Danny's Space

I've been suffering through a 5 day problem with my Smartbro connection.  The service is on for 15 minutes and turns itself off.  I've been calling customer service everyday, sometimes twice a day thinking if I persist I could will a resolution.  So this agent tells me that Smart is doing upgrades to its bandwidth.  He tells me the network is being upgraded from the old 1 mbps to 2 mbps.  Wow that's great.  Now if they can only accomplish that without taking my connection away. Gwibber is great.  I downloaded this microblogging tool last week and it's the first application I open everytime I boot up.  It manages my Twitter and Facebook accounts in one UI.  I can send and receive my messages for those two accounts in a compact and simple manner.  It strips away the ads and the sideshows.  Just my friends and family member's updates.  I'm using Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic.  It doesn't have the Memenu panel thingy...

Not happy with Windows?  Concerned about Microsoft security or the lack of it?  Consider migrating to another operating system.  If you have the money then Apple is for you.  If you're the kind of user who does not mind the hardware lock in, Apple is a beautiful buy.  If you like looking under the hood, getting your hands dirty and don't mind the occasional forum posts, then Linux is for you.  Ubuntu has gained popularity for its user-friendliness and hardware compatibility.  No operating system is without its learning curve.  Each one has its myths, positive or otherwise.  I say try one, test it in your system.  With many Linux distros, this is as easy as downloading an ISO image from its website.  If you see an option to download the live cd, I advice you download that.  The live cd lets you try the distro without installing anything in the hard drive. After downloading the ISO, you burn it to a cd/dvd disc. 

The alpha phase of development for Lucid (Ubuntu 10.04, Lucid Lynx) is finished.  This was when various design ideas are put out and tested.  Usually there are a lot of changes in what packages to include.  If you want your ideas included,  here in the alpha stage, is where you make a lot of noise.  At the close of the alpha testing, developers issue a freeze on any more design ideas.  Any changes to Ubuntu will have to go through the bugs process.  If it's not a bug then most likely it will be part of the final release version.  If you want to help in testing the beta version you might want to read the notes here. If you want to download Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 beta, click here. Do not use your production machines in testing a beta. 

Ubuntu is transforming the desktop.  In Lucid which will come out April 29th, social networking will be integrated into the desktop interface.  (away from the browser) Using a messaging menu ubuntu users can send twits and facebook posts through a dropdown menu.  That does not mean we can't approximate the same experience now with Karmic.  So with the trusted Synaptic Applications Manager (I can't get used to using the Software Center), I downloaded Gwibber .  Gwibber is the microblogging application of choice in Lucid.  [tags gwibber,social networking] [end]

Secunia , a security think-tank group, published a study regarding the topic of updates.  According to the study the average computer needs a patch every 4.9 days.  The study adds that on average the pc user has 22 different vendors of applications to consider when updating.  This means that different vendors have their own system of updating their various software.  Secunia proposed on a single way of updating pc's which did not receive support from anyone.  Proprietary software wont share period. [tags secunia,updates] [end]

Since the very first version of Ubuntu came out, users have voiced out how they missed a light weight image editor in the tradition of Paint in Windows.  Gimp has always taken the slack when it comes to editing any photo the user feeds it. But now here come Pinta, a light weight image editor in the tradition of Paint.  Pinta can be downloaded into Linux and Mac. [tags pinta] [end]

Threads began popping out of the Ubuntu Forums yesterday about iPhone users able to use their phones with Rhythmbox and Ubuntu.  iPhone owners charge their devices and Ubuntu automatically recognize the contents as photos or music/audio files.  Is this something that came with the kernel upgrade?  So shall Linux?  So will Ubuntu...but I'm pretty sure Apple won't. If this becomes a permanent feature then the devs should be congratulated for solving a major hurdle.  Newbies always ask if they can sync their ipods and iphones with Ubuntu.  Answering "yes" to that seems strange for now.  [tags iphone,rhythmbox] [end]