Latest articles & site news

updated May 18 2013, category: Software & security

Welcome, Willkommen, Bienvenue! To the second article in my Pandora series. As you recall, several weeks back, I received a test unit from Michael Mrozek, of the world's smallest, most-powerful gaming micro-computer. In the first installment, we talked most about initial impressions, the look & feel, specifications, and a brief taste of the variety of its capabilities, technologies and interfaces.

Now, we will dig deeper. In this article, I will focus on firmware refresh of the test unit, trying to bring the system to a newer edition, as well as dabble in the ins and outs of the Xfce desktop environment. I will leave the gaming-oriented MiniMenu and the Android mod for the third and last part in this would-be trilogy. Follow me.

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updated May 17 2013, category: Software & security

Holy shit! What you, Dedoimedo, you sellout, you hypocrite! Wait, calm down. All is well. There's a reason why I decided to buy a tablet. One, I can afford it. Two, I really wanted to see what makes the retards get so excited. Three, I had an actual business need for this, but more about that later. Anyhow, this is my very first experience with a tablet. Honestly. I've never used one before. So it should be definitely most interesting. I've dabbled in Android a bit now and then, and overall, I was not really impressed. The x86 version for netbooks was ok but not magnificent, however, on the other hand, my smartphone experience was, overall, quite frustrating.

Let's how a pretentious old git like me managed to cope with this new modern technology. Better yet, why a pretentious old git like me would ever want to buy a device that is operated by touch only. Finally, this is a proper, thorough review of the Samsung tablet, probably of a higher quality, relevance and greater depth than anything else out there, because after all, it's Dedoimedo writing this stellar review. Avanti.

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updated May 15 2013, category: Software & security

After testing the KDE Plasma Netbook workspace quite thoroughly over the last few weeks, I got myself thinking. Is there something inherently successful about KDE, or the enabling framework underneath the hood, called Qt? Not that I'm any big fan of mobile technologies, still, I can appreciate good, thorough design when it happens. So I decided to explore this venue, from the purely user space perspective.

Examples, examples, examples - This is much like Steve Ballmer's Developers Developers Developers slogan, only different. Anyhow, without boring you with history lessons on how Qt came to be, purchased, sold and acquired by different companies, it is one of the leading frameworks for development of GUI and applications. It runs well on a range of platforms, including Windows, OS X, X11, Android, iOS, Wayland, and other merry fellows. This makes it a nice technological bridge, and a fertile ground for Borg-style market takeovers. In other words, the resistance is futile, but if you want, we have a beautiful, native port for your platform, if you will.

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updated May 13 2013, category: Computer games

One of the serious monetary bonuses of being patient is that you can buy games at a bargain price. Instead of rushing to the stores the day after a title is released, you wait for a few weeks, months or even years, and then you buy the game at a serious discount. This is what happened to me with Crysis. In its day, it was dubbed one of the most visually engaging first person shooters, but that was four years ago. I didn't but it then, but I did sometime in 2011, for just USD11 or so. Even then, I did not install the game, instead I let it collect dust for almost another year. Then, I finished my third book, had a moment of quiet, and decided to test it.

Anyhow, this is my review of Crysis. It comes late, but then I am still occasionally reviewing awesome DOS games, so I do not think there's a relevance issue here, except the fact I am not basking in any publicity glory like some of the dedicated gaming sites. All right, if you care what this oldish git has to say, then please do follow me for a lovely read.

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updated May 11 2013, category: Computer games

All right guys, you sort of know how this task goes. I have already shown you that in my Beta version review, as well as in the followup guide, which focused on the release of the official version of the Steam software for Linux. However, things are ever so slightly different this time around, and I would like to give you the most accurate, up-to-date instructions to how you can enjoy your games on Linux. While this tutorial is mostly applicable for Ubuntu and family, it should serve you well on other distributions, too.

This is how we do it, do it. Launch the Ubuntu Software Center. Search for Steam. Do not try to use the command line, because you will not see the Steam package there. The reason is, in order to install the client software, you must be signed in with your Ubuntu One account. It will label the Steam platform as a purchase, but it's free, so worry not about any payments.

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updated May 11 2013, category: Life topics

Quoting from Wikipedia: Mother's Day is a celebration honoring mothers and motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in March or May. It complements Father's Day, a similar celebration honoring fathers. Stop quote. Indeed.

Normally, I do not mention holidays or celebrations, apart from New Year and the occasional Dedoimedo anniversary, but here's an exception, here's something rather neat for you. I hope you can partake in the humor as well as I do. Well, I think no further words are necessary. External link, fellas. Enjoy.

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updated May 10 2013, category: Software & security

This is a very important tutorial. The last several releases of Ubuntu are less than stellar when it comes to installing Nvidia drivers on your machines. You are likely to end up with an unbootable system, just by using the same methods that used to work flawlessly in the past. To wit, this very detailed guide, which should save you a lot of trouble.

I will present you with no less than four methods, starting with the easiest and slowly escalating toward the more difficult and less obvious ones. We will also examine a few other techniques, tips and tricks, learn about recovery, backup, and more. This article should be your one stop shop for all current and future Nvidia drivers installations.

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updated May 8 2013, category: Software & security

About a week ago, Google started shipping its futuristic Google Glass thingie to select pilot customers. Now, as you may imagine, this is probably the nerdiest invention in the history of human kind. As such, it might be doomed even before it gets born unto the world. But I have a suggestion that could make it the most desired piece of technology ever made.

Anyhow, rather than boring you with words, I compiled a video, Google Glass style, which explains my idea in fine detail, plus it elaborates on all of the adjacent technologies required to make something like this happen. Best of all, the capabilities are there, so it's a matter of implementation. We could be using this tomorrow, and the world will have become a better place. Do take a look.

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updated May 6 2013, category: Software & security

Time to review Xubuntu, a proud member of the Ubuntu family. And it's just had a new son born this spring, named Billy Bob Raring Jr. Anyhow, there are two critical aspects to this article. One, Ubuntu's been offering a fairly bland experience these past two releases, with subpar Nvidia experience and too many bugs. Two, Xubuntu has been on a steady rise ever since Pangolin, and I even added it to my best list at the end of the last year.

So let's see what gives. This time I will be a using a somewhat different approach. Instead of testing on the T61 laptop, which comes with a cheap graphics card and no hardware that requires additional proprietary drivers, I will begin with the HP Pavilion laptop. This machine has both a Broadcom Wireless, as well an Nvidia card. Double jeopardy.

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updated May 4, 2013, category: Software & security

You may assume I might be automatically inclined to dislike Microsoft products, being a Linux geek and all. But that's not true. Me likes Windows 7. I think Internet Explorer 9 is a fairly good browser. EMET is one of the best solutions to hit the market. The thing is, not all Microsoft products are good, and some are plain bad, but I'm fair and square.

All right, with this almost religious objectivity in mind, I approach this review, which revolves around Microsoft SkyDrive, a free cloud solution for all. In other words, sign up for a Microsoft account of some sort, like Hotmail, Live, Bing and whatnot, and you get 7GB of free storage space for your data. Sync them between devices as you please, take them anywhere you go. Interesting, on paper, but what about the reality?

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updated May 3, 2013, category: 3D art

Recently, I have begun re-rendering most of my 3D projects in Kerkythea, infusing them with new life, color and realism, as well as adding beautiful finishing touches in GIMP, all of which amount to you wanting me to be the father of your unborn children, or if you're a man, then just a friend.

We've already seen the Mechwarrior in action, twice, and then the Destroyer ship, and it's such a transformation, I actually bought myself a present as a token of my appreciation for myself. Now, we will do the Hovercraft project, which was quite nice to begin with, but you have seen nothing yet. Done using Kerkythea Echo Boost, so you even get shorter render times. Splendid. After me.

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updated May 1, 2013, category: Software & security

Or maybe it should read the other way around, unremarkably remarkable. Which one is it? Well, I don't know, take a look and judge for yourself. Now, the mandatory two paragraphs of introduction. For me, Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal was a fairly big flop. And it was nothing short of a disaster on my high-endish machine, where the Nvidia graphics stack was bonkered.

It's been six months since, so it's time for another round of Ubuntu fun, or maybe, lack thereof, we shall see. Meanwhile, a lot of things have happened, like the fact there's now Steam for Ubuntu, which is a big and awesome revolution for us gamers, and I'm running a Ubuntu phone contest for those of you not lazy enough to read books. So yes, enough with introductions, let's rock.

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updated April 29, 2013, category: Software & security

Several weeks ago, an alpha-quality release of Microsoft Windows Blue was accidentally leaked on purpose to the Web, to create a pre-buzz buzz. Everyone and their mother rushed to join the whorefest, recycling the few screenshots of what appears to be nothing more than a glorified service pack for the failure called Windows 8. I did not participate in the orgy, but now it's time for my little input.

As it turns out, the copypasta fever also had another component - a fresh new conspiracy claiming the inevitable death of the desktop. The reasoning? The Start menu is not coming back, and more functionality has been merged into the Modern Metro whatever interface. So everyone started talking about death, death, death. And now let me explain things.

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updated April 27, 2013, category: Software & security

While most people probably do not hear that much about Yandex on a daily basis, it is worth noting that the namesake search engine of this Russian Internet company is ranked the fifth domain in the world. When such a company launches a browser of its own, it becomes rather interesting.

Yandex browser is a Webkit-based product, using the Chromium open-source project code and additional technologies borrowed from Opera. As a direct competitor to the big names out there, Yandex aims at increasing its influence in the Internet search market. And now, instead of just searching with Yandex through third-party programs, you can use the company's own browser. Reminds you of someone? Google, that's right. So let's see.

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updated April 26, 2013, category: Software & security

In a galaxy far far away, long before there was Android en masse, long before touch was popular, I mean retro-popular, because we have been using the touch technology for at least two million years, long before there was any modern, simplistic interface for smartphones and tablets, there was KDE. It's all in the name. KDE is one of the few remaining staple desktop environments of the Linux world. It's been around forever, and it does not seem to be slowing down. In fact, it's evolving and growing. So far so good.

One big thing that sticks to KDE is its spartan name. KDE, as the acronym aptly puts it, is a desktop environment, but this very nomenclature underlines what this graphical computing framework is all about. And perhaps therein lies the rub. Oh, we are getting ahead of ourselves, and you may be wondering what this article is all about. Perhaps I should tell you, it's about KDE, a desktop environment, being a great choice for non-desktop systems. There, I wrote it.

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updated April 24, 2013, category: Software & security

After posting my Pantheon DE review, a lot of people emailed me, telling me that what I did was wrong, namely install this desktop environment from a PPA and run it on top of a Ubuntu desktop. All right then, so what should I have done, I asked politely. They said, test elementary OS, which is a Ubuntu fork all right, with the Pantheon desktop environment on top it. Aha. Same thing? Supposedly not. Go figure.

I did test elementary in its very first incarnation two years back. Now, the increment has gone up a notch, from 0.1 to 0.2, and it's time to pulsecheck the progress of this distribution, one of the few that hail minimalism as their ultimate goal. Can it be done, without hurting the user, and everything else. We shall see. Follow me, lasses and gents.

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updated April 22, 2013, category: Software & security

When Google announced their new Compose, my initial reaction was: meh, who cares. But when my wife spotted this thing in her Gmail and called me over to tell me: WTF is this shit? I knew I had a nice, long rant coming. Hence, I am here, you are here, and we have this awesome article. Parental guidance is advised from this point on.

So I shall tell you all I think of this latest of Google's changes and how it features in the bigger scope of things. Do not mistake this beautiful article for a random outburst toward Google. This company still leads when it comes to UI design, in pretty much everything, but they are on a fast track to retardation. You will get the lovely truth of things, as I see it, and then I'm gonna offer improvements, because I am smart and generous.

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updated April 20, 2013, category: Software & security

Oh, here's a juicy topic. Well, as it turns out, after thirteen years of loyal service, Windows XP will be finally retired from service sometime in 2014, and will not receive any new updates from that moment on. It will be the official death of this awesome operating system, probably the best Microsoft ever made, outdoing themselves in the process.

Now, recently, Microsoft has started a death campaign, telling people of the inevitable end of support for Windows XP, and urging users to upgrade to newer releases. Unfortunately, they are doing it wrong. Instead of focusing on important reasons for why you should consider migrating to a new operating system, Microsoft is trying to scare you with the security nonsense, as in, if you do not upgrade, the security of your stuff will be at peril. Let me clarify things for you.

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updated April 19, 2013, category: Software & security

Why would you want to do that? Really. Aha. Now, Windows 8 may be stupid, but it is not ugly. And so you find yourself in a predicament. You want the looks provided by the latest Microsoft operating system, but you do not want to buy the new system or use its oligophrenic Start Screen. So what's the alternative?

There are many. However, your biggest gripe is financial. Really, paying money for a tiny service pack that Windows 8 really is might not be the best idea, for you, that is. If you think about, Microsoft is smarting up its business model. Instead of asking you for a lot of cash once a decade, they are asking for smaller sums every two or three years, which you will be more inclined to do. Still, you don't want to pay. And you want the looks. No problem, you can do a manual visual transformation. Follow me.

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updated April 17, 2013, category: Computer games

A few months ago, I found out that Red Orchestra 2 was available without charge for three days on Steam, kind of an early pre-holidays season treat, so I promptly downloaded and tested the game. I was interested to see what this game can offer, since Red Orchestra 2 is a sequel to the same-named first version, which happens to be available for Linux, too. That one will merit its own review, maybe, but that's for later.

Anyhow, Red Orchestra 2 is a theme-based game, taking place, yes you guessed it, around the city of Stalingrad in Second World War. You can play as either a German or Russian, although you must complete the Axis campaign first before the second one will become unlocked. But I am getting ahead of myself. On paper, it all sounds interesting. However, is the game any good?

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updated April 15, 2013, category: Software & security

My first Linux distro was openSUSE, and things sort of worked well for some five years. Then, come version 12, everything went downhill, the sort of push an old lady downhill kind of thing. The last two editions of this distro failed to satisfy the geek in me. Which means, grab your forks and knives, because it's openSUSE 12.3 review time!

I will show you if and how openSUSE 12.3 can redeem itself. Naturally, we will go with the KDE desktop, because Gnome is not an option anymore. My test box will be the same T61 laptop, featuring two SSD for local storage, 2GB RAM, and a simple, generic Intel graphics card. And so we commence.

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updated April 15, 2013, category: Software & security

Twenty years plus since being created, Linux remains a terrifying word in the global lexicon. Probably not as bad as it was for farmers watching cars take over the countryside in the early decades of the 20th century, but close. It's an operating system all right, but one that does not warm the cockles of your heart. It's the bastion of nerdy and geeky and difficult, and you are better off leaving it alone, to its bearded users. Which makes me think, why is the beard a status of sagacity in our society? Throw in a smoking pipe, and you have a PhD in trustworthiness.

That's how it works. And yet, even though Linux is an obvious choice among the people of science, academy and industry, the popular desire to emulate the prototype intellectual status is in low demand. For most folks, the hardship of becoming a Linux user outweighs the benefits.

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updated April 13, 2013, category: Software & security

I rarely review hardware, mostly my own purchases, which usually come in the form of this or that laptop, some desktops, plus an odd phone here and there. Approx. a month back, I was contacted by Michael Mrozek, the CEO of OpenPandora GmbH, and asked to review their Pandora product, the world's smallest, most powerful micro-gaming computer.

A few emails later, a review unit was sent by postal mail, and I received it just a few days ago. Which officially kickstarts the OpenPandora article season. Now, instead of giving you one superlong piece focusing on just a few short hours of usage, we will have a series of articles, each one detailing a different aspect of this little device. As it turns out, there's quite a bit to Pandora, as you will soon discover. So the first part, this one, is all about initial impressions.

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updated April 12, 2013, category: Software & security

Creating beautiful, punchy and meaningful flowcharts is one of the toughest tasks for an office borg, be they code monkeys trying to present their code, engineerings trying to justify their new thingymagij or project managers trying to look smart.

Most people will opt for office suites and their programs - and fail miserably, because like any art, it takes intelligence and spatial understanding to create visually appealing, simple and efficient flowcharts, beyond the simple yes/no diagrams of your thought logic. There's one program that excels at this task, and it's called yED. We checked.

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updated April 11, 2013, category: 3D art

My destroyer-battleship model was the first project I created in Google SketchUp, some six years or so ago. Then, I posted it as my first gallery in the 3D art session, and it has remained there since, lovely but not as good as it could be. Until I discovered the black magic of Kerkythea. Then, it became really interesting.

Still, even so, my first attempts at photorealistic rendering were only okay, but not stellar, as mostly evident in the gallery above. Which is why we are having this new one, with fresh images of the ship, rendering with such awesome quality you will crap your pants. Honestly. Just for the fun of it, scroll down quickly and briefly linger over some of the more awesome pictures. You see, I told you. Good fun. Therefore, with utmost pleasure, I present the second generation of my DD 71 creation, and it's absolutely great.

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updated April 8, 2013, category: Software & security

Recently, a lot of stories cropped across the Web, telling a dreadful tale of many failed Windows 8 activations. The stories reported how users were unable to grab their Windows serial keys, and how their installations failed, because they could not input the serial key anywhere and successfully activate their Windows. Interesting, would you not say?

I looked more deeply into this, and discovered a phenomenon quite like the UEFI thingie. Too much disinformation, caused by the lack of knowledge, wild speculation, and rather popular Microsoft bashing, for the simple reason it is such a convenient target, which does not mean that attention and hatred are not justified, I'm just saying. So let's what gives.

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updated April 6, 2013, category: Software & security

I am such an attention who ... I mean, what a plucky title! So appropriate. Anyhow, I received a lot of emails, i.e. more than one, telling me I ought to review the Snowlinux distribution. And it does sound interesting. Somewhat like Mint, a combination of Debian and Ubuntu, and other fancy stuff.

Then, you also get a whole range of desktop environments, and I chose Cinnamon here, so it really should be interesting. For me, Cinnamon has always worked well, improving the desktop experience. Let us see how Glacier handles here. Now, I could have chosen version 3 for the review, which is based on Ubuntu LTS, but I went for the latest, which has its roots in pure Debian. Follow me.

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updated April 5, 2013, category: Life topics

This is not a new topic. I have debated the merits of attention prostitution in the form of pseudo-journalism many many times before. We discussed it when we digested the reality TV diarrhea. We talked about this in my writing style article. We had a debate on news very early on, just days after this website was born. And then, there's the whole plethora of awesome philosophy in the Life section, covering anything and everything you could think of.

One thing we only briefly touched in each one of these is the value of shock. And today, I would like to torture your willing minds with yet more glamorous and witty and sagacious insight on the perspective of using shock as cultural impact value. Furthermore, how it features in software, since most people reading this site are actually capable of using their computing devices. So please do follow me. Or ignore. The choice is yours.

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updated April 4, 2013, category: Software & security

Fuduntu is a pretty awesome distribution. Rarely do I give a perfect ten to one, and so far, only Linux Mint managed that accolade. But then recently, I tested the last edition of Fuduntu, and it turned out to be magnificent. So much, in fact, that I had it committed in my production setup, where it failed just short of the 10/10 mark, but still exhibited fairly great results.

I showed you the Nvidia graphics card and Broadcom network drivers setup, Steam, Netflix, and a few more tricks besides. What I did not do is give any regard to the claimed battery life improvements. Fuduntu is supposed to be ultra-optimized for laptops and netbooks, and should offer you some 40% more battery juice than its counterparts. I checked.

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updated April 1, 2013, category: Software & security

This ain't no April thingie joke. Not at all. I do have two giveaways slash contests, worth a total of 15 products, including electronic books and magazine subscriptions. So you might want to click and read further, to see what gives. That's it, don't be shy.

Instant Penetration Testing book contest - Remember my namesake book review? Sure you do, I just posted it yesterday. Anyhow, you have a chance to participate in a book giveaway. There are five copies of the e-book available for this contest, and it will run through April 15.

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updated March 31, 2013, category: Software & security

Recently, I was asked to review a book named Instant Penetration Testing: Setting Up a Test Lab How-to, a relatively short piece spanning 88 pages, by Vyacheslav Fadyushin. As a tutorial, this is a focused, fast guide designed to teach you about a setup of a test lab that can be used for penetration testing scenarios, in a concise and clear manner.

I have previously reviewed several security-related works, including Advanced Penetration Testing and BackTrack 4 books, so in a way, this latest addition to the PacktPub arsenal ought to complement the earlier releases well, especially since it focuses more on the architectural side of the hacking business rather than actual methods and tricks. All right, let's see what gives.

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updated March 30, 2013, category: Software & security

Before you judge me by the article title, please read carefully. I have a very important message, and it has everything to do with the commercial and public image success of Nokia, and Linux. We will begin with the former. To wit, here's a brief introduction.

In the early 2000s, Nokia was deemed the king of ergonomics. Its phones were designed with style, but more importantly, the operating systems and the menus were consistent, easily accessible and rather intuitive to users. As the smartphone market began to boom, Nokia chose a somewhat more conservative approach to design and user experience. Rather than oversimplifying the physical design, Nokia made a range of solid-build devices with a full QWERTY keyboard, similar to the RIM BlackBerry series.

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updated March 29, 2013, category: Software & security

As the most rational and impartial person in this universe, when I tell you that Microsoft's EMET is the best thing to hit the Windows security scene ever, you will most likely feel an urge to label me as a fanboy. When you consider the fact I make a living fiddling with Linux, you will nod your heads respectfully at the enormity of this truth.

Now, version 3.5 of this great little piece of software is out there, available for nerds and friends to test. Considering myself to be one of the former, I headed over to the Microsoft site and downloaded the new version. What you're reading here is a brief tour.

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updated March 25, 2013, category: Software & security

You have watched and absolutely loved my trollsome Windows 8 video guide posted in my Youtube channel. Not only that, you also wondered how I got the different pieces together, like the clip, the audio, any post editing and such like.

I have given you a detailed tutorial on how I did something similar with my Frankenstein experiment, using freeware tools in Linux. We will do the same thing here. Basically, most of the stuff will be familiar, but another lovely guide on media processing should not hurt the enthusiasts among you. So do read, please.

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updated March 23, 2013, category: Software & security

I almost feel tempted to start with a quote from the Wheel of Time series, something like there are no beginnings and ends, but it was a beginning. Indeed, the guys behind the elementary OS have created their own version of what the next, future desktop for Linux ought to be.

There is not much detail about Pantheon going about the Internet, and it does not seem to have drawn much attention since being launched. Which does not bode well for this young project. Still, I decided to see whether this lightweight and modular environment written in Vala and GTK+ can bring fresh merit to the Linux world. Let us see indeed.

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updated March 22, 2013, category: 3D art

Normally, I have around 30-40 articles already written and waiting in the publishing queue. This means that, on average, any given article on Dedoimedo gets uploaded approx. two months after being created, excluding items like distro reviews or news, which get a certain priority. With a 3D gallery, there ought to be no rush, but I could not help myself, I had to release this.

As it turns out, I'm baking a whole range of realistic galleries, and forget all the amateur stuff I did in the past, this is the real deal. I'm basing my project on ArmA II, and the end result will be something like the awesome teaser images that I decided to share here. So please, take a look. You will not be disappointed.

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updated March 22, 2013, category: Software & security

Ola, guys. Let us review Sabayon 11. This time though, I will be deviating from my usual KDE experience and check whether this semi-monster Gentoo-based distro can deliver equally fun results when blessed with a less mainstream desktop environment.

Anyhow, my past reviews with Sabayon have gone from stupendous to buggy to somewhat boring. My feeling is that the distribution has lost its passion and momentum, and that is now merely trying to make Gentoo more presentable, while wallowing in lost identity. That's what version 8 has taught me. So let us see what version 11 can do.

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updated March 21, 2013, category: Software & security

It's like magnets. No one knows really. The thing is, in the past few weeks, at least at the time this article was written, but not necessarily at the time it will have been read by you, my readers, which is now for you, like now, but a future for me, now, at the time I am writing this, back then, you get it? So yes, last autumn, I observed a spike in my Alexa rank and traffic reach values. Prior to that, I had almost three months of steadily declining values.

The thing is, my real, genuine website traffic has been climbing steadily for the past year, without being reflected in the Alexa rank. And yet, with the release of Windows 8, it halved, which is good, although the actual net income of fresh traffic is not that huge. However, the proportion of Windows users seems to have grown, thus affecting the rank. So let's see what gives.

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updated March 18, 2013, category: Software & security

Gold rush, in the digital form. That is, ladies and gents, what we call the mobile market. A success of one is an indicator of potential success for many. Hence, you get the proliferation of mobile operating systems for mobile devices. You have iOS, you have Android, some others, and soon, you might have FirefoxOS. At this point in time, you might be asking yourselves how the title might be relevant to the story. Worry not, it shall all be revealed soon.

All right, so Mozilla wants a piece of the action, and that's fine. But having a slim Linux-based operating system compiled for mobile devices with some optimization is not a biggie. Having a decent, appealing application store is what makes ALL the difference. Indeed, if you think about it carefully, it is not about technology, at all. Not one bit. And we will discuss this in the future, in regard to Nokia and Linux. So yes, ahem, Mozilla wants to launch its own mobile operating system. To this end, it needs a centralized application management platform. Enter Firefox Marketplace, the equivalent of the AppStore, Google Play, and half a dozen similar concepts. Y'know, the Linux repo thingie, for the fashionable?

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updated March 16, 2013, category: Software & security

Twilight Render is a photorealistic 3D rendering system for Google SketchUp, or shall we say just SketchUp, created as a plugin for the latter software. It integrates seamlessly into the program, and allows you to render your model whole working natively in the SketchUp interface. Then, the rendering engine is the product of the same people who created Kerkythea, which means a very healthy dose of awesomeness.

In other words, I was intrigued, and I decided to see if Twilight is useful and worth its price tag. The free version, much like Maxwell Render, comes with a limited resolution of only 800px max. dimension, and it pastes two watermarks in the top left and bottom right corners. But perhaps, if the results are impressive enough, buying the program might not be so bad after all.

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updated March 15, 2013, category: Software & security

This is not an article about how to measure the Windows uptime since reboot in seven different ways. We already had a tutorial on that subject before. What this article is all about is demonstrating the simple fact Windows can achieve reasonably high uptime figures without intermittent reboots if managed properly.

Please note this is not a competition. Not meant to be used as a metric against enterprise servers in the industry. This little page will show that when you take good care of your box and do not load it with crap, like useless security software, you can achieve awesome results without any performance degradation in the long term. And we will also briefly discuss the Windows memory management mechanism.

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updated March 13, 2013, category: Software & security

My experience with the Enlightenment desktop slash window manager hails back to 2007, when I started exploring distributions like openGEU and friends. Then, fast forward two years, I've had my first encounter with Bodhi Linux, which comes with E17 as its default desktop. Fast forward some more, and we enter the year 2013, with yet another review of Bodhi.

Half a decade ago, I was rather impressed with what the desktop could do. It managed a fair share of bling-bling, smooth transitions, shadows, transparency, and other cool effects, without having to rely on an expensive graphics card. It was all done in 2D. From the purely aesthetic perspective, E17 was not the best looking, but it was not bad, nor that much different from the contemporary rivals. But then, when I tested the desktop again two years back and just now, I noticed that little has changed in the visual phase space. Which brings a question, is Enlightenment a suitable desktop environment for modern machines?

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updated March 11, 2013, category: Software & security

Two and a half years ago, I bought myself a dandy little netbook, and then loaded it with Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx netbook edition, which it ran until about a week ago. With three years of long term support closing to an end, I had to decide which Linux distribution I would use for this machine, given its limited power and somewhat advanced age.

And so I decided - something simple and lightweight. And while I was tempted to try Ubuntu with Unity, Kubuntu Plasma and Cinnamon, I decided to forgo all the performance games and go for a proven solution. So I settled for Xubuntu 12.04, the latest LTS, which has impressed me a lot. And even though Xubuntu Quetzal is even better, it has a shorter life span, too short for my needs. So let's see what gives.

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updated March 9, 2013, category: Software & security

You have reached this tutorial because you are facing the following problem. You are trying to uninstall an old version of LibreOffice or upgrade to a new one, on Windows. When you run the installer wizard, or try to remove the program through the Control Panel, you get a message that you must exit the program and its Quickstarter before continuing. But LibreOffice is not running! What now?

You also tried rebooting, and this does not help. LibreOffice stubbornly refuses to do its work, and the uninstall or the install for the sake of upgrade both fail. You are an advanced user, and you even tried running ProcessExplorer in order to locate the LibreOffice handles or open files, but there are none, no processes running, and you're still stuck. Well, this guide will show you how you can easily resolve the issue and get your programs sorted out. Do read.

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updated March 8, 2013, category: Software & security

Until Kerkythea Echo Boost gets officially released, there will remain a subtle problem in the software setup. Namely, the registry key required to point the program to its data folder, where you are supposed to find your materials and globals is not set, so you will end up with Kerkythea's menu empty of your skies, globals and models.

This short tutorial will show you how you can setup Kerkythea Echo Boost until such time the official version is released with all the expected fixes. Anyhow, in this guide, you will learn about an alternative installation location and preserving your settings. Please follow me.

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updated March 6, 2013, category: Software & security

This is a very ugly title, and almost misleading. So let's clear it upfront. The archive manager, the GUI frontend for various tar, zip and other archive formats, is a good and robust and safe tool, and there's nothing wrong with it, per se. However, you can easily misuse it and cause a short-term if significant disruption of productivity in your setup.

This short guide will elaborate on a rather common, easily reproducible scenario than any decent Linux user might attempt one day. In fact, it happened to me while testing the Flightgear simulator. What happened was, I download the entire Aircraft data set, totaling some 2.3GB of files inside 376 separate zip files. Naturally, I wanted to extract all these files to the game directory, so I could enjoy the multitude of different aircraft. Imagine what happened next.

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updated March 4, 2013, category: Software & security

Normally, I am not a big fan of smartphones. Scratch that, I am very much not a fan of smartphones. However, after I heard and saw Mark Shuttleworth present the upcoming mobile devices that will be running Ubuntu on them, for the first time, I was really intrigued with the technology and its potential use.

Indeed, sometime in Q4 2013 or Q1 2014, I will be buying myself one. In fact, I will be buying two devices, one for myself and one for the lucky winner of the Dedoimedo Ubuntu smartphone contest. Please read to see how you can participate and maybe win yourself a handsome smartphone.

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updated March 4, 2013, category: Hillbilly physics

I got massively interested in the Collatz conjecture after reading a splendid cartoon on xkcd.com, and since, I've not stopped thinking where and how it might be applied, or where and how it might manifest. As is often the case with mathematical problems, they are usually a palpable representation of a greater physical problem. And we often get to solve them through indirect experiments rather than direct observation and interaction.

So I was mulling what could intrinsically combine the fine structure constant, Pi number and other merry fellows, and I realized that the Collatz conjecture might be the one perfect candidate. What more, it comes to life all around us daily, without us ever noticing. Which is only understandable, as our discoveries are a representation, an abstraction of what and who we are. Just as CPU is a model of our brains, so is the Collatz conjecture a model of our search algorithm, in our brain. Do read.

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updated March 2, 2013, category: Software & security

A week back, we discussed Fedora 18 Spherical Cow with the MATE desktop environment. Overall, it worked well, but it did lack the wow effect, and certain improvements were needed in the visual polish space, as well as the application set. Mind, this was the first time we saw MATE on top of Fedora, so goblins came and pushed splinters under your fingernails.

This week, we will discuss Cinnamon. The more astute among you will surely recall my amazement at how well Fedora 17 performed when blessed with this desktop. The Beefy Miracle became a miracle and earned itself a spot in the top five charts for 2012. Well, it's time to see if the magic can be achieved once again, with Spherical Cow as the scapegoat. Oh so many animal references, it's almost animal farm.

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