Gutsy's compiz-fusion in Intel Graphics card

Gutsy Gibbon wont be much different from fiesty fawn if you dont enable compiz-fusion in it.By default compiz-fusion would be installed.but you have to install compizconfig-settings-manager additionally. after installing this visit System->preferences->Advanced desktop effect settings. Then select which ever effect you want to have and then close it. go to change desktop background and select the visual effects tab and select custom. Most drivers would start compiz effects now like magic.but mine being a intel built-in graphics card, certain changes had to be made in the /etc/xdg/compiz/compiz-manager just add SKIP_CHECKS="yes" in that and you would have compiz-fusion running :)

for starting the cube-effect you have to increase the number of workspaces to 4 which would be 2 by default.

The Bicycle Thief -> Pollathavan

Among the diwali releases many find Pollathavan better than the lot.I saw this film in trichy the day after Diwali along with stylesen, Siva, Ashok & Vinoth as we were returning droopy faced cos we could not get a ticket for Vel as well as Azhagiya Tamil Magan. It seems it is a blessing in disguise as i heard from people the plight of the audience who viewed ATM.

Though we entered after the start of the film by 10 minutes, i found the film pretty captivating though similar to puthupettai & 7G rainbow colony in certain aspects.Later i came to know that the story line is taken from a 1949 Italian film Ladri di biciclette - The Bicycle Thief. Namma Tamizhan paakaatha padamae illa pola :)


Here the story of Bicycle thief is tweaked a little by replacing cycle with pulsar, and peppered with villians throughout the story and seasoned with one Remix song and 2 nice to hears.The fight sequences are bound to captivate the audience for sure.Overall it is a nice film to watch and helps to be on the watch-out(sarcastically) for other releases with it.

All the Fuss about Gmail 2.0

i was upgraded to GMail 2.0 quite before some my friends could feel the new GMail. How Google Inc chose me early i have no clue about.Overall i find some new features peeping out here and there. Some to list are

* Now group chat could be done through Gmail itself by selecting Options in any one the friends chat window and then selecting group chat.EMoticons are also added in the corner :)

* The all new sign-out of chat feature enables you to check mails without being disturbed by pinging.

* The back button in the browser is atlast made to use with ordered naming convention to take people thro previous pages.

* The new Contact list with enhanced navigation, and ability to to take in the form of vCards.

* Faster prefetching of messages to enable quicker viewing of mails.

* The new filter messages like these option in actions menu.

* Integrated Photo picker with Picasa web Album.

* Apart from this the availability of IMAP support is an added advantage.

* Ability to bookmark important e-mails which could be later reached though one has to be logged on into Gmail.

* Ability to share email seraches with friends.Thereby you could direct your friend to reach the mail you are talking about.

Brewing hot soon to be served are:

* Social Gmail, which comes out with a group out of one's contacts depending upon the amount of data you type, and how fast you respond etc, it would be more like a live profile. Also one could share documents, web-links,photos, what not through here itself..

* Gmail Offline, when microsoft office suite is feeling the heat of google docs, now its outlook's turn to feel the heat. Google is trying to come out with Gmail Offline with the google gears in the back-end, it is possible to check mails, etc when the internet connection is down(by aggregating the mails in local hard disk), and later when it is up it could be synced with the gmail servers.Soon it would become a full fledged offline Mail client.

* Viewing Account Activity: It would be possible soon to check your gmail account activities to figure out when it was last logged on, System IP address and all other log related information.

For the People who changed the segregation of mails into searching of mails it would not take much time to come up with yet another revolution.

Feisty Fawn to Gutsy Gibbon

Though a patroniser of Debian GNU/linux for a long time, i didn't have Debian Etch with me to install .Therefore i tossed Ubuntu CD in the Drive and proceeded with it.Initially i installed Fiesty Fawn [7.04] and then the desire to use compiz made me to upgrade to Gutsy Gibbon[7.10].

The way to upgrade is to visit System->Administration->Update-Manager. First update all the softwares available for Feisty. since the update manager is configured to work by connecting directly to internet, it gave some problem initially.To correct this you have to do two things

1) Open Software Sources from System->Administration then make it to use main source from the list box.
2) Open Synaptic Package Manager from System->Administration then go to Settings->preferences and in the Network tab give your proxy details.

After this try to update all the softwares.Once it is ready you can move on to the next step.

Feisty Fawn sometimes comes up with a empty meta-release file in /var/lib/update-manager/. This file should basically contain the information on the next release etc, to enable upgradation. To overcome the empty file problem, download the following file and put it as meta-release file in the above specified folder

http://changelogs.ubuntu.com/meta-release-development

Now launch the update-manager, and proceed on with the upgrade button that is available there.Enjoy upgrading and be sure to read my next blog entry on how to enable compiz in Gutsy Gibbon in a system with Intel Graphics card.

Easylib - Kick-starting a new relationship

Last weekend i became a member of Easylib.com, a private lending library in Koramangala - Bangalore. Thanks to my sister through whom i came to know of this. Though i was a voracious reader during my school days, i couldn't maintain the consistency through my life.To ensure a steady flow of books, i enrolled myself with easylib.The nearest landmark is Maharaja Hotel. from there take the road opposite to it and then take the first left. Here is where you end up in front of the library.

They charge a refundable deposit of 500 and a membership fee of 100. If you want your book to be delivered at your doorstep just pay them a debit amount of 100 more and they would take Rs 10 from that debit amount every time a book is delivered to you. Its just that easy and hence the name.it is open from 10 - 2 and 4 - 8 except on wednesdays.It is a nice hangout for book lovers who likes to have a nice rapport with the latest releases and the best ones in the literature world. What appeals more is your monthly premium (ie 10% of book cost) is waived off if your accumulated premium costs crosses 100. :)

visit easylib @ www.easylib.com