The Linux Newb

Google Chrome Released!

2008-09-02T19:37:00.000-07:00

Today Google did something we have all been awaiting and expecting for years, and we were right to do so- Google Chrome is officially in Beta release, what is Chrome you ask? Chrome is Google's new web browser. From what I have heard on the front lines of tech news is that Chrome is shaping up to be the new lead browser, with sand-boxing (meaning each tab in the browser is a separate process, so if one tab crashes, your whole browser wont crash), a simple UI (the cornerstone of the Google enterprise) and full open-source (this means were going to see millions of extensions and mods) we can expect great things. The one flaw in the release is that currently there is no Linux or Mac release available, but it is apparently 'in the works', so hopefully some time this month we will see a Linux beta for me to review. If you run Windows XP/SP2 or Vista (why?!) then head over to http://www.google.com/chrome and check it out!

Customize Your Terminal Prompt

2008-08-30T14:17:00.000-07:00

Okay so after a short time the plain white/white layout for a terminal is kind of lame and boring, so what say we spice it up a bit?
We are going to take a second to check out a file you can find in your Home (/home/your-username/) folder. The file we are looking for is named '.bashrc' (notice the period before the 'b'), so if you have the Mousepad text editor installed you can just type in the terminal:

sudo mousepad ~/.bashrc

And you see the file, make a back-up so if you mess up you can always go back. Now scroll down until you see a line similar to this (it should be somewhere near the bottom):

PS1="\[\033[0;36m\]\A\[\033[0;35m\]\u@\h:\w$ "

note: Your's will probably look different

Now this probably looks like gibberish to the average newbie, but I'm going to make it deadly simple for you without going in to the nasty details of escape sequences and BASH programming. Basically what we want to do it tell the computer that we want our prompt to be all colorful and pretty, so first lets decide on what colors we want, here is a list of some escape sequences and their colors.

Red = "\[\033[0;31;40m\]"
Green = "\[\033[0;32;40m\]"
Grey = "\[\033[0;37;40m\]"
Black = "\[\033[0;30;40m\]"
Yellow = "\[\033[0;33;40m\]"
Blue = "\[\033[0;34;40m\]"
Magenta = "\[\033[0;35;40m\]"
Cyan = "\[\033[0;36;40m\]"
White = "\033[0;37;40m"

So now what do we do with all these wonderful gibberish codes? well, see in that line in the .bashrc file somewhere it says "\u", "\h" and "\w"? Well,

\u = Username
\h = Hostname
\w = Workspace

So all we have to do is place our chosen color-escape-code infront of one of these, e.g. placing "\[\033[0;37;40m\]" in front of "\h" would change everything after the "\[\033[0;37;40m\]" to white text (so remember at the end of the gibberish to put in whatever color code you want your commands to appear in!).
Here is an example of a funky prompt:

PS1="
\[\033[0;37m\][
\[\[\033[0;36m\]\A \[\033[0;35m\]\u \[\033[0;31m\]@ \[\033[0;34m\]\h \[\033[0;37m\]] \[\033[0;32m\]\w \[\033[0;37m\]\n$ "
(it's been split over multiple lines for readability reasons)

Enjoy!

Kiefer

Rocking Blogging: Rhythm Junction

2008-08-28T05:50:00.000-07:00

Okay guys, You might have noticed, I have been spending a lot of time reading blog's. Today is no different, I stumbled upon this gem hosted on BlogSpot (the same as this blog), the blog is named Rhythm Junction, the author(s) seem to focus on rock music, namely bands like Iron Maiden, Black Sabbeth, Ozzy, Hendrix and Metallica (to name a few). It has a very user friendly layout, making it easy to track down what you're looking for. The author(s) has recently started posting more about general life, including a topic that I have been considering posting about myself, regarding the new trend of being paranoid of everything. So what say you head over to Rhythm Junction and check it out? :)

A World of information is here

2008-08-28T05:20:00.001-07:00

Alright guys, so today I was browsing some blogs and stumbled upon Gvishnu.com, It's a blog based on a few things, Linux (I stumbled upon a great post detailing setting up a Linux/GNU server), life (a lot of philosophical stuff) and plenty of other subjects. The blog owner is based in Malaysia, which gives you I guess what could be called a third-person perspective on topics that we either take for granted, or don't pay much attention to (in my opinion anyway). So I suggest you guys go over and give it a good read, I did- and will be in the future. Happy travels guys,

Kiefer.

The World of information is here, check it out!

Multi-GNOME-Terminal (MGT)

2008-08-27T16:18:00.000-07:00

So this really impressed me. I was trying to remember how to make nice looking terminals with split-screen when I stumbled upon MGT. As the name suggests, it's a terminal emulator for Ubuntu that supports some form of 'multiism' (not a word, but looks cool huh'). Basically MGT was made specifically for 'power' users, which basically means I have fallen in love with it. I've attached a screen shot to this post to illustrate my point, in the screenshot I am only using three terminals, one for Htop, MPlayer and Irssi. I highly suggest MGT for any used who want to try their hand at multi-terminal usage. You can grab MGT right now with this command..

sudo apt-get install multi-gnome-terminal

Enjoy, and may the multiism be with you! heh'

Short Break

2008-08-27T15:53:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the crude post guys, Just a note to let you know I wont be posting for a few days, its not you, it's me, I swear!
I shall return later next week.

Picking a distro, made easy!

2008-08-27T15:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, this is going to be another relatively short post once again, Im sorry. One of the most common questions we are faced with in ##linux on IRC is "What is the right distro for me? I am into ". And nine times out of ten we will link you to a handy site named DistroWatch.
DistroWatch's main aim is to provide resources for people either having trouble picking a distro, or who want more information on a specific distro. I personally didn't use DistroWatch myself when picking out my first Linux distro- a friend suggested Ubuntu and I trusted him and went with it, and haven't looked back. Of course a lot of the time, im afraid to say; it comes down to trial and error, pick a distro you think will suit you, try it out and if you decide it isn't for you, move on. But I'm going to do a backflip here and also suggest you give it time, no distro is perfect for everyone under its default configuration. So play around with it and explore, you may surprise yourself!

GIMP > Photoshop

2008-08-27T15:12:00.000-07:00

Okay so maybe the quote "GIMP is greater than Photoshop" is a bit of an overstatement, but it comes close, very close. GIMP is short for 'GNOME Image Manipulation Program" (at least I think it is heh'), and as you may have guessed, it's a fully fledged Image Manipulation program, it boasts countless tools and plugins suitable for general artistic original work, from manipulating photo's for blogs, MySpace and whatnot. As an example, the logo for this blog was made in GIMP with just a few mouse clicks, literally. So go out and give GIMP a try!
What are you waiting for? You know the drill!

sudo apt-get install gimp

On a side note, I have decided to go for Arch Linux for my new computer I am getting in the next week, a friend provided me with a Live-CD that won me over heh' :)

Come Visit Us!

2008-08-27T14:44:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, once more a quick note (they seem to be getting quicker and quicker, I have noticed and Im sorry, I will post more in the coming weeks, I pr0m1s3z!) about where you can receive support, whether it be Ubuntu or any other distro, the two best places for general support are..

ubuntuforums.org
google.com (heh, Im sorry)

Or for live support, feel free to pop in to ##linux on irc.freenode.com we have a very large user base and provide 24/7 free support to anyone we can, come and say hi!.

Malicious Commands!

2008-08-27T14:34:00.000-07:00

Okay guys, This is a really quick post (about to go out) regarding malicious commands. I'm posting this because a friend of mine just informed me that a relative of his staying at his house (and total Linux newbie) ran this command after someone told him to:

WARNING: DO NOT RUN THE BELOW COMMAND, IT WILL DESTROY YOUR SYSTEM.

sudo rm -rf /

Now I'm going to quickly explain this command in the hope that it will inform you next time you are doubtful of whether to run 'rm' commands.

'sudo' : Super-User DO, run's a command/program as root (admin).
'rm' : ReMove, removes the specified file or directory.
'-rf' : Recursive Forced, self explanatory.
' / ' : Root, or Top-Level directory.

So basically this command says "forcibly remove everything contained on my computer." nasty huh'?

Sorry for the quick/dirty post, must go, stay safe!

RT73 (RaLink) Driver Installer

2008-08-27T14:08:00.000-07:00

Okay folks,
I've noticed recently a lot of people have been having trouble with the 'RT73 Chipset' from RaLink (In Wireless devices from manufacturers like D-Link, Hawking, etc), I actually noted this a while ago when I first got my DWL-G122 Rev. C (D-Link) wireless dongle, obviously it only came with a Windows installer disk, so I had two choices, ndiswrapper or SerialMonkey drivers.
I opted for the SM Drivers and got to work, it took me almost two weeks to get it working (Hey, I really was a newb). So after a while i stumbled upon the note I had left for myself "write script to install rt73 devices". And thats exactly what I did, for several months it supported the Linux community well, until I became lazy with updating it (real life issues took precedence) and another Ubuntu user re-wrote the script, so without further ado, I give you The RT73-RaLink Device Installer.

Have fun and good luck!
~Kiefer

Pidgin > MSNM

2008-08-27T01:58:00.000-07:00

Okay so the first thing someone will ask me when I am trying to convert them from Microsoft Windows to Linux is "what about MSN Messenger? there's no Linux version!" or something to that degree (ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, etc).
Well my fellow newbies, I would like to introduce the solution to all these problems, it's a nifty program named 'Pidgin Messenger". Pidgin will let you chat with all your friends on AIM, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, GoogleTalk, Group Wise, ICQ, IRC, MSN, MySpaceIM, QQ, Simple, Sametime, XMPP, Yahoo!, and Zephyr.
Wanna know the best part? You can chat on all these protocols at the same time in a single window. Isn't tabbed-chatting the greatest? :P
So anyway, what about you go and grab it!

sudo apt-get install pidgin
Remember you need to have the "multiverse" repository enabled!

Good luck, and may the IM be with you!
~Kiefer

Linuxmadeeasy.org

2008-08-27T01:48:00.000-07:00

Okay guys, Recently a friend asked me if I would be interested in contributing to a new website for Linux beginners. So over the past few months we have all been busy writing up some content, and I think its looking pretty decent.
The site is in Wiki format so you should be able to find what you're looking for pretty easily. The site is named "Linux Made Easy" and thats what we aim to do.
The site is Australian based, much like myself. So go check it out!

Linux Made Easy

Also on a side note, I plan on doing a post related to choosing a distro soon, but if you are looking for details right now, check out DistroWatch.

YTCracker- The King of Nerdcore

2008-08-26T14:47:00.000-07:00

Okay so this is a little off-topic, but I've been meaning to post somewhere about this lately. Im a pretty avid programming/general-nerd. And I need tunes to keep me going while im up at silly hours in the morning (e.g. its 7:19AM at the time of writing this post, and I still havent slept).
If your into Rap music (which i am not really) and a bit of a nerd/programmer, check out http://www.ytcracker.com/music/ .
Anyway, thats my last post for today, More to come!

~Kiefer

P2P Madness!

2008-08-26T14:42:00.000-07:00

Alright guys, Just a quick note to let you all know about FrostWire - The Linux equivalent of LimeWire, so head over to http://www.frostwire.com and check it out, its only flaw (in my opinion anyway) is that it's written in Java, which can be incredibly slow on older systems, so keep that in mind and may the P2P be with you!

P.s: Guys, new computer in a week or so, I'm going to be switching distro - still deciding which, friends have nudged me towards Arch Linux, checking out Gentoo right now, I'll keep you updated!

MPlayer > iTunes

2008-08-26T13:35:00.000-07:00

Okay so I'll admit it, I'm not the most reliable blogger of all time, heh.
But for my return I've decided to post about MPlayer, well not so much MPlayer, but running it through terminal.
Over the last six months I have learnt a lot about Linux, I have switched to Ubuntu, become a contributor (programming, more on that in the future) and done extensive editing of system files without too much hazard. But one of the things that has stood out to me is how much use someone can make of the terminal, I now play all my music through terminal (MPlayer), edit system files (vi[m]), code (again, vi[m]), and various other things like configuring my wireless device (again, more on this in further posts).
So, lets get to it, whats so great about MPlayer through terminal? well, for one- No GUI, meaning less system load for people with slower PC's (such as myself, new computer in the next week, hooray!). Second of all, all the controls are extremely simple to remember, and i mean extremely simple.
If you wanna check out MPlayer, run:

sudo apt-get install mplayer

..and enjoy the simplicity!
-Kiefer

P.S: More posts coming soon guys ;D

Ventrilo under Linux! DotA anyone?

2008-08-21T15:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, quick note to let you all know that Ventrilo works 90% under WINE, I use Vent. often to chat with friends overseas, the other option for VoIP chat's is Skype which offers an actual Linux client, but it's well known the Skype is focused more on speed that quality, so odds are your going to have a hard time having a decent in-depth conversation without having to say "Sorry, what was that?" at least ten times. Also, I believe the guys behind TeamSpeak are working on a Linux client, as a Linux Server already exists, so we can hosts, but not partake! heh.
Please remember guys, Ventrilo usually works best with WINE running "emulated" hardware acceleration, check out "sudo winecfg" to configure WINE easily. Also, sometimes applications will require a lot of configuration before WINE will run them decently, e.g. FL Studio. And not all application will run under WINE, or they will but not in a usable manner, e.g. the Z3ta+ Synth from CakeWalk wont give me any sound-output, rendering it useless. But sometimes WINE will surprise you, World of Warcraft works under WINE (:

Firefox 3.0

2008-08-20T15:44:00.000-07:00

(Note: This is actually a draft post from a while ago I forgot to post, might as well still post it :)

Firefox has long been one of my favorite internet browsers, more so than Opera (which is also good), Internet Explorer (*cough* crap!) and Safari. So recently Mozilla released Firefox 3.0, with plenty of lovely bug-fixes and new additions, what are you waiting for? head over to mozilla.com and grab it!

P.S: Sorry for the short post, I'm a bit busy at the moment.

TheDailyWTF.com

2008-07-25T14:52:00.000-07:00

Again, this is kind of off topic for my blog, but for the past year, every day I have popped into http://www.thedailywtf.com to read what Alex and the crew have come up with, basically the format for TDWTF is people submit funny or odd stories related to the IT Industry, I myself have even had one published, and I value this website very much, so if you guys wanna head over for a guaranteed laugh, go ahead and witness WorseThanFailure for yourself :).

A glass of Wine with a side-order of p2p please!

2008-02-23T15:05:00.000-08:00

So I promised I would try my luck with p2p and music on Kubuntu for my next post, so here it is.
Im a regular in several chatrooms (As well as an Admin) on the Ares Galaxy p2p servers, so Ares was my first choice for p2p software, after finding out that Ares isnt available on Linux I was puzzled as what to do, So I hopped on MSN and spoke to one of the server owners and he said I should try my luck with Wine, for those who dont know, Wine is essentially a Windows emulator for Unix based operating systems, it allows you to run software for Windows under Unix based operating systems such as Linux, meaning Kubuntu - So I grabbed Wine and was thrilled to see it allowed me to install Ares with no issues - My next step was to see if Ares would run without any tweaks needed (As its open source). To my suprise Ares runs smoothly and without any flaws under Wine!
Im downloading mp3's as we speak (Arrr Im a pirate!) though I thought I might say - I only download music I cant find on iTunes :P .

-Kiefer

Sasaki Yukinari, Bravo!

2008-02-17T14:34:00.000-08:00

So today I decided I might try my luck at getting my extensive anime collection to work on Kubuntu, And quite to my suprise the video's run smoother than they ever used to on WindowsXP, which is a massive improvement, I can now watch Sasaki get beaten up by women at proper speed! hooray!
Im using .rmvb (RealMedia Variable Binary - Or something to that extent) files, which have become quite popular among the anime community, especially in Japan and China due to its low filesize and high quality (greater then even MPEG4 or Xvid). I had some issues getting the files to play in Vlc Player, so I hopped on the Kubuntu IRC chat and asked around and I was directed towards RealPlayer, after the painstaking download process on their webpage (constant argument that you should purchase their 'superpass') I installed with no issues and after playing around with the configuration within RealPlayer, the video's play smoothly - So a thumbs up for media under Linux!

Coming next: p2p & Music!..

Konsole? Console?

2008-02-15T14:59:00.000-08:00

The worst mistake a developer (in progress) can make is becoming accustom to using GUI based applications, you know; click here, drag here, click here, type here, etc. And any Windows user can tell you, Console is for hard-core hackers and nerds (of which i am both), but a common misconception is the the command-line interface is scary, when in actual fact its alot simpler and easier to use, even for the end-user. Ive become accustom to Konsole now, though I always liked the idea of doing things with commands (kommands?) but that was a little before of my time (slightly hehe). And even when I did get serious about programming and developing, I tried to stray away from the dreaded Windows command line - But Kubuntu has changed my perception of command line interfaces, I've come to learn that if your willing to spend 10-15 minutes learning the basic commands that the Konsole is an invaluable tool when using Linux, Im in the process of writing a small guide to get Linux newbies accustom to the Konsole interface, it will be online shortly!
stay tuned, and remember - Always look on the bright side of linux.

Kooboontoo?

2008-02-15T10:40:00.000-08:00

So a few weeks ago, Dave; a mate of mine, and I were chatting on MSN, when all of a sudden I was struck with the dreaded BSOD that I had seen all too many times in my almost 10 years of Windows, I had gotton used to the screen, and used to the procedure that followed, restart.. Forget whatever I was doing.. Start all over and pray it didnt happen again, Once I had rebooted and gotten back on to MSN I vented my frustration to Dave, he suggested switching 'to the dark side', intrigued, I asked what he meant; 'Ubuntu! or Kubuntu!" he exclaimed, after 15 minutes, I had hopped onto shipit.kubuntu.com and ordered Kubuntu 7.10 and Ubuntu 7.10 (For free I might add, it didnt cost me a cent, not even P&H). so a few days ago, The CD's arrived (with free stickers!) and I decided to leave MS Windows XP behined after a lifetime of use, to switch to Kubuntu 7.10, The installation went smoothly and a day hasnt gone by where I didnt find a cool new feature that was not to be found in Windows, but I am admittidly a Linux Newb, so I'll be blogging about my adventures through Linux from an end-used and programmer point of view - Lets hope its a smooth ride!