I think Apple may have been very clever!

Needing to upgrade my computer and having the funds to do so, I have made the decision to buy a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 24" iMac and I have come to this decision after a number of weeks of assessing my options.

I started out using Macs in the early 90's having purchased a 9" Mac SE and continued using them, my last being a grape 266mhz iMac which I still have, until early in the new millenium when I moved to a Windows based PC. However, for the past 18 months I have become a convert to Linux and have been running Kubuntu! I have continued to run Windows XP on an older desktop using mainly Open Source software and a few other applications that required Windows that Linux will still not deal with!

My original intention was to purchase a powerful Dell desktop or similar with Linux installed and running Windows virtually aiming to spend $3000 in total. Apart from the fact it works so well, I really like Linux because it is Open Source and philosophically I support that notion so going and buying an Apple machine from an organisation that is arguably more proprietorial than Microsoft seems an odd thing to do.

However, I have been seduced back into the Mac fold for a number of reasons:

1. The latest OS is without peer and chock full of excellent features and I really want to be using it.
   
2. The software supplied with a Mac is top quality, highly functional and can only increase my productivity.
3. I can run Windows and Linux virtually and practically seamlessly providing me with an extraordinarily capable machine.
4. With an education discount, I can get the iMac, pay for the 3 year warranty and purchase an additional 2GB of memory for $3000 and I get a 24" screen.
   
5. It is based on Unix and uses Intel processors.
   

This last point is where I think Apple have been very clever in regard to their strategy to combat the threat of Linux as the debacle of Vista provides further opportunity to gather an increased following.
Now that Mac is Intel based it is easier to port Linux software to the Mac and open source pundits can appease our philosophical obligations and run all our favourite applications like Open Office Aqua, GIMP, Inkscape, Scribus etc within MAC OS X so I am thinking I don't actually need to have a Linux virtual machine!
Very clever indeed!

Knoppix

My laptop's hard drive collapsed a couple of weeks ago and I have been continuing to use it by running initially the RIP Linux Distribution which has worked really well allowing me to access the internet through my local network with very little need to manually configure.

However it is a little lacking in usable software so I have switched to using the Knoppiz Live DVD and I have a much more usable system again with very little manual setting up required. Everything works just fine. So I am pretty impressed actually and have acquired the Knoppix Hacks publication and am working my way through it with interest. I love it's swiss army knife persona and usefulness as a repair tool. I have even downloaded a cd version of it for use on older PCs.
I have finally got around to ordering a new hard drive and am seriously considering installing Knoppix rather than Ubuntu as Knoppix uses KDE by default saving me the need to install the Kubuntu desktop in the Ubuntu edition of Gutsy that I have.
Well worth a look if you haven't done so before.

Back to an open source OS again at last!

Not quite there yet but i am almost back to Kubuntu, just loading down the desktop to install as we speak and I am looking forward very much to experiencing KDE4. So I am writing this in Gnome on my laptop which is now entirely GNU/Linux based.


Funnily enough rather than installing a GNU/Linux OS on my oldest computer, I have installed Windows XP Professional on my old PC as I still need to go back to Windows for the odd task or two (webcam and composition) and it is chuffing along nicely.

KDE for Windows and Mac

Following the release of KDE 4, I was very interested to read that the KDE development team are hoping to port this brilliant new desktop environment and it's supported applications to both the Windows and Apple platforms natively!
Got to be a good thing!

The Windows packages are already available for developers to hop in to and the MAC OS X packages are in development.
The goal is to have both ports out of beta status by the time KDE 4.1 is launches later this year.
I am so looking forward to running KDE in Windows aswell as Kubuntu for a seamless experience.

A Radical Makeover - The Wizard has fled!

Wo! That looks a bit different! In line with the recent change of emphasis of this site, I have also redecorated!
This has occurred as I am currently in the process of developing a website for myself which also has a dark theme.
I have for sometime wanted to create a logo that reflected the Aries/Snake that I am and I was pretty pleased to come up with the design on the left which I created using Inkscape - the open source equivalent of Illustrator. Can you believe that one can actually get the hang of using those weird Bezier curve drawing tools!

GNU/Linux hits the mainstream again this year with ASUS eEE PC!

Finally, this awesome little machine has been released in Australia and I am sure it will be a sellout here also as it has been everywhere else.





Apart from it's obvious excellent features, what delights me about it most is the use of yet another GNU/Linux OS - Xandros this time.
This follows Dell offering desktops and laptops with Ubuntu installed, the huge success of the WalMart Green PC running gOS which is basically Ubuntu, the OLPC project to provide children with a PC also running a GNU/Linus OS and the growing number of smaller organisations offering machines with GNU/Linux installed.

Microsoft must be starting to get really worried about this especially as all this is happening in the wake of the debacle of the release of Vista. Finally consumers are getting some choice of OS when they purchase a new machine rather than being offered Windows and that's it.

Sorry, all you Windows fanboys but Windows is just not the best and only OS worth using and it is about time that the average user was given the opportunity to find that out for themselves.

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Sometimes two people discover each other and form a special bond.


Locutus, a Turkey domiciled expat Aussie and Payton, a Tennessean in the great tradition of Tennesseans, appear to have formed such a bond.
Could this be another beautiful and enduring Yankee/Aussie relationship like that of John Howard (Man of Steel) and George Bush (Dubya).
Find out more by joining ITtoolbox today.

Using an open document format .odt to extract an image from a Microsoft Word .doc

I am currently developing a website for an architectural client and I had asked them to email images of themselves and information relating to their qualifications and details relating to projects they have completed. I received 2 Microsoft Word documents with their images embedded which was not quite what I was after.
So how to get the images out?

Now I know you can copy an image from Microsoft Word to Microsoft photo editor or Coreldraw and then resave it as a file in it's own right but I reckon the following method using Open Office is more elegant.

1. Open the Word document up in Open Office and resave it as an .odt (open document text) file.
2. Navigate to where you saved the .odt file, right click on it and and rename the file extension from .odt to .zip.
3. Extract the zip file and open the resulting folder.
   Amazing - All the components of your text file are there for you to access!

4. Open the Pictures folder and there you will find the original image for you to use as you wish! Brilliant!

Wubi - Automated Ubuntu install!

I am a great fan of Ubuntu, generally running the KDE version Kubuntu.
Although it is not that difficult to install on a Windows machine, anything that makes it easier for interested folks to try out this brilliant and free GNU/Linux OS with loads of accompanying software is welcome.

Although still in beta, Wubi does just that, and what I particularly like about this software is that it allows you to uninstall Ubuntu (which is not an easy thing to do normally) using the Windows add or remove programs tool. If you decide you want to install Ubuntu permanently you can use a tool called LVPM to move the Wubi install to it's own partition! How good is that?

Wubi is Safe

It does not require you to modify the partitions of your PC, or to use a different bootloader.

Wubi is Simple

Just run the installer, no need to burn a CD.

Wubi is Discrete

Wubi keeps most of the files in one folder, and If you do not like, you can simply uninstall it.

Wubi is Free

Wubi (like Ubuntu) is free as in beer and as in freedom. You will get this part later on, the important thing now is that it cost absolutely nothing, it is our gift to you...

Ya just gotta give Ubuntu a try out now!

WAMP and PHP Designer

I have been doing some web application development for a Uni assignment this semester using PHP and MYSQL which has been interesting and challenging particularly as we were unable to connect to MySQL on the Uni server until recently which made things a little difficult.
So prior to this issue being sorted, I resorted to setting up my laptop with what I needed and went through the process of downloading and installing Apache, PHP and MySQL. All to easy you say - well not really couldn't get MySQL to talk to PHP! As is my habit I went Stumbling for a bit of light relief from my efforts and blow me down I stumbled across a great little PHP video tutorial site by another Aussie called Leighmac.
And the first tutorial was.........Yep, you guessed it WAMP Installation which included PHP Designer installation also!

Well WAMP makes setting up an web application development environment brilliantly easy and provides a fantastic control panel providing access to configuration files, turning services on and off. Apache modules, you name it is there. Fantastic!


And pairing this with PHP designer, a very good IDE providing comprehensive assistance just makes the work a pleasure.
It provides the following features for a very low price.

Designed to boost your productivity and simplify complex coding projects through intelligent set of editing tools that includes full support for PHP 5.2, work with any PHP framework, syntax highlighters, intelligent nested code completion and code tip that are displayed as you type, so you do not need to look into documentation to see classes and function attributes, project manager, code snippets, the large built-in code-libraries, highlights (un)matching brackets and tags and numerous tools and wizards to speed of your development.

The strength in PHP lies in the ability to embed it into- and together with other web-languages and technologies. Therefore, does phpDesigner 2007 Professional not only support PHP but also other web-languages as HTML, MySQL, XML, CSS, JavaScript, VBScript, Java, C#, Perl, Python and Ruby!

Support for WAMP/LAMP and AJAX developers through the intelligent syntax highlighting that automatically switches between syntax highlighters for PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript dependant on your position in the document and dims the rest of the code.

So there you go what are you waiting for get WAMP/PHP Designer today and develop that brilliant application!

GIMPshop

Just had to blog about this when I came across it. Yep that is a screenshot of GIMP not Photoshop!





I have been using GIMP on and off for sometime now and have been able to do most of what I needed to do using it. I have recommended it to other people that were not in a position to obtain Photoshop but the clunky GUI puts them off which is a shame.
But along came Scott Moschella with GIMPshop and voila! a much more recognisable GUI and it retains all the extra GIMP stuff you are used to.
Scott has chucked everything in one window and reorganised all the menus etc so as they mimic Photoshop making it far easier for users who have probably played with Photoshop to get along with GIMP. This also means that it is easier to follow photoshop tutorials too which is great!

There are two Windows versions and the one I recommend has the Dewierdifyer plugin that creates the Photoshop style GUI. Click on the image above to download it.
It is still in Beta so there is still probably the odd bug but well worth a look all the same.

8 reasons to vote No to OOXML

Click on the image to register your no vote!

1. There is already a standard ISO26300 named Open Document Format (ODF): a dual standard adds costs, uncertainty and confusion to industry, government and citizens;
2. There is no provable implementation of the OOXML specification: Microsoft Office 2007 produces a special version of OOXML, not a file format which complies with the OOXML specification;
3. There is information missing from the specification document, for example how to do a autoSpaceLikeWord95 or useWord97LineBreakRules;
4. More than 10% of the examples mentioned in the proposed standard do not validate as XML;
5. There is no guarantee that anybody can write software that fully or partially implements the OOXML specification without being liable to patent lawsuits or patent license fees by Microsoft;
6. This format conflicts with existing ISO standards, such as ISO 8601 (Representation of dates and times), ISO 639 (Codes for the Representation of Names and Languages) or ISO/IEC 10118-3 (cryptographic hash);
7. There is a bug in the spreadsheet file format which forbids any date before the year 1900: such bugs affect the OOXML specification as well as software applications like Microsoft Excel 2000, XP, 2003 and 2007.
8. This standard proposal was not created by bringing together the experience and expertise of all interested parties (such as the producers, sellers, buyers, users and regulators), but by Microsoft alone.

Back to Windows!!

I am doing databasing at Uni this semester and I have to use Microsoft Access so I have returned to the Windows world for a while.





But! I have installed as much open source software as I can mainly from the Open Source CD.
I am using:

• Oxygen Open Office Professional which has heaps of extra templates etc.
• NVU for web development (would prefer Quanta but nada for Windows)
• Emule for downloads
• Gimp for image manipulation
• Audacity for sound recording
• Azureus for torrents
• Filezilla for FTP transfers
• Gaim for messaging
• Firefox of course for web browsing
• Inkscape for illustration
• Scribus for desktop publishing
• Blender for 3D work
• 7Z for archiving

I do have a few proprietory programs, apart from those included within Windows OS, as there are no open source options for Windows that I know of at this point and they include:

• Microsoft Access (but none of the other programs in Microsoft Office)
• PowerTab because it is the only place I have been able to find the Edgar Cruz Bohemian Rhapsody TAB (See this weeks vids)
  
• Adobe Captivate (for authoring as I do a fair bit of training)
• AVG, Adaware and Spybot for virus protection etc
  
• IconPackager and Bootskin (to disguise I am using Windows at least a little bit!)

That is about it.

Getting an easy start with OpenSource!

I clicked on my own Adsense advertisement the other day as I was interested in exploring the wares of an Australian Linux service company www.cybersource.com.au and they happened to have some info about the OpenCd - chockful of open source software for Windows which I had not realised was available.

My partner Michelle is an accomplished artist who is currently responsible for teaching an indigenous art course at the local TAFE here in Albany and would like them to learn some basic computer skills with a view to being able to use an image manipulation program

I also have been teaching an indigenous course lately, a group of lovely Noongar ladies who have been hacking their way through a Certificate I in Information Technology.

Both of these groups have indicated they would like the opportunity to work at home but do not have the software and cannot afford it etc.

So the OpenCD may be the perfect solution for these 2 groups of users, so I have downloaded and burned the ISO and will run off a few copies so as we can hand them out.

So now the TAFE hierarchy will not have an excuse to baulk at installing a computer in Michelle's teaching space loaded with Photoshop/Microsoft Office because of the licensing restrictions and cost because they can just have Gimp/OpenOffice installed instead as this is what the students will be given to use at home.
I will continue to hassle the TAFE hierarchy to start pushing the teaching of Open Source software so next time I run a course it will be based around OpenOffice rather than Microsoft Office as this is what the students will be given to use at home.

Another Ubuntu success story!

Like many others, I am an Ubuntu/Kubuntu convert and I know why I prefer it to Windows but it is great to read that users with serious experience like Paul Nowak do also and can explain why far better than I can!

After Ubuntu, Windows Looks Increasingly Bad, Increasingly Archaic, Increasingly Unfriendly
— My recent switch to a single-boot Ubuntu setup on my Thinkpad T60 simply floors me on a regular basis. Most recently it's had to do with the experience of maintaining the software. Fresh from a very long Windows 2000 experience and a four-month Windows XP experience along with a long-time Linux sys admin role puts me in a great position to assess Ubuntu. Three prior attempts over the years at using Linux as my daily desktop OS had me primed for failure. Well, Ubuntu takes Linux where I've long hoped it would go - easy to use, reliable, dependable, great applications too but more on that later. It has some elegance to it - bet you never heard that about a Linux desktop before.

Heard about Wiki's? Now learn how to use one!

There are lotsa great resources on the Internet and Wiki's are one of them. However, it is not always obvious how or why these resources maybe used.
Here is a great little vid on using a Wiki which is so well done that it deserved posting on Wizard Blog for normal people, nerds and geeks!

Quake 3 running under Linux on 50 monitors soon maybe!

So now they are working on a 50 monitor wall and Quake 3 running on 24 monitors was impressive enough! If you don't quite believe it click this link to see some video of it!







And this one will be running under Linux too! Click on the image above to find out more.

Update to OpenOffice 2.2 - Ubuntu/Kubuntu

Just updated Open Office 2.0 to 2.2 and the first obvious difference? - it is fast, much faster to launch and that is great because it used to take for ever!





Strangely, for such a well established product, the installation requirements in Linux, particularly Ubuntu being Debian based, are not exactly straightforward and a guide of some sort is required but it is worth the effort.

It can be difficult to find useful guides so I have chosen to blog about one of the many that I found and eventually used.
Click on the image above to access the guide and keep in mind that it is for OpenOffice 2.1 so some of the commands will need to be edited. It does also require that you are comfortable using a terminal to navigate to various folders so as the correct commands can be entered.

Is also important that "alien" is installed to convert the .rpm packages to .deb packages

Note the author states that it is very easy to do but I think anyone new to Linux may find it a slightly challenging process!

If you have got java runtime installed, and I would be surprised if you haven't actually, you can obviously skip the section of the instructions relating to installation.

There does not seem to be an option to uncheck the Java runtime (jre) download option with OpenOffice 2.2 so I just removed that particular rpm file from the folder after unpacking before I converted the rest of the rpms using alien.

Use this link to to get the OpenOffice 2.2 package.

One of the most important steps is to make sure you install the debian menus so as the OpenOffice modules show up in your Kde or Gnome menu.

Having done this you can probably skip Step 5 unless you usually use a terminal to operate your PC/laptop.

My thanks to jfinkels at the ubuntu forums for his great installation guide.

PS I have been pushing OpenOffice of late as some measure of my work involves training new computer users and many of them do not have access to MS Word and cannot afford it.
I was delighted yesterday that one of my Noongar girls that I am working with currently had downloaded OpenOffice 2.2 and asked to be able to take her text home so as she could use it!

Turning my Kubuntu laptop into a Mac!

Yep! Using Baghira, a MAC OSX style package, you too can make your KDE desktop look like a Mac.
Here is a great tutorial for getting it all happening if you are so inclined. There are others - check out the Ubuntu forums for instance.



This is what I was aiming for and I am not there yet and I am unlikely to get all the way there as I don't have Beryl/Compiz running on my laptop so the ritzy kxdocker dock that works just like the Mac version is unlikely to be implemented.

So far I have the menu bar at the top installed without an apple icon for the moment and all the system icons and window treatments running as if this OS was Tiger. Very clean and smart looking and I have to say a lot faster than the style I had before today.

So why would I want to do this you ask? Just because I can and it is the sort of thing that people who use Linux seem to do!

Emacs! A fix for Edgy Users!

I decided today that it was time I gave Emacs a try as I have heard so much about it.



I cranked up Synaptic and installed Emacs along with a host of other bits and pieces it felt were also necessary.
Opened a terminal typed in Emacs and after a few seconds a window popped up with a great looking welcome logo etc.

But just a bunch of little rectangles and no text unlike the image to the left!!!!!
Boy was I disappointed!

Anyway after an hour or so I found the fix for it! - and I thought I would post it as it took me a little while to find a solution.


Turns out it is an X11 issue that was unresolved in Edgy Eft but that has now been addressed in Fiesty Fawn!

My thanks to arnieboy at the Automatix forum!

1. Open xorg.conf as root

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

2. Find all instances of

/usr/share/X11/fonts/

3. and change them to

/usr/share/fonts/X11/

4. So the entries should now look like

FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"

5. rather than

FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc"

6. Save the new version of the xorg file and restart your computer and you should be in business