Niath

Niath's new home

2007-04-24T23:08:00.000+01:00

It is with great pleasure that I'm announcing to everyone that Niath's new home is finally ready.

I've registered a new domain, tiagoboldt.net, and the blog is now hosted in tiagoboldt.net/blog. I changed the theme a little bit, I'll write about some of those changes later.

Please tell me what you've thought about it!

Enjoy

Last post from blogger

2007-04-23T22:48:00.000+01:00

I've been working, for a couple of days now, in a new blog, were Niath will be ported to. It will be wordpress based, and in my own domain and hosting. It will be up whenever I like it enough. Be patient, I'll try to make it worth the waiting!

Joost Invites - Delivery

2007-04-19T00:24:00.000+01:00

As I've said, I had 3 Joost invites to give away. I've sent them to rizzah@gmail.com, brhersh@gmail.com and pbmoita@gmail.com. I hope to get some feedback from them:)

Ubuntu 7.04

2007-04-19T00:08:00.000+01:00

Today it is the scheduled date of the final Feisty Fawn version of Ubuntu, 7.04 which has been under development for the past six months.

Ubuntu's website is already under heavy traffic, and, for those who will want to download the distribution right after the release, bit torrent should be the best choice. There will be hundreds of people sharing, so, speed won't be a problem.

I hope that Ubuntu 7.04 is at least as successful as the previous version, and I'm happy to congratulate everyone involved in this awesome community. Thank you for your work. We're all making the most usable Linux distribution out there! Let's keep raising the bar!

Update
It is out, see the release notes, or, go get it.

Joost invites

2007-04-18T17:31:00.000+01:00

From Joost:

Hello Tiago,

We hope you are enjoying your Joost experience.

Good news! We've posted 3 invitations in "your Joost" so you can invite
your friends to watch your favorite program with you. To invite your
friends, start up Joost, click on "my Joost" and fill in your friends'
details in the "invite friends" widget box. Enjoy the ride!

So, just comment me your email address, I'll randomly select 3 emails tomorrow:)
And tell me later what you've thought of it!

Midterm tests

2007-04-17T17:31:00.000+01:00

I've been really busy in this past weeks, due to the tests which I had these last days. I'll will probably have more time now, meaning some more time to blog.

I've been thinking on how I could improve Niath, probably a change to a better blogging engine and get it it's ~~how~~ (I'm really tired..) own domain.

Suggestions are accepted.

Heroes @ TVI

2007-04-14T13:51:00.000+01:00

That's it, it has just started at 13h52, portuguese hour, in the portuguese channel TVI. Go watch it, you won't regret it!

Update:
Learn more from the tv series post.

Gutsy Gibbon

2007-04-12T10:40:00.000+01:00

Ubuntu's Feisty has already got a successor. With the release of Ubuntu 7.04 scheduled for April 19th, Ubuntu 7.10, to be released in October, is already being thought, and it as been codenamed Gutsy Gibbon.

Congratulations to everyone who worked in this version, it kicks ass!

Feisty is shipping

2007-04-11T15:02:00.000+01:00

Ubuntu's ShipIt is already accepting orders for free feisty cds! Unfortunately, we can no longer order large amounts of cds. I've already ordered my 3 feisty cd's, go get yours:

Galternatives

2007-04-09T20:49:00.000+01:00

It is usual to have in a Linux system several programs used for the same task, for example, several text editors. To choose the default program for a certain task, update-alternatives is used. I'm now aware of a graphical tool to do this, galternatives.

Galternatives is intuitive and really useful to simplify those configurations. It is easily installed with a sudo apt-get install galternatives in Ubuntu.

In the screenshot, I'm configuring java6 as the default java interpreter.

Known through Marco.

Gaim has become Pidgin

2007-04-08T20:38:00.000+01:00

Probably, every Linux user out there knows GAIM, the instant messaging client for Linux.

Well, due to some legal problems with AOL, this great project has changed it's name to Pidgin. The story was covered in slashdot.

They now have a new URL, pidgin.im.

~~GAIM~~ Pidgin is a fast and light IM client, best integrated in GNOME, which I recommend to everyone.

Ubuntu Shipit

2007-04-04T21:27:00.000+01:00

Marco has just blogged about the recent ShipIt status. I was in doubt if Feisty would be freely shipped, since Edgy was not. Well, there is no confirmation, but the ShipIt site says:

ShipIt is currently closed while we prepare for the Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) release. We'll be back in a few days.

That seems to be good news, those free cds are always a great way of spreading the word through friends! I'll be hoping to see Feisty available there, so I can get everyone around here trying the last Ubuntu version.

Update:
After login, we can read the following:

We'll be back in a few days, shipping Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) CDs.

I'll be waiting!

Dot.Com

2007-04-04T11:27:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I've won two tickets to the premiere of Dot.Com. I've just answered a couple of questions and received an email announcing that I was one of the winners.

The movie was AMAZING. Everyone was laughed from the beginning, until the end! Portuguese movies aren't usually really that good, but this one amazed me.

The story begins with an engineer who is trying to get the government to build a decent road to a small village, Aguas Altas, to make the beautiful village known. To do this, he registers the domain aguasaltas.com (it is really online), and starts promoting the village through the website. The problems start when Drinam, a Spanish company, demands the domain, to promote their branded water, aguas altas (aguas is the Portuguese/Spanish plural of water).

When a small village takes on a big multi-national company, nothing can go right!

IMDB link

Trailer:

FireGPG

2007-04-04T11:10:00.000+01:00

FireGPG is a Firefox extension, which allows the user to immediately encrypt, decrypt, sign and verify his email through GPG in Gmail. It will merge with the Gmail's interface, in order to smooth and integration. Great tool, for those who want to keep their secrets safe!

Launchpad out of private beta

2007-04-02T11:58:00.000+01:00

Launchpad, the web interface managing Ubuntu bugs and packages and a lot of other projects, has finally came out of ~~beta~~ private beta. It is all 2.0 now, more usable, but, the most important about web2.0, it looks really much better! :P

Gmail Spreadsheet Integration

2007-04-01T20:00:00.000+01:00

Today, someone emailed me an attached .xls spreadsheet file from Microsoft Office's Excel. My surprise was when google offered me the option of opening it in the browser with Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

Edubuntu Icon Set

2007-03-31T21:15:00.000+01:00

Some days ago, while browsing the edubuntu home page, after seeing some screenshots, I got interested in the cartoonish icons they were using by default in gnome.

Today, I've decided to install this icon set in my machine, I've searched the repositories and, after a while, the gnome-icon-theme-gartoon package was installed. It appeared right away in the theme configuration menu, and it is now my default icon set.

Tv Series

2007-03-31T19:40:00.000+01:00

Some months ago, I've found out that there are some TV series who are really worthy to watch. In the past months, I've been following Lost and Heroes every week and watched the whole 4 seasons of Nip Tuck.

Lost, which is probably known to almost everyone, is the story of a group of survivors from a plane crash in a island that was being used for some strange scientific experiments. I've already seen the two first seasons, and I still have no idea of what's happening in the island, but a I really think that this third season will give more details on that.

Heroes recalls to our childhood. When everyone wanders how awesome it could be, if we were able to fly, read minds, have super strength or some other super-mega-extra-cool special ability. In heroes, all this becomes true, when some individuals see them selfs acquiring this powers without no know reason. While some use those powers for good, just like any super-hero comic book, there are those who use it for bad. The story is really addictive and I really recommend everyone to watch it (it will be shown in Portugal, according to wikipedia, during 2007).

Nip/Tuck follows the lives of two Miami plastic surgeons, Sean McNamara and Christian Troy. In the first season, we are able to notice the differences in their lifestyle. While Sean is all about his family, Christian is a seducer, always with different women. While the seasons pass by, they face all types of problems, from plastic surgery addicts, through drug dealers to family problems.

A while ago, I've also watched the first season of Prison Break. It is definitely amazing. The story, the details, the.. the.. Everything! I'll begin watching the second season this following week.

I really suggest each one of them to everyone with some spare time, they're all worth watching!

Beryl in Ubuntu

2007-03-25T12:32:00.000+01:00

I'm happy to see that all the legal issues were put behind, and that beryl is already available in the Ubuntu repositories.

Beryl is a fork of compiz, but, in my opinion, it is developing way much faster! In the past few days, there has been some huge discussion, to define if beryl should merge with compiz, creatting a new project with a third name. Two days ago, Quinn Storm, the leader of the beryl project, has agreed with the merge. This probably won't be ready in time for feisty, but I'm sure that, if the merge goes smooth and no problem appears between the developers, feisty+1 will surely have some awesome desktop effects!

Introduction

2007-03-23T14:19:00.000Z

Well, it seems that shutdown day has not affected my laptop!

My blog has been accepted into too planets which I really admire. Ubuntu Weblogs and, now, P*. I've been following both of them since they went online, so, it is really an honor to join both of those teams.

For those of you who have no clue who I am:

Tiago Boldt Pereira de Sousa, born March 24 (yes, happy birthday to me), 1988, I'm a student at Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, trying to make myself an informatics and computation engineer.
I'm an Open-Source fan, who's using Ubuntu for almost an year now. I've been also to getting into the Ubuntu community, helping with bug reports, translation and what ever help I'm able to do.

I hope you all enjoy my postings, as much as I enjoy to discover and share new stuff.

Ubuntu Weblogs

2007-03-22T11:13:00.000Z

First of all, congratulation to gouki, who as recently been accepted as an Ubuntu Member.

Second, Hello World, from Ubuntu Weblogs. This is a planet, using planetplanet to manage the feeds. Ubuntu Weblogs is an aggregation of public weblogs written by Ubuntu GNU/Linux users. I've been following this planet since it went online, and I've just been accepted.I'm glad to be part of this team!

Command Not Found

2007-03-20T17:15:00.000Z

My machine's BASH has just received a brand new upgrade! From now on, whenever I type a command to open some application which is not installed in my Ubuntu system, the repositories are automatically scanned and, if there is an application with the given name, it will be suggested for installation.

Confused? Here's an example, I'll try to open gedit, which is not installed:

tiagoboldt@Niath:~$ gedit
The program 'gedit' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt-get install gedit
bash: gedit: command not found
tiagoboldt@Niath:~$

This feature should be installed by default, but you can also install it through the command-not-found package, available in the repositories.

Edit:
There has been some discussion about how fast the output comes out, if it slow or not, so, see it for yourself:

tiagoboldt@Niath:~$ time kedit
The program 'kedit' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt-get install kedit
Make sure you have the 'universe' component enabled
bash: kedit: command not found

real 0m0.154s
user 0m0.108s
sys 0m0.028s

Less than 0.2 seconds, yes, it is fast!

Ubuntu splash screen follow up

2007-03-17T12:21:00.000Z

Following this post, the splash screen has already been updated, it seems that the community comments were heard!

New default splash:

Edit:
Wrong image was uploaded, the real new default screen is this one:

Ubuntu Home Page

2007-03-15T20:42:00.000Z

Ubuntu's homepage has just received a face lift.

I have really get used to the old design, but, anyway, the new one is not bad at all, check it out yourself at www.ubuntu.com

Beryl 0.2

2007-03-15T11:19:00.000Z

Beryl 0.2 is finally out!

I've made my upgrades and finally the ATI issues are solved. My window decoration is running fast and stable! If you're using Ubuntu, upgrade from these official repositories:

deb http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org edgy main
deb http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org feisty main
deb http://debian.beryl-project.org etch main

While nvidia user are able to run it from Aixgl, all of ATI users, using ATI official driver must use XGL, in order to do this, install xserver-xgl from your package manager and before you login, select the XGL session. Run beryl-manager to start it.

Enjoy

Ubuntu Desktop

2007-03-14T15:53:00.000Z

I've been using Ubuntu for about an year now. This is, by far, the Linux distribution that has amazed me the most.

When I first tried out Ubuntu, it was version 5.10, Dapper Drake. It amazed me the simpleness of the system, yet, with all those powerful capabilities, characteristic of Debian based systems. For the first time, the only problem I had while installing a Linux distribution was the graphic card driver, which I had to manually configure. It automatically detected my sound card, monitor resolution, keyboard, auto-mounted dvds/cds, and lots of other goodies, that made me stick with it ever since. But, nothing is perfect.. The worst problem it had a couple of years ago is still here now. Looks!

Ubuntu is trying to take a great place in the desktop world. It is now taking on Microsoft's Windows Vista or Apple's Mac OS on. Despites being a great operative system, it lacks one small detail, it is ugly as hell! I've been using Feisty for some time now, and after a recent update, I really though that this situation was getting better. My splash looked like this:

Despite the usual brown look, the image was smooth, and better than the previous one. Just a couple of days later, after another update, I was seeing the worst splash screen I've ever seen.

It is not at all 'nice'. Planet Ubuntu's contributor Alan Pope has even called this splash phallic! Fedora is way ahead Ubuntu with their default looks. If we what any system to be attractive, the first thing he has to do, is make impact. And if Ubuntu whats to be able to fight the battle for Desktops, it has to be way more than just easy to use and secure/stable.

So, because maybe we're still in time, I challenge all of those, who have the knowledge, and all the other who think that they can help, let's embrace new ideas, Ubuntu needs a new and improved look! We are tired of the boring brown! Can this be done before Feisty final release?

Youtube to Divx

2007-03-13T17:47:00.000Z

You can easily convert all of those youtube videos that you like for one of your favorite formats, and play it anywhere. Divx AVI, MP4, 3GP.. You name it. The download is a bit slow, but the quality is great! Try it out.

Get the glass!

2007-03-13T17:37:00.000Z

Get the Glass is a flash based game, where you help family Adachi, some crazy mil lovers, to get to the fort and steal their so wanted.. glass of milk! The idea is kinda cool, the game is a board game, you must roll the dice in order to move, and you must play several interactive games, in order to run from the police.

Liked the idea? Try it yourself and Get the glass!

XP Themes

2007-03-11T12:59:00.000Z

Everyone is talking about making Linux look like Windows. The start menu, The icons, the everything! So, I really thought it to be a good idea, when I read in tux vermelho about making Windows look like Linux. Gnome, to be more precise!

In order to do this, you should download belchfire to be able to install non signed themes. Now, all you have to do is go to deviantart and download Clearlooks, Human and Plastik. Then,just extract the folders to C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes\.

Done, just right click your desktop, select preferences and select your new appearance.

To also alter the icons, you should download them from here.

You can read more and preview the result in the Tango for Windows webpage.
Some applications, firefox and thunderbird have this kind of themes available, just go to the theme option and search for tango, it should appear right away.

For the last step, the desktop background, search in one of these:

Gnome-look.org;

KDE-look.org;

Interfacelift.

If everything went well, you desktop should now look like this:

PS3 cluster

2007-03-11T12:33:00.000Z

Dr. Frank Mueller, professor at North Carolina State University, has put together 8 PS3's, in order to create an awesome cluster, with incredible processing capabilities, for about only 5.000$US, less than some of those branded computers, which have only a fraction of the capabilities.

The PS3 allows the Linux operating system to be installed, and IBM designed the programming environment for programming the Cell processor (including eight vectorization units), which combined tremendous computing power within a single PS3. According to Mueller, each PS3 unit contains six operational special-purpose cores for number crunching and one general-purpose core that is two-way multi-threaded in his configuration, so the eight machines clustered have 64 logical processors, providing plenty of number-processing ability in addition to be able to run the latest games for a long time.

The cluster is going to be used for scientific research. By now, it is being used to teach classes in operative systems, parallel systems, compilers and gaming.

The software powering it:

Fedora Core 5 Linux ppc64
MPICH2 (also MPI API)
OpenMP v2.5 (via gcc)
gcc (C compiler)
CellSDK 1.1

Game Installers for Linux

2007-03-07T19:24:00.000Z

Linux installers are not always that great, and for those who are beginning, a little help is always handy! Loki Installers for Linux Gamers are simple installers for several games, like UT2004, Quake3 and Savage! The installers are divided into two sections:

Native: These are developed for the Linux operative system. The installer puts the game in the selected directory and creates a launcher for the game.
Emulated: Games ported from Windows. The game is installed and the launcher will use Cedega, Wine or other available program,that must be installed separately, to run the Windows game.

The direct download is not always great, but the tracker is available for bittorrent downloads.

Have fun!

Vista Activation

2007-03-04T16:19:00.000Z

Windows Vista as been pirated!
Not a big new, it would be just a matter of time, but, anyway, the super secure system, whose bugs are already being revealed, is now crackable. The process takes advantage of the partnership between Microsoft and some computer brands, that allow them to ship Vista pre-installed, without the need for activation. APcMag has more to read about it!

Get OpenSolaris

2007-03-04T13:46:00.000Z

So, you want to try Open Solaris, but are too lazy to download and burn the DVD? Ask for it, just like ubuntu's free cds, they're also shipping their system with a bunch of useful tools!

Know the drugs

2007-02-27T20:08:00.000Z

Alcohol, LSD, Ecstasy, Heroin, Marijuana and others. You probably know these names, and you also probably know what they do. But, do you know how they act? Mouse Party will teach you how these drugs affect the brain, through a pretty nice flash animation, by the Genetic Science Learning Center at the University of Utah!

Windows XP Privilage Escalation

2007-02-27T17:57:00.000Z

As all of us have probably already heard off, privilege escalation, or, vulgarly, become admin, in Windows XP is not that hard. These guys have it all explained, video included! You just need access to the machine. Wanna now how?

Color Code

2007-02-23T19:52:00.000Z

Ubuntu Posters

2007-02-23T19:41:00.000Z

I've found some posters, Ubuntu themed, which are an awesome way to publicize the Ubuntu Operative System. The following, and a lot more of marketing images, can be found through http://doc.ubuntu.com/~marketing/spreadubuntu/

Trusted Computing

2007-02-21T20:30:00.000Z

Ever heard of the trusted computing alliance? The alliance that might some day control what you compute in your PC? Want to know a bit more about it? This video from youtube can explain the what and why (not) of trusted computing.

GenPets

2007-02-21T16:56:00.000Z

I've seen this through ~~Raúl~~ Ricardo Vidal's blog (sorry Ricardo), and it amazed me! Bio-Genica has just developed living genetically created pets. These little - what do we call them!? - toys, come with a life supporting system to keep them alive while they are on the shelves. The company claim their pets to be:

Allergen free;
Child safe;
Low maintenance needed.

So, who will want to buy one of theses? The site lacks information on how this little semi-living beings act, react or live, but, still, it let us know that they will be sold with six different personalities, identified in the box by colors:

Genpet Red™ - Athletic and energetic;
Genpet Orange™ - Adventurous, confident and curious;
Genpet Yellow™ - Playful and fun;
Genpet Green™ - Helpful, harmonious and peaceful;
Genpet Blue™ - Communicative and serene;
Genpet Violet™ - Imaginative and spiritual.

I really see this as a strange toy. Our pets are always loved, cared and seen as friends, who can love someone who comes in a box!? And such an ugly one? There is no release date announced in their page, but I'll be curious about these GenPets!

Listen Music Player

2007-02-20T18:37:00.000Z

Listen is an awesome music player developed for Gnome. It has got some really cool features that lack from almost all players, such as:

Automatic lyric fetching;
Artist and album information from wikipedia or Last.fm;
Very good podcast and internet radio integration;
Excellent library management.

The project home page show us some nice screenshots from the application. It has been all written in python, and, despites it's early development stage, only at version 0.5, it is already fully stable and usable. The installation can be done through the Ubuntu repository by installing the listen package or, in any other distro, if the package is not available, the source can be downloaded here.

Ubuntu bugs

2007-02-20T13:49:00.000Z

As it is know, Ubuntu has got an excellent bug report/support system, through launchpad. Now, you can see the stats on how many bugs are open, how many are unassigned, unconfirmed and critical. Thank you carthik

OpenMoko

2007-02-16T12:11:00.000Z

OpenMoko calls itself:

The world's first integrated open source mobile comunications platform

Specifically, they are developing a phone in order to compete with Apple's Iphone and Nokia's best mobile phones. In order to this, and this is the innovative part, they are building the software, based in Open-source software only. In order to do this, according to their mailing list, they will put together the OpenMoko Linux distribution, that will be based on:

Hardware:

120.7 x 62 x 18.5 (mm)

```
2.8" VGA (480x640) TFT Screen
```
```
Samsung s3c2410 SoC @ 266 MHz
```
```
Global Locate AGPS chip
```
```
Ti GPRS (2.5G not EDGE)
```
```
Unpowered USB 1.1
```
```
Touchscreen
```
```
micro-sd slot
```
```
2.5mm audio jack
```
```
2 additional buttons
```
```
1200 mAh battery (charged over USB)
```
```
128 MB SDRAM
```
```
64 MB NAND Flash
```
```
Bluetooth (2.0)
```

Software:

```
Linux 2.6.17.14
```
```
gcc 4.1.1
```
```
binutils 2.17.50.0.5
```
```
glibc 2.4
```
```
Xorg 7.1
```
```
glib 2.6.4
```
```
gtk 2.6.10
```
```
dbus 0.9
```
```
eds
```
```
(more)
```

This powerfull tool, in it's early stage, will be given to some developers who want to help, so that bugs can be found. Its release is scheduled to March of this year in the U.S., and it will probably cost $350 US Dollars, plus shipping, which let us guess that it won't be for sale in ordinary shops, but only through the website.

(In)Secure Magazine

2007-02-16T11:55:00.000Z

(In)Secure magazine number 10 is out. This is a security magazine, reporting everything important there is to know, with sugestions to open-source security. It is freely distributed, and this month edition covers the following aspects:

Microsoft Windows Vista: significant security improvement?

Review: GFI Endpoint Security 3

Interview with Edward Gibson, Chief Security Advisor at Microsoft UK

Top 10 spyware of 2006

The spam problem and open source filtering solutions

Office 2007: new format and new protection/security policy

Wardriving in Paris

Interview with Joanna Rutkowska, security researcher

Climbing the security career mountain: how to get more than just a job

RSA Conference 2007 report

ROT13 is used in Windows? You're joking!

Data security beyond PCI compliance - protecting sensitive data in a distributed environment

It can be download at http://www.insecuremag.com/.

Mirror blogs

2007-02-15T21:01:00.000Z

It is really sad to see how many bloggers are online just in order to steal content from another, some even removing the credits, others by leaving a small unnoticed 'via' word, linked to the blog. This has happened to me in my last post, IM Clients for Linux. I've found several blogs with exactly the same text, the same hyperlinks, well, a copy of my post. Here are two examples:

http://linux.wordpress.com/2007/02/14/im-clients-for-linux/
http://www.tuxme.com/content/view/3569/

I wonder, if you bloggers want to spread a message, that as been already written by someone, and are going to copy it, why won't you just create a link to that entry, from the original blogger, in a post were you talk about what you think of the original text? Are there any reasons to copy the content!? The worst cases, are those who don't even add a comment to what they have copied! Just copy+paste. What do we call this blogs? Mirrors?

IM Clients for Linux

2007-02-13T22:00:00.000Z

If you use Linux, there are a lot of Instant Messaging clients for you to choose from. And this is not an easy choice at all. There is the features vs stability problem all the time. In order to simplify your choice, I've decided to come up with the most know.

Gaim

Gaim is the number one client in the open source community. It is being widely developed, and it's awesome due to it's stability and supported protocol diversity. The version in SVN already supports web cam and a lot more.

Kopete

Kopete, I would say, is to Gaim, as KDE is to Gnome. It has some extra feature, but complete useless. While the main window is simple, the chat window has way too much garbage.

Emenese

Emenese is still in it's early development, but is already being talked. It is being written in python, which gives it a promising future, with lots of extensions and a fast development, common for everything that comes the python language.

Mercury

Mercury messenger is for all of those who are used to Windows Messenger. Supporting almost everything that the Microsoft client supports, it's only disadvantage is that it is written in java, and it consumes a lot of memory!

Amsn

Amsn is just ugly. It was an attempt to copy Windows Messenger, but, in my opinion, it went completely wrong and I just can't like it!

Kmess

Despite I haven't ever tried Kmess out, it seems to be a real simples messenger client for KDE, with all the basic needs and really usable.

I am now using Gaim 2.0.0beta6, from the Ubuntu Feisty repositories, and I'm really getting along with it. Still, my favorite one, since I've had Microsoft's MSN Messenger for some years, is Mercury Messenger. The only reason I'm not using it right now is that it was giving me some problems, probably because of the java integration. I've taken the opportunity to see how Gaim was going and decided to keep it.

Have I missed any really good one? What's the best for you?

IMified

2007-02-13T20:34:00.000Z

IMified is a middle point between your IM application and your blog, calendar and what else they will enable it to do. Basically, You're able to talk to IMified contact and tell it to appoint you a new meeting, post a certain blog, ...

WHY SHOULD I USE IT?

Because you shouldn't have to launch your browser to add a new appointment to your Google calendar, or complete a todo in your backpack account. Imified is always open, sitting right there in your favorite IM client ready to help. If you have an IM client running on your mobile phone, you've got instant access to your applications wherever and whenever. Cool huh?

Personally, I prefer the normal way. But there's for sure a lot of people who will be interested, and for those, just learn how to use it: IMified

Gmail

2007-02-08T20:41:00.000Z

I've been using Gmail for a long while now, more then one year, I guess. It puts together everything that I need from an email provider. There are some particular points that makes me think Gmail is the best email solution out there:

Spam protection is the best out there, almost nothing comes through;
More than 2800MB of available space, and always increasing, so that you can store all your emails for a long, LONG time;
Incorporated Gtalk, for instant messaging , directly from the browser;
It is now free and complete, no more invitations are needed, so that anyone can subscribe.

So, what are you waiting for? Go get your account!

Update:
Just found an article from techcrunch comparing google, yahoo and microsoft email platforms. Not only my opinion, by their data, google is really the best email of the three.

Fon Router

2007-02-08T19:58:00.000Z

Awesome! I've ordered my router freely from from FON, just a week ago, and it has already arrived. It's installed and it really surprised me. It is really small, but, still, the signal is great, and I can login from my whole house, two floors, with signal strength always greater than 75%. The installation is quite simple, just plug the power cable and an ethernet from an internet source. The two networks become immediately detectable. I'm truly impressed, and recommend it to everyone! Go get your invitation for a free router!

Web 2.0

2007-02-07T22:13:00.000Z

I've just found a pretty nice video with a self-explanatory demonstration of what web 2.0 is all about. It shows google, youtube, flickr, wikipedia and a lot more of those sites that are changing our everyday living. It's just awesome how the cooperation is showed, and web 2.0 opened up.

A Million Penguins

2007-02-03T21:11:00.000Z

Someone appears to have thought that a novel could be written by the community, through a wiki. The wiki was hosted, the title "A Million Penguins" was given, and now it's up to whoever wants to participate to develop the story. If you think you've got what it takes to help doing it, just make yourself an account and start editing the text, I'll be waiting for the final result, but, still, I don't really think it will be a best seller. Anyway, the story at the wiki can be read and edited at www.amillionpenguins.com.

GigaOM gives away FON Invites

2007-02-01T13:48:00.000Z

I've just ordered a FON router. I've been searching for a long time now for an invite. I've just noticed that GigaOM is giving away invites, and I didn't think twice before ordering my la fonera router. This invite makes it free (router and shipping costs). It has got a private network, that you may use at home, and a public one, that you should share according to the fon community rules. If there are any invites left, they can be found here. Use and abuse.

Update: How the community works, via youtube

Update2: GigaOM invites are over, but, due to FON's 1st birthday, they are giving away more router by their own. I'm already waiting for mine, spread the word! Get it here.

Windows Vista

2007-01-29T22:18:00.000Z

Vista is getting released worldwide. Not for my computers!

UPDATE: Similar thoughts after vista release party

Debian on Windows

2007-01-28T15:01:00.000Z

Following the Ubuntu installer for Windows initiative, Debian has just released their on version of the operative system installer in an .exe, for those who want to just try this operative system. This, just like the Ubuntu version, can be uninstalled through the add/remove programs in windows, just like any other program! Download and infos here (with a very suggestive URL).

Updating to Ubuntu 7.04

2007-01-26T21:22:00.000Z

I've decided to update my Edgy Eft, Ubuntu 6.10, to the development version of Ubuntu, the Feisty Fawn, that's going to become Ubuntu 7.04.

Step 1: tiagoboldt@Niath:~$ sudo update-manager -d

I've just issued the command, update manager has looked and found the development version, update is automatic and 976 packages are currently being downloaded.

Step 2: Unpacking and installing EVERYTHING automatically! Probably it will take a long time! It says about 23 minutes, fingers crossed, no errors must appear, like appeared from 6.04 to 6.10.
Step 3: Rebooting, after a long wait of updates and a quick reboot, everything seems now to be properly working. Some programs will probably crash sometimes, but this is still the development version. But everything seems to be smooth.

Operation successful

Update:
Answering to Mike's comment, yes, there is a way to install through Feisty Alternate Install CD (not the Desktop CD), for this, just insert the cd, open a terminal and type:

gksu "sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade"

Some updates might still be needed, but, anyway, it will be just a small part of it.
Job done :)

Letting go

2007-01-26T14:23:00.000Z

Comics

2007-01-26T14:20:00.000Z

I'm a comic lover. Especially those who pretend to be funny, with a little bit of geekness included. Due to this, I've decided to post those specially funny comics that I sometimes find online, from xkcd, dilbert, sinfest and a lot more, under the label comics.

93 years old blogger

2007-01-26T14:12:00.000Z

Donald Crowdis, born December 24, 1913, as just surprised my, after I discovered is blog. With is 93 years of age, Crowdis writes about is daily life and thoughts. Recently, he has posted a very interesting article about is fear of death. While Don to Earth, is blog, is a very interesting view of the world, through the eyes of life experience, it's also a way to show us that the new technologies aren't definitively only for new people, and that the blogosphere is here for anyone who wishes to use it.

Internet Explorer vs W3C

2007-01-25T19:37:00.000Z

Via Hugo Silva

CNR package management

2007-01-25T13:20:00.000Z

CNR, standing for Click and Run, is a package management system, originally developed for freespire, that is now spreading to other linux distros, like ubuntu, debian, fedora and others. It seems to be a good alternative to apt-get/aptitude/synaptics, since it's able to give a lot more of information about the product that's going to be installed, it will be able to install proprietary software, check all package dependencies and still manage to keep the computer clean. It will maybe be a good choice, but, still, I think I'll stay with the official ubuntu package manager, I believe that it would be changed if CNR really becomes that great!
More at CNR official page.

Gaming on ubuntu

2007-01-23T18:19:00.000Z

I've spent some time enabling my ATI Mobility Radeon X700 on my Acer 1694WLMi Laptop. It gave me some headaches, there was some problem with the official ATI, driver, fglrx, and mesa didn't want to go away. After some tries, I've decided to reinstall everything, xserver and fglrx, with the kernel restrictive modules. After that, I've just "sudo moddep -a" and rebooted. All went smooth, and I can now see:

tiagoboldt@Niath:~$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: MOBILITY RADEON X700 Generic
OpenGL version string: 2.0.6011 (8.28.8)

This means that my graphic card was already recognized and was ready to be user. So, what is a graphic card used for? GAMES, I've just installed the recently released second life client, savage for linux and a couple of games from the repositories, like Xmoto or Tremulous.

Second life runs really good, but I don't see any point in playing that.. It can be freely downloaded here.
As for Savage, it's total fun, just spent the evening playing it. Worth a try!

Busy Week

2007-01-23T18:14:00.000Z

Almost a week now, since my last post. The work at FEUP has been giving me some really headaches. I'm still a freshman, and the whole new experience is being really great. Despite all the studying hours needed, the people are great, the facilities awesome and I'm really loving it. Yesterday I had my last test, for now at least, two weeks to the next round, I'll spend them happily online.

Give linux a try

2007-01-17T21:57:00.000Z

For those of you who are afraid of removing or try partitioning your windows in order to try to install some linux distribution, you can now try the ubuntu installer for windows. Just like any other problem, it's a normal .exe file, it allows you to install a ubuntu system. After the installing is done, a reboot will be needed and, before your windows begins, grub, a boot manager, will ask you if you want to boot windows or ubuntu linux. If you ever want to remove it, just go to the add/remove programs and there will be a ubuntu entry. Remove it, and all will be back to normal. There are still some problems with the application, but I believe they'll be soon corrected. The only important issue is that, at this point, you're forced to login with the username and password 'ubuntu'. This will surely be corrected in the next releases. Wanna test it? Get infos here and download it here(version 3, there could be a new one available).

Virtualbox

2007-01-17T19:44:00.000Z

Virtualbox, just like VMWare, is a virtualization software. Specifically, Virtualbox allow the user to create virtual machines to run several operative systems. The program is freely available as open-source here, and it has binaries available for several operative systems. Ubuntu package available!

War on Microsoft

2007-01-16T14:35:00.000Z

As all of us already know, the Microsoft empire is being more and more attacked by a lot of other companies and open-source movements. In this image, we're able to see who's attacking what, with all the companies and applications names, from the Microsoft side, against some big names, like Oracle, Mozilla, Linux, Google, Apple, Sun and several more!

Ubuntu repositories generator

2007-01-12T16:51:00.000Z

For those of you who use, witch I recommend, Ubuntu, I've just found what could be a very handy tool, a sources.list generator. For those of you who don't know what the sources.list is, it's the list of repositories to be used by ubuntu software manager, in order to update and install software. This generator will give you, according to our selections, the appropriated sources.list file. Once done, you should put the file in /etc/apt/ directory. For that, save the text in your home directory and just use the command sudo mv file /etc/apt/sources.list (this will erase the previous config). After that, just run synaptics or any other package manager and you'll notice some speed improvements, and the whole new available packages for you to try. Give it a try!

Linux powered PC's

2007-01-11T21:52:00.000Z

I've recently found a computer store, with linux powered only computers on sale. It's System76 and it sells all of it's desktops and laptops with the latest version of Ubuntu pre-installed. They are also selling servers with ubuntu 6.06, the long term support version of ubuntu installed. The price gets lower without the usual windows installation, and all the system is fully linux supported. They've got some special beauty, maybe some kind of Apples' macmini imitation, the koala mini. All of the computers are fully customizable, from the cpu, to monitor.

iPhone

2007-01-10T20:05:00.000Z

According to the rumors, there was a new apple mobile phone to be released and called iPhone. The rumors have become true, a couple of days ago, Steve Jobs, the apple man, has himself divulged to the attendees at CES, this past Monday, the capacities of this new apple beauty.
The mobile phone is able to browse the web throw wi-fi and the new EDGE technology, receive and send emails, view maps, and a lot more!

The Specs:

Screen size 3.5 inches
Screen resolution 320 by 480 at 160 ppi
Input method Multi-touch
Operating system OS X
Storage 4GB or 8GB
GSM Quad-band (MHz: 850, 900, 1800, 1900)
Wireless data Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + EDGE + Bluetooth 2.0
Camera 2.0 megapixels
Dimensions 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches / 115 x 61 x 11.6mm
Weight 4.8 ounces / 135 grams

This as it all to keep the good name of apple rising in the market. It has only on disadvantage, that was immediately pointed by Nokia, it's still 2G. But, who would miss video-conference, with all those possibilities?

Migration

2007-01-10T20:04:00.000Z

Português -> English

Novos passaportes

2006-12-26T20:58:00.000Z

Os novos passaportes passaram a trazer tecnologia RFID, o que, por outras palavras, vai ser um identificador, com as informações do dono. Estas informações permitirão a leitura instantânea dos passaportes pelos serviços de alfandega.. e não só, qualquer pessoa com o equipamento certo poderá ler as informações destes futuros passaportes. Ora sendo isto uma invasão de privacidade, a wired decidiu revelar a melhor maneira do utilizador manter os seus dados seguros. A maneira do martelo!

Esquema das caixas multibanco

2006-12-26T20:34:00.000Z

Todos já ouvimos falar dos esquemas das caixas multibanco, onde, de alguma forma, alguém consegue as informações, PIN e dados, de um cartão bancário, clona-lo e usa-lo para pagamentos ou levantamentos ilícitos. Para que não sabe, isto é feito de diversas maneiras diferentes. Uma, muito comum, é esta, onde se filma o PIN e grava através de um aparelho as informações de todos os cartões inseridos na ranhura. Para guardar o PIN, há também aparelhos que são sobrepostos ao teclado numérico, que têm uma memória e armazenam os dígitos inseridos. Visto este esquema já ter chegado a Portugal, é importante que, antes usar caixas multibanco, verifiquemos se tudo está normal com a ranhura onde inserimos o cartão e se o teclado não está alterado. Caso isto aconteça, devemos contactar a entidade responsável pela caixa multibanco e em nenhum caso usar a respectiva máquina.

Feliz Natal

2006-12-24T19:01:00.000Z

WikiHow

2006-12-22T15:16:00.000Z

WikiHow é um wiki voltado para a criação de how-to's, manuais que explicam ao pormenor como fazer certa coisa. Abrange inúmeros temas, não só sistemas operativos e, embora tenha um aspecto um pouco rudimentar, tem conteúdos bastante interessantes. Ao bom estilo de um wiki, é feito da comunidade, para o comunidade, podendo qualquer pessoa dar a sua colaboração. A não esquecer quando, para usar como referência quando alguma dúvida surgir.

Criar um cd de instalação do windows

2006-12-22T15:10:00.000Z

Com este sistema, podemos criar um cd personalizado de instalação do Windows, adicionando-lhe programas a gosto. Útil, para termos a nossa própria versão do Windows, dispensando a instalação de todos aqueles programas que acabamos por instalar de cada vez que instalamos o sistema operativo. Incluí também vídeo de demonstração.

2006-12-21T12:32:00.000Z

Os motores de pesquisa e publicidade estão agora a oferecer prendas nesta época natalícia a quem publicita nos seus serviços, segundo o que nos conta Shimon Sandler, que acaba de receber da google um ipod shuffle .

NORAD - Localizar o pai natal

2006-12-20T12:12:00.000Z

Curiosos pelo percurso habitual do Pai Natal? Este site faz-nos ligação com os mais potentes radares, que o controlarão durante toda a entrega de prendas no dia de natal! Será que é desta que o apanhamos na nossa chaminé?

Firefox 2.0.0.1 Final

2006-12-20T12:02:00.000Z

Saiu ontem uma nova versão do Firefox, que é principalmente uma correcção de erros e problemas de segurança. Download aqui.

Deixar o Windows

2006-12-15T13:35:00.000Z

Para aqueles que continuam a achar linux demasiado complexo, aqui está uma boa distribuição de iniciação a este novo sistema operativo, mantendo todo o aspecto gráfico do windows, de forma a que a maioria dos utilizadores se adaptem mais fácil e rápidamente ao novo sistema operativo. Estes rapazes juntaram e alteraram diversos programas, de forma a que a troca fosse simples e eficaz! O projecto chama-se LXP, é gratuito, e tem aqui mais informações e download .

Como desfazer um ipod

2006-12-14T17:47:00.000Z

Há uns tempos atrás descobri o www.willitblend.com, uma página de publicidade a uma máquina trituradora. Pois os senhores, em vez de a testarem nas bananas, morangos, chocolate e mil e um sabores que poderiam levar a uns bons batidos, decidiram fazer uns testes mais.. pesados. Pois bem, estes senhores desfazem tudo, cabos de vassoura, ostras, garrafas, as mais variadíssimas coisas. Para terror dos espectadores, mais recentemente, fizeram-no com um ipod!

Conteúdo grátis para todos

2006-12-11T20:00:00.000Z

O fundador do wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, trabalhou recentemente para a disponibilização de um espaço usado para a criação de blogs ou sites comunitários, completamente gratuito, como manda as regras do open-source. O novo serviço, em www.openserving.com, permite aos utilizadores partilharem informações e conhecimentos de inumeras formas, tendo apenas que manter um link para o fornecedor de serviço. O motor é open-source e toda a informação que lá está dentro tem também a obrigação de ser livre. Vale a pena dar uma espreitadela!

Experiências com o telemovel

2006-12-10T11:24:00.000Z

Existe uma grande quantidade de funções para as coisas pudemos usar os telemóvel extremamente curiosas. Hoje descobri algumas que desconhecia e achei particularmente interessantes:

1. Em caso de emergência, 112 não é apenas o número nacional a usar, em qualquer país, qualquer parte do mundo, ao usarmos o nosso telemóvel, marcando 112, ele tentará procurar a linha de emergência e estabelecer a chamada em qualquer parte do mundo.

2. Imaginemos que, de alguma forma, o carro se fechou com as chaves lá dentro. Ora a solução seria ir buscar o comando substituto para puder abrir o carro. Pois há outra alternativa, pelos vistos, estes comandos funcionam por ondas de rádio, que podem ser captadas por um telemóvel. Assim, se telefonarmos para alguém que esteja em casa e possa carregar no botão perto do telemóvel, desde que o nosso esteja perto do carro, este vai-se abrir!

3. Para aqueles que não conhecem, ao inserirem *#06# no seu telemóvel, este vai-lhes fornecer o IMEI do mesmo, que é o seu número de série. Caso alguma vez o telemóvel desapareça ou seja roubado, deve ser comunicado de imediato à operador o sucedido e com o IMEI é possível que o telemóvel seja completamente bloqueado e, nalguns casos, até encontrado e recuperado!

4. Os micro-ondas devem ser aparelhos completamente isolados para terem um correcto funcionamento. É possível usar um telemóvel para testar se estes estão a funcionar da melhor forma, pondo o telemóvel dentro do micro-ondas, claro, sem o ligar, e tentando ligar para ele. Se conseguir ter rede dentro do micro-ondas, então o aparelho é de fraca qualidade ou poderá estar danificado!

Google aconselha Firefox 2

2006-12-09T22:04:00.000Z

O google passa agora a recomendar aos utilizadores do internet explorer que façam um upgrade ao seu browser para o firefox 2.0. Desta forma, o google toma partido não só pelo software livre, mas também por um dos browsers de qualidade em maior expansão no mercado na actualidade.

Geek's

2006-12-09T13:08:00.000Z

Não pode ficar pior do que isto. Um rap todo ele com termos geeks! Ao que acabamos de chegar, permite, sem dúvida, umas enormes risadas! Link

Linux na PS3

2006-12-07T22:52:00.000Z

É verdade, ainda nem à venda se encontra um portugal a PS3, já pela net correm as maravilhas que a nova consola da Sony vai permitir fazer. Para além das habituais capacidades e fantásticos jogos que as consolas Sony nos habituaram a ter, esta vem, sem dúvida, revolucionar a sala de estar! Para além de ser uma consola de jogos, é um completo computador, permitindo utilizar sistema operativo, rato e teclado USB, internet, tudo o que um computador típico nos habituou a ter. Para isto, uma das hipoteses é instalar o Yellow Dog Linux. Para os sortudos, aqueles que tiveram a possibilidade de o experimentar, têm aqui um optimo guia. Agora é só esperar que um dia possa deitar as minhas mãos a uma destas, com certeza, fantásticas máquinas.

De volta online

2006-12-07T20:51:00.000Z

De volta online, após algum tempo, com tanta informação disponivel para partilhar e arquivar, não resisti, voltei a pegar no blog! Tentar não voltar a desistir tão facilmente, e esperar que venha a ser gostado :)

Quando o vício se torna doença

2006-07-18T21:04:00.000+01:00

Quando o vício dos videojogos se torna em doença, passa agora a haver a possibilidade de recorrer a clínicas específicas para o tratamento deste problema. Ler mais

Lista 10 grandes do open source

2006-07-04T10:10:00.000+01:00

Sem dúvida, alguns dos melhores!

Ubuntu ShipIt

2006-06-29T14:17:00.000+01:00

Acabados de chegar estão os encomendados 5cd's do Ubuntu e outros 5 do Kubuntu. Tudo sem qualquer custos. Mais informações aqui.

Fon

2006-06-28T21:57:00.000+01:00

A FON é uma comunidade que visa a distribuição de internet por WiFi pelo mundo para a própria comunidade gratuitamente, e por um preço simbólico para quem quer usufruir dela. Para isso, fornecem o router wireless a quem pretende juntar-se à comunidade, pelo preço simbólico de 5€ + portes, tendo esta pessoa apenas que partilhar o seu router a quem naquela zona o quiser usar, desfrutando da vantagem de poder usar qualquer outro, gratuitamente, em qualquer parte do mundo, pertencente à comunidade. Estou a pensar mandar vir o meu router, não serão muitos os vizinhos que se vão lembrar de se juntar à comunidade, para os interessados podem saber mais aqui.

Pink Floyd - The Wall

2006-06-22T22:10:00.000+01:00

Bocado de arte:

PC dentro do carro

2006-06-20T10:21:00.000+01:00

Este há-de ser sem dúvida um projecto a concluir!

Frase do dia

2006-06-14T19:23:00.000+01:00

An Unix admin needs to be root. A Windows admin needs to reboot.

(seen as a Slashdot sig)

Monitor Táctil Gigante

2006-06-13T20:31:00.000+01:00

Esta é sem dúvida uma invenção de utilidade para o futuro! O Video mostra-nos a utilidade em jogos e aplicações, usando neste casa o google earth e o World of Warcraft 3 para a demonstração. Mais informações aqui.

Como escrever plugins para o Firefox

2006-06-05T12:10:00.000+01:00

Aqui fica um simples e preciso manual

O significado de 'Ubuntu' por Nelson Mandela

2006-06-05T12:07:00.000+01:00

Fonte

Elephants Dream

2006-06-04T00:16:00.000+01:00

Elephants Dream é o primeiro filme feito unicamente com uso de ferramentas Open Source, como o Blender, e completamente gratuito. Pode ser feito o download do filme de diversos mirrors disponiveis na página no site. Será que pega moda?

Ubuntu 6.06 - A Instalação

2006-06-01T22:09:00.000+01:00

Estou NESTE PRECISO MOMENTO, NESTA MÁQUINA, a instalar esta nova versão do tão falado Ubuntu. E estou pasmado! O cd arranca como um live cd, temos acesso a tudo o que o sistema nos trará de origem e permite-nos, clicando num "instalar" correr a instalação, enquanto vamos explorando aquele que está para ser o nosso sistema operativo. Ou seja, estou para aqui a gabar isto a tudo quanto é contacto do messenger ou google, enquanto o sistema vai instalando.. Aconcelho vivamente experimentar esta distribuição que, na minha opinião, há-de mudar o senso comum sobre os sistemas operativos!

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS

2006-05-31T17:55:00.000+01:00

Se tudo correr como esperado, a versão final do Ubuntu sai já amanhã!

*Update:
Já saiu, por volta das 10h da manhã, horário GMT, foi mundialmente lançado, acompanhado de diversas comemorações e a loucura dos downloads! Eu já tenho a minha imagem! Informações no frigorífico!

O Mac

2006-05-29T21:17:00.000+01:00

Via Cogumbreiro

Ponteiros em C

2006-05-29T17:18:00.000+01:00

Aqui fica um bom texto explicativo do que são ponteiros e como podem ser utilzados, recorrendo à linguagem C.
*Refrescar a página caso esta dê erro ao abrir, aconteceu-me algumas vezes..

Big spender?

2006-05-17T22:06:00.000+01:00

Que tal um telemovel revestido a ouro? Ou porque não diamantes? Não?