Correcting EPUBs exported from Calligra Words using Sigil Part 1

Category: Techwriter

Calligra Words exports directly to EPUB and does a good job of retaining text formatting. As a distraction-free word processor, it's a good alternative to applications like LibreOffice Writer. However, the resulting EPUB isn't perfect, particularly when it comes to retaining links, table of contents and images. Using popular ebook editor, Sigil, writers can easily correct image issues and fix EPUB issues.

EPUB images not displayed

Once an .ODT is exported to EPUB in Calligra Words, one of the first issues that users may notice with the resulting EPUB is the lack of images. Calligra Words packages the images on the .ODT document with the EPUB but doesn't define the location of the image properly. This can easily be corrected by correcting the src address for the images using any text or markup editor. Obviously, most writers probably wouldn't want to have to extract the EPUB contents just to correct a line or two of code. This is where Sigil comes in - Sigil lets you edit an EPUB's contents without having to extract the individual XHTML files.



Calligra Word's EPUB on Okular - image issues

Users familiar with Sigil can click the Validate EPUB with FlightCrew and use the Validation Results pane to correct the EPUB issues.

To use Sigil to correct image position and display:

1. Click File then Open and navigate to the EPUB exported from Calligra Words.
2. Select the .xhtml file with the problematic images on the Book Browser on the left pane. Expand the Images folder on the Book Browser to check if all the images you had inserted in the original document are listed. They are named using a generic naming convention (image1, image2, and so forth). Double-click the image directly from the Book Browser to preview the image within Sigil.
3. Click View then Code View to display the markup.
4. Calligra Words actually moved all the images to the top of document in the sample screenshot. Cut and paste the text with the div tags containing the images and move them to the correct location in the document.
5. Edit the src attribute by correcting the path and filename. Use the Book Browser and the image filenames as a guide. For example, if the src attribute has the text "chapterimage1.png", the correct attribute should be "../Images/image1.png" which points to the Images folder where the file is named image1.png.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Correct all the src attributes and position the images correctly on your document. Use Sigil's Preview View if needed. Save your EPUB. You may need to reload the EPUB file in Sigil to preview your markup changes.
7. Click the Validate EPUB with FlightCrew to check if all image errors have been resolved. Test your EPUB using an EPUB viewer such as Okular or Mozilla Firefox's EPUBReader plugin.
   
8. Although your image will now be displayed when viewing the EPUB, Sigil may warn you about image name conflicts.
   
   

9. To correct this error, double click the content.opf file in the Book Browser pane.
10. Locate the manifest tag and correct the image id names and the href attribute. Make sure that none of them have the same image name.
11. Save your EPUB.

Correcting EPUBs exported from Calligra Words using Sigil Part 2: Correcting TOC and Version Element

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Calligra Words and EPUB Part 2

Continued from Calligra Words and EPUB Part 1

EPUB Export, Sigil, and Calibre

The Calligra-produced EPUB imported quite nicely into Sigil but failed to provide working links and didn't display images. As a medium for just text with footnotes, endnotes, and visuals, EPUB from Calligra Words is great though if you want superfluous navigation and visuals, you might want to tweak the XHTML using Sigil. The text formatting and styles were retained and consistent. There were a few odd marks before the Reference section and the formatting for the Table of Contents required editing.

Using Sigil's FlightCrew Validation tool, I checked if the EPUB was compliant. As expected, there were several non-compliant XML names/ids which needed changing but nothing that would prevent the EPUB from being read on an EPUB device (the names were auto-generated when the .odt was exported to EPUB). Renaming the XML ids would take less than 10 minutes in Sigil or even less on a dedicated XML editor.





For those who use CSS in their EPUBs, the exported Calligra document actually creates CSS based on the styles you used in Calligra Words. Writers can easily edit the CSS (if needed) using Sigil. Required fonts can also be packaged later with the EPUB using Sigil.

KDE Errors

As a footnote for Linux and FreeBSD users, Calligra Suite doesn't work perfectly on a non-KDE desktop environment. Calligra Words crashed several times on my Fedora 18 Xfce system until I manually deleted a few associated Nepomuk files (Nepomuk File Indexing Controller and Nepomuk Server) and stopped a running KDE service (kactivitymanagerd).

Calligra's applications are generally lighter than its LibreOffice counterparts but Words stuttered a few times, particularly when I was creating a table of contents. I attribute this to my running the application in Xfce rather than its native KDE environment. Usage in Mageia 3 KDE didn't have the same symptoms however.

Bottomline

EPUB compatibility - I tested the EPUB exported from Calligra Words using Calibre's Ebook Viewer, Okular, Sigil and two EPUB-compliant plugins for Mozilla Firefox. Okular, Sigil, and Calibre's Ebook viewer successfully displayed the test EPUB. Mozilla Firefox's excellent EPUBReader Add-on was able to open the EPUB (and display the Endnotes too), but Google Chrome's LEKT, which checks for EPUB compliance and mimetype, failed to display the EPUB.

Text formatting,navigation and document consistency in EPUB 

Text formatting was retained and was definitely usable (and much better formatted than some of the documents you can download from Scribd and Archive.org). I was especially happy how the endnotes, footnotes, and bibliography was displayed. However, as mentioned in the previous section, the table of contents and links weren't retained and images didn't display though Sigil reported the images were packaged with the resulting EPUB file. For text-only documents such as textbooks, treatises, and proposal reports, Words would be an excellent application especially if the final document output is EPUB. For a mixed EPUB output of SVG, images, and HTML, however, Calligra Words needs a bit of work.

Conclusion? For writers eager for an EPUB word processor, Calligra has potential though there is a bit of a learning curve and I only recommend working on text. Once exported to EPUB with all the text formatting, switch to Sigil to correct XML inconsistencies, create a table of contents, add links, meta data, and images. The creation of CSS from Calligra Words is definitely a plus for those who don't intend to write their own CSS formatting in Sigil. Though the roundabout procedure of having to edit the Calligra EPUB in Sigil after exporting may be off-putting for some, the process is much simpler than it seems and fairly easy if you understand XHTML and know how to use Sigil.





For my part, I would probably still use a basic note-taking/text editor or work directly in Sigil. However, if the developers manage to fix some of the EPUB export issues of Calligra Words, then I would certainly consider the application as a contender.

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Calligra Words and EPUB Part 1

Category: Techwriter

Although it's fairly simple to code EPUB using an IDE or text editor like Bluefish, there's really no reason not to try excellent popular EPUB editor Sigil or extremely powerful ebook converter and manager, Calibre. Sigil is great for packaging your text (or XHTML) to EPUB while Calibre is perfect for working with other formats and testing compatibility with devices. If you want to focus on writing however and exporting directly to EPUB for Sigil or Calibre, then Calligra Words may be a good alternative to the numerous writing software available.

Why use Calligra Words?

There is a infinite amount of writing software available - from commercial products (Microsoft Word), plain text editors and note-taking applications (KeepNote, CherryTree), structured text editing (LyX), word processors (LibreOffice, Abiword), cloud services (Google Docs Writely), and distraction free editors (FocusWriter, WriteMonkey). Why use Calligra Words to write your potboiler?

1. Calligra Words exports directly to EPUB. LyX, a WYSIWYM word processor that uses LaTeX, is great but doesn't export directly to EPUB. Apache OpenOffice and the widely available LibreOffice both require plugins to export to EPUB and even then the results are far from perfect. Once you're done with your book in Calligra Words, you don't have to worry about copying and pasting text to Sigil later on - just open the EPUB file in Sigil and you're good to go for additional editing.





2. Distraction free writing. Some would-be authors prefer vanilla word processors without the extensive formatting options. Calligra Words is a basic text editor with the essentials for writing long books (TOC, citation, styles, spellcheck). Like distraction free writing applications like FocusWriter, you can just type to your hearts content without worrying about formatting.

3. Support for Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Wordperfect, and .ODT (an excellent open source format supported by many word processors).

Calligra Word Dockers

Calligra Words uses the Dockers interface found in all applications in the Calligra Office suite. Dockers is Calligra's answer to Microsoft Office's Ribbon and Adobe's floating palettes. The displayed Dockers can easily be moved and hidden (CTRL+H) at any time though it does take some getting used to. For Calligra Words, the number of dockers available is thankfully small so writers can just take out dockers for editing Shapes and creating vector paths.

There is a very shallow learning curve to using the Dockers. Click a docker to expand, click another docker to close and open another (there is always a docker open unless you hide all the dockers). Additional dockers are available by clicking Settings then Dockers, though most of them are unnecessary if you're a good writer and focus on prose rather than visuals. Text editing, Add Shape (for adding placeholders for images and text), and References are all the dockers a typical writer really needs.




I installed the Calligra Office Suite on my 10.1" ASUS EEEPC 1000H netbook running Fedora 18 Xfce and I first found the dockers awkward and intrusive, having been used to Office's Ribbon and LibreOffice's more conservative menus. The trick is to click the appropriate docker first before beginning a task. If you want to work with text, click Text Editing. If you want to insert an image, click Add Shape (which you use to click and drag to produce a frame). If you want to adjust the image's position, click the Basic Shape Manipulation docker. After a certain period, however, I found the tools were judiciously placed in the dockers and surprisingly convenient. That said, I would recommend Calligra Words installed on a KDE system rather than an Xfce desktop and on a 14" screen rather than a small one.

Text, shapes, and images

Calligra Words doesn't try to pretend to be an application that provides you with the ability to create shapes and objects on-the-fly. Instead, it focuses on letting you use image resources (vectors or bitmaps) from your own library. This leaves you to focus on just the text and occasionally inserting your own illustrations or photos. Two dockers, however, are curiously devoted for connecting objects and creating paths. Both are not nearly as useful as the Basic Shape Manipulation docker, which provides options for aligning objects.

Table of Contents, Citations and Bibliography

Anyone who has worked with bibliographies and table of contents in Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Word, and Adobe Framemaker know that TOCs, footnotes, and bibliographies can be pretty messy. I created a table of contents using a few old unedited blog posts I made and it was delightfully easy, as was adding footnotes, endnotes, and a bibliography. I was especially happy that inserting footnotes and endnotes was even more intuitive than LyX's admittedly confusing dialog windows.




Continued in Calligra Words and EPUB Part 2

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InDesign basics: Adding XML tags using Find/Change

Category: Techwriter


Adobe InDesign is not the best application for working with XML. It's an exceptional page layout program but most XML users would prefer either FrameMaker or open source tools when structuring long text. That said, if you ever need to add tags to an unstructured document, InDesign's Find/Change option can accomplish the task just like most XML editors.

Take note that the instructions below assume you've either loaded an XML file for a list of tags, created your own set of XML tags, or imported a DTD.

To add XML tags using Find/Change:

1. Click View then Structure. Click Show Tag Markers.

2. Click Edit then Find/Change.

3. In the Find/Change window, specify the text you want to tag in the Find What: box.




4. Click the icon in the Change Format: area for formatting options.

5. Select XML in the left panel. Select the tag in the list you want to assign. Click OK.




6. The format request will be added to the Change Format: list. Click Change All.




The specified text instances should now be marked with the XML tag. You can also view applied XML tags using Structure View or even using Story Editor by clicking inside a text frame and pressing CTRL+Y.

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Linux (or Unix) on Film: Pretty Little Liars Season 3 Episode 24

Category: Techtoday

Pretty Little Liars is keeping up with the great shows on television today partly due to the amazingly attractive young female cast. Although I only caught a few episodes in the first season (not willfully mind you), whatever maturity and rationality it lacks is fully compensated through the use of diligently maintained coiffure, flawless complexion, and a story that made me thankful the 80s and MacGyver episodes were not nearly as malicious and deceitful.




In keeping up with the "gold" standard of cinematic computer hardware, episode 24 of Season 3 of this marvelously sexy TV thriller features a Macbook in the formulaic "hacking scene" (which all developers and techs wish TV writers would stop using).  The desktop featured, however, is clearly not MacOSX's. For one thing, the fonts and window manager is clearly not Apple's (it could be GTK stock and Openbox respectively).




Considering how wealthy the protagonists and antagonists both are, it's nice to see the user (and the TV production staff) of the Macbook bothered to skin his/her MacOSX or used virtualization to run Linux or FreeBSD, or just decided to remove Apple's OS for a less sexy but more functional desktop.

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App Review: WD TV Live Remote

Category: Tech Today

If you own any of the affordable WD TV Live media players that Western Digital has available, old versions or otherwise, then the WD TV Remote app available on the iTunes App Store is a great, if not necessary value-add to the product.  Contrary to the manufacturer's web site description, however, the app is only compatible with iOS running on an  iPod or iPhone and not on an iPad.




Instructions for setting up the Remote Control app are scant on the WD site but it's fairly straightforward. To set up the Remote TV app:

1. Upgrade your WD TV media player's firmware using the GUI or through a flash drive. The process is slow and ungainly with a downloaded firmware file weighing in at a hefty 100+MB. However, unlike most hardware firmware upgrades, WD's patches are extremely necessary to improve performance and correct the numerous bugs on the product. My own dodgy WD TV Live, which ran on older components, benefited greatly from a recent firmware update.

2. Connect your media player to your wireless network or use a wired ethernet cable. If you've owned your WD TV Live for awhile, you're probably aware of the pokey processor and extended loading times. Thankfully, connecting wirelessly to your router is generally painless using the WD TV Live's menus though I really recommend a wired connection instead just to reduce the already lengthy wait times.

3. Download the WD TV Remote app to your iPod or iPhone. Once installed, your iOS device connects wirelessly to the WD media player to control basic remote control functions such as navigating menus and typing text.

Remotely Controlling the WD TV media player

One of my first jobs in my youth was providing technical support for Sony's flashy range of Universal Remote controls and I'm surprised that even after more than 10 years, many electronic products are still dependent on cheap, plastic remote controls. My WD TV Live's included remote control not only performed poorly, but didn't even have a dedicated volume button (I had to use my TV's remote control to increase or decrease the volume). Mashing the buttons on the remote control often resulted in no reaction to the media player and made me wonder whether it was because of the product's processor or the remote control itself. Once I had the WD TV App installed on my 5th generation iPod Touch, however, I was pleasantly surprised with the response time even across my somewhat busy wireless network.




The response time using the app was much, much faster than using the physical remote control. Plus, there was a dedicated volume slider and an option to use gestures instead. It's nowhere near as fancy as those found in the new intelligent Samsung and LG displays, but let's face it - media players such as the WD TV Live are in the lower range of entertainment devices in the face of upcoming products such as the Xbox One and recent Roku releases.




There was comfort in knowing I can download the WD TV App anytime if I lose the remote control or run out of batteries. I had trouble getting used to switching the subtitles and audio and there is the matter of having to switch on your wireless network just to watch your shows using the WD TV Live media player, but I'm pretty sure most people won't find either a problem.




Although the WD TV Live media player itself is not one of the better products of Western Digital, the remote app's simple and functional design deserves some praise. I hope that all manufacturers eventually provide free remote control apps to complement their products - both high-end and lower end devices. In a market filled with motion sensors such as the Kinect and Wii, it's easy to overlook such an obvious convenience. However, with the widespread adoption of smartphones and tablets, now is a great time to finally set aside that plastic remote control and use that Android, iOS, or Windows 8 device as a remote control instead.

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Quickfix: "Segmentation Fault (11)" for KDE Applications in Fedora 18 Xfce

Category: Linux


If you're running Fedora 18 Xfce and installed a KDE application, you might encounter the KDE error Segmentation Fault (11),  which is caused by the Nepomuk Service. Nepomuk, much to LXDE and Xfce users' chagrin, comes as a dependency with most KDE-based applications. Although most users would probably opt for alternative Gnome or GTK-based applications to avoid KDE errors, they will lose out on really good applications such as the Calligra Office Suite and Tellico.




To resolve this issue:

1. Open a Terminal and navigate to the folder /usr/share/autostart

2. Delete the two files:

nepomukserver.desktop
nepomukcontroller.desktop

3. Reboot the system.



You can also shut down Akonadi if it was installed as a dependency, which is unnecessary for non-KDE desktop environments though in most cases it doesn't cause KDE applications to crash.

Note: If you've deleted the two files listed in this article and your KDE application continues to crash, open your Task Manager or System Monitor (Xfce and LXDE both have their own) and shutdown the kactivitymanagerd process. 

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A few words on Mageia 3 KDE

Category: Linux

It's unfair to make a sweeping conclusion on a Linux distribution so soon but I was struck dumb at the Mageia 3 KDE release. Perhaps it's because I haven't tried a KDE 4.x release ever since I realized I would always choose openSUSE as my default KDE distribution, but I have to admit the trim KDE 4.10 and the revamped Mageia 3 is a pretty impressive combination.




There are a few application choices to the default application set of the Mageia 3 KDE that seemed odd: an iBUS Hangul Preferences utility (someone's been watching too many K-Pop videos), DigiDoc tools for signing documents online, and a related ID card utility.  Thankfully, the Mageia developers left out the KDE games, KOrganizer, KMail, and other KDE applications I normally have to uninstall from an openSUSE KDE system.




Apper, the RPM package manager I griped about in openSUSE KDE, is included though I intend to give the utility the benefit of the doubt this time. I'm interested in finding out if it will play well with Mageia's update system and the Mageia team's improvements to urpmi. After setup, my running the Mageia update utility showed no available updates (very unusual on a first run). However, running Apper merited a substantial number of updates.




It would take me a few months of regular use to get a full idea of how well Mageia 3 performs. However, first impressions for the KDE release are pretty good (which is not saying a lot when it comes to Linux distributions). In particular, I was happy that there were no repository or urpmi errors while installing Grsync, Sigil, Fontforge, and Chromium using Mageia Control Center.

Stay tuned for more observations and mayhap a more comprehensive review of Mageia 3.

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Practical Shortcut keys and Configuring Paging in KDE

Category: Linux

One of the more useful features of all Linux distributions is Paging through different virtual desktops, a feature that Windows users without multiple monitors would benefit from. Virtual desktops are useful if you multitask often or work with small screens like netbooks. In Gnome, Xfce, and LXDE, clicking CTRL+ALT+arrow keys lets you page to the next virtual desktop.

KDE, in particular openSUSE releases, bucks the trend by using the shortcut combination of CTRL+F1, CTRL+F2 and so forth. Each Function key number corresponds to the available virtual desktops you set up. By default, recent openSUSE has two virtual desktops so clicking CTRL+F2 moves you to an available desktop. Unfortunately, if you configure more than one virtual desktop, it's easy to forget which desktop is 1, 2, 3, or 4. Additional virtual desktops and shortcut keys can be configured by going to Workspace Behavior and clicking Virtual Desktops.




KDE users can also configure virtual desktops to the more traditional 'CTRL+ALT+arrow keys' combination using KDE System Settings:

1. Click the KDE Kickoff menu and select Configure Desktop.
2. In the System Settings window, click Shortcuts and Gestures.
3. Click Global Keyboard Shortcuts on the left pane
4. Select KWin on the KDE component list.
5. Scroll down the list to click the item Switch One Desktop to the Left. Notice that there are no assigned key combinations.
6. Select Custom: and then press the button to clear the field. Press the key combination CTRL+ALT+Left arrow key. Click the item again to set the key combination.




7. You can repeat the same steps using the respective key combinations for Switch One Desktop to the Right/...Up/...Down.
8. Click Apply.




You don't have to be an expert with shortcut keys to be productive on an openSUSE KDE desktop. Besides the traditional shortcut combinations found in Windows, other key combinations useful in KDE are:

1. ALT+F2 - ALT+F2 launches KDE's multi-featured search/command window. The command window provides quick access to System Monitor and can be used to search for files and applications. Moreover, it can be used for basic mathematical equations and comes with a bucket load of plugins.

2. CTRL+ALT+T - For KDE users on a laptop, press CTRL-ALT-T to disable the touchpad if you're using a Wacom tablet or wireless mouse.

3. CTRL+ALT+ESC - This classic Linux combination lets you shutdown any running window or application. Like xkill, this can be used to stop operations that have crashed by pointing and clicking on a window or desktop element. Use at your own risk!

4. ALT+SHIFT+F12 - In previous releases of openSUSE KDE, window compositing placed additional load on the system. Pressing ALT+SHIFT+F12 disables window compositing and may help performance when running heavy activities such as games and desktop virtualization like Virtualbox. Of course, with the hardware available today and the exceptional improvements to openSUSE, switching off compositing is unnecessary.

To see a complete list of preconfigured shortcuts, visit the Shortcuts and Gestures settings in the Configure Desktop window.

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Before Mageia 3: Mageia 2 in Perspective Redux

Category: Linux

The early articles of this site revolved around the late and somewhat lamented Mandriva, which faced troubles as a Linux distribution, product, and company. Although Distrowatch lists Mageia within its top 10 of most clicked distributions, Mageia receives the same coverage in the media as long running PCLinuxOS and Sabayon. In fact, popular frugal Linux distribution Puppy Linux is mentioned more in articles and forums than Mageia.

Why run Mageia 2 when the developers will be releasing Mageia 3? Well, to see if an updated previous release is a stable one - typically a good sign that a distribution has matured and the next release deserves a go. The positive reception for openSUSE 12.3, for example, was already foreshadowed by the excellent openSUSE 12.2 (which I'm still running to this day).

Some Observations

1. Inspecting /etc/rpm/macros. After setting up Mageia 2 and installing a surprisingly humble amount of package updates in comparison with a typical Lubuntu or openSUSE install, users might receive an /etc/rpm/macros window. It's an unusual prompt considering that openSUSE and Fedora, both RPM-based distributions, never educate the user with new RPMs setup. It was a harmless window, but I can definitely imagine a new Linux convert or a jaded Linux veteran exclaiming "The hell is that!"





2. URPMI locked. This familiar error message that users of Mageia 2 can disregard also pops up occasionally. This "urpmi database locked" warning occurred often with the Mandriva 2009-2011 releases and I was somewhat disheartened that the particular bug is still around with its successor. It's particularly annoying when you're installing or running updates.






3. Both Archlinux and Fedora, two distributions that aren't well known for advertising themselves as mainstream distros, have taken steps to be more hospitable to new users. Fedora was recently criticized due to revisions to the Anaconda installer. Ubuntu, of course, has taken into extreme the steps to make the desktop simple for every type of user. In light of this, Mageia 2, with all the simplicity it inherited from its predecessor, is very user-friendly albeit a throwback of earlier Linux distributions. DrakX installer hasn't changed much and ex-Mandriva users will immediately notice remnants of behavior carried over from Mageia's predecessor. Users without Mandriva experience will no doubt embrace its clean and well-equipped desktop but the discerning bearded Linux user would no doubt ejaculate expletives at the all too familiar elements (and errors). Admittedly, it's easy to consider newer and creative Linux distributions over Mageia.




4. Repositories. Setting up repositories for "unofficial" packages is much, much easier now than with the old easyurpmi web site. All users need to do is launch the Configure media window in Control Center and select the Nonfree and Tainted repositories. I was surprised that the Mageia developers did not take further steps in making the process more intelligible to new users, though I myself had no problems with it. The usual suspects such as Chromium, Grsync, LyX, Calibre, KDE, and Gnome applications are available though Cherrytree, a popular note-taking application available in Ubuntu, openSUSE, and Fedora, wasn't in the repositories.




5. Mandriva . . . Mageia Control Center is still there.  Superficially, the Control Center looks very similar to Mandriva Control Center. Although I haven't tested the new controls extensively, it's obvious there have been under the hood improvements particularly in the Security and Network Sharing tab.

For those not familiar with Mageia's heart and soul, Mageia Control Center isn't as robust as openSUSE's YaST2, but it has all the essentials for working efficiently and managing a system right out of the box. Moreover, it's as simple as ever and definitely more accessible than preinstalled desktop tools in stock installs of Ubuntu and Fedora.  I don't blame the developers for not moving away from the tried and tested Control Center of its predecessor but I have to admit it's a bit long in the tooth considering the speed of the developments in the open source community.




If you have a fully functional openSUSE, Fedora, or Ubuntu system, does Mageia provide a compelling argument to switch or add the Linux distribution to your network?  I'm pretty sure the answer really depends on how much a user was exposed (or not exposed) to Mandriva and how open a user is to trying something almost new.

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Hate, Racism, the Internet, and Harrison Ford

Category: Tech Today

Although Unsolicitedbutoffered normally focuses on Linux and technology, it's nice to occasionally digress and applaud to laugh out loud videos like those of Harrison Ford's interview in the Jimmy Kimmel Show. Long-time fans of Harrison, who is still one of the greatest actors of all time with his roles as Indy, Han Solo, and Jack Ryan as part of his resume, know that Harrison is terrible with interviews and avoids promoting his films. However, he has displayed an incredible sense of humor such as when he had himself handcuffed during an appearance at a comic convention. I was laughing so hard at his confrontation with his old partner in the recent Jimmy Kimmel show (which I was watching on my iPad) that people were looking at me like I was nuts as I waited for my flight.

It's a pleasure to be able to watch video clips such as this especially since there's so much hatred, discrimination, and vitriol on the Internet. As a frequent reader of CNN and BBC news articles, I sadly go through comments from readers from different countries defending and attacking Asia, their own country, neighboring states, religions, and everything under the sun. The sad reality is that as awesome and unifying as the Internet is, there are so many opportunities on the Internet to attack people, governments, religions, and countries.

 The politics and the sheer weight of people's perspective on how the world works is more complex than FreeBSD, Unix, PHP, Pearl, Ruby on Rails, and ASP put together. Anonymity is both a blessing and a curse on the Internet. If everyone had the opportunity to travel and live in most parts of the world at the age of 8 (as young Indy did in the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles), people wouldn't be so judgmental and filled with hate. As it is, removing racism and discrimination is extremely difficult in this day and age (just look at the controversy over same-sex marriages) and the Internet, unfortunately, has become the medium for many evils (Tumblr's innocence, for instance, evaporated faster than Craigslist's). As for me, I wish I could just stick to Linux, the command line, and watch Indiana Jones/Harrison Ford video clips and hope hate disappears someday.



"Ford's as awesome as Lee and my 'do!"
Jim Kelly screencap from Enter the Dragon (1973)

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Access an iOS device using Fedora and openSUSE Part 2

Category: Linux


Continued from Access an iOS device using Fedora and openSUSE Part 1

Setting up openSUSE 12.2 for an iOS device

For openSUSE 12.2, you have the option to use either YaST to add the packages or the zypper command using Konsole. The packages for supporting iOS device access are not similar to those I installed for Fedora. Before installing, check that you have the Packman repository and the standard openSUSE repos.

Using YaST2's software manager, select the following packages:

gcc
gtkpod
ifuse
libimobiledevice3
libimobiledevice-tools
libusb-1_0_devel
libusbmuxd-devel

In my setup for openSUSE 12.2, some necessary packages were already installed. Check the following packages if you already have them on your openSUSE system:

usbmuxd
libgpod
libgpod-tools
gvfs (and related packages gvfs-backend-afc, gvfs-backends, gvfs-fuse, libgvfscommon0)





Surprisingly, dependable Dolphin and its sibling Konqueror, KDE's default file managers, will not display the iPod or iPad once connected. So to avoid any further troubleshooting, install a lightweight file manager such as Thunar (which I use in Fedora 18 Xfce) or PCMANFM (which I use in Lubuntu).

Once connected, your iOS device will be displayed as a storage device in Thunar/PCMANFM and you can access your Apps' document folders to delete or copy files.



PCMANFM displays the iOS device on the left but Dolphin doesn't on the right.

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Access an iOS device using Fedora and openSUSE Part 1

Category: Linux

Ubuntu, and most derivatives such as Lubuntu, can access the file structure of an iOS device even on iPads and iPods with an updated iOS version (currently running at 6.1.x). With access to the file structure of an iOS devices, users can manage apps that support direct file transfer. After moving files using a file manager such as Nautilus or PCMANFM, reboot the iOS device if needed to refresh the contents and then off you go.

Curiously enough, bleeding-edge Fedora doesn't directly support iOS access out of the box, more likely due to the open source principles of the immortal distribution. Previous releases of openSUSE doesn't support file access either.

I've had a dodgy experience setting up the same iOS support present in Ubuntu distributions in openSUSE and Fedora. However, I've had success with the recent Fedora 18 Xfce thanks to the great folks over at the Fedora forums and Fedora devotees online. The steps outlined here follow their recommendations. The steps have been tested on openSUSE 12.2, Fedora 18 Xfce, and an iPod and iPad running on iOS 6.1.3.




After running the zypper and yum commands,  developer applications and GTKPod will appear on your menu. Some of them are not necessary if you just want file access to your iPod or iPad but they do come handy if you want to sync between your Linux system and the Apple device.

Setting up Fedora 18 Xfce for an iOS device

Before installing, check that you have the RPM Fusion repository and the standard Fedora repos. For Fedora 18 Xfce, install the following packages using the command:


yum -y install gcc gtkpod libgpod ifuse gvfs-afc libiphone libusbmuxd usbmuxd libusb libusb-devel libmobiledevice libmobiledevice-devel libiphone-devel usbmuxd-devel

As a footnote, installing the packages with a "devel" suffix may actually add unnecessary development software to Fedora. I haven't tested yet if removing the "devel" packages will affect access to the iOS device.

Like Xubuntu, Fedora 18 Xfce will display the iOS device in Thunar once the packages have been installed.


Continued in Access an iOS device using Fedora and openSUSE Part 2

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The Apple iOS ecosystem from a Linux user's perspective

Category: Techtoday
My Japanese colleague once told me that she was having dinner with a few Tokyoite sararimen (salarymen) and the discussion swung to the iPhone. My friend didn't have an iPhone and they asked her whether it wasn't inconvenient not to have Apple's ubiquitous mobile device? They didn't tell her it's convenient to have one but the other way around - you were basically crippled without an iPhone. Thankfully, my friend didn't give in to peer pressure and still sports an Android phone.
I've had my 4th Generation iPod for close to two years now and it's running iOS 6.1.3.  I primarily use the iPod Touch for listening to news, music, and playing music videos. When I received an iPad 2 as a gift, I stopped using the iPod Touch as an ereader/comic book reader and used the iPad 2 as my primary reading device for illustrated material, including magazines, old Spidey comic books, and PDFs of technical books for markup language, history, literature, and technical writing. For over eight months since I received both products, the iPad and iPod Touch were offline because I never really needed to be "connected" as most people are through social networking. Most of my work was done on my openSUSE and Lubuntu machines and Windows 7 for commercial software.
Recently, however, I finally powered on the wireless option on both the iPod Touch and iPad 2 and for some blasted reason I can't switch it off anymore - being online on an iOS device can be addicting.

The necessary evil - iTunes?

When the most recent overhaul of iTunes came out, people were up in arms with the new interface and the buggy software. It wasn't nearly as loud as the exaggerated complaints for Windows 8 but the hullabaloo certainly couldn't be ignored.

For my part, I've never complained about iTunes. I have no qualms about connecting the iPod Touch/iPad to my Lenovo, booting into Windows 7, and transferring episodes of The Tudors and Downton Abbey or syncing my Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra MP3s. The latest iteration of iTunes was a bit confusing at first. However, just like any updated Linux desktop environment, it just took a bit of getting used to (try E17 and you'll know what I mean). iTunes on Windows 7 crashed often, but I chalked it up to Microsoft's OS and iTunes not playing well together - I'm pretty sure it works fine on OSX for those who own the exorbitant iMac or Macbook Pro. At least Apple provided support for Microsoft operating systems - they have never really provided anything for Linux platforms.





When I'm on the Apple Store in iTunes, I'm just grateful there are useful and free apps still available despite the best ones being filtered by China's Great Wall. Podcasts from BBC are easily accessible and I recently even subscribed to CNN Radio, which isn't as good as BBC but provides an American perspective. Managing apps using iTunes on Windows isn't perfect either - iTunes either crashes or prevents external hard drives from being disconnected. However, it's not a big deal compared to a memory kernel dump or SELinux error. When I need to refer to a reference manual, say for Corel Designer, moving files to the Adobe Reader or iBooks app is pretty straightforward.

I can certainly manage my iPod and iPad without the iTunes desktop application using any one of my Linux machines. Ubuntu-based distributions like Lubuntu can easily access the file structure of iOS for deleting, moving, and copying files. Meanwhile, you can install a few packages to openSUSE and Fedora to get the same functionality. You can't really sync the official Apple apps such as iBooks, Podcasts, and the MP3 player using Linux, but there are dozens of free apps that support direct file transfer (I use CloudReader and Bookman for documents and AceMusic and EZMP3 for music).




Of course, I still prefer to have iTunes around since I support many of the available podcasts like The Linux Action Show. Since I have a Windows 7 machine on my network, why not?

An Amazing Ecosystem

Websites such as Wired and Ars Technica often have readers that complain about Apple's "walled" system. It's not really a big deal. I would be as happy on an Android tablet as I would be on the iPad especially since exceptional apps like OneNote and Flipboard are available there. And yes, I sync my Microsoft OneNote notebooks to my iOS devices (oh, the horror!). Comparing Google's services with Apple's isn't an issue. Users should stick to what works for them and what they like to use.

I'm not a tablet gamer (What the heck is Temple Run?) and neither am I a power user so I probably don't represent the typical user very well. However, I do appreciate the ability to sync my calendar and notes between my iPad and iPod (the Reminders app for some reason doesn't sync). Find iPhone, iTunes U, Find Friends, FaceTime, Photo Stream, and Passbook are pretty impressive apps but I have absolutely no use for them (though they are nice to have around). Apple iCloud generously provides users with an @me.com and @cloud.com email address along with storage. I'm itching to use those two email addresses and the online storage but I can't seem to find any use for them what's with my trusty SkyDrive and Gmail accounts around.



"The maps are wrong Jr."
"You're right, dad. Apple maps suck."
Screenshot from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)


The iOS ecosystem is pretty robust and I can see why there's an overflowing devotion and love for iOS devices and Apple products in general. It confuses me to no end why so many users bitch about iOS and criticize Android to the ends of the earth. They are different ecosystems that satisfy different needs. From a market/financial standpoint the manufacturers and the products compete with each other but consumers are wasting their breathe ranting - choose the ecosystem that works for you.

The quandary is somewhat like the whole OSX, Windows, and Linux non-issue. There's absolutely no reason to abandon one over the other if all of them serve a purpose or provide a requirement.

Windows 8, Ubuntu, and Firefox

As a longtime supporter of Linux, I'm fully aware that Ubuntu will make a go at building their own ecosystem (Ubuntu One and Ubuntu Software Center have been around for awhile now). Mozilla, with its well-established history on the web, is also making a go at it and is starting off in the mobile market. There's a huge chance both will fall flat on its face, but the attempt by both companies is admirable and courageous.

And the Windows 8 ecosystem (plus XBOX)? I'm willing to give it a chance. The Android ecosystem has reached a point of being close to excellent and the iOS world, for all the criticisms against its parent company's stock issues, is very, very good. With my maximizing my iPad and iPod, I'm in the market for a Windows Phone 8 product. I personally can't wait to plug it into my Linux machines and see what magic we can do from there.

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Yum Extender on Fedora 18 Xfce

Category: Linux

Yum Extender, or more popularly known as Yumex, is a graphical frontend to the yum command for Fedora. Yumex is both an update and software manager and comes default on the Fedora 18 Xfce release.
I first tried Yumex and the somewhat similar software management tool, easyLife years ago when I wanted to try out an RPM-based distribution. Between the two managers, easyLife was more successful at doing what I needed at the time - that is, install codecs, Flash and Java without having to collect all the sources and repositories. Yumex back then crashed and since then I've had little luck with either software managers, depending instead on the command line.

Since 2006, an explosion of GUI based software managers have appeared in mainstream Linux distributions such as Ubuntu and openSUSE. Lovable Synaptic Package Manager has stepped aside for the divisive Ubuntu Software Center and similar derivatives found in Lubuntu and Linux Mint. Even openSUSE, with its excellent Yast, now includes the buggy Apper. Mageia, which is the continuation of the once well-loved Mandriva distribution in spirit, thankfully stuck to its Control Center but even FreeBSD-derived PC-BSD has a competent GUI software manager, AppCafe. Fedora, despite its reputation for being cutting-edge, never really revolutionized their package management and still retains the occasionally dubious PackageKit frontend.

With this in mind, I looked at Yumex with askance after installing a fresh copy of Fedora 18 Xfce on my ASUS EEEPC 1000H. My gut instinct was to immediately uninstall Yumex like I normally do with openSUSE's Apper. My most recent experience with Yumex involved Yumex locking up yum on the command line (this could be resolved by rebooting the system and uninstalling yumex). However, this encounter occurred a year ago and development in the open source community can be fast especially with projects such as Yumex and easyLife, which cater to a very specific niche of users. I was fully prepared to reinstall Fedora if the system crashed anyway.

Yumex at Work

Yumex was a surprise and the overall experience extremely pleasant. Unlike Ubuntu's glossy Ubuntu Software Center, Yumex has a verbose command line display running in the background, which is in many ways comforting to users. It isn't hobbled by application icons, user reviews, or screenshots, but like Debian's Synaptic Package Manager, provides concise descriptions of packages, dependencies, and features. I kept expecting it to crash as it loaded or as I searched for packages but it didn't. In fact, I found it faster and more dependable than Apper. The old Mandriva package manager used to have repository issues when you added a new repository using the GUI, but no such issues occurred with Yumex. To my surprise, I realized Yumex aligned perfectly with Xfce's design principles.

To test Yumex, I ran the following the tasks:

• I started off by installing fairly small applications such as Cherrytree (for note-taking) and Grsync (for backups). No issues.
• Exiting Yumex, I ran Yum-update from the Terminal. Unlike my previous experience with Yumex, the yum command did not lock up.
• After a 700MB+ update and a reboot, I added the RPM Fusion repositories using the Terminal and ran Yumex to check if it would automatically refresh the packages. At this point after a huge Fedora update, it's fully conceivable that Yumex might have issues. Yumex instead launched with nary a complaint, refreshed packages, and I went on to install Evince to display documents, VLC, and SMPlayer.
• Like Apper in openSUSE, all downloaded RPM's in Fedora 18 Xfce are handled by Yumex by default. It wasn't exactly something I was comfortable with but I was encouraged by Yumex's success with updates and dependencies so downloaded RPMs for Skype for Linux, Adobe Flash, and the last version of Adobe Reader for Linux. Surprise! It all installed fine.
• I disconnected from the network and launched Yumex while offline. Yumex will ask if you want to continue despite not being connected to a network. Yumex crashed but only once after I attempted to search for Anjuta, an IDE for Gnome that was installed as part of dependencies to support an iOS device. While offline, I removed Claws Mail, Liferea, Pidgin, and Skype for Linux (which didn't run properly). The packages were uninstalled without issues.

Some Tips and general impressions

Yum Extender, like most Linux applications these days, is very user friendly though there are aspects that may briefly confuse users. Radio buttons are available for Updates, Available, Installed, All, Groups, and Categories. When removing applications, select Installed from the filter list and then search for the packages. Select the packages you wish to remove from the search results.

A red circle with an X will mark packages to be removed. To reinstall packages, right-click a selected package and click Reinstall. Click the Pending icon on the left panel to see a list of tasks to be executed if you've lost track of the packages you intend to remove/install.

Yumex also has a running history of installed applications which can be sorted using time and date. The Repositories window provides a list of currently available repositories on your system, which you can enable/disable permanently. I was happy to see the option Clean all was also available in the context options.




I only used Yumex to install applications post-fresh install of Fedora 18 and it will take awhile just to see how stable Yumex is as time goes by. I will say that I was very impressed with the stability and usability of the utility, much more so than easyLife, which tends to go overboard with package installation. I would go so far as to say that it's much more user friendly than the classic Synaptic Package Manager, though a lot less powerful. Moreover, the combination of the GUI and text-based interface makes it faster and less cumbersome than more contemporary package managers such as Ubuntu Software Center, AppCafe, and Apper. For the long-time Fedora user, Yumex still doesn't replace using yum on the command line but it certainly makes basic tasks like removing and installing packages easier for the novice user - which is exactly what Yumex was designed to do.

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Adventures with PC-BSD 9.1 LXDE Part 2: End Game

Category: Linux

Although I had initially set out to devote more time with FreeBSD in the form of PC-BSD, it looks like the adventure ended abruptly with an update error, which was surprising since even the worst openSUSE or Fedora update has never prevented a Linux install from booting up properly. The error message was one of those obscure boot messages that even Linux users get from time to time, which turned out to be a common error with this PC-PSD release and one which annoyed several other users as well.





The fix is detailed in the PC-BSD forum and while the steps are fairly simple and might resolve the issue for some machines, the experience made me decide to switch back to FreeBSD instead. It was not unlike my early forays into Arch and openSUSE a long, long time ago when it was pretty easy to make a mistake and break the system. Perhaps another deal-breaker was that it's so rare that Linux distributions fail so badly these days at the essentials that PC-BSD's abrupt non-boot was a surprise considering that I was so early into configuration and the cause was a basic and minimal update.

I didn't feel too bad about the three or fours hours I spent running PC-BSD through its paces and it certainly gave me additional insight to FreeBSD in general. I still intend to set up a FreeBSD machine real soon but in the meantime, it's back to the safe and familiar environment of the Linux world.

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Extracting Vector Objects from a PDF using CorelDraw

Category: Techwriter

CorelDraw, like Adobe Illustrator, can extract and edit objects directly from PDFs. Even if the document was produced from open source software such as Inkscape or a commercial product such as InDesign, CorelDraw can import the PDF and extract vector objects.

Note: Screenshots are from CorelDraw X3. The PDF sample was produced using Adobe InDesign CS4 and Adobe Illustrator CS4.

To import and edit the vector objects from a PDF:

1. On an empty page, click File then Import... Navigate to the PDF file and click Import.

2. On the Import PDF window, select Text if you intend to reuse text from PDF or Curves if you want to focus on working with vector objects only. Specify the PDF page where the vector object is located if needed.





3. Position the mouse pointer on the page and press Enter. The PDF page will be displayed as an object.

4. Ungroup the PDF object like any CorelDraw object. Using the Pick Tool, select and delete any unnecessary objects or remove fills and color if needed.



Note that tables and some objects may not retain the vector nodes from the original vector drawing, particularly if the vector object was designed in Illustrator.

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