LiVES: Video Editing for Linux

Today, i browsed some sites and then i saw LiVES, a video editing tool system for Linux platform. This is the application i have been searching for some time. I have tried to compile and install other applications, but most of them failed due to unsatisfied dependencies.

This application does have lots of dependencies, but in the end, i managed to install this after fulfilling all the dependencies from Slackbuilds project and now it's running very well on my desktop.

If you want to try a nice video editing tool for Linux, try this on and i hope you like it as i like it

Installing Open Office in Fedora 12

Here is the simple step that describes how to install Open Office in Fedora 12.

yum -y install openoffice.org-core openoffice.org-calc openoffice.org-base openoffice.org-draw openoffice.org-impress openoffice.org-langpack-es openoffice.org-writer hunspell-es openoffice.org-extendedPDF

GNOME 2.30 has been released

Today, the GNOME Project celebrates the release of GNOME 2.30, the latest version of the popular, multi-platform free desktop environment and of its developer platform. Released on schedule, to the day, GNOME 2.30 builds on top of a long series of successful six months releases to offer the best experience to users and developers.

Linux Portable

You might have seen a lot of LiveCD-based Linux distribution nowadays. But do you know that Linux can also be used in a flash-disk and being a portable Linux distribution that you can carry on everywhere you like?

Take a look on LinuxPenDrive to see lots of tutorials about how to make your flash disk running Linux

What is GNOME?

Some people asked me "What is GNOME?"
The GNOME project provides two things: The GNOME desktop environment, an intuitive and attractive desktop for users, and the GNOME development platform, an extensive framework for building applications that integrate into the rest of the desktop

GNOME is...

Free

GNOME is Free Software and part of the GNU project, dedicated to giving users and developers the ultimate level of control over their desktops, their software, and their data. Find out more about the GNU project and Free Software at gnu.org.

Usable

GNOME understands that usability is about creating software that is easy for everyone to use, not about piling on features. GNOME's community of professional and volunteer usability experts have created Free Software's first and only Human Interface Guidelines, and all core GNOME software is adopting these principles. Find out more about GNOME and usability at the GNOME Usability Project.

Accessible

Free Software is about enabling software freedom for everyone, including users and developers with disabilities. GNOME's Accessibility framework is the result of several years of effort, and makes GNOME the most accessible desktop for any Unix platform. Find out more at the GNOME Accessibility Project.

International

GNOME is used, developed and documented in dozens of languages, and we strive to ensure that every piece of GNOME software can be translated into all languages. Find out more at the GNOME Translation Project.

Developer-friendly

Developers are not tied to a single language with GNOME. You can use C, C++, Python, Perl, Java, even C#, to produce high-quality applications that integrate smoothly into the rest of your Unix or GNU/Linux (commonly referred to as Linux) desktop.

Organized

GNOME strives to be an organized community, with a foundation of several hundred members, usability, accessibility, and QA teams, and an elected board. GNOME releases are defined by the GNOME Release Team and are scheduled to occur every six months.

Supported

Beyond the worldwide GNOME Community, GNOME is supported by the leading companies in GNU/Linux and Unix, including HP, IBM, Mandriva, Novell, Red Hat, and Sun. Find out more at foundation.gnome.org.

Reference:http://www.gnome.org

.la Removal

I've decided to remove all .la files from my own build packages since those files doesn't have anything to do with the executable binaries. Some says that some program needs this .la files to load the binary. But in all of my packages i can assure that this files are unneeded. Any suggestion to this?

This is the lines that will remove all the .la files from my packages, taken from AUR documentation:

find $PKG -name '*.la' -exec rm {} \;

Feel free to used it, with your own risk.

How to Pick a Linux Distro (Distribution)

Entering the Linux World
As I have embarked on finding the right Linux distro I have observed a great deal about the Linux world. Where Linux is quite popular in other countries, there is an undercurrent of Linux users in the US. Now, I know there are probably hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people even in the US that use Linux, but compared to the Microsoft Windows users out there, that is a drop in the bucket. Generally, this minority of Linux users are intelligent people that enjoy using Linux for it's power and stability. This great strength of the community is also it's biggest problem. Since there are lots of smart people using Linux (that seem to already know how to use it), good and understandable instructions on using it are often hard to come by, or lack thoroughness at best. So as I searched for the "best" Linux distro, there wasn't much help that was immediately available. (Unlike what you would find for Windows)

Which Linux Distro is the "BEST"?
I was in search for the best distro, and all I could really find is, "There is no 'best.' It comes down to a matter of personal preference." Which is no help to a newb like me... I want some good pros and cons about a particular distro and more importantly, concise and easily "digestible." Give me bullet points dammit! So as I Googled around I stumbled across a really neat site geared for the most ignorant computer user or an experienced Linux user wanting to try something new. When I go into a store and I am seriously comparing some products, I am looking for a sales rep to sell me on a particular brand. Now, that doesn't mean I'm going to buy it, but I want some convincing reasons to buy one product over the other. Of course I will take this info and scour the Internet and read forums and user opinions. But I want someone to tell me what they think I should buy! This site does that for me.

The Linux Distro Test
Zegenie Studios has an easy little test with relevant questions for the most novice Linux user. Answer each question honestly and it will point you to what suites your Linux "skills" the most. I have taken the test numerous times and have massaged the answers a little differently each time. (Which I would recommend) The top three recommendations I received over and over were 1. Ubuntu 2. Mandriva One and 3. PCLinuxOS. There were a few extra distros that almost made the cut including: Kubuntu, Mepis and Xandros. One of my main criteria was FREE. I don't want to pay for what, in my mind, is unproven. Another neat feature that I would suggest is a "Live CD". This is basically a bootable CD that allows you to check out the distro, without having to fully commit a piece of your hard drive to this new (and shall I say foreign) operating system. There are lots of instructions on how to boot your computer with a CD, especially on the individual distribution sites themselves. There are also great differences in how some these distributions work, so take a look and read the FAQ and Wikis at each site. And once you have chosen a distribution read, read, read, read, read.

How to find cause of heavy usage on your Apache webserver

Here's a quick and dirty tips on how to find cause of heavy CPU resources usage on your Apache webserver (especially when running php scripts).

First you need to locate the Apache 2 "access.log" file. By default in Ubuntu, this file is located in "/var/logs/apache2" directory.

Then you need to run this command to find out which IP address accesses your website the most in a short time.

CODE:

1. tail -10000 access.log| awk '{print $1}' | sort | uniq -c |sort -n

The output of the command should contain a list of IP addresses along with the number of hits it made in the last 10,000 access of your website

CODE:

1. 47 117.58.252.98
2. 81 202.124.242.186
3. 84 202.124.245.26
4. 182 194.164.101.217
5. 220 208.101.22.146
6. 225 72.167.131.144
7. 3946 93.135.xxx.xxx

From here you can easily locate the offending ip address and proceed to block it from accessing your website further using .htaccess file or other blocking method.

Here is an example to block certain ip address from accessing your website using .htaccess file

CODE:

2. order deny,allow
3. deny from 93.135.xxx.xxx

Save .htaccess file in the root directory of your web server (example /var/www), and the ip address wont be available to access your site again.

Hope that would help you!

Working hard publishing papers and learning PyGTK

For the last few weeks I've been working hard to finish up my research project, most of it concerning about on mobile phone application usability and context-aware applications. This leaves me with less time to devote for this blog and I started to realise that I might have a 'burn-out' issue at the same time.

I'm still using Ubuntu in my daily work if you are curious (Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.04 for netbook) and Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope for my Intel Core 2 Duo Desktop PC. Besides writing those research papers, I've use what left of my time to learn PyGTK to enable me to code RAD app for GNU/Linux desktop environment.

I found out the references around the internet regarding PyGTK is very helpful to aid me in understanding the GTK+ bindings in python, which is not much different from its C counterpart.

Now that I've some time to spare until Hari , I'll try to use that time wisely to fill up this blog with a couple more of fresh new posts. So, keep reading!

Why Linux is Better

Some people asked me "Why would you use Linux?, Isn't it a difficult operating system?" Sometimes, it's hard to convince them that Linux is easy to use (this is my personal opinion, so it's objectable), but people do believe that Linux is more stable and secure than Windows.

For those who have the same questions from other people, ask them to visit this site: Why Linux is better. It lists every pro/cons of using Linux so that people can compare and see why Linux is definitely better than Windows