Basel J. Hamadeh

A Matter that is Larger than only Windows Vs. GNU/Linux

2010-08-03T23:43:00.001-07:00

I am a free software advocate. And most people would say, I am at no place to make a comparison between the 2 OS’s. While in fact i am no where near comparing the 2 products in terms of quality.. I am only talking about which is better for person to use... Is it right to use Windows ? or Is it right to use Ubuntu ?

The same question goes for Music, Books and Computer Games. You see, We are lost in the age of digital contents. And we forgot that both are the same material delivered in different ways. And that due to the speed of its introduction to our country. The lack of good education in the matter.. fade its principles and the right got mixed up with the wrong ideas introduced to us by the digital world itself. Internet is a very powerful tool and it really could alter principles. if you steal a book from a library you get punched !!! But if you download it from some online server for free its You don’t ?!! COME ON ! who are we bullshitting ! :D right ?!
If you go into Virgin Mega store and grab a CD and tried to run out the door.. Trust me the security guard there won’t let you pass the Mall door if you got lucky and succeeded to get outta the store !
And it goes for everything else.. And plz don’t give me that crap about its expansive and i can’t afford it !! Back the Police station they don’t put that in mind :D
I can go long way talking about the matter and yet not give it its full right.. But due to the fuss the subject made lately i just thought to point out couple of things :D

Windows is Crap :D YEAH believe it.. It is the reason why people steal Apps in the first place.. If you are ganna say Apple !! I would shout out MORE CRAP. Buying a Mac to use OS X because you think windows is evil, You have no clew that you have just made a deal with the devil himself and i will get to that later on in some other article.

Hardware is a different issue !! meaning.. I do have a MacBook Pro.. It does not mean i use OS X. I use Ubuntu.

I noticed that a lot of people around talking about downloading free music and how cool it is.. Guess what Its not.. I am not sure how would you react to people coping your Music and downloading it for free if you were an artist !! hmmmm Not cool right ?! Artists need the support provided by albums sales so they can produce more music for you.. And plz don’t give me that argument about they don’t need us to pay that money, They are rich already !! Guyz, Most of you reading this articles loves Arabic Music.. and we have a big deal of local talents who couldn’t even make it to the market of making an album as production companies can’t trust that people will buy their albums thus make profit and reproduce good music you love.. They just think people will Torrent it !! sounds familiar to you i believe :D

Anywayz away from all that books and Music crap.. lets talk about Software..

Stealing software is a crime ! yes it is.. You want it ?! buy it.. Still i don’t advice paying money for Non-Free Software.. buy only Free Software.. Sounds weird to you !? mmm okay let me explain again ! the word free is not about Price.. Its Freedom (Liber).. which means the application respects your freedom.. Which i am pretty sure important..
Almost all Applications has at least one Free alternative application which respect your freedoms. But lets just say you couldn’t find one or you had to use that particular one.. And i will make it easier for you and pick one up.. 3D-MAX ! I didn’t pick up that choice because i couldn’t find an alternative which there is (Blender) its just because Universities in Syria requires Engineering students to work on it.. Back to Subject.. if you are an engineer and you have to use that application.. i am pretty much sure that one project will make it easy for you to afford the license of 2 copies of that application.. One for you and one for some one who can’t afford it. to help him run it up.. And not only that but to help the company on continuing developing the product itself than wasting time developing ways to secure it and prevent you from cracking it !!!!! Let them focus on productivity.... :D

If you are not sure on what to use or if an alternative is available email me and i will be glad to help you out with pleasure :)

http://www.ubuntu.com/
My Current Operating system which is a fully better alternative to Windows.. and thats the subject which i can write like 10000000 lines about :D
And while surfing there take a look at the Ubuntu Forum.. Mostly up to 70% of Windows problem are solved in here as well :D Amazing community effort..

http://www.postgresql.org/
Oracle of the Free and Open source world. its a powerful O/RDBMS

http://sqlite.org/
a very good utility as well.. but less powerful and widely used.. and yeah its also free.

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/
Distributed computing processing system "FreeSoftware under the GNU license" and has hundreds of projects which u can choose to share ur processes and GPUs to help. and is supported by the National Science Foundation. as the nature of the software is free. You can start ur own projects from the university or home and ask for help from volunteers as well. which is real cool and fun.
its a multi-platform software runs on (GNU/Linux, Mac's and Windows)
projects are alot ranging from Cure to disease, Studying global warming and discover pulsars.

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/after-the-software-wars/6276445
lulu is a web publishing solution.
After the Software Wars is one of the best materials i have read so far. and yet to finish as the author a former 11 years Micro$oft employee is writing about the War between the Free Software and the propriety ones.

http://www.backtrack-linux.org/
The final release of the GNU/Linux distro which is focused on Penetration testing arsenal that aids security pros. a very powerful tool in Digital forensics

http://directory.fsf.org/
Where thousands of free application is available with the source code to use and modify

http://www.fsf.org/resources/
More on the Free software resources

http://sourceforge.net/
The largest repository of free and open-source software. while as well the ability to develop ur own application within its framework with the help of million of on-line developers

http://savannah.gnu.org/
same idea of Sourceforge

http://www.fsf.org/
Where the journey to sharing knowledge and helping humanity achieve what freedom of knowledge is really about.

http://www.gnu.org/
Is the project of having a free "as in freedom not as in free beer" fully operational operating system. which is now uses the Linux Kernel and by mistake called Linux while the fair naming would be GNU/Linux as all other component of the OS is a part of the GNU project excluding the Kernel.

http://www.fsf.org/resources/formats/playogg/en
Free alternatives for the MP3 and other proprietary formats. a better and a free solution.

http://lucene.apache.org/java/docs/
a new project that i just saw 2 days ago. which shows the ability to create a better alternative for Google closed source search engine

http://www.defectivebydesign.org/
http://en.windows7sins.org/

If you would like to use windows and try free Software here is a starter to find ur applications
http://www.osalt.com/
http://www.linuxalt.com/
http://ubuntulinuxhelp.com/top-100-of-the-best-useful-opensource-applications/

Ubuntu Lucid Lynx Alpha 3

2010-03-16T05:11:00.000-07:00

Ubuntu's latest edition to the line up is Lucid Lynx which will go public named Ubuntu 10.04
This edition is the LTS which means that canonical will provide support for 3 years for desktop and 5 for Servers. The company focus will be more towards stability and performance than it is about new features.

A lot of contervsy is going on in the Ubuntu community on the subject announced by Jono Bacon the community manager and later by Mark Shuttleworth on their blogs concerning the re-branding of Ubuntu. Personally i like the new branding and its colors, as it really reflects better image. It looks PROFESSIONAL.

In the matter of the news about the Ubuntu One Music Store. Its a new service which will be included in Lucid and its integrated to Ubuntu's One services which started in Karmic (Storage, Notes, Contacts). The Music store will be powered by 7Digital which is a British Online music store. While the step it self is a real improvement and as much as its important. It does sell MP3 which is not a free format like ogg or any other free format. ummm !!! YUP. I don't yet know about that !!! As Conanical said the only way for services like 7Digital to provide Free Format is to show that the store is working and the customers require it. I hope that conanical can put more pressure on the provider to support free formats as well.

Something worth mentioning, The default search engine in Firefox that comes with the system is Yahoo! which is powered by Bing (Microsoft Search Engine) and that also has dragged a lot of controversy over the deal between Yahoo! and Canonical. For those who prefer Google its easy to change it by a mouse click though. Yet i am not sure how i feel about this move.

Lucid Lynx is due to release on Apr. 29, 2010. though the 3rd Alpha is available to download. I grabbed a copy of Desktop image and installed it on one of my Laptops. and updated it.
The Machine is Toshiba Satellite L10-186 with Intel Centrino 1.6 GHz Processor 1 GiB of RAM and an Integrated Intel Graphic card. The installation went smooth. No problems at all. Running update manager to update the system to the latest was as well as smooth. about 200 MiB of Updates.

The System feels stable enough at this stage. Speed is real good. Its less than 20 sec. to boot up on this old busted machine. Thats almost 10 sec. less than Karmic on the same machine.

I transfered all work to this Machine and been working with it now for like 6 hours. and its real cool. i think i like it :D

Notes:
After a while of playing around with it. I found some stuff worth noting:

Window Controls:
Its on the left and thats not really good. Due to many things like:
- we got used to them on the right. Windows switchers wouldn't really get use to it easily.
- its not really compatible with other themes as it breaks them and make them look ugly.

- You can easily press the Exit or Minimize button instead of File or Edit Menus by mistake as the space between them is very small. and it doesn't look cool.

Software Center:
General Improvements has been done in the UI. Better performance as well. New indicators and sub-menus has been added. very promising.

Theme and colors:
I would give that a good mark. A light and a dark theme are the main. I like them both. Very professional.

Applications:
GIMP is out PiTiVi is in. PiTiVi is a real easy to use video editing tool. Rythmbox has Ubuntu One Music Store but not yet lunched "Coming Soon" :D YOOHO

The best thing i like about Lucid is the Integration between Mail, IM, Gwibber and the MeMenu. at first glance it just makes your social life much easier. And Gwibber looks like has gone under heavy development in matters of usability and performance as well. I like this application a lot.

Lucid is still in its alpha stage and its very early to judge it now. its under heavy development. I hope that canonical reconsider some minor changes like the top button arrangements. or at least fix its bugs. I do still have a big faith that it will be better before its release.

Apple Mac Book Pro Keyboard and TrackPad Problem

2009-07-17T12:59:00.000-07:00

I got my Apple Mac Book Pro for a whole lot of money which i still cant imagine i paid for a laptop just to run Mac OS X which is good. but I don't use that often. as I have it dual booted with GNU/Linux Ubuntu which is simply better than OS X.

After like 6 months of taking care of that piece of crab called Mac Book Pro which i still dont know why is it so Expinsive. My Keybored stopped responding along with the TrackPad I was so upset cuz we dont have an Apple Center here "Syria". I had to look for the problem myself. And I couldn't find anything online. I kept googling for like 3 days with only guyz having the same problem but none of them knows what happened. So finally I was playing with the it and i found out that when I unplug the battery and replug it. The keybored works for couple of mintues. So I figured out that its somthing in there.

Every body keep talking about the Mac Desgines which made me find it wierd why they left 2 data cables hanging around next to the battery unprotced. So I pushed one of them and the thing was working finally. I got a sticker and sticked it over it and guess what ?! its back working.

Later couple of weeks after the fix "Tarqee3". No response from the keybored again. I got so angry I was ganna through that thing over the window, But I kept thinking of the money i paid for it.

So if anybody has any suggestions. Please contact me. and For those thinking of getting a Mac. Just know that its just sexy. Nothing more nothing less.
Now i am using a tiny little rubber keybored which i take with me everwhere with an external mouse.

The Zeitgeist Movement.

2009-06-10T00:31:00.000-07:00

Religion, 9/11 and the Banking System. what do they have in common ?!! wired question you would think. ask your self again. a documentary i saw lately have caught my attention to stuff I never thought i could think of as in our cultural and religious believes we are not allowed to do so. which I think is totally against the principles of our religion which is knowledge...

Zeitgeist is a German word from 2 parts. Zeit which means Time and Geist which means Spirit. The word zeitgeist describes the intellectual, cultural, ethical and political climate, ambiance and morals of an era.

Zeitgeist, The Movie is an award wining documentary film describes religion, 9/11 and the banking system as social myths. The movie is consistent of 3 parts.

Part-1 which questions religions. specifically Christian religion as it claims that its derived from other religions and old myths and traditions.
Part-2 which questions 9/11 and talks about the Conspiracy Theory as either it was staged or it was allowed to happen to create fear and initiate WAR ON TERROR to produce economic gains.
Part-3 argues about "international bankers" and that wars was allowed to happen as it was engineered to gain profit.

A sequel was later released which talk about the world failure to find solutions for problems like war, poverty and corruption, and what drive human to start it. And it offer long-term solution for the problem

I have seen both. Both are good in clearing cretin issues we are facing with evidence. And opening the mind to think where you get to analyze stuff. While I don't say what in the movie is the truth. its just a good material to watch

The Movies are both available online to download for free at

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

NOTE: The movie includes some materials, Religious people may find it offensive. If you are a very religious human and do not accept such things you might feel uncomfortable watching it. So please don't download it.

UNIX Turns 40

2009-06-10T00:07:00.000-07:00

1969 was a great turn in computer and operating system development as AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna introduced the phenomenal Operating System name UNIX. Unix today is developed by various corporations like AT&T and others like IBM, HP, Orcale/Sun, Apple etc... 40 years of development and still the UNIX future is unclear while its legacy will stand still as other Operating Systems either has been inhitred from it or build on its conecpt like FreeBSD, GNU/Linux, Solaris, MAC OS X and a lots of other OS's.

The eGovernment

2009-06-08T04:49:00.000-07:00

Technology defines the level of the country's developments today. e-Government is a name we hear a lot. but unfortunately its taking a long time to be implemented in our country. while Jordan and UAE are on the Top 50 countries using eGov services.

Syria has started the basis of that new concept and its services for citizens. As an example, The picture bellow is an add in some local newspaper introducing The Electric Energy Ministry new website.

While we should be happy about the progress our country is making. We just cant have that joy with an add like this in a public newspaper.

If we just can't understand the basics of a URL. What is the point of spending money on developing a whole eGov for us.

Twitter From Pidgin ! Yes you can :D

2009-06-06T23:45:00.000-07:00

Piding is one of the most poupler IM applications on GNU/Linux as it support most of the IM services and its cool with all the cool plugins that it has. A new edition to these plugins is for the fans of Twitter as now you can tweet dirctly from your favorite IM client. all you have to do is follow the bellow instructions.

UBUNTU Users.

Software Sourecs depending on your distro.

Hardy:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/sugree/ppa/ubuntu hardy main deb-src
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/sugree/ppa/ubuntu hardy main

Interpid:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/sugree/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main deb-src
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/sugree/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main

Jaunty:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/sugree/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main deb-src
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/sugree/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

2: In Terminal:

me@localhost$ sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0CF459B8DF37ED8B
me@localhost$ sudo apt-get update
me@locahost$ sudo apt-get install pidgin-microblog

3: Open Pidgin go to Tools -> Plugins and check on "Twitgin"

4: Now you can add Twitter account from the protocol drop-list in accounts.

ENJOY IT.

Free Software, GNU and Linux Stickers

2009-06-04T23:12:00.000-07:00

I always had this cool feeling every time I put one sticker on my laptop, Desktop or even the door. I mean it just say the words without even sayin it "I know it sounds stupid".

I always loved the Free Software Movement and computers and all that stuff. and My friends keep asking me to give them Stickers cuz i used to have money and get them printed for them. But you people should know I aint got a job no more. I am back studying again. so I cant affored it any more. You print your own stickers. I would love to help you out when I can but now is not the time...
To make it a bit easier I found a cool PDF files. which includes an amazing set of Stickers for everything.. From Laptop stickers to Servers and alot of cool stuff in there. and you can download them from the bellow links...

http://basel.amerj.info/free_software_sticker_book_vol1.pdf
http://basel.amerj.info/free_software_sticker_book_vol2.pdf

These files are PDF files.

Enjoy and please help your friends get either the files or the stickers..

The Coolest Set of Icons for GNU/Linux

2009-06-04T21:07:00.000-07:00

I have always wanted to have a cool customizable Icon set which can be changed while I keep change my theme. I hate windows but hay they have got some cool icons. OS X is a little better OS with some cool icons but i never figured out how to change anything in it. GNU/Linux Great OS Not really cool default icons. but a lot of the people in the community have contributed to create a real amazing and eye catching set of icons which you can be download and set up in couple of mouse clicks. which turned that Revolution OS to one of the best OS's and one of the most beautiful.

I have one set of icons which is called Hydroxgen which is done by a community contributre. and its just an amazing work, as you can change the colours of folders and some of the mean system icons like Firefox and OpenOffice.org to match your theme.

Its very easy to install all what you have to do is download it from the link : http://basel.amerj.info/hydroxygen_iconset_by_deviantdark.zip and then unzip it open Iconset folder and extract the folder named hydroxgen into your icon folder in the system at ~/.icons/ which is a hidden folder at home. you can view hidden folders by pressing ctrl+h or go to View on the file manager and check on show hidden files. then after you copy the folder there you will find the theme at System -> preferences -> appearance -> customize -> Icons. and then you can pick it up...

For more information on how to customize the icons set. a file name customizing-instructions will help you out the way.. and its a really easy steps to follow..

Enjoy your new set of icons.

How to install Ubuntu packages from a computer to another computer which has no internet connection !!

2009-05-06T05:43:00.000-07:00

So i always advice people to install a GNU/Linux operating system. And Ubuntu is a popular easy to use distro. and thats what i advice to their laptops and desktops. In Syria specially in Latakia, We have a problem with the Internet Connections at the time as the we lack high speed connections at home so most people uses Cybercafes for thier work on the internet like me for example. The problem faced most of the people was after installing ubuntu as you need to install alot of packges because Ubuntu comes only with the main packages and only. A very helpful set of tools are included Like Open Office , Video Player, Music Player and lots of other tools which is helpful. But to get the real joy of having GNU/Linux at home is to have the Applications which is alot of appications Plus it needs a lot of codecs to run all types of files like MP3 and other proprietary file types.

On laptops that is not a problem at all. Because you can take your laptop to the nearest Cybercafe and download and install all the packages that you want using Add/Remove programs which is a very nice and easy tool. But Desktops can a be a bit of a problem as you cant easily take it with you to the Cybercafe to install packages

What you have to do is find all the packages you need to install and that’s no problem because you can take it from another computer which it was installed on. Like your friends Laptop for example… Or you can directly download it from the repository.

If you have a friend who has a laptop or a high speed connection at home and he installed the packages that you really needed you can ask him to copy it to a flash memory or burn it to an external Media from the archive:
/var/cache/apt/archives/

Copy all of them to the same archive in you desktop.

you can do that by terminal:

To copy it to a flash Memory:

mrb-mackbookpro$ sudo cp /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb /media/XXX/YYY/

XXX is the flash memory
YYY is the destination file in the Flash memory
*.deb is to copy all .deb

and to copy it back to the desktop

mrb-macbookpro$ sudo cp /media/XXX/YYY/*.deb /var/cache/apt/archives/

now you have all the packages that you want to install so what you do next is typing the command as follows

mrb-macbookpro$ sudo dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb

and let the magic take over…. all packages will be installed automatically

and then you can thank me…

if you had any problems or you didn’t know how to do it… Let me know i am always here to help