Steffen's Tech Blog

Recently, I spent some time to search for free, open-source alternatives for commercial mathematics programs such as Matlab and Mathcad. By far the most promising software I have found was Sage. Sage combines the power of many (currently 71) existing open-source packages into a common Python-based interface. It can be used to explore mathematical constructions in algebra, geometry, number theory, calculus, numerical computation, etc. The combination of proven open-source packages (including excellent Python packages such as Numpy, Matlibplot, Scipy and Sympy) and an excellent web browser based entry of formulas and plots in worksheets called notebooks. The usage of Python as the glue that holds all packages together provides several advantages. First you have the full power of python available in Sage. Second, you don't need to learn another specialized script language that you would otherwise not need. Excellent screencasts together with good tutorials and documentation pages p...

After reading the following article about the status of the GNOME project http://wingolog.org/archives/2008/06/07/gnome-in-the-age-of-decadence I decided to check out the KDE 4 desktop by installing the "kubuntu-kde4-desktop" package (via Adept or apt-get) and I have to admit: I really like the new KDE 4 desktop. A lot of improvements have been made compared with its predecessor. I especially like the new version of the image viewer Gwenview and Okular, KDE4's document viewer. Check out http://www.kde.org/announcements/4.0/applications.php for more details. Unfortunately, the KDE 4 desktop seem not to be stable enough for production use. At least I experienced some crashes that required reboot via " R aising E lephants I s S o U tterly B oring" . In addition, I missed some functionality. Therefore I can't recommend switching to KDE4 right now. But I decided to give it another try as soon as KDE4.1 is available from the Ubuntu repositories in the hope that ...

Today I decided to switch to the newest version of the ATI driver flgrx (version 8.6) instead of the restricted driver that comes with the ubuntu 8.04 distribution. I followed the excellent description on http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Hardy_Installation_Guide . Everything worked fine. I could enable "Extra Visual Effects" without having problems with the video drivers e.g. in Miro (after I changed from xine to gstreamer).

Finally, I decided to buy the newest version of Mac OS X. The main reason was that I liked to have a professional backup solution for my macbook especially after the trouble I had before on my Windows desktop (see my previous post from April 2008 ) and Time Machine together with Time Capsule seem to be exactly what I was looking for. The installation of Mac OS X was smoothly. Everything worked as expected. Even my synchronization via the python rsync script worked. Time Machine setup together with Time Capsule are really amazing simple and effective. There are many more nice little features in Mac OS X Leopard. Check out http://www.apple.com/mac/ for more. In my point of view, it is definitely the best operating system I know. Once more, Apple products fulfilled my expectations and are worth their price.

Application: Firefox 3.0 (2008060309) Operating System: Linux (x86-gcc3) Adblock Plus 0.7.5.4 Ads were yesterday! Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper 1.0.5 Helps you create element hiding rules for Adblock Plus to fight the text ads. Answers 2.2.48 Alt+Click on any word or term for quick info (definitions, up-to-the-minute reference, and more). No selection is necessary! Deutsches Wörterbuch 1.0.1 DOM Inspector 2.0.0 Inspects the structure and properties of a window and its contents. Extension List Dumper 1.14.1 Dumps a list of the installed extensions. Finjan Secure Browsing 1.314 Secure Browsing by Finjan Firebug 1.2.0a21X Web Development Evolved. FireGestures 1.1.2 Executes various commands with mouse gestures. Flagfox 3.2.6 Displays a flag depicting the location of the current server Forecastfox 0.9.7.6 Get international weather forecasts and display it in any toolbar or statusbar with this highly customizable extension. FoxyTunes 3.0.1.1 Control any media player from Firefox and m...

See also my post on [ubuntu] Celtx on Hardy - Ubuntu Forums Celtx is a nice media pre-production software with features you need to take your story from concept to production. Install Celtx as root in order to let all users on your Ubuntu machine have access to it (see also http://wiki.celtx.com/index.php?title=Installation ). After this you should be able to start Celtx with: sudo /usr/local/celtx/celtx In order to be able to start celtx without sudo, remove the subfolders .greyfirst and .celtx as described in the celtx wiki. These hidden folders are in your home directory (~) and - as you have installed Celtx as root - you can only remove them as root. One way to do this is to start Nautilus as root with: sudo nautilus Select your home folder, choose "show hidden files" (CTRL + H) and remove both folders. Afterwards, any user should be able to run celtx using: /usr/local/celt/celtx In order to launch Celtx from an icon, add a custom application launcher. BTW - After http://...

Yesterday, I needed my scanner the first time after installing Ubuntu 8.04. In Ubuntu 7.10 I could use the scanner as normal user with xsane. Now running xsane let to the following error message: Segmentation fault whereas running xsane as root with sudo xsane works. The following shows the current status of my investigation. sane-find-scanner let to the following output: # sane-find-scanner will now attempt to detect your scanner. If the # result is different from what you expected, first make sure your # scanner is powered up and properly connected to your computer. # No SCSI scanners found. If you expected something different, make sure that # you have loaded a kernel SCSI driver for your SCSI adapter. found USB scanner (vendor=0x04a9 [Canon], product=0x221c [CanoScan], chip=GL842) at libusb:006:008 # Your USB scanner was (probably) detected. It may or may not be supported by # SANE. Try scanimage -L and read the backend's manpage. # Not checking for parallel port scanners. # ...