Hulu Desktop for Ubuntu

I have been having all sorts of trouble with Hulu on my new Ubuntu desktop. When it does work it has a great fullscreen display. But the fullscreen mode would not work quite often. And when it did work it would always choose the smaller of my two monitors no matter what I did. The Popout option was nice and I could move it to the monitor I wanted but the control (pause, restart etc.) wouldn't work.

In trying to find solutions to these bugs I stumbled across Hulu desktop for Linux (including an Ubuntu 64 bit option). It works very well. The interface for Hulu desktop is flashy and nice in some ways but in some ways it is not easy to navigate. For example, it is much easier to see a list of the episodes you have subscribed to and their expiration dates.

And I get to watch programs like Caprica that I couldn't otherwise, since I don't have cable TV.

Related: Embedded YouTube Videos Won't Play - Using Multiple Firefox Profiles at the Same Time in Ubuntu

Problem: Hulu full-screen mode fails on Ubuntu in Firefox, Chrome and Opera. Hulu popout screen controls fail - Ubuntu 9.04, 64-bit. How to move a Hulu fullscreen to another monitor (using Hulu Desktop you can choose which monitor to use).

Embedded YouTube Videos Won't Play

On my Ubuntu machine embedded YouTube videos won't play (in any browser (Chrome, Firefox, Opera) but videos from the YouTube site play fine.

Lazyweb: What is causing this? How can I fix it?

Ubuntu and Linux Resources

• Ubuntu Kung-Fu





• order book from Amazon


• Ubuntu Pocket Guide - paper book from Amazon





• Linux-Unix cheat sheets - The ultimate collection

Related: Tips for Your First 24 Hours with Ubuntu - Ubuntu: Closing a Program That Won't Respond

Google Operating System

Google Chrome Operating System

the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010.
...
Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.
...
The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Interesting.

Related: Ubuntu 7.1 - Viewing Unpersonalized Google Search Results - Google's Search Results: Should Factors Other Than User Value be Used - Last Google Toolbar PageRank Update of 2008

Tips for Your First 24 Hours with Ubuntu

Ubuntu Newbie Guide: First 24 Hours With Ubuntu

Q: How do I find and install new software?

A: Here comes the fun part. Go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager, type in your password when prompted, and welcome to the world of finding new software! At this point, you can either browse or search. Browse around just to get an idea of what’s available. Search if you know what you want.

Let’s go ahead and install one nice little utility right now, so you can see how it works. Type “sysinfo” (without the quotes) into the Quick Search box. You see one or more listings come up, with a checkbox to the left of each. If the checkbox is empty next to the sysinfo listing, you can check it by clicking on it, and choosing Mark for Installation from the resulting drop-down box. This often brings up a box letting you know that in order to install this app, you’ll need to also install a list of other things. Just agree by clicking on the Mark button. Now that you’ve chosen to install sysinfo, click on the big Apply button (with a green check mark in the menu) and when asked if you want to apply the changes, click Apply.

Dell Inspiron Mini with Ubuntu

Dell has announced the Inspiron Mini 9 which includes Ubuntu as an operating system choice by default.

On the amazingly bad web design front if you are using security software to block javascript or just don't have javascript active, the links on the page fail. How lame are web people that can't even make links work without resorting to javascript.

According to the Dell mini specs it has windows and Ubuntu I guess:

Operating System
Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition SP3
Ubuntu Linux 8.04 with custom Dell interface

Media Company Fails at Web Again

Video has been supported on the web for years. Simple, know solutions exist. What does NBC do for the Olympics? Setup some complex solution that fails :(

Video is currently supported on the following browsers:

* Internet Explorer 6, 7 for Windows
(Vista, XP SP2 or greater and 2003)
* Firefox 1.5, 2, 3 for Windows
(Vista, XP SP2 or greater and 2003)
* Firefox 1.5, 2, 3 for Mac
(OS 10.4.8 or greater, Intel only)
* Safari 2 & 3 for Mac
(OS 10.4.8 or greater, Intel only)

How about just use solutions that are not operating system and browser dependent. It is like these people don't know that the web technology provides methods to just distribute your content and let the user access it however they want.

Related: What Kind of Management Does This? - VIP?

Firefox 3

Firefox 3 is close to being released (it is in beta now). Here is a nice screencast on new features. When I recently upgrade my Ubuntu it automatically installed the Firefox 3 beta (which I must say I don't really think was the greatest - asking would have been better). But for that reason, I have been using it and I like it. The menu bar improvements can actually be annoying in some ways but the advantages outweigh the problems with that feature, I think.

One very annoying thing with Firefox 3 is the Google toolbar is blocked. It doesn't comply with some new upgrade rule I think. Still I don't understand why they won't let me use the toolbar if I want (the message seems to indicate it is not a problem of incompatibility with Firefox 3 but not following some rule for how upgrades should be done. A number of plug-in have this problem but that is the only one that I really care about. I surprised Google hasn't made this work - even though it is still in beta since it is very close (weeks?) until the release.

Music Magic

I recently bought some new speakers for my computer based on recommendations: Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 THX. I find them excellent but I must admit I am not a very discriminating audiophile. I also found a nice new site to take advantage of the new speakers: Jango. Essentially this site lets you select a list of artist you like. They then play music by those artist and other artists like by those that like your list (I imagine). There are no ads. My guess is they make money when you buy music through the site (and probably have, or will get) special payment to promote some artists.

Related: gadgets and gifts - Hug Shirt

Ubuntu: Closing a Program That Won't Respond

Ubuntu tip - to close a program that won't respond:

1. open terminal, type:


2. top


3. get the PID (process ID) of the unresponsive program (for this example say it is 6764), type


4. CTRL-C (to exit top, then type)


5. sudo kill 6764

Type in your password when prompted and the program should then close.

How to Install Anything in Ubuntu!

How to Install Anything in Ubuntu! - nice complete guide for folks new to Ubuntu.

Related: Why Desktop Linux Will Take off - Google Tech Webcasts #3

Ubuntu 7.1

I upgraded to Ubuntu 7.1 today. It went very well. It was a large download but otherwise no problems at all. Simple download, upgraded Ubuntu and lots of supported applications. And it removed some no longer supported applications. It is a wonderful free operating system based on Linux for the desktop and very good for non-IT geeks. It automatically notifies you of updates and installs the updates with no need to reboot most of the time. Also it is Linux based and therefore very secure.

I did have one problem with Ubuntu last week. I could not download the photos from my digital camera. I tried various thing but couldn't figure it out. My friend was able to figure out there was a limitation in the software I was using that failed with over something like 1,000 photos (I had 1,085 photos from my trip). We tried another photos software but it failed too. I was able to delete some (that I got off the camera using a Windows computer at work) and then it worked fine.

Using Multiple Firefox Profiles at the Same Time in Ubuntu

There are several reasons to run multiple FireFox windows that are disconnected (not the same profile). Using the same FireFox profile means all windows are connected so all cookies are set the same for each window - which can be annoying at times (for example having multiple accounts with a web site). Another reason could be to separate extensions onto different profiles (in case they conflict or are slowing down FireFox due to the sheer number of extensions you have).

To create an additional profile in FireFox (using Ubuntu) close FireFox. In terminal type firefox -profilemanger

Use profile manager to create new profiles.

Then create an additional FireFox shortcut.

Next edit the properties of that new shortcut: in the launcher tab update the command field:

firefox -P newprofilename -no-remote

where newprofilename is the name you gave your new profile in the profile manager. I hope this is helpful.

I found the following useful in getting this to work in Ubuntu 7.04 and FireFox 2.0: Use Multiple Firefox Profiles at the Same Time - Geek to Live: Manage multiple Firefox profiles

Tags: ubuntu - FireFox - FireFox profiles

13 Things For Ubuntu

13 Things to do immediately after installing Ubuntu:

1. Enabling/Adding Extra Repositories
...
10 . Installing the extra multimedia codecs,players
12 . Installing beagle
13. Installing gdesklets