Gnome Mud client

  • 0
Since I last blogged about nethack I figured it might be an idea to post about this mud client. MUD is Multi-User Dungeon. It's a type of multi player game before the days of world of warcraft. Some of them can be quite fun. The discworld mud is my favorite its like being in a discworld book. I don't really do much on it apart from walk about a lot trying out commands. Talk to people and interact with things. Being discworld its funny.


The gnome mud client can be installed with this
sudo apt-get install gnome-mud

Gnome NetHack

  • 0
Get old school! or well kind of with Gnome's nethack. I mean look at it, its all GTK on there. A little nicer to look at than small text characters running around trying to kill you.

Nethack-gnome


This game is about the same age as me, its previous incarnations are even older than me, yet it's addictive. Very hard to play though. You will find that you die a lot and that this is problem since it means game over. Fall into some randomly unseen trap and your frustratingly dead with your keyboard smashed to bits after seeing your level 20 monk fall into a pit. Anyways moving on the GUI features make it a little more simple compared to the text based interface. Which is better for new players.

The text version

Whats a stripling? haha

Install the Gnome version on ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install nethack-gnome

The text based version is installed with
sudo apt-get install nethack-console

Edit:
I forgot to add there seems to be a bug in the ubuntu gnome nethack build. You start a new games and the window disappears. Get get around this by running this command:
export XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1

Gp2x laucher GMenu2x

I prefer this front end to the default. Although it doesn't uninstall the default. It launches from the boot with a script with the default running in the background. Its better because it allows you to make links to various program, emulators and games. Its not only a laucher, its also has a built-in overclocker, gamma and volume configuration and ram timings tweaker. Above all it looks better.

The default


The GMenu2x

If you don't like the look of it you can skin it. Its not hard. All you need is the Gimp or a copy of photoshop. Resize a wallpaper and save it as the bk.png in the img folder. The bars at the top and bottom and be colourised from within the options.

You get the sd card files from gmenu2x.sourceforge.net/page/GMenu2X
Just stick all the files /directories and the autorun.gpu on the root.

I suck at manic miner

  • 0

Ubuntu dude has a dell shirt

  • 0


Yeah the shock. Not quite. Something like this bound to happen. Maybe its ubuntu's way of paying homage to dell.
http://www.ubuntu.com

Use xterm in ubuntu

If you're always running the odd command, say a apt-get or bash script. Why not use xterm. Its not as pretty as the gnome terminal but it doesn't need to be. Its small and lightweight. Opens like lightening compared to gnomes terminal. I once showed a friend xterm while chatting. She was very impressed by how fast it started.

To try xterm just (ironically) type xterm into your terminal. As you can see its basic. If you want to make use of it you can add it to your menu.
Right click applications menu and click on edit menus. Pick a applications category to put the xterm menu item into. You will probably want it where your defualt terminal is, in accessories. When you have selected a category goto new item and enter the details like below.



Give it a name, like 'xterm' or 'terminal'. Give it the command xterm. And if you like give it a comment and a nice icon. Done.

No xterm ? install it with
sudo apt-get install xterm

The importance of a back up environment

  • 0
I think its important for any ubuntu, linux user, and unix user to have a back up desktop environment.

A few days ago I had problems with gnome. Put basically it crashed. After which I couldn't login without a crash at the start of loading it. I'm guessing it might have been a problem with the previous session and gnome wasn't liking it. So what can you do in a situation like this?

Well if your like me, you know your bash, then its not the end of the world. You could try installing another desktop environment. I installed the xfce desktop package and logged into that without fault. After that gnome was able to login fine. All you have to do is start ubuntu in recovery mode or from the login screen (gdm) select a terminal login. Recovery mode is normally the 2nd option on the loader (when you start your machine a menu appears with all the operating systems.) This will start a terminal.
Once you have a prompt ready you will need to connect to the internet or network. This could be different for everyone. I have a dial script for a usb modem so I run that. When your connected you can install a chosen package.

For XFCE
sudo aptitude install xubuntu-desktop

For something smaller, fluxbox
sudo aptitude install fluxbox

Make fluxbox selectable from gdm
echo "exec startfluxbox" > ~/.xinitrc

If you wanted to you could install kde but I think its too big really for a backup desktop environment.

Tomatoes

  • 0

You think we got enough or is this a gardening centre?

Gnome main menu

  • 0

Makes a better menu in ubuntu if you ask me.
sudo apt-get install gnome-main-menu
You can add it by right clicking your panel and clicking "add to panel...". It will be in utilities called 'Main Menu' with a computer like icon. To get shortcuts to programs, you goto 'More Applications...' and right click then add to favorites.

Pidgin on ubuntu

  • 0
Just a quick blog. While playing with ruby on ubuntu I thought I would upgrade gaim. I like the new Pidgin.
Gaim now Pidgin thanks to aol ([sarcasm] great company [end of sarcasm]. If you want to install it you can find an unofficial package from www.freshnet.org/wordpress... I have to be honest the ubuntugeek.com... method didn't work for me because I wanted to keep gaim. However which ever way works best.

Although, having wrote all that, iv read pidgin will be in the feisty repositories within a week (rumor or true?). So you may just want to wait a few days.

Richards Barley Wine

  • 0

a.k.a Barley wine #2

It maybe a bit young but last night I had a try. And today I had a craving for it. The keg is full of gas. When I get pour some into a glass its got a 3cm head on it. The Picture doesn't do it justice but you cant buy this stuff in the shops! The only way to taste real strong barley wine is to make it yourself. Yeah you can buy some small seasonal barley wines and then there's gold label. But it's not the same to me. This stuff is so strong you only need a little glass and you can feel the effects. Unfortunately like an ass I didn't take a o.g reading but I used a basic calculator on the web estimated it at 8% but dam it tastes stronger. The aroma is a sweet smell with a little toffee/honey hint. The taste is sweet with a little tiny sour kick, its very warming. No way I'm giving this recipe out :) The best thing I ever brewed. Will be making some more at some point for the winter. Maybe experiment a bit.

Joe Strummer - The Future Is Unwritten Trailer

  • 0


Cannot wait to see this film, Joe Strummer is a legend. Looks like another good film by film four to me.

Geany IDE

  • 0
I was looking for an IDE to play with some C++. As you do. And while looking for one thats in the ubuntu repositories I came across Geany.


Reminds me a little of devC++ on windows. Comes with templates for html, php, ruby, pascal, java, D, C and C++. Its lightweight and fast. Doesn't take long to load. Not much to setup for C++. I just installed G++ and I was off. Code completion in some languages. However there inst one (yet) for C++. You can run it on every OS that supports GTK+.

If you want to install it on ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install geany

If you want complie C++ install G++:
sudo apt-get install G++

You can find other builds from Geany.uvena.de

What the hell is a Foxkeh!?

  • 1



" Foxkeh is a mascot created by Mozilla Japan to help introduce Firefox to new users in Japan. "

...Oh right uhm I knew that, why didn't you!
www.foxkeh.com

Haiku OS

  • 0
I'm really impressed with this inspired BeOS operating system, haiku. It was known as openBeOS. The project changed it's name in order to avoid trademark crap with Palm (who bought the original BeOS in 2001).
It's remarkable what the project has archived since it began in 2001. Building a whole new OS that is compatible with BeOS on a binary/source level. That means you can run BeOS software from years ago.

After coming across the projects website haiku-os.org. I downloaded the vmware player image and had a play around. Its not a very big image, only 27mb. I downloaded the Happy Easter Edition with Basic Network Support, although I wasn't able to get vmware to network.

When you boot it your shown this neat looking desktop.


As you can see. It comes with the BASH shell. Which is good. Its the only thing I am comfortable with on this OS.


Even though it's a small image there are a few demos and applications. Iv read somewhere it can play mp3's and avi files with the media players. If your looking for a browser in the image below there inst one to my knowledge however you can get a build of firefox!. The interface looks like BeOS, not sure if it feels like BeOS, having not played with it before. However, it works well. Not over the top yet nice on the eyes and simple.

Haiku is still in development. I think its very promising. I could spend a few hours on this just playing around with everything. One thing I am wondering about with the ability to run BeOS software would it be able to run Apache for BeOS. Getting it up and running as a sever would be sweet.

Download a test image from haiku-os.org/downloads

VLC the killer media player

  • 0
This GNU application is a fine example of open source software. It's packed with features, lightweight and simple to use. It's very useful for both linux and windows.

Last week mark backed up some old videos onto DVD. After finalizing it he tried to play it on a windows xp system with basic codecs that are built in. The DVD wouldn't play because xp didn't have the codec to play it. This has happened to me when ripping my favorite tv shows (for my own use, no sharing) on linux. Theres a lot of easily available codecs that are great for linux/unix os's but less for windows. Well anyway after the dvd wouldn't play I visited and had a look. After remembering the VLC player being useful for this stuff, I downloaded the windows build and within 2 minutes I was playing the DVD. I could have spent all day installing daft windows codecs. That would mean surfing the web, downloading and installing. Why bother when theres VLC which comes with:
  • libavcodec
  • libdvdcss DVD decryption library
The big feature of VLC is its stream capability's. It can read video and music streams. VLC standing for VideoLAN client. If you downloaded the server VLS you can stream media over your network. You could listen to music from another pc for example. You can ever telnet into VLC to operate it remotely. This player is full of features. You can find something new everyday on this thing.

VLC on ubuntu linux


Ubuntu 6.10 - 7.04 Apt-get Commands
You need to check that you have a "universe" mirror in your /etc/apt/sources.list.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install vlc vlc-plugin-esd mozilla-plugin-vlc

Or... Open Synaptic (System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager). In Settings -> Repositories, make sure you have a "universe" repository activated.

Search for vlc and install it. You should also install vlc-plugin-esd, mozilla-plugin-vlc (and libdvdcss2).

Other platforms: Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS, BSD, Windows CE, and Solaris. Download from here www.videolan.org/vlc/