full circle magazine #54 1 contents ^

Full CircleTHE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY

ISSUE #54 - October 2011

ful l circle magazine is neither affi l iated with, nor endorsed by, Canonical Ltd.

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REVIEW:FREEMIND

LLIINNUUXX EEQQUUIIVVAALLEENNTTSS OOFF WWIINNDDOOWWSS FFEEAATTUURREESS

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NEWCOLUMN!

full circle magazine #54 2 contents ^

The articles contained in this magazine are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Al ike 3.0 Unported l icense.This means you can adapt, copy, distribute and transmit the articles but only under the fol lowing conditions: You must attributethe work to the original author in some way (at least a name, emai l or URL) and to this magazine by name ('ful l circle magazine')

and the URL www.ful lcirclemagazine.org (but not attribute the article(s) in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). I fyou alter, transform, or bui ld upon this work, you must distribute the resulting work under the same, simi lar or a compatible l icense.Full Circle magazine is entirely independent of Canonical, the sponsor of the Ubuntu projects, and the views and opinions in themagazine should in no way be assumed to have Canonical endorsement.

Full CircleTHE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY

Backup Strategy Pt2 p.17

FreeMind p.14

Program In Python Pt27 p.07

Business & Edu. Pt3 p.19

HowTo Opinions

Q&A p.39

Ubuntu Games p.00

Ubuntu Women p.00

Command & Conquer p.05

Apt-Cache-NG p.22

Columns

Linux Labs p.25 Review p.35

I Think... p.33

My Story p.32

My Story p.31

Letters p.37

My Desktop p.41Linux News p.04

BACK NEXT MONTH

Closing Windows p.27

NEWCOLUMN!

BACK NEXT MONTH

full circle magazine #54 3 contents ^

EEDDIITTOORRIIAALL

Welcome to another issue of Full Circle!

We have a whole new section for you this month. As promised, I've begun writing'Closing Windows'. It'll be a series of articles that will focus on a feature fromWindows (XP in this case), then show where that feature is, or how it can beobtained, in Gnome, Unity, KDE, LXDE and XFCE. So, no matter which *buntu you

use, this series should help complete beginners. My thanks go to my co-authors on this series.Their names are at the start of this first part, which focuses on My Computer and Windows' filemanager, Explorer.

Unfortunately, Elmer is a bit busy this month, so there's no LibreOffice article, but he'll beback next month. In his place is a brief How-To on using FreeMind, the mind-mapping tool. Ifyou've never used a mind-map before, then you're missing out on a great idea tool. As well asthe usual serialised articles, we have an article on using Apt-Cache-NG. It will allow you toupdate serveral machines from one set of downloaded .deb files. Very handy! The final part ofmy ZoneMinder series will show you how to include/exclude certain areas of a camera view. It'sa very powerful feature, and one that will save you from getting a lot of false positives. Nextmonth's Linux Labs will hopefully have an article on setting up your own voice over IP (VOIP)bits.

One last thing: last month I gave the Italian translation team the honor of being the onlyteam to have translated all issues of FCM. Sorry Italian team, but the Hungarian team have alsotranslated all issues now. Congratulations to you both. Who else is ready to step up andtranslate the entire back catalogue?

All the best, and keep in touch.Ronnie

ronnie@fullcirclemagazine.org

This magazine was created using :

Full Circle PodcastReleased every two weeks, eachepisode covers all the latestUbuntu news, opinions, reviews,interviews and listener feedback.The Side-Pod is a new addition,it's an extra (irregular) short-formpodcast which is intended to be abranch of the main podcast. It'ssomewhere to put all the generaltechnology and non-Ubuntu stuffthat doesn’t fit in the mainpodcast.

Hosts:Robin CatlingEd HewittDave Wilkins

http://fullcirclemagazine.org

full circle magazine #54 4 contents ^

LLIINNUUXX NNEEWWSSOBITUARY

DennisMacAlistairRitchie (b.September 9,1941; found deadOctober 12,

2011), commonly known by hisusername dmr, was an Americancomputer scientist who "helpedshape the digital era." He createdthe C programming languageand, with long-time colleague,Ken Thompson, the UNIXoperating system. Ritchie andThompson received the TuringAward from the ACM in 1983, theHamming Medal from the IEEE in1990 and the National Medal ofTechnology from PresidentClinton in 1999. Ritchie was thehead of Lucent TechnologiesSystem Software ResearchDepartment when he retired in2007. The 'R' of the K&R C bookstands for his name.

See:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie

BMW May Use Linux InCars

German car maker BMWspoke about how it mightuse Linux for in-carentertainment.

In a panel on providing highperformance [...] we could seeLinux being adopted for use in carentertainment systems in futureBMW vehicles.

Andreas Poschl, an IT Specialistat BMW said, "We are looking into

Linuxforthe car. We also see the

possibilityofLinux in the car,

especiallyforthe entertainment."

The firm uses Linux [since 2003]for mission critical systems such asits large servers.

Poschl said, "We are doing

business critical stuffwith Linux.

Linux is high quality, high

performance, flexible."

Source: theinquirer.net

Ubuntu Turns 7,'Precise Pangolin'Planning Begins

It was exactly seven years agothat the very first version ofUbuntu Linux--dubbed “WartyWarthog”--was released,

kicking off a long line ofincreasingly popular versions ofthe free and open sourceoperating system.

Fast forward to today, andCanonical is wasting no timemoving from last week's release ofUbuntu 11.10 “Oneiric Ocelot” intoplanning for the next version, alsoknown as “Precise Pangolin.”

Perhaps most notable aboutPrecise Pangolin is that it will beUbuntu's fourth Long TermSupport (LTS) release, with a fullthree years of support.

Source: pcworld.com

Puppy Linux 5.3"Slacko" based onSlackware 13.37

The Puppy Linux developershave announced therelease of version 5.3 oftheir independent Linux

distribution, a new edition code-named "Slacko". According toPuppy Linux founder Barry Kauler,Slacko Puppy (coordinated by MickAmadio) is to be the project's "newflagship PuppyLinux"and is therecommended "'first stop'forall

newcomers".

Slacko was built using the Woofbuild tool, which can build a Puppyrelease from the binary packagesof any other distribution. SlackoPuppy 5.3 is based on SlackwareLinux 13.37 binary packages andthe 2.6.37.6 Linux kernel, andincludes access to the Slackwarepackage repositories. Othersoftware can be installed via PETpackages and packages in theSlackware repositories.

Source: h-online.com

full circle magazine #54 5 contents ^

In the process of configuringArchLinux on a PC, I realizedjust how much more efficientlyI work in Vim than I do in any

other text editor. So, when ArticleDay rolled around, I checked to seeif there had been an article on Vim.Lo and behold, there was only abrief introduction to Vim. To startwith, I should probablydifferentiate a text editor from anoffice suite likeOpenOffice/LibreOffice. A texteditor is used for editing stuff like*.txt, *.rtf, *.conf, *~, and basicallyany other plain text documentformat (i.e. no formatting). Anoffice suite, on the other hand,works on *.doc and *.odt files(among others). I usually use plaintext documents for quick to-dolists, and for writing code. I'm fairlycertain there are many of you outthere who either write quick notesto themselves, write code (be itsoftware or websites), and perhapsedit some configuration files.

What's the difference betweenVim and GVim?

Vim is the console-oriented

version of the program (for use ingnome-terminal, rxvt-unicode, ttyscreens, and so forth). GVim is agraphical front-end for Vim, andallows easy access to some of themore esoteric commands.

Why should I use Vim/GVim?

I'm not going to say thatVim/GVim is the only text editoranyone should use, but it's the oneI prefer. Why do I prefer it? Simplybecause it offers sane defaults andkeybindings that allow for veryquick editing - without the need fora mouse. I find that keeping myhands on my keyboard actuallyallows for faster work than pausingto move the mouse (or keeping ahand on the mouse most of thetime). If you find yourself noddingalong with this, you should giveVim/GVim a shot. For example: Sayyou wanted to delete 250sequential lines in some sourcecode because you need to movethe method elsewhere. In Vim youwould simply type in 250 and thenhit the “d” key twice (for deleteline). If you then want to paste itsomewhere else, simply move

there and hit “p”. No need for amouse or any highlightingwhatsoever.

How do you get around if youcan't use a mouse?

In GVim you are able to use amouse, though it's really notnecessary. In Vim you get aroundusing page up/page down and thearrow keys (or hjkl where h=left,j=down, k=up, and l=right).

What about syntax highlighting?

Vim and GVim are fullycustomizable in a configurationfile, and allows for custom colorsand formatting for code accordingto file extensions. It also offers avery good syntax engine by defaultthat simply needs to be enabled.

What other useful features doesit offer?

It allows you to:• Set a custom size (number ofspaces) for tab characters, which isuseful when coding python.• Copy, paste, delete, and insert

controls that allow for carefulformatting (dw = delete word,dd=delete line, yw=copy word,yy=copy line, p=paste, etc).• Printing (with a sane printingdefault)• A tutorial that can be accessedwith the command 'vimtutor'• Macros (easy creation andexecution).

Some basic commands:hjkl – movement ( h=left, j=down,k=up, and l=right) – this works onlyoutside of any mode. Inside a modeyou'll need to use the arrow keys.y – copy (yy = copy line)d – delete (dd = delete line)w -word (used in conjunction with yor d mainly)1-∞<command> - repeat thecommand that number of times(i.e. 250dd = delete 250 linesstarting at, and including, the linecurrently selected):w – write (can be combined with qto write and quit):e – open:q – quitEsc – exit any modei – insert mode (inserts beforecurrent selection)

CCOOMMMMAANNDD && CCOONNQQUUEERRWritten by Lucas Westermann VViimm aanndd GGvviimm

full circle magazine #54 6 contents ^

Lucas has learned all he knows fromrepeatedly breaking his system, thenhaving no other option but todiscover how to fix it. You can emailLucas at: lswest34@gmail.com.

COMMAND & CONQUERa – add moder – replace modeu – undoctrl+r – redo.p – paste anything copied ordeleted in Vim/GVim:hardcopy – the command to print:%s/<regex>/<to replace>/ - allowsyou to substitute anything yousearch for in the first block withwhat is in the second block. Thisalso accepts regular expressions.:set <option> - allows you to set anoption for the running instance.See my configuration file for someexamples of settings (which I setfor any instance).ctrl+v – visual mode, allowing thehighlighting of multiple linesinside visual mode:I – insert before all highlightedlettersX – delete all highlighted letters*middle-mouse button (or shift +insert) paste from external linuxclipboard after selecting the textto paste.*

This is just a basic list ofcommands I frequently use. Theline marked with asterisks isactually a linux shortcut, but it'svery useful in Vim/GVim.

How do I use Vim/GVim?

To open a file, you can eitherappend the path after theVim/GVim command, or open itusing :e once it loads. Once youhave opened the file that you wantto edit, you can then hit “i” (the keyon the keyboard) to enter insertmode. It will tell you what mode isactive (blank means there iscurrently no mode being used) inthe bottom-left corner. For thesake of this example, let us simplywrite “Com3mand 6 Conque”. Onceyou've entered the text, it's time tofix it up. Move to the 3 using thehjkl keys, and then hit the “x” keyto delete it. Head over to the 6 andhit the “r” key, and then enter theampersand (“&”). Once that's done,you should have: “Command &Conque”. Notice that the “r” ismissing! Move the cursor over the eand you'll notice that you can'tmove the cursor past the alreadyentered text. How do you enter ther then? You can either hit the “i”key for insert and move the cursorusing the arrow keys and thenenter it. Or, you could “append” thetext using the “a” key, which movesthe cursor to the space after theselected letter. Then type “r” andyou're all set. If you want to save it,do so with :w (and if you haven'tgiven it a path or name yet, youmust do so after the w). If you want

to just quit, use “:q” (in this caseyou'll need to add an exclamationpoint after the q to ignore thechanges made). After the “:q!”, youwill find yourself back at yourdesktop (from GVim) or in yourterminal if you used Vim.

A few things to remember:

The Vim shortcut keys that useletters (u, ctrl+r, y, d, w, etc) allrequire you to be in the “blankmode” (i.e. without any editingmode active). Otherwise, you'll justtype the letter. Get in the habit ofhitting escape after you've made achange so that you don't starttyping in gibberish.

Using numbers to repeatcommands also works only outsideof a mode.

If, when pasting something, youfind that it spaces it all out oddly,simply activate the past mode (:setpaste) and when you're done,disable it with :set nopaste.

If you want to copy something,and you find you copy the linenumbers too, simply shut them offwith :set nonumber, and back onwith :set number.

If you have any questions, orwould like a follow up article with astep-by-step example, please letme know by emailing me atlswest34@gmail.com. If you doemail me, please include C&C orFCM in the subject line, so I don'toverlook it!

Files:My .vimrc (I deleted somefunctions that require externalsoftware or are intended for usewith Mutt, so it may result in oneor two settings not working):http://pastebin.com/wv260CJkThe colorscheme I use (seescreenshot):http://dengmao.wordpress.com/2007/01/22/vim-color-scheme-wombat/Screenshot (full-size):http://lswest.deviantart.com/art/Screenshot-October-2011-262486679

full circle magazine #54 7 contents ^

HHOOWW--TTOOWritten by Greg Walters PPrrooggrraamm IInn PPyytthhoonn -- PPaarrtt 2288

We are going toexplore even morewidgets provided bytkinter. This time we

will look at menus, combo boxes,spin boxes, separator bar, progressbars and notebooks. Let's talkabout them one at a time.

You've seen menus in almostevery application that you haveever used. Tkinter makes it VERYeasy for us to make menus. ComboBoxes are similar to the list boxthat we explored in the last widgetdemo article, except the list “popsdown” instead of being visible at alltimes. Spin box controls are greatfor giving a fixed range of valuesthat can “scroll” up or down. Forexample, if we want the user to beable to choose from integersbetween 1 and 100, we can easilyuse a spin box. Progress bars are awonderful way to show that yourapplication hasn't locked up whensomething takes a lot of time, likereading records from a database. Itcan show the percentage ofcompletion of a task. There are twotypes of progress bars,Determinate and Indeterminate.

You use a determinate progress barwhen you know just how manyitems you are dealing with. If youdon't know the number of items orthe percentage of how done yourtask is at any point, you would usethe Indeterminate version. We willwork with both. Finally a notebookwidget (or tabbed widget) is usedmany times for things likeconfiguration screens. You canlogically group a series of widgetson each tab.

So, let's get started. As usual,we will create a base applicationand build on to it with each extrawidget we add. Shown right is thefirst part of our application. You'veseen most of this before.

Save all of this aswidgetdemo2a.py. Remember wewill use this as the base to build thefull demo. Now we will start theprocess of creating the menu. Hereare the steps we need to do. First,we define a variable to hold themenu instance. Like most anywidget we use, the format is...

OurVariable = Widget(parent,

options).

import sys

from Tkinter import *

import ttk

# Shows how to create a menu

class WidgetDemo2:

def __init__(self,master = None):

self.DefineVars()

f = self.BuildWidgets(master)

self.PlaceWidgets(f)

def DefineVars(self):

pass

And here is the bottom of our program. Again, you have seen thisbefore. Nothing new here.

if __name__ == '__main__':

def Center(window):

# Get the width and height of the screen

sw = window.winfo_screenwidth()

sh = window.winfo_screenheight()

# Get the width and height of the window

rw = window.winfo_reqwidth()

rh = window.winfo_reqheight()

xc = (sw­rw)/2

yc = (sh­rh)/2

print "{0}x{1}".format(rw,rh)

window.geometry("%dx%d+%d+%d"%(rw,rh,xc,yc))

window.deiconify()

root = Tk()

root.title('More Widgets Demo')

demo = WidgetDemo2(root)

root.after(13,Center,root)

root.mainloop()

full circle magazine #54 8 contents ^

HOWTO - PROGRAM IN PYTHON - PART 28In this case, we are using the

Menu widget and we will assign itto master as the parent. We do thisunder the BuildWidgets routine.Next we create another menu item,this time calling it filemenu. Weadd commands and separators asneeded. Finally we add it to themenu bar and do it all over againuntil we are done. In our example,we'll have the menubar, a Filepulldown, an Edit pulldown and aHelp pulldown (top right). Let's getstarted.

Next (middle right) weconcentrate on the File Menu.There will be five elements. New,Open, Save, a separator and Exit.We'll use the .add_commandmethod to add the command. Allwe really need to do is call themethod with the text (label = ) andthen provide a callback function tohandle when the user clicks theitem. Finally we use themenubar.add_cascade function toattach the menu to the bar.

Notice that the Exit commanduses “root.quit” to end theprogram. No call back needed forthat. Next we'll do the same thingfor the Edit and Help menus.

Notice the part in each of the

menu group definitions that says“tearoff=0”. If you were to changethe “=0” to “=1”, the menu wouldstart with what looks like a dashedline and if you drag it, it “tears off”and creates its own window. Whilethis might be helpful sometime inthe future, we don't want thathere.

Last but not least, weneed to place the menu.We don't do a normalplacement with the .grid()function. We simply add itby using the parent.configfunction (bottom right).

All of this has gone inthe BuildWidgets routine.Now (next page, topright) we need to add ageneric frame and set thereturn statement beforewe move on to thePlaceWidgets routine.

Finally (next page,bottom right) we need to create allthe callbacks we defined earlier.For the demo, all we'll do is printsomething in the terminal used tolaunch the program.

That's it. Save and run the

def BuildWidgets(self,master):

frame = Frame(master)

#==============================

# MENU STUFF

#==============================

# Create the menu bar

self.menubar = Menu(master)

# Create the File Pull Down, and add it to the menu bar

filemenu = Menu(self.menubar, tearoff = 0)

filemenu.add_command(label = "New", command = self.FileNew)

filemenu.add_command(label = "Open", command = self.FileOpen)

filemenu.add_command(label = "Save", command = self.FileSave)

filemenu.add_separator()

filemenu.add_command(label = "Exit", command = root.quit)

self.menubar.add_cascade(label = "File", menu = filemenu)

# Create the Edit Pull Down

editmenu = Menu(self.menubar, tearoff = 0)

editmenu.add_command(label = "Cut", command = self.EditCut)

editmenu.add_command(label = "Copy", command = self.EditCopy)

editmenu.add_command(label = "Paste", command = self.EditPaste)

self.menubar.add_cascade(label = "Edit", menu = editmenu)

# Create the Help Pull Down

helpmenu = Menu(self.menubar, tearoff=0)

helpmenu.add_command(label = "About", command = self.HelpAbout)

self.menubar.add_cascade(label = "Help", menu = helpmenu)

# Now, display the menu

master.config(menu = self.menubar)

#========================================

# End of Menu Stuff

#========================================

full circle magazine #54 9 contents ^

program. Click on each of the menuoptions (saving File|Exit for last).

Now (below) we'll deal with thecombo box. Save your file aswidgetdemo2b.py and we'll getstarted. The imports, classdefinition and the def __init__routines are all the same, as is thebottom part of the program. We'lladd two lines to the DefineVarsroutine. Either comment out the“pass” statement or erase it andput in the following code. (Iincluded the definition line just forclarity.)

First we define a label, whichwe've done before. Next we definethe combo box. We use“ttk.Combobox”, define the parentand set the height to 19, the widthto 20 and the textvariable to“self.cmbo1Val”. Remember thatwe set textvariables in the lastwidget demo, but just in case youforgot...this is changed anytime thevalue in the combo box is changed.We defined it in DefineVars as aStringVar object. Next we load thevalues that we want the user tochoose from, again we defined thatin DefineVars. Finally we bind thevirtual event

HOWTO - PROGRAM IN PYTHON - PART 28

self.f1 = Frame(frame,

relief = SUNKEN,

borderwidth = 2,

width = 500,

height = 100

)

return frame

Next we (as we have done multiple times) deal with placing ourother widgets.

def PlaceWidgets(self,master):

frame = master

frame.grid(column = 0, row = 0)

self.f1.grid(column = 0,

row = 0,

sticky = 'nsew'

)

def FileNew(self):

print "Menu ­ File New"

def FileOpen(self):

print "Menu ­ File Open"

def FileSave(self):

print "Menu ­ File Save"

def EditCut(self):

print "Menu ­ Edit Cut"

def EditCopy(self):

print "Menu ­ Edit Copy"

def EditPaste(self):

print "Menu ­ Edit Paste"

def HelpAbout(self):

print "Menu ­ Help About"

def DefineVars(self):

self.cmbo1Val = StringVar()

self.c1Vals = ['None','Option 1','Option 2','Option 3']

After our the self.f1 definition in BuildWidgets and before the “return frame” line insert thefollowing code.

# Combo Box

self.lblcb = Label(self.f1, text = "Combo Box: ")

self.cmbo1 = ttk.Combobox(self.f1,

height = "19",

width = 20,

textvariable = self.cmbo1Val

)

self.cmbo1['values'] = self.c1Vals

# Bind the virtual event to the callback

self.cmbo1.bind("<<ComboboxSelected>>",self.cmbotest)

full circle magazine #54 10 contents ^

<<ComboboxSelected>> to thecmbotest routine that we will fleshout in a minute.

Next let's place the combo boxand the label into our form (topright).

Save everything and test it out.

Now save as widgetdemo2c.pyand we'll start with the separatorbar. This is SO super easy. While theupdated tkinter provides aseparator bar widget, I've neverbeen able to get it to work. Here'san easy work around. We use aframe with a height of 2. The onlychanges to our program will be thedefinition of the frame inBuildWidgets after the combo boxbind statement and placing theframe in the Place Widgets routine.So, in BuildWidgets put in thefollowing lines (shown middleright)...

Once again, you've seen all thisbefore. Save and test it. You'llprobably have to expand thetopmost window to see theseparator, but it will become muchmore evident in the next demo.Save as widgetdemo2d.py and we'lladd the spin control.

Under DefineVars, add thefollowing line...

self.spinval = StringVar()

By now, you know that this is sowe can get the value at any timewe want. Next, we'll add somecode to the BuildWidgetsroutine...just before the “returnframe” line (bottom right).

Here we define a label and thespin control. The spin controldefinition is as follows:

ourwidget =

Spinbox(parent,low value,

high value, width,

textvariable, wrap)

The low value must be called as“from_” since the word “from” is akeyword and using that wouldsimply confuse everyting. Thevalues “from_” and “to” must bedefined as float values. In this casewe want it to have a low value of 1and a high value of 10. Finally thewrap option says that if the value is(in our case) 10 and the user clickson the up arrow, we want it to wraparound to the low value and keepgoing. The same works for the lowvalue. If the user clicks the down

HOWTO - PROGRAM IN PYTHON - PART 28

self.lblcb.grid(column = 0,row = 2)

self.cmbo1.grid(column = 1,

row = 2,

columnspan = 4,

pady = 2

)

And finally we put in the callback which simply prints what the userselected into the terminal window.

def cmbotest(self,p1):

print self.cmbo1Val.get()

self.fsep = Frame(self.f1,

width = 140,

height = 2,

relief = RIDGE,

borderwidth = 2

)

And in PlaceWidgets put in this …

self.fsep.grid(column = 0,

row = 3,

columnspan = 8,

sticky = 'we',

padx = 3,

pady = 3

)

self.lblsc = Label(self.f1, text = "Spin Control:")

self.spin1 = Spinbox(self.f1,

from_ = 1.0,

to = 10.0,

width = 3,

textvariable = self.spinval,

wrap=True

)

full circle magazine #54 11 contents ^

HOWTO - PROGRAM IN PYTHON - PART 28arrow of the control and the valueis 1, it wraps to 10 and keeps going.If you set “wrap=False”, the controlsimply stops at whichever directionthe user is going.

Now we'll place the widgets inPlaceWidgets (below).

Again, that's it. Save and play.You'll really notice the separatornow.

Save as widgetdemo2e.py andwe'll do the progress bars.

Again, we need to define somevariables, so in the DefineVarsroutine add the following code...

self.spinval2 = StringVar()

self.btnStatus = False

self.pbar2val = StringVar()

It should be pretty obvious whatthe two StringVar variables are.We'll discuss the “self.btnStatus” ina moment. For now, let's go anddefine the widgets for this portionin BuildWidgets (right).

Again this goes before the“return frame” line. What we aredoing is setting up a frame for usto put the widgets into. Then weset up two labels as guides. Nextwe define the first progress bar.Here the only things that might bestrange are length, mode andmaximum. Length is the size inpixels of our bar. Maximum is thehighest value that will be seen. Inthis case it's 100 since we arelooking at percentage. Mode in thiscase is 'indeterminate'. Remember,we use this mode when we don'tknow how far we've gotten in atask so we just want to let the userknow that something is happening.

Next we add a button (you'vedone this before), another labelanother progress bar and anotherspin control. The mode for thesecond progress bar is“determinate”. We will use the spincontrol to set the “percentage” ofcompletion. Next add the followinglines (next page, top left) into thePlaceWidgets routine.

self.lblsc.grid(column = 0, row = 4)

self.spin1.grid(column = 1,

row = 4,

pady = 2

)

#=======================================

# Progress Bar Stuff

#=======================================

self.frmPBar = Frame(self.f1,

relief = SUNKEN,

borderwidth = 2

)

self.lbl0 = Label(self.frmPBar,

text = "Progress Bars"

)

self.lbl1 = Label(self.frmPBar,

text = "Indeterminate",

anchor = 'e'

)

self.pbar = ttk.Progressbar(self.frmPBar,

orient = HORIZONTAL,

length = 100,

mode = 'indeterminate',

maximum = 100

)

self.btnptest = Button(self.frmPBar,

text = "Start",

command = self.TestPBar

)

self.lbl2 = Label(self.frmPBar,

text = "Determinate"

)

self.pbar2 = ttk.Progressbar(self.frmPBar,

orient = HORIZONTAL,

length = 100,

mode = 'determinate',

variable = self.pbar2val

)

self.spin2 = Spinbox(self.frmPBar,

from_ = 1.0,

to = 100.0,

textvariable = self.spinval2,

wrap = True,

width = 5,

command = self.Spin2Do

)

full circle magazine #54 12 contents ^

HOWTO - PROGRAM IN PYTHON - PART 28Lastly, we add two routines to

control our progress bars (botomright).

The TestPBar routine controlsthe indeterminate progress bar.Basically, we are starting andstopping an internal timer that isbuilt into the progress bar. The line“self.pbar.start(10)” sets the timerto 10 milliseconds. This makes thebar move fairly quickly. Feel free toplay with this value up and downon your own. The Spin2Do routinesimply sets the progress bar to

whatever value the spin controlhas. We print it as well to theterminal.

That's all the changes for this.Save and play.

Now save as widgetdemo2f.pyand we'll deal with the tabbednotebook widgets. In BuildWidgetsput the following code (below)before the “return frame” line...

Let's look at what we did. First,we define a frame for our

# Progress Bar

self.frmPBar.grid(column = 0,

row = 5,

columnspan = 8,

sticky = 'nsew',

padx = 3,

pady = 3

)

self.lbl0.grid(column = 0, row = 0)

self.lbl1.grid(column = 0,

row = 1,

pady = 3

)

self.pbar.grid(column = 1, row = 1)

self.btnptest.grid(column = 3, row = 1)

self.lbl2.grid(column = 0,

row = 2,

pady = 3

)

self.pbar2.grid(column = 1, row = 2)

self.spin2.grid(column = 3, row = 2)

def TestPBar(self):

if self.btnStatus == False:

self.btnptest.config(text="Stop")

self.btnStatus = True

self.pbar.start(10)

else:

self.btnptest.config(text="Start")

self.btnStatus = False

self.pbar.stop()

def Spin2Do(self):

v = self.spinval2.get()

print v

self.pbar2val.set(v)

#=======================================

# NOTEBOOK

#=======================================

self.nframe = Frame(self.f1,

relief = SUNKEN,

borderwidth = 2,

width = 500,

height = 300

)

self.notebook = ttk.Notebook(self.nframe,

width = 490,

height = 290

)

self.p1 = Frame(self.notebook)

self.p2 = Frame(self.notebook)

self.notebook.add(self.p1,text = 'Page One')

self.notebook.add(self.p2,text = 'Page Two')

self.lsp1 = Label(self.p1,

text = "This is a label on

page number 1",

padx = 3,

pady = 3

)

full circle magazine #54 13 contents ^

HOWTO - PROGRAM IN PYTHON - PART 28notebook widget. Now we definethe widget. All the options areones we've seen before. Next wedefine two frames named self.p1and self.p2. These act as our pages.The next two lines(self.notebook.add) attach theframes to the notebook widget andthey get a tab attached to them.We also set the text for the tabs.Finally, we put a label on pagenumber one. We'll put one on pagenumber two when we place thecontrols just for fun.

In the PlaceWidgets routine putthe following code (below).

The only thing that mightpossibly be strange is the label onpage two. We combine thedefinition and placement in thegrid with the same command. Wedid that when we did our firstwidget demo app.

That's it. Save and play.

As always the full code for thefull application is up on pastebin athttp://pastebin.com/qSPkSNU1.

Enjoy. Next time we'll deal withsome more database stuff.

self.nframe.grid(column = 0,

row = 6,

columnspan = 8,

rowspan = 7,

sticky = 'nsew'

)

self.notebook.grid(column = 0,

row = 0,

columnspan = 11,

sticky = 'nsew'

)

self.lsp1.grid(column = 0,row = 0)

self.lsp2 = Label(self.p2,

text = 'This is a label on PAGE 2',

padx = 3,

pady = 3

).grid(

column = 0,

row = 1

)

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full circle magazine #54 14 contents ^

HHOOWW--TTOOWritten by Hans Vandeveire FFrreeeeMMiinndd

NOTE: LibreOffice will returnnext issue.

FreeMind is a mindmapapplication: a graphic wayof structuring thoughts,opinions, ideas, objects, or

any other thing you need to havevisualized in a nice way.

A mindmap can be used forstructuring any information in anydomain: it's a way to organizedetails, input or records of anykind. Examples could be: ashopping or to-do list; a note-taking tool in classrooms; apresentation tool for boardmeetings... in fact: the possibilitieswith mindmap applications arelimitless.

Amongst all other mindmapsoftware, FreeMind is a free andhigh quality program andproductivity tool, made in Java, andlicensed under GNU 2 GPL V2+,meaning it's free to use theprogram for whatever purpose youwant. As it is developed in Java, it

is available on any computerplatform such as Linux, Apple/Mac,or Microsoft environments.

FreeMind is the ideal tool for,let's say, anything you need toorganize in your daily life, atschool, or at work . Planning andorganizing parties, weddings, orany event; projects like moving toanother place, building a newhouse, or reconstructing thekitchen; it's even an interestingway to collect recipes, phone

numbers, or as a catalog of yourstamp collection. Teachers can useit to prepare and present lessons;students can use it as an exampreparing program; and even forwriting essays it can be very useful.At work I use FreeMind daily forpreparing and presentingmeetings, brainstorming, and as ato-do list. By the way: thisFreeMind article is mainly writtenin FreeMind and exported toLibreOffice for editing and finetuning afterwards.

Installing theapplication

Installing FreeMind is easy: justgrab it from the repository bysearching for it in KpackageKit(KDE) or in the Ubuntu SoftwareCenter (Gnome): all necessary fileswill be installed in a moment. TheFreeMind startup icon will beshown in the office-category:clicking on it will launch theapplication in seconds.

Exploring theapplication

As soon as you have theapplication on your desk, you'lldiscover:• the menu: you'll find common'file', 'edit', and 'view' menu-itemsand specific application-items (inmost cases a keyboard shortcut isalso available)• a horizontal toolbar: you'll findmost used application commandsas a button or dropdownlist• tabs: you can open differentmindmaps and switch easily fromone to another

full circle magazine #54 15 contents ^

HOWTO - FREEMIND• the main window: your workingplace: start thinking, and writewhat you think• a secondary vertical toolbar: youcan add icons to nodes, here youcan pick them• a note window (at the bottom):you can add text (html) to aselected node

Using the application

The first time you openFreeMind, a brand new emptymindmap is ready for your brilliantideas: click on 'New Mindmap', andchange the title to your subject(e.g. 'FCM article about FreeMind').

Press the <insert> key for afirst-level item (e.g. 'introduction'),and press <enter> for the secondfirst-level item (e.g. 'installing theapplication'). Create new childnodes and sibling nodes as freshideas are bubbling up in your head.

You can use shortcut keycombinations: use arrow keys tonavigate from one node toanother; and <insert>, <enter>,<escape>, and <delete> keys forbasic editing; you use <F2> for aselected node to edit the text ofthe node.

Of course, you can use themouse to select a node and click onthe menu items or buttons tocreate your entire mindmap.Clicking on a node with child nodeswill open or close the nodes (andattached nodes), and you can shiftthe complete mindmap to anyplace by clicking and draggingoutside a node.

For practical reasons, nodes areusually rather short, although it'spossible to create long nodes. It'spossible to attach a note for aselected node (bottom window).Use the built-in simple html-editorfor good looking text formatting oreven tables. Advanced users cantry the html code view (second tabat the bottom of the note window).A note can be the text of a chapter(node), or extra information for anitem (node).

Pressing the <ALT>+<I>combination opens the iconcatalog: you can add icons to aselected node for betterunderstanding (the icon canexplain a priority level, a to-doresult, a project milestone, ...);icons are also available by clickingon them on the secondary verticaltoolbar on the left.

And another function is makingthis software a high qualityproduct: nodes can be marked ashyperlinks (Insert > Hyperlink) toopen a file, website, or e-maileditor, or to navigate to anotherpart of the mindmap. You can evenlink pictures to a node, and couplenodes with a graphic link (checkthe items in the Insert menu).

If you want to change the orderof the nodes, you can easily dragand drop selected nodes toanother place. The shade of thenode you're dragging the node totells you whether it will be a childor a sibling node.

Even some special functions are

available through the Tools menu.Time scheduled nodes can be madefor reminding the user in a projectmindmap. Revisions can be coloredyellow.

As your mindmap is gettingbigger, you might want to use thefilter (horizontal toolbar, 4th iconfrom left) to find a node or text(press the filter icon and edit thequery you need).

Layout

The layout of your mindmap isstill basic. FreeMind has somefancy features to embellish yourcreation. Clicking on the menu itemFormat > Automatic layouttransforms the simple mindmap

full circle magazine #54 16 contents ^

Hans has been using Ubuntu sinceDapper Drake, works as a systemtester, and is interested in socialmedia, IT, folk music, and Albania.

HOWTO - FREEMINDinto an awesome presentation ofyour ideas.

But more is possible: every node(single or multiple selected) can beedited. You can change the font,size, color, and shape of the nodetext, and also the edges of thenode can be edited. Make nodesblink to get the attention of yourpublic, or draw a cloud around agroup of nodes to emphasize thepriority of the item (Insert > Cloud).The use of styles is possible byright clicking on a node (PhysicalStyle), or by the menu item Format> Physical Style.

Exporting

If content and layout are ready,you might want to export yourmindmap to another format (File >Export):• export a branch to a new map• export to html-file• export to flash html file• export to xhtml file (clickable mapimage or javascript version)• export to OpenOffice/LibreOffice text document (thetext you're reading was originallymade in FreeMind, and thenexported to a LibreOffice .odtformat)

• export to JPG or PNG image file(shown right).Presenting or using your mindmapcan be done in any way, accordingto your needs.

Peferences

By changing the preferences,the user can change defaultsettings such as automatic layout,language, environment, behavior,keystrokes, and more (Tools >Preferences). This way, FreeMindbecomes a very handy tool with apersonal touch.

Documentation

More information is accessiblethrough the Help menu:• a built-in mindmap as a helpfunction is always available,showing all possibilities andfunctionalities of the application• a key-mapping quick guide is alsoavailable in PDF (highlyrecommended if you don't changethe default settings)• a wiki with complete projectinformation, documentation, andFAQ page can be found on theFreeMind wiki.

Don't forget to visit the 'Thank

you for themusic page' toexpress yourthanks andsatisfaction withFreeMind... thisis the only waythe contributorsare being paid!

My opinion

Computersand software aremade to makeour lives andwork easier andmorecomfortable.FreeMind is onegood example ofit: it is easy to install, easy to learnhow to use it, very efficient in awide range of situations, and withinteresting exportingfunctionalities. Some minor pointscould be (but please, ignore them):a poor picture editing functionalityand no kde integration of thesoftware layout. It's a single userprogram, so collaboration withmultiple users at the same time isnot possible (yet?); but it is easy tospread the file by mail or by web -thanks to the many ways of

exporting the file.

Install and try it right away;write a review about your favourite(k)ubuntu software with FreeMindand send it to Full Circle.

full circle magazine #54 17 contents ^

HHOOWW--TTOOWritten by Allan J. Smithie BBaacckkuupp SSttrraatteeggyy -- PPaarrtt 22

Let's rewind. In part one, weposited that the safestdata storage plan goessomething like this:

• local machine disk: original ormaster copy• network storage disk: common orshared copy• off-line storage, which these daysmeans remote cloud storage, oron-line back-up.

This isn't simply jumping on thebandwagon of 'Clouds witheverything.' A true off-site backupuses someone else's data-center,which is itself backed up. Thisoffers maximum peace of mindthat your precious, ephemeral datacan't be lost, even if your originalgoes up in flames, down in floods,or gets exterminated by a BlueScreen of Death.

We all know the issues with thetraditional backup solution; eitherit's not done regularly, orsomebody sends the wronggeneration of tapes to the off-sitesafe. Or your data DVD sits on topof the book-case for six monthswhen you should have taken it to

Grandma's house. 'The Cloud' maybe flavor-of-the-year right now, butthat doesn't mean you shouldignore, we should say, themultitude of Clouds available.Cloud back-up has become anindustry in and ofitself. Your onlyreal difficultyis choosingwhichCloud andwhichprovidermeetsyourneeds.Everyoneseems tobe offeringCloudstorage, that'snot the same as aCloud back-up service.

Perhaps we should begin byrunning down a check-list to helpmake the decision.

Cost

It's where I always start. Is there

an up-front fee? What's theongoing monthly or annual fee?

How much storage do I get formy money? What service level –

that's performance and up-time availability –

does that buy me?How big is the

jump betweenprice andstoragebands?

Cloudbackup is acrowded,immature

market rightnow, with

providersclamoring for our

business. For theaverage householder,

there are introductory offers ofbasic packages at zero cost, allluring us in with the prospect ofthe up-sell later. I like free storagespace. It seems everyone'sproviding it, so we have to refineour criteria.

Software

All the mature services offerdedicated software clients tomanage the upload and downloadprocess. All claim to be crossplatform, so long as that meansWindows and Mac. Many now havea Linux client available.

I like the idea of browser-basedupload and download, also called“NOT having to use a proprietaryprogram to access the service.”This is where Ubuntu One scores,even though it's basic Cloudstorage rather than a fully-fledgedcloud backup at present.

Ease of Use

We also want ease of use,whereby;• setup and installation is simple,and completed within a few stepsof downloading the software.• on-line backup can run in thebackground while we get on withour normal activities, withouthogging all our bandwidth; a user-setting for the upload speed is

full circle magazine #54 18 contents ^

HOWTO - BACKUP STRATEGY - PART 2essential.• includes and excludes are easilydefined for each back-up set, to thelowest granular level of file nameor file type, using wild-cards.• the scheduler should allowunattended back-ups to afrequency and time-of-day set byyou, preferably down to theminute.• data can be restored easily andimmediately, with some notion ofversioning of back-up sets.• we have easy, centralizedmanagement of all our backupssets with sufficient meta-data todistinguish sets from each other.

Encryption

These days we should take datasecurity very seriously. Thank you,Sony and the DoD. A true back-upof all your important stuff is goingto include your personal stuff,banking, and correspondence.Nobody wants to suffer identitytheft.

As far as the Cloud is concerned,there are several ways of doingthis, the best being to implement asolid version of 128-bit encryption,minimum, at the client end, beforeit leaves your machine to travel

over the wire. Preferably thisshould include blind signing so thatnobody at the provider has yourkey which could compromise yourdata, either through an inside jobor as the victim of an external hack.You have to be your ownpoliceman.

Performance

We absolutely need speed andreliability. The platform at theproviders' facility also needs to bescalable; it shouldn't slow down orfail every time the US East Coastwakes up and goes on-line en massat 8am EST. The theory alsoneeds to work inpractice, asAmazon S3discoveredearlier thisyear.

Theservicealsoneeds tomaintainour datamirroredforresilienceand fail-over,as protection

against data loss due to sabotage,fire, theft, flood, virus, or otherdisasters. Put another way, yourCloud service shouldn't be keepingboxes of tapes at Grandma's house.This is what we in business call acompliance test.

Convenience

Now things get interesting,separating men from boys, sheepfrom goats, and mixed-metaphorsfrom clichés. It may be that thedeciding x-factor is one of these;• file-sharing capabilities; beingable to define shares, 'rooms',

'peeks', or public links at thegranular file level,

with some tieredsecurity

according topermissionsthat youalone areable to setfrom yourmanagementconsole.• remote web

access to data,at anytime.

Ideally it's thatbrowser-based

client that allows you

to securely access your data(perhaps without all thecapabilities as the dedicated client)from any machine.• true 24-by-7-y-365 dataavailability. See Performance.• status reporting for verificationand audits. We need to haveconfidence demonstrated byproper management information.

Very little of this is new; in fact,most conventional client-sidebackup applications and web-hosting services have all thesecovered; now is the time to put thetwo together in the Cloud. Withthese considerations in mind, youcan now look at the variousservices on offer, and judge foryourself how they stack up.

Allan J. Smithie is a journalist andcommentator based in Dubai. Hisblog, 'No Expert,' is at:http://allanjsmithie.wordpress.com

full circle magazine #54 19 contents ^

HHOOWW--TTOOWritten by Jesse Avilés UUbbuunnttuu FFoorr BBuussiinneessss && EEdduuccaattiioonn -- PPtt..33

Quick, what is 20×3+5? Ifyou can read this, andanswer the previousquestion, you can thank a

teacher. Did you use a calculator, ora specific set of eyeglasses, tosolve the equation? The teachertaught you the mental process toit. From these basic building blocks,you learn increasingly complexconcepts. It is not until you get to auniversity that you are limited to acertain set of tools to complete thetask at hand, and sometimes due toa physical need (think of amicroscope). Let’s look at twoother equations:

The results for both equationsare different. There is a mnemonic,PEMDAS, that reminds us that theorder to solve an equation is:

parenthesis, exponentials,multiplication, division, additionand subtraction. When I startedcollege, my parents bought me anHP-42S because I needed agraphics calculator. It was anexcellent calculator, but it did notwork for me at first. The calculatorwas based on the Reverse PolishNotation (RPN)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_Polish_notation), which I did notknow at the time. It took me aboutan hour to get the hang of it. RPNis not the usual way we are taughtin school. In RPN, the operators(mathematical operation) comeafter the all the operands(numbers) it will be applied to.Thus, the equations in RPN will be:

15 5 ÷ 7 + 20 3 ×15 5 ÷ 20 3 × 7 +

In order to solve the equations,in the traditional or RPN way, youhave to know how it is done. Thetool that you use, traditional orRPN calculator, will give the sameresults. The important part is themental process. Think for a minutehow different things will be if wewere only taught to punch

numbers in a calculator, a specificcalculator at that, and then havethe calculator die on us. In the US,those of us that hold a bachelor'sdegree have to go through around16 years of school. We are taughtto use tools, yes, but mostly tothink, to push ourselves to resolveproblems in a creative way - so thatthe people around us and the nextgeneration can do better. Back inthe Greek empire, grown men weretaught algebra. What they learnedwe now call pre-algebra, and teachit to seventh graders!

Once you have learned, youstart using tools to improve yourwork. Scribes learned how to read,write, and do math. They were alsoemployed to copy old texts. Thiscopying was done by hand whichwas slow and painful. WhenGutenberg introduced the printingpress, the process of creatingbooks changed forever. Today, wehave word processors that makethe process easier. And still,learning to write by hand is arequired skill. Tools exist just toimprove our basic skills.

As a kid, papers I had to turnover to the teachers were alwaysdone by hand. I would really likethat this be a requisite up to sixthgrade because it ingrains thesyntax and grammar rules in ourkids. My daughter has usedcomputers to do school-work sincefourth grade. One time, I looked atthe screen and told her thatseveral words were misspelled. Heranswer was that I should not worrybecause the computer will fix themfor her. I was astonished! She didnot care about proper spellingbecause a “tool” could do it for her.Here was a prime example thatlearning was changing and not forthe better.

Where does Ubuntu fall in allthis? Ubuntu, like Windows,Android, OSX, iOS, and manyothers, is an environment for tools.They all offer their capabilities forthose who use them. What Ubuntuoffers that really differs in ameaningful way to schooladministrators is cost savings. I hada computer for nine years. Thatcomputer started as a Windows XPmachine, and died with Ubuntu in

full circle magazine #54 20 contents ^

HOWTO - UBUNTU FOR BUSINESS & EDUCATIONit. That is nine years of notacquiring new hardware, and notpaying (a lot) for software. Thesaved money can be used forcapital improvements to the school- which endure for a long time, andbenefit generations of students.

For students, it offers tools thatthey can use at home without ahuge cost and, in many instances,for free. It also offers a deterrentto (some) software piracy. It alwaysblows my mind when a kid pirates1GB of Adobe CS when they couldfreely download Kompozer,Scribus, Inkscape, and GIMP, andget the same results (meanwhiletheir parents do nothing about it).Getting used to a different set oftools also forces the student tolearn the basics to be able totransport that knowledge todifferent tools.

Take, for example, web pages.Some schools offer courses in webpage creation. These schools buyDreamwaver, and go through thetemplates. They spend little timeexplaining what HTML and CSS are,and how they are integrated. Youcan always learn to useDreamweaver or Expression Web,but, no matter what your tool is,

the basics are the same. In Ubuntu,you may use Bluefish or Kompozer.With Bluefish you have to knowyour basics because there is noWYSIWYG interface. Kompozer hassuch an interface, and, once youknow your basics, the WYSIWYGinterface will help you a lot but notall the time.

Another tool to emphasizeproper skills is Latex. Latex is allabout writing and producingwritten documents. Latexphilosophy is that the writer shouldworry about writing and thesoftware worries about thepresentation. Go to therepositories and try Lyx. You willnotice that it is not your regularword processor. You cannot addmeaningless space to separatewords or paragraphs, or setcapricious fonts throughout thedocument. As it says in their webpage: “What you see, is what youmean.” You have to concentrate injust writing. Sections, paragraphs,syntax, lists, definitions, emphasis,and flow are your realm;presentation is Latex. A great toolfor aspiring writers to reallyconcentrate on their writing.

You will notice that I have not

mentioned Edubuntu. That isbecause I have had mixed successwith it. Edubuntu offers a broadset of tools to students. It offerspre-school to high school (andsome more) software. The basicEdubuntu distribution is good as astarting point for people withmixed needs (think grades). If thepopulation you will serve isuniform, you can download Ubuntuand just install the target schoolgrades you need. Another thing toconsider is that you may not wantthe software offered by Edubuntu,and a plain Ubuntu install willsuffice.

One of Edubuntu strongestpoints is the use of iTALC(http://italc.sourceforge.net/) andLTSP (http://ltsp.org/). iTALCprovides classroom management.With it, the teacher can see all thecomputers in the room, andprovide remote help and tutorials.LTSP lets schools use less powerfulcomputer hardware for thestudents, and moves the OS andcomputational needs to a powerfulserver.

School administrators flock toWindows because that is what theyare used to, because it is agency

policy, because it is in theircomfort zone. As personal trainerseverywhere say: “You have to moveout of your comfort zone to getresults.” Andalucía, think of it as astate in Spain, in 2003, establisheda law to use free software. To thateffect, in 2003, a Linux distributionwas created to use in schools. Thedistribution is calledGuadalinexedu(http://www.guadalinexedu.org/),a mixture of Ubuntu andGuadalinex(http://www.guadalinex.org/). It isin use in over 2,500 centers and500,000 computers. For those ofyou that can read Spanish, checkAndalucía's Board free softwaredeclaration athttp://www.juntadeandalucia.es/organismos/economiainnovacionyciencia/temas/tic-telecomunicaciones/software-libre.html.

For those who install Ed/Ubuntuin their schools, be aware of theuse of codecs. As I said previously,Ubuntu does not provides thelicenses to create mp3, mp4, wma,wmv, mpg, and so many others.You will have to obtain thoselicenses if you want to createcontent in those formats. That will

full circle magazine #54 21 contents ^

not limit your capabilities. You canalways encode to FLAC (losslesscompressed audio), ogg Vorbis(lossy compressed audio), and oggTheora (video), and, pretty soon, toGoogle's VP8/WebM.

I have had mixed success in myUbuntu installations. Ten (a punynumber, I know) of theinstallations, I have followedthrough the years. Some have hadUbuntu since 8.04. Just oneinstalled a pirated Windowsversion. That one is in a church, andused for the youth in thecommunity. Shame on them! Twohave Edubuntu, used by kids inelementary and middle school. Allsay that they will not change theirUbuntu computers. The only badthing is that they will not buy a newcomputer pre-installed withUbuntu. I stay hopeful.

HOWTO - UBUNTU FOR BUSINESS & EDUCATION

Jesse is an industrial microbiologistfrom the environmental field whonow works for the government.Along the way loving FOSS and waysto help people with it.

The Ubuntu Podcast covers all thelatest news and issues facingUbuntu Linux users and FreeSoftware fans in general. Theshow appeals to the newest userand the oldest coder. Ourdiscussions cover thedevelopment of Ubuntu but aren’toverly technical. We are luckyenough to have some great guestson the show, telling us first handabout the latest excitingdevelopments they are workingon, in a way that we can allunderstand! We also talk aboutthe Ubuntu community and what itgets up to.

The show is presented bymembers of the UK’s Ubuntu Linuxcommunity. Because it is coveredby the Ubuntu Code of Conduct itis suitable for all.

The show is broadcast live everyfortnight on a Tuesday evening(British time) and is available fordownload the following day.

podcast.ubuntu-uk.org

Server Circle is a new question and answer site run bytechies.

Users with any level of experience can ask technicalquestions for free about anything server related, andreceive answers from trusted experts, who are rated bythe community.

With time you can earnreputation points, and evenfinancial rewards, bycontributing your answers toquestions from other people.

http://www.servercircle.com

NOTE: Server Circle is not affiliated with, nor endorsed by, Full Circle magazine.

full circle magazine #54 22 contents ^

HHOOWW--TTOOWritten by Artemy Vysotsky AApptt--CCaacchheerr--NNGG

I've only ever had twocomputers running Ubuntu, Isomehow tolerated the needto download the same

packages twice. But, now I'mplanning to add one or two more.And it seems such a waste of timeand traffic. So, I started looking fora solution, and found the apt-cacher program. I have installed itand was rather satisfied with theresults... till I upgraded my servermachine to Ubuntu 11.04. Whileapt-cacher was enabled, all myupdates were returning errors. So, Istarted again looking for asolution, and have encounteredanother deb-package proxy – apt-cacher-ng. I have replaced my oldpackage proxy with the new one,and now updates on my secondmachine take no time at all.

So, what is apt-cacher-ng, andwhy do you need it? This is theprogram that caches all yourdownloaded .deb files, and sharesthem among all your computers inthe LAN - eliminating the need todownload the same package againand again.

Below, I will describe the step-by-step procedure I followed toinstall and configure it in mynetwork.

As a source for the procedure,the tips from the followingdiscussion were used:http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1327179.

I had apt-cacher alreadyinstalled, so:• I copied all my deb-files stored inthe apt-cacher cache (folder -/var/cache/apt-cacher/packages) toa temp folder on my homepartition.• removed apt-cacher completely.

If you do not have apt-cacherinstalled, you'll just skip these twosteps as not relevant.

Next, install the apt-cacher-ngpackage on your server using yourpreferred package install method.

Start the program. In terminalmode, run the command:

sudo /etc/init.d/apt­cacher­

ng start

Configure the package routineson your other computers to useapt-cacher-ng as a proxy. There areseveral approaches to do this. Theone that worked for me, and seemsto be the simplest, uses the/etc/apt/apt.conf configurationfile. Edit this file, or create it if itdoes not exist. You can use thefollowing command in terminalmode:

sudo nano /etc/apt/apt.conf

You can replace nano with thename of your favorite text editor,for example, gedit. Add thefollowing line to the file:

Acquire::http { Proxy

"http://192.168.2.11:3142";

};

Replace the 192.168.2.11 withthe IP Address of your servercomputer. The same action shouldbe done on each Ubuntu computerin your network.

Next, run the “update” usingyour package managementsoftware. For example, in terminal

mode, you can use the followingcommand

sudo apt­get update

This ensures that the apt-cacher-ng builds the packageindex. Now it will know whichpackages it should store in thecache.

Actually, at this point the proxyis ready to work, but the cache isempty, and it will take time topopulate it with packages. But wait– I have already stored some deb-files just for this moment. So nowis a good time to make use of allthe deb-files I have saved:• Go to the /var/cache/apt-cacher-ng folder, and create _import sub-folder.• Copy all deb-files stored in yourtemp home folder to/var/cache/apt-cacher-ng/_import(and delete the temp folder and itscontents).• I also have some packages in thelocal apt caches on both myUbuntu computers. So I also copiedall deb-files from/var/cache/apt/archives on both

full circle magazine #54 23 contents ^

HOWTO - APT-CACHER-NGmy computers to the/var/cache/apt-cacher-ng/_importfolder on my server computer.

Now it is time to actually runthe import process. The program iscontrolled through a web page. Soopen

http://<IP_address_of_server>

:3142

and you will get the pageexplaining the usage of apt-cacher-ng, and with the small link“Statistics report and configurationpage” in the “Related links”section. Clicking on the link willbring you to:

http://<IP_address_of_server>

:3142/acng­report.html

Scroll down and click the “StartImport” button. This will openanother page detailing the packageimport process as it goes. It willtake some time depending on thenumber of packages you want toimport.

From now on there will be noneed to download the same packetseveral times for differentcomputers. For further reading,you can open the documentation

installed with apt-cacher-ng andavailable throughhttp://localhost/doc/apt-cacher-ng/html/index.html on your servercomputer. Note that you will needto change the defaultconfiguration of the apache2server to make the serverdocumentation available on allyour LAN computers. To do so:• open the /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default file forediting as root. For example usethe following command

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites­

enabled/000­default

Replace nano with your favoritetext editor if you wish.• Find the section that starts withAlias /doc/

Modify the entry 'Allow from' togive access to all computers in yourLAN.For example:Allow from

10.1.0.0/255.255.0.0

will give access to thedocumentation directory throughyour apache2 web-server from allIPs in the range 10.1.x.y

I hope this guide will help youset your home network for moreefficient use.

Book ReviewBarefoot into Cyberspace by Becky HoggeWritten by Robin Catling

Can we keep the Internet an open, democratic and freetool for the betterment of mankind? Barefoot intoCyberspace tackles this question. Written by a recentguest of ours on the Full Circle Podcast, Becky Hoggeis a journalist and former director of the Open RightsGroup. In it, Hogge seeks out the radical hackersopposing the old institutions gathering to control theInternet.

Documenting a personal journey into 'hack-tivism,' Hogge beginsand ends at the Chaos Computer Club's annual conferences in 2009and 2010, in the company of four recurring guides; Stewart Brand,Cory Doctorow (author, blogger and copyleft campaigner), PhilBooth of No2ID and Rop Gonggrijp, co-founder of the Dutch ISPXS4ALL. Along the way, Hogge interviews Wikileaks' Julian Assangeand Global Voices founder Ethan Zuckerman.

Touching the issues of copyright versus copyleft, personal privacy,the surveillance society, freedom of information, censorship and thecommercial takeover of the Internet, this is a study of individualistsagainst institutions, questioning how we might oppose the vestedinterests of moneyed entities with largely amoral agendas.

You also get the slightly anti-climactic story of how Hoggedeclined to join Wiki-leaks, albeit in recognition of the commitment ittakes to be that kind of activist. This running series of encountershighlights the one weakness of a book that never quite ties togetherall its themes into one coherent narrative, but you could argue that'show life is, amplified by the disjointing effect of technology and therapid pace of change.

CONT ON PAGE 26...

full circle magazine #54 24 contents ^

HHOOWW--TTOOWritten by Ronnie Tucker WWrriittee FFoorr FFuullll CCiirrccllee MMaaggaazziinnee

Guidelines

The single rule for anarticle is that it mustsomehow be linked toUbuntu or one of the

many derivatives of Ubuntu(Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, etc).

Write your article in whicheversoftware you choose. I wouldrecommend OpenOffice, butPLEASE SPELL AND GRAMMARCHECK IT!

Writing

In your article, please indicatewhere you would like a particularimage to be placed. Please do notembed images into your OpenOffice document.

Images

Images should be JPG with lowcompression.

Regarding image sizes: if indoubt, send a full size screengraband we will crop the image.

If you are writing a review,please follow the guidelines shownhere.

For a more detailed list of thestyle rules and common pitfallsplease refer to:https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuMagazine/Style - in short: US spelling,no l33t speak and no smilies.

When you are ready to submityour article please email it to:articles@fullcirclemagazine.org

If you can't write articles, buthang out in Ubuntu Forums, sendus interesting forum threads thatwe could print.

Non-English Writers

If your native language is notEnglish, don't worry. Write yourarticle, and one of theproofreaders will read it for youand correct any grammatical orspelling errors. Not only are youhelping the magazine and thecommunity, but we'll help you withyour English!

REVIEWS

Games/ApplicationsWhen reviewing games/applications please state clearly:

• title of the game• who makes the game• is it free, or a paid download?• where to get it from (give download/homepage URL)• is it Linux native, or did you use Wine?• your marks out of five• a summary with positive and negative points

HardwareWhen reviewing hardware please state clearly:

• make and model of the hardware• what category would you put this hardware into?• any glitches that you may have had while using the hardware?• easy to get the hardware working in Linux?• did you have to use Windows drivers?• marks out of five• a summary with positive and negative points

You don't need to be an expert to write anarticle - write about the games, applicationsand hardware that you use every day.

full circle magazine #54 25 contents ^

LLIINNUUXX LLAABBWritten by Ronnie Tucker ZZoonneeMMiinnddeerr CCCCTTVV -- PPaarrtt 33

So, we’ve got our CCTV torun as a monitor to seewhat’s going on outside;we can record said events;

and we can even detect motion totrigger a recording. But, how do wedeal with false positives? Read on.

With ‘Modect’ (motiondetection) enabled as your‘Function’ in ZoneMinder, click the‘0’ (zero) under ‘Zones’, and you’llsee a new window:

This is where we will definezones to include, or exclude, fromthe motion detection. Click ‘AddNew Zone’ to get another new

window (shown below).

The zone window will let youassign a name to your zone; then,in the drop down menus, you cantell ZoneMinder what you want thiszone to be. Active is just that, thezone is activated and ready formovement within it. Inclusive,Exclusive, and the other types, arebest explained in the ZoneMinderwiki at:http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/Documentation#Defining_Zones. For example, you couldcreate a zone around your carwhich would be active while

another zone could be inclusive.This means that, when your carzone becomes active, it wouldtrigger your inclusive zone(s) torecord catching the thief leavingthe scene of the crime. To edit thefirst zone (the first one is alreadycreated in the window and iswaiting for you to edit it), yousimply drag the corners of the (inthis case) green box to surroundthe area. You can click the small ‘+’icon beside a point to add anotherpoint after it - to help in creatingcomplex zones. Next, choose apreset for the zone, the preset willdepend upon your hardware and

how precise you want to be in themonitoring.

So, I’ve created an active zonewhich excludes my left hand.

If I move my left hand to myright side, or move my right arm,then an alarm will be activated, butif I keep my left hand on the track

full circle magazine #54 26 contents ^

If you want a grand 60 Minutes-style expose of dark deeds,conspiracy theory and armed insurrection - this won't be the book foryou. It's altogether gentler than that. Enjoy the retrospective of the“hacker” movement and origins of the 1970's counter-culture;communes seeking freedom, peace and love, through the earlyexamples of Brand, Stallman, Lessig and the pioneers of the hackermovement, which, remember, is about more than just getting freestuff.

Rop Gonggrijp gets all the best lines - well, they are his lines:  “I thinkmostofwhatwere fighting still today in theworldis

incompetence. Mostofwhatwe’re fighting is stupidity, andmaybe a

little bit ofopportunism. There is also the ominous, control-seeking large

corporate interests."

The cover illustration invokes Alice on the threshold ofWonderland, which chimes with the book's sub-title Adventures inSearch of Techno Utopia. Hogge writes with the small, quiet voice ofan Everyman, certainly no innocent, but in the spirit of the hacktivists,struggling to navigate foggy and potentially dangerous roads to theneon Utopia we are still promised. Gonggrijp again:

"We come in peace. We’re notcalledChaosComputerClub because

we cause chaos. Ifanything, a lotofourcollectiveworkhas actually

preventedchaos bypointing out thatmaybewe shouldlaysomedecent

virtual foundations beforewe buildanymore virtual skyscrapers."

Barefoot into Cyberspace is available as a download and as apaperback on Amazon.

Barefoot into Cyberspace: Adventures in search of techno-Utopia by BeckyHogge illustrated by Christopher Scally ISBN978-1-906110-50-5 (print) | 978-1-906110-51-2 (Kindle)

Becky Hogge is interviewed in Full Circle Side-Pod EpisodeTen: Dancing in Bare Feet

LINUX LAB - ZONEMINDER CCTV - PART 3pad - even while moving it - then noalarm will trigger.

I knew it! I’ve always has mysuspicions that my right hand wastrying to steal my laptop!

Like we did last time, you clickthe number below events to seeyour list of events, and click to playback the recorded alarms.

You can get really complex zone

patterns in ZoneMinder, so takethe time to play with them!

Next month we’ll have an articlefrom John D showing you how toset up VOIP at home.

Ronnie is the founder and editor ofFull Circle, and a self-taught artistwho's website is at:http://ronnietucker.co.uk

full circle magazine #54 27 contents ^

CCLLOOSSIINNGG WWIINNDDOOWWSS ZZoonneeMMiinnddeerr CCCCTTVV -- PPaarrtt 33Written by:Ronnie Tucker (KDE)Jan Mussche (Gnome)Elizabeth Krumbach (XFCE)Mark Boyajian (LXDE)David Tigue (Unity)

In this new section of FullCircle, I’d like to show certainfeatures of Windows (XP inthis series of articles, as I feel

it’s the most widely-used edition ofWindows) for the sole purpose ofshowing beginners their *buntuequivalent. I say *buntu as I will notfocus solely on Ubuntu - I will alsoinclude Kubuntu, Lubuntu, andXubuntu, as they each have theirown way of doing things due toeach of them using their owndesktop manager (Gnome/Unity,KDE, LXDE, and XFCE respectively).

DESKTOP

Windows XP has its familiar blueand green taskbar with a particularstyle and layout on each windowthat is opened. That is the Windowsdesktop. Each version of Ubuntuhas its own desktop. Gnome (andUnity, the Ubuntu-only front-end to

Gnome) has a different way of doingthings compared with KDE (used inKubuntu), but each version (orderivative) has the same underlyingUbuntu foundation. So, whether youinstall Kubuntu or Lubuntu, you’restill using a version of Ubuntu; it’sjust that the desktop looks, feels,and works, differently. For eachWindows feature that I discuss, I’llattempt (with the help of my co-authors) to show how things aredone using the four most populardesktops as mentioned in myintroduction.

C:\ AND MYDOCUMENTS

Every Windowsuser is familiar withthe ‘My Computer’icon. Double-clicking ‘MyComputer’ on the

Windows desktop/menu presents awindow showing your storagedevices such as C:\ and any USBmedia.

Kubuntu has a similar option in itsmenu. Clicking the K button in your

Kubuntu Ubuntu (Classic)

Lubuntu

Xubuntu

Ubuntu (Unity)

Windows XP

full circle magazine #54 28 contents ^

bottom taskbar will give you amenu with tabs along the bottom.Clicking the ‘Computer’ tab willgive you access to your storagedevices, just like in Windows’ ‘MyComputer’. As does Gnome - yousimply click the menu Places in theupper panel, followed by thechoice: Computer. Unity (which isstill under heavy development as Iwrite this) does it by clicking on the‘Home Folder’ icon in the launcheron the left hand side of the screen.The icon is an orange file folderwith a house on it. Ubuntu willshow the root of the hard drive onthe left hand side, along with otherstorage devices and favoritefolders. In the right hand side ofthe application, it will show thefolders inside the currently logged-in users personal home directory.

Open the C:\, and you’ll get alist of folders including things like‘My Documents’, ‘My Pictures’, andso on. Linux (which is what Ubuntuis based around) works quitedifferently in this respect. TheLinux file system has a ‘root’ folder.Think of that as your C:\ and yourWindows folder. In other words:don’t tinker with them! One folderin root is called ‘home’. This homefolder is where each user gets theirown personalised folder - which

will contain all their stuff. Youcould, in essence, think of yourpersonal home folder as your ownC:\ drive, but, like Windows, yourhome folder has a list of pre-madefolders for documents, video, andso on. Again, like Windows, you’refree to create whatever foldersyou like in your home folder.Clicking K > Computer > Home willgive you the Kubuntu equivalent ofthe C:\ drive. For Gnome, you clickon the menu Places again, this timefollowed by Home Folder, and inUnity it’s done in the same way asbefore - click on the ‘Home Folder’icon in the launcher. Also you cansearch through your files andfolders by clicking on the ‘DashHome’ icon in the launcher. Onceinside the ‘Dash’, click on the ‘Filesand Folders’ lens. It is located atthe bottom center of the ‘Dash’,and looks like a piece of paper withthe top right hand corner foldedover.

Lubuntu has no exactequivalent to the Windows “MyComputer”. In Lubuntu, all accessto storage devices (network andlocal devices) is done in the FileManager (called PCManFM). TheFile Manager, which is found byclicking the Lubuntu logo on thetaskbar and selecting Accessories >

CLOSING WINDOWS Kubuntu Ubuntu (Classic)

Lubuntu

Ubuntu (Unity)

XubuntuWindows XP

full circle magazine #54 29 contents ^

CLOSING WINDOWSFile Manager, has two panes; allavailable local storage locations(drives and partitions) are displayedin the left pane above thehorizontal divider.

For Xubuntu, you double-click onthe ‘Home’ icon on your desktop togain access to your storage devices.All equivalents to the My Computerfolder (or Home in *buntu) areshown right.

PROGRAM FILES

Windows has a special foldercalled ‘Program Files’ and it’s inhere that most Windowsapplications are installed. Linux,again, works differently. It installsapplications either in your homefolder (so that only you can run theapplication), or in the root (so thatseveral users can run it), but, eitherway, the application is installed tohidden/restricted folders. Don’tworry about this for now as we’llget to installing applications in alater article, but suffice it to saythat you shouldn’t manually deleteapplications as, just like inWindows, it can cause instability.

EXPLORER

To open folders in Windows, youdouble click an icon, and a windowappears. That window is calledExplorer. Windows Explorer letsyou look at your own computer andthe files on it, just like InternetExplorer lets you look at theInternet. Each Ubuntu desktop hasits own equivalent of explorer.Gnome has Nautilus. Clicking theGnome icon in the taskbar, thenSystem Tools > File Browser, willshow you the Gnome (Ubuntu)equivalent of explorer, and it will,usually, open by default in yourhome directory. Unity does this by,once again, clicking on the ‘HomeFolder’ in the launcher on the leftside of your screen. You can goback to the root and explore thereif you wish, but try and changeanything and it will ask you for apassword. This is to preventaccidental deletion of critical files.It’s also called the ‘root’ password.Think of it as being like theadministrator password inWindows. Once it’s entered, youhave ultimate access to the filesystem and could, in theory, wreakhavoc. Kubuntu has its KDEequivalent of explorer calledDolphin; it’s found by clicking K >Computer > Home (or K > Favorites> File Manager) on the taskbar. Windows XPXubuntu

Ubuntu (Classic)

Ubuntu (Unity)

Lubuntu

Kubuntu

full circle magazine #54 30 contents ^

KubuntuDOLPHIN

Windows XPEXPLORER

XubuntuTHUNAR

Ubuntu (Classic)NAUTILUS

Ubuntu (Unity)NAUTILUS

LubuntuPCMAN

CLOSING WINDOWSLubuntu (using LXDE) has the

File Manager, and it’s found byclicking the Lubuntu logo on thetaskbar and selecting Accessories >File Manager. Xubuntu (XFCE) has afile manager called Thunar - whichcan be accessed by clicking on theXubuntu mouse icon at the top leftyour your screen and going toAccessories > File Manager. LikeWindows, you click the X icon in thecorner of the window to close it -with the other two icons letting youmaximise and minimise eachwindow. With Unity, the buttons toClose, Maximize, and Minimize, arelocated on the top left of thewindow when it is not full-screen,but, once the window has beenmaximized, the buttons will be

hidden in the main panel in the topleft hand of the screen. You have tomove your mouse pointer up to thepanel for the buttons to revealthemselves.

We could devote an entire issueto the items within Explorer andthe *buntu equivalents, but have alook at the menu items in yourdesktop’s windows. Most of theitems are quite self-explanatory,and I’m sure we’ll touch more uponthem in future articles.

Next issue, we’ll talk about the*buntu equivalents for the everfamiliar Control Panel and DeviceManager.

full circle magazine #54 31 contents ^

MMYY SSTTOORRYYWritten by Kavinda Bandara

I'm a doctor in Sri Lanka,currently waiting till I get myfirst appointment.

I had my first experience withGNU/Linux when I came acrossRedhat, which was used by one ofmy cousins, in 2004. Then I got toknow about Ubuntu through him,and he made me get free CDs ofUbuntu and Kubuntu. It was in2006, when I was a med student, Itried it on my home computer, butthe experience was not that nice,as I didn't have Internet, hence nofurther source of information.

I had my laptop in 2007. It wasan HP Pavilion DV9000 with 1 GBRAM. The default OS was Vista, andyou can imagine the picture. It wasgood at first sight, but becamecreepy and annoying whenever Iused it. And it was consuming themajority of my RAM and 160GBhard disk, so I wanted a solution.

I again came across Ubuntu, andlearned that it had improved a lot,with frequent updates, upgrades,and new versions. So I requested

the CD in shipit, and could getthem delivered to home within acouple of weeks. First, I tried it as alive-CD, and, once I wascomfortable enough, I installed itas dual boot with Vista. I had a biglearning curve ahead, so I wadedcarefully, and took my time torepeatedly go through the try-break-mend-learn cycle. When Icould get Internet later, as it wasthen somewhat affordable, I couldmove fast with great forums andsupport pages maintained byexperts. Ultimately, I even couldidentify the script for prepaidInternet connections of my ISP,which was not available accordingto their customer care!

I continued to move with eachversion of Ubuntu, which becamesimpler, user friendly, andattractive every time. Every time itwas a clean install, but I stayedwith dual boot. When 10.10arrived, I decided to give up Vista. Iupgraded to 11.04, but, since it hadmany bugs, I reverted back to10.10. Now I'm fully comfortablewith Ubuntu and alwaysrecommend it to others. And I have

started a blog on Ubuntu, and I tryto continue it - even with my busyschedule.

Now, my friends find my laptopbeing a “hotspot” to have a peepin, but still many stay withWindows. Main fear they have isthe learning curve ahead of them.But I was able to change one ofthem to Ubuntu, and he found it soeasy that he stayed with it. Also,my girlfriend loves my system, andknows how easy it is. My sisterrecently requested dual-boot withUbuntu in her new laptop.

The drawbacks I came acrosswere many. We had some softwarethat need windows to run, but Icould manage with alternativetools, WINE, or with a virtualmachine with windows XP.And the false belief ofbeing difficult-to-useis another deeplyestablished idea, thatis strengthened bythe market sellers andthe authorities we have.So, they tend to buy anexpensive OS, or have a

pirated version and spend somemore money on software, speciallyon virus guards. Reliability isanother issue for them, but not forme. This is far more reliable thanWindows.

I would like to have a goodorganization/forum/communitysuch as Ubuntu community in SriLanka, as it would solve manyproblems we, the users and thenewcomers, have. This is acommunity product after all, right?

full circle magazine #54 32 contents ^

MMYY SSTTOORRYYWritten by Jim Roche

My history withcomputers dates backto the 1970's startingwith using Fortran on

a Honeywell mainframe atUniversity. This was followed byBasic on HP minicomputers andafterwards some experience withIBM mainframes and DEC VAX andPDP systems. My first personalcomputer was an Apple IIe runningCP/M followed by adventures withthe DEC Rainbow before moving onto IBM PC XT, DOS and laterWindows. I can actually rememberWindows 1.0 becoming available in1986 and being very unsure as toit's acceptance. Around the sametime, I had a Mac SE and an AppleLaserwriter for desktop publishing.In short, I worked with multiplehardware platforms, variousoperating systems, many differentapplications and became quitecomfortable with all of them.

The creation of Linux in theearly 90's was of some interest tome but I admired it from afar as Iwas busy with other things. Ubuntuwas the first distribution I everused and that was the Feisty Fawn

release in 2007. However, I alwaysinstalled them in a dual-bootarrangement and never reallycommitted to Ubuntu. In themeanwhile, I had pretty muchreached frustration levels with thevarious Windows versionsand Vista was the laststraw. It was timeto commit: Idecided todedicate anIBM T42 laptop(PentiumMobile 1.7GHz,1.GB RAM,60GB HDD, 15XGA+(1400x1050)TFT LCD, 64MB ATIRadeon 9600, CD-RW/DVD, 802.11b/g wireless)to Ubuntu and did that with Lucidin 2010, followed by Maverick andNatty. As I moved through thevarious releases over the years, theimprovements seemed slow andsteady rather than dramatic to thepoint where a Natty clean installwent without a hitch. Previously, Ihad tried the upgrade route fromMaverick to Natty but hadproblems I was unable to resolve.

Of course, Natty arrived withUnity and that caused me somebother. My comment in Full Circle#49 was "I don't like it.Immediately after installing Natty, I

tried to use it for a coupleof hours but found it

inconvenient andintrusive. Things

were not where Iexpected themto be, or didn'tdo what Iexpected them

to do. After awhile, I was able

to figure thingsout, but it still took

me longer to doanything. I was glad to have the

option to switch back to "classic"".Since then I have taken the time toswitch to Unity and now use it fulltime with fewer and fewer issues.There are still some odd things likethe inability to move the Launcherand the consequent "conflict" withthe Back button on Firefox.

Having worked with Maverickand Natty daily for over a year, I

can see no reason not torecommend Ubuntu to otherpeople although I am frequentlysurprised by the number of peoplewho know little of Linux and less ofUbuntu. However, given the costsassociated with the Windowsroute, it makes a lot of sense tomake the switch. The main concernis the compatibility issue withapplications running on othersystems. Unfortunately, thatmeans compatibility with MSOffice and web sites optimized foror requiring Internet Explorer.Again, these issues are very minorin all practical applications.

At this point, I have one otherPC running Windows 7 mainly forAdobe Lightroom photomanagement software. As soon asthere is an equivalent Linuxproduct, that will be the end ofWindows on any of my PC's. I amwaiting for the latest release ofDarktable with great interest.

I also have an older PC runningXP which is used for occasionalbrowsing and this will be my nextupgrade project.

full circle magazine #54 33 contents ^

II TTHHIINNKK...... What age do you think the averageLinux user is?

Last month's question was:

I think this is the age rangewhere the majority of Linuxusers are today -- most are

college students and youngprofessionals. (20-29)

Young people might havemore knowledge to separate acomputer from an OS, and they

are willing to try something new.(20-29)

No longer caught up in fadsand peer pressure. (40-49)

I imagine younger users don't

really care about their choice ofOS, and only know Windows orApple OS. (30-39)

Silver Surfers want a fast, easy,dependable PC! (60-69)

Visual observation at OhioLinux Fest (40-49)

When they become aware ofthe Microsoft tax! (30-39)

That was the age I got started,and older people usually wantthe corporate jobs. This means

Windows is predominantly used.(20-29)

I see more and more youngpeople using Linux, whereas Ithink most of the older people

just stick with the preinstalledWindows, which just works. (20-29)

What age do you think the average Linux user is? ... and what is your age?

The question I'd like to pose for FCM#55 is:

Did you upgrade your current *buntu to11.04? If so, how? If not, why? Or did you do afresh install?

To give your answer, go to: http://goo.gl/huUna

10­19 12 4%

20­29 146 43%

30­39 137 40%

40­49 31 9%

50­59 11 3%

60­69 2 1%

70+ 2 1%

10­19 27 4%

20­29 84 43%

30­39 93 40%

40­49 54 9%

50­59 35 3%

60­69 34 1%

70+ 14 1%

““

““

““

““

““

““

““

““

““

full circle magazine #54 34 contents ^

full circle magazine #54 35 contents ^

RREEVVIIEEWWWritten by Luca Bergesio

As per the results of thelatest research, workingwith more than onemonitor can increase

your productivity by 9 to 50percent. Often, modern PCs havetwo video outputs, but what canwe do if we have a graphics cardwith a single output and we wantto connect two or more monitors?In this situation, it is not possible toconnect the second screen withoutchanging the video card. A solutioncan be to connect the secondmonitor to another PC so you canwork with two screens, but also ontwo different computers with twosets of keyboard and mouse. Thesolution is Synergy (http://synergy-foss.org/). Synergy is a free andopen-source software releasedunder the terms of the GNUGeneral Public License. With thissoftware, you can share yourmouse and keyboard betweenmultiple computers, where each PChas its own display.

The first version of Synergy wascreated in May 2001 by ChrisSchoeneman; it was written in C++and it worked with the X Window

System only. In 2009, ChrisSchoeneman, Sorin Sbârnea, andNick Bolton started a fork ofSynergy named Synergy+ with theaim of making a cross-platformsoftware. Now, this fork projecthas been merged back intoSynergy. The latest stable version is1.3.7, while 1.4.3 is a beta version.

Synergy uses a local areanetwork and it can share mouse,keyboard, and clipboard betweentwo or more PCs. Anotheradvantage is that Synergy issupported on Windows, Mac OS X,and Linux, so each PC can have adifferent operating system. In thismanner, you do not need emulatorsor virtual machines, each programruns on its operating system.Clipboard works with a small ftpclient-server application within themain program which allow you tocopy and paste between PCs,regardless of their operatingsystems. Redirecting the mouseand keyboard is as simple asmoving the mouse off the edge ofyour screen. Key presses will bedelivered to whichever computerthe mouse-pointer is located in.

The program is based on aclient-server architecture. Theserver defines which screen-edgeslead to which machines, and shareits mouse and keyboard. Clients areconnected to the server to offerthe use of their desktops. WithSynergy, you have a multiplemonitor system with thecomputing power of manycomputers, and you can work onmany operating systemsconcurrently.

You can download the programfrom http://synergy-foss.org/download/. Here is anexample of a configuration file forthe server (two PCs, pc1 on the

right and pc2 on the left, both infront of you).

section: screens

pc1:

pc2:

end

section: links

pc1:

left = pc2

pc2:

right = pc1

end

If you do not like to write configfiles, you can install a GUI, forexample Qsynergy(http://code.google.com/p/quicksynergy/). The version for Windowshas the GUI within the installer. Torun the programs use these

SSyynneerrggyy

full circle magazine #54 36 contents ^

REVIEW: SYNERGYcommands:

client: synergyc ip_addr_pc1

server: synergys ­­config

filename.conf

The main problem of Synergy issecurity, if you work on a non-trusted local network. In fact,communications are not encryptedand key presses, mousemovements and clipboard contentssent to Synergy clients can beeasily sniffed on network traffic.You can solve this problem byconfiguring an SSH server so allcommunications are tunneledthrough a secure encryptedconnection. In this page there is aguide to configure Synergy withSSH: http://synergy-foss.org/pm/projects/synergy/wiki/Security

For my own experience, I useSynergy every day at work, where Ihave a laptop and two servers. Thelaptop has its own screen and asecond monitor, while each of theservers has a video card with onlyone output. I use all PCs with akeyboard and a mouse connectedto one of the servers. When I needa Windows program, I do not needemulators or virtual machines, I

simply restart the laptop inWindows and I can work as before,with my four “monitors-PCs”system.

Score: 9/10

Good:• Works on Windows, Linux, andMac OS X, and allowscommunications between them• Clipboard works between PCs,regardless of their operatingsystem• You can connect several PCs (andmonitors), and control all of themwith only one keyboard and mouse• No latency for mouse movementsand key presses

Bad:• Communications are notencrypted• Sometimes does not write somespecial character on a client, evenwith the same operating system (é,ë, â, etc.)• If the PC with the server is locked,you cannot use client PCs

A PLEA ON BEHALF OF THEPODCAST PARTY

As you often hear in the podcast, we're callingfor opinion topics for that section of the show.

Instead of us having a rant about whateverstrikes us, why not prompt us with a topic andwatch for the mushroom clouds over thehorizon! It's highly unlikely that the three of uswill agree.

Or, an even more radical thought, send us anopinion by way of a contribution!

You can post comments and opinions on thepodcast page at fullcirclemagazine.org, in ourUbuntu Forums section, or emailpodcast@fullcirclemagazine.org. You can alsosend us a comment by recording an audio clip ofno more than 30 seconds and sending it to thesame address. Comments and audio may beedited for length. Please remember this is afamily-friendly show.

It would be great to have contributors come onthe show and express anopinion in person.

Robin

full circle magazine #54 37 contents ^

LLEETTTTEERRSSEvery month we like to publish some of the emails we receive. If you would like tosubmit a letter for publication, compliment or complaint, please email it to:letters@fullcirclemagazine.org. PLEASE NOTE: some letters may be edited for space.

FoxPro

What I need is asubstitute forMicrosoft FoxPro -the database

program Microsoft bought fromthe originator, and then effectivelyburied. I use FoxPro to run a bigyouth baseball league. I don't needa big multi-user relational databaseprogram: I am the only user. ButFox has a great structure for what Ido, and I hate to leave it behind inorder to switch to Linux. Doesanyone know of a good substitutethat does not require learning anentire new database manipulationparadigm?

Bob Nelson

Ubuntu To The Rescue!

I'm an Ubuntu user now for 3years. I still work on Windowssystems. The other day, Ishowed up at a friend’s house

who was receiving the “blue screenof death”. I attempted to get themachine to boot but kept receiving

“do you want to format the drive?”message. I took the hard drivehome and decided to take a look atit with my Ubuntu system. Guesswhat, one pop up window - and I'mviewing the hard drive content.Back to my friend’s new machinenow, and trying to copy XP externalhard drive data to a win7 system,and can't get past the permissions.After researching on the net, I sawadvice to use Ubuntu cd to copyfiles. Why is it that Ubuntu has tobail out Windows all the time?Anyways, with Ubuntu, I'm able tocopy his recent files off of his harddrive, and he is one happy camper.The more I use Ubuntu, the moreI'm happy with it.

Bob K

Genealogy Addition

This page,www.fileyourpapers.com,has some great ideasconcerning filing

paperwork so that there is aminimum of fuss in finding whatyou're looking for. For Gramps, try

the method shown for PAF - I thinkthe numbering schemes are thesame.

Dave Rowell

Garmin GPS

I would like to see an article on“How to Update my GarminGPS” - using Ubuntu or anyGNU/Linux distribution.

Garmin seems to be stuck on usingMS products, and forcing theircustomers to do the same. Also, Ithink a small article in each month’sissue about some vendor that all ofus should write to requesting thattheir product be made compatiblewith GNU/Linux, preferablyUbuntu. Maybe starting withGarmin, TurboTax, and Netflix -even though Netflix is going downthe tubes. I stopped usingTurboTax and now use TaxSlayer.

Not bad for a 75-year-youngavid Ubuntu user.

Jim Bainter

Ifanyone out there can help Jim

with hisGarmin GPS, please dropme

an emailwith info, oran article, and

I’ll pass it along. - ED

First Cousin - TwiceRemoved

I want to thank the editors,cast, and crew, and especiallyDave Rowell, for thereview/article on GRAMPS in

FCM#51. It motivated me to getoff my duff and begin my ownfamily research. I look forward toFCM#52, and the article showinghow to get started. I have begunusing GRAMPS, but, it is rathercounter intuitive, and I'd rather

Join us on:

facebook.com/fullcirclemagazine

twitter.com/#!/fullcirclemag

linkedin.com/company/full-circle-magazine

ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=270

full circle magazine #54 38 contents ^

LETTERSspend my limited time doingresearch than learning how touse the program. I'mstarting to getoverwhelmed by theamount of familydata that I amfinding, and I amjust nowstarting tocorrelate thatdata, and Ithink this iswhere GRAMPSis going to be ahuge asset.

It's like thecommercials forancestry.com that say“You don't have to knowwhat you're looking for;you just have to start looking!” Oneof their commercials is of a womanwho says she found out hergrandparents lived next door tothe Wright Brothers and she says,“How cool is that?” Well, I think Ican top that. How about knowingall your life from family folklorethat you are related to Mark Twain(Samuel Langhorn Clemens), butnever knowing the exactrelationship. Then you find veryconcrete evidence, without muchsearching or cost, that Mark Twain

was actually your grandfather'sfirst cousin, and realizing at that

point that Mark Twain isyour first cousin-twice

removed. That's theequivalent of

realizing that TomSawyer,Huckleberry Finn,and even BeckyThatcher arereally yourcousins and thatthe former slave,

Jim, is yourfavorite uncle.

“How super-duperCOOL is that?”

If you are part of myreally large family,

especially if you are on theBritish side of the pond, please goto genforum.com and look for thethread 'Clemons in Virginia', andsee what we have come up with sofar, and add anything to it that youcan. It is evident that there is anAfrican-American branch to thefamily. How and when did thatbranch occur? Bruce Spingsteen'ssaxophonist, Clarence Clemonsrecently died. Was he a closecousin also? Inquiring minds (mine!)want to know. I can't speak foreveryone in my family, but, for me,

that would be almost as huge asdiscovering that I'm related toMark Twain.

John D. Clemonsjclemons@naxs.com

Upgrading 11.04

A quick remark about thearticle "Upgrading From11.04" on page 42 ofFCM#53:

When upgrading to a newerversion, or re-installing the sameversion, or installing a new versionit is always good to back-up yourdata. But, when you are reallycareful and know what you aredoing it is not necessary. So, if youdon't have means to make a back-up outside your computer read on.There is, however, one thing youneed to have done already: giveyour home folder a separate diskor partition. In other words don'tlet it be inside the installation ofyour OS. Have a disk or partitionfor "/", one for "/home", and maybeothers for "/var", "/usr" orwhatever.

During installation of a new

version or re-installation of yourpresent OS you have to make sureyou choose the right answer whenthe installer comes to the questionwhere you want to install. Don'tchoose entire disk, but choosesomething like: Manual, or choose:Let me decide. (I don't have theright text here at the moment).This way you can install the OS onthe same partition as you havedone before. Simply point to theold "/" partition, give it the name"/" again and format it. Do thesame for the other separatepartitions (var, usr, ...) but for"/home" you only point to thepartition and DON'T format. Thisway it will be included in theinstallation but you will keep yourdata.

I have done it this way for many(re-)installs and never lost a thing. Imust say I do make back-upsregularly (every week) and beforea new install. But I've never had touse the back-up because I neverlost my data.

Jan Mussche.

full circle magazine #54 39 contents ^

QQ&&AACompiled by Gord Campbell

If you have Ubuntu-related questions, email them to:questions@fullcirclemagazine.org, and Gord will answer them in a futureissue. Please include as much information as you can about your problem.

Q I am using Evolution formy email. I cannot movean email from Junk Mailto another folder, it just

makes a copy of the message, stillin the Junk Mail folder.

A (Thanks to Barry in theYahoo Ubuntu Linuxgroup) Mark it as 'notjunk' before trying to

move it.

Q I am using the long-termversion of Ubuntu, but Iwould like to have laterversion of applications.

A Have a look at thisarticle in the CommunityDocs:https://help.ubuntu.com

/community/UbuntuBackports

Q I'm looking for Linuxsoftware that does whatthe following softwaredoes for Windows:

EMCO MoveOnBoot 2.2.5Unlocker 1.9.1XPlite/2000LitenLiteFaronics Anti-Executable 3.40 (or)Faronics Deep Freeze 6.62DriveShield Plus

A Most of those are notrequired for Linux.Remastersys is similar tonLite or Deep Freeze.

Q In Libre Office or OpenOffice, how can I find andreplace paragraphbreaks?

A (Thanks to David Shawin the Yahoo UbuntuLinux group) In the Findand Replace dialogue,

click on "More Options." Tick the'Regular expressions' box. A list ofcommon regular expressions canbe found athttp://help.libreoffice.org/Common/List_of_Regular_Expressions

For instance, to find a tab, or

replace with a tab, use \t in therelevant box. Paragraph breaks arefound/replaced with a '$' symbol.Should you actually want tofind/replace a dollar symbol, youneed to use '\$', or switch regexoff.

Q I have 11.04 installedwithout problems forabout 2 weeks now. Ichanged something in

compiz, and now, when I started upthe computer, there is no menu onthe left or the top.

A Follow thistroubleshooting guide:http://www.tuxgarage.com/2011/04/missing-

top-and-side-panels-in-unity.html

Q I want to buy a monitor -what's compatible?

A Any monitor shouldwork just fine, as long asyour PC has the rightconnector for it

(HDMI/DVI/VGA/Displayport).

Q Wind Mobile offers amobile broadband servicewith the E1691 devicefrom Huawei. How can I

use it?

Ahttp://hireknowledge.ca/pdf/Tutorial_Huawei_E1691_Linux_v1.0.pdf

This tutorial might also providehints for people with otherInternet sticks on other wirelessnetworks.

Q I installed Ubuntu 9.04from CD to an oldcomputer I had lyingaround. I tried installing

versions 10 and 11, but thecomputer ran very very slowly,while with 9.04 it's pretty good.

full circle magazine #54 40 contents ^

Q & ATrying to do sudo apt-get udpatefails on everything because it can'tfind the files online. I read thatversion 9.04 is not supported andeven these old files are notavailable anymore. What should Ido?

A Try the current versionof Xubuntu or Lubuntu.

Q I have an AMD RadeonHD5770 graphics card.The GPU cooling fanalways runs at full speed,

regardless of GPU load. It makesmy PC sound like a jet-plane takingoff.

A It turned out thatinstalling the FGLRXdriver solved the fanissue.

Q I use Ubuntu 10.04. MyHP B110A prints fine, butit won't scan.

A Install the latest versionof HPLIP:

sudo add­apt­repository

ppa:hplip­isv/ppa

sudo apt­get update

sudo apt­get install hplip

Q I like the Xfce desktopenvironment, but the onlyproblem is that I can't runany programs because I

have no idea how to give itpermission to run. For example, I'veinstalled a .jar file and have Java 6Runtime installed, but I don't knowhow to give it permission to run.

A It turns out that a jardoesn't have to betagged as executable torun. From Terminal, CD

to the folder where the jar is, thenissue this command:

java ­jar

(where jar is the name of the file).

Q If I download the 64 bit10.10, and install fromthe live usb, will it"overwrite" the old 32 bit

install?

A Yes.

Q I can no longer runUpdate Manager becauseI'm getting the "Notenough free disk space"

problem.

A Running the command:

df ­h

showed that only the bootpartition was low on space. RunSynaptic Package Manager tocompletely remove old kernels,then:

sudo update­grub

full circle magazine #54 41 contents ^

MMYY DDEESSKKTTOOPP

This is my screenshot on

my laptop, it is an HP

from 2006, but works

nicely to surf the Internet,

write mai l , read

newspapers, and use the

bank. I l ike Unity - easy to

use on the laptop - and I

use gkrel lm to monitor.

Per Gylterud

Your chance to show the world your desktop or PC. Email your screenshots andphotos to: misc@fullcirclemagazine.org and include a brief paragraph about yourdesktop, your PC's specs and any other interesting tidbits about your setup.

This is my desktop screenshot. My OS is a homemademixture from Debian base, Ubuntu, Back Track, Hymera,and a lot of extra repositories. I 'm using a lot of softwarefor astronomy, radio communication, and spectralanalysis.

PC specs:Processor Intel Celeron 1.6Ghz1G RamAlternating Gnome with OpenStep and BlackBox

Bratu Florian

full circle magazine #54 42 contents ^

MY DESKTOP

I am running Ubuntu 10.10 on a Del l Vostro laptop -with Intel core 2 duo, 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD,resolution is set to 1280*800. I have been usingUbuntu since 8.04, and, since then, I am in love withit. I am using Ambiance theme with wal lpaper fromUbuntu-art.org. The bottom dock is al igned using AWNmanager; for the gadgets I am using screenlets. Myfriends ask me which operating system is this! ! (openmouthed).

Nityanand Sharma

Here is my current Ubuntu 11.04 desktop.

PC Specs:RAM 2GBProcessor core-i3 2.2GHz.Resolution:1366x768Laptop: lenovo thinkpad E420

Simple efficient ubuntu classic desktop. I use AvantWindow Navigator, Divergence IV – “A New Hope”GTK2 theme with single panel at the top for betterefficiency to do my dai ly tasks.

Nilimoy Buragohain

full circle magazine #54 43 contents ^

HHOOWW TTOO CCOONNTTRRIIBBUUTTEE

We are always looking for new articles to include in Full Circle. For articleguidelines, ideas, and for issue translation, please see our wiki:http://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuMagazinePlease email your articles to: articles@fullcirclemagazine.org

Full Circle Team

Editor - Ronnie Tuckerronnie@fullcirclemagazine.orgWebmaster - Rob Kerfiaadmin@fullcirclemagazine.orgComms Mgr - Robert Clipshammrmonday@fullcirclemagazine.orgPodcast - Robin Catlingpodcast@fullcirclemagazine.org

Editing & Proofreading

Mike KennedyLucas WestermannGord CampbellRobert Orsino

Our thanks go out to Canonical, themany translation teams around theworld and to Thorsten Wilms for thecurrent Full Circle logo.

If you would like to submit news, email it to: news@fullcirclemagazine.org

Send your comments or Linux experiences to: letters@fullcirclemagazine.org

Hardware/software reviews should be sent to: reviews@fullcirclemagazine.org

Questions for Q&A should go to: questions@fullcirclemagazine.org

Desktop screens should be emailed to: misc@fullcirclemagazine.org

... or you can visit our forum via: www.fullcirclemagazine.org

Deadline for Issue #55:Sunday 06th Nov. 2011.

Release date for issue #55:Friday 25th Nov. 2011.FULL CIRCLE NEEDS YOU!

A magazine isn't a magazine without articles and Full Circle is no exception. We needyour Opinions, Desktops and Stories. We also need Reviews (games, apps &hardware), How-To articles (on any K/X/Ubuntu subject) and any questions, orsuggestions, you may have.Send them to: articles@fullcirclemagazine.org