15 Scariest Tux Icons for Halloween

Since it's Halloween, let me give you a treat by sharing to you all some of the scariest tux icons in existence. Before going on, let me warn those with a weak heart that what you are about to see could be dangerous to your health. I'm just kidding of course :-) Some of these tux icons may even look more funny than horrifying, but at least they tried to be spooky. So without any more delay, here they are:

1. Count DraTux By tarazan


2. Joker Tux By hmeneses


3. Undertuxtaker By Brunocb


4. Virus By tarazan


5. Tiny Faucheuse By pit-tux


6. Sorciere Tux By Santang


7. Dark Templar By Neoshin


8. Zombux By tohig


9. SidTux Slipknot By robsor


10. Bubux By Darky Knight


11. Evil Tux By jigo


12. Ghost Rider Tux By manuoceane


13. GhosTux By YacinE


14. Tux Monstre By YacinE


15. The Adams Family By Santang

You may also want to check out my list of “30 Coolest and Funniest Tux Icons”. Once again, I would like to thank CrystalXP.net for sharing to us these great icons. Happy Halloween!

Xubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex" Released; Home Page Refreshed

Xubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex" has been unleashed together with its mother distro Ubuntu. Xubuntu has always been my favorite distro because it has all the exciting features of Ubuntu inside a speedy and lightweight Xfce desktop environment.

This latest version of Xubuntu is indeed loaded with new goodies such as:

* Improved Multimedia Features

* Abiword upgraded to version 2.6 with new features such as: improved support for Microsoft Office and OpenOffice documents; ability to embed gnumeric charts into your documents; the ability to open files on remote shares, ie. samba, ftp or ssh shares; and plenty more.

* Catfish (light-weight search front-end) integration

* Using the very latest X.Org 7.4

* Totem BBC plugin

* Samba 3.2

* DKMS - allow kernel drivers to be automatically rebuilt when new kernels are released

* New Network Manager with easier administration of 3G connections, PPP and PPPOE connections, and more.

* Linux kernel 2.6.27

* and much more...

With the release of Intrepid Ibex, Xubuntu also gets a home page redesign. I really love this new look that I think it's worthy to be included in my 'Best-designed Linux Distribution Websites' list.

Xubuntu.org revitalized

So what are you waiting for? Go get Xubuntu 8.10 now!

Obama, Now More Popular than Apple and Microsoft

I was just checking the hottest search terms at Google Trends and was amazed to see how Obama dominated 'Today's Hot Trends'. From the top ten list, 7 out of 10 'searches' are related to the Democratic Party presidential candidate (see below).

I played a little bit and compared Obama to two giant tech companies namely Apple and Microsoft, and here's the result:

Now, who do you think will be the next US president? If you ask me, it will surely be not this man (see photo below).

15 Beautiful Ubuntu Wallpapers for a Sleeker Intrepid Ibex

The release of Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex" is just moments away. If indeed this latest version of Ubuntu will sport a new theme, then we will certainly be seeing an ultra-fresh default wallpaper. I've seen several great-looking wallpapers posted at Ubuntu Wiki that would look good on Intrepid Ibex (see below).

However, to those who would choose not to use the upcoming default Ibex wallpaper for some reason, I have here a collection of beautiful Ubuntu wallpapers that you may like:

1. Natural Art


2. Porsche


3. ASCII


4. Rainbow


5. Smoke


6. Flower


7. Ice


8. Sandstone


9. Spirolight Black


10. Hole


11. Nubuntu


12. Globe


13. Luna


14. Lava


15. Sleek Smooth

Weekly Ten (10-27-2008)

10 Latest News, Blogs, Tips, and Reviews that I find Interesting and Useful:

1. Depressed astronauts might get computerized solace
Scientists are working on giving a computer the ability to offer some of the understanding guidance - if not all the warmth - of a human therapist, before psychological problems or interpersonal conflicts compromise a mission.
More @ Associated Press

2. What's Apple Really Worth?
That's the $150 billion question and the crux of a simmering debate between Apple fans, Apple customers, Apple investors and Wall Street.
More @ CNBC

3. Four layout extensions for OpenOffice.org Write
OpenOffice.org Writer is as much a desktop publishing program as a word processor. That fact, however, has yet to have much influence on the extensions created for Writer -- perhaps because most users prefer manual formatting to organizing themselves with page styles, templates, and other elements of document design.
More @ Linux.com

4. Quick cheap cassette adapter

More @ HackaDay

5. Windows 7 pre-beta build: What’s inside
So what’s in this soon-to-be-delivered Windows 7 pre-beta build? Here are a few new features Microsoft will provide, according to various individuals who’ve had a chance to see and hear about the forthcoming PDC pre-beta build.
More @ ZDNetBlog

6. "Storage robot" gains community-built apps
Data Robotics has announced a new "Linux Dashboard" and other community-developed "DroboApps" for its Linux-based DroboShare network-storage device. The company is also shipping a more powerful, Firewire-equipped version of the SOHO-targeted Drobo "storage robot," which is network-enabled by the DroboShare companion.
More @ LinuxDevices

7. Introducing Google Earth for iPhone
Even before we introduced Google Earth back in 2005, the team had long dreamed of being able to carry the Earth around in your pocket. Well, today that dream becomes a reality as we introduce Google Earth for iPhone and iPod touch.
More @ Googleblog

8. NASA demos 2020's 12-wheeled, pressurized lunar rover concept car

More @ Engadget

9. Linux May Be Worth $10.8 Billion, but Is It for Everyone?
Linux is apparently worth about $1,000 per line, including the blank ones and the comments, according to our own mashup of two recent reports. However, the debate continues over Linux's worth and whether a price can actually be put on something so intangibly worthwhile.
More @ LinuxInsider

10. DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 276, 27 October 2008
One of the busiest and most exciting periods of the year for most Linux distribution watchers is here. Yes, it's the Ubuntu release week!
More @ Distrowatch

10 Cool and Funny Firefox Video Ads

Firefox is the only web browser in the world that has tons of enthusiastic followers. I've seen desktop wallpapers, icons, t-shirts, graffiti, and even tattoos that are dedicated to Firefox. But it didn't stop there. Just recently, I saw some videos on YouTube that promotes the use of Firefox.

For you all to see, I decided to collect some of those Firefox video ads but picked only those that I think are cool funny. So without any more delay, here are the videos:

1. Wheee!



2. Firefox Eskimo Ad



3. Firefox Gym



4. Fox Fever



5. Firefox Dare Devil



6. Firefox Ad - Don't Be Mean



7. Firefox Rise Up Viral Video



8. The Legend of Firefox



9. True Firefox



10. Firefox - "Smells Terrific"

To Ibex, or Not to Ibex

I just upgraded to Ubuntu 8.04 ‘Hardy Heron’ six months ago. My hardware devices like graphics card, audio, keyboard, wireless card, touchpad, and webcam are now functioning well after applying a series of fixes, and I’ve got all my essential applications installed. I’m really at peace running Hardy on my Macbook Pro that I have never touched my OS X ‘Leopard’ for the longest time.


A few days from now, Ubuntu 8.10 codenamed Intrepid Ibex will be unleashed. This upcoming edition will have new features and innovation that will surely encourage non Linux/Ubuntu users to try it. But to those who have just upgraded several months ago and have a flawlessly running Ubuntu desktop just like me, is there a need to upgrade to Intrepid Ibex? Since I’m still undecided, I want you all to help me out with this one. You can answer our poll question below, or just share with us your thoughts via comment.

Android-powered Motorola Phone Coming Real Soon

Several months ago, at the last part of my 'Wassup Android?' post I said,

I'm planning to get a new cell phone by the end of the year. An ultra sleek and sexy Android-powered Motorola RAZR would be nice ;-)

It turns out, I was right about one thing. Motorola will indeed deliver its first Android-powered phone, but not until the second quarter of 2009. According to a report by BusinessWeek, Motorola's version of Android phone will boast an iPhone-like touch screen, a slide-out qwerty keyboard, and a host of social-network-friendly features.

Motorola expressed their enthusiasm by saying in a statement: "We're excited about the innovation possibilities on Android and look forward to delivering great products in partnership with Google and the community of developers known as the Open Handset Alliance that are working on the Android operating system."

So will it be an Android-powered Motorola RAZR?

According to a few reliable sources, the Motorola Android will take some of the design cue from Krave ZN4 (see photo below), the first touch-screen phone from Motorola that was launched a week ago. In addition, it will have a slide-out Qwerty keyboard just like the HTC G1. However, according to some people who've seen the pictures and specs of Motorola's Android-based device, it looks like a higher-end version of the HTC phone.


Will I wait for it?

My answer is no. U.S. release date by the second quarter of next year is just too long for me because the phone will probably arrive here in our country several months later than that. Maybe I will have to settle for HTC G1, or worse find a way to install Android on an iPhone :-)

10 Fun Firefox Add-ons

We all know that Firefox has hundreds of great add-ons to enhance our web browsing experience. In fact, there's always an article that lists some of the best Firefox add-ons or extensions. Like, 50 Best Firefox Extensions for Power Surfing, 30 Best Firefox add-ons, 10 Best Firefox Addons for Designers, 10 Killer Firefox Extensions That You Probably Don't Know About, and 15 Amazing Firefox Extensions for Porn Surfers. Okay, the last one is a joke.

Since there are already plenty of lists out there that features some of the most essential add-ons, I'm left with sharing to you all this collection of fun Firefox add-ons. So what exactly is a fun add-on? --It is an add-on that's simply made for entertainment purposes.

Now, if you are ready, here's my list of '10 Fun Firefox Add-ons':

1. Halloween Theme
Since it's almost Halloween, why not decorate your Firefox with this dark-looking theme adorned with customized icons of witches flying across the full moon, Jack-o-lantern, flying bats, haunted house, and a black cat.

Download HERE

2. Pacman
A Pacman-clone for Firefox. You can start playing the game by pressing the up arrow or the down arrow key. Features include:
* stunning retro graphics
* authentic sound effects
* back-in-the-80s feeling
* highscore list

Download HERE

3. Add-Art
If you hate seeing adds on websites, then you must try this. Add-Art replaces advertising images on web pages with contemporary art from a curated database. It is bundled with the AdBlockPlus extension. Add-Art provides the millions of AdBlockPlus users with an alternative to blank space. Art shows are hand selected by curators of contemporary artists to bring the museum onto your screen and into your everyday activities.

Download HERE

4. Pennypacker
This extension adds functionality to tag, favorite and comment on your favorite Penny Arcade strips. The support website tracks the top strips, creates tag clouds and contains a date-organised archive of all Penny Arcade comics.

Download HERE

5. Scribblies Kids
How about introducing this theme to your kids. Scribblies Kids theme has a cartoonish icon sets with a juggler juggling the balls while the page is loading.

Download HERE

6. Perapera-kun: Japanese Popup Translator
Learning Japanese can be both fun and useful. Why not try this Japanese Popup Translator that allows you to see the pronunciation and English meaning of Japanese words when you place your mouse over them.

Download HERE

7. Tom Green Live!
If you can't get enough of Tom Green, you can track the status of www.tomgreen.com, whether Tom Green is broadcasting live or not with this neat toolbar icon. It has a Drag 'n dropable icon for your toolbar: Color green: Tom is on; Color black: Tom is off.

Download HERE

8. Baseball Theme and Toolbar
For baseball fanatics, this one is for you. This combined theme and toolbar includes a favorite team selector, embedded news as well as an expandable sidebar with the latest baseball videos.

Download HERE

9. Boston Celtics Theme
I love basketball and I love Boston Celtics. The theme celebrates the peerless glory of this great NBA franchise. Its navigation and toolbars are composed of green and white colors with big icons that symbolize the Celtics.

Download HERE

10. HalloFF
This is yet another Halloween inspired theme. Jack Skellington, along with other characters from the Nightmare Before Christmas can bee seen in this theme making it dark, fun, and really cool looking.

Download HERE

If you know other fun Firefox add-ons, please share it with us.

Weekly Ten (10-20-2008)

10 Latest News, Blogs, Tips, and Reviews that I find Interesting and Useful:

1. And the number of intelligent civilisations in our galaxy is…
The Drake equation famously calculates the number of advanced civilisations that should populate our galaxy right now.
More @ the physics arXiv blog

2. Linux powers "cloud" gaming console
Envizions has announced an "open source hybrid Linux gaming system" aimed at game developers. The EVO Smart Console is based on a 2.9GHz, 64-bit Athlon, includes its own Linux distro called Mirrors Evolution, and offers game-play, Internet access, VoIP, and HD video playback, Envizions says.
More @ LinuxDevices

3. Inside the new MacBooks: Audio and Video
Apple's new MacBook and MacBook Pro models present a variety of changes in the way audio and video are handled, including support for iPhone-style integrated mic headphones and the new DisplayPort standard.
More @ AppleInsider

4. Lasercut RepRap kit

More @ HackaDay

5. Installing Xbox Media Center (XBMC) On Fedora 9 (i386)
The Xbox Media Center (XBMC) is a media center application for Linux, Mac, and Windows that allows you to manage/watch/listen to/view your videos, music, and pictures. It has a nice interface, can be controlled from the desktop or a remote control or via its built-in web interface, and it can be extended by custom scripts.
More @ HowtoForge

6. High-powered search for Arabic-speaking engineers
When I first started working at Google in 2006 I was amazed to see that the fabled 20% time really existed, and that it was up to me to decide how to use it. Being of Egyptian descent and having lived in Canada and the U.S., I became increasingly interested in Google's international work.
More @ Googleblog

7. Non-Microsoft developers to get a peek at CHESS concurrency test tool
Microsoft’s CHESS, a two-year-in-the-making tool from Microsoft Research designed to help developers test for concurrency errors, is set to make its public debut in two weeks.
More @ ZDNetBlog

8. NTT's energy-generating shoes spotted without any sign of style

More @ Engadget

9. Meet PCLinuxOS 2009 (Beta 1)
To the excitement of its many loyal users, the PCLinuxOS development team released the first beta of the highly anticipated 2009 release. It's been a long time coming but it seems it's finally on its way. There were no big surprizes found in this release, but lots of updates.
More @ Tuxmachines

10. Programming Is Hard, Let's Go Shopping!
A few months ago, Dare Obasanjo noticed a brief exchange my friend Jon Galloway and I had on Twitter. Unfortunately, Twitter makes it unusually difficult to follow conversations, but Dare outlines the gist of it in Developers, Using Libraries is not a Sign of Weakness:
More @ CodingHorror

Top 12 Most Absurd Quotes By Steve Ballmer

Yesterday, my post was about the latest stupid remarks by Steve Ballmer at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo. Today, we'll take a look at his all time most ridiculous quotes. Sorry if this has become a two-day 'Steve Ballmer's Stupid Words Special'.

Anyway, we are just having some fun here so just sit back, relax, and enjoy my top 12 most absurd quotes by Steve Ballmer.

12. "Google's not a real company. It's a house of cards."

11. "DRM is the future."

10. "Our mail product, Hotmail, is the market leader globally."

9. "I don't know what a monopoly is until somebody tells me."

8. "We've had DRM in Windows for years. The most common format of music on an iPod is "stolen"."

7. "We don't have a monopoly. We have market share. There's a difference."

6. "My children - in many dimensions they're as poorly behaved as many other children, but at least on this dimension I've got my kids brainwashed: You don't use Google, and you don't use an iPod."

5. "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance."

4. "Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches."

3. "I'm going to f---ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f---ing kill Google."

2. "I have never, honestly, thrown a chair in my life."

1. "Developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers..."

Latest Stupid Remarks by Steve Ballmer

Microsft's CEO Steve Ballmer is known to throw some really absurd comments. Just recently, as reported by ZDNet, Ballmer spoke at the final keynote at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo in Orlando via a Q&A with Gartner analysts Neil MacDonald and David Mitchell Smith.

When Ballmer was asked how Vista was doing, he answered:

"The adoption rate of Vista is faster than the adoption rate was of XP two years in," "We had a great success with security and starting to see a ramp with adoption."

But when MacDonald countered with Gartner survey data that 61 percent of respondents are thinking about skipping Vista, Ballmer responded that Microsoft would be ready for people that want to skip Vista. In fact, Windows 7 would be compatible with Vista, he said.

I don't know what kind of compatibility he's talking about because he stated that Windows 7 would be a completely new operating system. According to him, "Windows 7 is not minor because it's a lot more work than a minor release. It's a major release."

To make it more confusing he added, "Windows 7 will be Vista, but a lot better"

Perhaps Ballmer's idiotic remark of the day came when he was asked about Google Apps becoming a threat to Micrsoft Office. He answered, "People don't use it. People try Google Apps, but they don't use it. You can't even put a footnote in a document!" said Ballmer. When asked if Ballmer was dismissing Google Apps, he said that Google has "very primitive" capabilities. "We have better competition today than Google Docs and Spreadsheets. We get more competition from OpenOffice and StarOffice frankly."

Google? Primitive? I'm speechless. In fairness to Ballmer, he was right about OpenOffice.org.

Tech Source October 2008 Site Update

It's been a while since I made a personal note. It's been an extremely busy (offline) month for me, so if you are a regular visitor here you may notice that I'm not posting as often as before. Since October of last year, I consistently posted at least 5 articles per week (not including the "Weekly Ten"), so I guess this will be the first time that I'll break it. It doesn't really bother me, as I don't want to force my self to write and not enjoying it. Hopefully, I'll get the groove back because I have some good stuff planned for next month. Anyway, I've made a to-do list for this site just to let everyone know what I'm up to.

To-Do:

1. Post more distro reviews. -Though not my most-read articles and really time consuming on my part, I love distro-hoping, and enjoyed sharing the experience to everyone.

2. Post more FOSS game reviews. -Lately, I've seen some great open source games, so I hope I could play a few of them, and then write something for you all.

3. Post more Distro War. -Some people love it, some people hate it. Actually I received emails to keep doing it, so hopefully there will be more distro wars to come.

4. Post more how-to's. -I realize that I have not written much how-to's lately, so I'll try to post more for the noobies. This will also allow me to test other FOSS applications that I haven't tried before.

5. Keep on featuring great FOSS related stuff via Lists. -Since these are my most read articles, I will keep doing it and hope that this could bring more people to use FOSS. My inspiration in 'List-writing' by the way is Listverse.com :-)

That's about it. Before I'll go, you may notice my new scary site logo on top. In case you don't read calendars, it's almost Halloween folks so I'm joining the celebration that was started by raiden.net :-)

That's all for now. Keep on hacking!

Three Cool 3D Car Racing Games for Linux

My 3 year old son is addicted to race cars, so I decided to look for some 3D racing games that can be played natively under Linux. Unfortunately, I only found quite a few. But since some of you are probably desperately searching for some decent racing games for your Linux box, I will share to you some of those games that I have discovered so far.

Here are three cool 3D car racing games that you can easily get and install on Linux:

TORCS
The Open Racing Car Simulator (TORCS) is considered as one of the best open source games available for Linux. Though not as graphically pleasing compared to some of today's top proprietary 3D racing games, TORCS has a respectable graphics and an impressive gameplay that features 50 different cars, 20 race tracks, and some 50 opponents to race against. You can also download additional tracks and cars, or even join online championship races like the ‘TORCS Driving Championship’ and ‘TORCS Racing Board’. Best of all, you don't have to spend a dime, or need a powerful graphics card and CPU to play TORCS.


To learn more about my TORCS experience, you can read my full review HERE.

VDrift
VDrift, as the name implies, is focused on realistic drift racing. Inspired by Gran Turismo, VDrift features 19 race tracks, 28 cars, fully modelled scenery, and plenty more. Also, it is powered by the excellent Vamos physics engine which performs much better than GT4 when it comes to drifting, that’s according to Joe Venzon, the creator of VDrift. Though VDrift is in the early stages of development, it is already much playable.


To know more about VDrift and to download, you can visit their website HERE.

SuperTuxKart
This is definitely my sons’s favorite. SuperTuxKart has a colorful race environment, easy controls, and a cute penguin named Tux along with other kid-friendly characters. I also enjoyed playing this game as it features plenty of race tracks and game modes. The latest version of SuperTuxKart even added 6 new race tracks, a new game mode, new Grand Prix, and music.


You can learn more about SuperTuxKart by visiting their website HERE, where you can also download the game.

Qantas 'Superjumbo' to Use Linux-powered In-flight Entertainment

The Flying Kangaroo will soon become the Flying Penguin. Qantas Airways, Australia's flag carrier, will use Linux-powered in-flight entertainment (IFE) systems from Panasonic. The latest Panasonic eX2 will be deployed to some of its jumbo jets including the B787 "Dreamline", B767-300, B737-800, and the Airbus A380 "Superjumbo", currently the world's largest passenger airliner.

The eX2 IFE systems are designed for installation in seatbacks or consoles, with screens ranging in size from seven inches to 23 inches. These systems have 1GB of local flash storage from which Linux boots. Panasonic eX2 uses fiber channel backbones to deliver audios, videos, and internet connectivity to passengers.

Qantas is not and will not be the only major airline to use the Linux-powered eX2. Singapore Airlines is already carrying the eX2 on its A380s, B747 and B777 jumbo jets. Emirates Airline will also soon have eX2 on its A380 aircraft. It is said, two-thirds of the carriers who have placed orders for A380 aircraft will be using the eX2 IFE.

Panasonic eX2 IFE

Linux will definitely be soaring high with the success of Panasonic eX2 in-flight entertainment system. This only proves that Linux is far stable, secure, and efficient than any other operating system available.

Weekly Ten (10-13-2008)

10 Latest News, Blogs, Tips, and Reviews that I find Interesting and Useful:

1. At 17, Is Linux Still Wet Behind the Ears?
Linux turned 17 this week, just short of adulthood in most places. However, is it mature enough for the mass market? It's a question often asked on the Linux blogs, but the answers still keep coming: Sure it is; no it isn't; it doesn't matter.
More @ LinuxInsider

2. Apple's New Notebooks: What We Should Expect
Tomorrow sees the unveiling of Apple’s new notebooks. What can we expect?
More @ WiredBlog

3. Mafiaboy grows up; a hacker seeks redemption
The Internet attack took Yahoo engineers by surprise. It came so fast and with such intensity that Yahoo, then the Web's second most-popular destination, was knocked offline for about three hours.
More @ PCWorld

4. Playstation tank controller

More @ HackaDay

5. OpenOffice.org 3.0 is an incremental improvement
OpenOffice.org 3.0, which is being released today, is not the great leap forward in look and feel that version 2.0 represented, but it justifies its label as a major release with dozens of changes, some major, some minor, but in all more than can be easily summarized.
More @ Linux.com

6. Android’s Login Is Cool, But Is It Secure?
Unlike other phones, which require a four digit number for unlocking, the Android simply puts nine dots arranged in a square on the touch screen, along with the words “draw pattern to unlock.”
More @ TechCrunch

7. Foresight Kid's can inspire young minds
Foresight Linux is best known by many as the distribution that features the Conary package management system. Perhaps soon it may become known as your child's favorite distro.
More @ Linux.com

8. MDI's Airpod runs on compressed air, challenges Segway for dork gold

More @ Engadget

9. How much would an $800 Apple laptop hurt Microsoft?
Just when the Windows marketing team thought things probably couldn’t get much worse, there’s word that Apple may be gearing up to launch a new Macbook with a low-end $800 price point.
More @ ZDNetBlog

10. DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 274, 13 October 2008
And while most other distributions have been quietly fixing the bugs in their own development trees, DistroWatch has compiled another package management cheatsheet - now incorporating two distro-agnostic tools, as well as source-based distributions.
More @ Distrowatch

15 Weirdest, Coolest, and Funniest Tux Images

Tux, the world famous symbol of Linux, can be seen all throughout the interwebs. Some Linux enthusiasts are just crazy about this cute penguin that they posted images of Tux in all forms and sizes. So, it is only appropriate to give them proper credit by showing some of those images here.

Here's a collection of 15 weirdest, coolest, and funniest images of Tux. Enjoy!

1. Swarovski Crystal Beaded "Tux"

By: iso100

2. Computer case Tux

By: josue salazar

3. Nice Hair Tux!

By: billymavenstone

4. Tux Origami

By: phauly

5. el penguino moustachio

By: bounder

6. Tux on a plane

By: metalmijn

7. Fat Chinese Tux

By: zopeuse

8. Tux Bath Gel

By: Tom

9. Chocolate Tux

By: jikuykendall

10. Tux Graffiti

By: sydolta

11. Big Tux with Red Hat

By: Dave Wongillies

12. Tux likes bunnies!

By: punquin

13. Party Tux

By: sherikirkwood

14. Tiny Tux earing

By: Brero

15. Tux Bento

By: MothHunter

If you know a link or two to other weird, cute, or funny tux images, please do share it with us.

Shiny New Mandriva Linux 2009 Walkthrough and First Impressions

The latest and as they say one of the most ground-breaking versions of Mandriva Linux has been released as scheduled. Mandriva Linux 2009 is jam-packed with exciting new features and innovations that will try to cater everyone’s desktop needs. I had fun with Mandriva 2008, so I was really looking forward to this latest release.

Yesterday, I downloaded the KDE Live CD edition (mandriva-one-2009-KDE4-int-cdrom-i586.iso). When the download was done a few hours later, I was excited-enough to immediately test-drive it via VMWare Server that was installed on my Xubuntu desktop. So what makes Mandriva 2009 so special? What’s not to like about it? Here’s a little walkthrough, plus later on my initial impressions:

But first, my test machine specs:
Board: Intel Corporation D102GGC2
Processor: 3.40 GHz Intel Pentium D
Hard Drive: Samsung 80GB ATA with 8GB allocated to VM disk
Memory: 2GB DDR2 RAM with 512 MB allocated to VM memory

Installation:

Once I have loaded the Live CD, a pleasant-looking artwork with transparency effect kicked-off my Mandriva 2009 experience.

Next, a familiar Grub menu will appear that will let you boot Mandriva 2009 straight away, or invoke other options.

This will be followed by language selection, license agreement, and date, clock, time zone, and keyboard settings.

After this, you will be immediately taken to the sleek KDE 4 (specifically, 4.1.2) desktop. You will have an option to take a Mandriva 2009 feature tour, or just go for the ‘Live Install’.

Since I’m all business, I went for the live installation. A wizard will guide you for the whole installation process which was shall I say extremely straightforward. It is much simpler than the previous version’s installer, and I was really amazed at how easy it is to install Linux nowadays, even easier than installing Windows or Mac OS X.

Installing...

After a flawless installation and first reboot, you will have to go through a post-install configuration such as location and network set-up. For the network configuration, in my case the default option was always the best option, so I went on without any problem. Lastly, you will need to fill-up the root (administrator) and user password.

Success...


Now, it’s time to play with my spanking Mandriva 2009 desktop.

Aside from utilizing a KDE 4 desktop, this latest version has a darker theme compared to the traditional Mandriva blue. I must say the artworks are strikingly cool. The default desktop theme is called Aya, but you can get plenty of great KDE 4 plasma themes if you don’t fancy the default one.

Loading KDE 4 desktop...


KDE 4 Menu...

Since I’m already familiar with KDE 4 after having used openSUSE 11, I had no trouble exploring Mandriva 2009. I tested some system tools and applications like the refurbished Control Center (drakconf) which was better than the previous version in terms of usability. I also used the package manager, tried changing the themes via ‘Desktop Settings’, and used several key desktop applications like Firefox 3.0.3, OpenOffice.org 3.0, Gimp 2.4.7, and Amarok 1.90. By the way, Mandriva 2009 is loaded with up-to-date software packages, so there are plenty of goodies for everyone. You can also read the release notes for more details.

Brand new Control Center...


Installing package...


Firefox 3...


Attack of the Plasmoids...


Shutting down...


So what are my initial impressions of Mandriva Linux 2009?

The good:
* It is very easy to install which makes it ideal for new-to-Linux users.
* It has sleek and professional-looking artworks and themes.
* It has a really quick boot-up speed
* It has a user-friendly and versatile Control Center
* Solid KDE 4 integration

The bad:

* I bumped into a few hiccups like when I changed the ‘Menu Style’ I experienced a minor crash, so I had to restart X.
* Though I think 512MB of RAM is enough, you will have to increase it if you want a snappier KDE 4 desktop.

Those are my observations so far since I’ve only used Mandriva 2009 for a few hours. I’ll just post an update here soon after I get to know it better. By the way, it’s worth mentioning that Mandriva Linux 2009 has been optimized to support a wide variety of netbooks. Anybody out there who have installed Mandriva 2009 on a netbook?

To those who want to try out the latest edition of this highly-popular Linux distribution, you can visit the Mandriva Linux download page HERE.

Hackles: Funniest Comic Strip About Hacking and Linux

With all those sad news about the global economy, it's hard not to be affected psychologically. However, if you know how to laugh in the face of danger, everything's going to be OK.

Lately, I've been reading a lot of online jokes that I bumped into this old and stagnant website which featured a funny comic strip entitled Hackles. The main character named Hackles is a dog programmer who is clearly into Linux and open source. He is joined by two tux-looking penguins, a web-developer cat, and some other cool characters. If you are a pure-blooded geek, you will surely enjoy Hackles as it is filled with humor about hacking/programming, Unix/Linux, and just about anything that's related to computers.

Let me share to you some of my favorite Hackles issues from the comic archives. Enjoy! (Click on the images to enlarge)

* The penguins give the office network a Lord of the Ring theme


* Programming: Art vs. Science


* Hackles wrestles with his Linux setup


* Microsoft's latest fiasco


* Every coder has a favorite neon-yellow caffeine drink


* New computers for everyone! Percy and Pete come up with host names


* The new iMac identity crisis


* What is the best search engine?


* Hazel finds a stumbling block in UNIX


* Katrina gets Slashdotted


Visit hackles.org for more.

I hope Hackles and the gang will be back someday as they sure know how to make a geek laugh.

Linux News Sites Web Traffic Slowdown: Is this for real?

As with the U.S. economy, it seems like the web traffic of several well-known Linux related news sites are slowing down. According to statistics from Alexa, famous sites like Slashdot, Linux.com, and Linux Journal among others have a sudden decrease in site visitors. For the last few months, the decline is unbelievable. See the graphs below to know what I mean:

Slashdot:


Linux.com:


Linux Journal:

Should we trust Alexa's traffic stats?
Alexa is known to be really inaccurate. Take for example my site. There are days when I'm having insane number of site visitors, but when I check Alexa's stats, I'm seeing the opposite; traffic stats are down during those days.

To Apple fanboys who think that this is happening because Linux is out and Mac is in, check-out the stats of your favorite Apple news sites below:

Macrumors:


AppleInsider:

I've heard Alexa updated their algorithm several months ago, so this could be the real reason why the stats are messed up.

Do you still trust Alexa’s traffic rating system? Feel free to share with us your thoughts.

Weekly Ten (10-06-2008)

10 Latest News, Blogs, Tips, and Reviews that I find Interesting and Useful:

1. Emails show journalist rigged Wikipedia's naked shorts
Two and a half years ago, Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne penned an editorial for The Wall Street Journal, warning that widespread stock manipulation schemes - including abusive naked short selling - were threatening the health of America's financial markets. But it wasn't published.
More @ TheRegister

2. Elive The Age Of Enlightenment

ELIVE is a live Linux CD showcasing the Enlightenment window manager/desktop shell. The Belgian project's slogan, "Where Debian Meets Enlightenment", provides us with an early hint that here is a Linux distribution built on very strong, very deep foundations.
More @ Raiden's Realm

3. Clean energy 2030
The energy team at Google has been crunching the numbers to see how we could greatly reduce fossil fuel use by 2030. Our analysis, led by Jeffery Greenblatt, suggests a potential path to weaning the U.S. off of coal and oil for electricity generation by 2030 (with some remaining use of natural gas as well as nuclear), and cutting oil use for cars by 40%.
More @ Googleblog

4. Another IKEA linux cluster

More @ HackaDay

5. Don't Buy Antivirus Software, Vendor Says
Trend Micro's consumer security product manager has recommend people not to buy antivirus products, including his own. But there is a method to his madness, he assures.
More @ PCWorld.com

6. The Perfect Server - CentOS 4.7 Server
This tutorial shows how to set up a CentOS 4.7 server that offers all services needed by ISPs and web hosters. This tutorial is written for the 32-bit version of CentOS 4.7, but should apply to the 64-bit version with very little modifications as well.
More @ HowtoForge

7. SEC investigating false report on Steve Jobs heart attack
The Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday it's investigating whether a false report that Apple chief executive Steve Jobs suffered a heart attack was published in a effort to manipulate the company's stock price.
More @ AppleInsider

8. WowWee's Rovio gets reviewed: it's one awesome robotic sentry

More @ Engadget

9. Linux turns 17
Free minix-like kernel sources for 386-AT, was the subject of Linus Benedict Torvalds post to comp.os.minix on October 5, 1991 -- seventeen years ago today. it began...
More @ LinuxJournal

10. Have You Found Your One True Love?
Three years ago, I wrote the book, How To Find Your One True Love.
More @ BoSanchez

15 Rockin' Rockbox Themes for iPod

Did you know that it is possible to alter the look of your iPod's boring default graphical user interface? Thanks to Rockbox, an open source firmware for mp3 players, you don't have to be a hacker to customize the appearance of your iPod's GUI.

I've made a tutorial on installing Rockbox on a 5th generation iPod before, but you can visit Rockbox's website for a more up-to-date and detailed installation instructions for your specific iPod model.

I'm going to show to you some of the coolest user-uploaded Rockbox iPod themes that you can download for free. These are only for 5th generation iPod Video, but there are also available themes for other models as well. But first, let me show the default iPod 5G theme:

Now, feast your eyes on these rockin' Rockbox themes for iPod:

1. phkGUITAR

Download HERE

2. Molten Cobalt

Download HERE

3. Flow

Download HERE

4. phkVH

Download HERE

5. iPhoneLike

Download HERE

6. jBlackGlass Themes

Download HERE

7. phkTAPE

Download HERE

8. phkAMP

Download HERE

9. Ubuntu

Download HERE

10. phkOSC

Download HERE

11. Theme X HighBar

Download HERE

12. Stele

Download HERE

13. iNSANE

Download HERE

14. Crossbones

Download HERE

15. iPod Green5g

Download HERE

Is twhirl the "most awesomest" Twitter desktop client for Linux?

The first thing that I did after I got a Twitter account was look for a desktop client for Linux. Unfortunately, I only found a few, and most them are still under development and their features are anemic.

I have tried several good Twitter clients, but it was on my OS X desktop. The one that I really like most is twhirl. I later found out that twhirl is also available for Linux, but I will need to install Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) first for it to work. At that time, Adobe AIR for Linux is still in Alpha stage. However, it didn't stop me from installing AIR and twhirl on Linux. Though I successfully installed them on my Xubuntu Macbook Pro laptop, twhirl looked terrible and crashed often. I gave up and just wished Pidgin will someday integrate a twitter client.

Then came the good news; Adobe recently released the Beta version of AIR for Linux, so I gave twhirl another try.

Adobe AIR Beta + twhirl = Awesome!
Not only did I get the many features of twhirl (e.g. can change color schemes, search tweets, tweet notifications, ability to shorten URLs) I also enjoyed its stability and efficiency. No more crashes this time. I found out that twhirl is not resource hungry at all contrary to what others have said. I also noticed that it has lesser CPU and memory usage when running in Linux than in OS X.

Installing Adobe AIR Beta and twhirl in Linux is as easy as ABC. Here's how:

1. Dowload Adobe AIR Beta for Linux directly HERE:

Or go first to the download page HERE:

2. Download the latest version of twhirl directly HERE:

Or go first to the download page HERE:

3. Using the terminal, install Adobe AIR by first granting it the execution rights:

$ chmod +x adobeair_linux_b1_091508.bin

Then install it with:

$ ./adobeair_linux_b1_091508.bin

Here's how my terminal looks:


A graphical installer will then appear after the install command:

4. After you have successfully installed AIR, simply right-click on the downloaded twhirl package to install it, and then open it with Adobe AIR. A graphical installer will then show up:

5. Just click 'install' and then wait for a few seconds, and you are done. Have a look at my shiny Twitter desktop client:

Final Notes:

It's good to know that Adobe AIR is now getting better and better in Linux as there are plenty of great applications that rely on AIR. To wrap this up: Is twhirl currently the most awesomest Twitter desktop client for Linux?
--Absolutely!

Many Thanks Tuxmachines, Woot!

Way before I started this blog, I've been keeping an eye on Tuxmachines.org because it always has the freshest and quality news about Linux and other FOSS related articles. It's simply a news aggregator site that I look up to.

When my blog post got first featured on Tuxmachines, I couldn't believe it that I cried tears of joy. Well, I exaggerated a bit about the crying thing, but I was really happy just to be included among the headlines on that day. Also, the Tuxmachines effect gave this blog a good number of readers and site visitors, and the number keeps on growing as more and more of my blog posts got featured.

Yesterday, another tears-of-joy-moment came when the renowned and well-respected founder/owner of Tuxmachines, Susan Linton, posted at Don's Patch her Top13 Favorite Websites for Linux and Open Source information. She picked Tech Source from Bohol as among her favorites. It’s really flattering as her list also included some of my most wanted sites like:

Linux.com
Raiden's Realm
Phoronix.com
Beranger.org
Distrowatch.com
iTWire.com
OStatic.com

You can read Susan Linton’s full list HERE (it's somewhere in the middle of the page), and also HERE.

Thank you Tuxmachines, and thank you Susan Linton for the kind and inspiring words. Because of you, I keep on waddling the waddle :-)

More power and cheers!