Apps, tweaks, tips, and links for your Linux Media HTPC - Page 11

main features
made with big (> 10,000 songs) libraries in mind (originaly developed with over 17000 songs on a duron800, v1.1.x with over 25000 songs on a core2duo 1.86GHz)
customizable window layouts (see layouts documentation)
powerful browser which doesn't interfere with the playlist
artist/album lock : easily restrict playlist to current artist/album
easy access to songs related to the currently playing song
songs from the same album
album(s) from the same artist(s)
songs with same title (other versions, covers, ...)
support ogg vorbis, mp3 and flac files (and mpc/ape with gstreamer or mplayer)
simple mass-tagging and mass-renaming
tray icon, with a very customizable tip window, which can be used to control the player
very customizable SongTree widget for a pretty list of songs (example)
fully featured tag editor (support all id3 versions, limited support for APE & lyrics3 tags)
support multiple genres for a song
support multiple artists for each song by separating them with ', ' or ' & '
customizable labels can be set for each song (ex : bootleg, live, -'s favorites, ...)
filter history in the browser window
filters with unlimited nesting of conditions
customizable weighted random mode (based on rating, last time played, label, ...)
The possibility to act as a icecast server, to listen to your music remotely (experimental)
plugin system, included plugins :
nowplaying (to update an external program when the playing song changes)
last.fm
find pictures
simple lyrics
WebContext : use the mozilla/webkit engine to display wikipedia artist page and search lyrics with google

Parole is a modern simple media player based on the GStreamer framework and written to fit well in the Xfce desktop. Parole is designed with simplicity, speed and resource usage in mind.
FeaturesParole features playback of local media files, including video with subtitles support, DVD/CD and live streams. Parole is also extensible via plugins, and it is shipped with a browser media player plugin.

darktable is a photography workflow application: a virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers: it manages your digital negatives in a database and lets you view them through a zoomable lighttable. it also enables you to develop raw images and enhance them.

this project tries to fill the gap between the many excellent existing free raw converters and image management tools (such as e.g. ufraw, rawstudio, f-spot, digikam, shotwell). The user interface is built around efficient caching of image metadata and mipmaps, all stored in a database. the main focus is on user interaction, both in terms of a smooth interface design as well as processing speed. high quality output is also one of our goals.

all editing is fully non-destructive and only operates on cached image buffers for display. the full image is only converted during export. raw image loading is done using libraw and rawspeed, high-dynamic range, and standard image formats such as jpeg are also supported. the core operates completely on floating point values, so darktable can not only be used for photography but also for scientifically acquired images or output of renderers (high dynamic range).

fully non-destructive editing.
all darktable core functions operate on 4x32-bit floating point pixel buffers, enabling sse instructions for speedups. it offers gpu acceleration via opencl (runtime detection and enabling) and has built-in icc profile support: srgb, adobe rgb, xyz and linear rgb.
a collect plugin allows you to execute flexible database queries, search your images by tags, image rating (stars), color labels and many more. filtering and sorting your collections within the base query or simple tagging by related tags are useful tools in your every-day photo workflow.
import a variety of standard, raw and high dynamic range image formats (e.g. jpg, cr2, hdr, pfm, .. ).
darktable has a zero-latency fullscreen, zoomable user interface through multi-level software caches and runs on gnu linux/gnome and mac osx/macports.
tethered shooting.
darktable currently comes with 15 translations: albanian, catalan, czech, dutch, finnish, french, gaelic, german, italian, japanese, polish, russian, spanish, swedish and thai.
the powerful export system supports picasa webalbum, flickr upload, disk storage, 1:1 copy, email attachments and can generate a simple html-based web gallery. darktable allows you to export to low dynamic range (jpg, png, tiff), 16-bit (ppm, tiff), or linear high dynamic range (pfm, exr) images.
darktable uses both xmp sidecar files as well as its fast database for saving metadata and processing settings. all exif data is read and written using libexiv2.

todo
plugins
currently darktable serves 38 image operation plugins in l*a*b* and profiled rgb. some of them can be used as blending operators offering blend functionality that works on the incoming image information and the output of the current module.

basic image operations:
base curve: darktable comes with general enhanced basecurve presets for several models that is per automatic applied to raw images for better colors and contrast.
highlight reconstruction: this module tries to reconstruct color information that is usually clipped because of the information being not complete in all channels.
exposure controls: tweak the image exposure either by using the sliders in the plugin or dragging the histogram around.
tone mapping: this module allows to recreate some contrast for hdr images.
demosaic
white balance: a module offering three ways to set the white balance. you can set tint, temperature in and temperature out or you define the value of each channel. the module offers predefined white balance settings as well.
input/output/display color profile management
color image operations:
overexposed: this module is a useful feature that displays pixel outside dynamic range.
velvia: the velvia module enhances the saturation in the image; it increases saturation on lower saturated pixels more than on high saturated pixels.
channel mixer: this module is a powerful tool to manage channels. as entry, it manipulates red, green and blue channels. as output, it uses red, green, blue or gray or hue, saturation, lightness.
color contrast
color correction: this module can be used to modify the global saturation or to give a tint.
color zones: this module allows to selectively modify the colors in your image. it is highly versatile and allow every transformation possible in the lch colorspace.
correction plugins:
sharpen: this is an standard unsharp mask tool for sharpen the details of an image.
tone curve: this module is a classical tool in digital photography. you can change the lightness by dragging the line up or down.
zone system: this module changes the lightness of your image. it is based on the ansel adams system. it allows to modify the lightness of a zone taking into account the effect on the adjacent zones. it divides the lightness in an user-defined number of zones.
equalizer: this versatile module can be used to achieve a variety of effects, such as: bloom, denoising, and local contrast enhancement. it works in the wavelet domain, and parameters can be tuned for each frequency band separately.
denoising (extra slow)
crop and rotate: this module is used to crop, rotate and correct perspective of your image. it also includes many helpful guidelines that assist you using the tools (e.g. rule of thirds or golden ratio).
lens correction: lens defect correction using lensfun.
spot removal: spot removal allows you to correct a zone in your image by using another zone as model.
chromatic aberrations: this module automatically detects and corrects chromatic aberrations.
raw denoise: raw denoise allows you to perfom denoising on pre-demosaic data. it is ported from dcraw.
hot pixels: this module allows you to visualize and correct stuck and hot pixels.
effects/artistic image postprocessing:
framing: this module allows you to add an artistic frame around an image.
split toning: original splittoning method creates a two color linear toning effect where the shadows and highlights are represented by two different colors. darktable splittoning module is more complex and offers more parameters to tweak the result.
vignetting: this module is an artistic feature which creates vignetting (modification of the brightness/saturation at the borders).
watermark: the watermark module provides a way to render an vector-based overlay onto your image. watermarks are standard svg documents and can be designed using inkscape. the svg processor of darktable also substitutes strings within the svg document which gives the oppurtunity to include image dependent information in the watermark such as aperture, exposure time and other metadata.
soften: this module is an artistic feature that creates the orton effect also commonly known as softening the image. michael orton achieved such result on slide film by using 2 exposures of the same scene: one well exposed and one overexposed; then he used a technique to blend those into a final image where the overexposed image was blurred.
grain: this module is an artistic feature which simulates the grain of a film.
highpass: this module acts as highpass filter.
fill light: this module allows the local modification of the exposition based on pixel lightness.
monochrome: this module is a quick way to convert image in black and white. you can simulate a color filter in order to modify you conversion. the filter can be changed in size and color center.
lowlight vision: low light module allows to simulate human lowlight vision, thus providing ability to make lowlight pictures look closer to reality. it can also be used to perform a day to night conversion.
bloom: this module boost highlights and softly blooms them over the image.
graduated density: this module aims at simulating a neutral density filter, in order to correct exposure and color in a progressive manner.

Dream Studio contains all the apps you need to create stunning graphics, captivating videos, inspiring music, and professional websites. Available as a free download, Dream Studio can be run directly from DVD, installed to your hard-drive, or even installed onto a USB Flash drive, for the ultimate in portability! Here is a list of just some of the included software:

Cinelerra - a powerful non-linear video editor comparable to leading solutions like Apple's Final Cut Pro, Sony Vegas, or Adobe Premiere. Cinelerra contains more than 30 visual effects like motion tracking and chromakey, and supports both keyframing and nested sequences.

Ardour (with custom UI) - a professional digital audio workstation designed to replace offerings such as Digidesign Pro Tools, Steinberg's Cubase/Nuendo, Apple's Logic, and Sonar. Ardour features unlimited tracks, unlimited undo, and routing to and from any sound source. Ardour comes with support for many different plugin formats, and Dream Studio's version comes with close to 200 plugins/effects including pitch correction, triggers, compression, eq, reverb, and more. Dream Studio also supports VST plugins.

Blender - a free 3D graphics application, similar to 3DS Max and Maya, that can be used for modeling, UV unwrapping, texturing, rigging, water and smoke simulations, skinning, animating, rendering, particle and other simulations, non-linear editing, compositing, and creating interactive 3D applications, including video games, animated film, or visual effects.

Inkscape - vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Inkscape supports many advanced SVG features (markers, clones, alpha blending, etc.) and great care is taken in designing a streamlined interface. It is very easy to edit nodes, perform complex path operations, trace bitmaps and much more. We also aim to maintain a thriving user and developer community by using open, community-oriented development.

Synfig Studio - a powerful, industrial-strength vector-based open-source 2D animation software package allowing one to create animations similar to those done with Adobe Flash. It has been designed from the ground-up for producing feature-film quality animation with fewer people and resources. While there are many other programs currently on the market to aid with the efficient production of 2D animation, we are currently unaware of any other software that can do what our software can.

Scribus - professional page layout, akin to Quark Xpress, Adobe Indesign, or Microsoft Publisher, with a combination of "press-ready" output and new approaches to page layout. Underneath the modern and user friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, Spot Colors, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation.

Darktable - a virtual lighttable similar to A and darkroom for photographers similar to Adobe Lighroom: it manages your digital negatives in a database and lets you view them through a zoomable lighttable. it also enables you to develop raw images and enhance them.

the Gnu Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) - a raster graphics editor with features similar to Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro. It is primarily employed as an image retouching and editing tool. In addition to free-form drawing, GIMP can accomplish essential image work-flow steps such as resizing, editing, and cropping photos, combining multiple images, and converting between different image formats. GIMP can also be used to create basic animated images in the gif format. At present, GIMP is usable for amateur or professional work with images intended for viewing on monitors and printing on ink-jet printers.

Kompozer - a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing. KompoZer is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding, and is a complete alternative to such commercial offerings as Adobe Dreamweaver and Apple iWeb.

Bombono - a DVD authoring program Brasero - a CD/DVD burning application

Dream Studio also includes drum machines like Hydrogen (including several drum kits), samplers such as QSampler and SooperLooper, close to one hundred software synthesizers including Bristol and Zynaddsubfx, format conversion utilities like WinFF and SoundConverter, an audio mastering suite (JAMin), and much, much more. Not only that, but Dream Studio comes standard with the following applications for day-to-day work: Firefox web browser OpenOffice.org office suite (can read and write Microsoft Office formats) Evolution mail, addressbook and calendaring (compatible with Microsoft Outlook) Tomboy note taking Click here to take a quick screenshot tour of Dream Studio, or here to download a copy for yourself.

Dream Studio is based on Ubuntu Gnu/Linux. This project aims to be:

1. Simple - To this end we aim to stay as close to stock Ubuntu as possible. This not only allows users to install software from the standard repos and ppas without hassle, but also to find solutions to problems through Ubuntuforums, the Ubuntu manual, and the entire Ubuntu community, as opposed to multimedia distributions such as AVLinux and Dyne:bolic. In addition, we add features such as pulseaudio->jack integration. This goal, in fact, is the reasoning behind naming this distribution Dream Studio: those who know what Ubuntu, Gnu, Linux, GPL, and FOSS are, will quickly find information on these things as they relate to Dream Studio. The new user, however, need not learn these cryptic phrases in order to begin creating.

2. Stable - Although Dream Studio may make comparisons with other distributions, we do hold them in the highest esteem. For this reason, we make use of the most functional, up-to-date packages that the Open Source ecosystem has to offer, such as those you will find in UbuntuStudio, KXStudio, AVLinux, and the Akirad project.

3. Stunning - Dream Studio builds on Ubuntu's goal of aesthetic beauty, and pushes it further. Unlike distributions like UbuntuStudio (which features a theme quite dissimilar to stock Ubuntu) and KXStudio (which is based on KDE rather than Gnome - which some would say is less polished, on Ubuntu at least), Dream will always base our default themes on those of stock Ubuntu, albeit usually with less coloring (orange in its current iteration). Not only that, but we include custom UI themes for applications such as Cinelerra and Ardour, making them appear more integrated with the rest of the desktop. We would like to thank Canonical (Ubuntu), Paul Davis (Ardour), the UbuntuStudio team, falktx (KXStudio), GMaq (AVLinux), Paolo Rampiro (Akirad project), the Cinepaint team, the GNU project, Linus Torvalds (Linux), Deviantdark (hydroxygen iconset), and everyone else whose contributions to open source have made this release possible.

sudo apt-get purge libcanberra-pulse pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat pulseaudio-module-bluetooth pulseaudio-module-gconf pulseaudio-module-udev pulseaudio-module-x11 gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio pulseaudio-utils pavucontrol

sudo apt-get install gnome-alsamixer alsa-oss python-alsaaudio

Instead of removing pulseaudio you can also stop if from auto-restarting and simply killing it of with an auto-starter each time you login.

echo autospawn = no|tee -a ~/.pulse/client.conf && killall pulseaudio

After that, simply put killall plulseaudio into your autostart. You still need the alsa-mixer stuff and totem/audio-preview are also broken. but it’s quite useful for when you want to temporarily switch to alsa or any other sound system.

Netgear WNDR-3700 (Score:3, Informative)
by Anonymous Coward writes: on Monday September 19, @01:40AM (#37438096) It supports 802.11N at 2.4GHz and 5GHz, has a USB port, and supports gigabit LAN. The default firmware is a modified version of OpenWRT, and it is supported by both OpenWRT and DDWRT. It performs quite well.

by jmcbain (1233044) writes: on Monday September 19, @01:45AM (#37438116) The best 802.11n home routers right now are the Apple Airport Extreme and the Cisco E4200. The key feature to look for is dual-band: you want to keep 802.11a/b traffic on 2.4Ghz and 802.11n on 5.0Ghz. That will allow you to achieve 802.11n's upper bound of 450 Mbps without baggage from 802.11a/b. If you want the most effortless setup, get the Airport Extreme; the accessory Airport Express devices will also allow you to extend the wireless range of your network.

by Cimexus (1355033) writes: on Monday September 19, @02:32AM (#37438306) Yep. The Airport Extreme is one of the very few consumer-grade routers than can actually route at 100 Mbps on the WAN side. Many so-called gigabit home routers can manage gigabit switching on the LAN side, but start choking on the WAN side once you get to about 50-60 Mbps.

Personally I use a FritzBox 7390 [fritzbox.com.au]. Can route at something like 400-500 Mbps on the WAN side so won't break a sweat doing 100 Mbps. Heaps of features in the firmware (QoS, VPN, SIP VoIP, DECT, traffic monitoring and blocking, line diagnostics blah blah) and compared to DLink and Netgear and all that other rubbish, and stable to boot. It is actually a combined DSL (ADSL2+/VDSL) modem and router but you can turn the modem part off and just use it as a plain old router. Has dualband 2.4 Ghz/5 Ghz WiFi too. Reason I picked this over the Airport Extreme is basically because the Airport Extreme doesn't have a web interface (you have to use Apple's proprietary configuration tool), and this does. Otherwise they are both excellent devices.

Shake is a defragmenter that runs in userspace, without the need of patching the kernel and while the system is used (for now, on GNU/Linux only).
There is nothing magic in that : it just works by rewriting fragmented files. But it has some heuristics that could make it more efficient than other tools, including defrag and, maybe, xfs_fsr.
As an example, it allows you to write find -iname '*.mp3' | sort | shake to defrag all mp3 in a directory, puting together on the disk those close in lexical order.

Make sure Rubyripper has these dependencies as a bare mininum. They can be installed by typing in the terminal window:

sudo apt-get install cd-discid cdparanoia

as a bare mininum or

sudo apt-get install cd-discid cdparanoia flac lame mp3gain normalize-audio ruby-gnome2 ruby vorbisgain

to get the most out of the currently available distros.

For internationalization: instead of the mentioned

ruby-gettext

install this:

sudo apt-get install gettext and libgettext-ruby1.8

Download the Rubyripper archive from the official website:

http://code.google.com/p/rubyripper/downloads/list

Extract the files in the Rubyripper archive (bzipped tarball) into a temporary directory.

Navigate to the directory in which you extracted the Rubyripper archive (Most likely which will be your desktop) or the directory in which you extracted the archive in, e. g. by typing in terminal window:

cd /home/USERNAME/Desktop/rubyripper-0.x.x/

Rubyripper needs to know what features need to be installed. Install both the GUI and command-line version for to get the most out of the application by typing in the terminal window:

./configure --enable-lang-all --enable-gtk2 --enable-cli

Note: This only prepares/​configures installation.
In order to install the application, type in the terminal window:

sudo make install

Rubyripper should now be installed with your applications under Applications -> Sound & Video

If it runs according to your needs you may remove the temporary directory.

Notes:

If you have CD-ROM drive problems it is recommended you read this thread
You can add or drop dependencies as you see fit depending upon what packages you need or already have
Substitute 'x' above with the latest version of Rubyripper
You can run the command-line version of Rubyripper be navigating to the source directory and typing in ./rubyripper_cli.rb into the terminal (This is useful if you want to use it conjunction with shell scripts like BASH and KSH to automate the ripping process for instance)

I have built a Home Theatre PC (HTPC), in order to replace the Tivo box I was using when living in Houston, which changed the way we approached watching TV.

Features

Current
TV
Full Digital Video Recorder (DVR) with advanced recording capabilities
Terrestrial (SD and HD) and satellite digital TV
TV viewing with time shifting, pause, rewind, etc…
Automatic advertisement removal for recordings
Picture in Picture display
Electronic program guide
Export to DVD
Videos
DVD playing and ripping into DivX for the movies collection
Playing of 1080p content via HD-DVD Blu-Ray Disk rips/dumps
Movies (DivX, H.264 and other formats, including HD rips) collection management and playing
Audio
CD playing and ripping into MP3 into the Music collection
Music collection (MP3 and other formats) management and playing
Other
Pictures collection with slide show display
Weather display
News (RSS) display
Web browsing
Web-based remote access for information and programming, from anywhere on the Internet
Technical
High definition HDTV TV outputs (through digital HDMI) for 1080p full HD
Terrestrial Digital TV, standard definition (DVB-T, TNT, Freeview) and high definition (DVB-T2, TNTHD, Freeview HD)
Satellite Digital TV (DVB-S)
Hardware accelerated decoding of the following video codecs in all resolutions: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, DivX/XviD, H.264, VC-1
Hardware accelerated deinterlacing
Hardware accelerated upscaling
Optical digital output for sound to the Home Theatre amplifier
Front VFD display for various information (titles, times, channels, program watched)
Any Linux-running machine on the local network will be able to act as a client and benefit from most services
Used through a Logitech Harmony universal remote control
Future
Multi-format flash card slots for picture, video and audio viewing/listening
HD-DVD and Blue-ray player and ripper

Software
Operating system
Mythbuntu, a derivative of Ubuntu Linux – Great Linux distribution with a very active team build around providing a very easy MythTV implementation, with extensive documentation. Using the 9.10 (Karmic Koala), 64-bit, release at this time.

Media Centre
MythTV – For the time being the most complete media centre open source application. Its list of features and capabilities is quite amazing. Its configuration and use can sometime be a bit overwhelming, though. But it’s well worth it, and projects like Mythbuntu are helping a lot. Using the 0.22-fixes version at this time.

FlashVideoReplacer offers several video replacing methods. The original method, which gave the extension name, replaces the video embedded on site, without disrupting the viewing experience. It basically replaces the flash object with a regular video object and streams a mp4 file when available or a flv file. Since version 2.0, FlashVideoReplacer also offers other replacing methods, that allow to open the videos on a new tab, a new window or a standalone external video player. Support for all these methods depends on plugin and player compatibility, which varies from one operating system to another. Video download is also available via context menu.

For more information about plugin/player compatibility and list of supported sites, visit the extension web page:

http://www.webgapps.org/add-ons/flashvideoreplacer

Features:

- no flash required
- works with Flashblock
- play videos embedded on site, on a new tab, new window or using an external standalone player
- option to select replace method on a video basis
- easy video download, accessed via toolbar menu
- configurable download directory
- compatibility with DownThemAll
- detection of YouTube and Vimeo videos embedded on third-party sites (links only)
- automatic redirection to WebM player on YouTube when available (no plugin required)
- video quality control on YouTube
- video quality feedback via alerts
- option to prioritize mp4 format over flv when possible
- option to force mime-type, in order to launch videos with different plugins or bypass incompatibilities

TV-Viewer is a frontend to watch and record TV. It is designed for analog TV cards working with the ivtv, pvrusb2, or cx18 driver and others with a built-in hardware MPEG-2 encoder. It uses the Tk toolkit. DVB support is planned in the future

TV-Viewer is a frontend to watch and record TV on linux. The project started in 2007 and is designed to work with hardware build-in MPEG 2 encoders. This means all devices supported by the ivtv, cx18, pvrusb2 and cx88-blackbird drivers should work with TV-Viewer. The program is written in Tcl/Tk, so it does not rely on a special desktop environment. Current status is stable and the software is fully usable. Nevertheless development is continuing. A list of the most important features can be found here.

This is a list of the most important Features of TV-Viewer

Easy installation
Automatic station search
Polished user interface
Integrated video player based on MPlayer
Available in different languages (English, German)
On screen display
Videocard control (Hue, Saturation, Brightness and Contrast)
Support for your remote control using lirc
Online user guide
Time-controlled recordings
Timeshift
Dock the app to the system tray
Released under the GPL license
And many more...

Guess what, this frontend is way better than hauppauge's WinTV. I really like it. Had to install ActiveTCL on Ubuntu 10.04 but Wiki has a great howto for that.

No tracking

Unlike all major search engines, DuckDuckGo does not collect or share personal information. There is no search history, personal profile or any other information about you gathered, stored, sold, used or leaked.

For more information on this, you can read their privacy policy.


No bubbling

In other search engines, search results are personalized based on your Web history and personal profile. In other words, if two people search for exactly the same thing, they won’t necessarily see the same results. Based on the personal information the search engines have on them, different customized results will be shown.

DuckDuckGo does not gather such personal information and does not customize search results. So if two people search for the same thing, they’ll get the same results.

For more information on this, you can read this illustrated guide.
Features

DuckDuckGo is full of features.. and it’s hard to summarize them all. So let’s have a look at a few of them.

DuckDuckGo comes with something called the !bang syntax. Using that syntax you can quickly search using other search engines…

For instance, here are a few search queries and their respective results:
Query Results
toy story DuckDuckGo results for “toy story”
!youtube toy story Youtube video results for “toy story”
!yt toy story Youtube video results for “toy story”
!g toy story Google results for “toy story”
!gi toy story Google image results for “toy story”
!bi toy story Bing image results for “toy story”

As you can see, you can use the !bang syntax to issue queries on Youtube, Google, Bing, Yahoo, and many other search engines. Of course when you’re using these other search engines, your personal information is tracked and your results are bubbled. Nonetheless it’s extremely convenient to have access to everything out there from a single search plugin.

There are hundreds of engines and query types you can use with the !bang syntax. For more information on this, please read the !bang features.

DuckDuckGo also features Zero-Click info sources, keyboard shortcuts, locations, calculations, conversions..etc. For a complete overview, please have a look at the DuckDuckGo features.
Open Source

DuckDuckGo is built on Open Source. Its backend is primarily in Perl and served via nginx. It uses a number of other open source components as well, such as PostgreSQL, Solr, and memcached.

Much of DuckDuckGo source is closed, but a growing portion is open. DuckDuckGo’s community platform (not yet launched) will be completely open. And DuckDuckGo has opened interfaces to enable Open Source developers to contribute goodies, API integrations and data stores to improve the search engine for everyone on particular subsets of queries.

DuckDuckGo has pledged to give back to the Open Source community. In 2010, the search engine sent donations to nginx, FreeBSD, Tor, Clamwin, Taho-LAFS and OpenSSH. With input from the DuckDuckGo community, DuckDuckGo will contribute new donations for 2011.

HTTPS Everywhere is a Firefox extension produced as a collaboration between The Tor Project and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It encrypts your communications with a number of major websites. Many sites on the web offer some limited support for encryption over HTTPS, but make it difficult to use. For instance, they may default to unencrypted HTTP, or fill encrypted pages with links that go back to the unencrypted site. The HTTPS Everywhere extension fixes these problems by rewriting all requests to these sites to HTTPS

First download Adobe Flash Player 11 Beta from labs.adobe.com

Extract archive in your home folder.

Open terminal and type:


For Firefox:

mkdir ~/.mozilla/plugins

cp ~/libflashplayer.so ~/.mozilla/plugins

Done!
To remove it and switch to stable version:

rm ~/.mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so


Chrome:

sudo mv /opt/google/chrome/libgcflashplayer.so /opt/google/chrome/libgcflashplayer.so-backup

sudo cp ~/libflashplayer.so /opt/google/chrome/libgcflashplayer.so

To remove it and switch to stable version:

sudo mv /opt/google/chrome/libgcflashplayer.so-backup /opt/google/chrome/libgcflashplayer.so

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ferramroberto/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk sun-java6-plugin

Step Wise Installation of Sun Java 6 On Ubuntu

Step 1 : Before beginning the installation, Open the terminal by pressing CTL + ALT + T from your keyboard. When the terminal opens then run the following command in the terminal to remove OpenJDK from your system if you already have it installed.

$ sudo apt-get purge openjdk*

If you have not install OpenJDK then continue from step 2.

Step 2 : Now run the following command in the terminal to add PPA for Sun-Java6 on your Ubuntu system.

$ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:flexiondotorg/java

Step 3 : Then run the following command in the terminal to update your Ubuntu system.

$ sudo apt-get update

Step 4 : Finally, run the following command in the terminal to install Java and its plugins on your Ubuntu system.

$ sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-jdk sun-java6-plugin

That’s All and enjoy Java programming on your Ubuntu system.