Category: Tips & Guides

Guides or tutorials (computer related)

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Linux Laptop Hardware Compatibility List

If you are a serious Linux user, probably the first thing that come across your mind when shopping for a laptop is how compatible it is with GNU/Linux operating system.

Fortunately sites like The Linux Laptop Wiki, Ubuntu Linux Hardware Support and Mandriva Hardware Database provides a good starting point to find out about your laptop hardware compatibility with Linux.

As for my personal experience, I find out most hardware incompatibility ranges from unsupported 56k softmodem driver to unsupported hard-disk controller which i consider as the worse case scenario.

So please bear this in mind that not all laptop are 100% compatible with Linux. Do ask around, and check for its compatibility status before you finally made a decision to purchase a new laptop.

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How to change Google Chrome user-agent

Changing user-agent in Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer may be an easy task for most of the people as it only requires you to change certain settings in the browser option or in the registry.

However changing Google Chrome’s user agent might not be as straight forward as it has no obvious way to alter it through the browser’s interface.

Fortunately, Digital Inspiration website has written a guide on how to change Google Chrome user-agent string, you can refer directly to their article – How to Change User Agent String in Google Chrome Browser

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Grab Dreamhost Promo Codes and Crazy Offerings!

Usually I don’t post things such as promo codes and offerings on my blog, but I’ll make an exception for this case.

Dreamhost has made available 5 promo codes that gives you special offer on their already generous hosting plans, which includes :

  • Disk Storage up to 500GB
  • Monthly Bandwidth at 5TB
  • Secured Shell access (SSH)
  • Unlimited Domain host
  • PHP5, Python, Perl, Ruby On Rail support
  • Custom DNS configuration
  • CVS, SVN Repository and WebDav support
  • User management control, you can add user in your own hosting accout, each user can accesss their own shell!
  • and other exciting features…!

Oh they have a Dreamhost Wiki page too
The Promo codes gives you :

  • Four (4) times the normal disk and bandwidth!
  • If you choose their five-year plan, you’ll get $150 off!
  • If you choose their ten-year plan, you’ll get $200 off!

Here’s the list of Promo Codes (to be entered in “Promo Code” field when you sign up) :

636483915637
514918435181
204341432012
459119241428
055333272979

Alternatively, you may choose to enter “KIROSTUDIO” promo code, to get USD 70.40 discount on their web host offerring!

All promo codes except “KIROSTUDIO” expires on 15 October 2008, so hurry up!

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How to convert OpenXML docx files to OpenDocument odf in Windows and vice versa

This guide might be a little different from the others because I write this for the Windows users. Here’s how to convert Microsoft OpenXML docx files to odf OpenDocument files (and vice versa) in Windows using only commandline :

  • First, make sure you downloaded odf-converter tool and copy it to appropriate folder.
  • Convert the files(s) using this command line :
    odfconverter /I filename.pptx
    and the tool will perform the conversion effortlessly.
  • You can use this command to convert multiple files :
    odfconverter /BATCH-DOCX /I c:\newfiles\

    replace /BATCH-DOCX with /BATCH-PPTX, /BATCH-XLSX, /BATCH-ODF, /BATCH-ODP if necessary.

Odfconverter also supports converting Open Document files (ODF, ODP, ODT) to OpenXML files (PPTX,DOCX,XLSX) making it a handy tool to use.

Why odfconverter?
Odfconverter is a (relatively) small and compact standalone tool for converting Office 2007 files to their OpenDocument counterpart. The convenient batch mode conversion makes it attractive tool to use when converting multiple files between the two formats.

The only downside with this converter is that it does not convert mathematical formula pretty well compared to other features.

[Source OOOninja]

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How to install *.rpm in Ubuntu / Debian based operating system

There are times when you need to install an application that is only available in *.rpm package in Debian GNU/Linux or Ubuntu operating system. One of the main obstacles is that Debian / Ubuntu are using *.deb based packaging system which is incompatible with RPM.

However you can easily convert RPM package to *.deb and install it afterwards, here’s how to do it :

  • Install alien, its available in Debian, Ubuntu repository
  • Convert rpm package using command “sudo alien -k some-binary-package.rpm”
  • Install it using this command “sudo dpkg -i some-binary-package.deb

That’s all about it! Have fun installing application in your application.

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How to save laptop battery when using Ubuntu Linux

When you are working outside with your laptop, the most important thing that you might consider is to maximize your battery lifetime. This is true especially when you are working on location where AC power is not readily available.

Laptop mypapit

Typical laptop might last from 1.5 hour to 3 hours of normal use. So you might want to squeeze out all the battery juice and put it to good use.

Here are a few tips that I got from surfing the internet to save battery life when you are using Ubuntu (or GNU Linux OS in general) :