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full circle magazine #29 1 contents ̂

full circleISSUE #29 - September 2009

TOP FIVE

PHYSICS GAMES




The articles contained in this magazine are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. This means you can adapt, copy, distribute and transmit the articles but only under the following conditions: You must attributethe work to the original author in some way (at least a name, email or URL) and to this magazine by name ('full circle magazine')

and the URL www.fullcirclemagazine.org (but not attribute the article(s) in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you must distribute the resulting work under the same, similar or a compatible license.

full circle

LAMP - Part 2 p.12

Virtual Private Network p.14

Program In Python - Pt3 p.07 Ubuntu Games p.23

Command & Conquer p.05

Top 5 p.28

My Story p.16

Read aboutand anothers

...

MOTU Interview p.20

Review p.18 Letters p.21

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/




Welcome to another issue of Full Circle magazine.

Our articles on LAMP and Python continue this month and are joined by avery informative article on setting up a VPN (Virtual Private Network) whichis something that quite a few people have asked for more information on.

More important is the announcement of the codename. I couldn'tpossibly spoil it, but flip over to the news page for more details.

Please keep your articles coming in. Don't be disheartened when you don't seeyour (or ) right away, I keep the articles in a queue and try to

use them in the order I receive them, so if you sent me a several monthsago, it may be your turn next month, you never know! And we're always looking fornew articles, so keep them coming too!

Keep the emails coming too, I'm always interested to hear what you think aboutFCM, it's always in beta, and continually evolving. If there's something you think ismissing from FCM feel free to drop me an email, my email address is below.

Enjoy the issue, and keep in touch!

Editor, Full Circle [email protected]

EDITORIAL This magazine was created using :

Ubuntu is a complete operatingsystem that is perfect for

laptops, desktops and servers.Whether at home, school or workUbuntu contains all theapplications you'll ever needincluding word processor, emailapplication and web browser.Ubuntu is and always will be freeof charge . You do not pay anylicensing fees. You candownload, use and share Ubuntuwith your friends, family, schoolor business for absolutelynothing.

Once installed, your system isready to use with a full set of productivity, internet, drawingand graphics applications, andgames.

use the new'contents' link to jumpto the contents pagefrom any other page!

http://creativecommons.org/

http://www.openoffice.org/

http://www.gimp.org/

http://www.scribus.net/

mailto:[email protected]




NEWS

Apologies to whowrote the article and not thename given in the original PDF, thePDF has since been corrected andall new downloads credit Roger.

GNOME 2.28 Released

The GNOMEDesktop isreleased everysix months andcontains manynew features,improvements,

bug fixes and translations.GNOME 2.28 continues thistradition. To learn more aboutGNOME and the qualities thatdistinguish it from othercomputer desktopenvironments (such asusability, accessibility,internationalisation, andfreedom) visit the AboutGNOME page on our website.

GNOME 2.28 includes all of theimprovements made in GNOME2.26 and earlier. You can learnmore about the changes thathappened in GNOME 2.26 fromits release notes.

:http://library.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/2.28/

Ubuntu 10.04 : Lucid Lynx

Speaking via video to UbuCon atthe Atlanta Linuxfest, MarkShuttleworth announced that thecode name for the 10.04 Ubunturelease would be "Lucid Lynx". Itwill be an LTS version featuring 3years support for the desktopversion and 5 years for theserver version. This will be thethird LTS version, proving thatUbuntu can not only deliver anew version every 6 months, butalso an LTS version every 2ndyear, something Mark is very

proud of.

Speaking briefly of what we can expect to see in theLucid Lynx, Mark talks of cloud computing and GNOME.Mentioning our relationship with Debian, Mark hopes tocontinue expanding that relationship in the hope of bettering both distributions. In closing Mark asks ourcommunity to search out those who put in so much workdelivering a quality Ubuntu product to us, and to givethem all a big thanks. We think a big thanks is alsodeserved by Mark for his oversight and tireless work onour behalf.

: Ubuntu Weekly News

Launchpad 3.0 is here!New UI and more.

The Launchpad team is proud toannounce the release of Launchpad3.0!

• a new clearer web interface with in-line editing• personal translation dashboards: seewhat needs your attention• automatically updated diffs duringcode reviews.

Visit Launchpad to see our new webinterface. You can now view moreinformation on many pages withoutscrolling, particularly on people andproject profile pages.

And the web interface is now faster:you can update more data, includingalmost everything on bug reportpages, without reloading the page.

: launchpad.net

http://launchpad.net/

http://www.gnome.org/about

http://www.gnome.org/about

http://library.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/2.28/




Have you ever foundyourself tapping anextra key on yourlaptop, only to

realize that it isn't bound toanything, and then finding outthat the shortcuts programdoesn't recognize the key?Well, I ran into a similarproblem when setting upOpenbox on my netbook, andso I thought I would show youhow to bind keys to functions,even if it seems that they arenot recognized.

Step One: KeyRecognition

First we need to find out if the key is recognized by thekernel. Open a terminal andrun the command:

xev | grep -A2 --line-buffered '^KeyRelease' | sed-n '/keycode /s/^.*keycode$[0-9]*$.* (.*,$.*$).*$/\1 \2/p'

This will output the keycodefollowed by the keypress name

(XF86AudioMute,XF86MonBrightnessDown, a, b,and so forth). If it displaysNoSymbol after the keycode,

there is no keypress bound tothat keycode yet, and you canskip to step two. If neither thekey returns nothing, it is timeto try showkey.

Switch to tty0 (by hitting ctrl+ alt + F1) and log in as youruser. Once logged in, enter thecommand:

showkey

This program will returnkeycodes of keys pressed, andautomatically quit 10 secondsafter the last keypress. Oncethe command is run, hit thekey(s) you want to test, andrecord any keycodes that itreturns. If neither of theseoptions returned a keycode, it'stime to see if the key has ascancode.

To do this, press the key youwant to test, and then checkdmesg with:

dmesg|tail -5

If something like this

appears in the dmesg output -

atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed(translated set 2, code 0xf1on isa0060/serio0).

atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodese071 <keycode>' to make itknown.

- you can map the scancode to

a keycode. You can do this byeither using HAL orsetkeycodes (kernel tool), asshown in the dmesg output.

The further reading section atthe end of this article offers alink to HAL's keymap quirkspage. I will not go into detail inthe article, since it is quite rare(in my experience) that it is

necessary to do this.

Step Two: BindingKeycodes

I will focus on bindingkeycodes to keys in Xorg, sincemost multimedia keys aren't

required in the tty0 console. Tostart, you must create the.Xmodmap file. This can bedone by using the touch

command, or just editing it ingedit and then saving the file.Entries in the file should be inthis format:

keycode <Xkeycode> =keysymbol

A few examples would be asbelow:

keycode 153 =XF86MonBrightnessDown

keycode 154 =XF8MonBrightnessUp

Step Three: TestingKeycodes

First run the command:

xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap

Then you should be able toadd the keys to whateverfunction you need. If not,revise the keycodes andkeysymbol names, just in case

COMMAND & CONQUER




has learned all he knowsfrom repeatedly breaking hissystem, then having no otheroption but to discover how to fixit. You can email Lucas at:[email protected] .

COMMAND & CONQUER

you made a typo. A full list of symbols can be found here:

/usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h

And for extra function keys:/usr/include/X11/XKeySymDB

Once you have ensured thatthe keys work, continue to stepfour.

Step Four: Making ItPermanent

To make the changespermanent, you have to runthe xmodmap command everytime you log in. I wouldrecommend adding it to your.xprofile.

An alternative tool toxmodmap is xbindkeys, and itis fairly straightforward. Thereis a GUI available calledxbindkeys_config, but I'm not

sure if it's in the Ubunturepositories.

HAL keymap quirks:http://people.freedesktop.org/~hughsient/quirk/quirk-keymap-index.html

QUICK REVIEW - PREYIn the world of the first person shooter (FPS)video game there is very little innovation.Most of the time a new FPS game will haveelements that made older, or previous,games in this genre a success.

That is not the case with Prey. Prey isunique. Prey is different from anything youhave played before. Recently ported to Linux, this old favourite of mine isnow enjoying a new lease on life.

You play a Cherokee warrior named Domasi Tawodi (a.k.a Tommy), a manwho wants to leave his Cherokee heritage in the past, leave theReservation and move on into the civilized world, but there is one problem:his girlfriend Jen wants to stay, because it is her home. All of a sudden,while they are talking about it in a bar, it gets ripped up by an alien shiptaking him, Jen and his grandfather onto it so its inhabitants can feed onthem.

Obviously, Tommy would not give up his life so easily, so he tries to rescuehis Grandfather and girlfriend.

One thing that makes this game outstanding (apart from the fact it uses aheavily modified Doom 3 engine) is its use of gravity (if you take a look atsome of the screen shots you'll see why) and portals (which makes it verypossible to shoot yourself if you don't know what you are doing). Theseare used in a number of short and long puzzles, but nothing the averagepart-time gamer can get stuck on. Another aspect of the game I loved wasthe fact after a certain point in the game you cannot die. You read itcorrectly, 'you cannot die' so you will no longer 'die' then quickly pressyour quick-load key then try again with a miniscule amount of health. I

don't want to give away too much about this game other than the fact thatit is awesome.

Ten years plus in development and this is what we get: a really slick game.It is one of the few examples of the modern video game that I think will godown in the record books as a definite classic.

http://people.freedesktop.org/~hughsient/quirk/quirk-keymap-index.html





HOW-TO Program In Python - Part 3

FCM#27-28 - Python Parts 1-2

Dev

In the last article, welearned about lists, literalsubstitution, comments,equate versus assignment,

if statements and whilestatements. I promised you thatin this part we would learn

about modules and functions.So let's get started.

Modules

Modules are a way to extendyour Python programming. Youcan create your own, or use

those that come with Python,or use modules that othershave created. Python itself comes with hundreds of

various modules that makeyour programming easier. A listof the global modules thatcome with Python can be foundathttp://docs.python.org/modindex.html . Some modules areoperating system specific, butmost are totally cross platform(can be used the same way in

Linux, Mac and MicrosoftWindows). To be able to use anexternal module, you mustimport it into your program.One of the modules that comeswith Python is called 'random'.

This module allows you togenerate pseudo-randomnumbers. We'll use the moduleshown above right in our first

example.

Let's examine each line of code. The first four lines arecomments. We discussed themin the last article. Line five tellsPython to use the randommodule. We have to explicitly

tell Python todo this.

Line seven

sets up a 'for'loop to print 14randomnumbers. Lineeight uses therandint() function to print arandom integer between 1 and10. Notice we must tell Pythonwhat module the functioncomes from. We do this by

saying (in this case)random.randint. Why evencreate modules? Well, if everypossible function were includeddirectly into Python, not onlywould Python becomeabsolutely huge and slow, butbug fixing would be anightmare. By using modules,we can segment the code into

groups that are specific to acertain need. If, for example,you have no need to usedatabase functionality, youdon't need to know that thereis a module for SQLite.However, when you need it, it'salready there. (In fact, we'll be

using database modules lateron in this series.)

Once you really get startedin Python programming, you

will probably make your ownmodules so you can use thecode you've already writtenover and over again, withouthaving to re-type it. If you needto change something in thatgroup of code, you can, withvery little risk of breaking thecode in your main program.

There are limits to this and we

will delve into this later on.Now, when we used the 'importrandom' statement earlier, wewere telling Python to give usaccess to every function withinthe random module. If,however, we only needed touse the randint() function, we

#=======================================# random_example.py# Module example using the random module#=======================================import random # print 14 random integersfor cntr in range(1,15):

print random.randint(1,10)

http://docs.python.org/modindex.html


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PROGRAM IN PYTHON - PART 3can re-work the importstatement like this:

from random import randint

Now when we call ourfunction, we don't have to usethe 'random.' identifier. So, ourcode changes to

from random import randint# print 14 random integersfor cntr in range(1,15):

print randint(1,10)

Functions

When we imported the

random module, we used therandint() function. A function isa block of code that isdesigned to be called, usuallymore than once, which makesit easier to maintain, and tokeep us from typing the samecode over and over and over.As a very general and grossstatement, any time you haveto write the same code morethan once or twice, that code isa good candidate for afunction. While the followingtwo examples are silly, theymake good statements aboutusing functions. Let's say wewanted to take two numbers,

add them, thenmultiply them, andthen subtract them,displaying thenumbers and resultseach time. To makematters worse, wehave to do that threetimes with three setsof numbers. Our sillyexample would thenlook like the textshown right.

Not only is this a lot of typing, it lends itself to errors,either by typing or having to

change something later on.Instead, we are going to createa function called 'DoTwo' thattakes the two numbers anddoes the math, printing theoutput each time. We start byusing the 'def' key word (whichsays that we are going todefinethe

function).After'def'weaddthenamewe

select for the function, andthen a list of parameters (if any) in parentheses. This line isthen closed by a colon (:). The

code in the function isindented. Our improved sillyexample (#2) is shown below.

As you can see, there's a lotless typing involved — 8 linesinstead of 12 lines. If we needto change something in our

function, we can do it withoutcausing too many issues to ourmain program. We call ourfunction, in this case, by using

the function name and puttingthe parameters after.

Here is another example of a function. Consider thefollowing requirements.

We want to create a

#silly exampleprint 'Adding the two numbers %d and %d = %d ' % (1,2,1+2)print 'Multiplying the two numbers %d and %d = %d ' % (1,2,1*2)print 'Subtracting the two numbers %d and %d = %d ' % (1,2,1-2)print '\n'print 'Adding the two numbers %d and %d = %d ' % (1,4,1+4)print 'Multiplying the two numbers %d and %d = %d ' % (1,4,1*4)print 'Subtracting the two numbers %d and %d = %d ' % (1,4,1-4)

print '\n'print 'Adding the two numbers %d and %d = %d ' % (10,5,10+5)print 'Multiplying the two numbers %d and %d = %d ' % (10,5,10*5)print 'Subtracting the two numbers %d and %d = %d ' % (10,5,10-5)print '\n'

#silly example 2...still silly, but betterdef DoTwo(num1,num2):

print 'Adding the two numbers %d and %d = %d ' % (num1,num2,num1+num2)print 'Multiplying the two numbers %d and %d = %d ' % (num1,num2,num1*num2)print 'Subtracting the two numbers %d and %d = %d ' % (num1,num2,num1-num2)print '\n'

DoTwo(1,2)DoTwo(1,4)DoTwo(10,5)



PROGRAM IN PYTHON - PART 3program that will print out alist of purchased items in apretty format. It must looksomething like the text below.

The cost of each item andfor the total of all items will beformatted as dollars and cents.

The width of the print out mustbe able to be variable. Thevalues on the left and rightmust be variable as well. Wewill use 3 functions to do thistask. One prints the top andbottom line, one prints theitem detail lines including thetotal line and one prints theseparator line. Luckily, thereare a number of things thatPython has that will make thisvery simple. If you recall, weprinted a string multiplied by 4,and it returned four copies of the same string. Well we canuse that to our benefit. To printour top or bottom line we cantake the desired width,

subtract two for the two +

characters and use “ '=' *(width-2) ” . To make thingseven easier, we will usevariable substitution to put allthese items on one line. So ourstring to print would be codedas 's ('+',('=' * width-2)),'+').Now we could have the routineprint this directly, but we willuse the return keyword to sendthe generated string back toour calling line. We'll call ourfunction 'TopOrBottom' and thecode for this function looks likethis.

def TopOrBottom(width):# width is total width

of returned linereturn '%s%s%s' %('+',('=' * (width-2)),'+')

We could leave out thecomment, but it's nice to beable to tell at a glance whatthe parameter 'width' is. To callit, we would say 'print

TopOrBottom(40)' or whatever

width we wish the line to be.Now we have onefunction that takescare of two of thelines. We can make anew function to takecare of the separatorline using the samekind of code...OR we

could modify the function we just made to include aparameter for the character touse in the middle of the pluses.Let's do that. We can still call it

TopOrBottom.

defTopOrBottom(character,width):# width is total widthof returned line

# character is thecharacter to be placedbetween the '+' characters

return '%s%s%s' %('+',(character * (width-2)),'+')

Now, you can see wherecomments come in handy.Remember, we are returningthe generated string, so wehave to have something toreceive it back when we makethe call to it. Instead of assigning it to another string,we'll just print it. Here's thecalling line.

print TopOrBottom('=',40)

So now, not only have wetaken care of three of the lines,we've reduced the number of routines that we need from 3down to 2. So we only have thecenter part of the print out todeal with.

Let's call the new function'Fmt'. We'll pass it 4 parametervalues as follows:

– the value to print on theleft

– the width of this“ column ”

– the value to print on theright (which should be afloating value)

– the width of this“ column ”

The first task is to formatthe information for the rightside. Since we want to format

the value to represent dollarsand cents, we can use a specialfunction of variablesubstitution that says, print thevalue as a floating pointnumber with n number of places to the right of thedecimal point. The commandwould be '%2.f'. We will assignthis to a variable called 'part2'.

So our code line would be'part2 = '%.2f' % val2'. We alsocan use a set of functionsthat's built into Python stringscalled ljust and rjust. Ljust willleft justify the string, paddingthe right side with whatevercharacter you want. Rjust does

'+===============================+''| Item 1 X.XX |''| Item 2 X.XX |''|-------------------------------|''| Total X.XX |''+===============================+'



PROGRAM IN PYTHON - PART 3the same thing, except thepadding goes on the left side.Now for the neat bit. Usingsubstitutions we throwtogether a big string and returnthat to the calling code. Here isour next line.

return 'ss' % ('|',val1.ljust(leftbit-2,''),part2.rjust(rightbit-2,''),' |')

While this looks ratherdaunting at first, let's dissect itand see just how easy it is:

- We will send backour created string to the

calling code.- We are going to stick in4 values in the string. Each%s is a place holder.

- Starts the variable list- Print these literals

- Take the variable val1 that wewere passed, left justify itwith spaces for (leftbit-2)

characters. We subtract 2 toallow the '| ' on the left side.-

Right justify the formattedstring of the price rightbit-2spaces. ' |' - finish the string.

That's all there is to it.

While we should really do someerror checking, you can usethat as something to play withon your own. So...our Fmtfunction is really only two linesof code outside of thedefinition line and anycomments. We can call it likethis.

print Fmt('Item 1',30,item1,10)

Again, we could assign thereturn value to another string,

but we can justprint it. Noticethat we aresending 30 forthe width of theleft bit and 10for the width of the right. That equals the 40that we sent to our

TopOrBottom routine earlier.So, fire up your editor and typein the code below.

Save the code as'pprint1.py' and run it. Your

output should look somethinglike the text shown above right.

While this is a very simpleexample, it should give you agood idea of why and how touse functions. Now, let'sextend this out a bit and learn

#pprint1.py

#Example of semi-useful functionsdef TopOrBottom(character,width):

# width is total width of returned linereturn '%s%s%s' % ('+',(character * (width-2)),'+')

def Fmt(val1,leftbit,val2,rightbit):# prints two values padded with spaces# val1 is thing to print on left, val2 is thing to print on right# leftbit is width of left portion, rightbit is width of right portionpart2 = '%.2f' % val2return '%s%s%s%s' % ('| ',val1.ljust(leftbit-2,' '),part2.rjust(rightbit-2,' '),' |')

# Define the prices of each item item1 = 3.00item2 = 15.00# Now print everything out...print TopOrBottom('=',40)print Fmt('Item 1',30,item1,10)print Fmt('Item 2',30,item2,10)print TopOrBottom('-',40)print Fmt('Total',30,item1+item2,10)print TopOrBottom('=',40)

+======================================+| Item 1 3.00 || Item 2 15.00 |+--------------------------------------+| Total 18.00 |+======================================+



is owner of , a

consulting company in Aurora,Colorado, and has beenprogramming since 1972. Heenjoys cooking, hiking, music,and spending time with hisfamily.

PROGRAM IN PYTHON - PART 3more about lists. Rememberback in part 2 when we firstdiscussed lists? Well one thingthat I didn't tell you is that alist can contain just aboutanything, including lists. Let'sdefine a new list in ourprogram called itms and fill itlike this:

itms =[['Soda',1.45],['Candy',.75],['Bread',1.95],['Milk',2.59]]

If we were to access this asa normal list we would useprint itms[0]. However, whatwe would get back is

['Soda',1.45], which is notreally what we were looking forunder normal circumstances.We want to access each item inthat first list. So we would use'print itms[0][0]' to get 'Soda'and [0][1] to get the cost or1.45. So, now we have 4 itemsthat have been purchased andwe want to use that

information in our pretty printroutine. The only thing we haveto change is at the bottom of the program. Save the lastprogram as 'pprint2.py', thencomment out the two itemxdefinitions and insert the listwe had above. It should look

like this now.

#item1 = 3.00#item2 = 15.00itms =[['Soda',1.45],['Candy',.75],['Bread',1.95],['Milk',2.59]]

Next, remove allthe lines that callFmt(). Next add thefollowing lines (with#NEW LINE at the end) tomake your code look like thetext shown right.

I set up a counter variablefor loop that cycles through thelist for each item there. Noticethat I've also added a variablecalled total. We set the total to0 before we go into our forloop. Then as we print eachitem sold, we add the cost toour total. Finally, we print thetotal out right after theseparator line. Save yourprogram andrun it. Youshould seesomething likethe text shownbelow.

If youwanted to get

wild and crazy, you could add aline for tax as well. Handle itclose to the same way we didthe total line, but use (total *.086) as the cost.

printFmt('Tax:',30,total*.086,10)

If you would like to, you canadd more items to the list andsee how it works.

That's it for this time. Nexttime we'll concentrate onclasses.

itms = [['Soda',1.45],['Candy',.75],['Bread',1.95],['Milk',2.59]]

print TopOrBottom('=',40)

total = 0 #NEW LINEfor cntr in range(0,4): #NEW LINE

print Fmt(itms[cntr][0],30,itms[cntr][1],10) #NEW LINEtotal += itms[cntr][1] #NEW LINE

print TopOrBottom('-',40)print Fmt('Total',30,total,10) #CHANGED LINEprint TopOrBottom('=',40)

+======================================+| Soda 1.45 || Candy 0.75 || Bread 1.95 || Milk 2.59 |+--------------------------------------+| Total 6.74 |+======================================+



HOW-TO LAMP - Part 2

FCM#28 - LAMP Part 1

Dev Internet

W e have our nicenew LAMP box, allvery well andgood, but we'll be

needing to put some data on it,of course. Not only that, but wedon't want other people to alsobe able to put their data on it,or, alternatively, to steal ours.Linux server is inherentlysecure by default, however itdoesn't do any harm to rampthings up to the next level.Let's configure FTP and an easyFirewall.

FTP Installation

We're going to use vsftpd. Atthe CLI type:

sudo apt-get install vsftpd

You can source a vsftpd GUImodule for Webmin but I preferto edit the vsftpd.conf filemanually. To do so at thecommand line, type:

sudo nano /etc/vsftpd.conf

I've read many tutorialswhich seem quite happy towork with anonymous access.However, this isn't somethingI'm personally comfortablewith, so I always disable it.Depending on your own systempolicy you may also wish tochroot selected users to

prevent them from straying outof where they're supposed tobe into somewhere they aren't.

Permissions are the thing forFTP access. As I use only asingle account, and connectdirectly into /var/www, myexpanded method for access is

as follows:

• Enable local user access (myaccount) in the vsftpd.conf.

• Add the user (me) to thewww-data user group (I useWebmin for this).

• Give ownership of /var/wwwto the www-data group (I useWebmin for this) and check“ Files Inherit Group ” .

•

Set destination path in theftp client (i.e /var/www).

Ensure that"umask" is un-commented inthe vsftpd.conf file and selectyour desired setting forintended uploads. ForWordpress installations I'vefound 0002 to be the most

agreeable option -- this gives775 permissions.

Your needs may be different,but the above works for me.Restart vsftpd and test accesswith your FTP utility. I use

Transmit -- it ’ s great.

sudo /etc/init.d/vsftpdrestart

Firewall Configuration This is quite easy through

Webmin. Under the drop-downnetworking tab, open ‘ LinuxFirewall ‘ .

Select Block All except SSHand IDENT on externalinterface.

At the next screen we needto add rules for FTP, Webmin,Sendmail & MySQL Adminaccess.

Click ‘ Add Rule ‘ under theexisting list.

Check ‘ Accept ‘ .

Set Network Protocol Equals TCP.

Set Destination TCP or UDPport Equals 21.

Click ‘ Create ‘ .



is apassionate Ubuntu professionalwho offers open source strategiesand services for business IT fromthe http://toomuchgreen.eu webportal. When not working withtechnology he cycles vigorously.

LAMP - PART 2Do the same for ports 3306

(MySQL), port 25 (Sendmail),port 10000 (Webmin), and port80 (Web & phpMyAdmin).

Check ‘ Activate at Boot ‘ andclick ‘ Apply Configuration ‘ .

That ’ s it. If you can get backinto Webmin, use PHP Mailscripts and FTP, and latch ontothe DB with MySQLAdministrator. Then you'resorted.

You may have to re-startMySQL. I use Webmin seeingas how it ’ s already open.

PHP Mail

You may wish to have theability for visitors to one-clickmail you from your funkydynamic website. PHP alreadyhas a mail function built in, butit needs linking to a transportagent (MTA) for it to relay. In

other words, it needs aprogram or service which willsend the mail. Here we canuse a server option called (canyou guess?), yes, Sendmail.Here's how to install andconfigure it -- it's very easy.

First we install Sendmail. Atthe CLI type:

sudo apt-get install sendmail

Next we need to configurePHP so it knows where theSMTP service (sendmail) is. Atthe CLI, type the following:

sudo nano/etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

Add the following under themail function section, inputtingyour own details as required:

[mail function]; Setup for Linux systemssendmail_path =/usr/sbin/sendmail -tsendmail_from =<[email protected]>

And save. That's it. Your mailscripts should now quitehappily send mail.

Richard Redei

http://toomuchgreen.eu/



HOW-TO Virtual Private Network In Ubuntu

A letter from Ken, inFCM#27, wantedsome information onVPNs. As my article in

FCM#02 was about using VPNs,I thought that it would be goodto write an update to that, asthings have changed.

First off, you set up VPNsthrough the Network Manager.Most VPNs that you set up willuse the PPTP protocol. PPTPruns on TCP port 1723. If youare blocking ports out bound

N/A

System

from your local machine or LANfirewall, you will need to allowthis port to pass. Most of thetime this port will be allowedout bound, unless you are anextreme security freak and youhave things on lock down.

You will need to locate theNetwork Manager icon in yourNotification Area (yours mightlook different). This will aid youin getting to the settings of your network and starting VPN

connections.Lets get the PPTP module

installed so that we can startcreating VPN connections.Guess what? You no longerneed to use the command lineinterface (CLI) for this. PPTPhas been put into Add/RemovePrograms. This will make it

easier for those that who notlike the CLI. Open yourAdd/Remove Programs and doa search for VPN. If you sort bymost popular first, it should beat the top. Check the box,Apply Changes, put in yourpassword, and click close.

Simple enough.

For you CLI people outthere, type this at the CLI and

it will install the neededpackages:

sudo aptitude installnetwork-manager-pptp

Now that you have the PPTPmodule installed for yourNetwork Manager, let's get aconnection setup. Right clickon Network Manager in theNotification Area and a contextmenu pops up. On the contextmenu, click on EditConnections. Note: you canalso left click the icon, go toVPN Connections, thenConfigure VPN.

In the Network Connectionswindow, you will need to clickon the VPN tab.

Next click on Add and thenCreate.

Edit the name of the

connection. You can putwhatever you would like, but if you plan on making more thanone connection, or havetrouble remembering what youset up 6 months down theroad, it is a good idea to putthe name of the place that you

VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK IN UBUNTU



VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK IN UBUNTUare connecting to.

In the Gateway settings, putthe IP or FQDN (fully qualifieddomain name) that you areconnecting to. Personally I justput in the IP. Then fill out theUsername. I do not normallyput in a password -- just a goodhabit in my opinion. If want toput in a password, it is reallyup to you. The password shouldbind to your Keyring if youwant it to.

You might need to go intothe Advanced section to selectencryption. You might need tocheck the Use Point-to-PointEncryption (MPEE) to get

connected. Most VPNs aregoing to require an encryptedconnection. Click OK.

The IP v4 settings tab is forAdvanced Users. This is whereyou can change DNS serversfor your VPN, set up differentnetwork routes based onsubnet, and assign a static IP.

Things should work withoutmessing with the IP v4 settingtab.

QUICKIEMy wife's HP desktop was getting long in the tooth. Because I had rebuiltcomputers in the past, many options existed for its replacement. HerAcer One notebook had demonstrated the quality and speed of Intel'sAtom 270 processor. I became aware of people using the Atom-equippedmother boards for desktop projects.

Going online, I located a bare-bones computer using the latest Atom 330processor, a true dual-core version. The case is slightly larger than asheet of paper and only 2 ½ inches high. I ordered a 1 Tb SATA harddrive, a DVD-CD drive, and 2GB of RAM. When the boxes arrived, the funbegan.

The manual, complete with pictures, was easy to follow. I removed thescrews for the top and slid it off, revealing the mother board and a metalbox for the drives. After removing the black plastic bezel and twoscrews, the drive tray slid off and out of the case. I installed the harddrive and the DVD drive in their respective openings with the suppliedscrews, returned the tray to its place, and plugged in the SATA cords.

The RAM memory snapped into place and the computer was backtogether. I then realized that I needed a USB keyboard and mouse, asthere are no receptacles for the conventional cables. After a quick trip toa computer store, it was time to turn on the computer and load theoperating system. I had previously burned a CD of Ubuntu 9.04. Thespeed at which Ubuntu was loaded onto the hard drive was a revelation.I reused the old LCD 17 ” monitor and the powered speakers.

The bare-bones computer is made by MSI and is called a Wind PC. Thereis a small fan that cools the entire computer box and it is very quiet. Thepower requirements are satisfied by an external power supply, similar toa laptop unit, of only 65 watts. The case comes with a plastic bracket tohold it on its side, instead of horizontal. After reading reviews from otherbuyers, I chose to lay it flat, for optimum cooling. A wireless keyboardand mouse makes it possible to place the computer box quite a distancefrom your work area, the limiting factor being the length of the monitorcable.




MY STORY One Man's Journey

My computerexperience beganwith a Kaypro IV(right) running

CP/M, a simple machine usingtwo 5.25 inch floppy drives anda nine-inch green monitorscreen. The operating systemwas read into memory from thefirst floppy drive, and then oneswapped out the floppy andreplaced it with another floppyholding the software beingused, while your data was

stored on the second floppydrive. These floppies were 360KB in size. This setup with adaisy-wheel printer and allneeded software cost about$3000 US dollars in the early1980s. At the time it didn't getbetter than this; I was livingthe good life.

Alas, the good life soon wentinto a downward spiral, asCP/M was crushed by a newoperating system called DOS. Iused DOS for a while, and thencame another operatingsystem, with color graphics(GUI), called Windows. Life

again wasgood. Butsoon an evenbetter

operatingsystem camealong. Of course thefact that Ihad paidgood moneyfor DOS andWindows, plusneeding to buy new software,

was of no import. You must buythe new and improved (doesthis sound like a laundry soapcommercial?) operating systemcalled Windows 95. This wasthe be-all end-all of operatingsystems, so of course you mustbuy it. But it was followed byWindows 98, Windows 98 SE,Windows ME, Windows 2000,

and Windows XP, with moreversions than I can count usingall of my fingers and toes, itseems. But wait, there's more.Windows XP was soon eclipsedby Windows Vista, also withnumerous versions for yourperusal. And soon coming to

yourdesktop isan evenbigger-and-

better, new-and-improvedoperatingsystemcalledWindows 7.

Beingthrifty, I decided while running

Windows 2000 that I was tiredof throwing good money afterbad to buy something I didn'tlike, but then I had to buy moresoftware to secure mycomputer from outside attacksbecause of security flaws. TheMacintosh sticker shock turnedme off as soon as I was fullyinside the Apple Store, so I

beat a hasty retreat.

I had brief affairs withseveral GNU/Linux distros, butnone of them grabbed me andsaid "I am the one ” until Ifound Ubuntu. I first usedUbuntu 6.06 and now am using

9.04. Ubuntu has brought mefrom the Dark Side to Freedom.

I still have trouble believing

that this wonderful system isfree, both in the ability to add,change, and modify it as youwish, but also free of monetarycost.

I consider myself a noob,because not everything inUbuntu is easilycomprehensible. But this is OK

with me, when I recall workingwith Windows for almost twodecades without being able todo everything with it. Today Ihave a great system enhancedby a lot of help from bothbooks and forums, and it letsme do what I want to do withmy computer.

I would be remiss if I didn'tsay a great big thank you to allthe people who contribute theirtalent and time to give to all of us a truly world-class operatingsystem.




MY STORY My Walk With UbuntuUbuntu, like fine wine, gets

better with age. The more timewine is given to mature, thericher and more delicious it

tastes. The same thing can besaid about Ubuntu: the moretime it is given to mature, thericher it becomes, the morecontent you see and the morecompatibility you get.

I started using Ubuntu backin 2005, when I got my firstlaptop. I knew nothing about

open-source programs or aboutother operating systems. I washeading off to college and theonly operating systems I knewabout were Windows and Mac.Windows looked boring and aMac was too expensive. Theguy whom I bought the laptopfrom gave me an open-sourcelive bootable CD containing

programs and an image of Ubuntu. All of the open-sourceprograms worked like magic onmy new laptop. The onlyproblem was that nothingbooted up.

For a while I forgot all about

the operating system on theCD and continued usingWindows XP on my computeruntil it became too boring for

me. I didn't like its excessiveautomatic operations and itslack of easy inexpensivecustomization. I neededsomething to spice up mycomputer. So I started lookinginto different types of operating systems and againcame upon Ubuntu.

When I visited the UbuntuWeb site I was amazed byeverything that Ubuntu waspromoting and standing for. Iordered two versions andwaited six weeks for the CDs toreach Trinidad. As soon I gotthem, I backed up everythingon my laptop and installedUbuntu. Everything installed

perfectly. I loved having adifferent operating systemfrom everyone else, and I wassoon able to customize it andmake it my own.

However, good things do notlast. I needed Microsoft Office

to do reports for school, andUbuntu was open source, notrecognizing Microsoft Windowsor any Windows programs.

Although it had thousands of beautiful software programs atits disposal, it lacked the one Ineeded. So about a monthafterwards, I uninstalledUbuntu. I was sad to see it go.However, I made a promise tocome back to it as it got better.

When Ubuntu 9.04 came out

in April, I decided to giveUbuntu a chance again. Iordered a CD and had to waitsix weeks again for it to arrive.When it did, I first gave it a testrun to see that everything wasworking proberly. The reason Igave up on 8.10 was that itwas not connecting with mymobile PC card. However, a

different tune can be sung forUbuntu 9.04.

As soon as the test screencame on, it indicated that I hada mobile PC card, and it askedme to input information forrunning the card. I did just that

and crossed my fingers hopingand waiting for it to connect tothe Internet. Happily, it didconnect. Thus my mind was

made up. I quickly backed upmy stuff, deleted Windows, andinstalled Ubuntu. Everythingworked perfectly, from thegraphic card to the sound card.I have had no major problems.

However, I still do needMicrosoft Office. Doing someresearch, I found two

companies who do advancedevelopment into WineMicrosoft WindowsCompatibility Layer, thusallowing Microsoft Office towork through their programs.Now I can have Ubuntu andMicrosoft Office without havingto dual boot or run it in avirtual machine.

So, the Ubuntu operatingsystem is just like fine wine(the drink, not the program) inthat it improves with age. It isnow a great operating systemwith access to loads of beautiful software.




REVIEW Kompozer

I have been usingUbuntu since therelease of Breezy Badger5.10. This means I missed

Warty Warthog and HoaryHedgehog. The reason I ambringing this up is because Istarted using Nvu to createweb pages, back with BreezyBadger, while it was stillsupported. If I am not mistakenit was still supported up untilGutsy Gibbon. I know I couldn'tget it to work with Intrepid Ibex

8.10, and, of course, it wouldnot work with Jaunty Jackalope.I really liked the program; Iused it for publishing webpages for customers for myweb business. I was besidemyself when it was no longersupported. I wasn't sure what I

was going to do. I could havegone back to doing it the oldfashioned way, editing thepage locally and thenuploading it to the server,which wasn't that bad.

Nvu is still supported onWindows, so I went tohttp://www.net2.com/nvu/download.html and downloaded aWindows version. I used myWindows machine until Idiscovered KompoZer. It's aKDE program, but it worksgreat in Gnome.

If I had been payingattention to what was said onthe Nvu website, I would haveseen that they recommendeddownloading the KompoZerversion of Nvu. They even hada link:http://kompozer.net/download.php , but the one in the Synapticpackage manager was a newerversion. Whenever possible Ialways use the one in thepackage manager. The versionat the time of this writing is1.0.7.10ubuntu6 and isdescribed as a Complete Web

Authoring System.

The whole description is asfollows:

I am not going to includeany screen shots of Nvu but if you are interested incomparing it to KompoZer justgo to:http://www.net2.com/nvu/screenshots.html

At this point I am going tofocus on KompoZer. I use it, notbecause I want to get away

from HTML, but because I canchange the HTML and see theresults before I even publishthe page.

I have a customer that I doobituaries for and it takes meabout 5 minutes to do onepage, because I have atemplate online that I makechanges to and then publish itunder a new webpage name. Ithen make a quick change toan index page and add a link tothe new obituary page and Iam done.

Once I installed KompoZer Ihad to set up the servers Iwanted to work with. The waythe program works is, you openthe page, make changes andthen re-publish it. All the timeyou are working live on-line. Ifind this a very fast way of doing things.

From the main menu: Edit >Publishing Site Settings iswhere you set up your servers.

The Publishing Site Settingsdialog box (see figure Four) hassome fields that need to be

REVIEW KOMPOZER

http://www.net2.com/nvu/screenshots.html

http://kompozer.net/download.php

http://www.net2.com/nvu/download.html




filled in. I am giving you ascreen shot of one of myserver settings as an example.

As you can see, they arevery simple and straight-forward.

Once you have your serversset up, you are ready to edit apage or add a new one, and doall your publishing from oneprogram. It's fast and clean.

To open a page, all you do isfind it on your server in the leftcolumn and double click on it.

It will open your page in theright window where you willfind four tabs at the bottom of the window. The next fourscreen shots are the sameindex page from Abbott'sFuneral Home but with the fourdifferent tabs (right).

Normal view gives you aWYSIWYG view. In this viewyou can make changes to yourweb page, and it will show yourchanges when you publish it.

The next view is the HTML Tag. This allows you to view whatHTML tags are being used andwhere. Next is the view that Iuse to make changes to thewebpage: the Source Codeview. After I make changes Ican go to the next view andsee how my changes will look

when it is published.Once you have made all

your changes or created a newpage, you can go to the topmenu: File> Publish or Publishas, and publish your finishedwork.

I find this a very handy fastway to make quick changesand, by using templates, tocreate new pages.

If you add any graphics to apage, you must upload themfirst or you will get errormessages saying that thegraphic file cannot be found. Ifind it easier to upload all mygraphics before I ever startworking with KompoZer. I usethe plugin for FireFox called

FireFTP. It is fast and very easyto upload all my graphics thatway beforehand.

This is the third article Ihave written for FCM ‒ notcounting my letters. When FCMused almost every article eversent (over the past two years) I

thought it's about time I get onthe ball and write another one.

Just for the record I am writingthis on my old laptop, and if you want to read about my oldlaptop you will have to lookback in FCM#16, page 24.

REVIEW: KOMPOZER




MOTU INTERVIEW Iulian Udreabehindmotu.wordpress.com

: 17: Romania: iulian

How long have you used Linuxand what was your first distro?I have been using GNU/Linux

since four years ago. My firstdistribution was Debian 3.1Sarge.

How long have you been usingUbuntu?Since 6.06 Dapper Drake.

When did you get involved withthe MOTU team and how?I got involved with the MOTUteam during the Hardydevelopment cycle. I joined the#ubuntu-{motu,devel}channels on Freenode inDecember 2007, IIRC. Aftersome time of idling and notsaying a word in both channels,

I started to look at some bugsin Launchpad and tried to fixsome of them. My first patchuploaded to Ubuntu was inMarch 2008.

What helped you learnpackaging and how Ubuntuteams work?I learnt packaging by readingthe Debian policy, PackagingGuide from our wiki page andsome other excellentdocuments from the web.Frankly, I cannot rememberfrom where I learnt how Ubuntuteams work. I believe I learntby reading their wiki pages andtalking about them on IRC.

What ’ s your favorite part of working with the MOTU?Oh, that is a very interestingquestion. My favourite part of

working with the MOTU is,obviously, the people. I reallylike how they interact witheach other and sharing ideas.All I can say is that all of themare really helpful, friendly andit ’ s just a great feeling workingwith them. I am really proud

that I ’ m part of this team.

Any advice for people wantingto help out MOTU?

Just dive in. You do not need toknow any programminglanguages by helping outMOTU, but sometimes in mayhelp you when fixing a non-packaging bug. There aremany excellent documentsfrom which you can learnpackaging. In my opinion,packaging is not so difficult asit looks. It doesn ’ t take somuch time to learn it. Once youlearn the basics, it will be apiece of cake. You will just needto understand it. Like I said inthe previous interview when Iwasn ’ t a MOTU, the hardeststep is to get in, once you arein, you will never want to getout, unless you are barmy. :-)

Nobody knows everything sodo not hesitate to askquestions in the channel or inthe mailing list.

Are you involved with any localLinux/Ubuntu groups?Unfortunately, I am not

involved with any localLinux/Ubuntu groups.

What are you going to focus onin Jaunty?I’ m going to focus onmerging/syncing as manypackages as I can and fix nastybugs. I started to get involvedwith the Kernel team as well soother than merging andsyncing with Debian I focus onmaking patches for the kernelteam.

What do you do in your otherspare time?Reading. I am a fanatic reader,I read a lot, especiallyComputer and Science Fictionbooks. I am also a skater. So if I’ m not at home, reading, youcan find me in the park,skating and jumping like a

barmy boy.

http://behindmotu.wordpress.com/




LETTERS [email protected] NOTE: some letters may be edited for space reasons.

LETTER OF THE MONTH

On a recent holiday to France Iwas surprised to see a computerkeyboard and mouse on a windowsill, with the screen behind thewindow. The sign said that use of the computer was free in themornings, and also gave a smallmenu of refreshments available.

This is unusual in most places,but in a sleepy market town inFrance it looked positively alien.

The desktop was in French(unsurprisingly) but I was

surprised to see the PC hadUbuntu installed. The default webbrowser was Firefox, and all otherusual applications were available.Obviously, the people offeringthis PC for public use felt that theprice, security and languagesupport of Ubuntu werepreferable to other commercialoperating systems!

My grasp of French is notgreat, so I was limited in what Icould do on the PC. However, Isaw several other people use thecomputer on further visits to thetown, so it is obviously gettingsome use. Offering a service likethis has some potentialdownsides, though; once I passedthe computer to see a selection of “ adult ” websites on the screen.Killing all browser windows left thePC ready for the next user.

Perhaps this public offering of freePC use and internet access iscommonplace, but it certainlysurprised me – especially as theywere using Ubuntu.

Seeing Stars

Folks , I have been with Ubuntusince 6.04 and have enjoyed the

experience. I used to hate timewith Windows, but with 9.04 I amcoming to the conclusion thesame out of control software isstarting to impede Ubuntu. Forexample, my DVD/CD drives usedto work in 8.10. I upgraded to9.04, in June of 2009 . It boots up within a minute, but I've lost myDVD and CD drives. You knew

about the problem in March.

I think the problem is, youguys are seeing stars with eachnew release, and you are notfixing the problems that thesenew releases have. Let us slowdown the releases, maybe oneeach year, or one every twoyears. Use the time to make abullet -proof system. Do m oretesting so that everything works,or is caught in a very short time. Ican 't recommend 9.04 to mymother! She would be in tearswhen things no longer work. Theyused to work, but not now.

Please keep giving us updates,that fix the problems. Then youcan come out with a new releasewith everything working and a lot

of cool new stuff too!

Thanks for letting me vent, Ihope that things can begin tochange in a positive direction.

GUI Python

First, I want to congratulateyou for your great Pythonarticles, but I have a question.

There are a lot of places wherewe can get information abouthow to program in python, butthere aren't any where we canget information on how toprogram in Python with a GUI.Will your articles include GUIstuff?

Greg replies:

LETTERS





.

Baseball Coach

I was reading your questionscolumn, and read your answerto the Baseball Coach'squestion. Quite by accident,

I've found an application whichis an unbelievably good fit forthe coach's needs. Get him totry (shown below)http://www.getdeb.net/app/LongoMatch . It's at GetDeb so itlooks like it should work in

Jaunty.

VirtualBox - Compiz

In a previous issue's Q&A Ifound an answer that could beexpanded: the question aboutVirtualBox appearingtransparent. The proposedsolution is to deactivateCompiz altogether. While thissolution works, there isanother, less restrictiveworkaround :• Launch CompizConfig• Select the "Window Rules"plugin in the "WindowManagement" tab.• For the "No ARGB" rule, add

the line: This will turn off the

transparency for VirtualBoxonly, but keep all the otherCompiz settings working. Ifound this on the FrenchUbuntu forum (ubuntu.fr) whenI encountered the sameproblem.

Home Networking

FCM#28 dealt with LAMPand networking Ubuntu PCswith SSHFS. I would like to

know how to set up a homenetwork using Ubuntu.Hardware manufacturers arenow releasing products withwireless networkingcapabilities. I would love to seea series on how to have aserver housing the data in ahome and the users accessingit from anywhere in the house,or even the world, using their

devices such as laptops ormobiles.

Ed:

:[email protected]

LETTERS


http://www.getdeb.net/app/LongoMatch




UBUNTU GAMESGAME NEWS

-Finally, Quake Live is nowout for Linux. Go towww.quakelive.com , tostart fragging.

-Latest version brings Newmodes, maps, textures andweapons.

The biggest game for

Linux in 2009 is finallyout! Quake Live is anonline FPS, which is

entirely based on Quake 3. idSoftware wanted to bring oneof the most popular online FPSto 2009, by updating thegraphics and adding modern-

day game features. The keyunique feature Quake Livebrings is the ability to play thegame within your web browser.All you need is an account anddownload of the plugin to startplaying. The best thing is thatit's free to download and play!

If you have played any of the Quake games in the past,there is nothing new to tell you.It is the same great fast-pacedshooter it has always been.

Like any FPS, the aim is tomove yourself around the map,kill as many people as possibleand try not to die. However,Quake stands out from the restof the pack with its amazingarray of weapons, sci-fi maps,and excellent community.Quake Live is no different. Thegame comes with 25 maps,

most of which are based onQuake 3 maps. These mapsconsist of a sci-fi look and feeland a great layout to suit all 5game modes: Duel,Deathmatch, TeamDeathmatch, Capture the Flag,and Clan Arena. These should

all be familiar to you. All theQuake games were famous fortheir excellent range of weaponry. All the standardweapons are here, but withsome awesome additions.

Plasma rifles and rocketlaunchers are fan favouritesand are still very effective.

Apart from bringing an oldgame to 2009, id Software hasupdated and added many newfeatures. In the past few years,thanks to Xbox 360, stats andachievements have brought a

competitive wave betweengamers. id Software has seenthis rise in popularity and havefinally brought it to Quake. Theachievements are based ongetting so-many kills, winningso-many matches or doing acertain trick. The achievements

are saved on your profile andcan be seen by the community.

The stats in the game aredisplaying the amount of games you have played, thenumber of kills and deaths,

your favourite weapons, yoursuccess-rate with certainweapons, etc. There is a lot of information about you, whichcan be compared with otherplayers. Both these featuresoffer an excellent way to makeyou want to play the gamemore, and you can get a greatsense of achievement from

them. Friends list has beenslowly added into manymultiplayer PC games, andQuake Live has followed suit.

You can add friends from workand school as well as friendsyou have met in-game. The listallows you to chat and create

UBUNTU GAMES

http://www.quakelive.com/




Ed Hewitt

UBUNTU GAMESmatches with your friends. Onemajor and much neededfeature which has been finallyadded to Quake is ClanSupport! Quake has alwaysbeen about joining clans andhaving clan matches andtournaments. You can nowsetup clans and allow clans tocreate matches and setuptournments. This is a welcomefeature for the hardcore Quakefans.

The Quake series has alwaysbeen a hard game to do wellat, due to its fast-paced natureand the high skill level of mostplayers. Being a casual gamedue to the ease and speed of downloading and joining amatch, id Software has addedsome new features to help newand less-experienced playersplay Quake Live. From thestart, players are forced to tryout a tutorial which tests yourskill level. It is an excellent wayto learn the ropes, but it playsa more vital role in matchmaking. In past Quake games,you joined a match and werelikely to face toughcompetition. However, thistime around the game will

judge your skill level and

suggest matches at your level.In my experience, this systemworks very well. I was inmatches where I was able toget plenty of kills, but thecompetitors were alsochallenging enough to preventboredom. The accessibility of the game works very well forboth hardcore fans and newplayers, thus allowing them toface competition at their ownlevel.

Graphics are generally good,but are now out-dated by 10years. However, id Softwarewanted to keep the graphicsthe same as in Quake 3, so onecan't complain too much. But itwould be nice to have someupdated graphics. The game isvery scable. You will be able torun it on very old hardware,and you can go into greatdetail adjusting the graphic'ssettings. The game soundsgreat too. Hearing theexplosions, the whistling of rockets flying around, and theblasts of the plasma rifle arethrilling!

So far, I have talked abouthow great this game is. Trustme, it's brilliant. However,

every game has its problems.Quake Live does too, due toannoying bugs and glitches.

There are a few frame-per-second dips and texturesripping slightly, but the majorissues have been with sound.Sound can be poor quality:crackling, out of sync, andshutting down. However,Quake Live is still under beta,so bugs are expected.

Overall, Quake Live is anexcellent game. Thanks to thematchmaking, theachievements, and the stats,Quake Live is the mostaccessible and enjoyable gamein the series. With a largecommunity there is always amatch to join with people youcan beat. My only concern forthe game is attracting hardcoreQuake players to play. With allthe accessibility, the hardcorefans may not enjoy the morecasual approach to the game.It's more likely they will goback to Quake 3 (which is stillthe most played Quake game).So, it seems that Quake Live isfor the players who want toplay Quake, but not at thesame level as the hardcorefans.

Score: 9/10

:Match-makingExcellent communityStats and AchievementsIts Free!

:Bugs with graphics and soundOut dated graphicsMay not attract hardcore fans




Q&AWritten by Tommy Alsemgeest

[email protected] include as much information as you can about your problem.

Q I am interested indoing a open sourceproject. But I don'tknow how to get

started. Please help!

A It depends on whatyou are good at, whatyou enjoy, and whichopen source projects

you like most. If you likeUbuntu and are intoprogramming, you can alwayslook through launchpad forbugs to fix. Or, if you are agood writer you can work onthe documentation, or on theUbuntu wiki. If you are an artistyou can help with the artworkin Ubuntu. Launchpad is alwaysa very good place to start, asthere are many different waysto help from the one interface.

QInstalling Skype inUbuntu is no problem,but getting it workingis a problem. That

problem is Audio Playback.Which files are missing? Itworks for me in Ubuntu 8.04but not in 9.04.

AIt is most likely not afile that is missing,but just aconfiguration

problem. Unfortunately though,that could mean almostanything could be wrong.However, you might want totry running through thetroubleshooting section on theUbuntu wiki:https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Skype . It seems that mostpeople are able to fix theproblem you described byremoving pulseaudio, andreplacing it with esound. Theinstructions for that are on thewiki page.

Q I recently installedUbuntu 9.04 Desktop.I need to connect to aremote MS SBS 2003

server behind a Cisco 850router. I have installed vpncand it seems to connect fine,but after I authenticate, I see:

VPNC started in background(pid: 17270)...

However, tsclient fails with themessage that it can't connectto the computer. I select theRDP protocol. Note that RDC

worked fine over the Cisco VPNclient to the MS SBS 2003server. Also, the SBS sever islistening to ports 3389 and1723. Any help would beappreciated.

AI'm afraid I haveabsolutely zeroexperience with MS

SBS 2003, and I can'tseem to find much on theproblem either. Here is one linkI came across, written forUbuntu 8.04, but that shouldstill work for 9.04:http://blogs.technet.com/girish/archive/2008/05/30/ubuntu-8-04-on-sbs-2003-network.aspx

QWith reference to theSquid article inFCM#28, I have onedesktop and one

laptop which are connected toeach other through a NetgearDG834G ADSL router-cum-modem (which also serves as a

dhcp server). The modemprovides a net connection toboth of the machines. In such asetup, is it possible for me to

take advantage of Squid proxyserver? If yes, then how do I goabout it?

AYes it is possible, andthere are a fewdifferent ways thatyou could go about

doing it. But of course, it willdepend on you having one of

your machines on 24 hours aday (or at least whenever oneof your computers wants toaccess the internet). You caneither install the Squid serveron one of your machines, oryou could always install it intoa virtual machine (a good how-to on this is here:http://www.ubuntugeek.com/create-and-manage-virtual-machines-using-virtualbox.html ). Make surethat the server has internetaccess, then simply point all of your real machines to use thenew Squid proxy instead of using the DHCP of the router.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Skype

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/create-and-manage-virtual-machines-using-virtualbox.html

http://blogs.technet.com/girish/archive/2008/05/30/ubuntu-8-04-on-sbs-2003-network.aspx





MY DESKTOP

Ubuntu 8.04 on my Dell Mini 9 Netbook. On this small-screen, low-endnetbook I tweaked quite a lot to increase productivity and shed things Idon't need.

• Compiz off (actually completely removed).

• Using Gnome Do so I don't need to click Application.

• On a 600p screen, I cannot afford two panels. Only 1 top panel.

• Using "window-picker-applet 0.1" from Netbook Remix. It's a waybetter window list--windows to icons. An alternative for this could beAllTray-- if only it could automatically send windows to tray icons.

• Using SLAB menu. Took a while to tweak into a monkey-face namedHAL9000...

[email protected]

This is my desktop. It took me almost a year to move from Windows toUbuntu. I have learned how to change things in Ubuntu thanks to thegreat community on the forums. This is something I feel Windows willnever have. In the beginning, I thought the lack of commercial gameswas the main problem with Ubuntu. Linux has less games, but they aremore playable, and I enjoy them more than I do on Windows.Remember the first computer games? Today ’ s commercial games lacksimplicity. I started with a Sinclair computer and after 20 years usingcomputers I see a big degradation of quality, originality, and playability.

What do I play most? Open TTD (I like its multiplayer feature) andEnemy Territory, among others. Full Circle is cool; I discovered it twomonths ago. My configuration: AMD Athlon LE1640, 2GB RAM, RadeonX800GTO, Ubuntu 8.10, Compiz with AWN dock.

MY DESKTOP





I'm running Ubuntu 9.04 on my IBM T41. It's running the Intel Pentium M (1.6GHz) with 749 MB of RAM. I have the black-white icons installed along withcompiz fusion. I tend to be a fan of dark themes -- more specifically, darkthemes with a glossy finish. I also run the awn dock bar which makes it mucheasier to navigate through my installed applications. It has been a little overa year since I started using Ubuntu, and if I had known Linux was this good itwould have saved me some headaches! Just a week prior to writing this I had

a friend's desktop at my house reconfiguring his whole XP install; it was longgone. I am truly thankful for Ubuntu and how it has changed my computing.It's secure, simple and it works!

This is my desktop! Im running UbuntuStudio 8.04. My desktop is prettysimple, I'm using a theme called Slickness Black and Overglossed, withBlack 'N White icons, all downloaded from gnome-look.org. This all runs onan Intel 2.66 Hz with 512 RAM. The PC is actually my own home-madestudio. Greetings from Argentina.

MY DESKTOP




TOP 5Adanaxis

http://www.mushware.com/x11/

You thought 3Dgames wereawesome? Well,you should tryMushware's 4Dfirst-personshooter. That'sright: fourdimensions. If you've heard of a

tesseract cube,you may begin tounderstand.Otherwise, youshould really justdownload thegame and startplaying. It's aspace shooter, but not the type your granddaddy played: ithas a fourth dimension, which you can reach only by using

your right mouse button. This invisible dimension makesinitial gameplay frustrating, but it can turn out to be a lot of fun.

You can download a demo athttp://url.fullcirclemagazine.org/910f5a . Alternatively, you canalso buy the full version for $15.

Numpty Physics

http://numptyphysics.garage.maemo.org/

One of the bestphysics sandboxgames around isNumpty Physics. It'sbased on the sameengine as thepopular(commercial)Crayon Physics. Theobject of the game

is to guide a ballfrom its startingposition to the finishline. To do this, youcan draw surfaces,ropes, blocks, andso on. It soundseasy, but it's not: everything's affected by gravity, and gravitycan be wicked annoying. Still, it's loads of fun.

To install Numpty Physics, use the Ubuntu package at thehome page.

Physics Games

TOP 5 - PHYSICS GAMES

http://url.fullcirclemagazine.org/910f5a

http://numptyphysics.garage.maemo.org/

http://www.mushware.com/x11/




Phun

http://www.phunland.com/

If you love NumptyPhysics, but don't like its

gameplay, give itscompetitor, Phun, a try.Phun is another 2Dphysics sandbox (minusNumpty's gameplay),created by EmilErnerfeldt. UnlikeNumpty, it's not based onthe Crayon Physicsengine; it was built on an

engine originally createdby Ernerfeldt while hewas at university. As aresult of its complexphysics engine, Phun isone of the most funsandboxes around.

To install Phun, you have to get the binary .tgz at the Phunwebsite. You can also see some common installation

problems athttp://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=705996 .

Toribash

http://www.toribash.com/

Toribash is a classicone-on-one fighting

game with a twist - youmicromanage everysingle part of yourfighter's body. You haveto move each bodypart carefully, makingsure that yourcharacter doesn't fallover in the process.Once you've made

your choices, you canadvance frame byframe to see thebloody gory mess.

To install Toribash, usethe Ubuntu package atthe Linux Toribashpage: http://url.fullcirclemagazine.org/5e898e .

TOP 5 - PHYSICS GAMES

http://url.fullcirclemagazine.org/5e898e

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=705996

http://www.toribash.com/

http://www.phunland.com/




Bloboats

http://bloboats.blobtrox.net/about.php

Bloboats is an older,less-complex, soft

physics game. It's verysimilar to Jelly Car (apopular iPhone game).Its side-scroller premiseseems simple enough:

just pilot a boat torescue another boat.However, your boat isincredibly hard tomaneuver: you have full

control over its thrust tothe right and to the left.As a result, it's hardenough even keepingthe boat level, let alonemoving. Add in seamonsters and rising tides, Bloboats becomes a challengingyet addictive physics game.

To install Bloboats, use the ̀ ` pacakge in the

`universe` repositories.

is presented by members of theUnited Kingdom ’ s Ubuntu Linux community.

We aim is to provide current, topical information about, andfor, Ubuntu Linux users the world over. We cover all aspectsof Ubuntu Linux and Free Software and appeal to everyonefrom the newest user to the oldest coder, from thecommand line to the latest GUI.

Because the show is produced by the Ubuntu UK

community, the podcast is covered by the Ubuntu Code of Conduct and is therefore suitable for all ages.

http://podcast.ubuntu-uk.org/

F

http://bloboats.blobtrox.net/about.php

http://podcast.ubuntu-uk.org/



HOW TO CONTRIBUTE

We are always looking for new articles to include in Full Circle. For articleguidelines, ideas, and for issue translation, please see our wiki:http://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuMagazine

Please email your articles to: [email protected]

F

- Ronnie [email protected]

- Rob [email protected]

- Robert [email protected]

Mike KennedyDavid HaasGord Campbell

And our thanks go out toCanonical, the Ubuntu Marketing

Team and the many translationteams around the world.

If you would like to submit , email it to: [email protected]

Send your or Linux experiences to: [email protected]

Hardware/software should be sent to: [email protected]

for Q&A should go to: [email protected]

screens should be emailed to: [email protected]

... or you can visit our at: www.fullcirclemagazine.org

A magazine isn't a magazine without articles and Full Circle is no exception.We need your Opinions, Desktops and Stories. We also need Reviews(games, apps & hardware), How-To articles (on any K/X/Ubuntu subject) andany questions, or suggestions, you may have.Send them to: [email protected]











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