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Zimbra or Google Calendar with Thunderbird and Lightning
2007-09-11 17:04:00
The title sounds a bit Mythological eh? I originally published this entry on my work blog but felt that some people might be able to get some use out of this tip. To use it, you’ll need Zimbra or Google Calendar. I’ll cover Zimbra mostly and then give a link on how to setup Google Calendar at the end. For those interested, my work blog is here.If you don’t have Zimbra, they have a free Open Source Community Edition available. It’s feature rich and quite configurable for your email. It can even be used to retrieve multiple email sources and bring them all into one place...it also has identity management so you can send from multiple accounts. Very nice stuff."I use Thunderbird for my email client. It’s quite speedy and nice. Coming from various places of employment that used Outlook and Exchange, I miss being able to schedule appointments via my email client (of course, with Zimbra, I’m able to do this via the web interface..but I like ...
More About: Lightning

How-To: PCLinuxOS 2007 and MythTV
2007-08-30 18:02:00
For those of you who always thought PCLinuxOS and MythTV would go together...you’re quite right, they do fit well together...though there are a few bumps on the road. Hopefully, this how-to will help you along the way.First, let’s mention what this guide will not cover:Remote ControlsIR BlastersPicture Quality SettingsWhy won’t I cover those? Because there are infinite possibilities for each one...and it would be impossible for me to investigate them all...hardware not in my possession besides. So, this will cover installing mythtv and omit the items above. Mythtv has those items covered quite well in their documentation.Hardware Specifications:HP a1520nATI x300 PCIe VPUPVR150 and PVR350Sharp Aquos 37" LCD TVUSR MaxG PCI Card Continue reading "How-To: PCLinuxOS 2007 and MythTV"

Convert Audio with Ease in KDE
2007-08-16 06:13:00
I ripped a couple of CD’s for my son this evening. In the process, I decided to setup Kalarm and Korganizer on his computer so that he could set alarms to remind him to do various chores around the house. While doing all of this, I needed a .wav file so that he could use a song for his alarm. Of course, he wanted one of the songs I had just ripped from his CD. Since I had ripped his songs to .ogg format, I had to investigate which program could convert from .ogg to .wav this the easiest in KDE. I’ve not used many of the whiz bang functions of KDE and desktop Linux...I’ve been more of a browser, mail, and RSS type of guy for many years. Now that I’ve been using Linux at work and at home, I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to figure out how to do things that I’ve never done before. In this case, convert audio to .wav, .ogg, or .mp3 with ease. There is a tool called audiokonverter available in PCLinuxOS 2007 repositories that makes this a...
More About: Audio , Convert , Ease , Vert

Autostart Apps in PCLinuxOS 2007 (KDE)
2007-08-14 05:08:00
There’s a question that is often asked via IRC on freenode #pclinuxos-support. Many people want to know how to get programs to startup immediately upon login.Now there are two ways to do this...kind of. Actually, there is only one way to get programs to autostart but there is another way you can have programs startup when you login...let’s look at both of them.The First WayFirst, go to the PC Menu (or kmenu) >> Run Command >> konqueror --profile filemanagementWhen Konqueror opens, navigate to /home/user/.kde/autostart (replace user with your login name). Now minimize that window...we’ll come back to it later. Next up, click on the My Computer icon on your desktop (or for other users, open up Konqueror and put the following in the addressbar: system:/). When that opens, click on applications and minimize the window and place it side by side with the previously opened window.Hieronymus has posted a helpful tip that simplifies the process above.  Aft...

Install extra Themes and Icons in PCLinuxOS
2007-08-09 03:31:00
Are you a PCLinuxOS 2007 user?Are you one of the many that love the default theme and think it’s eye catching but wish you could change it and make it your own? Do you wish there were more themes, icon sets, and bling for your desktop that would be easy to add? I did too. Here’s how I was able to customize PCLinuxOS 2007:PCLOS DefaultPCLOS Custom Continue reading "Install extra Themes and Icons in PCLinuxOS"
More About: Extra , Cons , Xtra

Laying to Rest the Mandriva/PCLOS Debate
2007-07-30 15:52:00
The one thing about FOSS that I love is that you can take whatever you need from various sources and build what you opine is a better wheel. Take Ubuntu for instance...they took Debian and made it into something that many users are happy with. Is this wrong? Not at all. Each day, many non-commercial distro makes wake up and check various distributions for updated security fixes. They pull source rpms, updated tar.gz’s, and debs into their distro, make minor adjustments, and drop it into their repository. Distros share with one another...they take and hopefully give back. If not monetarily, at least by the number of users that they have that may report bugs or provide fixes.So what’s the beef that some Distrowatch Weekly commenter’s seem to have with PCLinuxOS? During the past 3 weeks of comments on the DW, some have been hounding PCLinuxOS with accusations saying that the developers hide things from their community and that PCLinuxOS eradicates changelogs a...
More About: Debate , Rest , Mandriva , Riva , The Man

Coming Full Circle on PCLinuxOS Magazine
2007-07-12 00:51:00
I see articles like OSWeekly’s "The Future of Publishing with Linux Magazine s" and I chuckle a bit. Mainly because PCLinuxOS Magazine will have its 12 monthly issue published next month. That’s right, we’ve been here a year. Now, I can’t take credit for this fantastic Linux resource because I only sponsor it and help make executive decisions regarding hosting and other things like that...it’s in the hands of great editors and contributors and is continually growing. The staff is well over 10 people strong and gaining.You’d think that OSWeekly would take this magazine into consideration when writing this article...but they instead opt mentioning and considering the fate of Full Circle Magazine in the Ubuntu community. Now don’t get me wrong, Full Circle is a great magazine and we’re glad they’re also producing a quality magazine for their community...It just perturbs me a bit that the hard working editors, contribut...
More About: Ming

PCLinuxOS & What Sets it Apart: Part I
2007-06-24 17:28:00
I originally intended this post to be a review of 2007 Final for PCLinuxOS. However, after finishing it up, I realized that posting a review wouldn’t have the desired effect of truly showing off PCLinuxOS to everyone. It would just be a “business as usual” type of post. So, I decided to do a analysis on what I feel sets PCLinuxOS apart from many Linux distributions.I often see people steer new Linux users to other distros such as OpenSuse, Ubuntu, and SimplyMEPIS...even Sabayon in a few instances. This is fine...they’re good, solid distros. However, out of those distros, I’d recommend only one...OpenSuse. Why? Because of YAST. A New user needs to feel comfortable with system configuration tasks. Not everyone is ready to drop to the shell when coming in from that other operating system. Not every 65 year old grandmother is ready to crack a Konsole and vi their way to .conf bliss. Ubuntu’s control panel is continually getting better but Y...
More About: Sets , Part

On Open Source Dying...
2007-06-24 06:18:00
Let me make it clear for you Michael Hickins of Eweek. Your Article "Is Open Source Dying ?" doesn’t even make it into the outer ring of the target for facts. If you were trying to shoot an arrow into the air with this article, you’d miss.I can help you though...I can set you straight. Not that I’m an ALL WISE & KNOWING person, just that I have the ability to do research, ingest said research, digest the research and learn from the research. You stop at ‘do research’. Let us examine where your train derailed (not the physical place...because this obviously is at the beginning...but rather, where in your subject you go wrong).Open Document does not equal Open SourceAny conclusions you try to draw between adoption or non-adoption of ODF in any state or local government amounts to NOTHING. Whether ODF succeeds in being adopted or not does not mean Open Source will succeed or not. They are not inversely proportional and they are not direc...
More About: Open-Source

The New Linux Distro
2007-06-14 18:44:00
How much does it cost to buy you? Do you have a price? Can you be paid off? I’m sure many of the CEO’s and CTO’s of various Linux companies are now asking themselves this very question this week (or should be asking themselves) as Microsoft announced yet another “patent deal”...this time, with LG Electronics.With this, the Xandros deal, the Novell Deal, and anything else Microsoft has up its sleeve (I look for several other distros to “indemnify” themselves in the next few months...for example, Linspire and Mandriva are two prime targets for MS...the bullseye is probably painted) I think that Microsoft has created it’s own “Linux Distribution” so to speak. Let me share with you why I think they have... Continue reading "The New Linux Distro "

Continuing Saga - Dell E521 vs. Linux. Fight!
2007-06-04 23:51:00
By now, I feel pretty punch drunk.  My Dell E521 has been kicking my beehind for quite a few days as I’ve tried to install PCLinux OS 2007 Final.  I’ve used all the boot options in my arsenal and couldn’t stop it from freezing after 30 minutes.I turned off ACPI, turned it on, turned on APM, turned it off.  Disabled every service I could possibly disable, then turned them on.  No matter what I did, it seemed that it always froze at the wrong time...that time being just after I blogged that I had solved the problem (see previous post).  Actually, can you just ignore that previous post? Thanks to a comment by reader jsnyder, I was told of an unreleased version of the Dell E521 BIOS (version 1.1..  After a BIOS flash, PCLinuxOS Final ran all weekend long without a single freezeup.  Go figure :)  Where can you get this unreleased BIOS from?  Why, it’s rather simple...the Dell public download ftp server of course!Connect to:  ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/bios/Loo...
More About: Fight , Saga , Conti

PCLinuxOS - 30 Days to #1
2007-06-04 23:36:00
PCLinuxOS has continued its upward climb on the distrowatch page hit meter. It is #1 over the span of 30 days...most likely due to the recent release of 2007 Final. Is it really that good? I think it is. It’s powerful enough to satisfy my nerdiest inclination to program and yet soft enough to pad my wife’s computing needs as well. I’ve found it suitable for all my computing needs. Does this mean I’m done looking for the perfect desktop? Far from it! I’ll continue that hunt until I can’t continue it at all.For now, PCLinuxOS is my #1 desktop choice for my main computer...with other computers in my household rotating distros at quite a good pace. This blog often focuses on items of interest to the desktop Linux user...and it’s updated quite infrequently. This should change after June as I’ll begin a new job in a new city working with Linux on a daily basis Look for more frequent updates and more robust content. I’m also...
More About: Days

Dell E521 and PCLinuxOS 2007 Final
2007-05-29 00:45:00
It’s been a process of elimination to get my Dell E521 working. Previous workarounds with boot options didn’t work...so I had to use a combination of boot options to get things working nice and stable.I powered up the PCLinuxOS 2007 Fina l LiveCD and began the installation to disk. During the bootloader configuration I appended the following text to the end of my linux, failsafe, and framebuffer entry:CODE:noacpi irqpoll pci=r outeirqFrom there, I saved, closed all programs and rebooted. Upon first boot I opened Synaptic and installed the PCLinuxOS .a64 Kernel which is optimized for 64 bit processors. I then opened up the PCLinuxOS Control Center yet again, went to the boot section and altered my grub bootloader again with the same information in the code above. I rebooted to make sure my changes worked.When logging in this time, I opened Synaptic and installed the Nvidia 97xx drivers for my graphics card (Fata1ity 7600GT). After this installs you’re ...

YALB - A Look Back after Three Years
2007-05-21 04:26:00
Quietly and without fanfare, Yet Another Linux Blog has reached the ripe old age of 3 years. I started it small and hosted at home during May of 2004. Back then it was hosted on a domain called fatalfame.org (since expired). In December 2004, I switched domains to linuxblog.sytes.net and switched to Serendipity for blogging (hence, lost data from May 2004 - Dec 2004) and it is that month that houses my first and oldest post on the s9y platform...and it’s also the month I discovered Technorati and pingbacks which gives rise to being indexed for the first time then.  The oldest snapshot the internet archive has is December 2004...take a look at how the blog looked then (warning, slow loading).Back then, it was all about trying new Linux desktops and finding things that worked for my wife and I. Today, it’s still all about the Linux Desktop. YALB hasn’t changed its focus and has made some weak minded enemies along the way, but still is managing just fine.Today...
More About: Years , Year , Ears

PCLinuxOS 2007, USR5411 MaxG Wireless Primer
2007-05-19 23:01:00
So you’ve just installed PCLinuxOS 2007 TR4 on your laptop and your wireless card is detected! Finally, a distro gets it right! However, you’re not too sure how to proceed next...do you manage the device through the PCLinuxOS Control Center? Do you start another program and work that way? Do you use KDE’s built in applet to monitor things? What’s next?This is something that is often expressed in the forums at pclinuxos.com and something anyone associated with this fine distribution is glad to see...that is working wireless. However, as noted above, people often wonder how to control their wireless device and how to move in and out of various different environments. I’d like to share how I do wireless on my Thinkpad a22m.I have a US Robotics 5411 MaxG PCMCIA card for my laptop. PCLinuxOS 2007 detects it out of the box but doesn’t install it by default. The reason for this is that PCLinuxOS doesn’t assume to know how you want to insta...
More About: Wireless , Prime , Rime , Prim

How to Become a Cool Blogger and/or Hip Journalist
2007-05-07 06:43:00
First...get yourself a blog and get it running. It doesn’t matter if it is from wordpress, google, or the media company you work for...just get a blog up and running.To get maximum exposure in the past, you had to use keywords. Now is no different. The keyword we’ll focus the most on is one that can get you thousands of hits in a few minutes if submitted to the right news outlet. That keyword is Ubuntu. Add this keyword to EVERY post you make. Name your blog with Ubuntu in the title to make sure that it is vaulted up the rankings. Just remember, you must use the word Ubuntu in everything you post.For your first post, announce that you’re going to stop using Windows XP and use Ubuntu instead. Do a lousy job of documenting your installation procedure and make sure you don’t talk about anything of worth to someone who might be making the same change...just talk about how cool it is to be running Ubuntu and go over all the pluses. Don’t focus on an...
More About: Blogger , Cool , Journalist

Tux500 YouTube Video
2007-05-04 01:27:00
Some of you may know that my friend Helios (aka Ken Starks of Lobby4linux.com and Blog of Helios) has been working on the Tux500 project which is geared at getting Linux on a car in the Indy500. Take a look at this video made by Tux500.com that explains a bit about the Indy500 and why it is important for Linux to be there. Very professional. Make sure you Digg the video as well!
More About: Video , Youtube