Monday, May 30, 2011

Lubuntu Desktop on Natty

 If you don't like the default unity desktop , there are several alternative desktops available for Natty. Lubuntu from the LXDE project is one of my favorites.

install lubuntu in Ubuntu 11.04

Lubuntu is a faster, more lightweight and energy saving variant of Ubuntu based on LXDE desktop, the Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment.
  • Install Lubuntu in Ubuntu 11.04 by doing the following in Terminal.
sudo apt-get install lubuntu-desktop
  • Done. Lubuntu desktop will now be available within your Ubuntu GDM login window as a different session already.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

QR code on ubuntu

A QR Code (it stands for "Quick Response") is a mobile phone readable barcode.simply encode a URL into the QR Code and then point a mobile phone (or other camera-enabled mobile) at it. If the device has had QR Code decoding software installed on it, it will fire up its browser and go straight to that URL.

But it doesn't stop there - a QR Code can also contain a phone number, an SMS message  VCard data or just plain alphanumeric text, and the will respond by opening up the correct application to handle the encoded data appropriately courtesy of the FNC1 Application Identifiers that are embedded in the encoded data.

The technical specifications for a QR Code are set down in the ISO-18004 standard so they are the same all over the world, and the only significant variations from one QR code to another (apart from the data it contains) is the number of modules required to store the data.

To make things a bit more robust, the QR Code also contains its own error correction data, internal orientation calibration and self-alignment markers. In this way it doesn't matter whether the QR code is upside down or wrapped around a curved surface, the message will still get through.

You can easily generate QR Code under Ubuntu for this you need to install 'qrencode’ package. In Ubuntu, you can install qrencode using this command:
apt-get install qrencode
Go to terminal and type folloing command to generate QR code image:
qrencode -l L -v 1 -o unixlab.png "http://unixlab.blogspot.com"

Zorin Splash Manager

Zorin Splash Manager  is a cool application with which you can change the  theme  of Ubuntu desktop. The screen shot of the GUI is given below.

Install, change Plymouth Themes in Ubuntu

  Basically,   Zorin Splash Screen Manager is an application  made for Zorin OS project, a Linux distro based on Ubuntu. It offers the following features.
  •  You can install , remove and change the plymouth theme. Here are some additional screen shots on its usage.
Zorin Splash Screen Manager

Zorin Splash Screen Manager: Manage Plymouth Themes in Ubuntu
How  to install   Zorin Splash Screen Manager
 
     You can install the deb package  from the command line  or   you just double click of the deb package from nautilus ( this will launch gdeb-gtk)
 

 

Monday, May 16, 2011

Installing android on ubuntu

Here is a small tutorial on developing android apps on ubuntu platform.

 The article has step by step instructions and lots of screen shots.
http://ieffects.blogspot.com/2011/05/android-and-ubuntu-everything.html

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Installing Ubuntu 11.04 in pendrive persistently : time for pendrive OS

What about the idea of carrying your operating system where you go? I am not talking about bringing your laptop everywhere you go, instead use your pendrive to carry your linux distro. Not simply the live distro, you can carry your operating system with all your configurations,