Tiltshift your photos

I have worked with Tiltshift photography in the past and created some interesting photos using this technique. Now it is possible to recreate this effect using Tiltshift Generator. It will allow you to achieve amazing results out of average photos. It not only creates tiltshift type photos, but can also be used to enhance dull photos and produce lively ones.
Tiltshift Generator is a great addition for any photographer and is worth checking out.
Here are the steps to use to get it on your Ubuntu machine.
Step 1
Click this hyperlink to download the Adobe Air bin file
Move to directory where file was downloaded with Terminal program and
Use chmod +x to make the bin file executable, ie chmod +x AdobeAirInstaller.bin
then run the file using ./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
Follow the Adobe prompts to complete installing the program.
Step 2
click this link to install Tiltshift Generator It will navigate you to the Tiltshift app installation. If you use Firefox, choose option "Open with Adobe Air Application Installer"

.................BEFORE..................................................................................................... AFTER

My sources.list file

I've just done a complete fresh install of Ubuntu Jaunty from the CD I requested from Shipit, as opposed to the upgrade I did on my system when Jaunty was released. I added Medibuntu to my repository to allow me to install the restricted drivers. Here is how my sources.list file looks at present. I will definately be adding more repositories in future and I'll have to edit this post.
This post if mostly for my personal future reference should I do another reinstall. I had originally started out with the Canadian repositories, but I had some trouble with adding keys, so I switched to a US based site for now.
You may use this sources.list if you wish, but don't blame me if your system complains. You can find your sources.list file by opening terminal and entering:
gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
From here you can edit the file as I have below.

# deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 9.04 _Jaunty Jackalope_ - Release i386 (20090420.1)]/ jaunty main restricted
# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to
# newer versions of the distribution.

deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty main restricted
deb-src http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty main restricted

## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-updates main restricted
deb-src http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-updates main restricted

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any
## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty universe
deb-src http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty universe
deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-updates universe
deb-src http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-updates universe

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty multiverse
deb-src http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty multiverse
deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-updates multiverse
deb-src http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-updates multiverse
Shipit
## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'backports'
## repository.
## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-backports main restricted universe multiverse
# deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-backports main restricted universe multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository.
## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the
## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.
# deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu jaunty partner
# deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu jaunty partner

deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-security main restricted
deb-src http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-security main restricted
deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-security universe
deb-src http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-security universe
deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-security multiverse
deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-proposed restricted main multiverse universe
deb-src http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-security multiverse

Why must I wait when I want to go?

One strange feature in Jaunty is the shutdown prompt window. Why oh why was this included?? When I want to reboot or shutdown, why must I wait 60 seconds each time for this to happen?
I've found a quick fix for this problem. It's so simple, but I see a lot of users on the forums talking about this and asking how to fix that 'bug'.
First thing you need to do is to right-click on the shutdown icon at the top right of the desktop. Choose preferences and then disable box shown in my screen capture.

When the preferences window opens, simply uncheck the option that reads "Show confirm dialogs for logout, restart and shutdown"

Very easy to do and you'll find no more prompts appearing in future. This can also be re-enabled if you ever feel like doing a 60 second countdown for whatever reason.

Ubuntu Jaunty and the Broadcom driver fail

Here I was installing the new Jaunty release with high hopes that it would work on my laptop 'out of the box'.
Installation went extremely smooth. I used the custom installation option to delete my old Ubuntu 8.10 install and formatted it in favour of an all new fresh system.
I've kept Windows XP installed, so I'll still be using a dual-boot configuration.
Once it was installed, I rebooted and tried to get online right away. In past installations, this was the step that caused me much grief and I was hoping that Jaunty had addressed this issue with those users who have Broadcom wireless cards. (mine is the Broadcom b4318)
No such luck getting a wireless signal without further tweaking. Luckily the driver is available on the Ubuntu CD so installation wasn't the problem. I had my wireless working in no time at all as I had been down this road before and new what to do, and more importantly, what not to do.
Things have improved greatly with the wifi issues compared to previous versions of Ubuntu but I wish it would be possible to have wifi cards automatically detected on installation so that new users won't wonder why Ubuntu isn't working for them and then uninstall and go back to whatever OS they were using before.

ubuntu gets revved up and ready

Not many posts this past year as I've been very pleased with how everything has been running on all my systems. Now that Jaunty is due for release, I'll be upgrading and posting anything that strikes me of interest. I've upgraded my Ubuntu desktop and have installed a new ATI video card into it as well. I'll post more on that in future posts when I install Ubuntu Jaunty.
Off topic: lately I've been busy with my new toy, the Nokia N800. It's a tablet that runs Maemo which is a Debian linux based OS. I've been having so much fun tweaking this gadget, that I've been satisfied to simply do the regular upgrades on my Ubuntu machines.
I didn't participate with the Jaunty Alpha and Beta tests this time around although I did recieve email updates on the progress that was made. Although it's not a major upgrade, I still look forward to its final release.

Delete, erase, shred, goodbye

I'm planning to sell off my old computer, and I wanted to find a way to make sure the hard drive is completely wiped clean.
Here in this short post is the quick way to accomplish this.
Warning to any reader. The following commands will completely wipe a drive clean. Use with extreme caution.
Boot up the system with the Ubuntu live DVD.
Find the name of the drive using fdisk by typing in fdisk -l (that's the letter L not the number 1)
My drive is called sda. If you have more than one drive connected, it may be a good idea to turn the pc off and unplug the other drives. Double and triple check that you have chosen the correct drive to format.
Enter the following to format the drive.
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda
To make completely sure that the drive is erased run the shred command next.
sudo shred /dev/sda
The drive will be wiped clean and ready to be partitioned. Simple and quick.

POST EDIT:
Thanks to the comments of an anonymous reader, I have been further educated on the use of the shred command. I did a bit more research and found that although shred is effective under normal conditions to clean a hard drive, I did not take into consideration the fact that this would not include the empty areas of the hard drive that may have had information previously stored there. There could also still be copies of data in RAM and the swap area as well to would not get erased.
Secure-delete, which can be found in the Ubuntu repository, will truly guarantee that your data will be wiped totally clean.
There are four commands that can be used with this tool.
srm -secure remove Removes files and directories from the hard drive
smem -secure memory wiper Goes after the data in the memory/RAM
sfill -secure free space wiper All data from free areas on drive will be erased
sswap -secure swap wiper The SWAP partition will be purged of all data with this command

Thank you to one of my readers who helped to educate me a bit more on this topic. Feel free to add a comment if you have anything else that you can add to help out.

Web Stats and desktop update

PC desktop update: I recently purchased a replacement desktop that I expect to receive next week. In the meantime, my laptop has been keeping me online and up to date with family and friends over the holidays.

I took a look at this site during the Christmas break and I was surprised by the large number of visitors that have found my site. I also see that the Statcounter stats shows several people drop by the site each day. Sorry that I don't update that often. I had originally started this site as a personal page for me to post my experiences that I wanted to document with installing and using Ubuntu. I myself have refered back to several of my own posts to remind myself of things that I have done in the past. (I must be getting older, as my memory seems to be going.)
I'd love to read some comment from any readers and visitors to this site. Has this site helped you with using Ubuntu? I'm not much of a blogger and write more for myself than anyone else, so I'd love to hear from you. I'm not sure what direction this blog will take in the future, but I would love to continue posting more often if people enjoy reading the posts that put on on this humble blog of mine.
Cheers and a Happy New Year to you all!