10 Reasons to Love Lubuntu 12.10 Part 1

Category: Linux

Both LXDE and Ubuntu aren't perfect, but in the same way Windows users tolerate small issues with Windows Update and Mac users have to wear horse blinders to ignore the shortcomings of OSX's desktop, the combination of Ubuntu and LXDE can be pretty sweet in the right context.

I've had a solid few months running  the Ubuntu 12.10 release of Lubuntu and I have to say I love having Lubuntu around. To wit, here are ten quick reasons to appreciate the LXDE spin of Ubuntu:

1. PCMANFM supports comic book thumbnails - In my review of an earlier release of Lubuntu, I noted that unlike KDE's Dolphin and Gnome's Nautilus, LXDE's default file manager doesn't support CBR and CBZ thumbnails. The latest release supports digital comic books right out of the box and there's now no reason not to manage your comic books using Lubuntu.  Plus, all it takes to read your favorite Spidey comic book is to double-click the digital comic book, which triggers the excellent document viewer Evince.

PCMANFM CBR thumbnails and Evince

2.  Browse files and manage your iPad or iPhone - Unlike openSUSE and Windows 7, Lubuntu can manage the file directories of your iPod or iPhone using PCMANFM. Add, delete, and extract documents from your apps without having to run fickle iTunes. And for those who have lived under a rock in the last couple of years, Android is a kissing cousin of Linux so plugging in an Android device works in a pinch, too.

Browsing the iOS Media Player app's documents in Lubuntu

3. Attractive Desktop Interface - I don't customize my desktop very often and LXDE may not have the prodigious settings of KDE or the pretentious design of Gnome 3, but Lubuntu seems to have taken a page out of Linux Mint's playbook and rendered a pretty attractive default desktop. No longer will LXDE users be ashamed to park their system next to a Gnome 3, KDE 4, or Unity. Frankly, I'd take LXDE over OSX and Windows 7's tired interface any day of the week. Whether you're running Lubuntu on a 13.3 inch screen (like my Ideapad Z360) or an 11.2" netbook display (like my old EEEPC 1000H), Lubuntu (and LXDE) scales very well with plenty of themes preinstalled to boot.

4. Software galore - You can't really mention any Ubuntu derivative without mentioning the excellent access to tons of open source software online. As an openSUSE and FreeBSD user, I'm fully aware that developers always consider Ubuntu support before releasing their projects. From cross-platform applications such as FileZilla, Handbrake, Skype, Calibre, and the Dropbox utility to production software such as Bluefish, Shutter, Cherrytree, Grsync, Remmina, LyX, you can install them using Synaptic Package Manager, GDebi, or Lubuntu's own Software Center, which thankfully isn't as convoluted and distracting as the mainstream Ubuntu Software Center.

5.  Works well with others - I've already mentioned support for iOS and Android devices, but I'd also like to add that Lubuntu, like most Ubuntu derivatives, works well with other Linux boxes on a network whether they're openSUSE or Fedora installations (both of which admittedly can be testy at times). If you're dual-booting with Windows or another Linux distribution, Lubuntu is a good choice because it's a slim installation and doesn't interfere much with its neighbor. Although Lubuntu doesn't provide the hand-holding for setting up network shares, there are plenty of packages that can help you set up an NFS, Samba, or CFS share without much effort.

10 Reasons to Love Lubuntu 12.10 Part 2

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Linux OS support on Product Packaging

Category: Linux
I've written tutorials for Canon and Brother printer driver Linux installations, but there is a difference between the two printer manufacturers - Brother actually provides a Linux logo on their printer boxes. Canon does provide drivers for some of their products, but limit their OS logos to OSX and Windows. An operating system support logo is actually more for advertising than for customer education. After all, if your PC product isn't supported by OSX or Windows, then you just cut yourself off from the global market. Surprisingly, the support logos on product packaging actually affect sales. Don't believe me? Head off to any electronics store and count how many smartphone and audio accessories have the iPod and iPhone logos on their plastic packaging. Back in the 90s, the specifications would just list the type of connector and then there would be additional marketing text for the drivers it's equipped with (e.g. neodymium). These days, leaving out that iPod, iPhone, or iPad logo from your headphones or headset packaging means that 90% of the masses will ignore your audio product.

The recent netbook I purchased, an excellent Toshiba NB520, sports a Windows 7 Starter logo - but Toshiba's Harman Kardon-equipped netbook works best with Linux (due to the Intel Atom N2800 Windows limitations you can't upgrade the RAM to 4GB unless you're running Linux). If Toshiba stuck a sticker on this netbook's box boasting it supports Linux then even casual Linux users would snatch it up (experienced Linux users check the hardware specs in advance). I also purchased a fantastic Microsoft Wireless Mobile 3500 mouse and it had a logo for Mac OSX v10.4-10.7. Ten years ago, Microsoft wouldn't have even mentioned Apple, much less their operating system on their product. Why not Linux? Both my new Wireless 3500 and older Microsoft Wireless 1000 mouse work fine on my Linux machines and I prefer them over Logitech's less resilient offerings. There's really no reason why Microsoft should slap on a penguin alongside OSX on the box.

Manufacturers should be aware that adding a Linux logo or at least mentioning Linux on the packaging (since Linux technically doesn't have an official OS logo), carries weight for a lot of technical users. Contrary to popular belief, Linux users are much more prevalent than what is advertised in the news. You can find a Linux logo in some serverboards, blades, and tower packaging because manufacturers know that most servers run FreeBSD, CentOS, openSUSE, RedHat, Debian, or even Ubuntu and the guy shopping around for company hardware just loves seeing that penguin. Gigabyte, ASUS, and Intel all test their consumer motherboards and chipsets for compatibility using stable Linux releases (particularly the aforementioned openSUSE, Ubuntu, and surprisingly, Fedora). However, they don't note Linux compatibility on their packaging. This is extremely surprising considering that laptops, portables, tablets, and smartphones have crippled the market for DIY-ers. Only desktop enthusiasts shell out money for high-end and mid-range motherboards, so why not market motherboards to those hard-working and admirable Linux users who actually know how to set up RAID and build drivers from source?

Seagate and Western Digital have it easy because storage file format is an area Linux excels. MacOSX has limited support for drives formatted using NTFS while Windows can't access OSX's unique HFS partition table. Linux can support both and the guys over at Seagate and Western Digital know this -  they've actually added Linux to some of their newer packaging.

You'll find the Linux logo in very interesting products. These products might not always have the same brand recognition but they can be exceptional, such as a Toshiba-branded Bamba 4GB USB 2.0 shock-resistant flash drive. So the next time you go out and shop for tech gear, check the operating system specifications and all things equal go for a product that lists Linux.

   

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Adobe Illustrator Basics: Cross-sections and Zoom Views in Technical Illustrations

Category: Techwriter

In a Corel Draw tutorial, we made a zoom view of a power adapter using the Power Clip feature. A slightly different technique using a Clipping Mask can be used in Adobe Illustrator CS2-CS5 to create the same effect for 2D or even 3D illustrations.

1. Duplicate the complex object by clicking on the grouped figure and holding down the ALT key and then pressing an arrow key.



2. Resize either the original or the duplicate using the Pick Tool or by right-clicking and clicking Transform then Resize...

3. Draw the container to be used as callout for the zoom view. Select a color for the stroke to make the illustration pop. Duplicate the shape. Move the duplicate temporarily out of the pasteboard.

4. Position the container over the resized object. Select both objects using the pick tool.



5. Click Object then Clipping Mask. Click Make. The enlarged object will be restricted to the container that you created.




6. Position the duplicate container over the newly created zoom view. Add a callout line.

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The Best Smart Watch Ever - and it's not made by Samsung or Apple

Category: Techtoday

This smart watch is designed by a guy named Bruce Wayne and used by a boy named Robin from a team called Young Justice. This smart watch has the following features:

1. Connects remotely to one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world (and it's not Blue - more like Bat)
2. Includes a full set of customized hacking software
3. Connects remotely to a satellite for GPS and communications (some people have named this satellite the "Watchtower")
4. Extremely durable and waterproof - you can engage in hand-to-hand combat and it would still come out fully functional
5. Has more computing power than a quad core processor and access to additional processing power from server farms
6. Full 3-D image projection for display and a powerful graphics processor
7. Superior high-resolution 3-D display - brighter and more colors than a Retina display
8. Virtual touchscreen input
9. Nano-circuitry ensures minimal power consumption and incredible battery life
10. Tracking beacon, integrated communication system, and voice control
12. Extensible and flexible output/input terminal connectors (Ethernet, power, micro-USB, etc.)
12. Built-in sensors for temperature, speed, motion, topography, etc.
13. Portable, streamlined, and thin enough to be woven into fabric or skintight gloves.



Robin tracks a homing signal in Young Justice season 1 episode 5 "Schooled"


How do you get this smart watch? Survive Bruce Wayne's training first.

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Spidey does a "Selfie"

Category: Techtoday

I was having breakfast at a hotel's restaurant a few months back when I spotted an attractive lady sitting by her lonesome having her eggs and bacon. There was nothing odd about the scene until she whipped out her iPhone 5 and started taking several photos of herself. The tableau, which consisted of her alternating between fixing her hair and makeup, and positioning her face, was enough to distract me from the Bloomberg special I was watching. Perhaps I'm a bit old-fashioned, but for me the scene was terribly ridiculous. Sadly, it occurs all too often in public and in private by both celebrities and the girl/guy-on-the-street.

As a technical writer, I was thoroughly befuddled and equally horrified when the research and development staff told me to use the term "selfie" on the interface of one of the apps they were developing.  Digital mobile devices and social networking gave birth to many amazing terms like "emo" and "BRB" but there are others that strike me as just plain off - and that includes "selfie". I can't imagine the younger crowd saying to each other "She did several selfie's while she was in Italy." It just doesn't sound right at all.

Now, I myself have never needed to take a "selfie" save for that one time when I had to make an impromptu photo for setting up my Linux login (Lubuntu's setup includes the option to take a photo using the portable's webcam and use the photo as a login icon). Having no social networking account to speak of and lacking any photogenic skills (my efforts to look demure always end up with a picture of Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura), I abhor taking photos which include me. Personally, I don't know why people would even post their photos online unless the photo was encrypted and was secured by several FreeBSD and Linux firewalls and servers.

The ever-amazing Spider-Man was probably the first guy who took a "selfie" but it wasn't for vanity purposes. Way back in 1963, good old Peter Parker needed to sell photographs to support his aunt and himself and knew that Spidey would make a great subject. So in one of history's first recorded selfie's Peter used his automated, motor-driven Leica camera to take shots of himself fighting a bucket of sand in Amazing Spider-Man #4 (1963). Yeah, yeah, he "technically" faked it but back then he hadn't planned on making a living off of his photos and had just fought the extremely powerful Sandman (who by the way didn't have a high school degree back then and attacked a school for one).


Peter takes his first "selfie" fighting a bucket of sand in Amazing Spider-Man #4 (1963)


Most people know that Peter Parker used to take photos of himself as the webbed wonder to make ends meet. What most people don't know is that back in the late 80s, he published a book of photographs called "Webs" and traveled around the United States endorsing the book (Marvel even released a sticker book which was entitled "Webs" - I have a mint copy). Peter made some money out of this little commercial endeavor and even had a few adventures with guys like Hank Pym (who went by the super hero name "Hank Pym" at the time). The book was successful enough that J. Jonah Jameson, who had grown to be a mature and beloved character in the books until Marvel's bankruptcy in the mid 90s (and the subsequent regression of Marvel history as the real fans know it), proudly kept a cabinet full of copies of "Webs".


J.J.J. proudly looks at his personal copies of Peter's "Webs" in Amazing Spider-Man #377 (1993)



Spidey visits New England during his tour for "Webs" and teams up with Hank Pym
Cover scan from Web of Spider-Man #46 (1989)


Today's largely ignorant and inept Spider-Man writers have ignored this in current continuity, preferring to pretend the 70s and 80s adventures of Peter never happened. The truth is that Peter was actually fairly successful as a photographer despite his lack of skills with a camera (Felicia Hardy aka the Black Cat was purportedly the better photographer). Loyal readers of Spidey back then could conjecture it was through Peter's freelance work and the royalties he received from "Webs" that he was able to purchase expensive chemicals for producing web fluid during his 19 years of being Spidey (he was bitten when he was around 16 years old). Peter's use of film over digital cameras was even referenced in 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man (the camera was promptly crushed by Lizard).


Peter paid for his share of his impulsive wedding to MJ with hundreds of photographs in one day in the classic Spider-Man wedding issue!
Art from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 (1987)

Indiana Jones probably should have taken a "selfie" when he found the Shankara stones, Ark of the Covenant and Holy Grail in Temple of Doom, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and The Last Crusade respectively. I don't think, however, you'd ever see James Bond take a "selfie" while visiting exotic locales like Russia or Hungary (though his sexy Bond girls probably would).

Like Peter, I'd only take a "selfie" if a) it would make me money and b) I'm wearing a full-faced mask.

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Thanks for the In-Flight Magazines, Dad

Category: Techtoday

My dad passed away last February. One of the things I've always been grateful to him for was initiating so many family trips overseas when I was younger. I got to fly more often then than I am given the chance now. A lot of people hate the whole process of flying. Business professional gripe about all the elements associated with flying and GQ/Esquire and travel sites offer advice on how to "tolerate" the experience. Go through travel sites and forums and you would hear "experienced travelers"' gripe about everything under the sun while visiting a different country or city. They have no idea how lucky they are that they can afford to travel and sit inside an airplane (economy class or otherwise). Instead, they whine about queues and seek the creature comforts of their home country.

Me? I love the whole shebang - the occasionally inconvenient and frightening airport where airport staff can't always speak English, the overpriced airport stores, the thoroughly uncomfortable Economy Class, the somewhat annoying "newbie" fliers who rush to board the plane while taking photos, the ignorant and smug "tourists", and of course, the in-flight magazines.




I used to surreptitiously tuck in in-flight magazines into my carry-on just before the plane landed because when I was 8 years old I thought it was illegal to bring home anything from the plane. I forgot which airline it was but one airline had a small message at the bottom of the magazine informing the reader the magazine was yours to own - which made sense considering how expensive flight tickets were in the 80s and 90s. Since then, I've amassed airline magazines in a small but diverse collection I keep in a cardboard box. Some of my favorites were issues I swiped while flying British Airways, Air Canada, Quantas, Cathay Pacific, Philippine Airlines, and Korean Airlines (Delta and American sucks).




I get somewhat nonplussed when fliers don't even bother to browse through the free magazines and ignore them completely. These days, I'm more forgiving considering how repetitive airline magazines are. Most articles are poorly written by self-styled "travel writers" who fancy themselves worldly people but come out sounding smarmy, uneducated, arrogant, racist, and prejudiced. At least the writers over at Playboy and FHM are transparent about their perversions, humor, and their target audience. There are, however, many other things to appreciate from those magazines tucked in your front seat pocket - the great photography, the glossy papers, and the standard sections that make an inflight magazine what they are:

1. Travel routes, timetables, destinations of the airlines
2. The in-flight entertainment section (I love how they always have a jazz radio station and Asian music piped in)
3. Airport rules and airport maps (fascinating stuff)
4. Safety precautions (you'd be surprised how different they are between airlines)
5. Fleet information (BOEING and Airbus planes) and history
6. Duty Free shopping




Those are actually more fun to read than the self-satisfied drivel of the travel articles. I always get a thrill reading about airport rules and routes.




The quality of the airline is often reflected in the airline magazine. A cheap budget airline either doesn't have one or uses a poor quality of paper and are riddled with ads. Even troubled Japan Airlines (which I flew a few years back before they had legal and financial trouble) carried a very impressive spread when I flew to New York on one of their planes. They used high-quality stock  glossy paper, had twice the number of pages, and had text for both English and Japanese readers.  EVA and Cebu Pacific, on the other hand, have thin offerings with terrible content.

Today, I'm surprised that I still see most airlines carry print versions of in-flight magazines. British Airways recently released their In-flight magazine, First Life, on iTunes for its passengers.  As mentioned, I don't fly very often but trips in the last few years to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, and New Jersey still happily resulted in a few issues of in-flight magazines for my collection. They're dead weight, which is the problem, but I can't bear to leave them in the front seat pockets. What I am curious about is why airlines are slow to migrate to ebook versions.




Obviously, tablets and smartphones are the new publishing medium. There are other advantages as well:

1. Paper printing is wasteful even if the airlines actually recycle their own wasted issues when fliers leave the issue on the plane.
2. Advertisers can pepper digital in-flight magazines with links to Hertz, Hilton, tour companies, and even restaurants. Yeah, I know you can get all that on the web or through iOS or Android apps, but this would be recommendations of companies the airlines is associated with. It's a sure win for the tourism industry and the airline industry!
3. They'll save on publishing costs and flight attendants won't have to bother about disseminating them (and cleaning up) every month when a new one comes out.

All an airline needs are exceptional writers who actually live in the destination routes (rather than expatriates with a superiority complex), great photographers, dependable advertisers, and have one guy layout the magazine using Adobe InDesign or open-source Scribus and export them to PDF. They can even use LibreOffice, MS Word, or any decent word processor to export to PDF or EPUB. Heck, they can even go one step further and use HTML5 or EPUB to publish their magazine and it would only take an afternoon to publish (compared to the traditional printing method). It takes less than a day's work to add designs and images and collate the airline-specific data (e.g. timetables, updated airport rules, etc.) I'd do it for free (I've always wanted to work for an airline but I'm vertically challenged)!

There are technological hurdles though. Although more and more fliers are toting iPads, Android tablets, and ereaders and business class has free Wi-fi (American Airlines has free Wi-Fi for some flights), the only viable way to have fliers get an electronic magazine is by wirelessly distributing the issue on the plane on the Wi-Fi landing page. Personally, I don't really need Wi-Fi on a flight (flying is entertaining enough) but it's probably the most practical way to distribute the rapidly dying in-flight magazine. NFC (Near Field Communication) is an unlikely possibility. An airline can install cheap low-level sensors/transmitters on each seat and fliers can just swipe their tablets or smartphones to get the latest issue. The problem is that NFC isn't a feature standard on most devices quite yet. If iPhones and the iPad are equipped with NFC chips, then it would be a no-brainer (and I'm pretty sure Android and Android developers will figure out a way to make NFC a standard on all Android devices). However, as of now, it still hasn't made it to the mainstream. QR codes are more realistic with a plane providing a wireless LAN service so when a flier bangs a QR code, it pulls up the magazine or website for reading. But again there goes the wireless problem. Until all airlines provide free WLAN (and they should), it's a tough and expensive call.

These days, the workaround is for the airline to offer a tablet or integrated entertainment system that can access the digital content. Unfortunately, most fliers ignore in-flight entertainment systems and prefer their own devices instead. Thus, the retention of the paper in-flight magazine - which gets ignored too.




In the meantime, I'm still tucking in in-flight magazines in my backpack on most of my flights, sliding them alongside my Ideapad, netbook, ereader, iPod Touch, and iPad and not really complaining about the extra weight. Although I've decreased my spending on paperback by nearly 95% since I started using a tablet and ereader, I still love the print medium and hope my mom never decides to throw away my in-flight magazine collection while I'm away.  

Thanks for taking me on all those flights, dad. I'll see you on the flipside - that airport in the sky better have really good in-flight magazines. Preferably in PDF or EPUB format.

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CorelDraw Basics: Cross-sections and Zoom Views in Technical Illustrations

Category: Techwriter

When writing technical/marketing documents for consumer devices, electronics, and toys, you often have to give emphasis to parts or sections in a product not just for informative reasons, but to draw interest to your user/buyer. Doing this in CorelDraw is exceptionally easy using Corel's PowerClip feature. This approach can also be used for sci-fi illustrations and even comic books for a more visual effect.

In this example, we'll be creating a simple zoom view for a power adapter using CorelDraw X5:

1. Using the Pick Tool, select the main product illustration. It is recommended that the product is grouped as one object (Select all objects and click CTRL+G).

2. Resize the duplicate proportionally by selecting the drawing using the Pick Tool, holding down the SHIFT key, and dragging one of the object handles. As an alternative, you can resize the original drawing instead.




3. Draw a simple object such as a circle or use the Callout Tool to create a container for your "zoom" drawing. To facilitate this tutorial, we'll use a basic callout drawing. Left-click a color swatch to fill the callout object with color and right-click to provide a color for the outline. More importantly, increase the outline thickness using the toolbar. Place the callout object over the drawing and resize as needed.




4. Using the Pick Tool, select the duplicate. Click Effects, PowerClip, then Place Inside Container. The mouse pointer will become a big black arrow. Use the arrow to click on the callout drawing. PowerClip will place the duplicate "inside" the drawing.




5. If you need to adjust the position of the drawing inside the callout object, click Effects then PowerClip. Click Edit Contents. Move the duplicate or edit as needed. Click Effects, PowerClip, then Finish Editing This Clip when you're satisfied. You can also access the PowerClip options using the Right-click context menu.




5. Customized drawings can also be used as containers. In the example below, a simple ellipse plus a triangle result in a more streamlined "zoom" view.




Using the same principle, you can create zoom views and even cross-sections of more complex 2D drawings. Although most CAD users deride 2D node-editing vector software such as CorelDraw and even Adobe Illustrator for technical illustrations, working with expensive and 3D software such as SolidWorks and AutoCAD are overkill for simple drawings and documents. Moreover, the learning curve is pretty steep and can be time-consuming for just one project. If the eventual output is to digital publishing such as HTML, EPUB, PDF, or even print, using vector images and node-editing applications such as CorelDraw or open-source Inkscape is a time-saver.

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