neural.brew

the.koala.arrives

2009-10-31T10:49:00.005+08:00

I've just installed Ubuntu's latest release nicknamed Karmic Koala (9.10) and I still can't wipe the smile off my face. Once again Ubuntu/Canonical has release a shinier more polished version of the popular Linux distro. My main gear is an MSI PR-200 laptop and virtually all of my devices worked without a single tweak (the TV-card might need work). Gnome-do now sports a dock interface and it comes with the latest release of Firefox (so far no Flash issues). If this is an indication of Canonical's dedication to making Ubuntu the best Linux distro then I think they're on the right track. Minor design changes actually enhanced the whole experience. Kudos to Canonical and the Ubuntu community! :)

can't.wait

2009-10-07T10:31:00.001+08:00

Karmic Koala Beta is running smoothly on my machine...I do hear a few issues from my friends but no showstopping bugs to far...its fast, well polished and will definitely upgrade to it once its officially released.

ideacampdavao.channel.on.vimeo

2009-09-25T08:48:00.002+08:00

Ragingmon just posted the latest batch Ideacamp videos
Thanks mon!

post.SFD.blog (long post)

2009-09-24T09:51:00.013+08:00

Another Software Freedom Day was successfully celebrated at the UIC Auditorium last Saturday. Some familiar faces from last year's SFD were there as well as a fresh set of students coming from different schools. Here are the highlights of the event.

Councilor Peter Lavina opened the event (see video below)

SFD2009 Keynote - Pete Lavina from ragingmon on Vimeo.

followed by Dominique Cimafranca's interesting talk on Teaching Opensource in The University.

Kevin Paquet of PinoyTeens.net talked about his passion for the opensource blogging platform, Wordpress.

Marloue Pidor talked about OpenStreetMap (OSM) and how everyone can contribute to this wonderful mapping project. Marloue, Mark and I co-author mapping mindanao so you can actually shoot me an email as well if you have questions regarding OSM.

Evamay dela Rosa talked about FOSS solutions for Business Intelligence...putting emphasis on Pentaho. She also announced that their company is hiring...so there you go, learn Pentaho and you're assured a seat in Citi Hardware :)

SFD09 Business Intelligence - Evamay dela Rosa from ragingmon on Vimeo.

Mark Maglana talked about Opensourcing IdeaCamp...the unconference for people who want to make a difference.

SFD2009 IdeaCamp Open Sourcing Ideas - Mark Maglana from ragingmon on Vimeo.

Holden Hao, Afterfive and DabaweGNU President, presented network booting and virtualization, showcasing the same technologies that powered DabaweGNU's laboratory. Low-cost yet powerful solutions fueled by FOSS.

Lastly, I got to present Ardour, Hydrogen and JACK...FOSS-based digital audio tools that deliver high quality output. I would have wanted to show how to actually add each audio track to Ardour but due to time constraints I had to settle with a canned Ardour project. I hope the audience at least get the basic concepts so they can start their our music projects using these tools. Btw, I used Impressive to render the presentation and as well as use Ubuntu's built-in bluetooth hid support to use my k750i as a presentation remote. (see! libre rocks!)

Again if you have question feel free to shoot me an email.

SFD09 Ardour + Jack + Hydrogen - George Tujan from ragingmon on Vimeo.

special thanks to Ragingmon for the videos!

neuralbrew.on.sfd

2009-09-18T15:57:00.003+08:00

I'll be at the UIC Auditorium tomorrow from 1pm to 5pm for the Software Freedom Day 2009 celebration. Here's a link for tomorrow's programme >> software-freedom-day-2009

IdeaCampDavao.version.2

2009-09-11T14:21:00.002+08:00

I got my hands full these days but I would just like to remind everyone to join IdeaCamp Davao 2

When: Saturday, September 12, 2009 (10AM - 4PM, registration starts at 9:30AM)
Where: Whistle Top Bar (Matina Town Square, Davao City, Philippines)
How much: Admission is FREE (But slots are limited)
What to wear: No dress code, as usual

See you there!

an.alternative.to.the.usual.presentation.apps

2009-06-13T11:29:00.006+08:00

Hello guys, I've been quite busy lately juggling fatherhood, work, ideacamp and setting up the mapping party that I haven't been able to update this blog as much as I want to. So now that I have a few minutes to spare I'd like to point your attention to a pretty cool application (more of a script really) I came across yesterday, must have been what we drank and ate at Talaba Joe's (thanks Mark... I enjoyed the quantum physics talk hahaha) because I just randomly searched for presentation apps online and managed to stumble upon Impressive.

Impressive is a program that displays presentation slides. But unlike Impress or other similar applications, it does so with style. Smooth alpha-blended slide transitions are provided for the sake of eye candy, but in addition to this, Impressive offers some unique tools that are really useful for presentations. Its not as flashy or feature-loaded as the usual presentation software but what I like about it is its simplicity and the potential to do more (it is after all a FOSS app), its just a 150k python script (fully configurable and free) that allows you to render your PDF files as presentation, providing hardware-accelerated effects (page transitions), a smashing overview screen that looks like Compiz or Cooliris, a highlight box that stays that way until you disable it and the cool spotlight effect (so you can throw away that laser pointer). Of course its not as complete as Keynote,Powerpoint

or Impress but in some ways I find it more impressive :)

improving.intel.graphics.on.ubuntu.jaunty

2009-06-06T18:17:00.003+08:00

Here's a link to a very helpful howto that not only improves the speed of your Intel integrated chip but also solves the Google Earth 5.0 flickering (and logging-out issues). Btw, I have an MSI PR-200 notebook with a GM965/GL960 chip running Ubuntu 9.04 64bit, the fix (or should I say work-around) manage to drastically improve glxgears frames from 600+ to 2700+ (I followed the bleeding edge option), yet remained stable with no apparent memory leaks. Hope this helps

post.ideacampdavao.post

2009-06-01T16:28:00.004+08:00

I'd like to thank all those to came and participated in the first ever IdeaCamp Davao! We had a full-packed room of people willing to share what's on their mind. I personally enjoyed the whole experience, not just because I'm part of the organizing group (it was fun btw), but because of the ideas that were introduced. Engr. Espina's talk on renewable energy was both an eye-opener and a window for opportunity, I could have sworn I saw light-bulbs on people's heads when he presented his ideas. The presentation was limited to 10minutes (plus another 10mins for questions) each and although I personally would want it to be longer, it was at least effective in keeping the speakers from talking to much and the audience from losing interest (maybe we should consider parallel session on the next IdeaCamp). This is just the beginning guys, We hope to bring even more interesting ideas on the next IdeaCamp (schedule will be announced in a few days).

Btw, I'd urge anyone even those who haven't attended IdeaCamp Davao (and therefore did not see the presentation) to checkout G.ho.st's virtual computer, its a new paradigm for computing and quite helpful for those who wouldn't want to lug around a laptop when travelling, just sign up and go!

flickr stream >> click me!

ideacampdavao!

2009-05-29T17:35:00.003+08:00

ideacampdavao is set for tomorrow, 1:30pm @Kublai's Cafe (Ponce Suites) so see you there guys and hope to share ideas with the rest of you! :)

riding.the.city

2009-05-22T11:37:00.010+08:00

I was tinkering with the GPStogo unit (loaned to Marloue by OSM) the other day and made a simple Delphi app to fetch GPS data from the device and plot the location to an OSM map of Davao. The idea is to create a DIY real-time GPS tracking system suitable for mapping (and for the upcoming mapping party), using only stuff in the office. However, I have not figured out a way to effectively render downloaded OSM tiles in my app (no offline-support yet) and my application is currently making use of Cloudmade's powerful API to request and render the tiles for me online. So unless I use WeRoam or Visibility it won't be as useful for mobile mapping (using the telco's 3G service for mobile mapping isn't as practical either). The next day I decided to install tangoGPS on my notebook and saw that it practically has what I wanted in the first place (plus its free and supports offline maps). Since Marloue and I are scheduled to meet a client after lunch, we figured that it would be the best time to try out this DIY setup and start logging POIs (Point of Interest) as we travel along the road.

Here's what you need:

1. GPS device...we used the GT-31 but any GPS device that outputs NMEA sentences will do
2. A notebook with Ubuntu 9.04 (or any distro you want) installed
3. tangoGPS

You can install tangoGPS via synaptic:


sudo aptitude install tangogps

Ensure that gpsd and gpsd-clients is installed as well:


sudo aptitude install gpsd gpsd-clients

Gpsd is a service daemon that monitors one or more GPS devices attached to a host computer through serial or USB ports. It then serves this information via port 2947 and allow multiple client application to access the to GPS devices without contention or data loss. You can actually use one GPS device for navigation, wardriving, mapping or whatnot all at the same time!

tangoGPS does not interface directly with a GPS device, however it accesses GPS data by listening to a gpsd service. So before you can actually use Tango you'll have to make sure gpsd is running. You also have to check what particular USB port the GT-31 or any (GPS device for that matter) is connected.


dmesg | grep ttyUSB

Normally it should give you /dev/ttyUSB0 but it could be any other number depending on which port is available. Next, run the gpsd service:


gpsd -N -n -D 2 /dev/ttyUSB0

Once the service is running, fire-up tangoGPS and proceed to configuration. The default setup should work (IP: 127.0.0.1 port 2947) as it uses a loopback address, change the IP if you're accessing the service from another machine. Thats about it, once the GPS gets a satellite fix tangoGPS will draw a marker that shows your current position and bearing. Righ-clicking on the map allows you to add POIs, which was exactly what Marloue was doing during the trip. I managed to discover a better driving route while doing this experiment and I hope something similar happens to you as well, have fun riding the city!

lazarus.on.ubuntu.jaunty.64bit

2009-04-30T18:20:00.005+08:00

Being a big fan of Delphi I've been wanting to port my apps to Linux...unfortunately Kylix (Borland's RAD tool for Linux) is no longer supported since...well years ago, the obvious path would be to use free pascal and Lazarus. Free pascal is an open-source Pascal compiler with two notable features: a high degree of Delphi compatibility and availability on a variety of platforms, including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, Lazarus on the other hand, is an open-source development system that builds on the Free Pascal compiler by adding an integrated development environment (IDE) that includes a syntax-highlighting code editor and visual form designer, as well as a component library that's highly compatible with Delphi's Visual Component Library (VCL).

In Intrepid, I found that Lazarus and fpc is best compiled from the svn repo, however this is not the case with Jaunty (9.04) or at least with Jaunty 64bit. I have not installed Lazarus or fpc on Jaunty's 32bit edition so I can't say for sure but in the 64bit version it won't compile, I'm pretty sure its a dependency issue but as of the moment I don't have the time or the patience to trace all of it, enter CodeTyphon (shouldn't it be CodeTyphoon?) a distribution of FPC and Lazarus with a nice graphical build tool that makes building (to any OS) easier. Until the Lazarus wiki reflects a nice howto here's an easier way to install and build fpc and lazarus.

Download CodeTyphon here
Extract CodeTyphon zip to a folder of your choice
Double-click CodeTyphon_ln64.ex (a CodeTyphon window should show up)
Go to main menu FreePascal -> FPC Extract Source (it should automatically extract the FPC source to its own directory...usually /usr/share/fpsrc)
Next select FreePascal -> FPC 64bit Build Compiler (could take a few minutes)
Go to main menu Lazarus -> Lazarus Extract Source(it should automatically extract the Lazarus source to its own directory...usually /usr/lib/lazarus)

*Step 7 actually failed in my first attempt, I found out that later after looking at the error logs that a few dependencies have to be satisfied first (so much for no time and patience hehehe). So fire-up your terminal and type this:


sudo aptitude install libX11-dev libgtk2.0-dev

Next select Lazarus -> Lazarus 64bit Build IDE
Create a link or launcher that points to /usr/lib/lazarus/startlazarus
Start coding!

Hope this helps! :)

Jaunty.Jackalope.arrives

2009-04-25T09:35:00.005+08:00

I decided to shift to 64bit Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) yesterday and installed it over my existing Ubuntu partition, now you might ask why I bothered with a clean install when I already upgraded to Jaunty a day before...To be honest, I really don't have a concrete reason except this weird feeling that the distro upgrade I performed was half-baked, notifications didn't work and it still has a sluggish feel. I might have been too excited about the whole thing that I didn't even notice that the automated installer did not wipeout the existing swap partition so I actually ended up with two swap files! Again the obsessive-compulsive in me was triggered and I performed the installation again, this time wiping out both my swap and root partition (using gparted) before installing Jaunty to disk. Ext4 is not the default filesystem for Jaunty btw and if you want that to happen you'll have to use manual partitioning. I chose ext3, deciding to shift to ext4 only if I find Jaunty slow the after installation. So after a few minutes I finally got it up and running and was immediately impressed by how fast it boots...22 secs! (cold booting) and thats even ext4 yet!

This time my notification system finally worked. Everytime I receive a message in pidgin or a wifi signal is detected, I get a nice unobtrusive message that tells me what just happened. Jaunty is quite polished and has a very stable overall feel, not a very objective observation I know but Jaunty does live up to its name, its fast and the user experience is definitely improved. The wallpaper and theme hasn't changed much but thats what customization is for. Firefox is more responsive this time and flash support(flash64bit beta) has definitely improved. With Intrepid I experienced flash movies suddenly turning white and stopped playing or crashed the browser without warning...so far I haven't experienced that in Jaunty. If you want to install the 64bit version of flash make sure you removed the 32bit version first using synaptic then download here. I got the tar.gz version extracted libflashplayer.so and copied it to ~/.mozilla/plugins (create the folder if it doesn't exist).

Compiz worked fine after I upgraded Intrepid to Jaunty but curiously did not function once I did a clean install. I read somewhere that the devs explicitly blocked Intel graphics controllers because of stability issues with the driver (mine was GM965 Integrated Graphics Controller) however once I disabled the checks, Compiz worked fined without a hitch (however I'd still want the devs to fix whatever issues they find and add that later to the repos). If you have a GM956 like me you've been warned but if you like to make it work here is how I did it.

mkdir ~/.config/compiz/compiz-manager
echo "SKIP_CHECKS =yes" > ~/.config/compiz/compiz-manager

This is strictly a workaround folks...up until a real fix is given. Also you can install fusion-icon via synaptic(or add/remove) and reload the window manager, that should trigger compiz.
I'm still rebuilding my system right now, installing some of my favorite apps like gnome-do and vlc so I'll be a bit busy, you guys should try it out for a spin...again you can use the live-cd or better yet wubi (ubuntu installer for windows) if you're new to Linux and just want to have a feel for it. Otherwise forget about your current Intrepid installation and start upgrading :)

because.I.can't.wait.another.day

2009-04-21T08:56:00.002+08:00

I've been testing Ubuntu 9.04 RC for two days now and it seems to live up to my expectation. So I've decided to upgrade to the latest release just because I can't wait another day...It's that good :)
Wish me luck and I hope I don't break things.

the.jackalope.is.coming

2009-04-06T18:16:00.001+08:00

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;img src="http://www.ubuntu.com/files/countdown/904/countdown-9.04-1/00.png" alt="Ubuntu 9.04 - on desktops, netbooks, servers and in the cloud" width="180" height="150" border="0" /&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

just a few more days :)

OpenStreetMap on Linux & Kape

2009-04-02T15:23:00.009+08:00

DabawenGNU's Linux & Kape (coffee) or L&K sessions has always been my favorite avenue for tech talk, conceptualized by a few years back it has given local FOSS advocates a powerful tool for spreading their advocacy or simply mingle with other people and be enlightened with what new FOSS related technology can offer. Its intended to encourage everyone to talk about their area of interest and expertise without the baggage of preparing formal and time consuming presentations.

I enjoyed every L & K session I've attended, that is why when Marloue and I were invited to talk about OSM and GIS I did not hesitate so set a schedule. Finally we can spark the interest of Davaoeños and get more local contributors to the OpenStreetMap project.

Due to time constraints we decided to focus more on OSM and clear up a few misconceptions as well. We also discussed some of the online services that made use of OSM as well as an overview of the Cloudmade's API and showed a sample application written in Delphi. Andrew was kind enough to document the session and even snapped a few photos while he's at it. Most of the participants were from the academe and we hope they will impart what they learned back to the classrooms so we'll have even more contributors.

OpenStreetMap is an amazing project its not just a simple online map but there is a wealth of information that can be derived and put to good use. Do take time to listen to the discussion, if you don't understand some of the words (as this is an informal session after all) feel free to shoot me an email. We'd like to thank Emmanuel Sambale for the presentation, he has done a lot for the OSM movement in the Philippines and we'd like to support that effort as well. (Videos on Andrew's blog)

Another Ubuntu related freebie

2009-02-11T10:45:00.003+08:00

"A great resource covering Ubuntu
from A to Z without all the extra fluff"
Ryan Troy, administrator, Ubuntuforums.org

Ubuntupocketguide.com is nice enough to offer this useful reference guide as a free download. But if you got the extra cash, please buy this book. I'm pretty sure its worth way more than $9.94.

apps.for.the.FOSS.musician

2008-12-06T15:44:00.013+08:00

It's quite a busy week for me work-wise, we've been planning on setting up a product launch for the GPS tracking solution we've been developing since last year, so its really nice for the weekend to come and allow me a day of R and R. This also means that I have time to blog about another passion of mine and that is making music.

I've practically been a music fan all my life. When I was a little kid, my sister and I sang along songs we heard on the radio. My earliest percussion instruments were my mom's collection of aluminum and steel pots, my main instrument however, was my father's comb, which I had covered with paper on one side and sang through it to generate vocal buzzes much like a kazoo. But it really wasn't until 6th grade when I signed up for our school's guitar club that I really got into making 'real' music (Thanks sir Jacinto for triggering the musician in me).

When I got introduced to computers (which came in late in my life), I wanted to incorporate computers into music, or at least make use of software to either make the whole music making concept easier or make it more interesting. My first attempts were obviously recording applications like SoundForge (which was the primary application used in the recording studio where I worked on a couple of years ago), later I got into Cakewalk and other similar applications. These apps were very good with their respective areas but now that I'm leaning more into FOSS(Free & Open Source Software) I've been scouting applications that can replace these tools.
Here's a list of a few applications that can definitely help musicians like me that are looking for FOSS alternatives to popular proprietary music applications.

Audacity. A free, open source software for recording and editing sounds in Linux, Mac OS X , and other operating systems. This is a good SoundForge replacement and is also being used for voice and audio analysis.
Hydrogen. An advanced drum machine for GNU/Linux. It's main goal is to bring professional yet simple and intuitive pattern-based drum programming. Quite easy to use and given the right drum kits (which are also free!) can produce very life-like sounds. I've used it to produce the drum tracks for my demos.
JACK. A system for handling real-time, low latency audio (and MIDI).
JACK Control. Offers a user interface for controlling the JACK sound server daemon. At the same time it figures as a JACK patch bay and monitoring tool.
Ardour. A digital audio workstation. You can use it to record, edit and mix multi-track audio. You can produce your own CDs, mix video soundtracks, or just experiment with new ideas about music and sound. Its very close to ProTools and has a completely flexible "anything to anywhere" routing system, and will allow as many physical I/O ports as your system allows.
Creox. A real-time sound processor that mimics guitar effects. Its not as powerful as GuitarRig but for simple needs this is more than enough.
GT-6 Fx FloorBoard. A midi editor for the Boss GT-6 floor effects. A recent discovery that got me really excited. This app allows me to control the GT-6, mix and modify effect settings as well as load and save my patches. In my experience the linux version worked even better than the windows version :). Finally a software that rivals GT-Manager!
Tuxguitar. An opensource multitrack tablature editor. This is a great compositional tool and works quite the same way as Guitar Pro except that this one not only read and writes GPx files but Powertab files as well. Beat that!
Linux Multimedia Studio (LMMS). free cross-platform alternative to commercial programs like FL Studio, which allow you to produce music with your computer. This includes the creation of melodies and beats, the synthesis and mixing of sounds, and arranging of samples. You can have fun with your MIDI-keyboard and much more; all in a user-friendly and modern interface.
Ubuntu Studio. A multimedia creation flavor of Ubuntu. Ubuntu Studio is aimed at the GNU/Linux audio, video and graphic enthusiast as well as professional.

There are of course more applications for the FOSS musician than what I have listed and I will definitely post them in the future. But the list above contains most of the really good ones. Moreover, by installing Ubuntu Studio I'm pretty sure you'll encounter more applications that will fit your needs.

Before I end this blog, I'd like to show-off my Ubuntu shirt! :)
I had commissioned a friend 2 weeks ago to create the artwork for the Ubuntu shirt I'm currently wearing (unfortunately, the yellow paint partially wore-off) .
This will serve as my 'gig' shirt on my band's next gig or it can also be my shirt on the next DabaweGNU L & K session :)

workaround.for.mounted.samba.shares.io.error

2008-11-27T17:16:00.010+08:00

Hi everyone, before blogging any further I'd like to congratulate DabaweGNU along with FOSS Nepal Community and SFD Nicaragua for bagging Software Freedom Day 2008's Best Event Award. I'm pretty sure this recognition will further encourage DabaweGNU and other organizers to do even better next time. Moreover, this will definitely boost support for FOSS and assure a bigger audience next SFD. Each of the winning organizations will also receive a pair of OLPC laptops...can't wait to take it for a spin :)

>>DabaweGNU team report

Now back to the topic at hand, I visited a client the other day and they reported a problem with saving documents in OpenOffice (Writer in particular). This client recently decided to migrate some of their windows PCs to Linux and as expected there are bumps along the way, I will be talking about specific software related issues and how it can be mitigated. This would also serve as reference for future projects where I might encounter the same issue.

When saving a document to a mounted samba share(mounted remote folders) Writer issues an I/O error, creates the file and prevents the user from further saving the document. This issue seems to be isolated in Intrepid Ibex (Ubuntu 8.10) because I don't recall encountering this in Hardy. You can however save the file locally and then drag (copy+paste) the file to the mounted folder, also if the folder is mounted via nautilus the bug does not occur. So naturally that was the work around, the problem was that my client wants to be able to save directly to the remote folder without having to manually mount the share via nautilus (I know what you're thinking...its only a 3 step thing but hey they want it done!). So here is how I temporarily solved the problem ( the permanent fix is to wait for the samba fix to be included in the repos).

Disable the samba mount definition in /etc/fstab by inserting a hashmark(#) at the start of the definition (this is specific to my client because I had setup the system to automount the samba shares)
Nautilus like most linux apps accepts commandline parameters so we are going to use that to our advantage simply create a script to automate that.
```
 sudo nano /home/<user_name>/mountshare.sh
```
Type the following lines
```
#/bin/sh
nautilus smb://<ip/hostname>/<share_name>
```
Save the script.
Make the script executable
- chmod +x mount_share.sh

Add an entry to the current session so it is executed on startup. System --> Administration -->Sessions --> Add Entry. Browse and point to /home/mount_share.sh

Hope this snippet helps those with similar issues...at least until the bug is fixed.

linux.pimping

2008-11-11T09:39:00.009+08:00

Hello folks, I'm once again encouraging everyone to shift or at least try Ubuntu. The recent release (Ubuntu 8.10), although not perfect, is very good and quite easy to use.

A few years back I had Mandrake installed, along with Windows, in a home PC. I forgot to set the default boot option to back to Windows so it boots with Mandrake every time its turned on. My father, a casual computer user, turned the PC on and was surprised that it didn't looked quite like Windows. He assumed that I simply changed the Windows theme to make it look different. He didn't mind that the boot screen say "Mandrake Linux", he didn't mind that the icons were totally different, he didn't care that the start button has a star on it. What he care about thought was looking for something that says "Word" because he needed to type a document. He saw KWord, launched it and typed away. When I got back he only asked if I had changed the "theme" because it looked way different. So there I was surprised that my father is a now a Linux user without him knowing it, plus he actually printed the document and shown it to me. I can never forget that incident and that's precisely why I smirk whenever I hear people say Linux is hard to use and why I believe that given the right mix (as in the case of Ubuntu) Linux can definitely be successful as a desktop OS as well (Linux has been enjoying its rule in the server OS space for years).

I've always been eager to promote the use of Linux as a desktop OS ever since Ubuntu's Dapper release (6.10). It was, in my opinion, the first distro release that made it easy (at least for me) to make an ordinary computer user actually sit down and use it. The next releases made my Linux pimping life even better. Just think of the benefits, it's advanced, it's virtually immune to viruses (yup, no need to buy an anti-virus), totally customizable, fat free (meaning none of the usual bloat-ware you get from bundled software packages), it's a good way to start a conversation unless you still prefer to talk about the weather in which case there is even a widget for that :) , and most of all it's free!

Download the latest Ubuntu release and try it for yourself. If you're around Davao City feel free to drop by (PM me first) bring a CD/DVD and I'll burn a copy for you. We can even talk about it while sipping a cup o' joe (and yes the coffee is free too).

crossover.is.free.for.today

2008-10-29T12:43:00.005+08:00

Crossover a commercial compatibility layer for running Windows applications to Linux and Mac is being given away by Codeweavers for free...just for today!
CEO Jeremy White offered a challenge to George W. Bush. If the president achieved one of White's six "Lame Duck" goals during the twilight of his 2nd term, White would make Windows-API enabler & WINE GUI CrossOver free to customers for one day. Codeweavers' main page was temporarily replaced due to the day's unusually high traffic ;)

A day from now Ubuntu 8.10 will be officially released and two days from now will be All Souls' Day or "Undas" (as we pinoys call it) something like Dia de los Muertos only we don't have the grim fandango-like images. It's a time to remember those that touched our lives and for most pinoys, a time to bond with relatives. See you guys next week.

Can't.resist.the.urge...to.upgrade

2008-10-10T09:30:00.005+08:00

Oh boy, I've tested Ubuntu 8.10 Beta (Intrepid Ibex) for 3 days via Wubi and I have a strong urge to drop Ubuntu 8.04 and upgrade to the beta release. Its only about 20days more but this particular release seems quite stable on two of the notebooks I've tested that I just got to do the upgrade. I have not encountered any bug that I'd consider a show stopper and the only one I saw thats annoying was the fact that the security key for wifi is not stored by the network manager (which prompts you again on the next reboot), but thats ok I'm pretty sure it will be solved on the next update. I've downloaded the alternate- installer iso yesterday, burned it on a cd and upgraded the system and what did I get? A warm fuzzy feeling that I got a new and improved version of my favorite desktop linux distro :) ...they say pulseaudio will be better in Ibex, I'll check this later. Also my Lazarus was broken but it just might be the libraries getting messed up after the initial upgrade(via cd)...I went online this morning and the update manager prompted me for a partial upgrade, which basically means there have been a considerable amount of difference between my packages as opposed to the online repositories (the iso must have been a few weeks older already). I'm still running an online upgrade while I'm writing this blog and from the looks of things (ISP slowdowns and all) It will probably take 2 hours or the rest of the day before the upgrade is done.

For the brave ones you can upgrade your system online (slower but more complete) by typing this on the commandline:

update-manager --devel-release

then click on the upgrade button.

or use the alternate installer cd:

The upgrade script is supposed to run once the cd gets loaded but there is a bug in the script (path issues I presume) that prevents it from launching and would therefore do nothing on the GUI side...so drop down to your terminal and type this instead:

./cdrom/cdromupgrade

On a totally unrelated but equally cool news, a friend of mine sent me a url to Google powered search site that uses commandline interface similar to sh and aptly called it goosh...greate use of ajax btw :)

Good luck and may the force be with you!

the.countdown.begins

2008-10-04T09:19:00.004+08:00

It's October once again and another Ubuntu release is due (don't you just loved the predictable release cycle?) I'm currently downloading Ubuntu 8.10 beta a.k.a. Intrepid Ibex and will be testing it as soon as its finished. I'm actually very satisfied with the previous release (Hardy Heron) but I'd also like to see what the new release will put into the whole Ubuntu experience table. Aside from tons of bug fixes (and bugs to uncover, since this is beta) a slew of new features are added into Ubuntu. Some of the more notable improvements are (based on Ubuntu.com):

X.Org 7.4. Which bring better support for hot-pluggable input devices and at the same time allow the greate majority of users to run without a /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. This ensures that users spend more time using the system rather that fixing it. A new failsafe X is introduced, to give better tools for troubleshooting X startup failures...I'd wish better support for dual screen monitor btw. Also fglrx (thats ATI folks) and two of the older nvidia binary drivers are not available for X.Org 7.4 yet, so users of these drivers will be automatically switched to the corresponding open source drivers.
Linux kernel 2.6.27. Better hardware support and bug-fixes obviously
Encrypted private directory. Support for an encrypted secret folder in your home directory. Nice!
Guest session. The User Switcher panel applet (package fast-user-switch-applet) now provides an extra entry for starting a Guest session. This creates a temporary password-less user account with restricted privileges: the account cannot access any users' home directories, nor permanently store data. This is sufficiently safe to lend your laptop to someone else for a quick email check.
Network Manager 0.7. Includes system wide settings (i.e., no need to log in in order to get a connection) and management of 3G connections (GSM/CDMA). I just hope it works out of the box.
"Last successful boot" recovery entry. Ubuntu 8.10 will retain a copy of your running kernel and make it available from the boot loader as a "Last successful boot" option . This makes it possible for old kernel packages to be safely auto-removed by the package manager, instead of being kept indefinitely(and eating disk space).
DKMS. allowing kernel drivers to be automatically rebuilt when new kernels are released. This makes it possible for kernel package updates to be made available immediately without waiting for rebuilds of driver packages, and without third-party driver packages becoming out of date when installing these kernel updates.

Software.Freedom.Day.2008.Davao.City

2008-09-26T14:01:00.004+08:00

I'm still in General Santos City and I'm wrapping up my blog on Davao City's celebration of Software Freedom Day. I must say the whole experience was enjoyable, informative and very successful. Students from different colleges flocked together to learn more about free/open source software (FOSS).

Mark Maglana of Morphlabs started the program by talking about the Ruby language and the popular Ruby on Rails framework as well as showing everyone how easy it is to use for developing web applications. He also showcased two of Morphlabs latest services appSpace and appCloud, revolutionary web products that utilize opensource technology. Next was Nathaniel Jayme of DabaweGNU who talked about FFEHR (pronounced "effer") the free and open source Electronic Health Record project. FFEHR, according to Nathaniel, uses the Mozilla framework which includes XUL and XBL. It's interesting to note Nathaniel's passion for FOSS in fact I'm pretty sure he imprinted that passion to the students attending the celebration (I noticed a few students asking him a lot of questions after the event). Next on the list was 17-yr old Kevin Paquet of PinoyTeens.net who talked about Wordpress and why he thinks its the best blogging software ever :). Andrew Abogado wowed the crowd with his skills, showing everyone that GIMP and Inkscape is just as powerful as proprietary graphics software. Lastly we have Ragingmon aka Marlo Noval whose Blender talents never fails to amaze me, raises the bar by showing everyone how Blender with the help of Vodoo can do add 3D objects/effects into live-footages/movies (a process called camera tracking or match moving).

An animated short film made entirely with FOSS (Big Buck Bunny) was shown and signaled the end of the celebration as well. I hope next year's celebration will be bigger and better and will include more topics (w/c means that you guys wanting to contribute shouldn't shy away). See you on the next SFD!

SFD '08

2008-09-24T10:42:00.006+08:00

Holden and I are currently conducting a private seminar on Linux administration in General Santos City. It's turning out to be quite a busy day and we're only in Day 2 :) but I do have enough time to post this link to Ragingmon's video of last saturday's Software Freedom Day '08 celebration

Software Freedom Day - Davao 2008

More on this on the next blog.