Accessing Linux Partitions In Windows

Lately I've been booting back and forth between Ubuntu and Windows. This time, I installed Ubuntu on a separate partition, instead of using Wubi. However, Ubuntu's default filesystem is EXT3, which is not accessible through Windows.

With the help of 3rd party software, you can. There are many out there, but so far these two works for me.

ext2explore

ext2explore is a standalone program, requiring no installation. Good for occasional use. It will automatically detect your EXT2/3/4 partitions, and can extract files from that partition. However, it's read-only, so you can't copy files into that partition with this program. Very simple to use. You can download it here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2read/

ext2fsd

ext2fsd allows EXT2/3/4 support from within Windows, but like ext2explore, it's read-only. Trying to modify or create files from EXT partitions will generate an error. Still, it works seamlessly, you can copy your files, or open the files in another software without extracting them out. You can download it here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsd/

Speed up your Internet: Find a better DNS

UUOOOO WARP SPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDD

One of the ways you can speed up the Internet, other than just upgrading your subscription, is to use a better DNS. By default your ISP provides the DNS for you. While it's generally not so bad, it's not the best either. So how do we know which one is the best? We have to benchmark them.

Introducing DNS Benchmark.

Graphs makes it easy to see which one works best

The software is in fact very straightforward to use, all you need to do is go to the 'Nameservers' tab and click 'Run Benchmark'. It doesn't take very long to see which one is better, out of the many public DNS out there. In most cases, I find that Google Public DNS is often the fastest.

But after you run the benchmark, you can do a full DNS benchmark, looking for even more DNS to benchmark, including little known ones. It is said to improve your connections even further. By how much, well, that depends on the conditions.

Also, by using a different DNS, you can bypass some filters which your ISP has blocked for some reason. Which is good, I think.

You can get this software for free at this website:

http://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm

OK, so I've benchmarked it. What else should I do?

You have to change your DNS settings according to your benchmark results. This site should assist you, just remember to substitute the DNS with your benchmark result:

https://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using.html

shell-fm: Last.fm Radio in Terminal

Yo GUI so fat it took 250KB of RAM to run

Well, I have been switching between Windows and Ubuntu for a few weeks by now, and I'd like the functionality of streaming Last.fm radios in both systems. On Windows, I have foobar2000. On Ubuntu, the only working client with a GUI here is Rhythmbox. All because it's using the old Last.fm API.

But I'm not talking about Rhythmbox today. Because Linux users just love the Terminal, don't they? If possible, they might want to run everything in Terminal. Because it's awesome. Also, it baffles those who use Windows, further increasing it's cool factor.

Gentlemen, I present you shell-fm!

Simply put, it's your Last.fm client that runs entirely on your Terminal.

Don't mind the tracks I'm listening

It has most (if not all) the functionalities of the official Last.fm client. And using it is pretty straight forward really. Everything is explained in it's handy help menu.

And it runs on the old Last.fm API, you poorfags.

So yeah, to obtain it, here are the instructions (requires git and some knowledge compiling from source code):
http://nex.scrapping.cc/shell-fm/

Alternatives (with GUI, unfortunately)
Banshee - http://banshee.fm/
Rhythmbox - http://projects.gnome.org/rhythmbox/
Last.fm Scrobbler - http://www.last.fm/download?showplatform=Linux
Vagalume - http://vagalume.igalia.com/

Oh well, what else can I get for Terminal?

Messing Around With Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal Part 1 - Unity

Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal has been out for about a week by now, and it introduced some major changes along the way. Seeing this I decided to give it a spin, right from day one.

When Ubuntu 10.04 LTS was released, the distro dons a new look which is refreshing and elegant, moving from dull brown to more vibrant colors. It is also surprisingly stable for a Linux distro. Now, with 11.04, another big change is applied; the Unity interface. It differs so much compared to the GTK 2.x interface that has been a staple of Ubuntu, the community is split into two distinct groups. Those who love it, and those who don't. I, for one, do love it.

Getting used to the interface really does take time. Initially I'm baffled with the unfamiliar interface, seeing things behave more OSX-like than before. Took me about two days to familiarize. For starters, the top panel in Unity also serves as a menu bar, normally found under the title bar in other OSes other than OSX. Then there was the side dock (called Launcher) which is also like OSX, showing running apps and also serve as the main menu for Ubuntu. It smartly moves out of the way when a window is maximized.

OH SNAP!

Unity also adds a new feature known to Windows users as Aero Snap. Drag a window to the top of the screen and it will maximize. Drag them to the either side of the screen and it fills half the screen. Handy for multitasking or transferring files. Before Unity, Aero Snap can be accomplished in Ubuntu via Compiz, but it's fairly clumsy to work with.

Unity Dislikes Third Party Themes

While Unity can be themed just like GTK 2.x, it appears that buttons are a bit of an issue.

These aren't the buttons we're looking for

This can be fixed, but we got some hacking to do.

Dude, Where's My Scro- Oh.


Not exactly limited to Unity (also applied to the classic GNOME desktop), most of the scrollbars are now reduced to what seems to be a single colored line. Until you put your cursor on it.

Peek-a-boo!

These are called overlay scrollbars, and you can click it to scroll up and down, or just drag it up and down. A nice way to keep things clean on the desktop.

Dashing.

That button on the left side of the top panel opens Dash, which is something Windows users might compare it to the Start menu.

Now with a searchbox!

The guys at Microsoft realized how convenient Googling is, so they applied it into Windows. Now, Canonical was doing the same thing; letting people to type in to search the program they're looking for.

Personally, I wish more customizations are available for Unity Dash, such as adjusting the icon size, changing the number of rows and columns, hide "Apps available to download" section, always let it open fullscreen, and perhaps some other stuff I missed.

I've heard about Unity Lens, which seems interesting but isn't applied by default. Using the exact same interface as above, you can search for *cough*Rebecca Black*cough* on Youtube, without opening Firefox or any other browser. You can see some of the few Lenses in development here.

Finally.

To end my relatively long post today, I'd say that Unity is good enough for daily use, provided you spend enough time to familiarize with it. It still needs some improvements, especially in terms of usability and customizations, so we'll see what Unity matures into.

Also, Unity is very similar to the recently released GNOME 3. Heck, I don't know who copied who, but at least we have options.