I am Ubuntu

With this new “I am PC” commercial out on the airwaves now, I had to take to time to confess that I am not PC but I am Ubuntu. If anything I am Tux. Ubuntu is my OS. Ubuntu is not a perfect OS but it is still great. I noticed that a few folks out there hang to WIndoze for no reason but just the fact that its windoze. What does that mean? Well, personally that means absolutely nothing. The average user surfs, checks email, listens to music, watches vids, zip and unzips archives and view pictures. The average user may be a PC but I am Ubuntu.

Are you Ubuntu?

How To: Disable Internet Explorer

Since IE is the primary target for hackers when it comes to browsers, I would highly suggest that you disable it. Here’s how:

• Open up IE

• Go to Tools, internet options, Connections, LAN Settings

• Put a check next to the box that says “Use a Proxy Server for your LAN …”

• Type in “0.0.0.0″ in the address box and “80″ in the Port box. Don’t type in the quote marks of course, just what’s inside them.

• Click OK

What did you just do? You just set up a dummy proxy that goes nowhere. No data in and no data out. Rather than uninstalling it you can do this. I wouldn’t recommend uninstalling it though but it’s your machine; do what you feel is best.

Chromium

What is chromium?

Chromium is an open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web. Chromium is available for mac and linux. Please leave your thoughts on it. I will download it as soon as I get to my ubuntu.

Ubuntu Tweak

Ubuntu Tweak is an application designed to configure Ubuntu easier for everyone. It provided many usefull desktop and system options that the default desktop environment isn’t provided. At present, It is only designed for Ubuntu GNOME Desktop, and often follows the newest Ubuntu distribution.

You can grab it here.

To add the repository to your machine, do the following in your terminal:

• sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

And put the two line into it:

• deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/tualatrix/ubuntu hardy main
• deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/tualatrix/ubuntu hardy main

Then update the source and install or upgrade Ubuntu Tweak:

• sudo apt-get update

• sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

if you have installed, just type:

• sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Thanks “tualatrix” for this wonderful program.

Pidgin: Plugin Pack + Guification + Facebook Chat + Gmail Check

Who says no to a pidgin plugin pack? No one I know, especially if you are using pidgin as your messaging client in ubuntu. See the picture below:

Ubuntu: Install Extras and Fonts

This scripts installs tons of fonts, DVD and multimedia codecs to your system. I ran this on the T41 and it was fabulous.

Here’s a quote from from the maker, Robbie Ferguson:

When Hardy was released, Automatix closed it’s support for Ubuntu.  This left a large gap in the “quick and easy” market for multimedia codec installation.  perfecthardy is a Linux script built specifically for Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04, and it makes the installation of all your multimedia, DVD, fonts, etc. so very easy.

From the file:

# To install this file:  download it by saving it to your desktop, or wherever.
# Then, right-click the file, click Properties, and choose the Permissions tab.
# Check off “Allow Executing File as Program”.
# Now, just run the file in terminal.

File is located here. Thanks Robbie.

How To: Network Manager 0.7 SVN

Before doing this, if you are using a WIFI connection, I would suggest changing to an Ethernet.
If your connection breaks, make sure you can get your network up manually. Do not attempt to do this
if having a connection is critical for you. If it’s any consolation I do run this myself but I also have a test machine to try things before adding them to my main laptop which is the dual core dell 1525. Do this at your own risk.

Who is this guy?

Who is this guy? Robbie Ferguson is a tech from canada that’s helps anyone that either calls in or ask questions about tech stuff. The show streams live and the chat room is listed on the page  when the show is about the go live. The show airs here on tuesdays at 7 or 19:00 EST. It’s a great show. I’ve been watching his show for about 4 weeks now and he has the shows archived on his site. I also took the time to check the archives out, there’s quite a bit of shows in the past that focused on ubuntu (which I dig). It seems though that ubuntu is talked about quite a bit but any questions that is tech related can be asked and he will help you with them. I watch cat5 on my ubuntu laptop (either the T41 or Dell 1525). You can download the shows at MP4s and this past tuesday they introduced the audio stream which im sure you can download to you MP3 player. So who is this guy, this guy is the guy to watch if you have that hour on tuesdays. If you miss it, you can still download the show. Out of 5 stars, he and his recently added co-host gets a 4.9. I don’t give perfect scores, it gives room for improvement. There is always room for improvement.

Ultamatix

In a nutshell, although this program is great for setting up programs and get quite a bit going quickly for new users in the beginning, I would be in the new users best interest to take some time and read some help documents from the ubuntu community.

Jaunty Jackalope

Seriously, who comes up with these names? If you haven’t heard, this is the name of the next ubuntu release after intrepid ibex due next month. As far as I know about this creature, looks like an antelope and rabbit antlers.