Learning to review…

It has been a long time since I have blogged about anything. Of course, lazyness is a man’s greatest enemy. These days I learned nothing but a wide variety of ways to waste time productively. uh… I meant to write short reviews for some films I have seen lately, so, here goes…

Me and my friends saw Rab ne bana di jodi at Ragam Theatre, Thrissur. We went there with great expectations about the film. I can say, I was not dissapointed at all. I am not much of a ‘reviewer’. So I’ll  just say I loved the film. The film is about a man who disguises himself to make his life happy. It is a slow one, still you don’t get bored. The songs are simply great. Shahruk is beginning to show his age, but he has not lost his charm. One feels the ‘King Khan Effect’ all through the film. Anushka Sharma is good.

The next fillm I saw this week was Lollipop at Radha, Calicut. I went with my parents because they compelled me to. All the reviews I heard about the film were surprisingly bad. But I have to say, the Lollipop team had me change my opinon. There was so much to laugh. Every one was simply stunning. I espessially liked Salim Kumar and Suraj. The only thing I didn’t like about the film was the climax. It was so poor and I knew why some of my friends warned me not to watch the film. I would say the film is worth watching if you are not a lover of those ‘good films’.

The very next day I saw Ghajini at Davison, Calicut. We managed to get the tickets and find good seats. I haven’t yet seen the Tamil version of Ghajini, so the plot was totally new to me in vision though I have heared the story. Also I have watched ‘Memento’ which is the story of a man with a similiar ailment. The film is worth watching. Asin and Aamir rocked. I would see the film again just to see their face expressions. I would advise you to watch Memento too.

Testing the blog applet for gnome panel…

Just came across a gnome panel applet.

Package name : gnome-blog

FSUGTSR : A WINDOW TO FREEDOM

FSUGTSR

I have never been this happy when writing a blog post. We just returned after the very first, successful event of the Free Software users’ Group, Thrissur, ‘A WINDOW TO FREEDOM’. The program was a big hit. Finally all the hard work payed off. The registrations were around 400.

Prof.Manoj Kumar, HOD, CSE, GEC,Thrissur inaugurated the function.

The talks were all illuminating(with an exception of mine. …well, a demo of compiz fusion has some limits). The following people handled the sessions.

Hiran -Free software philosophy

Mahesh – Introduction to GNU/Linux

Hussain – Introduction to malayalam computing

Aswin(me) – Compiz fusion and desktop environments

Suresh – Malayalam Input Methods

Jain -Commonly used GNU/Linux tools.

Devidas & Alex -Ubuntu Installation Demo

Unni – Troubleshooting

DVDs of various distros were provided to the attendees.We provide them Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian Lenny and BOSSlinux. C-DAC provided us the DVDs of BOSSlinux. The install fest was a success. People came with laptops to get them installed with GNU/Linux. We installed Ubuntu 8.04.

The ‘developers’ had a little talk after that. And then we had a masala dosa each.

Future plans of FSUGTSR wil be promptly posted. For those who have not yet joined, please click here to join our mailing list.

The next planned event is Insignia 3.0, Hackerdom conducted by the CSE Dept. of Govt. Engineering college, Thrissur.

I got a new destop look…..

As many people have pointed out, i am mad about good looking destops themes even though it costs me a large amount of RAM. By themes I mean a good looking desktop which is usable and appealing. It’s really a good thing i switched to ubuntu. I can now have my own desktop style.(That’s not the only reason though. It is the best OS i have ever seen).

See my screenshots.

You need to have some themes. You can select the ones which u like. the icon theme i used is Blood drops.You can download some good themes from here.

I deleted the top panel. Increased the bottom panel width to 40 and added some applets to the panel.

The arrows you see in the left edge of the screen are also panels. Just right click on any panel and click add new panel. Uncheck expand.  Check the show hide buttons. I ncrease the panel width to about 70. Drag the panel to position(Drag by clicking the middle button).

Resize the icons as you wish(Just right click and there is the option). The firefox icon in the desktop is not a part of the wall paper. It is an icon!!!

‘Boycott Novell’ boycotted from Free software conference!!!

Manhandling free software activists at National Free Software conference wreaked havoc at CUSAT were the event was held. The activists were putting up posters saying “BOYCOTT NOVELL” at the exhibition stalls.

The Novell corp. had their own stall at the exhibition and were one of the official sponsors of the programme. Giving Novell the position is almost as good as putting up a sign saying “I support Microsoft!”

Some of us were having a heated argument ourselves at a stall where students were using Windows to play a video related to compiz fusion, when the argument started. There were also stalls with people citing the so called ‘User friendlyness’ of windows’.

The organizers and the security manhandled Anivar Aravind, a former student of CUSAT and a well known free software activist despite the fact that he was the one who fought hard to bring free software to the institution.

For more details see Arky’s blog

Read manorama online in ubuntu using firefox(again…!)

There is a better answer than installing padma.(i learned this after i wrote my previous post)

This is also a guide to installing Windows ttf fonts in ubuntu. Manorama provides the font in their own site. Download it from here.

Now we need a package called msttcorefonts in ubuntu. Type sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts in your terminal.(or click here to install it).

Now open your home directory. make a folder there and name it ‘.fonts’ (take care to put the .)

[For those who need to know more putting a . hides your folder. Press Ctrl+H to show all hidden folders]

O.K coming back.

Copy the font to the folder.(Copy any ttf font you want there.)

The font will be installed once you reboot. But if you don’t want to do that open your terminal.

Type sudo fc-cache -fv

Close firefox and load the page again.

എന്റെ മലയാളം ബ്ളോഗ്.

എന്റെ ബ്ളോഗില്‍ മലയാളത്തില്‍ ഒരു പോസ്റ്റ്. ഒരുപാടു കാലത്തെ ആഗ്രഹമായിരുന്നു അത്. ഇന്നാണ് അത് സാധിച്ചത്. എന്താണ് എഴുതണ്ടതെന്ന് കുറെ നേരം ആലോചിച്ചു. അവസാനം ഞാന്‍ മലയാളം ബ്ലോഗ്  എഴുതാനുണ്ടായ സാഹചര്യത്തെ പറ്റിത്തന്നെ എഴുതാമെന്ന് തീരുമാനിച്ചു.

സ്വതന്ത്ര മലയാളം കംപ്യുടിങ്ങ് എന്ന പേര് കോളേജില്‍ ചേരുന്നതിനു മുന്‍പു തന്നെ കേട്ടു തുടങ്ങിയതാണ്. കോളേജില്‍ ചേര്‍ന്നതിനു ശേഷം SMCയെ പറ്റി കൂടുതല്‍ മനസ്സിലാക്കാന്‍ പറ്റി. ആദ്യമൊന്നും കംപ്യുട്ടറില്‍ മലയാളം വരുന്നതില്‍ വലിയ കാര്യമൊന്നും തോന്നിയില്ല. അങ്ങനെയിരിക്കെയാണ് ബ്ലോഗിങ്ങില്‍ താത്പര്യം തോന്നിയത്. മലയാളത്തില്‍ ബ്ലോഗിനെ പറ്റി അന്ന് ചിന്തിച്ചു പോലുമില്ല. ആലപ്പുഴയില്‍ നടക്കുന്ന ബ്ലോഗ് ക്യംപിനെ പറ്റി കേട്ടത് അപ്പോളാണ്. സ്ഥിരമായി മലയാളത്തില്‍ ബ്ലോഗ് എഴുതുന്നവരെ പറ്റി കേള്‍ക്കുന്നത് അവിടെ നിന്നാണ്. Kerala Farmer എന്ന പേരില്‍ അറിയപ്പെടുന്ന ചന്ദ്രശേഖരന്‍ നായര്‍ ആണ് എനിക്കു പ്രചോദനമായത്. അന്നു മുതല്‍ ഞാന്‍ മലയാളം ബ്ലോഗുകള്‍ വായിച്ചു തുടങ്ങി.

മലയാളത്തില്‍ ടൈപ്പ് ചെയ്യാനുള്ള വഴികളെ കുറിച്ചായി പിന്നീട്  എന്റെ അന്വേഷനം. കീബോര്‍ഡ് ലേ ഔട്ട് മാറ്റിയാല്‍ അത് മലയാളം ടൈപ് റൈറ്റര്‍ പോലെ പ്രവര്ത്തിക്കുമെന്ന് മനസ്സിലായി. അത് പഠിക്കല്‍ നടപ്പില്ല എന്നു മനസ്സിലായപ്പോള്‍ ഒരു onscreen keyboard തപ്പി കുറെ നടന്നു. പിന്നെയാണ് transliteration-നെ പറ്റി ആലോചിച്ചത്. SMC-യുടെ site-ല്‍ നിന്ന് അതിന്റെ ഉത്തരം ലഭിച്ചു. SCIM എന്ന ആ സോഫ്ട് വേറിന്റെ സഹായത്തോടെയാണ് ഞാന്‍ ഈ പോസ്റ്റ് എഴുതിയത്.

എനിക്ക് ഇഷ്ടപ്പെട്ട കുറച്ചു മലയാളം ബ്ലോഗുകള്‍ ഇതാ :

http://berlythomas.blogspot.com/

http://kodakarapuranam.blogspot.com/

http://entebhaasha.blogspot.com/

Freedom reborn!!

The Free Software Users Group, Thrissur has abandoned its state of inactivity and is planning for its rebirth. I was lucky enough to be present in the what Hiran called a zeroth meeting of the FSUGTSR.

Pramode sir presided over the meeting in which we discussed various activities which the FSUGTSR plans to conduct. Among this, joining The Freedom Walk will be our first task. The first official meeting will be conducted at Govt. Engineering College, Thrissur soon along with an install fest.A lot of tasks are to follow.

The need for such a users group is obvious. I experienced many difficulties when i wanted to switch from Windows to Linux. The major problem i faced was the lack of CD sources. Of course, I know now that the isos are freely available for download from the internet. But at that time all i had was a 56k dial-up connection which only connected to the internet when it felt like. Everywhere i went, every Hardware dealer, had copies of Windows(needless to say, pirated) only. I got one from Canonical Ltd. who shipped them freely to me. (I owe them a lot, but for them i would have been stuck with windows). If i got stuck up somewhere doing somethin, i had noone to ask. There was one instance when i had to reinstall ubuntu when all i had to do was a simple diskcheck. We aim to put all that to an end and to become a support group to all those who need it.

The web site of FSUGTSR has been modified and is up. There is nothing much to write about this now. But i am too excited, not to make a blog post. Updates will be posted later.

Get ctrl+alt+del working in ubuntu

Ctrl+Alt+Del is something a windows user needs when the computer hangs. So he needs to use it very frequently. The need for something like that in ubuntu is completely pointless. But this guide can also help you assign shortcuts to a no. of other applications. We have 10 user definable commands in ubuntu. Let us start then.

First i shall introduce you to an application similiar to the task manager in windows.

Goto System –> Administration –> System Monitor go to the processes tab.

Now to run this applicaion when we press Ctrl+alt+del.

Press Alt+F2 . The run dialog box appears. Type gconf-editor and press Enter.

Goto Applications –> Metacity . We need two sections here.  Global key Bindings(It lets you define the shortcuts) & keybinding commands(lets you define the commands to be run).

now in global_keybindings, type in the value of run_command_1 to be ” <Control><Alt>Delete ” (without quotes)

in keybinding_commands, type in the value of command_1 to be ” gnome-system-monitor “

Now press ctrl+alt+del. Voila!

(in my case only left ctrl+alt works. please comment me yours)

Now as you might have guessed, there are 9 more customizable commands. Let us try those.

select global_keybindings . I will give you some idea on how to create commands.

ctrl+alt+e                – <Control><Alt>e

alt+F2                     – <Alt>F2

super(windows)+d     – <Mod4>d

Set your own keybinding commands.

now under keybinding_commands you can select what application should run when you press the keys. Just give the command to run the application under value.

Here another problem arises. We have to know what command runs the application. I will tell you what i do.

i create a launcher in my desktop by rightclicking. (see the screenshot)

now rightclick on the launcher, select properties and go to Launcher tab.

you get the command to run the application. You can now delete the launcher from the desktop.

Let us do something interesting. Set the keybinding to, say <Control><Alt>e.

Let the command be ” eject “. Now press Ctrl+alt+e . Good, isn’t it. The command to reverse it is “eject -t “.

Make your terminal window transparent

Bored with the black and white terminal?? Here is something for you

It is really simple in fact. Open your terminal, goto edit–>current profile

Select the colours tab.

Change the following :

Text color : #0EFF00

Background Color : #000000  (u can have anything u want. this is something i liked)

Goto Effects tab, and you know what to do for transparency