Ubuntu Tips n Tricks: January 2011

Monday, January 31, 2011

Create Your Own Ubuntu Packages with GiftWrap

Posted: 31 Jan 2011 06:27 AM PST

Most applications that you want on your Linux desktop are available as ready-made binaries. Distributions like Ubuntu and Fedora have become popular enough that most package developers have started shipping their packages as rpms and debs. However, there's always that one package that you want to install on your computer that is only available as a source release. For advanced users, installing a source release of an application is not a big problem. But, for novices it can be quite a daunting task. Also if you need to install the app in question on several computers it is easier to use a deb or rpm release.

GiftWrap is a really cool tool that helps you create Ubuntu packages. Whether you are a system administrator or a package developer, you can use GiftWrap to make the installation of these apps easier for your users. Let's take a close look at how to install it on your computer, and then how to use it to create a Debian package.

The GiftWrap package is not available in the default Ubuntu 9.10 repositories so you will need to add a repository before you can proceed. Execute the following command in a terminal window and enter your user's password to complete the step. Once it's done you will need to update the apt-get database with the second command.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:giftwrap/ppa

$ sudo apt-get update

Installation.

When these steps are completed successfully you can launch the Ubuntu package manager - Synaptic. Search for the package "giftwrap" and install it along with all the dependencies that Synaptic suggests. Voila, your installation should soon be complete and GiftWrap should be installed on your computer.

To give you an idea of how the GiftWrap cycle works I'll run you through the steps of creating a deb package from a source release. I'll use one my favorite application for this purpose - dstat. I downloaded the source release from the project's website - http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/dstat/. Now launch GiftWrap from the application menu.

Application menu.

You will see the wizard window when you first launch the application. Hit forward button to proceed.

Wizard.

In the next step pick the package from your file system. Extract the downloaded package, go into the parent directory, and check the "Select the top source folder" option. Hit the Forward button.

Select package location.

Now comes the tricky part. You need to enter the some information about the package and yourself. Enter you name and email address under the packager section, then enter a description for the package itself. GiftWrap is smart enough to be able to get the package name and version.

Enter package info.

You might get some dependency related error messages. Worry not. Read the message patiently and figure out which packages are missing. Download them using the Synaptic Package Manager.

Error message.

Once you are done you will have a Debian package ready for installation. The software certainly is in need of some polishing, but once you get a hang of it, it can be a great way to distribute your applications.

This article was written by Sukrit Dhandhania for Tech Source.

Weekly Ten (1-31-2011)

Posted: 31 Jan 2011 01:47 AM PST

Latest News, Blogs, Tips, and Reviews that I find Interesting and Useful:

1. How Apple and Google will kill the password

Imagine sitting down at a public PC, surfing the Web, visiting Facebook, checking your online bank account and buying something on Amazon.com -- all without entering passwords or credit card information.

More @ Computerworld

2. First look: Honeycomb APIs power tablet-friendly Android apps

Android 3.0, codenamed Honeycomb, introduces a completely new user interface suitable for tablet devices. Google has also extended the platform's APIs so that third-party developers can make their applications work better on large form factors.

More @ ArsTechnica

3. Need faster machine learning? Take a set-oriented approach

We recently faced the type of big data challenge we expect to become increasingly common: scaling up the performance of a machine learning classifier for a large set of unstructured data.
More @ OreillyRadar

4. SNES arcade controller

More @ HackaDay

5. Replacing KDE4

Yes, I am one of those grumpy KDE 3.x fans who can't deal with KDE4. So I've been trying out different desktop environments and window managers to replace my beloved KDE, and it has been fun and enlightening.

More @ LinuxToday

6. iPhone Users Are About to Be Screwed Over

There has been a lot of talk about the addition of an NFC (near field communication) chip to the next-gen iPhone. This will allow the phone to be used as a swipe-it-yourself credit card. I consider this technology to be the most onerous ever.

More @ PCMag

7. Define Gender Gap? Look Up Wikipedia's Contributor List

In 10 short years, Wikipedia has accomplished some remarkable goals. More than 3.5 million articles in English? Done. More than 250 languages? Sure.

More @ NYTimes

8. Robots Evolve More Natural Ways of Walking

More @ Wired

9. 'Angry Birds Rio' Release Teams With Hollywood

Angry Birds designer Rivio announced Friday it will release a special version of its popular app to tie into the release of the animated movie "Rio."

More @ PCWorld

10. Top 10 Truly Badass Saints

We all think of Saints as quiet and holy people – but history is full of some pretty amazing and curious people who came to be canonized. This list looks at ten of the toughest saints to have walked the earth – men and women who not only lived holy lives, but kicked some serious butt at the same time.

More @ Listverse

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" May Support Smartphones Soon

Posted: 29 Jan 2011 03:40 AM PST

Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" May Support Smartphones Soon: Although the spectacularly sweet Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" is primarily aimed to run on tablet computers, there is already sufficient proof that it will support smartphones in the near future. The recently released Android 3.0 SDK preview has revealed several significant details that the Honeycomb will not run exclusively on tablets.

Utilizing the Android 3.0 preview SDK's emulator, the default screen resolution is 1280 x 768 pixels (WXGA) that is obviously set for the large screen of tablet PCs. Under this display setting you will see the glorious Honeycomb home screen with all those shiny widgets and impressive special effects. However, when the emulator is set to a lower WVGA resolution (commonly used by smartphones), it automatically switches to a more simple user interface (see below). The default launcher also crashes so you may proceed by installing a new or replacement launcher.

As you can see from the screenshot above, you will notice that the home screen UI is indeed designed for smartphones. The status bar, lock screen, and even the background are pretty similar to those on previous Android versions.

The Android 3.0 web browser has been completely overhauled and features tabbed browsing. Running under the lower screen resolution I've mentioned above, the browser still works but with tabs hidden probably to maximize screen real estate.

On a related note, Google will hold an Android event on February 2. The guys from Mountain View promised to give us a close look at Honeycomb and will provide some hands-on demos. Hopefully, Google will confirm during the said event that Android 3.0 will be running on smartphones soon.

Friday, January 28, 2011

10 Fresh and Awesome Google Chrome Themes

Posted: 28 Jan 2011 05:42 AM PST

10 Fresh and Awesome Google Chrome Themes: When Google Chrome was still at version 3.0, a very limited number of themes were available. During that time, we have showcased here our top ten favorite Chrome themes and shared with you a quick tip on installing and uninstalling Chrome themes.

Today, there are already tons of cool Google Chrome themes or skins at hand that can be instantly and easily downloaded and installed from the Chrome web store.

Here are my new top ten favorite Google Chrome themes:

1. Robot Theme