Tech Thoughts

Setting / Forcing / Changing Ubuntu 11.10 Screen Resolution to optimum

This is an update post to the post Setting / Forcing / Changing Fedora 15 or Ubuntu Screen Resolution to optimum. Please read the steps given in that article till step no 8 before proceeding forward. 

**This update only applies for Ubuntu 11.10**

1. Create a script called ‘screenres.sh’ at /usr/share. 
   You can do this by giving command : sudo nano /usr/share/screenres.sh
   This is going to be our xrandr script.
2. Paste all the command in this script, in this case it will be :
   xrandr —newmode ”1680x1050_60.00”  146.25  1680 1784 1960 2240  1050 1053 1059 1089 -hsync +vsync
   xrandr —addmode VGA1 1680x1050_60.00
   xrandr —output VGA1 —mode 1680x1050_60.00
   
   Save the file.
3. Make it executable : sudo chmod a+x /usr/share/screenres.sh
4. Now modify file lightdm.conf in /etc/lightdm/ folder
   This will be done by using command : sudo nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
5. Now add these lines to the end of file :
   #for login screen
   display-setup-script=/usr/share/screenres.sh
   #for each session
   session-setup-script=/usr/share/screenres.sh 
6. Save the file.
7. Restart to check the settings and whether it works properly or not.

How to get inbox icon / message icon for your tumblr + also add Shuffle/Random icon to it.

I assume you are able to edit a tumblr theme. If not go on your tumble blog from dashboard and click ‘Customize Theme’ from right side bar then look for ‘Edit HTML’ button on theme selection and customization page. This will open up the theme editor. Scroll to extereme down and just before </body> tag paste the below lines.

<a style=”display:block; position:absolute; top:50px; right:75px;” href=”/ask”><img src=”http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lbn53eIdvG1qaeovi.png” alt=’Ask Me’></a>

<a style=”display:block; position:absolute; top:50px; right:3px; ” href=”/random”><img src=”http://static.tumblr.com/dbcxhwx/padke8y7x/oy9npboai5k99ruwwrs7l61l_500.png” alt=’Random Post’></a>

Now click on ‘Update Preview’ button to check if it’s showing. Once done Save the Theme. And you should now have a ‘Message Me’ and a random ‘Shuffle’ icon.

The Linux Setup - Jon “maddog” Hall, Linux International

mylinuxrig:

Jon “maddog” Hall is a bit of a legend in the Linux community, so it’s truly an honor to have his participation here. Jon makes a number of interesting (and, of course, provactive points). For instance, he chooses his distribution based upon his client, rather than choosing what he personally prefers. And he gravitates toward software that offers the most functionality, rather than the easiest, which is an interesting counterpoint to the many in the “choose the simplest tool for the job” camp.

Jon’s passion comes through in his answers and it’s a real treat to get the perspective of someone who’s pretty much been using Linux since the beginning.

You can find more of The Linux Setup here.

You can follow us on Google+ here.

1. Who are you, and what do you do?

   Those are good questions. I am Jon “maddog” Hall, and for the past seventeen years I have been the Executive Director of Linux International. That fact and 350 USD will get you a cup of coffee at most Starbucks…..

   I have also been in the computer industry since 1969 and worked on all sorts of computers including mainframes that had less than one-quarter megabyte of core memory and micros that had less than 1K bytes of semi-conductor memory. I have stored data on paper tape at the rate of 10 bytes per linear inch, and actually programmed computers for a living that could not store their own programs in memory…they were controlled by wiring a plug board. Yes, this makes me old….

   Along the way I have been a programmer, systems administrator, college educator, product manager, technical marketing manager, author and trouble-maker.

Continue reading…

So Yahoo! has turned into patent troll and suing facebook…

And whole world seems to hate Yahoo! But Face’Book’ is also a ‘copyright’ troll and a ‘patent troll’ in making. 

Installing Windows 8 Consumer Preview in UEFI mode in Dual boot with Windows 7 through bootable USB.

So yesterday night I gave a try to Windows 8 Consumer Preview. It perfectly installed on Virtual Machine, but since I had a 320 GB HDD lying unused with me I thought why not put it in and test drive it in real mode.

Now I have a SandyBridge Z68 motherboard with UEFI. I had previously installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64 I a GPT disk in pure UEFI mode (since that is only possible in UEFI mode) but through a DVD (which of course was auto-detected as UEFI). I had various reasons to do so apart from being an early adopter or an enthusiast. Task in-front of me now was to install Windows 8 CP in dual-boot mode with Windows 7.

*This method also works to create a Windows 7 x64 bootable USB in UEFI mode.*

Continue reading…

Seems a computer engineer, a systems analyst, and a programmer were driving down a mountain when the brakes gave out.  They screamed down the mountain, gaining speed, but finally managed to grind to a halt, more by luck than anything else, just inches from a thousand foot drop to jagged rocks.  

They all got out of the car:

The computer engineer said, “I think I can fix it.”
The systems analyst said, “No, no, I think we should take it into town and have a specialist look at it.”
The programmer said, “OK, but first I think we should get back in and see if it does it again.”

Taking care of your eyes while working on computer. :)

If you are reading this, chances are you are most probably a an avid computer user. You must be spending lot of time in front of the computer staring at screen. And if you are anything like me, right now you must be staring at ‘2’ large monitors in-front of you at same time and spend 15+ hours doing so everyday.  In this busy routine, I realised, I forget and completely neglect to take care of my eyes who are doing this heavy task of looking at screen and passing all that raw the info to the brain. While reading an article about the ‘choosing right font size in web designs’ (which btw according to author of article is 16 pixels), I came upon a fact that it’s advisable to sit 28-inch apart from the screen. That lead me to bing some articles over internet of what most people have to say about it.

Here are few tips which I find to be helpful :

1. Maintain a proper viewing angle : From what I read, one should look at screen from 28 inches (roughly 72 centimeters) away from the center of the screen and eye level should be around 4-6 inches (depending upon your height) above the center of the screen. I find this to be comfortable.
   
    
2. Adjust environment for proper lighting : Screen throw lots of light, and I mean ‘lots of light’ on our delicate eyes to handle. Longer duration of work and staring at screen would tell you that. One of the way recommend to me was to have the background lighting to cancel the light coming from screen. best way to achieve this would be room lighting falling from the roof top. I noticed, if any light or window is open and is just behind the screen it will make it harder to read, causing more strain to the eyes.  Important thing here is that no light source should be placed exactly opposite the screen. Screen brightness and contrast should also be adjust according to the environment so that it is comfortable on eyes. Try to avoid dark environments (I know these are quite tempting to the geeks, especially for me).
   
    
3. Adjust those fonts :  Many a times we forget while reading that fonts on web-pages or for that matter for any computer program can be adjusted. Not every webpage or website that we visit plays nice with the fonts. Fortunately, we can check this, and adjust font to proper size for reading and according to our comfort levels. Here, is the shortcut to increase or decrease font size : hold Ctrl + scroll Up / Down. This works across most of the browsers. Also it’s good to adjust computer resolution to a one with which you are comfortable with.
   
    
4. Take rest :  No matter how much you take the above precautions, this one is going to save your eyes. Take adequate breaks at regular interval. Even while, you are working on computer, remember to blink your eyes. It keeps them fresh and prevents them from drying. Also, it’s not only about our eyes but also about our neck that we should care about. It’s good to do some light neck exercises while one is working on computer. Some light stretch could also be helpful.  If possible, do weekly or bi-weekly exercise ‘Tratak’. Apart form the meditative benefits and calming effects, it also is very good for eyes.
   
    
5. Stare at colours ( this one is mine:) ) : Colours (depending on which shade or colours you are looking at) have a certain effect on our minds. I find, gently gazing at  some colour or beautiful scenery ( no not on your computer screens) is also beneficial for eyes. 
   
    
6. If you like these tips, please share these with your friends. :D

This is most of it that I have read and wanted to share. :)
If you find that there is any mistake or if there are tips that you would want to share, please do inform me through my ask box. :) 

Take Care of your eyes. :D 

Apple employee CHRIS ESPINOSA, remarking on Amazon’s Kindle Fire.

Lost in the “Is it an iPad Killer?” hype is the audacious introduction of the Silk browser. Under the guise of increasing speed (on WiFi; there is no 3G Fire where download speed would be a larger issue), Amazon is performing astonishing jujitsu on Google.

The “split browser” notion is that Amazon will use its EC2 back end to pre-cache user web browsing, using its fat back-end pipes to grab all the web content at once so the lightweight Fire-based browser has to only download one simple stream from Amazon’s servers. But what this means is that Amazon will capture and control every Web transaction performed by Fire users. Every page they see, every link they follow, every click they make, every ad they see is going to be intermediated by one of the largest server farms on the planet. People who cringe at the data-mining implications of the Facebook Timeline ought to be just floored by the magnitude of Amazon’s opportunity here. Amazon now has what every storefront lusts for: the knowledge of what other stores your customers are shopping in and what prices they’re being offered there. What’s more, Amazon is getting this not by expensive, proactive scraping the Web, like Google has to do; they’re getting it passively by offering a simple caching service, and letting Fire users do the hard work of crawling the Web. In essence the Fire user base is Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, scraping the Web for free and providing Amazon with the most valuable cache of user behavior in existence.

And all of this on Google’s dime. They use a back-revved version of Android, not Honeycomb; they don’t use Google’s web browser; they can intermediate user click through on Google search results so Google doesn’t see the actual user behavior. Google’s whole play of promoting Android in order to aggregate user behavior patterns to sell to advertisers is completely subverted by Amazon’s intermediation. Fire isn’t a noun, it’s a verb, and it’s what Amazon has done in the targeted direction of Google. This is the first shot in the new war for replacing the Internet with a privatized merchant data-aggregation network.”

Apple employee CHRIS ESPINOSA, remarking on Amazon’s Kindle Fire via his personal blog.

j0ethought : A story of a few scientists, artists and madmen

This is the story of a few men, their passion to build something bigger than themselves and their revolution - and a story of the American dream.

MEET THE PROTAGONISTS 

 John Lasseter was an animator who saw the benefit in employing computers to do animation, previously done only with pencils on paper. John was fired early on in his career, from Disney. He was fired after working on project that used innovative computer technology (light cycle sequences, multiplane cameras that were not bound by gravity) because the project ultimately cost more in producing animation than when done the traditional way.

Ed Catmull - A physicist/engineer who made experimental feature length movies using computers. Ed had decided be part of a revolution that he saw coming from the very beginning while working at NYIT producing computer graphics technology - 

George Lucas - A successful film producer who hired Ed Catmull from NYIT to found Lucasfilm. Due to sudden revenue depletion after the Star Wars movies, Lucas did not want to continue as part of the company. So he sold the company to -

Steve Jobs - the visionary engineer/CEO - who while in search of something unique and full of passion after Apple, finds Lucasfilm. After the cash flow problems at Lucasfilm and rumors of the company’s degradation, the scientists, engineers and artists couldn’t be more enthralled at Steve’s purchase of Lucasfilm.

Continue reading…