Posted
2 days
ago
With a bit of delay following the Ubuntu Developer Summit 12.10, we’re bringing you a new installment of the monthly top ten app downloads from the Ubuntu Software Centre. Enjoy!
Top 10 paid apps
Uplink
Steel Storm:
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Burning Retribution
Braid
Oil Rush
ZHackers: Volume One – USC Edition
Linux Format Magazine – Issue 157 – Linux Wins
Fluendo DVD Player
World of Goo
Family Farm
Ubuntu User Issue 12
Top 10 free apps
Full Circle Magazine #59
Ryzom
Vendetta Online
Marble Arena 2
PDF Studio 7 Demo
Manager
IncoPOS
IMDrops Image Tools
CoreBreach Demo
Game Develop
Would you like to see your app featured in this list and on millions of user’s computers? It’s a lot easier than you think:
If you’re just getting your feet wet, check out how to get started with your first app in Ubuntu ›
If you’ve got an existing app you’d like deliver to the world, submit it to the Ubuntu Software Centre ›
Notes:
The lists of top 10 app downloads includes only those applications submitted through My Apps on the Ubuntu App Developer Site. For more information about of usage of other applications in the Ubuntu archive, check out the Ubuntu Popularity Contest statistics.
The top 10 free apps list contains gratis applications that are distributed under different types of licence, some of which might not be open source. For detailed licence information, please check each application’s description in the Ubuntu Software Centre.
Follow Ubuntu App Development on:
Social Media Icons by Paul Robert Lloyd [Less]
Posted
2 days
ago
Nothingspecial is perhaps one of the friendliest and most helpful people I know in the Ubuntu community. My main contact with him has been via the Ubuntu Forums, where he serves as a moderator. Read on…
1. Tell as much as you’re
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willing about your “real life” like name, age, gender, location, family, religion, profession, education, hobbies, etc.
My name is Rob. At the time of writing I am 36 years old. I am male although this has sometimes been a source of confusion on the forums and irc. I am married to a beautiful lady of Portuguese decent and have 2 sons. We live in a nice suburb of Manchester in England.
I was a wholesale fish merchant for many years although I am not currently involved in the seafood trade. I am qualified to prance about on a stage due to my degree in Performing Arts although I have never pursued this professionally.
Other than messing about with computers my main interest is Music. I have vast vinyl collection and thousands of cds covering most genres from Punk to Opera. I play bass, guitar and mandolin and was in rock/punk bands throughout my teens and twenties.
My username “nothingspecial” is not a reflection of my self worth. It is the name of the song that was playing when I first signed up to the forums.
2. When and how did you become interested in computers? in Linux? in Ubuntu?
Growing up I had absolutely no interest in computers whatsoever. I managed to complete my education and go about my working life without ever touching one. This was until I saw an mp3 player. The thought of carrying all my my music around in my pocket really appealed to me. So when my brother-in-law bought a new computer we took possession of his old one. Being a proper geek of course it had Ubuntu installed on it so I am one of a rare breed of people whose experience of computers started with Ubuntu. I still don’t have the first idea how to do anything with Windows although I do have it in a virtual machine for managing my kids’ ipods.
3. When did you become involved in the forums (or the Ubuntu community)? What’s your role there?
After 3 days of constant phone calls my brother-in-law told me about the forums and I started directing my questions there. When 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) was released I performed my first installation but I couldn’t get the sound to work. Searching the forums taught me all sorts of cool linuxy stuff like recompiling alsa and blacklisting modules even applying a patch to the kernel. In the end, it turned out that you have to plug the speakers into the green hole to hear anything.
The sense of community and the fast and efficient help I received on the forums was amazing led me to start helping out myself with the knowledge I gained. The more I learned the more I investigated until I found myself answering more than asking.
Last year I was invited to become a member of the forum staff as a moderator. I accepted and have to say I have really enjoyed it.
4. Are you an Ubuntu member? If so, how do you contribute? If not, do you plan on becoming one?
I am a Ubuntu Member. Membership is now a prerequisite for forum staff. My contribution is almost entirely on the forums although you will find me on irc in #ubuntuforums, #ubuntu-beginners, #lubuntu, #ubuntu, #ubuntu-uk amongst a few others. I try to answer questions in all those channels although #ubuntu is rather busy for me.
5. What distros do you regularly use? What software? What’s your favorite application? Your least favorite?
I have tried many distros but always come back to Ubuntu. All the computers in our house all run either Ubuntu or Lubuntu.
6. What’s your fondest memory from the forums, or from Ubuntu overall? What’s your worst?
My fondest memory from the forums is definitely when I got smooches.
Other than that I like it when very frustrated users solve their problems and sail happily off into the Ubuntu sunset.
Sometimes it is tough being forum staff so I enjoy having positive interactions with other members of the forum community whether helping people out, chatting in #ubuntuforums or encouraging involvement in the wider Ubuntu community.
7. What luck have you had introducing new computer users to Ubuntu?
Only family really and a couple of friends. If they want me to fix their computers they have to use Ubuntu.
8. What would you like to see happen with Linux in the future? with Ubuntu?
I would love Canonical to become a profitable company and Ubuntu to be an option that everybody knows about whether they choose it or not. I honestly believe that Ubuntu has achieved it’s goal of being “Linux for human beings” and anyone, no matter what their background, age etc will find the default interface intuitive and easy to use. Of course, there are hardware issues but I see no reason why a computer pre installed with Ubuntu should not be able to compete with Windows/Mac.
The main issue now, in my opinion, is exposure. Ubuntu needs, more than anything, publicity. If there is a greater demand for Ubuntu then more quality software and hardware support will follow.
9. If there was one thing you could tell all new Ubuntu users, what would it be?
You plug the speakers in the green hole…
Seriously it would be to get involved. The Ubuntu community is wonderful and there are many opportunities for everybody to contribute should they wish. [Less]
Posted
2 days
ago
by
nore...@blogger.com (Dustin Kirkland)
I had the honor of introducing zEscrow about a week, at the Ubuntu Developer Summit during Friday's plenary of lightning talks. The video is unfortunately not yet available on YouTube yet, but as soon as it is, I'll embed it here.
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But you can view my slides now!
zEscrow is a free service offered by my employer, Gazzang, to users of Ubuntu's Encrypted Home Directory, to aid them in safely backing up and retrieving the bit of configuration and key material necessary to recover that data later. I can't state this emphatically enough...
This very well may
save your encrypted life at some point! The Quick Start GuideIf you're running a version of prior to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, first add the PPA:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:zescrow/ppa sudo apt-get install zescrow
And if you're on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, just install.
sudo apt-get install zescrow
Now, just run zescrow, and follow the three simple prompts:
Choose your serverEnter your login passwordVisit the one-time URL
How it WorksSome inquiring minds might want to know the nitty gritty details. You're welcome to read the code, as Gazzang has released both the client and server as free and open source code in Launchpad under the AGPL. Here's a narrative pseudocode of the algorithm though:Choose your zEscrow server. I recommend that you use the default, zescrow.gazzang.com.The zescrow utility will download the public GPG key associated with your zEscrow server and load it into a temporary keyring stored entirely in memory.Enter your LOGIN password. This will be used to decrypt your ~/.ecryptfs/wrapped-passphrase file. Under NO circumstances will your LOGIN password will sent to the remote server!!!The utility will create a tar archive of your entire ~/.ecryptfs directory, but replacing your wrapped-passphrase file, with unwrapped-passphrase. This protects your LOGIN passphrase from ever leaving your system, but ensures that your randomly generated MOUNT passphrase will be securely transferred to the remote serverThis ecryptfs.tar archive is securely transmitted to the zEscrow server over SSL.Upon a successful transmission to the zEscrow server, a cryptographically nonced URL link is sent back to the client utility, which embeds a checksum of the transmitted archive, verifying the integrity of the transmission.You MUST complete the transaction by opening the link IMMEDIATELY, to "claim" this upload as yours. Upon doing so, you'll be required to login using Google OpenID. (Yes, you must have a Google OpenID to use this service. Sorry. Send a patch, if you want support for another OpenID provider).That's it! You can now download your backups from zescrow.gazzang.com at any time, and use ecryptfs-recover-private to get your data back, following these instructions! A Game of NumbersMark Shuttleworth set a goal about a year ago, for 200 million Ubuntu users by 2012. I've seen estimates of 12-30 million Ubuntu desktops today. For lots of reasons, that's an almost impossible statistic to gather. No user license is required to run Ubuntu. There's no mandatory "tracking" software installed on Ubuntu -- such statistics gathering is optional. It's even more difficult for me to count "eCryptfs users" on Ubuntu. The best I can do is extrapolate from the number of ecryptfs-utils installs logged on popcon.ubuntu.com, which shows that about 14.4% of Ubuntu installs include the ecryptfs-utils package. The raw number alone (245,848) is impressive to me, but extrapolating that against the total number of Ubuntu desktop installs, it's not unreasonable to suggest that there are 1-4 million Encrypted Home Directory users of eCryptfs and Ubuntu!
The MotivationThis might help explain why I have personally received hundreds (probably climbing north of a thousand) emails, IRC messages, forum posts, StackExchange questions, Launchpad bugs, SMS messages and even phone calls to my cell phone (!?!) from users who have forgotten their login password, or did not record their randomly generated eCryptfs mount password at installation, and are now cryptographically locked out of their own data :-(
Unhappy Users Don't Back Up their eCryptfs PassphraseA few random quotes from the last 2 months alone:
"Through idiocracy I have screwed up my encrypted home directory and if possible I need help getting it back.""I was trying to mount my encrypted home directory from a livecd in order to back up my data (according to the instructions), when I accidentally deleted one of the .ecryptfs folders in my encrypted home.""Mr Kirkland, my name is MB. I used an Ubuntu system with ecryptfs. Something happened and it all went up in smoke. I saved a backup and moved on. Chalked it up to bad backup practices and moved on. I found the encrypted backup a few days ago, and I've been trying to unscrew it. I *think* I found the old wrapped-passphrase file, and I tried to fix it. So far, I've been unable"."Please help as I am stuck in Korea and will be totally shagged without my e-mail and data. I have 6 months un-backedup work on the disk, of course. And I saved the password for the disk on my home partition...great move eh?"I can't even respond to most of these emails, if it's clear that the user hasn't backed up their random, mount passphrase. These are usually 16 or 32 characters of hexadecimal [0-9a-f], representing 128-bits or 256-bits of entropy. You're doing battle with a mathematical Highlander at this point... There can be only one, and the chances are absolutely astronomical that it won't be you :-(
But Happy Users Do Back Up their eCryptfs Passphrase!On the other hand, I have helped hundreds upon hundreds of users recover their data, when its clear that they HAVE backed up their randomly generated MOUNT passphrase. These two blog post of mine, about the ecryptfs-recover-private utility and how to mount your encrypted home from a live CD, are my two all-time most viewed posts. A few quotes from happy users:
"you saved my life, thank you!""Where do I send hugs? It's great, thanks so much! I just want to add my note""Worked like a charm - thanks.""YOU SAY IT! *YOU* *THE* *MAN* JUST SAVED MY LIFE! THANK YOU""Thanks $deity and Dustin, this method works for recover my encrypted private directory and backup it to external drive. Thanks again for this tutorial.""Thanks Man!! it worked for me!!""Today, making a liveCD and following your instructions above put a massive smile on my face. I can't believe I've now got access to everything again and nothing is lost. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge - I shall sleep well tonight!""Thank you for this addition to Natty! I was having a hard time mounting my files on a system I wrecked ;)""thank's a lot, u'r save my life""My god. Thank you so much! I tried to upgrade to 11.04, and it wrecked my OS. This is a lifesaver.""This is cake my friend nice job! I remember when this was stuff was hard. I've been trying to recover a drive for some time now.""I just wanted to say thanks for building this. I used it to recover a ~/.Private directory on an external drive, and it worked flawlessly. It's folks like yourself building tools like this that makes open source projects such a pleasure to use. So kudos, and thanks."If you use the free zEscrow service from Gazzang, in conjunction with Ubuntu's Encrypted Home Directory, and the ecryptfs-recover-private utility, you'll almost certainly be counted in the "Happy Users". And if not...well, you're a bit on your own! Please, please, please write down your passphrase and store it in a very safe, very private place!!!
:-Dustin [Less]
Posted
3 days
ago
This week we mention discussion of a new tablet by ZaReason and also have an example of calling into a podcast feedback line as exemplified by calling the Ubuntu UK Podcast from Ashtabula. This program's feedback line is powered for now by Google
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Voice and is 702-714-0397.
Download here (MP3) (ogg), or subscribe to the podcast (MP3) to have episodes delivered to your media player. Although we suggest subscribing by way of a service like my.gpodder.org, you can also subscribe to the Burning Circle via FeedBurner's email tool to receive show posts in your inbox with links to episode audio.
Burning Circle Episode 71 by The Air Staff of Erie Looking Productions is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. [Less]
Posted
3 days
ago
Trust is a very complicated human condition. We trust millions of people every day to a certain extent (other drivers on the road not to hit us, other cyclists the same, the people who designed the bicycle, the people who built it, the people who
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grew our food, etc etc) but at the same time we also vehemently distrust everyone. We feel it is OK to trust a corporation to build us a safe product to give to our 5 month old children, but at the same time don’t trust other people around us to take turns or not steal our money.
One great example of this condition can be found in Chicago at a great hot dog joint called Hot Doug’s. Hot Doug’s is a gourmet hot dog joint that sells your typical chicago hot dog for around $3. But next to that, and the hot dogs that most people get, are special. Like the one I got this past Friday; Smoked Yak Sausage with Roasted Garlic Dijonnaise and Horseradish Havarti Cheese (see the specials). I’m normally a vegetarian; but knowing that yaks aren’t terribly domesticable, and that I wouldn’t have this opportunity very often, I went for it.
But the point of this is not the yak sausage. The point is that this is an extremely popular place.
That’s the line. It stretched out the door and half way down the block.
Now, at most any restaurant like this seating would be a pain. You go order and try to scout out a place to seat, hovering over those people you think are closest to leave all the while making them feel uncomfortable. Or, you send a friend up ahead, remembering what they want so you can order it for them, so they can go do the same hoping they’ll find a table by the time you order.
But at Hot Doug’s they have a simple request:
Please do not sit at the table until you have placed your order.
This assures that everyone will have a place to sit when their food is ready.
Trust us, it works.
And guess what. It works. Flawlessly. When you’re done ordering your hot dog and duck fat fries there are at least 2 tables open for your and your 4 friends. You can calmly walk over to one and sit down and enjoy your yak or wild boar hot dog.
Why do we, as a culture, not remember that we are here together? And if we just took our turn it would all turn out alright? It seems to me that when we add in unneeded competition we all lose.
How about instead we decide to work together. Maybe then we’ll accomplish more and things wouldn’t be as crazy all the time. We see that from many examples of different cultures that are not as competitive as ours. They seem to be telling us that it is better when we’re not as cut-throat.
They seem to be telling us, “Trust us, it works.” [Less]
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