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SSH Menu - Save and Open SSH Connections from the Panel

Posted by UbuntuBlog-Swik

I was looking for a replacement for SecureCRT in Ubuntu. Something that would let me save all my SSH connections and make it possible to open a connection with the least effort.
As is often the case, I found something better than SecureCRT - a panel applet for GNOME that gives me a drop-down list of […]

Ubuntu’s Audience Defined

Posted by UbuntuBlog-Swik

I read the impressive growth and traffic details for WordPress.com at Matt’s Blog. WordPress has always been very dear to me, and it makes me happy to note that the WordPress team grows from strength to strength, without compromising on values, and while keeping things open, almost entirely so.
However, the stat freak in me […]

What’s Common to Ubuntu and CircuitCity’s Firedog?

Posted by UbuntuBlog-Swik

Ans: A guy in a pic….

Trivial, I know, and not too original either, since I got it from LiveJournal, but I couldn’t resist posting this

addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fubuntulinuxhelp.com%2Fwhat%25e2%2580%2599s-common-to-ubuntu-and-circuitcity%25e2%2580%2599s-firedog-3%2F’;
addthis_title = ‘What%E2%80%99s+Common+to+Ubuntu+and+CircuitCity%E2%80%99s+Firedog%3F’;
addthis_pub = ‘ubuntulinuxhelp’;

End of a Love Affair with Acer

Posted by UbuntuBlog-Swik

I was in love with Acer laptops. I bought my first one, an Acer Travelmate 290 LMi in my second year of grad school. I did pay ~ $1200 for it, but it was awesome, right until the moment there were errors with the hard disk controllers about 3 years later. When I sold it […]

Using “tee” to write to files and the terminal

Posted by UbuntuBlog-Swik

The utility “tee” is very useful for plumbing on the command line. Curiously enough, it gets its name from the T-splitter used in plumbing, shown below:

Say you want to run a command, and be able to see the output and errors on the screen, and be able to save them to a file. That’s where […]

I ran into that video-posting librarian again

Posted by UbuntuBlog-Swik

You guys must remember Jessamyn, the librarian who posted a video about installing Ubuntu at, where else, the library.
Well, by some strange coincidence, which cannot be explained rationally, I ran into her again on the tubes. I followed the user profile link at this comment on Ask MetaFilter to end up at her profile page. […]

300+ Easily Installed Free Fonts for Ubuntu

Posted by UbuntuBlog-Swik

Ubuntu offers a lot of fonts, in addition to the defaults installed, and the MicroSoft msttcorefonts package, in its repositories. All these fonts mentioned here are provided as packages, which can easily installed using command line tools like apt-get or using Synaptic. These fonts will come in handy for designing flyers, or for designing headers […]

Typing Break and WorkRave: Keep RSI at Bay

Posted by UbuntuBlog-Swik

I woke up on Thursday with a left arm more painful than a 100 episodes of Wheel of Fortune. I had almost pulled an all-nighter the night before to finish reviewing/correcting a paper. I went to the doctor, fearing the worst. My left wrist was aching, and no change of position or angle would suppress […]

Preserve Threaded View in Thunderbird

Posted by UbuntuBlog-Swik

Via Chris Ilias’ Blog comes this gem of a tip.
If you use Mozilla Thunderbird, and love the threaded view, but hate losing the threaded view whenever you click on “Sender” or “Date” to sort the messages, then this is the tip for you. This helps you keep the threaded view regardless of how you sort […]

Alright you drooling idiots!

Posted by UbuntuBlog-Swik

Jem Matzan thinks we technical writers treat you as stupid drooling idiots.
Do I? I can honestly say I don’t. I write for the competent computer user who has switched to Ubuntu. Anything that 90-95% of the people who formerly used Windows or Macs, and are competent enough to help others won’t be published here. Guaranteed. […]