Fedora 8 “Werewolf”.

Yesterday mark another release day of one of my favorite Linux distro (Fedora); Fedora 8 codenamed Werewolf ( what a codename ). Among notable features in this release were:

• Features a 2.6.23 based kernel.
• GNOME 2.20
• KDE 3.5.8 (KDE Live and regular DVD) while the KDE 4 (Beta) Development Environment is available in the repository.
• The implementation of PulseAudio sound daemon.
• Codec Buddy (a.k.a codeina).
• A new look and feel (the “Infinity” desktop art is cool..changes color to reflect outdoor conditions).
• Nodoka, a fresh new GNOME theme created specially for Fedora
• Compiz Fusion installed by default.
• Open-source Java integration through the IcedTea project.
• Improved laptop support.
• Remote virtualization management.
• Improved network management
• Many other improvements.

SMPlayer

I’m always searching for media player that will let me watch my video files hassle free; meaning that I don’t have to worry about codec installation/setup and having different player for different file types. Before this, whether on Windows or Ubuntu, I often end up needing a different media player due to some problems that occurred. Mainly the problem consist of a bloated codec and its’ compatibility with my media player. At that time I used K-Lite Codec Pack as my main codec pack. Time passed by and I realized that I must change to other codec pack to rectify my problem; and doing some search on the net I’ve encountered with CCCP. It solve most of my problem thank GOD, but I realize how do I install CCCP in my Ubuntu machine?

Don’t get me wrong, the codec that I’ve downloaded from Ubuntu’s repositories provide me with no major problem at all but still I feel that it can become much better. Then through some of my acquaintances, I tried VLC media player. But it seems some of my *.mkv files will not play properly using this player. Some times the screen goes blank or when viewing videos with external subtitle files, there’s some kind of green line been drawn at the bottom of the screen. My searching at the net again had resulted in the discovery of another media player that share some of the greatness of VLC media player, SMPlayer.

Files Integrity Check

Okay, imagine a situation like this; you downloaded a files, in the end you notice that the file is corrupted and you have to redownload the files again. But there are certain scenarios that even though it’s corrupted, it’s still can be executed. For example video files. But due to the file corrupt problem, there are some glitches in the video. In some cases, it’s nice to know whether our downloaded files contains error or not as soon as possible. There are many ways or tools to use to check the files integrity. This kind of tools or techniques involved the usage of cryptographic hash functions (eg: SHA1, md5) and redundancy check functions (among others). Among the most popular method been used is Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC).

All right, we’ll look into a practical part and for that purpose I’ll use “[Shinsen-Subs]_Le_Chevalier_D’Eon_-_01_[6BD7BF33].avi” filename as an example. On a side notes, the example file is a video files (an anime to be exact) and as most fansubbers, they tend to include the CRC value at the end of their releases file name (the CRC value of that file is ‘6BD7BF33′). So basically, to check the file integrity, we will compute the CRC value of the file and compare it with the given CRC value. If it’s the same, safe to say that there are nothing wrong with the file and vice versa. For a little of howto demonstration, I will classify it into two different platform; Linux and Windows.

Fedora 7 “Moonshine”

I don’t know the exact date and time, but a couple of minutes ago, I just realize that Fedora 7 “Moonshine” has been released. No more “Core” in their naming convention, this latest release marks some major changes that sure looks appealing to different type of Linux user (beginner, advanced, or expert). Fedora 7 features a tickless kernel, KVM virtualization, Liberation fonts, and the capability to mix your own Fedora distribution with ease (from what I understand, it something that let the users to customize their Fedora 7 to contains only a set of package they desire and best of all share it with others). I didn’t install and test it yet, so it’s quite unfair to write any further. Go to their official site for more info (FedoraProject.org), this link for their release notes and here for the official announcement. Talking about their official site, it had been revamped to accompany the new release. I really like their tag line “Reach Higher” because it describe their intention to become much better than ever…hopefully Fedora 7 can live up to it.

Fedora Core 2 & Me

Ok, the local date and time now is July 2, 2006 at 3:55am and right now I’m still working. Yup…I’m taking some part time jobs and supposedly I’m either at home on my bed sleeping like a kitten or watching world cup match between Brazil and France. So why the hell I’m still here doing my job? It’s basically because having some weird problem on Fedora Core 2 (FC2) and need to revamp almost everything. Can’t tell you much about my work here but I’m dealing with some network monitoring using RRD-Tools on Linux machine. It’s not my decision to use FC2, so I’m a little in an awkward position when I’m trying to revamp everything. I hope this will end soon…huhuhuhu

Fedora Core 5

 

It's almost two weeks now since I change my Linux OS distro into Fedora Core 5 (FC5). I must admit that the journey to explore the Linux world is far from easy or over. Before this, I've manage to put my hands on the Ubuntu 5.10. I must say that the experience for noobies like me is very pleasent in some way. But for some reason, I switch to FC5, mainly because of the more large support on FC distro (community forums, guide, rpm, etc). I never really care about FC actually because before this when I want to jump on the Linux bandwagon, one of the distro that I tried were Fedora Core 2 & the experience is not as pleasent as I thought (don't flame me because of my statement here…remember, I'm a noobie).

Ubuntu 5.10 Screenshot

Linux Ubuntu 5.10

Recently I've been busy dealing with my new installed OS…yup…Ubuntu 5.10 "The Breezy Badger". Ubuntu 5.10 is one of the many Linux distro out there that can be freely download and use (in terms of free talk, not free lunch some might say…). I never get so involved with Linux before this (just a peek and touching here & there), so I admit Ubuntu is the first Linux distro that I played it directly since all the hassle including the installation and such been done solely by me. But frankly, from Linux noobies like me, Ubuntu is among the easiest Linux distro to install (Before this, I only manage to witness and involved a little in Red Hat and Fedora Core 2 installation, so I'm only comparing the installation process with the two.)Ok…been a loyal Windows user is really make me want to give up when I try to jump to Linux bandwagon. But hey…if I don't do this, its only mean that I'm afraid of changes. So here it goes. After a few references at Ubuntu community forum, I can say that I'm facing no problem with Linux (period). Oh, I'm still learning mainly how to deal with terminal command and it took a lot of time really. But good things like Linux doesn't come complete out of the box, so all these hassle is already in my earliest assumption. I will post later about my Linux desktop, because due for certain needs, I'm using Windows right now. Ahaks….I'm not giving up on Linux yet…not so soon….

P/S: If you had a little interest to know more about Ubuntu 5.10, do visit this link About Ubuntu 5.10