I haven't quite jumped ship just yet

Here I am back to post on this blog which I thought that I would abandon when Unity was introduced. Much as I tried, I just could not get used to the interface, even downright hating it. It feels like a real step backwards for Ubuntu. Perhaps with time it will really shine and become great on tablets and portable devices. As a desktop user interface, it leaves much to be desired. I personally desired more, so I looked around for a while and then made the jump to Linux Mint 12. While I enjoyed using Mint, I still missed ubuntu and the community. I thought I'd give the next version a test trial when it was released, but still heard negative reviews about it. I then decided to try Xubuntu pangolin alpha. I had previously tried Xubuntu back in 2009 and liked its simple approach to things. I didn't stay with it only because I still enjoyed using Ubuntu as my everyday desktop OS at the time. I now find that I prefer Xubuntu because it reminds me of a time when Ubuntu OS was a much better desktop that I could easily configure to my liking. The Xubuntu pangolin test image is running incredibly smooth for an Alpha. Much better than any alpha release I've tried in the past. I've only encountered a couple of crashes, but that could be due to things that I'm doing with my machine.
I'm currently in the process of getting XBMC up and running on my machine as well. As I've never used it before, I've only got a basic setup at the moment, but there are so many tweaks and addons that I have to look at to take it to the next level. I will then try hooking it up to my new 42" HD LED TV and see how my family reacts.

Absence makes ubuntu grow fonder

Have I abandoned this blog? Not quite. Have I left Ubuntu behind? I have to be honest and state that when I saw the changes that were being made to version 11.04, I started searching for a replacement distro. I had tried the beta and was not impressed with the design or layout that was being implemented. I listened to podcasts that shared my disappointment in the distro interface overhaul that was taking place over at Canonical. I considered switching to some of the other distros that I have tried in the past. In the end, I decided to stick it out, but made some compromises. I didn't like Unity, so I disabled it after installing Ubuntu 11.04. I made some other tweaks and modifications to my system that suits the way I use my computer. I may publish those changes in future, but then everyone has their own personal settings, and my changes may not be what you're looking for. I'm looking forward to the future, and what Ubuntu has in store. Linux is growing and maturing very quickly these days and it's great to be able to follow along and watch it happen.

Ubuntu Questions and Answers

Do you have a question about Ubuntu that you can't find an answer for? Are you struggling to get your system up and running? Some glitch or gremlin keeping your computer from recognizing a printer or scanner? You can get answers to your question from the Questions for Ubuntu site. Head over to the Questions for Ubuntu launchpad site. Log in and type in a question. Provide clear and detailed information in your questions and you should get an answer fairly quickly. You can even log in to lend a hand in answering questions if you see an answer that you know the answer to. You don't even need to be an Ubuntu guru to answer. You may have struggled with a similar problem recently and found the answer somewhere. Pass along the answer and help someone else in a similar situation. Pay it forward. This helps everyone in the community out. And we all grow in our knowledge using Ubuntu that much more!

Mobile Media Mood

My wife has an old Nokia phone. She asked me if I could change the ringtone for her. I tried copying an mp3 file and a wav file, but neither worked. It turns out that the phone uses its own awb format for files.
I searched the ubuntu forums for a quick fix on converting mp3s to amr format. There are a few posts on using ffmpeg to do the conversion, but I couldn't find/install the codecs needed for the amr format. I hope to explore this more in the future, but just don't have the time at the moment.
In the end, I cheated and downloaded a simple media converter that works brilliantly. It's called Mobile Media Converter. It's currently on version 1.7.1
You can download it from the site or from my own box.net account.
This was a quick and easy way of converting an audio file to what I consider an obsolete audio format. Hopefully I can find a good deal on a new phone for my wife so that she can retire her relic.

Joining AVI files together

Just a quick post on something I was trying to do today. I wanted to join two avi files together into one movie file.
I installed mencoder first:

sudo apt-get install mencoder

Then I used the command:

mencoder -ovc copy -oac copy firstpart1.avi secondpart2.avi -o fullmovie.avi

-ovc tells mencoder to keep the original video file
-oac tells mencoder to keep the original audio file
-o specifies the final output file name

Now it's off to watch the movie.

Pass the fork and dig in

The Openoffice community has rebranded itself as The Document Foundation. This foundation is currently working on the development of LIbreoffice. Libreoffice is an independant fork of Openoffice which was formed by the community of developers working on Openoffice. In the LibreOffice press release the foundation invites Oracle "to become a member of the new Foundation, and donate the brand the community has grown during the past ten years. Pending this decision, the brand "LibreOffice" has been chosen for the software going forward." They're waiting for a response from Oracle.
In the meantime, a beta is available for download. Here's how to do it.
Grab the tar.gz file from here and extract it on your pc. This will download the .deb files you'll need. Open terminal and navigate to the folder named DEBS
Type in the command
sudo dpkg -i *
Move to the folder named DEBS/desktop_integration and repeat the command
sudo dpkg -i *
The LibreOffice 3.3 icons should now be available under Applications>Office.

Firefox addons added after install

Having completed my fresh install, I now like to start customizing the look and feel of Ubuntu.
Firefox offers a whole host of addons and themes that you can use enhance your online experience. There are several that I always install after a new installation. (I have posted addons in the past, but here is an updated post.)

Xmarks is the first one that I install. I have used this addon of for quite some time now, starting when it was called Foxmarks. It allows me to keep a backup of my bookmarks that I can access from any system either via the xmarks addon or the online database. It also allows you to store passwords as well if you wish.

I've recently discovered an addon for storing passwords called LastPass. I heard about it while listening to Security Now with Steve Gibson. He raved about it so much that I had to try it for myself. It works well and I no longer have to dig through my old notebook searching for the odd password any longer.

Autofill Forms does exactly what the name says. It allows you to complete online entry forms without typing in all your info each time. This is a great addon for those who like to enter contests. Can't say that it helps you win more often though.

Stumbleupon is one addon that I couldn't live without. It's more like an addiction than an addon. You'll have to try it and see for yourself.

Downloadhelper allows you to download and store online media content locally. Handy for media of all kinds.

Download Statusbar is simply a monitor bar for your downloads. I'm surprised that this isn't built in to Firefox by default.

Colorfultabs is eye candy that changes each of your open tabs to a different color.

Personas is a new addon that allows you to personalize your browser with skins.

I use several others such as Cooliris, Firefoxsync, No Squint, Optimize Google, and FEBE.

These are my addons that I use for now, but I'm always on the lookout for new and useful addons. If you know of any more, leave me a note.