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Tips

Linux / Tips — 1 Comment
18
May 09

Get a clean desktop on Ubuntu

Be it GNOME or KDE, most Linux power users prefer to have their desktops slick and geeky with screenlets, gadgets, docks or conky. But I on the other hand (cannot call myself a power user) like to keep my Ubuntu desktop clean without any visual clutter by preventing nautilus from drawing icons. It is only then I believe the true beauty of a wallpaper can be relished.

To treat yourself with a clean desktop, bring up the run application dialog with Alt + F2.

Type gconf-editor to invoke the GNOME configuration editor. Navigate to the key /apps/nautilus/preferences and scroll down to the key show_desktop. Uncheck the box next to the key under the value column.

P.S. : Right-clicking on the desktop is disabled with this setting

Quantum GIS 1.0.1 available for Ubuntu 9.04

Just a quick heads up for all open-source GIS enthusiasts. Quantum GIS 1.0.1 aka “Kore” is now available in repositories for the new Ubuntu Jaunty release.

For first time users, here are steps to help you guide through the installation.

Bring up the terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal)

Edit the /etc/apt/sources.list by issuing the command sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.lists

Scroll down to the end of the page and paste the following lines:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/qgis/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/qgis/ubuntu jaunty main

Saving and closing the file, brings back the prompt.

Update the package lists using the command, sudo apt-get update

Install Quantum GIS with sudo apt-get install qgis

Ignore any GPG errors that show up for public keys that are not available.

Access Quantum GIS from Applications -> Education -> Quantum GIS

Programming / Tips / Web Mapping — No Comments
5
Apr 09

Read XML files using the Google Maps API

Looking to build a Google Maps mashup by reading geo-enabled information from an XML file?

Here’s a post from GeoChalkboard explaining by way of examining a simple application that displays geologic points of interest from around the state of Texas available in an XML file format.

The tutorial highlights the usage of two methods (GXmlHttp and GDownloadUrl) provided by the Google Maps API to read XML files.

Lat long coordinates and information associated with each point of interest are read from the file and markers are generated with location information being displayed via an information window.

If you are just beginning to create Google Map mashups and looking for some simple examples on using XML files and the maps API, check out my previous posts.

Linux / Programming / Tips — 3 Comments
11
Mar 09

Unzip multiple zip files using Shell script

For the Linux newbie from a noob

Scenario: You have quite a large number of zip files in a folder with other files and would like to avoid manual labor of extracting one file at a time.

The below graphic is the result of extracting an e-book downloaded from the web in compressed format.

Solution: A simple shell script to extract all files at one go.

Save the script with a .sh extension and make sure it resides in the same directory as the compressed files.

Fire up the terminal, cd to the target directory and execute the script using ./xxxx.sh

P.S.: Has been successfully tested on Ubuntu

Tips — No Comments
30
Dec 08

MS Word Subscript Shortcut

Being a master’s student, I always have something to do with Microsoft Word. Be it assignments, lab results or project reports not a week goes by without having to use winword in the run dialog.

It gets even worse when I am forced to type in lines of equations having subscripts and superscripts. Its a nightmare to go through the long process of right-clicking for a context menu, then selecting the Font menu item that brings up a dialog and then requires you to check the Subscript option of the many other effects (Note: The process repeats to get the cursor back to normal font style). All this just for a few alphabets or numbers can definitely be agitating especially when its right before submission time.

So, here’s a nifty keyboard shortcut for the subscript effect – Ctrl+=
(keep the control key pressed and click the equal key to toggle between modes)

I hope there is something for the superscript too…

Linux / Tips — 1 Comment
1
Nov 08

Open .rar files using Archive Manager in Ubuntu

The “Archive Manager” that is built into Ubuntu (Ubuntu is the only Linux distro that I have tried so far) to handle archive formats has no native support for the .rar format.

Try opening a .rar file with the Archive Manager and you are presented with an error.

Fixing this problem requires installation of an unarchiver for .rar files. This is readily available in the repositories in two packages – unrar and unrar-free. The unrar package is from RARLAB and the unrar-free is from Gna! which is the free software version of the non-free unrar utility.

Fire up the terminal and issue the command
sudo apt-get install unrar-free

Once the package is installed, Archive Manager should now be able to extract files with the .rar extension.

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