Ubuntu Linux on a USB Drive

Although long-time Windows users and developers, we wanted to try Linux on a thumb drive. We could have installed Linux to a disk partition and dual-booted, but we often change computers, and liked the idea of  bringing our Linux with us– much harder to do with Windows due to licensing issues! We tried various “Live … Read more

WinChime RingTone: Android Samsung Intercept

Having recently acquired a Samsung Intercept cell phone running Android 2.2.2 (Froyo), we wanted to add a soothing WinChime ringtone, at no charge if possible. Luckily for us, Android plays MIDI files natively and (at least for this handset) allows MIDI as ring tones, so the procedure is straight-forward. First we use the WinChime menu … Read more

Installing WinChime on Ubuntu Linux

Following the procedure described in the article Installing RecAll-PRO and RecAll on Ubuntu Linux, we need to add some additional steps to enable WinChime to function under Linux. The standard Ubuntu distribution does not seem to include a MIDI synthesizer daemon, necessary for rendering WinChime’s sounds. We follow the procedure described here to install Timidity++ … Read more

Random Friday: What We Tour 3

Costa Rica is enchanting. Samara Beach Arenal Volcano The summit was covered in clouds most of our visit, but cleared just as we were leaving. Quetzal in the MonteVerde Cloud Forest Credit to our guide Bernal for setting up this shot. Related Posts: What We Tour 2, What We Tour, What We Hike 3

Random Friday: What We Have Read 9

More catching-up from the reading journal… 12/30/08 The Man Who Invented Christmas Les Standiford Rather than attempt a general biography of Dickens, the book wisely focuses on one particular turning point in the famous author’s life, when his writing career appears to be faltering and he decides to publish, at his own risk, a small … Read more

File Extensions in MRU

The MRU (Most Recently Used) section of a Files menu shows files that were recently opened by an application. The default Windows way of displaying file names is to omit file extensions. This can become confusing when the application can handle several different file extensions. As an example, how do you distinguish between MP3 and … Read more