The nice Ubuntu boot screen that you saw during the installation is now a low quality image and the resolution is wrong. Fortunately for you and I, there is a fix for this written by Marius Nestor at Softpedia.

I’ve taken the liberty to implement his steps in a single script that makes the work on your end a much easier task. Only use this script if you have not already attempted to follow Marius Nestor’s tutorial.

Warning: Use this script at your own risk.

Steps

1. Download the zipped script and extract it: plymouth-resolution-fix.sh.zip
2. Open a terminal window and navigate to the directory containing the script.
3. Enter the following command to make the script executable:
   chmod +x plymouth-resolution-fix.sh
4. Enter the following command to run the script (followed by your password):
   sudo ./plymouth-resolution-fix.sh

Be patient for this script to complete, it will let you know when it is. After its complete, simply reboot your computer to verify the results.

To Revert these Changes

If you’d like to undo these changes, you can download the following script and run it the same as you ran the first one. This will undo the changes made.

• plymouth-resolution-fix-revert-back.sh.zip

Skype is already available in Linux and usually works well. However, Skype to due to release an open source client (keeping the back-end closed source). Fortunately for Linux users, this means that you will likely get to use only one messenger client such as Empathy or Pidgin without ever opening the old Skype client and still have your Skype buddies listed in Empathy or Pidgin.

Closed source Skype 2.1.0.81 in Ubuntu 10.10.

While the announcement was released in November 2009, there is no expected date of arrival. So unfortunately, Linux users could be waiting anywhere from a few more weeks to a few more years.

I’m looking forward to never having to launch the Skype client again and simply using Empathy alone to chat and call all of my Skype friends!

Dropbox 0.8.x

Anyone who has ever used Dropbox knows that it is dang good at what it does. You need something backed up? Drop it in your Dropbox folder and forget about it.

Current Dropbox 0.7.110 in Ubuntu 10.10.

Experimental builds of Dropbox 0.8.x have been in the works since February 2010 and appear to be progressing nicely.

With Dropbox 0.8.x, we will gain a new feature called “Selective Sync” which will enable you to pick which files and folders from your Dropbox to sync, giving you more overall control.

Dropbox 0.8.x also  brings a wealth of performance improvements to the table. With faster startup times and lower memory consumption when idling, this update is sure to be well received. File attributes are now noted and properly synchronized, so if you make a script executable on one computer it will be updated on all others as well. This is very handy for Unix/Linux users.

Rhythmbox Last.fm Plugin Updates

Being a Last.fm user myself, I find myself scrobbling a lot of music and very few options to manage my profile. I’d love to see this plugin integrate the ability to “Love” and “Unlove” tracks that you are playing from Rhythmbox itself.

Rhythmbox + Last.fm plugin in Ubuntu 10.10.

According to OMG! Ubuntu!, a developer by the name of Jamie Nicol will be improving this plugin in the  Google Summer of Code event. The details of what will be improved with this project are vague to say the least, but very promising.

Ubuntu 10.10 Sound Indicator Applet

The sound indicator applet is receiving an update which will manage to bring all of your sound controls into a clean and simple menu.

Case scenario mockup (image source).

With this project well underway, you are already able to view what’s playing in Rhythmbox and pause/play the song from the menu. The artist, title and album are also implemented, leaving album art, playlists, back and forward controls, and a song progress bar to be anticipated.

Windicators (aka Window Indicators)

Windicators, as Mark Shuttleworth describes them, are indicators located in the top right side of a Window’s title bar that indicate specific states of applications that users should be alerted of.

Mockup of Windicators for Ubuntu 10.10

From the mockup, you can see that Windows producing sound will likely have per app volume control windicators. Those dealing with stores and shopping carts will feature a shopping cart windicator to help you manage and navigate what you’ve stored away to buy.

I’m really hoping that this Windicator will be used in applications such as web browsers and the Ubuntu Software Center (which, by the way I think should be renamed to the Ubuntu App Store) so that web sites like eBay or Amazon and the Software Center can take advantage of this feature.

Theme enhancements for Maverick

There are a number of theme enhancements that are set to land in Ubuntu 10.10 and will help to polish the user interface.

One improvement will be closer maximize and minimize buttons. The improvement, as I image it, can be seen below, but is not meant to represent a final product in any way.

Closer max/min buttons mockup.

Scrollbar steppers don’t appear clickable. One design I’ve been hoping for, but have yet to see anything implemented, is some nice themed steppers. Nicer of course than my crude artistic example below.

Mockup of a clicked or hovered stepper.

Also mentioned is “Changing GTK to allow for a rounded stepper,” which is why I rounded the button in the mockup (if you click to view the larger version).

There are several other changes to be made for the theme, but as far as I’ve seen they’ve yet to appear in updates.

Compiz 0.9

One of my favorite features in Ubuntu is desktop effects which are powered by Compiz. It seems like compositing windows managers have been changing at an incredibly unpredictable rate since I first started using Linux.

I first started using Beryl to get cool effects for the desktop way back in the early stages of Ubuntu. Soon after, Compiz-Fusion became the next big thing. This developed as a bit of a merge between Compiz and parts of Beryl.

Not long thereafter, various Compiz related branches were merged and the project became known simply as Compiz again. What’s cool about this is that in the merge, Compiz was being ported from C to C++ (also known as Compiz++) giving it a large number of benefits (that I won’t get into here).

Ubuntu 10.10 using the Cube in Compiz.

The good news is that Compiz 0.9 unstable has been released and is ready for regression testing! Hopefully it won’t be a great deal longer before Compiz 0.9 matures and is released into the wild.

Vavle’ Steam Client

If you don’t already know about Steam, according to Wikipedia it’s “a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform developed by Valve Corporation.”

The Steam client..

Its been rumored that the Steam client will be coming to Linux, but all we can do is wait in anticipation and see what happens.

Steam recently became available to Mac users, so it may not be too far fetched. If it does come to Linux then it will bring a plethora of games to the platform that would have otherwise never been available.

Here’s to hoping that someday soon I will be able to play Counter-Strike: Source without booting up into Mac or Windows (or using Wine).

Ubuntu Boot Screen Fixes

While there are ways to fix the boot screen yourself, I tend to prefer them just working automatically. This isn’t the case in Ubuntu 10.04 if you’re using the nVidia or ATI video drivers.

Ubuntu 10.04 Boot Screen

Being only in Alpha 2, Ubuntu 10.10 still uses the boot screen of 10.04 as pictured above. While this is a very nice boot screen, it does have several problems.

As I said earlier, if you’re using nVideo or ATI drivers then you’ll have problems where the boot screen’s resolution is horribly wrong and your boot screen looks more like a crash.

Ubuntu is on the track of speeding up boot times, but if your system hasn’t booted before the animated dots make their cycle then you get to see it again. While this isn’t a horrible failure, its still a very unpolished design and desperately needs some attention. Still worse, the shutdown screen uses the same animation which gives it the illusion of loading, not unloading.

Grub Boot Loader

I’m hoping that if they take the time to address the boot screen that they will also take time to polish the boot menu for dual booting users. In its textual state it looks like something straight out of the days of DOS, and since Ubuntu is “Linux for Human Beings” I would say its time to ditch the textual Grub interface and move on to a polished Burg menu…based on Grub, but graphical.

Example from my Last.fm account in Collage mode.

This python script, by Koant, has been around since at least 2008, but I’ve only recently stumbled across it. It’s easy to start using and is available for Windows, Mac and Linux users!

I’ll help you get started in Linux since that’s what I’ve set it up on. If you need more help or want more configuration options you should look to the information that Koant has posted on his website.

Install

1. cd
2. mkdir wallpaperfm
3. cd wallpaperfm
4. wget http://ledazibao.free.fr/wallpaperfm/wallpaperfm.py
5. chmod a+x wallpaperfm.py

Create Your Wallpaper

1. ./wallpaperfm.py -u YOURLASTFMUSERNAME

That’s the most basic set of options you can use to create your wallpaper (which you will find after running the script in the “wallpaperfm” folder that was created).

There are three options for the type of wallpaper created:

1. Tile

Albums are packed in side by side.

2. Glass

A few albums are highlighted on a glassy surface.

3. Collage

Albums are meshed together in a dreamy design.

To specify one of these modes, simply run the wallpaper script with the mode flag set to your choice.

• ./wallpaperfm.py -u YOURLASTFMUSERNAME -m collage

There are plenty of other settings you can specify such as size, canvas size, filename, profile period, final opacity, cache, excluded albums, local copy, etc.

Suggestions and Ideas

User Interface and Packaging

I’m sure that this script could be simplified further for Linux users (and more specifically, Debian/Ubuntu users) if a user interface were created. It actually seems like a rather simple task since the parameters for the script are well bounded.

Adding this interface to an installer package would also be a very simple task and would most likely get more attention to such a neat tool!

Cron Jobs, Regularly Updating Your Wallpaper

Another thing, if your music preferences are constantly changing like mine, you may be interested in updating your wallpaper in regular intervals. To do this you can setup a Cron job that runs in the background.

While this may sound difficult and confusing, its really not at all and this helps explain a lot. I can even walk you through the steps.

1. sudo apt-get install gnome-schedule
2. Open the application (in Ubuntu) through the Applications menu -> System Tools -> Scheduled tasks.
3. Click the New button and select the Recurrent task type.
4. Give the task a description.
5. Enter the command that runs your script. If you followed the steps above then it should be something similar to:

   /home/YOURUBUNTUNAME/wallpaperfm/wallpaperfm.py -u YOURLASTFMUSERNAME -m collage -f /home/YOURUBUNTUNAME/wallpaperfm/wallpaper

6. Set the Time & Date option to hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly.
7. Click the “Add” button to add it to your list of Scheduled Tasks and you’re done!

Have any other suggestions or tips? Leave ‘em in the comments!

In other cases its not so simple. Often times, when you want to take a screenshot of a menu, you’ll find that the screenshot tool cannot be called while the menu is open. You can get around this problem in most cases by installing Shutter.

While Shutter is a great tool with some very handy features for screenshots, it also doesn’t always work or is unable to capture some things (as far as I’ve found).

One solution that is very simple to use is a simple command line (link sent to me from a friend). If you hate command line tricks then you can easily make a Gnome button for this as well.

The menu that I was trying to grab a screenshot of was an Opera sub-menu from the O-menu icon (can’t remember which one for sure, but probably the Bookmarks sub-menu). Print Screen wouldn’t work, Shutter complained that it couldn’t detect any open or focused menus, so I resorted to the following:

$ gnome-screenshot --delay=10

Basically, this command calls the same program that is called when you press Print Screen, but since you’re adding a delay (10 seconds in this case) it has already been called before you open the menu..which rules out the problem of your keyboard Print Screen key not working.

While this seems to be a very simple command, which it is, I’ve benefited from it several times already. So if you ever find yourself having trouble capturing a particular screenshot, just pop open a terminal and use this delayed command!

If you’re looking for for an easier method and don’t mind a permanent button in your Gnome panel, just do the following:

1. Right click your panel and select “Add to Panel…”
2. “Custom Application Launcher” should be the first option in the list that comes up. Select it and click the “Add” button at the bottom.
3. Leave the “Type” as Application.
4. You can name this launcher anything you wish, maybe something like “10s Delayed Print Screen”.
5. Copy the command that I mentioned above into the field labeled “Command”. You can change the value from 10 to anything you want or need.
6. You can copy the name text into the “Comment” field as well since this is what you will see when you hover the button.
7. You could optionally edit the icon if you wanted, but its not necessary. Click close and you’re done.

Enjoy!

Example of a basic Conky setup.

Its called Conky and it can give you stats or information on practically anything imaginable. Its also easy to install!

Conky is by no means a new application and there are in fact hundreds of Conky configuration files scattered across the Internet that you could use to customize the way yours looks. With a good basic guide and some helpful tips on auto-starting Conky, I’ve thrown together a quick installation and setup guide with pictures!

Typically when you install an application such as this, you want it to auto-start. Auto-starting this application isn’t as trivial as most applications so I’ll walk you through that as well. I’ll assume your using Ubuntu of some sort, but if you’re not don’t worry…you can still install Conky with alternative steps and setting it up should not differ.

Install

1. Open the “Ubuntu Software Center” application (also known as “Add/Remove” in older versions) and search for Conky. If its not listed then you may need to find a package online.

   

   Find and install the Conky option entitled something along these lines: “highly configurable system monitor (all features enabled)“.

2. Create a file labeled “.conkyrc” in your home directory (usually saved as /home/username/.conkyrc) and make sure to include the period at the start. This will make the conky settings file hidden when you casually open your home folder so its not in your way. You may need to go to View -> Show Hidden Files or press Ctrl+H to view the file to edit it later.

   Open the “.conkyrc” file in a text editor of your choice.
   Paste the linked snippet into your “.conkyrc” file.

   

3. Create a file labeled “.startconky.sh” in the same folder as the previous file making sure to include the period at the beginning and the file type at the end.

   Open the “.startconky.sh” file with your favorite editor. Paste the following snippet into your “.startconk.sh” file:
   #!/bin/bash
(sleep 5s && conky) &

   


4. Save both files and close the file editor you were using. Now right-click on the “.startconky.sh” file and click Properties and select the Properties tab. Make sure you check the option to “Allow executing file as program” then click close.
   
5. Go to your startup applications program or System -> Preferences -> Startup Applications and add a new application with the command option as “/home/username/.startconky.sh” where user name is your home directory…as follows:
   
6. Click Save! Now the next time your restart your computer you’ll have some awesome stats that appear on your desktop!

After countless days spent and hours wasted over the past 4 months that I’ve owned this web cam, I had not been able to find a solution to see it work even once.

The problems I ran into were that the few solutions for this camera were specifically for 32-bit Ubuntu, while I’m using 64-bit Ubuntu.

Typically these days, this type of problem isn’t architecture specific in Linux, which means that fewer people have to battle the problems that are unique to x86_64 platforms. In my experience with Ubuntu, x86_64 application/firmware support 4 years ago was a joke. Today, x86_64 support is commonplace and practically a standard.

After upgrading to Ubuntu 10.04, I was able to see this support change yet again! Without configuring anything in Ubuntu 10.04 x86_64 the video feed from my web cam was working flawlessly (I tested using Cheese 2.29.90)!

There is the small matter of getting the mic on the web cam to work, but for now I’ve got an old mic that plugs into the ports from the motherboard. So I will have sound, just not through the web cam just yet. Hopefully I can find a solution to this as well, in which case I will be sure to link you to.

In the future, I’d also like to submit a patch or hack to enable the LifeCam Call Button like I did previously in Windows 7 so that you can configure what the button should do…take a picture, video, start a call or chat, etc.

While browser sniffing may seem like a good idea at first, you may be setting yourself up for problems later.

The biggest problem with browser sniffing is that it is usually relied on far too heavily to even consider removing later. The inner workings of a site can be based (unknowingly sometimes) around working specifically for specified web browsers and nothing more.

One poor use of browser sniffing that I came across today was for EyeWearSelect.com and it just so happens to be an easy fix.

On one of the EyeWearSelect pages, they show a thumbnail preview of a pair of glasses. Below the image is a link entitled “Click to Enlarge”, which uses some javascript to show you a larger picture in a pop-up window. Here’s how they begin the pop-up script..

if (parseInt(navigator.appVersion.charAt(0))>=4){
var isNN=(navigator.appName=="Netscape")?1:0;
var isIE=(navigator.appName.indexOf("Microsoft")!=-1)?1:0;}

Basically, the script says…true or false…this is Netscape? Also, true or false…this is Microsoft (Internet Explorer)? ..but what if you’re not using Netscape or Internet Explorer? What if you’re using Opera? or Konqueror?

If you’re using a browser that doesn’t match Netscape or Internet Explorer, then the future checks for isNN and isIE will never match and your browser will be “incompatible” with the scripts. In this case, the incompatibility is that the author never made it possible for those that are compatible.

A simple fix for this would be to change that bit of code to the following, which would basically check for Internet Explorer and then treat all others differently..

if (parseInt(navigator.appVersion.charAt(0))>=4){
var isIE=(navigator.appName.indexOf("Microsoft")!=-1)?1:0;
var isNN=!isIE;}

They won’t always be this easy for developers to correct, but this script could actually be cleaned up much more than just that.

In most cases, browser sniffing isn’t needed. The more efficient method to follow is capability testing.

If your code requires a web browser with capabilities that others (or not all web browsers) have, then you can use browser sniffing which is a form of hard coding the compatible web browsers…or you can test the browser’s capabilities and see if the javascript that you need to use will be supported.

By using the second method, you make your script much friendlier to the future of both the web and it’s browsers. You will also save yourself some work by not having to update the script each time you want to support another browser that would already be capable of using your script if it weren’t blocked in the first place.

If you run compatibility tests and find that a certain feature will not be available, that’s the time to announce that the user should update their browser or use a different one all together.

Of all of the times that I’ve seen browser sniffing, only a couple have every been properly used. One of those was a browser sniffer that would display instructions and images explaining how to download and save a file to your computer. The images were of course specific to the browser that I was using for a more useful set of instructions.

If you should happen to come across a web site that suggests that your browser is not compatible, fire off an email and let them know that you would appreciate more accurate scripting and detection for your web browser let them know that you would appreciate more accurate scripting!

So, are you tired of trying to copy and paste information from one source to another by means of pressing Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V? Or better still, by right click -> copy and right click -> paste?

Well, there’s a much easier way to do this. No seriously! I just found out about it myself after trying to track down where this bug or accidental copy-n-paste was coming from.

Once you learn to use this, however, it becomes very useful and will most likely replace your keyboard shortcut method. It may even be a cool trick you can tell your friends about.

You see, normally if you want to copy text or anything else from point A to point B you will be using a copy method that stores that data into the clipboard, holding it until it is replaced by the next copy.

With this method, oddly enough, what you already have stored in the clipboard is not altered at all!

The method I’m talking about is copy-n-pasting via middle clicking (that scroll wheel on your mouse of course). Here’s how it works.

When you select any text (any text at all) in Linux, you may not know it, but it is being stored in a clipboard of it’s own. To access that clipboard to paste from it, all you have to do is middle click!

To try this out, select the text here in bold red and press Ctrl-C or right click -> copy. This stores that text in the clipboard that you’re used to.

Now, select the text here in bold blue (it doesn’t matter if you leave it selected or not, it works either way). Now, go down to the comments section of this post and middle click in that text area.

If you’re in Linux you’ll most likely see that it pastes “bold blue” into the text area (color and font weight won’t appear in that simple text area). Now press Ctrl+V or right click -> paste and you should see that it pastes “bold red” into the comment text area!

If you see both items pasted into the text area, then that means you can take advantage of both clipboards as well as a faster method of copying data!

It may take a little time to become familiar with it, however, I’ve not been using it long at all and it’s already nearly replaced the old method for me entirely!

I’ll just break down the steps so you can follow along. Depending on the distro that you are using, these steps may vary.

1. Install the newest version of Wine that you can (in my case I just went with Wine 1.0).
2. Open up a terminal window and enter the following lines (one at a time ):
   wget http://kegel.com/wine/winetricks
   sh winetricks corefonts dotnet20 gdiplus
3. As a safety measure (it may not make a difference at all) I opened the “Configure Wine” application and set the default settings Windows Version to “Windows 2000″. This has seemed to help make applications work in Wine in the past.
4. Now download Digsby. I used the latest version which was for testers and should be released very soon. So for now just grab your installation from here.
5. Install Digsby. In most distros of Linux you can just right click on the install file and click Open with “Wine Windows Program Loader”. Follow the steps through the installation and launch Digsby. Everything should be working now!

Basically all you had to do was install the .NET 2.0 framework and gdiplus. I’m not positive on corefonts, but they will only improve compatibility.

Everything seems to be working great! I notice some odd behavior here and there, but the application itself is working great! The only thing that is a bit annoying is that Facebook will occasionally disconnect, but it immediately reconnects.

If one of your computers has at least two network cards, for example an Ethernet port and wireless capabilities, then you can connect one computer via the Ethernet connection and broadcast that same connection over that computer’s wireless card so that other computers can connect. I’ll show you how below.

I will be walking through the steps in Windows Vista, but the steps should be the same across all platforms. If you’re using a different platform then just try to find the same dialogs and options on that system and everything should work fine.

1. Open the Control Panel. To do this, go to Start->Control Panel
   If you’re in Windows Vista and your Control Panel window looks like this:
   
   You will need to click on the option labeled “Classic View” in the upper left corner of the window. This will change the layout of the Control Panel so that I don’t have to rewrite this How-To in multiple different directions. After changing the layout, your Control Panel should look like this:
   
2. In the image above, the icon for “Network and Sharing Center” is selected. Double click on this option. When the window changes you should see a list of tasks in the left column. Click on the item from the list labeled “Manage network connections“. This will open a new window that should show the network cards available on your computer.
   
3. Make sure that your Ethernet cable is plugged into your computer and your Internet source and that the Internet connection is working fine on that computer. Now right click on the option labeled “Local Area Connection” and select “Properties” from the menu (User Account Control will most likely ask you if you wish to continue and just agree and click continue if it does).
4. The Properties window will open on a tab labeled “Networking” with a list of items that the connection uses. Just ignore all of that and switch to the tab labeled “Sharing.” The options on the “Sharing” tab should be selected as follows. Enable the option labeled “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection.” Disable the option labeled “Allow other network users to control or disable the shared Internet connection.” After matching these settings, click “OK” to save the changes.
   
5. You can now close the window for “Network Connections” and reopen the window for “Network and Sharing Center.” If you have already closed this window by accident then you can follow steps 1 and 2 again, except this time instead of clicking on the option to “Manage network connections” you want to select the option to “Setup a connection or network.”
   
6. When the “Setup a connection or network“ window opens, it will have a list of networks that you can setup. The one that you want to setup is selected in the image above and is labeled “Setup a wireless ad hoc (computer-to-computer) network. Setup a temporary network for sharing files or an Internet connection.“

7. When the “Setup a wireless ad hoc (computer-to-computer) network” window is open, it will explain a little bit about the network. Just click “Next” until you get to a form that is empty and looks like the form below:

   

   You need to give the network that you are creating a name that you will be able to recognize and it can be anything that you want!

   You also have the option to add security to your network. I highly advise this as you have more control over your network, so just select the option for “WEP” and below it enter some form of a password.

   You can click the option to “Display characters” while you are entering the key/passphrase. This will make it easier to make a new key for your network.

   Don’t forget to also enable the option to “Save this network” if you plan on using it later!

   If you hover the text box for the key/passphrase, you will see a notification tooltip that explains how the passwords work. You should follow those instructions to create your password and make sure it is the correct length as specified in the tooltip.

   

8. Click “Next” to complete the setup and close any open windows. Your Ad-Hoc network is now setup and you should now be able to see a wireless signal on your other computers. Connecting to your network will require the users to know the key/passphrase that you entered, but once connected..all of the other computers should be able to browse the web and connect to instant messengers…anything you need!

If you have any questions then please ask them in the comments! Just remember to follow the steps closely before asking. Enjoy!