Category Archives: Ubuntu

Sensible window sizes on Dell’s version of Ubuntu

I love my Dell Mini, but there are a couple of “features” added by Dell that drive me mad. One of these is called Maximus. It’s an application that tells any window that opens on the desktop to open full-screen. … Continue reading

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Upgrading Ubuntu 8.04 to OpenOffice.org 3.1

This guide has all the required info, and worked like a charm on my netbook running 8.04 and my laptop running 9.04 (although it was simpler than the guide suggests in both cases). I’ll hopefully write a more comprehensive guide … Continue reading

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Mass converting .bmp to .jpg

I’m largely posting this because I’ve had to do it twice recently and forgot how to do it both times. The command to convert a whole folder of images from .bmp to .jpg (on Linux, obviously) is: mogrify -format jpg … Continue reading

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Synching with folders outside of /dropbox

This could probably be summed up in a few words (the words being “use symlinks”). Basically, what I wanted to do was to sync several folders outside my dropbox folder (for various reasons). The solution was to create a shortcut … Continue reading

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Rules and reward in voluntary communities

I’ve been involved with various voluntary communities and societies over the years, and have always been interested in how they regulate and reward their members without there being any sort of financial reward mechanism. I’m quite lucky to move in … Continue reading

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Bugs and how to hug them

I think this is still the best guide on how to report bugs that exists. There are also a lot of useful standard replies here. Now go hug some bugs!

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Using wcid instead of NetworkManager on Ubuntu 8.10

This post came about due to an issue with NetworkManager connecting to our wpa-enterprise authenticated network at work, but demonstrates that there is more than one choice when it comes to almost everything on Linux. It’s not too fiddly, and … Continue reading

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As a follow on from my post about bootable USB devices

EfficientPC are now selling USB devices pre-installed with Ubuntu (from 2gb up to 16gb). I blogged about how to make these last week (see here), but this gives another option for people who don’t already have the hardware/software required to … Continue reading

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How to make a totally up to date bootable USB version of Ubuntu

I’ve written these instructions (371.6 KB PDF) for work, but think they might be useful in all sorts of other situations. Basically it boils down to: Use Ubuntu Customization Kit to update all the packages in Ubuntu and add/remove packages … Continue reading

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Thoughts on KDE4

I’ve made an effort over the Christmas break to try as many new (or long-unused) software packages. This is party to ensure that I stay up to date (I can just about justify not knowing the inner workings of Vista, … Continue reading

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