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I've been hunting for a post on how to have KDE "extract here" like Foresight Gnome edition does (it's really handy to one click extract archives).  Post after post found via Google did nothing at all to help me out.  Most tried to have you read how to do this manually by creating your own service menu and they would use xterm to extract.  I wanted to use ark...mainly because it's there and it's a gui.

Then I decided to search KDE-Apps.org and viola! I found it.  A handy little tool that allows you to right click on any archive and "extract here" with Ark.  Here's how to install it.

In my previous post, I asked readers how they plugged their blog and/or microblogged, web 2.0 style. Some microblogging readers recommended that I check out Ping.fm. It was exactly the service that I needed; the ability to simultaneously post status updates on twitter, pownce, facebook. I specifically look for services that don't require that I install anything on my desktop (I like IM much more).

The only problem with this is that ping.fm is in beta stage...and a closed beta at that. So, I began to read various different blogs to try and find any other service that might do the same thing as ping.fm.

During my search, I cam across profilactic.com, which is a central aggregate place similar to friendfeed.com. The interesting part about profilactic is that it plugs into ping.fm and every single user can be part of the closed beta for ping.fm!

This means that you can microblog/status message bebo, blogger, brightkite, facebook, hi5, Jaiku, LinkedIn, LiveJournal, Mashable, Myspace, Plaxo Pulse, Plurk, Pownce, Tumblr, Twitter, and Xanga through one single interface OR through Instant message (there is a ping.fm bot).

Here's the kicker...profilactic.com supports 186 sites as well as the ability to create a custom site. There are too many to list. Check out their supported sites.

So, you can utilize ping.fm to instant message status updates or microblog and instantaneously have it sent out to close to 200 different sites all at once. This is handy for me since I like to use pownce a bit more than twitter but my coworkers use twitter more. My status updates are still broadcast (on 60 second delay) on twitter through my instant message to the ping.fm bot. Ping.fm also supports the iPhone and has the ability to have custom triggers.

To take advantage of these great services, head over to profilactic and signup. When you're setting up your sites, you'll be able to plug into ping.fm (it will require that you signup using the profilactic beta password that profilactic will provide for you during setup). Don't forget to visit my lifestream and add me as a friend Happy micro/status/blogging!

As many of you noticied we forgot to include the Skeleton gadget in the jaws-complete tarball of 0.7.2. This issue caused some (fatal) errors with users who wanted to upgrade with the Skeleton gadget already installed.

We've uploaded the tarball again including the Skeleton gadget.

*NOTE: This is not a bug fix release, we are just uploading the jaws-complete tarball again with the Skeleton gadget*. There's no need to update again or use this tarball if you didn't have this problem.

Last night, I decided to install RealPlayer onto my fresh Foresight Linux 1.4.X install. I've replaced my main workstation with Foresight due to convenience (I use it at work) and I use RealPlayer from time to time for videos and music.

No package exists for RealPlayer in the repositories, so head over to Real.com and download the .bin file. After the .bin file has been downloaded, use the following commands to install:

chmod 755 RealPlayer10GOLD.bin && sudo ./RealPlayer10Gold.bin

In the terminal, it will ask you what directory you'd like to install RealPlayer into. I chose /opt/RealPlayer (you'll have to type it in) because I'd rather have the files installed there than in my home directory, which is where I downloaded the file to. After this, you'll have a shiny, new shortcut inside Applications >> Sound and Video >> RealPlayer. Click on this to launch the program and follow the wizard.

The wizard will setup the Mozilla (firefox) plugins for you but they still won't work solidly. This is because mplayer is overtaking the player duties for real media formats. To change this, gedit ~/.mplayer/mplayerplug-in.conf and change these entries as shown below:

enable-rm=0
enable-smil=0
enable-helix=0

Save and close that document. You're set Restart Firefox and go to real.com and test out the player capabilities.

My main job here at rPath, Inc. is to document our technologies via the rPath Documentation Wiki. For this wiki, we use a Mediawiki Appliance. For those that don't know, the "appliance" I refer to here is a software appliance...something rPath technologies make easy to maintain and create. For more information see the definition of a software appliance here.

Moving on, I was ANNOYED by the fact that you have a small arrow "" that appears beside any image that references an external URL or any link that does the same. This is fine to let people know that links will take them to a different page...but what I was trying to do was to make a PDF Icon have the same link as the URL it was sitting beside:

So in the above image, if one clicked on the PDF icon or the "Application to Appliance: A Hands-on Guide (PDF)" the PDF would download.

Mediawiki doesn't provide a fantastic way for you to do this. However, after some snooping around via google, I found a fairly easy way to make things happen.

We are releasing the second stable version of the 0.7 family: 0.7.1.

This release fixes many things like:

• Fixes some (f)cgi bugs with the PATH_INFO (some dreamhost users were having problems with this).
• The bug in the editor (the HBox::rebuildJS message/warning/error).
• Some Phoo bugs
• And many other bugs!

Requirements

* PHP >= 4.3.6 * MySQL >= 3.23.49 (if you use MySQL) * Apache 1.3, Apache 2, Cherokee >> 0.4.29 (under fcgi) and IIS

Suggestions

During this bug-squashing stage I found a little problem with Dreamhost (cause I've some accounts with them).

If you want to have links like: index.php/blog/show/32 (passing params via the pathinfo) you can't do that on dreamhost if you are using PHP 4.2.x with CGI. If you really want to use those links, just change to PHP 5.2.x (cgi or fcgi) otherwise your links will be like index.php?blog/show/32 (note that we replace the first / with a ?).

Download

To download the package(s) just click here.

Thanks for all of you who reported bugs!

We are releasing the second stable version of the 0.7 family: 0.7.1.

This release fixes many things like:

• Fixes some (f)cgi bugs with the PATH_INFO (some dreamhost users were having problems with this).
• The bug in the editor (the HBox::rebuildJS message/warning/error).
• Some Phoo bugs
• And many other bugs!

Requirements

* PHP >= 4.3.6 * MySQL >= 3.23.49 (if you use MySQL) * Apache 1.3, Apache 2, Cherokee >> 0.4.29 (under fcgi) and IIS

Suggestions

During this bug-squashing stage I found a little problem with Dreamhost (cause I've some accounts with them).

If you want to have links like: index.php/blog/show/32 (passing params via the pathinfo) you can't do that on dreamhost if you are using PHP 4.2.x with CGI. If you really want to use those links, just change to PHP 5.2.x (cgi or fcgi) otherwise your links will be like index.php?blog/show/32 (note that we replace the first / with a ?).

Download

To download the package(s) just click here.

Thanks for all of you who reported bugs!

I originally intended this post to be a review of 2007 Final for PCLinuxOS. However, after finishing it up, I realized that posting a review wouldn’t have the desired effect of truly showing off PCLinuxOS to everyone. It would just be a “business as usual” type of post. So, I decided to do a analysis on what I feel sets PCLinuxOS apart from many Linux distributions.

I often see people steer new Linux users to other distros such as OpenSuse, Ubuntu, and SimplyMEPIS...even Sabayon in a few instances. This is fine...they’re good, solid distros. However, out of those distros, I’d recommend only one...OpenSuse. Why? Because of YAST. A New user needs to feel comfortable with system configuration tasks. Not everyone is ready to drop to the shell when coming in from that other operating system. Not every 65 year old grandmother is ready to crack a Konsole and vi their way to .conf bliss. Ubuntu’s control panel is continually getting better but YAST still leads the pack in putting new users or even seasoned ones at ease with system configuration.

I regularly used SimplyMEPIS from 2003 until 2005 and continue to recommend it for new users despite it not having a YAST Like tool. It now has inherited many things from Ubuntu so it has a greatly improved way of doing things. The added tools also make common tasks easier like emptying out logs, installing graphics drivers, and setting up your monitor/resolution. It’s getting there quickly.

That brings me to OpenSuse. YAST is a fantastic and powerful tool. Still, when I use OpenSuse, I often find that I’m not up to date with applications and I find the repositories move much slower than I’d like. I have to rely on third party repos which isn’t a bad thing but often gets me into trouble with dependencies. So I was on a search for a cutting edge distro that was solid, up to date with the latest packages, and had a YAST-like utility for it. Of course, Mandriva (Mandrake at the time) was a good fit but I found PCLinuxOS even better.

So, today I’ll talk about what I feel sets PCLinuxOS apart from other freely available distros.

There’s a question that is often asked via IRC on freenode #pclinuxos-support. Many people want to know how to get programs to startup immediately upon login.

Now there are two ways to do this...kind of. Actually, there is only one way to get programs to autostart but there is another way you can have programs startup when you login...let’s look at both of them.

The First Way

First, go to the PC Menu (or kmenu) >> Run Command >> konqueror --profile filemanagement

When Konqueror opens, navigate to /home/user/.kde/autostart (replace user with your login name). Now minimize that window...we’ll come back to it later. Next up, click on the My Computer icon on your desktop (or for other users, open up Konqueror and put the following in the addressbar: system:/). When that opens, click on applications and minimize the window and place it side by side with the previously opened window.

Hieronymus has posted a helpful tip that simplifies the process above.  After opening up Konqueror, use the Go Menu and click the entry for “autostart” which will take you directly to the correct folder for the current logged in user.  Thanks Hieronymus for the tip!  Visit their homepage here.

For those of you who always thought PCLinuxOS and MythTV would go together...you’re quite right, they do fit well together...though there are a few bumps on the road. Hopefully, this how-to will help you along the way.

First, let’s mention what this guide will not cover:

1. Remote Controls
2. IR Blasters
3. Picture Quality Settings

Why won’t I cover those? Because there are infinite possibilities for each one...and it would be impossible for me to investigate them all...hardware not in my possession besides. So, this will cover installing mythtv and omit the items above. Mythtv has those items covered quite well in their documentation.

Hardware Specifications:

1. HP a1520n
2. ATI x300 PCIe VPU
3. PVR150 and PVR350
4. Sharp Aquos 37" LCD TV
5. USR MaxG PCI Card

Ever wonder how you can get a man page in into a format you can read and print? There’s many methods of doing it (copy and paste is one) but one the easiest I’ve found is:

Where command is the Linux command man page you want to print/view.  From there, open up command.txt in your favorite gui text editor (gedit, kate) and you have a readable format that could be printed quite easily for reference.