Use your iPod in Linux

It is possible to use your iPod in Linux. And not just use it, use it well with all the playlist and management functions that are present in Windows or Mac. And no, you don’t need the bloated iTunes for it. All you need is a neat little program called the GTKPod. You can download GTKPod from here.

Firefox, IE and Opera Keyboard shortcuts

Here’s a listing of the shorcuts for Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera. Very useful especially if you prefer using the keyboard to the mouse. Personally, I think it’s faster. Click here to download the page in PDF format else click the link below to read it online

Neverball for Linux, Windows, FreeBSD and Mac

If I were to describe this game in one line - Nail biting, stomach churning and surprisingly simple addictive fun! I came across Neverball as it was pre installed along with my current Linux distro - Suse 10.0 Eval. But others fret not, Neverball is also available for Windows as well as Mac OS X and FreeBSD!!!

Click here to download the Linux tarball

Click here to download the Mac OS X version

Click here to download the Windows version

Click here to download the FreeBSD version

To read a full review about the game before downloading click here.

All in all, I highly recommend this game for killing time. It does take some time getting used to, but it’s well worth the effort!

Nifty Wikipedia Bash Script

Lets face it. At some point or the other most of us have used Wikipedia. But its a lengthy process firing the browser, typing the adress of the site, choosing the english Wikipedia and finally entering your query. All this and the countless images that get loaded which further slow down the process.

Well if you are more comfy with the terminal like me, all you do is use this script. I wrote this really simple script to save some time getting information from Wikipedia. Here are the install instructions -

>> Download wikip_v1.tar.gz

>> Extract all files to a temporary location (tar xvfz wikip_v1.tar.gz)

>> Go through the readme.txt file

>> Copy wikip to /usr/bin

>> Type wikip text_to_search

That’s all. Now isnt that a lot faster than using the traditional method

Google features you never came across

The other day I came across this blog which had a few interesting links on the google site. A few of these we already know, but then there are some which will surprise even seasoned Googligans.
Lets start with these 2 common links. Most people know about these. But for those who don’t I’d like to show them that these services exist -

Google Linux Search

http://www.google.com/linux

Google BSD Search

http://www.google.com/bsd

And now for the not so well known links and features of google…

http://labs1.google.com/gvs.html (Google Voice Search)

http://www.google.com/intl/en/Easter/feature_easter.html (Google Easter Egg)

http://www.google.com/jobs/lunar_job.html (Jobs on the moon)

http://www.google.com/intl/xx-klingon/ (Remember klingons from Star Trek??)

http://www.google.com/unclesam (Uncle Sam watching you)

http://www.google.com/intl/xx-bork/ (Speak Bork??)

http://www.google.com/intl/xx-hacker/ (For the wannabe hackers)

Gnome 2.14 sneak peek!

Well Gnome 2.14 releases on 15th March and all I can say is - *fantastic!* Just when I thought the guys working at the Gnome project had outdone themselves with v2.12, I came across this article shedding some light on the upcoming v2.14. They’ve done it again. Gnome just keeps getting better and better. This release sees a major focus on the speed aspect of the desktop. Simple things like gnome-terminal have gotten faster than - you wont believe this - the xterm. That’s right the gnome-terminal works faster than the xterm. A lot of other enhancements and tweaks have been made by the developers working very hard and the effort has been well worth it. Other enhancements include faster searching and help and loads more. To get a scoop of the details click the following link - http://www.gnome.org/~davyd/gnome-2-14/

The Daily WTF

Curious perversions in information technology. That’s what this blog is all about. A blog which shows weird code and program behaviour. The blog shows us how software really is getting it wrong — from both the user’s and the developer’s perspectives. Click me to go to this blog. Here’s an example of the content (fake screen shot) that you will come across on the site -

Nice little quick copy paste trick

This trick isn’t all that complicated or that big a deal but the none the less it saves a lotta time in retyping a coupla lines. I came across this tip in the KDesktop “KTip”. This is a collection of tips that are presented when you login to your desktop. Note - You will need  a 3 button mouse for this trick to work

Here goes -

In any program or for that matter even the konsole select a block of text. This way the text gets automatically copied. Now, in order to paste this text all you do is move the mouse cursor to the place where you would like to paste the text and click the middle button. That all! Your text is neatly pasted. This trick even works between 2 different programs and hence is a great time saver. So remember , drag with the left mouse button to copy and click the middle mouse button to paste.

Monitoring temperature using lm-sensors

lm-sensors is a great package that can be used to monitor various kinds of system information like CPU and motherboard temperature, CPU core voltages, system uptime etc. But installing this package alone is not enough, it must be setup correctly.

Biker Drool

Those of you who aren’t from India might not find this post the least bit interesting but we bike starved Indians will definitely enjoy the presence of super bikes. I was getting fed up of looking at 150cc puny crotch rockets when I saw these bikes parked at the MESCOE campus. Pix clicked by my friend amit.

Go on… drool…