Full Circle BOOK REVIEW THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY
ISSUE #76 - August 2013
SSIIMMPPLLEE SSEECCUURRIITTYY SSYYSSTTEEMM WEBCAM + DROPBOX = MOBILE SECURITY full circle magazine #76 1 Full Ciircle Magaziine iis neiither affiiliiated wiith,, nor endorsed by,, Canoniical Ltd.. contents ^ HowTo Full Circle Opinions THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY My Story p.31 Python p.09 Columns
LibreOffice p.11 Command & Conquer p.06 Ubuntu News p.04 My Opinion p.32
Spring Integration p.13 Ask The New Guy p.26 Ubuntu Games p.48 Review p.35
Blender p.17 Linux Labs p.29 Q&A p.45 Software Showdown p.39
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Inkscape p.20 My Desktop p.52 Ubuntu Women p.45 Letters p.43 Graphics
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. Full Circle magazine is entirely independent of Canonical, the sponsor of the Ubuntu projects, and the views and opinions in the magazine should in no way be assumed tfoulhl acivrecleCamnaognaiczainlee#nd7o6rseme2nt. contents ^ EEDDIITTOORRIIAALL
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WELCOME TO ANOTHER ISSUE OF FULL CIRCLE!
e return to our regular scheduled programming with Python, LibreOffice, W Blender and Inkscape. Joining them is a rather hefty piece called Spring Integration. It's all a bit over my head so I'll let you read it.
Have many of you signed up for an Ubuntu Edge? I haven't, but then I refuse to pay almost £400 for a mobile phone – no matter who makes it. As I write this, it looks like their plan is doomed to fail – with them not even reaching the halfway mark. Again, while I think it's a great phone, and an ambitious plan, they're asking for a lot of money. If you're scratching your head and wondering what this Ubuntu Edge thing is, then have Full Circle Podcast a read of this month's Ask The New Guy. Released monthly, each episode covers all the latest Ubuntu news, opinions, reviews, interviews and Many moons ago, I wrote a two-part piece on using ZoneMinder as a CCTV system. listener feedback. The Side-Pod is This month, Charles has stripped that to the bone and is using a webcam and Dropbox a new addition, it's an extra to keep an eye on things. It's a great idea for an absolutely minimalistic security system. (irregular) short-form podcast which is intended to be a branch of the main podcast. It's Oh, and in case you hadn't noticed, Mr. Robin Catling has come up with the goods somewhere to put all the general again in the form of Inkscape Special Edition - Volumes 1 & 2. As ever, it's on the Full technology and non-Ubuntu stuff Circle site – ready for your consumption. And he's courting controversy with his My that doesn’t fit in the main podcast. Opinion piece on how he's jumping ship by using Debian. Hosts: All the best, and keep in touch! • Les Pounder Ronnie • Tony Hughes • Jon Chamberlain [email protected] • Oliver Clark
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full circle magazine #76 3 contents ^ UUBBUUNNTTUU NNEEWWSS Written by The Ubuntu News Team
13.10 (SAUCY team has done in response to this app-showdown-contest/ ology-23793457 break, and what questions remain. SALAMANDER) ALPHA 2 He concludes the post mortem More at Ubuntu Edge: founder says failure AVAILABLE with an apology for the security http://developer.ubuntu.com/show isn't the end of the dream - onathan Riddell announces the breach, the data leak, and down/ http://www.theguardian.com/tech J second Alpha of the Saucy downtime. nology/2013/aug/22/ubuntu-edge- Salamander (to become 13.10) has http://blog.canonical.com/2013/07 founder-failure-canonical now been released for testers and /30/ubuntu-forums-are-back-up- UBUNTU EDGE early adopters and features and-a-post-mortem/ Ubuntu Edge Campaign Ends, Fails images for Kubuntu, Lubuntu, CROWDFUNDING DRIVE HAS to Reach $32m Target - Ubuntu GNOME, UbuntuKylin and MISSED ITS TARGET http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/201 Xubuntu. He lists the release ANNOUNCING THE 2013 he 30-day crowdfunding 3/08/ubuntu-edge-fails-to-meet- details for Ubuntu flavors that T campaign to raise $32 million mutli-million-dollar-goal-wont-be- have participated in the release UBUNTU APP SHOWDOWN for the Ubuntu Edge smartphone made and provides links to the CONTEST! has failed to reach its target, and downloadable images. ichael Hall announces the this has led to another series of Ubuntu Edge fails to reach http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2013/07/ M second Ubuntu App posts from news sites and blogs $32,000,000, yet proves itself a 25/13-10-saucy-salamander-alpha- Showdown and writes: alike. The following are a sampling massive success - 2-available/ “Contestants will have six weeks to collected by our editors: http://iloveubuntu.net/ubuntu- buildandpublish theirapps using edge-fails-reach-32000000-yet- the new Ubuntu SDKandUbuntu Ubuntu Edge thank you - proves-itself-massive-success UBUNTU FORUMS ARE BACK Touch platform. Both original apps http://insights.ubuntu.com/news/u andportedapps, native andHTML 5, buntu-edge-thank-you/ Ubuntu Edge: A grand experiment UP AND A POST MORTEM will qualify forthis competition. for the future of computing does ames Troup announces that the Jono Bacon: Onwards and Upwards not constitute a failure - J Ubuntu Forums are now back The winners ofthis contest will - http://www.zdnet.com/ubuntu- up and running. He writes a "post each receive an LG Nexus 4 phone http://www.jonobacon.org/2013/0 edge-a-grand-experiment-for-the- mortem" of the breach and the running Ubuntu Touch with their 8/22/onwards-and-upwards-2/ future-of-computing-does-not- actions taken by the Canonical IS application pre-installed.” constitute-a-failure-7000019762/ team. James details what Ubuntu Edge crowdfunding drive happened, what the attacker could http://developer.ubuntu.com/2013 misses target - The failed Ubuntu Edge: when a and could not access, what the IS /08/announcing-the-2013-ubuntu- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/techn good idea just isn't enough -
full circle magazine #76 4 contents ^ UBUNTU NEWS http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/22 UBUNTU 12.04.3 LTS /technology/mobile/ubuntu-edge- crowdfunding/index.html RELEASED MANY THANKS TO THE he Ubuntu team is pleased to UBUNTU NEWS TEAM FOR Ubuntu Edge Falls Short of Goal - T announce the release of THEIR CONTRIBUTION THIS http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/0 Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS (Long-Term 8/22/ubuntu-edge-falls-short-of- Support) for its Desktop, Server, MONTH. goal/ Cloud, and Core products, as well as other flavors of Ubuntu with News this month comes from: Ubuntu smartphone axed after long-term support.” crowdfunding drive fails - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuW http://www.cnbc.com/id/10097989 Release details, including links eeklyNewsletter/Issue327 0 to changes and instructions for https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuW updating at: eeklyNewsletter/Issue328 Ubuntu Edge is dead, long live https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/u https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuW Ubuntu phones - buntu-announce/2013- eeklyNewsletter/Issue329 http://arstechnica.com/informatio August/000175.html https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuW n-technology/2013/08/ubuntu- eeklyNewsletter/Issue330 edge-is-dead-long-live-ubuntu- WELCOME NEW MEMBERS https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuW eeklyNewsletter/Issue331 phones/ AND DEVELOPERS esults for the 22:00 UTC R Membership Board Meeting UBUNTU DEVELOPER for August 1st, 2013: SUMMIT AUGUST 27-29TH Nekhelesh Ramananthan he next mid-cycle virtual (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Nekheles T Ubuntu Developer Summit is h%20Ramananthan | scheduled for August 27-29th from https://launchpad.net/~nik90) 2pm-8pm UTC! Carlos Ney Pastor (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CarlosNe Check out the details, yPastor | participation information, and https://launchpad.net/~carlosneyp schedule at: astor) http://uds.ubuntu.com/ https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/u buntu-news-team/2013- August/001846.html
full circle magazine #76 5 contents ^ CCOOMMMMAANNDD && CCOONNQQUUEERR Written by Lucas Westermann LLaaTTeeXX CCLLII CCooookkbbooookk
ver the last couple of issues, I needs only to fork the repository, packages are: fancyvrb and INSTALLING THE IDE O asked for input from the make those changes, and then hyperref. Everything else should be readers on commands that they send me a pull request. I will included in a typical LaTeX find useful, and a short description reserve the right to veto the I recommend using an IDE when installation. These packages are of what they do. Now, I have nearly inclusion of any commands if they working with LaTeX for the first contained in texlive-latex- three A4 pages of commands in seem to me to be either time, though you can, of course, recommended and texlive-latex- the Google Doc I created for this. unnecessary duplicates of existing compile .tex documents using the base. If you installed just texlive To anyone who contributed – thank commands, or else are purely command-line. However, the IDE instead of the full installation, you you! There were a surprising malicious (by this I mean makes figuring out shortcuts and will most likely need to install number of commands (or commands that will result in loss of commands much easier. these separately. variations) that I hadn't ever come data, without any feasible security across before. If anyone would like usage). For those of you not My preferred IDE is Texmaker, FORK THE GITHUB recognition on the title page of the comfortable with git (or LaTeX), which can be found in the official PDF, you can either email me at and without the inclination to repository. You can install it with REPOSITORY lswest34+cli- learn, you can suggest changes and [email protected], or open an updates using the issue tracker on sudo apt-get install texmaker For this you need a github issue on the GitHub (or just fork the repository. account, and have git installed. On the repository!). For the actual If your version of Ubuntu (or my repository, you should see a your preferred distribution) article this month, I will briefly INSTALLING LATEX button that reads “fork”. By explain how to set up and use doesn't offer it officially, you can clicking this you create a LaTeX on Ubuntu, for anyone who find it here: repository on your account that's a The basic LaTeX installation is wishes to contribute to the PDF http://www.xm1math.net/texmake copy of mine. The second step is to supplied through texlive, but a full (using LaTeX), but isn't yet r/download.html#linux. As with all clone the fork (the repository installation is supplied through comfortable with LaTeX. things in Linux, there are more linked to your account). To do so, texlive-full. Either can be installed choices than just Texmaker, but it you can type the following into a with apt-get, as seen below: First off, the Cookbook is now will be what I base my explanations terminal: on. located on GitHub, here: sudo apt-get install texlive https://github.com/lswest/cli- git clone https://github.com/username/c cookbook or INSTALL EXTRA PACKAGES li-cookbook.git I used a few extra packages to It's a public repository, so sudo apt-get install texlive- fancy up the Cookbook (with links Replace username with your anyone who wants to contribute full and code formatting). The extra username. Alternatively, you can
full circle magazine #76 6 contents ^ COMMAND & CONQUER simply copy the HTTPS clone URL label. At the end, it could look like \begin{Verbatim}[commandchars Once you've made your changes off the GitHub page (of your this: =\\\{\}] and are ready to compile the PDF, forked repository). // Code goes here press the blue arrow next to [...] “Quick Build” in the top bar of \end{Verbatim} This will create a folder called \section{Photo Editing} Texmaker. If you want to do it by cli-cookbook and fill it with the hand, you can run this command: files you need. Once that's done, \subsection{Using Photon to The Verbatim environment create albums} open up the .tex file in Texmaker. won't wrap text, so you'll need to pdflatex cli-cookbook.tex \label{photon} manually keep an eye on the length of the code once the PDF is If any errors crop up, you'll need EDITING THE FILE \subsection{Organizing Albums} compiled. If you have multiple to read the error information to commands after each other, I place find the correct section of the file Usually when creating a file, As seen in a blank line between each step. If and see what could be wrong. I \hyperref[photon]{\ref*{photo you'll need to create the preamble n}} you stick to my formatting system, find the most common issue is a (\usepackage, \documentclass, you'll also want to mark the lack/overabundance of braces. \begin{document}, etc.). However, [...] unchanging parts of a command since you're working off my file, with a red color. Any user input I RETURN THE CHANGES TO that's all been taken care of. This will create a section called leave black. So it would look like Photo Editing, and two subsections this: ORIGINAL REPOSITORY If you want to add a new called Using Photon to create albums, and Organizing Albums. \begin{Verbatim}[commandchars First, open a terminal and section (say, for example, you want =\\\{\}] to add a section for photo editing The \hyperref statement will change directory to your local copy commands), you would type the replace that section of code with \codeHighlight{//unchanging of the repository. code} //user input following: the section number of the Photon \codeHighlight{//more cd ~/cli-cookbook/ subsection (i.e. 13.1). Clicking on unchanging code} \section{Name} the link will take you to the page where that section appears. \end{Verbatim} Now, you need to add the newly The Name is then the header added/changed files: you'd like it to have (i.e. Photo As you can imagine, this will ADDING CODE git add -A Editing). If you want to split it up result in //unchanging code //user into sub sections, the command is: input //more unchanging code. Then you need to commit the \subsection{}, and \subsubsection{} I made this step slightly more Logically, you'll want to swap out changes creates, surprisingly enough, a complicated than it needs to be, in the text for what you want to say. order to get the best result. You subsection to a subsection. If you git commit -m “Update plan to refer back to this section need to encompass your code like COMPILING THE PDF message” -a later, you'll need to assign it a so:
full circle magazine #76 7 contents ^ COMMAND & CONQUER Replace the “Update message” • Click “Send pull request”. section with a brief summary of what you added. Keep quotes As of that point, the ball is now around the message! in my court and I need to review the proposed change and merge it git push origin master or close it.
This pushes the changes back to If this article has whetted your your copy of my repository. If you appetite on LaTeX, let me know rename the branches, you'll need and I will return to this topic to know what you've changed the another time. Same with git and origin and master names to. By github – if you want more on that, default, this command should let me know! Any other questions, work. comments or suggestions can be addressed to me at Now to actually send a pull [email protected]. request to the original repository:
• Visit your repository on the github page.
• Click “compare and review” (the green icon with two arrows forming a loop).
• Choose the correct repository and branch (lswest:master and username:master, for example).
• Review your changes.
• Click on “Click to create a pull Lucas has learned all he knows from request for this comparison”. repeatedly breaking his system, then having no other option but to • Enter a title and description. discover how to fix it. You can email Lucas at: [email protected].
full circle magazine #76 8 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Greg Walters PPrrooggrraammmmiinngg IInn PPyytthhoonn -- PPaarrtt 4466
sually, my articles are fairly “A set is an unorderedcollection >>> 'orange' in fruit We create our two lists, long. However, due to some U with no duplicate elements. Basic True shoppinglist for what we need and medical issues, this will be a fairly uses include membership testing and basket for what we have. We short article (in the grand scheme eliminating duplicate entries. Set >>> 'kiwi' in fruit assign each to a set and then use of things) this month. However, we objects also support mathematical False the set difference operator (the will push through and continue our operations like union, intersection, minus sign) to give us the items series on the media manager difference, andsymmetric >>> that are in the shopping list but program. difference.” not in the basket. That's pretty simple and, One of the things our program I'll continue to use the example hopefully, you are beginning to see Now, using the same logic, we will do for us is let us know if we from the documentation page to where all this is going. Let's say we will create a routine (next page, have any missing episodes from illustrate the process. have a shopping list that has a bottom left) that will deal with our any given series in the database. bunch of fruit in it, and, as we go missing episodes. We will call our Here's the scenario. We have a >>> Basket = through the store, we want to routine “FindMissing” and pass it series, we'll call it “That 80's ['apple','orange','apple','pe check what we are missing – ar','orange','banana'] two variables. The first is an Show”, that ran for three seasons. basically the items in the shopping integer that is set to the number of list but not in our basket. We can In season 2, there were 15 >>> fruit = set(basket) episodes in that season and the episodes. However, we have only start like this. >>> fruit second is a list containing the 13 of them in our library. How do episode numbers that we have for we find which episodes are missing set(['orange','pear','apple', >>> shoppinglist = 'banana']) ['orange','apple','pear','ban that season. – programmatically? ana','kiwi','grapes'] Notice that in the original list >>> basket = The routine, when you run it, The simplest way is to use lists that was assigned to the basket ['apple','kiwi','banana'] prints out [5, 8, 15], which is and sets. We have already used variable, apple and orange were correct. Now let's look at the code. lists in a number of the articles >>> sl = set(shoppinglist) put in twice, but, when we The first line creates a set called over the last four years, but Sets assigned it to a set, the duplicates >>> b = set(basket) EpisodesNeeded using a list of are a new data type to this series, were discarded. Now, to use the integers created using the range so we'll examine them for a while. >>> sl-b set that we just created, we can function. We need to give the According to the “official set(['orange', 'pear', check to see if an item of fruit (or range function the start value and documentation” for Python 'grapes']) something else) is in the set. We end value. We add 1 to the range (docs.python.org), here is the can use the “in” operator. >>> high value to give us the correct definition of a set: list of values from 1 to 15.
full circle magazine #76 9 contents ^ HOWTO - PYTHON PT46 Remember the range function is my body can stand, so I’ll leave you actually 0 based, so when we give for this month, wondering how we PYTHON SPECIAL EDITIONS: it 16 (expected (15) + 1), the actual are going to use this in our media list that range creates is 0 to 15. manager. We tell the range function to start at 1, so even though the range is 0 Have a good month and see you to 15 which is 16 values, we want soon. 15 starting at 1.
Next we create a set from the list that is passed into our routine, which contains the episode numbers that we actually have. http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-py01/ http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-py02/
Now we can create a list using the set difference operator on the two sets. We do this so we can sort it with the list.sort() method. You Greg Walters is owner of RainyDay can certainly return the list if you Solutions, LLC, a consulting company wish, but in this iteration of the in Aurora, Colorado, and has been routine, we’ll just print it out. programming since 1972. He enjoys cooking, hiking, music, and spending time with his family. His website is Well, that’s all the time in the www.thedesignatedgeek.net. http://fullcirclemagazine.org/python- http://fullcirclemagazine.org/python- chair in front of the computer that special-edition-issue-three/ special-edition-volume-four/
def FindMissing(expected,have): #======# ‘expected’ is the number of episodes we should have # ‘have’ is a list of episodes that we do have # returns a sorted list of missing episode numbers #======EpisodesNeeded = set(range(1,expected+1)) EpisodesHave = set(have) StillNeed = list(EpisodesNeeded - EpisodesHave) StillNeed.sort() print StillNeed http://fullcirclemagazine.org/python- http://fullcirclemagazine.org/python- FindMissing(15,[1,2,3,4,6,7,9,10,11,12,13,14]) special-edition-volume-five/ special-edition-volume-six/
full circle magazine #76 10 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Elmer Perry LLiibbrreeOOffffiiccee PPtt2299:: PPoollyyggoonnss,, AArrccss && CCuurrvveess
s I mentioned last time, the methods for creating curves, the line is created. Move the mouse to TOOLBAR A building blocks I owned as a curve tool itself and the Bezier the position where you want the child were the result of my father's method. end point for the next line and For quick access to the arcs and woodworking. Not every block was click. Continue until you have segments tools, we need to add perfectly proportioned into neat DRAWING POLYGONS created all the lines for your the Circles and Ovals toolbar to geometric shapes. Sometimes, polygon. Double-click on the last the Drawing toolbar. Right-click they were oddly shaped, or, as As I said, a polygon is an object point to end the polygon. If you are the Drawing toolbar and select wood often is, shaped by splitting with multiple sides. In Draw, you using one of the filled polygon Customize Toolbar. This opens the along the grain line rather than have four polygon tools. Two tools, the end point of the last line Customize dialog. Click the Add being cut by the saw. Some had enclosed and filled polygon tools, will automatically connect to the button. Select Drawing under the curved patterns where their and two open and unfilled polygon start point of the first line, Category list. In the Commands opposites were used to trim a chair tools. The unfilled polygon tools enclosing the polygon. list, find the Ellipse tools – there or cabinet. I didn't discard these are good for making a series of are two. You want the one with the irregular shapes but embraced lines. For both types, you have a If you use one of the filled description “Using Customize them. Not everything in our world free-form version and a version polygon tools, Draw fills the toolbar, you can add the Ellipse is created from straight lines, restricted to angles that are icon which opens the Circles and ellipses, and circles. multiples of 45 degrees. Ovals toolbar.” Click the Add button. Click Close to close the With this in mind, we continue selection dialog. our look into LibreOffice Draw by learning how to create polygons, Using the up and down arrows, arcs, and curves. A polygon is a move the new icon to where you plane object with at least three want it on the toolbar. I placed straight lines and angles. In mine below the Ellipse tool. We geometric terms squares, polygon with the currently don't really need the Ellipse tool rectangles, and triangles are types selected fill color and sets the lines any longer as it is included in the of polygons. For our purposes, we To create a polygon, select one to the currently selected line color. Circles and Ovals toolbar. Uncheck will discuss polygons with more of the polygon tools from the Lines You can change these using the the Ellipse tool. Click the OK than four sides. An arc, in Draw, is a extended toolbar. Click and drag to Line and Fill toolbar or the color button, and you should see the partial circle or oval. You can make create the start point of the first bar. toolbar is now on your Drawing them filled or empty. A curve is a line. When you release the mouse toolbar. bent line. We will look at two button, the end point of the first ADD CIRCLES AND OVALS
full circle magazine #76 11 contents ^ HOWTO - LIBREOFFICE Pt29 second time to create the end point for the arc or segment. The status bar will show you the angle from center of the points as you move around the circle or oval. This can help you create accurate and precise arcs and segments. point, and two control points. The mathematics behind the Bezier DRAWING CURVES curve is beyond the scope of this article, but you don't need to A curve is a bent line rather understand the math in order to than a segment of a circle or oval. draw one. To draw a curve, select the curve To draw a Bezier curve, select tool from the line toolbar. Click on the curve tool from the lines the start point and drag to draw a toolbar. Click at the start point, line. Release the mouse button at drag to the end point and double- circles, the creators of Draw gave the peak point for your curve. click. Click on the Points tool on us more tools for creating objects. Move the mouse to bend the line the Drawing toolbar (F8 on the A polygon can create an object to the point where you want the keyboard), and the Edit Points with more than four sides. Arcs DRAWING ARCS OR curve to end. Double-click to toolbar is displayed. Select either and segments gives us parts and SEGMENTS complete the curve. the start or end point (the start segments of a circle or ellipse. point is the larger square). Select Curves give us the ability to bend a To draw an arc the Smooth or Symmetric line into different shapes. With or segment, Transition tool from the Edit Points these extra tools in hand, Draw select one of the toolbar. A dashed line and circle lets you create more advanced tools from the will appear indicating the control images for your documents. Circles and Ovals point for that point. Move the toolbar you just control point to create the curve added. Click and drag to create a for that point. Repeat these steps containing circle or oval. Release for the other point. Elmer Perry's history of working, the mouse button. Click in the and programming, computers circle or oval where you want the BEZIER CURVES CONCLUSION involves an Apple ][E, adding some arc or segment to begin. Move the Amiga, a generous helping of DOS mouse around the circle or oval to Since not all things are created and Windows, a dash of Unix, and A Bezier curve is a smooth blend well with Linux and Ubuntu. create the arc or segment. Click a curve with a start point, an end from straight lines, ellipses, and
full circle magazine #76 12 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Oleg Tikhonov SSpprriinngg IInntteeggrraattiioonn
ome time ago, I began a new will exchange a couple of S job in a big corporation. My messages with each other. first task was to reimplement / reimport their C# tcp client to An important thing with SI is a Java. Existing convertors sucked, configuration file which contains so I did it manually. After a week or all the necessary components so, the new Java tcp client and we’re going to use. Here is the server simulator were written and “server” part of the configuration. waiting for further use. Having met Simplifying a model and SI the client’s requirements, we lifecycle, Spring creates objects found that Java’s implementation explain what Spring Integration is Endpoint, Channel and Message. that are defined in the lacked important features such as intended for. As their site configuration xml. More generally, failover and auto-reconnection. suggests: “it provides an extension Endpoint is a component which such a concept is called declarative Adding such functionality required of the Spring programming model actually does something with a programming. You define a us to add some untested code, to support the well-known message. A message is a container business object in the xml, and a which might be unable to handle Enterprise Integration Patterns”. consisting of header and payload. framework generates appropriate the business logic. One of our guys Rephrasing, to design good The header contains data that’s classes for you, and injects and said, Aha, what if…? We can enterprise applications one could relevant to the messaging system initializes dependencies. The replace the Java implementation use messaging (more precisely where the payload contains the mantra says: you should be with another one, for instance - asynchronous messaging) that actual data. Channel connects two concentrated only on the business Spring Integration. The rest of us enables diverse applications to be or more endpoints, it’s similar to and not on the implementation. smiled, thinking what the heck? integrated with each other – Unix pipes. Two endpoints can Anyway, he is a good chap, trying without nightmares or pain. A wise exchange messages if they’re Let’s define a part of the to use the best technologies guy named Martin Fowler has connected through a channel. configuration xml (next page, top available. We got the green light to written a famous book: “Enterprise Pretty easy, isn’t it? The following left), the server part: do research and learn something Integration Patterns”. Folks from diagram shows this. http://pastebin.com/6AHQWPse exciting. To simplify our Spring probably one day decided requirements, I am going to to materialize a theory into The next step to our crash Important things are: A factory discuss a simulator (aka server) and practice. Very pragmatic approach, course will be defining the (tcp-connection-factory) - creates a client. isn’t it? Later, you will see how requirements. I would say, we need tcp server using a byte array length wonderful it is for regular tasks. a server (tcp) and tcp client. We serializer. A Serializer is needed for Before delving deeper, let me The main concept of SI is: will write a simple application that “packaging” our message in some
full circle magazine #76 13 contents ^ HOWTO - SPRING INTEGRATION cd /tcpserver
full circle magazine #76 14 contents ^ HOWTO - SPRING INTEGRATION Here’s how to run a client: Almost the same logic applies String key = new String(appropriateData, "UTF-8"); LOG.info("got.message" + " [" + key + "]"); Open a new terminal: here. Have a look. A main class has /* If message accepted */ the lines shown in the code on the if (key.contains(SEARCH_KEY)) { cd /tcpclient LogReader lr = new LogReader(sender, msg); next page, top left. lr.setPath2File(getFile().getAbsolutePath()); mvn clean install es.execute(lr); In addition, define a client } mvn dependency:copy- service: dependencies
public void handleRequestMessage(byte[] payload) { mvn exec:java void send(String txt); LOG.debug("Server got an error " + new String(payload)); -Dexec.mainClass="org.example } .tcpclient.ClientTcp" Next, a message handler: error handler which logs the errors which is shown above. Code is at:
Now, let’s define a tcp client
/* Creates an input stream to be read. */ public void handle(byte[] s) fstream = new FileInputStream(getPath2File()); { /* Wraps an input stream in order to be able reading of a whole line */ DataInputStream in = new DataInputStream(fstream); String ss = new String(s); BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(in)); while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) { command = line; LOG.info("r:" + ss); sendAndLog(timeToWait); } }
full circle magazine #76 15 contents ^ HOWTO - SPRING INTEGRATION
/* Spring Integration context used to get desirable beans. */ AbstractApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext( new String[] { "client-config.xml" }, false); context.refresh(); context.registerShutdownHook(); TcpClientService service = context.getBean("client", TcpClientService.class); The Ubuntu Podcast covers all service.send("GIMMY"); the latest news and issues facing Ubuntu Linux users and Free Software fans in general. The And the last one is an Prerequisites: Cons: show appeals to the newest user interceptor, which will inform your • Java 1.6 or above; • Takes time to learn and and the oldest coder. Our application about: i. Message sent; • Maven 3 or above; understand how to work with it. discussions cover the ii. A connection closed; iii. A new • Desire to learn something new • If you get problems, sometime it development of Ubuntu but connection added. and thrilling; is difficult to debug it. aren’t overly technical. We are lucky enough to have some That’s it! Pros: great guests on the show, telling • A lot of features us first hand about the latest To play with the code, see here: • Tested Oleg Tikhonov, B.Sc in computer exciting developments they are http://www.4shared.com/zip/eF4q • Good and friendly community science and mathematics. Senior working on, in a way that we can 7l0k/spring_integration_example.h • If you have questions, the people Software Engineer, member of all understand! We also talk tml. reply really quickly Apache Tika, tech enthusiast, open about the Ubuntu community • There are tons of examples source evangelist, Java OCR developer and Galaxy S4 hacker. and what it gets up to. • API is easy and comprehensive The show is presented by public void send(Message message) throws Exception { members of the UK’s Ubuntu super.send(message); Linux community. Because it is LOG.debug("Sent message [" + new String((byte[]) message.getPayload()) + "]"); } covered by the Ubuntu Code of Conduct it is suitable for all. public void close() { super.close(); LOG.debug("Closed connection"); The show is broadcast live every } fortnight on a Tuesday evening public void addNewConnection(TcpConnection connection) { (British time) and is available for super.addNewConnection(connection); download the following day. LOG.debug("Added new connection" + connection.getHostName() + ":" + connection.getPort()); } podcast.ubuntu-uk.org
full circle magazine #76 16 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Nicholas Kopakakis BBlleennddeerr:: PPaarrtt 77
fter a month off, we are back two times). Press the right arrow A together to explore modifiers. to increase the View subdivisions One of my favorites is subdivision to 2. Now what you see is what you surface! render.
Tip: Modifiers are automatic operations that work with how an object looks and renders but without changing the actual geometry of your object.
Subdivision Surface (Subsurf in Press with your left mouse button When you add the Subsurf short) is a method of subdividing the wrench icon and then press the modifier to your cube by default the faces of a mesh to give a “Add modifier” button. the modifier subdivides the cube smooth appearance, to enable faces (6 faces) by 4, giving you a Increase the View and the modeling of complex smooth A large window appears with all new shape with 24 faces. You can Render subdivisions by one. Now, surfaces with simple, low-vertex the available modifiers in blender. control how many times to under Subdivisions you should meshes (source: wiki.blender.org). For now we will stick with the subdivide your object’s faces under have 3 subdivisions for View and Subdivision Surface (Subsurf from Subdivisions section as shown in for Render: Open a new project in blender now on). Locate it (highlighted in the image below. The “View:1” and select (if not already) the the image above) and select it to indicates that you subdivide your cube. add this modifier to your cube. object one time.
Now, let’s look to the modifiers Your cube changes to a 24-faces There is another control button On the left of your 3D view tab (shown below) under the shape! But if you render your under Subdivisions section to window, under object tools properties window. image, you will get a 96-faces change the subdivisions when you (shortcut T for show/hide), smooth object... Weird! Let see why this is render your image (Render:2). your cube’s shading Notice a little wrench. This is happening. That’s why in the 3D view window the symbol of modifiers in blender. you have a 24-faces shape (subdivided one time), but, when you rendered it, you had a 6x4x4=96-faces shape (subdivided
full circle magazine #76 17 contents ^ HOWTO - BLENDER: PART 7
Your “cube” now has to look Select the top face of your cube Tip: Loop Cut or Loop Subdivide of your edge (default position). something like this: and press E key to extrude and (shortcut Ctrl-R) splits a loop of Enter key to confirm the extrusion. faces by inserting a new edge loop Scale it down to 50% by pressing intersecting the chosen edge the S key and 0.5. (source: wiki.blender.org)
Move the extruded face down Deselect all by pressing the A by 2 units (Press G key, then Z key key, and then press Ctrl-R. Hover to lock the movement to the Z-axis your mouse over the cube faces and then press -2 to move it down). and you will notice a purple line “cutting” the edges as shown to You created a highly detailed the image below: pot!
The secret of the power that Press A key to deselect Subsurf has is revealed when you everything. press the TAB key to enter the edit Now, to select one of the two edge loop cuts that we just created, we have to use the shortcut Shift-Alt-Right Mouse Button
Tip: The actual shortcut for Loop Cut Select is Alt-RMB but under Press 2 or scroll your mouse linux it conflicts with the functions By editing the cube, dynamically wheel to add 2 loop cuts. Press that are assigned by the system to you edit the sphere in an organic enter to confirm. the alt key. mode way. Without the Subsurf you’d You can see the sphere that we need a lot of time and effort to After that, you have 2 yellow With the leftmost edge loop created with the Subsurf, and your create this pot. edge loops selected and by moving selected, press Ctrl-E to open the original shape, the cube. You your mouse you can slide them edge special menu, and select cannot edit the sphere (remember Another critical tool to use with freely. Press the right mouse edge slide as shown in the image that your actual object is the cube) Subsurf is the loop cut. button to place them to the center on the next page. but you can edit the cube.
full circle magazine #76 18 contents ^ HOWTO - BLENDER: PART 7
LIBREOFFICE SPECIAL EDITIONS:
http://fullcirclemagazine.org/libreoffice- http://fullcirclemagazine.org/libreoffice- special-edition-volume-one/ special-edition-volume-two/
happening to your shape. Select INKSCAPE SPECIAL EDITIONS: two vertices and scale them up or down. While in the edit mode, add a new shape, for example a plane, and see what is going on.
Next month we will continue our journey with Subsurf, and we You can slide the edge loop by will try to create something. Please moving your mouse or by entering send me your suggestions or directly the value of the movement questions at http://fullcirclemagazine.org/inkscape- http://fullcirclemagazine.org/inkscape- (for example -0.8). Deselect all by [email protected] special-edition-volume-one/ special-edition-volume-two/ pressing the A key, and select the other edge loop. Slide it by 0.8 units.
Create another two edge loop cuts to the other side of your cube Nicholas lives and works in Greece. (check image above right) He has worked for a post-production house for several years and migrated to Ubuntu because “it renders Select and deselect anything faster.” You can email him at: you like. Grab a simple vertex and [email protected] move it around to see what is
full circle magazine #76 19 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Mark Crutch IInnkkssccaappee -- PPaarrtt 1166
common reason for part 9 of this series. You can also tracing. Then lock the layer, and click and hold inside the ruler at A importing bitmap images into lock an individual object from the create a new one for tracing. the top of the drawing area and Inkscape is to convert them to a Object Properties dialog, which drag downwards, releasing the vector format. This can be done you can access via the right-click mouse button to place your guide. using an automatic tracing process, context menu, the Object menu, or Similarly you can drag a vertical or by manually tracing the image. by pressing Ctrl-Shift-O. The guide out of the ruler at the left. If I'll cover the automatic process in a problem is that once you've locked you drag from either ruler, close to future instalment, but for now let's an object you can no longer select the top-left corner, you'll create an concentrate on the manual it in order to unlock it. The solution angled guide at 45°. approach. is to use the Object > Unlock All menu entry. Did you drop your guide at the Manually tracing an image is wrong location? Using the exactly what it sounds like. There's For the rest of this article, I'll Trying to draw the large Selection tool you can drag the no magic involved, it's simply a assume the more sensible background circle immediately guide somewhere else, or hold case of drawing on top of your approach of locking the layer. Of presents a few problems. The first down Shift while dragging to bitmap in order to re-create the course you'll now have to create a is simply that it's very difficult to change the angle – hold Control as image using vector objects. It can second layer on which to actually draw, by eye, a circle of the right well if you want to constrain it to be a time consuming and tedious draw. The obvious option is to dimensions and in the right the standard rotation angles that process, but, for some images, it's place your drawing layer above location. Using the ellipse tool you are set in the Inkscape the only practical way to achieve a your image layer and then start can force a circle by holding the Preferences. If you have trouble satisfactory result. creating objects. Let's try manually Control key, but you also need to targeting the thin guideline, you'll tracing the FCM logo using this start and finish at the right find a slightly easier target in the Having linked or embedded approach. If you want to follow coordinates. It would be a whole form of a small round handle on your bitmap and scaled it to a along, you can find the image at lot easier if there were some the guide at the point where you sensible size, the first step is to http://www.peppertop.com/fc/ guides to show us where to click. released the mouse when you first lock it. This will prevent you dragged it out of the ruler. This accidentally moving it as you draw First drag the image into the Inkscape conforms to the handle is also used as the center over the top, and can be done in a Inkscape window, and choose to conventions of most graphics when you rotate a guide. couple of ways. The best approach link it – there's no point applications when it comes to is simply to lock the layer that the embedding it as it will only be in creating guides – you simply have With the Selection tool still image is in, using the Layers dialog the file temporarily and will be to drag them out of the rulers. If active, you can double-click on the or the status bar, as described in removed once we've finished you want a horizontal guideline, line or handle to bring up a dialog
full circle magazine #76 20 contents ^ HOWTO - INKSCAPE Pt16 to let you precisely set the location and angle of the guide. You can use absolute coordinates, or enter an offset relative to its current The snapping toolbar (shown circle, the start and end points are it's obscuring the bitmap, making it position by checking the “Relative above) can be confusing – treated as handles. impossible to trace anything else. Change” box. This dialog can also especially as the same icon appears It's probably also the wrong color, be used to change the guide's four times! Depending on your You'll also notice that the last but we'll come back to that later. color, or to delete it completely – setting at the bottom of the View icon is enabled. This tells Inkscape although a faster way to do that is menu, this toolbar may be to snap to guidelines. The three The most obvious way to stop simply to place the mouse pointer positioned horizontally at the top enabled buttons on the toolbar the circle obscuring the image is over the guide and press the of the window, or vertically at the therefore simply mean “snapping simply to move it out of the way. Delete key. right side. If you can't see it at all, is enabled – snap handles to It's the approach I tend to use, as make sure “Snap Controls Bar” is guides”. Selecting the Ellipse tool there's less fixing up to do checked in the View > Show/Hide and moving the cursor close to the afterwards – I just draw each menu. In order to draw a circle, intersection of the guides now will element, then shift it to the side snapping to the intersections of briefly display a small, faint tooltip, before moving onto the next one. the guidelines, you will need to telling us that it's snapped the By holding Shift and using the have at least these buttons “Handle to guide intersection”. cursor keys to move the object I pressed: can ensure that it moves by the same amount, regardless of the The first button is used to zoom level I'm working at. So if it toggle snapping on and off (you takes 10 presses of the cursor key can also use the “%” key). The same to move the circle out of the way, icon is also used on other buttons so long as I use 10 presses for to toggle whole classes of snap every other part that I trace they targets on and off. To get any should all end up in the right With four guides in place, it's a useful results from snapping, you'll position, relative to one another. lot easier to see where to start and therefore need to have the first end when dragging out your button enabled, plus at least one Another approach is to make ellipse to create a circle. We can of the remaining three. In this case, Dragging the circle from here to your new circle disappear – at least make it easier still by using it's the second one that's enabled: the opposite corner, we'll see a temporarily. By creating a new Inkscape's snapping tools to force hovering over the button to see similar tooltip flash up at the layer or sub-layer for each object your cursor to jump to the the tooltip will tell you that it intersection of the other two you draw, you can show and hide intersection of two guidelines concerns the snapping of “nodes, guidelines. At last we've drawn a individual parts of your traced when it gets close. paths and handles”. As we drag out large circle, tracing the one from image. This method works well for a box to define the size of the the imported image. Unfortunately a few objects, but can become
full circle magazine #76 21 contents ^ HOWTO - INKSCAPE Pt16 unwieldy when you're tracing fixing up to do afterwards. below another object, and can help different from the overall something complex. You may also you to keep track of which parts impression of color your eye need to move all the objects back Try all these approaches to see you've traced and which you have perceives. Rather than just clicking to a single layer afterwards, which method you prefer – and yet to work on. with the color picker, you can click depending on what you want to do don't rule out the possibility of and drag in order to define a circle. with your finished tracing. mixing different methods, even The next task, therefore, is to Your selected object is filled with when tracing a single image. restore the original colors. an average of all the pixel colors Rather than making objects Inkscape provides a “dropper” tool within the circle. completely disappear you can After tracing each element of for this which is enabled via the make them translucent. The the bitmap this is the end result. “eye dropper” icon on the toolbar, If you need to set the stroke, Opacity pop-up on the status bar You can barely tell which version is or by pressing F7 or “d”. rather than the fill, of your (right-click on the “O:” spinbox) is a mine, and which is the original... selected object, you can use the fast way to do this – or you could Before activating the same click or click-and-drag reduce the opacity of the whole tool you should first technique, but holding the Shift drawing layer in the Layers dialog. select the object(s) that key. Holding down Alt will fill your You'll have to remember to set you wish to color. In this case we'll object with the inverse of the objects back to their full opacity start with the large green circle in selected color, whilst holding Shift after you've finished, and even at the background. Having selected and Alt will do the same for the 25% opacity this approach can your target object, you can activate stroke. To round out the dropper's sometimes obscure the fine details the dropper via the icon or tricks, if you press Ctrl-C while the of the image you're trying to trace. If you're particularly observant, keyboard shortcut. Now you simply tool is selected, the color of the you might have noticed that the have to click on any point in your pixel it's hovering over will be A final method that's quite colors in my version don't quite Inkscape drawing – whether on a copied to the clipboard as an 8- common amongst comic artists is match those in the original image. vector object, an imported bitmap, digit hexadecimal number (RGB to put the imported image layer In fact the colors in my version or even the background – and your and Alpha). above the drawing layer, but with don't even look good together, selected object will be filled with reduced opacity. Because the creating a clashing design the color of the pixel you clicked Do also pay attention to the image layer is locked your drawing compared with the more subtle on. tool control bar when the dropper operations take place on the layer combinations of the source. This is selected. There are only two below, so the traced image never was actually deliberate – I find it Sometimes you don't want to buttons up there which are used to obscures the bitmap you're much easier when tracing parts adopt the color of a specific point, determine whether the alpha level tracing. You can change the which have to lay on top of each but rather an average of the colors should be included when picking a opacity of the bitmap layer at any other to give them garish and in a small area. This is often the color, and when assigning that time, to make it easier to see fine contrasting colors. It makes it more case with JPEG images, where picked color to an object. They details, but because the drawing obvious when something is missing lossy compression can lead to have no effect if you're picking an layer is fully opaque there's no or needs to be moved above or individual pixels being quite opaque color, but, when dealing
full circle magazine #76 22 contents ^ HOWTO - INKSCAPE Pt16 with translucent objects, they can stroke color, we'll use it to set the did previously, except this time The last step, of course, is to change the results considerably. color of each stop on the gradient. they're assigned to the gradient delete the bitmap layer, and with it Usually I leave them both enabled, In this case the gradients simply stop rather than the whole object. the source image. At this stage you but, if your dropper seems to be have a start and an end stop, but With the dropper tool still active, may want to move all your objects giving you the wrong results, it there's no reason why you couldn't you can click on another gradient onto a single layer, if you need to, might be worth experimenting also reproduce gradients with stop to select it – you don't need to and perhaps group them. with them. several stops. switch back to the gradient tool each time – and then choose its Although this article has With the dropper used to pick Select the object you want to color from the drawing. Repeat as nominally been about tracing suitable flat colors our traced modify and give it a gradient on necessary until all your gradient bitmap images, the information design is now a lot closer to the the fill or stroke, as necessary. At stops are colored. about guides and the dropper tool original. this point it's more important to is applicable to Inkscape in general, The final step to matching the have the right number of gradient After setting a few gradients even if you use only vector objects. stops rather than worrying about and picking the colors for their end Next time, we'll continue with the the colors, so you might want to stops from the original bitmap same subterfuge – continuing to choose something garish once image, we've finally got a traced look at tracing bitmaps, but again. Switch to the gradient tool, version in all its vectorized glory. sneakily introducing more general if it's not already active, by using tools in the process. the icon on the toolbar or by pressing Ctrl-F1 or “g”. Now you original is to try to reproduce the can drag the gradient stops into gradients. Bear in mind when the correct positions. At this stage tracing bitmaps that SVG (and those garish colors can make it therefore Inkscape) supports only look like we've taken a step linear and radial gradients, so backwards. Because we started with a fairly some seemingly simple images and high resolution bitmap, the logos can be difficult to trace if With the difference only really shows up if they use other gradient types. gradient tool still you zoom in. active, click on Reproducing a gradient is one of the similar to reproducing a flat color: gradient stop we'll still use the dropper tool to handles in order copy the color from one part of our to select it (it should change to a Mark's Inkscape created webcomic, 'Monsters, Inked' is now available to drawing to another. The blue color). Now select the buy as a book from difference, however, is that instead dropper tool, and you can pick http://www.peppertop.com/shop/ of using it to set a single fill or colors from the drawing just as you
full circle magazine #76 23 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Ronnie Tucker WWrriittee FFoorr FFuullll CCiirrccllee MMaaggaazziinnee
GUIDELINES document. REVIEWS
he single rule for an article is • Images should be JPG, no wider than 800 pixels, and use low GAMES/APPLICATIONS T that it must somehow be linked to Ubuntu or one of the compression. When reviewing games/applications please state clearly: many derivatives of Ubuntu (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, etc). • Do not use tables or any type of • title of the game bold or italic formatting. • who makes the game • is it free, or a paid download? RULES • where to get it from (give download/homepage URL) If you are writing a review, • is it Linux native, or did you use Wine? • There is no word limit for articles, please follow these guidelines : • your marks out of five but be advised that long articles • a summary with positive and negative points may be split across several issues. When you are ready to submit • For advice, please refer to the HARDWARE your article please email it to: When reviewing hardware please state clearly: Official Full Circle Style Guide: [email protected] http://url.fullcirclemagazine.org/7 5d471 • make and model of the hardware TRANSLATIONS • what category would you put this hardware into? • Write your article in whichever • any glitches that you may have had while using the hardware? software you choose, I would If you would like to translate • easy to get the hardware working in Linux? recommend LibreOffice, but most Full Circle into your native • did you have to use Windows drivers? importantly - PLEASE SPELL AND language please send an email to • marks out of five GRAMMAR CHECK IT! [email protected] and • a summary with positive and negative points we will either put you in touch with • In your article, please indicate an existing team, or give you where you would like a particular access to the raw text to translate You don't need to be an expert to write an image to be placed by indicating from. With a completed PDF, you the image name in a new will be able to upload your file to article - write about the games, applications paragraph or by embedding the the main Full Circle site. and hardware that you use every day. image in the ODT (Open Office)
full circle magazine #76 24 contents ^ https://spideroak.com Get 25% off any SpiderOak package with the code: FullcirclemagFans
full circle magazine #76 25 contents ^ AASSKK TTHHEE NNEEWW GGUUYY Written by Copil Yáňez
If you have a simple question, force meets an immovable object, they mopped up all the drool. experimental no other phone has and Linux is confusing enough that or chocolate meets peanut butter, People were over the moon, like ever used one like it before. It you think “image file” refers to or something meets something Macguyver-TV-series-reboot- would give you access to an your cat-playing-piano photo, else, and I had no clue what they starring-Felicia-Day-as-Macguyver Ubuntu App Store. It would be contact me at were talking about, but it was very, excited. shiny. And, most revolutionary of [email protected]. very exciting. all, it would allow you to connect a The Ubuntu Edge turned out to keyboard and screen and run Today’s question is: Ubuntu fans went crazy. Would be a phone like no other. It would native, full-scale Ubuntu, bridging this be the release version of the dual-boot Ubuntu and Android. Its the gap between your mobile Q: I’ve been hearing a lot about Ubuntu Phone OS? Was a new screen would be made of moon phone and your desktop PC. the Ubuntu Edge. Is that Ubuntu tablet shipping? Was ABBA rock (or something equally exotic). something that can help me with getting back together? I need to The battery would be so I haven’t been this excited since my golf game? know! Pretty quickly someone I heard Disney bought Lucas Films. figured out the riddle, and the A: No, the Ubuntu Edge isn’t Ubuntu Edge, whatever that was, And then reality set in. Ubuntu something you get when you chug emerged as the best guess. We Edge wasn’t a phone. It wasn’t a can of Linux-fortified energy were all still in the dark, but at even a product. It was a concept. drink. It’s a non-existent device least we were huddled together in And it wasn’t something you could that may (or may not) see the light the dark, keeping each other get, it was something you had to of day, and could (or could not) company, reveling in our shared fund. And it wasn’t ready today, revolutionize computing in the love and speculating about what you’d get it in several months, mobile era, and might (or might the big reveal would look like. after it was built, stress-tested and not) give you enough geek street Kinda like pre-show in the mosh pit shipped. cred to land you a speaking role on at a Lady Gaga concert. The Big Bang Theory. Here’s what the Ubuntu Edge When The Ubuntu Edge itself really is: an Indiegogo crowd- Let’s back up. A few weeks ago, was finally revealed, people went funding campaign to raise the Canonical posted a teaser apeballs. The excitement caused money to build the device shown campaign to the Ubuntu temperatures to rise in nerd-heavy and spec’d here: homepage. It was all very coy, regions of the world. The http://www.indiegogo.com/project talking about the point at which a Akihabara district actually had to s/ubuntu-edge. There are different line meets space, or an irresistible shut down for a few days while funding categories, from the $20
full circle magazine #76 26 contents ^ ASK THE NEW GUY “Founder” level, which basically established landscape for support, probably the clearest pocketful of nerd crack and gives you bragging rights and tells crowdfunding campaigns. And it indicator that the Edge campaign vaporware. The idea of paying people you knew from the get-go was wildly successful at launch, was doing something right was the $695 for a dream alone might give that Ubuntu Edge was something breaking all sorts of records for confederacy of naysayers that someone pause. special, to the “Enterprise Bundle,” biggest single-day funding, fastest quickly rallied to kill the project. which, for $80,000, gets you 115 to US$1M, fasted to $2M, largest But I believe in the product and Ubuntu Edges (Edgii?) and VIP campaign, etc, etc. The funding I call them Harumphers. the campaign and would have access to developers and support. goal of US$32,000,000 was Harumphers exist in every gladly given at the “Ubunt Edge” ambitious to say the least, but community. They are hyper level where you get an actual The promise of an Ubuntu Edge crowdfunding campaigns are, by knowledgeable about the topic at phone (if I had that kind of scratch delivered to your door (once it’s their nature, ambitious efforts hand, incredibly intelligent, laying around). I contributed at the built and shipped) can be had for undertaken by dreamers. Canonical completely versed in best Founder Level and encourage US$695. clearly knew what they were doing. practices, and wholly committed to others to do so as well. Moreover, I killing your dreams. Their job is not believe the US$695 level is a Crowdfunding is the Medici-da Beyond the initial upswell in to support your enthusiasm and bargain. Vinci model updated for the encourage your excitement. Their modern era. Everything from job is to show how much they know Here’s why. novels and movies to watches and by telling you why you’re wrong. robots have been funded through First, the phone only gets made Indiegogo, Kickstarter and other I’m not talking about your if the whole US$32M gets funded. community funding sites. You post garden variety skeptic, good And if, once you receive your your idea, tell us why you think we people with honest doubts about phone, you decide you don’t like it, should give you money and, voila! untested products. These skeptics you can return it. That’s right, you You can go off and make those are the good soldiers, fighting to have 28 days to return the phone hipster bike shorts with the make bad ideas go away, good for a full refund. integrated wine bottle pocket! ideas better, and great ideas amazing. And here’s the thing, Second, US$695 isn’t that much. I’ve used these sites. I’ve skeptics have a lot of reason to I know, that sounds insane. I mean, supported artists and engineers focus their efforts on this that’s Scooge McDuck money. If I with more brains than coins and campaign. The Ubuntu Edge is a had that kind of money, I’d get it in helped them realize their dreams. technological marvel doing about ones and roll around in it naked. In the process, I’ve received ten things that have never been Heck, I’d do that with the money I products or experiences I couldn’t tried before. The critical path to its have now, but the quarters tend to get anywhere else. completion is a minefield of choke chaffe my butt. points, any one of which could The Edge follows a well- mean the difference between a In all seriousness, the US$695 is
full circle magazine #76 27 contents ^ ASK THE NEW GUY actually a reasonable price for your pocket? Yeah, we actually cloud? Tell them. If there are and putting it in your pocket. what you get: built one.” Boom. The Edge drops enough of you, it could just its mic and struts off the stage. happen. Imagine going to an auto By the time you read this, we • Bleeding edge battery tech with show, dropping a three-inch carney will know if the project met its 5x to 10x the capacity of current No, this is no ordinary phone roll of hundos tied with a rubber US$32M goal. If it does, I will be batteries that’s essentially one standard band and saying, “I’ll take that proud to have funded it in its • A sapphire crystal display that’s deviation away from everything Mercedes concept vehicle. And earliest stages. If it doesn’t, I look almost impossible to scratch and is else out there. This is so many here’s my list of must-haves for the forward to the next attempt by the same type of crystal they use standard deviations from the next version you build.” We’d have Canonical to push the limits and try on high end watches like Rolexes norm, it’s playing pick-up games flying cars in no time. something new. and Omegas. with Nate SIlver in the alley. It’s the • A completely unlocked phone phone Michael Schumacher would If this experiment in crowd- The Harumphers will always that runs Android so I can use it build if he was into phones instead funding a new mobile platform balk, and if the Indiegogo with my current service provider of cars. fails, it is possible the real message campaign fails, they’ll say, “I told (it’s also roughly the same cost as a of the thing got lost from concept you so.” full-price, unlocked, unsubsidized Not only is the device a test to consumer. This isn’t a phone, it’s phone from one of the carriers) bed, it gives the users who funded an idea. It’s a way of thinking about If it succeeds, they’ll be • Either a desktop PC that fits in it a voice in what they want next. technology you use every single annoyed at having to pay double my pocket or a pocket-sized phone Canonical has hinted that if the day and paying to have it for one on eBay because you know that runs my preferred desktop OS funding takes off, users could improved, not arithmetically by they’ll want one. When that influence the direction of future adding a sexy new background or a happens, I’ll refrain from saying I I think one of the most phones. Think your next phone must-have user interface, but told you so. interesting things about the phone should be Steam-enabled so you exponentially by taking the best that doesn’t seem to be getting a can play your games stored in the tech in as many areas as possible Good luck and happy lot of traction is that this isn’t like Ubuntuing! buying the newest HTC smartphone from Verizon. This is a device built for enthusiasts, by enthusiasts. It pushes the envelope to its ripping point, and challenges Copil is an Aztec name that roughly the other device makers to meet translates to “you need my heart for them on their turf. Can you what again?” His love of women’s imagine a phone that says, “hey, all shoes is chronicled at yaconfidential.blogspot.com. You that talk you guys have been can also watch him embarrass spewing about convergence and himself on Twitter (@copil). how your mobile phone is a PC in
full circle magazine #76 28 contents ^ LLIINNUUXX LLAABB Written by Charles McColm SSiimmppllee SSeeccuurriittyy CCaammeerraa
ne of the strength’s of UNIX- When we first ran motion, we We found that the default We created a motion.conf with O like operating systems has found it created hundreds of configuration file in the following options: webcam_motion on always been the fact that most images, so we ran motion with the /etc/motion/motion.conf still noise_level 255 tools can be used together with -s (setup) switch. Motion displayed created too many images. You can framerate 2 other tools. So when I was asked the following: override the default configuration how to set up a simple security [1] Changes: 0 - noise file by creating a file called The webcam_motion option can camera for Linux, I had to do a bit level: 18 be either on or off. By default, it’s [1] Changes: 1 - noise motion.conf in your home of thinking how someone without level: 18 directory (note that this is not a off – because the default a lot of experience might do this. [1] Changes: 0 - noise .dotfile). If you don’t like webcam_maxrate is normally set level: 18 ZoneMinder is an amazing motion.conf sitting in your home to 1 frame per second. If application, but it seemed like webcam_maxrate is set higher, Use Ctrl+C to interrupt motion. folder, you can always call it overkill for this particular situation webcam_motion limits any capture Running motion with the -s switch something else and use the -c which needed only a single camera to 1 frame per second if no creates a series of image changes, (configuration file switch) to point pointed at a door. movement is detected. We found so motion can gauge what is to the configuration file. that turning it on seemed to scenery and what is noise. One thing we considered was reduce the amount of images the possibility of the storing captured. The default noise_level computer being taken or in /etc/motion/motion.conf is 32, destroyed. We needed a solution we set this higher (255) so the that would take pictures only when webcam wouldn’t be triggered so there was movement. We also much by light changes. wanted to synchronize the pictures with a cloud service. When I walked into the frame, walked up to the camera, and We decided on Dropbox over walked away, motion took 254 Ubuntu One because we needed a images. It might seem like a lot to client that also ran on our synchronize, but at 8k-10k an Blackberry cellphones. After some image Dropbox synchronized the struggling with different video images quickly. capture clients, we got the closest to what we wanted to do with the For the Dropbox setup, we first command-line program ‘motion’. visited dropbox.com and created
full circle magazine #76 29 contents ^ LINUX LAB
then walked in front as a test. motion and Dropbox gave us a Motion captured images and quick solution where we didn’t Dropbox started pulling down the have to do a lot of setup and could an account. In my case I already Dropbox will download a file Motion data we’d captured right access our security camera from had an account and I needed to and install nautilus support. You away. pretty much anywhere we went. click on More in the bottom left of should notice a small dropbox icon the screen to open a menu with on your panel. During the install, The Dropbox software need not the Install option. Clicking Install you’ll be asked several questions be installed on a computer in order took me to a page where I could including where you want the to view the dropbox data. By download either the 32-bit or 64- Dropbox folder to be, we left it as simply logging in to the Dropbox bit version of the dropbox the default in the root of our home website, we were able to view all command-line tool. I’m running folder. We also created a folder of the photographs caught by Charles McColm is the author of Linux Mint at the moment and the called Motion in ~/Dropbox, so we motion. Instant XBMC, a short book on Ubuntu 32-bit .deb file installed ended up with a folder called installing and configuring fine. ~/Dropbox/Motion. XBMCbuntu, a *buntu+XBMC The flexibility of running distribution. Charles is the project Dropbox either on a PC or on our manager of a not-for-profit After installing the dropbox you We then installed the Dropbox Blackberries covered us whether computer reuse project. When not need to install the rest of dropbox app on our Blackberries. Motion we were near a computer or building PCs, removing malware, by running: stores images wherever it’s run encouraging people to use Linux, elsewhere. Of course there are and hosting local Ubuntu hours, from, provided that its directory is much more sophisticated solutions Charles blogs at dropbox start -i writeable. We ran motion in our like Zoneminder, but combining http://www.charlesmccolm.com/. ~/Dropbox/Motion directory, and
full circle magazine #76 30 contents ^ MMYY SSTTOORRYY Written by Amichai Rotman
stumbled upon the Free another copy would have delayed Software world—and never looked computer illiterate people to I Software world entirely by me another day or two). I installed back! understand, once you spend a few accident. It was around 1999. I was it alongside my Windows 98 and minutes to explain the basic use. living with roommates and one of tried to see if everything The first Ubuntu I installed was They are so used to work with them started a Software worked—and it did! (well, except version 5.04 (back in 2005). I read badly designed User Interfaces, it Development course at his college. my modem, which was a up a lot about it in the Linux news takes them a few minutes to I had Windows 98 installed on my WinModem. But that was easily sites. I had grown tired of KDE at understand how Ubuntu / Unity is PC and an analogue TV Capture fixed after searching the Internet the time and wanted to try simpler... card that refused to work at full using AltaVista Search in pre- something new. I have stuck with screen, even with all drivers Google days). Ubuntu since then. I have tried a I have since moved a few of my updated and reinstalled! LiveCD version of Fedora now and friends, family members and even I started my journey with then, but none of them were as one of my customers, to One day, I saw my roommate computers at the age of 13 back in usable and stable as Ubuntu. I also Ubuntu—and they are a lot happier playing around with a brand new the mid 80’s with a Commodore 64. like the fact that all new with their computer than they system on his computer: Red Hat I used it mostly for gaming, of applications come out with Ubuntu were before the move. Linux. He used the command-line a course, but I even tried to program clients first (eg. Steam by Valve), lot, typing on a black-and-green a bit in BASIC with it. I then moved the way it's set up out of the box terminal—but still, I was to the PC world using DOS 1.0, and with the most popular applications mesmerized. It seemed very easy all through Window 3.1, Windows in each category, and the fact the to use, and he claimed all worked 95 (I even touched Windows primary user has to use the “sudo” out of the box. No drivers Millennium Edition for a bit!), so I command and is not allowed to log necessary. I asked if I could try it was no stranger to the command- in as the root user by default. I on my own PC. He then revealed to line. I always liked to see how think this strategy saves a lot of me that it is free and no license key things worked under the hood, so I grief from inexperienced users. is needed—that last bit made the felt right at home with my new Another thing I love about Ubuntu, sale—no more tinkering endlessly Linux-based machine. After two although controversial, is the Unity just to get my PC to work without weeks, during which I made sure interface. It takes some time to get everything worked, even my TV used to, especially for experienced Amichai started his computer days crashing every 5-10 minutes.... with a C64. Today he is a computer Capture card worked better in Linux users, but once you get used service and solutions provider. He He burned me a copy of the CD Linux, I backed up my files, to it, it is a cinch to use and specializes in Free and Open Source (those were the 14.4Kbps dial-up formatted my entire hard drive, prevents clutter on the desktop. solutions for the home and small business sectors in his home town. modem days, so downloading and made the move to the Free From my experience, it is easier for
full circle magazine #76 31 contents ^ MMYY OOPPIINNIIOONN Written by Robin Catling
he affair that began with the mouse and type something environment you want to play in. trying to nail the lid on it, those T Dapper Drake in 2007 is over. every five seconds. I certainly don't I'd rather keep my shopping and cutting edges keep drawing blood. The big switch-over is complete. I want an icon-heavy interface that my OS separate, thank you very no longer have a machine running is easier to use if you learn an much. By the way, where is my Ubuntu Ubuntu. Everything is now running entire sheet of keyboard shortcuts. TV? Debian 7 Wheezy. In fact, the interface introduced in The convergence of desktop, TV 11.04 was a major stumbling block and phone interfaces doesn't cut it It seems the Ubuntu stack has The disillusion has been a while I never got over. The global menu for me either; it may make sense to been a touch unstable since 11.04 - brewing, but the truth became wasn't where I wanted it, have a common code maybe it's all that work on Unity apparent early this year: Ubuntu as disappearing and base, common tools, and notifications, ripping out a distro no longer has anything I reappearing like an common use cases, Gnome components and adding need. Apple-Mac parody but it seems that Canonical's own code, but the net of Marley's ghost; what we're heading result has been a continual stream I can't say it's been any one the notifications for is a 'one size fits of program crashes these last four thing. Lord knows (although I am don't quite behave none' approach releases, just when the reliability an atheist - I don't believe in Mark as I like. where common record for a mature operating the Apostle) I tried to love Unity; I sense is pushed system should have been on the really did. The neat idea that The HUD (Head behind the fanfare up. I kept expecting each release began in Ubuntu Netbook remix as Up Display) never and the marketing to get more stable but 12.04 and a cool small-screen interface just really cut it for me, videos – a bit like the 12.10 maintained the procession of never matured in the way I wanted. sitting atop Unity. ginger kid in the school apport crash notifications, and I Unity kept getting in the way. Adding lenses to photos. won't even mention 13.04. Unity kept making me type stuff. Unity’s dash, especially Unity was never as configurable as one that automatically searched To be fair, Canonical is moving I can tell you in my first month, I wanted. It wasn't finished or Amazon for products to buy each at a rapid rate; new products, new on three laptops of different age, ready back then and now the quick time you try to open a program - markets, new technologies; there manufacture and processors, menus and live icons have arrived that didn't help. Particularly when is a drive to innovate and take Debian hasn't crashed. too late for me. disabling ‘Include online search Linux places; just not any of the results’ by default was verboten; places I want to go. It's bold and There are things I am going to I may be old-school, but I Ubuntu has to make money now, it's often cutting edge - but as miss. Cloud storage service Ubuntu believe that a graphical user earn its upkeep. There's nothing someone who was involved in One: horribly buggy and breakable interface doesn't make you leave wrong with that, if that's the testing in Ubuntu-QA for a while, at launch, yet within three months,
full circle magazine #76 32 contents ^ MY OPINION rock solid and an essential part of Ubuntu. China and software now, I'm no novice, I can take that my backup regime. You can get freedom are irreconcilable at pain. There's an active community Ubuntu One for Mac and Windows present, no matter how you try to behind Debian and the answers now. But any other Linux? That's dress it up and keep singing your can be found. Full Circle Podcast hard. And I dislike the lock-in. And own song. Episode 34, the up-sell. And the cross-sell. I am still happy to use Linux, but So I said stop the bus, I want to I am exercising my freedom of Raspberry Then we come to the recent get off. choice. I don't need to be riding Jamboree 2013 controversies; I've written about anyone's bandwagon along those on my blog I thought about the officially someone else's highway. Your hosts: (http://catlingmindswipe.blogspot. recognized variants; I almost went • Les Pounder co.uk/2013/05/opinion-respect-in- to Linux Mint. Then I considered • Tony Hughes community.html), so I won't go into the dependency on the down- • Jon Chamberlain the whole downgrading of stream derivatives of Ubuntu, • Oliver Clark community input, or the secret itself a down-stream derivative of and Freaky Clown development of the Mir graphics Debian, and none of those made stack in place of Wayland. All I will sufficient sense. Why not go back from the Blackpool (UK) LUG say is there are ways of doing upstream to where the community http://blackpool.lug.org.uk things and communicating with work happens? people. There is such a thing as Welcome to the first of a 2 expectation management. You I admit Debian isn't perfect. part conference special, in can't blame the community for Gnome-3 (Gnome-Shell) remains a this episode the presenters kicking off when Canonical tells hideous, unusable abomination, reflect on the first ever everyone for eight years that this but you know what, it took about Raspberry Jamboree held at is a Community Distro, that three minutes to revert to a simple the Manchester Central everyone counts, the Circle of set of Gnome-2 panels and menus. Conference Centre on 9th Friends is your emblem, and I can point, click, and customise as March 2013 Ubuntu belongs to everyone: until much as I want. I am a simple soul, I this year we found it doesn't. need a simple interface.
That too is all fine: since we're It's also true that Debian isn't as not paying the piper, we don't get GUI as Ubuntu, or KDE, or Mint, to call the tune. Whose tune is it and yes, I have to dive into a anyway? Let's just say I'm less than terminal session to get things done happy since Canonical cut a deal a little more often than under with the Chinese state to deploy those others. But I know enough
full circle magazine #76 33 contents ^ BBOOOOKK RREEVVIIEEWW Written by Ronnie Tucker BBlleennddeerr MMaasstteerr CCllaassss
hroughout the book you’ll be and bits to your ‘bot, and eyes, creepy. T shown Blender via three fangs and nails to your creature. projects; a bat creature, a spider Chapter 14 gets you the final robot and a jungle ruins scene. Chapter 6 shows you how to use rendered image. Either in one pass, These will teach you various the sculpting mode of Blender. This or with various renders composited Blender features such as modelling is somewhat similar to what you’d to a single image. (robot parts, anatomy and bricks), see in Windows applications such texturing, and effects such as hair as zSculpt. While this book is about and water. Blender, it’s also partly a generic Retopology (Chapter 7) went modelling book as it doesn’t teach The book, unusually, begins with right over my head. Apparently it’s you Blender in a click-this-click-that an introduction to GIMP of all ‘the process ofcreating new kind of way. You’ll need a different things. But, since you’ll spend a fair geometry overan existing mesh book (or our FCM Blender HowTo’s) bit of time creating textures in while maintaining the object’s basic for that. The book does show you GIMP, this is no bad thing. shape andrebuilding its topology’. where the basic Blender functions/buttons are, but nothing Blender Master Class - A I’ll take your word for it. in depth. Hands-On Guide to Modeling, Chapter 3, Preparation, gives Sculpting, Materials, and you some basic Blender info and Chapter 8 is where you unwrap The book may seem quite pricy, Rendering starts your collection of source your model to begin texturing. but bear in mind that it is full by Ben Simonds material for the bat creature and Chapter 9 has you to adding hair to the jungle scene. Chapter 4 is your bat beast. Chapter 10 gets you colour throughout, and, in both February 2013, 288 pp., w/ DVD where you get your hands dirty and into texturing, 11 covers painting price brackets, you’re getting a ISBN: 978-1-59327-477-1 begin extruding vertices, edges the texture in GIMP, and 12 deals PDF/mobile edition while the print Full Color and faces. It may seem like a really with the creation of materials (in edition has a DVD. $49.95 Print Book and FREE Ebook simplistic tool, but it’s hugely Blender). $39.95 Ebook (PDF, Mobi, and ePub) powerful when combined with a If you need a book to hold your smooth shading mode. No matter how much detail is in hand and teach you to model and http://nostarch.com/blenderm your model, it’s useless without texture, this is not it. If you know asterclass.htm Now that you have the basic lighting – and that’s Chapter 13. the basics of Blender, and want to jagged model, Chapter 5 will show Getting the right lighting is how move up to the next level with you how to add details such as you make your model/scene seem modelling or texturing, then this is foliage to your jungle ruin, wires bright and cheery, or dark and definitely what you want.
full circle magazine #76 34 contents ^ RREEVVIIEEWW Written by Art Schreckengost GGooooggllee DDrriivvee//DDooccss
s best as I can decipher, Drive remember the following: Following the protocol gets you That’s your menu. Get used to it A is the cloud based file storage this: as you’ll be using it a lot. And what system that hosts Docs, Sheets and • Chrome is not only the of the rest? Well, as you’ll find out Slides, the three basic apps that recommended browser, it’s the as you read on, Google believes in comprise the Google Office suite, only one that’ll work with certain simplicity, so the Create button is which is given the generic title of functions such as offline editing. your ally here, as it does most of Google Docs. Technically, when This means if you’re a diehard fan the grunt work. you create a doc in Docs, it’s also in of some other browser, some Drive. functions just won’t be included. As for the individual apps (they are not called programs), you get While that may seem a little • Docs, Sheets and Slides are the the following: confusing, installation definitely standards, but over 100 apps are in isn’t—there is none. Go to the Google Web Store ranging https://drive.google.com and if you from advanced processors to music have a Gmail address you merely players (an odd choice for an office sign up. If not, get an address and suite). then sign up. Doing so gets you a free 5GB storage space for life • Files are saved to Google Drive or with fee-based options going up to Chrome’s cache (for offline somewhere around 1TB. Got a new editing—more on that later), so an Chromebook or Chromebox? You internet connection at some point get 100GB for 2 years on select is imperative—even if most of your models. work is offline. If your idea of web surfing is to hover around the local Otherwise, the only motel once a month or so to swipe requirements consist of having a their signal, you really should be computer, tablet or smartphone, looking elsewhere. In addition, some form of internet files are given a https secured web connectivity, and the Chrome[*] address, so, if you are using a browser. shared signal, make sure it allows the accessing of secured sites. Sounds great? Well, it is, but
full circle magazine #76 35 contents ^ REVIEW - GOOGLE DRIVE/DOCS So what do they look like? Take your files via Gmail, Google+, a gander right. (Top to bottom:) Facebook or Twitter. Docs, the word processor. Gee, ain’t it exciting? Sheets for Of note, I went full-screen for spreadsheets. Generic but the screenshots which explains the functional. Slides, with color! absence of any browser borders.
No, you haven’t gone colorblind OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY and I haven’t gone cheap on black- and-white photos—these are your As you’ve probably figured by color schemes with the first two now, these are lightweights being devoid of anything but compared to commercial versions. murky shades of gray, black and However, you are getting them for white. Unfortunately, that’s the 100% less than those other price of admission for products options (excepting LibreOffice). that use online sourcing—you pretty much have to take what’s As with anything free, there are offered and lump it otherwise. peccadilloes and oddities to be Only Slides comes with any sense aware of. of color in the base format, and that’s only if you set the slides First, most reviews state any of themselves to have color. these can handle MS and Open- Otherwise it’s the same blasé Document files, but is this true? format as everything else. Sort of, but you have to Can you jazz them up a bit with understand the multi-step options? Not really, since this is an procedure (and these do apply to online-only proposition. You can other non-Google formats, too): perk up the Chrome browser a bit but not Google Docs or Drive. 1. Upload your file(s) to Google Drive. Anything is accepted for And what of that blue button in Drive storage but remember that the upper right corner? That’s the doesn’t necessary mean it’ll open Share option in anything put on in Docs. MS and LibreOffice Drive. Clicking it opens a box of formats are welcome to the party options allowing for the sharing of
full circle magazine #76 36 contents ^ REVIEW - GOOGLE DRIVE/DOCS but you can forget Wordperfect download the file off Google Drive between suites. Anybody to offline mode when my signal files (they never did open for me). in various formats including .docx, transferred files back and forth was too weak. Most of the generic offerings (.txt, .pptx, .odt, .rtf, .txt, .html, .pdf and between MS Office programs and .rtf, etc) can also be opened and zipped, or you can publish to the the LibreOffice equivalents can OFFLINE EDITING edited. PDF files can be uploaded web. Naturally you can also opt to testify to this. but not edited unless options are keep it right on Drive if you so And what of offline editing, a added. desire. Second, you must get function that’s highly touted by accustomed to a certain change in Google? It works but only if you 2. Ask Drive to open the file and * Hold your horses there, partner. procedures. know the procedure. while that sounds simple enough, Let me clarify that point. You can Unfortunately, it’s not it can get sticky. Docs handles just save Google formats to Drive and For example, in most suites you automatically set and must be its .gdoc, .gsheet and .gslides so you can import nearly any other open the corresponding program requested via the main menu. anything coming in with a different format to Drive, but you can’t save and then pick a template. In Docs Once established, it applies to all format has to be converted to the anything Drive outside of .g and Sheets you pick the template files created in Docs, but I have appropriate .g suffix. While this is formats; however, there is a and it opens the corresponding seen users give up on Docs done automatically it does have a curious twist. If you download a app (Slides has templates its menu because offline editing is missing quirk or two: file in .odt you can turn right system). only to later discover it failed * Formats are limited with Docs around and send it back to Drive in because they forgot to initiate the having just 16 fonts. If you have a that format. Go figure! And if you want to see a real process (hint to Google—make it foreign document in a font not case of hyperactivity, take a automatic). offered by Docs, you’re flat out of * Here’s an example. I did this gander at the autosave function in luck. It’ll attempt a conversion and review in Docs, downloaded it as any of the apps. As soon as typing Additionally, offline files are may actually succeed (after quite a .odt, and then discovered a few commences so does autosave. No stored in Chrome’s cache. Take a while, I might add), but your errors. Upon re-uploading the file waiting for a couple hundred hint from me and don’t get original fonts will be gone and back to Drive, it converted it again characters—as soon as you stop overzealous with the cache you’ll get Google’s equivalent and now I had multiple files. typing or have a pause for cleaning, especially if you don’t (which, as I discovered, is not even Fortunately, Drive comes with a punctuation or a brain spasm, it’s plan to go online before using remotely close). time and date stamp for each file. saving. offline editing again. Cleaning the * Have watermarks? Not an option cache also wipes out the offline in Docs (at least not easily), and These problems also crop up in Otherwise, it’s business as usual files (don’t worry—they aren’t having these in your original Sheets and Presentations, too. Use although your internet connection deleted except from cache). document is a guaranteed failure of options in your original files not determines just how well it works. during the conversion, as I available in Google Docs is a If you have a slow connection, you Of note, there are some reviews discovered. guaranteed snafu, but, to be fair, will notice a certain lagginess. A that state just Docs and Slides that has always been a problem couple times I found it quicker to worked offline; however, it 3. Once editing is finished, you can with switching files back and forth just shut down my wireless and go
full circle magazine #76 37 contents ^ REVIEW - GOOGLE DRIVE/DOCS appears Sheets is in the mix now, find it lacking, as will certain Okay, so it is a little quirky, too. professionals. However, the carries limited menu options and DISCLAIMER: average person will probably find has all the artistic appeal of badly Users must also realize that it quite useful, especially those worn asphalt, but has anybody All of the editing for Full Circle offline means you’ll have to go doing work on a wide variety of ever really noticed that many Magazine is done in Google Docs. online in the near future so Drive portable devices. Several times I’ve suites today have become so Free, online, collaborative text can auto-save the changes (it’s found myself on a tablet and come complex it’s like learning a new editing is the answer to an editor’s done seamlessly to the point you’ll up with a brainstorm. Docs allows language? Maybe less is better in prayer. -- GordCampbell never notice). If for some reason me to just visit the site and make this case, just realize your your cache gets wiped before notes or start a new file without limitations and work with them. Amen! -- Ronnie going online again, your changes having to fire up the laptop (which are goners. may not even be close at hand).
FINAL ANALYSIS
So what keeps me coming back even with a boatload of restrictions and some odd twists?
It’s basic, it’s free and it works on nearly any computer, tablet or smartphone out there. Just try that with most office suites. While MS, Corel and even OpenOffice/LibreOffice are making strides in cloud suites, they haven’t quite hit the mark yet, or, in the case of the first two, are just too expensive for the average person.
Does it fit the bill for everybody? Absolutely not. I imagine students doing complex documents and spreadsheets will
full circle magazine #76 38 contents ^ SSOOFFTTWWAARREE SSHHOOWWDDOOWWNN Written by Tushar Bhargava SSmmiillee PPlleeaassee
lmost all Linux distros come transfer loyalties? This article will experience. One place we both answered, “I'dguess because the A with preloaded software for help you to decide. agreedthat the experience was worldneededa betterphoto managing your photos. Most users lacking was in the area ofphoto management app.” management, so we startedworking stick with these defaults. Hence, GENESIS on Shotwell. the struggle for being the de facto ” USER INTERFACE photo organizer is an important For this review, I contacted Jim and defining one. If you use a Nelson, executive director of F-Spot, meanwhile, probably F-Spot has a 2-column user GNOME distro, you must have Yorba, the software group that came into existence circa 2003. interface (UI). The first column has stumbled across either F-Spot or created Shotwell. I asked him why However, some contributors were a drop-down menu that allows it to Shotwell – two very popular photo and when Shotwell was created. doubtful whether much code be used for browsing photos organizers. Shotwell is the Mr. Nelson said, “Shotwell was existed at that point, noting that tagged in a certain way, in a standard photo manager in Ubuntu startedin March of2009. Adam Mono itself came into being in particular folder, or for showing and Fedora, while F-Spot remains Dingle was the executive directorof 2004 (F-Spot is a Mono the options to edit a photo. The the default in openSUSE. Is it Yorba at that time, I was its only application). To the question, why second column, which occupies worth sticking to your default employee. Adam's (andYorba's) goal F-Spot was created, Adam Tauno most of the space, displays the photo organizer, or do you need to is to improve the GNOME Desktop Williams, an F-Spot developer, photos as square tiles. A time-line
full circle magazine #76 39 contents ^ SOFTWARE SHOWDOWN bar on the top, equipped with a albums even more. Also, you can but other than that, the process photos in a single click. The import slider, makes sorting your photos merge events. It's a great way to was quick and efficient. However, options in Shotwell make an by month or year extremely easy browse through all your photos, when I tried importing photos otherwise painfully tedious and intuitive. The size of the and is aesthetically pleasing as from an SD card later, F-Spot process bearable. thumbnails can be adjusted using a well. You can seemed slide – this feature is very also activate reluctant, SEARCHING convenient and shows the the search bar almost developers' understanding that in the UI, which xenophobic, Imagine the following scenario: one size does not fit all. The theme is unobtrusive about you want to find that great photo can be adjusted in the and useful. accepting any someone took of you long ago. You 'Preferences' dialog. You can However, new photos. In fire up your photo organizer and choose from a plethora of options theme the end I was then abruptly stop. A horrible ranging from the ubiquitous customization forced to realization just dawns on you: you 'Ambiance' to the lesser known options are cancel the don't know the name of the photo 'New Wave'. missing. unresponsive and are hazy about the year in import window which it was taken. Lost in a sea of Shotwell also has a 2-column UI. IMPORT and turn to cryptically named photos, you turn The first column shows the entire Shotwell. OPTIONS to the search bar. The scenario I photo directory, which includes the just described is not as uncommon Library, Events, all the tags, and a Shotwell's I remember my parents lugging as it may seem for photos are trash folder. The next column desire to get your photos borders often arbitrarily named and finding shows the thumbnails of the around heavy photo albums when on almost stalkerish. It can, of we shifted house, setting up a new the one you want can be a photos. Like F-Spot, there is a course, follow the normal route to particularly tricky task. slider to adjust the size of the photo manager can sometimes be get photos – you specify the folder thumbnails. In lieu of the time-line just as tiresome. That is where the and it will obtain the photos. But it 'Import' option comes in. A photo F-Spot has some great search bar of F-Spot, Shotwell offers an is not adverse to a bit of blatant options under 'Find' in the menu alternative: Events. Choosing this manager’s ability to retrieve stealing as well. Click on the option photos from a folder, SD card or bar (elementary, my dear Watson). option from the first column 'Import from F-Spot' and Shotwell You can drag multiple tags into the changes the display in the second even another program's library, is will grab your photos from its rival of tantamount importance. 'Find bar' to locate your image. column to a series of square (well F-Spot's photo database However, more useful is the find almost square, the corners are (audacious indeed). The feature 'By Date' option which allows you rounded) tiles. Each tile represents While setting up F-Spot, makes migration undeniably easier, importing the photos was easy. to specify a time range within a collection of photos and videos though. Insert an SD card and which to search. You can search by organized by the date they were You just had to dissuade F-Spot Shotwell will quickly ferret out the from creating duplicates of every rating, and even look through the taken. You can rename the events, pictures from there as well, import rolls to find your missing which makes the tiles resemble photo it imported in its own folder, allowing you to import all the
full circle magazine #76 40 contents ^ SOFTWARE SHOWDOWN photo. The only criticism I have is program today simply has to the 'Enhance' button. Clicking this to Flickr or Picasa Web as well as of F-Spot's tendency to suddenly offer some basic editing wand-shaped button Facebook. F-Spot provides an disappear. This whimsical options. magically transforms option to create a Photo CD, which disposition renders your your photo, almost is also handy. painstaking search useless, and is a Choosing 'Edit' always for the glitch that needs to be resolved. from the drop- better. This simple CONCLUSION Further, F-Spot's Houdini act can down menu in option will be occur during any task, not just the first column appreciated by Both of the photo managers while searching, which is extremely of F-Spot reveals most users. And offer great functionality, and have annoying to say the least. the following lastly, Shotwell is a simple UI and a robust tagging options: Crop, Red well aware of its system. However, Shotwell is the Shotwell also has a decent array Eye reduction, own limitations, right clear winner for me. Its UI is a bit of search features. The search bar Desaturate, Sepia tone, clicking on the photo more beautiful, its search slightly allows you to filter your results Straighten, Soft focus, Auto gives you the option to edit more powerful, and its exporting using rating, tags, the format, and colour, and Adjust colours. This the photo in a more fully-fledged options more comprehensive. F- whether the photo/video is arsenal of tools, while allowing photo editor such as the wonderful Spot is still a wonderful photo flagged or not. Choosing 'New users to fine-tune their picture to GIMP. organizer with an intuitive time- Search' under the 'Edit' entry in the perfection, may also overwhelm line bar, and will perhaps be better menu bar opens up an advanced some less-experienced users. The EXPORT OPTIONS appreciated by those who want search dialog. This option is sidebar also shows the histogram more photo-editing options. extremely powerful and, if you're for the image, and a drop-down At last, we're nearing the patient, you will eventually menu which allows users to restore journey's end. After importing the HOWEVER.. unearth your photo. Shotwell's the original image. The knowledge photos from the camera and search may not be as convenient as that the original would be safe editing them, we're ready for the F-Spot's, but it is certainly more made me much more comfortable If you think both of the options final step. Which is? Why, putting I mentioned were inadequate, wait comprehensive. while experimenting, and is, in my them online for the whole world opinion, one of the best features for the next issue of FCM where I (or at least a part of it) to see, of review yet another FOSS photo PHOTO EDITING of F-Spot. F-Spot also allows users course. to open the image using the image management app - digiKam. digiKam was hailed by Lifehacker Sepia. Red eye reduction. Crop. viewer, browser, or an external F-Spot allows you to export photo editor. as the best photo management Words that would have been your images to Flickr, Picasa Web software for Linux, it might just be meaningless to most people a few and a few other sites. The ability to what you’re looking for. years ago, are now a part of the Shotwell allows you to crop the upload images to Facebook, lexicon of anyone who owns a image, remove Red Eye, adjust however, is sorely lacking. Shotwell smartphone. A photo management exposure, tint and saturation. allows you to publish your photos EPILOGUE - SMILE PLEASE However, its standout feature is
full circle magazine #76 41 contents ^ SOFTWARE SHOWDOWN
One last thing. While Shotwell (bottom right) interviewing Mr. Nelson, I asked him whether he regarded F-Spot as a competitor. His reply gave me much food for thought. After clarifying that he did not want to The Good ‘bury’ F-Spot, he said, “Ifpeople are Beautiful UI especially in 'Events' using FOSS ofany variety, that's a mode success!” Now isn’t that reason One click 'Enhance' picture option enough to smile? Quick and efficient import feature Great export options
SUMMARY The Bad Search bar is often not sufficient, F-Spot (top right) you have to open advanced search
Website: http://www.yorba.org/projects/sh otwell/ The Good Simple and intuitive UI with a Available for: Linux only convenient time-line bar Comprehensive photo editing The Winner of this Software options Showdown is: Great tagging system Easy and powerful search options Shotwell!
The Bad Crashes often without any warning Lack of Facebook export feature Tushar is a 17-year-old Indian who Website: http://f- loves Ubuntu/FOSS. He programs in Java and C++, enjoys writing and, spot.org/Main_Page recently, making Android apps. If you enjoyed this article, his blog is at Available for: Linux only tusharbhargava.wordpress.com for more articles.
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full circle magazine #76 43 contents ^ full circle magazine #76 44 contents ^ If you have Ubuntu-related questions, email them to: Q&A [email protected], and Gord will answer them in a future Q&A Please include as much information as you can about your problem. Compiled by Gord Campbell issue.
Q In some programs there are Ubuntu Forums) Follow this Ubuntu Software Center, so I can (Thanks to LHammonds) See: buttons I can't press at the tutorial: install it on Linux Mint? A http://www.hammondslegacy. bottom of the window, because com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=40&t= they are below the bottom of the https://sites.google.com/site/easyl Install VirtualBox with the 197 screen, and I can't move the inuxtipsproject/clean A Extension Pack, install Ubuntu window up any further than the 12.04 in VirtualBox, download the top of the screen. Also run these commands: programs you have paid for, copy I'm looking for a dedicated the .deb files to a flash drive, Q sudo update-grub serial port terminal Hold down the Alt key and install in Mint. Watch out for application. A you can move the window up, sudo apt-get autoremove dependencies: someprogram.deb then adjust the height of the might require thislib.deb, Minicom is a clone of Telix, window and move it back down. And read this Community Help thatlib.deb, A the popular MS-DOS terminal lesson: awholebunchoflibs.deb. program. Putty is another https://help.ubuntu.com/communi possibility. Q I have used this command ty/RecoverLostDiskSpace before, but today it gave this Q Can anyone recommend a result: sudo: ./waltop.sh: command screen-capture and video Then, when I run the terminal not found How can I Hibernate in tutorial creation tool? Q program and choose a port, Q Xubuntu 12.04 LTS? I'm told "Permission denied". Use this command: For screen capture, A (Thanks to 2F4U in the A "recordmydesktop" is the ls -l /dev/ttyUSB0 A Ubuntu Forums) Hibernation most popular program. For video locate waltop.sh A has been deactivated in Ubuntu editing, I like Cinelerra, but it has a shows: crw-rw---T 1 root dialout significant learning curve, and may Then cd to its location. 12.04. If you want to reactivate, 188, 0 Feb 12 12:01 /dev/ttyUSB0 follow the official guide: be much more than what you need. "Cinelerra for Grandma" is the best I'm getting low disk space https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/ub So I run this command: site for learning about it. Q messages and understand untu-help/power-hibernate.html sudo adduser
full circle magazine #76 45 contents ^ Q & A
I tried to download source http://goo.gl/3U217K http://goo.gl/PO70jI http://goo.gl/NNxpoj Q code for FCM's Python series, but the web site is about * Uninstall Ubuntu and bring back * Chromebook: Map Search Key to * Is there an easier or more healthcare, not programming. Windows 7 ctrl, ubuntu 'correct' way to open gedit as root? http://goo.gl/gPxrZo http://goo.gl/Ps6uOm http://goo.gl/acAXns Greg's site is a .net, not a .com. * Cannot connect to wireless or * Touchscreen worked on "try * Install 32-bit version of Oracle A wired network using Ubuntu 12.04 without install" and now does not JDK 7 on a 64-bit Ubuntu? or 13.04 http://goo.gl/TRFwmK http://goo.gl/rQTGgq I have a Dell Latitude D610 http://goo.gl/jNqoWp Q laptop running Xubuntu * Unable to connect Galaxy Nexus * Can I simulate a button press on 12.04.2 LTS Precise Pangolin. I am * How do I configure CUPS and to Ubuntu 12.04 through gMTP a web page from terminal having some trouble figuring out change SAMBA setting for no http://goo.gl/qhbcL5 http://goo.gl/mmBLiv how to manually speed up my fan. printers? http://goo.gl/UtzfSF * Linux power management issues * Black Screen after boot menu (Thanks to Toz in the Ubuntu http://goo.gl/ubJf6T Ubuntu 12 & 13? A Forums) Have a look at this * Find directories with lots of files http://goo.gl/cBOELl web site: in * Confused over which method to http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/contr http://goo.gl/ygaQSt use to install? * Screen Brightness not adjustable olling-dell-fan-speeds- http://goo.gl/Mirx4l for Acer Aspire S3 temperature-on-ubuntu-debian- * How can I remove python 2.7 http://goo.gl/69IH4X linux/ after installing python 3.3? * What is the command to http://goo.gl/ot4fow minimize a terminal? * how can use lpc command with http://goo.gl/SXTpos cups 1.4.3 in ubuntu 10.04? * How can I tell if all the hardware http://goo.gl/kgl4rR THE TOP AND MOST ACTIVE in my system has correctly installed * I can't use the terminal while QUESTIONS ON ASKUBUNTU drivers? gedit command is running * Why do I need to type `./` before http://goo.gl/l68oDc http://goo.gl/u4kUbk executing a program in the current * Ubuntu 13.04 clean install over directory? other ubuntu 13.04 * How to Install and Configure * What is Canonical's LTS support http://goo.gl/6E4pZw http://goo.gl/hgJW3U Wine policy for EOL software? http://goo.gl/i1lDIz http://goo.gl/0z9qb0 * What programming languages * Kernel panic - not syncing: no init should I learn to become an found. Try passing init=option to * Can I use Ubuntu to diagnose * I downloaded an EPUB file, how Ubuntu developer? kernel hard drive or RAM problems in can I get it from Ubuntu to my http://goo.gl/u7ymM1 Windows? IPad?
full circle magazine #76 46 contents ^ Q & A * Do you want to continue[Y/n]? I have fooled around with moving a window pushed the CPU. Startx work failed. It produced a Why the upper case? Xubuntu on my main desktop PC, It used about twice as much screen of output and announced http://goo.gl/sLiLua so I figured it was time to have a memory as Lubuntu (or that X had closed normally. Brrr. look at the latest Lubuntu, 32-bit Crunchbang), but I could open a 50- * Ambiguity using "ls -l" and "file" 13.04. Once I installed Gedit and page PDF and a couple of tabs in Only one more option, the one I commands on a file Nemo, I found it usable. It got high Chrome, and still stay below 400 skipped over initially: Xubuntu. It http://goo.gl/EuY9gl marks for its low memory usage MB of memory. also had problems, but I finally and good overall performance. realized that all the problems * Prevent PC from shutting down There were a couple of problems, Banshee crashed; I assume it happened in the first five minutes on Power button which I later ascribed to the uses the SSE2 instructions (like after pushing the power button. http://goo.gl/fdCTDh hardware, but it was enough to Adobe Flash Player) which are not OK, it's a "cold joint" in some move on. I couldn't get it to play in that processor. "Videos" could connector, which works fine once it * How do I change the default Youtube videos because that CPU play my music, and even a DVD. has warmed up. It might even be logon screen in 12.04 is no longer supported by the ("Videos" seems to be the Totem the CPU socket, but I'm not about http://goo.gl/3LC2BW Adobe flash player! player.) The wireless connection to remove the CPU cooler, re-seat also dropped a couple of times, but the CPU, and re-install the CPU * 12.04 and Asus 1015E problems What should I try next? not so often as to be intrusive. Was cooler. http://goo.gl/DlTi0e Googling "lightweight linux" it all sweetness and light? Not by a turned up Crunchbang, which I long shot. In addition to the minor Xubuntu works just great, and have heard a lot about. I installed problems, the system appears to use a bit less memory it, but its kernel was ancient, and spontaneously rebooted several than Lubuntu. So now I have an old TIPS AND TECHNIQUES did not support my USB wireless times, in ways I was not able to computer which works great if I Lightweight? adapter. Ubuntu 11.10 supported reproduce. A friend has no give it five minutes to warm up, it! computer, and I was thinking she but it can't handle Youtube. Not resurrected a nine-year-old could use this one instead of going my first choice of computers, but I computer this month. The old Next on my list: Linux Mint 15, to the library when she wants to it's an OK backup. Compaq has an Athlon 3000+ CPU 32-bit with Mate. Still no Youtube, use email. It's just not solid enough and 768 MB of memory, but the but most everything worked. The to make a neophyte comfortable; I power supply was toast. When the "videos" application could play would spend too much time motherboard of a friend's downloaded .flv files, although the providing phone support. computer got fried, I was able to CPU was too slow to handle 720 by transplant his power supply into 480 H.264 without dropping Next was using the old After a long career in the computer the Compaq, converting two dead frames, sometimes lots of frames. I computer as a testbed to fool industry, including a stint as editor of Computing Canada and Computer computers into one which worked. installed Conky so I could see CPU around with Arch Linux. While I got and hard drive temperatures, CPU a working command-line system Dealer News, Gord is now more-or- less retired. and memory usage, etc. Just running, everything I tried to make
full circle magazine #76 47 contents ^ UUBBUUNNTTUU GGAAMMEESS Written by Charles McColm TThhee MMaannaa WWoorrlldd
he Mana World (TMW) started can just run the manaplus client often have a version of the mana the server. However, for several T back in 2004 with a desert and (http://manaplus.org/): connect world client in the repositories. I years, many people found the a handful of monsters, and has and register for an account. This prefer to always get the client game more enjoyable to play using since turned into a mature anime- isn’t true for the main server at directly from the manaplus site. an alternate client known as themed massively multiplayer server.themanaworld.org however. Versions are also available for Mac “4144’s manaplus client”—which world of several cities and Because of account spamming, OS X, Windows, and an Android has since become the official client hundreds of monster areas. What manual registration through the beta (I ran it on a Pivos Xios DS recommended by The Mana World makes The Mana World special is web site is required: media play once and it ran well team. the amount of active development http://www.themanaworld.org/reg enough to play via keyboard). and the community around it. For istration.php Once you’ve registered, example: frequently, new items are The Mana World team originally connected and logged in, you’ll introduced into the game around Ubuntu and other distributions developed a client in parallel with have to create a character. holidays - last Easter a couple of Creating a character involves Egg-shell hats were introduced giving the character a name, with a new quest. Events like this changing the hair color and style, last a brief period of time, after and assigning 24 stat points into which items become rare because Strength, Agility, Vitality, they can only be sold character to Intelligence, Dexterity or Luck. character. Other more permanent When starting out, you can assign quests and items are introduced only up to a maximum of 9 points from time to time, usually on a 4-8 to each stat. As you ‘level’ month cycle, but sometimes faster. throughout the game, you gain more stat points to assign to any As I hinted, The Mana World is a stat you desire. A nice balance for a client/server based game, it’s new player is to assign 8 points playable only by connecting a into Strength, Vitality and client to a server. I wrote about Dexterity. This ensures you live for setting up a TMW server back in the first few levels. issue 57, but you don’t need to set Another unique thing about The up your own server since there are Mana World is that professions are lots of fine servers out there not really static. It’s possible to already. With many servers, you stat up for one profession, learn all
full circle magazine #76 48 contents ^ UBUNTU GAMES the skills with that profession, languages in town and other carpet using the arrow keys on unlocks the chest behind her and then change professions and skills languages are allowed outside of your keyboard (you can use a asks you to press N (next) to later. Typically, many players play a town), and a handful of other rules. mouse too, but my experience is change focus of who you’re talking fighter-style character for the first the game is so keyboard heavy that to and talk to the chest by pressing 30 levels or so, and then switch to In this first quest, Sorfina asks it’s best just to use the keyboard T (talk). When you talk to the an archer class, which places a you to simply walk over to the red for most tasks). Next, Sorfina chest, you’ll see you receive some heavy emphasis on Dexterity and Agility (for speed). At higher levels, players will often create hybrid classes such as archer/mage in order to heal themselves (because archers tend to be weak, but kill rapidly) and others.
When you first start out on the main server, you’ll notice yourself standing almost naked beside Sorfina, a grey-haired woman. The story goes: you’ve been on a boat, and collapsed, and a group of thieves made off with your clothes. This is the start of a loose tutorial you should follow in order to learn some of the game basics: talking to people (NPCs), and items (opening the chest for example). When you talk to Sorfina (right click on her), you’ll be asked to choose your language and she’ll read you the riot act (I mean the server rules). The server rules consist of the standard: no botting (running scripts to do all the work for you), treat others with respect, no begging, speak English in town (other servers may allow other
full circle magazine #76 49 contents ^ UBUNTU GAMES ragged shorts. Any items you get about an Aidan fellow, and rewards For every 10 points in a statistic, other people looking at the same from other sources (like chests), or for monster hunting. Aidan is other things are affected. Off to time, and the eggs disappear after from monsters, go into your someone you should definitely see the right of the main statistics a certain amount of peeks). invisible backpack. You have to early in the game. Once you’ve you’ll see other statistics such as equip an item in order to use it. progressed beyond the basic Attack, Defense, % Accuracy, % Around level 20 you’ll want to The F3 hotkey opens up your tutorial, and moved into the city of Evade, % Critical, and Damage per see the NPC named Luca to get a backpack/inventory window where Tulimshar, see Aidan early in order second, to name a few. Before handle on “skills.” Most skills won’t you can equip/unequip/drop items. to start to accumulate what are progressing too far, you may want be available until you see the Take special note of the buttons at called “monster points.” If you go to check out The Mana World wiki: appropriate NPC and complete the the top-right of the screen, the killing a lot of monsters without http://wiki.themanaworld.org/inde appropriate quest. Each skill has a button labelled INV does the same talking to Aidan, you will not x.php. The wiki outlines almost all quest or quest(s) tied to it. Some inventory function as the F3 key. accumulate monster points and the quests. You might think the skills require a certain amount of Another button you’ll want to will miss out on items given out by wiki is a walk through the quests, statistics or level before you can explore right away is the SET (F9) a lady named Ishi (she stands right and it is in a sort of a way, but it attempt the skill. Again, visiting SETup button. Click on the setup beside Aidan) that can be quite never tells you the precise location the wiki can help with skills. button, then click on the Input tab useful even when you reach level of all the quests, and you won’t near the top of the window which 90+ (chicken legs and the Illia really know how difficult the Eventually you’ll start to appears: you’ll see several tabs full sisters quest). For now, you won’t monsters/quests are until you accumulate items. As previously of keyboard commands (over 100). be able to get to Aidan until you’ve actually try them. mentioned, some items become Don’t be overwhelmed, many are completed the basic quests, so go “unobtainable,” meaning you can simply quick ways to do useless find Tanisha in the building to the Some quests involve knowledge get the items only from other things like display certain smilies, south-east (you’ll pass another of things like color theory, others players. Other items are rare but a few are quite useful (z to pick NPC named Liana - not all NPCs do involve giving up a certain amount because they’re obtainable only by up monster item drops, for something helpful/useful). Talk to of items to make other items, and high level characters (90+). Some example). Tanisha once you find her, she’ll still other items killing some boss items are totally useless, but still start you on a quest to kill (or killing enough bad guys and fetch a high price because they’re Once you’ve equipped the maggots, and reward you with a gathering their drops). One of the not available anymore. A number Cotton shirt and shorts in your knife once you’ve completed it. enjoyable aspects of TMW is not of players have huge collections of inventory, it’s time to move on. As Before you attack the maggots, everything is about killing (though items collected over several years. you go to leave, you’ll be stopped. don’t forget to press F3 and equip Candor is a slaughter fest); many Press N to focus back on Sorfina the knife Tanish gives you. quests involve finding an item or Part of the fun of The Mana again and talk to her once more; Completing this first quest will also items. The Easter quest last year World is the social aspect. Many she’ll tell you to talk to her gain you a new level (or two). Press involved running around looking higher level players just sit in town granddaughter in the building the F2 key after to increase your for loot under Easter eggs (usually Hurnscald, a town to the south-east of the building you’re statistics. I usually increase Dex (difficult to do when there are 100 west of the starting town of in. She also mentions something and Strength at this point. Tulimshar), and chat, or wait for
full circle magazine #76 50 contents ^ UBUNTU GAMES events either created by GMs or but also can’t wear the best armor required) to getting one of the content is being developed all the spawned by players. Candor is one without suffering penalties. best suits of armor (pants, top, time. Game play is a bit too slow such event that takes place in a hat). If you don’t like PvP, buddy up for some people, especially at the cave on an island. For a fee, an NPC And yes, Player versus Player is with a powerful friend or friends, beginning, but it does change as will unleash over 20 waves of a component you will eventually or join one of the mana world you progress. Some players are monsters, some of which are the have to come to grips with. Many guilds (Google it). willing to help new players toughest in the game. It takes 5 players prefer cooperative play to (provided they don’t beg) with players to start a Candor event, PvP, but there are a couple of PvP I’ve watched this game on and particular quests or obtaining but success is achieved usually designated areas. In one of these off since 2004, and it’s evolved at a particular items. with at least 10 or more. At the areas lies the key (not a literal key, remarkable rate. What makes it end of all the waves, survivors but monsters that drop items really interesting is the fact that If you’re into MMORPGs, and receive “boss points” which can be don’t mind 2D graphics, The Mana traded in for special items World is a good game to check out. (currently only a beanie cap).
Earlier, I mentioned classes and alluded to the fact that players play hybrid classes. The basic classes of players are warriors, archers and mages, though there isn’t really a strict class system—it depends more on how your player is stated and what skills you’ve obtained. Each class has strengths and weaknesses. Mages, for example, can cast wicked lightning, Charles McColm is the author of some doing over 1,000 points of Instant XBMC, a short book on damage (with the correct installing and configuring equipment), but they cannot wear XBMCbuntu, a *buntu+XBMC distribution. Charles is the project metal. Warriors can suit up in very manager of a not-for-profit highly-defensive metal, but this computer reuse project. When not makes them very prone to mage’s building PCs, removing malware, lightning attacks in PvP (Player encouraging people to use Linux, and hosting local Ubuntu hours, versus Player). Archers are Charles blogs at blazingly fast, and do huge http://www.charlesmccolm.com/. damage per second at high levels,
full circle magazine #76 51 contents ^ Your chance to show the world your desktop or PC. Email your screenshots and MY DESKTOP photos to: [email protected] and include a brief paragraph about your MY DESKTOP desktop, your PC's specs and any other interesting tidbits about your setup.
I have been using Ubuntu since 2008.
I am running Ubuntu 12.10 with the Gnome Classic Shell with Docky, Greybird theme, Pidgin, Deluge, Picasa, Wine, Beatbox and Audacious Music Players, and Screenlets.
My PC is a Dell Optiplex Intel Core2 Duo 6750 with 4GB memory and 750GB Samsung hard drive.
Monitor is a Dell P1130 21" CRT running at 1280 x 1024.
Jim Nagy
full circle magazine #76 52 contents ^ MY DESKTOP
I'm using Xubuntu 13.04 with XFCE transparency to them. The Moon. Hard-drive: Western Digital Green 4.10. I loved the old Gnome 2, so, as 1TB SATA2 (not really fast but sooo much as possible, I've used XFCE to I use a few Screenlets - CPU and Specs: quiet!) re-create that. I use Greybird as my RAM meters, a calendar, and a clock CPU: AMD Bulldozer FX-4100 Quad theme, but not the new version in that resembles a vinyl record. Core @ 3.6GHz David Wright 13.04 - I got the old version from Graphics Card: NVidia GT430 12.04 as it makes drop-down menus The wallpaper is obviously a re- Motherboard: Asus M5A78L-M LX nice and dark, then I add working of Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of RAM: 8GB DDR3
full circle magazine #76 53 contents ^ MY DESKTOP
This is my laptop. a Samsung Processor: Intel Pentium 997 (1.6 And my desktop uses: Wallpaper: HTC One wallpaper by 370R4V running Ubuntu 12.10 GHz) dual core Desktop environment: Unity with EgFox 32-Bit (also dual-booting with Resolution: 1368 x 768 (14") Docky Windows 7 Ultimate). Storage: 500 GB GTK3 theme: ‘Plane’ by wfpaisa Annisa Rifa Zulkania RAM: 3.8 GB Icon theme: ‘Potenza’ by Mystras My laptop’s specifications are: team
full circle magazine #76 54 contents ^ MY DESKTOP
Since 2010 I have used Ubuntu and desktop now mostly runs this distro, CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2082 elements from other themes derivatives (Mint, Lubuntu, ...) and I which uses Enlightenment as its MHz) - single core On the screenshot is my personal list love them all. I have a special desktop manager. It runs very RAM: 1 GB of favourite programs (by right- interest in turning older hardware snappy on this nine year old Graphics Card: Radeon 9200 SE clicking the desktop) into an updated though productive machine. 2 ATA hard disks: 75 GB + 150 GB state. That brought me to Bodhi OS: Bodhi Linux 2.3.0 (running kernel Floris Vanderhaeghe Linux, thanks to the review by Art Specs: 3.7.0-7-generic) Shreckengost in FCM#59. My main mobo: ASRock K7VT4A+ Theme: Nogal-Bodhi, plus a few
full circle magazine #76 55 contents ^ Full Circle Team
HHOOWW TTOO CCOONNTTRRIIBBUUTTEE Editor - Ronnie Tucker [email protected] FCM#77 Webmaster - Rob Kerfia FULL CIRCLE NEEDS YOU! Deadline: [email protected] Podcast A magazine isn't a magazine without articles and Full Circle is no Sunday 08th Sept. 2013. - Les Pounder & Co. exception. We need your opinions, desktops, stories, how-to's, Release: [email protected] reviews, and anything else you want to tell your fellow *buntu users. Friday 27th Sept. 2013. Send your articles to: [email protected] Editing & Proofreading Mike Kennedy, Lucas Westermann, We are always looking for new articles to include in Full Circle. For help and advice Gord Campbell, Robert Orsino, please see the Official Full Circle Style Guide: http://url.fullcirclemagazine.org/75d471 Josh Hertel, Bert Jerred
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full circle magazine #76 56 contents ^