GnuCash is personal and small-business financial-accounting software, freely licensed under the GNU GPL and available for GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. It is very easy to use, yet powerful and flexible. It
allows you to track bank accounts, stocks, income and expenses. I’ve been using it from the days of my Windows, It is very quick and intuitive to use as a checkbook register, and is based on
professional accounting principles to ensure balanced books and
accurate reports.
Here’s the PPA to get the latest GNUCash:
Importing the GPG Key:
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 2FAD1E8D
Adding the repository:
. /etc/lsb-release
echo deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/gnucash/ppa/ubuntu\ `lsb_release --short --codename` main | \
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gnucash.list
Update the sources list:
sudo apt-get update
Source: GNUCash Wiki
Ashok TT - How To, TT - Linux, TechTalk GNUCash, ubuntu-sources
Scribd is a pretty much popular document sharing site which has been around since a couple of years. Some fans state Scribd is for documents like what Youtube is for videos. But Scribd is sometimes disrupted due to javascript/adobe flash player restrictions on the client side. Viewing & downloading documents at such times becomes impossible. Here’s a shortcut to download documents from Scribd when you are logged in to the site:
Add the following to the end of the document url:
?autodown=pdf
For example, the following is the URL for opening a Scribd document:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6366850/DocTitle
Add the autodown parameter and open this url in your browser.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6366850/DocTitle?autodown=pdf
This will start downloading the document in pdf format. You need to be logged in to the Scribd for this to work. This will work even if Javascript is disabled, or Flash player is not available.
Ashok TT - How To, TT - Tips n Tricks, TechTalk Downloads, Scribd
VLC Player is a popular media player which requires no introduction. It is absolutely worth of every praise in the reviews all over the web. Here’s the PPA to get the latest VLC:
Importing the GPG Key:
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 7613768D
Then run the following code:
. /etc/lsb-release
echo deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/c-korn/vlc/ubuntu\ `lsb_release --short --codename` main | \
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vlc.list
Update the sources list:
sudo apt-get update
Source: VideoLAN
Ashok TT - How To, TT - Linux, TechTalk ubuntu-sources, vlc
File Browser Applet is an applet for the GNOME Panel. It lets you browse and open files in your computer directly from the panel, without having to open a file manager. It is not intended as replacement to proper file managers like nautilus. Sometimes you just want to open a file and don’t want to have to open a file manager, browse to and open the file, then close the file manager. This Applet just saves you couple of clicks.
Importing the GPG Key:
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys D05E4B27
Run the following lines to add the source:
. /etc/lsb-release
echo deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/file-browser-applet-dev/ppa/ubuntu\ `lsb_release --short --codename` main | \
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/filebrowser.list
Update the sources list:
sudo apt-get update
Source: File Browser
Ashok TT - How To, TT - Linux, TechTalk gnome-applets, ubuntu-sources
The steps for adding the official GNOME Do repositories:
Importing the GPG Key:
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 77558DD0
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 6E80C6B7
Adding to sources list:
echo -e “#GNOME Do Software Repository\ndeb http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-core/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main\ndeb http://ppa.launchpad.net/banshee-team/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main” | \
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gnomedo.list
Update Synaptic.
sudo apt-get update
Repository link from: Do.davebsd.com
Ashok TT - How To, TT - Linux, TechTalk gnome-do, ubuntu-sources
The official google linux repositories contain Google Chrome, Picasa for Linux and Google Desktop Linux applications. The steps for adding the repository:
Importing the GPG Key:
sudo wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | apt-key add -
Adding to sources list:
echo -e “#Google Software Repository\ndeb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ stable non-free main” | \
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google.list
Update Synaptic.
apt-get update
Repository link from: Google
Ashok TT - How To, TT - Linux, TechTalk Google, ubuntu-sources
Ubuntu ships Pidgin but does not update it after a release (except for
security issues). For those users– who desire new releases of Pidgin, the official PPA:
Importing the GPG Key:
sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com \
67265eb522bdd6b1c69e66ed7fb8bee0a1f196a8
Adding to sources list:
. /etc/lsb-release
echo deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/pidgin-developers/ppa/ubuntu \ `lsb_release –short –codename` main | \
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pidgin-ppa.list
Don’t worry about your version specific PPA, the above code will add your ubuntu distro’s version automatically. Once this PPA is setup, Pidgin updates will show up in Update Manager along with the usual Ubuntu updates.
Ashok TT - How To, TT - Linux, TechTalk im, pidgin, ubuntu-sources
Here is a very simple way to add events from your google calendar to the Clock applet of your GNome Panel. It uses Evolution application for the integration.
Step 1: Get the private iCal URL of the Calendar from the Settings of your google calendar
Step 2: Paste it into the Firefox’s address bar, and change the http:// to webcal:// and press enter
Step 3: Firefox will popup the application selector. Select the evolution-webcal
Step 4: Enter the refresh time, and a color for the calendar and press Subscribe
That’s it! Pretty easy, isn’t it? You can see the events from your Google calendar now in your GNome panel’s clock applet…
This Howto is done on Ubuntu Jaunty, but the procedure will be pretty much the same for any other linux flavour, provided evolution is installed.
Ashok TT - How To, TT - Linux, TechTalk GNOME, Google, Ubuntu
In Jaunty, one of the new features of GNOME desktop is the smooth fading effect when changing the background wallpapers. It’s a nice feature, but I have a small panel applet Webilder, which changes the wallpaper randomly at equal intervals of time. I’ve kept the time to be 1 Minute, and there are some high resolution wallpapers in my collection.
My integrated graphics (Intel chipset) wasn’t able to handle that kind of animation and every minute when the wallpaper changes, the system becomes slow and sluggish. After googling for disabling this particular fading effect, I wasn’t able to find the exact solution, but a work around: Disabling the GTK Animations.
Create a file .gtkrc-2.0 in the home directory, and add
gtk-enable-animations = 0
to that file. Logout/Restart, and all the GTK Animations are disabled, including the fading effect. I don’t know at this point of time what are the other animations that are disabled, but right now, the system is much better in responsiveness than before! 
Ashok TT - How To, TT - Linux, TT - Tips n Tricks, TechTalk Effects, GTK, Ubuntu, Wallpapers
With the latest version of Virtual Box comes a surprise, an option to install WineD3D, which enables the user to replace the Direct3D in the virtual installation of Windows. WineD3D is supposed to increase/improve your graphics acceleration and 3D rendering of the virtual system.
If you are on Ubuntu Jaunty, the Virtual Box installation from Add/Remove programs doesn’t include WinD3D and VBOXGuestAdditions by default. You can follow my previous post on installing VBoxGuestAdditions if you’re looking for that. To install WineD3D,
Go to http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases-noredirect/wined3d/latest/ and download the ISO file.
Go to /usr/share/virtualbox and copy the downloaded file wined3d.iso into this directory.
Give read permission to the wined3d.iso file for users other than root.
Boot your virtual machine into safe mode (Press F8 during startup)
Now upon clicking “Install WineD3D” from Devices menu will begin the installation of WineD3D.
To further enhance the 3D acceleration, Go to the Settings of your virtual machine, Go to General and in the Basic tab, Check the “Enable 3D Accelaration” option. That’s it, you’re all set. Enjoy superior 3D rendering!
Ashok TT - How To, TT - Tips n Tricks, TechTalk Direct3D, VirtualBox, Wine
