PocketSword 1.2.0

In January I wrote about the release of PocketSword for the iPhone and iPod Touch, since that time there has been two updates 1.1 in February and now 1.2 in March. As I mentioned in the first post PocketSword is a front end for the SWORD backend, http://www.crosswire.org/sword. Version 1.1 brought these great additions: Search, History, Dictionary support, improved tabs, faster app launch, updated SWORD library, plus a few others such as bug fixes. I was happy to get the update and the promise of future updates bringing Strong’s numbers lookup. March 20th saw the release of Version 1.2.0 bringing Strong’s Numbers support, Morphological tags, and Cross references. With this update PocketSword became my default Bible App on my iPod Touch.
PocketSword, iTunes link, @PocketSword on twitter

Converting .ogv file to .avi file Ubuntu

A while back I made a screencast using recordMyDesktop in Ubuntu 9.10, when I uploaded the resulting .ogv file to YouTube things did not go well.  The file was a scrambled mess.  Finally I converted the .ogv file to an .avi file.  To convert the file I downloaded and installed DeVeDe.  Later I found this helpful article and screencast "Record Your Ubuntu Desktop and Convert to .AVI" on beginlinux.com.   The use of recordMyDesktop and ffmpeg are discussed showing how to make a screencast and how to convert the file to an .avi file.

DeVeDe: Using DeVeDe on Ubuntu to convert .ogv files

Earlier this month I made a Screencast of my Ubuntu desktop using recordMyDesktop.  RecordMyDesktop saves the resulting file as an .ogv file.  When I went to upload the screencast to YouTube the file would not upload correctly.  After a couple of tries I decided to try and convert the file to another format.  First I searched around for the format that would be best for YouTube and the result I came up with was .avi.  Then I searched for a program to convert from .ogv to .avi and found DeVeDe on the developers site.  rastersoft.com/programas/devede.html  I installed DeVeDe through Synaptic package Manager as it is in the getdeb repository.
The following are the steps need to convert an .ogv file to an .avi file:

1. Click on the bottom option,
DivX/MPEG-4 2.

2. Click "Add"

3. Select File to convert.

4. Make any Changes under Advanced options. Video rate, Final size, Rotation, Scaling, and others.

5. After making selection click "Forward".
6. Chose save location and name the file.
7. Click OK and the file will began converting. When it is done you will have an .avi file.

EXIF Untrasher: OS X tool used for Photo recovery of deleted memory card

I came across a small program that can restore deleted images if you accidently delete your camera's memory.  EXIF Untrasher must be used before you take more pictures if there is to be any hope of recovery.  While there are no guaranties the images will be restored it never hurts to try.  http://www.bluem.net/en/mac/exif-untrasher/  The developer also has several other programs he has written for OS X.

Chromium OS by Hexxeh: Update

Flow is the latest in the line of Hexxeh's hugely popular ChromiumOS builds. Flow is the most exciting version yet, bringing even more hardware support, an auto-updater, webcam support and an improved application menu & directory. All this, requires only a 2GB USB drive (download size is 327MB)
After trying out Flow on an USB stick I decided install it along side of my Ubuntu installation.  Following the directions from the wiki "How to add ChromiumOS to existing Ubuntu install"  I was able to boot and run Flow from the hard drive of my Eee PC 1000.  When I added boot directions to grub the first time I did not have the correct hard drive number so Flow would not boot.  After changing "set root=(hd0,2)" to "set root=(hd1,2)" Flow booted with no problem.  Flow worked well with my hardware except for the video camera, this is noted in the wiki, no problems speed wise.  After a short time of use I decided I was not Flow was not for me.  I am still interested to see what the first release of Chrome OS will be like and to see what type of hardware it comes out on. 

AppTrap: Mac Uninstallation Helper

I have used AppTrap for sometime on my Mac.  When I began to use OS X a few years back I was impressed with the ease of uninstalling an application.  Drag the Application to the trash, empty the trash and the program was uninstalled.  How ever I soon noticed preference files were being left behind.  After a little searching I found AppTrap.  When an application is moved to the trash AppTrap automatically asks if you want to move the associated preference files to the trash also.  AppTrap was developed by Markus Magnuson but is now maintained by Kumaran Vijayan.   v1.1.5 is a 560KB download, double clicking the download will install AppTrap to the System Preferences pane.  AppTrap can be found here: http://onnati.net/apptrap/.  Source Code is also available.

Making the BJs Self Sufficient Continued: Resetting Ubuntu Password

I wrote about my conversation with BJ last week.  This is an update of the story.
After my conversation with BJ I left him with the impression that he would have to reinstall Ubuntu because he had forgotten his password.  Knowing that BJ moves slowly I gave him a couple of days then called him to ask how he was getting along with his Ubuntu fixes.  He had been busy so had not yet made any progress on his computer or his Brother's computer.  I told him that I had good news.  Glad to hear this he wondered what it might be.  "You can reset your password and get into your computer tonight if you follow my instructions."  I walked him through pychocats.nets "How to reset your password in Ubuntu".  Using Ubuntu's recovery mode it was only a matter of a couple of minutes before BJ was able to log into his Ubuntu Machine.  At this point he ran into a problem with his Keyring.  Keyring wanted his password which happened to be the password he had forgotten.  After a quick search I can across "Reset GNOME Keyring Password on Ubuntu" by Christer Edwards on ubuntu-tutorials.com.  BJ is now back in business. I am still waiting for him to help his Brother reinstall Ubuntu on his old Dell.

Chromium OS by Hexxeh

I have gotten hold of an Eee PC 1000 recently which I installed Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala on.  I am very happy with Ubuntu 9.10 as an OS for the Eee PC.  That being said I am getting ready to install another OS on this little machine.  Since I do not need the Eee PC as a production machine I am free to try out anything that looks interesting.  With Hexxeh's latest release of Flow enough has been done to interest me in his build of ChromiumOS.  Following his instructions I downloaded and installed Flow on an 2G USB stick.  The Eee PC 1000 booted Flow with no problems but I could not get the wireless to work until I plugged in the ethernet cable.  Wireless not works fine.  I plan to follow the instructions on dual booting and report how it went.  If you are interested in giving Flow a try check out http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/ for downloads and instructions.  

Trying to Teach the BJs to become Self Sufficient

A while back BJ of the three BJs told me he would like to become a computer guy like his Uncle who works with computers.  So we got hold of an old computer and installed Linux on it.  Over the past few months we have posted the different sages involving his computer and that of his Brother's.  The latest post involved an update that had come down and broke Mint.  Soon after the same thing happened to his Brother's computer breaking Ubuntu.  BJ sent his computer out my way to be fixed which I did but the experienced the same bug after a clean install.  After installing again I did not encounter anymore problems so sent BJ his computer with a fresh install of Ubuntu 9.10.
BJ's Brother, JG, was still stuck with a broken install of Ubuntu on his computer.  I sent them both an e-mail telling them to reinstall Ubuntu on JG's machine.  After a few days I called to see how they had gotten on.
Me: "Did you get your computer fixed?"  JG: "No." Me: "Why not?"  JG: "BJ sat on the Ubuntu disk and broke it."  Me: "No problem just download Ubuntu and burn the file to a disk, I will send you the instructions."  JG: "OK."  I waited a few day to give them a chance to get the install done then I gave BJ a call.  The call went like this.  Me: "BJ, how did the install of Ubuntu go?"  BJ: "It didn't." Me: "Why? What is wrong?"  BJ: "To confusing."  Me: "What part?  BJ:  "All of it."  Me: I thought you wanted to become a computer guy like your Uncle."  BJ: "I do."  Me: "Well here is your chance to start learning.  You know how to read just follow the directions. You are smart enough to figure it out."  BJ: "I know." Me: "OK download Ubuntu on your laptop and may a CD."  BJ: "One problem."  Me:  "What's that?"  BJ: "I forgot my password."  Me: "Oh did you change it?"  BJ: "JG was getting on it and I did not want him to...."  Me:  "Well now you have to computers to fix.  Use your Dad's Windows computer and my yourself a Ubuntu disk."  BJ: "OK."
We hope to have a report from him in the next little while with the news of a successful install.  If not they will be the owners of two computer shaped paper weights.

Flightgear 2.0 Released

Flightgear is an open-source flight simulator.  Prebuilt Ubuntu and Debian packages for version 2 have not yet been released.  I have never used Flightgear so do not have any first hand experience to report.  However my Brother enjoys flight sims and has used previous versions of Flightgear.  He is planning to move completely to Linux the next time he upgrades computers so Flightgear becomes one of the few options he has for flight sims.  Hope to hear from him about the latest version and see if he has noticed any improvements.  My Brother is the writer of Model Airplanes & RC Flight.

Thanks to webdevonlinux for the heads up. (article is in French)

Eee PC 1000 running Ubuntu 9.10

I have been using this Eee PC 1000 for a couple weeks now.  Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala works great for what I use this Eee PC for.  After a clean install and the latest updates I tried out the different features to see if they were supported out of the box.  The following is a list of what works out of the box.
1. Sound
2. Webcam
3. Bluetooth (I was able to mount my Motorola Cellphone and copy my pictures off)
4. Function Keys Work.

Nice to see the support built in for this machines.  I remember the old days (a year ago) when I had to track down various files or use a  to get all the hardware up and running.

Minitube

Recently I came across Minitube a browserless Youtube client.  Currently Minitube works on both Apple Macs and Linux distros.  (If you use Ubuntu Minitube is in the getdeb.net repository.)  I have used Minitube on OS X and Ubuntu and prefer it over using a web browser for general viewing.


"Minitube is a native YouTube client. With it you can watch YouTube videos in a new way: you type a keyword, Minitube gives you an endless video stream. Minitube does not require the Flash Player.
Minitube is not about cloning the original YouTube web interface, it aims to create a new TV-like experience."

Setting up Ubuntu

These are some of the steps that I do to setup Ubuntu to my liking.
1.  Do all system updates first after a fresh install.
2.  Install Ubuntu Tweak.
3.  Install Ubuntu Restricted extras.
4.  Using Ubuntu Tweak setup hot corners.
5.  Install Cairo Dock.
6.  Install Google Chrome.
7.  Install Gnome Do.
8.  Install Themes from the Bisigi Project.
9.  Install the getdeb.net Repositories.
10.  Install Dropbox.
11.  Install Minitube.

These are my preferences for a complete Ubuntu Desktop.