Web Upd8

SpiderOak: Cross Platform Cloud Back-up Solution

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:03:39 PST

We already covered SpiderOak, but only on a quick test, because back then, I didn't see the need for another tool like Dropbox. Read on to see why Dropbox might actually not be enough!

In case you don't know, SpiderOak is an online backup, sync, sharing, access & storage solution for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, SUSE). They offer 2 GBs of space for free and you will be enjoying all of the features SpiderOak has to offer. By referring 3 friends, you can get 3 more GB of free space (1GB per person referred).

Why both Dropbox AND SpiderOak?

Firstly, because SpiderOak has a built-in automated backup system. With Dropbox, you had to either create symbolic links or run a back-up application to do the backup, but SpiderOak can do it all in just one app.

For instance, I am synchronizing my Firefox profile for my home and work computers and also transfer some files without using an USB pen drive and so on, by just placing the files in my Dropbox. With SpiderOak, I back-up my system / config files.

So if you want to simply sync files, use Dropbox, if you also want to backup important files, give SpiderOak a try.

Note: one way to use Dropbox for both file sync AND backup could be to use 2 different Dropbox instances (and accounts).

Another interesting SpiderOak feature is the way sharing works:

Even though all your data is stored encrypted, you can carefully and selectively allow portions of your SpiderOak Network to be shared (or become public) to family, friends, colleagues, or clients. You can create a ShareRoom by choosing any number of folders from several of your computers. A ShareRoom may be accessed as a unique web URL or by entering a user's ShareID and RoomKey on the SpiderOak homepage – easily allowing people you invite to view your documents, pictures, movies, and so on.

Additionally, as you make additions or edits to the folders within a ShareRoom (no matter what computer those changes are made on), the changes are automatically viewable to those who have access to the ShareRoom. This process is definitely more efficient than having to constantly upload new changes to an FTP site or resend big files via e-mail.

In my tests, SpiderOak was kind of slow on Windows, but then again I use Windows only at work and the PC configuration isn't that good (1GB RAM with a AMD 2800+ processor). On Linux, it seems to run pretty smooth.

If you are considering using SpiderOak, you can use my referral link: you will get 1 GB of extra space for free (I will also get 1 GB).

In case you were wondering: no, this is not a sponsored post! It is just an application I enjoy.

Shell System Information Tool For Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:43:59 PST

inxi is a very small command line tool (bash script) which allows you to see all sorts of information about your Linux computer. The information inxi can give you ranges from CPU info, graphic card, sound card, ip and so on (a lot of info!) and you can also choose the color scheme.

Take a look at this screenshot to see a sample of what inxi can do:

For a list of commands, run this command:

inxi -h

Install inxi

In Ubuntu, inxi can be installed in two ways:
1. .deb package. Run the following commands:
wget ftp://cathbard.com/binary/inxi*.deb
dpkg -i inxi*.deb
2. Save the script from HERE, then navigate to where you saved inxi and:

sudo chmod +x inxi
inxi -h

If you use the script, make sure you have the following dependencies: bash >=3.0(bash), df;readlink;stty;tr;uname;wc(coreutils), gawk(gawk), grep(grep), hostname(hostname), lspci(pciutils), ps;uptime(procps), glxinfo;xdpyinfo;xrandr(xbase-clients).

For more info visit this and this page.

[seen on pressenux]

Create Fancy Screenshots With Screenie [Windows, Linux]

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:26:01 PST

Screenie is a Windows and Linux tool for editing screenshots. It does not take screenshots, just edits them in a stylish way:

For creating the actual screenshots, I recommend FSCapture and for Linux: Shutter.

You can use 1, 2 or 3 images in Screenie, customize the look of each image and it supports drag and drop from your desktop or a web page.

To install Screenie in Ubuntu (Qt), run the following command in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install screenie-qt

For other Linux distributions, see THIS | Windows users: download Screenie

Cuberok: Multi-Platform Audio Player - Amarok 1.4 Style (Qt Based)

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:37:49 PST

Cuberok is a music player and collection manager which resembles a lot to the very popular Amarok 1.4. It is based on Qt4 and has a lightweight interface, music collection support and many features, e.g. music autorating and Last.FM scrobbler.

Cuberok works on Linux, Windows and Mac OSX but for now I have only tested it in Linux (Ubuntu).

Cuberok features

* English and Russian interface.
* CUE support. Codepage selection for CUE sheets
* Shoutcast/icecast support (for GStreamer and Phonon)
* Support internet services Jamendo and MagnaTune (New in v.0.0.9)
* Last.FM and Libre.FM scrobblers
* Downloading images for albums and artists from Last.FM
* Loading artist and album info from Last.FM, loading lyrics from LyricWiki.org
* Auto rating for songs. Rating for albums, artists and genres automatically calculated from rating of songs.
* Easy collection browsing. Just double click on genre to view all artist in this genre.
* Smart playlists (custom SQL requests)
* Support for AlbumArt as separate file on disk. Art can be assigned to genre and artist too.
* Many supported music formats.
* DND (drag-and-drop) support to collect music and append playlists.
* Support for many play lists at one time. Play lists may be played in a certain configurable order, or browsed through like the main music library.
* Tag editing capability. Built-in tag converter QTagConvert
* Save/Load play lists to/from XSPF and M3U.
* Collect playlist files into Library. Supported XSPF, M3U, ASX/ASP and CUE files.
* Installer for Windows.
* Clean and fast database backend using SQLite 3.
* Configurable user interface.

I only wish I have kept my Amarok 1.4 library, as Cuberok has an option to import the Amarok 1.4 library:

Cuberok is not perfect. Actually, far from that: it still has bugs, not a lot of configurable options, but the look, feel and a lot of Amarok 1.4 features can be found in Cuberok:

To install Cuberok in Ubuntu (even though the package is called _jaunty_, it also works in Karmic), download the Ubuntu .deb file from HERE.

To get it to work, I installed a lot of dependencies manually. I don't remember them exactly, but these must be most if not all of them (sorry, I didn't keep a list of each dependency installed): phonon phonon-backend-gstreamer libaudiere-1.9.4 libtaglib2.0-cil sqlite3 libqt4-sql libqt4-sql-mysql libqt4-sql-sqlite libqtscript4-sql

To install them all in Ubuntu Karmic with one command, run this in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install phonon phonon-backend-gstreamer libaudiere-1.9.4 libtaglib2.0-cil sqlite3 libqt4-sql libqt4-sql-mysql libqt4-sql-sqlite libqtscript4-sql

More about the dependencies, on Cuberok homepage.

DOWNLOAD: For Debian, Windows, Mac OSX and source files, see the download page.

Google Wave Invitations Winners Announced

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:21:02 PST

Remember the 5 Google Wave invitations contest for Web Upd8 readers?

Like I told you, today I am announcing the winners. You can watch the draw in the video below:

You might have noticed there are 8 winners instead of 5. That's because I didn't give all my invitations yet so I could spare some more.

In plain text, these are the winners:

1. isian
2. lonic
3. pcdevil
4. feld
5. dennishojgaard
6. captainslog
7. bpollen
8. mahdi

Actually I am giving away 9 invitations. Another one will go to d0od but that's not part of the contest :)

Remember, these are nominations! There are no guarantees that the invitations will arrive. However, I already sent about 5 invitations to some friends and 4 of them arrived in about 24h. The fifth didn't so far. So, as you see, it depends on Google, not me.

If you didn't win, I'm sorry. BUT! I might give some more invitations soon! Stay tuned!

(Edit) Last moment idea: If you read this far and you didn't win an invitation: I like round numbers, so to make it 10, the first comment made with a valid Gmail address to this post gets an invitation to Google Wave.

Panda Free Cloud Antivirus Is Out Of Beta - Download

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:22:00 PST

Traditional anti-virus applications simply download an update from the servers on a periodic basis to keep your virus definitions scanning for the latest viruses. However, Panda Cloud Antivirus uses their cloud system to do the work of classifying and scanning for new viruses, and is constantly updated with the latest virus information based on information from every other PC running the software.

Panda Cloud Antivirus was in beta for quite some time, but today, the FREE Windows antivirus is out of the beta (finally!) and available for download.

Please note that you need an account (free) to be able to use Panda Cloud Antivirus. Also, it is recommended that you uninstall any beta versions you may have, and then install the new version.

Download Panda Cloud Antivirus v1.0

Fully Integrate Twitter Into Google Wave

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:02:21 PST

Yesterday we've covered how to post to Twitter from Google Wave, but using the Tweety bot, you could only post, so you couldn't see your Twitter stream, replies, messages and so on.

Here is a way to fully integrate Twitter into Google Wave: using TwitterGadget.

TwitterGadget is a clean, robust, web 2.0 style client for Twitter, designed to submit status updates to Twitter via your iGoogle homepage, Gmail Account or as a standalone app (website). Using TwitterGadget, you'll get a fully featured Twitter client embedded into Google Wave. Here's how to do it:

Create a new Wave and click on "Add gadget by URL":

And paste this URL into the input box:

http://www.twittergadget.com/gadget.xml

That's it.

And don't forget: we are giving away 5 Google Wave invitations for Web Upd8 readers until November 10.

How To Upgrade To Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:35:41 PST

Ubuntu Lucid Lynx is already available, but you can't upgrade to it (and I strongly advise you not to upgrade to Lucid Lynx unless you just want to test stuff) with the usual update-manager -d command.

But I found a way to upgrade to Ubuntu Lucid Lynx (10.04) from Karmic Koala (9.10), on Shakaran's blog (so all the credits go to him).

Here's what you need to do if you really want to already upgrade to Ubuntu Lucid Lynx 10.04 (at your own risk):

1. Open a terminal and paste this:

sudo sed -i 's/karmic/lucid/g' /etc/apt/sources.list && sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude dist-upgrade

The above command changes your Karmic repositories to Lucid and upgrades the packages.

2. Once you complete step 1 (above), you can upgrade to Ubuntu Lucid Lynx the traditional way:

sudo aptitude install update-manager-core
sudo do-release-upgrade -d

Another way to do this is with Pearl, so that you can see if there will be errors with the packages:

# Firstly, make sure your computer is up-to-date
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude safe-upgrade

# Change the Karmic repositories for Lucid, using Perl
perl -p -i.karmic -e 's/karmic/lucid/' /etc/apt/sources.list

# Start upgrading the packages
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install dpkg aptitude apt
sudo aptitude safe-upgrade
sudo aptitude full-upgrade

Disclaimer: No, I did not upgrade to Ubuntu Lucid Lynx yet, I'll wait for at least Alpha 1 or 2 to Upgrade (if not for the Beta).

Tremulous: Free, Open Source FPS Game With Elements Of RTS [Windows, Linux, Mac OSX]

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:10:54 PST

Tremulous is a free, open source game for Windows, Linux and MacOSX (unofficial version for Mac OSX) based on the ioquake3 game engine, that blends a team based FPS with elements of an RTS. Players can choose from 2 unique races, aliens and humans.

Players on both teams are able to build working structures in-game like an RTS. These structures provide many functions, the most important being spawning. The designated builders must ensure there are spawn structures or other players will not be able to rejoin the game after death. Other structures provide automated base defense (to some degree), healing functions and much more.

The game has been downloaded over 1,000,000 times and was voted Player's Choice Standalone Game of the Year in Mod Database's Mod of the Year 2006 competition.

Tremulous gameplay

Tremulous is a first-person shooter with elements of real time strategy, featuring two teams: humans and aliens. Players must build and protect a base which is essential for their survival, consisting of working buildable structures which provide various functions, the most important of which being the ability to respawn. Victory is achieved by destroying all enemy spawn points and eliminating all members of the enemy team before they are able to rebuild them.

During a match, most players engage in fighting the enemy, while others are responsible for base maintenance and construction of new structures. In order to defeat the enemy, humans utilize various weapons, armor and other upgrades, while aliens may evolve into more powerful classes, each possessing unique abilities.

The teams do not have access to all possible upgrades and buildings at the beginning of the game. Each team must accrue a number of frags in order to advance to the next developmental stage. The point at which a stage change occurs varies dynamically depending on the number of players on each team. Each new stage brings more upgrades for the humans and more classes for the aliens.

Tremulous Screenshots and Video

The video is quite old (from 2006) but still it should be enough to get an idea on Tremulous:

Tremulous Requirements

700 MHz CPU
256 MB RAM
Intel GMA or 32 MB nVIDIA GeForce2 or ATi Radeon 7000
Stereo sound card
125 MB free hard drive space
56 kbit/s Internet connection

Install / Download Tremulous

In Ubuntu, all you have to do is run the following command:

sudo apt-get install tremulous

Download Tremulous for Windows and Linux | Download Tremulous for Mac OSX (unofficial)

[seen on WebDevOnLinux (french version)]

YouScrobble Integrates YouTube and Last.Fm Into A Great, Free Mashup

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:51:07 PST

YouScrobble is a Last.fm and YouTube mashup which combines the best features of the two services into a great, free way to listen to music online.

For instance, the downside of YouTube is that when searching for a certain artist, you don't get to see other relevant (suggested artists), the music is unsorted and often the results or related videos are not related. On the other hand, Last.fm has all these features, but it's a paid service. So putting together a combination of these 2 services is indeed a great idea.

Other Last.fm features integrated into the service are: browse for albums (and listen to them), browse by generes, etc.

Unregistered users can listen to music for free and can also download 5 songs daily. On the other hand, registered (the registration is free) users can download 15 songs daily, they get Last.fm scrobble functionality, playlists, etc. Paid users can download an unlimited number of songs and also get a high priority in the download queue.

[via gHacks]

Mitto: Once Click Login To All Your Web Accounts

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:31:50 PST

Mitto is a free Internet password storage service that lets you add the passwords to all of your favorite sites in one place then logs you in to each one of them by simply clicking a button.

You can access your passwords securely from any computer, organize them with tags, securely share them with trusted friends and more. However, it seems it doesn't work with Google accounts for now due to some issues with Google but they will hopefully fix this soon.

It has a database of over 500 websites but if your website is not listed, you can use a bookrmarklet so you can add it to Mitto for an easy one click login access.

To understand better all Mitto features, take a look at this video:

[via wwwhat's new]

Find Out What's Crashing Your Windows Computer With WhoCrashed

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:17:30 PST

If you use Windows, you must have experienced a sudden reboot or the 'famous' (or infamous) blue screen of death: these are signs of hardware failures but sometimes it's the bad drivers or kernel modules that cause these issues. In case of a kernel error, most computers running Windows do not show a blue screen unless they are configured to do so. Instead these systems suddenly reboot without any notice.

WhoCrashed (thanks to BlogsDNA) can tell you which drivers have been crashing your computer by analyzing crashdumb and presenting all the info in a 'human readable' (comprehensible) format.

But of course, WhoCrashed cannot always identify the culpit of a crash, mostly because all kernel modules run in the same address space so a kernel module can corrupt another. And also, a driver can cause issues to another driver which was actually running normal. So even though WhoCrashed cannot always be 100% sure, it is nevertheless a great tool for finding out what's causing your computer to crash.

WhoCrashed runs on the following operating systems:

# Windows 2008 Server
# Windows 2008 Server x64 editions
# Windows Vista (including Service Pack 1)
# Windows Vista, x64 editions (including Service Pack 1)
# Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or greater)
# Windows XP x64 edition (all service packs)
# Windows Server 2003 (all service packs)
# Windows Server 2003 x64 editions (all service packs)
# Windows Server 2000 (with Update Rollup 1 and Service Pack 4)

Download WhoCrashed (home edition - free)

SopCast Player 0.3.0 For Ubuntu Karmic

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:27:36 PST

SopCast is a simple, free way to broadcast video and audio or watch the video and listen to radio on the Internet. Adopting P2P(Peer-to-Peer) technology, It is very efficient and easy to use. Let anyone become a broadcaster without the costs of a powerful server and vast bandwidth. You can build your own TV stations comparable with large commercial sites with minimal resources. Using SopCast, you can serve 10,000 online users with a personal computer and a home broadband connection.

SopCast Player is designed to be an easy to use Linux GUI front-end for the p2p streaming technology developed by SopCast. SopCast Player features an integrated video player, a channel guide, and bookmarks. Once SopCast Player is installed it simply "just works" with no required configuration.

If you haven't installed the medibuntu repository you should do so before installing SopCast Player, without it you will be unable to satisfy the VLC requirement. To add the Medibuntu repository, run the following commands in a terminal (for Ubuntu Karmic):

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/karmic.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update

If you see a message about an unsatisfiable dependency you will need to install one more package before you can continue

For 32-bit operating systems install this package
For 64-bit operating systems install this package

Download SopCast Player for Ubuntu:
-Sopcast 32bit
-Spauth 32bit

-Sopcast 64bit
-Spauth 64bit

For other Linux distributions, see the downloads HERE.

Quick Tip For Old Computers: Use Wire Frames To Reduce Dragging Windows Lag [Ubuntu / Gnome]

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:36:58 PST

If you have a really old computer running Ubuntu (w/ Gnome), here is a quick tip to reduce the dragging windows lag.

Gnome renders the window as it moves, which can slow performance down, but it has a built-in method to reduce the demand on system resources this causes.

Open a terminal and paste this:

gconftool-2 --type bool --set /apps/metacity/general/reduced_resources true

(image credits: http://www.tuxradar.com/)

Now when you click and drag windows you will see wire frames instead of the window contents, which drastically improves performance on under-powered systems.

This will only be visible on very low resources computers which do not use Compiz or an alternative window decorator (but it shouldn't be the case here, since if it's a really old computer, Compiz shouldn't be able to run anyway).

5 Free Google Wave Invites For Web Upd8 Readers

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:25:54 PST

Are you a Web Upd8 reader (subscriber) and you want a Google Wave invite? Here's what you need to do (nothing much really):

Prove that you are subscribed to the Web Upd8 RSS feed or by email - a screenshot would be good but if you know another way...
Comment with your Gmail email address so I'll know to which email address to send the invite to (don't forget to post the screenshot in the comment - you can upload it to a service such as tinypic.com and just comment with the link to it)
Read the rules carefully (see below)

I will then make a draw (which will be recorded and uploaded to YouTube), so the winners will picked randomly.

The rules:

-only one comment per person!
-the three requirements I mentioned in the beginning of the post are mandatory (prove you are a Web Upd8 subscriber, comment using your Gmail address and read these rules),
-valid comments must be posted until Tuesday (November 10, 2009), at 16:00 GMT.
-I will announce the winners on Tuesday evening or Wednesday, in a new blog post.

Note: The invitations are called "nominations" so they don't reach the invited user immediately - after you have been invited, give it some time to reach you and if it doesn't, complain to Google, not Web Upd8.

I can only give 5 Google Wave invitations for now because I must firstly ask my friends if they want one, but if I have any left, I will offer them in another post later on, here, on Web Upd8!

Last Week's Top Posts (Week 45, 2009)

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:08:34 PST

* was also in last week's top posts, but it received by far the mosts visits this week to. Also, the post was updated.

How To Post To Twitter From Google Wave

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:01:00 PST

To be able to post to Twitter from Google Wave, you must use a Google Wave bot called Tweety or Twitbot (others call it Twave although the bot is officially called Tweety). To add this Twitter bot, go to your contacts in the bottom left corner of Google Wave, click the "+" sign and add this:

tweety-wave@appspot.com

To understand better, take a look at this image:

To be able to twit from Google Wave, create a new Wave, click the "+" sign on top of it and add Tweety the Twitbot participant to your wave:

Make sure you allow pop-ups from Google Wave, as a new window should now pop-up to allow you to authenticate to Twitter. After successfully logging in, this is how the new Wave will look:

Now you can start posting to Twitter from Google Wave.

Update: here is how to integrate a fully featured Twitter client into Google Wave.

And don't forget: we are giving away 5 Google Wave invitations for Web Upd8 readers until November 10.

Compress PNG Files With PNGCrush

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:01:21 PST

The size to which the PNG image above was compressed may not seem like much, but the original image was already compressed. Besides, if you own a website, compressing ALL the images will most definitely make a difference, especially since - as you can see in the picture above - the quality is basically the same to the naked eye.

The tool I used is called Pngcrush, a free and open source optimizer for PNG (Portable Network Graphics) files. It can be run from a commandline in an MSDOS window, or from a UNIX or LINUX commandline. Its main purpose is to reduce the size of the PNG IDAT datastream by trying various compression levels an PNG filter methods. It also can be used to remove unwanted ancillary chunks, or to add certain chunks including gAMA, tRNS, iCCP, and textual chunks.

If you use Linux, Pngcrush should be in your Linux distribution repositories. For Ubuntu, use the following command to install it:

sudo apt-get install pngcrush

Using Pngcrush

Pngcrush can use 114 different filters for optimizing PNG images. To let Pngcrush choose the best one for your images, you can use the -brute option.

To compress a single image:

pngcrush -brute -e ".compressed.png" image.png

"-e" tells Pngcrush to append the ".compressed.png" name to the initial image name.

To compress all the PNG files in a folder and replace the initial images with the resulted compressed images (that's what the "-d" option does):

pngcrush -brute -d "/my/images" *.png

To see everything that Pngcrush can do, type (in Linux):

pngcrush --help
or:
man pngcrush

Download PNGCrush for Windows and source files. | via: simplehelp

Empathy: Use Adium Conversation Themes [Linux]

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:32:09 PST

As you know, Empathy has replaced Pidgin as the default instant messaging client in Ubuntu and most Linux distributions. While I don't really enjoy Empathy, it has a few nice features, one of them being the ability to use Adium themes for the conversations (although some time ago it also worked for Pidgin, but I haven't tested it in Ubuntu Karmic Koala).

To be able to use Adium conversation styles (themes) in Empathy, create a new empty file in your home folder (/home/USERNAME), let's call it adiumxtra-install and paste THIS in the newly created file.

Then run the following commands:

chmod 755 /home/USERNAME/adiumxtra-install && gconftool-2 -t string -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/adiumxtra/command "/home/USERNAME/adiumxtra-install %s" && gconftool-2 -t bool -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/adiumxtra/enabled true && gconftool-2 -t bool -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/adiumxtra/needs_terminal false

Replacing the text in bold with the exact path to the script you just created.

Now all you have to do is browse the Adium Message Style gallery and choose some.

To use the themes in Empathy, go to Edit > Preferences, on the Themes tab and select the newly installed Adium themes from the drop-down.

NOTE: only some Adium themes work in Empathy so if some don't show up in the themes menu, it means it they do not work for Empathy; also, the styles only worked for me when browsing the Adium styles using Google Chrome so if you click the "Install" button on a theme and you get a URL handler error, try Google Chrome.

[via UbuCentrum & OMGUbuntu]

Paint.NET 3.5 Final Released

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:35:14 PST

Paint.NET is free image editing and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

Paint.NET 3.5 has finally been released. The new version includes new effects, performance and memory usage have been extensively optimized throughout the entire program, better startup performance, images open much faster - especially on single CPU systems, memory usage has been reduced, lots of Windows 7 features, etc.

Full release notes | Download Paint.NET 3.5 final

If you use Linux, try Paint.MONO.

Multiple Dropbox Instances In The Same Time [Windows, Linux, Mac OSX]

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:46:30 PST

Firstly, in case you don't know, Dropbox is a cross-platform service for file sharing, synchronizing and backup. The application is free, along with basic use of the service (up to a limit of 2GB). However, by referring users to create a Dropbox account, both the user who is referring and the user who created the account get 250 MB extra space. Referring users allows you use up to 5 GB of space for free.

And now, about using Multiple Dropbox instances (and obviously, multiple accounts) in the same time. Yes, there is a way to run multiple Dropbox instances on the same computer. Here is how:

1. For Windows, see this tutorial (I haven't tested it on Windows yet).

2. For Linux, run the following command in a terminal:

HOME=$HOME/.dropbox-alt /usr/bin/dropbox start -i

This will launch the Dropbox initial setup for the folder called .dropbox-alt which does not exist, so you'll be presented with the initial configuration. You can create a new account or use an existing one.

If you already had a Dropbox instance running, now there should be 2!

To run this second Dropbox instance at startup, paste the following command in a terminal:

sudo gedit /etc/rc.local

And paste the following line just before the "exit 0" last line:

su username -c "HOME=$HOME/.dropbox-alt /usr/bin/dropbox start"

If the file doesn't have "exit 0" on the last line, add it yourself. Basically, this is how the last two lines in the /etc/rc.local file should look like:

su username -c "HOME=$HOME/.dropbox-alt /usr/bin/dropbox start"
exit 0

Don't forget to replace "username" with your username!

If you just want to start the second Dropbox instance manually, paste this in a terminal whenever you want to run it:

HOME=$HOME/.dropbox-alt /usr/bin/dropbox start

3. For Mac OSX, see THESE instructions.

Note 1: the instructions for Mac OSX also include instructions for Linux but the Linux instructions are not entirely correct, so for Linux, use the instructions in this post!

Note 2: It seems you cannot login to the Dropbox website when running multiple Dropbox instances. However, by right clicking the Dropbox icon in the notification area and selecting "Launch Dropbox Website", you will be automatically logged in.

Note 3: Using the Dropbox link on top of the post to create a Dropbox account, you will get an extra 250 MB for your account; I will also get an extra 250 MB.

Other Dropbox articles you might be interested in:

[Howto] Use Dropbox To Sync Files Between Different Computers and Other Dropbox Uses
How To Sync Files Outside Your Dropbox Folder
DropboxPortable Allows You To Sync Your Dropbox Files On Any Computer [Windows-Only]
Dropbox Repository Finally Available For Ubuntu Karmic

Pidgin Tray Icons

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:40:27 PST

Pidgin Naiads Tray is a new set of really nice icons:

To install the icons, simply download the archive, go to /usr/share/pixmaps/pidgin, back up the "tray" folder, then replace it with the "tray" folder from the archive you just download.

Download Pidgin Naiads Tray icons

[via ochiolinux]

Linux Represents 32% of the Netbook Sales in 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Ireena) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:41:25 PST

Linux represents 32% of netbook sales in 2009, according to ABI Research, higher that the 7% figure that Microsoft has claimed. By 2013, ABI Research estimates that Linux will overtake Windows on netbooks, largely due to sales in less-developed countries. Looking forward for that happening!

From the 35 million netbooks that will be shiped by the manufacturers this years, around 11 million netbooks will be used with a Linux-based operating system. The rest belongs to Microsoft Windows, since Apple hasn't yet released a netbook.

Amongst the most popular choice on Linux netbooks is Ubuntu.

As regarding the marketshare of producers, in 2008, 74% of the netbook shipments came from Acer, Asus and Samsung. In 2009, the situation will be a bit different, according to ABI Research, with major PC vendors like Dell and HP selling Linux-ready netbook.

via DesktopLinux

What To Do When keyserver.ubuntu.com Is Down?

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:49:51 PST

You probably know that to use a Launchpad PPA repository, you must also import the GPG key. This is how it worked until Ubuntu Karmic Koala:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 247510BE

And starting with Ubuntu Karmic Koala, you can add both the GPG key and the PPA repository, with a single command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:PPA_NAME

BUT keyserver.ubuntu.com goes down from time to time. When it's down, you'll see an error similar to this:

gpg: keyserver receive failed: keyserver error

Lately it happens quite often (people leave comments about this all the time, on Web Upd8 - example), so how can we solve this?

Korben (thank you!) came up with the idea to replace keyserver.ubuntu.com with any of the following servers:

pool.sks-keyservers.net
subkeys.pgp.net
pgp.mit.edu
keys.nayr.net
keys.gnupg.net
wwwkeys.XX.pgp.net - replace XX with your country code (fr, en, de... etc)

That means we must use the old method of adding a PPA, for Ubuntu Karmic Koala too:

1. Add the PPA using this command:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/PPA_NAME/ppa/ubuntu UBUNTU_VERSION main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"

Or the graphic way - by going to System > Administration > Software Sources, etc.

2. Add the GPG key:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys XXXXXXX

Where XXXXXXX can be found on the page for the PPA we want to use:

and keys.gnupg.net can be any server from the list I was telling you about in the beginning of the post.

If you use the Launchpad automatic GPG keys import script (automatically installs the GPG keys for all your PPAs), you can edit it to use a different keyserver too.

Google Released Its JavaScript Tools As Open Source

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:55:56 PST

Google has announced the release of some of its core application development tools as open source. Named "Closure", these tools have been used by Google to develop services like Gmail, Google Maps, Google Docs, etc., and it consists of: Closure Compiler, Closure Library, Closure Templates and Closure Inspector. This last tool can be installed in Firefox so you can work on the Closure compiled code with Firebug.

More about this, on the Google Code blog.

[via h-online]