Mixed Bits

Light at the end of a tunnel

2008-03-16T12:59:00.002+05:30

No Matter what situations life throws at you, no matter how treacherous your journey may seem, Remember there is a light at the end of the tunnel

Linux commands arranged in a specific sequence

2008-01-29T13:35:00.000+05:30

Linux commands arranged in a specific sequence - Let your imagination run wild, and it will make sense

gawk;
grep;
unzip;
touch;
strip;
init, uncompress, gasp;
finger;
find,route, whereis, which, mount;
fsck; nice, more;
yes;
gasp;
warnquota,umount;
head, halt, renice, restore, touch, whereis, which, route, mount,more, yes, gasp, umount, expand, ping, bashbug, dump, make clean;
sleep

Dos and Donts of handling a Baby

2008-01-25T10:42:00.000+05:30

Microsoft Word, Gangsta Edition

2008-01-05T11:21:00.000+05:30

Get Firefox to look like IE

2008-01-02T11:37:00.000+05:30

Step 1: The Theme

The first thing we need is an Internet Explorer Theme. The best one that's currently updated for Firefox 2.0 is the Looks Familiar theme over at addons.mozilla.org:

Install the Looks Familiar theme
Select to use the theme and restart Firefox for the changes to take effect

Step 2: The Icons

The next thing we need are window icons that look like Internet Explorer's:

Download the Firefox Internet Explorer Icons Pack and unzip it to your Firefox program directory (typically C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\ for regular Firefox of PortableApps\FirefoxPortable\App\firefox for Firefox Portable). It will create the necessary directories within the chrome directory and copy the icons to them.
Restart Firefox for the changes to take effect

Note: To uninstall the icons, just delete the icons directory within the chrome directory in your Firefox program directory.

Step 3: The Toolbar Layout

The next thing we need to do is to adjust the layout of the buttons on the toolbar to mimic Internet Explorer:

Right-Click on the toolbar and select Customize
Click Add New Toolbar and call it Address Toolbar
Drag the address bar and Go button from their normal position onto the new (blank) Address Toolbar
Drag the Search Box off of the toolbar onto the buttons window to remove it
Drag the stop button to the left of the refresh button
After the Home button, place a seperator,then the Bookmarks button, then the History button, then another seperator, then the print button

You should now have a Toolbar that looks like this:

Step 4: Window Title

If you wish to complete the look and change the application from Mozilla Firefox to Microsoft Internet Explorer, just follow these steps:

Install the Firesomething 1.8 Extension and restart Firefox
Go to the Firesomething options window (Tools - Addons - Extensions - Firesomething - Options)
Delete all the Vendors, Prefixes and Names (right-click Select All, right-click delete in each field)
Enter Microsoft in Vendors and click Add (or enter Mozilla for fun)
Enter Internet Explorer in Names and click Add
Check off "Use the same generated name in..." and click OK
Close the extensions window

There ya go, Firefox now, is IE (As much as I HATE to say it)

My first LOLCat

2007-12-30T17:51:00.000+05:30

My VERY First LOLCat, I'd call this one LOLPuppet

How to undo close-tab with 1 click in firefox

2007-12-28T18:11:00.000+05:30

There have been many a times wherein we close a tab by mistake using Firefox, and if we wish to undo-close it, we either use 'Tab Mix Plus' or 'Ctrl + Shift + T' key combo to undo close the tab. There is a much easier way that Firefox lets us do.

Simple, just middle click on an empty area where the tabs reside and voila, the closed tab comes back.

Again, just middle click on an empty area in the Tab Bar. Thats it !

How to add transparency in your GNOME toolbars

2007-12-13T21:02:00.000+05:30

I've kinda liked KDE for its eyecandy. But since I'm waiting for the stable KDE4, I'm using GNOME in my Ubuntu Gutsy box. I've been hunting for solutions to make my panels transparent but all I came across was an endless list of compiling applications, twinkering with Compiz settings, apt-get'ing a LOT. But never did I really look into it.

You can now make your panels transparent by right-clicking on the panel and selecting 'Properties'. Select the 'Background' tab and select 'Solid Color'. You can now select the color of your panel, and right below that is the transparency slider.

Now, why didn't that occur to me before !!?

How to pimp up your Gnome-Do

2007-12-11T23:11:00.000+05:30

If you’re using Compiz Fusion and you have CompizConfig Settings Manager installed (the advanced Compiz Fusion configuration utility), here are a few simple steps to take to make GNOME Do windows fade and zoom when they are activated and dismissed.

First of all, open CompizConfig Settings Manager and search for the Animations plugin by typing “anim” in the search box. Make sure the plugin is enabled by checking the box next to it. Once it’s enabled, click on the plugin to change its settings (click on images for a larger view):

Once you’ve found the settings for the Animations plugin, click on the “Open Animation” tab to change the animations that occur when a splash screen window is opened. To do this, click the Add button and an Edit window will open. Select an Open Effect from the dropdown menu (I prefer Random for well... never mind), set the duration to 100, and type “(type=Splash)” in the text field labeled “Window Match”:

Once you have added this animation effect, you will see it listed among the other Open Animation effects:

Next, go to the Close Animation settings tab, and repeat the steps for adding the Open Animation. Once you have successfully added the new Close Animation, you will see it in the list of Close Animations:

Now GNOME Do windows should have a nice zoom and fade effect. Experiment with different animation effects to figure out which ones work best for you.

How to install GNOME-Do on Linux

2007-12-11T23:00:00.000+05:30

I've just discovered the sweetest program launcher for GNOME. It works just like Launchy on windows and looks somewhat similar to the awesome Quicksilver on the Macs.

Here's how to install it.
Installing GNOME Do on Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy
1. Open your /etc/apt/sources.list file with gedit text editor:
$ sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

2. Add the following lines to your /etc/apt/sources.list file:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/rharding/ubuntu gutsy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/rharding/ubuntu gutsy main

3. After save file, run this command:
$ sudo apt-get update

4. Install GNOME Do, execute the following command:
$ sudo apt-get install gnome-do

5. To run GNOME Do, hit Alt + F2 to Run Command and type:
gnome-do

The hotkey to activate Gnome Do is (hate to say this) Windows + Space

Saving live streaming videos using VLC player

2007-11-30T12:14:00.000+05:30

Now that there have been many times when I have come across a live streaming video. If I find that interesting, I would like to download it, don't you agree ?

You can now stream live via VLC player itself

Here's how:
1. Open VLC Player
2. Click on File > Open Network Stream
3. Navigate to the 'Network' tab (if it is not currently active)
4. Select the 'HTTP/HTTPS/FTP/MMS' radio button and paste the following URL in the textbox next to it
http://a455.v26957f.c26957.g.vm.akamaistream.net:80/7/455/26957/Renault/westcastsys.download.akamai.com/26957/Renault/100907/presse/videos/presse_wmhd_en.wmv
5. In the same window, bottom of the window, enable 'Stream/Save' checkbox and click on Settings button
6. A new window with title 'Stream Output' will open
7. Enable 'Play Locally' and 'File' checkboxes. Click on 'Browse' for file option. Navigate to the desktop and enter filename as 'Conference.wmv' and click Save.
8. You will come back to the 'Stream Output' window.
9. Here, you select 'Encapsulation method' as MPEG1 (3rd radio button)
10. below that, enable the Video Codec and Audio Codec options
Settings for Video codec --> mp4v, 1024, 1
Settings for Audio codec --> mpga, 192, 2
11. Click OK and you will come back to the 'Open' window
12. Click OK again. This will close the 'Open' window and bring you back to VLC
13. The video should start on its own (if not, click on the PLAY button)
14. you will need to let the whole file play and once it is over, click on STOP
15. If you stop in between, the file will get saved till that point only and it will not save the rest of the file
16. Once the file is saved, PARTY !!! :)

What is this blog all about ?

2007-11-29T11:34:00.000+05:30

This blog 'Mixed Bits' is basically stories related to technology, music, videos that have a lighter side and/or is just fun to read or to know. I will be posting everyday here with links from Digg, Engadget, Gizmodo, YouTube, bash.org, etc. Please do feel free to go through the site and vote for stories from the various sites. Thanks