This blog has been upgraded to WordPress 2.3. It is recommended to upgrade because this release addressed a lot of bug. Details can be found here.

New features include:

1. Tagging – I used to have Ultimate Tag Warrior. Need some time to study on this.
2. Update Notification – You will be notified whenever a new release of WordPress is available, and new release of plugins.
3. Improved post and draft management – New “Pending Review” option.

For more details, please check here.

Here’s a list of plugins which I have also upgraded.

1. HeadSpace2
2. Sociable
3. WP Contact Form
4. WordPress Database Backup
5. Google Sitemap Generator

Please leave a comment here if you find any problem in this blog. Thank you.

This blog has been upgraded to WordPress 2.3. It is recommended to upgrade because this release addressed a lot of bug. Details can be found here.

New features include:

1. Tagging – I used to have Ultimate Tag Warrior. Need some time to study on this.
2. Update Notification – You will be notified whenever a new release of WordPress is available, and new release of plugins.
3. Improved post and draft management – New “Pending Review” option.

For more details, please check here.

Here’s a list of plugins which I have also upgraded.

1. HeadSpace2
2. Sociable
3. WP Contact Form
4. WordPress Database Backup
5. Google Sitemap Generator

Please leave a comment here if you find any problem in this blog. Thank you.

I use my debian box to physically connect to the device with usb cable. Setting up the printer should be as easy as my previous HP PSC 1400 how-to. There’s one extra package needs to be installed for this model.

• hpijs-ppds

This is a collection of HP printers’ ppd files. 5610 appears to be in it.

Sharing HP Officejet 5610

Following my previous how-to, the device should be running fine on the Linux platform. Now let’s share it on the local network. Here’s my Samba config file for printers.

[global]
printing = cups               # tell samba that we'd like CUPS for printing
printcap name = cups

[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
create mask = 0700
printable = Yes
browseable = No

[print$]
comment = Printer Drivers
path = /var/lib/samba/printers

[HP_OfficeJet_5610]
printable = Yes
printer name = HP_OfficeJet_5610
guest ok = yes
use client driver = yes
path = /var/spool/samba
printing = cups

[color=red]Note: Add necessary lines instead of copy and paste, do not remove your original config lines.[/color]

Restart your samba service after editing the config file.

/etc/init.d/samba restart

Installing HP Officejet 5610 as network printer on Windows

On Windows machine, we need to locate the device. Use Windows Explorer and search your network. For fast access I always input following line in the address bar.

\\\\ip_or_hostname\\

You should see a printer name “HP_Officejet_5610″(as my samba settings). Double click on the printer will prompt you dialog to install the printer’s driver. Unfortunately, bundled installation cd has no available driver for user to extract. We have to look for alternative here.

Thanks so much to the CUPS team, they have a windows version of CUPS driver available. You can download it here. Download the .tar.gz or .tar.bz2 version on to your windows machine. Extract the file to somewhere on your desktop.

During the selection of driver, click “Have Disk”, and browse to the latest extracted folder, the driver file will be “cups-windows-6.0\\i386\\cups6.inf“, and there you go, print your test page.

You can repeat this step on any other windows machine you wish to access the printer.

Here’s a test page of Windows XP using CUPS driver.

Please share your experience with me.

References:

http://www.mail-archive.com/hplip-help@lists.sourceforge.net/msg03674.html
http://forums.xandros.com/viewtopic.php?t=19385&start=0

Sorry I’ve been busy with a lot of paper works lately. I just bought a HP Officejet 5610 and has been printing quite a lot documents. This is an ALL IN ONE series, has the capability of scan, print and fax, ideal solution for small business environment. My previous HP PSC 1400 is passed to another friend.

I use my debian box to physically connect to the device with usb cable. Setting up the printer should be as easy as my previous HP PSC 1400 how-to. There’s one extra package needs to be installed for this model.

• hpijs-ppds

This is a collection of HP printers’ ppd files. 5610 appears to be in it.

Sharing HP Officejet 5610

Following my previous how-to, the device should be running fine on the Linux platform. Now let’s share it on the local network. Here’s my Samba config file for printers.

[global]
printing = cups               # tell samba that we'd like CUPS for printing
printcap name = cups

[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
create mask = 0700
printable = Yes
browseable = No

[print$]
comment = Printer Drivers
path = /var/lib/samba/printers

[HP_OfficeJet_5610]
printable = Yes
printer name = HP_OfficeJet_5610
guest ok = yes
use client driver = yes
path = /var/spool/samba
printing = cups

[color=red]Note: Add necessary lines instead of copy and paste, do not remove your original config lines.[/color]

Restart your samba service after editing the config file.

/etc/init.d/samba restart

Installing HP Officejet 5610 as network printer on Windows

On Windows machine, we need to locate the device. Use Windows Explorer and search your network. For fast access I always input following line in the address bar.

\\\\ip_or_hostname\\

You should see a printer name “HP_Officejet_5610″(as my samba settings). Double click on the printer will prompt you dialog to install the printer’s driver. Unfortunately, bundled installation cd has no available driver for user to extract. We have to look for alternative here.

Thanks so much to the CUPS team, they have a windows version of CUPS driver available. You can download it here. Download the .tar.gz or .tar.bz2 version on to your windows machine. Extract the file to somewhere on your desktop.

During the selection of driver, click “Have Disk”, and browse to the latest extracted folder, the driver file will be “cups-windows-6.0\\i386\\cups6.inf“, and there you go, print your test page.

You can repeat this step on any other windows machine you wish to access the printer.

Here’s a test page of Windows XP using CUPS driver.

Please share your experience with me.

References:

http://www.mail-archive.com/hplip-help@lists.sourceforge.net/msg03674.html
http://forums.xandros.com/viewtopic.php?t=19385&start=0

AmaroK with lyrics auto-loaded.

Locale Settings

First, you have to make sure that your locale environment is setup properly. In my environment, I’m able to input chinese(big5 or GB) and English, switching with hotkey CTRL-SPACE. Files can be saved in chinese file names(big5 or GB). It is useful if you can save your chinese music files in chinese file names, I will tell you why later.

Download This Script, Lyrics CN

This script is created by sanfanling. He’s uploaded the script to kde-apps.org. Many thanks to him.

However, the original version did not work properly for me. I had to tweak a small portion of the codes to make it work in my environment. Download my tweaked version here.(Please change the file name to ‘Lyrics_CN.amarokscript.tar.gz‘ after download, strange WordPress behaviour). It is a python script, you will need to have python installed on your system.

Install Lyrics CN

After you have the Lyrics_CN.amarokscript.tar.gz in place, open your AmaroK -> Tools -> Script Manager
. Click on ‘Install Script’ button to browse the location of the .tar.gz file and open it. Highlight the “Lyrics_CN” entry in the script list and click on “Run”.

How does it work

This script will make use of your media’s title, artist, and album tag information, send a query to various lyrics databases, including mp3.baidu.com, sohu.com, yahoo.com.cn, lyrc.com.ar and hk.music.yahoo.com. It is crucial that you have your media’s tags organized, so there is sufficient information for the query. Successfully loaded lyrics will be displayed in Context Browser -> Lyrics tab. The script will send query to baidu.com as default, if the lyric is not found, you will have options to search from sohu.com or yahoo.com.

Tips for Chinese Media Files

Always store your media files in chinese file names. For example, I always save music albums this way “Artist – Album/trackNo.title.mp3″, then make use of the “Guess Tags from filename” button in Track Information. In this way I don’t have to input the tags manually. Filename scheme for above file saving technique will be “%artist – %album/%track.%title“, make use of this feature will save you a lot of time.

As For Windows

Sorry, AmaroK is not for Windows. If you can read mandarin, and don’t mind using a full mandarin program, please try ttplayer. It has a very cool line by line lyric display feature.

Share your experience with me please.

My second AmaroK entry, you can look at the first entry here. Auto loading lyrics has been an useful feature in AmaroK, it really saves a lot of time for me.

AmaroK with lyrics auto-loaded.

Locale Settings

First, you have to make sure that your locale environment is setup properly. In my environment, I’m able to input chinese(big5 or GB) and English, switching with hotkey CTRL-SPACE. Files can be saved in chinese file names(big5 or GB). It is useful if you can save your chinese music files in chinese file names, I will tell you why later.

Download This Script, Lyrics CN

This script is created by sanfanling. He’s uploaded the script to kde-apps.org. Many thanks to him.

However, the original version did not work properly for me. I had to tweak a small portion of the codes to make it work in my environment. Download my tweaked version here.(Please change the file name to ‘Lyrics_CN.amarokscript.tar.gz‘ after download, strange WordPress behaviour). It is a python script, you will need to have python installed on your system.

Install Lyrics CN

After you have the Lyrics_CN.amarokscript.tar.gz in place, open your AmaroK -> Tools -> Script Manager
. Click on ‘Install Script’ button to browse the location of the .tar.gz file and open it. Highlight the “Lyrics_CN” entry in the script list and click on “Run”.

How does it work

This script will make use of your media’s title, artist, and album tag information, send a query to various lyrics databases, including mp3.baidu.com, sohu.com, yahoo.com.cn, lyrc.com.ar and hk.music.yahoo.com. It is crucial that you have your media’s tags organized, so there is sufficient information for the query. Successfully loaded lyrics will be displayed in Context Browser -> Lyrics tab. The script will send query to baidu.com as default, if the lyric is not found, you will have options to search from sohu.com or yahoo.com.

Tips for Chinese Media Files

Always store your media files in chinese file names. For example, I always save music albums this way “Artist – Album/trackNo.title.mp3″, then make use of the “Guess Tags from filename” button in Track Information. In this way I don’t have to input the tags manually. Filename scheme for above file saving technique will be “%artist – %album/%track.%title“, make use of this feature will save you a lot of time.

As For Windows

Sorry, AmaroK is not for Windows. If you can read mandarin, and don’t mind using a full mandarin program, please try ttplayer. It has a very cool line by line lyric display feature.

Share your experience with me please.

Most users are not aware that, there are also Linux native games available on the market. For example, Quake, Unreal Tournament 2004, and my favorite Neverwinter Nights. All these have Linux native versions available.

This is a list consists of 371 Linux native games, free or commercial, compiled by Zakk from icculus.org. Please spend your time go through it and see if you can find any of your taste. The list here.

Most Linux users will have the impression that gaming on Linux will more or less involve Wine, to run Windows native games on Linux. Some hardcore Linux gamers prefer Cedega, a paid service offered by Transgaming Technology, developed based on Wine.

Most users are not aware that, there are also Linux native games available on the market. For example, Quake, Unreal Tournament 2004, and my favorite Neverwinter Nights. All these have Linux native versions available.

This is a list consists of 371 Linux native games, free or commercial, compiled by Zakk from icculus.org. Please spend your time go through it and see if you can find any of your taste. The list here.

I’ve tested with pidgin, the server is indeed rejecting conversations with such input. Here’s a screenshot.

Well done Microsoft. What’s next?

Origianal Story.

This happens at server-side, regardless of which IM client you are using. Joost de Valk has discovered that MSN server is censoring messages that contain “.info” domain name in the line.

I’ve tested with pidgin, the server is indeed rejecting conversations with such input. Here’s a screenshot.

Well done Microsoft. What’s next?

Origianal Story.

So I figured it’s time for me to organize all the posts in this blog and come out with a sitemap, in order to submit to the Google Webmaster Tools. Google Sitemap Generator is one of the top ten results upon Google search.

Download the plugin here. Upload the entire folder to your wordpress plugin directory after extract the zip file. You need to make sure that WordPress’s root directory is WRITABLE, because this plugin will generate two sitemap files in that directory.

Enable the plugin in the plugin management page, after that a new option page will be available under “Options”. I did not change much of the default settings, everything should work fine without any problem.

Every website on the WWW will have to kowtow to Google nowadays, as in comply to their webmaster’s guidelines. Having your site being listed in the supplemental search results is the last thing a webmaster ever wanted, besides being banned by Google Adsense.

So I figured it’s time for me to organize all the posts in this blog and come out with a sitemap, in order to submit to the Google Webmaster Tools. Google Sitemap Generator is one of the top ten results upon Google search.

Download the plugin here. Upload the entire folder to your wordpress plugin directory after extract the zip file. You need to make sure that WordPress’s root directory is WRITABLE, because this plugin will generate two sitemap files in that directory.

Enable the plugin in the plugin management page, after that a new option page will be available under “Options”. I did not change much of the default settings, everything should work fine without any problem.

DeKorator

DeKorator is a KDE native window decoration, consider it as a kwin-style plugin, because installing it will not give you anything visually. You will need to find its related theme online, DeKorator themes.

The program is available in Debian Unstable repository, kwin-style-dekorator. Use your favorite package manager to install it. Once it is installed, you should be able to select it in Control Center -> Appearance & Themes -> Window Decorations. Now look at the interface.

DeKorator Theme Installation

New DeKorator themes can be installed using the “Install Theme” button. All you need to do is copy and paste the download link from kde-look.org into the pop up window. You can find the list here. For example, let’s choose Plastic for DeKorator. Just right click and copy the download link and paste it into the pop up window after you click on “Install theme”. Once the theme is installed, highlight it in the list and click on “Set Theme Path” button, and then apply, you will be good to go.

Alternative Installation Method

The Install Theme Button did not work for me somehow, but this is Linux hey! After a little bit of testing, I’ve found out an alternative way to get DeKorator themes installed. Just download the theme file(.tar.gz or .tar.bz2), save it somewhere on your desktop. Extract the file into ~/.kde/share/apps/deKorator/themes, and open up Control Center, the theme will be in the list, just set the theme path and there you go again.

Note: The directory name of the theme must be ended with “theme”. So in the path, it will look like this “~/.kde/share/apps/deKorator/themes/Plastic-theme”. This is specified in the DeKorator’s help file.

Share your experience with me please. I’m currently using the Theme-Manager’s theme, Smooth Gray.

Yes, back with some tweaks on my debian box. For someone who faces monitor most of the time, boring desktop can kill the day. This is another post for the KDE desktop fans, look at this window decoration.

DeKorator

DeKorator is a KDE native window decoration, consider it as a kwin-style plugin, because installing it will not give you anything visually. You will need to find its related theme online, DeKorator themes.

The program is available in Debian Unstable repository, kwin-style-dekorator. Use your favorite package manager to install it. Once it is installed, you should be able to select it in Control Center -> Appearance & Themes -> Window Decorations. Now look at the interface.

DeKorator Theme Installation

New DeKorator themes can be installed using the “Install Theme” button. All you need to do is copy and paste the download link from kde-look.org into the pop up window. You can find the list here. For example, let’s choose Plastic for DeKorator. Just right click and copy the download link and paste it into the pop up window after you click on “Install theme”. Once the theme is installed, highlight it in the list and click on “Set Theme Path” button, and then apply, you will be good to go.

Alternative Installation Method

The Install Theme Button did not work for me somehow, but this is Linux hey! After a little bit of testing, I’ve found out an alternative way to get DeKorator themes installed. Just download the theme file(.tar.gz or .tar.bz2), save it somewhere on your desktop. Extract the file into ~/.kde/share/apps/deKorator/themes, and open up Control Center, the theme will be in the list, just set the theme path and there you go again.

Note: The directory name of the theme must be ended with “theme”. So in the path, it will look like this “~/.kde/share/apps/deKorator/themes/Plastic-theme”. This is specified in the DeKorator’s help file.

Share your experience with me please. I’m currently using the Theme-Manager’s theme, Smooth Gray.

Surprisingly, logging of Thunderbird has to be done outside the program. Here’s how I did it, on both Debian and Windows machine.

On Debian

All you need to do is prepare a shell script on your desktop, double click it to run Thunderbird instead of your previous desktop icon. Name the file runTB.sh, or any name you prefer.
[code]
#!/bin/sh

MYDATE=`date "+%Y%m%d_%H%M%S"`
NSPR_LOG_MODULES=POP3:4,SMTP:4
NSPR_LOG_FILE=~/Desktop/icedove_${MYDATE}.log
export NSPR_LOG_MODULES NSPR_LOG_FILE

/usr/bin/icedove &
exit $?
[/code]

As simple as that. Please remember that the name “icedove” is a fork of Thunderbird in Debian. You should not be using this if you are using other distros.

On Windows

Similar approach, we are going to create a Batch file here. Create a text file, name it runTB.txt or any name you prefer. Input following codes into the txt file.
[code]
set mydate=%date:~-4,4%%date:~-7,2%%date:~-10,2%
set mytime=%time:~0,2%%time:~+3,2%

set NSPR_LOG_MODULES=POP3:4,SMTP:4
set NSPR_LOG_FILE=C:\\TBLog\\TB_%mydate%_%mytime%.log
start thunderbird
[/code]

After editing the txt file, change its file extension to .bat instead of .txt. Please note that the log file location can be changed based on your preference.

Available Protocol Options

According to Mozilla Page, available protocols for logging are: IMAP, POP3, NNTP, or SMTP. There is another option “ALL“, which will dump everything into the log file. Use it wisely.

Available Logging Levels

According to above help page. There are,

• 0 = Nothing
• 1 = Always printed
• 2 = error messages
• 3 = warning messages
• 4 = debug messages

Actually, there is also 5, which they did not document. Just take it this way, the greater the number, the more detail will get printed in the log file.

If you need help to understand the log file, please take a look at this page. Please send in your feedback.

References:

http://www.mozilla.org/quality/mailnews/mail-troubleshoot.html
http://wiki.dovecot.org/Debugging/Thunderbird
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Session_logging_for_mail/news

Often you will find yourself in situation that needs a little bit of debugging. I am today, something in my Icedove mail client(thunderbird) is not right, keeps connecting to the server with 15 – 30 connections at the same time, so I wanted to know what’s going on. I figured maybe there will be some options available in the program, however, it’s not there.

Surprisingly, logging of Thunderbird has to be done outside the program. Here’s how I did it, on both Debian and Windows machine.

On Debian

All you need to do is prepare a shell script on your desktop, double click it to run Thunderbird instead of your previous desktop icon. Name the file runTB.sh, or any name you prefer.
[code]
#!/bin/sh

MYDATE=`date "+%Y%m%d_%H%M%S"`
NSPR_LOG_MODULES=POP3:4,SMTP:4
NSPR_LOG_FILE=~/Desktop/icedove_${MYDATE}.log
export NSPR_LOG_MODULES NSPR_LOG_FILE

/usr/bin/icedove &
exit $?
[/code]

As simple as that. Please remember that the name “icedove” is a fork of Thunderbird in Debian. You should not be using this if you are using other distros.

On Windows

Similar approach, we are going to create a Batch file here. Create a text file, name it runTB.txt or any name you prefer. Input following codes into the txt file.
[code]
set mydate=%date:~-4,4%%date:~-7,2%%date:~-10,2%
set mytime=%time:~0,2%%time:~+3,2%

set NSPR_LOG_MODULES=POP3:4,SMTP:4
set NSPR_LOG_FILE=C:\\TBLog\\TB_%mydate%_%mytime%.log
start thunderbird
[/code]

After editing the txt file, change its file extension to .bat instead of .txt. Please note that the log file location can be changed based on your preference.

Available Protocol Options

According to Mozilla Page, available protocols for logging are: IMAP, POP3, NNTP, or SMTP. There is another option “ALL“, which will dump everything into the log file. Use it wisely.

Available Logging Levels

According to above help page. There are,

• 0 = Nothing
• 1 = Always printed
• 2 = error messages
• 3 = warning messages
• 4 = debug messages

Actually, there is also 5, which they did not document. Just take it this way, the greater the number, the more detail will get printed in the log file.

If you need help to understand the log file, please take a look at this page. Please send in your feedback.

References:

http://www.mozilla.org/quality/mailnews/mail-troubleshoot.html
http://wiki.dovecot.org/Debugging/Thunderbird
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Session_logging_for_mail/news

Save As Image is a neat extension, that lets you save any particular web page into image, so you don’t have to further edit the screenshot to remove the browser window, and window tabs.

After the extension is installed, you will have an extra option in both the Tools menu and Right-Click menu, “Save Page As Image”. With this option embedded into the right click menu, you can screenshot a page, a frame or even layer of the web page if you familiar with web page. It will also prompt you the save location after the preview dialog.

Download the extension here. This extension is developed by Rowan Lewis.

For the blogging need, we will run into web pages that we want to screenshot it entirely from time to time. I usually use KSnapshot on my debian desktop, or ALT+PrintScreen on windows laptop. Both work well except the fact that, they capture the whole screen.

Save As Image is a neat extension, that lets you save any particular web page into image, so you don’t have to further edit the screenshot to remove the browser window, and window tabs.

After the extension is installed, you will have an extra option in both the Tools menu and Right-Click menu, “Save Page As Image”. With this option embedded into the right click menu, you can screenshot a page, a frame or even layer of the web page if you familiar with web page. It will also prompt you the save location after the preview dialog.

Download the extension here. This extension is developed by Rowan Lewis.

Think Thick, however, has gathered some facts, for those who really want to try out Linux. I’ll quote the 10 facts here.

1. The basic installation of most mainstream Linux distributions is very easy, but a first time user might run into trouble when trying to depart from the defaults.
2. If you want a proper Linux installation, you are going to have to mess around with the partition table.
3. You will have to learn how to use the command line.
4. All those pretty effects of wobbly windows and cube desktops require some work from the user.
5. Yes, more hardware works with Linux than with Windows. No, not all hardware works 100% like it’s supposed to.
6. If you need/want to install a package not included in the repositories, or install from source, you might need to do some research.
7. Most mainstream software manufacturers forget about Linux.
8. Linux is not for the meek of heart.
9. Linux is almost entirely virus/trojan/spyware free, but you will still need some kind of protection.
10. Linux assumes that you are an intelligent person.

How’s that sound? Read the full article here.

I’m a Linux supporter, went through a lot of learning process to get where I am today, never looked back ever since. I often encourage friends, family, business contact to try Linux, with tone like “It’s just that easy!!”, without telling them the time and sweat. I thought it’s a common sense, that you have to learn it, if it’s new to you. Unfortunately this is not the case, people tends to expect everything just work out of the box. So, my experience is, don’t tell someone about Linux, when he/she asks about how to connect to Internet with Windows.

Think Thick, however, has gathered some facts, for those who really want to try out Linux. I’ll quote the 10 facts here.

1. The basic installation of most mainstream Linux distributions is very easy, but a first time user might run into trouble when trying to depart from the defaults.
2. If you want a proper Linux installation, you are going to have to mess around with the partition table.
3. You will have to learn how to use the command line.
4. All those pretty effects of wobbly windows and cube desktops require some work from the user.
5. Yes, more hardware works with Linux than with Windows. No, not all hardware works 100% like it’s supposed to.
6. If you need/want to install a package not included in the repositories, or install from source, you might need to do some research.
7. Most mainstream software manufacturers forget about Linux.
8. Linux is not for the meek of heart.
9. Linux is almost entirely virus/trojan/spyware free, but you will still need some kind of protection.
10. Linux assumes that you are an intelligent person.

How’s that sound? Read the full article here.