Wallpapers in Linux

Linux wall paper can be an image of almost any format. Since I use KDE, the tools I'm familiar with are in KDE. It is possible to have multiple desktops under Linux. From there it is possible to have individual images for each. Naturally this will eat up memory.

To locate the section which allows the user to set the wall paper, go to the "K menu" (same as the start menu for M$). Look for the control centre. From there select the "Appearence & Themes" item. From there it's the background option. Play around with it and have fun.

Icons on the KDE desktop

Creating an icon on the KDE desktop is really easy. Right-click on a blank section of the desktop. Select "link to application". A dialog box with three tabs will appear. Only the first and third are necessary. The first lets the user select an icon and enter a description. The third allows for a further description as well as the program name, location, and parameters passed to the program. Basically this is the section where the user enters the command needed to run the program. Often it will be the same command needed to start it from the shell.

Something interesting about console DVD units

A friend kept telling me cheap DVD units often contain computer DVD drives. Apparently they are not the same as the more expensive DVD drives. From what she says the cheaper units, containing the computer DVD drives, may not contain the circuitry to deal with zones. This means they are zoneless. The home user may be able to play a DVD bought outside their region.

I told this to another friend. He has a region four DVD (Australia). They had a movie which was not released to DVD in North America. He had a friend order it and ship it from Australia to Canada. Yesterday my friend went in to a lot of retail outlets to see if he could find something to play this DVD. The high end stores had something for over $100. For a single DVD, this wasn't appropriate. At one of the big box stores he found something for $35 (on sale). The sales person actually tried the DVD with the player. As soon as he gets the unit to the cash it rang in at $75. He said it was too much. I guess he's going to have to keep looking.

Public Domain/Free movies online

The web site (linked below) archives a number of old movies for historical purposes. There are lots of movies on the site.

Internet Archive: Moving Images

Christmas music trivia

I've always admired people who could draw. The same goes for musicians (I'm not bad but not great either). So, I suppose people could say I'm into animated cartoons. I pick up on trivia.

I heard on 20/20 tonight the author of the Peanuts theme (Linus and Lucy) was Vince Guaraldi and the movie it was from is "A Charlie Brown Christmas". If anybody likes the music they now know who to look for and the title of the song.

More *NIX info

When working with a command line or shell it is possible to string multiple commands together on one line with a ";". For example "ls ; df" will execute the "ls" then the "df".

Another tip for *NIX users

Occasionally commands can get too complex to enter on a command line. Perhaps the command is a very common one which is used frequently. Maybe there is a series of commands. The solution is a shell script. Enter all the commands into a text file. After exiting the file, perform a "chmod 700" on the file. This turns the text file into a shell script. Shell scripts can still be edited with a text editor.

It is best to set up the shell script so it can be invoked from any directory. Then the script can be moved to a location where it may be invoked from anywhere. This information is contained in the "PATH" environment variable.

Canadian election important for computer users

The Liberal (the party in power) government introduced a bill in the last session (C60) which amends the copyright act. Having read the bill on the House of Commons web site, I have to wonder if any of these people "get it"...

The bill effectively ends all back up and fair use rights for material less than 40 years old (all those MP3s and videos become illegal over night and can result in jail and/or heavy fines). My MP (Member of Parliament) claimed it was to protect starving artists. Yet in the bill itself the only new thing the artist could do is to walk up to anybody and say "I don't want you using my work". The vast majority of the changes benefit the distributors/owners of the work (eg. the recording industry). There are heavy fines which get paid to the recording industry (the artist doesn't see a cent). The issue of what happens if someone walks down the street with a boombox playing a CD is addressed. They are in violation of the copyright laws.

Additionally, this bill makes experimentation/learning on ones own illegal if the person uses copyrighted work. For example, I am experimenting with burning video DVDs under Linux. If I create a video from clips (there was a 30 second rule of thumb for fair use) and an MP3, it would be illegal unless both the clips and the MP3 were more than 40 years old.

ISPs will have to "tattle tale" on their customers if the bill is reintroduced and passed. The hardware necessary for the ISPs to do this will increase the costs to the consumer and slow down the net.

Although my MP said this was a 100% Canadian bill, I noticed the authors used an American spell checker to correct the document. Therefore I suspect the bill was authored after influence was placed on the government by certain American institutions.

Presuming this is true, I can't imagine the Conservatives (aka Tories, Born Again Tories, BATs) having the backbone to reject anything coming from the States.

The disturbing thing is although the consumer went out and bought legal media contain a legal piece of work from a legal source, the right to use it can be removed at a whim of any number of people if this bill passes.

In Canada slightly more than half the people vote in federal elections. The MPs get elected by margins of 10% - 20%. Therefore if enough people went out and voted the results could be changed. Even if protest voters voted for someone else, it could scare the politicians into listening if the margin of victory were only 10 votes or someone unexpected gained position.

A *NIX tip for shell users

When changing from one directory to another it is often useful to be able to return to the starting point. The command "pushd" acts just like the "cd" command except it remembers the directory in which it was invoked. The "popd" command is the other half of this pair of useful commands. It returns the user to the directory they were at before they issued the "pushd". It is possible to issue many "pushd" commands before issuing a "popd". In this situation the "popd" will return the user to the point where they issued the matching pushd.

Does hardware matter any more?

Given the way some programs are being distributed the hardware doesn't matter. *NIX programs are typically distributed as source code. Whether the platform is a Mac with OS X or a PC with Linux, it doesn't matter. Here is a link to the article.

http://www.callapple.org/articles/callapple05121601.htm

Very interesting site with flash animations

This site is run by two brothers as a commercial operation. New animations are free. They sell the archives. Be prepared to be amused and offended by the humor displayed by these two.

http://www.jibjab.com/Home.aspx

VMWare player updated

Since this is the first post here on VMWare I think a bit of background is in order. VMWare is a program which lets the user run a number of virtual machines (the "VM" part of the name) on a single PC. The program is not cheap, but they do have a free 30 day trial. There are versions for M$, Linux/BSD, and Solaris. The user installs what ever operating system they want in a newly created virtual machine. Because it is running a guest operating system within a host operating system, it's best not to use a lightweight or older computer. Most computers within the last three years should be fine if they have enough RAM and hard drive space.

VMWare has decided to split off the player module and make it free to the public. They also have a number of free virtual machines the public can download (I'd like them to put up a BSD). Virtual machines created with the 30 day trial (at least the one I used a while ago) are compatable with the player. I have an older copy of Windows in a VM (yes I am a registered owner of Windows - the shame of it all). The effect of the last update was to improve the speed and sound. With another application running under my host operating system (FC 2), games and other applications are not as choppy as they were before the update.

The player can be found at the following link.
http://www.vmware.com/products/player/

Why Macintosh users should not call their machines Apples

This is a strong opinion darn it!

As an old Apple// guy from the early 1980's I am constantly bothered by PC people and Mac newbies who claim to be having problems with their "Apples". It is really an annoying situation and Apple computers does nothing to discourage it.

Although Apple computers makes the Macintosh, they previously made a very different computer called the Apple// (pronounced Apple 2). This was a very popular machine up until Apple computers decided to cease production because it was competing with it's more expensive, proprietary, and closed arcitecture system called the Macintosh. Even today people are still using the Apple//. There are also active groups of people world wide. Searching for "apple2" in google will give some interesting results.

Next is the labelling of the product. Apple computers does not label their Macintosh line as "Apple". Although the Apple logo is there, none of them are labelled "Apple". They are all labelled with a variation of "Macintosh". On the other hand all Apple// computers produced by Apple computers are labelled "Apple".

Finally Apple// users having been there first tend to get rather annoyed when their favourite machine is confused with the machine which caused its premature death. There is not an Apple// user out there who won't correct the improper usage of the name. Feelings run so deep Apple computers is running scared from their old customers. They have (through their tech support department) gone so far as to say there never was an Apple//.

The need for user groups

This is largely an opinion. There are a lot of people out there with computer problems. This is evidenced by a lot of the "Geek squad" type companies out there. The problem with companies like this and other "tech support" solutions is the user doesn't learn anything and has to phone the same people over and over. Sometimes paying large amounts of money for a simple fix.

How to and "dummies" books are OK but the information presented may not be exactly what the user needs. The more techincal books are fine for someone like myself but may not be suitable for everybody else.

User groups are generally open to the public. Sometimes they are free. In addition to coming up with a general solution, the user will learn there are often several solutions to a problem. Furthermore it helps the user take responsibility for their own system.

An interesting X-Mas video

Hamish fired me the URL to a good video. It is so good I thought I'd share it with everybody.

http://members.cox.net/transam57/lights.wmv

Quick look at Open Office 2.0 and ODF

I'm very impressed with what's been done with Open Office. There are a lot of improvements over the previous version. Here is a link to an article I wrote on the topic.

http://www.callapple.org/articles/callapple05121501.htm