Tag: technology
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Ubuntu: Securely Erase Hard Drive with “shred”
On Windows, I used the free program Eraser to wipe hard drives when I was finished with them. I looked for a while for something similar for Ubuntu Linux but couldn’t find any programs like Eraser. Turns out, however, that this functionality is built into the operating system, though it is command-line only. Here’s an…
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remove apostrophes before numbers in OpenOffice Calc
The Problem: You have a spreadsheet that has a column of what you think are numbers in it. The numbers display fine in their cells, but when you try to do something with them, you find that you can’t. For example, you may want to sort them or use them as part of a calculation…
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Ubuntu: How to save handouts in OpenOffice Impress as PDFs
I’m not a computer programmer (sometimes I wish I was), so I’m going to guess that implementing the ability to save handouts as PDFs in OpenOffice.org’s Impress (OpenOffice’s version of Powerpoint) may be a very challenging programming task. For those who have never used OpenOffice, one of its greatest features is the built-in ability to…
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Ubuntu: Getting Streamzap PC Remote Control working with Ubuntu and Boxee
We periodically watch videos from the internet on our TV. I found a cool piece of software that is getting a lot of attention – Boxee. It’s pretty slick, though not without it’s bugs (it is beta software and free, though, so I can’t complain). In the spirit of true American laziness, once I realized…
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Ubuntu Fresh Install
I mentioned a while back that I switched all of our computers (currently 5) to Linux (Ubuntu, to be specific). I was committed to making the transition this time and have spent quite a bit of time becoming more proficient with the operating system. I wouldn’t say I’m a Linux expert, by any means, but…
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Ubuntu: How to Install Galleon on Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty
One of the great features of Tivo (and one of the reasons why we won’t switch to a different PVR) is that you can transfer shows to your computer. This is great for teachers as you can find shows and copy them to your computer to then use in class. Alas, switching to Linux meant…
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Ubuntu: Enabling USB Support in Virtualbox
While Ubuntu does about 95% of what I need my OS to do, there are a few things it doesn’t do (or at least doesn’t do well). I occasionally need to recognize the text of documents. There are a few programs for this for Linux OSes, but they all suck – really, they do. Since…
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Ubuntu: How to Automount Internal NTFS Drives
For most new users of Linux, automounting an internal NTFS drive is probably not a concern as you’ll just have one hard drive and it will be reformatted to either EXT3 or EXT4. But for people who dual boot Windows and Linux, like I do, being able to mount the NTFS formatted drives in your…
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Goodbye Windows (mostly). Hello Linux!
After about three years of toying with each new release of Ubuntu Linux, the latest version, Jaunty Jackalope 9.0.4, sold me. It’s about 95% there, and that’s enough. So here’s the rundown of what works and what doesn’t… I installed the latest version on five computers: 2 custom built desktops, a Lenovo laptop, a Compaq…
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how to open Google Reader links in a new tab without changing focus
If you’re a fan of Google Reader, like I am, that means it is now part of your life – something you’re not sure you could live without. I use Google Reader pretty much every day to read the news and keep up with the blogs that I can (mostly family, some friends). I love…