htop is tops

So if you have been doing your study on the command line you will have found that there are some "graphical" programs for the shell. One such program is "top" which is a dynamic process listing which tells you what is running and many other important bits of information in real time.

But its hard to use and even harder to customize. Instead try "htop" which is available in the repos

sudo apt-get install htop

Give it a whirl.

Bluetooth

So I got a new computer, a Dell Studio 15, and of course immediately loaded Ubuntu on it. The most exciting thing for me though was getting the bluetooth working.

First let me recommend blueman as the connection manager as it is far more advanced (and easy) than gnome's default. Add the PPA to your sources and 'sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install blueman' .

Then to get it working, in your home directory create (or add to) '.asoundrc' :

pcm.bluetooth {
type bluetooth
device "XX:XX:XX:XX:XX" #optional, connects to specific device instead the default one
profile "hifi" #optional, supported profiles are: auto, hifi and voice
}

this for the hifi sound on the bluetooth headset.

then run 'pactl load-module module-alsa-sink device=bluetooth' to add the device to PulseAudio

Then 'sudo apt-get install padevchooser' and run it from the sound & video menu and then in the Volume Control section make the bluetooth device default

Now when you run a program (say VLC for example) the sound will come through the headphones.

Hope this helps someone out there, it works for me. :)

Fun sound commands

I have been having some fun lately.

One way to hear the fun is to

cat /usr/share/icons/*/* > /dev/dsp

which lets you "listen" to your tiny little icon files!

More fun was a little prank I pulled on my co-worker.

I have a server that sits next to my co-worker's desk. I installed the 'beep' program on the server and from the ssh across the room had a great time watching him get more and more worried/confused at the random beeping that he couldn't find.

Just thought I'd share that.

Sorry Mike.

Learn the Shell

I started like many newer linux converts saying "since linux has nice gui tools now, I can finally convert to it and live like I did in the windows world." And it worked for a while until ...

I discovered ssh.

I can control another computer as if it WAS the computer I am sitting at, unlike remote desktop which is a remote computer in a window with limits. The problem is that I could only (not total true) control it at the command line level. (If you start ssh with -x you can tunnel windowed programs too.) Anyway I started learning the shell commands; turns out I rather liked it. I am now trying to learn what I would have learned had I started in linux years ago.

Anyway a short story turned long leads to ...

I found this site that is a great explaination and tutorial.

If you haven't befriended the shell yet, go ahead. Its not as scary as you would think.

Real Player for linux 64 bit

Good news, Real Player is available for 64 bit linux now. Check it out at real.com

jDownloader

Just a quick post to help those of us who don't have windows or rapidshare premium. Rather than waiting for each of your multi-part rapidshare downloads to finish in turn, and wait the waiting period to start the next. I found a cool program (with a java installer) called jDownloader. Check it out.

Spreading the word (The Mom Test)

So I have been telling my friends that linux as a desktop OS is a great idea, because I think it is. Some have even taken me up on it, but it has been hard. Each of them has had issues; issues that I am sure I had when I started this. For me though it was fun challenge to get it all working, to them they wanted something that would work.

I hate to admit it, but I think they are right. I couldn't recommend linux to my mom to have on her computer; I would spend all my time on ssh-ing into her computer and fixing things.

Its getting closer, but the wave of the future is still a ways off.