Full Circle Magazine Is Not Affiliate1d with Or Endorsed by Canonical Ltd

Issue #21 - January 2009 full circle NICOLAS VALCARCEL THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU COMMUNITY PROGRAM IN C - PART 5 WEB DEVELOPMENT - PART 2 CHANGE VIDEO ASPECT RATIO UBUNTU ISO TO BOOTABLE USB

THE RESULTS ARE IN! FORMATTING OUTPUT

SURVEY RESULTS TRIBAL TROUBLE 2

RREEVVIIEEWW

Full Circle magazine is not affiliate1d with or endorsed by Canonical Ltd. p.04

Formatting Output p.06

Program In C - Part 5 p.08 Web Development - Part 2 p.11 Changing Video Aspect Ratio p.16 full circle Ubuntu ISO To Bootable USB p.20 w w w . f u l l c i r c l e m a g a z i n e . o r g Creative Zen V Plus In Ubuntu p.23

Missed Opportunity p.24

Tribal Trouble 2 p.26 : Nicolas Valcarcel p.29 p.31 P.26 P.29 P.08 P.11 p.38 p.40 p.41 : Torrent Tools p.43 p.45 38 .43 P.16 P..20 P. P icons: KDE4 Oxygen

The articles contained in this magazine are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. This means you can adapt, copy, distribute and transmit the articles but only under the following conditions: You must attribute the work to the original author in some way (at least a name, email or URL) and to this magazine by name ('full circle magazine') and the URL www.fullcirclemagazine.org (but not attribute the article(s) in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you must distribute the resulting work under the same, similar or a compatible license.

2 EEDDIITTOORRIIAALL

This magazine was created using :

he first issue of 2009 brings you the results of the FCM#20 survey. Whilst the majority of the results were as expected, Tsome were quite surprising. Well, to me they were. You can read all about the results (with bar graphs no less!) on page 31. With the results, I've also posted a link to one of our wiki pages which has article ideas that are up for grabs. Reserve them while you can! One thing that was often requested in the survey comments was an article on putting Ubuntu onto a bootable USB stick. I've recently been installing Ubuntu variants on my EEE PC, so I've written an article on Ubuntu is a complete operating how I use and to put Ubuntu on a USB stick. Next system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. Whether at month I'll be using it to show how I install a distro on the EEE PC. home, school or work Ubuntu No book review this month folks, sorry, I just couldn't finish the contains all the applications you'll ever need including word processor, current book in time for the deadline. Probably next month I (or email application and web browser. Robert) will review a new book. And to the two winners thus far: I promise to send your books out shortly! Ubuntu is and always will be free of charge. You do not pay any licensing Enjoy the issue, and I wish you all the best of luck in 2009! fees. You can download, use and share Ubuntu with your friends, family, school or business for Ronnie absolutely nothing. Editor, Full Circle Magazine Once installed, your system is ready [email protected] to use with a full set of productivity, internet, drawing and graphics applications, and games.

3 NNEEWWSS Jaunty Alpha 3 released KDE 4.2 - 'The Answer'

Ubuntu Pocket Guide And Reference

is available in both print and PDF editions. The print edition is available The KDE Community have announced for $9.94 from the immediate availability of "The Amazon.com, and Answer", (a.k.a KDE 4.2.0), making the PDF edition is Jaunty Jackalope Alpha 3, which will in time ready the desktop for end users. KDE completely free and become Ubuntu 9.04, has been released. 4.2 builds on the technology is identical to the Alpha 3 is the second in a series of introduced with KDE 4.0 in January print edition. milestone CD images that will be released 2008. After the release of KDE 4.1, throughout the Jaunty development cycle. which was aimed at casual users, the Author Keir Thomas told FCM: The Alpha images are known to be KDE Community is now confident we reasonably free of show stopper CD build or have a compelling offering for the installer bugs, while representing a very majority of end users. recent snapshot of Jaunty. : http://kde.org See http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Mirrors for a list of download sites. Pre-releases of Jaunty are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They : Congratulations to are, however, recommended for Ubuntu http://www.ubuntupocketguide.com/ who wins our copy of developers and those who want to help in . We'll get that sent off to you as : testing, reporting, and fixing bugs. quickly as we can. http://url.fullcirclemagazine.org/bce9ea : If you didn't win, sorry, but there'll https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsl be another competition next month. etter/Issue125

4 Shuttleworth praises Windows 7 Ext4 Arrives In Ubuntu 9.04 NNEEWWSS Ext4, the next generation of Linux's Ext3 filesystem, is now available in the latest Ubuntu 9.04 installer images. Ubuntu 9.04's blazing boot times Ext4 was officially declared stable in version 2.6.28 of the Linux kernel, According to IT Wire's David M Williams, which was released last month. the results of the latest alpha release of Blogger Gavin Clarke reports on Mark Ubuntu's Jaunty Jackalope are Shuttleworth's reaction to Windows 7. Ext4 is designed to provide better spectacular. The next major release of performance and increase reliability. It Ubuntu will be out this April and Shuttleworth states he is looking forward to also increases the maximum filesystem Ubuntu’s engineers have, as always, a good, clean netbook fight with Microsoft size to one exabyte and reduces the included the latest Linux kernel to come following the release of Windows 7. He amount of time that is required to out of Linus Torvalds’ hands. While the believes that with Microsoft having to sell perform a fsck operation. kernel always includes more drivers, Windows 7 to OEMs instead of giving better performance and various bug Windows XP away to them, it will improve fixes, often times these go under the Ubuntu's place in the market. Shuttleworth radar because they are obscure, or only thinks that a good version of Windows will of niche interest. The Linux kernel 2.6.28 end the current phony war between delivers a stable implementation of the Windows and Linux in the high-growth ext4 file system. It’s this file system netbook market, and reignite the fight on which is getting geeks worldwide all features and capabilities. steamy under the collar. ext4 looks set Even with the new features that Windows 7 to offer greater file performance along is coming out with, the plans for Ubuntu Linux hardware site Phoronix has with greater reliability and stability. 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope, will up it's game to released benchmarks (above) based on What’s more, while ext3 was designed keep pace. extensive Ext4 performance testing well before the advent of SSDs, ext4 is that was conducted with a solid-state : fully aware of such drives. ext4 includes drive. The most impressive results can http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/22/shu the ability to maximize the lifetime of be seen in the IOzone test, which ttleworth_windows_7/ solid state drives and thus should measures write performance for a theoretically offer a boost to netbooks and: large file. In this test, Ext4 annihilated without any corresponding fear of a https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsl the competition and significantly shortened lifetime. Here's to Ubuntu etter/Issue126 outperformed XFS, JFS, ReiserFS, and 9.04 and better disk speed! Ext3. The new filesystem also : outpaced its peers in the Intel IOMeter http://www.itwire.com/content/view/2267 File Server Access Pattern Test. 1/1141/ : http://arstechnica.com

5 line that begins with a blank and CCOOMMMMAANNDD AANNDD CCOONNQQUUEERR ends with a blank and has Written by Lucas Westermann nothing between those -- a blank line). So 's/\\n\b//' is merely n this instalment of Command cat /etc/issue|head -n 1|cut –- telling sed to substitute (“s/”) & Conquer, we will cover the delimiter=' ' -f 1,2 “\n” (“\\n”) with “” (“//”). The basic uses of reason the command is in braces I This command then tells cut that , and for formatting output. is because we are actually the delimiter to use is a blank space, This can be useful when putting applying three expressions on and to display the first two fields together things such as Conky, or the output, and want it returned (basically, cut slices output up into scripts that display theme only once, so we put the segments according to the delimiter, information in the terminal. expressions in braces (“{}”), and so fields 1 and 2 are the first fields separated by semi-colons. The first command we should before and after the first delimiter in look at is cut. If, for example, we the output, in our case, Ubuntu Lastly, the same output can be wanted to display the distribution 8.10). Cut can also be used to achieved using awk: name in a theme script, we would display only a certain number of cat /etc/issue|awk '/\\n/ find it in /etc/issue. If, however, characters when using the -c flag. {print $1,$2}' we run cat /etc/issue we see that there is one line too many, and With sed the same could be done with: This command again uses there are escape characters regular expressions, but is included in the line. So if we run cat /etc/issue|sed '{s/\\n// ; slightly easier to understand /etc/issue|head -n 1, we remove s/\\l// ; /^$/d}' than sed. Basically, awk '/\n/ the extra line by piping the output {print $1, $2}' finds any line This may look like gibberish, but of cat through head, which then that has “\n” in it, then prints the the first two expressions (each displays only the first line of the first two fields (the default expression is separated by a semi- output. So far so good, but what separator is a space, but you can colon) tell sed to substitute “\n” with about the escape characters? This set your own using the -F flag). “” (nothing), and the same for “\l”, is where cut comes in handy. To This saves us having to format removing those characters from the use cut, we must supply a out the extra line and the \l of output. “/^$/d” is a command that delimiter, and then tell it what to the output. You could also forgo tells sed to delete any blank lines do with this. The command we piping the output of cat (“^$” is the regular expression for a would use is: /etc/issue into the command (or

6 either of the others), as they can does the same (i.e. replace a cut all be applied to a file specified at command with awk). There is no the end of the command. I used prize, but it is good practice to figure cat in order to leave the out the inner workings of the commands less jumbled. commands. This is intended only as an http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-21-shell- introductory look at the abilities of script/ awk, sed, and cut. Their flexible implementations make it hard to write a brief in-depth tutorial for Sed - http://www.grymoire.com/Unix/Sed.html the three of them. The above explanations are intended to awk - illustrate how the commands http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8913 or http://www.linuxfocus.org/English/September work, and not fully explore their 1999/article103.html potential uses. A real-world cut - implementation of these http://learnlinux.tsf.org.za/courses/build/shell commands would be in the first -scripting/ch03s04.html half of a custom theme script (the example below also displays The man (manual) page of each theme info, but that part isn't command, can be accessed with: necessarily pertinent to this man [command] article; it was left there to keep the script complete). The example this is useful if you're unsure of how also contains a challenge for to invoke a command. anyone who wishes to attempt it: Figure out how to use one of the three commands to remove the has learned all he knows from repeatedly breaking his indentation in the memory part of system, then having no other the script, and, if you want more option but to discover how to fix it. practice, try replacing every When he finds time, he also publishes a occurrence of cut, sed, or awk blog at http://lswest- with a different command that ubuntu.blogspot.com.

7 HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Elie De Brauwer PPRROOGGRRAAMM IINN CC -- PPAARRTT 55

we will focus more on how we can make use of C to get things done, 01.int divide(int a, int b) FCM#17-20 - Program In C - Parts 1-4 how issues with C applications can 02.{ 03. return a/b; be diagnosed, and how 04.} troubleshooting can be done. 05. 06.typedef int (*mathFun)(int, int); We already explained that if int a is 07. an integer then int * b=&a declares a 08.struct operator pointer b and initializes it to point to 09.{ Dev Graphics Internet Multimedia System 10. char c; a. Now, take a look at Listing 1; here 11. mathFun f; we have a function called divide 12.}; (lines 1-4), and, on line 6, we have a typedef where we define a new Listing 1 CD/DVD HardDrive USB Drive Laptop Wireless datatype called “mathFun” - which is a function pointer to a function fter four articles, most of returning an integer, and taking two function which needs to be the basic and generic C- integers as an argument. Lines 8-12 called when the user performs Arelated topics have already define a structure which links a an action. If you have the been covered. I hope that after character with a function. This manpages-dev package these articles you can confirm two principle is called a 'callback' (or installed, and type “man qsort”, things: the first being that C isn't handler), and is used a lot (in fact you will get the definition of a this is how object oriented a terrible large and complex function which implements the programming can be simulated in C; language, and the second being quicksort algorithm (see also you define a structure with some that it is also a very powerful Listing 2), and you can see that data and some function pointers and language which allows you to do this function is used for sorting this is almost a class). But, it's very lots of low-level things. This will some data, and you should pass common to use this, for example, in be the last article to cover the it a function pointer to a function “basics”; in the coming articles, GUI programming - you register a

8 man scanf for details). NAME These functions are qsort - sorts an array the opposite of printf() SYNOPSIS #include (and sprintf(), fprintf() ...). Where printf() void qsort(void *base, size_t nmemb, size_t size, takes a format int(*compar)(const void *, const void *)); definition to format DESCRIPTION some variables The qsort() function sorts an array with nmemb elements of size size. accordingly, and put The base argument points to the start of the array. this to a destination, scanf() will read a Listing 2: man 3 qsort extract string, dissect the string according to the format, and store the result in capable of doing the comparison we allocate storage for four some variables. Take line 13 for (this can be useful when you are structures which are filled in with the example; here, it will read a sorting an array of points, and you operator and the function pointers on “%d” (an integer), and store the wish to sort them on distance to lines 4-7. Next, there is the user result in the location passed as the origin). input handling on lines 12 to 18. an argument (note that here we When the user has entered some pass pointers, with printf() input, lines 20-32 show a search variables are passed). But Now, to illustrate how we can through the command array to find there's nothing more to it than use callbacks, which are typically the entry matching the operator and, that. The format strings are used to handle events, we will if found, we issue the callback with completely alike. The only develop a small application which the read data, and print the result. confusing thing might be line 17; prompts the user for two digits And that's all there is to it. we need a second scanf() and an operator and, if the because the first one will read operator is known, it calls the the newline of the previous read. function with the two digits as Although printf() was already used As with printf(), it is possible to parameters and prints the result. in the past, this is the first time we have more complex format Listing 3 shows a basic encounter a scanf()-alike function strings where multiple variables implementation of this; on line 3 (alike because there are some are read at once; in this case you variants like sscanf(), fscanf(), ... see will be interested in the return

9 01.int main() 02.{ value of scanf() which is the based on their distance to 03. struct operator functs[4]; number of elements properly the origin, and use the 04. functs[0].c='-'; functs[0].f=− decoded. I strongly suggest to qsort() function for this. 05. functs[1].c='+'; functs[1].f=&add; play a little with scanf(), printf(), • Extend the calculator with 06. functs[2].c='*'; functs[2].f=&multiply; and various formats, since these the possibility for the user to 07. functs[3].c='/'; functs[3].f=÷ format strings can be found enter 'q' to quit. 08. while(1) 09. { almost everywhere, and it's very • Modify the application that, instead of entering 10. int a,b,i; useful to understand how they 11. char c; behave. One important thing to characters, the user is able to enter “5 plus 6” or “6 12. printf("Enter a:\n"); keep in mind, when handling minus 5”. In order to do this, 13. scanf("%d",&a); strings, is to keep track of the you will need to adapt the 14. printf("Enter b:\n"); amount of data you read. structure to hold a string as 15. scanf("%d",&b); Something as simple as “char the operator, and, instead of 16. printf("Enter the operator:\n"); s[10]; scanf(“%s\n”,s);” is the de reading a character, you will 17. scanf("%c",&c); // Get the newline need to read a string. Extra facto example of a buffer 18. scanf("%c",&c); credit if you manage to do 19. i=0; overflow, waiting to be exploited; this without buffer overrun 20. while(i<4) for things like these one should issues (see man getline) and 21. { limit the amount of bytes read in memory leaks. 22. if(functs[i].c==c) the format, or use more advanced 23. { solutions like getline() (man 24. printf("Result: getline) which dynamically %d\n",functs[i].f(a,b)); allocates more memory if it is 25. break; needed. 26. } 27. i++; is a 28. } Belgian Linux fanatic, and apart from 29. if(i==4) spending time with his 30. { family, he enjoys 31. printf("Unknown operator: • Write the missing callbacks, and get %c\n",c); the application working. playing with technology, and 32. } • Modify the application to operate on spends his days 33. } floating point numbers instead of waiting for Blizzard to 34. return 0; integers. finally release Diablo 35. } • Write an application which sorts points III. Listing 3: calc.c main loop 10 HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Brett Alton WWEEBB DDEEVVEELLOOPPMMEENNTT -- PPAARRTT 22

For starters, the Internet has multiple markup languages FCM#20 - Web Development - Part 1 (HTML 4 & 5; XHTML 1 & 2; CSS Annotated, the story of the 1, 2 & 3; XML; JSON; etc.). These Internet is quite simple: the Internet are used to specify the structure, was born out of a 1970's research layout, and formatting of web project called ARPANET by the US pages and (some) can (or are military research agency DARPA. It specifically made to) be used was picked up shortly afterwards by purely for information storage. Universities as a research project Dev Graphics Internet Multimedia System and by scientists to increase Then you have the high-level, intercommunication and data server-side, web programming sharing. It wasn't until the early languages such as PHP, 1990's, with the adoption of the ASP/ASP.NET, Python, Java (JSP),

CD/DVD HardDrive USB Drive Laptop Wireless TCP/IP protocol and the creation of Ruby, etc. Each of these the modern PC, that the Internet programming languages is grew to be what it is today. useful for its own purposes and is usually chosen by programmers according to their alks of a world-wide The current state of the Internet is skill-set or employer demand. economic recession, or quite overwhelming as a topic, in Some prefer to use PHP, Python, Tworries of hackers and that it has fragmentation in almost and Java because they're free, viruses infiltrating your personal every area, with each fragment able open source, and can be used on data, may be behind your reasons to be covered by a textbook. I will be a number of operating systems to go with Ubuntu. But, whatever giving only a brief introduction on and processor architectures, the case, you would not be how to make a web page, and while others like ASP/ASP.net for reading this article, or using touching on its technologies and Microsoft's heavy-hand in Ubuntu, if it weren't for the history. support, and don't mind paying Internet. licensing fees for this purpose. I

11 will be showing you examples of to Ohloh [1], Firefox is comprised of • A text editor such as gEdit PHP programming in upcoming more than 50% JavaScript code. (Applications > Accessories > articles, but feel free to try other Text Editor) Since JavaScript is so important to programming languages and many web developers, frameworks • A web browser such as Firefox experiment! Just because I will have sprung up to make (Applications > Internet > Firefox show you PHP does not programming JavaScript easier, Web Browser) necessarily mean it is the best, adopt a object-oriented nature, or to nor the best for every purpose. In • patience, and a will to learn add simple AJAX (Asynchronous fact, some developers use JavaScript and XML) support. These multiple languages in their Assuming you're using Ubuntu, frameworks include, but are not applications (just as a software open up Firefox and gEdit, and limited to jQuery, YUI, Mootools, engineer may use a mixture of keep them open, as you'll use Prototype & Script.aculo.us, Dojo, etc. Assembly, C, C++, etc). both for programming, debugging, and viewing your Put all of these technologies JavaScript (which is in no way web page. together, along with corporate or not- related to Java) is the most for-profit backing, and you get some popular client-side programming of the most popular websites in the language. Client-side world, such as Wikipedia, Google, With gEdit open, type the programming languages execute Yahoo, CNN, BBC, YouTube, following code, and save it as code on the user's PC through DailyMotion, Facebook, MySpace, 'first.html' onto your Desktop. their web browser, allowing web Digg, Ubuntu Forums, Kijiji, Craigslist, programmers to produce a much ESPN, Flickr and DeviantArt. more intimate interface for the user. Of course, this comes at the There are also technologies that expense of processing power on can be used in web development the user's end, so complex such as Java applets and Flash websites like Digg.com are known animations, but they're out of the to slow down older PCs, especially realm of this tutorial. Now, on your desktop, double- when multi-tasking (running click 'first.html' to view it in multiple programs at once). So what do I need to make a Firefox. Do you see a blank website? page? You should. So why is the JavaScript is so useful for page blank? Well I just certain purposes, that, according • An operating system such as Ubuntu introduced to you the basic

12 markup of a HTML 4 website. All header tag (

). code must be encoded inside the This is usually used only once tags with the (although there is no rule content inside My Writings against using it more often), tags and meta information, such and displays the page's most as meta-tags, inclusion of other prominent theme. There are code (such as JavaScript), and

My Writings

seven levels available, with

display information such as CSS I watch a LOT of being the last inside . television, but is it healthy? header. Prominent headers

can be seen, for example, in For the second example, I will

Wikipedia articles. show you how to fill out the HTML I do lots of stuff like: 4 template I provided above.

The tag stands

sit on the couch
watch movies
get up to eat food

probably the most difficult on your desktop to run the web Do you live any healthier? concept for a newcomer to page in Firefox. This time you

grasp. Using

(an should see content. unordered list, meaning it To understand why the page uses bullets), we display our content in

tags, looks like it does, we'll look Listing 2 carefully at the markup we just dictating the list we want to copied and pasted into gEdit and display. Using

(an saved as 'second.html'. ordered list) instead of

will produce numbers When the tag is Mozilla Firefox". This, of course, can instead of bullets. You can even inside the tag, it be changed to anything you'd like. embed lists within lists, by displays the enclosed text in the Inside the tag is producing a second

title bar of the web browser. where the content of the page is or

tag within a Notice how the title bar of Firefox displayed. The first tag is the level-1

tag. now displays "My Writings -

13 we'll keep it embedded in the

sit on the couch
As you can see, CSS has a My Writings watch movies different syntax than HTML, and modify the
and tags by changing their Lastly, you can manage the attributes using pre-defined CSS
My Writings
design of your web page by properties. Even as a web
embedding CSS (cascading style professional, I don't have all of I watch a LOT of sheets) into your HTML. television, but is it healthy? the CSS properties memorized,
Save listing 3 (right) as and often find myself googling
'third.html' onto your desktop. on how to use them, so don't be I do lots of stuff like: embarrassed if you have to do
Now double-click 'third.html' on so as well. In fact, many
- sit on the couch
- watch movies
- get up to eat food
The funny looking numbers
CSS can either be directly '#ff0000' are hexadecimal Do you live any healthier? embedded inside the numbers that represent colors.
tag using the There are over sixteen million tag, or can be combinations of colors available linked externally to another file using this method, so make sure Listing 3 which contains your CSS. For now, to use a program such as Agave
14 to create color schemes. This only scratches the very tip of web development, and what is possible when programming or designing. If this sparked your interest in web development, then full circle I suggest following up with my upcoming articles, as I will be touching on server-side how to contact us programming (PHP), client-side programming (JavaScript, jQuery, AJAX), and much more. After that, I suggest going to your local bookstore and picking up a book in the area you're interested in (design, server-side programming, client-side programming, etc), or taking courses at your local community college or university. Sign up on our Post on our Chat on our IRC Edit our wiki. blog to be forum, hosted at channel. This is hosted at [1] notified as soon Ubuntu Forums, where Robert Ubuntu.com, for http://www.ohloh.net/p/firefox/anal as a new issue is for quick lives. Not only reserving article yses/latest released. responses by will you get ideas, and fellow readers. answers, but keeping things in you'll keep order. Robert happy.
is an Ubuntu And if all that isn't enough, we also have - of course - . You can get a enthusiast, computer full list of email addresses on page 45, or you can send general comments, technician and software engineer from Toronto, Canada and ideas, to: [email protected]
15 HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Kurt De Smet CCHHAANNGGEE VVIIDDEEOO AASSPPEECCTT RRAATTIIOO
do with what you have. Every player This is what we want: has features to change the aspect N/A ratio; however, when using a stand- alone media player, it can be troublesome. Let's see what I am talking about. Here you have first the image with the wrong aspect ratio, and then one with the correct aspect ratio. TIP: Dev Graphics Internet Multimedia System With a wrong aspect ratio a circular object will look like an ellipse, so try One thing to remember is that to find a frame with a circular object the quality will not improve by re- as close as possible to 90 degrees or encoding; where possible, use
CD/DVD HardDrive USB Drive Laptop Wireless head on. If the angle changes, a the aspect-ratio selector from circular object will turn into an your media player. elliptical one. Do not take a person's If your file has a Variable Bit head as a reference - people can videmux is available in the Rate MP3 or VBR, it may ask to have circular or elliptical heads. Ubuntu repositories. Just build a VBR Time Map. Answer Asearch for ' ' in This is what we have: yes for building that map. your package manager. When incorrectly ripping a DVD, it's possible to get the aspect ratio wrong. Certainly with PAL you need to convert PAL, which is native 4:3, to 16:9. When you rip the DVD, you must then redo the job. But, when you do not have the source, you will have to make
16 If necessary, Avidemux will ask Now we can configure the Xvid to rebuild the frame index. settings with the configure button. Answer yes. The settings I use give me the best result, but feel free to test your own Once the file is loaded, select settings. the Xvid codec, or MPEG-4 ASP (Xvid4) in my case. On the bottom menu, you have 2 buttons named A and B. With these you can select a range of frames to convert. With this you can make a test file that does not take ages to complete. On the bottom right, you can see the selected range, in this case from 0 to 1104. Once satisfied with the result, you can (above) Default settings. select the whole file for conversion.
(above) I always select video size, and enter the size of the source file. The result should be close to or smaller than the source. Bigger files do not give better results. I also select Turbo Mode for a faster first pass.
(above) I have tried MPEG, but H.263 gives me the best results.
17 Now you have the choice to convert the entire file, or a test segment, as mentioned previously. Now you can select ''save' to create the file. Depending on the hardware and file size, this can take a long time to complete. Select your media player, and check if audio and video is in Now you have to enter the resize sync. While VLC handled the file options. Select the options like in the perfectly, Mplayer did play the picture above, and click apply. Now file out of sync. If the file is in width and height will change. Now sync, then you have finished the click OK. (above) Default settings. job; if not, you will have to In the filter manager, there is a continue to the next section of Select the filter button, and the button named 'Preview'. Select it and this tutorial. Do not worry; VLC transform tab from the filter you should get the following result... will play the shifted file perfectly window, and double click 'Mplayer in sync, probably because it resize'. handles VBR MP3 differently than MPlayer. Open your new created file with Avidemux, and be sure to build a time map and rebuild the index. With Mplayer you can use the + and - key to determine the necessary shift up or down. You will have to invert the result: a - 200 becomes 200 and 200 becomes -200. Also, the given time in Mplayer is not usable in
18 Avidemux, but is more a guideline where to go. Select a small portion of the file, and try out which value gives the best result. As an example, the used file was in sync in Mplayer with -600 ms; the Value I had to use in Avidemux was 200.
(above) Resized by Mplayer. Be sure to select Copy in audio and video; encoding is not necessary so shifting is done really fast.
(above) Resized with Avidemux. As always in Linux, there is a CLI way, but for those who do not need scripts for every day use, this is a solution that works for me.
Conclusion: As an example, I have placed a player conversion next to an encoded conversion to see the difference in quality.
19 HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Ronnie Tucker UUBBUUNNTTUU IISSOO TTOO BBOOOOTTAABBLLEE UUSSBB
you've saved money. N/A First, I need a USB stick. For installing Ubuntu it must be at least 1Gb. I also need an ISO file of Ubuntu. I have two choices here: pick the standard installer version with a graphical user interface (GUI), or use the alternate text-based installer, which is excellent for installing on Dev Graphics Internet Multimedia System low spec machines. For now, I'll go with the standard installer, but it's the exact same process for the Making it bootable is the most alternate installer. important part. CD/DVD HardDrive USB Drive Laptop Wireless So I have the ISO file on my computer, but I need to prepare the we are about to reating a bootable USB USB stick. For this I need Gparted. completely erase the USB stick, drive is relatively simple yet You can either open your package so if you have anything valuable Ccomes in very handy, not manager, and search for the gparted on it, you must back it up now. only for showing someone Ubuntu package, or use the command: running from the USB stick, and sudo apt-get install gparted for troubleshooting, but also for Once the USB stick is inserted, testing hardware. Imagine you're Gparted is installed under System go to the menu and choose at your local computer retailer, > Administration > Partition Editor. Gparted > Refresh Devices. On and you wonder if that expensive its list of drives, Gparted now Above right is Gparted showing my machine will run Ubuntu before shows my 1Gb USB as /dev/sdd current list of drives. What we need you purchase it. Ask if you can at 980.33MiB. use your USB stick in it. If they to do, in Gparted, is to format the say no, they've lost a sale, and USB stick and make it bootable. 20 Next, we format the USB by, again, right clicking on the drive name and, from the menu, choosing Format To > FAT32 (you can, if you wish, choose FAT16 for more compatibility).
In the above image, you'll see from the menu, choose 'Manage that it has 480Mb used. So, it Flags'. needs formatting. But before we can format, we need to unmount In my the drive. Right click on the drive case name (and info) and choose (left), my 'unmount'. USB is bootable, You'll see a new panel at the shown by bottom of the Gparted screen. Here the ticked you can queue up actions, then have box them run sequentially. We need only beside 'boot'. Needless to say, if to format, so right click in that new this box is not ticked, now is the panel and choose 'Apply all time to tick it, and click 'Close'. Operations'. You will be asked if you So now the USB stick is ready for are sure you want to apply this Ubuntu. Pull out your USB stick, operation. Click 'Apply' (above right). and reinsert it to remount it, ready for later. Your USB stick is now blank, but is it bootable? Let's find out. Right click But how to get Ubuntu into the on the drive name in Gparted and, USB stick? Unetbootin. This GUI application will copy the files
21 within an ISO file to the USB stick. At the top of the Unetbootin To boot a PC You can download the latest .deb screen, you can choose to from a USB device, you may file for Unetbootin from: automatically download an ISO from have to access the BIOS settings http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/u the list, but we already have the ISO, of the PC, to ensure that the first netbootin-i386-latest.deb/. so click the round icon beside bootable device is the USB - and 'Diskimage', then click the '...' button not the CD/DVD, floppy, nor hard Browsers, to select the ISO file. The only other drive; the second bootable such as thing you need to check is that your device should be the hard drive. Firefox, will USB drive is selected at the bottom Most BIOSes use the Del key (on ask you if of the window. In this case, it says the keypad, not the Delete key you want to /dev/sdd1, which is my USB stick, so on the keyboard) to access the save the I'm ready to go. Clicking 'OK' begins BIOS settings; some use the F1 .deb to your the copying process. or F2 keys. This key press must computer or, handily, download be done within a few seconds of the file and open it in Gdebi for On my powering on the machine. When installing. I chose to open it in system - no further USB booting is Gdebi for ease of use. which is required, remember to reset the pretty fast - The file will download and the Boot-Sequence back to the hard Unetbootin drive (only). Gdebi window will open up and pauses for install Unetbootin for you. When quite a few the install is done, close Gdebi. minutes at 4%. Don't worry if this How to install an happens. Remember, your system Unetbootin is installed under Ubuntu distro to your ASUS EEE needs to copy nearly 1Gb of files Applications > System Tools. Start PC using a bootable USB stick. Unetbootin and you will see the through the USB. default screen: You can either click 'Reboot Now' to test your new bootable USB stick on the current machine, or click 'Exit' to close Unetbootin. Remember to is Editor of check that your USB stick is properly Full Circle magazine, a unmounted before you remove it recent GNOME convert, and artist whose gallery of work can be from the PC. seen at www.RonnieTucker.co.uk.
22 MMYY SSTTOORRYY Written by Dadan Ramdhan TTHHEE CCRREEAATTIIVVEE ZZEENN VV PPLLUUSS
Windows connected my Zen V Plus to 2000. So, Gnomad2 and it worked. The every time I application can read and transfer wanted to music to my device with ease. change And this, by the way, is the music, I had first time I have used Linux. I will to borrow continue to use Ubuntu. My my thanks go out to the Ubuntu brother's team, and to the Gnomad2 notebook. Team. You are both amazing. What a pain! Several weeks ago, I bought a new Lenovo Thinkpad R61i without an installed operating hen I bought my Creative system. So, I installed Ubuntu 8.04 Zen V Plus (2 Gb) last (Hardy Heron) from my recently Wyear, I didn't know that I arrived Ubuntu ShipIt CDs. I began to should have been running like Hardy's look and interface. Then Windows XP to install the Creative I read in the Ubuntu Forums that application for transferring music Gnomad2 would be useful to send between my computer and the music to my Creative Zen V Plus. I device. So, I installed the Creative added the required repository to my application to my younger package manager, and installed brother's notebook, mainly Gnomad2. I was delighted when I because my office computer used
23 MMYY OOPPIINNIIOONN Written by Marc Coleman MMIISSSSEEDD OOPPPPOORRTTUUNNIITTYY
s someone who follows the for Linux and not just for Ubuntu. If accessibility and support -- the comments posted in Planet Microsoft has taught us anything, it's one thing that has drawn in the AUbuntu that the most important thing is users. Nothing will make (http://planet.ubuntu.com/), mind-share, not stability, security, someone run back to Windows Slashdot (http://slashdot.org, and nor usability! When people use a quicker that a condescending Digg (http://digg.com), I notice a computer, they almost universally 'expert' who belittles them. continuing and rising trend of have an expectation that it's going to Make no mistake, no matter Linux experts deriding PC users be Windows -- it's taken for granted. what the propaganda says, there who mention that they run Why is that? Could it be because is a steep learning curve Ubuntu. They correct the Ubuntu Windows is nearly ubiquitous; and between Windows and Linux, users by saying that they run isn't that the problem? especially if you want to do more Linux instead. Educating people is than browse the Web or use As Microsoft's market share is one thing; pushing new users OpenOffice. eroded by market stagnation, back to Windows is something apathy, and the lack of innovation, Canonical's 'humanising' of else. Even developers from other we should be converting people to Ubuntu was a stroke of genius. distributions have jumped into the Linux, not standing in the wings - Branding a complex piece of fray, and voiced their frustration watching people flock to Apple's open-source software as that Linux is not just Ubuntu[1]. Macs. We should not be standing by, accessible, and providing a free The backlash from the general watching the erosion of one and extensive network of hand- Linux community is surprising and monopoly with the creation of holding, was its killer app. This is disappointing. Are they all afraid another! its message to other of success and going mainstream? distributions: our methodology is It seems that way. All this useless infighting within not patented by Canonical; if the community over Ubuntu's What they all fail to understand you want to compete with success is energy better spent is that having a popular Ubuntu, emulate - don't advocating FOSS. If non-Linux users distribution spreading virally all denigrate! And here is a are drawn into Linux by Ubuntu, then over the Internet via news stories, message to expert users isn't this a good thing? What made advocacy, and even blogs, is good everywhere: if someone asks Ubuntu popular? I will tell you it is
24 “Do you know of a good paint missed. If the price it pays is that the geeks and hackers, not suitable package for Ubuntu”, the answer general population confuses Ubuntu for your home PC. Let's prove should be GIMP, and not a lecture with being Linux, then so be it. If them wrong. explaining that Linux is not Ubuntu 'embraces and extends' in [1] Ubuntu. You are not educating the the Linux community, isn't this http://www.jonobacon.org/2008/1 person by correcting their something to be commended? The 1/14/we-are-not-evil-really/ comment; you are marginalising FOSS community is consolidating. them by highlighting their lack of This is as natural as forking -- don't knowledge. fight it, push it. The Linux community has been Linux is widely seen as difficult, given a golden opportunity by fragmented, server-only, and, above Canonical that shouldn't be all, niche - an operating system for
Full Circle Forum @ Ubuntu Forums 25 GGAAMMEE RREEVVIIEEWW Written by Leslie Scheelings TTRRIIBBAALL TTRROOUUBBLLEE 22
web browser on the PC. But why not enter a battle with another player? This is the All you need are a Linux computer multi-player function. You can with Java installed, your web even create a battle room, and browser, the link to the web site ask a friend to battle you, all on- 'http://tribaltrouble2.com/', and the line. After a fierce battle, check creation of an account. In this sense, out what went wrong so that you it's like Rune Scape, which has a can plan a better strategy next place to play for free, as well as an time, and watch the game you account in which you can buy items. played in the “games” section of Tribal Trouble 2 starts full screen, the website of Tribal Trouble 2. but in the options section you can Now, as we said, Tribal Trouble 2 adjust settings and set it to play in a is free to play, but there is also a ood games are still rare on window. The graphics are great, run commercial side of the story. So, the Linux platform. smooth, and are a joy for the eye. let's take a look at how it's done. GAlthough we do have some The reference card shows you (left of choices, they are nothing the web page) how to use the mouse compared to the Windows and keyboard for the game. For Tribal Trouble 2 is free to play, platform. Every now and then, we example, moving the mouse while but extra units, buildings, special get to see one that could be holding down F or the middle mouse skills and avatar clothing must labelled as good. It's a matter of button would give free rotation of be bought from the Shop with taste of course. Tribal Trouble 2 view. There are three free quests to oddies and points. Oddies are beta is my kids' current choice. play: “Boot Camp The Viking purchased from money in the We already knew Tribal Trouble, chieftain school”, “Oyster Invasion bank, while points are mostly which came as a game to be The Enemy Approaches" and “Rotten earned by completing quests or installed on the PC, but Tribal Eggs Visiting a friend isn't always winning multi-player games. The Trouble 2 beta lifts the game from peaceful”, which earn you points. bank will also allow you to the local PC to the Internet. It's an The points can be used to buy new exchange oddies for more points. on-line game that runs from the items or a new look!
26 you want more background details on us. Tribal Trouble 2 development started In the bank, you can stock roughly a year ago, where up on oddies and points to we started porting the spend in the shop. For original game to our new on- example: line platform." Buy 20 oddies: $4.95
You can exchange your oddies for more points, should you need them - press the 'Buy points' button to sell 1 oddie for 100 points. The game is still in beta development, but, as open-source "In order to understand how version, since there will be a lot of fans, we are used to this. Tribal Trouble 2 can be called major changes and additions to the 'free to play', you need to We had e-mail contact with the game before we remove the beta understand the currency model. developers to see how they feel tag." about open source. To our Tribal Trouble has 2 currencies: surprise they run Ubuntu Oddies and points. Oddies can desktops and one Mac in their be bought for real money in the office! Here is the answer we bank. Points are earned by received: completing quests and playing multi player matches. If you wish "Thanks for your interest in "Tribal Trouble 2, like the original to buy a new warrior or a bigger Tribal Trouble 2. You can find Tribal Trouble, has been developed in- ship to be able to reach more answers for your questions below, house by Oddlabs with graphics and quests, you buy it with these two but first I would ask you to make audio outsourced. We did an IRc currencies, so if the price sure your review reflects that it is interview with GameDev.net a while includes Oddies, it will cost real more of a preview of the beta back, which you might find useful if
27 money. However, we intend to expand the bank so players can trade with each other, so if someone who doesn't mind spending money has bought a lot of Oddies, he can sell them to some other player who has a lot of points. This way, someone who doesn't want to pay can put a lot of time into the game to earn enough points to buy Oddies from another player."
"We have no plans at this moment since we are focusing on Tribal Trouble 2 right now, but we have lots of ideas for future projects." available in stores in Germany and Source audience, I could add Denmark. We are no longer putting that we ourselves are big Open any effort into retail distribution, so I Source fans. Almost all of our don't expect it to become available development software is open in stores in the Netherlands." source. The game has been developed primarily on Linux machines with only one developer using Mac OS X, and Windows only being booted for tests. And like you, I'm writing this email on my Ubuntu desktop." "The original game was "Since you are writing for an Open
28 MMOOTTUU IINNTTEERRVVIIEEWW Taken from NNIICCOOLLAASS VVAALLCCAARRCCEELL
Behind MOTU is a site featuring interviews with those known as 'Masters of the Universe' (MOTU). They are the volunteer army of package maintainers who look after the Universe and Multiverse software repositories.
almost a year until Ubuntu shows up. Then I switched and never left the distro. I started reading the packaging guide. Recipes was also a good help, but the key to my learning process was the MOTU Since Warty Warthog. community - I find a lot of lovely and helpful people that were always there to answer my questions; my lovely sponsors, Almost a year ago. I always wanted who, with a lot of patience, to contribute back to the FOSS checked my patches and pointed Age: 24 Community doing some out my errors and/or best Location: Lima - Perú developments, and, since I was an practices on how to solve things. IRC Nick: nxvl Ubuntu user, one day I came into the There is where I really learned web page, then saw the “Get about the Ubuntu work. involved” link, clicked on it, and that was the point of no return. I started doing some merges on the early 4 or 5 years ago, I started with Hardy release cycle, and then got That it's a huggy community!! RedHat. I tried it for a few months, involved on the server team, where All the people involved are then I started testing a lot of I've been doing most of my work helpful, lovely, and don’t distros (Gentoo, Fedora, lately. hesitate in showing their love. Conectiva, Mandrake), and finally They also can point out your found Debian, which I used for
29 errors in a really polite way, but time I hoped for, it won’t be ready for job). I’m also finishing at they will also tell you when you Intrepid, but we already have some university, and have a wonderful do good work, and I find that of the pieces getting into shape! girlfriend who takes almost all of awesome. my free time. I also love to hang out with my friends, having some beers and stuff, and, on Spare time? What’s that? I actually Summers, I love to go to the Jump in now! “I will do it work at PriceWaterhouseCoopers as beach and surf when I can, but tomorrow” is a lie. If you want to an intern (I used to be senior there is not a lot of other spare start helping, start now, why wait consultant in the past on a full time time for me now! until tomorrow? You will find a lot of helpful people who can guide you on your process. I swear it would be an awesome experience.
Yes! I’m part of the Peruvian LoCo Council where I try to get more people involved on the Ubuntu development; giving some talks in local conferences when I can.
I’ve been working on Server Usability, namely easier ways to manage your servers, since there is a big barrier for Windows sysadmins to switch to Linux. But, as it is hard work (and actually a lot), and I don’t have the free
30 FFCCMM##2200 SSUURRVVEEYY RREESSUULLTTSS Written by: Ronnie Tucker
s a break in our normal transmission, I thought that Arather than have a letters page this month, I'd show - and discuss - the FCM#20 survey I keep the PDFs 1021 78% results, and also answer some of I keep print-outs 16 1% the questions asked in the comments. I rarely keep issues 276 21% I also want to take this opportunity to thank the many people (1,000+) who took the time to take the survey and give Ubuntu Forums 639 49% us some highly detailed ideas and Ubuntu Wiki 148 11% viewpoints. From this survey I've drawn up a list of ways in which Google Search 216 16% the non-professionals can From a friend 60 5% contribute to FCM, but I'll come to that later. From a blog 238 18% Other 226 17% One month 271 21% Couple of months 262 20%
some questions About one year 212 16% were 'select all that apply', so some More than one year 115 9% Male 1289 98% answers may total more than 100% ...since issue #01! 453 35% Female 24 2%
31 < 15 yrs old 55 4% 15 - 25 353 27% 26-35 385 29% GNOME 1153 88% 36-45 244 19% Windows 727 55% KDE 3 115 9% 46-55 152 12% Mac OS X 110 8% KDE 4 244 19% 56-65 87 7% Ubuntu 1150 88% XFCE 182 14% 66+ 37 3% Kubuntu 199 15% *box WM 63 5% Xubuntu 118 9% No GUI? 61 5% Edubuntu 25 2% Non *-nix OS (Windows, Mac, etc) 123 9% Other *buntu 48 4% Other 37 3% *BSD 50 4% Other 255 19% Yes 170 13% No 1143 87%
32 Home 1271 97% Business 456 35% School 207 16% Other 50 4%
Graphics 510 39% Music 392 30% Office 531 40% Games 345 26% News 830 63% Internet 543 41% Command and Conq. 602 46% Development 619 47% My Story 382 29% Video 417 32% My Opinion 263 20% Other 181 14% Reviews 769 59% Interviews 350 27% Home 1229 94% Letters 371 28% Business/Office 765 58% Ubuntu Women 140 11% Graphics 652 50% Ubuntu Games 423 32% Multimedia 869 66% Q & A 618 47% Music 820 62% My Desktop 506 39% Yes 601 46% Development 588 45% Top 5 450 34% No 712 54% Education 458 35% Other 125 10% Other 108 8% 33 Portrait (tall page) 719 55% Landscape (wide page) 594 45%
This result is probably wrong since many commented that they liked Fedora 294 51% It's great 680 52% how the portrait view filled the full screen. Only landscape mode would fill OpenSUSE 267 46% It's pretty good 456 35% the screen... PCLinuxOS 110 19% It's OK 140 11% Mandriva 155 27% It could be better 33 3% Gentoo 134 23% Don't like it at all 4 0% Puppy 107 18% Other 178 31%
More color please 302 23% Less color please 47 4% Fine the way it is 964 73%
Make it larger 217 17% Make it smaller 60 5% ... so there we have it. The masses have spoken. We stay as more articles for beginners 282 21% Fine the way it is 1036 79% an Ubuntu magazine, in more intermediate articles 366 28% landscape page format and, ...more advanced articles 247 19% I like it the way it is... 418 32% 34 thankfully, there is no need for a English will be shown in Full Circle. angry? Is it going in the wrong radical design change. But there Our proof-readers will read through direction? Tell us your opinion, were other questions too: your article and fix any and feel free to reply to other grammar/spelling mistakes. Should person's opinions. Email your they have any questions about an opinions to: article, they forward them to me, [email protected] Answers (or should I say excuses? and I email the writer to clarify • whatever you use. It Just kidding!) ranged from 'I don't things. doesn't have to be the latest and know enough English' to 'I don't greatest hardware. Whatever know enough about Linux'. All you are using now, review it. these are valid excuses, but not Although I'm the Editor of Full Circle, Whether it's an old laptop acceptable. I thought I'd spend I'm nowhere near an expert in Linux. running Ubuntu, or a top of the some time to dispel these myths: If I can write about Linux, anyone range game rig, tell us what's in can do it! Here are some ways in it, and what it's running. which you can help Full Circle: Whatever applications you are If English is not your native • is always important to using, review them. Tell us what tongue, but you do know English, people, so become a Full Circle you like/dislike about the then you could help our many roving reporter and email us links to application. Same with games, translation teams, or start a any Linux news you find. Email some and even books too. Email translation team in your news (with source URL) to: reviews to: language. All the information you [email protected] [email protected] need is on the wiki page: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuMa • about ordinary people. You • applications/games. gazine/TranslateFullCircle. There obviously use/like Linux, so tell us We've all done it, searched high you'll find all the files for previous how you came to use Ubuntu. Did and low for the perfect app, and issues, and links to raw text, Windows bore you? Make you angry? found it only after trying several which will, we hope, make Were you drawn by the glitter of lesser apps. So, review them all! translations easier. Compiz? Email your story to: Write brief reviews of each [email protected] application/game, and then, at We have a small team of proof- the end, tell us the winner, and readers who read through each • cause discussion, and why you chose it as the winner. article before it is used in Full that's what we want. Does Linux Email comparisons to: Circle, so don't think your rough make you happy? Does it make you [email protected]
35 • know. I apologise for think of creating a series of articles that joke, but even just emailing showing how you finish a project. us a letter keeps us informed of Better to start off easy and teach the what you think, and what you basics, and increase the difficulty as want to see. Again, this is another the series goes on. People love to way of sparking debate. Send learn, so please do think of starting a your letters to: series. Run your idea by me (Ronnie) [email protected] at: [email protected]. I've created a short list of ideas on a • screens. A lot of wiki page at: people like the My Desktop http://url.fullcirclemagazine.org training material section. The more desktop /798f84 (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Training) screens we get, the more we can . show! Don't forget to tell us how you got that desktop though. Email your screenshots to: There were a few things in the [email protected] suggestions which I thought I'd We're definitely working on this. • need answers. And answer while I had the chance, so No, seriously. One problem is that's where our Q&A comes in here goes: that the resulting PDF (for one handy. OK, there are a million-and- series) is in the region of 40Mb, one forums out there, and Google which is ridiculous. This is to do can give you an answer at the with (so I'm told) the fact that drop of a hat, but emailing a each page has to store a ton of question to us means that information thus ramping up the thousands of readers can read the It's already been done. You can find final file size. answer. Email your questions to: presentations [email protected] (https://wiki.ubuntu.com /Presentations), screencasts (right) • articles are probably (http://screencasts.ubuntu.com), Sorry, we create only the English the backbone of Full Circle, and themes and CD/DVD covers Full Circle, but the files are we're always on the hunt for (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Inco available for others to come more. If you tinker with Blender, ming), and there's even the Ubuntu along and do translations. If or you use OpenOffice a lot, then
36 you'd like to help in translation, have a look at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuMa gazine/TranslateFullCircle. And no, we will not use BabelFish (as someone suggested), as the resulting translation would, no doubt, be unintelligible!
We've been doing that for months (above right) over at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuMa gazine/FullIssueIndex
The Ubuntu Weekly News covers most of that: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWe eklyNewsletter/
We already do, it's the last Friday More articles means more pages, It takes a team of about twelve to of each month. We've been so get writing! bring you the PDF each month, to doing that for about a year now. also have an HTML version would mean another dozen people to I hope this has answered most of create a nice HTML layout each That's crazy talk! your questions. If not, feel free month. Volunteers? to email me (Ronnie) at: [email protected]
37 which includes Europe, North UUBBUUNNTTUU GGAAMMEESS America, South America, USSR, Written by Edward Hewitt Asia, and Africa. A match takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour to his month, I am reviewing one complete, but there are also GAME NEWS of my favourite PC games. several game types, such as Defcon is a cross platform RTS Speed Defcon (15 min. match), • (below) is now T from UK developers, Introversion Office mode (6 hour match) and free! You can now download Software. The game is based around Diplomacy mode (everyone is in this role-playing game for free. nuclear warfare. You select a nation, the same alliance, until someone and fight in a nuclear war with up to attacks). However, in the demo 6 nations. The game is based on the you can play only standard film War Games. The game features Defcon. both single players and multiplayers, In a match, you are presented but they are the same - except you with a world map showing all the will face AI-controlled nations, or real nations and cities within. The people controlling the nations. The match is separated into 5 parts. game is not free: the full game costs In Defcon 5 & 4, you begin by £10/$19.50. However, the demo placing your units. You have 3 • (below) is now gives you a good idea what the game types of buildings, and 3 types of open source! You can now is about. units to place, during this time. download and play this As soon as you start the game, you The buildings are Radar (to see MMORPG for free, and it's get a sense of bad times. The vector where missiles and other units open-source! graphics represent a 1980's military are), Silos (to defend and attack computer, and the music of people nations), and Airfield (for slowly dying. As I have already said, launching fighters and bombers). you have the choice of a single or The units are Submarines (for multiplayer match. They are both the launching missiles), battleships same, but in single player you can (for destroying other ships), and have from 2 to 5 bots in your match, Aircraft carriers (for launching whereas in multiplayer you can have fighters and bombers). Once all up to 6 players. You select a "nation", your units are placed, you can
38 move your units into position. how many people you When you reach Defcon 3 & 2 you killed, it's about losing can now start naval and air the least. attacks. Finally, you will reach the Defcon is an best part of the game, Defcon 1, excellent RTS, best Nuclear warfare. Select your silos played online. It is for attack, move subs into simple and easy to position, and launch your nukes at pick up, but can be the cities in the enemy's nation. hard to find ways to It may seem simple enough, win. Once you think but it's all about chance, and you have cracked it, where and when your enemies you probably haven't. will launch their nukes. You may The style and look of lose your entire fleet before the game is Defcon 1, which can have a bad everything, but it is effect during Defcon 1. You may worth trying the demo. The demo is launch your nukes too soon, then a good way to experience both you're wide open for attacks. offline and online matches. The When your silos are launching game is for Linux, but also Windows their nukes, they can not defend and Mac. All three operating systems at the same time. You may launch can play together, so get your your nukes too late, when your Windows and Mac friends to play. You enemy's defences are strong, or can download Defcon from you may run out of time. You may www.introversion.co.uk/defcon. The even be attacked by people in file is a .tar.gz file, but it's just a few your own alliance. Anything could lib files and a shell script which you Ed Hewitt, aka chewit (when happen. No game is the same. run in the terminal -- no need to playing games), is a keen This means there is no winning install. Defcon works perfectly on PC gamer and sometimes strategy which works every time. Ubuntu 7.10, 8.04 and 8.10 (haven't enjoys console gaming. He is also on the development team There are no winners in nuclear tried it on any other Ubuntu for the Gfire project (Xfire Plugin warfare; Defcon follows this belief. versions). for Pidgin) In order to "win", it's not about
39 If you have Ubuntu-related questions, email them to: QQ&&AA [email protected], and Tommy will answer them in a future issue. Written by Tommy Alsemgeest
messaging client Pidgin (which way the data is arranged on your comes with Ubuntu) can also do IRC disk, there is no way to leave the Q (shown below). data intact. Also, it is best to wait for Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty
Jackalope), which will have Q support for EXT4. The Linux kernel is mostly written in C, but it is Acertainly not the easiest to Q learn. Python is very popular, is easy to learn, has support out of The only way to upgrade to the box in Ubuntu, and does not EXT4 without losing data is to need to be compiled. Once you copy all your data to another have a grip on Python, you can A partition or hard drive first. Since the move to PyGTK and begin making upgrade completely rearranges the Some themes stick the GUI programs. theme archive into Aanother archive, so try to extract it. If it leaves you with a Q bunch of folders, leave the archive as it is. If it contains There was a newsgroup for another tar.gz archive, try Ubuntu, but it has since installing that. Also gnome- Abeen closed. Instead, we look.org is a very good site for use mailing lists: themes, and most of them work https://lists.ubuntu.com, forums: straight away. http://ubuntuforums.org, and IRC: https://help.ubuntu.com/communit y/InternetRelayChat. The instant
40 Your chance to show the world your desktop or PC. Email your screenshots and photos to: [email protected] and include a brief paragraph about your MMYY DDEESSKKTTOOPP desktop, your PC's specs and any other interesting tidbits about your setup.
My computer is a Dell Inspiron 1521 laptop. It has a resolution of Allow me to present Blubuntu, my Blue Ubuntu desktop. 1400 x 900, a 120 GB 7200 rpm hard drive, and 1 GB of RAM. I currently dual boot Windows Vista and Ubuntu 8.04, along with an I use a customized Clearlooks desktop theme with glossy window Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 6 virtual machine. All modified themes and border and the standard Human icons. For the wallpaper I use icons are from art.gnome.org and the background is from Hardy Blue from www.gnome-look.org. The calendar is www.wallpaperstock.net. Specifically, the icon set is called Gorilla, Rainlendar2 Lite. I've used Ubuntu since Feisty Fawn. Now, I am and the window border and controls are both NewWave. The top using Ubuntu Hardy Heron, running on my HP 520 Notebook PC, panel transparency has been reduced to about 25%, and the Intel Core Duo T2300 @ 1.66 GHz processor, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB bottom to 0%. hard drive, and Intel 945GM chipset motherboard.
41 MMYY DDEESSKKTTOOPP
I have been using Linux since 2001, when I saw it for the first I have been using Ubuntu for almost a year now, and I'm loving time on the computers at my university. My first experience was it. I started out with 32-bit Gutsy and now I'm running 64-bit with Mandrake (Mandriva), but, after trying several other Hardy. My desktop is customized from the Human Clearlooks distributions throughout the years, I settled with Ubuntu - theme. I am also using the GIT version of Compiz Fusion, the mainly because of the quick release cycle and great forums. stable release of GNOME Do, and AWN. Also, I took the Linux Mint menu from their repository, installed it, and substituted the icon Having previously used Linux changed my preferences away with an Ubuntu logo. My computer is an out-of-the-box HP with 2 from a GUI to a text-based interface. My desktop reflects this, GB of memory, 350 GB hard drive, dual core AMD64 2.3 GHz and I have three gkrellm sessions running to monitor my own processor, and a 20-inch monitor set at 1680 x 1050. The computers and two servers through ssh tunnels - in addition to application running in the screenshot is Exaile media player (and a drop-down console, Yakuake. The gkrellm sessions might yes, it has been rotated with the Compiz Fusion GIT plugin: appear to be useless James Bond bling, but they actually give freewins). good visual insight to the systems. The drop-down console keeps my desktop free of clutter.
42 TTOORRRREENNTT TTOOOOLLSS Written by Andrew Min
http://deluge-torrent.org/ http://www.transmissionbt.com/ This Python- If you don't like Deluge based client but still like GTK+ apps, has it all: A try Transmission. While beautiful the interface isn't quite GTK+ as pretty, it's every bit as interface, a lightweight and (if configuration possible!) even simpler wizard, proxy than Deluge. It's also support, and cross-platform, so if you all the want one consistent encryption interface across you need to get started. But the real power comes platforms, Transmission from the plug-in support. There are dozens of plug- is a great option. Like ins, ranging from a simple libtorrent logger to a Deluge, it supports a powerful web interface. The client is light enough to web interface, proxy support, folder watching, and all give you speed on sluggish computers and the plug- the encryption you may need. What really sets it in architecture is perfect for power users like myself apart is its excellent CLI (Command Line Interface). who need all the features available. Transmission is pre-installed on Ubuntu. If you need To install Deluge, use the ` ` package to install it on a Kubuntu or Xubuntu computer, in the ùniverse` repository. though, you can use the package ` `. You can also just install the GUI or CLI versions with ` ` and ` `.
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http://ktorrent.org/ http://azureus.sourceforge.net/ If you're a KDE user who dislikes GTK+ or Java, KTorrent is a great Vuze, formerly known by the http://libtorrent.rakshasa.no/ better-known name of Azureus, is option. This app supports all the a powerful Java-based torrent normal encryption and proxy, not to rTorrent is a terminal-based client. Begun back in 2003, mention the basic downloading client with a surprising number Azureus' powerful interface features most other torrent clients of features, including keyboard became popular with all the have. What really makes it stand out shortcuts, queuing, sessions, platforms. It supports standard is its powerful KDE integration, from pausing and resuming, features, plus a torrent search the Plasma widget to the amazing encryption, and much more. It's (powered by the Vuze.com site, KDE 4 interface. It also sports also blazingly fast and requires HD user-created video, proxies multiple plug-ins, including RSS/Atom only about 1.6MB of space. (including onion proxies like Tor) downloading, a web interface, Compared to Azureus' 12.9MB, and a whole Vuze.com social download order for multi-file torrents, it's quite a bargain. There are network. Though the core client is and much more. also tons of GUI clients for it, still open source, it has come including nTorrent (Java-based), KTorrent is pre-installed on Kubuntu. under some heavy fire for moving wTorrent (wxWidgets-based), Other distributions can install it using other parts of the project away and rtGui and rTWi (web-based). the ` ` package in the from the GPL. ùniverse` repository. To install rTorrent, just use the To install Vuze, use the ` ` ` ` package in the package in the ùniverse` has been a Linux ùniverse` repository. At the repository. addict since he first installed time of this writing, none of the openSuSE in VMWare. Learn more about him at clients had made it into the http://www.andrewmin.com/ Ubuntu repository.
44 HHOOWW TTOO CCOONNTTRRIIBBUUTTEE Full Circle Team - Ronnie Tucker [email protected] We are always looking for new articles to include in Full Circle. For article guidelines, - Rob Kerfia ideas, and for issue translation, please see our wiki: [email protected] http://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuMagazine - Robert Clipsham Please email your articles to: [email protected] [email protected]
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A magazine isn't a magazine without articles and Full Circle is no exception. We need your Opinions, Desktops and Stories. We also need Reviews (games, apps & hardware), How-To articles (on any K/X/Ubuntu subject) and any questions, or suggestions, you may have. Sunday 08th Feruary 2009. Send them to: Friday 27th February 2009.
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