tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31282001990309290302024-03-16T01:10:06.204+00:00Linux Made EasyA blog that is a simple tutorial to Linux operating systemRicardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-74368088441310712322018-11-02T19:02:00.000+00:002018-11-02T19:02:50.513+00:00Welcome ChromebookIt has been a while since I own a chromebook, and that I had sold the Pinebook.<br />
<br />
The Pinebook was nice, but very limited. I bought the chromebook to replace my dead Ipad and it turnout to be much more than expected.<br />
<br />
The Chromebook I have is not top of the line, but it is enough for many things, but I am not here to talk about chromeos...<br />
<br />
Today I updated to version 70 of Chromeos that allows this model to run Linux Apps, and what a beauty!! I am wondered again, right now it just boosted even more the usability of this little one.<br />
<br />
To start I installed Sigil, the app I have been using to write my ebook and it works like a charm.. oh wonderful world of technology..<br />
<br />Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-69684965787003613242017-05-20T22:53:00.000+01:002017-05-20T22:53:14.405+01:00Pinebook (or any arm64) - Linux Mega.nz Howto<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As I wrote before, Pinebook is a very interesting machine, both for its hardware and in consequece for its software.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The not very developed arm64 architecture brings a lot of challenges to everyone working on it when it comes to have software for it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I wanted to exchange some files as easy as I do in all my machines, phones, tablets, etc. However there was nothing available in arm architecture, such as Dropbox, Ubuntu One as far as I see is no longer available, so I had to be creative, and I managed to find that mega had a binary for Raspbian, so from here it was a learning process...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This can also be used to run all the binaries that are made for armhf (raspberry pi an so on) on arm64 machines.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lets go for the real HOW TO...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1st - it is necessary to download the software from the MEGA website. There is only one option when it comes to arm, so you need to go to <a href="https://mega.nz/cmd">https://mega.nz/cmd</a> and download<i> Raspbian 8.0 (Jessie) in 64 bits.</i> The file name should be <i><b>megacmd-Raspbian_8.0_armhf.deb</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2nd - this binary comes for architecture armhf, so we need to activate multi-architecture in Pinebook Ubuntu Xenial so that we have access to all the requested libraries necessary to run. For that you should run:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">sudo dpkg --add-architecture armhf</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">sudo apt update</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3rd - we are not there yet, as Mega uses some fancy cryptografic libraries, we need to add a source to the resources list. just run</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and add this line</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">deb http://ports.ubuntu.com/ trusty main universe</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">after press control+x and say yes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">now run</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">sudo apt update</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4th - now we have all resources to make the installation, run the instalation in the same folder were the megacmd is located</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">sudo gdebi megacmd-Raspbian_8.0_armhf.deb</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">just follow the instructions and reply yes, it might be the case that it ends in error, just ignore.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5th - now you are ready to run <b>mega-cmd</b> from the terminal. you will be asked your username and login, and after login it is similar to a linux terminal. You can also open another terminal and use the scripts mega-ls, mega-cd, etc, etc... just read tru the help... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Very important is that you can also sync folders which can be very useful, just read the help on mega-sync command, nothing special to do.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">BUGS - so far only bug found, and already reported to Mega.nz is that the get function (to download to your computer) does not work with filenames containing spaces. However using the folder syncing it works without any issues using the same files.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anything that is not working properly, or you would like some explanation just drop a message or contact me in the Pine 64 irc channel.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Linux is Easy....</span>Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-75265684736270499722017-04-30T12:30:00.001+01:002017-04-30T12:30:26.552+01:00Pinebook - 2nd review - Android and mini Howto<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Pinebook ships with BSP Linux, that I wrote <a href="http://linuxmadeasy.blogspot.no/2017/04/pinebook-1st-review.html" target="_blank">some lines about</a>, but another official distribution (Operating System) available is Android 6.0.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This Android can easialy be installed using the <a href="http://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/PINE64_Installer" target="_blank">Pine 64 installer tool</a>. Everything you need is a micro SD card and and adapter or a card reader that supports micro sd in the computer you are doing this.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This tool is available for download for MacOs, Windows and Linux. You simply select what is the computer/board you want to install to, and the operating system selected. after that you select the card, you wait a bit, and voila. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> When the creation of the image is complete, you just have to grab the micro SD and drop it in the Pinebook. Be aware that all you have in the Pinebook will be erased. The name of the image is very clear ..sd2emmc....</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Push the on Button, you will see a black screen and green progress bar, and when in the top left corner you see CARD OK, it means the process is over, remove the card and reboot.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Android presented is fairly ok, and everything works out of the box, no major issues, with the exception of the mouse pad, that is harder to work with, maybe related to some software configurations from Android.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am writing this post in it, without any issues, running Spotify with headphones at same time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The rest all you can expect from Android is working properly, just throw apps at it from the market.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As a final performance test, I installed Antutu Benchmark tool to see what was happening in this system. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Final result 22668.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3D: 676</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">UX: 10705</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">CPU: 9346</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">RAM: 1941</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Pinebook community is already working on the newer versions of Android 7.1, and it is also expectable, in similarity to Pine64 board that more operating systems will be officially released and available through the installer tool, such as Remix OS, Debian, Armbian, etc...</span>Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-42113277005628202482017-04-28T08:06:00.000+01:002017-04-28T08:06:06.555+01:00Pinebook - 1st review<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So I got the Pinebook 11 inch with arm 64 bits.....</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And what can I say, I am amazed with the quality of the construction. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Very good plastics, better than some chromebooks and cheap windows netbooks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The mousepad is outstanding and work really nice.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The keyboard, only has one problem!! The right shift. Probably I will remap the shift to the "/" position. I use and abuse right shift (i rarely use the left one), so this is very important to me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The screen is bright and sharp, the OS is Ubuntu Mate, nothing new...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The support is outstanding as usual in the Linux community.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is a win/mac/linux tool to load images to sdcard and flash the computer, it works properly. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So where does it fails.... Please remember that this computer is for early adopters and developers, so a lot of things don't work...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- in the 11" inch version there are some flickering - This is related to driver issues, it is being worked out. The Android image as per today does not have this issue. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Also in linux distro due to DRM support issues, videos like youtube and other are not working properly as they are being software rendered.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- the firefox shipped with is buggy - Alternative I found was to install Chromium. Best option so far. Check the Pinebook forum for this.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- sound was not working and there is a fix, it is related to driver issue</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Android image, looks like a good option if you want things done, however in my opinion is a waste a space in the screen, and it is not very optimized for laptop. I suggest to wait for a Remix OS release. The Remix OS exists in Pine64+, so sure it will be soon in the Pinebook.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Brightness level inverted - just a minor bug, not major issue</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- still wondering how to invert the mousepad scroolling, dconf-editor not working, synaptics driver not found in kernel, strange, will have to dig deeper.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Most of this bugs are solved almost daily and for sure more will come along, however the good communication with users<->developers results in a very good community work.</-></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I will keep using this very nice computer, and with the help of all, I am sure that all the software problems will be solved. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The basis (hardware) is strong and good, it is just the software that needs to be tweaked.</span>Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-35645340277984059182017-04-18T21:54:00.003+01:002017-04-18T21:54:28.209+01:00I am Back.... with a Pinebook...<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hello all Linuxers...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is hard to resist the Linux community, so...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After a few years away, I am back, I am just waiting a ARM 11" Pinebook -> <a href="https://www.pine64.org/?page_id=3707" target="_blank">https://www.pine64.org/?page_id=3707</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I still have my Macbook Pro for serious business :), and waiting the delivery for this very portable, and funny computer to play with..</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I will as before actively participate in community work and help everyone who needs it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As soon as it arrives I promise a fair review.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some tech Specs (from Pine64 website) on the Machine arriving soon:</span><br />
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<table class="wpsm-comptable " id="wpsm-table-4" style="border-spacing: 0px; border: 1px solid transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #7f7d7d; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1303.21875px;"><tbody class="wpsm-tbody" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<tr style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td class="" style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(212, 210, 210); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.5em; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 120px; outline: 0px; padding: 40px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; width: 390.359375px;">Hardware </td><td class="" style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(212, 210, 210); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #262626; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 120px; outline: 0px; padding: 40px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle;"><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
CPU :</div>
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RAM :</div>
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Flash:</div>
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Wireless :</div>
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USB 2.0 Port :</div>
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MicroSD Card Slot :</div>
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Mini HDMI :</div>
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Headphone Jack :</div>
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Microphone :</div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Keyboard :</div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Touch-pad :</div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Power :</div>
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Battery :</div>
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Display :</div>
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Front Camera :</div>
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Dimension :</div>
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<br /></div>
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Weight :</div>
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<br /></div>
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Warranty :</div>
</td><td class="betterhover" style="background-image: none; border-color: rgb(212, 210, 210); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 120px; outline: 0px; padding: 40px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle;"><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
1.2GHz 64-Bit Quad-Core ARM Cortex A53</div>
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2 GB LPDDR3 RAM Memory </div>
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16 GB eMMC 5.0 (upgradable up to 64GB) </div>
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WiFi 802.11bgn + Bluetooth 4.0</div>
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2</div>
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1</div>
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1</div>
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1</div>
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Built-in</div>
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Full Size Keyboard</div>
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Large Multi-Touch Touchpad</div>
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Input: 100~240V, Output: 5V3A</div>
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Lithium Polymer Battery (10000mAH) </div>
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11.6" or 14" TN LCD (1366 x 768)</div>
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0.3 Megapixels</div>
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11.6" : 299mm x 200mm x 12mm (WxDxH)</div>
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14" : 329mm x 220mm x 12mm (WxDxH)</div>
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11.6" : 1.04 kg (2.30 lbs)</div>
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14" : 1.26 kg (2.78 lbs)</div>
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30 days</div>
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<tr style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td class="" style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(212, 210, 210); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.5em; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 120px; outline: 0px; padding: 40px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; width: 390.359375px;">Software </td><td class="" style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(212, 210, 210); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #262626; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 120px; outline: 0px; padding: 40px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle;"><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
OS :</div>
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Ubuntu 16.04 Mate Desktop base on BSP Kernel 3.10(Default) or Android</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just leave your comment and ideas... </span><br />
<br />Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-55840060954456226072015-06-23T22:20:00.000+01:002015-06-23T22:20:13.171+01:00See you Soon!!<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hi all,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I know I haven't been writing a lot here, and the reason is that I moved to my main computer to OS X. However this does not mean that I moved to the dark side :)....</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Even though now, I have most of my stuff in Apple (iphone, ipad, OS X), I still work with Linux, but since it is not on my main computer the updates on this blog will be much less.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This change was more than a year ago, and the reason was that I got a little bit tired of fighting device drivers, the need to have a piece of software and not being able to run it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The tipping point was after a kernel update not being able to have my wifi running (again), and the device driver was not compiling at all, it was not the first time it happened, but I was not in the mood anymore to go over and over again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In that day I just wanted to open the laptop and get things done.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Going to MS Windows was never an option since long time ago, so the only viable option was Apple.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I hope I can still find time to keep contributing something to the very best community that is the Linux one!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm also starting a new blog that you can check if interested <a href="http://osxmadeasy.blogspot.com/">osxmadeasy.blogspot.com</a>!!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">See you soon.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">RP</span>Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-40245213160482601712013-03-29T03:26:00.000+00:002013-03-29T03:26:18.450+00:00Remote Control your DSLR with Linux and Android<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Beside being a linux fan, I'm also a long time amateur photographer, since the time of film and fully manual SLR, yes, I'm used to camera controls and manual focus....</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Today, as I was quietly at home, and wife and kid were already in bed, I decided to take some macro shots. But before, I wondered if there was any free or open-source software so I could connect the camera to the computer and shot it from there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I already knew <a href="http://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/61/~/current-versions-of-nikon-software#Anchor-3">Nikon's Camera Control Pro 2</a> (which costs something like 180$), and its only available for MAC and WIN (as usual), I even started downloading the free trial to test on virtualbox, but never got there....</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">For Canon lovers, there is also some proprietary software...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">So I start investigating (as usual), and I found <b>gphoto2</b>, which is a command line utility that uses libgphoto and can control your camera using PTP (picture transfer protocol) which I found out its an International standard.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">As I wanted to see the photos as soon as they were shot on computer, and I wasn't in the mood for a Script session, I investigated and found out this GUI that work with gphoto:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">- <a href="http://gphoto.sourceforge.net/proj/gtkam/">gtkam</a> - old user interface, lack of function (for me) - not very good</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">- <a href="http://www.digikam.org/">digikam</a> - for KDE, I'm a Gnome and Unity user... - not for me</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">- and <b><a href="http://www.darktable.org/">DARKTABLE</a>, </b>which is the software I use for RAW processing....</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">all software its on repositories...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In Darktable I just need to presss Remote Control, and all configs from camera are there. Aperture, shooting mode, speed, EV control, timers, Bracketing (for HDR), etc, etc. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">My camera is a Nikon D3000 that does not have live view on camera, and it doesn't work neither on Darktable, but I believe others will do, but after each shoot the photo appears on computer screen which is very handy and much better then camera screen.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I know, that you will say that this is not very useful, as you wont carry your laptop around while taking photos.... But you can take your phone, or you tablet.....</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">So the best and cheapest and free and open-source alike software for Android was <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dslr.dashboard">DSLRDashboard</a>, its on Google Play, however as my tablet was not compatible (dont know why), I went to <a href="https://code.google.com/p/dslrdashboard/">https://code.google.com/p/dslrdashboard/</a> and made the download and installation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">For Android beside the USB cable that comes with your camera, you will also need a OTG cable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">As you can see, Linux is easy, and Android too....</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And yes, I took the Macro Shoot with the PC and Ubuntu...</span><br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1165471323"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></a>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/57895878@N04/8599564200/in/photostream/lightbox/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/57895878@N04/8599564200/in/photostream/lightbox/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">PS: The Nikon software said that it don't have support for my camera...</span>Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-19852093936213149962013-03-24T23:11:00.001+00:002013-03-24T23:11:48.466+00:00Help on Insys WV2251ELQL - Ubuntu Drivers<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">As I wrote on my previous post I have a new latptop with Ubuntu (from retailer),
but I had a few problems..... But they are now solved, and I hope that
this could help other that could run into similar problems.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">After updating the kernel on my new laptop Ubuntu 12.04.2, I realized that I lost the drivers (not in kernel) for:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">- Wireless</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">- Card Reader</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">After some investigation:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>- lsusb</b> returned me the <b>wireless hardware 0bda:8723</b>
Realtek Semiconductor Corp., and I figured out the this new card don't
have drivers on realtek site yet, but I found this page around...</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://askubuntu.com/questions/139632/wireless-card-realtek-rtl8723ae-bt-is-not-recognized">http://askubuntu.com/questions/139632/wireless-card-realtek-rtl8723ae-bt-is-not-recognized </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Just follow the How-to on how to download and compile the driver and instalation, it will work fine... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">If
you want to upgrade your computer maybe you should download this stuff
first, or you will end up just like me with a cable close to the
router....</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>- lspci</b> returned me the <b>card reader hardware Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 5289 (rev 01)</b>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">As before this drivers are not on kernel, however, this is an Ubuntu reported bug which as a solution.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Just surf to :</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/udisks/+bug/971876">https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/udisks/+bug/971876</a>, and follow this instructions to execute in command line.</span><br />
<br />
<div id="yui_3_5_1_1_1364166182763_533">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">wget <a href="http://planet76.com/drivers/realtek/rts-bpp-dkms_1.1_all.deb" rel="nofollow">http://<wbr></wbr>planet76.<wbr></wbr>com/drivers/<wbr></wbr>realtek/<wbr></wbr>rts-bpp-<wbr></wbr>dkms_1.<wbr></wbr>1_all.deb</a><br />
sudo apt-get install dkms<br />
sudo dpkg -i rts-bpp-</span><wbr></wbr><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">dkms_1.</span><wbr></wbr><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">1_all.deb<br />
echo 'DRIVERS=</span><wbr></wbr><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">="rts_bpp"</span><wbr></wbr><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">, ENV{ID_</span><wbr></wbr><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">DRIVE_FLASH_</span><wbr></wbr><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">SD}="1"</span><wbr></wbr><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">' | sudo tee -a /lib/udev/</span><wbr></wbr><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">rules.d/</span><wbr></wbr><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">81-udisks-</span><wbr></wbr><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">realtek.</span><wbr></wbr><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">rules</span></div>
<div id="yui_3_5_1_1_1364166182763_533">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_5_1_1_1364166182763_533">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">After that you need to reboot and the card reader will work fine....</span></div>
<div id="yui_3_5_1_1_1364166182763_533">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_5_1_1_1364166182763_533">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Linux is not hard, and I try to make it easier for everyone... </span></div>
Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-5453256692630033852013-03-21T22:29:00.000+00:002013-03-21T22:29:10.323+00:00My new Ubuntu Laptop Windows Free<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Today I bought my 2nd Laptop windows free. The first one was a few years ago, the Asus eee 701.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This one is a Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, and it is made in Portugal, at Inforlândia (Insys).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Its a 15.6" low end desktop, With Intel B830 at 1,8Ghz a 320Gb SATA HD, wireless, a chiclet keyboard, and a integrated graphic.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Its nice for the price and it comes well configured, just updating, and copying my home folder from my old main laptop.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This machine was bought in a retail shop, and beside this one the other laptop with ubuntu was just an Asus netbook. Coincidence, there was a couple looking at it, and the first question to the seller was "how do I connect this to internet". Off course they could not answer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">My conclusion is that people want to try new stuff, but the brands must give at least some little formation to the sellers, so they could sell a new product that they don't know. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This netbook that couple was looking at had a price better then windows had, and they just wanted to use some web apps. I was tempted to interfere and give some advice, but meanwhile the box with my laptop arrived and I was really in a hurry, maybe next time I visit the shop... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In a world of MAC's and Windows, there is place for Ubuntu (for the non-technical) that is sure.....</span><br />
<br />Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-73258686434894295062012-10-04T00:24:00.001+01:002012-10-04T00:24:08.062+01:00Linux on the Desktop Dead? More Alive then Never - 750 Desktops at Portugal<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Portuguese Insurance company Tranquilidade made the transition to Linux of 750 Computers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The success made a study case and granted them an award of ESOP (Portuguese Association of Opensource Software Companies).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This award was given at <span style="background-color: white;"><i>Evento Linux 2012 - X Encontro Nacional sobre Tecnologia Aberta (Linux 2012 Event - 10th National Encounter of Open Technology).</i></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to source, it allowed Tranquilidade savings around 80% on software costs.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The solution is Ubuntu Linux based with Gnome 2, before 12.04LTS, they dont specify. They have intention of upgrading to 12.04 and use MATE desktop.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the the desktop they use Firefox+Nautilus+Libreoffice, for email they use webmail previously used before.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They run 450 VDI computers (terminals) and 300 Laptops.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The transition was not done in one time, as they started using Libreoffice/Openoffice and webmail in 2009, making the users transition much softer, as this usually is the main problem for common users.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sources: </span></span><br />
<a href="http://www.esop.pt/a-esop-%E2%80%93-associacao-de-empresas-de-software-open-source-portuguesas-esteve-presente-no-evento-linux-2012-x-encontro-nacional-sobre-tecnologia-aberta-que-decorreu-no-polo-tecnologico-de-li/">http://www.esop.pt/a-esop-%E2%80%93-associacao-de-empresas-de-software-open-source-portuguesas-esteve-presente-no-evento-linux-2012-x-encontro-nacional-sobre-tecnologia-aberta-que-decorreu-no-polo-tecnologico-de-li/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.esop.pt/uploads/2012/09/TranquilidadeDesktopLinux.pdf">http://www.esop.pt/uploads/2012/09/TranquilidadeDesktopLinux.pdf</a><br />
<br />Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-19683791440434714382012-05-22T00:34:00.001+01:002012-05-22T00:39:33.130+01:00Printing to a Windows Printer from Gnu/Linux without Linux driversAs usual I post very few, because the time is very short, but has today I made an achievement I was looking to a long time, it deserves a HOW-TO...<br />
<br />
Here it goes....<br />
<br />
<b>The Problem:</b><br />
<br />
Our office only has one central printer!! (well it has other, but our boss don't wanna buy tonners, I warned him on the buy, that the 2000€ was better buy, but 600€ looked better in that moment.... no comments). This printer we use is a Windows Printer, which means the developer only has drivers for windows. So no Postscript drivers available, what means a great PITA for our PC's with Linux. So since our 600€ printer went out of service me and 3 other colleagues had to bother one of the other windows users every time we needed to print something.<br />
As this don't look a problem, imagine the hours that are lost.... And we are all engineers.... There are better ways to spend the money with our time.... So I decided to do it.... I had tried before with REDMON (<a href="http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/redmon/index.htm">http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/redmon/index.htm</a>), but with no success, but this time I made a decision to loose a few hours and make it...<br />
<br />
<b>The Solution:</b><br />
<br />
So what I had in mind, was a simple solution.... To have a service running in our Windows SBS2003 that would monitor some folder change, where we would put PDF files and then print them.<br />
Linux handles PDF nice, and the users would print to PDF and then place the files on that folder.<br />
It looked really nice and as I thought a lot of free software was available, but......<br />
<br />
<b>Tryouts:</b><br />
<br />
To begin I needed a command, from command line that would execute the print command, and after trying it with Acrobat Reader, I realized that it will always leave one window open with the program, and I didn't wanted that. So I had to find another solution.....<br />
<br />
Then I needed the software to watch the folder changes.... From a dozen windows software the best one, that was able to execute anything on changes was Watch 4 Folder 2.3 (<a href="http://leelusoft.blogspot.pt/">http://leelusoft.blogspot.pt/</a>), but it didn't worked as expected, and I realized that it would only work on file changes from MS computers. After a few emails with the developer, and as I suspected, it uses the<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Microsoft Windows Shell API Notifications, and it is not relieable on network shares! Thank you for the support Mr. </span>Zvika Israeli!!!!</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;">So I had to find another solution....</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;"><b>The Deeper Research:</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;"><b><br /></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;">I had bumped into this website HOWTO - Print to a windows printer from linux WITHOUT needing any linux printer drivers/PPDs (</span><a href="http://justin.yackoski.name/winp/">http://justin.yackoski.name/winp/</a> ) but the python looked a more complicated solution and I had gone to the software in Tryouts chapter :). This webpage has a python script that does what I wanted, but one link in this site was more what I wanted, <a href="http://tgolden.sc.sabren.com/python/win32_how_do_i/watch_directory_for_changes.html">http://tgolden.sc.sabren.com/python/win32_how_do_i/watch_directory_for_changes.html</a>.<br />
<br />
So I grabbed all this info, a lot, and i mean, a lot of python reading..... Especially on string and list manipulation, and came with this solution....<br />
<br />
<b>The Solution:</b> <b style="background-color: red;">(for those in a hurry, please start reading here!!!)</b><br />
<b style="background-color: red;"><br /></b><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><i><u>What you need:</u></i></span><br />
1 - A computer running windows<br />
2 - The printer you want to print to must be the preferred printer<br />
<b style="background-color: red;"><br /></b><br />
<i><u>Software you need to install on windows machine:</u></i><br />
1 - Python - <a href="http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.3/python-2.7.3.msi">http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.3/python-2.7.3.msi</a><br />
2 - Pywin32 - <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/files/pywin32/Build%20217/pywin32-217.win32-py2.7.exe/download">http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/files/pywin32/Build%20217/pywin32-217.win32-py2.7.exe/download</a> - This is needed for handling command line file execution, there are other ways to do it, and they make it a lot faster, but as I'm a beginner in Python, it worked this ways, so let it be, maybe in the future I could make my script better<br />
3 - Pdf X-Change Viewer - <a href="http://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-viewer">http://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-viewer</a> - It is freeware even for commercial use (we use it around the office) and it closes after printing from command line<br />
<br />
<i><u>Changes you need to make to the windows machine:</u></i><br />
1 - Add c:\Python27 (or the folder you installed Python) and C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\win32 to the system path - How to it <a href="http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/configuration/how-can-i-add-a-new-folder-to-my-system-path-">http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/configuration/how-can-i-add-a-new-folder-to-my-system-path-</a><br />
<br />
2 - Create the print batch file - Open a notepad and call it <i>print.bat</i> and save it on c:\, fill it with the following code:<br />
<br />
<br />
<i style="background-color: #e69138;">"C:\Programas\Tracker Software\PDF Viewer\PDFXCview.exe" /print %1</i><br />
<i style="background-color: #e69138;">exit</i><br />
<i><br /></i><br />
Note: The path to the executable depends on your system, this is the path to a Portuguese Windows SBS2003!!!!!!!!!<br />
<br />
3 - Create the python script file - Open a notepad and call it <i>dirwatch.py</i> (or other name you want) and save it on c:\ and fill it with the following code:<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #e69138;">import os, time</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e69138;">import win32api</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e69138;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e69138;">path_to_watch = "z:\\zz_Scanner\\Imprimir" </span><span style="background-color: red;">##This is the folder where you want to put the files for printing double slash are needed because the slash is a special caracter in python!!!!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e69138;">before = dict ((f, None) for f in os.listdir (path_to_watch))</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e69138;">while 1:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e69138;"> time.sleep (1)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e69138;"> after = dict ((f, None) for f in os.listdir (path_to_watch))</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e69138;"> added = [f for f in after if not f in before]</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e69138;"> removed = [f for f in before if not f in after]</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e69138;"> if added:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e69138;"> cmd = str("print.bat "+ "\"" + path_to_watch + "\\" + " ".join (added)+"\"")</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e69138;"> print cmd</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e69138;"> win32api.WinExec(str(cmd)) </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e69138;"> before = after</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e69138;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;">4 - Now run the dirwatch.py and one command line will open without any info. If you place a PDF in the path_to_watch dir, you will see the script finding the file, executing the command and exiting the batch file, and waiting for another file.</span><br />
The script uses about 5Mb of Ram, and if you want to get less cpu usage you can replace time.sleep(1) for a higher value. The value is seconds so now you choose how much time you want to wait for the printing and balance it with your server load.<br />
<br />
5 - I wanted this script to run as a service (seamless) so I place a link to it on startup.<br />
If you don't want to have a command line floating around your server, rename the dirwatch.py to dirwatch.pyw<br />
If you get more then one print, just close python instances on Task Manager.<br />
<br />
<b>Future Improvements:</b><br />
<br />
1 - Get rid of win32api to run commands, I'malmost sure that this could be done with os, help please!!! It would execute faster with less Ram usage. And without the need to have pywin32 installed.<br />
2 - Compare also with existing filenames, because a user could replace a file with the same name and the script only recognize files added!!!<br />
3 - Delete the file after printing (if I do this I don't need the point above)<br />
4 - Configure cups-pdf on Linux computer to place files directly on desired directory - I have to deal with file permissions on both linux machines and our NAS server where the folder is.....<br />
<br />
<br />
So this is it, it worked for me, and a lot can be done so this work better, but the solution is simple and easy, and it will help us to gain time more then important on other tasks....<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-46358163571059574882011-09-30T00:30:00.002+01:002011-09-30T00:32:49.562+01:00Mechanical Engineering Useful Software in LinuxSo, as usual, I've no wrote in this space for a long time, but today, as my daughter sleeps like a baby (10 months :P), I've got the time for some writings..<br />
So since my last post, I've acquired a new 13" laptop to replace the good old asus eee 701, I needed a small, fast and good pc for some of my engineering work.<br />
Just in short lines the PC is an Acer Travelmate 8371, and Linux Mint Debian Edition runs very smooth.... only one thing does not work at all, and that is the fingerprint reader, which I don't care at all.. One of the most important things for me in laptops is battery (6 hours) and suspend (all ACPI events works out of the box. Even the intel wireless card work without problems...So I'm very pleased with this little and robust machine...<br />
So, back on the post title.... As I acquired this machine mainly for work, I started filling it up with software that I use on my day to day work (I work for a Portuguese big HVAC contractor, and own my own consulting company), and as you may think, I spend a lot of my time working...<br />
So, starting from the basis...<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">1 </span>- My desktop, the wood one, is full of interesting stuff, drawings, notes, specifications, catalogs, databooks, material samples, a real mess... so sometimes finding the calculator is hard... so I use the most powerful calculator on Linux... And that is <strong>Qcalculate </strong>(check the repositories)... Imagine this common situation for me, as manufacturers that I work with around the world all work in different units....<br />
Pressure drop calculation:<br />
- Heat Exchanger - 40kPa<br />
- 3 way valve - 1 bar<br />
- Pipes - 2 mca<br />
etc etc...<br />
So, normally to do this calculation and getting the result in bar, for instance, or you have a good datasheet, or you use qcalculate... just by typing....<br />
"(40kPa+1bar+2mca) to bar" you get the fine answer "1,5960828 bars", note that the mca (column of water meters, very used here) is not one of supplied conversions, but you can program any conversion you want, Qalculate has a big database of units, currency conversion (automatic update of exchange rates), math functions, variables, phisycal constants, etc, etc.... It has capability of solving equations, plot functions, a lot of interesting stuff for you engineers to explore...<br />
<img alt="" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfog72-0bzU7bGoEXKrq89UZzlDNkWKdHRKxtpxK6DunJMeTnI7EWkkE3yKfNhGFuSQ-yHvuWFC0-OnVvgDvIdEF_kG1t8M5w2uYh0-wSdheT4kBIEJ6hU9QRh_PBdYVPQRU6RuT_4M44/" style="vertical-align: middle;" width="426" /><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">2 </span>- So, in the CAD area, I've written a lot about this, but a list of the better ones available native:<br />
- <a href="http://www.bricsys.com/">Bricscad</a> (Comercial, Autocad Clone),<br />
- <a href="http://varicad.com/en/home/">Varicad</a> (3D based, for me its the best CAD software available for Linux)<br />
- <a href="http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/download-draftsight/">Draftsight</a> (free, Autocad Clone, but no Autolisp),<br />
- <a href="http://www.graebert.com/en/cad/ares/99">Ares Commander</a> (the father of Draftsight, comercial, full featured),<br />
- <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/free-cad/">Freecad</a> (very good, sound promissing),<br />
- <a href="http://www.ribbonsoft.com/">QCAD</a> (released a new version, looks a lot better and is cheap)<br />
- <a href="http://www.cad-schroer.com/Products/MEDUSA/?&land=com&scr=1.1">Medusa4</a> (free personal version, very good commercial software)<br />
And you have a lot of others, but for some reason to me are not worthy to be in this list, but here is a link to an updated regularly list of CAD software on Linux <a href="http://www.tech-edv.co.at/sl.php?058010">http://www.tech-edv.co.at/sl.php?058010</a>. I recommend this list, I go there to take a look at the news very often... (thank you)<br />
Remember that I'm writing about software that I really used or use for production purposes, so my opinions are not from a inexperienced person on this type of software.... I've been working with cad software since 1996 :)....<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">3</span> - On number 3 we have a non native Linux software, but as they support Linux through wine (and I've bought a license, cough, cough).... I'm talking about <a href="http://www.pressure-drop.com/">SF Pressure Drop 7.0</a> (7.15 version don't work) a full package software to calculate pressure drop in pipes. It has a full database of pipes, accessories, valves, etc, etc, it also has a full database of fluids (liquids and gases) with all the temperature and pressure properties, states, etc, etc. I also allows you to calculate pumps, reservoirs empty times, economical pipe diameter, etc etc.. It is very complete and deserves a look.<br />
I finish this small review with a screenshot...<br />
<img alt="" height="746" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgmn1VJlsY3Rog7nJ8N8b6Ocq_gtpfHD4GiW998gPlaYZmThOabdcuKadXIW1aShz-PrFhJpfqZ_n-0XarLK2RRblqRKANS2v4k-I9tVyV0dRdhiC_u8u8hFJEjdPK-c2Ost3P-tcZntw/" style="vertical-align: middle;" width="982" /><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">4</span> - I work with a lot of PDF files from OEM's, clients, tables from books, etc, etc, etc... and a lot of times I've to markup those to present to consultants, or simply to note something useful... So I'm talking about PDF annotation and manipulation.<br />
I work with 2 software:<br />
For Annotation I use Xournal (it's on every repository), and it allows me to do something like...<br />
<img alt="" height="768" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdT9IO4ks-Mo3INBrfj5-9eJH1mSWVaeQ7W-K0zxDoo_EetLrPuXiYEOWys0NDIf7zBs1OLX-Z2BysQqavu0-4B6PbhV8iiQvd1R1i0wbTe1wEAZFWY2qocsVDiHoXTO5hyoU4k8KcPW0/" style="vertical-align: middle;" width="1366" /><br />
It has a shape recognizer that allow you to do straight lines, and squares, rectangles, circles, etc, etc... Files are saved with .xoj extension, and you can export them to PDF with the annotations, very useful, as it saves a lot of unnecessary printing...<br />
For manipulation I use PDFChain (in repositories also). In the past I used PDFSam, but it is slower to work with due to the interface... So PDFChain allow me to crop, rotate, split and merge PDF's.<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">5</span> - On number 5 is Elmer+Gmsh (both on Debian Testing repositories), the software I use to make CFD calculations. I've started using them recently, and as I'm not very familiar, I'll take the option to just talk about the tricks to make them work with DXF files for complex layouts, and the rest of physical and equation stuff you will have to take a look at the software tutorials.... (beside that I'm a lot of rusty in finite element calculation)<br />
So in the first time you draw something on draftsight for instance.... Save it as dxf.... Import it with Gmsh.... Create the mesh... and save mesh as "Mesh - Gmsh MSH (*.msh)" choose version 2 ASCII and "Save All".<br />
Now the trick (that took me a all night to figure this out), open the generated file with a text editor and simply replace the "." (dots) with "," (commas), somehow Elmer mess things up...<br />
Import mesh into Elmer, model the problem, and in the final you can have a result like this...<br />
<img alt="" height="768" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPqmGY1v-CE_UIrl4U63F1xvYb-2r81xzviQlfjFV5T42N5Dcqkyoz8iNlm7UQTNaJpb9aiR66hew4a72nb3uBW2kSQaTnLWRUsojOQ2_k1BVgH8y8wNjD5sVgb8ksb0HXS1-D73NWmZM/" width="1366" /><br />
The above image represents the air speed inside a HVAC plenum, it was just a test, as the problem was not very well formulated, but you can get a idea of what this is capable...<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">6</span> - Other software that worth a look (in the repositories)<br />
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">- Crunchbang - a less powerful calculator the qalculate</div><div style="padding-left: 30px;">- Octave - Matlab Clone</div><div style="padding-left: 30px;">- PSPP - SPSS clone (statistics) - Never tried it</div><div style="padding-left: 30px;">- Electric - Draw electric Schematics (I've tried but I'm a mech engineer... )</div><br />
So this is it for now.... and as I'm short on time, feel free to follow me on this social networks:<br />
<strong>Twitter - @ECA_Engenharia</strong><br />
<strong>Identi.ca - @pirolocito</strong><br />
We can have a nice talk on a short spare time... And remember, linux is easy....Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-88946397371252670382011-06-23T03:27:00.001+01:002011-06-28T00:17:07.871+01:00#! Crunchbang Statler - Enable Suspend Button on Exit<p>A few moons ago, I posted how to create a button for #! for suspend the computer on exit, but in those days, Crunchbang was based on Ubuntu, and the software worked diferent.</p><p>In the present time, Crunchbang is debian based, so things change a little</p><p>The "Exit" command on the openbox main menu opens several buttons so one can choose, those command are:</p><p>Cancel, Logout, Reboot and Shutdown</p><p>So suspend is out of the list.... those commands are all commands for gdm-control, but gdm-control for suspend is only possible after doing logout, but I wanted to suspend inside the session, so we have to do the trick in other way...</p><p><img style="vertical-align: middle;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT79ziRL_ZChcN55gLhigxGJYM0utuysXlDZ_QhkVFLhy2-clKecjvuvAX8zVPIxq-dUOAFpBCbaUA0QiK0I96P6_u0Wpls1fVs6xi3uxsyl-oFnR1M-kYBtlZcbcBAPtqNoqGGN96AeY/" alt="" width="400" height="240" /></p><p>After taking a look at xfce-power-manager, it has suspend function, and after a litle dbus introspection, I found the correct message (<a href="http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-410570.html">http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-410570.html</a>) for dbus that does the trick once xfce-power-manager api supports freedesktop directives (I'm not an expert on any of these things, I just catched some lines here and there)</p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">dbus-send \</span><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">--session \</span><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">--dest=org.freedesktop.PowerManagement \</span><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">--type=method_call \</span><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">--print-reply \</span><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">--reply-timeout=2000 \</span><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">/org/freedesktop/PowerManagement \</span><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">org.freedesktop.PowerManagement.Suspend</span></p><p>So, for our How-to....</p><p>1 - on a command line <strong>sudo gedit /usr/bin/openbox-logout</strong></p><p>2 - Change the file where <strong>bold</strong> text is the new text to add</p><p><p>-----------------------------------</p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;">#!/usr/bin/env python</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;">import pygtk</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;">pygtk.require('2.0')</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;">import gtk</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;">import os</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;">class DoTheLogOut:</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> # Cancel/exit</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> def delete_event(self, widget, event, data=None):</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> gtk.main_quit()</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> return False</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> # Logout</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> def logout(self, widget):</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> os.system("openbox --exit")</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> # Reboot</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> def reboot(self, widget):</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> os.system("gdm-control --reboot && openbox --exit")</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> # Shutdown</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> def shutdown(self, widget):</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> os.system("gdm-control --shutdown && openbox --exit")</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> <strong> # Suspend</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><strong> def suspend(self, widget):</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><strong> os.system("dbus-send --session --dest=org.freedesktop.PowerManagement --type=method_call --print-reply --reply-timeout=2000 /org/freedesktop/PowerManagement org.freedesktop.PowerManagement.Suspend")</strong></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> def __init__(self):</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> # Create a new window</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.window = gtk.Window(gtk.WINDOW_TOPLEVEL)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.window.set_title("Exit? Choose an option:")</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.window.set_resizable(False)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.window.set_position(1)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.window.connect("delete_event", self.delete_event)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.window.set_border_width(20)</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> # Create a box to pack widgets into</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.box1 = gtk.HBox(False, 0)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.window.add(self.box1)</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> # Create cancel button</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.button1 = gtk.Button("_Cancel")</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.button1.set_border_width(10)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.button1.connect("clicked", self.delete_event, "Changed me mind :)")</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.box1.pack_start(self.button1, True, True, 0)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.button1.show()</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> # Create logout button</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.button2 = gtk.Button("_Log out")</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.button2.set_border_width(10)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.button2.connect("clicked", self.logout)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.box1.pack_start(self.button2, True, True, 0)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.button2.show()</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> # Create reboot button</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.button3 = gtk.Button("_Reboot")</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.button3.set_border_width(10)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.button3.connect("clicked", self.reboot)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.box1.pack_start(self.button3, True, True, 0)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.button3.show()</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> # Create shutdown button</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.button4 = gtk.Button("_Shutdown")</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.button4.set_border_width(10)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.button4.connect("clicked", self.shutdown)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.box1.pack_start(self.button4, True, True, 0)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.button4.show()</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> <strong> # Create suspend button</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><strong> self.button5 = gtk.Button("Sus_pend")</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><strong> self.button5.set_border_width(10)</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><strong> self.button5.connect("clicked", self.suspend)</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><strong> self.box1.pack_start(self.button5, True, True, 0)</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><strong> self.button5.show()</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.box1.show()</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> self.window.show()</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;">def main():</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> gtk.main()</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;">if __name__ == "__main__":</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> gogogo = DoTheLogOut()</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> main()</span></p><p>3 - Save the file, and there you go</p><p>--------------------</p><p>Hope this is any good for anyone, as it is for me... You can always configure xfce-power-manager to suspend when you do some action, as "close lid" "press power button" etc, etc....</p></p>Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-29840633174960009362011-06-03T23:42:00.001+01:002011-06-03T23:44:03.977+01:00Treepad Alternative - CherrytreeAfter a few months I'm back on my writings... My 7 months old daughter take my breath and my time away...<br />
<br />
So today I'll be writing about a wonderful project from an Italian programmer, named Giuseppe (aka Giuspen).<br />
<br />
As you may notice from the title, <a href="http://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/">Cherrytree</a> is a Treepad alternative, a hierarchical note taking application, and a very good one. It has a lot of advantages comparing to treepad:<br />
<br />
1 - It's Open Source and Linux is supported natively<br />
2 - It supports Images, tables and other rich text features<br />
3 - Export to html<br />
4 - Import from treepad and other alike<br />
5 - Syntax highlighting<br />
6 - Save all stuff in a single file<br />
.....<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.giuspen.com/images/cherrytree-main_window_text.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="437" src="http://www.giuspen.com/images/cherrytree-main_window_text.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
The project is supported by various translators (including me in Portuguese, not completed yet), and others are welcome.<br />
<br />
The application runs real fast, can be docked to notification area, and it opens the last saved file. Recently it also allows multiple instances.<br />
<br />
Giuspen, has a lot of ideas for making Cherrytree even better. If I could code as good as he, sure I'll give him a boost in Cherrytree, the program I use everyday for taking personal notes, and for work.<br />
<br />
Finally one last taught about cherrytree.... What if Debian or Ubuntu packed it in repositories? I believe it would be great for most users that are not aware of this wonderful piece of software.Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-65787092150469721572010-11-27T14:01:00.001+00:002010-11-27T14:03:17.763+00:00Moving Desktop Windows users to Linux<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPlHV4duDvFPuRdmfUPOyjzSuYBAhp56BXkuU4R6VaUdBdXQ2c1s9MewNzjJx44z4d-Ek8kNL12CgwYMqllDJOrSxIL9XikPaMj4944NcTPV7XfqcVo_kV0UMmqWXUUkgytIiR1ofSIe4/s1600/windows_linux.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPlHV4duDvFPuRdmfUPOyjzSuYBAhp56BXkuU4R6VaUdBdXQ2c1s9MewNzjJx44z4d-Ek8kNL12CgwYMqllDJOrSxIL9XikPaMj4944NcTPV7XfqcVo_kV0UMmqWXUUkgytIiR1ofSIe4/s320/windows_linux.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>More than a year ago I wrote a post concerning my personal experience <a href="http://linuxmadeasy.blogspot.com/2009/09/linux-for-engineering-pratical-case.html">http://linuxmadeasy.blogspot.com/2009/09/linux-for-engineering-pratical-case.html</a>.<br />
<br />
I manage our computer systems at work and never tried to convert user Pc's to Linux, instead sometimes I showed them some of the nice stuff and played with them when their windows system crashed, or simply because network printers stopped working.<br />
<br />
Since then all item number 7 is ok since we have Bricscad / Ares Commander, and I have moved from OWA to IMAP on my machine, and all my troubles were over.<br />
<br />
So about a month ago a Engineer colleague that had Win Vista, said to me... "Can't stand with this Sh#$ anymore, please install Linux here". I've made him a bunch of questions about software he used, and explained that one printer in our office would not work, and all stuff that is different, in the end it was ok for him so we went for it.<br />
<br />
Before Linux (Ubuntu 10.04) he could not:<br />
<br />
- Print to our 42" HP plotter without problems<br />
- Work one day without rebooting 2 or 3 times<br />
- Start working 1 minute after power-up<br />
- Transfer files to/from his Nokia and Blackberry via bluetooth<br />
<br />
After installation when I showed him Nautilus working with tabs (Ctrl+T) and extra panel (F3) it became amazed with a so simple thing that come very handy...<br />
<br />
I've had less complaints than ever from him, only thing that went wrong was a day that our Exchange Server went "mad" and he thought it was because of Evolution. <br />
<br />
This week I've had two more colleague that want Linux also. Both with XP. I guess it was because they saw a not experienced user doing so well with Linux. Soon both computer will soon boot Ubuntu instead of XP.<br />
<br />
This week also I got amazed when I saw him getting drawings out of our plotter. I didn't configured the plotter because I hadn't time. So he did it all by himself. It never happened when he had windows... Even Bluetooth configuration was made by him.<br />
<br />
So who could say... More than ever I believe Linux is easier than windows and ready for common users...Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-50984741452300243882010-10-07T01:38:00.000+01:002010-10-07T01:38:39.580+01:00DWF Files - A Challenge to You!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyJpru7Dfb8A2BZkTjsvC2swdi-xkRtkavA01cM2hoR3SVM_6UzD-xGvC34oXoZEIg7T6pP61mREVxrhctKd1qasIo6ahvwATZy1BUxEuVdgC-IPOyUZSluPhZP-pyp3f0jfx2DpGZ7CE/s1600/I_want_you2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyJpru7Dfb8A2BZkTjsvC2swdi-xkRtkavA01cM2hoR3SVM_6UzD-xGvC34oXoZEIg7T6pP61mREVxrhctKd1qasIo6ahvwATZy1BUxEuVdgC-IPOyUZSluPhZP-pyp3f0jfx2DpGZ7CE/s320/I_want_you2.gif" width="281" /></a></div>I challenge you to program a Open-Source DWF file viewer!!!<br />
<br />
I love Computing and Linux in particular, I even know some C++, Basic, Fortran Pascal, VBasic and Gambas, but beside "Hello World!", I'm rusty, very rusty.....<br />
<br />
Yesterday after upgrading my Ubuntu desktop to 10.10 on 5/10/2010 (Establish of Portuguese Republic, National Holiday), I took a look at Ubuntu new software center and went to - Science - Engineering, and as usual, a couple Math programs, a dozen electrical simulators/ designers, etc, etc... So I thought, what the hell.... There are only programs useful for Electrical Engineers.....<br />
<br />
Why is that??? Easy, Electrical Engineering courses have a great component of computer science and programming, that why this engineering side has such nice software.....<br />
<br />
So, since I'm not one of them (my area is more like machines, pipes, rivets, nuts, bolts, ducts), :) please help us..... I'm not talking for myself, I know there are a lot of Engineers, mechanical, civil, and even Architects that would love to have a DWF file viewer.<br />
<br />
As you know Linux now has DWG capable software natively, but as PDF is to DOC files, DWF is to DWG files, and we are missing DWF.....<br />
<br />
<i>"Design Web Format (DWF) is a secure file format developed by Autodesk for the efficient distribution and communication of rich design data to anyone who needs to view, review, or print design files."</i> in: Wikipedia<br />
<br />
Nowadays it is used by Portuguese Government entities to distribute designs to contractors, note that, at Portugal this is LAW, Decreto-Lei 60/2007 says that PDF should be used for written elements and DWF for drawings (really nice lobby for Autodesk).<br />
<br />
But, DWF is an open format based on ISO/IEC 29500-2:2008, and Autodesk provides a Open-Source Toolkit for developers <a href="http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=823771">http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=823771</a>. That's Halfway there .....<br />
<br />
Do you think you can do it? I believe that are others that can do it too. The first will get the gold...<br />
<br />
So, who would be the first to get there??? I'm expecting to see one of this names:<br />
<br />
- Evince (I have great confidence in you guys!!!)<br />
- Bricsys (Closed-Source, with a dwg software and project management interactive with Lotus)<br />
- Graebert (Closed-source, also with dwg software, in there ARES beta there was a reference to dwf)<br />
- QCAD (maybe yes, maybe not, I think they are too busy dealing with DWG support first)<br />
- Adobe (Why not??)<br />
- CUPS (They can make print to DWF "cups-dwf" :), the way back sure it will be really simple)<br />
- Inkscape (The experts in vectorial files...)<br />
<br />
And don't forget <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218817/">Antitrust (2001)</a> Gary's words <i>"We work hard to stay ahead because we know any kid working in his garage can put us out of business".</i><br />
<br />
I think if you are in one of these teams you would be happy to get there first than the others.... I also believe that it will get your piece of software ahead of the others in a big niche (Engineering and Architecture)...<br />
<br />
It is easy, so let's get to work....<br />
<br />
Note that I will always be here to do beta testing in a daily basis (it's my job working with those files), and also provide you files to test.....Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-84513011946043840772010-09-30T00:17:00.001+01:002010-09-30T00:29:48.748+01:00DWG CAD on Linux - Ares Commander Commercial ReleaseLast week I wrote about Ares and Draftsight, and how they where close to go full comercial (Ares only, Draftsight will be free as Mac and Win released versions), so this is it....<br />
<br />
So, since 18 Set., what happened here? Let's go back a few days, and:<br />
<br />
22 September - I found out that Draftsight for MAC was available for download<br />
28 September - After reporting a bug for ARES, I received an email from Graebert, that says "BTW:<br />
We have released a final version of ARES Commander on Linux yesterday evening.".<br />
<br />
So this last 2 days I've been using final version of ARES, so now I'm capable of write something more about than before.<br />
<br />
- Interface is really polished, very nice and modern icons<br />
- It has a built in table creator (really usefull)<br />
- I don't remember if Autocad or Bricscad, does this but in hatch window, we have "create hatch for each boundary". How many of you had to delete hatch and create it all over again?<br />
- When in a command, line for example, you don't loose focus on main windows and you can do F3 or F8, for example. This bug is not solved in Bricscad for Linux.<br />
- Plot works really good in Linux. I've been plotting large format drawing for hand drafting. With "DEMO VERSION" watermarked.<br />
- I opened 15 dwg at once without a single hiccup, and changing from one drawing to another brings no problem in performance<br />
- It has a full-screen feature (very usefull for my eee701) on view->Clean Screen, or Ctrl+0 shortcut<br />
- Layout tab is much smaller than in beta version, and you don't need it, so if your screen is small just take it out and use "Model" "Sheet" button on bottom bar<br />
- Real time zoom and pan is somehow slow when very zoomed out, and I haven't figured out why...<br />
- On Beta there was an option for opening DWF (it didn't work), but in final release is not implemented, maybe in the future we will see this (afterall Autodesk has a Open Source SDK for DWF)<br />
- They are releasing packages for every main Linux distribution.<br />
<br />
In general is a very polished piece of software and I can say Graebert did some really nice work from Beta to commercial version.<br />
<br />
The price of this Software is till the end of October 495€ (with 50% off).<br />
<br />
Linux is getting easy, Correction, even more easy.....Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-50446317843973395692010-09-18T02:45:00.000+01:002010-09-18T02:45:03.184+01:00DWG Cad on Linux - Draftsight and Ares Commander<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJpiUTNiccfMD5uY1vfOq-cNRjb1grwuHidAEQjSroOpMBLFhSZxYK4Y6NqBzGM3iDvzulKTfnYu_FrxLVl37FN7zc4JB91L6Na0BBXW-ijQWbnTv57Oux4pYgcwhL90EZgyuGpq0meqI/s1600/bandeira-do-reino-unido.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJpiUTNiccfMD5uY1vfOq-cNRjb1grwuHidAEQjSroOpMBLFhSZxYK4Y6NqBzGM3iDvzulKTfnYu_FrxLVl37FN7zc4JB91L6Na0BBXW-ijQWbnTv57Oux4pYgcwhL90EZgyuGpq0meqI/s320/bandeira-do-reino-unido.gif" /></a></div><a href="http://www.portalsaofrancisco.com.br/alfa/portugal/imagens/bandeira-de-portugal.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a><br />
<br />
This is the first Linux Made Easy Bilingual Post. I intend to reach a bigger audience in my native language, Portuguese. I hope to get to Brasil, Portugal and some PALOP (African Countries with Portuguese as Official Language). Without further delay, let's get to the post....<br />
<br />
Today I found another Linux CAD software that will be out soon, I'm talking about DraftSight. While not available yet in Linux version it's a free alternative to other programs in 2d drawing. According to the manufacturer "Mac OS and Linux support will be available later this year".<br />
<br />
A very important feature related to Draftsight is the name of developer - Dassault Systemes - Don't you know them? And if I mention the name SolidWorks? And Catia? Well, we are talking about a major cad dealer. Can this mean that we have competition on CAD software on Linux?<br />
<br />
Answering the previous question - YES !<br />
<br />
At this time, economical Autocad Linux alternatives were just one - Bricscad, but there is already another one available for download. I'm talking about German Grabert's ARES Commander. Right now to be able to try the software you will need to register as a Beta-Tester to get the download link. After installation you will be able to enjoy a complete 2D cad with DWG support. Actually from the short time that I tried out it looked a bit faster in processing DWG than Bricscad, however it looks very professional, clean looks and practical.<br />
<br />
I present you a screenshot of ARES Commander working (This is a real production design's):<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhJwYxAgsPCbXifLUdh-Ru1asCJpvmikhO7iuqWeOf4leABCySBBZfx_Mp9hZE0VTLgqIQ81DK2LhnYk3QismzqbbqgvPP4rodlHqo9zcIncvUcfYQGBRr-XZit2HuV-SY7ybb57SDGgM/s1600/CapturaEcra.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhJwYxAgsPCbXifLUdh-Ru1asCJpvmikhO7iuqWeOf4leABCySBBZfx_Mp9hZE0VTLgqIQ81DK2LhnYk3QismzqbbqgvPP4rodlHqo9zcIncvUcfYQGBRr-XZit2HuV-SY7ybb57SDGgM/s640/CapturaEcra.png" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
At this moment this software is commercial available for OSX, and Linux became a little late. However for what was tried out, it will be a good competitor for Bricscad, Autocad e for certain Draftsight.<br />
<br />
It's getting even easier to work on Linux, and with a lot of choices.....<br />
<br />
The Links to Software:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/download-draftsight">DraftSight - http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/download-draftsight</a><br />
<a href="http://new.graebert.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=99&Itemid=105&lang=en">Ares Commander - http://new.graebert.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=99&Itemid=105&lang=en</a><br />
<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnIp_XGjbmbAU633fcIZvG56MHlS6pqr9hwh27LvvM6BVNmps9CG8taCDcstm0Bg05ydTgYwnoaQYg-GZ6pyezSXkdttPFaexT9t1YLuhYseCmD5hCl6vAbj97LbUC3SNGUlt0aAeI86o/s1600/bandeira-de-portugal.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnIp_XGjbmbAU633fcIZvG56MHlS6pqr9hwh27LvvM6BVNmps9CG8taCDcstm0Bg05ydTgYwnoaQYg-GZ6pyezSXkdttPFaexT9t1YLuhYseCmD5hCl6vAbj97LbUC3SNGUlt0aAeI86o/s320/bandeira-de-portugal.gif" /></a></div><b>DWG no Linux - DraftSight e Ares Commander</b><br />
<br />
Este post é o 1º Bilingue do Linux Made Easy. O objectivo é atingir uma maior audiência na minha língua materna, o Português. Espero com isto chegar ao povo Brasileiro, Português e possivelmente aos habitantes dos Palop (Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa). Mas, continuando para o artigo em questão...<br />
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Hoje tomei conhecimento de mais um software de CAD para Linux que está para ser lançado em breve, estou a falar do DraftSight. Este software, ainda não disponível na versão Linux apresenta-se como uma alternativa gratuita a outros concorrentes no desenho 2D. De acordo com o fabricante "Mac OS and Linux support will be available later this year".<br />
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Um factor muito importante neste software é o nome do seu fabricante - Dassault Systemes - Não sabe quem é? Então e se lhe falar no nome Solidworks? E Catia? Bem, estamos a falar de um dos principais fabricantes de software CAD no mundo. Poderá isto significar que até já temos concorrência em programas CAD em Linux?<br />
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Respondendo à pergunta anterior - SIM!!!<br />
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Neste momento, alternativas económicas a Autocad em Linux, tínhamos 1 - Bricscad, mas existe outra actualmente e já disponível para download. Estou a falar de ARES Commander da Alemã Grabert. Neste momento tirar partido do software terá de se inscrever como Beta-tester para obter o link do download. Após instalar o programa poderá disfrutar de um completo software cad 2d com suporte para DWG. Actualmente do pouco tempo despendido a experimentar este software, pareceu-nos mais rápido no processamento dos ficheiros DWG do que o Bricscad, mas no entanto apresenta um aspecto bastante profissional, limpo e prático.<br />
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Apresentamos um screenshot do software a trabalhar (Isto são ficheiros meus de trabalho):<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhJwYxAgsPCbXifLUdh-Ru1asCJpvmikhO7iuqWeOf4leABCySBBZfx_Mp9hZE0VTLgqIQ81DK2LhnYk3QismzqbbqgvPP4rodlHqo9zcIncvUcfYQGBRr-XZit2HuV-SY7ybb57SDGgM/s1600/CapturaEcra.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhJwYxAgsPCbXifLUdh-Ru1asCJpvmikhO7iuqWeOf4leABCySBBZfx_Mp9hZE0VTLgqIQ81DK2LhnYk3QismzqbbqgvPP4rodlHqo9zcIncvUcfYQGBRr-XZit2HuV-SY7ybb57SDGgM/s640/CapturaEcra.png" width="640" /></a><br />
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Actualmente este software encontra-se à venda para OSX, tendo atrasado o lançamento em Linux, no entanto, pelo que já vimos, será um concorrente à altura do Bricscad, Autocad e concerteza do Draftsight.<br />
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Cada vez está mais fácil trabalhar em Linux, e com possibilidade de escolha...<br />
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Os Links para o Software:<br />
<a href="http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/download-draftsight">DraftSight - http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/download-draftsight</a><br />
<a href="http://new.graebert.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=99&Itemid=105&lang=en">Ares Commander - http://new.graebert.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=99&Itemid=105&lang=en</a>Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-48413045500424441292010-09-17T01:07:00.000+01:002010-09-17T01:07:49.175+01:00Novell - Who are the mysterious buyers?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://www.thevarguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/microsoft-and-novell.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In: www.thevarguy.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.thevarguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/microsoft-and-novell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><span id="goog_1095850059"></span><span id="goog_1095850060"></span>I usually don't do politics nor business assumptions, but this in getting me nervous, and I can't stop thinking about it....<br />
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Maybe there are many interests for a lot of companies to buy Novell, but..... <br />
<br />
What if, Microsoft is on the run to Novell?!?!?! Novell own Unix, they are somewhat friends, they work together....<br />
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It's a strange recipe, what could be the result if they really buy it?<br />
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This time I don't have an easy answer, and neither a hard one, I will leave the conversation open.... Please leave your comments....Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-53756602598975640102010-09-10T01:33:00.001+01:002010-09-10T01:34:34.740+01:00Biometric Hardware with Linux and GPL violations<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.gnu.org/graphics/gplv3-127x51.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.gnu.org/graphics/gplv3-127x51.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image from: http://www.gnu.org</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Recently at work we installed a biometric access control system. I was not in charge of this buy, but I tried the Windows software that is responsible for data handling and connects to biometric terminals.<br />
<br />
Today, we were doing a few more work in our office, and drilling a hole to basement, the worker made bullseye on power cable for biometrics terminals.<br />
<br />
So I had the chance to watch one of the biometrics terminal boot. What was my surprise when I see on the small LCD a Penguin and the word LINUX.<br />
<br />
Well this product is made by ZK-USA, and consulting their site there is some reference to Linux OS.<br />
<br />
I didn't had access to the documentation in box but I can't see anything on their website related to GPL. I'm no specialist at GPL, but I will go deep on this tomorrow, related to the papers that came with the hardware to see if they are violating GPL or not.<br />
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On the other side at home I bought a wireless multimedia reader, and with the Manual came the GPL and a address to ask for source code if interested. I have to name that company, because I should, it's the French Dane-Elec. Cheers for them, great product and great attitude.<br />
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On a world with more and more embedded system I believe all of us should look deeply to what we are buying, if some of us defend FOSS, so let's do it.<br />
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Linux GPL don't ask for much money, is just 0$=0€, why a company that profit a lot from free raw material violate GPL?<br />
<br />
At the following sites you can find Lists of companies who violate GPL, and the only reason i see is greed.<br />
<b><br />
ffmpeg Hall of Shame</b><br />
<a href="http://ffmpeg.org/shame.html">http://ffmpeg.org/shame.html</a><br />
<b><br />
GPL Violations</b><br />
<a href="http://gpl-violations.org/">http://gpl-violations.org/</a><br />
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Would you buy stolen goods? It's very easy to verify this before buying, just go for this websites.... And please, participate....Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-9573832109147374812010-09-08T23:22:00.001+01:002010-09-08T23:26:33.342+01:00Linux Mint Debian Edition - 1st Impression<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_parUrJK7A2Y/TIgNVRpeejI/AAAAAAAAAQk/MpC4oAJkHHU/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="191" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_parUrJK7A2Y/TIgNVRpeejI/AAAAAAAAAQk/MpC4oAJkHHU/s400/Untitled.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image retrieved from http://linuxmint.com/</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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It's been long time since I tried Linux Mint for the 1st time and loved it. Only problem is that it was Ubuntu based.<br />
<br />
Well, I love Ubuntu, but it's not 100%, and after my upgrade from 8.04 to 8.10 without a full reinstall that didn't went well, it came down a few points in my consideration. I had one bad night, since i needed the pc fully operational next day (its a work PC).<br />
<br />
So I tried everything else on market, but can't handle with anything else than Debian based OS.<br />
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Crunchbang was my 1st thought, but is still Ubuntu based and their Debian distro is still Alpha and, ..... well you can understand.<br />
<br />
And now, from behind the smoke, comes Linux Mint, with a Debian based and rolling distro...<br />
<br />
So without further delay, let's talk about Mint...<br />
<br />
1 - Boot Time - Nothing new, fast as hell...<br />
2 - Kernel - 2.6.32 - Same as Ubuntu 10.04<br />
3 - Speed - same as 1<br />
4 - Update Manager - ok, not very intrusive with all the updates and the wonderful Mint level for update, very nice for beginners<br />
5 - My samba share appeared on Nautilus and network<br />
6 - Software: F-spot, Gimp, Thunderbird, Pidgin!!!!!, VLC!!!!!!, MintNanny (it would come very useful for me soon), Giver (file share), root terminal, Openoffice..... Yes, they are better than Ubuntu at choosing packages<br />
7 - Well, everything else, just like regular Mint, very very nice......<br />
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I didn't install, but I'm sure it will be easy as Linux usual is....<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_parUrJK7A2Y/TIgMlkuCJ_I/AAAAAAAAAQc/Xhen5rZoTDA/s1600/Screenshot-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_parUrJK7A2Y/TIgMlkuCJ_I/AAAAAAAAAQc/Xhen5rZoTDA/s640/Screenshot-1.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />
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Ps: I changed the installed background, just because I love this image (available on right click - change desktop background...Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-62748207551914968032010-09-06T19:22:00.000+01:002010-09-06T19:22:03.745+01:00Linux DWG - Official Release - Bricscad v10<b>It happened today...</b><br />
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Bricsys released the official version of bricscad V10. No long in beta stage is now commercial with version 10.6.3-2 (windows version is 10.4.18-1).<br />
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So now Linux users have a CAD software capable of handling DWG file format.<br />
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Now there is no excuse to stay with windows just because you need Autocad. Bricscad is a very capable software and in many case can do better.<br />
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The basic version starts on 315€ or 395$ wich is a very nice price. Of course not FOSS, but for production is the best know alternative in Linux. <br />
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You can download a trial version of Bricscad here <a href="http://www.bricsys.com/en_INTL/">http://www.bricsys.com/en_INTL/</a><br />
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<br />
Here is a nice screenshot:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWBy8o094rC9C5zj1ztH5WC2YugXEFEZJbuFBAvAZ9ddQR-wXddC_bQ_1oQwxVimI88eLwOhgYl03Z2as8NwEcEriYTVtgcNKXJvVSaamSYQF-V5wuvo15K9pBwV7mPJyvt05dwLSVml4/s1600/CapturaEcra.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWBy8o094rC9C5zj1ztH5WC2YugXEFEZJbuFBAvAZ9ddQR-wXddC_bQ_1oQwxVimI88eLwOhgYl03Z2as8NwEcEriYTVtgcNKXJvVSaamSYQF-V5wuvo15K9pBwV7mPJyvt05dwLSVml4/s640/CapturaEcra.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>From Bricscad website: </b></span><br />
<h1>Bricscad™ V10 for Linux released</h1><span class="date">Sep 6, 2010</span><span class="newsKeyword"><a alt="Filter on this tag" href="http://www.bricsys.com/common/news.jsp?ksearch=Bricscad" title="Filter on this tag">Bricscad</a></span><span class="newsKeyword"><a alt="Filter on this tag" href="http://www.bricsys.com/common/news.jsp?ksearch=Linux" title="Filter on this tag">Linux</a></span><span class="newsKeyword"><a alt="Filter on this tag" href="http://www.bricsys.com/common/news.jsp?ksearch=V10" title="Filter on this tag">V10</a></span> <div class="intro">Gent Belgium and Merrimack NH USA, September 6, 2010 – Bricsys is the first to release a .dwg based CAD software for Linux users. Bricsys NV, the developer of Bricscad, announced today that Bricscad V10 for Linux is now available </div>Bricscad V10 is the first .dwg based CAD platform available for the Linux Operating System. Bricscad V10, the leading alternative CAD platform for the .dwg file format, continues to offer freedom of choice to the CAD and Engineering community.<br />
The Linux community so far had no access to .dwg based CAD, commonly accepted as the standard CAD file format. With Bricscad V10 for Linux that problem is solved and people don’t have to stick with the Windows OS just because they need .dwg based CAD. <br />
Erik De Keyser, CEO of Bricsys, comments: “We consider Bricscad V10 for Linux as a milestone for our company. Despite doubts of many about the viability of a native Linux based professional CAD product, we are convinced that there is a strong demand for it and a huge potential for applications. Bricsys is the right company to play a leading role in this evolution. For now we want to thank the thousands of Beta testers that helped us to finalize this version.”<br />
Bricscad V10 for Windows is highly appreciated for its rich set of API’s. Today well over 500 Third party application developers are in the process of porting their applications to Bricscad V10 and 155 applications are released. This first release of Bricscad V10 for Linux comes immediately with the complete LISP, DCL and Diesel API’s. Encryption is available for commercial LISP based applications and users can run their LISP routines without any modification. The Bricscad LISP engine is one of the fastest available. Depending on the demand of application developers, Bricsys will extend the set of API’s for the Linux platform.<br />
Initially Bricscad will support three Linux flavors: Fedora 12 or higher, OpenSuse 11.1 or higher and Ubuntu 9.10 or higher. The English version of Bricscad V10 for Linux is available in the Bricsys e-store. The other 15 language versions will be available within days.Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-5289910598382208512010-08-17T15:20:00.000+01:002010-08-17T15:20:13.850+01:00Linux Is Fun!!! Second Life....I'm not a big fan of Second Life, but today, just for experience I logon to my account created around 1998 :)....<br />
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I had read somewhere that Second Life had a Linux client... So it was time to try it...<br />
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I've downloaded the client named SecondLife-i686-2.1.0.207030, and after untar it using nothing but just Nautilus, i ran the executable (no need to install).... and....<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij5ie6lZEtipa3KXX56lwqXnWGe_7hYr4P3FOPPDBE610J9EuNWuLta6IjeyWmejo0aWDIQv_Dcxwq2A3Rop6Ahj1ItcmOcHnPE7VhSDm22lViS0LiVyQfg22rQGl5srCORxxfjM8JZ_g/s1600/CapturaEcra.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij5ie6lZEtipa3KXX56lwqXnWGe_7hYr4P3FOPPDBE610J9EuNWuLta6IjeyWmejo0aWDIQv_Dcxwq2A3Rop6Ahj1ItcmOcHnPE7VhSDm22lViS0LiVyQfg22rQGl5srCORxxfjM8JZ_g/s640/CapturaEcra.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />
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Now I'm dancing around justo for fun.... Nice Graphics, 3d Hardware ok, Easy...<br />
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Try for yourself...Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-29003014932480767472010-08-15T23:09:00.000+01:002010-08-15T23:09:54.521+01:00Linux found in Portugal - RHLLast Summer while in hollidays in Algarve, I noticed at the supermarket cashier after a reboot that they were using Red Hat Linux.<br />
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Well, this is a major Supermarket chain here at Portugal.<br />
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So today i had the idea to make some calculations and figure out how much computers with RHL installed just for cashier POS.<br />
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Well, consulting their website, at www.continente.pt I found:<br />
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40 - Continente Hipermarket - At about 50 cashiers each= 2000 RHL<br />
120 - Modelo Supermarket - At about 10 cashiers each = 1200 RHL<br />
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Each one of this shops have other cashier for other brands, Worten (home appliances) Modalfa (clothes), and each one a few more cashiers... Just sum, and sum...<br />
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With simple math at Portugal we just found 3500 Linux computers with important position, not just some desktops....<br />
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So those people who say that Linux is just about 1% of desktop, how about make some calculations and count the number of computers with Linux? Remember, a router with embebed Linux is a computer!!!!Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128200199030929030.post-84782943847071985532010-06-23T02:56:00.001+01:002010-06-23T02:59:28.304+01:00Abiword - Writing Collaboration<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Can you do this on MSOffice?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><img border="0" height="552" src="http://lwn.net/images/abiword-collaboration.png" width="640" /></div><br />
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Sure you can't..... But you can do it on Windows...<br />
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I tried it and it is very easy to use ..... <br />
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Each colour is a diferent person writing on the same file from diferent computers, at the same time...... UAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU....<br />
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Abiword is a standalone word processor, available on Linux, Windows, and Macosx and with more feature than you will ever need....<br />
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Find out more at h<a href="http://www.abisource.com/">ttp://www.abisource.com/ </a>Ricardo Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04696146471723475298noreply@blogger.com0