New Linux User » applications

Using F/OSS for Your Broadcasting Needs

Clair Ching — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:37:18 +0000

In Asia Source 3, we had a track focused on broadcasting your information. Throughout the camp the participants were discussing communications strategies and tools that they use as well as learn tools that help us with our broadcasting needs.

Of course there are a whole bunch of social networking sites that help us with promoting our causes as well as our organizations. There’s Twitter, Facebook, Blip.tv, and so on. But what do we post on these sites? What tools can we use to process the raw material we have?

We’ve got tools for multimedia like Avidemux, GIMP and Audacity. For those who are interested in podcasting, I am sure Audacity is one thing to check out because of its features that could be used in podcasting. You could cut clips, have fade in and fade out effects and so on. There are versions for Linux, Mac and Windows so that you folks out there could enjoy using this for your needs. I once shared a guide on how to make a ringtone using Audacity but you could also use that as a basis on cutting an audio clip.

GIMP is one heck of a useful tool for processing images. Its user interface is definitely not Photoshop’s but in terms of features, there’s a lot that it offers. If you take a look at the GIMP registry, the many plugins and scripts will blow you away. It will also help you in making it more useful and easier to manipulate images using GIMP.

And then there’s Avidemux. I wasn’t able to play around with it a whole lot but this looks like a promising tool for those who have video blogs and presentations to share. It’s very nifty, I like it and would love to learn more on using it too. The nice thing about it is that there’s quite a number of guides on the Avidemux wiki.

These are but tools to help us deal with broadcasting our information. At the end of the day, we must know how these tools will help us in conveying the messages we have, in making sure that we’ve got the material we need for the channels we want to enter and so on. Every organization has something to share — it’s a matter of how, when and why after you realize what they are.

And then there are also content management systems. But I think that there could actually be separate blog entry for them altogether. There’s too many aspects of CMSes that are worth talking about, I think.

Post from: New Linux User

Search Your Files Using Catfish

Clair Ching — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:58:35 +0000

Not everyone is very familiar with using the command line and now there is an option for users to have a graphical front-end for it. Sometimes it might be overwhelming for users especially new ones to use the command line. And it could be less confusing for them to have graphical symbols to help them. If you find it hard to remember to use the find command or locate then it’s better to find files using something else like Catfish. Catfish is the graphical front-end for find and locate, as well as other tools like strigi, beagle and pinot.

To search for files, you can enter the following criteria and/or select the following options:

search expression
look for exact match
look for hidden files
limit results and you could indicate by how much
file type
folder/directory
search method – this is where users could select which tool to use for searching

If you don’t really remember the proper file name then it’s better to leave the “exact match” option unchecked. This is probably what users will use more often than not. After all, searching for whatever files you might have in your computer will not be easy at all if you really can’t remember the particular file name. Anyway, if it’s unchecked, Catfish will include those that have the search expression within the filename and then you could select among the results which one really is the file you’re looking for.

Catfish, a graphical front-end for searching

There are packages for Debian and Ubuntu, as well as a PCLinuxOS rpm. You could get the packages from the Linux App Finder page that talks about Catfish. Or you could get the source from the Catfish page here. However it seems like there isn’t much development happening with Catfish. There’s no update, so far. Even so, it is a useful application for users. So why don’t you go ahead and try it for yourself.

Post from: New Linux User

Manage Collections with Tellico

Clair Ching — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:13:08 +0000

If you’re a collector like me then you probably have spreadsheets of these things you’ve collected in the past how many months or even years. Personally I only started becoming aware of the need to keep track of all these things. I think it’s partly because I am running out of shelf space. And some of my books ended up on my sister’s shelves. Tsk, it’s really time for me to sort things out!

Tellico is a collection manager, not limited to books.

Tell It to Tellico…

And Tellico will save just about everything you enter in the application. This is not a difficult application to use. It already has pre-set collection data entry forms. The ones that are already pre-set include the following:

book collections
video collection
music collection
coin collection
card collection
stamp collection

There are other defaults you could use. And you could even make some. If for example you want to document your collection of your figurines or maybe even other stuff. You could use custom fields for your particular collection. It’s up to you to define which fields are needed for your documentation.

You could create custom fields

There’s supposed to be a way to be able to search for particular books or music from the internet but it doesn’t seem to work with me. Internet’s flaky these days so I would have to check it again another day to be sure. But there is a form for you to fill out and then you could choose from the results which should be in your collection.

And you could even have different reports that summarize the information about your collection. You could group the entries according to the filters you want. It’s really nifty. : ) You could even save those reports in HTML so you could upload them on your website, if you want to share such information with friends, family and fellow hobbyists.

Try Tellico and see how you like it. : )

Post from: New Linux User

Backup Applications for Linux

Clair Ching — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:24:05 +0000

Backups are essential for everyone, whether it’s for our personal needs or our company’s. Backups are what we need especially when we’re migrating information. Especially when we’re going to migrate everything in a whole new system or environment. I usually just backup everything manually in DVDs every so often. I guess everyone has specific ways of making their own backups but ZDNet has shared a list of ten backup applications for Linux.

Some of the applications that caught my eye:

Back in Time

This one has a very interesting name. It’s as if your backups will bring you back to the time you made them. Descriptive and catchy, this tool has an easy to use interface. One panel has the snapshots of your backups, another has the view of your directory and your current location. You could also schedule your backups. GNOME and KDE are supported by this application.

Simple Backup

This is an application that can be run only by root. It has a user interface for you to easily select the options. You could set a periodic backup or manual backups. You could set which directories are included and/or excluded. It’s really up to you. You could even do that to remote directories. This is nifty that way.

fwbackups

fwbackups looks easy to use as well with its graphical user interface. You could even drag and drop files if you want to. This tool has additional preferences that let you determine how it will behave on your system: should it start upon you logging in the system or whether you should see it on the system tray. Also, if you want to know what’s going on with it, there’s always the log viewer.

I might be installing Back in Time because it really looks easy to use. Have you tried any of these? Which one will you recommend?

Post from: New Linux User

Getting Screenshots

Clair Ching — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:09:52 +0000

There are different ways to get screenshots. Personally I use at least three methods, depending on what I need to capture. It matters if what I need to take a screenshot of is a website, the entire screen, just one of the applications I am using, etc.

Using GIMP

GIMP has a function to get screenshots. It is awesome because you can set the delay of the screenshot. I use that when I am taking screenshots of a particular application. You could get screenshots by going to the “File” menu of GIMP. Select the item “Create” and then look for “Screenshot” because that is what you want to create. After that a dialog box will appear asking you for your options. You could select a region, an entire window, or the entire screen. The delay for the screenshot could also be set.

GIMP is great because you could get all sorts of screenshots using it. You don’t even have to crop a region because it could be selected in the first place. Same thing goes for those who only want to get screenshots of a particular application running on the desktop.

Firefox’s Screengrab plugin

This is one of the most useful things I’ve ever encountered. It lets you get screenshots of entire webpages or just a specific region. This is a very convenient tool for everyone who needs to put screenshots of web-based applications on their blogs or documentation. Who says you have to get several screenshots before you get the screenshot with the whole length of the page? This is really an awesome plugin.

Use Aviary

Aviary is a web-based application akin to GIMP because it allows you to manipulate images. One of the great things about it is that it’s as if you have GIMP on your browser. That’s why even if you don’t have GIMP installed you can still take a screenshot of the web-based application. And it’s as easy as appending “aviary.com” (without the quotation marks) before the URL of the site you want to take a screenshot of. I just learned about this today. And it looks very nifty too. For more details, you could view this article on how to capture screenshots without any software.

What are your tools and techniques to get screenshots that you need? Could you share them here too?

Post from: New Linux User

Weekend Reads: Office Suites, Command Line Applications and ioQuake 3

Clair Ching — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 14:38:37 +0000

Eleven is Louder summarizes what office suites are available for us that are open souce software. Of course it has OpenOffice.org in the list. However, it reminds us that Lotus Symphony does exist and that there are other suites like the GNOME Office Suite as well as the KDE Office Suite. I’ve tried using the GNOME Office Suite before but for the sake of compatibility I am using OpenOffice.org especially because I have to collaborate with co-workers on documents. I know that OpenOffice.org is commonly included in various Linux distributions and this blog entry shows you that you have options. No need to feel stuck. Some people think that OpenOffice.org is way too clunky and annoying so other choices could possibly be better for them.

Another blog entry from Eleven is Louder is all about Command-Line Applications and it has an interesting list. It includes the following and more:

rtorrent – for torrent downloads
cdrtools – for burning CDs
cdparanoia – a CD ripper
oleo – a spreadsheet application (I am really amazed that there is one on the command line!)
zgv – a picture viewer with good svga support
hnb – a hierarchical notebook

The last read of the day comes from Tux Arena which talks about the complete guide to configure and customize ioQuake 3 in Linux. For those of you who love first person shooter games, this could be interesting to check out. I was never really into first person shooter games on the computer because I get dizzy just by looking at the screen. Those of you who are fans will appreciate this guide because it has the details on what to do so you could have new maps, weapons, character models, etc. This particular article has screenshots included for better visualization.

I hope you would enjoy these reads!

Post from: New Linux User

FSLint Helps You Clean Up Your Files

Clair Ching — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 03:59:38 +0000

If you’ve had your Linux installation for the longest time, sometimes you don’t really know what’s in there any more. Some of the problems we have:

Temporary files which never get cleaned up
Duplicate files. Maybe those we’ve downloaded before. But never removed after using them or maybe we copied them in another directory aside from the download directory. (This happens to me too. Especially when I get careless.)
Empty directories. We get lots of these when we move files around.

For us to manage our files, a tool such as FSLint would surely help.

This utility helps you search through your file system in order to find out if you’ve got duplicates, bad names, name clashes, temp files, bad symlinks, bad IDs, empty directories, non-stripped binaries, redundant whitespace. It also shows you what packages are installed.

One of the things I am guilty of is that I keep installing all these packages when I try them out but I forget to remove them and the other files related to it afterwards. No wonder I don’t have as much disk space as I think I should have. And lots of duplicates. Geh. I fail at cleaning up and I hope to change that with FSLint.

The nice thing about the user interface is that you could select which category it should be looking for. Once you have selected it, click the “Find” button and it will give you a list of the files it sees. Once you have a list you could select the files for deletion one by one or you could enter the wildcard for you to select multiple files in an instant.

Try it and see your directories cleaned up, hopefully giving you a whole lot of space left. Also, they have a blog that’s not just about FSLint, but Linux in general so maybe you’d like to add them to your list.

Post from: New Linux User

FOSS and Education: iTalc and Moodle

Clair Ching — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 08:22:15 +0000

If you’re running a training center, whether it concerns distance education or not, you need tools to help you manage your classes and facilitate discussions, especially for those who are into distance education learning programs. Issues that need to be addressed include: course management as well as ensuring that the training room is managed well so that learners can focus on the lessons and not be distracted by other applications.

Let the Training Room Come into Order with iTalc

Today, I’ve learned about iTalc. It is an application that lets you manage your training room’s computers by ensuring that your students will not be distracted. If you are the trainer, then you can do the following:

View snapshots of each unit – just so you could check if they’re still doing their exercises or if they’re goofing off already. Better yet, you could use this monitor if they’re just passing messages to each other.
Lock all the computers so that they will listen to what you are trying to explain. This will be very handy when you are explaining the instructions of an exercise.
Remote control of computers. In case one of your learners needs some assistance, you could access it without a hitch and you could help him/her.
Allow access to the network even if the learner is remote. As long as your learner has the iTalc client, then he/she can join via VPN-connections. He/She doesn’t need to be left behind by her peers.

The developers have made this software available for Linux and Windows users but especially those with Debian and Ubuntu Linux, as well as Windows XP. The minimum hardware requirements are listed here. Ubuntu LTSP users of iTalc have a specific guide too.

Moodle Gets the Distance Education Classes Going

Managing a group of learners not interacting with you face to face might not be easy. It’s not the same as guiding someone personally. Some people don’t really do well with just emails and forums. As a teacher, you’d need to announce deadlines, etc. With Moodle you could do that too.

Other things you could do with Moodle:

Manage a student profiles. People can enlist in your class and you would be able to view their profiles and let your students manage their profiles too.
Have a place for your reading lists, course outline, etc. Whatever is relevant for your course, it’s possible to put them all on Moodle.
You could also manage your Moodle setup so that you could make the students more comfortable in their native language since it supports 70+ languages. If ever, students can select the language of their choice too. This is especially for those with a students from everywhere.
Moodle supports various media and file formats. This would hopefully enhance the courses so that students will have a variety of material to choose from and learn from.

If you’re thinking about how to make learning better for your trainees or those who are interested in having their training with you but they are so far away, Moodle seems to be a good choice.

Post from: New Linux User

KeyHoleTV – Ticket to Watching Japanese TV Shows

Clair Ching — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:12:24 +0000

My friend Renee is a fan of Japanese music and drama series. I get to hear a lot of news about our favorite bands through her and like the fangirl that she is, she shared with me one of the applications she has been using: KeyHoleTV. Aside from that she told me the schedules of some TV shows that she recommended. (Actually, K-on was on the schedule. So that was cool.)

The nice thing about it is that it could run on Linux and the steps aren’t so difficult to follow so you could install it right away.

Installation

Download and save the targz of KeyHoleTV and extract it.
Go to the directory where you extracted the files of KeyHoleTV. On the commandline, type % make install.
You could opt to change the content of the makefile to the installed directory but it is recommended that these directories be used:
- /usr/local/etc
- /local/etc
- /local/bin
You could use the command “lkeyholetv” to run it.

Running it without installation
Just go to the directory where you unpacked/extracted KeyHoleTV. Then type “lkeyholetv” to run it.

It’s really interesting to watch Japanese TV shows on KeyHoleTV because you get to see shows you’ve become curious about. Another thing is that if you’re a big fan of Japanese stars, you get to see their TV guestings and other appearances in various TV shows. This is something really good, I think, because you get more exposed to their culture and you get an awareness of what’s going on in Japan, at the very least, one aspect of it. It all depends on the TV show you’re watching.

When it comes to using KeyHoleTV, there are some settings you could manipulate. One of them is the sound output and another is what you’d be using to play the video. I use ALSA for sound, and GTK Viewer for video display. If you want to start watching ‘tv’ just make sure that you are online in KeyHoleTV. Or else, you won’t really get anything.

I hope you have a lot of fun learning more about the Japanese culture and language using this application.

Post from: New Linux User

Other Tomboy Stuff: On Blogging, Synchronization of Notes

Clair Ching — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 12:49:10 +0000

Posting to your blog: Funkiness with special characters and no link texts

So I was using Tomboy the other day when I realized how weird it was. All of a sudden it was not posting to my blog and it just quit each time I tried to post a particular note. I tried so hard to figure out what the culprit was. It was “>” (or the greater than symbol) I used that character to draw an arrow of sorts on my blog entry.

Apparently it won’t post a note with that character. I am not sure why. I am not sure what is a good work around if you do need to post a blog entry with that character. Maybe it didn’t post because it was something used in HTML? I should probably read up on bug reports to find out if other characters will make posting to a blog problematic. In any case, just avoid it so you won’t experience what I did.

Another thing is that you can’t post links with link text to other articles through Tomboy. You will end up posting with the entire URL showing. So using this as a blogging client works best if you will work mainly with text.

Another nifty thing you could do with Tomboy: Synchronize your notes with another computer via Dropbox

tomboy and dropbox

I know I’ve blogged about Dropbox before because it’s one of the nicest things I’ve encountered in the past year. If you haven’t tried Dropbox yet, maybe the fact that you could synchronize your Tomboy notes on Dropbox will help you appreciate it more?

starrynote.com’s guide to using Tomboy with Dropbox will teach you how easy and awesome it is to do that. Of course it requires you to have a Dropbox account as well as Tomboy installed on your computer.

If you know of other ways to use Tomboy, maybe you could comment and share them here. Or trackback to this blog entry. Thanks and have great time using Tomboy.

Post from: New Linux User