Ganesh Painting

Hi,
Its again one damn cold day in Summer and I love it :), Well keep that aside. Being an atheist, I don't believe in statues or God as a particular figure. Why am I telling this to you, just wanna present one of my paintings. This one is one of the Gods from Hindu mythology called Ganesh. Then there are few variations done with GIMP.
Here is the original one as you can see its not as sharp (in full view), as I've done it on phone but I suppose filtered effects with GIMP are quite ok:



And here are GIMP results: (with name of the filters)
i.> Blur ii.> Cartoon iii.> Some Camera effect I don't remember the name

i.>


ii.>


iii.>

Hidden gmail chat emoticons

Hi,
This may seem completely unrelated post still I thought its interesting enough to be posted, As of now everyone must have used both yahoo and gmail chat. I've so many friends at gmail. But whenever it comes to chat I really miss yahoo messenger for its emoticons and all little things like environments, audibles etc.
The other day I was surfing through net when I came across a blog post describing all kinda new hidden emoticons available for gmail chat. if you are interested please visit this.
Well its not like everything you want but still nice to see these in gmail chat :) \m/

Ubuntu 9.04 NetBook Remix aka demiGod is here

OS: Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix (Jaunty Jackalope - Branch)
Kernel: 2.6.18-11-generic
Date: April 23rd, 2009

Hi,
As everyone must have noticed Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) is been released.
And I'm regretting like a hell for not buying Notebook over Laptop.
If you have notebook, (its good for laptop as well - just no hand writing or touch calibration), its a personal request, you MUST try Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix and its MUST MUST MUST.
Well if you don't want to invest in storage download live image from NetBook Download page, Use it as a live and I guarantee you won't regret it.
Here is tutorial to use it from USB key.

Well the solution is at Ubuntu site. (Last checked April 23rd, 2009)

Installing and configuring GUI based firewall

OS: UBUNTU 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex)
Kernel: 2.6.27-11-generic
Date: April 22nd, 2009

Hey,
I've been hearing all the time that Linux is much more secure and stuff and believe me I never have any problem as of until now and its been around 8 months without reinstallation.
However there used to be paranoia which don't let keep me sit still just like that. I knew Ubuntu firewall is quiet well however being completely GUI user, it was quite difficult for me to configure that firewall. So I went and searched a little bit and I was quite lucky to find GUI version of that so impresssive firewall, called gufw.

• Just search for gufw in synaptics and install it otherwise use following command:

sudo apt-get install gufw

• Just try it and it have really user friendly UI. If you are complete novice just tick
  

Deny incoming traffic
And you can relax

• If you have some experience with configuring routers, gateways etc. I don't need to explain how to go around to make the firewall work for particular application.

Still if you have any doubt just put a comment will try to explain.
Enjoy secured browsing and connection.

And I don't remember where I found this solution, I give all the credit to the site where I found it If anyone come across some other sites please redirect me. I'll try to see if thats the one.

Games for UBUTNU

Hey Everyone,
I play games way too much, and when I shifted from Windows to Ubuntu one of the problems was games, I was restless without them. So here I made a list of few games which I liked along the way:

Strategy:

• Battle for Wesnoth : This one would the best one out there. Have option of Single player as well as Multi player. Even storyline is quite good, with all neat and clean option until now this one is my most favorite game.

• Travian: Web based multi player game. No need of any installation. Just open www.travian.com connect to your server and done, start playing, However this one needs patience and really good strategies. I started playing it few days back but couldn't yet figure out even survival strategies. But ya if you are good at planning and patience - more of a thinker type then give it a try, you will like it.

• Freeciv: I'm not sure how the game is. I can't even get started, If anyone can help me I will love to know more about this game. Posted it here just because I hear it many times in the list of good games.

• [EDIT May 7th 2009]Civony: One more to web based gaming and this one have better pace than travian and better feel of AOE type. Quests make us learn really well in initial stage, I'm building wall around my village with Archers on it for now :). I like about these games is they are all installation free (web based) and support Linux. Anyway if you are really patient one you may still find travian better.
  

FPS:
I don't think there will be a single soul around (at least a guy) who doesn't like counter strike or haven't played it even once, I was really disappointed when all my friends used to frag each other I was not able to enjoy it. So here is an open source alternative - maybe better and more realistic than CS

• Urban Terror: Well if you get hit in your leg, your speed will be reduced. Getting hit by bullet will make you lose blood continuously. Well you got the idea pretty realistic and good one. I would say must try.

• Tremulous: Well CS somehow marred the reputation of Quake but there are still players out there who love Quake, All of you may want to try Tremulous.

However both of these are online or at least LAN as of until now. I'm looking for way to add bots. Will post it if sometime get to know a proper working solution.

MMORPG:
Same goes for WOW (World of Warcraft). Its a damn good game I don't understand why don't these guys release Linux client, anyway its an online game so they will be still making money even with Linux client - I don't understand much so these comments are not important but thats what I think.
The point is if you want to play something equivalent.

• aqworlds: Goto www.aqworlds.com register and start playing, flash based online game, no need of any installation and decent graphics and people are working on proper and good game play. Plus you get to play for free as well, obviously not as many options as members but that doesn't make you feel boring or having less fun. Obviously not as good as and as big as WOW but if you are in MMORPG then you may wanna give it a try.

Arcade:

• Secrete Mayro Chronicles (SMC): Ya you guessed it right its our favrite mario in new improved look and few amazing implementations. One more must try. Nothing much to write just try it - you won't regret it for sure.

Then there is vdrift or race mania for racing. However I would say they are not much fun to play. One is too realistic - can't play. Second can't hold you to it but still if you wanna try them, then go on.

This list is completely personal however most of the people may like it .

[EDIT May 31st 2009] Now guys if anyone dare to say there are no games for linux/Ubuntu here is the answer http://www.penguspy.com/ They have very good listing as well as review system plus install feature where you don't need to adjust repositories or get a tarball and install -though an experimental feature but its good. :)

Happy gaming

Installing Xilinx in UBUNTU

OS: UBUNTU 8.04 (Hardy Heron) and UBUNTU 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex)
Kernel: 2.6.24 amd 2.6.27-11-generic
Date: April 14th, 2009

Hi, I shifted from Windows to Ubuntu completely around 6 months back, till then I had dual boot just to take care of my programming editors, compilers etc. (Games is the other thing but not resolved completely yet :( ).
Anyway main thing is I used to use modelsim/Xilinx etc. and was a quite novice to try and use them or any of them in Ubuntu. However to my surprise Xilinx webpack installation is totally compatible with Ubuntu.
Here are few things you may want to take care though:
I would consider you have an iso image of webpack:

• Mount iso image in home directory (otherwise installation won't be completed).
• Run setup script on terminal.
• I will consider you are using default path for installation (i.e. /opt/Xilinx/...) if not then remember/write down the path you are installing to.
• After installation is complete issue following few commands to make it run with just a single command startise.
• cp /opt/Xilinx/10.1/ISE/settings32.sh /usr/local/bin/startise (Instead of /opt/Xilinx.. you may want to use your installation directory path and ypu may even have something like /opt/Xilinx/settings.sh please see which way it works for you).
• echo "export DISPLAY=:0" >> /usr/local/bin/startise
• echo "exec ise" >> /usr/local/bin/startise
• chmod +x /usr/local/bin/startise
• Now you are ready with your little command startise. Just issue startise whenever you want to start the program.

According to post where it was posted it seems that for programming boards we need to run it with root privilege.

This solutions was posted at: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=559245 (Last checked April 14th, 2009)

Waiting for someone

Hey everyone here is the second painting I drew. There I used too much frosted glass (crayon) effect after drawing it and increased its size as well, So it may not look good when maximized try having a look in a thumbnail only.
And ya all people out there who can't understand what its about - its someone sitting under a barren tree :P (Many have asked me whats that hehe), Back in India you may find these painting on the back of most of Trucks or auto Rickshaws,
Here it is:

Shutdown prblem with Intrepid

OS: UBUNTU 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex)
Kernel: 2.6.27-11-generic
Date: April 6th, 2009
Hey,
This one is real short tip. I have successfully booted UBUNTU with disabling check for previous network but I still had a problem with shutdown. At the time of shutdown it just used to be hung up after terminating all processes (hung up = not killing power to laptop and keep processor running). Or used to say system will now halt and thats all nothing beyond that so I needed to do turn off with power button.
Here is what I did and it worked, I just shifted from Kernel 2.6.27-3-rt to Kernel 2.6.27-11-generic. Now it works like wonder :)

Fresh installation of Open Office.org 3.0.1

OS: UBUNTU 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex)
Kernel: 2.6.27-11-generic
Date: April 4th, 2009

[EDIT - April 5th, 2009: My experience with it was just flashy, just GUI was too pretty (maybe for Windows :P). However it seems to have some problem with file recovery option. Even if I try to open new open office writer - it used to try to recover untitled document and thats all no progress at all. It worked great for first day though (after recovering document obviously). However after that it completely failed, even if I recover that document thousands of times it never actually recovered it or run without recovering. So please try on your own and please let me know if I went wrong somewhere. So I went back to synaptic and reinstalled 3.0.1 through repositories and its working great.]

Hi,
Well upgrading from 2.4.1 was a good option however have you ever tried it through fresh install. You would be awestruck to see the features and obviously GUI. I always wondered how come windows version looks so great - now I know install it manually. Enough of jargon lets get to work. And yes this method will work for any version of UBUNTU without any problem.
Go through these steps:

• sudo apt-get remove openoffice*.*

Yes I know it will remove every package related to open office installed currently on your system but believe me thats what you want to do.

• Goto Ooo3.0.1 download page and download deb package (any debian system user) in your preferred language.

OR

• Direct download from Open Office.org 3.0.1 for US-English.
• Extract the download (most probably in your home directory) either by GUI tool OR:

tar -zxvf OOo_3.0.1_LinuxIntel_install_en-US_deb.tar.gz

• This will creat a directory something like OOO300_m15_native_packed-1_en-US.9379

P.S. the directory name will change with package

• Switch to DEBS directory in this directory :

cd OOO300_m15_native_packed-1_en-US.9379/DEBS/

• Now you need to install all .deb packages present in there. Easy way to do is:
  

sudo dpkg -i *.deb
once you input the password, it will install all packages required.

• Well now you have the packages but you may like to have file association and proper menu for Office and all so go through next steps:

Goto desktop-integration folder in DEBS:
cd desktop-integration

• It will have probably only one package install it:

sudo dpkg -i openoffice.org3.0-debian-menus_3.0-9376_all.deb

P.S. for last package (desktop integration) please don't use copy paste command from here as name tends to change with package this one works for Ooo-3.0.1

And hurray you are done. Now you have properly working Open Office with base system and all.
Now you may need to reinstall aspell-en spell checking (I didn't need to do it though I suppose it was the problem for 3.0.0 and not for 3.0.1 but still if someone needs)
Enjoy :)

This solution was posted at: http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=3363 (last checked April 4th 2009)