Saving web pages to disk as ODF files

The past few months as seen me carry out a number of projects which involved the use of pages that I had bookmarked for later use. Increasingly I have found that the pages I want are no longer there so I no longer have the info.

I am now taking the step of saving the pages with the information that I need to my harddrive.

After saving the page I have found that if I open the page in libre office writer I can delete any thing like headers, adverts and other irrelevant stuff and save the bit I want as an ODF file.

I now have the stuff saved for my personnal use later when I come to finish the project.

Nightingale released....its a prelease but its still better than others!

All I can say is that I am over the moon about this. Finally, after waiting what seems like a very long time, Nightingale Music player for Linux is released (they've also done a Windows version with source code for mac also available). Although I have to say that I had been testing it before with a build it yourself download from git.

For my Fedora machine I had to download the general linux 32bit download but there is .DEB file that is available. A long with a number of add-ons which make Nightingale all the better including last.fm scrobbing.

The downloads are available from http://getnightingale.com/all-versions.php , just choose the one you need for your machine need to download!!

Before installing check with the nightingale website concerning anything extra that you

1/. Unpack the file into a directory, I chose /home/nightingale which is my personnal preference.

2/. Click on nightingale and it should run.

3/. To create a link from the application launcher, right click - add applications - new item - type nightingale in the name section and in command type home/your user name/nightingale/nightingale/nightingale or just click on the nightingale file.

You can also add the icon if you wish.

4/. save then close. Your can now launch from the application menu.

It should now work. The only problem I have is that I have been unable to add flash and Java for some web pages.

Nighthawk

Dropbox on KDE

Working between two computers is fine but when you are working on something such as a dissertation or University essay for example, it becomes a pain when you have an idea while on the computer that doesn't have your work on it or you forgot to back it up on a USB memory stick for when you switch between machines. So recently I decided to store my projects on dropbox so that which ever machine I am using I have access to my work.

Yes, Dropbox install is fine on a machine running Gnome BUT not KDE. I was resolved to the idea that I would only have to have access to my work on my Fedora machine through the browser.

BUT then I thought....Why the hell should that be the case?

Solution was to google Dropbox in KDE and the solution was found. However, there are two main draw backs.
1/. You don't have all the features that are available in Gnome. And
2/. It doesn't start up when you turn the machine on. But I don't see any need to have dropbox working all the time, just when you require it to get to your work.

How to install...


I already had a Dropbox account but it really isn't necessarily a requirement to have one set up before installing this...

1/. Download the closed source Dropbox Linux client from http://www.getdropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86 (x86_64 for 64 bit)


2/. Extract the file into a new folder, for example I set up dropbox in home so I could fine it again.


3/. Go to the folder and click on it. If you see nothing; go to view in dolpin and click on view-show hidden files and it will then be visible.


4/. Click on the file dropbox and it should start up. Follow the set you during which you will be asked for your account details. Now is when you either set up an account or type your details in.


5/. Right click on the Application launcher and go to 'Edit Applications'. Enter this in the command 'user/home/dropbox/.dropbox-dist/dropbox'.


Hopefully I didn't forget anything.....

Its been a long time since I wrote something.

The reason is that I've been busy with uni and work stuff. I've also been playing with something new....Nightingale Music player has seen alot of activity recently. A source code download was made available 2 months ago which I was able to build and use. A true learning experience as I have never done this before. Including adding dependencies.

It was and is somewhat frustrating that I am unable to code, so I have deciding that I will try and help out with bug reporting and testing till I have learn't how!

In the mean time, I have, on the off chanced asked one of the Dev's on the project how to get started. I got a really nice reply with over of help and from their I got myself a Teach Yourself C++ by Al Stevens (for Kindle, just using the app on my android at the moment, a true Kindle hopefully arrives next week).

If anyone does read this please make yourself known!! Maybe give advice if you know what your doing.

Nighthawk

Downloading music from Emusic with Emusicj

I recently decided to rejoin Emusic.com because their costs are far cheaper than others and they seem to have the music I want (most of the time anyway). The trouble is that their Linux downloader is difficult to find unless you know where to look but it doesn't seem maintained or so it seems.

What is often suggested on the forums, even by the moderators is Emusicj, which also seems to have not been touched for more than year. It still works and I was able to get it working on my Fedora15 (KDE) and Unbuntu (Gnome2) machines.

You need to have Sun Java 6 (or newer) for this to work. I found that after installing the downloader didn't work on fedora so I switched to open Java then back again and it worked fine.

You also obviously need an account with Emusic.com (various options) to download from the site.

Download Emusic from (a .tar.gz file) -

http://www.kallisti.net.nz.EmusicJ/Download

-double-click it and extract it into your home directory (I set up a folder specially for this in my home directory)

-navigate into the extracted emusicJ-linux directory

-click the emusicj file and in the dialogue that opens hit run. (if it doesn't, check Java settings).

If everything is set up right it should open and start running. Thats it, all done but now you need to have set up to work when you click the download buttton.

The next thing I did was to add it the main menu, but Gnome2 and KDE require slightly different methods.

Gnome 2 (Tried Gnome 3 and didn't like it!)

- System> Preferences>Main Menu
- Highlight 'Sound and Video then click 'New Item'
- For Name enter EmusicJ'
- For Command enter '/opt/emusicj-linux/emusicj'
- click the springy icon thing thing in the top left
-in the location bar in the window that opens enter '/opt/emusic-linux/emusicj.xpm'

This should give you the option to open emusicj from the menu.

KDE4

I use this on Fedora 15 which is on a faster machine and is therefore what I mostly use.

- Right click on the menu launcher in the left corner
- Click on 'edit applications'
- Highlight Multimedia
- Click add application
- Enter name and description
- For Command simply click on the little box on right and navigate to the amusicj folder in my case I simply clicked on '/home/***/emusicj-linux/emusicj'  (*** will be your user name)
- To get the icon simply place the curser over the area next to Name and description (on the right) and click
- add the same file as in the Gnome instructions
-click save and your done


Now go to your emusic settings and click 'turn on or allow downloader', this will enable you to download complete albums and make downloading much easier.

When you first use it, you need to click in the box the option to sync with firefox it will take you back and then click on download again. You now have music :-

Any up dates or alterations may appear as edits or changes to the main text.

I would also like to thank the person on the Ubuntu forums who posted a guide that influenced these instructions (sorry I forgot the name).

Thought I Had a Break Through

I was so close but so far..

One of my long term projects is to root my phone and try cynogenmod7 or anther custom ROM so I don't have the junk that HTC put on their phone.

I found this thread on XDA Developers forum

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=741824

I followed the instructions AND all was going well till an error message appeared in the terminal. On investigation it appears that there may not be the drivers required for my HTC Wildfire. Other suggestions in the thread suggest that it may not have worked due the wrong unrevoked being down loaded.

At least, this time I saw that Hboot is version 1.01.0002.

Nighthawk

Inspired beginning.

Welcome to my new blog.

The title says it all. I have just spent the day at OggCamp11 and the first thing I did (apart from hunt coffee) was to listen to Lorna Mitchell who did a presentation about careers in Opensoftware. During which she suggested starting a blog to get noticed or just to show solutions and ideas that work which others can use and so the seed of an idea was set. This idea was to take what I planned to put in a personal wiki and write about it in a blog so that others could solve their problems.

A recent example was when I tried to get Emusicj to work on Fedora15. I could find no information to help me on the forum and posted a help question....no reply. So another search and read came up with a solution for ubuntu, missing out one section of the instruction got results. The thread is now solved, with the information posted for others to see. I will put detailed instructions here for others to use as well. Judging by the number of views, others are probably looking for the solution as well so I marked the thread solved and gave the solution instead of just leaving it hanging.

I am an archaeologist working for a commercial company in Oxford, England which has an open source policy some of my co-workers like it some don't.....I love it. I'm also a part time student at University of Bristol studying archaeology. A chance offering at the end of the first year of my course saw an opportunity to begin my career ,a chance taken and not regretted. In all this I use linux/opensource software for all my needs for my course, work and everyday life.

Before I continue I would like to point out that my posts are likely to include android because that is what I use and intend to carry out projects that involve this as well.

So, why now....

I wanted a place where I can post the results of my problem solving, what the problem was or something I just needed for my work or just for general everyday use. I will post about the project/problem and how I solved it (or not!) with the hope that others can benefit or correct me if I'm wrong. However, the methods I use may not be the proper way but a way that I got the results I wanted!!

Being a first post this is likely to seem like ramblings and c**p. So Sorry!!!