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[ThatObviousUser]

Well it looks like MS got what they wanted at least on ARM laptops. They require that all ARM computers shipping with Windows 8 be locked down with secure boot with no way to disable it. Pretty damn digusting that it's even legal for them to do that.

After the patent thug thread earlier today I didn't think it was possible for me to be more disgusted with Microsoft.

Now I am.

 

[qizah]

Hey LinuxGAF -- I need some suggestions about a book that I can use to learn programming in Python, any help would be greatly appreciated .

I've been looking around and I found this and was wondering if this was a good book to start with -- I've heard O'Reilly Media is a great source for programming books. Any suggestions?

Thanks guys.

 

[99hertz]

Hey LinuxGAF -- I need some suggestions about a book that I can use to learn programming in Python, any help would be greatly appreciated .

I've been looking around and I found this and was wondering if this was a good book to start with -- I've heard O'Reilly Media is a great source for programming books. Any suggestions?

Thanks guys.

If Python is going to be your first language, I've heard good things about Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science by John M. Zelle. I bought it but I haven't received it yet.

Also, there's this:http://openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english2e and it's free.

If it's not your first programming language, then there's Dive into Python by Mark Pilgrim but I don't know how good it is.

 

[angelfly]

Hey LinuxGAF -- I need some suggestions about a book that I can use to learn programming in Python, any help would be greatly appreciated .

I've been looking around and I found this and was wondering if this was a good book to start with -- I've heard O'Reilly Media is a great source for programming books. Any suggestions?

Thanks guys.

Do you already know how to code in another language? If so I recommend Dive Into Python. It doesn't waste time with a lot of the beginner stuff that every intro programming text goes over.

 

[qizah]

I have 0 programming knowledge. I took a course in 2008, but it was Java and I don't remember anything.

Also I should've mentioned I prefer a paper book as opposed to online tutorial or eBooks.

 

[99hertz]

I have 0 programming knowledge. I took a course in 2008, but it was Java and I don't remember anything.

Also I should've mentioned I prefer a paper book as opposed to online tutorial or eBooks.

Well, you can buy the books I mentioned on Amazon, just search for Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science or How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning with Python.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

So I was thinking the other day, "wouldn't it be awesome if there were a work-oriented tablet that ran full Linux?"

Then I came across this video, demonstrating a software keyboard on Fedora using a tablet called the WeTab. WeTab by default runs MeeGo, but it seems trivial to get other operating systems working on it. It has a pretty large (11", 1366x768) screen, and Fedora is adding a lot of touch stuff in 17 as well. Match made in heaven?

 

[qizah]

Well, you can buy the books I mentioned on Amazon, just search for Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science or How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning with Python.

The first one you mentioned seems to be the most highly recommended one, definitely will check it out.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

So I was thinking the other day how to improve Gnome 3's overview screen. It's bothered me ever since I first saw it, despite loving the idea and the rest of Gnome 3. There are actually some improvements being made at the moment, "Windows | Applications" toggle is being axed in favor of a "..." button in the running app tray. But here's my take.

Default:

Hovering over both apps:

Chromium is open and running, Gimp isn't. The open windows/workspaces are dummies and the aesthetics are a work in progress -- the idea is that running apps have a monotone inset button style, hovering over them reveals their color. Non-running programs are just their icons, and have a border when hovered on. What do you guys think? Unless there's something seriously wrong I'm going to drop into the Gnome 3 design IRC and see what they think.

The idea is to solve the "random docks and panels" floating in overview mode by taking advantage of Gnome 3's "folded corners" in the upper left and right of the interface. You can see these also in the bottom in my mockup, I think it really ties things together nicely.

 

[qizah]

I downloaded some cool window decorator theme, thought I'd share (I'm a noobie so if I come off as being obvious, sorry lol).

I downloaded Emerald and downloaded the theme.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

That makes Unity look half decent.

 

[thcsquad]

What's a good bleeding edge/rolling release distro? I want easy packaged updates to stuff like Gnome as soon as they happen.

 

[angelfly]

What's a good bleeding edge/rolling release distro? I want easy packaged updates to stuff like Gnome as soon as they happen.

Gentoo or Arch

I prefer Gentoo because the level of customization is higher than Arch which is binary based while Gentoo is source based like the BSD ports system.

 

[zoku88]

Gentoo or Arch

I prefer Gentoo because the level of customization is higher than Arch which is binary based while Gentoo is source based like the BSD ports system.

It's embarrassing to me to admit that it took me a while to realize why the package management system was called Portage :-/

 

[clav]

Gnome looks nice.

 

[Vanillalite]

I'll post this here because I consider Linux GAF my home inside NeoGAF even if I'm not a big poster in this thread. This really has nothing to do with linux though.

Comcast has been straght FUBAR for me.Ever since the 2nd NFL game ended Sunday my tvs went out. Then SD came back then HD. That fact matters because it was like I wasn't getting enought bandwidth. Then the following all of this my internet crapped out on me.

1st it just died, and I figured well funk must be something on Comcast's end like usual. I called just to see if they had a prerecorded message telling me of an outage, but they didn't. I just hung up the phone, and figured I'd wait and call back later. Usually it's always on their end despite what they try and tell me. So if I just wait it out it "fixes" itself.

Anyways fast forward to yesterday late afternoon. It was still down so I called, and the phone rep was useless, couldn't get any info from my modem (also my phone number was randomly off a digit on my account for no reason), and they just scheduled a tech to come out Wed. Well the connection came back up, but it was crazy slow.

I eventually got speedtest.net to load, and found that for some reason my regular 12 Mbs I was getting sub 1 Mbs download, but I'm getting my full upload. Using the normal pings, tracerts etc... all gave me signs of packet loss like a boss too. I tried to get on Vent, and I could hear everyone fine. Yet nobody could ever hear me.

So I called Comcast back, and the dude was like okay yeah can you try speedtest.net. I was like I already tried that, but he wanted me to try again. I was like hold on in the room with the modem so let me boot up the laptop in here. Before I could get speedtest.net loaded he was like never mind. Don't bother. He tried to ping my modem and said he was getting really bad latency and packet loss.

Problem is my appointment for Wed wouldn't work anymore because it was scheduled as an outage, and they'd check to see if the modem is up before coming. Since it's up they'd just cancel coming. I'm like WTF. He said we'll have to reschedule you to make sure they come, but I can't just change your Wed appointment to that. Soonest time I can get you is Thursday morning. I'm like sigh wtf ever. Just give me it.

Tried to test things again this morning, and no luck. I have shit going direct by passing the router just incase, and no luck. One interesting thing is if I unplug the cable and the power cord, and let it sit for 5 mins. When I plug it all back in I get the full speed for like the 1st idk 1-2 mins of up time. Then shit just goes all to hell.

At anyrate I have one of the old comcast RCA modems, which isn't supported anymore. So while I doubt this fixes it I'm going to head home early today, and try and stop by Comcast on the way home. Just going to do a quick modem swap to see if for some reason my modem is just derping on me. If not well fuck. Guess I have to wait till Thursday morning, and who the funk knows wtf the problem is. I forsee that being a total pain in the arse.

PS: Thank goodness I can just go chill at my GF's place and use her internet at night!

 

[rpg_poser]

If comcast pings your modem and there is serious latency, then it's prob not your router. Not sure if you mentioned that earlier. I have one of the new cable modems (because I purchased phone service) and it works fine, no noticeable internet slowdown.

Also OT, have upgraded to Kubuntu 11.10 with no issues, just remove or deactivate any proprietary drivers first with kde-jockey.
Only weirdness so far is that in previous versions, removing pulseaudio helped by removing complexity with audio drivers. Removing it in 11.10 has made it so XBMC can't initialize an audio device even with the correct device chosen in the XBMC system menu. Haven't really had a chance to dig into fixing it yet.

 

[Vanillalite]

If comcast pings your modem and there is serious latency, then it's prob not your router. Not sure if you mentioned that earlier. I have one of the new cable modems (because I purchased phone service) and it works fine, no noticeable internet slowdown.

Also OT, have upgraded to Kubuntu 11.10 with no issues, just remove or deactivate any proprietary drivers first with kde-jockey.
Only weirdness so far is that in previous versions, removing pulseaudio helped by removing complexity with audio drivers. Removing it in 11.10 has made it so XBMC can't initialize an audio device even with the correct device chosen in the XBMC system menu. Haven't really had a chance to dig into fixing it yet.

Already just tried to go straight from my modem into one of my comps and still get the same issue. Going to go grab one of the new routers later since mine isn't supported anymore. It's one of the old RCA models. I'll probably end up with an Arris this time as they seem to be giving those out now with the VOIP compatibility.

On a side note I'm starting to work on the new OP once I get all of my internet problems sorted out. Sorry I'm going to be like a month late from when I initially thought I'd create one, but oh wells. Life happens I guess.

 

[Vanillalite]

New router seems to have solved it for now at least. Then again it could have just solved itself on it's own over the day or something when I wasn't home. Got one of the new Arris modems that's actually not VOIP capable even though Comcast seemed to really only be giving out VOIP compatible ones for a while now.

I do wonder if this thing is docsis 3.0 compatible. Then again I doubt my service is docis 3.0 anyways.

EDIT: Modem actually appears to be the best mainline Arris I could have gotten. It's the NA version of their main no frills docsis 3.0 modem. Granted I only have 2.0 service, but hey I have the updated modem. Plus supposedly even on 2.0 the connection can be more stable with a 3.0 modem.

 

[Vanillalite]

Hey Linux users. Do all of you use your ISP DNS server or do you go 3rd party?

I'm currently using Comcast's DNS server stuff, but I'm wondering if I should switch to something else.

 

[angelfly]

I use my ISP DNS with local cacheing via BIND to speed things up.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Can't go wrong with OpenDNS.

 

[Vanillalite]

Can't go wrong with OpenDNS.

IF I was going to switch this was what I was looking towards moving to. For some reason I was drawn to this over Google's DNS service.

Still not sure if it would be a prudent move or not on my part though.

 

[peakish]

A post on OMGUbuntu lead me on to some design changes for Epiphany. For good or bad they're totally New Gnome-ifying it.

New name, Web.

New, fantastic look.

Removal of tab bar, switching it with a full page of tab management. Whaaat? I suppose it could be all right if you can show this page temporary by pressing a single button or something (they've got switching tabs and stuff in, I want more than that though) but, yeah, why?

I really don't think anything will get me to convert from Opera so at least it'll be interesting for me to just try the changes out without having to commit.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Basically what Gnome is doing is building a generic Gnome-only browser that's more suited to tablets, I think. I don't think it's supposed to be used by serious desktop users.

 

[peakish]

Basically what Gnome is doing is building a generic Gnome-only browser that's more suited to tablets, I think. I don't think it's supposed to be used by serious desktop users.

Maybe, but they've done well so far with an interface suitable for desktop and (supposedly or allegedly) tablet use. This should be possible with a browser as well, at least without mayor modifications.

 

[Tworak]

now this is interesting. Introducing the HUD. Say hello to the future of the menu. [markshuttleworth.com]

 

[Blackhead]

now this is interesting. Introducing the HUD. Say hello to the future of the menu. [markshuttleworth.com]

Very interesting

Sidenote: what's the state of virtualization options (for Mac OSX and Windows primarily) on Linux?

 

[Vanillalite]

now this is interesting. Introducing the HUD. Say hello to the future of the menu. [markshuttleworth.com]

Interesting as fuck, but it seems like a cluster to get working right. What if it messes up my intent? What about kb shortcuts like say for save file that are already fast? How will I know what features are available? What if a dev creates something new that I don't know about? How will I ever know to type to intend to do said thing?

 

[peakish]

Interesting as fuck, but it seems like a cluster to get working right. What if it messes up my intent? What about kb shortcuts like say for save file that are already fast? How will I know what features are available? What if a dev creates something new that I don't know about? How will I ever know to type to intend to do said thing?

It's a supplement to keyboard shortcuts and the visible menus, not a replacement. At least not yet. Will be interesting to try out to say the least.

 

[Vanillalite]

It's a supplement to keyboard shortcuts and the visible menus, not a replacement. At least not yet. Will be interesting to try out to say the least.

His blog post seemed to think it's headed for replacement though.

Don't call me a hater as I'm extremely interested. Just have lots of questions!

 

[tycoonheart]

Interesting as fuck, but it seems like a cluster to get working right. What if it messes up my intent? What about kb shortcuts like say for save file that are already fast? How will I know what features are available? What if a dev creates something new that I don't know about? How will I ever know to type to intend to do said thing?

It should be used as nothing more than to compliment what we already have available.

If they want that HUD system to completely replace the way menus are, then I don't think its a good idea.

 

[peakish]

His blog post seemed to think it's headed for replacement though.

Don't call me a hater as I'm extremely interested. Just have lots of questions!

Huh. I'll reread it later cause I totally missed that in that case.

I try to avoid calling people haters since that's rude, sorry if it came across that way!

 

[Vanillalite]

Huh. I'll reread it later cause I totally missed that in that case.

I try to avoid calling people haters since that's rude, sorry if it came across that way!

No not you. Just in general I've been hating on Ubuntu a lot lately.

EDIT: This is what the blog post says...

"Say hello to the Head-Up Display, or HUD, which will ultimately replace menus in Unity applications. Here’s what we hope you’ll see in 12.04 when you invoke the HUD from any standard Ubuntu app that supports the global menu:"

 

[peakish]

No not you. Just in general I've been hating on Ubuntu a lot lately.

EDIT: This is what the blog post says...

"Say hello to the Head-Up Display, or HUD, which will ultimately replace menus in Unity applications. Here’s what we hope you’ll see in 12.04 when you invoke the HUD from any standard Ubuntu app that supports the global menu:"

Oh. Well. I read that like he meant "in practice" or something but it does say ultimately. Seems strange, I mean Shuttleworth even mentions some real advantages of keeping menus, I don't see how they can remove them. Or why. We'll have to wait and see what they have in mind for that when it happens I guess.

 

[Pctx]

Looks like it has potential but the flash of it addresses some very fundamental work flow issues of which if they push like they pushed Unity, people are going to foam at the mouth.

That said, I don't mind the additions as Unity needs the help. Course, I do love me some Gnome-Do.

 

[rpg_poser]

Even though I am a KDE user, I like the HUD idea. Might even try it out if I have the time.
FYI - I guess pulseaudio has been getting some work. kubuntu 11.10 actually works better with it installed now. Fixed my XBMC issue immediately after reinstalling it. Still having trouble with sound in mednafen, but need to dig in a bit to find a fix.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

I'm 90% sure HUD will never catch on in the mainstream, but it does seem pretty cool.

 

[zoku88]

Very interesting

Sidenote: what's the state of virtualization options (for Mac OSX and Windows primarily) on Linux?

Just use vmware. I sometimes play games using it.

You "can't" virtualize macs on non-mac hardware.

 

[Tworak]

I'm 90% sure HUD will never catch on in the mainstream, but it does seem pretty cool.

apple will steal it in ~2 years and say it's magical

 

[itxaka]

So this is just gnome-do integrated and with the normal menus removed?
If so, I rather have gnome-do and menus.ç

Also, it shows again the reckless of Canonical. Introducing this on a LTS release? It will be full of bugs like every other new piece of software they have introduced before, only this time it will be in a LTS. Great thinking there.

 

[Vanillalite]

So this is just gnome-do integrated and with the normal menus removed?
If so, I rather have gnome-do and menus.ç

Also, it shows again the reckless of Canonical. Introducing this on a LTS release? It will be full of bugs like every other new piece of software they have introduced before, only this time it will be in a LTS. Great thinking there.

Seems slightly different in practice than gnome do, but maybe not.

Count me in as it seems the exact wrong time to try and introduce something like this though with the next release supposing to be an LTS.

 

[Vanillalite]

I wish there was a way I could devise a plan to recycle people's old computer using dban, fix them up and make sure they are working, install some sort of free linux distro, and give them out to people in need that could use a free computer even if it's slightly older.

 

[Massa]

I wish there was a way I could devise a plan to recycle people's old computer using dban, fix them up and make sure they are working, install some sort of free linux distro, and give them out to people in need that could use a free computer even if it's slightly older.

Is there a LUG in your area? They might do something like that already.

 

[rpg_poser]

I wish there was a way I could devise a plan to recycle people's old computer using dban, fix them up and make sure they are working, install some sort of free linux distro, and give them out to people in need that could use a free computer even if it's slightly older.

I have been doing that for my family for years. I don't put linux on them, however. I tried with one of my brothers in law and he just didn't get it. He ended up buying a license for WinXP and is very happy now.
Even though I think kubuntu is easy enough and has enough free stuff for most people to do what they need to do, years of windows navigation and MS Office use have been drilled into people and if it looks different, they just don't get it.

 

[Vanillalite]

Is there a LUG in your area? They might do something like that already.

I have been doing that for my family for years. I don't put linux on them, however. I tried with one of my brothers in law and he just didn't get it. He ended up buying a license for WinXP and is very happy now.
Even though I think kubuntu is easy enough and has enough free stuff for most people to do what they need to do, years of windows navigation and MS Office use have been drilled into people and if it looks different, they just don't get it.

Yeah I'm talking about giving computers to people who are really broke though. So while giving them Windows would be nice, sharing the linux world and on the cheap aka free would be ideal. The whole key being everything would be entirely free, and hey as long as you could setup a decent web browser aka FF or Chome or maybe Opera they could do everything web based anyways.

The LUG in my area is like 5 dev guys that hang out once a month at their monthly "meeting". I don't mean to hate on them, but it's hardly a big deal. I'd want this to have some sort of presence so the word would actually get out to the surrounding community both in terms of collectiong older computers and really letting people in need know they could get them.

 

[Kevitivity]

I wish there was a way I could devise a plan to recycle people's old computer using dban, fix them up and make sure they are working, install some sort of free linux distro, and give them out to people in need that could use a free computer even if it's slightly older.

I've been doing this for about 17 yeas now. In the 90s it was very easy to get used computers for very cheap or even free from a few of the local schools here in Los Angeles. I've heard that it's not so easy anymore but since I've become known for this sort of thing in my neighborhood people are always donating stuff to me.

To date I've recommissioned about 75 computers. I started out using RedHat, these days I'll use Ubuntu for desktop users and CentOS for people who are trying to run a server. Starting to look at Scientific Linux too.

 

[Vanillalite]

I've been doing this for about 17 yeas now. In the 90s it was very easy to get used computers for very cheap or even free from a few of the local schools here in Los Angeles. I've heard that it's not so easy anymore but since I've become known for this sort of thing in my neighborhood people are always donating stuff to me.

To date I've recommissioned about 75 computers. I started out using RedHat, these days I'll use Ubuntu for desktop users and CentOS for people who are trying to run a server. Starting to look at Scientific Linux too.

Awesome! This is the exact type of thing I'd like to try and do!

 

[Bruiserk]

Dear GAF,

My touchpad on my Toshiba NB525 netbook has ceased to function. When I try and configure synaptic touchpad settings in the terminal by entering either:

synclient touchpadoff = 0

synclient -l

it gives me an error. I can't recall the exact error, I'll edit my post when I can copy it down.

Any advice?

I don't think my wireless is working either. It says it is enabled, but it is not showing available connections to the surrounding routers.

edit: running Ubuntu by the way. v 11.10.

edit 2: the error it gives me just says "no synaptics driver installed?". I'm searching the web for some drivers now.

 

[Massa]

Do you know if it's a hardware or software error? For example, does it work under other operating systems/livecd's?