Anas Ismail Khan

This is how I passed the time when I unexpectedly got disconnected from the internet.

Okay, so ever since I upgraded to Ubuntu 14.04 through the liveCD, i hadn’t once been prompted to update stuff. This seemed unusual to me as I used to get updates every now and then, and then the fact that I hadnt upgraded from 13.04 until right after the LTS was launched and the support for Raring had already been cut off. Also, the fact that I had aborted the installation before the upgrading process had completed.

Still, after a fair amount of days had past, last night i booted it up and ran the sudo apt-get update command. It started fine but then it would get to a part where it would get stuck for several minutes and then would display several occurrences of the same error:

 W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://xxxxx.xxx.xxxx xxx/xxx xx(x/x/x/x.x)

Pardon the X’s. The former part of the error is what matters. So, the first thing everyone does is a google search, and the best thread I could find on the subject was this one. I tried creating a new sources.list file after backing up the original just like it says there, and tried again. Still got the same error, so I searched again and this time I used slightly different keywords. Landed on a site that suggested checking the “other software” tab in the ‘software and updates‘ settings for duplicates.  I checked and found that the “Canonical Partners” entry was recursive. I removed one and tried the old command again. And still, it didn’t make any difference.

Then I tried the “Y PPA Manager.” It actually has a tool that is supposed to search for and remove duplicates. Even that didnt work, so I decided to manually look for duplicates in the file.

The file wasn’t a pretty sight, so the first thing I did was to eradicate all those “comments.” which left me with a fine list of sources. (sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list) Next thing, I looked for duplicates. e.g. if there was a line that said:

deb http://xxx.xxx.xxx xxx xxx main restricted

then there shouldnt be one that says:

deb http://xxx.xxx.xxx xxx xxx restricted

since the former includes both “main” _and “_restricted.”

Since I wasn’t too sure of anything, I merely “commented” the lines that looked suspicious. (All you gotta do is add a “#” at the start of the line.) Once done disabling all possible duplicates, I saved the file and re-ran the update command. This time it worked!

However, later on i noticed that the “Canonical Partners” repo had disappeared from the list present in the “other software” tab. This I then manually added to the sources.list. Just paste the following lines:

deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu trusty partner
deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu trusty partner

 

Flappy bird and 2048, two of the best games if the year, in terms of their rate of going viral, though totally different in themselves, have been combined into Flappy48.
The objective is to keep joining the numbers, just like in the game 2048 and eventually reach the 2048 tile, while at the same time, avoiding the obstacles. The obstacles being vertical columns, rather like those green pipes in flappy Bird.
You start off with a two, and as you flap, you collect more numbers, usually 2s… This would go on until you reach the 2048 tile.
The game is based on the unity engine. You can play it online, or download it on your android, though the web version would require you to install the Unity Web Player.
The game seems finely developed. The theme and scheme is similar to that of 2048, with all solid-ly applied shades from yellow-red.
The idea itself is great. At least better than the other pointless clones of flappy bird like flappy doge and shit. At least it brings something new.

While installing the essentials and all, my eyes fell on the gnome bar which looked bare, without the UbuntuONE icon, and that’s what reminded me of the cloud. I pressed the super key and typed the name in the dash, intending to configure it, but surprisingly, it didnt return any such App. I therefore, blaming myself for not upgrading properly, decided to install it manually when a thought hit me. That’s when I checked the Ubuntu One twitter account and there it was, in one of the most recent posts, my unasked question answered.

Turns out, that it had been announced sometime around the start of April that by June the services would be shutdown, and the client app would not be included in the upcoming release by default. Reason, there isnt one. All it says on the blog is that their aim for Ubuntu is to provide the world with a bla-bla-bla OS, and that they should be focussing more on that, while the free-storage field is not for them to step in.  It was also mentioned that there are services that now provide upto 25GB of free storage, and UbuntuOne would require a bit more investment if it has to compete with such services. Users have until 31 July 31 to backup there data after which it would be permanently shut down.

If you ask me, the cloud was one of the reasons why I preferred Ubuntu. I tried a number of cloud services, no really, quite a number, and I always wanted one that would like always be backing my data up, smoothly, without being much of a bother. U1, though has a crappy web UI is the only one I got comfortable with. SkyDrive, quite frankly sucked back then (though there have been improvements following the release of Windows 8.1 that set it at par with U1), and there’s this peculiar problem with Google’s installers that prevented me from trying the best of Drive. Thus U1, I preferred over all, though it didnt offer the best web-based UI, or a huge amount of storage, or an online office suite, but in what it did offer and what it was supposed to be, it was flawless.. like a charm it worked for me. No, it’s not always the storage amounts that attract consumers, no, it’s user-friendliness that matters more.

I’d rather they don’t shut the service down. It’s one of the things that together with Ubuntu make a great combination.

After upgrading using the LiveCD image since you can’t perform a proper upgrade from 13.04 to 14.04 LTS, and using it for like an hour, and installing all the necessities, I decide to do a blog post on what new the LTS has to offer.

First off, It’s a little disappointing, taking into account all the reviews I read about it’s beta releases being way more stable than all the previous releases, and the stuff they said about it’s performance and then just like they did with the release of 12.10 that coincided with the release of Windows 8, there was stuff about it being a great alternative to XP, the support for which has just been cut. Come to think of it, I even got fooled by the screenshots I saw, that had a completely different UI, and i was like, “Damn! this might perhaps be the best thing to happen to ubuntu since ubuntu.”

So far, the only improvements i’ve noticed is the lock screen, which was previously nothing but a floating ‘dialog box’ but now it’s been made to look just like the login screen. _Okay! _And the language toolbar in the gnome-bar which is more or less similar to the one you get in Windows, and though small, it is an improvement i appreciate. Then of course, there’s some improvement in the lens though they might have been there since the last release, e.g. option to search for messages on social networks right from the dash. Also, now in every guest session, right when you login, it issues a warning stating that all data and files while be lost when you log out, and as far as i remember the previous releases did use to save the files. Oh and I almost forgot to mention the change in the set of default wallpapers. And as for applications, Cheese webcam booth comes preinstalled, and so does an “_ubuntu browser”, _a web browser app, rather similar to IE10’s metro version, with bits in design that suggest that the app was intended for mobile devices, and is perhaps naught but an experimental example of an app designed for touch, still, it works fairly well. As for Ubuntu One, no it’s not included by default as the service is about to be shut down.

Now to performance, until now, far from satisfactory, lags way more than 13.04 ever did, and seriously if one ever asks me which release i was most comfy with, I’d say 13.04. It’s lagging even as I type this post, though this could be due to the fact that this is just the second session since the upgrade.. but well, I dont see much improvement in performance. If there’s some change, it’s probably de-provement  (though i might be wrong.) And there’s also this slight change in the File manager. I dont remember the Background as being this much “white”  _in 13.04, also, the black gradient of the title bar now stretches down further, covering the navigation buttons and the breadcrumbs bar, i mean, _wow!

On the whole, it doesn’t have much new _“features” _to offer. It may have a boatload of improvements on the back end. I wrote disappointed because, after all the reviews i had read about it (not canonical’s fault though that the people exaggerate) i was expecting a bit too much. Some even posted screenshots with modified UIs that fooled me into believing that it had been given a new look too. There have, yes, been certain improvements obscure from a consumer’s point of view, but the initial lag pissed me off.

Those of you who didn’t bother to upgrade to 13.10 might be having trouble upgrading to the latest LTS… Yes you can not perform an “upgrade” but the word merely refers to the process where you upgrade using the updater tool just like you would update chrome or any other app while continuing to use the computer generally.
It doesn’t at all mean that if you are willing to save your files and settings, you have to upgrade first to 13.10 and then to 14.04. No.. despite how ridiculous it may sound, some did consider doing so.
All you need to do is download the ISO from the site, burn it onto a drive and boot, just like you would for a clean install. Start the installation process until you reach the part where it’d actually prompt you, and state that a previous version was found on this computer. You’d be presented with a number of options, one of which would be to upgrade from 13.04 to 14.04 LTS while preserving settings and files where possible.

Those of you who were taken aback at the sight of the same old website broadcasting 13.10, there’s news for you!

Oh and they worked on the site too.. its more “Mobile-friendly” now. 😉

Only a matter of time, hours more like, before Ubuntu’s next LTS release, 14.04 Trusty Tahr is out..

“.. there’s a multiverse. In one you are married to your wife, in another you are married o another woman, in another you are married to a a man.. ” – Jason Statham, The One

Robert Lanza, who’s been stated as the 3rd most important scientist of the world by the Times magazine is the guy behind, and most directly responsible for this claim..

Though, not everything is to be believed just cause you read it over the internet or just cause some scientists claim that its true… It’s a highly controversial topic and might attract criticism from people of various religions for being in conflict with beliefs.
Plus, the thing itself does sound rather ridiculous too..

For 1.8billion USD.. what are they gonna buy next? The transaction is to be made sometime during the month of May.. exact date hasn’t yet been decided upon …