Entering Unicode

For more recent versions of Ubuntu (starting with Edgy Eft), if you want to enter a Unicode character, press first

Ctrl-Shift-U

followed by the number of the character.

If you see a small box with four even smaller numbers inside, then that simply means you don't have the right font installed.

DecodeUnicode.org can give you a preview of some unicode characters.

XVidCap

If you need to capture screen video for training, demonstrations, and the like, try xvidcap, a small and simple utility. When run, XVidCap shows a toolbar and underneath, a resizable window. Anything that takes place within the window is captured and saved to an MPEG file. Controls are intuitive enough, so you should have no problem. My only beef is that the software seems to generate plenty of popping in sound.

Finding duplicate files

Given the ease with which we create and copy files, it's inevitable to end up with duplicates in our hard drives. Not a good situation, of course: duplicates take up space, and can sometimes lead to inconsistencies in data. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to sniff out these unwanted copies?

fdupes is a small utility that does just that. It's only 18Kb, but darned! it's fast. On my quad-core, it can sift through a thousand PDF files in under two minutes and churn out a list of the dupes.

The man page explains everything you need to know. It's probably best used with its recursive option, though:

fdupes -r mydirectory/

Ubuntu One

Just the other day in my operating systems class, a student asked me why Ubuntu was being given out for free. I gave him the stock answer that operating systems had become a commodity and were being pirated anyway; so why not just give them out for free and sell services and other products on top of that. In a nutshell, Mark Shuttleworth is building his own private army (and I am one of them.)

Coincidentally, that same day, I found from my friend Yolynne that Ubuntu One had become available.

So what is Ubuntu One? I'll let the picture speak for itself.


Put it another way, Mark Shuttleworth wants your files.

All right, kidding aside, it's an interesting business model, a sort of sideways-stepping into Google's storage territory. I mean, think about it: to most of us, Google really is one huge storage repository, courtesy of Google Mail and Google Docs.

Ubuntu One offers two plans: free 2GB, or 10GB for $10/month. The latter offer is a bit too much for me for now (both space-wise and cash-wise), for the interim, I the 2GB should suffice.



So what differentiates Ubuntu One from other personal storage plans? The web interface looks way too similar, and for a few moments, I actually found myself wondering: "Is this it? Why do I have to use Ubuntu for this?"



That's because Ubuntu One had me download and install a client. I must say, the installation procedure's integration with Firefox was quite impressive: through creative use of APT and DEB files, it stepped me through the modification of the repository and managed the download of the Ubuntu One client. (Part of me is wondering if this could be used as an attack vector in the future; all things being possible, I think it's still remote because it still prompted me at critical points. I would think that the payoff for a cracker would be bigger if he went for the repository itself.)

So just what is the difference? Waht does the client install? It introduces another folder on your Ubuntu system that automatically syncs with the Ubuntu One service. Then, when you can sync the service with another Ubuntu computer.



I won't show the screencaps of the client installation anymore as it's already well-documented on the Ubuntu One site.

To you and to your system, it really just looks like another folder: drag and drop files to the folder and it syncs with the service, and through that, with other computers. Syncing is done in the background and doesn't interfere with your other work.



How does this service bode? It certainly looks like an area with growth possibilities. More than that, I think it shows us what lies in the future for Ubuntu.

Avant Window Navigator on Hardy

I still use Hardy Heron on a couple of machines, and unfortunately for me, the Avant Window Navigator that ships with Hardy doesn't really come with any of the useful applets. It's as bare bones as you can get.

To get around this problem, I have to introduce some development repositories into my installation. This is detailed in this article on installing Avant for Hardy.

It's really quite straightforward. It's just a matter of adding these two lines into the third party repositories of Synaptic:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/awn-testing/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/awn-testing/ubuntu hardy main

After that, the AWN applets package should be available. You will, however, have to uninstall the existing AWN manager as it conflicts with the new packages.

Acer Aspire desktop screenshot

Screenshot of my new Acer Aspire's desktop. I used the same scheme and eye candy as I did for my office computer's desktop. Overall, I think the WXGA screen ratio works even better for this arrangement.

Yeah, I know I'm a sucker for space scenes. What can I say? I'm a frustrated astronaut.

Even more speedup tricks

My Thinkpad is really showing its age. Even with all the speedup tricks I've used, this laptop still feels slow sometimes. Using the top monitor, I found one of the biggest resource hogs was gdm.

So, I turned it off. I kept it from starting up automatically at rcconf.

But...but...isn't gdm the Gnome Desktop Manager? Indeed it is. If I turned it off, I wouldn't be able to log on to the computer, right? Well, it only affects graphical logins.

Now I start off with a command-line prompt, after which I bring up graphical mode with startx. Performance improvement? You bet!

However, turning off gdm also does have the unfortunate side-effect of disabling automount of USB devices and CD-ROM drives. I still keep gdm handy in case I need to.

One other thing: by default, startx brings up Gnome, but I prefer working within Openbox. I also had to create an .xsession file within my home directory. Only one line is needed there:

exec openbox

Man, I really need to get a new computer.

Desktop with screenlets

Experimenting with my Ubuntu desktop, and enhancing it with screenlets and Avant. I didn't realize I'd been working with the default settings for too long until I saw some really cool customizations over at DeviantArt; that's where I got these ideas from.

What I did:

• Switched the main Ubuntu panel over to the right and changed its color to black; this gives the illusion that the controls are floating.
• Removed the lower panel that contained the task switcher; replaced it with the Avant navigator so now it looks nicer
• Added my most-used tools to the navigator
• Added the calendar, clock, and web screenlets (the web screenlet had to be downloaded from screenlets.org
• Changed the icons for the folders on the desktop, so they don't look like folders
• Changed the window theme to match the dark look; it's AgingGorilla that I'm using

Kept the all black background as it makes it easier for me to take screenshots. Besides, I like the minimalistic look.