By default Ubuntu check for updates daily. If for any reasons you want to change the schedule so that Ubuntu check for updates once in week or month or never, here is how to that:
Question and suggestions are welcomed. Cheers 
Ubuntu 12.04, the LTS (Long Term Support) version, beta version is out. According to the release schedule of Ubuntu 12.04, the final version will be released by the end of April. In case you are an early adopter and wants to try your hand on the beta release, here is how to upgrade to the beta version:
Enjoy Ubuntu 12.04. Cheers
VLC media player version 2.0 “Two Flower” has been released and it brings major changes in its appearance and functionality. In my opinion VLC media players is the best, free or non-free, media player available for any platform be it Windows, Linux or OSx. The new changes only add for the betterment of the already better VLC player. The new version is laced with faster decoding, more video format support, better interface and (experimental) Blue-Ray support. Take a look at the new interface:
VLC 2.0 is available in Software Centre for Ubuntu 12.04 but not for Ubuntu 11.10. One can install it from the source code or the easier way by using PPAs. To install it using PPA use the following commands in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:n-muench/vlc sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install vlc
Get the exe file from this link: vlc-2.0-source-forge-doenload
Download the dmg file this link: vlc-2.0-source-forge-download
And there you are with the new, shiny and better VLC 2.0. How do you find the new VLC? Do share your views. Cheers
You want to copy all the contents of a directory (lets say source_dir) which contains lots of other files and subdirectories inside it to another directory (lets say target_dir). If you simply try cp command it may result in the following error:
command: cp source_dir target_dir
output: cp: omitting directory source_dir
If you try recursive copy (using option -r) the directory is copied inside the target directory which you may not be suitable if you want to duplicate the contents of the source directory.
command: cp -r source_dir target_dir
command: ls target_dir
output: source_dir
If you want to copy just the contents of the source directory as in duplicating all its contents use the following command:
command: cp -r source_dir/* target_dirThis command will copy all the content (not the directory itself) in the target directory.
Imagine a
scenario where you want to delete a directory (lets say dir_name) which contains lots of subdirectories (folders) and files. You may encounter the following errors if you try rm or rmdir:
rm: cannot remove `dir_name': Is a directory
rmdir: failed to remove `dir_name': Directory not empty
cannot remove directory `dir_name’. Directory not empty
To avoid this problem use the following command:
rm -rf dir_nameIt will delete all the content of dir_name including the subdirectories.
Most of us are used-to of using the backspace key to go back to previous page while browsing in Mozilla Firefox. By default, Firefox in Linux doesn’t provide the functionality of pressing backspace for going back to previous page which is quite irritating as it forces one to use the mouse.
A little tweak is required in Firefox configuration to make it work. Here is what you need to do:
There is another way to go to previous or next pages in any browser, in any OS and that is by using arrow keys. The shortcut is as follows:
Questions and suggestions are most welcomed. Cheers
There are many people, who just can’t forget that sweet era of classic computer games, when there weren’t that many computers, people came together to play the newest and coolest Warcraft installation, or to shoot a few more aliens with Duke Nukem. For me the golden era of computer games was in the middle of the nineties. I remember that we were amazed by the “superior” graphics, the humor, and if we played an RPG, the deep storyline. I still cherish these times. The days are long gone, when a bunch of us gathered to play a game, the sole computer in the room evolved to a LAN party, then network game. Heck, if I would play a game nowadays, I would never see my opponents face, the most of I would get is an avatar, and I believe kinda hard to befriend with a picture. However if you still want some old-school fun this is possible in a cross-platform way. DosBox is an emulator which makes running old games a breeze. Actually, the software is made for running DOS games easily across multiple platforms, unlike FreeDos, which is a complete operating system, and makes possible to run legacy applications. DosBox runs on Linux, MacOS X, Windows, and a couple of other systems. [Read more…]
Coders knew Vim for the last twenty years for its unmatched efficiency in editing source code. Vim wasn’ t too popular in the Rails community until lately when Tim Pope published his plug-in: Rails.vim. This plug-in and Vims legendary extendibility made it the editor of choice of many programmers who used some proprietary applications in the past. The plug-in offers shortcuts for easy navigation between files, makes it possible to run scripts, generate controllers, views, do some refactoring, and do auto completion , all of these from Vims cosy interface. Some people say that it is the least user friendly text editor ever. While these accusations might be partly true, because of the rather steep learning curve, many programmers just liked the way Vim helped them do their work quickly and efficiently.
Enough said lets see how to create a very simple blog in Rails from Vim. [Read more…]
Spotify is on Linux again and this time its free as well. Well that should sounds music to the ears of Linux users who love music but were not willing to pay for the premium account of Spotify. So here is what Sptify is calling “Linux Preview”, which is nothing but sort of beta version.
If you are not familiar with Spotify, I’ll list some salient features that make Spotify my favorite music streaming application: [Read more…]