What is a rank regarding the web?

BoardReader. I had never heard of this site, I’ve just been getting lots of results from them when I perform Linux and Ubuntu Google searches lately. So I looked a little bit more into it.

The About Us page states:

Boardreader uses proprietary software that allows users to search multiple message boards simultaneously, allowing users to share information in a truly global sense.

Special retrieval and indexing algorithms as well as unique topic relevance ordering rules are but a few parts of what is needed to allow you to view what we affectionately call the ‘human experience’.

Okay.

Here is the ubuntuforums page on BoardReaders. UF is ranking 19 (Apple is 9) and there is an interesting list of the most active threads and members for the week ^^
I am not sure what to make of it for now, but this is another piece of information regarding UF activity.

However, I have a couple of questions.

1- How do they measure activity? I’m not so tech and math savvy, so even if they explained, I may not be able to understand. But I guess it should be explained, so that the results they are displaying can make sense. I suppose it has to do with numbers (posts, incoming and outgoing links, pages views etc..).
2- They provide a ranking page. What is a rank? How is it set up? What does it mean?
3- Is it fame, based on usage? The more a forum is used, the more relevance it has kinda thing?

World Wide Word of Mouth? Is that what ranking is? Please tell me something new.

Using restricted formats with Gutsy.

Even when you have decided you would go with free formats and applications, you can end up owning a device that only plays restricted multimedia formats (and do not wish to spend more money until its time to get a another one reading free and open-source formats), want to watch a DVD you’ve rented or bought, some videos on the intatubes, use some Microsoft fonts to share work documents with colleagues etc. The world is not perfect :)

For legal reasons, Ubuntu is not shipped with the packages that will allow you to use the restricted formats. In most parts of the world, you are however entitled to play and watch CDs or DVDs you own (you have paid for using the license, right?) on your Ubuntu system. It is illegal to use the packages to crack the protections and redistribute the files.

ubuntu-restricted-extras

This package and the kubuntu or xubuntu flavors (kubuntu-restricted-extras, xubuntu-restricted-extras) is located in the multiverse repositories. It will install the following:

 gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly, gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse,
            msttcorefonts, flashplugin-nonfree, sun-java6-plugin, unrar,
            gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad, gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse,
            gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg, liblame0, libdvdread3

 Installing this package will pull in support for MP3 playback and decoding,
 support for various other audio formats (gstreamer plugins), Microsoft fonts,
 Java runtime environment, Flash plugin, LAME (to create compressed audio
 files), and DVD playback. 

 Please note that packages from multiverse are restricted by copyright or legal
 issues in some countries. See http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/licensing for more
 information.

Enable the multiverse repositories. Here is a GUI tutorial, below is a complete /etc/apt/sources.list file for Gutsy:

# Base.
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy main restricted universe multiverse

## Bug fix updates.
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates main restricted universe multiverse

# Security.
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-security main restricted universe multiverse

Reload the /etc/apt/sources.list file and install the package with your favorite package manager. The procedure I give here is with aptitude, please use apt-get or Synaptic if you prefer.

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install ubuntu-restricted-extras

You’ll be pretty much set up with these.
You’ll have to accept some licenses along the install process. Use the Tab key to get to the OK button ;)

Other codecs

These are not within the Ubuntu repositories. You have to go for third party repos. Be aware that you should disable all third party repos to perform a version upgrade.

libdvdcss2 and the xxxcodecs (w32codecs, w64codecs and ppccodecs) are provided by the medibuntu project. Please look here for a tutorial.

Unfortunately, seveas repos do not have Gutsy packages yet.. Looking forward to it :)