Tag: opensource

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Squeezing size out of zip and gzip files in Ubuntu Linux

Here is how you can squeeze out few more kilobytes from your zip or gz files by using advzip or advdef from AdvanceCOMP package (installable from Ubuntu respository) :

advpng -z4 example.zip

Output
[code]
mypapit:$ advzip -z4 example.zip
761604 655677 86% example.zip
761604 655677 86%
[/code]
Saves you almost 6KB per file.

Similarly gzip files can be recompressed the same way to save more space.

advdef -z4 *.gz

[code]
mypapit:$ advdef -z4 *.gz
214451 207312 96% coolplayer.tar.gz
21523 20800 96% phex-pkg1.00.tar.gz
26527 25516 96% png2ico-src-2002-12-08.tar.gz
262501 253628 96%
[/code]
Saves you almost 11KB total.

The differences may be small for most of you, but it means a lot in situation where space is at premium and every little bit of Kilobytes count.

p/s: w00t, this is the first post for 2008!

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Tango Icons Theme on Nokia Symbian Phone

I know, I know. Tango icons has been done to the death on websites, documents, presentations and as Desktop icons. This is due to the popularity of Tango icons itself. and thanks to the liberal Creative Commons license, everybody is free to use the icons (without paying royalty) as long as they give credits (attribution) to the Tango icon project.

Checkout this cool Symbian Series 60 theme. It almost made your phone looks like its running a Linux based operating system, does it?

s60-tango-app-grid1.png

This theme can be downloaded from Tango Symbian60 Theme website and is available for Noka Symbian Series 60 2nd and 3rd Edition.

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Ubuntu Linux : How to combine multiple PDF file

Here’s how to combine multiple PDF file on Ubuntu.

First install ghostscript and pdftk from Ubuntu repository :

apt-get install gs pdftk

Then, using ghostscript, combile all the pdf files you desired into one file, using this command

[code]
s -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOUTPUTFILE=combined_file.pdf -dBATCH file1.pdf file2.pdf file3.pdf
[/code]

The command will produced the combined pdf output on “combine_file.pdf”

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Minibuntu – the tiny, minimalist Ubuntu-based distribution

Ubuntu has gained enormous popularity, since Canonical first released Ubuntu back in 2004. There were a lot of Ubuntu spin-off along the way including Ubuntu Christian edition, Ubuntu studio, Embun, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, Ubuntu Muslim Edition, Linux Mint, gOS and many more. Some of it made its way as the officially supported Ubuntu version by Canonical.

ubuntu.png

Now comes yet another Ubuntu-based Linux distribution, named Minibuntu. What set itself apart from other distro is, it does not come with a window manager, instead it boots straight into command-line interface bash prompt.

This makes minibuntu suitable for acting as a rescue and emergency Linux boot CD, eventhough the main intention of minibuntu is to help others to create another Linux distribution based on Ubuntu using either UCK or Reconstructor.

To me, Miniubuntu is a nice distro as it provide a starting point for creating a new and customised Linux distribution based on Ubuntu.

Minibuntu can be downloaded from its official website, and is only available for i386 platform only (at this time of writing).

Ref :
Minibuntu Official Website
Minibuntu Launchpad Page

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How to install midori lightweight browser on Ubuntu

Here’s a quick how to install Midori browser. It is a lightweight browser which uses Webkit rendering enginer, the same engine that powers Mac OS X Safari browser.

Midori is a good candidate for an alternative browser if you’ve gotten tired of Mozilla Firefox memory leaking and its not so lightweight feature nowadays.

midori_about.png

1) Edit /etc/apt/sources.lst to include these line
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/stemp/ubuntu gutsy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/stemp/ubuntu gutsy main

2) Update repository by executing,

sudo apt-get update

3) Install midori

sudo apt-get install midori

Note that midori is still under heavy development and quite buggy in this testing release. So expect application freeze or crashes during use.

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Enabling automatic update in Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon

Some people asked me about why automatic update hasn’t kicked in their Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon. After investigating, I found out that this problem only affects a small portion of Ubuntu users that perform fresh Ubuntu installation on their computer.

It seems that in Gutsy, the installer choose to enable CDROM package installation by the default and this might has an effect to automatic update. To remedy this problem, you need to go to System->Software Sources and uncheck the “CDrom with Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon” option and check all the other options.

cdrom-apt.jpg

Your will be able to receive automatic update after that!