But I had one very annoying problem until today: After setting KDE Component Chooser to use /usr/bin/opera as the web browser, opening new links would replace the current tab. That is not a big deal, until the user wants to open a few different stores from aKgregator, and each URI open sin the previous stories’ page.

But the fix is simple enough (though not in the man page, it is in opera –help). Instead of mucking around with the remote flag, just use the newpage flag itself. The complete command (as shown in the screen capture) should be /usr/bin/opera -newpage

Opera for Linux seems to have a few more small quirks about it, and I hope to document their cures as time passes.

I am no artist, video producer, or anything even closely resembling an expert judge for this sort of program. I am, however, an avid Dad with a Camera. We take tons of pictures and mid-quality video. And this program is just perfect for trimming that video for the key moment, so that it can be shared via email or web page. But do beware: “Saving [can take several hours].” Such is the nature of video encoding. For me and my few minutes of footage, saving only took a few minutes. But, most individual operations took a few minutes to accomplish, as well. A user should be patient with a less than 2ghz, 1GB RAM machine; I do not recommend using this kind of program on a super-low-end machine.

Exports are, by default, into a PCM-based Microsoft AVI file. This works on my system just fine, with the Debian Multimedia repository handling things. Other options, including ffmpeg, are available if you install the respective binaries.

It’s stable, it’s free, and it works for my basic video editing needs. Get LiVES and give it a shot if you think you would appreciate these values.

If you are a Facebook friend to my wife or me, then you can see the end result video I tested the application with: Kayleigh Eating a Pumpkin. And do note that the Facebook video applicaiton happily accepted the video as if it were from Final Cut Pro of iMovie.

[tags]video editing, linux, linux video, home video editing[/tags]

The computer is new, an anniversary gift from the “kids.” It is a Dell something-or-other with a slick widescreen monitor and Windows Vista Home Basic. The weekend was my first chance to actually use Vista. Obviously I didn’t compose any documents, examine the full capabilities of the Widgets, or analyze the security features or parental controls, but I did get to use dial-up (28.8kbs, out there in rural Alabama) and Internet Explorer 7.

And I must say, without thorough testing, IE7 was very annoying. It was intuitive, tabs open with the tab button on the tab bar, history is in a neat little sidepanel like it often is, and I was somewhat comforted by the existence of pop-up and phishing monitors (of course I did not test their reliability). But despite the intuitive nature, it crashed a lot. I went to a total of five different websites, and having tabs (never more than five, this is dial-up) open on those websites was just too much for IE7. Gmail, Qwartz.com, KingsofChaos.com, Facebook.com, and my school’s Vista/WebCT Web Portal (Vista/WebCT is completely unrelated to Microsoft’s Vista. Confusing, I know!).

It was primarily the larger, more advanced javascripts that seemed to hurt IE7. Gmail reverted to the HTML version of itself, but that could perhaps be blamed on the bandwidth issue. And I like a webapp that can detect that it is taking too long to load, and does something about it. But in Vista/WebCT, IE7 just could not keep up with things. Between the webapp pop-ups and frames and such, it kept resetting the session, forcing me to log-in again. I was finally able to gain access and find the information I needed once I turned the pop-up and phishing monitors off (which, I just remembered, I forgot to turn back on).

Also, IE7 and Word 2003 do not mix as they once did. I don’t know if there was a solution, but clicking to open a Word Document instead of saving it forced Word to dim my screen and ask permission to access the temporary Internet file of the Word Document. That sort of thing is frustrating when IE7, Word 2003, and the Vista Operating System come from the same company. It seemed as if the other applications didn’t trust each other, or didn’t trust IE7.

So IE7 was not a wonderful experience. Aside from that, I did take the opportunity to run a few applications and check out the new Control Panel. Solitare and Minesweeper have been completely (at least graphically) rewritten. Boy, are they shiny. The Control Panel is laid out very differently, but I found my way around.

I have considered the strongest points of Microsoft Windows to be familiarity, hardware compatibility, and integration with Microsoft Office. Familiarity went out the window with Vista. The interface is simply very different. As for hardware compatibility, everything worked with the Vista-certified Dell with Vista pre-loaded, including the HP printer and a Cannon scanner (though the installation of drivers for the scanner gave me a warning, it was still functional). Although, I have read many horror stories of hardware problems with Vista. I did not use anything for Office to determine integration status, but I imagine Office 2007 does have it to some degree if Office 2003 does not.

All in all, I would stick with Debian GNU/Linux even if Vista were free. I just need to solve this modem issue on my Thinkpad so that I am not dependant on their computer when I visit.

[tags]vista, review, vista sucks[/tags]

Internet Service can be expensive. It tends to range from the $25 to $75, depending on your Internet Service Provider, your service plan, and area.

But why pay when you can get it for free from a neighbor? We all know by now that there is at least one neighbor around us that doesn’t secure their wireless network. But is using their network instead of buying your own legal?

Technically speaking, you are stealing from your neighbor by doing this. You are using their router’s resources (the one that has to send and receive packets to maintain communication with your computer), and you are stealing bandwidth.

(Bandwidth is tricky, because while there is typically no limit to how much data a person or store can download, there is a limit to the speed. By downloading your email, you are making every other user’s bandwidth slightly slower.)

But you are not just hurting your neighbor with this sort of activity. You are hurting local Internet Service Providers. They depend on having customers, and by doubling-up with your neighbor, you are stealing from them. (And what happens when a company loses money? It rises prices, of course!)

Is it ethical? Not really. It negatively impacts both your neighbor and local ISPs.

Is it legal? Just like stealing cable, wireless piggybacking from a neighbor is illegal.

[tags]computer morals, computer ethics, piggybacking, computer law[/tags]

Well, now that won’t be a problem. That is, if you don’t mind using WINE and/or a Microsoft product.

The solution is Microsoft’s Free PowerPoint 2003 Viewer application. Probably intended for Windows users, it works perfectly well with WINE. Just run “wine ppviewer.exe” after you download the installer and wine will handle it.

The neat trick is adding PowerPoint Viewer to your Open With menu. To do this with KDE, open up K Control Center, Click under KDE Components and File Associations. Look under “Applications” and click on “mspowerpoint.” You will need to click “Add” and then type in /usr/bin/wine” to the select program dialog box. Clicking “OK” will update your system configuration, but you are not done yet.

Unfortunantly, the command to use wine to start PowerPoint Viewer is a bit long, and difficult to make into a menu item. It only takes one more step, though. Click “Edit” on the new entry you have made (”wine”). Go to the Application tab. Name it something more descriptive, such as “PowerPoint Viewer (WINE).” Then instruct it to use this command:

/usr/bin/wine “.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Microsoft Office/PowerPoint Viewer/PPTVIEW.EXE”

Click “OK” to update your system configuration. Now when you right-click a PowerPoint file, you can select PowerPoint Viewer from the “Open With” menu. No more messy formatting!

Similar tricks can be used with the Word Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer 2003, and PowerPoint Viewer 2007.

[tags]linux, microsoft, powerpoint[/tags]