Latest articles & site news

updated March 12, 2010, category: Software & security

What is the color of stability? A certain blue to be sure. Can it be aubergine? Well, this is what Ubuntu is trying to do with its upcoming Long Term Support (LTS) release, 10.04 Lucid Lynx. Make Ubuntu look different. Step away from its legacy orange.

My initial reaction, as I was fighting a not so successful Jaunty update that turned my Shutdown button into Logout button, was a kneejerk impulse. Browsing through a gallery of copy-pasted images from Ubuntu Brand page and replicated like Borg in a kazillion blogs, I did not like much what I was seeing, a Mac-like imitation.

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updated March 8, 2010, category: Software & security

Three years ago, I've shown you a number of free alternatives to the powerful yet quite expensive Matlab numerical computation program. These included FreeMat, Octave and Scilab, each of which offered a unique set of tools, strengths and weaknesses.

While neither can completely replace Matlab as the leading geek engine in the science and engineering world, they are rather useful for testing, learning the code, home use, academic use, on basic and intermediate levels of knowledge.

Today, I'd like to revisit my older review and show you what the updated versions of these three programs can offer, both in terms of visual changes and cosmetics, as well as the raw functionality.

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updated March 6, 2010, category: Software & security

Normally, I try to avoid providing distro-centric solutions and go for across-the-board, agnostic answers that should weather the trial of time and space. This is not always possible, as evident in the title of this article.

Why CentOS and why Debug repositories? Well, if you recall, we had two very long tutorials on Kernel crash dump collection, one for the older LKCD utility and one for Kdump. In these two sessions, we learned how to setup the tools, crash the system and dump memory cores to a hard disk. The next step is to analyze these cores.

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updated March 5, 2010, category: Software & security

You may be using Windows 7. Everything seems fine, except one thing. You simply hate the way the Start menu has changed. You tried the old trick of using the classic theme, but it did not help you really. You are stuck with the dual-column Start menu and it annoys the very fungus between your toes.

You would prefer to have the good old, linear Start menu and access programs in a cascading manner. As someone who suffers from a mild case of OCD and prefers functionality over eye candy to the uttermost limit of efficiency and productivity, I fully understand and share your pain. Which is why I spent quite a bit of time trying to find the solution to this irksome issue. Luckily, the remedy to the problem is rather simple.

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updated March 3, 2010, category: Life topics

It's a fact. All my articles are rather long. My reviews stretch page after endless page of useful information and numerous screenshots. My tutorials are very long and detailed, with every single step written down and explained, awash with real-life examples, images and snippets of code. Similarly, my stories, both in the Life and the Physics section, are also quite lengthy. While their immense, mesmerizing quality is not being disputed, it does not change the fact I seem to spend quite a lot of time behind the keyboard.

What I'm trying to say is, this would be a character flaw, if I had one. People have all sorts of little vices and problems. Mine is that of a pedantic geek who cannot let even one important fact go astray. I'm not a garbage collector, mind, since you do get content filtered down to its essence.

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updated March 1, 2010, category: Software & security

Time to learn about yet another cool little admin application that will change the way you think and work. We had strace, a mighty, versatile debugging tool that helped us diagnose and categorize system programs quickly and effectively and point us in the right direction in our investigation of problems. We had OProfile, a powerful profiling utility that can be used to time the system and application performance and identify chokepoints and bottlenecks in program executions. Time to step back and appraise screen.

screen is a full-screen window manager that multiplexes a physical terminal between several processes, typically interactive shells. Each virtual terminal provides the functions of the legendary DEC VT100 terminal.

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updated February 28, 2010, category: Software & security

Debian is one of the more important Linux distributions. Without Debian, we would probably not have Ubuntu or APT and Linux desktop would still be a dream. And it just happens that I never gave it a proper review, until now.

Time to do that. Naturally, I will not be reviewing Debian as any old distro. It has its special place alongside RedHat (CentOS). In other words, it's not a toy, it's a serious, somber tool for power users who cherish uttermost stability as the main feature in their operating system, with usability taking the humble second place. Plus, there's the free software idea, which might also complicate things a little. Don't expect Debian to run after you like a favorite canine. It's the other way around.

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updated February 26, 2010, category: 3D art

I will begin this gallery in a very unusual way. I'd like to ask you a question: Take a look at the image to the left. What do you think? Does it look real? Would you believe me if I told you it's a Google SketchUp model I created, some innocent grass behind my home, combined, creating this lovely illusion of a futuristic tank parked and waiting. Yes, that's the model I created. Now, if you're interested, let's take a look at the gallery.

This main battle tank was inspired by the American M1A1 model and the Israeli Merkava Mk.IV, heavy main battle tanks that share much in common: a squat, boxed appearance influenced by the use of modular, composite armor, a four-man crew, a big, fully sleeved smoothbore gun dominating the diamond-shaped turret.

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updated February 24, 2010, category: Software & security

Office suites are mainly intended for adults. But sometimes, kids write too. And when they do, they work with tools intended for their parents, functionality and looks wise. This makes the chance of a child liking big, complex word processors and streadsheet software less likely.

But what if you helped them a bit?

This is exactly what OpenOffice4Kids (OOo4kids) is for, part of the Education OpenOffice (EduOOo) project. While the parent project aims toward establishing a bridge between OpenOffice.org and the world of education, OOo4kids aims at the younger generations.

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updated February 22, 2010, category: Software & security

Skinning Opera is a non-violent procedure of changing the default theme (skin) of your Opera browser to make it look more the way you want it to be. Reasons for doing this? Well, for example, Opera changed between releases 9 and 9.5 and then again when the software switched to version 10, taking on a new look.

You may or may not like the new looks, but that's not important. What matters is that you have the choice of switching back to older themes if you want, or even use a completely new one, adding color and spice to your browser usage.

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updated February 20, 2010, category: Hillbilly physics

Superman, a super hero wearing tight pants and sporting a dorky haircut. The ultimate epitomization of repressed sexuality in a world of puritanism and double standards wrapped in lackluster bubble of unimaginative depression of the early-to-mid 20th century.

But what if we forget Superman's shiny red latex (not LaTeX) and focus on the actual character. If we believe the comics books and the four (or five) rather bad movies created, Superman is meant to be our savior. However, what the publishers of the entertainment brochures and the silver screen features did not want you to know is that Superman is one big menace to modern society.

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updated February 19, 2010, category: Software & security

We have had one article on Windows 7 security already. In it, we discussed the most important aspects of making your desktop safe, without panicking or going overboard with security.

We discussed many things: how to respond to Action Center alerts, how to setup Windows updates, how to many additional categories in Control Panel visible, the configuration of Windows defender and the User Account Control (UAC), Protected Mode, firewall, Data Execution Prevention (DEP), folder options, and disabling Autoplay. For most people, this palette is truly all they will ever need, possibly even too much.

Today, I would like to talk about several more things you may want or need. Call it a fine-tuning if you will. We will learn some more tricks, in the spirit of the first article, with focus on productivity and moderation, making sure our security is transparent and that it works for us, not against us.

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updated February 17, 2010, category: Software & security

SAM, an acronym that stands for Surface to Air missile. SAM, Linux. SAM Linux is a distribution based on PCLinuxOS, a small if rather popular distribution that caters to new users by offering a rich, exciting desktop, with everything working out of the box. That is PCLinuxOS. So what can SAM Linux do?

SAM Linux promises similar results. Furnished with an Xfce desktop, it aims at being lightweight and suitable for older computers, as well as offering the range of goodies its father did. Seems like an easy task, since PCLinuxOS 2009 really did present a beautiful and exciting experience. But then, there's the Xfce desktop, which is more suitable for savvy users and is known to have problems with proxy and network sharing.

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updated February 15, 2010, category: Software & security

PDF security sounds like a rather obscure topic. And it is. For the vast majority of computer users, PDF documents are simply a medium of information. Unfortunately, they have become much more than that.

PDF documents have evolved to a point that they have become interactive applets, loaded with scripts and whatnot, all of which significantly enhance the user experience, but which can lead to potential issues when misused. Twined with popular PDF software, frequently targeted and abused, opening PDF documents can become a security issue.

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updated February 13, 2010, category: Software & security

A few weeks ago, we've learned about strace, a simple yet powerful system debugging tool that allows you to trace the system calls during the execution of a process, allowing you to solve many problems quickly and efficiently. It's time to step up the geeky fun a notch and learn about OProfile.

OProfile is a Linux system-wide profiling tool that you can use to, uh, profile and analyze performance and runtime problems with your applications, or even the kernel itself. It's very simple to use and does not require any special preparations. No need to patch the kernel or use debug symbols. Just insert the module and start running.

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updated February 12, 2010, category: Software & security

Every six months, a new edition of Ubuntu is released and the Update Manager that pops every now and then offers you the choice of upgrading your current version to a newer one. Every six months, Ubuntu users worldwide face a tough choice. Should they keep running their current version or should they upgrade? If so, when? What should they do before trying to upgrade? Is it better to install from scratch? What are the necessary steps to ensure a smooth, painless upgrade?

In today's article, I will try to answer all these questions. While this article is a tutorial, it is also an guide that should help you decide whether the upgrade process is the best choice for you.

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updated February 10, 2010, category: Software & security

Dedoimedo lemma to happy computing states that the fanaticism of a Linux user is inversely proportional to the size of the user base for the said distro. Have I intrigued you or maybe offended you? Well, read on, then. In this article/rant, I would like to talk about the general behavior of the Linux community once again, focusing on the individual user. We've talked about this before, but it's time for some polish. Shall we?

Linux user as a rule: Being a Linux user means you're special. Linux desktop holds only about 1% market, so the chances are you're 1 out of 100, which places you at the far end of the Gaussian distribution of desktop usage normalcy curve. That's good.

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updated February 8, 2010, category: Software & security

In tech lingo, Linux means geekiness. Even though Linux has been making some pretty decent progress toward becoming a people's operating system, spearheaded by Ubuntu, it is still a domain of computer freaks, savvy ego-centric hackers and advanced users with a knack for software. Most ordinary people soil their pants at the very mention of the word Linux.

But what does Jolicloud tell them? Nothing. First, it has the word cloud in there, and it's a new buzzword. Along with netbooks, cloud has been the defining word for 2009. More and more emphasis is placed on instant and permanent online connectivity, running in the cloud, with your programs and documents sitting on remote servers, with your mobile device nothing more than a fancy terminal to connect to these servers.

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updated February 6, 2010, category: Software & security

Do you have a boss who's easily impressed by fancy visual tricks, regardless of the content? Are you a marketing kind of guy? Do you own a website and would like to enliven the pages with some stunning flash graphs? Do you require online presentation tools that go beyond static Web pages? Then you ought to take a look at FusionCharts.

FusionCharts is a Flash charting software that lets you integrate aesthetically pleasant, animated Flash graphs and charts into your Web projects. FusionCharts offers a wide range of 2D and 3D charts, including area, bar, pie, column, scatter, and many others, all of which can be used with plain HTML files or ASP, PHP, Ruby on Rail, Python, and other web technologies. FusionCharts also works with databases, like SQL and Oracle.

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updated February 5, 2010, category: Software & security

Since I like this saying so much, I decided to write an entire article revolving around its message. And the focus of the message, once again, the much loved/hated and controversial Ubuntu, the Paris Hilton of the Linux world.

Ubuntu 9.10 has been around for some time, including several of my test machines. If you've followed the news and updates in the Linux world in the last few months, you have probably noticed that Ubuntu has been received as a hot potato; edible and tasty, but sometimes too hot to handle, especially for new users. Many condemned it, others found it flawless, others yet were disappointed, like myself, mainly by the lack of any major improvements combined with several serious regressions.

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updated February 3, 2010, category: Software & security

The credits for the catchy title go to legendary Thomas Dolby, but the real thanks go to the team of scientists, engineers and geeks at CERN, who developed this distribution.

If you're into science, you will, sooner or later, run into Linux. Any serious mathematical, computational work is done on Linux. From amazing 3D movies to simulating the Big Bang over to crunching sparse matrices in a cloud and folding proteins at home, it all comes down to using Linux. As a single host, Linux is merely a machine, but it starts to shine in its hundreds and thousands.

Scientific Linux is a distribution based on RedHat, designed to work out of the box and make the job of assistants and PhDs that much easier. As such, it comes with a few extras that you do not normally see in stock RedHat, without losing the heavy anchor of adamant stability that RedHat brings.

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updated February 1, 2010, category: Computer games

Last time I was in the States, I entered one of the Fry's mega stores and headed directly for the Computer Games section, hoping to find some decent bargains. Indeed, one of the boxen seated on the shelf was 1701 A.D., including the Sunken Dragon expansion pack, for just USD14.99. Not the latest and greatest game, but I have never cared for game age. Needless to say, I bought the game, not really sure if it were going to pay off its very humble price. It did. 1701 A.D. proved to be a really lovely game. Hence, this review.

1701 A.D. (also known as Anno 1701) is a real-time economy strategy, focusing around naval settlement and culture class expansion of a small village somewhere in the New World, governed by you and sponsored by the Queen. Your task is seemingly simple - make your colony prosper. Well, it gets a little more complicated than that.

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updated January 30, 2010, category: Life topics

Icons? Software related? Have you perhaps filed an article in the wrong section, mate? Not at all. This article is all about social issues, not software.

What I want to talk to you about are icons linking to various social networks and sharing services, like Digg, Stumbleupon, Twitter, Facebook, and others. For many users, these networks and services are an excellent, efficient and a fast way of sharing information with friends and would be friends. For webmasters, making your content easily available to users of these networks and services boosts the chances of quick exposure leading to increased traffic and possibly revenue. Placing icons linking to popular micro blogs, social news sites and community networks is a smart thing to do.

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updated January 29, 2010, category: Software & security

In my LKCD and Kdump tutorials, I've mentioned a large number of sequels, including tutorials showing how to work with kernel crash dump processing and analysis tools, how to debug applications and more. Well, one such sequel has just arrived and it's about the most important level II debugging tool available: strace.

Strace is a utility that can trace system calls. If you're wondering what system calls are, they are a translation mechanism that provides interface between a process and the operating system (kernel). These calls can be intercepted and read, allowing for a better understanding of what a process is trying to do at a given runtime.

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updated January 27, 2010, category: Software & security

Helena was the first femme fatale in modern culture who showed her destructive work on a national scale, brining the city of Troy to complete doom with her promiscuous charm. A tricky choice for a name, would you not say?

Now, following this pseudo-philosophical intro, let's focus on Linux Mint 8 Helena, the real subject of our topic. Linux Mint is a distribution very closely based on Ubuntu. At first thought, you may think the two would be virtually indistinguishable, save for some small cosmetic changes. Indeed, many forks are just that, a visual polish with little or no changes underneath the hood.

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updated January 25, 2010, category: Software & security

Let's say you really love how Windows 7 looks. But you don't have money to buy a copy or you do not wish to part from your sturdy, loyal Windows XP workhorse. No problem. Today, I will show you how you can make your Windows XP look smarter, sharper, cooler, more modern, all for free and about 10-15 minutes of your precious time.

There are millions of desktop customization and tweaking articles all over the Web. I will hardly be reinventing the wheel. Therefore, to make things simpler, I will refer to several popular and useful sources that served as an inspiration for this article, as well as provide you with a wealth of links and resources to even more customization and beautification guides.

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updated January 23, 2010, category: Software & security

Python is a general-purpose high-level programming language, much beloved in the geek community as the tool that you use to write utilities and applications. But Python is also the common name for the Pythonidae, a family on non-venomous snakes.

When you combine the two, you elevate the art of literal misinterpretation to a higher form of genius. In Dr. Pun's latest article, you will learn all about writing scripts using Python, just not the Python you may expect. The calembour or the equivoque is so potent here, that essentially a bad idea becomes fantastic. Follow me.

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updated January 22, 2010, category: Software & security

There are hundreds of Linux distributions available worldwide, kitted with an infinite number of kernel/desktop/applications combos, each offering a unique perspective and usage model.

Still, true to the Pareto principle, most of the Linux desktop belongs to a very small number of distributions, including mainly Ubuntu and its derivatives, Fedora, openSUSE, Mandriva, and a few more. Hop over to DistroWatch and see for yourself. So the big question is, what makes these distros so popular, or better yet, preferred over other candidates? Ultimately, which one offers the most complete all-round experience of all?

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updated January 20, 2010, category: Life topics

You all know I'm gifted. In fact, multi-gifted. One of the many aspects of my greatness is the ability to operate the digital camera at the right place at the right moment. I am not a photographer by all means, all those photons confuse me, but given a simple image-capturing gadget and some artistic creativity, I'll make some splendid photographs. And so will other people - then forward the images to me, so I can make this article.

In this article, I will show you a few rather interesting, spectacular images taken round the corners of the world. Not your typical Life section article, where the facets of humanity are polished rough with sandpaper, more of a freestyling expressionism with a rather positive note, which you should hardly expect from a diehard cynic like me. Anyhow, enjoy.

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updated January 18, 2010, category: Software & security

VMware Server is a powerful, free virtualization software that you can use to run multiple instances of various operating systems in top of your desktop, each a separate entity running its own virtual environment. We've talked about this concept, as well as many other, more specific and detailed features, at great length in quite a few articles.

We've had some general advice on virtualization and we've discussed some tips and tricks on how to enhance VMware Server, but we've never really focused on the power of VMware Server networking stack, which is probably the most advanced and fully featured virtual router of any desktop virtualization product available. Until today, that is.

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updated January 17, 2010

On January 12, a powerful earthquake struck Haiti, resulting in a terrible loss of human life and nearly total destruction of the country's capital city. The tragedy is far from over for millions of Haitian citizens, who are left without food, water or shelter.

Please consider donating to one of the help organizations providing relief to the disaster victims. Below, you will find the link to Google crisis response page. As the most popular website in the world, it seems the best source of information and help at the moment. The page provides news, updates and, most importantly, instructions how to donate.

Google crisis response

updated January 17, 2010

In the last few days, I have noticed that my own test subscription to Dedoimedo RSS feed via FeedBurner is not updating as frequently as it should. I am investigating this. Reading the FeedBurner troubleshooting guide, these kind of glitches happen sometimes and usually come and go without any intervention.

Now, if you have NOT noticed any problems, please ignore this post and continue enjoying the website. Meanwhile, if you did notice my RSS feed (via FeedBurner) has not been updated in the last 3-4 days, please consider one of the following suggestion as a temporary remedy until things get sorted out:

a) Visit the website directly and check for updates; I usually post four new items every week, sometimes more b) Use an alternative RSS reader method, including subscribing directly to my RSS feed rather than FeedBurner c) use Live Bookmarks in your browser.

If you have any questions about this subject, feel free to contact me.

Dedoimedo RSS feed

updated January 17, 2010, category: Software & security

Gnome Shell is the future window manager for UNIX-like operating systems running the Gnome desktop environment. It is slated to be part of the Gnome 3.0, which will probably be released sometime next year. However, this does not mean you cannot try Gnome Shell now and get the first impression of what it ought to be. Gnome Shell is available in the repositories of some of the recent Linux distribution releases, like Fedora 12 Constantine and Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, which I used to testdrive Gnome Shell. On older releases, you can try to build Gnome Shell from scratch, but this will take time and there's no guarantee it will work.

So follow me for a spin.

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