A good book makes an excellent company. The time it takes to go from home to work is usually occupied with some reading, but from time to time I prefer the more passive company of a good interview or technical discussion downloaded from any given podcast.
Until today, no Linux podcast client had all the features that made it perfect for me, but that was just because I was looking in the wrong place. I tried Amarok built-in client, gPodder and a few others but none of then was ever able to truly accomplish the task at hand.
A couple of days ago I found IcePodder (a Linux clone for Juice), a very simple to use podcast client (also available for Windows and Mac, not that I care). With a clean interface, the subscription process is very straight-forward and quick.
Unfortunately, the installation procedure on Ubuntu 8.04 is not the usual ’sudo aptitude install X’, but it still remains to be quite simple:
> sudo apt-get install subversion
> svn co https://icepodder.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/icepodder icepodder
> cd icepodder
> sudo ./install.sh
> sudo apt-get install python-wxversion
and that is it. Just run iPodder.
[Updated after some complaints from the readers on not being able to install IcePodder]
This might seem a stupid post… but, due to fact that the CTRL+Enter key sequence works in both Word and Powerpoint to insert a newline in a table cell contain text, and in my mind, it should also work in Excel! This is not the case. When using Excel the CTRL+Enter sequence is interpreted as a simple Enter keystroke.
Why does Excel uses ALT+Enter, instead of the usual keystroke sequence? This fact has always baffled me…
A few days ago I had to scan a paper certificate to send it in a digital form. The paper certificate had 3 pages which I promptly scanned into 3 separate PDFs as the required format was PDF.
Then came the hard part, I could only submit 1 file which meant that had to concatenate all 3 original files. Of course that for this I could use some kind of PDF tool (such as acrobat writer), but as any respected Linux user the way forward was to use “the shell”…
So, the solution was to use Ghostscript. The tool is able to “print” a sequence of files into a unique PDF file. Just use it as follows:
gs -q -sPAPERSIZE=a4 -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite
-sOutputFile=out.pdf in1.pdf in2.pdf in3.pdf [more-input-files]
After using a tool on a daily basis for a while I start to (as most of the people) know very specific details about that tool. But there is always some specific features that simply are not used because they are forgotten …
I always defend that peole should not be forced to know anything by heart, and so, I am a huge fan of having a quick reference card for this or the other tool currently in use. Currently, hanging in the wall being me is the GDB reference card, and soon also the CVS reference card.
I’m also a very strong supporter of the “RTFM” approach… the linux man command is one of my favorite linux command.
I use and suggest to everyone a tool framework called Valgrind. Valgrind’s tool suite include very powerful debugging and profiling tools, essential to the development of any C/C++ project. In sum, I strongly recommend it use!
This post is not about any tip or trick on how to use Valgrind. It’s about a more trivial matter… Is about the name ‘Valgrind’, and it’s origins. During the last week I discussed with a colleague it’s origins. I was arguing that the name Valgring was some kind of short to “value grinder”. I now admit: “I was work!”… but very, very, dead Wrong! My colleague was dead On!
In fact, it took no more than 10 minutes to find the Valgrind FAQ, and another minute to find the answer from the authors themselves:
Where does the name “Valgrind” come from?
From Nordic mythology. Originally (before release) the project was named Heimdall, after the watchman of the Nordic gods. He could “see a hundred miles by day or night, hear the grass growing, see the wool growing on a sheep’s back” (etc). This would have been a great name, but it was already taken by a security package “Heimdal”.
Keeping with the Nordic theme, Valgrind was chosen. Valgrind is the name of the main entrance to Valhalla (the Hall of the Chosen Slain in Asgard). Over this entrance there resides a wolf and over it there is the head of a boar and on it perches a huge eagle, whose eyes can see to the far regions of the nine worlds. Only those judged worthy by the guardians are allowed to pass through Valgrind. All others are refused entrance.
It’s not short for “value grinder”, although that’s not a bad guess.
The last phrase says it all. The authors even read my mind, or someone else has had the same crazy idea before!!
I didn’t forget to download the latest Firefox 3.0. This way I participated in a new World Record, and also got my hands in the best browser available in the world. Here’s the proof…
Remember The Milk is a very nice online tool to manage your personal task list. It enables you to manage your tasks from wherever you are at the moment, keeping them always updated.
For those how use Firefox, the RememberTheMilk tool developers have developed an add-on which integrates the tool into your Gmail interface. A task list is created in a new sidebar which is added to right side of gmail’s message list.
A add-on to integrate the task list into Thunderbird is also available here (the installation procedures are here). This allows the user to integrate the task list into the calendar Lightning add-on.
My phrase of the day is “If you can play it, you can store it…”.
If you use mplayer as your usual media player my congratulations. This one of the best and more versatile media player I know. This shell command media player (there is also a GUI available to those who prefer the little buttons) never failed me…
The ability to play media streams over the net (through mms, rtsp, etc) is one of my favorite features. Another great feature is the ability to store locally the stream’s content.
Simply run:
$ mplayer mms://server/stream.wmv -dumpstream -dumpfile local_file.wmv
and all stream content will be stored in your local file repository.
These are my 10 favorite Firefox add-ons… So that you can known and that I can’t forget!
- Tab Mix Plus enhances Firefox’s tab functionalities providing a lot of customizable new option.
- Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer is your silent companion, synchronizing in background your bookmarks between all your computers.
- FlashGot gathers multiple links in a page and downloads them using the available lightweight. download manager available.
- DownThemAll is a completely built-in download manager that is very fast and lightweight.
- ForecastFox is an eye-catching weather reporting tool… for those days you don’t leave the house!
- Mouse Gestures creates ’shortcuts’ based on your mouse movements, which is a much more quick way and easy than reaching for your keyboard or selecting an option from a menu.
- Adblock Plus avoids those annoying advertisements.
- Download Statusbar provides a simple way to manage your downloading activities using little window space.
- Image Zoom allows the custom dimensioning of images in a webpage.
- PDF Download customizes the PDF downloading functionalities, avoiding those unnecessary empty tabs.
Please note that I’m currently using Firefox version 2.0.0.14, and not all above add-ons work on newer versions (such as version 3 Beta 5).
These are my 10 favorite Thunderbird add-ons… So that you can known and that I can’t forget!
- Contacts Sidebar, enables a very useful sidebar allowing the management of Thunderbird’s address book(s) in a easy way.
- Lightning extends the functionalities of Thunderbird adding an impressive calendar application making it a even more powerful work tool.
- Provider for Google Calendar enables the sharing information between Google Calendar accounts and the Lightning calendar application.
- Image Zoom allows the custom dimensioning of image contents of an email.
- Slideshow enables a new button that displays the images attached to an email as a slide show.
- SMTP Select allows the selection of SMTP server used for delivering mail for each independent message sent. The user simply has to select from a drop down list which server to use.
- Quote Collapse is a very practical extension that allows to collapse or expand text sent as quote. This is specially useful in those forward/reply conversation that are so usual nowadays.
- Remote Duplicate Messages is a practical tool that removes all those annoying duplicate messages that are so usual when getting messages from several accounts.
- Mouse Gesture creates ’shortcuts’ based on your mouse movements, which is a much more quick way and easy than reaching for your keyboard or selecting an option from a menu.
- CompactFolder allows the user to compact the currently selected folder by simply clicking on a toolbar button.
