Richard's linux, web design and e-learning collection

Edubuntu Spash Screen

richbradshaw — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:43:31 +0000

Edubuntu Login Screen

richbradshaw — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:50:51 +0000

Edubuntu Desktop

richbradshaw — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:54:47 +0000

Nautilus running in Edubuntu

richbradshaw — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:57:12 +0000

Edubuntu Lockdown Editor

richbradshaw — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:02:51 +0000

First look at Edubuntu 7.10

richbradshaw — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:10:32 +0000

[digg=http://digg.com/linux_unix/First_look_at_Edubuntu_7_10] Edubuntu 7.10 is a linux distribution based on Ubuntu aimed at schools and teachers. As a new teacher I thought that I would take a look at what Edubuntu has to offer, and whether I think that I would use it in a school environment. I ordered a free cd from ShipIt, and as always this took a couple of weeks to arrive. On booting the cd, I was surprised to see that it's not a live cd like the other deriviatives of Ubuntu, meaning that you have to install it before you can try it out. This adds another barrier to potential users, as installing things is always a pain. When installing you are offered whether to install as a server or workstation. I chose a workstation, as I haven't got enough computers to try out the thin-client functionality that the server version offers. The installer is the standard text installer rather than the more user friendly Ubiquity, but it was easy to use anyway. Again, a live cd would be so much nicer. After installing and rebooting we are greeted by the Edubuntu spash screen shown below. The modification of the standard Ubuntu logo to have a child with their hand up works well, and looks really good.

After this we are shown a log in screen, again modified from the Ubuntu one.

Perhaps a little too orange, but this isn't the worst colouring choices, as we will see!

The default desktop looks like this:

Nice idea for the background, but the colours are slightly jarring.

Again, a rather unusual choice of colours. The Nautilus file browser is themed with a bright red title bar whilst icons use the Gartoon theme, which doesn't quite match with the rest of the system. I can see why they have chosen childish colours and themes, but I'm not sure that it really works - it looks disjointed. As this is an OS aimed at schools, you would expect there to be some extra applications installed - instead it's just the usual Ubuntu applications, with the additon of Gobby collaborative editor. This is essentially gedit but with collaborative features. You can chat with other users and edit documents as a group. Perhaps useful, but if that's the only addition, then it's not overwhelming. The only other new feature is the Lockdown Editor, found in the admin menu.

This offers ways to lockdown various components of the OS, such as disabling the command line, or changing Epiphany so that it can't be closed. (Epiphany isn't installed by default by the way, so this is slightly odd!) Apart from those two things, this is just Ubuntu with a garish theme and two extra things installed by default. According to the Edubuntu site there is another CD that contains all the educational software - you can just get this from the repositories anyway - as you can in Ubuntu normally. In other words, why not just use Ubuntu? Conclusion As a teacher, I would not use Edubuntu in a school environment just yet, though I think that the idea behind the OS has a lot of potential. Pros

Thin client functionality sounds interesting - I'll try and test it when I get a chance
Ubuntu has loads of good software installed, Edubuntu inherits this
Hardware detected easily, uses the Ubuntu 7.10 core, so Compiz etc is all there
Lockdown editor makes it easy to change users permissions

Cons

Essentially just Ubuntu with new theme
No live cd, so new users may find it hard to set up
Distracting colour scheme

Get it at the Edubuntu website. Edit: There is a live cd, just the version ShipIt send out isn't one.

Links

richbradshaw — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 13:14:11 +0000

Places I visit online.

Cumul.us - social weather prediction

richbradshaw — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 15:12:54 +0000

[digg=http://digg.com/software/Cumul_us_social_weather_prediction] Cumul.us is a website that allows people to speculate on the weather, and say what they are going to wear today. Peoples predictions are averaged with data from 3 different weather feeds (apparently this number is to increase) to give an overall prediction for the temperature and weather later that day. If you predict correctly, you get points - currently these don't do anything, but it's good to see how well you are doing! The site is designed using a CSS layout - non trivial for the style of the site, it feels very free-form. Targeted adverts even allow you to buy the products that are recommended to wear each day! A well executed mash up of different data sources. Not many users at the moment, but seems a brilliant idea!

Currently I have a score of 67 - beat that!

artviper.net - thumbnails for websites

richbradshaw — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 15:20:23 +0000

[digg=http://digg.com/programming/artviper_net_thumbnails_for_websites] Having seen these website thumbnails at w3csites, I have found them pretty useful. If you want a small thumbnail of any website, just link as an image to: http://www.artviper.net/screenshots/screener.php?url=websiteaddress for instance like this: You can also specify different image sizes using additional parameters, for instance adding &w=240&h=180&sdx=1024&sdy=768&q=90 to the end of the previous example would give a thumbnail with width 240px, height 180px taken on a screen of resolution 1024x768 with a jpeg quality of 90%. Below is a full list of parameters, as detailed on their site.

url	the URL you want to capture
w	the width of the thumbnail
h	the height of the thumbnail
sdx	the screen port size ( i.e. 1024 ) width
sdy	the screen port size height
q	the quality of the image ( jpeg ) - from 30 to 90 %
rot	rotate the image yes / no ( 1 / 0 )
deg	degree of rotation ( from - to 360 )
bg	background color when rotated in hex, without #

All images taken using artviper take a while to appear, but I've found that after around 24 hours they are done. They are cached, so they only need to be generated once. More details at artviper.net.

K menu

richbradshaw — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 19:23:33 +0000

KDE 4.0 RC 1 running on Kubuntu 7.10

richbradshaw — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 19:37:59 +0000

[digg=http://digg.com/linux_unix/KDE_4_0_RC_1_running_on_Kubuntu_7_10_Screenshot_mini_tour/blog] Having been as excited about KDE 4.0 as most people, I was keen to try the beta releases, though I didn't want to compile it myself. Consequently, I waited for packages to become available for Kubuntu 7.10, as this seems the most convenient way to try it out. I followed the instructions detailed on the Kubuntu website, though found that several of these packages are broken and won't install correctly. These unfortunately include Konqueror and Dolphin amongst others, so the testing I was able to do was limited. (see Edit at bottom - this has been resolved!) To install on Kubuntu 7.10, add deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/tsimpson/ubuntu gutsy main to your /etc/apt/sources.list then make sure you run sudo aptitude remove kdebase-workspace kde4base-dev kdelibs5 before running sudo aptitude install kdebase-dev-kde4 kdebase-workspace-dev kdebase-runtime kdm-kde4for best results. (i.e. fully uninstall any previous betas of KDE 4) Then run cp usr/lib/kde4/share/kde4/apps/kdm/sessions/kde.desktop /usr/share/xsessions/kde4.desktop Change the Name section in /usr/share/xsessions/kde4.desktop to be called "KDE 4" by using nano /usr/share/xsessions/kde4.desktop Then nano /usr/lib/kde4/bin/startkde and add

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/kde4/lib
export KDEDIRS=/usr/lib/kde4
export PATH=/usr/lib/kde4/bin/:$PATH
export KDEHOME=~/.kde4

to the top of the file. Log out and choose KDE 4 in the session chooser in KDM. (I didn't bother with the xephyr stuff as suggested on the Kubuntu page, as that's only if you don't want to run KDE 4 as it's own session.) On boot up, it's clear that there are numerous bugs in these packages that make it unusable - all the different components or plasmoids open up, but you can't move them. Also, none are stuck to the panel at the bottom, meaning that there is a free floating KDE menu that can't be moved. The easiest thing to do is to close them all, then just activate one at a time to see them. If you add plasmoids, they appear behind the add widgets window, so you might want to move it first, otherwise you will end up with loads of them behind it!

Add widgets dialog

Weirdly, if you move the scroll wheel on the desktop, it scrolls up and down - currently this has some weird behaviour as shown below - this does let you move the K menu down though so you can see it all.

Looking at the K menu, it has been nicely redesigned, as in previous releases - there are multiple sections on it, including a favourites section that remembers the most used applications.

The many faces of the new K menu.

As mentioned previously, Konqueror and Dolphin don't install, so we can only see the old versions. Below are some other screen shots, including those of the icon themes and the widget themes.

Default widgets

Over all, things look good - shame that it's not really ready to use full time, but I think that it's worth waiting for! Edit: Having played some more, it turns out you can drag and drop the widgets, but they won't stick to the panel yet. You can also rotate them and enlarge them however you like.

The ? lets you move them round, the purple circle lets you rotate and scale.

I also managed to get Dolphin et al. installed - here's a look at that.

Here's the system monitor with new SVG graphs:

Stumble It!

Interactive Periodic Table

richbradshaw — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 19:08:56 +0000

Nothing as ground breaking as some of my previous posts, but this interactive periodic table is brilliant! Definitely going to use this when teaching about elements. You can show elements by the date discovered, as well as more conventional information such as melting and boiling points - useful when teaching about reactivity for instance as you can clearly show a link between the date elements were discovered, and how easy it is to extract them. Brilliant interface as well - I love it!

Hey, I’m on the top posts section!

richbradshaw — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 19:35:25 +0000

Pretty good for the second proper post I've made!

richbradshaw — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 20:38:55 +0000

Need a dictionary that’s better than a pirate?

richbradshaw — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 15:44:47 +0000

Need a super fast online dictionary? Try Ninjawords, it's fast - just like a ninja...

New kid on the block - Mixx to overthrow Digg?

richbradshaw — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 15:50:37 +0000

After reading TechCrunch's thoughts on unhappy Diggers leaving for Mixx, I tried it out myself - it's definitely an improvement on Digg... It's got a much nicer look and feel to the site, it's quicker, has a pictures section, and allows other users to tag and categorise existing stories. Overall - it seems much more usable than Digg, though it's RSS feeds don't seem as precise - not sure if you can have a custom feed of only stories that interest you, it seems that you have to have a feed of all of Tech, or all of Science, rather than a mixture of subcategories. Looking forward to getting to use the site more though!

Bash tips and tricks

richbradshaw — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 17:23:47 +0000

[digg=http://digg.com/linux_unix/Bash_tips_and_tricks]

For the uninitiated, bash is the default shell in many Linux distros, including Fedora, Ubuntu, Redhat etc. If you use a Linux based OS, then chances are that you are using bash. For this reason, I outline below a few common annoyances, and the simple ways to overcome them.

1. Lost bash history If you have a terminal open and are typing commands, then open another one and use that for a while, the new terminal won't remember any of the commands typed in the first one. In addition, closing the first terminal, and then the second will overwrite any of the commands typed in the first terminal. Doubly annoying! This happens because the bash history is only saved when you close the terminal, not after each command. To fix it: Edit your .bashrc (for beginners, any file starting with a . is hidden - they contain user preferences.) nano ~/.bashrc No need for a sudo here Ubuntuers, this is your own file, not a system setting. I like nano, but it's up to you, choose gedit, kate, mousepad, vi or emacs as you wish. add the lines

shopt -s histappend
PROMPT_COMMAND='history -a'

And save. (control - O to write out. ^ means control in nano and other software, so the bottom of the editor does actually make sense to beginners! ^X to exit.) This makes bash append history instead of overwriting it, and makes it so that each time the prompt is shown it writes out all the history. 2. Stupid spelling mistakes Add shopt -s cdspell to your .bashrc again. This will make sure that spelling mistakes such as ect instead of etc are ignored. 3. Duplicate entries in bash history I often type cd .. multiple times in a row, when I then press UP to go back to earlier commands I don't want to be reminded of my earlier inelegant excursions around the file system. Add export HISTCONTROL="ignoredups" to .bashrc again. Even better, add export HISTIGNORE="&:ls:[bf]g:exit" This will ignore duplicates, as well as ls, bg, fg and exit as well, making for a cleaner bash history. 4. Multiple line commands split up in history Add shopt -s cmdhist to .bashrc, this will change multiple line commands into single lines for easy editing. 5. A couple of neat extras suggested by commenters Press control R in bash, then start typing and you can search through your past commands much easier than just pressing UP 300 times... Alternatively, use history | grep "foo" to search through your history - "foo" is the thing you are searching for. (Thanks to Ally) cd - goes to the last directory you were in - useful if you want to go somewhere to change something, then need to quickly flip back again. Pressing Esc . brings up the last object you referred to. For instance, if you had just typed cat /etc/apt/sources.list , then typing rm then pressing esc . would auto complete to rm /etc/apt/sources.list . Best way is to try it I reckon! (Thanks to Andrew.) Conclusion So, there are a few tips to get your bash history more manageable - if you have any extra tips, add them to the comments and I'll add them to the main article! Stumble It!

Bash tips and tricks

richbradshaw — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 18:16:25 +0000

Solutions to ‘Man in the browser’ online banking security threat

richbradshaw — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 10:41:33 +0000

[digg=http://digg.com/security/Solutions_to_Man_in_the_browser_online_banking_security_threat] As reported by Computer World UK malware is shifting towards intercepting traffic inside the browser - a kind of man in the middle attack, rather than keystroke logging or phishing. This style of malware would intercept the password entered on the webpage using exploits in the browser. How about this solution to combat this? Banks should offer their own applications to use for online banking - for instance, a virtual machine that saves it's state running something like damn small linux + a web browser. This could be packaged with qemu. You'd boot the virtual machine, use your banking, then when you closed it off, the virtual machine wouldn't save changes, so it would always be the same. This could be distributed on read only flash memory, or even plain old CDs to avoid malware modifying the image. So: how do you do this? 1. Download DSL Embedded edition 2. Unzip it, and click dsl-base.bat 3. Up comes DSL linux, it boots using QEMU in a matter of seconds 4. Use your online banking as you wish (Ctrl - Alt releases the window so you can get back to your other applications) 5. That's it... The protection of using both Linux and a virtual machine in windows in 5 steps! Now, if only banks would redistribute this, you can imagine how easy it would be to rebrand DSL, and to auto open firefox on the correct page. Comments? Stumble It!

Installing NoMachine NX on any modern Linux including Ubuntu 7.10

richbradshaw — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:30:10 +0000

[digg=http://www.digg.com/linux_unix/Installing_NoMachine_NX_on_any_modern_Linux_including_Ubuntu_7_10] NX is a remote desktop type piece of software that lets you log in remotely to another linux computer. It is useful in that it lets you log in simultaneously with other users - that is, you can use it as well as another user as you log into a new session. It also works over SSH, so it's secure. The data is compressed as well, so it's pretty quick. In my experience, it's much quicker than VNC, especially over the internet. The server only works on computers running an X server, but the client works on any OS, so you can connect securely from Windows PCs to your home Linux box. This is really useful in public libraries, or when you are at a friends house, as you can use your own PC at almost native speed without any hassle.

Diagram showing how NX works. (Copyright NoMachine)

This only works to a normal X11 server, so Compiz Fusion or Beryl (or any other compositing window manager) doesn't work over the connection, it's only for standard window managers such as metacity, Kwin etc are fine. Right then, let's get going! On your Linux pc (this tutorial is for Xandros, Debian and Ubuntu, though there are packages for Red Hat, Mandriva and Fedora as well), open a terminal and run: sudo apt-get install openssh-server To install the ssh server. This allows you to connect remotely using a normal shell. For more info on this, check the Ubuntu community page.

mkdir ~/nxdownloads
cd ~/nxdownloads

to make a directory to store the relevant packages.

wget http://64.34.161.181/download/3.0.0/Linux/nxclient_3.0.0-84_i386.deb
wget http://64.34.161.181/download/3.0.0/Linux/nxnode_3.0.0-93_i386.deb
wget http://64.34.161.181/download/3.0.0/Linux/FE/nxserver_3.0.0-79_i386.deb

to download the files. run

sudo dpkg -i nxclient_3.0.0-84_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i nxnode_3.0.0-93_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i nxserver_3.0.0-79_i386.deb

to install the packages. run sudo /usr/NX/bin/nxserver --start to start the server, changing start to status will let you know if it's running or not. On your Windows computer, download nxclient for Windows and install it. Notice how much more complex it is to download and install Windows software! Once it's installed, run it, and enter the IP address of your Linux computer to connect, give it a session name for your own reference, and choose your connection speed.

The next screen lets you choose what window manager to log in to, default is KDE - for Ubuntu, change that to Gnome.

Next, put in your username and password on your Linux computer - this is just your usual username and password.

The first time it will ask you if you trust the fingerprint of your computer. Say Yes - in future if you get this something has changed, so you might want to double check things. You should in theory only see this once.

Wait a few seconds for it to log in, and you will get something like this:

Brilliant! I use this on my old laptop to make a poor mans thin client, I boot it up, then connect to my real computer to get the most out of it. If you want to use this over the internet, remember to forward port 22 on your router to your Linux computer. You might want to use DynDNS.org to set up an alias for your dynamic IP address if you have one to make things easier. Stumble It!

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richbradshaw — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 22:10:51 +0000

Yahoo to place adverts in PDF files

richbradshaw — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 11:07:02 +0000

[digg=http://digg.com/tech_news/Yahoo_to_place_adverts_in_PDF_files] As reported by the BBC, Yahoo have reached a deal with Adobe that allows them to place adverts in a panel inside Adobe Reader. This is the first time that Adobe have allowed dynamic adverts inside their software. Luckily, there is a myriad of alternatives now that the PDF format has been opened including: For Windows:

Foxit Reader (Shareware)
CadKas PDF Reader (Shareware)
Sumatra PDF (OSS)

For Linux:

Evince
gPDF (Part of Gnome)
KPDF (Part of KDE)
Okular
Xpdf

For Mac OS X

Skim
Preview

So, for the more computer literate of us, this won't make a lot of difference anyway.

PDF

richbradshaw — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 11:22:07 +0000

richbradshaw — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 11:23:13 +0000

Retrievr - search for flickr images using sketches

richbradshaw — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:29:34 +0000

Ever wanted to draw a picture of what you want? Try Retrievr, it lets you draw a quick image, and in real time searches for images on flickr that look like your sketch. Really quite amazing - no idea how it works, but it's good!

Pageflakes launches new portal for teachers

richbradshaw — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 11:21:30 +0000

Pageflakes is a customizable start page that allows you to add small widgets or flakes that can display custom content. They have recently launched a prepopulated page designed for teachers.

Default layout of the Teacher's Pageflakes page

The default items on the page include a teaching timetable, a calendar, email, online file storage, some educational bookmarks, photos tagged education, a todo list and a google search box.

The email can be linked with most major webmail services, and the calendar can import an iCal calendar, so that means it will sync with Google Calendar for instance.

Everything can be customized, and there are literally hundreds of other flakes you can add.

Downsides are that the timetable is only for a one week repeating schedule - schools I have worked at have a two week timetable, so I wouldn't be able to use that aspect of it.

I already use firefox extensions for checking gmail, though a smaller look at my calendar would be useful.

All in all, a good idea, but not sure I would use it. For people who don't already use RSS feeds etc then it's brilliant - very accessible for the average user.

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Eight features you didn’t know about in Ubuntu

richbradshaw — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:50:22 +0000

[digg=http://digg.com/linux_unix/Eight_awesome_features_you_didn_t_know_about_in_Ubuntu] Ubuntu has caused GNU/Linux based operating systems to have many reviews recently, most concentrating on the more flashy parts such as the infamous rotating cube or wobbly windows provided by compiz fusion, rather than the things that actually make it such a enjoyable operating system to use. I tried to pick some features that I have not seen mentioned before - these are some of the things that change my everyday use of the computer, so I feel they are worth mentioning. Some of the below features are provided by Gnome, some by Compiz Fusion. All are not exclusive to Ubuntu, but as that's what I have installed at the moment I'll demo them on that. 1. Clicking on the date shows your calendar from Evolution. I have linked my google calendar, so that's shown here. Although I love this feature, it's really about the system wide integration that OSS seems to promote. Windows just tries to change the time when you click it's clock.

2. Keep windows on top. I use this so often, whether it's IM windows or when writing an assignment, it's nice to have things kept on top. I often copy data from websites into a document using this technique.

3. Add emblems to files. Since using System 6 on the Mac and being able to label files I have missed this. There are loads of emblems that can be overlaid on file icons to remind you to do things. I often mark assignments as completed or work in progress using this.

4. The recently released Gnome Do. It's awesome! This is new, but has a lot of potential. Try it!

5. Icons for removable media change to represent the media in question. I use this to easily distinguish between camera cards, iPods, and memory sticks. This is such a genius idea and makes things simpler when working quickly.

6. The scale plug in for compiz fusion rearranges your windows and scales them down to fit the screen. Useful when working with loads of windows. They are still updated in real time as well, so videos still play etc. Again, simple but effective.

7. Avant window navigator (AWN) provides a nice little dock that looks good and works well.

8. Representing virtual desktops as a wall seems more logical than a cube to me. Get this by pressing meta+E when running compiz fusion. Straightforward and easy to use.

So there you go, do you have any additions to this list? I've tried to link to tutorials or the pages for each corresponding bit of software where it's not included in Ubuntu by default. Stumble It!

richbradshaw — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:52:02 +0000

richbradshaw — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:52:13 +0000

Richard's linux, web design and e-learning collection

Edubuntu Spash Screen

Edubuntu Login Screen

Edubuntu Desktop

Nautilus running in Edubuntu

Edubuntu Lockdown Editor

First look at Edubuntu 7.10

Links

Cumul.us - social weather prediction

artviper.net - thumbnails for websites

K menu

KDE 4.0 RC 1 running on Kubuntu 7.10

Interactive Periodic Table

Top posts!

Hey, I’m on the top posts section!

Need a dictionary that’s better than a pirate?

New kid on the block - Mixx to overthrow Digg?

Bash tips and tricks

Bash tips and tricks

Solutions to ‘Man in the browser’ online banking security threat

Installing NoMachine NX on any modern Linux including Ubuntu 7.10

Yahoo to place adverts in PDF files

PDF

Retrievr - search for flickr images using sketches

Pageflakes launches new portal for teachers

Eight features you didn’t know about in Ubuntu