I wanted to show everyone what KDE 4.8 looks like running on Linux Mint 12. I got this version from the backports. Read my guide to installing KDE 4.8 on Linux Mint 12 here. KDE 4.8 is really smooth and stable, much more stable than the previous versions for KDE. Once KDE 4.8 goes mainstream, and provided everything is still running smooth I may end up installing kubuntu. So far KDE 4.8 is very fast and I haven’t had any problems. KDE 4.7 and previous versions kept crashing and were very clunky on my 64bit Sony Vio (4gig ram) but 4.8 runs just fine! Anyway, you should check it out!

Installing the most recent KDE 4.8 on Linux Mint 12 is easy. You need to add backports to your repository, update and then install the various KDE 4.8 applications you want. KDE 4.8 is supposed to fix a whole slew of bugs and add features. Plasma, KDE Apps, and KDE Platform were all part of the major update. Some other smaller but still noticeable changes are the redesign of the power management system, and the new KSecretService for secure information sharing between apps .

To install KDE 4.8 on Linux Mint run the following command in a shell.

This command add the backports repository.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

This command refresh the list of applications to install for the Synaptic Package Manager.
sudo apt-get update

Now, install various KDE apps that have a version of 4.8.x.

Once you install kdebase, kdelibs, plasma and all the KDE 4.8 programs you want, log out and log back in using the KDE session.

There may come a time when you get a job at a company that has super strict Internet access policies. Many corporations won’t even let you check your Facebook or Twitter, which have come to replace email for many people. With Linux and a little luck you can completely bypass most firewall and proxy systems. Using ssh’s forwarding features you can tunnel your traffic through your own Linux server. This can also be used to surf while you are at a hotel or an un-trusted connection.

Things you’ll need are:

• A computer with Linux installed.
• SSH installed.
• Privoxy or some other familiar proxy server installed.
• Access to that computer over the Internet.
• Ability to at least ssh into that Linux computer from the corporate network.

If you can’t ssh into your Linux box on the network in which you want to tunnel from, you’re pretty much screwed. Many companies leave port 22 open but some do block that port as well as many admins know about ssh tunneling.

Next, find out which port your proxy server is installed on. The default for privoxy is port 8118. Lets assume that the IP for your Linux computer is 192.168.1.5. You setup an ssh client to connect with port forwarding on to that IP and port. Here is the command: ssh -L localhost:8118:192.168.1.5:8118 user@192.168.1.6. This command is basically saying to create a server daemon on localhost, on port 8118 and forward all trafic through the SSH connection and to 192.168.1.5 on port 8118. Remember, 192.168.1.5 could be any IP, even the IP of your router which then forwards to your Linux box.

This of course assumes that you are running Linux as your main desktop at work. If not, you’ll need to  download and install Putty. In putty you’ll need to go to Connection – SSH – Tunnels menu and setup forwarding.

Now, in your web browser setting, set your proxy host to “localhost” and port to “8118″. Now you will surf the Internet through the proxy server on your Linux computer.

 Note: If your Linux box at home or wherever is behind a router you’ll need to forward port 22 to that Linux box on the local network (not port 8118). When you connect with ssh you are connecting to port 22. All traffic travels over that secure connection after that. Port 22 is the key.

With the latest version of Mint Linux also comes the Gnome Shell. The Gnome Shell is pretty cool but as laptops get small in height and wider, the bottom panel can take up more real estate then needed. The bottom panel doesn’t give you any additional features and you can get to all your applications from the main Gnome Shell menus making the bottom panel a waste of space (for laptops especially).

First, click the icon that looks like an “8″ sideways, it’s in the upper left hand corner. Next, click the Advanced Settings icon as show here.

 Now you need to turn off the Menu Extension in addition to the Bottom Panel Extension as seen here. Your bottom panel should now be gone.

 

Yes my fellow gamers, there is a joystick attachment for Android (and iPhone) phones. A friend (and old client) over at Ten One Design sent me one of their products they have developed, the Fling Mini, a Joystick attachment for smart phones such as Android and iPhone. At first I was skeptical about attaching something to my Android phone but this Joystick works like a charm. Basically the Fling Mini has little suction cups that attach to the screen. It is designed so that while it takes up some screen real estate, you can still see most all of your phone’s screen while playing a game. It’s much easier play games with this Joystick set then using the screen Joysticks.

So as you can see you can attached both Joysticks or use just one. With Tank Hero I find it easier to use one Joystick either on the right or left side depending on what hand you use. Then, you just tap the screen to shoot your enemy in the face with rockets.

Lets face it, most of us probably use our iPads, tablets and cell phones to surf the Internet at home. Having a set of these laying around can make your phone gaming much more enjoyable. While I don’t carry these with me everywhere my Galaxy S goes, I do keep my set at home for those times when I am watching TV and playing games on the phone.

For around $25 bucks you can turn your phone into a straight up hand held gaming device. Awesome!

In my opinion the best organizer for Android would be the Jorte app. Jorte lets you sync with many different calendar types including google, local and even exchange. Jorte will sync your todos, shared calendars and has loads of other cool features. One of the features that I like most is the full calendar view. You can see all your appointments all one one full calendar screen.

You can find Jorte in the standard Google Apps store for Android.

To get the size of a file in C++ you will need to use the fstream methods included with #include . The methods used in this example are open, is_open, seekg, tellg and close. Keep in mind that you can not put fstream as a method in a C++ class because it is not allowed in ISO Standard C++. fstream was purposely programmed so that it can not be copied.

int Dao::countTrendDataRows(){fstream file;ifstream::pos_type size;file.open ("/tmp/data.bin", ios::in | ios::out | ios::app | ios::binary);if (file.is_open()){file.seekg (0, ios::end);size = file.tellg();file.close();return size;}else{printf("File not open.n");return -1;}}

Line by line:
file.open gives access to the file. The file is not actually opened into memory. Think of this as opening the doors.

if (file.is_open()), make sure the file is open and ready to be used.

file.seekg (0, ios::end), move the pointer to the end of the file.

size = file.tellg(), tell me the position of the pointer. Because it is at the end of the file from above, it should be the total length of the file.

file.close(), we’re done with the file. Lets close.

And then of course return the position as an int which represents our size.