Category: Ubuntu/Debian

I’ve been a SWL for a while now since I got my hand on my dad’s old two-way ham radio. Since then, I’ve become interested to learn morse code after listening it over the amateur radio band in my place.

After spending time searching for morse code training program, I settled on the three best application I can find inside Ubuntu repositories, and they are : aldo, cw and morse-x.

aldo
aldo is perhaps the best morse training application for Linux (unix-like) platform. It can train you to recognise morse code beeps with classic Block method or the more recommended Koch method.

Aldo keep tracks of your performance by gauging your accuracy of identifying the correct morse code keyed during training sessions. Aldo is also capable of generating random north american amateur radio callsign for training purposes, which is essential when you’re communicating/listening on CW mode.
http://www.nongnu.org/aldo/
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Tor is a free implementation of anonymity network which protects your privacy over the internet. Tor enable this by providing virtual tunnel to internet application through SOCKS interface. This post will show you how to setup and use Tor to connect to internet anonymously.

1. First of all you need to install tor and privoxy package

   apt-get install tor

   apt-get install privoxy

2. Then you need to edit privoxy config file for some quick setup,

   gksudo gedit /etc/privoxy/config

3. You need to comment “logfile logfile” line and add this line at the end of the file

   forward-socks4a/localhost:9050 .

4. Save the file and restart privoxy service.

   sudo /etc/init.d/privoxy restart

5. You should be able to connect through Tor by using application which supports SOCK 4a/SOCK 5 interface with port 9050.

Here’s a screenshot of Mozilla Firefox and Gaim setup to use Tor

You can access those screen through Edit->Preference->Advanced->Network->Settings in Mozilla Firefox and Account->Advance Tab in Gaim/Pidgin. Other application which supports SOCK 5 can be configured similarly to connect through Tor (including Xchat irc client and other internet browser)

Other Operating System
Tor (and Privoxy) is also supported on other operating system including Windows, Mac OS and other Unix-like operating system. Please refer to Tor Download page for instructions to use tor on those system

[tags]tor,ubuntu,proxy,feisty fawn,debian[/tags]

Installing Java Runtime and JDK has been made easy since Ubuntu Feisty Fawn since multiverse and universe package has been made available by default. This short how to, covers an easy way to install Sun Java environment in your Ubuntu operating system.

Installing Java Runtime

$ sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre

Installing Java Software Development Kit (JDK)

$ sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk

Alternatively you can choose to install previous Sun Java version on your machine by replacing ‘sun-java6’ with ‘sun-java5’ for Java 1.5, or by installing ‘j2sdk1.4’ package for Java 1.4.

That’s all, you should be able to run Java applets using your favorite browser or run Java application by now.

[tags]java,jdk,linux,debian,ubuntu,apt-get[/tags]

Ubuntu comes with a default CD ripping utility called Sound Juicer that lets you convert Audio CD tracks into digital music format. However Sound Juicer only able to rip Audio CDs into OGG format by default. Most people that familiar with MP3 format might find this as a drawback because MP3 ripping option is not available because of its patented status.

However in the spirit of ‘freedom’ in the free and open source, I’d like to show you how to enable MP3 ripping capability in Sound Juicer

Enable MP3 CD Ripping
This guide assume that you’re using the latest release of Ubuntu (Feisty Fawn).

• Firstly you need to install and gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse
• Then start Sound Juicer application, and select Edit->Preference
• You should be able to see that MP3 option has been enabled in Sound Juicer

The default bitrate setting for MP3 is 160Kbps, you can change MP3 encoding parameters by clicking “Edit Profiles” option in the application, and that’s it! You are ready to rip CDs to MP3 format!

[tags]mp3,ubuntu,feisty,feisty fawn,ripping,gstreamer,debian,encoder,cd ripper[/tags]

Ubuntu Studio was finally out and you can see its screenshot from Howtoforge’s : Installing Ubuntu Studio 7.04 – Linux For The Creative. Ubuntu Studio features the new Ardour 2 dark theme which seems slick and stylish when combined with the applications available in the distribution.

However you don’t need to go through the hassle of obtaining Ubuntu Studio just to get its theme as Andi Darmawan has written an easy to follow guide to Install Ubuntu Studio Theme in your standard Feisty Fawn installation.

What is Ubuntu Studio ?
Ubuntu Studio (7.04) is a newly released Multimedia oriented GNU/Linux distribution based on the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution. It is targeted for audio,video and graphic professionals or enthusiasts. The Ubuntu Studio DVD iso (about 870MB) is available for download from the project’s official website which includes Multimedia content creation softwares along with specially compiled low-latency kernel suitable for audio/video editing tasks.

[tags]ubuntu,linux,debian,feisty fawn,gnome, theme,themes[/tags]