reading comics

Scanned comics are usually saved in the .cbr format, which is essentially an .rar archive (akin to a zip file).

The Evince document reader which is installed by default with Ubuntu, can read these .cbr files, but only in conjunction with the 'unrar' program, which is not installed by default with Ubuntu.

To make matters just a tad more difficult, you won't find 'unrar' by searching in Synaptic or Add/remove programs. Instead you have to use a command line:

sudo apt-get install unrar

Once that's installed, all those .cbr files will open in Evince. You'll also see icons showing the front cover of each comic in Nautilus.

Some recommended settings for Evince (under 'View' in the top menu):
* check 'Best fit';
* uncheck 'Continuous';
* F11 to toggle full screen view

By the way, if you're not treating scans as 'samples' and then buying the comics you like, you're doing the wrong thing. You're effectively killing the comics industry.

En Avant!

Installing Avant was even easier in Hardy Heron. All I had to do was search for 'avant' in 'Add/Remove programs' (or Synaptic), then install the package returned.

Drag launchers from the top menu to the dock. Right click on very top right of the dock (this can be tricky) for preferences. Choose auto-hide under General. On the same tab, choose 3D spotlight turn in the icon effects drop down. On the Bar Appearance tab, choose 3D look.

To auto-start on logon, go to System-> Preferences-> Sessions-> Startup Programs, and add 'avant-window-navigator' as a command.

To add a place or location (home folder or a drive for example) to the dock, create a new launcher on the dock using the command "nautilus" (without the quotes). If you want to add a different location other than your home folder, use the command: nautilus /path/to/your/location . Close AWN and restart it, to see your location launcher.

[Note - to curve the dock, don't set gconf-editor->apps->avant-window-navigator->bar->bar_angle to -1 (from the default 45). It doesn't work in AWN manager either.]

Kiba-dock returns

Ubuntu on Inspiron 1501 was again the saviour. This method still works in Hardy Heron, with one exception - the systray icon. So here, with my tweak, are the steps:

1. Uninstall any current installation by searching for kiba and akamaru in Synapatic.
2. Delete any kiba-dock folders in home and usr/share.
3. In terminal (less the asterisk which marks each new entry)-
* sudo apt-get install automake1.9 build-essential cvs libpango1.0-dev libgtk2.0-dev libgconf2-dev libglitz-glx-dev librsvg2-dev checkinstall libglade2-dev
* wget http://usuarios.lycos.es/abrahamtamayo/kiba-dock-0.1.tar.bz2
* tar -xf kiba-dock-0.1.tar.bz2
* cd kiba-dock
* ./autogen.sh
* make
* make install-schemas
* sudo make install
* kiba-dock
4. in System/Preferences/Sessions/start-up add Kiba-dock with command 'kiba-dock'
5. right click on nascent blue dock to open the settings app
6. drag launchers to dock from top menu (including drop-downs)

Note - kiba-dock will only start from the command line 'kiba-dock' or on logon (start up)

Tweaking the settings

The first thing I did was change all the background colours for the dock and text to whites and greys and reduce the opacity of each to 30%. I prefer the default background option to the gradient because you get an interesting 'carousel' effect as you run your mouse along the dock. I also removed the border from the text background.

The default model for the launchers is 'dock'. I tried 'wobbly' but that made all the launcher icons bunch up. 'Spring for all' immediately scattered them across the screen. 'Rope' works well. But I prefer the independent springing of each launcher when you grab and release, so I've stuck with the 'dock' model. The default distance for 'rope' is 10.5. Adjusting that doesn't affect the 'dock' model. On the 'effects' tab, I left 'rotate' on execute and mouseover unchecked because corners tend to get cut off with this effect. The default pulsar is 'e17 pulse'. 'Zoom' is also good - rather like the Mac OSX dock zoom. 'Pulse' is less compelling. The default zoom factor is 2 for Pulsar and 1.3 for Zoom. Adjusting that to 3 made the animation lag a little under Zoom and made e-17 pulse unworkable. Bottom line - defaults were best. Under the 'dock' tab, I enabled auto-hide on the tab of the same name.

on Bluefish and other HTML editors

'Projects' doesn't appear to be a terribly useful concept in Bluefish. It doesn't allow the user to search and/or replace within a project. And there's no ftp utility to upload or synchronise a project. In any case, Bluefish remembers the directories you've navigated to previously and shows those in the drop down list. So I wouldn't bother creating a project.

To search (and replace) within a site, you have to open all its files. To do that, navigate to the base directory, then right click it and choose 'open advanced'. Then choose '.html' (or .js, .css etc as the case may be) and click 'ok'.

There is however a more convenient way to go about this. When using 'Open advanced...', place the bit of text you're searching for in the 'Contains pattern' field, before clicking 'ok'. Bluefish will then open only those files that contain the bit of text you want to find (and replace).

To set Firefox as the default browser in which to open the current html document, open Preferences/External programs then click 'add' in the Browser tab. Click left and enter 'Firefox' then click right and enter 'firefox -remote 'openURL' || firefox %s&'. Delete all the other browsers.

Quanta Plus is another worthy html editor. However, its installation requires all sorts of KDE libraries that in my opinion bloat a trim and taut Ubuntu system.

There's some useful info on other web development software at http://www.micahcarrick.com/09-28-2007/web-development-linux.html

FTP falls short

Is it Optusnet? I recall that others have succeeded in accessing their sites via FTP through Nautilus in Ubuntu. But I've never had any luck. And the story is no different with Hardy Heron.

I tried several times via Nautilus (Places/Connect to Server/FTP with login) and the story is the same each time - I get through initially but after a few seconds the "Unable to display folders. Connection has been reset by the peer". Who is the peer - Optusnet? And why reset? Do they detect connections from Linux PCs and then reject those?

BTW - I note from the Optusnet site that the port used for FTP is 21. But setting that made no difference.

I just found a long discussion I had about this very issue on the Whirlpool forum 9 months back - http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=759644

Apparently Nautilus FTP to Optusnet works for some, but not for me.

Progress made! FTP is successful via a downloaded app - gFTP if I set the mode to active (passive is default). The upshot of this thread - http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=54436 is that Nautilus attempts FTP in passive mode, which Optuszoo doesn't like. Apparently a means of switching between active and passive mode may be added to a future version of Nautilus. It's a registered bug.

To change mode in gFTP from its main menu, choose FTP/Options/FTP, then uncheck 'passive file transfers'. To save a local directory listing, navigate to the directory then choose 'save directory listing' under 'Local' in the top menu. Note - the folder may not show up in the drop-down list until you reopen the app.

the Glass icons have no clothes

Here's how to get all Glass icons to show in Hardy Heron:
1. Open Nautilus with root permission (terminal - sudo nautilus)
2. Extract the Glass Icons tar.gz file into /usr/share/icons folder (extract in source folder then copy across).
3. Go to /usr/share/icons/glass-icons/scalable/filesystems/ and right click the gnome-fs-directory.svg file and select the Make Link option. This will create a link and you rename that link folder.svg.
4. Do the same with these other files:
- gnome-fs-trash-full.svg -> user-trash-full.svg
- gnome-fs-trash-empty.svg -> user-trash.svg
- gnome-fs-home.svg -> user-home.svg
- gnome-fs-client.svg -> computer.svg
- gnome-fs-web.svg -> applications-internet.svg
- gnome-fs-desktop.svg -> user-desktop.svg
- gnome-fs-server.svg -> network-workgroup.svg
- devices/gnome-dev-harddisk.svg -> drive-harddisk.svg
- devices/gnome-dev-disc-dvdrw.svg -> drive-optical.svg
- devices/gnome-dev-removable.svg -> drive-removable-media.svg
5. Customize a theme by choosing Glass Icons;
6. Reboot (or change icon theme and then change back)

Blubuntu and screenlets

Tombuntu has a useful article on turning Ubuntu blue.

* install blubuntu-look via Synaptic;
* open Appearance Preferences from the System->Preferences->Appearance menu and select Blubuntu;
* to use the GDM login theme as well, open Login Window Preferences from the System->Administration->Login Window menu andd Select Blubuntu from the list of themes (under the second tab);
* in same window, change background colour to blue of wallpaper (#5284C2)
* if Cairo clock is installed, uninstall it;
* in Advanced desktop effects manager, enable widget layer;
* install screenlets via Synaptic;
* open Screenlets from System->Preferences;
* open Screenlets manager from system/preferences;
* select start at login;
* select Clock and then 'launch/add' at right
* set timezone to Australia/Sydney;
* add Gmail screenlet;
* adjust size to 50% (options/scale .5);
* change update interval to 300;
* enter account name and password, clicking 'apply' each time;

add intenational locations to Gnome clock
* click 'locations' then 'edit';
* enter sydney, London and New York

revert to Ubunty Human theme
* set background colour to #DAB082 (in System->Administration->Login Window menu)

Setting Advanced Desktop effects

The following guidelines are drawn from Forlong's blog.

1. in System/Preferences/Appearance/Visual Effects select 'Extra'
2. install the required package which is called compizconfig-settings-manager.
3. start the settings manager via System → Preferences → Advanced Desktop Effects Settings.

Getting the cube
Firstly, enable the following plugins (by checking the box next to them):
* Desktop Cube - to actually use it, we might have to disable some other plugins (just follow the popup)
* Rotate Cube - that is necessary to spin the cube
* Viewport Switcher (optional) - if you want to change desktops with the mousewheel
* Cube Caps (optional) - lets you use an images on top and bottom of the cube

Secondly, increase the number of the virtual desktops to 4
at General Options → Desktop Size → Horizontal Virtual Size
(the other two options have to be left at 1 - it should look like this then)

Now we can switch desktops via [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Left]/[Right] and spin the cube via [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Left Mousebutton] (or via middle-click on the desktop).

Configuring the Cube
# Set Desktop Cube → Transparent Cube → Opacity During Rotation to 75 (or 80)
# Enable the Cube Reflection plugin
# Enable the Cube Gears plugin

Configuring the Wobbly Windows
# disable Wobbly Windows → General → Snap Inverted to prevent windows from adhering to screen edges.
# to make panel menu wobbly as well, choose Shiver in Wobbly Windows → General → Map Effect

Shift switch
# hold down the Windows key and tab to initiate shift switch between open windows; hit tab again to shift focus

Real transparency in the GNOME-Terminal
Open the terminal and go to Edit → Current Profile → Effects and select Transparent background. Change the level of opacity with the scrollbar.

first software installs on Hardy Heron

Via Synaptic I installed Adobe Flash plug in, compizconfig settings manager and Cairo clock. Note - some sites such as the Sydney Morning Herald will prompt for installation of the flash plug in which then proceeds via Synaptic.

Via Firefox tools/add-ons I installed Firebug web developer tools. Note - Delicious bookmarks add-on isn't available for Firefox 3 at the time of writing.

By the way, my ability to reach the Ubuntu software servers seems to have had an effect on the shutdown speed. It' much improved.

Also - in System/Sessions/Start Up Programs, I entered 'cairo-clock' and unchecked the bluetooth and print queue managers. Unfortunately, there's some incompatibility between Cairo clock and either the latest compiz desktop effects or with Hardy Heron or both. If I set the clock to open automatically on start, it always shows as a quarter. Bur if I open it from the applications menu, it looks fine.

Hardy Heron regression?

I didn't upgrade. I did a fresh install. Why? Because the CD didn't offer that option. I could have done a live upgrade via synaptic but that would have meant a second download. Package manager also offered to upgrade all the files on the CD but I wasn't sure that the outcome would be optimal.

I haven't noticed any advantages in Hardy Heron over Gutsy Gibbon yet, but I have noticed some minuses. For a start, my windows partitions aren't mounted by default. As a result, I've had to copy the images attached to my 2 custom themes over to my home folder so that they show on boot up. For future reference - copy the 'ubuntu' folder from programsdocs/docs/My Pictures to Home Folder/Pictures then set background image of top panel and wallpaper for new themes.

Unfortunately, I'd already set the source for the wallpapers of my new themes. Changing the source of these images proved difficult at first. Eventually I worked out that I had to choose the theme in question, change something slight like the GTK theme, whereby it becomes a new custom theme, then delete the original version of the theme, revert to the custom theme, change the GTK theme back then add the wallpaper to the list of Hardy Heron wallpaper options from its new location and choose it and finally save the custom theme with the desired (previous) name, ticking the save wallpaper option.

Worst of all - shutdown is very slow now. I'm getting a longish terminal-style message too before the splash logout image kicks in.

A further annoyance, which is not the fault of hardy Heron itself, is my inability to download additional software like the Flash plug in and the compiz-config settings manager and the Cairo clock. It seems the Ubuntu servers can't quite cope with the traffic on new release day.

There's something different about themes in this release as well. Glass folder icons are a no-show.

Oh and did I mention - THAT appalling 'mark all upgrades' icon still hasn't been changed in synaptic?! The very first thing I did on boot up was change it using the instructions I set down for Gutsy Gibbon.

preparing to upgrade

Gutsy Gibbon was a clean install. All the tweaking and customisation I made to Feisty Fawn was blown away. This time, I've decided to upgrade. Before I make the move to Hardy Heron however, I thought I'd better note a few of the settings I'd like to keep, in case something goes wrong and I have to start from scratch.

First up there's the background image for the top panel (bar) - media/sda5/docs/My Pictures/ubuntu/ubuntu_panel_top.png. The panel size is 24px. I've removed the bottom panel, and then to the top panel I've added the 'hide all windows' icon and the wastepaper basket at left after the 'help' icon, a divider and finally - 'Window List'.

In system/preferences/appearance I've created two new themes -
* DC comics which combines the following: Clearlooks controls, ATER-White window border, Glass icons , default pointer and as wallpaper - media/sda5/docs/My Pictures/wallpaper/Action_Comics_855_1600x1200.jpg ;
* Orange Look which combines Human controls, Shiny-Tango-Orange window border, Human icons, default pointer and as wallpaper - media/sda5/docs/My Pictures/wallpaper/orange.jpg (or Green_Lantern_21_1600x1200.jpg);

I've also installed MacSlow's Cairo-Clock.