No you can't actually change too many of the skins in OO.O, atleast not the way you want to. So what do we do? We tell the company what we want (surprised?), they aren't MicroSoft, so don't treat them that way.
http://qa.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=18829
Sign up for an account and then go to that website and hit "vote" The most votes you can add to the thread are 2. So toss them up there along with a comment, and we may actually see this in the next iteration.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Intrepid Ibex! Let's customize
Cool, the newest version of Ubuntu is out.
Here is a record of how I am changing/adding to my version of Ubuntu. or What to do now that you've installed Intrepid Ibex. This is more than a tutorial to get software, this is an instruction book to get things done. I am going to let you know what you are doing, because most of this is basic type stuff that you should be mildly familiar with.
Plug in the Internet, and grab any updates
*ok, just to get this out of the way; This walk-through is pretty thorough, but if a window pops up “Package Installer” and it has a button that says “Install Package?” then click that button. When it is done installing (and it will say it is done), click close (it will usually be the only button you can press). You see what I'm saying? I'm going to hold your hand, but I won't change your diaper. I describe what each piece of software is for, if you think you might not need it don't download it. Oky dokey, let's hit the ground running.
Add Some Software
Applications > Add/Remove Programs
Change “Show” to “All available applications” at the top of this window
You can go through most of the higher starred software/codecs, but here is what I would recommend atleast:
(Thanks to ubuntu-unleashed)
Software to uninstall
I may have missed a few because of poor note-keeping, so I will update this later, these uninstallations are done in Synaptic Manager as well
Sucky installs
And now the software that is a bit more trouble to get a hold of:
The following two are tricky and thus get their own posts so as not to eat up too much space over here
Songbird (links to other blog post) This is a music player that runs like iTunes (miss it?) and plays nice with your iPod
Vuze (link to other blog post) This is a kickbutt bittorrent downloader (torrents are the files pirates use to share music/movies/anything)
Software Tweaks: See if you would like these and click on over to the blog post
Changing the default saving of Open Office to the Microsoft Office standards, everyone can read doc So let's do it.
Changing Compiz to the most useful settings in the world, or how I got rid of all the overkill and still left Ubuntu looking pretty.
Firefox: Fire up the fox, Tools > Add-Ons > Get Add-Ons
Must Haves (most require reboots and will ask questions after):
Reboot like it asks you (don't worry it will restore your tabs, and thus this page).
and finally send a self addressed and stamped envelope to the following address to get a nifty "powered by Ubuntu" sticker.
System76, Inc. (Free Sticker)
1582 S. Parker Rd. Ste. 310
Denver, Colorado 80231
Here is a record of how I am changing/adding to my version of Ubuntu. or What to do now that you've installed Intrepid Ibex. This is more than a tutorial to get software, this is an instruction book to get things done. I am going to let you know what you are doing, because most of this is basic type stuff that you should be mildly familiar with.
Plug in the Internet, and grab any updates
*ok, just to get this out of the way; This walk-through is pretty thorough, but if a window pops up “Package Installer” and it has a button that says “Install Package?” then click that button. When it is done installing (and it will say it is done), click close (it will usually be the only button you can press). You see what I'm saying? I'm going to hold your hand, but I won't change your diaper. I describe what each piece of software is for, if you think you might not need it don't download it. Oky dokey, let's hit the ground running.
Add Some Software
Applications > Add/Remove Programs
Change “Show” to “All available applications” at the top of this window
You can go through most of the higher starred software/codecs, but here is what I would recommend atleast:
- K3B - for all of my cd/dvd burning needs
(Thanks to ubuntu-unleashed)
- VLC Player -because it is the best media player out there
- Skype -Let's you use your computer like a telephone to call ppl!
- Advanced Desktop Effects- Compiz Graphical Userface -for making your computer do pretty visual things (don't worry, we'll edit this later so that your windows don't wiggle)
- 7zip -This is necessary to uncompress certain files, it is better to just install it now than worry about it later
- Gstreamer -Install all of these that you can find, they let you watch DVDs and play MP3s, they are not open source formats, and that is Ubuntu's excuse for not having them preinstalled
- Microsoft Core Fonts -it is dumb, but needed
- Pidgin -like AIM and Google Chat all rolled into one
- Sun Java 6.0 Plugin
- Sun Java 6 runtime
Software to uninstall
I may have missed a few because of poor note-keeping, so I will update this later, these uninstallations are done in Synaptic Manager as well
- Brasero Disc Burning We are using K3B instead
- Ekiga Softphone We are using Skype instead
- Transmission We are using Vuze instead, you may like this more than Vuze, but whatever it sucks in my book
Sucky installs
And now the software that is a bit more trouble to get a hold of:
- Crossover Office -codeweavers.com and look for the Debian / Ubuntu install package (32bit) This will let us run Office, and Photoshop
- Crossover Games -codeweavers.com and look for the Debian / Ubuntu install package (32bit) For games like the awesome Counter Strike: Source
- Picasa 3 for Linux http://picasa.google.com/linux/ On the next page look for the link that ends in “i386.deb” this is for you to click on ;-)
- Google Desktop - http://desktop.google.com/en/linux/download.html You'll be going with “for Debian/Ubuntu x86” When you download this just open, do not save. It will go straight to package installer for you. If it doesn't then you didn't get a good download, just go back and do it again.
Once it is done go to Applications > Google Desktop > Google Desktop Preferences. Help improve their service (check the box! Do it!) and agree.
Firefox will fire up, click on the “Gmail” tab click the Index box, and enter your info. Click on the “Display” tab and change the default search type to “Desktop”, tell it you want 10 results, search by default, 50 results per page in browser, change the hotkey to your super key (windows icon button, it's between alt and ctrl usually... nobody uses it, don't lie to yourself. It's more useless than the Insert key). Save that bad boy and let's keep rolling.
- flash -This is gonna let you view pretty videos on youtube http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
The following two are tricky and thus get their own posts so as not to eat up too much space over here
Songbird (links to other blog post) This is a music player that runs like iTunes (miss it?) and plays nice with your iPod
Vuze (link to other blog post) This is a kickbutt bittorrent downloader (torrents are the files pirates use to share music/movies/anything)
Software Tweaks: See if you would like these and click on over to the blog post
Changing the default saving of Open Office to the Microsoft Office standards, everyone can read doc So let's do it.
Changing Compiz to the most useful settings in the world, or how I got rid of all the overkill and still left Ubuntu looking pretty.
Firefox: Fire up the fox, Tools > Add-Ons > Get Add-Ons
Must Haves (most require reboots and will ask questions after):
- Adblock Plus -blocks all the advertisements that pop up on pages, you can always allow ads by clicking on the stop sign at the top of the page. Or you can block things by right clicking on them and telling adblock to block. Add whatever the top/recommended list is for your area.
- Customize Google -take some time going through this, but for gods sake get rid of ads
- Stealther
- StumbleUpon: for finding and sharing websites
- Delicious Bookmarks: If you need to access your bookmarks from multiple sites this is a great tool.
Reboot like it asks you (don't worry it will restore your tabs, and thus this page).
and finally send a self addressed and stamped envelope to the following address to get a nifty "powered by Ubuntu" sticker.
System76, Inc. (Free Sticker)
1582 S. Parker Rd. Ste. 310
Denver, Colorado 80231
Installing Vuze
**or you can now do it the easy way and click on Intrepid (8.10) and 32bit here http://www.detector-pro.com/2008/10/how-to-install-vuze-azureus-40-on.html**
Vuze -To download like a champ. Ok so you got that install of Songbird down pat? Cause we got another to do now :P Since it is the same run of commands there is slightly less detail as to what we are doing. If you did the other install everything will look quite familiar.
Go here and dload that sucka: http://www.vuze.com/app
Move it from your desktop to your home folder
Then fire up Terminal (Applications>Accessories>Terminal) and move that file to the /opt folder
Change to the directory we just moved our file to
Uncompress that bad boy (j is for .tar.bz2)
Type the following to change ownership of the file and replace username with your username
Make sure it runs
If it fires up alright, then File > Close vuze and close the Terminal
Right click on Applications
Select “Edit Menus”
A window will pop up, in the left pane select Applications > Sound & Video
Click on “New Item” on the right side of the window
Enter in fields as such
Name: Vuze
Command: /opt/vuze/vuze
Comment: torrentclient
It should find a nice picture of a frog to use as an icon for you :)
Hit OK, and OK, and Close
woot, celebrate by downloading content you didn't pay for!
and then stop celebrating and continue tweaking
Vuze -To download like a champ. Ok so you got that install of Songbird down pat? Cause we got another to do now :P Since it is the same run of commands there is slightly less detail as to what we are doing. If you did the other install everything will look quite familiar.
Go here and dload that sucka: http://www.vuze.com/app
Move it from your desktop to your home folder
Then fire up Terminal (Applications>Accessories>Terminal) and move that file to the /opt folder
sudo mv Vuze_Installer.tar.bz2 /opt
Change to the directory we just moved our file to
cd /opt/
Uncompress that bad boy (j is for .tar.bz2)
sudo tar jxvf Vuze_Installer.tar.bz2
Type the following to change ownership of the file and replace username with your username
sudo chown -R username:username vuze
Make sure it runs
cd /opt/vuze
./vuze
If it fires up alright, then File > Close vuze and close the Terminal
Right click on Applications
Select “Edit Menus”
A window will pop up, in the left pane select Applications > Sound & Video
Click on “New Item” on the right side of the window
Enter in fields as such
Name: Vuze
Command: /opt/vuze/vuze
Comment: torrentclient
It should find a nice picture of a frog to use as an icon for you :)
Hit OK, and OK, and Close
woot, celebrate by downloading content you didn't pay for!
and then stop celebrating and continue tweaking
Installing Songbird 1
Songbird v 1.0 -It looks like iTunes, and plays nice with the iPod. Strap on a pair, this is the hardest install (shout out to ubuntu geek for doing a lot of the work)
Go to this website (http://getsongbird.com/download/) and click on the giant download button for linux i686
When the box pops up click “save”
Important: Firefox will probably save this to the desktop (check your desktop and see)
Click “places” in your toolbar then “Home Folder”
When this opens up drag and drop the newly downloaded file into your home folder(from your desktop).
Open terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal)
Type the following to move the file to the opt folder (this folder has security in place so we access it from terminal):
Enter your password if it asks you (duh!)
Type the following (hit enter after each line, and caps DO matter, copy and paste via right click):
Change over to the directory we just moved this bad boy to
Uncompress this with the tar command (z indicates our filetype .tar.gz, x means extraxt, v means verbose or display what is happening in terminal which is useful if something doesn't run right, f means filename to follow)
Type the following to change ownership of the file and replace username with (drum roll) your username (note: the second one is actually group... but you don't really need to know that)
Change directory
Start the program and make sure it works (close it when you are done)
Voila (keep reading)! Run through their little menus and your program is up and running!
Well, almost Voila. Since you probably do not want to use terminal to start the program, let's install a shortcut with a pretty picture. You can either follow along with the steps below or you can go to this website (http://mat-u.deviantart.com/art/Songbird-Icons-30962307) and download what I think is a much nicer icon image and then try to follow along (you'll have to save to desktop, double click open, drag and drop the .png file you like into the home folder... starting to feel like a familiar action?)
Kill terminal and reopen (this will close songbird)
Open terminal
Okay we will now change the directory we are in
Now we are going to rename the icon file using the move command
Now we are going to copy the icon to a folder where all the icons live ,)
Okay we are done with terminal, so close that bad boy
Right click on Applications
Select “Edit Menus”
A window will pop up, in the left pane select Applications > Sound & Video
Click on “New Item” on the right side of the window
Enter in fields as such
Name: Songbird
Command: /opt/Songbird/songbird
Comment: musicplayer
Now click on the choose icon, and click on “browse” of the window that pops up.
Navigate to usr > share >pixmaps and hit enter
Now you can scroll down to songbird (it looks like an egg)
Hit OK, and OK, and Close
Way to kick butt! You are all done, fire up Songbird (Applications > Sound & Video > Songbird) and let's listen to some music as we continue.
Go to this website (http://getsongbird.com/download/) and click on the giant download button for linux i686
When the box pops up click “save”
Important: Firefox will probably save this to the desktop (check your desktop and see)
Click “places” in your toolbar then “Home Folder”
When this opens up drag and drop the newly downloaded file into your home folder(from your desktop).
Open terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal)
Type the following to move the file to the opt folder (this folder has security in place so we access it from terminal):
sudo mv Songbird_1.0.0-860_linux-i686.tar.gz /opt
Enter your password if it asks you (duh!)
Type the following (hit enter after each line, and caps DO matter, copy and paste via right click):
Change over to the directory we just moved this bad boy to
cd /opt
Uncompress this with the tar command (z indicates our filetype .tar.gz, x means extraxt, v means verbose or display what is happening in terminal which is useful if something doesn't run right, f means filename to follow)
sudo tar xzvf Songbird_1.0.0-860_linux-i686.tar.gz
Type the following to change ownership of the file and replace username with (drum roll) your username (note: the second one is actually group... but you don't really need to know that)
sudo chown -R username:username Songbird
Change directory
cd /opt/Songbird
Start the program and make sure it works (close it when you are done)
./songbird
Voila (keep reading)! Run through their little menus and your program is up and running!
Well, almost Voila. Since you probably do not want to use terminal to start the program, let's install a shortcut with a pretty picture. You can either follow along with the steps below or you can go to this website (http://mat-u.deviantart.com/art/Songbird-Icons-30962307) and download what I think is a much nicer icon image and then try to follow along (you'll have to save to desktop, double click open, drag and drop the .png file you like into the home folder... starting to feel like a familiar action?)
Kill terminal and reopen (this will close songbird)
Open terminal
Okay we will now change the directory we are in
cd /opt/Songbird/chrome/icons/default
Now we are going to rename the icon file using the move command
mv default.xpm songbird.xpm
Now we are going to copy the icon to a folder where all the icons live ,)
sudo cp songbird.xpm /usr/share/pixmaps
Okay we are done with terminal, so close that bad boy
Right click on Applications
Select “Edit Menus”
A window will pop up, in the left pane select Applications > Sound & Video
Click on “New Item” on the right side of the window
Enter in fields as such
Name: Songbird
Command: /opt/Songbird/songbird
Comment: musicplayer
Now click on the choose icon, and click on “browse” of the window that pops up.
Navigate to usr > share >pixmaps and hit enter
Now you can scroll down to songbird (it looks like an egg)
Hit OK, and OK, and Close
Way to kick butt! You are all done, fire up Songbird (Applications > Sound & Video > Songbird) and let's listen to some music as we continue.
Gimp Tricks
I can't quite give up Photoshop (using it through crossover currently) but for those linux junkies out there, or if you don't have a copy of Photoshop (and don't just use picasa):
Here are 5 Gimp tricks that every linux user should become familiar with. It's easy I promise.
Here are 5 Gimp tricks that every linux user should become familiar with. It's easy I promise.
Open Office .org : Defaulting to .doc
Sick of odf (open document format) being the standard format? me too, let's change it
- Open up your Open Office program of choice
- Go to Tools
- Go to Options (you will have to click the little + sign to expand the options there)
- Click on General
- At the bottom you'll see something labeled Default File Format (hazaa the holy grail)
- Make sure that Text Document is selected under the Document type heading
- Under the Always save as heading scroll up to Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP
Now let's rock this a bit further and address file format's for Excel and PowerPoint - Select Spreadsheet under the Document type heading and scroll to Microsoft Excel 97/2000/XP
- Select Presentation under the Document type heading and scroll to Microsoft PowerPoint 97/2000/XP **make sure not to click on the one that ends in template**
Sunday, November 30, 2008
This Month in Music: November
Here is a long playlist of music I've found, and enjoyed this past November.
If you know how to get the music I suggest you do.
Playlist (Artist - Track title; Album):
Everlast - Friend; Love, War, and the Ghost of Whitey Ford
K. T. Tunstall - Hold On; Drastic Fantastic
Kings Of Leon - Sex On Fire; Only By The Night
If you know how to get the music I suggest you do.
Playlist (Artist - Track title; Album):
Everlast - Friend; Love, War, and the Ghost of Whitey Ford
K. T. Tunstall - Hold On; Drastic Fantastic
Kings Of Leon - Sex On Fire; Only By The Night
Coldplay - Lost!; Viva la Vida
Live - I Walk the Line (cover); Awake: The Best of Live
Ryan Adams - Magick; Cardinology
Adele - Right as Rain; 19
Counting Crows - You Can't Count on Me; Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings
and if you really like the music toss a few bucks at the artist or xpn.org I think $3 is a good price for this month in music (just don't give it to coldplay, they have enough money).
Monday, November 10, 2008
New Macro
A macro is an action basically.
Sick of merging a cell, aligning it to top, left, and then turning on word wrap in Excel (2003)? Me too, let's make a macro for it.
- Fire up Excel
- Tools > Macro > Record New Macro
- Title it: MergeWrap, Store in: Personal Macro Workbook, Hit OKey Dokey (a little macro box will pop up that is now recording whatever you do!)
- Highlight a few a block of cells (a 2x2 block will do)
- Right click > Format Cells...
- Alignment Tab
- Horizontal: Left (indent), Vertical: Top, then check the boxes for Wrap Text and Merge Cells
- Hit Okey Dokey
- The little macro window that is in the center of your screen has a stop button (square...) press it.
- Right click on your toolbar (the thing at the top with all the buttons ,P) and go to Customize...
- Make sure you are in the Commands tab then scroll down to Macros in the Categories pane (left side).
- Drag and drop "Custom menu item" onto the toolbar, where you would like our merge-wordwrap icon to go
- Do Not OK Out of the window yet!
- Right click on your newly created icon, at the bottom you will see "Assign Macro..." click it
- Select MergeWrap and hit OK
Right click on our icon and click on edit button image. Now you get to draw in an image you like, I went with one long line across the top and a small downward arrow and a few short lines at the bottom. Note: I only used black, the rest is automatically transparent. Hit ok when you are done.- Right click on our icon, Change the name to "Merge Wrap"
- Right click on our icon, click on Text Only (in Menus)
- Celbrate good times, come on!
Friday, November 7, 2008
My dumb excel mistake
If you accidentaly copy and paste a value into excel and try to interact with it you may get a #VALUE! error, you copied a space after your number accidentaly.
It's okay dumb dumb, I did it too. >_<
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Far away one day, but hopefully not too far
An ongoing list of things I'd like to get into
Remodel my keyboard/monitor/tower (references below)
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Not from concentrate
I found a new webcomic that is pretty funny:
Here are a few of my fav.s
Here are a few of my fav.s
- http://nfccomic.com/index.php?comic=247
- http://nfccomic.com/index.php?comic=229
- http://nfccomic.com/index.php?comic=221
- http://nfccomic.com/index.php?comic=217
- http://nfccomic.com/index.php?comic=212
- http://nfccomic.com/index.php?comic=206
- http://nfccomic.com/index.php?comic=75
- http://nfccomic.com/index.php?comic=48
- http://nfccomic.com/index.php?comic=46
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
CSS: Getting specific with lists
Cascading Style Sheets offer an opportunity to get specific with lists, and here is how:
The Results of the above code:
To create a specific outcome solely for unordered list's (ul) items (li), as opposed to all list items (li) do the following
ul li { }
for all lists you would simply use
li { }
This can be applied specifically for your blogger account with the following markup:
example: from this website!
.post ul
{ margin:0; padding:0; }
.post ul li
{ line-height:1.5em; list-style:none; background:url("http://www.blogblog.com/scribe/list_icon.gif") no-repeat $startSide .3em; vertical-align:top; padding-top: 0; padding-$endSide: 0; padding-bottom: .6em; padding-$startSide: 17px; margin:0; }
The Results of the above code:
- This is an ordered list
- This is a second item
- This is an unordered list
- This is a second item
This same thought process can be applied to any set of sequential markup tags. Enjoy and code safely ,-)
Adding a signature
Microsoft Outlook Tutorial:
Automatically insert a signature in all new messages or in all messages that you reply to or forward
Automatically insert a signature in all new messages or in all messages that you reply to or forward
- From the main Microsoft Outlook window, on the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Mail Format tab.
- In the Compose in this message format list, click the message format that you want to use the signature with.
- Under Signatures, select an e-mail account, and then choose the signatures that you want to use for new messages and for replies and forwards. You can use a different signature for each.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Office '07 and docx
Since it isn't standard yet, here is how to have your new version of word (2007) save as a doc, instead of docx by default.
Tutorial: Changing the default file association from docx to doc
Source: Microsoft
Source: Microsoft
- Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Word Options.
- Click Save.
- Under Save documents, next to Save files in this format, select Word 2003-97 Document (*.doc).
note: This process should be about the same for the other pieces of software in Office. Remember that when you change this you are saying, "even if I save this on my computer, just for me, it is going to put the file in a downgraded format." That said, when possible save as docx for yourself.
note2: Computers at the UD Library and many other sites have Office 2007 now.
Bonus Tutorial: Default font in Word '07
Source: Microsoft
- If your document already contains text that is formatted with the properties that you want to use, select that text. If you are starting from a blank document, go to step
On the Home tab, click the Font Dialog Box Launcher, and then click the Font tab.- Select the options that you want to apply to the default font, such as font style and font size. If you selected text in step 1, the properties of the selected text are set in the dialog box.
- Click Default, and then click Yes.
*image is taken from ms, but not bandwidth pirated :P
Friday, October 31, 2008
This Month in Music: October
Here is a long playlist of music I've found, and enjoyed this past October.
If you know my aDrive information, then hop on and check out the tunes section and then look for this month. You can grab either the mix CD of the following tracks, or down all of the albums.
Playlist (Artist - Track title; Album):
Old Crow Medicine Show - Wagon Wheel; Old Crow Medicine Show
Ben harper - Walk Away;
Devendra Banhart - Lover; Smoker Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
Jason Michael Carroll - I Can Sleep When I'm Dead; Waitin' In The Country
Death Cab For Cutie - Soul Meets Body; Plans
Butch Walker - The Weight Of Her; Sycamore Meadows
Snow Patrol - Take Back The CIty; A Hundred Million Sun
x The Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love?; Singles Going Stead
xAndrew Lipke - Get It Over With; Motherpearl & Dynamite
Elvis Costello - Blame It On Cain; My Aim is True
The Posies - Dream All Day; Frosting On The Beater
Paolo Nutini - New Shoes; These Streets
The Killers - Human; Human
The Cat Empire - Two Shoes; Two Shoes
The Cat Empire - The Car Song; Two Shoes
Sea Wolf - Winter Window;
and if you really like the music toss a few bucks at the artist or xpn.org I think $5 is a good price for this month in music.If you know my aDrive information, then hop on and check out the tunes section and then look for this month. You can grab either the mix CD of the following tracks, or down all of the albums.
Playlist (Artist - Track title; Album):
Old Crow Medicine Show - Wagon Wheel; Old Crow Medicine Show
Ben harper - Walk Away;
Devendra Banhart - Lover; Smoker Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
Jason Michael Carroll - I Can Sleep When I'm Dead; Waitin' In The Country
Death Cab For Cutie - Soul Meets Body; Plans
Butch Walker - The Weight Of Her; Sycamore Meadows
Snow Patrol - Take Back The CIty; A Hundred Million Sun
x The Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love?; Singles Going Stead
xAndrew Lipke - Get It Over With; Motherpearl & Dynamite
Elvis Costello - Blame It On Cain; My Aim is True
The Posies - Dream All Day; Frosting On The Beater
Paolo Nutini - New Shoes; These Streets
The Killers - Human; Human
The Cat Empire - Two Shoes; Two Shoes
The Cat Empire - The Car Song; Two Shoes
Sea Wolf - Winter Window;
MGMT - Kids
Jason Mraz - I'm Yours
Lil Wayne - Mrs. Officer
xThe Stereos - I Really Love You
James Otto - Just Got Started Lovin' You
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
CrossOver
CrossOver is available for free (both their pro version and games version)
http://down.codeweavers.com/
Also I found this nifty site that gives you 50gigs of free storage and no upload-size limit. Sounds down right awesome. Upload is a bit slow, but that is probably because of my internet connection.
ADrive.com
http://down.codeweavers.com/
Also I found this nifty site that gives you 50gigs of free storage and no upload-size limit. Sounds down right awesome. Upload is a bit slow, but that is probably because of my internet connection.
ADrive.com
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
New Ubuntu!
Woo, looks like ubuntu will be releasing a new version of their operating system on the 30th of October 2008. Super excited, and (dare I say) intrepid.
Intro
Windows, and Macintosh are examples of an Operating System (OS). When windows released Vista it was an upgrade from XP. Ubuntu is a free OS, and it is releasing an upgrade as well.
*I use the term upgrade lightly because there are often big changes
Ubuntu releases by Y.MM and Adjective-Animal (the names are given through alpha order, like hurricanes). So to give you some background:
6.10: Edgy Eft
7.04: Feisty Fawn
7.10: Gutsy Gibbon
8.04: Hardy Heron
and now
8.10: Intrepid Ibex
When I install I'll post up notes of instructions on setting up network sharing, watching dvds and all the programs I stumble into and find important. (I'm doing a fresh install, it leaves a nice new car smell on my computer).
Intro
Windows, and Macintosh are examples of an Operating System (OS). When windows released Vista it was an upgrade from XP. Ubuntu is a free OS, and it is releasing an upgrade as well.
*I use the term upgrade lightly because there are often big changes
Ubuntu releases by Y.MM and Adjective-Animal (the names are given through alpha order, like hurricanes). So to give you some background:
6.10: Edgy Eft
7.04: Feisty Fawn
7.10: Gutsy Gibbon
8.04: Hardy Heron
and now
8.10: Intrepid Ibex
When I install I'll post up notes of instructions on setting up network sharing, watching dvds and all the programs I stumble into and find important. (I'm doing a fresh install, it leaves a nice new car smell on my computer).
Donate Blood!
Save lives, and eat cookies. Personally I'm partial to donating platalets, you can donate every 2weeks and you get to watch a movie while you're there (double rewards too).
Donate Bloode
Donate Platelets
ph#302-737-8400
ph#888-825-6638
*I've always found it easier to call, but to each his own (I know some ppl don't like human interaction).
Donate Bloode
Donate Platelets
ph#302-737-8400
ph#888-825-6638
*I've always found it easier to call, but to each his own (I know some ppl don't like human interaction).
Stumbling Across the Globe
Here are a list of the places I've traveled:
- Spain
- British Virgin Islands
- S.Korea
- 01/01/07: Thailand
- 01/01/08: Argentina (1m); Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Bari Loche, Cordoba
- //08: Canada (1w); Toronto
- 10/20/08: Canada (1d); Toronto
Importing / Making Audiobooks
*for your iPod
Here are the methods, program and know-how I've amassed.
As you can tell it is to the point. There are two ways of doing this that make sense and are timely (sry Linux, no-go)
iTunes 8+ (XP, MAC)
http://aldoblog.com/2008/09/itunes-8-is-great-for-audiobook-lovers/
You're surprised, I know, I was too. They have made picking out the settings much easier (actually they do it for you and you just select Audiobook). Most importantly it takes all of the tracks from one CD and joines them together. It still lacks the concept that we might want chapter breaks (with pictures!), or that there may be more than one cd to a novel. So you get one big track per CD. Notably though, it remembers where you were in the track, and removes the song/s from your music (so when you shuffle it doesn't play).
Splasm's Audiobookbuilder (MAC only)
http://www.splasm.com/audiobookbuilder/
This is why iTunes should have some kind of third party add-on ability like Firefox. This software looks so easy to use it makes me feel like I'm shooting myself in the foot trying to use iTunes or any other method. Just look at the prett picture below (you can even click the image if you want to view the blog I *borrowed* the image from).
*Heck if I can figure out where chapter breaks fall in, maybe it is on the CD or the case, I usually find them while I'm listening.
Here are the methods, program and know-how I've amassed.
As you can tell it is to the point. There are two ways of doing this that make sense and are timely (sry Linux, no-go)
iTunes 8+ (XP, MAC)
http://aldoblog.com/2008/09/itunes-8-is-great-for-audiobook-lovers/
You're surprised, I know, I was too. They have made picking out the settings much easier (actually they do it for you and you just select Audiobook). Most importantly it takes all of the tracks from one CD and joines them together. It still lacks the concept that we might want chapter breaks (with pictures!), or that there may be more than one cd to a novel. So you get one big track per CD. Notably though, it remembers where you were in the track, and removes the song/s from your music (so when you shuffle it doesn't play).
Splasm's Audiobookbuilder (MAC only)
http://www.splasm.com/audiobookbuilder/
This is why iTunes should have some kind of third party add-on ability like Firefox. This software looks so easy to use it makes me feel like I'm shooting myself in the foot trying to use iTunes or any other method. Just look at the prett picture below (you can even click the image if you want to view the blog I *borrowed* the image from).
*Heck if I can figure out where chapter breaks fall in, maybe it is on the CD or the case, I usually find them while I'm listening.
Monday, October 20, 2008
My new projector
So I was all set to buy my new optoma ep719 (open box) from Circuit Shitty. Low and behold, they effed up, I shouldn't have been sent to this other store without them first checking on the product. It wasn't there, and if it were it would have been $800(-open box discount) instead of the $700 they told me at the other store, or $600 like I paid for it last time. (long story short about last time, I thought a column on the far left was vertically shifted on high-def display and they wouldn't check it in store. so I returned it and put a voodoo curse on their stock shares)
They did however offer me a different open box projector Optoma HD65 at $720 (more than I wanted to spend, but also $280 off regular price). No re-stocking fee if I return it in 30days, and of course it came with the wrong remote. Well, that's Circuit Shitty for you. Give you a good deal and then poop on your chest when you are trying to figure out why you're new electronics don't work.
On the plus side it has an amazing picture from what I've seen of the VGA (or D-Sub) hook up. The darn thing doesn't have a DVI, but it does have HDMI and Component. So that is kind of goofy, but I can't complain because now I can use the component out from the nice DVD player. I'll just have to buy a converter for my computer's DVI port.
Spec.s
1600 Lumens (not as bright as the other one, but this is for movies not power point presentations)
4000:1 contrast ratio
DLP (because LCD is crap side by side and life length)
16:9 Aspect Ratio
It says it is compatible up to 1080p, but I'm pretty sure it maxes out at 720p. More on resolutions when I actually make sense of them. Wikipedia has a sticky mess of an explanation, that is probably just too in depth for me. What is important to me is the picture they have.
They did however offer me a different open box projector Optoma HD65 at $720 (more than I wanted to spend, but also $280 off regular price). No re-stocking fee if I return it in 30days, and of course it came with the wrong remote. Well, that's Circuit Shitty for you. Give you a good deal and then poop on your chest when you are trying to figure out why you're new electronics don't work.
On the plus side it has an amazing picture from what I've seen of the VGA (or D-Sub) hook up. The darn thing doesn't have a DVI, but it does have HDMI and Component. So that is kind of goofy, but I can't complain because now I can use the component out from the nice DVD player. I'll just have to buy a converter for my computer's DVI port.
Spec.s
1600 Lumens (not as bright as the other one, but this is for movies not power point presentations)
4000:1 contrast ratio
DLP (because LCD is crap side by side and life length)
16:9 Aspect Ratio
It says it is compatible up to 1080p, but I'm pretty sure it maxes out at 720p. More on resolutions when I actually make sense of them. Wikipedia has a sticky mess of an explanation, that is probably just too in depth for me. What is important to me is the picture they have.
On there you can see the most common LCD screen resolution (1280x1024 or SXGA), how that compares to the native projector resolution (1280x720, also called HD720) and the projector's maximum resolution (1920x1080, also called HD1080, also called freakin' B-U-T-Full).
Along with this one needs to know the capacity of the different ports we have on the back of these dumb machines and cables we use. So here we go:
Cables (maximum resolutions)
Composite: 480i
S-Video : 480p
VGA/D-Sub :
HDMI : 1080p (and up)
Component : 1080p (and up, they don't make tvs better than this yet though)
Sources (maximum output)
DVD Players: 720p (via component)
Blue-Ray Players: 1080p (via hdmi or component)
Computer graphics cards: + (via vga or dvi) (my new Nvidia card can output reaaaly high)
So where are you going to send this
TVs: up to 1080p
Projectors: my Optoma HD65 is a native XXX and max XXX
Monitors: most are set to 1280x1024px
*coming back to this, but I have a busy life ya'know
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Web development
Here are a few websites that I have un/officially helped in bringing about.
4 Sweet Feet
Creek Valley Estates
4 Sweet Feet
Creek Valley Estates
Reinstallation order for computers
This is the order that Dell suggests re/installing crap onto your computer
Desktop System Software (DSS) or Notebook System Software (NSS) - A vital utility that provides critical updates and patches for the operating system. If you are reinstalling Windows or updating all drivers, it is important that this software be installed first. Currently, the DSS and NSS are not required for computers with Windows Vista®. This is located under the System and Configuration Utilities Category on the Drivers and Downloads page.
Chipset - Helps Windows control system board components and controllers. This is located under the Chipset Category on the Drivers and Downloads page.
Video Adapter - Enhances video performance. This is located under the Video Adapter Category on the Drivers and Downloads page.
Network Interface Card (NIC) - Enhances the network controller for Internet or network access. This is located under the Network Category on the Drivers and Downloads page.
Audio Adapter - Enables and enhances the audio controller. This is located under the Audio Category on the Drivers and Downloads page.
Modem - Allows dial-up capability. This is located under the Communication Category on the Drivers and Downloads page.
Wireless Network Card - Enables and enhances the wireless network controller. This is located under the Network Category on the Drivers and Downloads page.
Touchpad, Pointer, Trackstick, Mice, and Keyboards - Enhances the pointing device features. This is located under the Mouse & Keyboards Category on the Drivers and Downloads page.
Other Devices
Bluetooth® Module located under the Communication Category on the Drivers and Downloads page
Dell Wireless Mobile Broadband Cards located under the Communication Category on the Drivers and Downloads page
PCMCIA/Smartcard controller located under the Security Category on the Drivers and Downloads page
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
My computer!
So I built it myself, and here are all of the beautiful spec.s that I would like to remember in case I ever have to reinstall drivers or replace parts.
Parts and components:
Parts and components:
- Intel DQ-965GF; 2PCI, 1PCI-Express x1, 1PCI-Express x16, 4 Ram Slots (up to 8Gigs), 6Sata inputs, 1Parallel ATA
- Intel Core 2-duo
- 4Gigs of DDR2 Ram
- 320Gigs of space on 1Sata port
- Lightscribe DVD+/- writer on 1Sata port: note that lightscribe is (as of this posting) not supported in Linux, besides that it burns everything I throw at it
- Dynex 5in1 card reader
- 400Watt power supply in some case I found for cheap online
- Logitech G7 mouse: note that buttons don't play nice in Linux (more on that later)
- Compaq wireless keyboard cat. no. 26-762
- Dell 17" monitor model# E172FP
- and crappy 5.1 surround that dell handed out four years ago with every computer
My first projector
I've hunted around for a while now, and Optoma's EP719 has beaten the competition. DLP has a longer life, less jogging, and lower price. I know technology has a way of making things obsolete in a few years, but I'm investing in this one. It's stat.s are beautiful and has just what I want as far as inputs are concerned. Word of warning, several sites differ on the actual in/outputs on this bad-boy. What I have listed below is what I've found true for Circuit City. You didn't read that wrong. No-where else sells them, and technically I'm not sure they do since they don't carry them online or at their stores. You actually need to go to their stores and have them order and ship it to you. So hurry before they go bankrupt.
Optoma EP719
Optoma EP719
- brightness: 2000 ansi lumens
- contrast: 2500:1
- resolution: 1024x768 native
- aspect: 4:3
- 1 VGA in, 1 DVI in, 1 s-video in, 1 VGA out
- $600
Knife Patterns
Jay Fisher's website offers many many knife patterns. Quite useful for a person following Basta's Instructable on knife making.
I'll add pictures of my own knives-in-progress later.
I'll add pictures of my own knives-in-progress later.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Thank you!
I'm glad you found something on this site useful enough to want to donate. I hope I can produce more of the same content. Feel free to leave me a comment on this page (if you didn't on add a note to the donate e-mail) and I'll know what I'm doing right.
Sincerely,
Dr.Knoxy
Sincerely,
Dr.Knoxy
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