So I installed Cairo Dock. Cairo-Dock is an animated application launch bar for the desktop, comparable to the dock in Mac OS X or Rocket Dock (for Windows). I trimmed out the task tray (still want to use my panel at the moment. But I added a few of the things I use frequently and of course Second Life was added as well. I just wanted to get things off my desktop as far as the icons. Want to add this to your machine? Read on!

I know people will say go through the Software Sources section or edit /etc/apt/sources.list which is done by:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

or

sudo kate /etc/apt/sources.list

Either way you add the following repository:

deb http://repository.cairo-dock.org/ubuntu jaunty cairo-dock

This repository needs an authentication key so run:

wget -q http://repository.cairo-dock.org/cairo-dock.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Then, to install Cairo-Dock, issue these two commands in the terminal:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cairo-dock cairo-dock-plug-ins

The Cairo Dock will be under System on the KDE Applications menu. Not sure what it is under Gnome. I ran the Non OpenGL one and it’s really smooth under KDE.

After I did the install updates came in for the linux kernel.  So I ran the updates and then had to reboot. This is the only thing I really need to reboot for as far as updates. Suck it Windows! I can’t count how many times I have woken up to my desktop with windows I had left open overnight that were closed because of the autoupdate rebooting my machine.

I installed Inkscape and Gimp. I really need to sit and play with those more. I didn’t install Pixel so I could concentrate on these programs somewhat.

So now I am looking over things I need to get re-installed since the complete KDE install. I need the following things which have slipped my mind:

• SSH
• VLC
• Skype
• Audacity
• LiVES
• Some more Games (like Majhong (sp?) and some of the KDE games)
• Import pictures and other things from External HD

So my little list is still a bit large but I think it will be quick and easy to do for tomorrow’s posting. I think I will start documenting some How-To’s but I will probably open up VooDooStevie.NET to do that. We’ll see. I have a Joomla install going on there with really nothing on it. Maybe I will make it a one stop thing with a bunch of different things on one site. Wheee!

I found that Kubuntu uses a lot of the same apps I was using before, Open Office is still there.. Oh wait, no it doesn’t no FireFox. It uses Konqueror as it’s web browser by default. But check this out, all those nifty things I was doing under Gnome that required extras, it’s all native here under KDE 4. Here’s some of the screen shots. I will report more about what I had installed and stuff tomorrow. Read on for the little gallery of pics.

It gives you an idea of how breaking boundaries of the Windows OS can be. Read on…

Computers started making their way into homes, en masse, 15 years ago. After 15 years, computer users should not be afraid of using their computer.

This case study tells the story about a customer of mine, Wanda, who happens to be in her 70s. Like most computer users she used a Windows based computer. In her case, it was a system put together by her grandson in 2002 or 2003 and has a 1.8ghz processor, 256mb of RAM and the XP Home version of Windows.

When I first met Wanda a few years ago, she had typical Windows user problems; slow computer, slow Internet, couldn’t open some attachments, virus and spyware problems. She used dialup Juno for Internet and Norton Antivirus on her system. I couldn’t talk her into getting a DSL or cable connection, but I did change her security from Norton to AVG and optimized the startup and running of the system. However, with dialup and Juno, she continued to have problems that cropped up every 3-4 months.

In April of 2008, I talked with her in detail about computer usage. She stated that she really only needed to do three or four things with her computer:

1. Email
2. Word Processing
3. Solitaire
4. Very light Internet browsing

We talked about the cost of a new computer and a high speed connection. And then we talked about taking Windows off her system, installing a different system (Ubuntu and Linux didn’t mean anything to her) that would be virtually trouble free and no cost to acquire besides my install and configuration time. She liked the sound of that, but I informed her that I could not install Ubuntu unless she was agreeable to getting a DSL connection for the Internet. She agreed.

I installed Ubuntu for her and configured her desktop with shortcuts to her email, the web, solitaire, and her word processor. Again, that was April of 2008. Prior to that I received at least one call from her every month, and visited her for cleanup and troubleshooting appointments at least 3-5 times per year.

Today, Wanda called me for the first time since I installed Ubuntu on her system 14 months ago. She asked two questions:

1. Why can’t I get email from my daughter?
2. My printer stopped printing, do I need a new one?

Knowing that it would be a quick visit, I stopped by her house in between two other appointments. To my delight, the computer desktop looked exactly the same as I left it the prior year except for a few saved PowerPoint slideshows she saved from email to it.

Since she was using Hotmail, I could almost guarantee that she had blocked her daughter’s email address (Microsoft places the spam / junk mail button dangerously close to the delete button). Sure enough, a trip to the blocked senders settings revealed what I suspected. Her daughter’s email address and a dear friend were blocked. I rectified that in a few clicks.

Next, her printer problem turned out to be a paper jam. After clearing it, the computer was happily printing again. I left her home in under 15 minutes after correcting the problems that had nothing to do with Ubuntu, and she was beaming like a kid in a candy shop.

MORAL OF THE STORY

Properly setup and customized for an individual’s computing needs, Ubuntu Linux can be used successfully and easily by anyone of any age and computing ability. AND, the problems associated with computing under the Windows environment disappear.

My only regret is that I did not start looking into and learning about Linux prior to 2006.

I am now trying to think of what I should remove or tweak next. I find it funny that with all the programs and files I have on the system now it’s only 20GB used and a large portion of that is the documents and files I have in my home folder Can we say Bloatware?

I am looking back on the things I have been doing through this experiment and it pleases me to see I am able to do a lot of things I was able to do under Windows just fine.

Netflix REALLY needs to get on the ball with the instant streaming stuff because this is a pain in the nuts having it be Silverlight 2.0 only. That is primarily one of the only things I miss so far.

Speaking of streaming I need to think about finding info about how to get my DirecTV DVR and this machine to talk so I can stream movies or pictures. I got it going under windows before. I also will have to hard-wire the laptop so I can get a decent connection for that as well.

It would be awesome to be able to stream videos off of the lappy because I have a ton of AVI’s I backed up onto DVD-R’s that I could easily copy onto the hard drive to play better. Maybe I will do this later today.. Or start that.

I added some stickers to the inside area where you usually have your Intel Inside and Windows stickers. I also HAD to add a VooDooRadio related sticker onto my machine so that is on here as well.

I also added a tux sticker to cover up the Acer logo on the front of the machine.

Basically I found the images I wanted, printed them out on the color laser we have at work and one of my co-workers added the adhesive and also laminated one side for me. Read on to see the images that I Have on here now.

Below is the images I added to the machine. I will take pics later.

Other than the external I decided to play with the Compiz manager and I got my machine to do that really nifty cube thing and a few other nifty effects on the desktop. Here’s a couple screenshots of it in the gallery above.

Finally I finished sorting out all my music files and got them back on the external HD! So I started to get things together to record my podcast. Hooked up my mixer, turned it on and plugged it into the USB port. The system found it OK. I checked it with Skype.

Beautiful.  Launched Audacity and chose the input for the mixer and started recording.  The waveform was flat..

Hmmmm..

Read on to find out what happened.Well, I’m looking all around on the machine for settings issues and everything seemed right then I looked down and realized that all of a sudden I had no power on my mixer. The powersupply died. FUCK!

And of course I find out there is an Internal Mic bug in Ubuntu. Great.

Before going out and getting a headset, I guess I should see if I can get the Internal Mic going.  I looked on the Ubuntu Forums and found a few others who have the same issue with Acer Laptops and the internal mic’s. Luckily there is a fix!

• Step 1: Download the Alsa Driver from here:

ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/driver/alsa-driver-1.0.20.tar.bz2

• Step 2:extract the contents.Open terminal and go to where you downloaded the driver. Extract it using

tar -vxf alsa-driver-1.0.20.tar.gz

• Step 3:  Compile the driverNote:  You need checkinstall if you don’t have it use apt-get to get it

sudo apt-get install checkinstall

Then run the commands below
This takes a little while to do its thing

./configure
make
sudo make install

• Step 4: Configure alsa-base.confAdd the following line to the end of /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf file. I did this by using the command:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

I added these two lines at the end of the conf file then saved it.

alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
options snd-hda-intel model=acer

• Step 5:  Reboot.

This worked, but seriously, internal mic’s are shitty to say the least. But it’s nice to know that it works more or less. By this time I had gotten so fed up with my mixer dying, I decided that maybe it’s best I use a headset or find out if Daddy’s Junky Music will allow me to get a new cable with my extended warranty. GRRRR.

So after fighting with it all I gave up recording for the night and watched my friend’s do their show on XLR and called it a night.

Basically aside from some more installations, I have begun organizing things. Read on for the recap of the past couple of days!

Day 16

I installed WinFF (which is a Video convertor). WinFF is a cross platform batch GUI for FFMPEG. It will convert most any video file that FFmpeg will convert. WinFF does multiple files in multiple formats at one time. You can for example convert mpeg’s, flv’s, and mov’s, all into avi’s all at once.

I removed Warzone 2100, mandvd, and kraft.

Warzone, albeit a great looking game it would not play right on my machine for some reason. I was getting black screen for the main look (the troops and terrain) so it’s not worth the hassle in trying to figure it out right now.

I installed ManDVD because there is an updated replacement for it that seems a little more intuitive called… 2ManDVD. I launched it to look at it and it’s much better visually than the previous program. I will play with this more later.

I also installed  LiVES (Linux Video Editting System). To quote it’s website:

LiVES mixes realtime video performance and non-linear editing in one professional quality application. It will let you start editing and making video right away, without having to worry about formats, frame sizes, or framerates. It is a very flexible tool which is used by both professional VJ’s and video editors – mix and switch clips from the keyboard, use dozens of realtime effects, trim and edit your clips in the clip editor, and bring them together using the multitrack timeline. You can even record your performance in real time, and then edit it further or render it straight away.

For the more technically minded, the application is frame and sample accurate, and it can be controlled remotely or scripted for use as a video server. And it supports all of the latest free standards.

I removed kraft because it’s geared more for KDE and I am using Gnome as my default GUI. Maybe someday I will through in KDE, but Gnome to me seems more stable. I dunno maybe because I am used to Gnome on many levels. But who knows maybe after this experiment I will load Kubuntu which is the KDE fork of Ubuntu

I also removed mixero from the system. It’s a great new AIR application for twitter, but it is REALLY a resource hog. Tweetdeck isn’t that heavy so I went back to using it as my primary again.

Over the years I have amassed many MP3′s so I thought it was time to sort them out a bit. I moved all the Audio Books I have into a separate area. I am trying to focus on the music I possess. So I copied those beginning with a symbol (i.e. !!!) to those beginning with the letter K to my Music folder on the laptop and opened up SongBird to edit the tags. Hmmm. I got a message regarding the files were unable to modify so I hopped into the terminal screen and changed the permissions on the files to Read and Write to all (777) and tried importing the files then editted them again. Perfect. They were sorted perfectly. So I moved them back onto the External hard drive.

After I moved the files that have already been sorted I moved the next batch of files over. This time The letter K to the letter Q

Day 17

Still working on sorting.  There was a little bit of mistaken ID Tags and worst of all I have some that were tossed into the Unknown area for the artists. I got most done before I had to hit the sack. But the unknown one’s I will work on tomorrow.

The nice thing is I am finding duplicates of music for some reason. I don’t know if it’s from the renaming structure or what, but there seems to be a few doubles here and there. But all in all They’re easy to remove from the directory. I think so far I have had at least 250 doubles from !!! to artists with Q in the name. Not too shabby seeing there was 15,000 tracks so far sorted.

So far this experience has been really good. I feel my music collection is really sorted better than under iTunes allowed me. I still have some things I need to sort that are not really music related per se. But there is also some WAV files I need to convert to MP3 for sorting.

I have a huge collection of Sound Effects and Movie Quotes I have to sort. Some I had in the music collection originally but I think through this I can sort and move them away from that.

So basically Linux is making me feel more organized. Let’s see if I can get more things set right from the years of digital clutter.