Install mimms:

sudo apt-get install mimms

Sample usage:

mimms mms://iss-video.leeds.ac.uk/smlc/audio/eas/east3031/03Chopsticks.mp3

Of course you can find out more command line options by simply typing mimms –help

Happy ripping!

First we need to add the Medibuntu repository for your version of Ubuntu:

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list  --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

Next we add the Medibuntu keyring and refresh apt:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update

Next we need to install some multimedia packages and codecs:

sudo apt-get install non-free-codecs libdvdcss4 w32codecs vlc mplayer

Finally, run this script to enable encrypted DVD playback:

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

There we go, now sit back and relax!

你好 [nǐhǎo]

This is possible using the Ibus input framework that comes with Ubuntu. The support for pinyin romanisation is provided in the ibus-m17n package. This must first be installed.

sudo apt-get install ibus-m17n

Once installed, restart Ibus and add the input method in the menu as in the screenshot below.

You should now be able to activate the input method. Simply type the pinyin for a character preceded by the tone number (ranging from 1 to 4).

The below steps should allow you to get standard Java setup on your Ubuntu box:

Add the repository
First create a new .list file for the repository

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list.d/java.list

Paste in the following

deb http://archive.canonical.com/ lucid partner

Now update all repositories and install Java

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-fonts sun-java6-plugin

Now you need to make sure that the version of Java you just installed is selected as the default Java installation on your system:

sudo update-alternatives --config java

Choose the version of Java you just installed.

Finally, we need to install the Java plugin in Firefox:

mkdir -p ~/.mozilla/plugins

Make a symlink to the Java plugin:

ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so /home/jonolumb/.mozilla/plugins/libnpjp2.so

Finally, you may want to implement the following fix which resolves the problem of Chinese characters displaying as 口口 boxes in Java applications:

cd /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/fonts
sudo mkdir fallback
cd fallback
sudo ln -s /usr/share/fonts/truetype/arphic/uming.ttc .
sudo ln -s /usr/share/fonts/truetype/arphic/uming.ttc uming.ttf

Now restart Firefox and everything should be working OK! If you do run into any problems, you may want to consider uninstalling OpenJDK completely as well as the Icedtea Java plugin using Synaptic package manager.

Thanks to Felix Yan’s and Buckynasty’s original posts.

To save me from manually removing these citations from the essay, a tedious process, I discovered that I could use regular expressions to find and remove all citations in one particular text.

For most essays, the Harvard system of (author date) citation is used, for example:

(Chan 1991)

Therefore, to match this quotation, I needed a regex that would match any brackets in which there was a single word starting with a capital letter followed by a four digit number. I came up with the following:

\([A-Z][a-z]*[ ][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\)

Using this regular expression in a find & replace operation in a text editor, quotes can be quickly removed in bulk from a text – whilst ensuring that other information contained within brackets is not removed.

Timesaver!

If you follow this guide, you should be able to get PDF files to open inline, embedded within the Firefox window as in the screenshot below:

To allow PDF files to be opened inline within the browser window, you need to do the following:

Install Mozplugger and Evince:

sudo apt-get install evince mozplugger

Edit the Mozplugger config file:

gksudo gedit /etc/mozpluggerrc

Find the following block of text (or something very similar):

application/pdf:pdf:PDF file
application/x-pdf:pdf:PDF file
text/pdf:pdf:PDF file
text/x-pdf:pdf:PDF file
        ACROREAD()
        repeat noisy swallow(kpdf) fill: kpdf "$file"
        repeat noisy swallow(Xpdf) fill: xpdf -g +9000+9000 "$file"
        repeat noisy swallow(okular) fill: okular "$file"
        GV()
        repeat noisy fill exits: evince "$file"

If you prefer to use the Evince PDF viewer replace the above code with the following:

application/pdf:pdf:PDF file
application/x-pdf:pdf:PDF file
text/pdf:pdf:PDF file
text/x-pdf:pdf:PDF file
	repeat noisy swallow(evince) fill: evince "$file"
	ACROREAD()
	repeat noisy swallow(kpdf) fill: kpdf "$file"
	repeat noisy swallow(Xpdf) fill: xpdf -g +9000+9000 "$file"
	repeat noisy swallow(okular) fill: okular "$file"
	GV()
	repeat noisy fill exits: evince "$file"

Or if you prefer to use the xpdf PDF viewer, you can use the following lines (make sure you if not already installed that you install xpdf using the command sudo apt-get install xpdf):

application/pdf:pdf:PDF file
application/x-pdf:pdf:PDF file
text/pdf:pdf:PDF file
text/x-pdf:pdf:PDF file
	repeat noisy swallow(Xpdf) fill: xpdf "$file"
	ACROREAD()
	repeat noisy swallow(kpdf) fill: kpdf "$file"
	repeat noisy swallow(okular) fill: okular "$file"
	GV()
	repeat noisy fill exits: xpdf "$file"

Save changes, close all instances of Firefox and Evince/Xpdf and then open firefox and try viewing a PDF file. Everything should now function as you want it to.

Poor Wireless Performance
Whilst the laptop is a great little machine, since I installed Ubuntu Karmic on it, the wireless connection had been completely useless. At first, Network Manager would report great signal strength for wireless networks within range of the netbook. However, once connected to the access point, the wireless signal which was first reported at over 80% would rapidly deteriorate to something much lower, often below 30%. Even when the computer was within metres of the wireless access point, the connection speed would be incredibly slow and I frequently experienced wireless drops, especially when connecting to secure wireless networks.

Solution at hand
However, fear not. After doing much searching around on the internet it seems that there is a solution to this problem. I managed to find a bug on launchpad where other EeePC 1005HA users suggested that installing the “Karmic Wireless Backports Module” would make most of the problems go away. This module contains all the cutting edge wireless drivers for Ubuntu Karmic from the testing repositories which haven’t yet been officially released.

After installing the module via apt-get, I have experienced a 30% increase in wireless signal strength, a faster connection and no drops for the last half and hour or so, it would indeed seem that the problem is solved or at least much less annoying. Here are the steps you need to follow to install the backport modules:

Enable Karmic backports
First we need to enable the Karmic backports repository. Open up “Software Sources” and browse to the “Updates” tab, make sure the karmic-backports option is ticked.

Install the Karmic wireless backports module
Now open a terminal and enter the following commands to install the backports wireless module.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-wireless-karmic-generic

Please note that it is not recommended to install linux-backports-modules-karmic-generic as it has been suggested in some posts as this may affect other things on your system apart from the wireless.

Once complete, reboot your computer and enjoy.

我之前在 Ubuntu 的中文论坛里看到过不少有关使用一个 Totem 插件来观看 PPS 在线视频的帖子，而且我最近还注意到了 PPS 的官方下载页面上竟然多出了一个 Linux 版本的链接与相关安装说明。

本人作为一个热爱看中国电影的老外，只要闲着都会跑一趟图书馆去借一些中国片子。我得知有如此有用的 Totem 插件之后，就根据帖子里面的说明安装到我电脑上了。然而，我很快就发现安装上述插件的过程并非简单，需要我自己下载源代码，将其编译好。虽然我最终还是安装成功了，但是后来发现这个插件有不少缺陷，其中最主要的是你只能在 Totem 里用这个插件来浏览 PPS 所提供的在线视频而不能用浏览器直接上官方网站去找。插件的浏览界面很简单又超级慢，其电影的分类杂乱无章，也没有搜索电影功能。因此，我怎么都找不到我想看的片子，实在是太不好用了，还是算了吧！

既然在 Ubuntu 下收看在线视频如此的麻烦，所以我暂且在 Virtualbox 的虚拟机里安装了 XP 和 PPS，每次想看电影时我就会启动虚拟机，打开 PPS 后就能开始收看电影了。不过，由于我这用的是笔记本，所以每当我同时开着 Ubuntu 和 Windows，电脑就会变得非常热，内存占满，处理器忙不过来，以至于电影的画面质量大大降低，收看的体验大打折扣，我实在是看不下去了。

面临着如此大的困难，我今天又在谷歌上搜了一下，想知道有没有别的办法让我能够顺顺利利地看一些在线电影。令我吃惊的是，在一两个月的时间内，上述插件的开发者都已经发布了一个新的版本，名叫 totem-pps。这次开发者还提供了一个 DEB 的软件包，让用户能摆脱十分复杂的手动安装过程。不仅如此，开发者还编了一个非常棒的 Greasemonkey 脚本。使用 Firefox 的用户安装这个脚本后便能直接到 PPS 的官方网站上去找电影看，只要点击电影的缩略图即可，视频将在 Firefox 的窗口里自动开始播放。

总之，totem-pps 这个插件使 Ubuntu 用户能享受到一个完美的，非常便捷的收看在线视频的体验。它的功能非常丰富，性能也很强，而且如果你将它与 Greasemonkey 并用的话，搜索到你最想看的电影已经不成一个问题了。有人感兴趣的话，可以按照下面的安装步骤，自己试一下这个非常棒的 Totem 插件。

如何安装:

先把 Mingming 的 Launchpad PPA 添加到你的软件源：

Ubuntu Karmic:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:portis25/ppa

Ubuntu Jaunty:

将下面两行添加到 /etc/apt/sources.list/totem-pps.list

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/portis25/ppa/ubuntu karmic main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/portis25/ppa/ubuntu karmic main

在终端中执行下面的命令来获取上述 PPA 源的密钥。

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys EF666E7B1E758171B82B7C5327F5B2C1B3EAC8D9

更新软件包列表：

sudo apt-get update

安装 totem-pps 和 totem-mozilla (Totem 的 Firefox 插件）：

sudo apt-get install totem-pps totem-mozilla

在 Totem 里启用 totem-pps 插件:

打开 Totem（电影播放器），然后在菜单里面选：

编辑 –> 插件

在所打开的窗口里勾上 “PPS 浏览器” 此插件就可以了

在 Firefox 里安装 Greasemonkey 脚本:

你如果没有安装过 Greasemonkey，要先到此网页，安装后要重启 Firefox。

点击此链接来安装脚本

脚本的配置如下：

测试一下:

到 http://kan.pps.tv/ 找自己想看的电影并点开，等视频在 Firefox 的窗口中开始播放就行了。 （要等待视频缓冲完了才能开始看，等候时间根据自己的网速而定）

要想知道更多关于这个插件的开发，可以到它的Google Code页面去看看。

Here are the settings you will need:

You should now find that the computer connects without any issues.

Disable the touchpad whilst typing
One thing that I did not feel was configured properly in the above guide is the touchpad for the 1005HA. On such a small laptop, it is inevitable that whilst typing emails or doing word processing tasks on the netbook, your hands will often brush the touchpad, activating tapping or scrolling features that may cause undesired outcomes such as text being deleted or being moved around within the document. This problem can however be dealt with by using a program that temporarily deactivates the touchpad whilst text is being typed and then reactivates it once typing is finished. Whilst this feature is discussed in the above guide, there is no documentation regarding customisation – for example users may want to change the amount of time for which the touchpad is disabled or only disable tapping and scrolling (and not the pointer itself). I did some investigation on my own and found the following solution:

Configuring the touchpad device
Before we do anything else, we need to enable configuration of the touchpad by enabling SHMConfig in a configuration file. In a terminal, enter the following commands:

sudo nano /etc/hal/fdi/policy/shmconfig.fdi

Paste the following code into the file and save:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><deviceinfo version="0.2"><device><match key="input.x11_driver" string="synaptics"><merge key="input.x11_options.SHMConfig" type="string">True</merge></match></device></deviceinfo>

You now need to restart X (logout and log back in again) or restart the computer for changes to take effect.

Syndaemon – disable the touchpad on typing
Next, we will use syndaemon to setup automatic disabling of the touchpad when typing. Here are the configuration options for this daemon.

Usage: syndaemon [-i idle-time] [-m poll-delay] [-d] [-t] [-k]
  -i How many seconds to wait after the last key press before
     enabling the touchpad. (default is 2.0s)
  -m How many milli-seconds to wait until next poll.
     (default is 200ms)
  -d Start as a daemon, ie in the background.
  -p Create a pid file with the specified name.
  -t Only disable tapping and scrolling, not mouse movements.
  -k Ignore modifier keys when monitoring keyboard activity.
  -K Like -k but also ignore Modifier+Key combos.
  -S Use SHMConfig even if input device properties are available.

It is best to setup syndaemon to run as a daemon process in the background – if you run it as a normal command in a terminal then it will terminate when you quit the terminal session. Here is the command I use to run syndaemon:

syndaemon -t -K -d -i 1

The -t flag only disables tapping and scrolling whilst typing. This is useful as it means that you can continue to move the mouse pointer whilst or immediately after typing – but you will not accidentally click on text or scroll within a window whilst you are typing when your hands brush against the touchpad.

The -K flag means that the touchpad will only be deactivated when you are typing real text and not when you are using shortcut keys within programs.

Finally, I personally prefer a slightly shorter time delay of just one second before the touchpad is reactivated, this is set by the -i flag followed by the delay time in seconds.

Automation
Instead of running this manually in a terminal every time you need it, you can setup syndaemon to run automatically on session startup. In the menu, go to System –> Preferences –> Startup Programs and add an entry named “Syndaemon”. You can then copy and paste the above command into the dialogue box and hit ok.