Category: Software to Watch

Explorations in Ubuntu Unity Desktop Environment

digitaleagle Great Links, Interesting Articles, Software to Watch, Ubuntu, Uncategorized 1 Comment

I finally got my desktop in my living room working, and I thought I would try the Unity Desktop on it.  Here is a nice little article that gives you some information about it:

First Look at the Ubuntu Unity Desktop Environment

My computer is rather old, and I mistakenly thought it would be a good fit.  These descriptions threw me off: “Ubuntu Light”, “simpler Unity desktop”, and “stripped down Ubuntu”.  What I found instead is that the Light and simpler interface is designed to make it easier to work with in smaller screen environments, not necessarily light on the hardware.

Unity uses the Mutter Window Manager, which is a compositing Window Manager.  According to this article, the name comes from combining Metacity and Clutter together.  This article mentions the hardware issue: “Interesting as the new directions may be, some people fear that Mutter will not run on older hardware.”  I agree with the reasoning: “Almost any desktop or standard laptop built within the last 5 years has sufficiently good graphics.”, but that just means that it isn’t what I originally thought it was.

Now, Clutter caught my attention on a totally different angle.  “Creating fast, compelling, portable, and dynamic graphical user interfaces” sounds great to me.  Unfortunately, I didn’t see Java bindings.  On the wiki page, I only see Python, Perl, C#, C++, Vala, and Ruby.  The javascript option looked pretty interesting also.  I may have to do some experimentation with Seed.  For Java support, I found some references to jClutter, and I found someone else working on something.

Software to Watch: Memoranda

digitaleagle Great Links, Software to Watch, Uncategorized Leave a comment

I came across this tool from SourceForge recently: Memoranda.  It is a great tool for managing information relating to a project.  It seems to work pretty good, although, I would prefer to keep my notes with my time tracking tool.

The feature I was looking for was the ability to paste screenshots into my notes.  Unfortunately, Memoranda did not allow screenshots in the notes.  So, I will have to find another example for that.

Software to Watch: Big Blue Button

digitaleagle Software to Watch, Uncategorized, WebEx Leave a comment

I happened across some Open Source software called Big Blue Button.  It looks like it might be an alternative to WebEx, but you have to setup and host the server piece yourself.

I liked the page talking about the open source software that they build upon.  There were several projects I was familiar with and several that I hadn’t heard of.  I am always looking for new tools for the toolbox!

Why would I be looking for an alternative for WebEx?  Well, because of answers like this: no support for productivity tools.  Also because of no support for Ubuntu 64bit.  I can’t blame WebEx though — they only develop for where the market is.  And, to their credit, they have increased support for Linux.  I have it working now, and that is what counts.

More Resources

RapidSVN: GUI Tool for Subversion

digitaleagle Gnome-RDP, Software to Watch, Uncategorized Leave a comment

I just tried out RapidSVN to update a Gnome-RDP branch, and it worked pretty well.  I just installed it from Synaptic.

Here is the URL that I used to get just the branch:

https://gnome-rdp.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/gnome-rdp/branches/experimental.diskaccess

I just used the checkout option from the Repository Menu to get the copy of the branch.

screenshot_037

Then, I used Meld to copy my changes from my working directory into this branch.  Then, I used the Commit option in the Modify Directory.

screenshot_038

Then, I found my commit online, and it looked like it did what I needed it to do.

jTDS

digitaleagle Great Links, Java, Software to Watch, Uncategorized Leave a comment

Today, I was looking for a Sybase JDBC driver, and found this software project:

The jTDS Project

It is a open source JDBC driver for both SQL Server and Sybase.  I haven’t had much opportunity to use it, but it looks great.  They claim to be very fast.

I have started incorporating it into my query tool: Project Shaphan.

Here are some links and information to help you get started:

Here is the code that I am working with to create a link:

		try {
			Class.forName("net.sourceforge.jtds.jdbc.Driver");
		} catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
			(new ProjectJobException(e)).displayException();
		}
		String serverType = optionsGUI.getServerType();
		String serverName = optionsGUI.getServerName();
		String portNumber = optionsGUI.getPort().trim();
		if(portNumber.length() > 0) {
			portNumber = ":" + portNumber;
		}
		String userName = optionsGUI.getUser();
		String password = optionsGUI.getPassword();
		try {
			connection = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:jtds:" + serverType + "://" + serverName + portNumber, userName, password);
		} catch (SQLException e) {
			(new ProjectJobException(e)).displayException();
		}
		ShaphanApp.getMainWindow().getSQLEditorsPane().setConnection(new ConnectionDetails(connection, ConnectionDetails.CONN_TYPE_SQL_SERVER));

IE Tester

digitaleagle Great Links, Interesting Articles, Software to Watch, Uncategorized, Windows, Wine Leave a comment

I saw this link on a new IE Tester.  It looks like a really great idea.  I only looked at it quickly, but I think it only runs on Windows.  My big problem is that I don’t normally use Windows period and don’t have access to any version of IE.

Here are the links for the IE Tester:

Another option: run IE in Wine.  You can have multiple Wine homes in which you could load multiple versions of IE.  I know I have seen tutorials for loading IE6 in Wine, and I think just recently some tutorials for IE7 popped up.

Linux Alternatives for OneNote

digitaleagle Software to Watch, Uncategorized 2 Comments

I found a couple of forums discussing options for alternatives for Microsoft’s OneNote.  I don’t really have time to research all of these, but I wanted to note them in case I had a chance to come back later and spend some time researching them more.

Here are the forums:

Tomboy

This option seemed to be the most popular.  I have used this a little, but I haven’t got into it that much.

BasKet

This is a KDE application.

Wyneken

This one looks interesting, but it doesn’t look like it is WYSIWYG.  You might have to learn some formatting features.

WordPress

Now, this one I have obviously used.  But, I would consider this more if you want to share your notes.

hnb

Stands for hierarchical notebook.

Knowit

Gournal

NoteMeister

Gnome Vazaar

Newton Desktop Wiki

NoteCase

TuxCards

Other Related Links