Flash Player 10 on Ubuntu 64-bit

On the past I had bad experiences with flash + 64-Bit Ubuntu: At first you had to do some weird steps (which I don’t recall) to install flash and getting it to work, later you were able to install flash from the repositories, but in the background it would install flash 32 bits, and it would get it to work with the help of ndispluginwrapper. As this was not the best solution it made FF crash a lot, and some times you would see a grey box where some flash content should be; forcing you to restart Firefox.

Today Adobe Labs released an alpha build for Linux 64-bit. But forgetting about our joy of better integration and less crashing. It’s also important to note that Adobe is thinking Linux, which isn’t the way it’s been in the past. Even better: they decided that their first release would only be for Linux, which in some way shows that they were listening to our requests.

Okay enough said, here’s how to get it working:

Note: As this is the first public release the webcam and microphone don’t work yet. If you really need this, then maybe you should wait for the next release.

1. Remove the old flash (If you had one). This step depends on how you installed it, generally (and in my case). You can just do:
   sudo apt-get remove flash-plugin-nonfree
2. wget http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/flashplayer10/libflashplayer-10.0.d20.7.linux-x86_64.so.tar.gz - Alternativeley you can download the plugin here.
3. tar -xvf libflashplayer-10.0.d20.7.linux-x86_64.so.tar.gz - Extract

4. rm libflashplayer-10.0.d20.7.linux-x86_64.so.tar.gz - Get rid of the archive
5. mkdir /home/mzepedas/.mozilla/plugins/ - Try to write plugin directory in case it doesn’t exist.
6. mv libflashplayer.so /home/mzepedas/.mozilla/plugins/ - Move plugin to where it should be.
7. Done! Now restart Firefox and test flash player by looking at the talking cats.

I like using emacs a lot, but sometimes I would just like to view and not edit a certain file. By not using an editor when you don’t need it, you also minimize the chances of accidentally changing your code.

All this time I’ve been using less / more / cat but I realized they all lacked syntax highlighting. As naturally I went googling to see what I could find to remedy this situation. I found a way to use one of vim’s macros to achieve something they call ‘vless‘, but as an emacs user I couldn’t attribute vi.

I first thought about a utility called java2html but I didn’t like the idea of leaving html files all around, I wanted a command which wouldn’t create any file, but just display the file on the screen with nice syntax highlighting.

So I decided to work on a command that could satisfy my objective. After some hours + creativity + patience, I ended up with a command which would syntax-highlight a file and open it in Firefox.

To get this command working do the following:

1. sudo apt-get install source-highlight - Installs source-highlight (You can use this program to generate syntax-highlighted html files)
2. Do this - Replace MyFile.ext with you file (Eg. Main.java), In order to insert a real <TAB> you have to hold <INSERT> and press <TAB>.

But you don’t want to type this long thing every time, it would be nice if we could just type:

~$ mycommand MyFile.ext &

You can do that by doing:

3. This
4. Remember to replace <TAB> with a real tab (Explained earlier), and replace mycommand with whatever you want to call it. Restart the terminal and you can now use mycommand file.ext and firefox will open showing you a nice looking syntax-colored version of your code.

- Supports this languages.

- Made possible thanks to GNU Source-Highlight wich in turn was made possible thanks to Lorenzo Bettini.

The official release candidate for Ubuntu 8.10 will be available for download this Thursday, in the meanwhile we can download the release candidate (Not announced official).

Some of it’s new features are:

• 3G Support for Mobile Phones
• Password Protected Directories
• Guest Accounts
• Gnome 2.24
• X Org 7.4
• Linux Kernel 2.6.27
• Network Manager 0.7

The best idea is to get it running, and test drive it yourself.

To Update:

1. <ALT><F2> - Open run application
2. update-manager -d - Open Update Manager
3. Click Upgrade

To Download:

http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/8.10/

Today I got the eee pc 1000h and I’m so happy because now I don’t have to go around campus plugging and unplugging every hour. The eee pc 1000H can have a battery life of up to 7.5 hours according to ASUS.

The first thing I noticed is that it boot veerry fast, like in about 15 seconds. Obiously the boot has been optimized for this, and this is the only reason I don’t plan to install ubuntu or the so called eee ubuntu on this little baby.

The UI is very simple and fool-proof as the eee pc is targeted for fool people, but worry not: there is a way to enable full desktop mode.

1. <CRTL><ALT><T> - Open Terminal
2. sudo synaptic - Open Synaptic Package Manager
3. -> Settings -> Repositiories - Manage Repositories
4. -> new - Add new repositorie
5. URI: http://download.tuxfamily.org/eeepcrepos/
   distribution: p701
   section: main etch
   - you can check the packages that will be added for install in:
   http://download.tuxfamily.org/eeepcrepos/pool/etch/
6. -> Ok -> Close Window
7. -> Reload - The packages are added now
8. Now look for a package called “advanced-desktop-eeepc”, select it and -> Apply
9. Done, now when you Shut Down your eee, you will see an option to go to full desktop mode.

Hope it helps someone

Screenshot

Wow… Is it because I’m using linux?

This is one more reason why I believe Microsoft doesn’t support the open web, but why would they if their raison d’etre is making money, and not advancing software or helping the community.

Today Google released a browser today, among it’s unqiue features range:

• Every tab is sandboxed and a separate process in the computer. So if it crashes, only that tab crashes and does not affect the others. Also the browser doesn’t wait for the javascript of other tabs to load, everything is independet.
• V8 JavaScript Engine which would make it much faster by handling differently small apps and big apps among other things.
• Google Gears added by default which will give developers more power.
• It’s Open Source!
• Very Nice User Interface - It’s from Google
• You don’t need to worry about annoying pop-up’s or phishing sites.

Official Post

Download

Results!

Grab you weapons…
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