Show Notes for Episode 1

Notes from the podcast for June 4, 2007:

Applications of the week:

Yakuake
http://yakuake.uv.ro/ (official site)
http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=29153 (KDE Apps Site)

Yakuake is a handy little application which will allow you to instantly summon a terminal which scrolls down from the top of the screen. Yakuake uses KTerm and requires the KDE libs, but works great under Gnome and XFCE as well as KDE.

Lifehacker Code: Better Gmail (Firefox Extension)
http://lifehacker.com/software/gmail/lifehacker-code-better-gmail-firefox-extension-251923.php

Better Gmail is a collection of Lifehacker’s favorite Greasemonkey scripts that enhance Gmail all rolled into one. Features include: skins, Google Calendar Link, open mailto links with Gmail, and more…

Kiba Dock
http://www.kiba-dock.org/ (official website)
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=268645 (Ubuntu howto)

Kiba dock is a nice little application that uses akamaru for a physics based docking experience.

Perl beats Python in OpenGL benchmarks by 20%

http://graphcomp.com/pogl.cgi?v=0111s3B2&r=s3m3

According to a recent benchmark, using OpenGL from Perl is up to 20% faster than Python. This link offers up some in-depth benchmarks, as well as some other benchmarks including C vs. Perl.

HowTos:

How to Enable NTFS Read/Write Support in Ubuntu Feisty

• Open a terminal and type: sudo apt-get install ntfs-config
• After installation, go to Applications –> System Tools –> NTFS Configuration Tools
• You will see “The following new partitions were detected and can be configured: /dev/sdaX <click here to set a mount point>
• I chose windows – you don’t need the path, just the name. Now click the checkbox and Apply.
• Select “Enable write support for internal device” if you are running a dual boot machine
• Select “Enable write support for external device” if you have an external HD
• Now you will see an icon on your desktop with the windows mount. To unmount, right click on it and chose unmount.

Viola!

Resizing existing partitions in Ubuntu with Gnome Partition Editor

Backup backup backup. Did I mention that you should backup? The entire disk. Windows, Ubuntu… all of it!!!

** If you’re making space in the middle of the drive BEFORE the ext3 partition, you will NOT be able to resize backwards with gparted. There is the possibility you can move the start of the partition with an application like Norton.

Make sure you have a LiveCD to boot from (Note: gparted is NOT on the old CD previous to Feisty official release but we can work around this).

• Boot into the LiveCD menu and choose Start or Install Ubuntu
• After it loads, go to System –> Administration –> Users and Groups and change the password for root just in case you need it.
• Open Gnome Partition Editor by going to System –> Administration –> Gnome Partition Editor
• If you don’t have this listed, open a terminal window and type: su -
• Enter the root password you set earlier
• type: apt-get install gparted
• Now go back to System –>Administration –> Gnome Partition Editor
• Double check that you don’t have your HD partitions currently mounted. If you see disks on your desktop other than one labeled “Install” right click on them and chose unmount.
• Lets say I have a 50 gig Windows partition and a 30 gig ext3 Linux partition – but I really use Ubuntu more often so I want to resize the Windows partition down. I have plenty of free space so I am going to click on the Windows partition then the button that says Resize/Move. I am going to change the size to the size that I want then Resize.
• Now in the main windows click Apply. It will take a bit to resize the partition.
• Once it is finished you may need to unmount the partitions again because it sees them as changed.. basically all you have to do from this point is repeat the steps with the linux partition or create a new partition in the free space you just created.

Extra Links:

Enlightenment

Music: “Drum and Bass” by Ted-Tunes