LXDE Desktop Lxde (Lightweight X11 desktop environment) is a linux desktop system that is a lightweight alternative to gnome and kde desktops. I prefer it over gnome because of its simplicity and ease of use. Gnome as of version 3 has a strange user interface that is not liked by all. So if you too… Read More »
LXDE Desktop The LXDE desktop system is a lightweight desktop alternative to the Gnome and KDE desktop systems. It is an excellent choice if you are running linux on low resource hardware like an old pc or netbook. It consumes lesser RAM and CPU compared to Gnome and KDE making it ideal for systems which… Read More »
Wget is a commandline utility to download files over the http protocols. To download a file for example the syntax would be $ wget http://www.somesite.com/file.zip The above command will start downloading the file and save it in the home directory of the user. However if the download breaks, due to poor internet for example then… Read More »
Virtualbox guest additions allow better integration between the host and guest operating systems like seamless copy/paste, flexible screen resolution of the guest os etc. After installing an OS inside VirtualBox you should install the Guest Additions right away to get the best features and functionality out of it. It installs driver programs that enables native… Read More »
Download managers Download managers are gui applications that allow users to manage multiple downloads in a single place, and do things like schedule, pause, resume, control download speed etc. And also download a file in multiple parts to maximise the download speed. On linux the traditional method to download files is through the use of… Read More »
If there is a lot of content on the usb flash drive and you want to erase all of it quickly then a simple way to do it is by formatting it. There are many gui tools available on linux to view and format partitions on storage devices like ssds and flash drives. These include… Read More »
Google webfonts is an excellent resource of free fonts that is used by web developers to get better fonts for their websites. Some popular fonts include droid sans, pt sans, noto sans and open sans. They are not only used on webpages but also on desktops. I wrote a post about getting using these google… Read More »
If your php application is processing media files like mp3, then it might need to find details of the mp3 file like its playtime, bitrate, encoder etc. There is a very useful php library called Getid3 that can extract information from mp3 files. Its written in pure php and does not have any dependencies. Needs… Read More »
Flareget – The flashget for linux Flareget is a featureful file download manager for linux. The conventional file download managers available for ubuntu/linux are kget, wget, curl etc. But each of them has some sort of limitation or lacks certain features not making them easy for common users. This is where flareget comes in. It… Read More »
Softmaker Freeoffice Softmaker Freeoffice is an office suite that is available for both windows and linux, with a free and paid version. The free version can be downloaded from the website The suite provides the following 3 applications Textmaker This is the wordprocessor. Supports microsoft formats like docx and doc. However the free version can… Read More »
Gedit is the default text editor on gnome desktop. If you notice that it takes quite some time to launch after clicking the menu icon, then here is a simple trick that can speed it up. 1. Open gedit. 2. Go to Edit > Preferences, Plugins tab. 3. Disable the plugin named "File Browser Panel"…. Read More »
VNC – Virtual Network Computing VNC is a remote desktop sharing protocol that can be used to control the desktop of a remote system over the local network of internet. To setup desktop sharing with vnc, a vnc server has to be installed on the remote desktop that shall be controlled. And a vnc client… Read More »
Fedora can be easily installed on virtualbox if you want to try it out without doing a real install to your hard drive. In this tutorial we are going to do that. Since we shall be using 64bit fedora, virtualbox would need to have the VT-x/AMD-V virtualisation feature in bios. These are the virtualisation extension… Read More »
Wired Network Lets say you have an existing wired network setup at your workstation or home somewhat like this Adsl Modem/Router (192.168.1.1) => Switch => Multiple Pcs (192.168.1.10, 192.168.1.20 …) Now you want to add a wireless access point to this existing wired network so that you can connect to the internet wirelessly from your… Read More »
Websockets Websockets is a new feature available in browsers as a part of the Html5 specs that allows javascript clients to open bi directional socket connections to a server. Currently all major desktop browsers support the api. Websocket is not an independant socket protocol, but is based on the TCP protocol just like HTTP. Therefore… Read More »
Revolute Joint Revolute joint is a useful joint in box2d that allows 2 bodies to be pinned together at a point without restricting rotation. The joint can be made between 2 dynamic bodies or between a static and dynamic body. The pendulum on left is a static circle joined to dynamic rectangle. Whereas the cart… Read More »
Weld joint in box2d The weld joint can be used to join to bodies tightly at a common point. Here is an example A weld joint is created like this //create distance joint between b and c var joint_def = new b2WeldJointDef(); joint_def.bodyA = b; joint_def.bodyB = c; //connect the centers – center in local… Read More »
Rope In this experiment we shall make a rope like thing in box2d. There is no rope like structure that box2d supports directly. But if multiple small units are connected together at their edges using a revolutejoint, then it was act somewhat like a rope. You can move any part of the rope using your… Read More »
Distance In the previous post on mouse joints we learned how to interact with box2d objects using the mouse. Now its time to take a look at another joint in box2d, the distance joint. Distance joint connects 2 bodies maintaining a fixed distance between them, its like metal wire connecting the 2 bodies, such that… Read More »
Mouse Joint Out of the many joints that box2d has, one is mouse joint. It is not used in physics simulations, but helps to make the physics world interactive by making a body move towards a specific point, like the mouse coordinates for example. So objects can be picked up, dragged etc by the user…. Read More »