Nautilus Reconstructed

There are a number of posts doing the rounds on ways to overhaul or improve the Nautilus file manager:

http://www.design-by-izo.com/2010/02/27/deconstructing-nautilus-and-rebuilding-it-better/

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/01/nautilus-simple-install-ppa-streamlined.html

And for OSX converts moving to Ubuntu. All we really need is Nautilus + Clutterflow.

Needless to say I am extremely excited by the development occuring in Nautilus, even if the approaching Gnome-Shell represents somewhat of a crisis. It will be at least another year before Gnome-Shell is anywhere near the kind of stability required in a maturing distribution like Ubuntu. I therefore encourage people to see Gnome-Shell as another desktop option rather than the solution for gnome and to continue with Nautilus development. I especially like designer Izo's approach to journaling and there are lot of issues such as implementing a common set of mouse gestures across common multimedia applications which would facilitate productivity. Why should one bother saving multimedia files for instance? Why waste time in the file menu when we could be pointing and clicking? Just some of the issues which need common libraries and standards.

Snow leopard lynx vs African carakul lynx

The African caracul lynx has a lot going for it. Raw speed, agility, aerodynamics versus the Canadian lynx, which lacks the speed, but makes up with a fashionable coat and processing power. Which do you prefer Ubuntu with or without the bloatware?

[caption id="attachment_1116" align="alignleft" width="198" caption="Speedy African caracal"]

[/caption]

Snow Leopard Lynx?

Is Ubuntu going grey?

News that the popular Human theme is about to be dropped in Lucid has unleashed a style-war amongst the community. After Another Ubuntu reported Mark Shuttleworth's comments at the recent Ubuntu Openweek:

...we'll have some new styling which is going to be the starting point of another five year view. We've been Human for the last five years and now we're gonna be light oriented.

Speculation began that the replacement would resemble the Elementary theme being touted by designers at OMG!Ubuntu. While Elementary is a knock-em-dead linux style statement, it closely resembles OSX and there are slicker themes like eHomoSapien available.

Ubuntu, whose motto is "Linux for human beings" has on occasion veered off into fashion conscious Orange and devilish Red in order to escape the Big Blue of Microsoft/IBM and other distributions.

Dumping the trademark human theme which in Karmic is chocolate brown might just tear the community apart if it is not done with enough forethought and consultation. Exchanging Brown for Grey could also alienate ardent supporters in the third world, and one can only hope that eHomoSapien makes it past the Elementary level while giving users more default options.The thing about Ubuntu is the OS is instantly recognizable --  as Ubuntu becomes more popular (Ubuntuforums recently gained its 1 millionth member) the tendency to emulate the frontrunner, OSX may just sow confusion and work against us. Will Lucid be Snow Leopard Linux?

The Ubuntu community invariably charts its own path, instead of measuring the OS  against Windows 7 and OSX, we could just take a quantum leap forward with Lucid by catering for the fashion conscious as well as those who believe brown is retro, organic and still cool.

Ubuntu OS is all about putting Africa inside the machine. Finding the missing element in technology or as Brian Eno once said: The trouble with computers, there is not enough Africa in them.

NOTE: a couple of days after writing this post I found this posting on Tech Source from Bohol published the day after my posting

http://www.junauza.com/2010/02/ubuntu-goin-gray-like-mac-os-way.html

If penguins could fly

Love this Linux freedom insert. Somebody should try turning the critters into Ubuntu with shiki colours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDOL7_7DB7k&feature=player_embedded

Karmic U8UNTU CD arrives

The changing face of Ubuntu. Note the latest wording on the inside sleeve.

[caption id="attachment_1097" align="alignleft" width="294" caption="Speedy 9.10 with Orange Tang"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1098" align="alignleft" width="288" caption="Latest version of the Ubuntu four promises?"][/caption]

My first Ethical Co-Op Order runs aground

The Ethical CO-OP refuses to honour exchanges made in Talents.  Although some of its produce is on offer on CES.

Believe it or not, but I have managed to enter into a mutually-beneficial economic exchange using an alternative currency which is based upon the community as opposed to the financial system. The alternative Community Exchange System (CES) uses Talents (T) instead of Rands or Dollars. The CO-OP appears to have restricted these kind of transactions to old stock which it is offering on the exchange for T.  A recent order placed with the CO-OP had to be canceled because it involved an alternative currency.

Here is the message I wrote to Natalie Reid of Ethical Co-Op who after initially saying no, appeared to  change her mind when I explained to her the benefits. She now says the matter is "under consideration" with the COOP directors.

Dear Natalie,

I recently signed up to the CES site. Initially I was of the same opinion but curious, what is there to actually buy or exchange in T? My bad financial status forced me to give it a try because it offers an alternative to the current system of exchange which is based upon banks, interest and currency trading. CES has a wonderful energy about it and it has allowed me to share my Linux computer skills with the community.

The exchanges therefore don't have to be direct exchanges but can be moderated by the system which gives you local credit for your goods and services which you can then exchange for anything on offer in the community. Stokvels work in a similar way.

The CES  electronic system has certainly evolved quiet beautifully over the years from when it was just a paper-based system, which made me a bit dubious. There are now hundreds of users on the site and a whole variety of different goods and services on offer. I recently purchased an organic origanum plant for my herb garden and a vegi burger and am hoping that as more services are offered, more energy is distributed and shared amongst the community.



This is the real beauty of CES, it discourages hoarding, because the value is not in paper, but in the community. In other words, CES encourages people to meet the needs of the community as opposed to meeting the needs of financial instruments. Instead of working for your bank, (and your own selfish interests), you end up working for your community which is better equipped to see to your needs than your bank manager.

I would therefore encourage you to raise the issues you have with the CES system amongst the community. If there is a shortage of a particular type of produce as you indicate, then please put this to the community as a suggestion for an offer category. Maybe there should be an agricultural section? There is abundant energy in the universe, we just need to direct it to a good purpose.

Also the recommended exchange of R for T is 1:1. I have noticed the pricing varies from transaction to transaction. Some services are cheaper in T while others are more expensive. T won't replace R as yet, but it can help to circulate energy around the community in an alternative way, creating new possibilities as one moves forward. So yes, I would love the opportunity to be able to trade with you and go organic by exchanging my T for your produce.

Just an idea, perhaps you need to set a quota, or percentage, aside to be traded on CES? Then ethical trading could advertise that a certain percentage of its transactions were traded in T, which in turn would create an expectation of what one can expect to buy through the CES? We could challenge users in turn to set aside a certain percentage towards organic produce which would help organic farmers and so on!

Look forward to hearing from you again.

Regards



David.

Below is my canceled order from the Ethical Trading Site. I was prepared to pay the "organic premium" and even a delivery fee.

The Ethical Co-Op thanks you for order.

You have chosen to have your order delivered to your Home address

1 x Honey, Pure 500ml (Filtered) - Honeywood Farm (R33.00 each)
1 x Apples Royal Gala / 1kg - Organic Farmers Co-Op (R18.00 each)
1 x Baguette, Petite (wheat) - La Petite Boulangerie (R12.50 each)
1 x Cows Milk Feta 175g - Camphill Dairy (R22.00 each)
1 x Couscous (wholemeal) 500g - *the ethical co-op (R23.50 each)
1 x Onions, Pickled 375ml - Sandveld Organics (R22.00 each)
1 x Rooibos Tea, Leaves 250g - Cedarfruits (R14.00 each)
1 x Buchu Tea Leaves 25g - Cedarfruits (R14.50 each)
1 x Apple Juice 1Litre - Elgin Organics (R15.50 each)
1 x Soap, Fynbos 100g - Bloublommetjies (R9.00 each)
1 x Essential Oil, Tea Tree 11ml - S.O.I.L (R31.00 each)

Order: R215.00
Delivery: R45.00
Total: R260.00

Ubuntu mug shots

I challenge from Ubuntu France LoCo to put you mug where it belongs. Picture taken with Cheese and Webcam.

Ubuntu sources list generator

This is a great idea. A site which generates custom ppa source lists. You can also update the site with your own ppa

http://repogen.simplylinux.ch/index.php

The Ubuntusphere II

Found image plus hour-and-a-half with Gimp = Ubuntusphere

Ubuntu and ...

Found this cheesy before and after photo interpretation of Ubuntu Beryl. Whoever did it, thanks for inspiring me. Now for an Ubuntu Compiz before and after picture. Coming soon.

Incollector with good Karma

Incollector is a great  information collector for Linux and Windows which I use to store interesting snippets and pieces of code. Unfortunately it doesn't have a ppa and the latest edition 1.2 wouldn't run on Karmic. No problem, all it takes is a quick hack.

1. Open terminal and enter command:

 sudo gedit /usr/bin/incollector

2. Find line:

#!/bin/sh
 exec /usr/bin/mono /usr/lib/incollector/incollector.exe 
$MONO_EXTRA_ARGS “$@”

3. Change it to:

#!/bin/sh
 exec /usr/bin/mono --runtime=v2.0.50727 /usr/lib/incollector/incollector.exe 
$MONO_EXTRA_ARGS “$@”

4. Save the file.

5. Start Incollector

Back in Time vs Timevault vs Flyback

There are a number of options available for taking snapshots of your system. The three which seem to be the best, at least from an ex-Apple users perspective are Back-in-Time , Flyback and TimeVault. I wish one of them was included in the default distribution, but I guess that would mean chosing one project and alienating another project. Since Back-in-Time seems to be the newer kid on the block, I have chosen it for my own machine, but would love to hear about users experiencs with any of the three options. While you at it, you might want to compare them to Apple's Time Machine.

[caption id="attachment_1031" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Flyback - the lightweight alternative?"][/caption]

Lernid finally educated in Karmic

Jono Bacon's solution to long distance learning and user participation in Ubuntu Open conferences has finally arrived relatively bug-free in Karmic with less than three weeks to go before the  inaugral March 1 Ubuntu Opportunitic Developer Week. Which all sounds a bit like an infection? Earlier releases of the programme  had simply refused to run on my machine so I took the rash move of  copypasting the error message directly onto Bacon's blog. Sorry mate. No time to file a bug report, but I expected a fever and this could just be the antidote.  Bacon says: "While at the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Dallas I mentioned in one of the roundtables about how wicked-cool it would be to have a desktop client for ... online tuition events that we run."

"One of the challenges we face every time we run these events is helping new community members figure out how IRC works. Ideally this should be as simple as running a program, selecting an event and connecting."

" On the flight home I hacked up a little quickly app to get started on this. It is called Lernid."

http://www.jonobacon.org/2009/11/25/introducing-lernid/

To install:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lernid-devs/lernid-releases
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install lernid

There is also a ppa for daily releases

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/lernid-devs/lernid-daily/ubuntu karmic main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/lernid-devs/lernid-daily/ubuntu karmic main

More info

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lernid

Ubuntu Anthem

Been looking everywhere for the Ubuntu Anthem sung by Brenda Fassie. So in lieu of the Qween of Kwela, here is the 2007 Speak New Words Contest Finalist, Terryl Dozier with a haunting theme and spoken word combination for  Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olaMxy1X1hE

Install Mac Fonts in Ubuntu

If you have used a Macintosh before and want to know if you could install those Mac fonts like AppleGaramond, Aquabase, LITHOGRL, Lucida Grande, Lucida Mac, lucon, and MacGrand on you Ubuntu Linux desktop, then rejoice because you easily could. Just follow these simple steps on installing and then using Mac fonts on Ubuntu:

Installing the fonts:

1. From the Linux terminal, download Mac fonts with this command:

$ wget http://ubuntu-debs.googlecode.com/files/macfonts.tar.gz

2. Untar or extract the downloaded file:

$ tar zxvf macfonts.tar.gz

3. Move macfonts folder to the /fonts directory:

$ sudo mv macfonts /usr/share/fonts/

4. Reload the font cache:

$ sudo fc-cache -f -v

Using the fonts:

You can now test or use the fonts by going to System --> Preferences --> Appearance, and then clicking on the "Fonts" tab. Here is a sample setup on using the Mac fonts:

Application font: Lucida MAC 10
Document font: Lucida MAC 10
Desktop font: Lucida MAC 10
Window title font: LucidaMacBold 10
Fixed width font: Lucida Console 10


That’s about it. Enjoy your new fonts.

You may also like this article: Download 100+ Free Fonts for Ubuntu

This posting courtesy of Tech Source From Bohol

The Ubuntusphere

Just a note to say the Ubuntusphere is growing and is probably the largest collection of Ubuntu-related links in the Southern Hemisphere. If you have a link or a site which you feel needs to be listed, please ethnopunk at telkomsa.net  and I'll consider it for inclusion. Also, any ideas about a graphic? I know a sphere would look good, and we all know the Ubuntu logo is spherical. But exactly how to go about illustrating the idea?  I was thinking the Ubuntusphere is more about an ecosystem of sites, an Ubuntucology if you will. If you have any ideas, please fire away.

UPDATE: Here it is the Ubuntusphere, a photoretouched Rubik sphere using Gimp

[caption id="attachment_1051" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Welcome to the Ubuntusphere"][/caption]

Ubuntu Revelation

I think this app takes the cake in terms of catchy nomenclature. A password manager that actually sounds like it could be a password manager and which offers encryption. What more could one want? Well there are a couple of gripes. Firstly Revelation expects me to enter each new password into a card file system manually. Each new entry thus taking up valuable time. Secondly it doesn't appear to interface with any other applications  and especially the browsers which store my passwords.

Admittedly getting software to do this would mean some deep level programming. But surely a way of removing the inconveniance of entering passwords online  in Ubuntu would be a lifesaver, especially if you are like me and routinely muck around and lose configuration files (along with the damn keys). However, I am not a cryptofreak. The best locked door in cyberspace is probably a door that doesn't  need a lock or a password.

So as far as this simple password database are concerned, Revelation is the nicest crypto cardfile I've seen in a long time.

sudo apt-get install revelation

Do This Now Ubuntu

I've always believed that while sudo may translate into the sue and do of the computer world, ubuntu is really code for please. A nice way of saying let's do this or let the community join in, because it is really thanks to the community that we are able to provide the means to achieve personal goals.  If you don't have time to create a script or just want something to happen at such and such a time without opening a terminal. DoThisNow is a great little scheduler applet which also gives users a modicum of control over events.

Remove menu delay the right way

There are many sites offering bad advice for removing menu delay (as I did), e.g. http://lifehacker.com/software/linux...enu-269934.php.

These sites  tell you to create ~/.gtkrc-2.0 and then add 'gtk-menu-popup-delay = 0"| tee -a .gtkrc-2.0'. That's wrong.

It should be either:

* create file ~/.gtkrc-2.0 and add 'gtk-menu-popup-delay = 0'

or

* run in terminal 'echo "gtk-menu-popup-delay = 0"| tee -a .gtkrc-2.0'

Either delete ~/.gtkrc-2.0 and do one of the two methods above, or edit the file as needed.

You'll know if you've done it the wrong way if you get this error message:

error: scanner: unterminated string constant - e.g. `style'

Thanks to Wesley and David_1cog for pointing this out.