September 17th, 2008
Dropbox!
I skimmed through my RSS feeds yesterday and saw news about Dropbox and my boyfriend also showed it to me so I thought why not give it a try? After all, it’s a convenient app for people who work on multiple computers and still want to make sure that their files are intact and it also has that capability of sharing so that’s another good thing.
So here are the lovely things about Dropbox:
- You could sync files on various machines via your Dropbox directory.
- If you put files in your Public directory, other users of Dropbox can see them.
- You can associate various machines with Dropbox!
- Even non-Dropbox users can sync files via Dropbox if you invite them to share your directory.
- There’s a free 2GB account for free.
- Uploading/syncing huge amounts of files isn’t quite as painful as uploading to Mediafire, etc. Last night file transfers were roughly 20-35KB/s. Maybe those with better internet access can show you better rates.
- It’s like using CVS or SVN as you have a checkbox when the files are updated.
- You could also view the changes in your Dropbox account via the web user interface.
- You could sync files with your Dropbox directory via web UI upload.
I actually might be missing on the other features because I just installed it last night and had so much fun that I simply had to blog about it now. :D
Packages are available for Fedora Core 9, Ubuntu 8.04 and Ubuntu 7.10. The source is also available. :) Download Dropbox here!
Dependencies:
- GTK 2.12 or higherM
- GLib 2.14 or higher
- Nautilus 2.16 or higher
- Libnotify 0.4.4 or higher
- Wget 1.10 or higher
Make sure you have these dependencies before installing them, ne? :)
Please feel free to check out my screenshots on Flickr. :)
Other screenshots:
- My local Dropbox directory
- setting preferences on your Dropbox’s local directory
- Dropbox’s web user interface
- Account home on the web UI
Share This
By Clair -- 2 comments
September 16th, 2008
The bug day will focus on the kernel so that users will have a better experience of using Ubuntu. The mail from the BugSquad:
This week’s target is *drum roll please*
The Linux Kernel!
* 67 New bugs need a hug
* Over 500 new bugs are in the queue on launchpad
Bookmark it, add it to your calenders, turn over your egg-timers!
* Thursday September 18th
* http://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBugDay/20080918
Can’t stress it enough: everyone can help!
* BLOG IT!
* Wiki-gnome? Add debugging info and stock responses to the wiki page
* Member of bug control? I think you know what to do. *poke*
* If you’re new to all this, head to
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/HelpingWithBugs
Want to have a better Ubuntu Linux? Then join the bug day! :)
If you’re also familiar with other distros’ bug days etc., please feel free to share the information with me here so I could help spread the word. :)
Share This
By Clair -- 0 comments
September 16th, 2008
In my case people just recommended various distributions for me to try out. In my case, whatever most of them used ended up as the one I’d use during the time I’d be searching. It made it easier for me because I could easily ask them about using it. My use of Ubuntu started out as a convenience more than anything. These days, I work in an office where the Linux machines are on Ubuntu so that also makes it easier for me when other users ask me about it too.
There are so many Linux distributions so it’s not easy at all to pick one distro. A bad experience with a particular distro would be able to affect your perspective about Linux. For one, you could try the disro and end up hating it. That or you wonder if there are other distros that are better. On one hand, you could try this distro chooser. Or you could keep trying one on live CD until you find something that you like enough.
The difficulty about trusting the distro chooser is that you might not like the distro at all when you try it for yourself. The problem about the latter is that you could be spending a lot of testing them one after the other. Then again, if you are the type of person that would like the hands on approach, it’s probably worth it. The difficulty is how much time should you give it. Even you knew what applications you want there by default, the hardware compatibilities, etc. sometimes things could be subjective and you would see that there are other personal reasons you might need to factor in, after everything.
I guess these are the main things I see which are necessary for choosing a distro:
- The applications you need.
- Hardware compatibility issues.
- Package manager.
- User interface
- Users
If the distro checks out against all these things and you think you’ve found your distro, maybe you could stick with it for a while and see if it’s all you expect and more. :)
Share This
By Clair -- 1 comment
September 15th, 2008
I just read that Photoshop Filters can be used on GIMP. I’ve used both applications before. But not so often. I mainly use GIMP only for cropping images, not really for a whole lot of image manipulation. Same thing goes for Photoshop.
You could get the user filter for GIMP on the SourceForge page. As for the Photoshop Filters you could get them on the site for them.
I am not really heavy on photo manips and I’d really like to see a good working tutorial for them on GIMP. I hope you could send links or tutorials to me via this blog.
Thanks, folks! :)
Share This
By Clair -- 0 comments
September 14th, 2008
Hey folks, just reminding you to vote for the messaging app you use. :) It’s the middle of the month already and if you haven’t voted yet, check the sidebar of this blog for the poll. :)
So far it seems that there aren’t Empathy nor GyachI users. Is that for real? Or maybe some of you are just lurking out there! :) Don’t be shy :D It’s just a poll and you only have to click your answer to join.
Results will be announced at the end of the month!
Share This
By Clair -- 0 comments
September 12th, 2008
kaylee-frye.
I saw that on Planet Ubuntu people were telling the stories behind the names of their computers and I decided to follow suit. It’s an interesting meme. ^^
My almost two-year old laptop is named kaylee-frye. I named her after Kaylee Frye of the tv series Firefly. Kaylee is the cheerful mechanic of the ship Serenity. She might be a bit child-like sometimes, especially when it comes to her fascination with frilly dresses and strawberries. Kaylee is an awesome mechanic with a big heart. And so I decided that even with a geeky reference, my laptop can have such a sweet name and personality to go with it. (My laptop has some curves. At the time that it was issued, it was the only one with the curves! The other machines were too blockish.)
My old ThinkPad was named Picard, after Jean Luc Picard of Star Trek. And the aging desktop machine at home is named Figaro, after the Figaro twins of Final Fantasy. The desktop machine is a shared one hence the name. But I think that when it comes to my laptops, their names have been patterned after characters of tv shows that have a space theme. :)
What’s your machine’s name? Why? :) I hope you’d care to share the reason here. :)
Share This
By Clair -- 12 comments
September 10th, 2008
Thanks to the blog post of Jed about why you don’t need HJSplit for Linux. I’ve never really had the need to split files nor join files until today.
So apparently when there are files split up by HJSplit and you need to put them together, you only need to use the cat command, as demonstrated on his blog:
cat split-file-name.zip.* > split-file-name.zip
In my case it was:
cat video-filename.* > video-filename.avi
So yes, there’s no need to download and install HJSplit if you’re just going to use it for the purpose of connecting them files. :) Nifty!
Share This
By Clair -- 1 comment
September 10th, 2008
I’ve never heard about jackalopes until I read about the planning for the Jaunty Jackalope release of Ubuntu.
Jaunty jackalope…
How odd and I guess it’s the reason why it’s easy for me to keep thinking about it. But the said reason behind the name:
Shuttleworth wrote, in part, “The Warrior Rabbit is our talisman as we move into a year where we can reasonably expect Ubuntu to ship on several million devices, to consumers who can reasonably expect the software experience to be comparable to those of the traditional big OSV’s - Microsoft and Apple.”
He continued, “The Jackalope is known for being so fast that it’s extremely hard to catch, and breeds only when lightning flashes. Let’s see if we can make booting or resuming Ubuntu blindingly quick. - “Jaunty Jackalope Conceived” from DesktopLinux.com
The animal analogy is interesting and it also speaks of the goal of the project. I do wish that they succeed at it. I’d really love more people to enjoy using Linux in general and I might be biased because I am using Ubuntu at the moment. ^^;
The upcoming release is Intrepid Ibex and after that is Jaunty Jackalope. Let’s see how things go. :)
Share This
By Clair -- 0 comments
September 10th, 2008
And videos, too!
My boyfriend has been using Banshee while I decided to stick with Rhythmbox simply because it’s a default and I wanted to give it a chance. I’ve used Exaile (and it’s one of the players I really like) and Amarok (which is awesome) before and it’s because I used to not like Rhythmbox for some reason or another. Now that I am more used to Rhythmbox, I like using it. But I thought that I should see Banshee because I am curious. So without installing it, I checked it out last night.
Some things I liked about Banshee:
- Many extensions. Waaai~ You could do a lot of things with Banshee!
- It has an equalizer!
- There is a way for you to view the albums and artists sorted out in such a way that even within the same album, you could still segregate the artists. (For multi-artist albums, that is.)
- When you hover the cover art, it will be magnified. It’s useful when want to see a detailed CD cover.
- You could manage your files’ tags vai Nereid.
- You don’t have to add files into your library to play them.
- It looks really clean and sleek.
Now apparently they added video support, which is a good thing! It could replace VLC or Totem as your all-around media player.
Share This
By Clair -- 3 comments
September 9th, 2008
There is a list of tips that Computing Technology blog has given for us who want to learn more about investigating performance problems in Linux.
The list:
- Record the hardware/software configuration.
- Save and organize performance results.
- Write down command line invocations.
- Record research information and URLs.
- The implications of results may be fuzzy.
- All information is useful information (which is why you save it).
- Periodically reviewing your notes can provide new insights.
For explanations on the items listed down, you have to go check the blog and see for yourself. You might be able to relate with them because you might have experienced them already, at one point or another.
I am honestly guilty of not worrying too much about the performance of my computer until something goes really wrong. Though from time to time I monitor how things are in terms of free space (hard drive, as well as swap), I don’t really bother with other things. Well, so far, things have been ok, I guess. My laptop hasn’t suffered anything major. But I do know that I really should save up those URLs I research from time to time just so I could keep track of those information I might need in the future, whether for my personal use or someone I know might need it. I should make a new Tomboy notebook to organize these things. Or even just a Notes directory in /home just so I could remember.
If you have anything else to add to the list, please feel free to do so! We’re all learning together, after all. :)
Share This
By Clair -- 0 comments
Recent Comments