Use mtpaint to grab a screenshot

And make it an application you can add to lubuntu panel.
Create the following file /usr/share/applications/mtpaint-grab.desktop containing :

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Grab screenshot
Exec=mtpaint -s
Icon=camera
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Categories=Application;Graphics;

You can now add it to the Application Launch Bar in the Panel.

mtpaint

Reference

Ubuntu Forums post : http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1521606&p=9552908#post9552908

A long hiatus, nothing considering geological times :)

The so called summer season has started here. First day of vacation. I fresh installed Ubuntu 14.10 still in development, running great, and am testing out LXDE-Qt on top of lubuntu 14.04 which was not that of a good idea. Will probably have to fresh install over again and go for a pure LXQt environment. This laptop’s battery died last year, so it became a laptop on a leash for tests.

The Ubuntu Forums are keeping me busy, I’ve always liked forums, these ones in particular. Not sure why, I like the place, the Staff team, the way people can get helped, the way I can help and learn in the process. It is a great learning resource to me. One command I got reminded of a few days ago : apt-cache madison which shows packages versions available from the repositories, even if not in the sources.list. Complementary to apt-cache policy :)

Link

Social Fixer for Facebook

I think I tried this long ago, but I have not been a real Facebook user, so I stopped using it.

Now that I manage a Facebook page for my students, I find myself a lot more on Facebook. I’ve been annoyed by all the post suggestions and game stuff and upcoming events and such that show up _a lot_ on my news feed. I do understand the economical model that makes Facebook at no charge for me and turns me into a merchandize. Nonetheless, it bugs me, hurts my eyes and tickles my nerves. I choose to watch (mostly and when possible) add free TV programs, do not listen at all to commercial radios and try to walk away from commercial adds that pollute my brain as much as I can.

I have to say I’m much impressed with them now, and their support. Social Fixer changes the way “you” see Facebook in your browser (too bad there is no SF for the FB mobile app for now), is customizable so you can hide things, move them to a tab and more to make FB  experience much better imho.

When I’ve needed help, they answered within a minute, wow, have been friendly and everything. Their support group on FB is quite active and full of information. Volunteer work I warmly recommend.

References

Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/Socialfixer

User support : https://www.facebook.com/groups/SocialFixerUserSupport/

Web site : http://socialfixer.com/

moodle 1.9 : hide course total in gradebook

This is not possible in moodle 1.9 without modifying the code, hiding total course grade hides individual grades too. Here is a workaround :

  • In gradebook, turn on editing and go to each student total (can be tedious if having a large number of students enrolled in the course)
  • Hide each student total


First screenshot is a student view before hiding, last one is after. Voilà :)

References

How to fix it in the code : http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=175074

moodle 2. : different assignments for different groups

We stumbled on this issue, with a stock moodle install there was no way to assign different activities to separate groups.. What a headache. The fix is here : http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=181814.

I guess it is not a bug :)
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-14975

Ubuntuforums : changes on accounts permissions.

For a very long time, we did not want to take away from new users the possibility to customize their profiles. Fact is several of us in the forums Staff team had to spend at least one hour a day cleaning after spammers. Spammers tactic: fill profile fields with spam links, upload spam pics as avatar, even create user albums with the pics, comment on other regular users profiles, send PMs or emails etc. All of these are sneaky as we need to examine each profile to find them out.

Starting today, users with post counts < 50 will not be able anymore to customize their profile. It’s been a difficult decision we agonized over a for a long time. We believe 50 posts is a good comprise between annoying spammers and annoying genuine users. Oh well.

For more details if you are interested, please read the link below.

Reference

Notification thread on UF

Ubuntu Membership through ubuntuforums contributions.

The Forums Council has decided to move to rolling membership applications rather than specific application timing. The Membership Application Forum is thus opened and will remain open. The application reviews will take place about once a month.

References

First announce
Membership Application Forum
Application recommendations
Wiki link
Ubuntu Forums Members Team on Launchpad

Five little tips and tricks using Google Plus

  • Update your mini-profile, the one that shows up hovering over your name next to your picture in a post. > Edit Profile > Fill the info in the Current Job line
  • You can create custom circles to place people in, then share with this circle only. Sharing a post with a single person boosts the email one step further, as you can include videos, images or links within the message
  • To tag a person in a post or sharing line, use +Name. One interesting feature is you can use any part of their name (or lastname) to find them.
  • The Chrome Start G+ extension in addition to Usability Boost for Google Plus
  • All in all, feel free to not add people you do not know. Even if you do not want to be rude.

References

Update mini-profile and other random readings on Google Plus :)

Moving from Firefox to Chrome

There is no special reason, I like Firefox and it served me well. I may as well move the other way around in the future. I needed some change, and had the use for a specific Chrome extension.

I currently work on four machines. One big iMac and a MacBook from work, a laptop and a netbook I own, both running on Ubuntu. Moving was the only solution as it is too difficult not to rely on browser automatism as I already have to adjust OS automatism across the machines.
I’m using quite a lot of userscripts that work right out of the box on Chrome

Bookmarks

xmarks-logo

First thing I did was share the bookmarks with xmarks. I uploaded the most complete and satisfying set from my Ubuntu laptop Firefox and downloaded everywhere else. Xmarks works on most popular browsers.

Passwords

I did not want to use LastPass, the online password facility, so I choose KeePassX. KeepassX encrypts the databases (it can use several which is convenient) securely enough for me and is cross platform. I share the databases across the computers with an USB stick I formated in HFS where both MacOS and Linux can read/write without hassle.

Now the real reason for the move: I’ve started to use Google Plus. At first it was just to have a look at this yet-another probably-deja-vu social network. Then I found myself using it way more than I had been using Facebook. I have been forwarding my work mail to a Gmail account for a long time (mailboxes are very small at work and get filled pretty fast) and I have had another account for my Linux stuff since they opened or so. Gmail is opened all day long, my Android phone is connected to both accounts, Google calendar is synced all across the machines. G+ got on me even before I knew it.

The real reason

The Chrome extension I’m using, Start Google + allows to feed G+ posts into Facebook and Twitter. I think it slows down quite a bit my browser experience, I may disable it at some point or look for another plugin. If I do that, you will be able to say “why stay with Chrome?”

Well, we’ll see ;-)

Edit

I’m using the BetterPrivacy add-on to Firefox. Chrome can clear flash cookies without the need of an extension. Wrench > Tools > Under the Hood > Clear Browsing Data > Delete cookies and other site and plug-in data. All set!