Open Thoughts

Lately so much of exciting and eye candy stuffs have come up on Ubuntu. Ubuntu Karmic Koala had improvements and a whole lot of software that let you customise your desktop OS. And from whatever I have heard as of now, the next Ubuntu edition, Lucid Lynx will have lots to look forward to.

This post on the other hand will be all about recent Google releases that have made web surfing and image browsing easier.

You must have definitely heard about and used Google Chrome and Picasa, if you have used Windows ever.

Google officially released Chrome beta for Linux, and it works without crashing for me. I have loaded it up with extensions, and I am pretty happy with the results. [I had installed Chromium from the developers channel before, I still have it. More about it later.]

http://www.google.com/chrome?platform=linux&hl=en

Visit the link above, and download the beta (Yes, beta. It’s safe to download. Google has kept Linux users in dark for long)

Run the deb/rpm file and yo! you are ready to Chrome!

Google Picasa and Image Viewer(deb file only [for Ubuntu like distros])

Google Picasa Image Viewer is something really handy and something way ahead of other image viewers. For this we need Picasa 3 pre installed. Head over to the link below and download to install Picasa 3.

http://picasa.google.com/linux/download.html

Remember, Picasa 3 (Beta) and not Picasa 2.7.

http://www.caiacoa.de/Transfer/PicasaPhotoViewer-1.0.3.deb

Download the deb from the above link and install it. Now you can view a photo/image by right click, open with > custom command > PicasaPhotoViewer.

To set it as default, right click an image, Properties > Open With > PicasaPhotoViewer.

I am happy to have found these, especially Picasa Photo Viewer on Linux. Thanks to OMGUbuntu, for this. Many a thanks to Irakli Gozalishvili and Caiacoa to have made it possible!

P.S. Did you notice that, Google did a short cut with Picasa? It ain’t actually made for Linux, it’s just the Windows version running on Wine. Thank God we have Wine.

Technorati Tags: chrome, google, Linux, picasa, ubuntu

Things just got better with Ubuntu Lucid Lynx (10.04). Annoying problems with Network manager has been sorted out. Now everything can be easily configured using the GUI itself, thus helping new linux users, get to the internet easily without sweating it out on the terminal!

In the default 10.04 theme, the network manager looks like a Wi-Fi symbol.

First we need to create the DSL connection. Right click on it, and select “Edit connections”.

From the window that opens, select the DSL tab, and then click on Add. Another window opens now.

Enter a name you desire in Connection name, something like “DataOne”. This name will be displayed when you left click on the network manager icon the next time. Next, enter the username and password for your internet connection in the respective boxes.

In the IPv4 Settings tab, make sure “Automatic (PPPoE)” has been selected for method. Save these settings and click on Apply.

You should be ready to connect to the internet. Connect the internet cable and Network Manager automatically connects to the modem, the icon will now be two arrows pointing in opposite directions. Left click the icon and select “DataOne” or whatever name you had provided.

If the username and password provided are correct, then you should be connected to the internet (the icon again becomes the two counter pointing arrows).

Happy Browsing!

Technorati Tags: internet, lucid, network, nm-applet, ubuntu

Wow! A new post! You might be wondering, where I had vanished.

Well, the semester has come to an end, and I can put something into my blog. As said before, I promise, short simple posts.

Am now having trouble with updating my wordpress and plugin. Some error. Must sort that.

I have got a Google Wave invite and am on google wave now. Wait, most of my friends are not and without friends, am pretty confused of what to gain from Wave.

Windows 7 looks really spiced up.

So does Ubuntu 9.10. I installed it on my friends laptop and it blew me off! Wow! Amazing work there coders!

So am I not waiting for Linux Mint 8? I wanted to but I had some really bad experiences with Mint 7. It hung! Yes, something screws Gnome and then I need to hard reboot. Hate it!

And well Mint is for new comers. Am no new comer (I mean it!).

Now am going to install Ubuntu 9.10 on my laptop. Next time will be blogging from Karmic Koala. Watch out for reviews, tips and tricks on Ubuntu Karmic Koala!

Technorati Tags: holidays, Linux, tips, tricks, ubuntu, wave

Two things are essential for a blog to survive. One is posts, and the other is readers. Posts make readers happy and bring more readers. More readers means the author is happy, he writes quality articles. That brings more readers. So its a two way process. One action is reciprocated by the other.

The world is a blend of people with different features. The difference should be there or else life will be boring. So you are different from every other blogger around and the readers reading your blog are different from those reading other blogs.

By knowing what your readers think, you can in fact double the time your blog visitors spend on your blog. And your readers, think exactly in the way you think.

I don’t like reading articles that run into pages. I prefer it to be short and shouldn’t force me to run searching for a dictionary. And graphical representations like pictures and mind maps, make it easier for me to grasp the articles content. So I search for more of such articles. And the next time I visit that blog, I may even read the lengthy articles!

So, there is a possibility that visitors to my blog too like the same. My articles shall be short (if they aren’t How To’s or Tutorials), and including graphics is a bit painful in wordpress (Am lazy, and don’t want to do all that uploading of images etc.). I have found Posterous to support all that I want, and it’s easy too!

So by realising what you like to see and read online, you can satisfy your readers, and get visitors to become readers and later on subscribe to your blog! Observe yourself and you shall obtain your answer.

Technorati Tags: blog, pictures, reader, small posts, subscribers, visitors