FreshUbuntu

My humble apologies for taking so long to get this podcast out. As I transition to a new line of work things should get back to a more normal schedule. In any event, this one is finally out and ready for consumption. This week I talk about how to read and write to an NTFS drive and much more. I also have some interesting new packages that were brought to my attention by one listener. He has an excellent alternative for MS Visio, must hear podcast. Below are the links, enjoy!
News From the better late than never department. Dell will pre-install Linux
From the Extreme Makeover Department: Lauchpad facelift
From the We are the Borg; resistance is futile department: VMware in kernal
Package magic - http://www.koffice.org/kivio/
Main - http://www.howtoforge.com/ubuntu_edgy_eft_ntfs_ntfs_3g
clcotw - Create a file (the fast way) with "touch" shell>touch foobar.log Bam! You've successfully created foobar.log. It's much faster than running vi, saving, and exiting. Touching an existing file updates the time it was last modified.
 
Music by IODA Promonet
 

Download "TGIM" (mp3)
from "Kiss The Crystal Flake"
by The Mother Hips
Camera Records

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Download "Incompatibilidade De Genios" (mp3)
from "Cleopatra Cafe"
by Trio Mafua
Time Zone Records

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Download "It Might as Well Be Spring" (mp3)
from "Cookin' at the Corner Vol. 1"
by Les DeMerle
Origin Records

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Download "Manic Depression" (mp3)
from "The Jimi Project"
by Phil Brown
Apaches From Paris

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More On This Album

Hi everyone!! Sorry for the short podcast, just too many things going on this past week. This week I introduce you to the Gizmo Project which is another Voip product similar to Skype. The reason why I like it is the free voicemail feature that they offer you. Also, it gives you and option to record your conversations easily for free!!! For a podcaster that is valuable. This was supposed to be the first installment of the linux equivalent segment, but I was just too excited to tell you about this to offer a real "equivalent". Yes I know Skype is available for linux but I think gizmo is a good alternative to Skype. I am astounded by its feature set that they offer for free. I'll try harder next time to get out a better windows equivalent package.
I also explore wildcards. You may be already familiar with the asterisk (*) which can represent any number of characters. Below is a list of wildcards and proper syntax. Enjoy!!
The asterisk (*) - used for any number of characters. It can be used like this: ls *.txt This will list all the text files in the current directory.
The question mark (?) - used to denote a single character. It can be used like this: ls p12000??.png This will list all png files (it's a graphics file good for websites) that start with p12000 as shown before the question marks, but the question marks are a place holder for any character at the position where the wildcard is placed.
If you wanted to find a file which contains a letter or number form a specific subset you could use the square brackets, []. For example: rm fresh[k,x]ubuntu.txt This will, of course, remove any text file freshkubuntu or freshxubuntu. But why would you want to do that?? You can also use the brackets for contigiuous sets of letters or numeral, such as, a-b, or 1-9. This is shown below: copy vacation[a-c]200[0-6].* /home/harlem
As you can see, wildcards can be mixed to give even greater flexability to your commands.
Now don't fall asleep on me, I just have a couple more to go! You can also use the brackets to limit your search by eliminating letters that a file does not contain by introducing an exclamation point after the first bracket and before the first letter, like:
ls [!fresh].pdf
This command will only show files that do not contain the LETTERS f, r, e, s, h, and inadvertently the word fresh. You can do the same to a range of letters, such as, a-w.
What if you wanted to search for a file that has a specific word in it? Well, you would use curly brackets, {}. Its not apparently intuitive, what with all the square ones dominantly in use.
For example: mv {fresh,ubuntu,is,the,best,podcast,ever} /home/toptenondigg
This finds files with the words in the given subset and moves it to the appropraite directory.
Note - These wildcards can be used with a number of commands, not just the ones listed here. Remember, use caution when moving things around with wildcards. Just be safe and if you are at all unsure about what you are doing stop and think about it. That's it for now, see you next week.

News Item #1 - Linux Backer Lets Go Of Third Of Staff
Item #2 - Feisty Fawn (7.04) Herd1 Released!
Item #3 - The Open Source Car Project
 
Main - -The Disk Usage Analyzer for Ubuntu and Kubuntu
 
This was a neat little find!! The Disk Usage Analyzer located in the application menu under accessories, as well as KDirStat, included in the base installation of Ubuntu and Kubuntu will tell you how big your directories are and how much space is allocated to it on the physical drive. The utility will give you both a text version of the space and a graphical representation of the data that is on your hard drive. Above are the pictures of both the Ubuntu version and the Kubuntu version. The Fresh Ubuntu choice for disk analyzers is....Kubuntu!!! Yes, it is actually far and away a better implementation of this utility. It is located in the K menu under the utilities menu and is named KDirStat (Directory Statistics), the Kubuntu version gives both the graphical and textual information in a split window, whereas in Ubuntu you have to call up the graphic by pressing a different button on the menu. I also give a thumbs up to the way that Kubuntu walks you through the whole process by selecting the directory from a popup window upon initial startup of the utility. On the other hand, Ubuntu leaves you standing there wondering what to do. Now, I realize that once you learn the application this become less clumsy, but, when opening up the program for the first time it can literally stop you in your tracks. This is a novel utility which might come in handy someday when you are getting close to filling up your hard drive with documents, music, and, (ahem) graphics.
 
CLCOTW - aliases
 
This is not really a specific command, but a way of accessing a set of commands through "aliases". An alias is a shortcut to a proper command that can be entered in the terminal. Aliases can be very handy with long and verbose commands. I am a poor typist, so anything that can alleviate that end of my work is appreciated. Before we can use any aliases we must declare them in our user's ~/.bashrc file, which resides hidden in our home directory. You can use sudo gedit ~/.bashrc to open the file. (I am not a big fan of Vim or Nano). I would save a copy of the file before making any changes. For example, File -> Save As -> .bashrc.orig It is also a good idea to actually read the file before adding the aliases. Bash, the default shell, already provides some example aliases that have been commented out. It is here that I suggest adding the apt-get aliases. alias agu='sudo apt-get update' alias agi='sudo apt-get install' alias ags='apt-cache search' alias agsh='apt-cache show' alias agr='sudo apt-get remove' These aliases could also be put in a file called .bash_aliases, and set aside from the .bashrc file. there is a provision in .bashrc to map all aliases to a file called .bash_aliases. That option is quite helpful for cross-pollenating your settings from machine to machine. This example was taken as an excerpt from the O'Reilly press book "Ubuntu Hacks", chapter six, page 209.
 
Links to the music - Because of the graciousness of the artists, they have allowed podcasters to play their music on our podcasts in exhange for a little promo. So here it is, thanks for listening
 
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Download "Hullabaloo" (mp3) from "Hullabaloo / Calypso Blues" by Spiritual South & Sleeptalker Sleepwalker Raw Phusion

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Download "Take The "A" Train" (mp3) from "Artistry In Swing" by Tony Evans & His Orchestra Tema International

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HatHead - Rumba Lullaby