While clearing out the big pile of emails today, I came across this huge discussion on ubuntu-dev -discuss list about the colours of gnome-terminal. Honestly, I never thought this could be a point of discussion at all , but I was wrong. This article is just a brief summary of that discussion. This might not look of any use but its always good(and a little fun) to know other's opinion about such issues.

Well, lets start with the first mail, complaining about the current gnome-terminal and xterm theme, black text on white background. The guy seemed right with his arguments that historically Linux terminals or command lines in general have always been white text on a black background, KDE still uses them then why not gnome-terminal. I totally agreed with him until I came to know about the term, Ergonomics. I am pretty sure I would have lost most of you here. But carry on, you should know about this stuff.

Ergonomics actually concerns with the study of designing the job, equipment, and workplace to fit the worker(more info on wiki). I knew that gnome guys are crazy about usability but if Ergonomics is the reason for the default theme, then I never really thought that they would go this far to enhance user experience. Hats off to GNOME.

Now, our big question, what should be the colour? seems to be solved. But I still think that people hardly care about what ergonomics says. Common! we are linuxers, we are always curious to find new and better things. Although, I think that gnome devs probably knew that someday, someone will raise a finger on this issue, and so they made the terminal theming highly customizable.

Customizations available in Gnome-Terminal

• Use any possible text colour on any background, say, perky pink on goblin green .
• Your background needn't be a solid colour, it can be an image or even a semi transparent background of any colour.
• You can even create different profiles to manage your themes.

Well, if I were to say my choice of theme, I would go with dark green on black, makes you feel like a H4k3r . Although, now I am happy with the the default theme. Anyway, if you use any of such special or unusual themes, do share. I would like to know about your taste.

HTML4 has served us for more than 10 years now and there hasn't been any major update in it, there is XHTML that has done a little more by making code more strict, if at all you are concerned with HTML compliance. Work on HTML5 was started in 2004 by a group called WHATWG founded by Apple, Mozilla and Opera. Most new browsers are now supporting new HTML5 tags. In this article, we will have a look at some HTML5 features which will make your web development easier and organized.

Structure of HTML5 Tags

The one thing that I like very much about HTML5 is that its designers caught the web trends pretty well. Consider this example of the 'div' tags in HTML4. If you have used them you would know how we use ids and classes to define the structure of a page and identify parts of the page as article, header, footer, section etc.

Looking at the repititive use and popularity of some of the ids, namely, header, footer, nav, article etc. the developers made proper tags out of them.

Canvas

Canvas was first implemented by Apple for OS X Dashboard widgets. Now, its a formal part of HTML5

<canvas width=".." height=".." > </canvas>

Uses of Canvas

• Dynamic and interactive Graphics
• Draw images using 2D drawing API (lines, circle, fills, shapes)
• Useful for graphs, applications, puzzles and games.

Canvas Example graphs

Plotkit: http://www.liquidx.net/plotkit/ JavaScript library, Draws graphs from any data source, such as a table.

Canvas Example applications:

• Yahoo Pipes: http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/ Interactive, drag and drop interface
• CanvasPaint: http://canvaspaint.org/ Clone of MS Paint built with Canvas. Could be used to build a Shared Whiteboard application

Canvas Example Games:

Canvex: http://canvex.lazyilluminati.com/ Experimental First-Person Shooter Game, 3D Graphics

Canvas standard API for drawing.

ctx = canvas.getContext("2d");
ctx.fillRectI(x, y, width, height);
ctx.beginPath();
ctx.moveTo(x, y);
ctx.moveTo(x, y);
ctx.lineTo(x, y);
ctx.bezierCurveTo(x1, y1, x2, y2, c1, c2);

and loads of exciting functions

There's no IDE needed for canvas and no plugins required. Canvas gives you an option of making your site high graphics without using flash. It has some performance issues, but its getting better with faster javascript and rendering engines.

Try out some canvas demos

Video and Audio

Due to no support for video in HTML4, many sites relied on flash for audio and video. And it had become a defacto animation standard. HTML5 supports both video and audio tags, its now possible to custom design user interface, start, stop, pause, seek and adjust volume. It provides DOM Api's to control the video and audio playbacks. We can include audio and video using simple tags:

<video src="video.mp4" width="320" height="480" posters="screenshot.jpg" controls />

or

<video id="video" width="640" height="480" volume=".7" controls autoplay>
  <source src="video.mp4" type="video/wmv"></source> (For Browser supporting H.264 codec)
   <source src="video.ogg" type="video/ogg"> </source> (For Browser supporting Theora codec)
</video>

<audio>
   <source src="music.oga" type="audio/ogg">
   <source src="music.mp3" type="audio/mpeg">
</audio>

Based on the Codec which your browser support you can specify alternate video and audio formats.

HTML5 progress and meter tag.

Progress and meter

<progress> tag is used as a conjection to javascript to measure progress of a task.

This shows completion progress of a task, used for indicating loading progress of ajax application.

<meter> Representing scalar measurements or fractional values

Useful for:

• User Ratings (e.g. YouTube Videos) 
• Seach Result Relevance
• Disk Quota Usage

<progress value="600" max="1000"></progress>

  <meter min="0" max="5" value="3"> </meter>

<meter> 2/10</meter>
<meter> 200 out of 1000</meter>

Keygen

<form method="post" action="action.htm">
<keygen name="encryptedInfo" challenge="1234512312" />
</form>

Internet explorer doesn't support this tag, read more.

Mark

This tag should be used as a reference to indicate text as marked/highlighted. Not to be confused with <em>. This tag is userful in indicating relevance and point of interest.

Useful for:

• We can highlight relevant code in the sample.
• Highlighting seach keywords in a document (example forums, and google cache).

<p>The <mark>mark</mark> tag is used for getting your reader attentions.</p>

Time

This tag is used to display date and time within an HTML document.

Microformats datetime-design-pattern in HTML4 has accessibilities issues as they expose machine data to humans by misusing the HTML4 abbr tag. These problems led to the BBC removing Microformats from their site.

<abbr class="datetime"
      title="2007-08-02T23:30Z">
  Fri, Aug 03 2007 at 09:30
</abbr>

This problem goes away in HTML5 as it introduces a time tag which is better than abbr for marking up date and time.

Linuxers was launched in <time datetime="2009-10-07">October</time>.

Our Office close at <time>09:00</time>PM IST.

This solves Accessibility Issue and Can be used in Microformats like hCalendar

Command

<menu type="toolbar">
  <command onclick="insert(0);" icon="bold.gif">
  <command onclick="insert(1);" icon="italic.gif">
  <command onclick="insert(2);" icon="link.gif">
</menu>

Device

The <device> tag allow the user to give access to a device example video camera.

<p>Start chatting, Select your video camera: <device type=media onchange="update(this.data)"></p>
<video autoplay></video>
<script>
function update(stream) {
document.getElementsByTagName('video')[0].src = stream.URL;
}
</script>

Form Controls

In HTML4 form controls are too limited, several new input types are added in HTML5 to remove repeated use of some input types like checkbox and select.

<input type="datetime">

<input type="date">

<input type="time">

<input type="number">

<input type="range">

<input type="email">

<input type="url">

<input list="title-list">

<datalist id="title-list">

  <option value="...">

</datalist>

Form Validation

HTML5 has new validation tags to validate a form for the expected input required, pattern, min, max, etc. New DOM API allow script to detect and deal with user error more easily.

HTML5 and Microformats

HTML5 non-visible data-* attribute is used for embedding data on a page. Many Microformats can make use of these HTML data-* attributes for embedding custom hidden data. An element in HTML5 can have any no of data-* attributes.

<div class="product" data-id="328" data-type="laser" data-shields="20%" data-x="15" data-y="40" data-z="30">

Tags that weren't discussed in this article.

<datalist>, <details>, <dialog>, <embed>, <figure>, <output>

Just read a mail from Alberto Milone, where he mentions the warning issued by NVIDIA that the drivers 195.36.08 and 195.36.03 might be affected by the same GPU fan speed issues which were detected earlier in the windows drivers. You might not face any troubles with it but there have been a few reports so its better to be careful. The problem might take a while to resolve, so its better to take the measures suggested by Nvidia and Alberto Milone(for Ubuntu). Here I have discussed those measures.

According to Nvidia, until the problem is resolved, Linux users should revert to 190.53 web release or the 195.30 public beta. They are going to remove the 195.36.08 and 195.36.03 drivers from NVIDIA's FTP site.

Otherwise, you might want to disable the current suspicious driver, using either of the 2 methods suggested by Alberto Milone in Ubuntu. This might be the case for only Lucid users.

Disable the driver with Jockey

Go to System->Administration->Hardware drivers, disable the Nvidia driver and restart the computer.

Using following commands.

Open a terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal) and execute the following commands to temporary solve the issue.

[shredder12]$ sudo update-alternatives --config gl_conf (and select the alternative provided by mesa)
[shredder12]$ sudo ldconfig
[shredder12]$ sudo update-initramfs -u
[shredder12]$ sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf_old

Now, restart your computer.

Sources: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/announcement.php?a=39
               http://albertomilone.com/wordpress/?p=482

With around 5 weeks left for the release of Ubuntu 10.04, Lucid Lynx, the release date of the next version, Ubuntu 10.10, is already available, 28th October 2010. The code name of Ubuntu 10.10 is yet to be announced. As usual, this release will go through 4 alpha, 1 beta and 1 RC before the final release. More information regarding its schedule is available here.

With its feature freeze scheduled to 26th August, we can hope for some new ground breaking features in Ubuntu 10.10, as in the upcoming LTS release, Lucid Lynx. I am mostly excited about the improvements in look and feel. Since, Canonical seems to be concerned a lot about new themes and looks, we are sure to see a lot of improvements in future releases.

There is now a Media Player widget available for Opera Browser, its Unite Media Player. The applications aims to provide a lot of simplicity to the user.  You can directly browser yours or your friend's music and play it right from their devices. No need of uploads/downloads or third party stuff, the music will be streamed from anywhere for you.

The only requirement of this applicaiton is Opera 10.50 browser. So, first of all you will have to install the 10.50 Beta for Linux from here. Download either of the archives, .tar.bz2 or .gz and then extract it. You will find an executable in the extracted folder by the name "opera", run it and open the home page of Unite Media Player Widget.

Now, launch the widget and it will automatically get downloaded and installed. You will be further instructed to share your Music collection. But you will need to have an account on either my.opera, dev.opera etc. to maintain your collection and to access your friends' shares.

Best Feature

The best thing that I consider about this player is its ability to stream directly from the other person's device. No, need to upload your collection on some server. Althought if your friend doesn't have a decent connection speed there is nothing you can do.

If you have been using Ubuntu for the past few years or at least more than one version, you would have noticed the default "human" theme. This was probably motivated from Ubuntu's tagline "Linux for Human Beings" and so most of the theming reflected humanity. Now, after 6 years of glory, they have decided to rebrand Ubuntu to a new and better theme "Light". They have prepared a number of examples to show what they really mean by this new "Light" theme, check it out you sure don't want to miss this.

You would be wondering, where this whole idea of new branding came up. Well, it all started in 2009, from a small team led by Mark Shuttleworth. After a review of the branding values the team came up with some new visuals which were later refined by designers and representatives of the Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, Mythbuntu and SpreadUbuntu Communities.

As I already mentioned, this new style of Ubuntu is inspired by the idea of "Light". These lines on the wiki explain this theme in relation to Ubuntu.

We're drawn to Light because it denotes both warmth and clarity, and intrigued by the idea that "light" is a good value in software. Good software is "light" in the sense that it uses your resources efficiently, runs quickly, and can easily be reshaped as needed. Ubuntu represents a break with the bloatware of proprietary operating systems and an opportunity to delight to those who use computers for work and play.

Now, lets get started with the visual art work done by the Designing Teams in London.

Logos

After 6 years, its time for the new face of Ubuntu. I really liked this thing said by Technoviking about the old Logo, "the old ubuntu title font was becoming the MS Comic Sans of the FLOSS world."

Community Logos

Like all other open-source softwares, one of the reasons of Ubuntu's success is the amazing Community. So, with the community is re-branded too.

Some Cool New Gtk Themes

One of the many things that I like about Ubuntu is their in built themes. And with the new theme "Light", the saga continues.

The CDs

Every time I requested a CD, I was always curious about the cover design. And it keeps on getting better every year.

Notepad

The New Boot Splash Screen

The New Website Themes

The new theme for the Main Ubuntu website.

New theme for Ubuntu Fridge.

Other Merchandise

All of you would be aware of the Ubuntu Manual project which aims to provide anything you need to know after installing Ubuntu. And you will be glad to know that this project has it own nice looking website now, http://ubuntu-manual.org. As of now, there is not much on the website except a countdown to the day of manual's release.

In his blog post Martin Owens said,"It will be a good place for having howtos and classes when we run them", which it sure will be. There might be some dilemma in people's mind about having a different website for such a project other than an already existing wiki. They should definitely read this comment by Jimbo on Martin's blog.

“Do you think it adds value to a project?”

Durrr. Of course.

Every meaningful project should have a website even if its just a page on the Ubuntu wiki. Else how are people going to find out about the project?

It sounds to me like you already know the answer. Go make the kick ass website for your kick ass project already.

I read a blog post of Jean-Paul Saman, a VLC developer, about the use of VLC in the most popular motorsport of the World, Formula One. According to the blog, a big VLC fan, Dan Dectis, posted a message on the vlc mailing list mentioning this picture from the Formula One Photography. This is indeed one of the examples showing the power and extent of VLC media player.

Check out the original pic.

The original post by Dan Dectis is:

Hello Developers,

I was recently looking at some interesting Formula One photography and came upon this picture.

That is a picture of the Mercedes GP telemetry screen in the pit lane. Very clearly, in the bottom left, is a VLC window! It is unmistakable. I assume they are using it for live streaming, but I am not sure.I merely wanted to bring to your attention the fact that your (most excellent) software is being used behind the scenes in the biggest motorsport in the world!

Source: http://www.jpsaman.org/jpsaman/node/20

Results of About.com Reader's choice Awards for Browsers have been announced and Opera holds the crown for both the Desktop and Mobile browser categories. Opera was already being expected as a winner for the Mobile category but it came as a surprise when this browser with a very little share in the market, beat all of the popular Desktop browsers. Call it less voting from other browser's followers or more enthusiastic Opera users but Readers have said it, Opera FTW!.

Now, getting into some more details. Out of the 7 categories related to favourite browsers and browser-related softwares, Opera reached the finals in 2 of them and as you can see it won both. Opera-mini, winner in the favourite mobile browser category and Opera Desktop Browser, both were at the top positions from the beginning, in their respective categories.

A special mention to the Opera-mobile, browser for smartphones, which was the runner-up in the favourite mobile browser category.

Well, what About.com stated about Opera seems to be true.

Opera does offer a fast and powerful browser which explains the exuberance of its followers.

That said, Opera has no doubt gained a lot of popularity among its users and with the advent of Opera 10.50, acclaimed as the fastest browser, its first postition seems to be more promisable in the coming years.