An update came across for me for Open Office. It updated from 3.0
Here is what the about dialog was:
And, here is what it is now:
I found a link to the features: OpenOffice.org 3.1 New Features
GCALDaemon
I just switched over from Thunderbird to Evolution because of an issue with our IPSwitch mail at work. One thing that I had to search for was how to integrate my Google Calendar account with Evolution.
I found a tool called GCALDaemon. It runs as a service in the background and keeps Evolution calendars synced with Google Calendars.
The installation was pretty easy although I didn’t find a package in the repositories. The How To gives the instructions for installing. But, I didn’t find any tutorials for adding it as a service that automatically starts with the machine or with login.
Another How To describes the steps for configuring it for Evolution. It also helped to looked at the How To for Rainlender.
GCALDaemon looked like it had some other cool features like: Integration with GMail Notifier, Integration with SendMail, and Remote Controlling Your Computer with MailTerm.
Resources:
Ubuntu Forums: Syncing Evolution to Google Calendar, and devices — How?
Google Talk with Linux
I read this thread today regard Google’s Instant Message service, Google Talk. I picked up a few tools that appear to allow you to use Google Talk natively in Linux. I tried both on my Ubuntu 8.10 system, and appeared to work although I haven’t given them a thorough test.
First Option: IMO — an online service that allows you to connect from an online page. It supports MSN, Yahoo, AIM / ICQ, Google Talk, MySpace, and Skype.
Second Option: Empathy — an instant message application. I found it in the Respositories for Ubuntu and it installed with no problems.
The one thing I wish empathy would do is Skype. I have to use Skype for work, and it would be nice to have one tool for both.
Android: How do I get 1.5?
I found this post on Engadget: T-Mobile is beginning to deliver the new version to phones. To my knowledge, I haven’t gotten the update yet — my phone hasn’t asked me to update.
The new version was announced at April 27th at the Google Developer’s blog. In digging around, one of the things that I noticed was that the system image delivered with the SDK includes a video camera application. I finally found the release features here.
Here are some of the features that caught my eye:
- Refinement of all core UI elements — looking better is always good in my book
- Accelerometer-based application rotations — I have a couple of games that use the Accelerometer so I know it works. It will be nice to have more applications that use it!
- Faster Camera start-up and image capture — The camera is horribly slow to capture pictures
- Video recording — This will be cool
Davy Crocket with an iPhone or gPhone?
I came across this post a while back.
http://blogs.oracle.com/mwilcox/2009/03/davy_crockett_would_have_carri.html
While I agree with the post, I wonder if Davy Crocket would choose an iPhone or a gPhone. I just wonder if he would choose a tool he could tweak and write his own software for. It just seems to me that frontiersmen would have to do much more of there own than buy things pre-made from the store. In today’s day and age, would that mean buying something a little less proprietary?
— Just a thought
Java FX Links
Here is a tutorial for using Java FX with Eclipse:
I was able to install it on Linux using the update site listed here:
IE Tester
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.
Eclipse and Google Code
I found this great link describing how to use Eclipse with Google Code:
Using Google’s free SVN Repository with Eclipse
I did the same thing with a project for SourceForge. I would love to get the chance to try Google Code as well.
Grub Boot Error
If you have any suggestions, please post a comment!
I have an old computer with an Abit VP6 motherboard. I attempted to install Xubuntu 8.10 on it, but it does not want to boot. It stops at “grub loading stage 1.5”.
I initially thought it had to do with the fact that I installed an SATA controller and started using an SATA drive as my OS drive (the only drive in the system because my IDE drive failed). I thought that maybe the BIOS did not support booting off the drive, but it is at least getting to grub. I don’t have grub installed on anything else that is bootable when the CD is not in the drive.
I have tried reinstalling Grub using these instructions, but that did not help.
Update: I installed Xubuntu 8.04 on the same machine, and installs and boots with no problem. (My wireless card doesn’t work and the video driver needs work.) So, I am pretty sure this isn’t a hardware issue.
Update: I posted a question to the forum here.