Saturday, August 15, 2009
Blueman, bluetooth in Ubuntu made easy
In the last year I’ve found that the bluetooth technology is becoming a real practical alternative to wires.
Unfortunately, the support provided by the standard Ubuntu installation to bluetooth devices is relatively poor.
Fortunately, there is the interesting Blueman project that has produced an effective manager for bluetooth devices under Ubuntu.
Currently, on my eee 901 (Ubuntu 9.04) I’ve succesufully paired my Nokia 6151 phone (using it as a modem, or to type sms on the keyboard of the 901), a Motorola headset (e.g., using it with Skype), a WiiMote (wiimoting in c# :) ), and a Logitech bluetooth mouse (using it as a… mouse).
The Blueman interface provides a useful listing of all the paired devices, and also of the non-paired devices currently visible.
For each device the interface lists the available services, with a direct link for connection.
Blueman is well integrated with the Ubuntu system.
For example, when I connect the dialup service of the Nokia phone, the associated mobile connections automagically appear in the network connection list, and can get connected with a simple click.
Blueman download and installation instruction can be found here.
Friday, March 6, 2009
SunClock
SunClock is a free Windows desktop program that shows you the sunny face of the Earth, the position of the Sun, the position of the Moon and its phase.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Desktop lock on laptop lid close in Ubuntu 8.10
From the “power management” configuration window of Ubuntu 8.10 it is not possible tell Ubuntu to lock the desktop whenever I close the lid of my laptop.
However, it is possible to obtain this behaviour by chosing the “blank screen” option of the “power management” configuration window and then using the gconf-editor utility.
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Thursday, February 12, 2009
GUI design question
Most text editors have the option of horizontally splitting the view of the currently edited document, thus enabling to use a part of the view for editing and the other part for browsing sections of the document that are distant from the currently edited one, but related.
Why most text editors do not offer a vertical split option?
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Friday, December 5, 2008
Contante, my money manager
Contante is a money manager that helps tracking the money flow.