounted in computer.

Requirements:

Root
MicroSD card
Clockworkmod recovery to partitoin the SD card. But you can manually partition it in your computer with software like gparted.

In case you haven't rooted your HTC Desire running Gingerbread 2.3.3 follow this guide.

Now the process:

Power on your Desire while holding down the volume down key. You'll see hboot screen. Use volume keys to navigate to Recovery. Press the power button to start Recovery. Your phone will boot into recovery.

In recovery, use volume keys to navigate to Advance. Press trackball to go inside it. Use volume keys to go to Partition SD Card and press trackball to go inside it. From there choose the size you want for second partition to hold your apps. After that choose size for swap. I chose 1GB for applications and 128MB for swap. Be aware that this will format your SD card.

The partition process will take sometime. After the process is complete reboot your phone and install link2sd .

Once installed open it. It will automatically discover your second partition and ask you the file system type. Since we used clockworkmod recovery, it formats the partition as ext3. Hence choose ext3.

After that you'll see the list of applications installed in your phone. You can link any non system app already installed. This will create free space in your main storage. Any app you install from now on will be automatically installed in the second partition of your SD card. So we have 1GB of space to install applications.

Please note that it is recommended to have better class of SD card. SD card comes in class like 2, 4,6.You can find it by looking for the number in front of the card inside the character "C". However I've only class 2 card and its working very fine for me.

Galaxy Nexus With Ice Cream Sandwich

2011-10-19T08:52:00.002+05:30

Samsung and Google just lunched the first Ice Cream Sandwich phone, The Galaxy Nexus. They have bumped the Android version to 4.0. As rumor had spectated the specifications are as follows:

Display: 4.65 inch with HD Super AMOLED (1280 x 720) 6:9 sreen ratio 100,000:1 contrast ratio
1.2 GHz dual-core processor
1 GB RAM
16 GB or 32 GB storage
HSPA+ or LTE
5 megapixel rear camera with LED flash zero shutter lag
1.3 megapixel front facing camera
1080p video recording and playback
Panorama mode
NFC

Some key points from the event:

As the bezel is only 4.29 mm, they were able to make bigger display without increasing the phone size.
New typography "Roboto" for HD paper density displays.
No physical button on screen. Only virtual button that is part of the UI.
Widgets and Apps available on same menu under tab.
Resizeable widgets.
Application swapped left to right.
Favorites tray.
Multitask tray to switch app with live preview and big icons.
Toss away unwanted app with a simple flick.
Screenshot with volume down and power button.
Notification bar with user's picture and music control.
Toss away unwanted notification with a flick. (hmm I like it)
Notification bar can be opened from locked screen.
Action bar will put most common actions in front and center.
New locking mechanism -- face unlock with state of the art face recognition technology.

Keyboard:

More accurate keyboard.
Inline spell checker. (very nice)
Improved and consistent cut, copy and paste.
Text to speech with emotion support like smiley face and question mark but moreover instant text to speech.

Core Apps

Browser:

16 tabs can be opened. Live preview of tabs like multitasking tray with flick support to close tab.
Option for "Request desktop site"
Bookmark synced with Chrome.
Page can be saved for offline read.
Incognito mode. (:D :D :D)

Gmail:

Two line previews.
Action bar at bottom.
Swipe to view other emails.
Email address with Name and Picture called chips. Clicking the chip card will bring quick contact.
Offline search. (last 30 days by default) (sweet!)

Calendar:

Made extremely readable.
Consistent swype gesture.
Pinch to Zoom.

Data usage app:

With prediction.
With warning.
With limit to auto disconnect mobile data (awesome!).
Data usage per app, per custom time period and what not.

Photo:

There is saying that best camera is the one you have with.
Sharing is very easy with a click.
Auto face detection.
Zero shutter lag.
Insanely fast, way fast.
Powerful set of photo editing tools inside gallery app.
Organize by name, location, people etc.
Cool cool panorama mode.
With G+, instant upload.

Video:

1080p video recording.
Continuous focus.
Zoom while recording.
Time lapse.
Video snapshots. (woo! hoo!)

People:

New design.
Me profile at top.
Data merged from all social contacts like HTC Sense.
Swipe right to see the status and updates.
Not only database of people and picture.
Quick contact card by clicking the photo chip in other app.
Put people in home screen like direct dial and in folder.
High resolution profile picture in call.

Phone app:

Swap right from history to see favorite people.
Quick response, swipe upward to send quick custom messages like "I'm busy".

Android Beam:

NFC technology
Easy to share any contact, content in a secure way.
Bean two phones and touch to share.
Share videos, contacts and yes app via market (:O :O :O)

SDK available right now at http://developer.android.com.

Phone Available from November.

"Hard to believe Android was born only three years ago".

The event still didn't met my expectations. I was expecting something on:

How is it going to combine tablets and phone
Backward compatibility
More on ecosystem
Source code release date
Battery life of the phone and other benchmarks
ICS and products like HTC Sense, TouchWiz
Requirement for ICS

Ice Cream Sandwich Event

2011-10-18T10:07:00.001+05:30

Google and Samsung is hosting, the much awaited Ice Cream Sandwich event tomorrow October the 19^th at Hong kong. The event will start at 1000 hours Hong kong time.

We can watch the program live in Youtube at http://youtube.com/android.

It will start at 0745 hours Nepal standard time. I hope the event will not be all about over hyped voice app that I've been using in my phone from past few years.

[Solved] invalid partition table on /dev/sda -- wrong signature 0.

2011-10-16T22:26:00.000+05:30

I was trying to use Disk Utility program to edit some partition in my system. But I got a strange error message "invalid partition table on /dev/sda -- wrong signature 0." and couldn't proceed. So I tried with gparted(Gnome Partition Editor). The result wasn't any different.

Today while clean installing Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, the installer said that there was no partition in my disk. While trying live CD, I could find all the partition and read data.

If you also encounter any of the above problem, simple run fdisk by sudo fdisk /dev/sda press p and then press w. You'll see a message "The partition table has been altered!".

Now try running the partition editor or the installer again.

Perm Root HTC Desire Gingerbread 2.3.3

2011-10-01T16:18:00.000+05:30

This guide is for permanently rooting HTC Desire running stock Android Gingerbread 2.3.3 . If you want to temp root then you can follow this guide.

Before starting please be aware that problems while rooting can brick your phone. While the process in this guide is relatively simple and easy, I can't be held responsible for whatever happens.

Enable USB debugging in your phone by going to Settings -> Applications -> Development. Plug in your phone to the computer.

Go to Revolutionary website http://revolutionary.io/ . From there download revolutionary software. Leave this browser tab opened. We need to generate Serial key later.

Extract the downloaded software on your computer and run the software with root permission.

$sudo ./revolutionary

It will tell you your serial number and ask for the beta key. Copy the serial number and go to the browser tab we left open while downloading the software. Put the serial key there, select your phone, hboot version and generate the beta key.

Enter the beta key in the software. In few seconds the phone will reboot and your phone will have S-OFF.

The software will ask you if you want to install custom recovery software. Chose yes. We want to install custom recovery software to do full phone backup called nandroid backup.We can also install custom ROM and do some advance task from custom recovery image. After you chose Yes it will download the recovery software from Internet and install it in your phone. The program will exit. Restart the phone.

Now before we root the phone, let's make one full backup of the phone using nandroid.

Power on your phone by holding down the volume button. Use the Volume down button to choose recovery and press Power button to go inside it. Your phone will reboot in custom recovery. From there use volume button to go to backup and and press the trackball at backup & restore option. It will do the full phone backup i.e. nandroid backup and save it in your SD card. Now restart the phone.

Now to root the phone download this file and put it in your SD card.

Reboot into recovery again. From there chose install ZIP from SD card
Select su-2.3.6.3-efgh-signed.zip that you just kept in SD card and click trackpad to select Yes.
Once completed reboot your phone.

Your HTC Desire (bravo) running stock Android Gingerbread 2.3.3. is now permanently rooted.

What to do after root?

Install BusyBox from market for advance control of the phone.
Install Titanium Backup to backup apps and remove unwanted/stock/ROM/factory installed apps.
Install Market Enabler to fake SIM provider to gain access to different apps not allowed for your country.
Install ES File Explorer and enable root explorer option to read/write in root partition, install fonts.

Update:

If you are on Windows and facing some problem relating with fastboot make sure that you have installed this fastboot driver and nothing else.
To find the hboot version, start your phone holding the volume down button. You will see a white screen and on top of that you will see your hboot version.
To exit, select fast boot by using volume keys and power button and select reboot.

Enter Unicode Character In Linux

2011-10-01T14:23:00.001+05:30

In Windows Unicode character can be entered by pressing and holding ALT key and typing the desired code.

In Linux to enter Unicode character press CTRL+SHIFT+U, a character like u will come. Now type your character code and you will see your Unicode character.

So to type © (Copyright symbol)
Press CTRL+SHIFT+U
You'll see a character like u
Type the code for your character, for copyright symbol its 00A9. So type 00A9
You'll see your desired Unicode character.

In short, CTRL+SHIFT+U and 00A9

This Is How Steve Jobs Was Inspired To Create iPod

2011-09-25T20:07:00.000+05:30

List Of Official Archive Mirrors for Ubuntu

2011-09-24T16:11:00.002+05:30

We can find the list of official mirrors for Ubuntu from this Launchpad page, https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+archivemirrors

This page will show the list of servers, protocol supported, its speed and synced status.

If you have your own mirror and want to add it as one of the official mirror for a particular country then follow this, https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+newmirror .

And CD mirrors are listed in https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+cdmirrors .

It will be best to use the server listed here for your particular country.

Earthquake And Android

2011-09-19T21:57:00.002+05:30

I live in Kathmandu and it is one of the dangerous city in terms of earthquake. Mother nature reminded us this fact yesterday with 6.8 Richter scale earthquake with epicenter in Sikkim, India (281 km). There was few casualties and damage.

While I'd always want to get an earthquake alarm like this, its somewhat out of my budget. They have numerous advantages from detecting earthquake before few seconds to auto shutdown of alarm. You can check the page yourself for the complete set off features.

Here I will share a couple of Android apps that I reckon will be useful in case of earthquake.

Vibration Meter by Smart Tools co

Vibrometer uses the phone sensors to measure phone's vibration or the earthquake, and shows a reference.

I did some testing by putting the phone on flat desk and simulating earthquake by shaking the desk. With right calibration the app was quite impressive. But unfortunately alarm feature was available only with pro version.
Android Market link.

Earthquake! by Reto Meier

Retro Meier is the author of famous Professional Android Application Development book series. And this app is from him. This app shows you the last earthquake in 24 hours with map, damage and rumble areas. This also supports push notification and widgets.

Android market link.

While both of the apps are great in their own way, neither satisfy my concrete need, nor can I find any thing that suits my following requirement:

Should be free (C'mon we're talking about saving lives here)
When I hit start it should start monitoring in background
Upon reaching the threshold, an alarm should start

If you like any other apps please share in comments.

How To Block Attachment And Chat In Gmail

2011-09-16T20:55:00.001+05:30

Google has made very easy for system administrator to block attachments and chat in Gmail.

To block attachments the system administrator can block mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com

To block chat in Gmail the system administrator can block
chatenabled.mail.google.com

Furthermore,

To block iGoogle and orkut chat the system administrator can block
talkgadget.google.com

To block Google Talk client and other Google desktop clients the system administrator can block
talk.google.com and talkx.l.google.com

[How To] Save Mercurial Username And Password For Syncing (Push & Pull)

2011-09-13T20:48:00.000+05:30

First of all, you should really use keyring like gnome-keyring to store password. Storing plain password in a text file is never a good idea.

Keyring extension is available for mercurial.

However, if you don't want to hassle with the mumbo jumbo and really don't mind the plain password, you can use the following method to prevent mercurial asking for username/password while syncing to server. (while push and pull)

In your .hgrc file add entry like below:

[auth]

server1.prefix = bitbucket.org/user/repo/
server1.username = username
server1.password = password
server1.schemes = http https

server1.prefix = *
server1.username = username
server1.password = password
server1.schemes = http https

Now the explanation part:
[auth] defines the section for authentication.

You have to group prefix, username, password and schemes with one string. It can be any string but whatever follows that string is part of that group.

prefix is the url, you can use wild card here.

username as you can guess is the username and pasword is password for that url defined in prefix.

schemes defines if its used over http and/or https.

If this still is mumbo jumbo for you, you can add username and password in the URL itself. For eg: http://username:password@hg.domain.com
You can make this persistent by adding user name and password in default path of the repository in .hg/hgrc file.

SMS From Ncell Connect Data SIM Card And Ubuntu How To

2011-09-07T22:12:00.000+05:30

Today I grabbed the golden offer and bought Ncell data card for Re 1 ( Re 1 == $1/75).

Ncell data SIM card is like any other SIM card that can be inserted into a USB dongle and used for high speed Internet. Its like Reliance 3G Data card in India.

It is popularly known by the name Ncell connect. Ncell connect comes with wonderful software for Windows and Mac. From there you can do the all the operation like connecting, recharging, balance checking etc for successfully using the service.

For Linux we can use *better software known by the name wammu. I personally use wammu with Ncell connect to do the following things:

Check account balance
Check Internet balance
Recharge account
Check signal strenth

And this is a picture guide to accomplish the above functions.

First install wammu by clicking here. Once its installed open it.

You'll be greeted by following dialog box

Click yes and you'll see welcome message

Choose guided Configuration for configuration style

Choose USB Cable for connection type. Make sure you have plugged in the USB dongle

Choose I don't know for phone type

Choose AT based for Connection type

Choose Generic AT over serial line or it's emulation for Driver to use

Here comes the tricky part. For phone Device you can try with /dev/ttyUSB0, /dev/ttyUSB1, /dev/ttyUSB2 or /dev/ttyUSB3. Or once you plugged in the dongle open terminal and type dmesg | tail. You'll see a message similar to "[ 1292.892178] usb 2-3: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB2". /dev/ttyUSB2 is the required value from this line.

wammu will do the connection test now.

As you can see in the picture below, my USB dongle from ZTE CORPORATION (ZTE MF190) (Bus 002 Device 011: ID 19d2:0117 ONDA Communication S.p.A.

) was found.

Give one name for this configuration and click finish

Now you'll see the wammu's main screen. Notice the status bar, it says disconnected. Go to Phone menu and select connect

After the successful connection look at the status bar. It will show the signal strength in percentage as well

To see the messages in your SIM go to Retrieve menu and click Messages. Your messages will be shown like email client's view.

To send message to recharge your account, or to check balance or to check account usage or to send normal SMS to any other mobile number, go to create menu and choose message. Type the required data as in the picture and click OK. If you are expecting some message in return you have to use retrieve menu again.

To check the Internet balance type 'status' and send sms to 9009

To check the account balance send blank sms to 90011

To recharge your account send the recharge card PIN code to 90012

[Solved] Download Unsuccessful On Android Market

2011-08-28T08:47:00.000+05:30

Is your Android market giving you problem? And by problem I mean while installing apps it will download all the way but fail to install saying "Download Unsuccessful".

I really don't know what causes this "download unsuccessful" error in Android market. But the fix is very simple and as follows:

Go to Settings - Applications -Manage Applications
Choose Download Manager
In Download Manager option choose "Clear data"
If "Clear cache" is not disabled clear cache also.
Do the same for "Market" which you will find in similar way in Settings - Applications -Manage Applications
If you can't find any of the above app, they may be hidden by filter. Its available under "All", not "Downloaded".

Watch Live Cricket (Live Streaming)

2011-08-15T18:08:00.000+05:30

I'm someone who is usually attached to computer. Cricket is my passion and love to watch it whenever possible.

Recently there was World Cup 2011 and IPL 4 and I watched all of the match from the website http://hitcric.info .

The website usually has 10 channels showing live streaming from different services like Mips, Ustream, Jimey and so on. When there isn't any live game, you can usually find full highlights of recent match. It usually has lots and lots of ads but with extension like Ad Block and clever use of /etc/hosts file. So far its working great for me.

Share Audio Output Between Computers

2011-08-15T11:02:00.000+05:30

Imagine this, I bought a new laptop after my old laptop's hinge problem. Today the sound card of my new laptop died.

So today I decided to route the sound of my new laptop to my hinge broken laptop. With synergy I've been sharing the keyboard and mouse. Now sound card will also be added.

This is how I transfer audio to different hardware.

On the server computer install PulseAudio Preferences. You can install it by clicking here . You can run it running the command paprefs .

Go to Network Server tab and enable:

Enable network access to local sound devices
Allow other machines on the LAN to discover local sound devices
Don't require authentication

Now go to Simultaneous Output tab and enable:

Add virtual output device for simultaneous output on all local sound cards

Now go to client computer and install the same program and run it. This is a very simple but powerful program for PulseAudio hardware sharing.

Go to Network Access tab and enable:

Make discoverable PulseAudio network sound devices available locally

Now in the same client computer go to your Sound Preferences and go to output tab. There you will see a new output device as on the picture.

Select it and now all your sound will be routed to the other computer's hardware.

[Solved] This application does not exist (app_id=u'

2011-08-14T19:54:00.000+05:30

Today I started receiving strange error while uploading some changes to my existing app.

../appcfgy.py update .

Error 404: --- begin server output ---
This application does not exist (app_id=u'my_app_id').
--- end server output ---

Turns out Google had cached my different login which I had used to update a different app. And it was trying to use that cached login to update this app as well.

So I fixed it by removing the cache:
rm -rf ~/.appcfg_cookies

After this ../appcfgy.py update . will run successfully.

Control Multiple Computers With One Keyboard And One Mouse

2011-08-14T19:34:00.000+05:30

Synergy is the application that I use to share a single keyboard and Mouse between multiple computers. Its just like dual display setup, i.e. you move your mouse over to one edge of the screen and it goes to other computer. I have been using Synergy to share USB keyboad and USB mouse plugged into one laptop with other, both running Ubuntu. You can also share between different OS like Windows and Mac.

To share the keyboard and mouse between two Ubuntu laptops follow the steps below.

First decide which laptop will be the server and the host. The server's keyboard and mouse will be used to control both the server's and client's operation. After deciding go to the server compuetr and install synergy. You can click here to install Synergy in Ubuntu.

Create a file called .synergy.conf in your home folder with following text.

section: screens
HP:
Lenovo:
end

section: links
HP:
right = Lenovo

Lenovo:
left = HP
end

section: aliases
HP:
HP-540-laptop
Lenovo:
Lenovo-laptop
end

This file has three sections.

The last section is the aliases section. Here you can define aliases to the hostname or IP address of your computer so that you can address them easily in other sections. If you don't define them here, you have to use the hostname or IP address in other sections instead.

The first section is the screens, just list the aliases of computer here.

The second section is the important section. Here you have to define the physical location of the computers. Actually you define what edge will jump the mouse to other computer. So, here I've first defined for HP. To the right of HP I've Lenovo, i.e. when I move mouse over to right edge it will go to Lenovo. Similarly I've defined settings for Lenovo saying to the left of Lenovo is HP. When I move mouse over the left edge of Lenovo, the mouse will move to HP.

Now I can run synergy server by running the command synergys from terminal. Run this command in the server, for me its HP.

Now time for the client setup.

Make the same file in same location in your client computer. Run the synergy client command synergyc <server_hostname>
from terminal. HP-540-laptop.local is my server, so I'd run
synergyc HP-540.local

Synergy setup is complete. Now you should be able to control both the computer with single keyboard and mouse.

[Solved] Natty Overlay Scrollbars Problem In Eclipse

2011-08-08T19:21:00.000+05:30

The overlay scrollbars that comes with Natty is liked by many including Apple. But today while I was using Eclipse for some Android development I found out that the scrollbars doesn't work properly. Though I can see the lines at the edge the up and down scrubber wouldn't pop up.

I managed vertical scrolling with mouse wheel but there was no way to do horizontal scrolling unless I was with touch pad.

After Googling I came up with two fix.

Disable the overlay scrollbars and use the old traditional scrollbars
Remove the fix for bug #458703 and use the overlay scrollbars

So if you want to disable the overlay scrollbars and use the old traditional scrollbars, do as follows:

sudo vi /usr/bin/eclipse
Add the following two lines in the file. Preferrably after line 8 i.e. before line that says "ECLIPSE=/usr/lib/eclipse/eclipse"

export UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0
export LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0
Now if you restart eclipse you should see the old scroll bars.

But if you want to use the overlay scrollbars, instead of adding those line in that file, open that file and comment out the line that says "export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=true". You can comment out by adding "#" in front of the line. So the line should look:
#export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=true

Save the file and restart eclipse. The overlay scrollbars should work fine now.

Use Earphone Or Headphone As Microphone [tips]

2011-07-13T15:37:00.000+05:30

The laptop my office gave me doesn't have an internal microphone. I only realized it when I had to make a voice call. I have couple of earphones. I used one of it as microphone by simply plugging it in the microphone jack and using the ear piece as mic. Any earphone or microphone will work. You don't need earphone that comes with mobile phones that has mic in it.

Zip Code Of Nepal

2011-07-04T19:49:00.000+05:30

This post is for my fellow country men.

Many Internet form asks to fill up zip code. As a result many people ask me what is the zip code of Nepal.

To answer it, there isn't really a zip code for Nepal or cities in Nepal. But instead you can use the postal code which the post office of Nepal takes equivalent as zip code or pin code.

Postal code varies according to cities. For Kathmandu it is 44600.

You can find the zip/pin/postal code of all cities of Nepal from the official site of General Post Office of Nepal http://www.gpo.gov.np/postalcode.aspx

Temp Root HTC Desire To Enable Market

2011-07-02T20:53:00.000+05:30

Enough is enough. Time and again I had to download apk files from risky source because I couldn't find the app in market. Many apps like Skype, Funny Jokes, Google+ is in market but when I had tried to install it, it said "This app is incompatible with your [phone]" and the reason for it was "This item cannot be installed in your device's country".

If I fake that my SIM card is from different operator and country, Android market will allow me to install app that are not available in my country. If I fake USA operator I'll get the most app.

So I decided to root my phone to fix this for now and for ever. But again I really didn't want to do a permanent root as I'm expecting Gingerbread update any time now. I also have extra slow Internet and currently don't have much free time. And most importantly this phone is very very very ... very expensive for me. It takes year and year of my salary to afford one. Even though chance of bricking is very very very ... very less, I don't want to take the risk.

So my solution was to do a temp root. Temp root really is temporary. It doesn't do any change to your phone file system. So even if you encounter any problem you can fix it by a simple reboot.

Ok now solution part.

Get visionary+ (don't trust other files except this and the one on xda-developers official thread)
Install it in your HTC Desire
Choose Temproot now
After few minutes your phone will be temporarily rooted with required stuff installed.
Now go to your market to install MarketEnabler
In Market Enabler:

First of all from the first page (Actual) choose Save current settings
Now in second page (Settings list) you'll see list of operators
Choose one of the operator from USA, long press on it and choose fake this provider now

Now you can go to market and get access to all apps

Note that this is only temporary root. You'll be un-rooted on reboot. There is option to automatically temp root on reboot but once you've installed your app you can temp root again when you have to update or install other app after reboot.

Solve Hangman With Linux

2011-06-27T21:19:00.000+05:30

By using Linux and standard commands (cat and grep) that come with it we can easily solve hangman puzzle.

Lets see with an example.

Let us suppose the word is PLANET and so far we have guessed _ _ ANE_

Lets assume that we have made incorrect guesses with letters b,s,a,i,u.

Now lets try to solve the hangman with the help of our Linux box.

We all know that there is a file called words that ships with all most all Linux distribution. The file contains dictionary word. Many people have used the file for many clever uses. Let us also try to use that file to solve our hangman.

In my box the file is in "/etc/dictionaries-common/words"

If you do:

cat /etc/dictionaries-common/words

it will show you all the words. Lets try to grep our answer with regular expression.

cat /etc/dictionaries-common/words | grep -iE ^..ane.$

here,

-i makes the grep case insensitive.

- E is for extended regular expression.

^ means starting of the word

$ means end of the word

. means a letter

so, ^..ane.$ means we are grepping for words that can have any first two letter followed by ane and one single letter.

Depending upon the answer this can sometime bring too much words. But we do know letter that doesn't match the word (b,s,a,i,u). Lets try to use this information to limit the output.

cat /etc/dictionaries-common/words | grep -iE ^..an..$ | grep -ivE '(b|s|a|i|u)'

here we are again grepping the output but this time with reverse match(-v), i.e. words doesn't matching the letters inside the brackets.

This hopefully will help you to solve most of the hangman.

Few more examples:

computer - cat /etc/dictionaries-common/words | grep -iE ^co..u...$ | grep -ivE '(b|w|v|s|q)' | less

cricket - cat /etc/dictionaries-common/words | grep -iE ^cr.c..t$ | grep -ivE '(b|w|v|s|q)' | less

[SOLVED] File Not Opening On Click

2011-06-26T12:49:00.000+05:30

While working on a website I had problem of file not opening when I double click them or choose 'open' from right click menu. I had set the default opener for .html file 'geany', but no matter what I do it wouldn't open. I tried changing it to 'text editor' (gedit) but none of the file would open with the default program.

After investigating the problem was the text file had +x (execute) permission on them. And I had set preference in nautilus to run executable text files when they are opened. So every time I was trying to open the text file it was running instead of opening.

The solution is simple:

Either remove the execute permission of the text files
Or In Nautilus-Preference-Behavior-Executable Text Files Change option to view executable text files when they are opened

Swiss Codemonkeys Funny Jokes App Missing From The Market

2011-06-22T16:32:00.000+05:30

After resetting my phone I could no longer find Swiss Codemonkeys Funny Jokes App in market. It is one of the best funny jokes app. In fact its my favorite bed time app :') .

In market.android.com, the app said "This app is incompatible with your [phone]" and the reason for it was "This item cannot be installed in your device's country".

So in order to install the app, I downloaded the apk file from http://www.freewarelovers.com/android/app/funny-jokes

You can directly download the file from your phone's browser or download it in your computer and copy it in your phone. After that it can be easily installed by opening with any file browser like Astro.

Upgrade To Latest Unity

2011-06-21T21:01:00.000+05:30

You can get the latest version of unity in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by adding the ppa:unity/ppa ppa in your system. To do so,

In terminal run sudo add-apt-repository ppa:unity/ppa
after that run sudo apt-get update
and finally run sudo apt-get upgrade

This will fix number of bugs and improve performance on your system.

Cron In Google App Engine

2011-06-20T15:33:00.000+05:30

Cron in google app engine is similar to cron we use in Linux. With cron we can schedule task to run at specified time automatically.

To write cron in google app engine application we basically need to edit cron.yaml app.yaml and the main cron file with the code.

cron.yaml has the following format:

cron:
- description: daily summary job
url: /tasks/summary
schedule: every 24 hours
timezone: Australia/NSW
target: version-2

description is just a description to your job. (optional)
url is what will run.
schedule is when the job will run.
timezone if provided, the job will run at the schedule of that time zone otherwise according to UTC (optional)
target is the application version target you want the job to run. (optional)

You can use any of the following format in schedule option to run your job.

every 12 hours
every 5 minutes from 10:00 to 14:00
2nd,third mon,wed,thu of march 17:00
every monday 09:00
1st monday of sep,oct,nov 17:00
every day 00:00

If you want it to run on regular interval you can use:

every N (hours|mins|minutes) ["from" (time) "to" (time)]
For eg:

every 2 hours from 10:00 to 14:00
every 2 hours synchronized
("every"|ordinal) (days) ["of" (monthspec)] (time)

After setting up cron.yaml you need to setup app.yaml.
Add your url just like any other page.
For eg:

handlers:
- url: /task/daily
script: work.py
login: admin

You can also add login:admin as shown in the above example to restrict the task to only admin and prevent it from normal user running it. Furthermore in your code you can check for the header X-AppEngine-Cron: true to see if the url is run by cron engine.

So in conclusion:

in cron.yaml

cron:

- url: /tasks/daily

schedule: every 24 hours

in app.yaml

handlers:

- url: /task/daily

script: work.py

in work.py

#your python code

View Log In Local Development Server In Google App Engine

2011-06-20T15:08:00.000+05:30

In local development server there isn't a page from where you can see your application logs. But Google has provided a handy way to do so.

Add ?debug in your URL and a pop box will come listing all the logs.

http://localhost:8080/?debug

Like in appengine dashboard you can see logs by Debug, Info, Warning, Error, Critical. There isn't a way to filter the logs yet though. You can change the position of the box to top four corners by clicking in the little box on top left corner of the popped up box.

Delete Message From Facebook Inbox

2011-06-15T18:57:00.000+05:30

Q. How to delete message from Facebook inbox?

A. If you click the little 'x', your message will be archived. Archived message are hidden from the inbox and put in archive folder. New message will continue from the archived stage. But to permanently delete a message open your message. Unarchive it if its already archived. After you open the message go to Action menu on top and click Delete. Select Delete All from the bottom.

Enable Tray Icon For All Program In Natty Narwhal

2011-06-07T10:07:00.000+05:30

You won't see tray icons for application that doesn't use app indicator.

To enable tray icons in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal you can run the following command in terminal:

gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist " [ 'all' ] "

It will white list all the application for tray icon.

If you want to enable tray icon in only some of the application you can use:

gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist "['Wine', 'Dropbox']"

Here it will enable tray icon for Wine and Dropbox.

Clear Zeitgeist or Gnome Activity Journal

2011-06-05T13:13:00.000+05:30

If you want to clear the history stored by zeitgeist you can run the following command:

rm ~/.local/share/zeitgeist/activity.sqlite
zeitgeist-daemon --replace

If you open Gnome-Activity-Journal after this, you'll see that all your history has been cleared out.

[Solved] No module named _multiprocessing

2011-06-01T16:22:00.000+05:30

I had to use Google App Engine 1.5 on Windows and the windows machine had Python 2.6

While launching the GAE, I got error, No module named _multiprocessing

The solution is very simple. On root of your application create a file called _multiprocessing.py with content "import multiprocessing"

This should fix the problem.

This Is Hot

2011-05-28T22:10:00.000+05:30

Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS
Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal 64 bit
Flash Player 10.3
Watching live cricket streaming(Flash) for around 10 minutes and temperature easily reaches 85 degree Celsius.
70-90% CPU usage(X org and Flash plugin and Browser) shown by the command top

70 degree Celsius on startup.

Google fun

2011-05-22T18:10:00.000+05:30

Type the following words in Google and click I'm Feeling Lucky

google gothic
google gangsta
google 1337
elgoog
laugh
find chuck norris
google loco
google easteregg
doogle
tubegirl
lol limewire
google pacman
no brain

How To Restart Unity

2011-05-22T08:55:00.001+05:30

How to restart Unity.

Press ALT+F2 and type unity --replace

Download Torrents Faster Via HTTP

2011-05-20T18:48:00.000+05:30

I use the website torrific.com to download my torrents. How it works is, you give the site the torrent file and it will download it from the seeders. Once the download is complete you can use your browser to download the file via HTTP. The main advantage I find in it is if other user of the site has already downloaded the file, I don't have have to wait for the torrent to complete download. Rather I get the HTTP link instantly. It uses file has to check if the file has been downloaded.

What are the sites of similar nature you use?

Definitions of Designations in SDLC

2011-05-16T12:36:00.000+05:30

Project Manager is a Person who thinks nine women can deliver a baby in One month.
Developer is a Person who thinks it will take 18 months to deliver a Baby.
On-site Coordinator is one who thinks single woman can deliver nine babies in one month.
Client is the one who doesn't know why he wants a baby.
Marketing Manager is a person who thinks he can deliver a baby even if no man and woman are available.
Resource Optimization Team thinks they don't need a man or woman; they'll produce a child with zero resources.
Documentation Team thinks they don't care whether the child is delivered, they'll just document 9 months.
Quality Auditor is the person who is never happy with a delivered baby.
Tester is a person who always tells that this is not the Right baby.
HR Manager is a person who thinks that... a Donkey can deliver a Human Baby - if given 9 Months

Clean Ubuntu System

2011-05-14T09:10:00.000+05:30

After using Ubuntu for a long time, chances are you'll end up with junks in your system. By junk I mean packages you installed but no longer in use and temporary/cache files.

I usually use two program time and again to clean my system. They are bleachbit and computer-janitor

Bleachbit

Bleachbit is similart to ccleaner in Windows. It removes your temporary files and cache files. For eg: your browser history, cookies, temporary files and your bash history and so on.

Computer-janitor

Computer-janitor removes the old unused package. Be careful with this, it will also mark software installed from other source for removal.

Mayan calendar

2011-05-10T11:50:00.000+05:30

I bet you know that there is a prediction that, according to the ancient Mayan calendar, the world will end on Dec. 21, 2012.

I found this cartoon relating to it and this one is fun.

HTC Desire Screen Scratch Proof?

2011-05-09T14:54:00.000+05:30

Q. Does HTC Desire screen gets scratch?

Q. Is HTC Desire screen scratch resistant?

A. HTC Desire screen is scratch resistant. I am using the phone for more than a year now without any screen protector or any case. But I've got a tiny scratch on top left part of the screen. I can confirm the scratch was not from accidental drop or from big metals. However I exactly don't know how that scratch got there. Maybe the metal jeans bottom near the pocket?

Lenovo Y510 Hinge Problem

2011-05-09T13:34:00.000+05:30

In conclusion: Think ~~twice~~ ~~thrice~~as much as you can before you buy any Lenovo Product.

Its not that Lenovo builds bad product. I am using Lenovo Y510 since last three years or so. It has great sound, is very strong and overall its very good. But unfortunately there is a design flaw with some Lenovo Ideapad series specially Y510.

The hinge in Y510 are so strong that after some span of time the plastics base in which the hinge is mounted starts to break.

Take a look at pictures of one user's Y510.

OK, shit happens, has happened with many company. Only different thing is Lenovo here didn't stand by its product.

There is already 63 pages long forum post on Lenovo's official forum filled with people complaining about the product. Some lucky users got chance to fix it for free. But Lenovo never acknowledged the problem, never did recall nor informed its users that they are fixing it for free.

Most astonishing thing is even though the forum is already filled with 63 pages of complain, the support people at Lenovo customer service don't know anything about it or just acting up.

Some of Lenovo's faithful users were made to payed almost the laptop's cost to get it fixed, some were forced to spend hours and hours on phone. Mark from Lenovo Forum tried to help unofficially but what can one do when the company itself is not backing its product.

How To Make Launcher Always Visible In Ubuntu Unity

2011-05-03T18:00:00.000+05:30

If you don't like the launcher auto hiding itself, you can use Compiz to make the launcher visible always. Follow the steps below:

Open Compiz Config Setting manager

You can open this by pressing Alt+F2 and typing ccsm

Search for the plugin Ubuntu Unity Plugin
Under Behavior you'll see Hide Launcher, choose never on the drop down menu.

How To Take Screenshot In Ubuntu Unity

2011-05-03T15:24:00.000+05:30

Natty Narwhal is shipped with Ubuntu Unity. If you are wondering how to take screenshot in Unity, don't worry its the same as usual :P

If you want to take screenshot of current workspace press PrintScrn
If you want to take screenshot of current window press Alt + PrintScrn

Natty Narwhal Ubuntu Unity Mouse Tricks

2011-05-03T15:11:00.000+05:30

Here are some mouse tricks if you want to be a power user of Ubuntu Unity in Natty Narwhal.

Launcher

Clicking and holding an icon and then dragging it around will allow you to reorder it on the launcher. You can also drag it off to the right of the launcher to move it around. Note that you need to make an explicit movement to the right to move the icon off the launcher before you can move it around.
Dragging and Dropping an icon in to the trash-can will remove the entry from the Launcher.
Scrolling the mouse wheel over the Launcher scrolls the icons if you have too many and need to move around quickly.

Windows Management

Maximizing - Drag window to the top panel
Restore

Double click on the top panel(but not in application's menu)
Drag the top panel down

Maximize Vertically - Middle click on maximize button
Maximize Horizontally - Right click on maximize button
Cycle between Maximized windows - Middle click on top panel(but not in application's menu)
Tiling - Drag window to left/right
Open application - Middle clicking on application's launcher icon will open new instance of application if its not running. If the application is running it will just open normally.
Send current window behind all other windows - Middle click on top panel(but not in application menu)

Extracted from wallpaper.

Natty Ubuntu Unity Keyboard Shortcuts

2011-05-03T14:49:00.000+05:30

Here are some keyboard shortcuts if you want to be a power user of Ubuntu Unity in Natty Narwhal.

Launcher

Super (hold)	Invokes the Launcher
Super + 1,2....0	Opens or focuses an application whose position in the launcher corresponds to the pressed number
Super + Shift + 1,2....0	Opens a new instance of that application if it is already open
Super + T	Opens the trash can
Alt + F1	Puts the focus on the Launcher, Use arrow keys to navigate, Enter launches an application, Right arrow exposes the quicklist if available
Ctrl + Alt + T	Launch a terminal window
Super + A	Opens the Application lens
Super + F	Opens the Files & Folders lens

Dash

Super (tap)	Opens the Dash
Alt + F2	Invokes the Dash in the Run command mode, typing a folder name will find that folder in Nautilus
Note: the Dash will open with focus on the search box to find appliations and files. Navigate the results using the arrow keys, use Enter to launch

Panel

F10	Opens the first menu on the Panel, use the arrow keys to scrub across the menus. (There is no shortcut for the sessions menu, so hitting F10 and left arrow is a quick way to get there)
Esc	Closes the menus without choosing aything

Window Management

Super + W	Spread mode, zooms out on all windows in all workspaces
Super + D	Minimize all windows, hitting it again restores them

Window Placement

Ctrl + Alt + Num 0	Maximizes window
Ctrl + Alt + Num 1	Places window in the bottom left corner of the screen
Ctrl + Alt + Num 2	Places window in the bottom half of the screen
Ctrl + Alt + Num 3	Places window in the bottom right corner of the screen
Ctrl + Alt + Num 4	Places window on the left side of the screen
Ctrl + Alt + Num 5	Centers/Maximizes the window in the midle of the screen
Ctrl + Alt + Num 6	Places window on the right side of the screen
Ctrl + Alt + Num 7	Places window in the top left corner of the screen
Ctrl + Alt + Num 8	Places window in the top half of the screen
Ctrl + Alt + Num 9	Places window in the top right corner of the screen
Note: if you cycle through the same key Unity will cycle through different placement widths, so experiment by hitting the numkey multiple times, for example Ctrl+Alt+Num 5 5 5

Workspace Management

Super + S	Expo mode (for everything), zooms out on all the workspaces and lets you manage windows
Shift + Alt + Up	Expo mode for all windows in the current workspace
Ctrl + Alt + Left/Right/Up/Down	Changes to a new workspace
Ctrl + Alt +Shift +Left/Right/Up/Down	Places window to a new workspace
Ctrl + Alt + L	Lock the screen

Screenshots

Print	Take a screenshot of the current workspace
Alt + Print	Take a screenshot of the current window

Extracted from wallpaper.

Firefox Startup Slow In Ubuntu

2011-04-05T19:35:00.000+05:30

Add-ons can slow down your browser. There are many add-ons available for Firefox making your whole browsing experience better and better but some of them can also make your browser crawl.

Today Mozilla has released the names of add-ons that makes your Firefox browser slow to start. You can find it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/performance/#addon-11

If you don't use some particular add-ons just disable them. It will not eat your valuable resources then.

Ubuntu 11.04 Beta 1 Natty Narwhal Released

2011-04-01T13:56:00.000+05:30

Read more about it with video and screenshots at http://www.webupd8.org/2011/03/ubuntu-1104-beta-released-video.html

If you want to try the beta release, this is how you do it: http://techspalace.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-to-update-ubuntu-to-development.html

On Screen Keyboard In Ubuntu

2011-03-25T14:31:00.000+05:30

If you need On Screen Keyboard in Ubuntu press Alt+F2 and run the program called onboard

You can also simulate mouse and keypad in the keyboard.

Install Firefox 4.0 in Ubuntu

2011-03-25T13:59:00.000+05:30

We can easily upgrade/install Firefox 4.0 by following the steps below.

Open Terminal and type the followings:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install firefox ubufox firefox-gnome-support

This version is definitely faster and better than 3.6 but if you don't like how it looks here is the link to customize it.

How To Update Ubuntu To Development Release

2011-03-25T13:45:00.000+05:30

Q. How to update Ubuntu to development release?

A. Press Alt+F2 and type update-manager -D
Update manager will open up and you'll see an upgrade button.

You may want to check if Normal Release is selected under Souftware-sources -- Updates -- Release Upgrade

Ubuntu Blogs

2011-03-24T10:40:00.000+05:30

Here are the list of Ubuntu Blogs that I follow:

Web UPD8

http://www.webupd8.org/

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/webupd8

Omg! Ubuntu!

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/

http://feeds.feedburner.com/d0od

Ubuntu Geek

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/

http://feeds.feedburner.com/UbuntuGeek

Ubuntu HQ

http://www.ubuntuhq.com/

http://feeds.feedburner.com/UbuntuHQ

I don't like this. :@

Tombuntu

http://tombuntu.com/

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Tombuntu

He's lost these days.

Easierbuntu

http://easierbuntu.blogspot.com/

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Easierbuntu

I am Ubuntu

http://ubuntu.igameilive.com/

http://ubuntu.igameilive.com/feeds/posts/default

And of course Techs Palace

http://techspalace.blogspot.com/

http://feeds.feedburner.com/techspalace

Change Default Country In Google Apps

2011-03-21T21:35:00.001+05:30

Once your default country is selected in your Google Apps account you cannot change it. Sometime it becomes necessary to change the default country for eg: when you change your country.

To force the change follow the steps below:

Login to your Google Apps as an administrator.
In your dashboard you'll see "Try Google Apps for Business Free".
Click that link.
After that you'll get option to change the country as show in the figure below.
Select your desire country and click 'Begin Trial'. Don't worry, we don't have to pay any buck.
After this you'll reach to Google Checkout Page. At this moment close your browser. Yes close it.

Verify if your change has been saved by going to Domain Setting -- Account Information -- Default Country

How To share Windows Drive In Ubuntu Guest Inside VirtualBox

2011-03-07T13:31:00.000+05:30

Open VirtualBox
Open setting of your guest OS Ubuntu
Goto shared folders
Click the "Add shred folder" button. Its the button on far right with a plus sign on folder.
Give a folder name and the path you want to share.
Select "Read-only" if you want the share to be read only.
Now open your guest OS Ubuntu
Once its on, open terminal and run the command

sudo mount.vboxfs name_of_your_shared_folder /mnt

Hidden Menu in Android

2011-02-12T10:56:00.000+05:30

Dial *#*#4636#*#* in your phone.

You'll see a hidden testing menu from where you can see

Phone information
Battery information
Battery history
Usage statistics
Wifi information

Skype With Dark Theme

2011-01-25T19:22:00.000+05:30

Whenever I use dark theme like Ambiance or DarkRoom, the pop up menu in Skype was unreadable as both the font and background color was dark.

If you are also facing the same problem, the solution is very simple.

Open Skype
Goto Option->General

You'll see a section called "Choose Style"
There chose GTK+ or any other desired option.

Facebook Chat Fun

2010-11-20T11:23:00.000+05:30

I'm not much of a Facebook user, but the recent change of events in my life has made me use it more often. Following stuff in Facebook chat are cool.

Make text bold
make your text bold by placing it inside * (asterisk).

we are *friends.*

Make underline
make your text underlined by placing it inside _ (underscore).

We are _friends._

And finally :putnam: is cool emotion.

Upside down cam fix for Flash and other program

2010-11-17T19:59:00.000+05:30

First read this http://techspalace.blogspot.com/2010/02/upside-down-web-cam-simple-fix.html

If you have same problem but in other program like Flash and so, then the fix is same. Just run the executable of the desire program instead of Skype.

For eg. if you have problem with upside down cam in flash and you are using some browser(lets say Google Chrome) to video chat then:

Close the browser.
Run in terminal:
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib32/libv4l/v4l1compat.so google-chrome
or if it is 32 bit system
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so google-chrome

HTC Desire Battery Calibration

2010-10-16T09:58:00.000+05:30

Update: You may want to read this (Specially the bump charging part) before you move forward.

My HTC Desire's charge would drop to 93%, 91% or 90% very quickly after removing from the AC charger. I came to this post on xda-developers.com that help me fixed the problem.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=7690163&postcount=1

Basically all you have to do is:

Charge your phone until the notification led is green.
Disconnect the charger.
Power off the phone.
Reconnect the charger.
Charge until the notification led is green.
Disconnect the charger.
Power on the phone.
Power off the phone again, once its powered on completely.
Reconnect the charger until the notification led is green.
Disconnect the charger power it on and use it.

Gmote in 64 bit Ubuntu

2010-10-09T14:30:00.000+05:30

Gmote is an Android Remote.

I was having problem running the Ubuntu client on my 64 bit Lucid Lynx. Though the application was very easy to start, just run a script, it was not working. It was giving error like "Can't obtain static method fromNative from class com.sun.jna.Native" and "There was an error running the gmote server, Please visit http://www.gmote.com/faq for more information".

The solution was to fix the script by changing the java path. From,

java -classpath bin:lib/jna.jar:lib/slf4j-api-1.5.3.jar:lib/swing-worker-1.2.jar org.gmote.server.GmoteServerUiLinux &

to:

/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java -classpath bin:lib/jna.jar:lib/slf4j-api-1.5.3.jar:lib/swing-worker-1.2.jar org.gmote.server.GmoteServerUiLinux &

where, /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java happens to be my 64 bit java.

Google Chrome Standalone Installer

2010-10-06T10:23:00.000+05:30

Google Chrome also has a offline installer known by the name standalone installer. You can use this to download Google Chrome in computers without having internet access or has the site blocked.

Download it from Google:
http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?standalone=1

Download it from Softpedia:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Browsers/Google-Chrome.shtml

ssh Secrets Summary

2010-08-30T19:18:00.000+05:30

Run Command on Remote System Without Logging In

user@user-laptop:~$ ssh tony date
Mon Aug 30 19:08:40 SPT 2010

For Program needing pseudo-tty use -t option of ssh. For eg:
user@user-laptop:~$ ssh tony -t top
user@user-laptop:~$ ssh tony -t screen -dr
Tilde Tricks

Tilde (~) is ssh's escape character.
~. terminate ssh connection. Specially useful when you loose connection and don't want to wait for ssh timeout.
~^z put the connection in background
~? list all key sequence
ssh-keygen -R removes bad hostname from your ssh know host
Shortcut Name For Connection

In ~/.ssh/config enter the following information
Host bob
     HostName bob.example.com
     Port 2222
     User username

Host alice
     HostName alice.example.com
     Port 8183
     User username
now to ssh
user@user:~$ ssh bob
user@user:~$ ssh alice

Summarized from http://blog.ksplice.com/2010/08/six-things-i-wish-mom-told-me-about-ssh/

Best Pastebin for Code

2010-08-20T20:30:00.000+05:30

Q. What is the best pastebin for codes ?

A. Use codepad.org Not only it allows you to paste code to share, you can also run the very thing in it.

Download Classic MS-DOS Games

2010-08-15T09:06:00.001+05:30

Q. Where can I download classic MS-DOS games ?

A. You can download the classic MS-DOS games like Mario, Dave and Prince of Persia from http://www.dosgamesarchive.com

Youtube's New Video Summary Page

2010-08-14T17:31:00.000+05:30

Install PHP Apache and MySQL

2010-08-12T18:00:00.000+05:30

Q. How do I install PHP, Apache and MySQL server in Ubuntu.

A. Run the following command in terminal

sudo aptitude install php5 apache2 mysql-server php5-mysql

You may upon your preference install php5, apache2 and mysql-server from Ubuntu Software Center, Synaptic package manager or apt:// shortcut.

Install Firefox 4 Beta In Ubuntu

2010-08-07T19:38:00.000+05:30

Open Terminal and type:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firefox-4.0

Ubuntu Release - Version Name and Description

2010-08-07T10:48:00.000+05:30

Adjective	Animal	Version	Description
Warty	Warthog	4.10	The first "hog"
Hoary	Hedgehog	5.04	Meaning "covered with hair", or "mature/old/wise"
Breezy	Badger	5.10	was going to be "Bendy Badger"...
Dapper	Drake	6.06	Polished, with 5 years of support!
Edgy	Eft	6.10	Fire up the crackpipes! (?!)
Feisty	Fawn	7.04	Courage and restlessness
Gutsy	Gibbon	7.10	Go Ape!
Hardy	Heron	8.04	Hardy Heron with 5 years of support! Most people wanted Happy/Hungry Hippo
Intrepid	Ibex	8.10	Released October 2008
Jaunty	Jackalope	9.04	Released April 2009
Karmic	Koala	9.10	Released October 2009
Lucid	Lynx	10.04	clear minded thoughtful predator
Maverick	Meerkat	10.10	sabdfl: Meerkats are light, fast and social – everything we want in a Perfect 10

Install Wowza Media Streaming Server In Debian Lenny

2010-06-17T07:54:00.000+05:30

Login to your Debian Lenny box

Edit your sources.list file to install java
#vi /etc/apt/sources.list
Add non-free to the end of the line deb http://ftp.se.debian.org/debian/ lenny main
i.e. the line should look like
deb http://ftp.se.debian.org/debian/ lenny main non-free

Install Java
#apt-get update && apt-get install sun-java6-jre

Download Wowza Media Server using wget
#wget -c http://www.wowzamedia.com/downloads/WowzaMediaServer-2-1-1/WowzaMediaServer-2.1.1.deb.bin

Add execute permission
#chmod +x WowzaMediaServer-2.1.1.deb.bin

Run the installer
#./WowzaMediaServer-2.1.1.deb.bin
(Press Space to read next page of the agreement)
(Type Yes at the end of the agreement)
(The setup will be finished)

Now go to your installed location and run startup.sh
#cd /usr/local/WowzaMediaServer/bin/ && ./startup.sh
paste your license key
Press CTRL+C to stop the server if it is still running and you can't get a prompt.

Now copy your flv video video.flv
#cp /root/video.flv /usr/local/WowzaMediaServer/content/

Goto applications folder and make directory video
#cd /usr/local/WowzaMediaServer/applications && mkdir video

Start the streaming server
#/etc/init.d/WowzaMediaServer start

Now,
In Flash Insert a Flv Playback Component
In its source give the url rtmp://server_ip/video/_definst_/video.flv
Press CTRL+Enter and you are done

Install Centova Cast On Debian Lenny With Plesk

2010-06-17T07:31:00.000+05:30

I assume you have a Debian Lenny system.

Login to the server and change to root by typing
$su
(only if you didn't login as root)

Install this package which helps in compiling
#aptitude install build-essential
Download buildices, this will automatically install ices in our server
#cd /root && wget http://www.centova.com/clientdist/ices/buildices-1.0.0.tar.gz

Extract it
#tar xfzv buildices-1.0.0.tar.gz

Go inside the folder
#cd buildices-1.0.0

Add execute permission
#chmod +x ./buildices.sh

Run buildices
#./buildices.sh --proceed

Edit your virtual host configuration file
# vi /var/www/vhosts/your_web_site/conf/vhost.conf
add the following to the file
<Directory /var/www/vhosts/johncarrera.com/httpdocs>
php_admin_value open_basedir none
php_admin_value safe_mode Off
</Directory>
<Directory /var/www/vhosts/johncarrera.com/httpdocs/cast/start>
AllowOverride All
</Directory>

Edit php.ini
#vi /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini
Make sure enable-DL option in php5 ini is turned on
Make sure Safe_mode is turned OFF

Edit cli php.ini
# vi /etc/php5/cli/php.ini
Safe mode should be OFF and enable_DL should be ON

Reload your apache
#/usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/websrvmng -a
#/usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/websrvmng -r
#/etc/init.d/apache2 restart
Download the Centova file
#cd /root && wget https://secure.centova.com/cp/client/index.php?page=download&file=52

Extract it
#tar xzvf centovacast-2.2.3-lin64.tar.gz

Go inside it
#cd centovacast-2.2.3

Make it executable
#chmod u+x install.sh

Run install.sh
#./install.sh

Question: enter the url for centova
http://www.your_web_site.com/cast/

Question : enter the path for centova
/var/www/vhosts/your_web_site/httpdocs/cast/

answer yes to rest of the questions, then finished.

Create a database for Centova then go to

http://www.your_web_site.com/cast/ in your browser and answer questions

Then put the license number into the web interface.

Upload mp3 files to centovacast to be played in this directory /home/centovacast/vhosts/stream_name/var/spool

Now you can listen to your streams by going to:
http://your_web_site.com/cast/start/stream_name/

Installing Parallels Plesk Panel On Debian Lenny

2010-06-17T07:15:00.000+05:30

I asume that you have a clean Debian system with only ssh server installed.

If you have not logged in as root, change to root:

#su

Download Plesk autoinstaller:

#wget http://download1.parallels.com/Plesk/PPP9/Debian5.0/parallels_installer_v3.6.0_build100407.15_os_Debian_5.0_x86_64

Set execute permission on the file you downloaded:

#chmod +x parallels_installer_v3.6.0_build100407.15_os_Debian_5.0_x86_64

Run the Plesk installer:

#./parallels_installer_v3.6.0_build100407.15_os_Debian_5.0_x86_64

Read the messange and press 'n' and 'Enter' to move forward

Choose official Paralels Plesk Panel Update Server as source

(This is the default selection)

Similarly continue with the default and recommended selection.

After installation completes you will be dropped back to your shell.

Now use the web interface to do one time configuration.

Open browser on your computer(Not your Debian server)

Open https://server-ip-address:8443

Your default user name is 'admin' and password is 'setup'

Enter that in the login page

Accept the license agreement in the next page. Also select 'Do not show it again'.

Now on this page,

Set your hostname without 'www' prefix. Forexample host.domain.com
Set your default IP address
Change default password
Click 'OK' to go to next page
Fill the contact information

Click 'OK'

One time initial configuration is complete.

Now you'll reach Control Panel from where you can manager your overall system.

You can come here any time by opening https://yourserver:8843 in your browser.

For example we'll create one domain for web hosting with ftp support.

Go to home->Domains
Click create Domain
Enter your domain name and also check the box for 'www'
Select the IP address of your choice.
Choose Default Template
Select Web site hosting option
Choose a user name and password for managing this domain
Click Next
Choose a username for FTP user and give it a password different to your other password. (FTP uses clear text password so it is best to use non regular password in any FTP server you use untill and unless its SFTP server i.e. Secure FTP server)
Select the necessary quota you want
Under web statistics choose web statistics of your choice. Basically it allow you to see your web site visitors record
Click Next
Choose overuse policy as per requirement
Under Expiration date choose as per requirement
Click Finish.

Thats it. Now test your domain by opening the website in a browser. The plesk page should come. Now upload your files from ftp and your site is ready.

Reinstall GRUB2 after installing Windows

2010-06-04T14:20:00.000+05:30

If you install Windows after installing Linux, windows will erase Linux's GRUB. You have to re-install GRUB which will allow you to boot both Windows and Linux.

Reinstalling GRUB legacy was very easy but now with GRUB2 you have to do little more.

Follow the steps below, you need to know where your '/' (root) partition is.

Boot your computer from Ubuntu Live CD.

Choose 'Try Live CD'

Once the desktop loads, Open Terminal from Applications menu -> Accessories

Type: sudo fdisk -l

From here you can figure out your root partition.

Now if your root partition is /dev/sda1 follow the following commands below:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev

sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc

Now chroot to /mnt:
sudo chroot /mnt

Now install grub:
grub-install /dev/sda

Now update the grub:
update-grub2

Now you will see the GRUB and can boot between Linux and Windows. If you don't see the Windows option in GRUB menu, open the Linux that is present in GRUB and run the last command of this tutorial.

PowerDNS Installation on Debian and FreeBSD

2010-05-29T11:24:00.001+05:30

PowerDNS is a DNS server, written in C++ and licensed under the GPL. It consists of two parts:

Authoritative Server
Recursor.

PowerDNS can work as only one of them or both.

Authoritative server answers queries about domains it is authoritative for i.e. nameserver while Recursor will query other nameserver in Internet to find about the query it was asked with. PowerDNS can use other DNS server for recursion or use PowerDNS Recursor (pdns_recursor) which is ran as a separate process.

PowerDNS is a product of the Dutch company PowerDNS.COM BV, with numerous contributions from the Open Source community. The principal author is Bert Hubert.

Installation

Make sure that there are no other DNS servers are running on your system. Otherwise you will get an error "Binding to UDP socket: Address already in use"

#netstat -tuplan | grep 53

This will show if port 53 which is used by DNS servers is open .

If you find port 53 opened, you have to either stop the corresponding DNS server or remove it. Usually the DNS server in the case would be bind or named.

To stop bind:

#/etc/init.d/named stop (Debian)

#/etc/rc.d/named stop (FreeBSD)

To remove bind:

#aptitude remove bind9 (Debian)

#pkg_delete bind9 (FreeBSD)

Now Lets install PowerDns server.

Debian:

In terminal type:

#apt-get install pdns-server pdns-backend-mysql mysql-server mysql-clients

This will install pdns server and pdns backend in your computer along with MySQL server and client.

FreeBSD:

In terminal type:

#cd /usr/ports/dns/powerdns/ && make install clean

This will install pdns server and pdns backend in your computer.

# cd /usr/ports/database/mysql50-server && make install clean

This will install MySQL server

# cd /usr/ports/database/mysql50-client

This will install MySQL client.

Change your mysql root password by:

#mysqladmin -u root -h localhost password 'mypassword'

Create a empty database by:

#mysql -u root -p

create database powerdns;

exit;

Create user powerdns on MySQL:

#mysql -u root -p

GRANT ALL ON powerdns.* TO 'powerdns'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'mypassword';

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

exit;

Import MySQL schema that comes with PowerDns:

#mysql -h localhost -u username -p powerdns < /usr/share/doc/pdns-backend-mysql/mysql.sql

Now let's configure our database settings:

#vi /etc/powerdns/pdns.d/pdns.local

gmysql-host=localhost

gmysql-port=3306

gmysql-dbname=powerdns

gmysql-user=powerdns

gmysql-password=mypassword

#gmysql-socket=

Now Restart the PowerDNS server:

#/etc/init.d/pdns restart

You can start PowerDNS in monitor mode to troubleshoot:

#/etc/init.d/pdns monitor

Now lets test to see if some random domain is resolved from our server.

#host www.someRandomDomain.com 127.0.0.1

Should return:

www.someRandomDomain.com A record currently not present at localhost

Because we haven't added any record to our database.

Now lets add some record to database:

#mysql -h localhost -u username -p powerdns

mysql> INSERT INTO domains (name, type) values ('someRandomDomain.com', 'NATIVE');

INSERT INTO records (domain_id, name, content, type,ttl,prio)

VALUES (1,'someRandomDomain.com','master@test.com 1','SOA',86400,NULL);

INSERT INTO records (domain_id, name, content, type,ttl,prio)

VALUES (1,'someRandomDomain.com','ns1.test.com','NS',86400,NULL);

INSERT INTO records (domain_id, name, content, type,ttl,prio)

VALUES (1,'someRandomDomain.com','ns2.test.com','NS',86400,NULL);

INSERT INTO records (domain_id, name, content, type,ttl,prio)

VALUES (1,'www.someRandomDomain.com','1.2.3.4','A',120,NULL);

exit;

Now the query for www.someRandomDomain.com should work

#host www.someRandomDomain.com 127.0.0.1

www.someRandomDomain A 1.2.3.4

Note: You can use software like poweradmin which is a friendly web-based DNS administration tool. The interface has full support for most of the features of PowerDNS. It has full support for all zone types ( master, native and slave), for supermasters for automatic provisioning of slave zones, full support for IPv6 and comes with multi-language support.

Additional Configuration

allow-axfr-ips=...

If set, only these IP addresses or netmasks will be able to perform AXFR.

allow-recursion=...

By specifying allow-recursion, recursion can be restricted to netmasks specified. The default is to allow recursion from everywhere. Example: allow-recursion=192.168.0.0/24, 10.0.0.0/8, 1.2.3.4.

allow-recursion-override=on|off

By specifying allow-recursion-override, local data even about hosts that don't exist will override the internet. This allows you to generate zones that don't really exist on the internet. Does increase the number of SQL queries for hosts that truly don't exist, also not in your database.

cache-ttl=...

Seconds to store packets in the PacketCache. Click here

config-dir=...

Location of configuration directory (pdns.conf)

daemon=...

Operate as a daemon

default-soa-name=...

name to insert in the SOA record if none set in the backend

disable-axfr=...

Do not allow zone transfers.

distributor-threads=...

Default number of Distributor (backend) threads to start. Click here

launch=...

Which backends to launch and order to query them in. See Section B.3.

lazy-recursion=...

On by default as of 2.1. Checks local data first before recursing. See Chapter 11.

load-modules=...

Load this module - supply absolute or relative path. Click here

local-address=...

Local IP address to which we bind. You can specify multiple addresses separated by commas or whitespace. It is highly advised to bind to specific interfaces and not use the default 'bind to any'. This causes big problems if you have multiple IP addresses. Unix does not provide a way of figuring out what IP address a packet was sent to when binding to any.

local-port=...

The port on which we listen. Only one port possible.

no-config

Do not attempt to read the configuration file.

server-id

This is the server ID that will be returned on an EDNS NSID query. Defaults to the host name.

out-of-zone-additional-processing | --out-of-zone-additional-processing=yes | --out-of-zone-additional-processing=no

Do out of zone additional processing. This means that if a malicious user adds a '.com' zone to your server, it is not used for other domains and will not contaminate answers. Do not enable this setting if you run a public DNS service with untrusted users. Off by default.

query-cache-ttl=...

Seconds to store queries with an answer in the Query Cache. Click here

query-local-address=...

The IP address to use as a source address for sending queries. Useful if you have multiple IPs and pdns is not bound to the IP address your operating system uses by default for outgoing packets.

queue-limit=...

Maximum number of miliseconds to queue a query. Click here

recursive-cache-ttl=...

Seconds to store recursive packets in the PacketCache. Click here

recursor=...

If set, recursive queries will be handed to the recursor specified here. click here

soa-expire-default=604800

Default SOA expire.

soa-minimum-ttl=3600

Default SOA minimum ttl.

soa-refresh-default=10800

Default SOA refresh.

soa-retry-default=3600

Default SOA retry.

soa-serial-offset=...

If your database contains single-digit SOA serials and you need to host .DE domains, this setting can help placate their 6-digit SOA serial requirements. Suggested value is to set this to 1000000 which adds 1000000 to all SOA Serials under that offset.

urlredirector=...

Where we send hosts to that need to be url redirected. click here

version-string=anonymous|powerdns|full|custom

When queried for its version over DNS (dig chaos txt version.bind @pdns.ip.address), PowerDNS normally responds truthfully. With this setting you can overrule what will be returned. Set the version-string to 'full' to get the default behaviour, to 'powerdns' to just make it state 'served by PowerDNS - http://www.powerdns.com'. The 'anonymous' setting will return a ServFail, much like Microsoft nameservers do. You can set this response to a custom value as well.

webserver | --webserver=yes | --webserver=no

Start a webserver for monitoring. click here

webserver-address=...

IP Address of webserver to listen on.

webserver-password=...

Password required for accessing the webserver.

webserver-port=...

Port of webserver to listen on.

FAQ

PowerDNS crashes when I install the pdns-static .deb on Debian SID
Indeed. Install the .debs that come with Debian or recompile PowerDNS yourself. If not using MySQL, the crashes will go away if you remove setuid and setgid statements from the configuration.
error while loading shared libraries: libstdc++.so.x: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
You need to install correct libstdc++.so.x by running aptitude install libstdc++.so.x in terminal.
Host 'x.y.z.w' is not allowed to connect to this MySQL server
This is MySQL error. Make sure that x.y.z.w is allowed to connect to database in MySQL.
I see this a lot: Backend error: Failed to execute mysql_query, perhaps connection died?
Check your MySQL timeout, it may be set too low. This can be changed in the my.cnf file.
PowerDNS does not answer queries on all my IP addresses and I've ignored the warning I got about that at startup
Please don't ignore what PowerDNS says to you. Furthermore, read about the local-address setting, and use it to specify which IP addresses PowerDNS should listen on.
How do I use Zone2SQL to import from bind into PowerDNS?

Click here

What is the mailing list PowerDNS uses?
pdns-users - general discussions on compiling, using and deploying PowerDNS. Subscribe, Archive, Search
pdns-dev - developer talk, intended for programmers or people requesting features Subscribe, Archive
pdns-announce - announcements of new versions, security problems etc Subscribe, Archive
Can I find PowerDNS on irc?
Go to #powerdns on OFTC (irc.oftc.net).
Is there any wiki?
Yes, http://wiki.powerdns.com/trac
What are other alternatives for PowerDNS
Use bind also known as named

Could not launch 'NVIDIA X Server Settings' [Solved]

2010-05-06T20:51:00.000+05:30

While opening Nvidia X Server Settings you may get the following error:

Could not launch 'NVIDIA X Server Settings'
Failed to execute child process "/usr/bin/nvidia-settings" (No such file or directory)

More precisely I got this error after upgrading to Lucid from Karmic. This just means that necessary package is missing.

You can easily solve this by installing nvidia-settings package.

Open Ubuntu Software Center from main menu and search for nvidia-settings and install it.

Now you can open Nvidia X Server Settings from administration menu.

Control Your Computer From Your Mobile

2010-05-06T15:21:00.000+05:30

Isn't it beautiful, you can control your computer from your mobile phone.

With the help of your phone you can control which song to listen while lying on your bed. All your phone need is Bluetooth or InfraRed or Wi-Fi.

To do so first of all install anyremote. You can also use ganyremote or kanyremote which are graphical frontend for GTK and KDE respectively.

In your Ubuntu Software Center search for anyremote and install it.

We'll configure anyremote in server mode, if your phone supports AT mode you may want to try that as well. If you are confused on which mode to choose click here.

We'll use Bluetooth for connection.

Make sure that your phone and computer is paired. If you don't know how to, here is a short instruction.

In Bluetooth setting make your phone visible.
In your computer right click the bluetooth icon (in panel) and click new device
Follow the on screen easy instruction.

Now run this command on your computer (terminal)

sudo hciconfig hci0 piscan

Install anyremote software on your phone. You can download it from web http://anyremote.sourceforge.net/dload.html or use anyremote frontend to upload it on your phone.

Now run

anyremote -f /usr/share/anyremote/cfg-data/Server-mode/all-in-one.cfg -s bluetooth:19

You can use other configuration file from /usr/share/anyremote/cfg-data/Server-mode/ depending on your need or you can write your own.

Now open the anyremote client on your phone.

Go to Menu and Click Search.
It will find your computer and select connect from menu again.
Depending on your configuration file you can choose action to perform remotely.

Enjoy

Change Both Real Name and User Name

2010-05-02T15:33:00.000+05:30

Q. I have one user account. I want to use the same account but under different login. I also want to change the real name of that account. How can I do so ?

A. We use the help of the command usermod .

Completely logout from the current user. i.e. the user you want to change. Logout from GUI and virtual console if you have.
Login to virtual console as root or as a sudo capable user but not the user you want to change
usermod -l new_user_name old_user_name
groupmod -n new_user_name old_user_name
usermod -d /home/new_user_name -m new_user_name
usermod -c “Your full new Real Name” new_user_name

That's it. Now your old user name is changed to new user name including your real name.

In Lucid Lynx, the LTS version of Ubuntu released recently, you can do it graphically from About me and User accounts.

Volume And Battery Icon Missing In Lucid

2010-05-02T12:07:00.000+05:30

I had removed "Envelop" from panel in Karmic. After upgrading to Lucid, my volume and battery icons were no where to be seen.

Turns out there are indicator-message, indicator-sound, indicator-application and indicator applet which hosts various programs.

Indicator message is responsible for hosting Empathy, Pidgin and Evolution. I don't need this.
Indicator Sound is responsible for volume icon. I do need this back.

So the solution was to remove indicator-message. (Only if you don't want the 'Envelop')

sudo aptitude remove indicator-message

Be careful that you remove only indicator-message.

Now right click your panel and click add to panel. Search for Indicator Applet and add it.

How To Appear Offline To Certain Friends In Facebook Chat

2010-05-02T08:30:00.000+05:30

One of the feature (feature I must say) in Facebook Chat is the ability to appear online to only certain friends. Without this and with all your friends from childhood to adulthood, with family members and with all the girls you liked your Facebook chat would be lot messy and useless too.

Open your Facebook Chat
You'll see your friends inside the friend list.
Each friend list has a green/gray status bar with a white circle.
Click it to go offline/online for that friend list.

Why Apple Ditched Flash

2010-04-29T22:12:00.000+05:30

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

Thoughts on flash from Steve Jobs. Great article.

How To Edit PDF In Ubuntu Linux

2010-04-19T21:26:00.000+05:30

Q. How can I edit PDF files in Ubuntu or any other Linux Distributions ?

A. You can use the program pdfedit to do so.

Click here to install it or install by typing following in terminal.

sudo aptitude install pdfedit

You can easily change pictures and texts and other objects. Also it supports ecmascript.

Backup And Restore Ubuntu Linux

2010-04-17T21:05:00.000+05:30

I assume that you have a separate home partition.

We are not using any software other than tar to completely backup and restore a Ubuntu Linux box.
We are backing it up on external drive mounted at /media/storage

Backup

Open a terminal.

cd /media/storage
(or any other place that you want the backup to be made)

sudo tar cvpzf backup.tgz --exclude=/proc --exclude=/lost+found --exclude=/backup.tgz --exclude=/mnt --exclude=/sys --exclude=/media /

This will take some time and create a file called backup.tgz. This is your whole system backup excluding your home partition as it is safe in a different place.

Restore

Open a terminal on the system you want to restore the backup.

cd /media/storage
(After you have plugged in the external drive having the backup file you just made.)

sudo tar xvpfj backup.tar.bz2 -C /

Make the directory you excluded in the backup command.
This concludes a successful restore of your system.

Facebook Photo Protector [Mock Up]

2010-04-12T07:33:00.000+05:30

Concerned too much on your privacy ? Here is a mock up to deal with. Replace the question with the one only your friends can answer.

Picture:http://www.mountainkingdoms.com

Xchat Doesn't Minimize To Tray On Startup

2010-04-11T10:08:00.000+05:30

One of the problem I faced after Karmic Koala was Xchat won't minimize to tray i.e the system tray icon wouldn't show, instead Xchat would close. The problem is same on Lucid Beta as well. I had post one solution minimize-xchat-to-tray-in-karmic . But this doesn't work if you have set Xchat on your startup list. Xchat sometimes minimizes to tray and some times not when it is set on startup program list. So I have come up with a solution as below.

In you home directory make a file .xchat_start with following content

#!/bin/bash
sleep 30; xchat

Set execute permission on this file by typing chmod +x .xchat_start in terminal

Now go To Menu->Prererences->Startup Applications
Click Add
Add name Xchat and command /home/user_name/.xhcat there

How To Find Which Version Of Ubuntu I Have ?

2010-04-07T12:11:00.000+05:30

Q. How to find out which version of Ubuntu I am running ?

A. Open terminal and type:

lsb_release -cs

You'll see output like karmic, lucid. I got lucid that means I'm running Lucid Lynx.

You can also use the following command which works on most of the Linux distros.

user@user-desktop:~$ cat /etc/issue
Ubuntu lucid (development branch) \n \l

Gbrainy A Brain Teaser Game

2010-04-05T22:30:00.000+05:30

Gbrainy in a brain teaser game introduced in Ubuntu from Lucid Lynx. It is available in karmic repo too. Karmic is current stable version.

The game is mixture of logic, calculation, memory and vebal questions. You can choose to drill on any of of them or all of them. In the end a summary with tips and score is shown.

While in Lucid Lynx the game is available from games menu, in Karmic you have to install it by clicking here .

Here are some screen shots from Gnome Live.

Newsletter In Thunderbird

2010-03-22T21:26:00.000+05:30

Newsletter is basically a html page that you send in email. You may recall it getting from different tech giants. Newsletter are usually send each month and contains short information on what happened on that month. It may be on company status, product update and so on.

If you insert any html text in Thunderbird the text goes as it is i.e. without being rendered as HTML. So to send newsletter or any html content in email rendered as HTML with CSS support, follow the steps below:

First of all make sure that you have enabled 'compose mail in html' option from Edit->Account Settings->Composition and Addressing.
Now Go to Compose Mail or Write Mail
With body part focused go to Insert->HTML
Alternative you can choose other options in Insert menu to accomplish the need.

Worth Reading 'Funny Hacker Story'

2010-02-27T09:16:00.000+05:30

shut up i hack you

ok, i’m quiet, hope you don’t show us how good a hacker you are ^^

tell me your network number man then you’re dead

Eh, it’s 129.0.0.1

or maybe 127.0.0.1

yes exactly that’s it: 127.0.0.1 I’m waiting for you great attack

in five minutes your hard drive is deleted

Now I’m frightened

shut up you’ll be gone

i have a program where i enter your ip and you’re dead

say goodbye

to whom?

to you man

buy buy

I’m shivering thinking about such great Hack0rs like you

* bitchchecker (~java@euirc-61a2169c.dip.t-dialin.net) Quit (Ping timeout#)

More is in here.http://whatthehell.eu/hacker-story

Gmail and OpenID

2010-02-15T21:21:00.000+05:30

Q. Can I use Gmail as OpenID ?
A. Yes.

Q. How can I use my gmail ID as OpendID ?
A. Use the url http://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id

Google History

2010-02-14T10:37:00.000+05:30

With Web History, you'll be able to:

View and manage your web activity.
You know that great web site you saw online and now can't find? From now on, you can. With Web History, you can view and search across the full text of the pages you've visited, including Google searches, web pages, images, videos and news stories. You can also manage your web activity and remove items from your web history at any time.

Get the search results most relevant to you.
Web History helps deliver more personalized search results based on the things you've searched for on Google and the sites you've visited. You might not notice a big impact on your search results early on, but they should steadily improve over time the more you use Web History.

Follow interesting trends in your web activity.
Which sites do you visit frequently? How many searches did you do between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.? Web History can tell you about these and other interesting trends in your web activity.

http://google.com/history

Upside Down Web Cam Simple Fix

2010-02-07T02:07:00.000+05:30

Many laptop put their webcam upside down resulting in flipped images in Ubuntu. There were fixes for some but for some you had to physically remount the camera. The webcam that comes with Lenovo Ideapad Y510 is also mounted upside down. Unluckily there wasn't any simple fix for this. (some people rotated the camera physically).

Fortunately Hans de Goede came with a beautiful solution.

Open Terminal and add libv4l ppa

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libv4l/ppa

Update your software list

sudo aptitude update

Install libv4l

sudo aptitude install libv4l-0

You have to use the following command to open any application that uses webcam

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so application_name

If you use 64 bit system, use the following command

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib32/libv4l/v4l1compat.so application_name

Multiple profile in Google Chrome in Ubuntu

2010-02-03T20:36:00.000+05:30

I'm talking on basis of Ubuntu. This may or may not work in other OS.
You can use Google Chrome with multiple profile to:

Open different email address at once. For eg: open abc@gmail.com in one window and xyz@gmail.com in another
Separate personal stuff and your work stuff
Allow your family member to login without you signing out

These are the main reasons I use multiple profile in google-chrome. If you don't want to go through this hassles, you can always open multiple browsers.
For case in point you are browsing facebook.com and your sister wants to open the same site for quick check, you can either open different browser or open the same browser that has different profile. (or open in private mode too)

Both my favorite browsers Chrome and Firefox supports multiple profile. For now I'll write instructions for Chrome:

Right click your panel, select add to panel and select custom application launcher (if you want to add in panel)
or
Right click the menu, select edit menus and click new item (if you want to add to menu)
Fill it as:

Type: Application
Name: Google Chrome Profile A
Command: google-chrome --user-data-dir=/home/userName/.config/google-chrome/newProfile (the text in picture isn't correct)

Click close
Thats it folks.

gnome-shell In Karmic

2010-01-25T11:35:00.000+05:30

The GNOME Shell redefines user interactions with the GNOME desktop. In particular, it offers new ways for the user to find and open applications and documents, switch between various activities, and view incoming information such as chat messages or system notifications. Later, it will introduce a framework for creating custom extensions. The GNOME Shell replaces functions handled by the GNOME Panel and by the window manager in previous versions of GNOME. The GNOME Shell has rich visual effects enabled by new graphical technologies.

In short its cool!

This will be included in Gnome-3.0 which is going to be released in September 2010. Nevertheless gnome-shell is already available as package in Karmic Koala. You can see the new look of gnome very easily.

In terminal type:

sudo aptitude install gnome-shell

This will install gnome-shell. Now to try it press ALT+F2 and type:

gnome-shell --replace

To get your regular gnome-desktop, press ALT+F2 and type:

compiz --replace

If you like gnome-shell and want to make it default while opening your computer, open terminal and type:

gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/session/required_components/windowmanager --type string gnome-shell

To get rid of this, open terminal and type:

gconftool-2 --unset /desktop/gnome/session/required_components/windowmanager

'Pages' Available In Blogger Draft

2010-01-25T11:14:00.000+05:30

Blogger pages let you to publish static information on stand-alone pages linked from your blog. For example, you can use pages to create anAbout This Blog page that discusses the evolution of your blog, or a Contact Me page that provides directions, a phone number, and a map to your location.

http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?answer=165955

You can only have 10 pages. The guide above has instruction to enable page in custom template too.

For this you have to enable your blogger draft. This is some kind of beta version of blogger and new updates are rolled through this.

Install Firefox 3.6 In Ubuntu

2010-01-25T10:49:00.000+05:30

Mozilla released Firefox 3.6 few days ago. It is fast to start and fast to do js things. More in release notes here.

Installing Firefox 3.6 is same as installing Thunderbird 3 which I have already covered here.

I'll just copy pate those things here. So to update your Firefox follow the steps below:

Open Terminal
Add Mozilla's sources by:

For Karmic:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa

For version older than Karmic:

echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu ubuntu_version main' | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 247510BE

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install firefox-3.6 firefox-3.6-gnome-support firefox-3.6-branding
sudo aptitude safe-upgrade (just in case you've missed anything)
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu-mozilla-daily-ppa-karmic.list (Otherwise your update manager will show new updates each day)
sudo aptitude update

Install Thunderbird 3 In Ubuntu

2010-01-15T22:07:00.001+05:30

I am never the fan of mail client. They are difficult to use, slow and ugly.

Mozilla recently released 3rd version of their popular email software, Thunderbird. As said earlier, I wasn't much excited. Nevertheless I gave it a try. Thunderbird has made major changes in its UI. They have added new features like tabs, archive, smart folder and so on. More here http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/3.0/releasenotes/#

After using this for few days I must say they have made definitive improvement on this software. I highly recommend everyone to update to this version. There was some problem with 'lightning' extension but this is already fixed.

To install follow the steps below:

Open Terminal
Add Mozilla's sources by:

For Karmic:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa

For version older than Karmic:

echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu ubuntu_version main' | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 247510BE

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install thunderbird-3.0 thunderbird-3.0-gnome-support
sudo aptitude remove thunderbird-2.0 thunderbird-2.0-gnome-support
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/thunderbird-3.0 /usr/bin/thunderbird

DockBarX - Windows 7 Like Task Bar For Ubuntu

2010-01-15T22:00:00.000+05:30

Many People liked the new task bar introduced in Windows 7. If you don't believe me you can see this lifehacker's poll on "Best Application Dock".

There is similar bar in Linux by the name "DockBarX".

I have been reading about it from long time back but I was very lazy to give it a try. Also I never believed it would be very smooth and bug free.

However, I decided to give it a try and believe it or not now I am very big fan of it. It is a powerful program in a sense that you can configure multiple options like grouping, pinning applications, themes, click actions and so on. It has worked flawlessly for me.

If you also want to give it a try install it by:

Open terminal
Add the dockbarx source:

If you are using Karmic

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dockbar-main/ppa

If you are using older version than Karmic

echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/dockbar-main/ppa/ubuntu ubuntu_version main' | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 38BD81CA

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install dockbarx
killall -9 gnome-panel
Now right click in the empty area of your gnome-panel and click 'Add to Panel'
Select docbarx from the list
You may wan to remove your window list by right clicking on the far left and selecting remove

How To Change Mac Address In Linux

2009-12-30T20:55:00.000+05:30

Q. How can I change the mac address of network card in my Ubuntu box ?
Ans. Changing mac address is very simple. You only need the command ifconfig. Follow the steps below:

Open terminal
Find the name of your interface, for example eth0
sudo ifconfig eth0 down hw ether aaaabbbb where aabbccdd is the required mac address.

Gnome Typing Break

2009-12-30T20:24:00.000+05:30

If you use too much computer you may be risking your health. I use computer around 7 hours in 8 hours' office. Before leaving office around 2 and after office around 5 hours. In total that is 17 hours i.e. around 71% of my day. I am sure I don't follow ergonomic principal. What I have started to do is take three minutes break every one hour. For this I use the 'typing break' option in keyboard preferences. After using this for some time I have concluded the following cons and pros:

Pros:

Nice system tray that blinks few minutes before the break making us ready for the break
Option to post pone the break
Option to change work interval and break interval
If you sit idle the timer automatically resets. That means you have to work continuously in the work interval to be illegible for the break. You leave your computer for few minutes and bang the break is gone.

Cons:

Screen doesn't lock during the break. So you can't leave your computer in the break for privacy reasons. There already is a bug report in https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=128381
Due to transparent lock screen, other people can study your screen.

Now if you also want this option, goto:

System>Preferences>Keyboard>Typing Break

If you find yourself stuck in typing break and don't have the option for postponing the break, you can kill the break by:

Go to virtual terminal by pressing ALT+CTRL+F1
Log in
killall -9 gnome-typing-monitor

If you are much more health concerned then you probably would like to try apt://workrave . This is a very good software that makes you take break and also helps stretch out. It will guide you through series of exercise to perform during the break.

Google Chrome Browser for Linux in Beta

2009-12-09T10:31:00.008+05:30

Google has finally released the beta version of their chrome browser for Linux and Mac. Previously it was only available from early access channel. Chrome though in beta works very very well and I'm highly satisfied with what I have now.
http://www.google.com/chrome

If you have installed any pre-beta version of Google Chrome, you need to uninstall it before you can install this beta version. To do so, in terminal type:

sudo aptitude remove google-chrome-unstable

After that simply double click the downloaded .deb file to install.
Also Mozilla Thunderbird has released Thunderbird 3 with tab support.
http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/