When working on Windows I need Bash. Command prompt is not a patch and I have automated a number of actions using some simple and some not so simple scripts.
Today I found console a nice little shell manager along the lines of Konsole (see what they did there?).
From the Console website ...
Console is a Windows console window enhancement. Console features include: multiple tabs, text editor-like text selection, different background types, alpha and color-key transparency, configurable font, different window styles
This appears to be a great little application and makes it easy to configure Cygwin. You can even defined different shells by the look of it and open tabs based on the shell type. So if you needed to you can have cmd and bash live side by side.
18 May 2011
9 May 2011
File Expert - Android File Manager
Android rocks. I could write post after post about how much I think it makes a mobile phone fun and useful. However, millions of others have done that already and there is more to life ...
Tonight though I had a need to upload a BIG video file to my phone and no cable. I have had File Expert installed for a while. This seemed like a great little file manager app and I have used it as such.
Tonight however, I found that not only can you use it to FTP files to your phone but that it has a basic web server which you can enable which allows you to access your phones file system from a browser. Problem solved.
To do this just click the "share" menu item and choose WEB SHARING. It will give you the ip address to connect to (including port) and a user name and password.
It also has a smb client (Samba) client which I have yet to try fully.
All this from a free app!
Tonight though I had a need to upload a BIG video file to my phone and no cable. I have had File Expert installed for a while. This seemed like a great little file manager app and I have used it as such.
Tonight however, I found that not only can you use it to FTP files to your phone but that it has a basic web server which you can enable which allows you to access your phones file system from a browser. Problem solved.
To do this just click the "share" menu item and choose WEB SHARING. It will give you the ip address to connect to (including port) and a user name and password.
It also has a smb client (Samba) client which I have yet to try fully.
All this from a free app!
22 April 2011
Arch wicd upgrade
Just ran a system update on my Arch install and it failed to commit due to some changes in the wicd package structure.
This post on the forums has a couple of solutions but I ended up forcing an upgrade (-f) on the wicd package and the updated as usual and all was well with my world once again.
This post on the forums has a couple of solutions but I ended up forcing an upgrade (-f) on the wicd package and the updated as usual and all was well with my world once again.
20 March 2011
Arch LibreOffice Spell Checking
I have switched from OpenOffice to LibreOffice. I was interested to see what all the fuss was about and from what I have read I see that the most interesting developments will happen on LibreOffice and OpenOffice will be left as an Oracle application.
So far I have been very impressed. It is fast and everything seems good. I run Arch linux and installed the standard packages. The only issue I found was with spell checking. The standard spell checking packages would not work for me so I have installed hunspell (pacman -S hunspell-foo where foo is your language).
I can only recommend switching.
So far I have been very impressed. It is fast and everything seems good. I run Arch linux and installed the standard packages. The only issue I found was with spell checking. The standard spell checking packages would not work for me so I have installed hunspell (pacman -S hunspell-foo where foo is your language).
I can only recommend switching.
6 March 2011
KDE 4.6.1 Is Out
KDE has announced the release of KDE SC 4.6.1, the first set of fixes and updates for the 4.6 release. Here are the full details.
27 January 2011
KDE 4.6 Is Out!
23 January 2011
Arch Reinstall Gotchas 101
I have used Arch Linux for some time now (3+ years from memory) coming to it from a Debian/Slackware background. I love it it allows me to run a bang up to date KDE desktop on a rolling release basis. For those that would like a more honest review then Kevin Bush did a great review over at Linux Journal very recently.
In the time I have run it I have only installed it twice before and now I am only installing again because I got a shiny new 500gb laptop drive for Gonzo (my Thinkpad!) at Christmas.
One of Arch's many benefits is the documentation and forums. When you install Arch you only install a base system and can then go and build your system your way. No desktop, not many services and only a terminal to log in with.
People have been known to moan abut this approach but I like it. In one evening I had a full KDE desktop (I use the standard Arch Packages for day to day use) up and running. However, I did hit a couple of gotchas which I thought I would document here in case they help anyone else :
Now I am back up and running I can look forward to a few nights setting all my preferences, data and look and feel up. Then I can forget about installing and get on with using.
In the time I have run it I have only installed it twice before and now I am only installing again because I got a shiny new 500gb laptop drive for Gonzo (my Thinkpad!) at Christmas.
One of Arch's many benefits is the documentation and forums. When you install Arch you only install a base system and can then go and build your system your way. No desktop, not many services and only a terminal to log in with.
People have been known to moan abut this approach but I like it. In one evening I had a full KDE desktop (I use the standard Arch Packages for day to day use) up and running. However, I did hit a couple of gotchas which I thought I would document here in case they help anyone else :
NetworkManager has not improved since my last attempt to get networking working with it. I recommend Wicd all the way.
- KDE would not shut down. I spent some time investigating this but ended up on this thread on the forums which helped me to pin it down to the Phonon backend that was being used (Xine). I updated to use the gstreamer backend and all was well.
Getting Dropbox working without installing lots of gnome libraries. For this I found this article which did the job perfectly in about 6 steps. Once done, reboot and on next start up the Dropbox installer will guide you through the rest.
Now I am back up and running I can look forward to a few nights setting all my preferences, data and look and feel up. Then I can forget about installing and get on with using.
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