'Migration' - to a new laptop

Palm Pre Plus - best way to open the battery door

2011-09-10T18:21:00.001+05:30

I know this is not rocket science but I love my gadgets and treat them like babies. So there is always a best way of handling them.

Palm Pre plus's battery door is slightly flimsy and opening it is kinda tricky. The following three steps however make it very simple.

push bottom button/release to open up the battery door slightly
slide a fingernail (or card) up one side (longer side) of the phone under the door opening; at about halfway you'll hear a "click" of the latch releasing.
do the same on the other side.

I wish I am able to start using my Palm Pre Plus soon....

I picked up the above from...
http://forums.precentral.net/palm-pre-pre-plus/182667-how-do-you-remove-battery-cover.html

My Blackbeauty is getting NATTYer and giving me a hard time

2011-04-30T23:12:00.002+05:30

As soon as I heard that Natty Narwhal, Ubuntu's latest distro was to be launched on April 28th, 2011, I was keenly waiting for the same. I jokingly asked an expert (@shekharg) if he could guess why I was waiting for April 28th. I thought it would be a piece of cake for him but he could not guess it. I was not sad but happier because he also added that he likes to work with OSs/ tools/ gadgets that have bugs. He is not interested in Linux anymore because everything works. I wonder what OS is he working with these days ;)

But my journey from 10.10 to 11.04 was not as smooth as I had expected (or experienced with past upgrades).

I first tried upgrading via the 'update manager'. It took over 3 hours but failed with some error message.
Then I started searching for an 'alternate CD image'. In past, alternate CD is what I used for upgrading via CD media. Surprisingly I could not find the latest release (I am sure it must be there somewhere.... but the point is that I could not find it)
With no other option I used the standard desktop CD image (for 64 bit machines) for installation.
Thanks to past expert advice from (@kbhargava) I have always kept the /home directory on a separate partition. So, it was easy for me to do a fresh install without losing my data (or even fear of loosing my data)
Unity desktop environment is a big difference in 11.04. As a result, my old user profile was not working smoothly enough. In past, every upgrade was so smooth that I was back to a fully functional machine with all settings/ preferences preserved within 2 hours.
I finally had to create a new user profile and shift the data manually. This meant that I would not be able to preserve settings/ preferences/ passwords etc.

Overall, the upgrade from 10.10 to 11.04 (for me) has not been as smooth as past upgrades. I am also not sure if unity desktop environment is far better but it is certainly fresh. I did notice one mac-like feature (Menu for every app window is on the top bar as on macs). But I am happy using this latest version of Ubuntu :))

Iphone 3gs: transferring contacts from old phone without iTunes or Windows

2010-12-01T23:26:00.001+05:30

After using a Nokia E61i for a very long time, I have moved on to an Iphone 3gs.

Since I picked up the phone from USA, it was locked to a US carrier.

FIRST CHALLENGE: unlock it to use it on Vodafone in India.
My phone had Base Band 5.14.x and therefore it was not unlockable....till Apple realease iOS 4.2.1 and till @sherif_hashim & @MuscleNerd released Redsn0w 0.9.6b5. see this http://bit.ly/eVAaVa

NEXT CHALLENGE : I had to transfer all my contacts from Nokia E61i to iPhone.

While this may sound very easy to most, I wanted to do this without having to boot into windows. I use Ubuntu so I donot have iTunes or Outlook that I can sync my iPhone directly to.

Surprisingly, this was far easier than I had thought.

I copied all contacts on E61i onto a microsUSB card inside the phone. In Addressbook, Mark All contacts and then copy them to the card. All options are there in the addressbook menu.
Connected the phone to the computer using a connector cable (that came along with the Nokia phone). On connection, phone asked to choose one of the two modes - sync or data transfer. I chose Data Tansfer mode on the phone. Now the microusb card was be accessible on the computer.
Searched for contacts folder on the card. It had a large number of vcfs (one for every contact. Copied the same to my laptop. Remeber, I am on Ubuntu, so collated all the vcfs together using the command
cat *.vcf > all_in_one.vcf
Now I had one vcf file that had all my contacts
Now I logged into my gmail account on the web >> contacts >> Chose Import from file and pointed it to the all_in_one.vcf file. It copied all contacts to my gmail account
I setup my gmail account on iPhone via Exchange option. Followed the steps here. http://bit.ly/gDM2Xw
When I synced my mail account on iPhone, all contacts were transferred to my iPhone.

Going forward this will also ensure that all contacts on my phone are regularly backed up on my google account.

Pimping down Firefox : Getting more real estate

2010-08-21T13:03:00.005+05:30

I have been using Firefox for a long time. When I tried Google Chrome for the first time, what I found most impressive was the overall real estate that I got. Not only did it offer more space, its also made it look simple because its clutter free. Therefore I decided that I will used Google Chrome going forward. But habbits are difficult to change. Somehow I found myself using Firefox most of the time.

Therefore I decided to 'Pimp down' my Firefox.

Here is what I found effective for myself:

a. Reduce the size of Icons: Right-click on the buttons in navigation toolbar, choose ‘customize’ and check ‘Use Small Icons’ at the bottom.

b. Hide title bar: This is really not required. I used the add on Hide Caption Titlebar Plus (Smart) by DarthMadara. Get it here

c. Hide menu bar: Replace the standard menu bar with a tiny menu popup using Tiny Menu 2.0.2 by Anthony Lieuallen.

Now I have a lot more real estate to play with on my Firefox window.

Sources that I found useful for this:
a. http://bit.ly/9hoM7t
b. http://bit.ly/ctt5sO
c. http://bit.ly/9eADgo

How to view/ convert Windows Meta File (.wmf) in Linux

2008-12-22T15:48:00.001+05:30

.wmf image files do not open on Linux. However, installing the following allows conversion of the same to other viewable formats.

libwmf-bin

Steps:

1. On ubuntu, apt-get will install this.
sudo apt-get install libwmf-bin

2. After this, following will convert the file to other formats

convert file.wmf file.png
OR
convert file.wmf file.jpg

Now the file.jpg or file.png file can be easily opened in Gimp or any other tool.

Power of FOSS. This is fantastic....

2008-11-13T14:05:00.002+05:30

Stani Michiels designed a coin in Holland using OSS. His design was selected amongst many others (which were made using proprietary, professional and expensive softwares)

Here is what he writes about the technology that he used. Entire post is here.

The whole design was done for 100% with free software. The biggest part consists of custom software in Python, of course within the SPE editor. For the visual power I used PIL and pyCairo. From time to time also Gimp, Inkscape and Phatch helped quite a bit. All the developing and processing was done on GNU/Linux machines which were running Ubuntu/Debian.In the end I had to collaborate closely on location together with thetechnicians of the Royal Dutch Mint (coin factory). So all the lastbits were done on my Asus Eee PC.(I am still wondering why Asus doesn't offer Ubuntu on its netbooks.)The Eee laptop took a bit longer (30 seconds instead of 3 seconds togenerate a whole coin), but did the job just fine. For looking up thenumber of hits on the internet, I rediscovered Yahoo, which provides a much better apifor automatic querying than its competitors. Of course the jury judgedonly the design and not the software used as others used Maya,Illustrator, ...

CrossOver Linux is free now

2008-10-31T12:13:00.001+05:30

I got a mail from CodeWeavers today with a registration code to download CrossOver Linux Pro for free. CodeWeavers programs enableyou to run many popular Windows programs, such as Quicken, MicrosoftOffice, and Photoshop CS2 etc. on your favorite operating system (in my case Ubuntu).

To get a copy of a CrossOver Mac Pro, Crossover Linux Pro, CrossOver MacGames or CrossOver Linux Games, visit the company's Web site anddownload the software. You will, eventually, get a deal code that fullyenables the software and gets you six-months of support as well.

I would like to use this for:
a. Google chrome (though I am not sure if this with work)
b. some games (specially Spore by Electronic Arts)

You can read more about it here.
ComputerWorld story

no stream found to handle url dvd://1

2008-10-27T17:14:00.001+05:30

On Ubuntu, I got this error when I tried to play a DVD using mplayer.

no stream found to handle url dvd://1

I googled but interestingly, could not see a solution anywhere. Thats when one of my geek friend helped me figure this out.

PROBLEM
The problem here is that of incorrect device path set in mplayer

SOLUTION
a. check the device path for your DVD drive. (can do this via sudo mount)
b. Open mplayer
c. Right click in the mplayer window >> choose Preferences >> MIsc
d. Enter the correct device path against DVD device and CD ROM device
e. OK and you are ready to play the DVD properly

The Tata Sky Challenge

2008-10-22T13:23:00.001+05:30

Try opening www.TataSky.com website on any linux distro and you will find that it does not work.

Whereas, on Windows, it works very well. I tried both IE and Chrome. (didn't try firefox on windows though)

Interestingly, www.TataSkyplus.com opens nicely on Linux also.
Tata Sky Plus offers a TV recorder (Hard Disk based). It costs around 9K for new customers. Tata Sky plans to offer a special deal to exisitng Tata Sky users but has not announced the details so far.

Free online file conversion e.g. PDF to Word doc

2008-10-16T19:03:00.003+05:30

Earlier a friend asked me if I could help him convert a PDF into a word document.

I only knew how to :
a. copy text from a PDF document
b. convert a PDF into a Jpeg or Png (using GIMP)

Today I learnt about Zamzar.com. This site:

allows you to convert files from one format to other
supports image numerous formats for images, docs, music, video etc
offers free conversion (in addition to paid options)
is very easy to use. You upload the file and indicated the desired output format. It will send you a mail with a link to the file within 24 hours

Migration is almost complete... Ubuntu rocks

2008-10-05T15:49:00.003+05:30

Last fews weeks were very hectic and I got very little time to migrate my stuff from old laptop to the new. Finally, I completed my migration today and highlights of this exercise are:

Reducing the size of pre-installed windows partition was easy with QTParted. Windows XPs inbuilt disk manager was not helpful at all.
Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 installed like a breeze. No issues whatsoever.
Dualhead monitor support is also working now thanks to this post
VirtualBox allows me to run XP op top of Ubuntu. one of my legacy windows based application works smoothly on the same. At times, using VirtualBox and dualhead feature, I make presentations to people whithout them realising that I am running XP in a virtualised environment.
Fingerprint reader works fine on Ubuntu. (Not only can I swipe my finger to login using GUI login page, it also works on command line. I am using ThinkFinger)
Gnomad2 works with Creative Zen Vision M like a breeze.
J-Pilot syncs with my Treo 700p

Things that could have been better are:

Lenovo rescue and recovery CDs for my X61 laptop do not allow me to install in the virtualised environment. I wish it worked .
X61 has an integrated graphics card. Moving from and SVGA (1440x 1024) 14.1" to a XGA (1024 x 768) 12.1" screen is stressful. Firstly I miss the screen real-estate that I earlier had. Second, display of letters (esp. on terminal and midnight commander- mc) is not as smooth as it used to be. It will take me some time to get used to it.

Overall..... I am loving it !!!

For Airtel Users: Test your internet speed

2008-10-05T15:38:00.002+05:30

http://speed.ncr.airtelbroadband.in/

On this page you can test your internet speed if you are an Airtel DSL subscriber. Its a god way to check and be able to report speed issues to Airtel customer service.

I have a 128 kbps plan and got:

77.4kbps download speed
44.3 kbps upload speed

When i called Airtel to check why the d/l speed is lower, they indicated that they promise upto 128 kbps speed and not 128 kbps. Smart product design ;)

I love tools that help increase productivity :)

2008-08-27T18:12:00.001+05:30

I read this article Be a Productive Linux User

It lists some amazing tools that help increase productivity. I was already aware of Pidgin but Terminator and Gnome-Do are new to me and really neat.

Terminator : allows you to split same terminal window into multiple terminals. Power users will love it even more.
Conky : light system monitor
Pidgin : Chat client
Gnome-Do : Application launcher similar to Launchy in windows

Lenovo not offering Bluetooth on Laptops

2008-08-09T23:46:00.001+05:30

My new Thinkpad X61 does not have bluetooth...... why? Because Lenovo says that bluetooth is in short supply. They say they may be able to offer it after one month or so.

Could this be because of the Beijing Olympics 2008... May be...
Infact I heard one of my friends complain that due to Beijing Olympics, he was unable to get a continuous supply of raw material that he had been buying from China.

Anyway.... here are the specs of my next BlackBeauty

Thinkpad X61

Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T8300 (2.4GHz, 3MB L2, 800MHz FSB)
Operating System: Genuine Windows Vista Business
Recovery DVD: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Recovery DVD - US English

Display: 12.1" XGA TFT, 2x3 Ultraconnect II antenna

Total memory: 4 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)

Hard Drive: 160GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm

Intel® Turbo Memory hard drive cache: Intel Turbo Memory 1GB

Mobile media base:ThinkPad X6 UltraBase

DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer, Ultrabay Slim

Wireless card: Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (supporting Centrino Pro)

Battery: ThinkPad X61 8 Cell High Capacity Battery

Its migration Time again!!!!

2008-08-09T23:39:00.001+05:30

I have purchased another blackbeauty for myself... this time its a machine from the ultraportable category of the Thinkpad family - Thinkpad X61.

Choosing what to buy was a very hard decision. I was sure that I wanted a light weigh notebook with a screen size of less than 14.1". Other options I considered :

Thinkpad X300 : I dropped it because it is expensive ($3000) and still not the best processor (only 1.2GHz)
Thinkpad T61p: I would have loved to pick this had it been available in 14.1" screen but these days they are only offering 15" that too wide screen notebooks in this category.
Other brands or model : No way! After working on a thinkpad, I don't think I will be comforatble working on any other brand

echo 0 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_window_scaling

2008-07-22T18:07:00.001+05:30

This post is to ask Linux Experts to answer the puzzle above.

Situation (puzzle):
At home, I use Airtel DSL Broadband connection to access internet.
Hardware used: US Robotics ADSL router modem.

When I connect my Ubuntu notebook to this router modem, I am unable to access the web. Also, surprisingly (rather shockingly) only google owned websites are accessible. e.g. I can access google.com, orkut.com etc. No other site can be accessed. I do not get an error message but the browser does not return any thing.

ssh, ping also do not work.

Solution:
After reading various posts on the web, I learnt that the following command solves the problem. As root, run :
'echo 0 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_window_scaling'

After this, all sites are accessible.

Questions for the Experts?
a. What is the issue here?
b. What does the above command do?
Looking for guidance.

P.S. There is nothing wrong with Ubutnu or my notebook setup, Fedora also behaves in the same manner. Other users also faced the same problem at my house.

Correcting Windows crashes & FIXMBR vs FIXBOOT

2008-06-07T22:57:00.003+05:30

Lately, every time I boot into windows, the system crashes after after a few minutes. Therefore I decided to do a re-install (from the IBM Pre-Desktop partition). It started fine but soon I encountered a small problem.

Windows made some changes to MBR. As a result, GRUB started hanging (I have a dual boot system - XP and Ubuntu). Earlier it used to give an option to choose Ubuntu vs XP. But now, it just did not move. Thus, Pre-desktop utility could not complete windows xp installation (as computer is rebooted many times when installation is done).

Following steps solved the issue:
a. I booted the machine using a Windows XP retail install CD
b. When uit asked me to choose whether to install or go to recovery console. I chose recovery console by pressing "R"
c. Here I ran "FIXMBR"

The above fixed the problem and after this when I rebooted, IBM pre-desktop was able to continue windows installation. (infact its going on as I type this from my home laptop)

Also, whule looking for a solution I learn the following two options to cure booting problems. Both are available in the Recovery console of Windows XP.
1. FIXMBR
2. FIXBOOT

FIXMBR vs FIXBOOT : whats the difference?
(taken from a post by bbz_Ghost here
FIXMBR grabs the original MBR code from the drive's EEPROM chip and restores it, effectively wiping out anything that might be in there, be it LILO, GRUB, a Windows bootloader, and any possible traces of a virus, etc. When that command is finished, the MBR is as good as it was the moment the drive passed QA testing at the factory.

FIXBOOT restore the native ability for Windows to boot with the NTLDR file and bootloader, simply put.

There's also BOOTCFG which lets you modify boot time parameters just like you can inside Windows by modifying the boot.ini file under Advanced System Properties.
There's also a proper order for the commands if you need to use them from the Recovery Console:
FIXMBR first, then FIXBOOT right after that, then type exit and press Enter to reboot.

Free Wi Fi Internet Access for Passengers at Bengaluru International Airport

2008-05-25T06:41:00.003+05:30

My first flight from the new BIAL (its just opened 2 days back)

It offers free internet access to all passengers for one hour (per login; so you can request a new password if you are waiting over an hour)

How to get password:
Send an SMS to 56677 with the content "WIFI BIAL".
You will get a password by return SMS

I received the password with 45seconds and was able to logon quickly. (adding this post through the same connection)

a. browsing worked
b. messengers worked
c. ssh did not work
d. It did not allow POPping mail
d. ip assigned 172.16.0.207

Healthy (Unknown) Partition issue solved

2008-05-22T17:24:00.001+05:30

After re-installing Windows XP from Pre-desktop area, one of my FAT 32 partitions was not visible to Windows. Disk Management utility was reporting this partition as "Healthy (unknown) Partition - FAT 32"
... I found this funny

Anyway, here is how the problem was solved (with help from a geek friend)
PLEASE NOTE : Take backup of your data before you try these steps.

I booted into Ubuntu. Ubuntu had not problem in identifying and accessing the same FAT 32 partition
As root, I started FDISK using the following command
fdisk /dev/sda
entered p to print partition table
This displayed the following:
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 2042 15437488+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 2043 5418 25521615 c Hidden W95 FAT32
In the above I noticed that the partition type was set as Hidden W95 FAT32 instead of W95 FAT32 (LBA). So I changed the same with following steps
t (to change a partition's system id)
Enter the partition number. in my case its 2
Partition number (1-7): 2
Enter the Hex code for the partition type W95 FAT32 (LBA) i.e. c
Hex code (type L to list codes): c
Commited the above changes by entering w

The above solved my problem. Next time when I booted into Windows, I could see and access the FAT32 partition.

Upgraded to Ubuntu 8.04

2008-05-05T01:38:00.002+05:30

Last week I upgraded to Ubuntu 8.04. Again, like earlier Ubuntu installations, the installation was easy and trouble free. I decided to do a fresh install instead of an upgrade.

Why did I upgrade?
No specific reason. I just love Ubuntu and was keen to see what new it has to offer.

Did I find anything GREAT after install?
Not really.... (but I do not care.... I am not a techie) ....
I do however like:
a. World Clock Applet with multi city display
b. all new Firefox
c. The wallpaper

The installation experience was really neat.

The link below has an official list of what's new in 8.04, just in case you would like to read.
What's new in 8.04

Interesting I also re-installed WinXP using my Tinkpad Pre-Desktop area. Surprisingly, Ubuntu installation and setup was easier. :)
But that's a different story. I am still struggling to get my FAT32 partition visible in windows. The Disk Manager shows that partition as HEALTHY but not recognised partition. I do not know what to do with it...... will search for a solution soon.

My new toy........ Nokia E61i

2007-11-27T17:29:00.000+05:30

Few months back I had started my search for a new mobile and bought the HTC TyTN I or HTC Hermes. Its a nice and powerful device but I had to give it up because :
a. I am so much used to the Treo form factor that the sliding QWERTY keyword did not work for me.
b. HTC Hermes is a battery guzzler. I was not using the device for voice but still I had to charge it atleast once everyday unlike my Treo 600 that runs for 2 days even with voice usage.
c. Though Hermes has a 400 MHz processor, the speed still sucks. Probably the 64MB RAM acts as a bottleneck.

Anyway, this time I had to buy a phone for my wife and I got her a Nokia e61i yesterday. Its got everything that I wanted (listed here). My initial reactions to the phone are:

POSITIVES
1. E61i runs S60 3rd edition which has a nice/ user friendly interface. Infact one of my biggest worries has always been that no phone offers an interface as convenient as Palm Treo but e61i seems to take care of this issue.
2. The screen size and clarity of e61i is very good. Allows for easy browsing of sites.
3. The built in browser has two very nice features :one- when you scroll on a page, it shows a thumbnail of the entire page and shows a small windows that indicates what part of the entire page you are on. two- when you press the back button it shows all previously visited sites/ pages and gives an effect similar to the switch applications effect in Windows Vista or Compiz.

NEGATIVES
1. Though its nicely/ neatly built, it is huge. Does not fit my palm comfortable.
2. Very less freewares are available for S60 3rd edition. e.g. I have been searching for a freeware messenger that support MSN, GTalk, Yahoo and Skype. So far, I could only find Agile Messenger but it seems that its not a feeware. For some reason some sites indicated that it is freeware.
I don't want to spend on buying basic softwares and normally use freewares on my Palm Treo which work very well.

Will write more once I get more time to play with it.

Can Ubuntu damage my hard drive.... NO WAY

2007-11-01T16:26:00.001+05:30

Yesterday I read a story on Slashdot which claimed that the power management features of Ubuntu kill the laptop's hard drive faster if you run it on battery. I got worried and started searching for more info on the same.

Today, I read another story on Digg which clarified this issue and also lead me to this post. It clearly explains that :

this is not an ubuntu feature/ issue by default
yes, Ubuntu offers a setting which, if enabled,could lead to decreasing your hard disk's life span. This setting is however desabled by default.
usually, Ubuntu uses the same power management settings that are set in the BIOS. Thus one needs to check the BIOS settings first and then worry about Ubuntu settings.

Thanks to Matthew Garrett for the clear description.

Gutsy Gibbon - Ubuntu 7.10 is super cool

2007-10-21T00:17:00.000+05:30

This is the first time that I have adopted a new linux distro within 2 days of it being launched. Ubuntu launched Gutsy Gibbon (code name for Ubuntu 7.10, the latest Ubuntu release) on oct 18 (press release) and I managed to install it on Oct 20 and its fully functional...... yes all eye candy, desktop effects, also work and they are GREAT!

I am truly impressed and here are a few reasons why :

1. Installing Gutsy gibbon was easy and fast. It took me exactly 35 minutes to install it. Before you compare it with benchmarks, please note that I am not a geek.... i do not understand kernels and more. Infact I still remember that installation of windows XP from the IBM Pre-desktop area took me more time.

2. Everything worked out of the box. I did not have to download or install any proprietary drivers. Ironically, with Windows XP (retail version) installation earlier, I was forced to download some drivers from the IBM website.

3. I have an ATI FireGL card on my laptop and Compiz is working fine without the need of installing the proprietary drivers. I am amazed. With Dapper Drake, I tried and tried but could not get compiz to work. Here it is working from the word go. I have also installed CompizConfig Settings Manager that allows additional desktop effects. Again installation of CompizConfig Settings Manager was also very smooth. I used the Synaptic Package manager and it only took 3 clicks.

So this is a good start. All I need to do now is to get the other essentials like thunderbird, mplayer etc....

:)

Thanks Canonical!!!!

Forlong's blog has a great description of the advanced desktop effects and their 'real' benefits. you can read it here.

Command Cheat Sheet for Linux Newbies like me.......

2007-08-03T11:49:00.001+05:30

Found this cool Linux Comand Cheat Sheet on Fosswire.

Download

A Pocket PC : HTC TyTN/ Hermes/ Cingular 8500

2007-07-27T04:40:00.000+05:30

I am a Treo 600 user. Lately, I had been wanting to upgrade my mobile device. I wanted something which would offer :
1. a QWERTY keyword (.... Treo spoilt me)
2. WiFi capabilties
3. EDGE Support
4. No Camera (I use the phone at work and a number of my clients do not appreciate camera phones in their offices)
5. 3G support (not too critical though)

A Treo 680, 700 or 750 would have been a natural choice for me. However, Treo's still do not support WiFi. Treos running Windows mobile OS support the WiFi SD Card but ones with PalmOS do not. So I thought that if I have to move to a windows mobile then why not try something different than a Treo.

After reviewing all other options available, I settled on HTC TyTN or Hermes. It met all my requirements as it has a nice sliding QWERTY keyboard, WiFi, Edge, 3G.........but only one problem....rather two.... It has two cameras. One 2 MP camera at the back for taking pictures and one VGA camera on the front for video calling.

I learnt that AT&T (formerly Cingular) in USA offers the same phone without the camera. The model is called Cingular 8500 or AT&T 8500 (detailed specs). So I picked up one Cingular 8500 in US. It was locked to Cingular network and I had to unlock it to be able to use it in India. After unlocking, Cingular 8500 works nice. But I seriously hope that it lives up to my expectations. I now need to find applications for this new device.

P.S.
I still LOVE my Treo. I wish it supported WiFi :(

Upgrading Open Office 2.0.2 to 2.2.1

2007-06-24T13:53:00.001+05:30

Ubuntu Dapper Drake comes with Open Office 2.0.2

Lately I experienced that my OO installation had started crashing when I tried to open some Microsoft powerpoint files. A few google searches revealed that some others also faced similar problem. But since the latest Open Office 2.2.1 is currently not supported by the Dapper repository, I was struggling with this issue.

I read this post and decided to try upgrading to 2.2.1 and the good news is that it worked......

Here is what I did (following the post indicated above)

Using Synaptic Manager, I uninstalled all Open Office 2.0.2 programs
Downloaded the latest deb package for Open Office using the following wet command

wget http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/misc/openoffice/localized/
finnish/stable/2.2.1/latest/OOo_2.2.1_LinuxX86_install_en-US_deb.tar.gz
Unpacked the resulting file using the archive package manager
cd into the resulting DEBS directory
Installed all the deb file using the command
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
Integrated the new OO installation in the menu by
cd DEBS/desktop-integration
sudo dpkg -i openoffice.org-debian-menus_2.2-9161_all.deb

I will now test the new upgraded version for the crashes that I was facing earlier.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Free online Ubuntu Books

2007-06-20T23:19:00.001+05:30

Digg had a post which provides links to following free Ubuntu books.

Moving to Ubuntu Linux
The official Ubutu Book
Ubuntu Unleashed
Ubuntu Hacks

here is the link to the post on VNTUTOR blog

I am sure these will come in handy for me,

Playing WMV files on Ubuntu - Dapper Drake

2007-05-27T13:43:00.001+05:30

I use MPlayer to play video files on Ubuntu. However, I was not able to play WMV files so I started some google searches to see how others made it to work.

Here is what worked for me:

1. Download the required Codecs.

Playing WMV files required the win32 codecs. I download these from the following link:

Mplayer HQ

I downloaded the file called :

win32codecs-essential-20040703.tar.bz2

2. Extract the codecs to a directory

tar -xjvf win32codecs-essential-20040703.tar.bz2

3. Create a directory

sudo mkdir /usr/lib/win32

4. Copy the codecs to the new directory created above

Use the cp command or the graphical interface

5. Restart mplayer and watch the WMV videos

Happy viewing :)

Enabling SSH

2007-05-11T13:58:00.001+05:30

My office laptop runs Ubuntu but my home desktop still has windows 2000. I often feel the need to transfer files between the two. I know that WinSCP allows one to do so. So I downloaded WinSCP, installed it on my windows destop and tried to connect to my laptop. This did not work. With a few google searches I learnt that SSH service on my laptop has to be started for winSCP to work.

Here is how SSH services can be setup:

1. Install openssh server

# sudo apt-get install openssh-server

2. Modify the setting and restart SSH server.

# sudo gedit /etc/ssh/sshd_config

In my case, my username is asood, thus I added one line to /etc/ssh/sshd_config


Protocol 2
...
PermitRootLogin no
...
AllowUsers asood

3. Restart SSH server.
# sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart

Opening .chm file in Linux

2007-04-30T23:56:00.001+05:30

I downloaded an ebook and was puzzled to see a .chm file. I was unable to open it on my ubuntu laptop.

A quick Google search revealed the following :

Chm file is a Microsoft Compressed HTML Help file in a proprietary
format for online help files.
Under Linux/FreeBSD or UNIX you can open
.chm file using following programs which make it
possible to browse native Windows CHM files:

For Gnome Desktop User

Use gnochm program as follows

$ gnochm file.chm
For KDE Desktop User

Use kchmviewer (very nice and highly recommended) program as follows

$ kchmviewer file.chm

Use apt-get or yum command to install any of the above chm viewer:

# apt-get install gnochm

OR

# apt-get install kchmviewer

I installed gnochm and it worked smoothly.

I learnt the above from the FAQ section of a site  here)

Rebranded Performancing works very well

2007-04-07T23:51:00.001+05:30

Lately, I was unable to get Performancing to work with my blogger account.

However, today I learnt that Performancing's new avatar "ScribeFire" is available and it works with Blogger as well. Infact, I am writing this post using the same. Hope it works......

Incase, you have not heard of or used Performancing, you may want to do so. Its a great firefox sxtension that allows you to blog straight from the browser without having to log-on to your blogs admin area.

You can read more about it on www.ScribeFire.com

Upgrading Firefox to the latest version available...

2007-03-04T12:44:00.000+05:30

Ubuntu comes with Firefox/1.5.0.10.

I want to upgrade this to the latest version because I love the new extensions that only work with the latest version epecially, colourful tabs

So I searched the web to see how this can be done. There were two options.
1. Manual installation. here
2. Using an automated script. here

I used the automated script and it was very easy to do.

I now have the new Firefox version 2.0.0.2 installed successfully.

Finally...... Ubuntu it is....

2007-03-04T12:40:00.000+05:30

I have finally decided to try Ubuntu. Thus I removed FC6 and installed Ubuntu Dapper 6.06 LTS. My laptop still has the dual boot option i.e. XP Pro and Ubuntu. But my plan to try and use use Ubuntu all the time... even at office.

I am hoping that this will work well for me.

This killer app has the potential to stop me from migrating to Linux..... and I am serious

2007-02-25T23:39:00.000+05:30

For a long time, I had been making a concerted effort to move to a Linux Desktop. Linux Desktop offered me everything that I needed or had on the windows side...... till I discovered Lauchy.

Launchy is a great Windows utility that allows you to open files, programmes, folders etc. without having to search for them. All you have to do is press Alt+ space bar and then first few letters of the fileor app that you want and there you have it. Its one of the most impactful productivity tool that I have seen in the last few months. And its free to use.

Hats off to Launchy and Josh Karlin

I hope there is a similar killer app on Linux side as well. I have used this for a few months and I can't live without it. I can't see a reason why Microsoft would not add this to its OS soon.

You must try this tool if you are a windows user.

Choosing a WIKI for my office team

2007-02-22T14:42:00.000+05:30

I want to install a WIKI in my office. With so many options, it is a bit difficult to decide which one to install.

Initially, I had a very rough idea of the parameters that I should compare. But then I came across Wikimatrix. It allows you to compare the features of a number of Wikis.

It has a nice 'choice wizard'. Questions asked by this 'choice wizard' gave me a broader idea of the parameters that I should compare. I used the wizard but was confused when it gave me a choice of over 20 wikis that matched by requirements. However, it provides extensive details about each of the wikis.

I am now planning to check out, DekiWiki and SocialText

Free Mobile Bill Analyser

2006-11-14T11:22:00.000+05:30

I read about YourBillBuddy.com service in the newspaper today. It is an interesting solution for finding the best (as in value for money) mobile plan in market. Here is how it works:

It lets you upload 5 mobile bills of yours in standard PDF or HTML format in which mobile providers give you the e-bills.
It analyses these bills and shows you a couple of charts (like the one shown here)
Then it also recommends plans (from the current ones) that will help you reduce your monthly bill. It also gives an estimate of the average monthly bill with the new plan.
It currently supports following service providers : Airtel, Hutch, Reliance, TataIndicom, BSNL and Spice

How to benefit from this service:

1. In current scenario where number portability is not available, you may want to use this service as a way of finding the most economical plan offered by your existing service providers. Typically, it is difficult to keep up with the news plans launched by Telcos. This may be an easy way out.

2. Once Number portability is offered to Indian consumers, then this service will be a hit. Then you can even look at changing service providers to get the most economical solution and retain the same phone number.

its very easy to use....easy registration process.......and good interface..... do try.

WOW...... Firefox's interesting extension "Tab Catalog"

2006-11-10T11:02:00.000+05:30

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I found one feature in FC6 very impressive where taking the pointer to right side top of the screen shows a tiled view of all open applications.

Since I also use Windows, I was hoping to get the same functionality in windows.

And today, I learnt about this new cool extension for Firefox "Tab Catalog" which offer something similar. Here is how it works:
If you have a number of tabs open in firefox,
with press of a button or by taking your mouse over a toolbar button,
it shows thumbnail-style catalogs of all open tabs.

You can see a sample pic below.

Great Desktop effects.....but browser is slow

2006-11-08T18:49:00.000+05:30

After enabling the Desktop effects in FC6, I find that scrolling in a web browser become slow and jerky. I tried a quick search and found similar questions posted by others as well. One such example is here .

I am still looking for a fix for this.

Accessing my windows partition from FC6

2006-11-08T18:35:00.000+05:30

I use Thunderbird as the default mail client. I do this because it allows me to access the same data i.e. emails, from both windows as well as linux. To get this to work, Linux should allow me to read and write onto the windows partition where the email data files are kept. This partition is a fat32 partition.

In order to get access to the windows fat32 partition, I did the following as root :
1. Create a directory where you would like to mount the fat32 partition
2. Open the file /var/fstab
3. Add the following at the end of the file
/dev/hda2 /wind vfat umask=000 0 0
Inmy case, hda2 is my fat32 partition and /wind is the directory that I created for mounting the fat32 partition.
4. Reboot (I am sure there may be other ways as well, but this is the easiest that I know.....will learn those soon ;) )

Now I was able to access the fat32 partition and had both read as well write access to it.

FC6 is impressive

2006-11-08T18:24:00.000+05:30

#OS#
I installed FC6 on my notebook yesterday. It took around an hour but the setup was absolutely smooth. And I must confess that FC6 impressed me much much much more than Windows Vista. If you think that Aero Glass feature in Windows Vista is ground breaking......then you better check out what FC6 offers e.g.
1. The aero glass functionality runs out-of-box without any special configuration required. All you need to do is: Go to SYSTEM >> PREFERENCES>> DESKTOP EFFECTS >> ENABLE DEKTOP EFFECTS
And you have to see the effects to believe them.

2. Most impressive feature is the following : Imagine you have a number of application windows open, as soon as you take your mouse to the right hand side top of the screen, all open app windows are tiled on the screen so that you can choose the one that you want to go to. This, in my opinion, will serve as a productivity enhancer as well.

I am impressed to see how smoothly all these functions are running on my 1GB, Centrino powered notebook

2006-08-19T00:26:00.000+05:30

#Wireless router#
Today I faced an interesting problem. A friend bought a new linksys 802.11g wireless router. He connected that to his airtel (indian telecom & isp) broadband connection. After making the necessary connections, he found that wireless network was working fine but he was unable to access internet. The router did not give any error message. So it was not clear as to what the problem was. The router was set on automatic IP assignment. It was also getting the IP from the airtel broadband modem (beetel make). However, I found that it was unable to get the gateway address. this was surprising. I tried to renew the IP but again it picked up all settings ie. IP, DNS but not the gateway.
Earlier I hadworked with DLink wireless routers. The factory gateway IP setting for them is 192.168.0.1. However, for Linksys the gateway is 192.168.1.1. I then decided to check the gateway for the airtel modem. I did this by connecting my laptop to the airtel modem directly. The laptop was set on DHCP and so it picked up th settings quickly. I ran ipconfig on windows command prompt found that airtel modem's gateway is also 192.168.1.1. So this was the problem.
the linksys router did not pick up airtel modem ip as gateway because its ip was also 192.168.1.1.
I therefore changed the wireless router's ip to 192.168.0.1, rebooted it and within seconds I was able to access the internet wirelessly on my laptop.
learning : when connecting two routers make sure that their factory set ip's are different. I know that this is very basic but at times one tends to forget to check the same.
The linksys router cost my friend Rs. 2650 with three years warranty. Bought from Nehru Place, new delhi, india.

2006-07-30T01:17:00.000+05:30

#Buying a new laptop#
A friend of mine (Kunal), is going to Insead business school. He asked me to suggest which laptop he should buy.
My Take
Don't blow your money on the fastest processor in the market...there are other parts as well which deserve equal attention. One needs to choose an overall config rather than just the processor speed. I say this because I find that most buyers, especially first time buyers focus more on the processor speeds. As my friend asked me 'should I buy 1.8 ghz or 2 ghz based laptop'.
A computer is nothing more than different parts working together as a team. And as they say 'a team is only as strong/ fast as the weakest/slowest member in the team'. thus you mean find that 1.5ghz base laptop with faster hard disk and better graphics card may be better than 2ghz laptop with a slower hard disk and standard graphics card.

Here is how I go about making a choice:
1. Processor : anything above 1.7 ghz is fine as long as I will only be using it as a normal business user (basic word processing, email, browsing and occasional video playing). If you have lots of money, go for the dual core processors.

2. RAM : another very important part. Minimum 512mb and 1gb if you really want windows on your machine to fly.

3. Hard disk : Yes, capacity is important. But if you want a really fast machine, speed of the hard disk is very impotant. Its measure is revolutions per minute. 5400 rpm is standard and slow. So look for 7200 rpm hard disk.

4. Graphics card : for a business user any standard graphic card is good. But if you want to play some 3d games, then you must have a good video card with dedicated memory. Also check what resolutions are supported.

5. Battery: most buyers do not review this carefully and then complain on getting only 1.5 hours of backup. You should have a minimum of 6 cell battery for around 3 hrs backup on most machines. But you can also pickup a 9 cell battery if you can shell out some extra $$.

6. Size : please check out the size and weight of the laptop very carefully. I have seen people end up buying desktop replacement pcs instead of a laptop. When it comes to screen size big certainly is beautiful but remember that it will be your shoulders that will have to carry it arpund. 14.1'' is a decent size and under 2.2 kgs is good weght for business users. For me 'small is more beautiful' when it comes to laptops.

7. Business vs home : all major brands have two categories of laptops. One for home users and the other for business users. The difference lies in the architecture and the design. You can expect a home user targetted laptop to turn sluggish if it is used for long hours. It will however look very nice, cosmetically, compared to the laptop targetted for business users. Then how to choose? if you want to keep your machine switched on for more than 10 hours at a stretch buy a business notebook.

I guess above should take care of most of the performance related issues. Now all you need to do is see which brand/ model excites you the most. This is very personal, and you will be the best judge.

Happy purchasing!

2006-07-23T23:10:00.000+05:30

#OS#

I got hold of the latest Fedora distro FC5 from an expert friend.

I was skeptical whether FC5 will smoothly install on a laptop without messing my Windows XP partition.

I popped the DVD and started the installation. It took a little over an hour for me but I was able to setup FC5 smoothly.

Most interesting aspect of this whole process was the ease with which FC5 detected all my laptop hardware very well. Considering the fact that my machine did not have the standard graphics card, this was really commendable.

Infact, I had lot of problems in installing Windows XP professional from the original Retail version on my earlier IBM R50E laptop. It messed up with the drivers for LAN, sound, graphics. I then had to visit the IBM (Lenovo) website to pick up the drivers.

2006-07-23T22:53:00.000+05:30

#e-mail#
Which email client is best for me?

After all this..... my windows XP Professional was live and kicking....

Before I did any more testing.... I wanted to get my e-mail up and running....so next I had to decide - Which e-mail client do I use? '

Popular choices available were :
1. Microsoft Outlook
2. Microsoft Otlook Express
3. Thunderbird
4. Eudora

I had used both outlook and Eduora in the past.

This would have been a no-brainer under normal circumstances, specially when my Microsoft office Profesional license already covered the license for Microsoft Outlook. So I have already paid for one of the most popular e-mail clients .

But my situation was different. I was very keen to start using Linux on my laptop as well. And I knew that unless my business email is not available on Linux, I will not be able to even try it. Which meant that e-mails that I pop fom my server, onto the laptop, should be available on windows as well as Linux.

A tough requirement......... may be not....

Interestingly, I learnt from a friend that Thunderbird installation from Windows side as well as Linux side can access the same email data if the data is kept on a FAT partition. And so I selected Thunderbird over Microsoft Outlook.

2006-05-05T19:36:00.000+05:30

#PALM#
Blogging from my Treo
My first test post from my treo. This is so cool. I am using plogit.

Testing a re-edit. :)

2006-04-09T18:15:00.000+05:30

#OS#
Restoring to factory status

The IBM PREDESKTOP area is fine.... but can I really use it??? I wanted to experiment further....

I was worried because I read in certain posts that if you use the PREDESKTOP area to restore the system to factry defaults, it will delete all partitions on the HDD and bring it to the same state as it started from the factory..... yes this made sense.... but I wanted to test it....

I called up another techy friend (Shekhar)... though he did not have the answer....but agreed that this was the only time that I could test this.... a test like this can not be done at a later date.... so it was choice between Now or Never!!!

I entered the PREDESKTOP area and clicked on restore to factory settings.....
The setup started and the next 1.5 hours, my machine was busy installing XP and select apps again......

After it finished, I booted the machine....it came up nicely..... AND...
1. The NTFS partition was still 25GB...... which is good news
2. FAT 32 was not visible...... I was initially clueless what happened to FAT32 ....but soon learnt that after the instalation process the recovery software hides all other partitions.

I booted with KNOPPIX again and tried to unhide the other partitions....... and it worked....

So this experiment was also successful.....

2006-04-09T18:10:00.000+05:30

#HDD setup#
Everything seems fine...... XP still boots smoothly

I was scared when I turned on the machine..... but to my SURPRISE I found :

1. ACCESS IBM button was still functional..... which means that PRESDESTOP area is fine.

2. XP booted very smoothly... it did give a message suggesting some changes have happened in the HDD and asked me if this needs to be fixed.... I chose the option of not fixing anything and to carry on with normal boot up.

3. FAT 32 partition was showing in MyComputer

So, all is well so far.....

2006-04-09T10:07:00.000+05:30

#HDD setup#
Saving the PREDESKTOP area
After doing a lot of research, it was clear that I would need to order the recovery CDs from IBM. Therefore I decided that I am gonna go ahead and try different solutions that came up in my research.

I started with Linux's KNOPPIX Live distro. It booted my machine smoothly. I tried to check my HDD using qtparted. It could not read my HDD partition information because I had set the PREDESKTOP area to secure. So I went back to BIOS and changed the secure setting. This is despite the fact that all sites/ forums I read had warned me on changing this setting.

Booted with KNOPPIX again.... and now qtparted could read the partition information. It had :
1. NTFS Partition (~53GB)
2. Free space (~4GB)
The above Free space was not really FREE. This is where the PREDESKTOP area is.

qtparted allows you to shrink the partition and this is what I intended to do. Here is what I did :
1. Noted the numbers for the start and end of the current Free space (i.e. PREDESKTOP area)
2. Shrinked the NTFS partition to 25 GB
3. Created a FAT32 partition starting at 25GB and going up to 40GB (The trick here is to ensure that you stay away from the cylinders on HDD where the initial Free space was)
4. Created another 5 GB ext3 partition (for /homr)
5. Created an extended partition - and created root, swap and boot on this partition
PLEASE NOTE: ALL THIS WHILE I ENSURED THAT NONE OF THE NEW PARTITIONS OVERWRITE ANY OF THE SECTORS WHERE THE INITIAL FREE SPACE (I.E. PREDESKTOP AREA) WAS.

I rechecked the above thrice before committing the changes to the disk.

2006-04-09T09:38:00.000+05:30

#HDD setup#
IBM PREDESKTOP AREA - my first challenge
My T41p shipped with preinstalled WIN XP Professional. Unlike earlier times, I did not get any recovery CDs with the system. Thus, I was in a fix - how do I repartition my hard disk and make space for installing a Linux distro without losing my licensed Win XP installation?

Repartitioning would mean that I lose the predesktop area where all the installation files are stored....

I started with a google search to see if others also faced this problem.... YES they did and I also came across a number of solutions. But every solution suggested that I create a set of recovery discs before doing anything. And if creation is not possible then connect with IBM to send me a set.

I looked up IBM website and learnt that recovery discs can be created. some other websites....like the one below also suggested the same. I tried all options but could not create the discs...
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2006/01/18/ibm-lenovo-thinkpad-recovery-cd/006/01/18/ibm-lenovo-thinkpad-recovery-cd/

I called up IBM and they requested me to download the latest Rescue and Recovery program (around 475 MB) from their website. I did that.... but still the option for creating recovery discs was not available. They also could not help me create the discs.

Later I learnt that T41p does not carry the image that allows creation of recovery discs. Other T series models however offer this option.

All this had not solved my problem..... but atleast I knew the limitations by now.....

2006-04-08T23:20:00.000+05:30

A Thinkpad? .... that ugly looking black box?
....this is how some of my freinds reacted when I told them I was buying a new Thinkpad T41p.

My response to them and to all others who think similarly......"Wait till you start using a Thinkpad... you will not think about using any other machine after that"

Yes, my Thinkpad is a black beauty.... a good friend (KB) recommended one to me a year back. I started with an R50e notebook and when I had to upgrade I could not think of anything but another Thinkpad to replace it. And T41p...... its a powerhouse....
1. Great keyboard (well.... every Thinkpad has one)
2. Pentium M 1.7 Ghz processor
3. 1 GB RAM
4. 60 GB 7200 RPM HDD
5. SXGA display (its very very crisp..... better than Truebrite)
6. Five and a half hours backup with the extended 9 cell battery
7. FireGL T2 128 MBb Video card (...needless to say that I can play Need for Speed without any jerky screens)

All this in a sleek ~1" thick body....
It does lack one thing..... 802.11g (it only has 802.11b capability with its centrino technology)

I have started to play with this powerhouse...... and am loving every bit of it.....