Collage Creater

Today I was in need of a program to create a collage of pictures for something and I discovered this program that seems to fit my needs nicely. just thought I might share it.

Ubuntu 11.04

So today I made the jump and updated to Ubuntu's Natty release I will admit I did my research on it and tried the live cd first and was a little concerned with the Unity desktop but I updated anyhow.

I used it with the Unity desktop for a few hours and then reverted back to Gnome, I then discovered that I had become accustomed to Unity and for some strange reason It appeals to me.Now i'm sure its not for everyone and you do have the option of switching to the classic look on the login screen.

Here is a great page with a lot of useful tips for anyone who decides to try for themselves. I am going to stick to the Unity desktop for a while and I will do a follow up post. I am also installing it on a family members computer this coming weekend, she is using Mandriva at the moment but wishes to try Ubuntu.

Fox cuts Dish feed for FX, sports channels

well when I first found out we no longer had FX and some FOX channels It was while trying to watch something on FX and I was pissed to the point of changing providers. Then I got on-line and did some reading and the more I thought about it I began to realize Dish actually stood up for its customers by refusing to cave in and pay more meaning they actually care a little bit about their customers by not raising our rates unexpectedly. I know others feel differently about that and will switch providers but I am going to stick with Dish. R.I.P. FOX been nice knowing ya, well not really never really watched a whole lot anyhow.

Spring Cleaning

with the warmer weather approaching I noticed my computer was running a little warmer so after a quick inspection I noticed all of the winters dust had settled inside my computer.

So a little help from the vacuum and I was all set, I think thats one thing a lot of people tend to forget about and it can really slow your computer down and damage the hardware inside with the extreme heat and all. For instance this picture

this was one someone brought me to fix late last summer, I still dont know how it even still managed to boot or do much of anything. I like to take a shop vac and put the hose in the exhaust port and blow the dust out that way you don't risk static damaging anything also you can keep the hose back a foot or so where if you are using the vacuum to suck the dust out you need to make contact or get very close to delicate parts.

Slideshow Wallpaper

Here is a real simple XML script I changed around a little to fit my needs and I thought I would share, If you get sick of your wallpaper and would like it to change through out the day this script will do just that, it changes about every 30 minutes right now.I have only tried this with Gnome I am not sure how it will work with KDE it should be ok. If anyone tries this on KDE let me know. I have tried with Ubuntu and Mandriva also.

<background><br /> <starttime><br /> <year>2010</year><br /> <month>03</month><br /> <day>14</day><br /> <hour>6</hour><br /> <minute>00</minute><br /> <second>00</second><br /> </starttime><br /> <!-- This animation will start at 6 am. --><br /> <static><br /> <duration>1795.0</duration><br /> <file>/home/file1.jpg</file><br /> </static><br /> <transition><br /> <duration>5.0</duration><br /> <from>/home/file1.jpg</from><br /> <to>/home/file2.jpg</to><br /> </transition><br /> <static><br /> <duration>1795.0</duration><br /> <file>/home/file2.jpg</file><br /> </static><br /> <transition><br /> <duration>5.0</duration><br /> <from>/home/file2.jpg</from><br /> <to>/home/file3.jpg</to><br /> </transition><br /> <static><br /> <duration>1795.0</duration><br /> <file>/home/file3.jpg</file><br /> </static><br /> <transition><br /> <duration>5.0</duration><br /> <from>/home/file3.jpg</from><br /> <to>/home/file4.jpg</to><br /> </transition><br /> <static><br /> <duration>1795.0</duration><br /> <file>/home/file4.jpg</file><br /> </static><br /> <transition><br /> <duration>5.0</duration><br /> <from>/home/file4.jpg</from><br /> <to>/home/file5.jpg</to><br /> </transition><br /> <static><br /> <duration>1795.0</duration><br /> <file>/home/file5.jpg</file><br /> </static><br /> <transition><br /> <duration>5.0</duration><br /> <from>/home/file5.jpg</from><br /> <to>/home/file6.jpg</to><br /> </transition><br /> <static><br /> <duration>1795.0</duration><br /> <file>/home/file6.jpg</file><br /> </static><br /> <transition><br /> <duration>5.0</duration><br /> <from>/home/file6.jpg</from><br /> <to>/home/file7.jpg</to><br /> </transition><br /> <static><br /> <duration>1795.0</duration><br /> <file>/home/file7.jpg</file><br /> </static><br /> <transition><br /> <duration>5.0</duration><br /> <from>/home/file7.jpg</from><br /> <to>/home/file8.jpg</to><br /> </transition><br /> <static><br /> <duration>1795.0</duration><br /> <file>/home/file8.jpg</file><br /> </static><br /> <transition><br /> <duration>5.0</duration><br /> <from>/home/file8.jpg</from><br /> <to>/home/file9.jpg</to><br /> </transition><br /> <static><br /> <duration>1795.0</duration><br /> <file>/home/file9.jpg</file><br /> </static><br /> <transition><br /> <duration>5.0</duration><br /> <from>/home/file9.jpg</from><br /> <to>/home/file1.jpg</to><br /> </transition><br /> </background>

It will do 9 different wallpapers the way it is right now and you can add or remove as many as you want, all you must do is follow my example {/home/file#.jpg} you must be sure at the end you loop back to the first image in your show. what you need to do is create a folder where you plan to save them and put all the images there to begin with, then direct the script where to find them {/home/file.jpg} when you are done this save as an XML file in the same folder. now go to your desktop and right click and select background, then ADD and select the XML file.You can also go to System in the taskbar and preferences and appearance.

Mandriva 2010 gcc

I loaded Mandriva 2010 on a computer today and when I went to do an install from a command line I was told I didn't have a c compiler.

configure: error: no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH
See `config.log' for more details.
[root@localhost linuxwacom-0.8.5-8]

Needless to say the GUI software installer refused to load any GCC C++ compiler listed. so use this

urpmi gcc-c++

and now you can actually use the terminal, I have no idea why they would leave this out?
Other than that I love Mandriva 2010 it has everything I use loaded all ready so it just plain worked from the get go.

Adblock Plus

I use Firefox and Opera web browsers well today Firefox said Ad-block had an update to which I allowed. Well after it was done and Firefox restarted I noticed that its now blocking all Google ad's even on my own blog so I had to play around and tell it to allow ads on some of the pages that I use it even blocked content on my Ad sense login page. So I suppose if you dont want to see any ads its a rather good thing. I guess I know its doing its job anyhow. If you are having the same problems you can adjust it in the preference's after right clicking on the ad-block stopsign up in the right corner of Firefox.

GTK2 Themes

I found this theme today on Gnome Look its called Copper Deck it is really well done, here are the icons as well so far this theme has integrated well with my system and everything seems to display correct.

Also Thursday the 29th Ubuntu release's  Ubuntu 9.10 it is said to me more user friendly and they have removed some annoyances such as inconsistent naming or poorly organised application choices, there is also a new software center.

WOW

I recently switched Internet providers and boy am I glad I did I had DSL before, Now my uploads are faster than my downloads used to be.

Entre Dropping

This is how I do my Entre Drops, I have a 22" wide-screen next to a 19" wide-screen and since I have two blogs and linked them in Entre card I can log into one on each computer and drop on both linked blogs at the same time. I usually load one and while its loading I will drop on the others then switch back.

Long Time Ago

I was looking for something today and found this old hard drive among some spare parts. Its circa 1988-89 from what I found, 40-49 mb of storage, I found an old advertisement listing it for around $399.00. I cant believe the size of it for what it is. kind of funny now we can put 8 GB in something 31.3 MM long. wow we have come a long way in 20 years. I also found my old copy of Liesure Suit Larry, wow that was a long time ago before I had kids and all, I had a comadore 64 and a Tandy 1000 back in those days. Ok I feel old now guess its time to go.

Back from Camping

Well we have returned from camping we had a great time and took may pictures I will share some in the coming days.We did a lot of hiking now I will have to rest up before I go back to work.

This deer was very interested in us and what we were doing she was in no way bothered by us.

Going Camping

Just so everyone knows we are going camping so I willnot be dropping for a few days but I am going to try and get a post in from my cell.

Top Dropper's

I decided to try something new on here and give a little credit back to my top droppers on Entre Card. I am using Yahoo Pipes to grab the RSS feed of my top droppers to date.It gives the link to the blog and the Description of the blog. You will notice it halfway down the page below my Entre Card widget. Thanks to all my regular droppers.

Ubuntu only Reports 1000 MHZ

I have an AMD Athlon X2 64 6000+ and it wasn't throttling up past 1000 MHZ so after reading a lot and some experimenting I found the solution.

This will tell you your current MHZ

cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep "cpu MHz" | head -n 1

This code will tell you all the possible MHZ frequencies your CPU supports

cpufreq-info 

As it turned out cpu freq was not installed on mine so I had to install it.

sudo apt-get install cpufrequtils

Now when I use the CPUfreq-info command I get the correct stepping for my CPU.
You can also add CPU freq to your panel as an applet by right clicking on your panel and selecting it from the drop down list.

CPUs which need to switch frequency at the same time: 0 1
hardware limits: 1000 MHz - 3.10 GHz
available frequency steps: 3.10 GHz, 3.00 GHz, 2.80 GHz, 2.60 GHz, 2.40 GHz, 2.20 GHz, 2.00 GHz, 1.80 GHz, 1000 MHz
available cpufreq governors: conservative, ondemand, userspace, powersave, performance
current policy: frequency should be within 1000 MHz and 3.10 GHz.
The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 2.40 GHz.
cpufreq stats: 3.10 GHz:2.25%, 3.00 GHz:0.64%, 2.80 GHz:0.32%, 2.60 GHz:0.42%, 2.40 GHz:0.40%, 2.20 GHz:0.32%, 2.00 GHz:0.32%, 1.80 GHz:0.42%, 1000 MHz:94.92% (33)

One dirty Computer

One of my sons friends brought his computer over said it wouldn't boot? Just a black screen.

I have seen some dirty computers in the past but this one ranks up there with the worst of them, it was pegging the HW monitor out and shutting down.

Not to mention its one of the E-machines I think the E is short for (environmental waste) since they are sort of a disposable computer.after a large blast of air its on its way.

Raidmax Case

My new case came today a Raidmax smilodon, of all the systems I have put together this case stands out I highly recommend this case.
It came with instructions in English that I could actually use and understand not to mention the packaging they did with it could withstand all the abuse UPS can give it. Th case itself is awesome since the sides fold down to get to everything it reminds me of a server the way its simple to access everything.
The case is very well made 28 pounds empty so after you get all the goodies inside it, it can be rather heavy. I got this because my old case was poorly ventilated, the temps have dropped about 8 degrees Celsius, I even tried to get it to get it hot running all the graphics I could and it never went much above 45 C.

Over Heating

Well my computer started acting up the other day, I had noticed a difference in it as the temperatures outside warmed up it had started acting up and over the weekend I was watching a movie on it and it came to an abrupt halt. well after a few minutes when it did allow me to reboot I went right into the bios settings to the hardware monitor and noticed it was about 48 C. I had put this computer together back in February and it never much went above 38C-39C so I began researching it and made sure it wasn't full of dust. After finding no dust inside it I rebooted it without the side cover and duplicated what I was doing before and had no problems. The case I have is a cheapo Antec and it doesnt have a lot of room for extra fans or many vents so I ordered a new Raidmax case.
This case has lots of room for extra fans and such and the reviews other have left sound pretty good so I am hoping that will solve my problems and I can once again close my computer up. My wife says this is only an excuse to get a new case.

XBMC Media Center

I have just Installed XMBC on my Ubuntu system this morning and it works without a hitch, I have used Microsofts media center before but the Open source version tops it.


It is real simple to install with Ubuntu and there were only a few local setting to adjust for the weather and file locations. You can get it HERE
Be sure and read through this and install all you repositories,

If you are up for a big change you can download the new version of Sabayon if you look through the downloads and find the ones ending in MCE they have XBMC included., Here is a screenshot of Sabayon in action.

Tea Party 2009

Tea Party 2009 Tax Day @ Yahoo! Video