Technology

Power saving tips for a Linux laptop

Linux on a laptop is notorious for sucking batteries down far faster than their Windows counterparts. My personal Linux laptops, without help, are lucky to get half the battery life than when running on windows. Why is that? There are plenty of reasons for this. From applications installed to power saving options. For anyone who uses a laptop with Linux, you most likely will understand how frustrating this can be.

In this article I am going to show you some useful tips to keep your laptop battery lasting as long as possible.

Powertop

I have already covered this topic (see my article “Gain more battery life from your Linux-based laptop with powertop“.) Believe it or not, this little tool will do wonders to gain that extra bit of battery. But it won’t solve the problem all together. To really gain that full charge you will need to do a bit of digging around. More »

Ubuntu 10.4: My first impressions

I couple of months ago I covered what was to be expected in the upcoming release of Ubuntu (Lucid Lynx – 10.4). This release will happen in April 2010 and is much anticipated by users across the globe. I have installed the Alpha of 10.4 and have been using it for a while now. It is time to offer up my impressions of what is to come to those wacky Ubuntu fan boys and girls.

At first blush

What I was really surprised about was the lack of the new look. I had reported that a team of Ubuntu developers were developing a new GTK+ theme that would include RGBA support. This support would introduce a better (and native) transparency to the widgets. At this point I can find no indication that this is going to happen. In fact, the only change of appearance I now hear of is Ubuntu moving away from the brown color scheme in favor or a gray color scheme. What I have seen, of proposed themes, are not attractive at all. Modern desktops have taken a very different approach. To that end the average users are expecting a bit more from the look and feel of their interface. I have always wondered why a distribution, such as Ubuntu, hasn’t always installed Emerald by default. More »

Tips to help users migrate to OpenOffice

The office suite. Ah the importance you hold over the PC user. You help our business to flow, you help us to draft our papers and novels, and you help us communicate. But what of those users who previously were using Microsoft Office or any other office suite? How does one gain any sort of efficiency or familiarity with another office suite – especially when there is so little time to do so? It’s really not so difficult. After all, the features are, for the most part, all there.

In this article I am going to present a few tips to help you help others migrate to the open source office suite. In the end, your users will enjoy a full-featured office suite that will cost $0.00 per seat to use (CAL about that?).

1. Change the default file type

For most users the default “save as” file types in OpenOffice will cause more trouble than not. They will create a document and then, when their co-workers/instructors/friends/etc recieve that .odt file, have no idea that Microsoft Office won’t be able to play nicely with their work. Although I prefer the open document format, I generally switch all default file types to the Microsoft equivalent. This is done in Tools > Options > Load/Save > General. Make sure you go through the drop-down and change all the necessary default formats so that when your user saves that precious document, it will open in other office suites. More »

Create a simple to use kiosk machine with Fluxbox

Have you ever had to create a kiosk PC for use in a business so that customers can either search a database of products or check out your services on line? If so, and you’ve tried to do this with Windows, you know how complex a task it can be. First and foremost – you have to make it such that users can only launch specific applications. Second, you have to make it secure and reliable. Often, when using a Microsoft solution for something like this you will have to add third-party softwares to lock down and lock out applications and features. I have an easier solution.
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Syncing your iPhone (or iTouch) with Linux

It’s taken me long enough, but finally a solution for syncing both an iPhone and an iTouch with Linux is possible. What is best about this method, is that it does NOT require a jailbroken iPhone. That’s right, you’ll be able to sync your iPhone, via USB, and add all sorts of good music to it. Now therein lies the catch – all you will be able to sync is Music. No calendar or contacts (yet). But for those who just need to get their music onto their iDevices, you are in luck.

The process is a bit involved, but not too difficult. I will walk you through the steps, some of which are command based, and some are not. And without further adieu, let’s get to the installation and configuration. NOTE: As with anything, use caution and ALWAYS back up your data. It is never guaranteed that you won’t lose data. You’ve been warned. More »

Enable Mod_rewrite in a Ubuntu Server

If you have done much work with Apache then most likely you have experienced a need for enabling the rewrite engine. If you are unfamiliar with the rewrite engine, you can think of it as a means for your web server to literally rewrite urls so they are easier for users to remember. So instead of having to enter:

http://192.168.1.100/rewrite.php?link=1

Your users would only have to type:

http://192.168.1.100/link2.html
More »

Google Chrome OS Details Are Revealed

Details about Google’s Chrome OS were revealed last night, as Google hosted an event to explain their Windows and OS X rival.

While it’s not the finished product, Chrome OS looks to be a fast operating system that’s been slimmed down to offer what’s essentially the Chrome browser and a few widgets. It will be available on Google Chrome devices (which weren’t shown off, sadly), which won’t be able to run any other OS apart from Chrome. More »

Palm Release WebOS 1.3.1 Update

Palm has just released an update to the Pre’s WebOS 1.3.1, making a few minor changes to the formula and altering some of the services. The most noteworthy change is that Yahoo! Now acts as a synchronised platform for contacts, calendar info and instant messaging, similar to Motorola’s Dext’s social networking platform. More »

Google Chrome OS to be launched Next Week?

According to the latest rumours in the internet, the hotly-anticipated Google Chrome OS could be available  next week. The source of the rumour, is TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington, who says that a “reliable source” has told him that the Chrome OS will be available within a week.

The release of Google’s OS so close to the release of Windows 7 would surely stifle the already promising sales of Microsoft’s priduct. However, if a version of the Chrome OS is released it is unlikely to be accessible to a large number of people. More »

Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 Released

The Mozilla developers have finally released the first beta of Firefox 3.6 after releasing two release candidates for the beta previously. Firefox 3.6 will be the next installment after the Firefox 3.5x branch and is still slated for a early 2010 release. The Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 is build on the Gecko 1.9.2 web rendering engine opposed to Firefox 3.5 which is based on Gecko 1.9.1. The developers have added several new features and improvements to the Internet browser including: More »