The latest marketing handout from Canonical, the corporate sponsor of Ubuntu, states that Ubuntu is used by over 8 million people worldwide.  8 million people!  In terms relative to the U.S. (...) Read Full Story

Posted by The Idiot September 3, 2008 The above image, taken today, illustrates the norm at Digg.  Anything that remotely attacks the conservative side of politics is instantly catapulted to the front page and anything that promotes the Republican viewpoints is buried, never to be seen again.  While this image was taken today, tomorrow's headlines will be eerily similar. Digg claims to be "user controlled", but I find this to be hardly believable.  If the web submissions were in... Read Full Story

Posted by The Idiot September 2, 2008 Is this what has become of our justice system?  Celebrity deals for testifying in a criminal trial?  Well, if your name is Thomas Riccio and you're a douche then yes, it does! Apparently this douche is seeking endorsement deals from local businesses simply for the fact that he is testifying in the O.J. trial.  He's already garnered a publicist, and is seeking $5,000 to mention your product during television interviews yet to be set up.  Or $5,000... Read Full Story

Posted by The Idiot September 2, 2008 So I found myself at the pirate bay browsing through what is currently being offered yesterday.  I saw a couple different offerings of Vista Ultimate, complete with self-activation.  Reading through the comments, it appeared like it worked and there was no trojans or spyware included in it.  Curiosity got the better of me so I had to try it out as well. The download went without a hitch, and once it was done I burned the file to a DVD.  But just... Read Full Story

Managing your iPod in Ubuntu can be confusing if you've recently switched over from Windows or Mac. (...) Read Full Story

Not too long ago, Apple decided to add some DHTML voodoo to their popular movie trailers section that blocked Linux users from viewing streaming videos from their site.  I, being a fan of that area of their website, was not too pleased with their actions.  It appears that Apple is doing what Apple does best: forcing users to only use the software/hardware that Apple wants you to. (...) Read Full Story

A while back a guide was posted showing how to install most multimedia codecs in Ubuntu.  This how-to enabled users of 32-bit Ubuntu to enable DVD playback, watch streaming video online, and play the most common media formats.  This process has now been condensed down to just three commands in a terminal window: wget http://www.uburocks.com/files/codecs.sh chmod +x codecs.sh sudo ./codecs.sh Using this simple bash script will provide you with the capabilities to play almost every media format... Read Full Story

It is very easy to encrypt individual files in Ubuntu, but what if you want to encrypt whole file systems?  You could use the same method to encrypt file folders, but an even better way is to use encfs to protect your private data. (...) Read Full Story

The "magic lamp" feature is just one of many different customizations you can do to your Ubuntu desktop.  This desktop effect is very easy to enable, but newer users may not know exactly how to get these effects going.  Once you figure out how to set one you'll pretty much be able to alter any of the numerous desktop effects. (...) Read Full Story

There are many different music players to choose from in Ubuntu.  If you were to ask a group of users which one is best you would hear the name "Amarok" more often than not.  Other audio players, such as Banshee or Rhythmbox, are popular with a lot of people as well, but none of them are listed as often as Amarok.  What makes this music player stand out above the others?  The answer is simple: it's features and user interface. (...) Read Full Story