Ubuntu Linux

[teachopvutru]

Originally Posted by IRJustman

The new Firefox may require me to create a different profile, which is no biggie. But there are several extensions I use very heavily, like downTHEMall! which is great if I'm bulk downloading a bunch of files (VERY useful for picking up several torrents in a series which I want to start and there's, say, more than 5 episodes in the series), and Sage which gives me a sidebar RSS reader (EXTREMELY useful for checking A'suki for new downloads). I also use Flat Bookmark Editor which I like MUCH better than Firefox's default editor. And finally, I use Tab Mix Plus to substantially enhance my tabbed browsing experience on my desktop. I used to use Tabbrowser Extensions, but it now languishes unmanaged, which is sad. I used it VERY heavily and couldn't do without it!

I have a wad of other extensions which I use. I'm presently not at home so I can't get a list of what I have just now.

--Ian.

Sadly, none of them are compatible with the latest beta of firefox.... And since these extensions are pretty useful, I can't say I'm happy or sad that I don't use them. I was going to try Flat Bookmark Editor since I'm having trouble with organizing bookmarks (bookmark too much, I suppose) but it wasn't compatible. I wonder though, if there are anyway for Firefox 2 to have the features of Firefox 3...

But please continue listing the extensions you use, I'm interested.

PS: Since Firefox is installed by default in Ubuntu, it's okay to talk about it, right?

EDIT: Also, as there's no conclusion to the specific reason regarding why I keep getting disconnected, may there be any speculations about how downloading makes me disconnects even easier?

[grey_moon]

Re: Power over ethernet

The one my boss uses is just two little boxes which you plug into a socket and then plug a network cable into them. So you would have one in the router room connected to it and one in your room connected to your pc.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/95287

[teachopvutru]

Well, my disconnection is extremely irregular the last couple of days. At times I don't get disconnected even after hours, then there are times when I get disconnected just after a few minutes.

In any case, regarding the --MARK-- line in my /var/log/syslog, there was one that showed up a couple of minutes ago but I didn't have disconnection then.

[SeijiSensei]

I think the power/ethernet discussion has gotten a bit confused.

What Vexx was talking about was ethernet over power lines, not power over ethernet. Both technologies exist today. The former lets you use normal electrical wiring to carry an ethernet signal, using the house wiring instead of cat-5. Power over ethernet delivers, as IRJustman writes, electricity over one of the ethernet pairs. It's quite useful when you're using something like a building-to-building laser for network relaying. You don't have to run power up to the roof for the device; you just send it over the ethernet cabling.

As for your disconnection problem, I might mention that I switched from my PCI wireless card (an old 802.11b model) to a USB device (also an old 802.11b model). My signal strength measurements dropped considerably from 40-50% to 20-30%. My adapter (a Linksys) gets all its power over the USB cable which doesn't deliver a lot of current. Its radios are naturally not so powerful as the ones on the PCI card since there's more power on the bus.

[Rasqual Twilight]

Mouse Gestures, Tab Mix & AdBlockPlus are the trinity I couldn't and wouldn't browse without.
After that, Firebug, NoScript and Super Drag and Go are also extremely useful. Occasionally, DTA Greasemonkey quickproxy and keyconfig add value to browsing experience as well.

Now with the completion toolbar in beta2, I hope it can be disabled. I quite dislike it. The browser itself seems to eat less memory, but that was a granted, given the large number of extensions that were forcefully disabled.

[teachopvutru]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I think the power/ethernet discussion has gotten a bit confused.

What Vexx was talking about was ethernet over power lines, not power over ethernet. Both technologies exist today. The former lets you use normal electrical wiring to carry an ethernet signal, using the house wiring instead of cat-5. Power over ethernet delivers, as IRJustman writes, electricity over one of the ethernet pairs. It's quite useful when you're using something like a building-to-building laser for network relaying. You don't have to run power up to the roof for the device; you just send it over the ethernet cabling.

As for your disconnection problem, I might mention that I switched from my PCI wireless card (an old 802.11b model) to a USB device (also an old 802.11b model). My signal strength measurements dropped considerably from 40-50% to 20-30%. My adapter (a Linksys) gets all its power over the USB cable which doesn't deliver a lot of current. Its radios are naturally not so powerful as the ones on the PCI card since there's more power on the bus.

Sorry... seems like I confused everyone. Google search returns most results to PoE so I naturally assumed that both are the same thing since they are so similar (remind me of the naming of Infinite Limit and Limit at Infinity in math class -.-) ... I think I understand Power over Ethernet, but the Ethernet over Power description is still confusing to me...

Originally Posted by Rasqual Twilight

Mouse Gestures, Tab Mix & AdBlockPlus are the trinity I couldn't and wouldn't browse without.
After that, Firebug, NoScript and Super Drag and Go are also extremely useful. Occasionally, DTA Greasemonkey quickproxy and keyconfig add value to browsing experience as well.

Now with the completion toolbar in beta2, I hope it can be disabled. I quite dislike it. The browser itself seems to eat less memory, but that was a granted, given the large number of extensions that were forcefully disabled.

This makes me question how many people are like me and use no extension when browsing

[SeijiSensei]

Ethernet over power lines is actually pretty easy as well. I assume you realize that most network connections employ wiring, not wifi connections. Typically one uses an "ethernet cable" (sometimes called a category-5 or cat-5 cable) to connect the computers into the network. Well, ethernet over powerlines piggybacks the ethernet signal on top of the power, using the power lines instead of the ethernet (cat-5) cabling.

[teachopvutru]

In other word, they are basically the reverse of each other?

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by tiachopvutru

In other word, they are basically the reverse of each other?

Yes. Power over ethernet uses ethernet cabling to carry power. Ethernet over power lines uses electrical wiring to carry ethernet.

[teachopvutru]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Yes. Power over ethernet uses ethernet cabling to carry power. Ethernet over power lines uses electrical wiring to carry ethernet.

Okay, thanks. Now not only I know what they basically are, the namings make sense too.

Anyway, anyone knows what the "-- MARK --" message in /var/log/syslog suppose to mean? In here, it says something like this:

This is where you find out if your system rebooted during the night when it wasn't supposed to; the MARK sequence will be interrupted, and you'll see shutdown and startup messages.

But the messages appear even when I don't reboot...

[IRJustman]

Originally Posted by tiachopvutru

Anyway, anyone knows what the "-- MARK --" message in /var/log/syslog suppose to mean? In here, it says something like this:



But the messages appear even when I don't reboot...

I think they're little more than markers at twenty-minute intervals so you can tell which part of an hour something happens while the machine is active. That way you can say, "Holy crap, they did THIS much of (xyz) during this twenty-minute time frame?!"

I think what they're saying is that if you have one log that's particularly inactive, you can tell when a machine managed to get rebooted.

It's not a big thing; it's a part of every Ubuntu (as well as Debian, but I generally don't use anything outside these two distributions other than to check them out).

--Ian.

[teachopvutru]

Originally Posted by IRJustman

I think they're little more than markers at twenty-minute intervals so you can tell which part of an hour something happens while the machine is active. That way you can say, "Holy crap, they did THIS much of (xyz) during this twenty-minute time frame?!"

I think what they're saying is that if you have one log that's particularly inactive, you can tell when a machine managed to get rebooted.

It's not a big thing; it's a part of every Ubuntu (as well as Debian, but I generally don't use anything outside these two distributions other than to check them out).

--Ian.

Meh... I was hoping that it somehow is related to my disconnection. So it's just a MARK... and since when you reboot, the log is filled with stuffs from booting up the startup stuffs.

EDIT: Speaking of which, the Network Monitor applet comes default with Ubuntu tells me that my signal strength is 60%, but in iwlist scan, I see the quality is 15/100..

[Vexx]

I received my package of 7.10 Ubuntu desktop, server, and Studio today..... so off I went to take a look at Studio.

Tried Studio on a lame-ass HP notebook I have laying around --- 3 times while watching Ratatouille... Each time it took an hour to futz around and then at best I'd get the traditional background but no desktop. I'd try it a different way but same results --- however, HP notebooks tend to be pretty unfriendly pieces of crap anyway no matter what OS you try to put on them other than "what came with it". Put the notebook back in my 'pile o things'.

I've got a little old Shuttle box with more typical innards... plan to try that next after I test install a standard ubuntu desktop to make sure it works well with that.

[grey_moon]

Ah if you get the desktop freeze did you suffer from it complaining about Openoffice dependecies during the update?

[teachopvutru]

Just a question but since Ubuntu Studio seems to be pretty bloated with extraneous softwares, wouldn't it be better to install the standard Ubuntu CD and then get the necessary programs for anime playback?

[grey_moon]

Originally Posted by tiachopvutru

Just a question but since Ubuntu Studio seems to be pretty bloated with extraneous softwares, wouldn't it be better to install the standard Ubuntu CD and then get the necessary programs for anime playback?

Hee hee I see you have just increased your geek level young padawn!

The good thing about US is that it gives people who don't want to spend the time hunting out what is a good media suite the chance to try out all of these recommended ones. The main issue for lots of people who are new to Linux is the sheer amount of choices available to them. I think projects like this help people get started and if in the future they are of the mind to do so, then can then install just the packages they wish to use.

[Vexx]

Actually it whined and moaned about how "I didn't have the necessary rights to set the system clock" and then "rights to save gnome desk" stuff and then I got an empty screen with just the default wallpaper and no widgets. Haven't had a moment to try something different but that's rather odd since I gave it the usual 'primary user account/passwd' in the setup, but then it didn't put up the su-ish window to authenticate me.

Tiochopvutru: yeah, but I like to periodically see how well linus-dist combo installers are working "for the rest of the common people". Studio looked interesting though it does a lousy job up front of describing what it actually *means* by the different package combo selections (requires web research which annoys someone who just wants to throw it in and have it 'work').

[teachopvutru]

Originally Posted by grey_moon

Hee hee I see you have just increased your geek level young padawn!

Thank you. *bow geekily* Am I qualified for a certificate yet?

The good thing about US is that it gives people who don't want to spend the time hunting out what is a good media suite the chance to try out all of these recommended ones. The main issue for lots of people who are new to Linux is the sheer amount of choices available to them. I think projects like this help people get started and if in the future they are of the mind to do so, then can then install just the packages they wish to use.

I see... but I don't find how hard it is to see what people usually recommend... For example:
Raster Image Editor: GIMP
Vector Image Editor: Inkscape
3D Animator: Blender
Publisher: Scribus
Audio Player: usually Amarok , then XMMS and Exaile (sad to say but I don't use any of the advance feature... basically, only playing musics)
Audio Editor: Audacity (don't search for audio editor a lot so I don't know about others)
Video Player: (S)mplayer, VLC (I'm sure a lot less would use VLC if there are mkv containers and softsub outside the anime world)
Video Editor: Cinelerra

Well... basically what I do anyway, get what most people recommend, and only try out others when the mood strikes. But I hear, Linux Mint is pretty popular as user-friendly and just-work since it comes default with media codecs. Maybe I should try it, it may magically fixes my Internet problem. On this note, anyone knows a utility that would allow me to track my network connection? Since I usually get disconnected during downloading torrent, I thought I could run such program when I do so.

Speaking of which, anyone knows if there are any drawback for burning an OS iso on a CD-RW disc? The reason why I'm asking this is because (long, long ago, on the distance planet, although I probably exaggerate) I've read somewhere that it's not preferable... On the other hand... I'm not sure if I would like to install another one since I'm kinda fine with my desktop setup right now, and it's a pain to redo it again. @_@

Originally Posted by Vexx

Tiochopvutru: yeah, but I like to periodically see how well linus-dist combo installers are working "for the rest of the common people". Studio looked interesting though it does a lousy job up front of describing what it actually *means* by the different package combo selections (requires web research which annoys someone who just wants to throw it in and have it 'work').

Hehe, seems like the reviews for Studio won't be so good.

EDIT:
@Vexx: what character is it from?

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by tiachopvutru

I see... but I don't find how hard it is to see what people usually recommend... For example:
Raster Image Editor: GIMP
Vector Image Editor: Inkscape
3D Animator: Blender
Publisher: Scribus
Audio Player: usually Amarok , then XMMS and Exaile (sad to say but I don't use any of the advance feature... basically, only playing musics)
Audio Editor: Audacity (don't search for audio editor a lot so I don't know about others)
Video Player: (S)mplayer, VLC (I'm sure a lot less would use VLC if there are mkv containers and softsub outside the anime world)
Video Editor: Cinelerra

Well... basically what I do anyway, get what most people recommend, and only try out others when the mood strikes.

That sort of attitude is what makes us the types of people who are considered to be highly skilled with computers. We know about software, we hear about it, we're not afraid to try it. While downloading and installing random software gets plenty of Windows users in trouble, there are also plenty of users who are terribly afraid of installing anything, including security updates. Many people also have no idea what to download, or where to find it. Does it sound ridiculous?

My father, a Mac user for about 1-2 years longer than I've been using computers, desperately wanted my help when we were switching ADSL providers. I did hardware, and then was about to leave him when he hit a snag: he had to configure his email client to use the new service's servers. He asked me what the servers were - how on earth should I know off the top of my head? Since he had his computer right there I told him to Google it. He opened Google and asked me what he should type. A seasoned computer was lost with simply finding the server names. I gave him the terms (server provider name, SMPT, server address) and it was the first hit. I always wondered how there were such thick books on "How to Use Google" and why they were so popular, but after that I suppose it's not quite surprising.

The point is, we take it for granted. Plenty of people want to just get a computer and have everything there, ready to work. No searching for software, no searching for recommendations, no trying things out - just have it all there and run with it. In this respect I think Mac OS is really doing an excellent job, as there's a very wide variety of software to meet many needs that comes with the system.

Speaking of which, anyone knows if there are any drawback for burning an OS iso on a CD-RW disc? The reason why I'm asking this is because (long, long ago, on the distance planet, although I probably exaggerate) I've read somewhere that it's not preferable... On the other hand... I'm not sure if I would like to install another one since I'm kinda fine with my desktop setup right now, and it's a pain to redo it again. @_@

There are two reasons why CDRW discs aren't as good. The first is that it can be erased. Your OS disc can be critical in times of system problems, and you really don't want to risk it that you or someone else found it and erased it, and used it for something else.

A second reason is that I've heard that CDRW's don't last as long as CDR's. I'm not sure if that was just a rumor, though. If it is true, the time scale is probably years, so it's probably an issue that isn't terribly important, either. The first issue has greater implications.

[teachopvutru]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

That sort of attitude is what makes us the types of people who are considered to be highly skilled with computers. We know about software, we hear about it, we're not afraid to try it. While downloading and installing random software gets plenty of Windows users in trouble, there are also plenty of users who are terribly afraid of installing anything, including security updates. Many people also have no idea what to download, or where to find it. Does it sound ridiculous?

Yes, it sounds rather ridiculous... but looking at it, I find it more the case of people being too dependent or too used of being guided (now, I may sound like a hypocrite since I do it all the time, but still.. )

Well, when it's about a Windows machine, I kind of understand the pain to update/install anything, seeing how a lot of time you have to do the setup in the beginning and when the installation is done, restart (albeit I do that a lot in Ubuntu already due to wireless connection, which I'm not so sure whose fault it belongs to)...

I always wondered how there were such thick books on "How to Use Google" and why they were so popular, but after that I suppose it's not quite surprising.

I have never seen those google books you mention about (I love bookstores but never go to those places much) but I suppose it's possible. I can't comment on the google book, especially after learning that there are more to google than I know about (i.e. after learning of the "site: " search function thingy), plus, I'm not a very good Google searcher either.

There are two reasons why CDRW discs aren't as good. The first is that it can be erased. Your OS disc can be critical in times of system problems, and you really don't want to risk it that you or someone else found it and erased it, and used it for something else.

I don't think I have to worry about the "someone else" parts. The reason why I want to have a CD-RW disc to use installing OS is because, as mentioned, I already waste too many discs for that. For example, I have Ubuntu 6.10, 7.04, 7.10 and Xubuntu 7.04 lying around, most of them I barely use (although I was to blame). Plus, since I have a few computers in my house, I can always reburn a disc when I want to. A few weeks ago, I wanted to try Kubuntu but didn't want to waste another disc, and I didn't find the method of removing ubuntu-desktop and then install kubuntu-desktop very well to my liking. (as in, I prefer a fresh reinstall)

For those who are curious as to why I have several Ubuntu discs lying around, I first decided to try out Ubuntu during summer after the Feisty release. The reason why I had the 6.10 disc was because, at that time, I thought a LTS release would be better, although somehow geared toward 7.04 after installing the 6.10. I don't remember the detail, though. The Xubuntu 7.04 was because one of the primary reasons back then was that I wanted speed, so on the old PC that I installed Ubuntu on, I put on Xubuntu instead. I left that computer for my dad to use so I never used it extensively. But when I heard that Gutsy would have native support for read-write on NTFS, in addition to Compiz Fusion, I decided to start dual-boot on my primary computer. But oh... I had one hell of a time trying to figure out the whole ndiswrapper thing and getting my wireless to work (that missing build-essential package didn't allow me to compile ndiswrapper from source, so I didn't know I missed that package until much later; and in Xubuntu, I had to hunt it on the web and transfer through a USB flash drive after a while of not knowing that there wasn't build-essential in Xubuntu disc =.='')...

A second reason is that I've heard that CDRW's don't last as long as CDR's. I'm not sure if that was just a rumor, though. If it is true, the time scale is probably years, so it's probably an issue that isn't terribly important, either. The first issue has greater implications.

Okay, thanks for the information.

EDIT: Actually, I just remember that 6.06 was the LTS release, I was mistaken @_@ ...