yeah, so I finally got around to installing Picasa for Ubuntu Gutsy on my laptop…yeah, the new version of Ubuntu is coming out next month, but I figured I could figure this out now, and then I’d be right on track for it when I redid everything next month.

Wow, it ended up being a little more involved than I expected. To say the least, I’ll be including a tutorial on this with my next setup guide for Hardy Heron.

Okay, you can download an installation .deb file here, but to do it through the repositories you gotta hit the FAQs and you’ll find your way to this tutorial which shows you how to add the google repositories through Synaptic. So that’s what I did, and then when I reached the bottom of the page, in smaller print I find a link to a page which includes the commands for adding the google repository via the terminal – which I like more than using synaptic.

The cool thing is, after you add the repositories, you also can install the google desktop. Cool stuff, eh?

one of my new favorite little things about Ubuntu is the Disk Usage Analyzer tool…it’s found under Accessories in the main menu. When you open it up, it just tells you how much of your disc is being used (or how much free space you have). But if you tell it to scan, it’ll scan your disk and give you a great little chart of what folders are taking up the most space, and even break down the larger sections of those folders. Really nice if you’re trying to figure out what’s eating up all your disk space!

Okay, so one of my huge regrets of switching to Linux was that I had no application launcher like Launchy – which is just awesome in Windows. You just press Alt+Spacebar and a little window appears and you type in whatever program (or action/file/location…etc.) you want to launch and it pulls it up. Awesome stuff.

Well, I just heard about Gnome Do, a program similar to Launchy, but meant to be run in Gnome (a linux environment – note that it apparently also works with KDE and some other environments as well).

Pretty simple stuff really. Used these instructions.

been thinking about doing file synchronization between my new ubuntu laptop and my existing ubuntu desktop. I found some instructions in Ubuntu’s community documentation about iFolder. Apparently I’ll have to compile it from source…not sure if I really want to deal with that. But there are the links to it!

okay, one effect on a mac that I love is the “Reveal” effect. Where it scales all the open windows down onto one screen so you can see them and choose whichever one you want to switch to.

If you’re running CompizFusion (say, on Ubuntu), open the CompizConfig Settings Manager (right-click on desktop, go to “Appearances” tab and select the “preferences” button next to the “Custom” option). Then go to the “Window Management” section and click on the “Scale” option (it should already be checked – if not, do so), then go to the “actions” tab and choose your action to activate it (I like to use the upper right corner to show all the open windows).

this is one of my most favorite effects, and probably the most practical one I use (wobbly windows being the most unpractical but most visually pleasing!).

(this info much thanks to this thread)

here’s a great how-to on making your ubuntu desktop look like a Mac’s….the best thing is he gets into the AWN doc-like bar. That’s a great tool I use on my desktop. Love it to death!

well, first I thought I’d give Geubuntu a go for the OS on my laptop. I figured since it was based off Ubuntu then it shouldn’t be too rough. Well, it wasn’t, really…until I found out there were some bugs in the networking side of the display manager. Since I am going to be setting up a home network here, I realized that regular Ubuntu was going to be my best bet.

The best part is, when I installed Ubuntu, I automatically recognized my wireless card and (since I was connected via ethernet cable) downloaded the necessary drivers and firmware as soon as I checked the right boxes and clicked “OK”. Pretty snazzy, eh?!

yep, that’s right. After installing the package mentioned in my previous post via the terminal I went to the restricted drivers menu and activated the package/drivers. It had to download some firmware from the internet, and then all I had to do was reboot. After I logged in (making sure I had detached the ethernet internet connection) I went to the internet connection thingy up top and found and chose my home wireless network (no WPA at the moment, to keep things easy…).

just installed a package to work with my broadcom 4318 wireless card. Here’s the code:

sudo apt-get install bcm43xx-fwcutter

found this how-to on the ubuntu forums for broadcom 43xx wireless cards:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=197102