Monday, December 28, 2009

Changing from Gnome to KDE on Ubuntu Desktop

I've been working with the GNOME Ubuntu Desktop version for a while, but recently I've been trying to access an Ubuntu PC from a remote Windows machine. On a previous post I explained how to use the X11vnc package to connect to an Ubuntu machine from a remote PC because there were some problems with the GNOME desktop and the vncserver. Now I'm having some problems with the Ubuntu 9.10 GNOME version because if I disconnect the monitor from the PC, the maximum resolution I can use from my remote Windows PC is 800x600, and frankly it's very annoying! So now I'm going to try installing the KDE desktop manager on my Ubuntu 9.10 machine, and see if I can use the tightvnc server (www.tightvnc.com) to connect to it from my Windows main PC. I'll keep you updated about this...

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Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Uploading Videos and Sound Files on Your Posts Using Apache Roller 4.0

This article teaches you how to insert video files in your posts.The article tells you how to offer your spectators the easiest, quickest, and most attractive way to see what you have to offer.

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Monday, December 21, 2009

Including Google Maps in your Posts Using Apache Roller 4.0

This article teaches you how to take advantage of web services such as Google Maps, YouTube, and SlideShare and use Google Maps, YouTube, and SlideShare to embed maps, videos, and document presentations in your blog.

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Spicing Up Your Blog: Uploading Files and Images to your Weblog using Apache Roller

This article gives you insight on weblogs and how they can be used to create a worldwide presence through the blogosphere. It also teaches you the difference between a blog and a CMS, the basics about newsfeeds and the important role they play for blogs, and how you can use them to spread information on the blogosphere.

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Thursday, December 10, 2009

Working with Templates in Apache Roller 4.0

This three-part article is an excerpt from the Apache Roller 4.0 Beginner's Guide, where you will learn to create a custom template for your Roller blog: http://www.packtpub.com/article/working-with-templates-in-apache-roller-4

If you haven't used Apache Roller before, give it a try, I guarantee you won't regret it!

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Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Apache Roller 4.0 Beginner's Guide Book Announced in Packt Publishing Web Site

Check out the new Apache Roller Beginner's Guide Book at packtpub.com

I hope this book helps to promote Apache Roller, the best blog server I've used!

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Apache Roller 4.0 – Beginner's Guide

Check out the new Apache Roller Beginner's Guide Book at packtpub.com

I hope this book helps to promote Apache Roller, the best blog server I've used!

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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Introduction to the Struts Web Framework - NetBeans IDE 6.7 Tutorial

Introduction to the Struts Web Framework

This document takes you through the basics of using NetBeans IDE to develop web applications using the Struts web framework. Struts is an open source framework that extends the Java Servlet API and employs a Model, View, Controller (MVC) architecture. It enables you to create maintainable, extensible, and flexible web applications based on standard technologies, such as JSP pages, JavaBeans, resource bundles, and XML.

This tutorial teaches you how to build a simple MVC application that displays a login page and returns a success page upon submitting data that passes validation. You learn several basic features provided by Struts, as well as how these features are implemented using the IDE. Specifically, you use Struts tags in JSP pages, maintain user data with a Struts ActionForm bean, and implement forwarding logic using a Struts Action object. You are also shown how to implement simple validation to your application, including setting up warning message for a failed login attempt.

Excellent tutorial if you want a quick intro to Struts & NetBeans...

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Monday, August 24, 2009

Develop PHP Web Applications with NetBeans, VirtualBox and Turnkey LAMP Appliance

Develop PHP Web Applications with NetBeans, VirtualBox and Turnkey LAMP Appliance

In this article by Alfonso Romero, we will learn how to configure NetBeans, VirtualBox and the Turnkey LAMP Appliance to develop complex PHP applications in a virtual environment. This article explains the process of creating a virtual machine, configuring the NetBeans PHP IDE, and managing a WordPress project with NetBeans in a step wise manner.

I hope this article helps to promote TurnKey Linux appliances, VirtualBox and NetBeans as a powerful way to develop Web apps...

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Thursday, August 13, 2009

UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads

The other day I ran out of CDs to create a KUbuntu Live CD, and after googling to find another way to install this Linux distro, I found this excellent piece of software to create bootable Live USB drives of Ubuntu, KUbuntu and a bunch of other Linux distros!

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Widgetbox › Edit Widget: alromero's posterous - Open Source Software & More

If you haven't visited the WidgetBox Web site yet (http://www.widgetbox.com), go and take a look! You can make your own widgets, like the one I made to show my recent posts from Posterous!

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Using X11vnc instead of vino, tightvncserver or vnc4server

I've been having a lot of trouble lately, using vino and vnc with my Ubuntu Linux PC. The bottom line is I need to use a remote desktop application to manage my Ubuntu PC from my Windows desktop. The first thing I tried was the Remote Desktop feature included in Ubuntu. This feature uses a package called vino, and the problem with vino is that I can't see the Ubuntu cursor correctly and the connection is a bit jerky.

Then I decided to install tightvncserver, but the keyboard was a mess and some icons and colors didn't display correctly on the remote desktop. After that I tried vnc4server, but got the same results. Then I stumbled upon No Machine NX (http://www.nomachine.com/) and decided to install it. To my surpirse it worked well the first time, but then Ubuntu updated some packages and NX started to behave exactly like tightvncserver and vnc4server!!

But today, after a week of frustration, I finally found something that works, at least for the time being! This fabulous package is called Xvnc, and you can download it from Ubuntu's repository. Just install it, open a terminal window and type x11vnc. Then you can connect from another PC using any vnc client like vncviewer:

The screenshot above shows a session on my Ubuntu PC using vncviewer from TighVNC on my Windows XP desktop. There are some settings to take care of, like adding a password to my X11vnc configuration, but right now I just wanted to let you know that this is the best vnc solution I've seen so far. I'll keep posting about all the new findings on vnc servers...

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Problem with keyboard, TightVNC and Gnome in Ubuntu 9.04

Check out this website I found at bugs.launchpad.net

I followed the instructions and it worked on my Ubuntu Linux 9.04 (Jaunty) installation, hope it works for others with the same problem, too...

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Enabling SSH on Ubuntu Linux 9.04 (Jaunty)

I just finished installing Ubuntu Linux 9.04 (Jaunty) on one of my PCs, and wanted to connect through SSH from another Windows XP PC. I haven't worked with SSH in a long time since my last server, so I forgot that the Live CD Ubuntu installation doesn't have SSH enabled by default. But to my surprise, I just went to the Synaptic Package Manager, typed SSH in the Quick Search box and selected the ssh metapackage (it installs the OpenSSH client and server). I marked this package for installation and then clicked on Apply. After a few seconds, the OpenSSH package was installed! Then I went to the Windows XP PC and tested the connection:

Voila! Another good reason to use Ubuntu!

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Running Rise of Nations on VirtualBox 3

Well, I finally managed to play Rise of Nations on my Windows XP virtual machine, thanks to VirtualBox 3.0 and its Direct3D support! For those of you who haven't tried it yet, you  just need to install Windows XP like a regular virtual machine. Then, when installing the VirtualBox Guest Additions, make sure you reboot your virtual machine, press F8 to enter "safe mode" and install the Guest Additions when in safe mode, because if you try to install Guest Additions in normal mode, Windows' file protection mechanism will not let you install some DLLs VirtualBox needs to replace to use the 3D hardware directly from the host computer.
 
Here's a screenshot of Rise of Nations on my WinXP virtual machine:
 
One final consideration: I used the Spanish version, because I live in Mexico and I bought the game in Spanish, but the result is the same, no matter what language you use. Version 3 of VirtualBox has definitely improved its support for using 3D graphics hardware inside a virtual machine! The only tiny detail is that I noticed the game doesn't run as smooth as in my real Windows XP machine, but since I have an AMD Sempron w/ 2GB of RAM, I can't really say my hardware is helping VirtualBox! If you have better hardware and want to try VirtualBox 3 with a game like Rise of Nations, Age of Empires III, or some of the more recent titles, I'll appreciate if you keep me informed of your findings...

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Ubuntu Linux on VirtualBox 3 Network Problem Corrected

Well, I couldn't wait to download VirtualBox 3 now that Sun released it officially, but almost had a heart attack when my Ubuntu Linux 9.04 Desktop virtual machine freezed up when running the update manager! I had to shut down the VM and tried again, but got the same result! Then I decided to change the network adapter type to Intel:
 
 
Then I restarted my virtual machine, and the problem disappeared! The update manager could do his job without any problems:
 
 
Now, I'm just waiting for my Ubuntu VM to restart after applying the upgrades...
So, if you run into the same problem when installing VirtualBox 3, remember to change your network adapter type first and try again. If the problem persists, send me an email or ask for help on the http://www.virtualbox.org...

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Testing Windows 7 on VirtualBox 2.2.4

At last! I could spare the time to test the evaluation copy of Windows 7 that I downloaded two weeks ago! I still haven't got the chance to burn the image I downloaded to a DVD and test it on real hardware, but when that happens I'll post my results it in here, to let you know if there are any visible differences... I plan to test Windows 7 on an AMD Sempron +3400 (yes I know, but my budget sucks right now!) with 2GB of RAM.

In this post, I'm going to show you what I went through when installing Windows 7 on VirtualBox. The first thing I noticed was that the installation took a long time to complete, if you compare it to an ordinary Windows XP installation on VirtualBox. But considering that the Windows 7 ISO image is around 2.4 GB, and the Windows XP ISO image I use with VirtualBox is 700MB, maybe it's not a VirtualBox problem. I'll have to compare this with the time it takes Windows 7 to install directly in the same machine, without VirtualBox.

After half an hour, Windows 7 finally finished installing on my VirtualBox VM:

 
I opened Internet Explorer 8, and all went well, except I had to install the most recent Flash player version. After that, I went to http://www.playingforchange.com to test Windows 7 video streaming capabilities on VirtualBox. I played my favorite video, Stand By Me, and I noticed a little slowlyness on the video frames. In full-screen mode, it was impossible to see the video. I could hear the sound allright, but no video for me! Maybe I have to assign more than 512MB of RAM to the virtual machine, and 128 MB of video ram. I'll get back to you on this later on...
 
All in all, I think Windows 7 looks great, and VirtualBox is doing a great job, considering the sloppy hardware I have available to test it :)
 
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Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 7
 

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6x5 VirtualBox Free E-Book .

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Well, here's my first 6x5 E-book about VirtualBox, based on David Barnes's 6x5 template .


6x5_VirtualBox.doc (1068 KB)
View this on posterous


I'm open to suggestions and improvements, so don't hesitate to comment!

 


Regards,
 
Alfonso Romero

 

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