tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-307390022011-04-21T13:43:01.985-04:30A NonGeek view to linux and other technologiesnongeeknoreply@blogger.comBlogger301100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1166391284417508132006-12-17T17:29:00.000-04:002006-12-17T17:34:44.433-04:00

This blog has moved to www.nongeekperspective.com. There you will find new posts.

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1164138631586289012006-11-21T14:42:00.000-04:002007-05-15T14:12:00.841-04:00

This blog has not been very active last week. Here is the reason for that: I'm thinking about moving the blog. This blog is growing (believe it or not! :-), so I think it's time for taking it to its own domain.Since this blog is hosted in blogspot.com I have little room for improvements. By moving away from blogspot I might add new tools and services for improve my readers experience.So, I'm

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1163522339046421042006-11-14T12:37:00.000-04:002007-05-15T14:14:57.055-04:00

In my previous article about promoting blogs using comments I recommended using TrackBack as an alternative to comments. However, I've been checking the blogs of some of my commenters and realize that many of them seems to be new to blogging (since their blogs have few posts) and after talking with some friends who didn't know about TrackBack I decided to write this little article about the

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1163102429863708692006-11-09T15:58:00.000-04:002007-05-15T14:19:36.701-04:00

Many bloggers use to leave comments in someone else's blog to promote their blogs. That's not a bad idea. If you post a comment on some article with a link back to your blog you may have at least one visit. But between promotion and spam there's a fine line so here is a short list of things to keep in mind if you want to promote your blog using comments:Say something relevant: I've seen lots of

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1161915403996394782006-10-26T21:54:00.000-04:002006-10-26T22:16:44.010-04:00

Today Ubuntu 6.10 has been released. Also Kubuntu and Edubuntu were released. Xubuntu "has not yet officially been released, but you can already download the final stable image, so it's also available! However, "be aware though, that there may be some problems upgrading from the Dapper Drake version when using update-manager". Xubuntu now has a nicer looking website too.Thecnorati tags: xubuntu

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1161184726836312362006-10-18T10:58:00.000-04:002006-10-19T16:24:51.590-04:00

Is IceWeasel the solution to Debian and Mozilla trademarks issues? I don't know right now. I really think Debian have the right to fork Firefox or any other Free Software project but, in this case, I think it is better to keep using Firefox instead of IceWeasel. This is a brief list of the reasons:Firefox is a good browser. Many people think it's the best browser around.Mozilla protects its users

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1160879916396316772006-10-14T22:00:00.000-04:002006-10-15T17:09:17.893-04:00

I don't want to contribute to the old and useless discussion about what desktop environment (DE) is better, Gnome or KDE. However, I noticed in that discussion often is ignored a third contestant: Xfce. There are other options besides those three, but they are mostly window managers, no desktop environments. So, I think it does not make sense to compare different things.Since a couple of weeks

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1160876794908446612006-10-14T21:45:00.000-04:002006-10-14T21:46:34.920-04:00

I started a new blog using Blogger Beta. The idea is to test the new beta features and make sure the hacks I'm using now here will still be working in the beta platform. All the new content will be posted in this blog, though.The new layout system used in beta is totally different from the classic template format, so I'll have to learn the basics first and the process may result slow. First I

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1160450815890727132006-10-09T23:25:00.000-04:002006-10-09T23:47:28.120-04:00

I was trying to configure the modem in a laptop running Xubuntu the other day while I was thinking that it would be easier if the distro had support for winmodems out of the box (I prefer to call them linmodems). But many distros don't have support for winmodems because part of most drivers is proprietary. However I only want my modem working.Most people (mainstream, I mean) expect quality and

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1159756295862652732006-10-01T22:23:00.000-04:002006-10-14T21:57:53.453-04:00

Social Bookmarking is often used for attract traffic to blogs and the easiest way to get your articles on such services is to invite your visitors to submit their favorite stories directly. Then you should have a bookmark area in your blog, frequently at the foot of each article, and there are many ways to get this.I think that the most effective way to accomplish bookmarking is simply to link to

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1159543249696371482006-09-29T11:19:00.000-04:002007-05-15T22:40:31.338-04:00

Howtos are always useful, no matter the subject they are about. Whether you are trying to contribute to an Open Source project or to attract traffic to your blog howtos can make the things done.I wrote this list of things to keep in mind while writing a howto based on the howto definition from Wikipedia and my own experience reading howtosTry to keep it shortBe specific. Howtos are supposed to be

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1159374622574821622006-09-27T12:27:00.000-04:002006-09-27T12:30:22.586-04:00

Integrating Digg within Blogger should be easy if you follow this method. However, if you do so you just get Blogger complaints. That's because Blogger does not allow using script tags in posts but only in templates.I think that such limimitation is the reason why there are many hacks for this out there. But I found a hack that is quite easy and I think it is the easiest way to get a Digg button

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1158946755763500212006-09-22T13:37:00.001-04:002007-05-15T22:44:32.282-04:00

Maybe you've seen many good Open Source projects that are no longer maintained. One of the many reasons for that may be lack of contribution. In fact, there are many one-man projects out there. Most of any program's users are just that, users, not developers. Nevertheless, average users still can contribute to Open Source programs to make them better.I made a search for ways to contribute before

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1158589685188444602006-09-18T10:28:00.000-04:002006-09-18T11:02:53.753-04:00

The third development release of Ubuntu family is available.The most important thing, in my opinion is that "Common to all variants, we have changed the init system from the venerable sysvinit to upstart which is an event-driven init script system". This has many advantages. Faster boot and shutdown are two of them.Xubuntu Knot 3 comes with Xfce 4.4 RC1 so its a good option for those willing to

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1158205805275269342006-09-13T22:45:00.000-04:002006-09-13T23:50:05.416-04:00

I've received an e-mail from PayPal today that starts saying (bold emphasize mine):Access to your PayPal account has been denied because your name is similar to or a match to an entry on the Office of Foreign Assets Control Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. We are required to further verify your identity.and they want me to fax personal information to demonstrate that I am I and not

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1157989109542711902006-09-11T11:31:00.000-04:002007-05-16T10:28:39.046-04:00

xprinterconf, the simple GUI tool for printer configuration in xubuntu has been updated. This is a minor update that does not add functionality, just bug fixes. Nevertheless is recommended to update from the previous version.You can download the new xprinterconf version from the following links:Binary format:http://rapidshare.de/files/32741507/xprinterconf-bin-01a.zip.htmlSource code:http://

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1157737651922179272006-09-08T13:47:00.000-04:002006-09-11T22:30:22.916-04:00

It's quite obvious that the so called web 2.0 (and Open Source software) has changed a lot not only the way we use the Internet and PCs but the technology market too. Although I think that desktop applications aren't a thing of the past yet, the world is moving towards web-based programs and Google seems to be taking advantage of it and doing it right.At least is the impression that I get after

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1157599590765632122006-09-06T22:59:00.000-04:002006-09-06T23:26:30.790-04:00

The latest version of GNOME, a free desktop environment has been released today. You can find more information in the 2.16 start page.But being a xubuntu user I think that the most noticeable is that this new version of GNOME is based on GTK+ 2.10, with "many improvements that were made available by Project Ridley; an effort to consolidate a number of GNOME libraries into GTK+" like

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1157478874865967692006-09-05T13:48:00.000-04:002006-09-05T13:54:34.903-04:00

A new version of Xfce was released yesterday. It's the first release candidate of the upcoming 4.4 version. There's also new version of Xarchiver and Thunar, which now has Trash bin support.Read what's new in the ChangeLog.

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1157476399944965092006-09-05T12:33:00.000-04:002006-09-11T22:22:08.160-04:00

Xubuntu has very low system requirements compared to other modern linux distributions. So, it can be used to extend old hardware's life. However, despite of the great hardware recognition of the Ubuntu family (including Xubuntu, of course), it may result in some supported hardware not configured automatically. That's the case of my old isa CMI-8330 sound card. Here we'll see how configure that

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1157079324852387032006-08-31T22:08:00.000-04:002007-05-17T21:09:33.465-04:00

If you use Xubuntu you may be noticed that there's no utility for printer setting. That's why I decided to write a simple utility to add and remove printers. Although it has been tested only in Xubuntu 6.06 it should work in any linux system with cups and gtk2 installed. The utility is xprinterconf.Downloading xprinterconfUpdate: this tool has been updated and is recommended to download the new

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1157076477797686052006-08-31T21:56:00.000-04:002006-08-31T22:07:57.806-04:00

I'm here again after a short vacation (vacation never are long enough). I hope I can write more often now.

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1155314123101900912006-08-11T11:57:00.000-04:002006-09-11T22:38:25.786-04:00

I recently read the 10 reasons to dump Windows [part I] article and I found it is an interesting reading. It's just the first of three articles where the author presents the top 10 reasons why he decided to use Linux instead of Windows and I agree the three reasons mentioned in the first post. However I won't to discuss the entire article but to talk about my experience with the third reason:

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1154395255090139022006-07-31T21:05:00.000-04:002006-07-31T21:20:55.110-04:00

Ubuntu has announced a new project: The Classroom. It is an irc based instructional service that seems focussed on assisting new users in using their new Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Xubuntu systems, although they say that "The Classroom will attempt to have sessions for all levels of expertise, from beginner to advanced". So, it may be interesting for not-so-new users. Classes will be held in #

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1153883500512955212006-07-25T22:29:00.000-04:002006-07-25T23:32:17.986-04:00

If you have read the "Xubuntu Desktop Guide" you know that "Xubuntu does not currently feature a trash bin. Deleted files can not be restored". And after a quick scan to the changelog for xfce4.4 beta2 I think that we have to wait a little more. However, there are a hack for that and I extended it to be used in Thunar.The BasicsThe original hack may result inconvenient for some users: it can be

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1153702862201657122006-07-23T20:51:00.000-04:002007-05-20T22:00:17.446-04:00

The procedure described in my "Multimedia in Xubuntu Made Easy" post is used to play audio and video in standalone players and many other programs. However, there are still many programs, like mozilla firefox/thunderbird that doesn't play anything, some of them uses esd.Such programs needs this packages to be installed:esound, esound-clients, esound-common, libesd-alsa0.Some packages may be

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1153233290982904822006-07-18T09:32:00.000-04:002007-05-21T10:18:10.309-04:00

Update: You may find interesting reading this updated post about multimedia in Xubuntu first.In the previous post we've seen how to get multimedia support in Xubuntu and that there are debian package and tarball formats of w32codecs, the package containing the codecs needed to play most popular formats. Most (if not all) debian packages for this purpose install the codecs in /usr/lib/win32

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1153189310049211162006-07-17T22:02:00.000-04:002007-05-23T14:39:51.834-04:00

Important Update: You may prefer to read "Multimedia in Xubuntu Has Never Been So Easy" first.If you use Xubuntu then it's very likely you don't need to read the "Get Multimedia support" chapter in the Xubuntu Desktop Guide to know that "Xubuntu comes with very limited multi-media support". That's because "many popular multimedia formats are not free: They are protected either by patent or

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1152802828569473512006-07-13T10:29:00.000-04:002007-05-15T14:05:04.390-04:00

I have installed xubuntu 6.06 LTS in my pc about two weeks ago and, although I have had some problems, the experience was great. It is a totally different piece of software from the old Mandrake 9 that I had previously. This is not a full review, it's just my experience.Xubuntu is Ubuntu with Xfce instead of Gnome as default desktop environment. The installed version, also known as dapper drake,

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30739002.post-1152198960737531242006-07-06T11:13:00.000-04:002006-07-06T14:59:51.853-04:00

Hello everybody, this is my first post here.The idea is to write about technology from the perspective of a non geek person. Although this blog´s is about technology in general, linux subject will be treated in depth.I think linux is a great project but most distros and applications has some usability issues. I hope this blog can be useful for someone and can in some way contribute to linux and

nongeeknoreply@blogger.com0