The Unix Geek

Moving to Wordpress

2009-04-19T19:43:00.001-03:00

I have moved my blog to Wordpress at theunixgeek.wordpress.com . This doesn't mean, however, that I'll completely abandon Blogger. I'll post links to my posts from here, so I'll begin with today's posts:Understading Linux ProcessesThe Current State of Linux Distributions

MacHeist 3 Apps

2009-04-05T18:02:00.004-03:00

I decided to buy the MacHeist 3 bundle this year, and here's a list of the apps I got, with their respective ratings (out of 5):Scribbles *****iStock ***MiniOne Racing ***BabelBloX *****Typinator ***DEVONthink ****Hyperspaces **Overflow *****Fresh ****Webbla *iSale ** (registering this one is a pain)Picturesque *****SousChef *****World of Goo ***PhoneView (I don't have an iPhone)LittleSnapper ***

Snow Leopard Will Be Seen at WWDC

2009-03-27T12:56:00.003-03:00

Apple's Mac WWDC page gives it away that Snow Leopard and its technologies will take stage at WWDC. Quoting directly from the page,Provide state-of-the-art media playback, capture, and manipulation of rich media with QuickTime X.It is important to note that QuickTime X is a Snow Leopard (10.6)-only technology.

Firefox on iPhone is a Bad Idea

2009-03-22T18:55:00.005-03:00

I was on Digg this morning when I came across this article (here's the Digg link). Matt Asay, author of CNET's "The Open Road" does have some pretty good points on why Firefox should be on the iPhone, and I completely agree with him on how throwing Firefox onto an N810 isn't really going to bring about wondrous numbers of community supporters, but it is simply not a good idea to let Firefox

Spotlight and the Finder

2009-03-22T16:03:00.002-03:00

There are two things that bother me about Spotlight in the Finder (I've already submitted these to Apple as feedback):If I'm in my Documents folder and I start typing in the Spotlight toolbar item, I'll want Spotlight to start searching within my Documents folder, not throughout my whole Mac. If I want to do that, I'll either go into the root directory or search from the menu bar.Also, when

Microsoft's Silverlight Gaffe

2009-03-14T07:53:00.005-03:00

I'm not sure whether this could be classified as false advertising or what, but I don't think Microsoft can count megabytes... Perhaps it's that large for Windows, but I'm pretty sure Microsoft's able to update information based on the detected operating system.Click the image for a larger size.

Snow Leopard Obviously will be Darker

2009-03-07T19:14:00.006-03:00

Honestly, how many times must I say it? Snow Leopard will be darker. After a lot of research, it seems I was the one of the first ones (if not the first one) to suggest that Snow Leopard's interface will be darker:The Original "Pre-WWDC Secrets" PostA Confirmation when Apple Introduced MobileMe's interfaceAnother Hint when iTunes 8 was introducedand now, QuickTime X (image from AppleInsider):The

More Feedback to Apple

2009-03-07T16:35:00.002-03:00

Simply put: the Go menu should display what's in the Finder's sidebar, be it along with what's already in the menu or not.You too can send Apple feedback at Apple's Feedback page.

Picked up my Cocoa Book

2009-03-01T06:30:00.006-03:00

Last night (29 February 2009) I went over to a local bookstore to pick up my long-awaited copy of "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X" (3rd edition). The cover is really nice with multiple textures, but I was surprised at how the 3rd edition is just about as thick as the second edition. I ventured into the table of contents for comparison, and I found out that the following chapters were removed:

Merging mkdir and cd

2009-02-21T13:34:00.004-03:00

I oftentimes use mkdir and cd together, as in mkdir project && cd project or mkdir project; cd project and I believe many people probably do the same thing. I always found it tedious and repetitive to have to type in the directory's name twice, so I thought, "why not merge these two into one command?" Something like mkcd project could do both jobs at once and reduce typing; it's like hitting two

I Switched to KDE 4

2009-02-20T21:03:00.004-03:00

After KDE 4.2 was released, I have to say, I was hooked. The interface got cleaned up, everything is more elegant, practically bug-free, and not as sluggish as the original release (it's not as fast as GNOME yet, but it's been alright). As a big GNOME fan for quite a while now, the 4.2 release is almost at what could be considered commercially-ready. Will it be KDE that will tumble the world onto

How Linux Shuts Down

2009-02-18T16:11:00.007-03:00

Have you ever wondered how a computer can turn itself off without any manual controls? It's quite simple, actually. Here's how it works in Linux:First off, all running processes are terminated. This means first closing files (and, in certain cases, saving them) to ensure that the system's stability is maintained and then completely forcing all processes to stop.Afterwards, all external (non-root*

Making Firefox Fit Into KDE 4.2

2009-02-13T16:38:00.002-02:00

If you've ever run a default install of Firefox in KDE 4.2, you most likely saw tabs that looked terrible (at least on Kubuntu Intrepid). At first I thought there was a problem with my GTK theme settings for KDE, but then I figured out the problem was simply the theme. I installed KDE4+Firefox and now everything looks just fine.

Networking Ubuntu and OS X with Samba

2009-02-11T14:21:00.005-02:00

Let's assume you have both Macs and Ubuntu PCs in your network. How can you set them up so you're able to access Ubuntu from a Mac and vice-versa? It's pretty simple via Samba.Setting up UbuntuRight-click the folder you want to share and select Sharing Options.Unless you already have Samba installed, you may be asked to install it now.Set all the options you want - select the name of the share (

Windows 7 Editions

2009-02-04T17:36:00.003-02:00

I'd say Microsoft made its best post-Vista move recently. Windows 7 will come in the same options as Vista (except Business is now Professional again), except only Home Business and Professional will be publicly available for retail.Starter Editions will now be available internationally and Home Basic will be around only in selected countries (shouldn't it be the other way around?).Overall, I

Dictionary Print Panel

2009-01-21T20:50:00.002-02:00

Has anyone else noticed that Dictionary.app's print panel doesn't include a print preview?

Microsoft Previews Future Windows UI

2009-01-19T21:04:00.005-02:00

Microsoft seems to be previewing the future of the Windows UI with Office 14. Take a look at SharePoint's window border. It may be that, with Microsoft flattening the Windows interface in Windows 7 (as can be easily seen in the new Explorers - the file manager and Internet Explorer), Office is to follow suit. Besides a flatter and brighter ribbon, the Aero interface is to be flatter as well.

Quasi for PDF Grouping

2009-01-16T07:09:00.002-02:00

A while ago, I downloaded Advanced Linux Programming (it's available for a legal free download) in its PDF form. Each chapter was separate, and, due to alphabetical order, the appendices were earlier in the list than the actual chapters. This created a huge delay from when I opened the folder to getting to the actual file I wanted to read. Then I decided that there should be something to fix

Introducing Rational Raccoon

2009-01-14T21:17:00.002-02:00

I have now founded a software development company (Rational Raccoon Software), and will be releasing a product soon. I am waiting for the product line to expand in order to more legally use the Universal Binary logo.You can visit it at http://rationalraccoon.co.nr

Understanding Cocoa Notifications

2009-01-12T19:40:00.016-02:00

Thanks to Martin Pilkington and Steven Degutis for helping out with this article!IntroductionBeing a Cocoa developer, you are probably aware of delegates. Delegates are "helper objects" that run custom code when called by its object. For example, the class NSWindow has the delegate method windowDidMove:. If I have a Controller object with that method implemented and I set it to be a certain

Is Research the Best Part of Microsoft?

2009-01-10T19:34:00.012-02:00

Here's something I was genuinely thinking lately: is Microsoft Research the best thing Microsoft has to offer today? Seriously, think about it. Forget Windows 7; forget Office 14; forget Live Search; forget the Zune. Here are a few things, oriented to both developers and consumers, that are currently being offered from Microsoft Research:Songsmith - Ok, I must admit that the ad is really cheesy,

Windows 7 Beta Review

2009-01-09T17:55:00.004-02:00

So, I went onto MSDN, downloaded my copy of Windows 7 Beta (build 7000), and here are a few notes of what I think of the new version of Windows, specifically my overall impression of it, the new Aero and system-wide features, the interface redesigns, and the overall usability of the new operating system.---Setup is surprisingly beautiful for Microsoft's previous standards, especially the boot

iWork 09 is Coming

2009-01-06T12:53:00.000-02:00

It's official: iWork '09 is coming today. Apple's even already changed its name on their downloads page.

Today's Old Computer: Imlac PDS-1

2009-01-05T07:34:00.001-02:00

It's been quite a while since the last time I wrote a "Today's Old Computer" article (click on the old computer portal at the top to see some of the other ones), so as I was paying the Old Computers Museum website a due visit, I came across a mostly-undocumented interesting machine called the Imlac PDS-1. This "professional" computer was released in 1970 and programmed in assembly language.Upon

Alpine and Mailing Lists

2009-01-04T08:29:00.000-02:00

Alpine is a rather well-known email client. It stands for "Alternatively-Licensed Pine." The developers at the University of Washington (Seattle) wanted to maintain a free code base while keeping a close relationship to the trademarked Pine.I like Alpine. It's really nice, but I only use it for my text-only mailing lists. That's because a lot of modern newsletters and personal email are filled

New Features in GTK+ 2.15.0

2009-01-03T12:59:00.000-02:00

Thanks to TuxMachines for helping this post give me over 1,424 total views today!Two days ago (1 January, 2009) the development release leading up to GTK+ 2.16.0 was released. Here are the new features that will be available in the next release as far as widgets go (I've especially been waiting for GtkFileChooser to be able to show file sizes):* GtkFileChooser- Optionally shows file sizes-

Read Mail Really Fast

2009-01-03T12:00:00.001-02:00

This is simply amazing. Click the image to view it full size.

Even the Small Talk will be Big

2009-01-03T08:43:00.000-02:00

Maybe the rumors are true, and the iPhone nano is coming along. MacRumors has a shot of a banner somewhere in San Francisco. Small Talk... iPhone nano is small... Big news...?Except it's IDG-sponsored and it's very similar to a MacWorld slogan. Who knows? Maybe they decided to match it up this year.via MacRumors

A Better Desktop Button for Ubuntu

2009-01-01T09:13:00.000-02:00

In the bottom left of Ubuntu's bottom bar, there is a Show Desktop button. I never use it, though. If I need to show the desktop I usually just switch to another virtual workspace, so I replaced it with something more useful: a Window Selector menu.With this Window Selector, all open application windows (including those on other workspaces) appear in this little menu, allowing me to quickly

Happy 2009!

2008-12-31T09:42:00.000-02:00

2009 is just around the corner, so happy new year to everyone, and be ready for some nice changes here on The Unix Geek blog.

Symphony on Ubuntu: To Fix

2008-12-31T07:01:00.000-02:00

Here are three reasons why I'm not using IBM Lotus Symphony on Ubuntu (I like the whole concept of the application, but it doesn't look native neither on Mac OS X nor on Ubuntu):Windows 95 Controls. No. That's just wrong. How about using Cleanlooks, or at least trying to imitate it somewhat well, like the Qt apps?I can't resize the Properties pane, and some controls are partially missing.Bad

New Look

2008-12-27T21:13:00.001-02:00

To celebrate the new year, I've decided that The Unix Geek blog needed a new look. Here is a comparison of the old one (white and grey) and the new one (red and grey):

Windows 7 Beta coming in January

2008-12-27T21:00:00.000-02:00

Apparently, some people have already gotten their hands on the Windows 7 Beta, which is supposed to be released in January. To avoid any problems, I'll be waiting until then to try it out and post a review of what I think of the new OS.Here's an existing review, which, surprisingly enough, recommends the beta for daily production use.

Aluminum MacBook Review

2008-12-15T05:20:00.000-02:00

Apple's been marketing the Aluminum MacBook as being "Beautifully Engineered, Inside and Out," a "Technological Beauty," "Engineering with Good Taste," being part of "The World's Greenest Notebook Family," and "Perfectly Conceived." And I must say, I agree with all of these.At first sight, the new MacBook is a stunningly beautiful piece of technology. The colors Apple chose were a perfect match

On AppleScript Studio

2008-12-12T13:17:00.000-02:00

It's not surprising to see that AppleScript Studio has somewhat gone defunct. I mean, who actually uses AppleScript at all these days? Yet, on another side, it's somewhat sad to see it go away. No, Apple didn't kill it; its users did.If you take a look at the AppleScript Studio programming guide, you can see that the last time it was updated was on 4 April, 2006. Soon, that'll be three years ago.

Finally, After Two Months!

2008-12-10T14:26:00.001-02:00

Finally, after two months, Apple has finally released the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros in Brazil.At least the following stores are selling them: Saraiva, Submarino, and Fast Shop. I will try to review one as soon as possible.

Google Translate's New Look

2008-12-10T08:58:00.000-02:00

Google Translate has a new look. I find it makes a great dictionary, even when not in dictionary mode, and I'm glad there's finally a "swap" option to swap the languages.

Setting up PHP in Mac OS X

2008-12-04T08:18:00.000-02:00

I tried out some PHP yesterday and I found out that OS X doesn't really come as an out-of-the-box MAMP (Mac-Apache-MySQL-PHP) server, especially on the PHP part. If you try running some server-side PHP code, you'll end up seeing the source code instead of having the actual program run. Here's how you can fix the Apache configuration to get PHP working on your Mac.Some characters used here are

Apple likes Beethoven

2008-12-01T09:46:00.000-02:00

I bet Apple likes Beethoven, because that's the Moonlight Sonata (Moonscheinsonate) there on the Classical album cover in the iTunes Grid View.

MacBooks are coming!

2008-11-30T07:19:00.000-02:00

Great news - the new aluminum MacBooks will be arriving in Brazil sometime next week! It was a long delay, but I'm glad they're finally coming! :)

MacBook Delays: An Open Letter to Apple

2008-11-27T10:48:00.000-02:00

Here's something I wrote to Apple, and I hope they take it into consideration.I'm very disappointed that tomorrow it will be a month and a half since the next-gen MacBook's announcements and they still haven't arrived in Brazil. As somebody who works daily with technology, programming, etc, I recognize the power of the Mac and love programming for it, working with it, and using it to its maximum

Understanding the Linux Filesystem

2008-11-26T15:18:00.000-02:00

Ah, the old UNIX adage: everything is either a file or process.Let's take a closer look at the Linux filesystem and forget about processes for now.Files can either be regular data-holding files, directories, references to hardware, links, and inter-process communicators. Believe it or not, directories are simply lists of files, links are files that tell where other files are, and those file in /

Fedora 10 is here

2008-11-25T13:00:00.001-02:00

It was released a minute ago.

Ubuntu 8.10: Featureless Ibex?

2008-11-24T15:10:00.000-02:00

A few days after Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex was released, I decided to give it a test drive in my trial of VMware Fusion. I was hoping for an awesome new experience, like I got back in the days of Gutsy Gibbon, but I didn't get an Intrepid Ibex. Just a Featureless Ibex.Sure, all operating systems have come of age and are focusing on having better internals while maintaining the pretty look they've

I Still Don't Get This

2008-11-14T17:04:00.001-02:00

This has probably been around since one of the first version of Word on any platform (I've seen this a lot of times), and I still don't get why it exists. The font "Nonexistent Font" is not available on your system. Do you want to use it anyway? ... this makes no sense.

One Month Later...

2008-11-14T17:02:00.000-02:00

One month after the next-gen MacBook's introduction (14 October), the new model has not arrived in Brazil. If Apple wants to keep an international business in good shape, I would expect they'd want to keep all their products updated, instead of offering previous-generation computers in some countries.Sure, I'd bet there's something to do with customs, exchange rates, etc, but one month is just

Qt won't benefit from C++0x

2008-11-10T17:14:00.000-02:00

According to ahigerd on Freenode, "At best, Qt would simply wrap around some STL components if they're present, but (1) I don't expect any useful standardization until somewhere around 2012, (2) I don't expect compiler support to be there for a long time, (3) Qt, especially in the embedded department, is intended to REPLACE STL, not USE STL.Qt is supposed to provide a consistent API and behavior

The Future of C++

2008-11-10T16:37:00.000-02:00

Bjarne Stroustrup began C with Classes in 1979, as a better C that supports object-oriented programming, generic programming, and data abstraction. In 1983, it became C++ (although many argue it should have been ++C). Nearing the end of the century, 1998, a C++ ANSI-ISO standard was created. Sometime in the near future, C++0x is coming along.Being that C++0x was expected to come out between 2000

XKCD 303

2008-11-08T11:02:00.000-02:00

This is definitely one of my favorite XKCD comics:The #1 Programmer Excuse for Slacking Off: "My Code's Compiling."

QtCreator Announced

2008-11-03T17:39:00.000-02:00

Trolltech has finally been working on their own IDE made specially for Qt. It's called QtCreator. Here's the announcement and here's the tech preview.

How to Write a Programming Language

2008-10-30T17:46:00.000-02:00

It's actually quite easy to write a programming language in C++, believe it or not. All you really have to do is follow Stroustrup's own example: write a program that can translate your language's code into C and compile that. After all, that's how C++ started out! Here's a step-by-step walkthrough of a simple programming language where the line printstr Hello, World! prints Hello, World! as the

Windows 7 copies Fedora

2008-10-28T16:30:00.000-02:00

200th post!Windows 7 copied Linux again. Milestone 3 was recently announced at PDC, and now, Microsoft got another inspiration from Linux, and this time it wasn't even a user feature. Compare the default desktops: Windows 7 and Fedora 9 GNOME (screenshots courtesy of the WinSuperSite and Wikipedia). Larger Image:

Bringing Back the Old Aqua Theme

2008-10-24T20:16:00.000-02:00

Did you know it's possible to bring back the old Tiger and Panther Aqua theme back to Leopard? You can do it in one simple step - type this in Terminal.app (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app):defaults write -g AppleUseCoreUI -bool NO && defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSUseLeopardWindowValues NO && killall FinderIf you quit and restart all open applications, you'll see they have the old window

ImageBoot Doesn't Surprise Me

2008-10-24T16:56:00.000-02:00

I'm glad Apple's finally (probably) bringing a Cocoa Finder in Snow Leopard, which may indicate some sort of Carbon wrapper for Cocoa applications in the future, but what doesn't surprise me is ImageBoot. According to MacRumors, ImageBoot "should allow Macs to boot from a disk image".... except that already exists. In fact, that's how installed Ubuntu on my MacBook a few months back. I had the

OpenOffice 3 "Aqua" Interface Problems

2008-10-15T20:04:00.000-03:00

Overall, I really like OOo 3 on OS X. It's nice to be able to run it without X11, and the interface is faster, the new icons are nicer... but the interface can be terrible at points. Here is a list of the main "ugly spots" of the OOo "Aqua" interface.Just because it runs natively on OS X, it's not necessarily Aqua. The ability to have pictures in the menus? That's definitely anti-aqua. What's

Why Two MacBooks?

2008-10-14T18:15:00.000-03:00

Seems that Apple doesn't want to stop making MacBooks...Let's take a look at the history of it all. First off, the MacBook Pro was born. Pretty cool - built-in iSight, MagSafe, same old (but awesome) aluminum, great! Next, the nice white MacBook we have known for about almost three and a half years at the time of the writing of this post. Then, earlier this year, the MacBook Air was born as a

The Better Interface of Google Docs

2008-10-10T19:28:00.000-03:00

I remember when I first met Google Docs and how similar it was to Office 2007. Wow, how much has changed! I accessed it recently, and the interface for keeping tracks of your documents has been really useful with features such as nested folders.The new layout also makes it easier to find a justified layout (see image), which is why I left Google Docs for a while.

What Ubuntu is Missing

2008-10-04T13:00:00.000-03:00

I'm finishing up my Fedora DVD download right now (can't wait until Fedora 10 comes out), and the main reason that I'm switching to Fedora, at least temporarily, is to install some GTK+ developer files. You see, I haven't been able to get online on my Linux computer lately due to some ISP problems, so I haven't been able to install the developer files since my last reinstall. That's why I think

An Introduction to Key-Value Coding in Cocoa

2008-09-26T11:52:00.000-03:00

Key-value coding is a powerful technology available in Cocoa, but it may be difficult for beginners to understand. But without key-value coding, you couldn't easily make applications scriptable or use bindings in your applications. Also, using key-value coding can significantly reduce how much code you write by eliminating accessor methods. Using it may even increase your code's security by not

HTML: The Cross-Platform Solution

2008-09-26T11:48:00.001-03:00

Trying to write a cross-platform application today can be done in either of two ways: write a separate implementation of the app on each platform using the platform's native API or write the app in a specialized cross-platform framework. Obviously, the latter is more preferable. While Qt is the API of choice for most cases today, but for those who want to write cross-platform proprietary

Google Chrome Micro-Review

2008-09-18T05:55:00.000-03:00

I downloaded Google Chrome and installed it on Windows Vista Ultimate last night, and here I some things I really liked about the new browser:The preferences window is super-clean, super-easy to follow. Overall, it's a very good implementation.Gmail is sufficiently faster (for obvious reasons)There is no status bar, but when you hover over a link it appears in a little unintrusive blue pop-up at

Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

2008-09-11T20:44:00.000-03:00

It was recently announced by Mark Shuttleworth that Ubuntu 9.04 will be codenamed Jaunty Jackalope. I just wanted to summarize the main goals in the next version of Ubuntu:Ubuntu on over a million devicesFaster boot timeIntegrate web applications with the desktopMore is being planned and more ideas will be shared come the Developer Summit. Just to note: the jackalope isn't a real animal....

Snow Leopard will be Darker: More Hints

2008-09-09T18:13:00.001-03:00

I've previously published two posts with sources and reasons as to why it seems that OS X Snow Leopard will have a darker UI:Pre-WWDC Secrets and Hints from MobileMeNow, with iTunes 8 being released a few hours ago, I have more hints supporting the idea that Snow Leopard will be dark:As I've posted some times before, Apple keeps a consistent user interface among their applications, being web,

USB as an Anti-Piracy Measure?

2008-09-07T19:31:00.000-03:00

After a bit of pondering, I found out USB could easily be used by companies as an anti-piracy measure. Here's why I think it would work:Today the industry lives off of DVD. DVDs get scratched easily. USB drives... not so muchCompanies are already used to hiding information on USB products (anybody say iPod?)More than just a serial number for anti-piracy protection: have a hidden file on the drive

C vs Python: Speed

2008-09-07T14:57:00.000-03:00

IntroductionPython is a very popular interpreted scripting language. C is a very popular compiled language. Due to its compiled nature, C is generally faster than Python, but is lower-level, making Python programming quicker and easier than C programming.The questions here are whether or not the extra time taken to run a Python program (without input) will be less cost-effective than its C

Installing Ubuntu Packages Offline

2008-08-31T19:29:00.000-03:00

Here's a neat feature of Synaptic that allows you to download packages without having Ubuntu connected to the internet.Go to File > Generate Package Download ScriptI saved the file as a shell script (.sh extension) and moved the file over to my Mac, which had an internet connection. I googled and downloaded a version of wget for OS X, copied it to /usr/bin and smoothly ran the package download

html backup second

2008-08-23T07:44:00.003-03:00

portals

html backup first

2008-08-23T07:44:00.001-03:00

Subscribe to the feed! Click here!Digg info updates by postdigg_url = 'http://digg.com/linux_unix/The_Unix_Geek_blog_Insights_and_Guides_to_the_World_of_Personal_Computing';del.icio.usTechnorati PageTwitter Updatesfollow me on Twitter

The Rambling World

2008-08-23T07:31:00.001-03:00

Last night I started a new blog: The Rambling World: Thought, Philosophy, and Information.Please visit it!

Vista Interface Oddities

2008-08-22T18:26:00.000-03:00

There are two oddities I noticed in Vista Ultimate that take the new, shiny Aero interface back in time:1. Old MS-DOS-logo-like icon for Microsoft Pinyin after enabling Chinese input2. Old Windows XP mail icon in the desktop's contextual menuMicrosoft should fix these up sometime soon....

Why XAML is Powerful

2008-08-19T15:24:00.000-03:00

IntroductionXAML, Microsoft's eXtensible Application Markup Language, was released with the .NET 3.0 framework and works with the new technologies available in the once-called WinFx release of the framework, such as WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), WF (Workflow Foundation), Windows CardSpace, and WCF (Windows Communication Foundation). Currently, I'm learning WPF, where XAML is used for

An Open Letter to Ubuntu

2008-08-08T07:43:00.001-03:00

Don't get me wrong on this - I love Linux and Ubuntu is one of my favorite distros, but there were some problems that temporarily turned me away when I was introduced to Ubuntu (and Linux in general) that I've noticed are affecting a lot of newbies on #ubuntu, too.Intrepid Ibex (8.10) is coming this October and here are some things that should be brushed up, especially for new users:Screen

Windows finally learns from Linux

2008-08-03T17:51:00.001-03:00

Check out this screenshot from the WinSuperSite: Windows 7 build 6519. Now apparently Windows has the same feature as Linux when it comes to program managing: having its own "Programs Explorer" and having the programs being divided into categories. Now I'll just wait for this feature to be added to OS X.....

Free Software in the Stores

2008-08-03T17:46:00.000-03:00

Today I was in a France-based store called fnac here in Brazil and I noticed some interesting free software packages available on the shelves:Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron"Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon"OpenOffice.org 2.0Freedows 2004 Standard and Professional (does this distro still even exist?)Mandriva Powerpack (most recent version)Also check out my Linux in the Stores post.

Safari 4 Bug

2008-08-03T17:40:00.001-03:00

When command+click-dragging the back/forward control in Safari 4, instead of getting the normal textured buttons as you're dragging it you get the old Aqua buttons...

iPhone is the new DS

2008-08-03T09:52:00.000-03:00

iPhone 3G could be seen as a new Nintendo DS with a lot of better features:cheaper games (ranging from free to about $10 for the average ones)get games anywhere and on-the-go, including from the comfort of your homebetter use of touchscreen technology than the DS you can download more than gamesOverall. the iPhone has better features and overall better prices than the competing mobile gaming

Microsoft afraid of Apple?

2008-08-02T07:29:00.000-03:00

It seems Microsoft is afraid of what Apple could do to hurt their business. An internal memo sent out by Ballmer reads:A competing vertically-integrated model, in which a single firm controls both the software and hardware elements of a product, has been successful with certain consumer products such as personal computers, mobile phones and digital music players. We also offer

Delicious goes Web 2.0

2008-08-02T07:25:00.000-03:00

del.icio.us is dead. Delicious is alive! And with a new look to it! What used to be one big bad-looking old-style HTML Perl application is now Web 2.0 and has all those neat vector drawings. There isn't much to say except that a picture is a 1000 words, and 1000 more when you actually look at it yourself, so click the link and check it out!

The Geekiest Nighthmare

2008-07-28T04:48:00.000-03:00

I just woke up from having what probably is the geekiest nightmare I've ever had. It was February 2009 and I'm on IRC using a weird client that I currently don't know what it is (it seemed like a mix between Colloquy and Linkinus but with a status bar at the bottom of the chat window). This nightmare probably came up due to me yesterday thinking about GPL and receiving some pretty weird

Google's being rude to ReactOS

2008-07-27T09:19:00.001-03:00

Google, mean Google.... :PIf you google ReactOS, something like this will show up:Note the question mark at the end - it's like as if they don't believe in the project....heh, it's as if you google french military victories and press I'm Feeling Lucky

Presenting Like Steve Jobs

2008-07-15T15:37:00.000-03:00

We've all seen Steve Jobs' presentations and we all love them. We know they're the some of the best and certainly the most capturing. Now the secret is released. In 17 steps you can easily make your presentation Jobs-like:Set the theme in a single headlineMake the theme clear and consistent throughout the presentation Provide the outlineOpen and close each section with a clear

The Dock got Dumber

2008-07-10T20:09:00.000-03:00

I was reading a Mac OS X 10.0 review and I'm surprised at how the Dock got dumber - it's not as customizable as it used to be. According to this old ArsTechnica article,The Dock may be moved to any edge of the screen, and may be pinned at either end. This feature has no GUI interface and was actually disabled earlier in the development cycle, but has been re-enabled in 10.0. It can be activated

Vala: A New Language Made Just for GTK+

2008-07-08T14:17:00.000-03:00

Vala is a new object-oriented programming language made by the GNOME project especially for GTK+. Its syntax is very C#-like but, like the original C++, Vala source code is translated to C code before compiling. The project is yet very new but I can see a lot of use in it and it's getting along pretty well. Take a look at it and support the project!

Linux in the Stores

2008-07-07T18:27:00.000-03:00

Linux hardware is finally starting to make its debut in consumer stores. Here in Brazil, in the store Saraiva, I noticed two KDE 3-based laptops, both apparently built upon some version of Kubuntu; one wasn't that customized and had the normal bar and K menu at the bottom, and the other one was so customized at first I thought it was Vista with the taskbar put on the side! I also the noticed the

Patenting the Ribbon means Goodbye, Tab Views!

2008-07-07T18:25:00.000-03:00

If Microsoft tries to patent the Ribbon interface used in Office 2007, using tab views to allow the user to select certain tasks will be illegal. That's all the ribbon is - a nice-looking tab view with buttons and menus on it.I'm not saying I think the Ribbon is a bad thing; I actually really like the Office 2007 Ribbon, even though it was not well-ported to Mac OS X in Office 2008. (I think that

riverstream project begins

2008-06-30T23:57:00.000-03:00

It's begun. Click here.

Snow Leopard to be released near 11 March 2009?

2008-06-25T12:43:00.000-03:00

The QuickTime 7.6 About screen in Snow Leopard 10A96 says that it will expire 11 March 2009, a Wednesday. Maybe Apple doesn't want to release it on the 13th, a Friday (get it? Friday the 13th?). If so, this wouldn't be the first time Apple holds back a product release.

Booting of a Live CD without a CD or an Emulator

2008-06-23T21:57:00.000-03:00

Yes, it's possible to boot off a live CD without any burnable discs or an emulator, especially if you have Mac OS X installed. Open Disk Utility in /Applications/Utilities/Create a partition just over the size of the disc image.Select your hard drive in the left table view and click on the Restore tab on the right.In the Source field, drag in the image from the left table view or select it

Snow Leopard 10A96 Review

2008-06-23T13:29:00.000-03:00

Screenshots at the end of the post!I was recently given the opportunity to try out Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard build 10A96. I got some screenshots (see the end of this post), and here's what I noticed about my experience:it really seemed a lot faster. With the battery at 98%, there were 5 hours 11 minutes left! Some screenshots were taken of the setup assistant and now instead of the little "

openSUSE 11 Review

2008-06-17T12:19:00.000-03:00

I know it's a day early, but I was able to get my hands on a copy of the release version of openSUSE 11 and I must say it's a really good distribution! Here are three lists of what I noticed, what I liked, and what I didn't like about this new release (the GNOME live CD, specifically):What I noticednew icon for the home folderboot speed - it was pretty fast for a live CDnew OpenOffice.org splash

The McCANSA-Brazil License

2008-06-16T07:01:00.000-03:00

There's a new license in town: McCANSA-Brazil, short for Modified creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike Brazil. This license is designed for any use, froom artwork to music, from video to source code, unlike many licenses that are more specific. For example, I use this license for all my Flickr stuff unless otherwise noted.For the more curious, here are the license's contents:1.

Adding Address Book Contacts from Mail

2008-06-15T10:23:00.000-03:00

I was recently about to send an email to someone and wanted to add them to my Address Book in OS X, but I was surprised to see that there was no "Add to Address Book" option anywhere, especially since there were "Edit Address" and "Remove Address" options. So I sent this feedback to Apple:Since you can remove and edit Address Book contacts from Mail, it would be nice to be able to type in an

Snow Leopard Build 10A96

2008-06-11T07:12:00.000-03:00

In this first developer preview of Snow Leopard there isn't anything that really stands out yet, except that System Preferences shows whether or not the system is run at 64-bit (probably part of Grand Central) and some apps have been updated (Address Book is 5.0, Mail is 4.0, Photo Booth is 3.0, etc). And it's official: Snow Leopard is 10.6It's interesting to note how some apps were already

Safari 4 Review

2008-06-10T19:18:00.001-03:00

Note (24 Feb. 2009): This latter half of this review is from an earlier version of Safari 4. Here are my opinions on the public beta:Putting tabs on the top of the window was really smart; now there's a lot more space for actual browsing. However, you have to select the upper-right corner of tabs to move them, unlike in Safari 3 where you could move them by selecting them anywhere.The X to close

Tracking Snow Leopard Development

2008-06-10T12:08:00.000-03:00

I have decided to track Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard development and here is the first step.Each time Apple updates the Snow Leopard page I'm going to get a screenshot of it. Each time a new build comes out, I'll point out highlights. Here's the first archive of the Snow Leopard page as of 10 June 2008 (by the way, the picture's barely a megabyte - I'm surprised at the compression size of PNG's -

New Look

2008-06-09T17:42:00.000-03:00

I felt that The Unix Geek was in time for a new look (last time it changed was in December 2007). So here's a brighter feel to it. I call the old look the "Tiger Banner", the previous one the "Leopard Banner", and this one is the "Topics Banner" (pun intended- TOPics, terminal is running top).Here's a screenshot of what the blog looked like in the Leopard banner. Check the December 2007 posts for

Confirmed: OS X Snow Leopard Will Be Darker

2008-06-09T15:38:00.000-03:00

It's pretty much confirmed that OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" will be darker. Just take a look at this screenshot of mobileMe and how dark the toolbar is. I bet Snow Leopard is gonna follow. So I guess this person I talked to was right. I reached this conclusion because it's very coincidental that two sources imply dark interfaces and that Apple generally keeps similar interfaces among products. And

OS X 10.6 Pre-WWDC Secrets

2008-06-09T12:38:00.000-03:00

I was able to contact someone on IRC who said they happened to have an early seed of OS X 10.6; here's the info I was able to get from them before they went offline:Q: what's different?A: mostly just speed/stability, but the ui is going darkerQ: like iTunes?A: darker...Q: send me a screenshot plzA: can't it's all markedQ:marked?A: with user information....Q: [use an image editor to] blur out the

Joined Technorati

2008-06-08T19:14:00.000-03:00

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Geeky LOLCAT

2008-06-07T12:17:00.001-03:00

took me about 2 minutes in Google and Seashore ;)